We recently posted about a GoFundMe campaign to help keep DRKMTTR running. While it looks like they’ve successfully reached their goal, they are far from the only establishment hurting right now for funds to keep their lights on, pay their staff and ensure any sort of future once we’ve made it through the COVID-19 storm.

Following suit with The Cream, we’re going to try and keep a running list of spots with active campaigns that need your help. While it can be overwhelming to try and help everyone, remember you can do only what you can do. It helps to think about your monthly budget for going out – how much do you generally spend at the bar? Make a rough tally on that cost and, if you can, consider donating to these establishments.

• Support The Nashville Scene – No News Is Bad News.
• Vinyl Tap – Help the Vinyl Tap Staff
• Anaconda Vintage – Venmo @AnacondaVintage
• The Crying Wolf – Staff Emergency Relief Fund
• The East Room – Support our Staff
• Exit/In – Support The Rock Block Staff
• DRKMTTR – Support the venue and staff
• The End – Keep the Venue Afloat
• Zanies – Service Relief Fund
• Springwater – Employee Tip Jar
• The 5 Spot – Community Fund
• Dukes – Operation and Staff Support
• Graze – Employee Relief Fund

If you’re not the GoFundMe type (or just don’t see your favorite spot represented above), steer yourself over to the Friendly Artic Store; the Eastside screen printers have taken it upon themselves to print limited run apparel for a number of bars and retail with proceeds going directly to them. As of this posting, you can snag pieces for Belcourt, The Groove, Fanny’s House of Music, Sky Blue Cafe, East Nashville Beer Works, Family Barber, Hotbox Fitness, Parlour and Juke, Cumberland Transit, Mickey’s Tavern, Smith & Lentz, Harding House Brewing and Three Brothers Coffee.

We are huge fans of Bandcamp, as you might have been able to tell from the fact that every single music review on the site points to their embeds rather than a streaming service. The reason for this is because their entire business model is built on empowering artists of any size. Anyone can setup an account, upload music and start getting the majority of money from any sales that occur. There’s support for merch, pre-orders and download cards built right in. Not to sound like a commercial but it’s just easy to get going. Streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music have their own set of benefits – largely around playlisting and automated discovery (which are not trivial) – but they don’t strive to ensure artists are being paid.

For March 20th, 2020, Bandcamp announced they are waiving their fees on sales. Instead of the already generous 85% / 15% split they generally have, they’re giving it all to the artists. The idea being that with the spread of COVID-19, many artists are feeling a large financial impact from being unable to tour or play shows at all. While this financial impact is also true for hospitality workers, record store employees and venues; Bandcamp is doing what they can to assist.

We regularly browse Bandcamp music tagged with “Nashville” and surrounding areas, so let’s have a look at a tiny sliver of releases you could support today. By all means, dive in deeper to those tags and find something great (also reference this Scene article for even more ideas).

Nashville Unreleased Vol. I: Transmissions from Isolation Row – Demos, new songs, alt takes and more from the likes of Caitlin Rose, The Minks, Molly Parden, Langhorne Slim and 16 more artists. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to MusiCares and it’s only available for one month.

The Blam Blams – “Isabell” – Fresh off their No Country for New Nashville premiere, this is the first track from a forthcoming concept album the “explores the life of Sydney Fabel, the record’s fictional protagonist, – a bisexual actor/ artist in 1970’s London is stepping out onto the stage both literally and figuratively as he begins to discover his own agency amidst starring in a production with the Galactic Theater company.” Intriguing!

Makeup and Vanity Set – Monster: DC Sniper OST – If you haven’t been paying attention, dark synth musician Makeup and Vanity Set has released five soundtracks this year, many from popular podcasts like Up and Vanished, Atlanta Monster or To Live and Die in LA. Not only is it a ton of great music but it’s also a gateway drug to many compelling podcasts. Win win.

Quichenight – Quiche Night – “isn’t every album a quarantine album?” ponders the album notes for this latest full-length record from Brett Rosenberg, aka Quichenight. Possibly true. Despite having released Dork in the Dark as recently as November 2019, here’s another blast of 60’s inspired rock with a dash of curmudgeonly grin.

Oral Sax – Rotgut Soju – For full transparency, I fell in love with Oral Sax because of their absolutely childish name and I often allow myself to embrace the infantile. That said, this is a wonderfully progressive record for the band; taking big leaps into synthwave style compositions. Very enjoyable new offering and a smirking band name to boot.

