Agents of Misfortune Video

Copy and post this video to your websites. Complements of RotGrub.Com

   The Agents of Misfortune was the band name that Jim, Dave & Cliff used to enter the Battle of the Bands in 1984. Their intentions were to capture Maxwell's ambiance and harsh beauty in a mainstream public environment. The auditions were held at Sunset High School located in Hayward California. There were somewhere between 30 to 50 bands auditioning of which only 10 bands would be selected to compete in the Battle of the Bands. 10 judges reviewed each band and used a predefined scorecard to identify the best bands. These scorecards had categories ranging from: Originality, Showmanship, Unity, Timing, Composition and other categories that were given a score from 0-10. The top 10  high scores went to the Battle of the Bands.

  The allotted time for each audition was only12-minutes.  For most of the bands this was enough time for 3 or 4 songs. Remember this was 1984. Glam-Rock was in. Spandex, Hairspray and Makeup was everywhere. The 3 to 4 minute cover song would be cranked out endlessly throughout the auditions. Maxwell songs were 60 to 90 minutes long and required beverages. 

  The final set started out with a song that was never named. It was somewhat of an industrial composition that allowed Jim & Cliff to explore independent solos that leaped in and out of the framed tempo kept by Dave. After each outburst the band would arrive back at the root of the baseline to start it all again. The audition version was reduced to only two passes. 

  At the end of the second pass, they start to speed up and rammed right into Maxwell I. This got everyone’s attention. What the hell is going on? The judges were no longer judging, Cliff was whipping his head wildly, Jim was producing violent, horror film effects with his violin bow and Dave was dancing in and out of the mayhem  with his cymbals and drums. 

This frightened many people.  The younger audience was expressionless and puzzled. The older crowd (moms & dads) were visibly  disgusted. 

  The end came sometime after the 12-minute rule and weaved it self back into the opening song. The judges had mixed reviews. Some just sat there blank, others were visibly pissed off and the rest were busy filling out their scorecards. The audition people interviewed Jim, Dave & Cliff after the audition and asked several questions about why and how.

  The Agents of  Misfortune did not place in the top 10 and were not able to compete in the Battle of the Bands. 

RotGrub.Com