Bands on the run: Harlow vs. Flickerstick vs. Soulcracker

Flickerstick kicks ass. There song "Smile" is perfect! This band has a future, i give them one more year untill they EXPLODE on to the music scene. You guys have serious song writting skills. I wish you the best of luck!!

REX is the man, the fact that he plays a rickenbaker guitar kicks ass and shows he knows his shit. Flickerstick is now one of my favorite bands. (SOULCRACKER IS NOT AT ALL CLOSE TO BEING THERE)

Flickerstick were by far the best and most interesting group out of the lot. Sure they were lazy and they cheated on girlfriends etc. but what does that have to do with the quality of their output.

If it was about promotion and managerial skills A.P. and Bob from Soulcracker should've won - but it wasn't. I actually quite liked Beastie - i thought that he a had real sense of personality about him. Harlow were a hell of a lot better than Fluffy and i wish them well. I felt sorry for Josh Dodes Band because they were a very good band that had to play to crowds that weren't really into their kind of music.

Things i'll kinda miss:

Soulcracker's hilarious "Staring at the Sun" bellowing sessions.

Harlow's hilarious "Blue Lie-e-yi-e" bellowing sessions

Rex yelling over the totals being read out and annoying the smug Vh1 V.Js

I didn't start watching the show until the Josh Dodes band was already gone. But when I saw the Battle of the Bands episode between Harlow, Soulcracker and Flickerstick, I was hooked....on Flickerstick! They were awesome compared to the other two. Soulcracker always sounded so tinny – and what's with the guitar strings sticking out all over the place? And Beastie! How many bands out there have a guy (that's not the lead singer) that doesn't do anything but run around the stage? Harlow wasn't as bad as people make them out to be, but I'm not in to gloomy goth type music anymore. Then there was Sutton, always sitting with his legs crossed, speaking to his bandmates with this condescending tone. I got so nervous watching the last Battle of the Bands show, because VH1 really stacked the show with signs that Soulcracker was going to win. I had to keep telling myself that there was no way that Flickerstick could lose cuz their live show was too unbeatable. Fortunately I was right! I have to say that I saw Soulcracker perform live here in Detroit. I was at a Friday night boat races party at a club on the riverfront, and I knew that Soul was scheduled to perform there on Saturday. While my sister and I were walking around, we saw Sutton and he stopped us and gave us tickets to the show. We talked to him for a little while and he was very nice (and a lot cuter in person than he looks on the show). I told him I was interested in hearing them live, because I thought they sounded like crap on the show. Plus I was going to be seeing Flickerstick at another club in Detroit 2 weeks from then, and I would be able to really compare the 2 with my own ears. Well, we went to the Soul show the next night and they were fun to watch. There is a lot more interaction between Sutton and Beastie than you saw on the show and they're quite entertaining and seem to be having a great time. AP is animated as well, but Ramsey is pretty boring. Some of the songs are all right, but when the show was over I could barely remember most of what I'd heard. Nothing really stuck with me. I figured that if they at least sounded better than they did on the show that could only mean one thing – that Flickerstick would sound really good! AND THEY DID! They're show was one of the best I've ever seen! They are all great performers. The club they were at had no air conditioning and it was about 92 degrees outside and probably over 100 inside. But you hardly noticed because you couldn't take your eyes off of them. They came outside after the show to sign autographs, be photographed, etc. and were very down- to-earth and polite. I think they may be a little shell-shocked with the popularity they are experiencing so suddenly as a result of being on the show. I just hope they continue to write great music and become the kind of big stars that they wish to be!

UGH. How can anyone say any of these bands "kicked ass". I'd change the channel when any of them started performing. However, I'd watch it when they weren't singing because I love adults who display junior high school behavior. Dominic is a sack of shit too.

Soulcracker was like if Fugazi was a party band, not that I'm any sort of Fugazi fan. Harlow I couldn't get a handle on at all, but they didn't bother me too much. Flickerstick are ugly and terrible; I'm not surprised they won. This was a pretty entertaining show.

Wow. Remember 2001? Sheesh.

Where are they now??

Odd that VH1 didn't do another season with four new bands, no?

If they do enough series of them, then they can do:
-100 greatest Bands on the Run Artists
-100 sexiest Bands on the Run Artists
-Bands on the Run - Legends
.. etc.. an endless supply of VH1 "documentaries".

"I was hooked....on Flickerstick!"