Without inundating you with a giant list of embeds and descriptions, here’s a quick list of more notables worth spending your time and money on:

• Howling Giant – The Space Between Worlds – epic fantasy-style metal. For fans of The Sword and space traveling big riffs.
• Soccer Mommy – Color Theory – a bit of a concept album itself with three movements of “color” covering some deeply authentic introspection.
• Elon Musk – …As Your Wanderer Taps at the Invisible Gate – fantastic sweeping post-rock across a solitary 37-minute track.
• The Robe – The Robe – I’m biased as this was released via my own yk Records but this album is a wonderful mixture of electronic kraut inspired tunes with a poppy edge.
• DATENIGHT – Is This Also It? – fast paced, garage rock infused, enjoyability optimistic blast of rock and roll. Don’t sleep on this.
• Donors – Self-Titled – likely to be in Best Of lists at the end of the year; enthralling post-punk onslaught showing its not a one trick pony.
• Fever Blush – Fever Blush – if you like your shoegaze layered with some male / female vocals and some catchy choruses, Fever Blush has a real treat for you.
• Friendship Commanders – Hold On To Yourself – brand new EP dedicated to anyone dealing with abuse; a meaningful and powerful hard rock collection of songs.
• German Error Message – Haunts – a hidden gem in the Nashville music scene and the perfect, withdrawn, soundtrack for our self-quarantined times.
• Glossary – Long Live All Of Us – one from the archives filled with optimistic messages of community and surviving the hard times.
• The Gold Room – The Surrounding Hours – another hidden one that was gone before anyone noticed; treat yourself to this oft overlooked gem.
• The By Gods – Goldy – the most recent release from this rock trio delivers a nice batch of Pixies-esque inspired songs and some real stretching of their styles into new territories.
• Engine IX – DIM – and finally, a furious blast of punk rock, just in case you’re feeling extra frustrated with the quarantining.

Even with this massive list, it’s only the smallest tip of the iceberg. Browse through our music reviews and you’re sure to stumble upon a Bandcamp powered artist that you enjoy. Buying today means an extra boost of support for them, a practice we can surely all rally behind.

It’s no secret that the COVID-19 virus has had an impact on literally everyone. From doctor’s serving the potentially infected to grocery store clerks dealing with manic hoarding to all of us embracing self-quarantining, it’s everywhere. This is especially true for those in the hospitality and music industries; professions that generally don’t come with any kind of safety net for closures and cancellations.

DRKMTTR, the DIY-inspired venue over on Dickerson Pike, is not immune to these impacts either. For the indefinite time being, they’ve closed their doors to be mindful of spreading infections among attendees. It’s the right thing to do but it has put them in an incredibly difficult financial position. As a venue that intentionally keeps ticket prices extremely low as a means of accessibility, their profit margins are slim. Having cancelled their forthcoming calendar, they find themselves reaching out to the community for assistance.

The Help DRKMTTR GoFundMe is a campaign to raise $10,000 for the venue and its employees. This will ensure they stay open, pay their bills and keep their hard workers in a good spot. Even more importantly, it means that they’ll survive to re-open as a destination for artists to reach young audiences and get paid on tour.

Back in January of 2019, I sat down for a podcast interview with co-owners Olivia Scibelli and Kathryn Edwards to talk about the history of the venue and the ethos that drives it. They are absolutely committed to creating a safe space for artists and attendees, ensuring shows are affordable and going to great lengths to make sure out of town bands leave with money in their pocket. In short, they get it. Being a musician is extremely difficult and COVID-19 has had an impact on that we can’t even measure yet but once this pandemic clears, they’re going to need places like DRKMTTR to play.

As part of the GoFundMe, indie label Kill Rock Stars is going to match the first $1500 donated. That’s an added incentive to get in there and help them reach their goal.

All venues need support right now and if they request help of this nature, we’ll be happy to spotlight them as well. For now, DRKMTTR needs your help and we kindly request you lend a hand.

UPDATE: There are also GoFundMe’s for The East Room and Exit/In seeking similar help to stay open. Please consider spreading your support.

If you didn’t see it over the weekend, there was a popular tweet going around showing a Lower Broadway bar filled with people having a good time; couple with the quote “Nashville is undefeated.” This is in reference to the World Health Organization, federal government and common sense advice that everyone should be practicing “social distancing” – aka Staying Away from Crowds to help curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

As a direct response to that, Mayor John Cooper called an emergency meeting with the Health Department and declared a public health emergency, resulting in the closure of bars and limiting capacity at restaurants. The Scene has all the nitty gritty details on the closures but, suffice to say, it was a bold move that, hopefully, forces people to get it into their heads that the current atmosphere involving the virus is not a joke.

So, this is our Public Service Announcement to remind you – Stay Inside. Yes, it’s hard and can be boring. Yes, there is a huge impact on anyone working in the hospitality and entertainment industries. We all know people that work at bars, work at venues and, surely, we all know someone in a band. That doesn’t even begin to cover the impact to the tourism industry. That said, the tradeoff is, quite literally, death. Maybe not for you personally but the likelihood that someone can pick up the virus and spread it is very high. If you need more help understanding this, check out this article.

As a community, Nashville is still reeling from the devastation wrought by the tornado of early March. Putting ourselves in the headspace of helping out however possible and then immediately being asked to do the complete opposite is hard. However, you can still help people out. Venmo your bartender friends a few dollars instead of going out to a bar. Buy some Band merch or a digital download from Bandcamp – this directly supports your artist friends. Hell, make a Spotify playlist of your favorite bands and spread the word; even exposure to their music at this point is beneficial.

We’ll be gathering up and posting some entertainment for you as incentive to be smart, be safe and keep others safe by staying inside. Here’s a running list of local music videos to entertain and delight you as a first offering: