I'm looking for constructive criticism regarding my band's music, image, and website. Please, no personal attacks or berating remarks. I just want helpful comments/questions that will help out both of us. I will help others by answering their questions with feedback of my own... Kick ass... haha

TJ of Doppler
www.dopplerband.com
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"I know when I started I would have been happy to sound like the Beatles or Joe Tex or whoever. You want to sound like most bands, you want to sound like their records and that's how you learn your chops."

- Jon Anderson of Yes

Then thing about criticism is that, even though we all live in the same town and play music, we pretty much have totally different tastes. So good luck! I'm hesitant to answer these type of thing, but you seem forthright and friendly, so:

Music: It's not my style, so I don't feel qualified to give criticism on that front. It seems put together though: layered, thought out and pulled off in both ability and recording. It seems like the most pro part, but I can't tell you if people will like it.

Image: There aren't really group shots on the site? Not big ones or quality ones anyway (they pop up at the same size as the thumbnails).
Hard to judge the look or aesthetic- it is casual and not unified; kinda takes away from an "image," and doesn't match the slickness of the design-oriented site look.
Too much personal stuff also takes away from an image- it's scattershot. I'd have a single blurb/brief bio for each, and if you want more detail make the members get individual myspace pages and just link to them. You may well be a team of individuals and think that a strength, but the audience needs to be able to file you mentally.
I'm pretty big into image, and would like to see more polish.

Website: Good general design framwork, just needs more content.
I think there are too many fonts- The coldness of the label-maker font on the metal logo-thing clashes with the earthiness of the serif-font on the tabs. I'm not a fan of that serif font anyway, especially if you use the more straight (arial?) font for the home content, and then another straight font for the who-is page. I'd match them up more- I think that serif fantasy-style font only works if the rest of the design is done around it.
As I mentioned above: the photos are small, varied, not of high quality and the pop-ups are the same size. You haven't done a photo shoot so they are just placeholders, and thats fine, but there isn't much constructive to say for that reason.
Why both Doppler and Groundlift again? That's confusing.

In general: You are clearly motivated and can play, but portions seem inconsistent or probably just unfinished. I think you already know this, but are just feeling impatient?

shit sandwich.

The name is lame an unoriginal

Your music is Chris Daughtry style radio cockrock

The website, see line 1

Image....kick ass...haha

ouch, guys!

Well, I'm not much into music, so I couldn't comment on that part of your website, but the bios are WAAAYY too long and, for as long as they are, quite uninformative. By the end I really didn't care about the singer, who happens to be "the glue that holds Doppler together." Do we need to know all of you like Led Zep? Maybe a collective influence list, because you can't really hear the Prince in TJ's playing. More random shots of guys in kilts, however, would play nicely with those that like music and those that just read bios.

Wait a minute... This isn't alternative rock; its college rock!

Kilts. The theme, the image, everything should be kilts. Keep the music the same and add more kilts.

I think you should ditch the mission statement.

quote:

Originally posted by Nick Brown:
I think you should ditch the mission statement.

Racists Cop's mission statement:

We will do everything in our means to keep our drummer as sober as possible before the show.

where do you call home?

what have each of you done in the past?

where have you played and with what other bands have you shared a stage with?

website looks pretty good...easy to get around without much lag

Didn't really notice an "image" for the band...other than maybe some guys who like to jam after work.

Was NOT at all impressed with the mixes of your material...songs are pretty good, but way too much hi's in the cymbals...that is very distracting when trying to pay attention to the lyrics(which I didn't do, because of the kssss kssss kssss of the cymbals) That kind of thing just makes me CRAZY....um more CRAZY.

overall: C+

Is that constructive?

It's a nice site. Just make the fonts more consistent.

I feel like being a musician that I am unqualified to critique. If I was good at spelling and punctuation, had a larger vocabulary, no musical experience and a big head, I would sing a different tune for you. But doppler guy you never answered my question. When do you plan to hit the road?

Hey, I liked the look of your site, I thought the recording sounded very good as well.

Music was layered and I thought it was pretty cool.

Don't let everyone else bust your balls-I thought it all was good, even if it wasn't my cup of tea.

Keep it up, and I must say, you are brave to ask for criticism!!