You’re welcome.
Originally posted: July 31, 2015 at 3:27 p.m.
A Cleveland guitarist was recently invited to join the L.A.-based band Talkback, but decided to politely decline the offer. He awoke this morning to find this gem in his inbox:
Thanks for getting back to me. No worries and I wish you the best in the Cleveland music scene! It’s funny because only in Cleveland do people pass up a pop project lol. Im in LA right now and I have multi million dollar film producers/directors doing a music video for me all for free bc that’s how much they believe in my music. I’ve also had Lady Gaga’s producer invest about $300,000.00 into my brothers and I in the last 3 years haha. I know money doesn’t mean anything to people in Cleveland but it sure says a lot when some stranger I barely know is investing their own money from their pocket into my project. Almost every guy I’ve contacted about playing with me IN CLEVELAND has passed it up bc it’s “not their scene”. Who do you Cleveland musicians think u are? Slash? Haha.. It’s just funny to me. I lived out in LA for 6 years and I am from Cleveland and it’s amazing to me the attitudes and cockiness that Cleveland musicians have when it comes to “their genre”. Cleveland needs to get over themselves and realize there is a million other markets out there. You guys think you are so open minded and “cool” But you guys are the most close minded fools I’ve ever met. It doesn’t make you “cooler” bc you will only play metal and hard rock. It makes you stuck in Cleveland forever ending up playing at your local bar until your about 55 years old. But hey, whatever floats your boat:) It’s harder to write a pop song then it is to write a metal song. U feel me? Im in LA right now and I think I may stay here forever bc I cannot stand the Cleveland music scene with all their rebellious “stand up for Cleveland music scene. Rock on” bullshit. Haha. Thanks anyways and take care
You too Matt Augusta… I’ve never even met you before but from your texts I can tell you are the most cocky dude in Cleveland -have fun playing the worst songs ever- Take care – oh – and thanks for referring me to another Cleveland rocker haha
Bri Geraci of Talkback
Well, then.
For giggles, here’s one of Talkback’s music videos:
This article appears in Jul 29 – Aug 4, 2015.
As someone born and raised in the suburbs of LA, but having lived in Cleveland for 21 years now, I can tell you Cleveland is the MUCH better place to be! Let’s see how the LA boys feel after their first big earthquake, fire, flood, riot….
HAHA. Don’t know which is worse, the grammar in the letter or the music!
Learn to swim
Learn to swim.
It’s like Fall Out Boy’s “Dance Dance”.
If Fall Out Boy released their first draft that they wrote in middle school.
My band would blow them off any stage in the world. Two out of the three of us are from Cleveland. They can lick my balls.
Their Facebook page has 1,000 fans and they still play at Roc Bar and Euclid Tavern…they’ve really hit it big!
She posted this:
“I need 8-10 people to meet me at my moms house tomorrow @7pm to film a scene for a music video I’m working on for one of my songs off my album.”
Calling for your own extras? To film at your mom’s house?
Doesn’t sound like a whole lot of people are behind you/backing your projects, lady.
Loverboy called and said they want their outfits back.
They can stay in L.A.
Nice DSLs… #allofthem
Oh my god. I wouldn’t play for this band for anything.
This must have been one of those “free” videos the multi million dollar producers did for them.
I don’t really watch rock videos too much anymore (I am a vintage gal who goes to Sir Paul’s concerts and Ringo’s concerts. By the way Ringo REALLY likes Cleveland for many reasons I won’t go into…) Videos seem to have gotten better.. This video was a real BLAST FROM THE PAST and I don’t mean the Beatles or Pink Floyd. There is some “bubblegum” in there that bugged me 35 years ago. These guys are NOT “cutting edge”. Stay in LA. Live in expensive places with extraordinary competition. Our Cleveland music scene don’t want you, obviously.
Maybe people in the Cleveland music scene are real, whatever the genre not a bunch of rich valley douche canoes that think they are going to last more than a minute. Cleveland guys may be playing in a bar at 55, but they won’t be methed out broke and living under a 405 bridge. Have fun posers.
What’s really sad is that they all grew up in Chagrin Falls, OH… Bashing your hometown is not a good start to your career…
Sooooo… Isn’t their dad Sonny Geraci? From Cleveland? I know he hasn’t been around for awhile because of being ill, but I wonder how he’d feel about them bashing the city that has always supported him and started him on his way? Sounds like a bunch of spoiled brats to me.
