Gorilla productions a Scam?

[marshalldude]

My band has been contacted a few times by these guys in the past. Today we got another message from them on myspace using the exact same message from before. What do you think? Does it look legit? Smells like a scam to me.

 

here is the message

 

My name is Ray with Gorilla Productions. I am looking for some local bands to play on a Battle on Nov 29th or Dec 27th in Salt Lake City at In The Venue. These are both prelim rounds for a two round battle series. Winners of the final round will receive $500 in Cash, 20 hour studio recording time, a headlining gig booked around your band (with a pay out between $400-$1000). Also, each winning band will be entered into a nation wide contest on GorillaMusic dot com where the winner of the year long contest receives a $25,000 recording contract with Rock X Records and a limited US Tour. Please respond with your NAME and NUMBER to this email or call me to get confirmed onto one of these dates. Don't hesitate because these shows fill up extremely fast. Thank you and have a great day! Ray Rowe 216 322 0637 Booking Agent Gorilla Production

[knucklefux]

uh...unless you have to pay to play, i don't see how it could be a scam. worst case scenario is you win and don't get the prize, right?

[TheMercyRule]

stay away, far away....

 

There will be no promotion done, you will not meet whoever calls you to set it up, there will be only no name bands on the bill because they know inexperienced bands will take these types of shows. They say they will call you for the second round. That won't happen. They won't call back.

 

They basically try for each band to sell as many tickets as possible for them in promise of money, tours, record deals from no name labels that probably don't exist. But for all YOUR hard work promoting you get {censored}. The show I played ended up being our friends only watching our set. There was supposed to be 10 bands on the bill. 5 showed up. 1 stayed for our set.

 

My band played one of these, what a scam. Lesson learned. Maybe other shows go differently, but this is my experience and it was the worst show I ever played.

[tws!]

Same as mercyrule. Stay sway.

[marshalldude]

 

stay away, far away.... There will be no promotion done, you will not meet whoever calls you to set it up, there will be only no name bands on the bill because they know inexperienced bands will take these types of shows. They say they will call you for the second round. That won't happen. They won't call back. They basically try for each band to sell as many tickets as possible for them in promise of money, tours, record deals from no name labels that probably don't exist. But for all YOUR hard work promoting you get {censored}. The show I played ended up being our friends only watching our set. There was supposed to be 10 bands on the bill. 5 showed up. 1 stayed for our set. My band played one of these, what a scam. Lesson learned. Maybe other shows go differently, but this is my experience and it was the worst show I ever played.

 

 

I had the feeling is was something like this. These "pay to play" or "presale" booking agents have become a problem in our local scene and are killing it. He didn't mention anything about selling tickets but I figured it would pop up later on.

[MRAAJR]

That Rock X website looks bogus as {censored} too. Inb4 Rock X shows up or some alt alt moniker shows up and is like "I did this with my band and now we are huge" OMGROFL

 

 

edit: "Rock Superstar" is the music on their website.....definite scam

[mhr74]

They were in Cleveland for a while. Haven't seen em put up a show in a hot minute. Their shows were always overbooked with slobbit bands in order to get max cash.

[BusterBuster]

Do they make those wonderful amplifiers also

[knucklefux]

our bass player just "booked" a gig similar to this...except there's no offer of a prize, it's just "sell some tickets, and we'll let you play with the 74 other bands that are stupid enough to go out and sell tickets to their friends/siblings/parents/etc.

 

i politely informed him that i'm not into the ticket presale thing. i did it once, and i won't be doing it again.

[marshalldude]

That Rock X website looks bogus as {censored} too. Inb4 Rock X shows up or some alt alt moniker shows up and is like "I did this with my band and now we are huge" OMGROFL edit: "Rock Superstar" is the music on their website.....definite scam

 

yeah I saw that too! What a joke. If you look at the "Signed" bands you only see two and they are both {censored}ty.

 

http://www.rockxrecords.com/

[metalguy]

its legitish

 

my cousins band just played the second round couple weeks ago.

 

first round was last year september:facepalm:

 

 

it is basically a scam to get money for themselves, you sell tickets, most ticket sells gets better spot(usually last), then the winner is decided by the crowd right after the last band, so you sell more tickets your band has more people you get louder applause YOU WIN!!! here in houston the lamest band with no talent won because they sold the most tickets, only 3 of the bands actually had an original sound and played well. none of them won.

 

steer clear of them

[MRAAJR]

 

its legitish my cousins band just played the second round couple weeks ago. first round was last year september:facepalm: it is basically a scam to get money for themselves, you sell tickets, most ticket sells gets better spot(usually last), then the winner is decided by the crowd right after the last band, so you sell more tickets your band has more people you get louder applause YOU WIN!!! here in houston the lamest band with no talent won because they sold the most tickets, only 3 of the bands actually had an original sound and played well. none of them won. steer clear of them

 

 

Legitish? No its 100% legit as in you are not actually getting {censored}ed out of anything but time. But not legit in the sense that they make you think it is some badass show when in fact it is lame as {censored} and they are there to cash in on some dumbass kids.

