Thursday, April 22, 2010
Hot Goss / Whatevs Fashion Is Serious Business: Armed Forces Ejected From Naked Without Us Show
Posted by Ashley Spurgeon on Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 12:48 PM
Were you at Exit/In last night for the Naked Without Us show? Did you see Armed Forces play? Ha, that was fucking weird! Here’s what happened, according to Mr. Brandon Jazz, who prefaces his account by saying, "To avoid any claims of libel, slander, or blasphemy from the other side of this argument, I will present my account of the events of 4/21 in the most factual, objective manner I possibly can."
I was asked, as Armed Forces, to perform at the Naked Without Us fashion show event on 4/21 at Exit/In. After being given a multitude of incorrect information regarding my set time, set length, and band order, I set up for my performance. At 8:55, 50 minutes before the time that was communicated to me multiple times throughout the day, I took the stage with the current Armed Forces lineup: three beautiful young ladies and pre-recorded instrumental tracks of classic Armed Forces hits. We proceeded to sing, dance, gyrate, and jive through three songs out of our five song set before the plug was pulled on our performance. While Mr. Billings Gimmell shouted at us to "get the fuck off the stage" and questioned loudly "what the fuck was that?", we proceeded to thank the attentive and responsive audience for their time, apologize for the abrupt departure, and politely pack our things. It was announced that Chancellor Warhol, a friend and respected MC in his own right, would be finishing the remainder of our set...rapping to pre-recorded beats. It is worth noting that while Mr. Gimmell was inexplicably dissatisfied with the magical powerpop we presented him, the Exit/In staff was nothing but polite and courteous, happily cashing in our drink tickets for refreshing beers.I later found out that my female cohorts, while backstage, received a verbal assault of their own. By accounts that I have no way of verifying personally, one young lady had her purse forcibly yanked from her hands and tossed into the parking lot, spilling its contents in the street. Another allegedly received a hand to the face accompanied by some version of "get out of here, fattie" or something. Again, I wasn't present so I can't confirm specifics. What I do know is that if there is one thing more insulting to an artist than to take away their music while they sing out their heart and soul for a packed crowd, it is to physically and verbally assault their band. While I understand that Armed Forces isn't for everybody, nobody deserves that manner of violence and humiliation.
That's all I have to say on the matter.
Full disclosure: I was the “drummer” for Armed Forces last night. I was asked to show up and read a book behind the drum kit while dressed in something ridiculous: It was basically the full-band version of the Armed Forces show at the Scientology Celebrity Centre. While everyone involved (including Gimmell) was very nice to me throughout the evening, I did witness a purse being thrown in the back parking lot and a hand in someone’s face as she was shoved out the door. That was seriously, seriously fucked up, and completely unnecessary. I don’t know what, if any, words were spoken between the other girls and whoever was backstage, and I don’t know who did the throwing and shoving; all I saw were hands.
Again, I was personally treated very politely. I tried to speak a little bit to the involved parties, and the gist of it was they found the performance “disrespectful” because “there are people’s moms here.” (There was a Jack Daniel’s bottle filled with watered-down Coca-Cola being passed around onstage.) Do you have any idea how weird it is to try to be the peacemaker when your tits are hanging out of a T-shirt that says “cocaine”? I do! Thanks, Naked Without Us!
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there have to be some pictures or video of all of this happening, right? i hope?
If you're booking an event and want it to be PG, you should probably let the bands you booked know beforehand. Also, aren't moms adults?
IF you are a musician who doesn't like being treated like shit by some DICKFACE with bleached blonde hair telling you that there is NO WAY you can add TWO press people to the GUESTLIST at your own show AT THE RUTLEDGE, if you don't want to feel like your going to the coffeeshop for your first gig where there barista insists you pay for your mother to get in DO NOT PLAY NAKED WITHOUT US FASHION AND MUSIC WEEK.
What I don't understand is why Armed Forces even thought it was acceptable to play without a full band there? I was there and that set was disgraceful. It was obvious Armed Forces missed the mark and missed their audiences mark when the only thing heard was pity claps. I had never seen this band "play" before, and thought it was a joke. There was no announcement of the band's name, or any explanation given by the singer that, "Hey, I'll be singing to a track tonight but lets all have fun anyways."
Also, it seems that the "band members" weren't too hurt by being thrown off stage as they stayed for the event in its entirety as well as drunkenly danced during the other bands performances causing a tad bit of a spectacle when one of the girls breasts almost popped out of her dress.
This bands behavior on and off the stage was appalling.
Billings is a douchebag. So is his horse-mouthed girlfriend, Kendall.
What's new?
His 'brand' will fail miserably as long as he conducts business the way he does,
and he will take Nashvilles rising name in the fashion biz down as well, singlehandedly.
It truly is a shame that there aren't better people in the business in Nashville.
Oh, right. Patrick Weber (sp?). He will succeed. Now there's you a gentleman.
No offense, In Attendance, but none of the behavior you described sounds particularly "appalling." At least not for a rock show, anyhow. Jazz doesn't pull any punches about the type of performances he puts on, and I feel like those who booked the show probably could have investigated/viewed past performances (like the Scientology Centre one where he sings to a track) before putting him on the bill if they were concerned about it. And the singing to a track thing ... Warhol did that, too, right? Is there a rule that only hip-hop artists are permitted to do that?
Anyhow, I was at a different show, so I missed the debacle. Spurgeon and Jazz are certainly capable of debaucherous behavior, but I still haven't heard anything that sounds grossly offensive, or really anything that deserves a stronger label than "silly."
In fairness, I am in no way implicating Billy in the attack on the girls. It was a female NWU staffer who I am in no position to name. Rachel or Renee might be able to, though.
Where is Col. Jazzola when you need him? Where is Tex Rambunctious? Where is Gumby? We need Nashville's Super Friends in this time of crisis!
Okay how about I put it bluntly, the performance sucked and I would not have been a fan of this band regardless. I was also totally annoyed by the girls. Also, I had no idea any of this went on behind the scenes. I am just an audience member, totally oblivious.
In Attendance has it down! To disgrace the obviously artistically credible and professional reputation of Naked Without Us by having the GALL to perform a set just exactly like the guy following you (except not hip hop, and with more people) is just sickening. I hope more shows like this happen all the time so everyone not involved remotely in music can make rules and treat people horribly, cause we need more of that in Nashville for sure.
In all seriousness the last two lines of this article are pretty fucking priceless, and i just hope shit like this keeps happening so this little shindig disappears
My lawyer has advised me to not speak about the events of last night publicly, but I can confirm that the girl backstage was in fact Billy's girlfriend, Kendall. He also confirmed her identity to me personally when I gave him her description while I was trying to speak to him about what unfolded.
He clearly isn't familiar with Nashville bands if he asked the Armed Forces to play and didn't expect a spectacle. Don't be surprised if you play with fire and get burned.
There is actually video of that Billy Gemmil cutting off the set and telling them to get the fuck off stage. Also his girlfriend physically assaulted a performer and called her a "fattie", while that bitch is much large than the performer. Last but not least they kicked the two females out of the club and billy stood in the front by the door and yelled at them for 20 minutes infront of everyone coming in and leaving.
This was unacceptable.
Check out Naked Without Us all weekend at Mercy!
Heypenny, Kyle Andrews, Coach, JEFF, De Novo Dahl, Honeymoon Thrillers, The Effects & more. It kicks off tonight at 8.
Plus, I'm bartending all three nights, so I am going to try to get Jazz & Billings both drunk enough to make up again (just like they did last night).
Did I mention that you can snag a free download of "radical luv" at http://thearmedforces.bandcamp.com? Cause... you totally can.
This town is terrible. "Music City"? It's obviously not about music at all. And what's worse?...The last two comments. Just when the core of the problem was bad enough, in comes the shameless plugging of products and services by fellow venue managers and "artists". How embarassing. Good thing no one gives a fuck or knows who any of these people are outside of Davidson County. The Truman Show for Morons.
I love Matt Friction's (of the Pink Spiders/Dozen Dimes) take on the whole thing, which appeared on his twitter account immediately after the incident last night:
"This "naked without us" thing is an embarrasing joke. And billy gimmel is the douchebag you thought he was"
Friction also referred to the event as a "a t-shirt fashion show"
(via his twitter account @MattFriction)
Well said, sir.