This band is originally from Northeast Ohio themselves. I grew up with them in Chagrin Falls years ago, although I wasn’t close with any of them. They are siblings and their father, Sonny Geraci, either was or is in the band Tower Of Power, which explains both the music industry connections and how meager and thin those connections seem to be.
It’s been a little bit of a running joke among CF alumni who knew them watching them wallow at the absolute bottom of the major label landfill churning this shit out pretty much since we graduated high school. At one point, they were telling people that they had signed to Cash Money Records. I wonder how that worked out. As far as I can tell, they’ve barely released any actual music except for a couple of singles and generic cover versions of famous pop songs. They are pretty much the “major label casualties lost in the system” archetypes to a T.
I’m honestly stunned to see they are somehow still trudging along and that they themselves made it out of Cleveland. The last I heard about them before this was seeing their name on a list of bands who were playing a Little Italy patio during the Feast of the Assumption three or four years ago.
I hope they eventually manage to realize their pop dreams! Go Tigers!
The look is Jersey Shore meets early Motley Crue, the music is a barely listenable watered down cheese fest, and the video is a re-hash of 20 or so before it, going as far back as the beginnings of music video. There’s nothing even remotely original about any of it.
Lucky for you, America loves crappy rip off pap. You’ve got a shot at least a hit before they tire of you.
LA – a vapid wasteland of inhumanity and stupidity (where I lived for 5 years before picking Cleveland as my home, even though I’m not from here originally) – is a PERFECT fit for you.
BTW – harsh reality you’ll learn sooner or later – Lady Gaga’s producer (as if that makes him impressive? Gah.) that’s “investing” in you isn’t doing it because he believes in you, toots. He wants his return on investment, and he’ll find a way to get it. Good times, good times.
Better to be a respectable band (musician) in Cleveland, than a failure in La La Land!!
AND Chagrin Falls ain’t Cleveland – LMFAO!
Unlistenable.
Did you happen to watch the video??? I lasted about 5 seconds – what a load of crap.
Well I have never heard of the dude in talkback, tallback or the dude its addressed to…. So come see my band with finger eleven this monday at the agora in Cleveland 😉
That band is horrible. The end.
I just found who they are from reading this post…. I just moved to Texas like a year ago and I never heard of them. I guess they are hitting big right lol
Welcome to becoming Cleveland’s band enemy #1.
Enjoy finding out how deep all the roots of artists/musicians/filmmakers stem from ohio and many from cleveland.
Also enjoy being 55 and still tryin to maket his bullshit work………. haaa what a joke
Did anyone listen to that piss? My god, who would ever want to play with those tools. Fake looks, basic melodies, no thanks, stay in LA. The CLE music scene is just fine and there are some very legit bands around these parts. No reason to sell out for pop poop!
What a bunch of entitled brats! I was born and raised in Cleveland and I promise there are much better musicians residing there. For what it’s worth, I’m on the west coast now and have never heard of them. Making it real big I see?
I remember going to a gig for them at the Grog Shop back when their dad had a stroke or heart attack or something and the community showed up in support. They sang this song then… and that was years ago. Can we say ‘one hit wonder”. I hope nobody shows up for either the video or the performance. This band doesn’t deserve us and has abandoned its roots. Jersey Shore meets Motley Crue indeed!
First rule of “making it.” Don’t bite the hands that feed you. Respect, courtesy, and gratitude gets you everything in this business. Everyone in this industry knows everyone. You screw one person over and word will travel. I’m originally from Cleveland and live in Texas now playing in a great band on the cusp of making it, but paying dues by taking crappy gigs with a professional a gracious attitude is how we’ve aquired a reputation that has opened doors.
Word of advice Talkback, apologize. Then realize you are nothing. Get some humility and start building up those around you and maybe some one talented will come along and want to play with you and change everything in your road to success. And for crying out loud… Get a new sound, you’re from Cleveland surely there had to be some soul left in you. Pop fades, people grow up and eventually want meat and potatoes, not sugar. Meat and potatoes are eternal. It has substance. Get some.
Yikes! Their music is so…so…so yesterday. The good thing about failing in L.A. is you can always do porn. Which is where these fucktards will end up.
