On Friday, March 3, Audra & the Antidote took leave for sunny Southern Califiornia to be filmed for the Farmclub.com television show, a new program on USA Network that features unsigned artists who have uploaded their music to Farmclub's web site. Farmclub.com is an on-line record company allowing artists to upload songs for public listening. Shortly after uploading Jenny's Got A Boyfriend, Audra was contacted by Farmclub, who wanted to come out to Nashville to film a live show and videotape an interview with the band. Impressed with what they saw of Audra & the Antidote, Farmclub called Audra again and offered to fly the band out to L.A. to be filmed giving a live performance for their television show. With the exception of Derek the Drummer (he was supposed to work...) no one in the band had to think twice before dropping their plans for the upcoming weekend and putting the West Coast on the agenda. (Derek of course got out of having to work.)
If this turn of events sounds fast-paced, it's because it was—barely a month had elapsed between the uploading of Jenny and the flight to Farmclub. Such is the unpredictable life of the musician…
The band arrived in Universal City Friday night to get a good night's rest before being carted off to Universal Soundstage 42 at 12:30 on Saturday. group shot with Hollywood's Hills in the background After sitting around the dressing room for a bit watching VH1, the time forLance and Audra in soundcheck soundcheck rolled around, and the band went out for a quick rehearsal of Jenny. Expecting to complete soundcheck and be shuffled off the stage, it came as quite a surprise when the show's producer Edwin in soundcheck came down to personally greet the band and ask if they would like to perform a second song. Of course they accepted, and quickly agreed on doing 100 Years Away.
As if these two unprecedented events weren't enough (the producer coming down to talk to the unsigned band, and the unsigned band being asked to perform more than one song), on the way back to the dressing room the show's director came out to pay the band a compliment, and just before the show Jimmy himself (it's “Jimmy and Doug's Farmclub”) group onstage in soundcheck came in to say they looked and sounded great. This latter event left the make-up artists in shock, looking at each other and saying “What was that?!?”. The owner making a special effort to talk to the unsigned band was apparently something they had never seen before…
By the time Audra & the Antidote were ready to perform, the buzz surrounding “the unsigned band” was already starting to go around. Creed finished up, and group with MelAudra strutted out onto the platform to do her gymnastics. The show went flawlessly, the crowd loved the band, and shouts of “Audra, come dance with us!!!” were heard at the end of the set. Audra passed on the dancing, but didn't hesitate to give several interviews for Farmclub and Getmusic.com.
Audra & the Antidote's Farmclub performance aired on April 17, 2000. It reran at least once on USA network and several times on Canada's Much Music Channel. The plug was pulled on Farmclub only after one season with the crash of the Tech Market. The record company was absorbed into Universal and the website merged with GetMusic.com. Unfortunately they have chosen not to webcast any of the unsigned bands' performances.
Journal
What I thought then... and what I think now.
Jimmy & Doug's Farmclub (USA Network)
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I have sent 13 email
I have sent 13 emails to the ctitulsaonon email address and had not one reply or acknowledgement. I have just rang County Hall to ask who will be reading them and was told by a gentleman, who answered the phone on the switchboard, that there must be thousands so I won't get a reply'! Wonder if they are even being looked at? I expect that will just go into a cyber space black hole somewhere!! But how will they know what we think if they are not being read?