[metalguy]

 

Legitish? No its 100% legit as in you are not actually getting {censored}ed out of anything but time. But not legit in the sense that they make you think it is some badass show when in fact it is lame as {censored} and they are there to cash in on some dumbass kids.

 

 

first round year ago, second round year later = waste of time

 

it is basically a scam to get money for themselves = cash in on some dumbass kids

 

i guess legitish was the wrong word to use.

 

NOT LEGIT!!!!

[noooob9876]

OK! so basically this is how it works. Ive played in quite a few of these "gorrilla battle of the bands"

 

They are an organization that goes to each town and gives all the young ameture bands a chance to play at teh biggest venue in town(atlease in my town). I MEAN NO AMETURE TEEN BAND THAT JUST STARTED WOULD TURN DOWN A CHANCE LIKE THIS!!! Then they get the bands to sell their tickets to their friends and family for 8$ each (bands don't get any percentage of the profits back) and so thats how they make their money/profit. And they make it so that the bands who sold more tickets get to play later on in the program which motivates bands sell more tickets. And they always has a guy that constantly calls you and ask how many tickets you've sold and say "This might turn out to be a very big crowd!!!"

So you can call it a scam, or just a way to make some bucks, but either way thats their motive behind all this. Oh and BTW the band that sells the most tickets (the one that plays last) usually always wins, they might change it up every once in a while in an attempt to make it less obvious, but usually always the last band.

so my advice to you on these "gorrilla botbs" is that just know that you are making them money, but if you want a chance to play a show at a nice venue with other local bands or just a chance to be on stage and have fun, then go for it, but dont expect to get any musical promotion or progress in your "music careers" by playing one of these.

[thefyn]

It is legit.

 

They make money. You play a good venue.

 

My band played 2 legs. One BOTB and one final where winners from 5 other BOTB comps all go head to head.

 

We won the prelim and the final. Go for it. Sell tickets, have fun.

[petejt]

I wouldn't trust anything on MySpace in the first place.

[thefyn]

 

I wouldn't trust anything on MySpace in the first place.

 

 

Here is the gig I did with Gorrila:

 

[YOUTUBE]Nk69nGAJTVI[/YOUTUBE]

 

They were are all 18 years old, my brothers band (on drums). We were a Brit explosion type of band.

 

Typical soundguy, super mega bass drum and snare and everything else an afterthought.

 

I got kicked out of the band for never going to rehearsals. So the new guitarist won the second leg. haha.

 

Here is the song we did:

 

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7331449

 

The bands myspace has the new guitarists stuff on there.

[THEE HAMMER]

Im playing my fourth show with them in december.

 

They make a killing but some of my mates are good at selling tickets, they let us bring my own sound guy, and the venues are usually decent sized.

Only once was the bill over-booked, but it was nice to play in front of 300 people instead of 75 like usual.

All shows are a struggle of some sort from my position, and i wouldn't hold my breath trying to get up with them , or waiting to hear back from them, Gorilla is notorious for being late or lax.

 

I enjoy playing out regardless of where, and what kind of bands i am competing with.

That said, the biggest problem is that they give you off dates like sundays or thursdays for the first round and saturdays for the second.

 

It's not a scam, but if you already play out 2-8 times a month you can probably do better on your own.

[TU BE]

[THEE HAMMER]

^ that's a scam.

 

you are pushing for an award.

[mhr74]

[Reverend179]

Gorilla Productions used to run the same scam in Portland. Nobody ever ended up getting much cash, and the finals of the BOTB never happened.

[tribalsoldier07]

 

stay away, far away.... There will be no promotion done, you will not meet whoever calls you to set it up, there will be only no name bands on the bill because they know inexperienced bands will take these types of shows. They say they will call you for the second round. That won't happen. They won't call back. They basically try for each band to sell as many tickets as possible for them in promise of money, tours, record deals from no name labels that probably don't exist. But for all YOUR hard work promoting you get {censored}. The show I played ended up being our friends only watching our set. There was supposed to be 10 bands on the bill. 5 showed up. 1 stayed for our set. My band played one of these, what a scam. Lesson learned. Maybe other shows go differently, but this is my experience and it was the worst show I ever played.

 

 

My band is currently located 45mins away from Cleveland and yesterday we drove up to the Gorilla Productions "office" and actually met the dude who contacted us. We had about a 2 hour meeting and he didnt mention a BOTB once. He was really cool and give us a bunch of legit tips......but after finding out about the BOTB scam im getting kindve worried. It seems legit, and there is no way we can lose money....but im just being cautious

[greg apocalypse]

I'm pretty sure, they contacted us, too.

 

 

 

and I have gig spam for you too, since you're the only other Utah poster at maps - next friday 1/22 at Burts Tiki Lounge! Come hang!

 

 

 

edit:

actually, I think a friends band played in that and there was like, no great bands in their genre or something so they went through very easily? I can't remember. Look up Dethorne The Soveirgn, I think it may have been those guys.

[kevin squibben]

Scam or not I just like playing