#NewBandName #TwoTwinksAndACunt
Oh, Well What could i possibly say to that?………..perhaps the musician from Cleveland politely declined your offer to play with your band as he had better things to do, maybe cutting his toenails or Fingering next doors french poodle for example, I’m sure i could come up with at least 1001 ideas why he didn’t want to play but maybe just maybe he has principles,or maybe has heard one of your mediocre songs or seen your shit awful video, your music is made banal & even more tedious bu the fact that you appear to be so far up your own arse that you could clean the back of your teeth from behind your own tonsils, nobody with any sense would stop writing and performing their own brand of music to play the kind of Kiddie Pop you have sold out to perform, its talentless drivel,its been done by a myriad of pop bands,solo artist’s,manufactured talent show bands etc etc, you stick to L.A, as you will soon be forgotten, never to be remembered along with the rest of the rubbish, Talkback? Ive been in the music business for 20 odd years & i have thankfully been spared your brand of total & utter shite, but you sell that shit to the disney channel, they’ll re-brand it and have alvin and the chipmunks singing it, & lets face it, it cant sound any fucking worse could it?
I had no idea this band existed. Their most popular video on YouTube has 4000 views. I guess they’ve really made the big time.
Anywho, as a drummer and a good friend of Matt’s I will say this: if moving out of Cleveland (say, to LA) would ever turn me into such a pretentious ass, I would choose to stay in Cleveland every time.
Stay humble my friends.
Hahaha. Because it’s so easy to work hard and play more than 3 chords? To use literal poetry by yourself than to have 40 producers write shit that repeats itself? Oh, metal is SO EASY. I see what LA did to these scumbags, made them spoiled babies. Cleveland has talent. Bugger off, “Talkback”.
Very hard name to come up with, huh princesses? (;
HA! They DEFINITELY aren’t pop stars either!
From Chagrin, but look like the trashiest people from Jersey Shore. Wish they were from L.A. and probably have “family fun” like they’re from W.V. Unfortunately for them, none of those areas want to claim them as they’re own.
Now we all just know how god awful their music is and how big they’re egos yet small they’re characters are.
Where was the guy when he was writing the email? I couldn’t tell.
Is this seriously considered news? Everyone is so quick to talk shit.. Talkback has changed their look and their sound since “laugh laugh”. But please everyone keep sitting at your computers or on your phones talking shit about people you know nothing about. What a great way to spend your Friday night.
The unfortunate thing about this article is that it was sent to me by email. So I will have to print it out befor I’m able to wipe my ass with it.
Talkback has a fresh sound that a Clevo sloth could never touch with its butter fat fingers. What’s it like to be a winner and not obese and poor? I’d ask Talkback. Not the CHOWDERHEADS in a dumb rust cave.
You hit the bingo. It’s Ronson.
Wow. What a joke.
Is this a joke? Are these people real? Looks like they sold out to me…… JS
This dude probably gobbles the dick every night and his band blows too lolol
—“I’ve also had Lady Gaga’s producer invest about $300,000.00 into my brothers and I in the last 3 years”—
LMFAO !!!!! First off Nobody is investing 300k in anything in this business anymore unless you’re already a huge act/draw. This idiot is either totally full of shit or totally delusional. If it is true, he’s going to go broke shortly if he keeps investing in acts like this. I’m also sure my “local band playing local bars” will generate more income this year than these fools. Jesus Christ !!! My band has more than a thousand Facebook likes ya dope. With 1k in Facebook likes NOBODY IS COMING TO SEE YOU !!!!! I think I have a clue why the guy probably turned down the gig. NO FUCKIN PAY MAYBE ?!!!? Now lets get to the product/video/song.
—“It’s harder to write a pop song then it is to write a metal song.”—
First off ya douchebag it’s THAN NOT THEN.
It’s also harder to write a great song than an average song (which yours clearly is) NO MATTER WHAT THE FUCKIN GENRE IS !!!!!
The real “Laugh Laugh” is what I did when heard this song. It’s not bad. It’s just overproduced average. That ain’t gonna get it done folks. Katy Perry and Hall and Oates actually wrote some great songs.
They’re either playing to a million tracks live or it sounds like shit live. It also sounded like an iPhonic rip off. By the way, iPhonic was a cleveland band. I’d tell this asshole one last thing, “lay off the Pro Tools, it’s obvious you suck.” I’m out…
His quotes and my reaction.