"If boobs were the case , they would have hired the other girls because their were other girls with even bigger boobs on the auditioning tape with obviously no talent. Hate me for speaking the truth? I don't care. I'll probably get alot of hate mail from a bunch of idiots but I find myself not caring. Someone had to burst your bubbles."

"Soulcracker - more like Buttcracker - because that's about as interesting as they are."

This thread rules!

heading to CMJ 2001 allowed us to attend the Hedwig & the Angry Inch screening/Q&A. I got to meet Stephen Trask, ask him about Bob Mould, and give him a WCBN button.

sitting behind us were a handful of guys in "modern-rockers-on-tour" garb. I asked what band they were in. "Soulcracker". Right as I began to crack up and give a really smartass reply, my friend elbowed me straight in the ribs, causing me to lose my comment in a fit of coughing.

That's my Soulcracker story. Not as good as David Cross' Harlow story, but then, what could be?

and there's a great archive of episode-by-episode recaps of the show.

This thread revival must not die. This and Jay-Z performing outdoors for the VMAs = musical life in the summer before 9/11. Or something.

The Petition for another season of Bands on the Run begins here!
Somebody write up a letter to VH1. We all sign it. Hijinks Ensue.

But next round they must have an ICP cover band, a collective of Hassidic lesbian version of Destiny's Child and a string quartet that does acid-damaged goth-funk.

I still want to hear the Flickerstick cover of "Fade Into You." I imagine it to be brutal.

its not bad! I was on the last episode of this! my friends and i were so obsessed with this show. we went to the final performance and got backstage and partied with everyone. then we went to the (Riot) Hyatt and did more partying! Bob and Ramsey from Soulcracker just emailed me i guess they're in a new band.

All I remember is that Josh Dodes was bald, and I liked that.

This was the only reality show I was completely addicted to. I want another season now!

they should move the writers from the Real World over to Bands on the Run. Not only would you get 4 groups of Kwazy Kids Trying to Make a Buck, but the shows would probably get more interesting with all the inter-fucking and -fighting and mutual accusations of racism that'd occur.

...and mutual accusations of racism that'd occur.
"Ladeeezzz and Gentlemen, are U Ready 2 Rawk? Wellll, then put yer hands together for the Next Big Thing: 'Trife and Onions' !"

The Last Good Reality Show

Sorta sad.....I couldn't help noticing that Flickerstick are playing at The Lion's Den in April. For those unfamiliar, the Lion's Den is a crappy venue off of the West Side of Bleeker Stret where shitty Phish cover bands play. If your band is playing at the Lion's Den, -- it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that you're going nowhere fast. What's so sad is the Flickerstick had a taste of it...and lost it.

they were dicks

Well, they did suck. I could always refer to the CD of theirs I bought for kicks, but I'd rather not back up my opinion of a sucky band by pointing out how they suck. Pretty good production, though.

I love the invasion of Flickerstick trolls on this thread!

omg i'd forgotten about this

All those bands were so generic. Josh Dodes Band was kinda generically quirky, as befits a piano-centered band (closer to Steely dan than Ben Folds, so that's something, at least) Just a matter of which approach is in the neigborhood of yr. own alley. In my case, Harlow. But accroding to their ('01) link on vh1.com, the only recording they had available was via cash-only, to one of the musos, and she would presumably send a 2-song burn. (Josh Dodes Band had an album in Coconuts soon's they got flushed, with a VH-1 Bands On The Run sticker, even!)But still I wonder: wha happened to Harlow?

It was a genuinely interesting premise -- Reality Tv-wise -- I can't understand why they never did another season.

Yeah, don't get me wrong, I followed it closely! As to why mo more, one reason (talk about generic, but still) might be uh 9/11. Knocking all the media for a loop, for a while, so whatever team put together the first season may have drifted or been taken apart, found other porjects, either way. Probably trickier (incl. more expensive) than som e of their other stuff. Which is now usually marked all the way down to (lower case in every sense) talking heads, at least some of whom would prob pay VH-1 to be slotted.

This manner of show was co-opted by Ozzy & Sharon Osbourne, Inc. The winner, a generic group of metal-playing simpletons, were awarded a slot on the Ozzfest tour. The criterion for victory seemed to be best metaphysical kneeling and kissing of the knuckles of the Ozzy & the Sharon, or some facsimile thereof.

Since young Americans wishing to be rockers or celebrities naturally practice and accept scraping before royalty, the competition was fierce.

"Simpletons" taking us all the way down to present day, yes.Open the dooor, Gomer!