And in addition, the Armed Forces are brilliant preformance artists. The fact that some in attendance last night can't understand ART is further proof that Naked Without Us is a JOKE.
Furthermore, Billings' latest "trick", Kendall, should have had the cops called on her. I hope she has a good lawyer.
Hip hop artists perform to a track because most of their music is made on a compy and cant be replicated live. I think it's kind of weak to go on to a track otherwise, unless you can sing your balls off. Armed Forces would need a full band to pull it off, it probably wasn't much of a performance.
BUT, that radical luv song is great, to tape or not. Once somebody is up there doing their thing, you shouldn't shout them down just because you don't agree with it. That's ridiculous.
"And in addition, the Armed Forces are brilliant preformance artists"....bad musicians covering up their bad songwriting with bad antics.
I think it's preposterous that FIRST of all, Billy would have done well to announce to the crowd that it was a mistake and just do some good business there. SECONDLY, if it's a sucky band, then let them fail on their own time. THIRD, Kendell, darlin, take it down a notch. Eat a hamburger. And if that hurts your feelings then pretend for a second that your hips will spread one dayand you'll have varicose veins just like the rest of us. Watch your mouth girl. You're pretty, but no one is ok to degrade another.
NWU is an awesome production. I love fashion. I love music. I love the people that attend and I am one of them. This particular little shenanigan was a distasterous lil cafuffle and it's over. Let's let it be over. Give 60 seconds what it's worth and let Billy and Co. learn the ropes just like any other entrepreneur. Seems to me that just maybe there needs to be more clear communication within NWU, but that's not a crime. That's just how it is. They're doing a helluva job and I love to attend.
PS: How could ANYONE take this guy seriously?
http://i39.tinypic.com/10r33w9.jpg
The Armed Forces (minus the girls, just Brandon & the backing track) played my record store in Pennsylvania this past weekend. Brandon was wearing a boa & singing into a banana while people looked through records. Everybody in attendance forgot how damn cool they are for a few minutes and smiled and had a good time.
Burrito,
I assure you that any and all of the armed forces tracks are made on a "compy" and are not intended to be replicated live. . . at least within Brandon's budget.
At some point it doesn't even matter if the attendees at something like this have a good time or feel like it is successful. If the organizers and leaders of "budding" fashion conferences treat music artists (and probably most non-fashion people that they deal with) like worthless idiots, then the credibility of the entire production is shot. This happens to the detriment, unfortunately, of others involved who may be very nice people with the best of intentions. One douchebag (and his girlfriend, apparently) can bring down an entire project, especially when he calls the shots.
I'm not surprised that this happened considering that Mr. Gimmell was openly rude to Tristen and her band (including myself) when we played at their event the previous night. We were treated as non-persons from the minute we walked in the door, causing us to become defensive and feel extremely unwelcome. In a way, I feel vindicated that it happened again in such a dramatic fashion and that Ashley was in attendance to make sure that everyone knows about it.
"We were treated as non-persons from the minute we walked in the door, causing us to...feel extremely unwelcome."
So how is this any different than your average indie rock show?
Mike M. - even just this comment made me smile. this town needs to LIGHTEN UP. it's pathetic that we can't all take off our snob hats for 2 minutes to just be silly or recognize that someone else is being silly. isn't this kind of stuck-up, control-freak, take-yourself-too-seriously nonsense that gives the fashion world a bad name in the first place? i'm all for a Music City fashion scene, and I give props to NWU for championing it, but if you're throwing a rock show/fashion show... you gotta be willing to get down with some rock n roll behavior.
brandon jazz, keep showing this town that having fun isn't a crime. please? for all of us?
p.s. would anyone at this show have freaked if Gaga was there singing to a track? what's the difference?
I attended the NWU show last night and, on the whole, found the show to be a wonderful exhibition of local talent. The NWU project is a great way for the local fashion and music scenes to fuse and I think it's awesome that the NWU team has worked so hard to put together the festival. Unfortunately, I was late and missed the Armed Forces show... but I did witness the backstage scene in which the female member (reeking of Jack Daniels) of the band verbally assaulted a NWU staff member and was removed from show. I heard what was said and the NWU staffer was entirely within reason to kick the girl out. The NWU team has worked too hard on this project to have a band of fools make a mockery of their work. I applaud the team for making an effort post show to reconcile with Armed Forces... if I had worked as hard as they have to showcase Nashville talent I can't say I would have been so nice.
I have seen Brandon do numerous things with bananas in the time I have known him. All of which would classify as performing art is various establishments.
Hey everyone, my name is Marcia Masulla and I am the Fashion & Marketing Director for Naked Without Us and want to give our formal statement on the incident that occurred during our event at the Exit In last night.
1) We emailed all of the bands on our schedule a complete flowchart that outlined load-in times, expectations, and set-times. This was emailed out apx. 8 days ago as I worked with our Music Director, Bo Biddle on this to ensure that everything was as seamless as possible. I would be happy to provide a copy of this to post to this site if necessary.
2) Brandon Jazz pursued Billy Gemmill for a spot on the festival slot months ago and we agreed to add him on as a full band set, not an experimental project that included women on stage simulating playing musical instruments while chugging from a Jack Daniels bottle. They even went as far to "assault" our crowd by brazen verbal and body language meanwhile disrespecting the real musicians that we proudly promote in this festival by having an intoxicated woman reading a book while chugging alcohol as she simulated playing the drums to a music track.
3) We certainly understand and embrace an artist's creative input and growth but any professional venue, promoter, and agency in the music industry would not be pleased that an artist's product changed so drastically without proper communication. When Brandon Jazz arrived for load-in, he was directly asked where the rest of his band was and he advised us that they would be arriving. When we approached him again (apx. 15 minutes before his set ) that we were advised by someone in the crowd that Brandon was going to be playing to tracks in a Karaoke type manner, Brandon denied these accusations. At this point, we sensed that something was askew and put together a Plan B. Artist's music/product can certainly evolve over time but to have this type of misrepresentation is not only unprofessional but malicious.
4) Our Plan B consisted of us pulling Armed Forces off of the stage after 3 tracks and replacing the rest of their assigned set with Chance Warhol, who is a talented hip-hop artist who also was presenting a Fashion collection of tee-shirts that night for our Street Tees Fashion Show. For Brandon, to post this on his Twitter account:
armedforces
Apparently @nakedwithoutus is racist. @thenobots are allowed 2 rap 2 tracks @armedforces are not. Where's @nashvillecream when you need em?
is completely inaccurate and irresponsible. We support various genres of music, fashion, and businesses. Furthermore, to compare the disrespectful acts that were performed on stage last night to a legitimate artist such as Chance Warhol is intolerable.
5) The female entourage that Brandon Jazz brought to Exit In proceeded to make disparaging comments to Kendall Mitchell, our host that included harsh profanity that included lewd statements that included sexual acts. We proceeded to kick them out of the venue. This did include a verbal altercation that included the removal of their personal property.
6) The one fact that I can't comment on is why Brandon and his "band" would ask to come back into our event and converse with the producers that included Billy Gemmill about agreeing to disagree on the issue when he planned to attack us again?
Is it a cry for attention? If so, I am mortified to say that it worked hence my extensive statement.
On a final note, the team comprised of NWU has worked for several months to produce a week full of events that support the Music & Fashion community in Nashville and we are offended when someone would maliciously attack our mission in such a distasteful way. We are only human and have made our own errors and learned a tremendous amount in the process. At the end of the day, we want to make a positive impact and be a platform for these communities.
"At the end of the day, we want to make a positive impact and be a platform for these communities"
FAIL
Hahaha! It sounds like Brandon Jazz is way more punk rock than I would have previously assumed! Hilarious!
Also...
"We certainly understand and embrace an artist's creative input and growth but any professional venue, promoter, and agency in the music industry would not be pleased that an artist's product changed so drastically without proper communication."
Hmm...how well did that work out for Neil Young's record label in the 80s?
"This did include a verbal altercation that included the removal of their personal property."
