We’ve had a lot of big laughs in the music room over the last four weeks. In mid-February, we attempted to catch one rival publication in the act of borrowing from our online concert listings, Music Board (www.charlestoncitypaper.com/gyrobase/MusicEventsDate). In doing so, we unintentionally caught another publication in the act — and carried on with the, uh, “study” for a full month.

Every week, we try to list things evenly, accurately, and comprehensively — with an informative description as well.

Of course, we’re not the only local publication listing shows on a weekly basis. Several community papers (West Of, Moultrie News, Charleston’s Free Time, and others) make a point to cover who’s playing where and when. Apex Broadcasting’s Graffiti magazine took a stab, too. The Post and Courier‘s weekly pull-out section Preview (“Your Weekly Guide to Entertainment”) offers the who/when/where in the “In The Clubs” section.

Last month, we noticed a few suspicious listings in Preview — bands who scheduled shows, but quickly canceled or switched the dates. The information wasn’t posted on the club’s schedule, or listed anywhere else that we knew of. The only source was Music Board online — and only for a few days before we changed it. So we decided to conduct an experiment. We planted a few bogus band names in the listings. Preview totally fell for it — again and again — and published them in their pages between Thurs. Feb. 14 and Thurs. March 6.

None of them appeared on any other websites or calendars. None were published in print by City Paper. They were simply posted online for a few days. Here’s a list of the names:

Quickfreeze, The Fairy God Muthas, The Floating Approach, Ride the Feedback, The Funny Smelling Vitamins, Guilt-Ridden Quartet, Marty & The Two-Tones, Jimmy McGriff & The Velvet Fields, The Popular Members, Spectral Simmons, The Turned-On, Uphill Fight, The Rhythm Barons, Catfish Gallagher, Smokey Child, Swift Recognition, Jamerson James with George Kenny, Blacklock House, Cope Stewart, High Price, My Dog Closes His Eyes, The Original Cocktails, 12 Unhappy Years, Prom Dreams with Van Johnson, Shakespeare’s Friend, The Many Moods, Lowell Fulson & The Jubilee, Riff Rats, The Very Small Parts, Zombie Stomp, Chickenbone Hopkins, Spiderland, Killing Joke, The Royal Sultans, The Latest Treatments, Vanilla Avenue, Sterling & The Velvets, Fresh Evidence, Luther Dickinson & The Crimson King, Fat Bastard & The Fembots, Spider Stacey & Kate O’Riordan.

We’re amused at how easily Preview fell for such silliness. Our online Music Board listings include a phone number and, usually, a link to the venue’s website, so these events could easily have been verified or proven erroneous with a phone call or click of a button.

While the results were funny, Preview‘s blatant borrowing from our online listings irks us. We’ve made it easy and convenient for them, eliminating the requirement to actually research the information themselves. We feel that we do our homework and make the effort to be as accurate as possible. We assume Preview does the same.

Oh, for good measure, we added a dozen more goofy band names to this week’s listings. They’ll be deleted by the time this column comes out — but we’ll list them on Feedback File (music.ccpblogs.com) on late Wednesday night. Will Preview bite again? We’ll see.

Help keep the City Paper free.

No paywalls.
No newspaper subscription cost.
Free delivery at 800 locations from downtown to North Charleston to Johns Island to Summerville to Mount Pleasant.

Help support independent journalism by donating today.