—“I’ve also had Lady Gaga’s producer invest about $300,000.00 into my brothers and I in the last 3 years”—
LMFAO !!!!! First off Nobody is investing 300k in anything in this business anymore unless you’re already a huge act/draw. This idiot is either totally full of crap or totally delusional. If it is true, he’s going to go broke shortly if he keeps investing in acts like this. I’m also sure my “local band playing local bars” will generate more income this year than these fools. Jesus Christ !!! My band has more than a thousand Facebook likes ya dope. With 1k in Facebook likes NOBODY IS COMING TO SEE YOU !!!!! I think I have a clue why the guy probably turned down the gig. NO FREAKIN PAY MAYBE ?!!!? Now lets get to the product/video/song.
—“It’s harder to write a pop song then it is to write a metal song.”—
First off ya douchebag it’s THAN NOT THEN.
It’s also harder to write a great song than an average song (which yours clearly is) NO MATTER WHAT THE FREAKIN GENRE IS !!!!!
The real “Laugh Laugh” is what I did when heard this song. It’s not bad. It’s just overproduced average. That ain’t gonna get it done folks. Katy Perry and Hall and Oates actually wrote some great songs.
They’re either playing to a million tracks live or it sounds like crap live. It also sounded like an iPhonic rip off. By the way, iPhonic was a cleveland band. I’d tell this a-hole one last thing, “lay off the Pro Tools, it’s obvious you suck.” I’m out…
They fucking suck, there are so many other bands that have come from Cleveland or where Cleveland has been key to their success that blow these pansy ass glamour freaks away, you can stay in LA with teeny bopper pussy fans.
I love my city.
Born in Cleveland raised in Cleveland live in Columbus Ohio OH but one thing i will never ever for get the heart of ROCK AND ROLL will always be in Cleveland .Stay humble as Bruce Drennan always says I LOVE YOU CLEVELAND ! That little punk ass can stay out in L.A. with no water and his earth quakes S.O.B. check you later OUT from Cbus !
Crap. All music is nothing but opinions. No one is right and no one is wrong. It’s my opinion the my band Guns Of Brighton has far better material. Do it for the love, not the $$.
She’s not an actress, movie star & all that $$$ she’s talking about can’t buy talent plus their a little to old for the Disney Channel. A little advice….. never burn the bridge from where you came from.
I hope they go on tour with Buddy Holly.
I would just like to point out that before this article Laugh Laugh had 3,000 views (which is HORRIBLE for a group who claimed to have signed with RedOne) and had been up since 2013. Right now, the video surpassed 10,000 views. That’s a lot of people hate watching lol
I don’t understand, are they supposed to be “pop punk” but really they are just trying to be pop? I thought the music video was supposed to be a joke like 3 seconds of what the whole thing was and then going back to them saying “no that’s a fucking terrible idea” but they just went for
It. They went for that awful awful piece of shit. And I’m completely for anyone dressing however they want no matter who they are, but why go for the “punk” look when they aren’t at all punk? None of it makes sense, just terrible
Good luck booking your next show in the Rust Belt you clowns…
Wow! There hasn’t been adjectives invented to describe how horrible that was. From the early ’80’s look, to the just awful sounds. This is the type of band I turn the station from when I’m looking for a Cheap Trick song. So bad, not even a 13 year old girl would listen to this crap.
So let me get this straight.. Local band with “famous” dad goes to LA, gets picked up by cash money. Records album, but album is being held from release until band can drum up interest in new single… So band dude decides to start “beef” with other local musicians. “Beef” gets web time and video gets linked and plastered all over the social medias. I swear to god, if I hear this “song” on the radio, I’m blaming you Cleveland. I’m blaming you.
Now approaching 15,000 views with twice as many dislikes as likes and several comments disparaging the band over the past 24 hours. Don’t forget these guys are from Cleveland. If you are from here and make a snarky comment about Cleveland that gets picked up, Cleveland will defend itself rather loudly. Plus, this video is over two years old. The next video in my watch list is by the same band, now labeling themselves as “Gerace”. Anybody notice that?
The music is a C+ at best, and if not for the computer at the beginning, it could have been made in 1990.