Question. How do you verbally remove someone's personal property? I'm no lawyer, but that kinda sounds like a physical altercation.
"5) The female entourage that Brandon Jazz brought to Exit In proceeded to make disparaging comments to Kendall Mitchell, our host that included harsh profanity that included lewd statements that included sexual acts. We proceeded to kick them out of the venue. This did include a verbal altercation that included the removal of their personal property."
Said 'disparaging comments' were made AFTER Kendall PSYCHICALLY ASSAULTED said female. I have a picture of her face with a large scratch on it if you need further evidence.
NO contact (verbally or psychically) was EVER made before Kendall PSYCHICALLY ASSAULTED the female and yelled at her obscenities because she couldn't control her anger.
Please get your information correct before you report an official statement.
NWU is not a professional endeavor, Gemmill is not a serious person and is certainly not qualified as a promoter. In fact, this story, that Armed Forces were somewhat violently and discourteously unplugged and ejected, is probably the most interesting thing that anyone will be talking about concerning this "festival." It would be totally irrelevant if not for this (admittedly entertaining) gossip. Thanks Nashville Cream, as always!
"This did include a verbal altercation that included the removal of their personal property."
This wouldn't happen to be my laptop, now would it? Where did you remove it to, Ms. Ma'am?
"Said 'disparaging comments' were made AFTER Kendall PSYCHICALLY ASSAULTED said female."
Whoa, I would NOT want to fuck with someone if they have psychic powers. Have you seen Scanners?
"We certainly understand and embrace an artist's creative input and growth..."
OK, it really, REALLY, doesn't sound like it. Although I wasn't there to witness it, I'm willing to bet that, on the scale of extreme performance-art hi-jinx, last night's performance ranked at about a 1 — unless there was some sort of G.G. Allin element that I've yet to hear about.From the cheap seats it looks like that was all it took to freak you guys out and behave like A)disgusted snobs B)puritans or C)some conflation of the two.
Either way, it looks like you guys ignited a shit-storm by overreacting to something that would've likely otherwise gone unnoticed outside the confines of Exit/In. Congratulations, you've made yourselves look like you're on the wrong end of a Tom Green prank. Mission accomplished for Brandon Jazz.
Brandon Jazz is an attention whore.
This really had to be his plan from the beginning. Its all to obvious once you hear the story from both parties.
Oh, and great journalism by this Ashley Spurgeon. Completely unfair and biased. High quality. So much integrity... right?
Brandon Jazz, you are a disgrace and so is Nashville Cream for even printing this piece of trashy gossip rag journalism. Go write for TMZ Ashley Spurgeon.
Obviously that is supposed to be spelled 'PHYSICALLY'. Auto-text on a blackberry doesn't do much good sometimes...
Gimmell's in that Bart Durham commercial, right? The one with the lady and the camera and the what not?
Brandon Jazz: 1. NWU: 0. It's not like he smacked yer mama. Second what Gold said.
i can speak from a bit of experience here... also i was not in attendance last night.
anyway, putting on a festival or event of this magnitude (clearly it's not that big, but it included multiple venues, multiple performers, etc) can be extremely stressful and there is almost NO money in it. we do this b/c we love to. either that or we enjoy torturing ourselves.
things will NEVER go as planned and there will be plenty of mistakes by both artist and festival. if brandon lied to nwu about having a live band, then i can't defend that. alternatively, there is no reason to physically assault anyone (if that happened), but i can vouch for the immense amount of pressure and stress to make sure a) people show up b) the show happens somewhat on schedule and c) you don't file bankruptcy b/c it only takes one really bad night to screw an entire event.
that being said... next big nashville 2010 artist submissions are almost open! follow @festivalus on twitter for the big announcement.
Please don't compare Next Big Nashville to this amateur bullshit. You guys don't put on a festival so you can run around "being in charge." Also, despite the stress level I know you guys must face, my band (and the others I play with) have been treated remarkably well. Next Big Nashville at least understands that the festival wouldn't exist without the artists. I don't understand why NWU doesn't just have a bunch of fashion shows, because they obviously have a limited knowledge of music business (not to mention musical styles). And then all the fashion people can feel superior together and not have to take it out on performers.
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