The Mauxms: A lesson in being open to discovering arts and music

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

By Ric

themaxums

Band: The Mauxms (www.themauxms.com)
Genre: Progressive/Rock/Punk
Sounds Like: The Mars Volta

I've had a bi-polar relationship with the local music scene.

On the one hand, when I'm completely involved in the world of writing and publishing 'zines I am enthralled and fascinated at the dynamic between music, the local scene, band promotion, and getting attention for a person's music (on a local level).

On the other hand, when I'm not involved with the local scene I find myself, at times, turned off by the whole thing. There is such a fine line to walk as a musician (or any artist who is looking to promote their art/product on a local level - myself included) between getting the word out about your music and being an obnoxious bastard who forces their artwork on every single person you come in contact with until they want to scream in your face to leave them the hell alone!

I can tell you from my own perspective, that I am living REV Miami everyday. I'm even writing this post on my lunch break at my job. Rather than eat I had to write this post. And let me tell you, it is so easy for an artist to surround themselves in their own work and passion and become incredibly obsessive about it. Getting swept up in a project is one of the most enthralling experiences that I've ever had in my life. And because of that effort, it's natural to desperately want the project to be successful and popular.

Here's the point.

A couple of weeks ago I was in Guitar Center with my best friend Carol getting some equipment. We're looking at stands for keyboards when we randomly strike up a conversation with this hyperactive guy. We're talking about how hard it is to find a multitiered keyboard stand and I ask him if he's in a band.

"Yeah man, my band is called The Mauxms," which is pronounced like 'The Moms'. He tells me that they've been together for a month but are feeling a pretty good swell of attention behind them.

"Right now we need to put a demo together to submit it to a Battle of the Bands to play Langerado," he tells me.

Well, I sure as hell am not going to turn down an opportunity to scratch a band's back so they can scratch mine later. So I tell him that I'll help them get their demo printed up.

The Mauxms2 This is the difference between being involved and not being involved in the local music scene. If I wasn't doing REV Miami I probably wouldn't have approached this guy. And even if I would have, I would have said, "good luck with getting your demo together," and pushed the whole thing to the back of my mind.

But then I would have missed out on discovering an incredible band. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love discovering music, but the difference between passively finding a band because a friend told you about them or you heard their song played on MTV (yes, sometimes they do actually play music) or even crusing around Myspace compared to having someone approach you trying to sell you on their music is enormous.

It's an element to local music that a lot of people find distasteful.

If there is anything that you can take from this post it's don't be closed off to discovering a band because they're promoting themsleves. When you sign on your Myspace account, for example, and you see a friend request from some random band that you don't really know, take that extra 5 minutes to click over and see what they're all about.

Here's the thing about The Mauxms, if they sucked I would have just left it at that. I would have helped them out with their demo and that would be it.

But these guys are good and I told them I wanted to put them up on the site - not only put them up, but I wanted them to be the first band that I profiled.

mauxms3 I could make an easy summary of their music and say they sound a lot like The Mars Volta, but comparing complicated progressive rock to another complicated progressive rock band doesn't give a full picture of the band's music.

Such as Gabriel Mendoza's complicated and sometimes off-key or disharmonious guitar soloing over an intense and fast paced latin rhythmn. Or the frenetic, almost schizophrenic, energy to their songs that you only find in really good prog rock. Moments like when Steven Perez's saxophone and Raul Hernandez's drums are getting more and more intense, and lead singer James Partridge is running to higher and higher notes, and before you feel like you can't take it anymore they'll fall into a slow break of Ronald Romero's wobbling synthesizer and Steven laying down a slow semi-off rhythmn saxophone solo. And of course, the maniacal frenzy of music is always held together with the subtle bass lines of Andrew Herrero (which is actually another similarity to progressive rock bands, a solid bass player who knows not to overplay and seems to be sitting right in the groove of every song).

Yeah, they're that good.

Even more, these guys are really really hungry. The day that Ron, Gabe, and James came by my apartment to pick up the CD labels and inserts I'd prepared for their demo, we ended up standing outside for almost an hour talking about music, promoting, their band, REV, etc. Not only that, but every person who walked by got an invitation to check out their Myspace page or a flyer for REV's Upcoming Launch Party (see right sidebar). The overwhelming desire to succeed is inspiring.

mauxms5 For any casual music fan, I want to stress, don't be scared off by a band's willingness to try to get their music out to you. It is a testament of their belief in themselves and their art. Trust me, I know exactly where you're coming from, it gets a little annoying after a while to be constantly pestered by bands pimping themselves out, but then again you would miss an incredible band like The Mauxms - and trust me, that's something you don't want to happen.

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I just downloaded this cool little song player so that now I can attach songs from the bands that I'm doing a particular post on.

Play The Mauxms' Vesuvium below and please leave comments! I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Visit The Mauxms at: www.themauxms.com

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Tags: The Mauxms

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 at 11:20 am and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

NOTE FOR COMMENTS: Do not flame or leave obnoxious comments, THEY WILL NOT BE APPROVED. Constructive criticism should always be welcomed by any artist, but don't be a d-bag, show some class. Thanks. - REVMiami Staff