Funny thing is Mgk know what music is and would rep cleveland till he dies who are they to talk shit when we have actual artists show there roots and be proud of where there from
Its just music and people here don’t abandon others so lightly. We have a way more artistic abstract scene in Cleveland that’s underground that you don’t even see. True artists that struggle and live hand to mouth DONT CARE ABOUT NAMES AND MONEY. We just want to do what makes out souls and others rejoce in the creative awesome work we create. I lived in LA and it fucking sucked. But everyone has the right to their own opinion and only the week will criticize them an mock them. Your truly a bad person for calling someone out like that 😔 truly pathetic the morals an values some people have in our society now.
Let’s see how much “bri” can’t stand Cleveland when they go broke and have to move back. This band is beyond terrible…
Part of being good is being original. This is straight up mimic music. Also periods don’t cost money but have your “backers” buy you some.
Laugh Riot! Bitter much? Sounds like maybe you were banking on your Cleveland musician to add quality to your music and were more than let down when he decided to choose to pursue his own path. Glad your doing well in L.A. Those of us in Cleveland will watch to see what bar scene you’re playing when you are washed up and in your 50’s. 😉
The clowns look like they were rejected as gofers at KNAC.
Disney channel, say hello to your next band.
So incredibly awful
“But you guys are the most close minded fools I’ve ever met. It doesn’t make you “cooler” bc you will only play metal and hard rock. It makes you stuck in Cleveland forever ending up playing at your local bar until your about 55 years old.”
That’s pretty funny, since there’s a Cleveland metal band that just traveled to Germany this past week to play at Wacken Open Air, to a full-capacity crowd.
Don’t worry…. I’ll just listen to Audio Engine
Don’t worry you scrub, I’ll just listen to Audio Engine anyway
Holy Hell…. kill it with fire!!!! It actually reminds me of one of the “songs” that get played on the shows that my baby boy watches…. he’s three, by the way.
That was bad. So, so, so bad. The chick might get a break in the industry if she plays her cards right. The porn industry, not the music industry.
Cheers!
I’m kind of glad to see they have Icing by Claire’s and hot topics at the malls out in LA too and are not just tossing that crap on the Midwest where they think we won’t know the difference.
Just for the record, not all L.A. musicians are as conceited and egotistical about their music as these numbskulls are, as I’m sure is true about all the great, hard-working musicians in Cleveland. Let’s all support and encourage each other to make music that speaks to others. Let the music do the talking, not any manufactured image. Cleveland rocks! And so does L.A.!
-Sincerely,
Native L.A. musician
Is that Bri chick a dude? Terrible music btw.
Ego check time. You got turned down. Get over it. Leather, studs, eye makeup, spikey hair. Yah, that’s original. Haven’t seen that before.
They just don’t know where to look for a guitarist….. Come to Memphis
went to school with them. Bri was one class below me honestly she couldn’t be nicer. They were all good people at chagrin never acted like they were entitled because of who there father was. this is shocking
Dude looks like Chris Kattan
They don’t need a guitarist. Those lines are so simple they could get a first-year player to cover that crap!
Don’t come back. Your hometown thinks you suck. Demonstrated by the ten people who came to see you at your concert.
These asshats are Sonny Geraci’s kids. They are from freakin’ Chagrin Falls.
what a lames ass bunch of loser wannabes
“It makes you stuck in Cleveland forever ending up playing at your local bar until your [sic] about 55 years old. But hey, whatever floats your boat:)”
Try telling that horseshit to someone like Cy Sulak, face-to-face. He’s well past 55. First, he’d blow you off the stage with his guitar. Next, he’d kick the shit out of your sorry ass.
Go fuck yourself, a-wipe. Do us a favor and stay in L.A.–where you can be a small, no-name fish in a big, shitty polluted pond. Here’s hoping for an 8.3 to squash you…and the rest of you Hollyweird jamokes, like the vermin you are.
Chuckles the Clown
Listening to their music and/or watching that music video should be a replacement in this country for jail time. All crime in the USA would instantly stop.
Stacy’s mom has got it going on!…oh wait…the way they talk they’re not going to be a one hit wonder. Doesn’t sound like it. Good for all of you who turned them down! Way to go, for not selling out! I understand the business and even though you have to do what you have to do to get your foot in the door….a one hit wonder (if it even makes it that far) isn’t the way to go!
This is by far the worst fucking “noise” I’ve ever heard. I won’t even call it “music” cause it fucking isn’t.
I’d take a 40oz drink of Flats water before I listened to this dogshit again.
I bet Sonny Geraci gets Suicidal when he hears his kid’s Shit.