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

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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.

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 14:15 (twenty years ago) link

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.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 17:12 (twenty years ago) link

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.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 21:30 (twenty years ago) link

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.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 21:33 (twenty years ago) link

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

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 21:34 (twenty years ago) link

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.

― chaki (chaki), Tuesday, 5 August 2003 23:26 (twenty years ago) link

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

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Tuesday, 5 August 2003 23:38 (twenty years ago) link

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

― Chris Barrus (Chris Barrus), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 08:58 (twenty years ago) link

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.

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 11:59 (twenty years ago) link

...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' !"

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Wednesday, 6 August 2003 14:19 (twenty years ago) link

one year passes...

The Last Good Reality Show

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Sunday, 27 February 2005 03:00 (nineteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

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.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 18 March 2005 01:08 (nineteen years ago) link

they were dicks

― charleston charge (chaki), Friday, 18 March 2005 01:15 (nineteen years ago) link

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.

― Eleventy-Twelve (Eleventy-Twelve), Friday, 18 March 2005 01:16 (nineteen years ago) link

I love the invasion of Flickerstick trolls on this thread!

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Friday, 18 March 2005 01:35 (nineteen years ago) link

omg i'd forgotten about this

― j blount (papa la bas), Friday, 18 March 2005 01:38 (nineteen years ago) link

Harlow sounds like a fat mans ass exploding...but they're nice

My favorite quote on this thread.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 18 March 2005 01:43 (nineteen years ago) link

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?

― don, Friday, 18 March 2005 06:31 (nineteen years ago) link

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

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 18 March 2005 06:38 (nineteen years ago) link

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.

― don, Friday, 18 March 2005 06:52 (nineteen years ago) link

might be uh 9/11

Very good point. Still.....three and half years later, with shows like "PowerR Girls" and "the Ashlee Simpson Show" clogging up the airwaves, "Bands on the Run" seems like a positive Think Tank.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 18 March 2005 06:56 (nineteen years ago) link

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.

― George Smith, Friday, 18 March 2005 07:09 (nineteen years ago) link

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

― don, Saturday, 19 March 2005 02:23 (nineteen years ago) link

twelve years pass...

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

― Neanderthal, Friday, 31 March 2017 04:25 (seven years ago) link

two years pass...

thought they were a poor man's Hole

― sorry for butt rockin (Neanderthal), Thursday, 26 March 2020 01:37 (four years ago) link

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