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Headline: "Wired for Rock - Local Fan's Website Supports Area Bands with Listings, E-mail."
From Danielle Nelsen's perspective, the local music wilderness is alive with great music and song, but no one is around to appreciate it. "Too many people around here say the music scene in Kansas City stinks," she said recently. "But if it stinks, it's because nobody supports it. There's so much good music here and in Lawrence, but no one seems to know about it."
Instead of joining the choir of cynics, Nelsen decided to inform them, to lead them into the wilderness. In her midtown apartment she erected her electronic platform: an Internet Website that slavishly spreads the good word about local music. "I have," she said, "jumped on that big Internet bandwagon."
Her crusade started out as a more modest, personal mission: to help a friend's band, Redshift. "Their bassist (Tony Maxwell) is one of the most fabulous bass players I've ever seen," she said. "They are all very talented musicians, but no one ever shows up at their shows. I thought, why? It's not because they're no good. It's because no one knows about them." Redshift, however, already had its own website, created by her friend, Joe Fortunato, a graphic designer and guitarist for the band. So Nelsen expanded her idea, creating a one-stop music clearinghouse - the Zone, the Hypermart of local music Web sites (www.thezone.org).
Once she started gathering information from bands, Nelsen ran into a peculiar roadblock: bands dubious about her intentions. "At first it was hard to convince bands that I didn't want their money," she said. "Lots of them were skeptical - and I understand why."
Nelsen, a graduate of Olathe North High School, wisely hooked up with Jay Bredwell, who manages and books local bands through Slumlord Productions in Bonner Springs and is well-connected in the local music scene. Bredwell, Nelsen said, has been "a huge help." "He helps me get into shows, puts me on the guest list," she said. "I love going to shows and taking photographs, but it costs money to get in those places... I couldn't have even started this without Jay."
Anyone who doubts the quality and intent of the Zone need only visit the site, where Nelsen's photographs, slick graphics (with some help from Fortunato) and long menu of options make it clear that her page is not the work of a part-time amateur out to make money. The Zone offers more than a dozen categories: a listing of bands with bios and some with photos; a local music forum; an e-mailing list; lists of booking agencies and recording studios; interviews; reviews; and Nelsen's electronic 'zine, which provides fresh news and updates to the Web page. The site also provides scores of links to bands' official Web sites, to a comprehensive music calendar and to other Web pages that have anything to do with the local music scene.
Keanon Liggatt, a guitarist with the band Grovel, said he uses the Zone to promote his band's shows and to find out where other bands are playing. "It has been invaluable, even in its beginning stages, to our band's publicity," he said. "For one, it's instant. If we find out about a show we're doing, we can tell Danielle that day and it'll be on her site the next day."
Bredwell said people in the local music scene have talked about the need for such a service for years. "It's super that someone finally took the reins and established a place where bands are welcome to leave their calling cards," he said.
Nelsen spends a big chunk of time - about five hours each day - even more on the weekends - working on the page. Nonetheless, she has bigger, more elaborate plans for the site, things like video and audio files. "Joe and I are putting together a compilation video of local bands," she said. "The plan is to eventually put footage from the video on the Web site."
She doesn't keep track of her costs, but they are hardly nominal. In addition to her overhead and the admission costs to attend live shows, Nelsen, who recently quit her part-time receptionist job, pays for her own film and processing to create the photographs for the site. "After I'm done with the photo and I've put it on my page," she said, "I send that band an electronic copy of the photo to use on their Web page, if they have one, and then mail the originals to them so they can use it however they want. ...We do it all for free. We understand that musicians and money don't go hand in hand."
Any local bands who don't have a Web site or who want their band promoted on the Zone should contact Nelsen, who still is having a bit of trouble getting bands to submit information. "It's like having to go to the library - wouldn't it be nice if the book came to you?" she said. "The more people know about this, I'm hoping, the more bands will come to me and say, 'Here's our information. Could you put it on your page?' Then it's up within five minutes."
Art Caption: Danielle Nelsen's Web page includes this photograph she made of the band Molotov Grasshopper.
Art Caption: From her midtown apartment, Danielle Nelsen runs the Zone, a popular Website featuring information on the area music scene.
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