Cancellation

In the past few months I've rarely concerned myself with the deeds and don'ts of the music industry. I've had more important things to deal with, mainly doing well in my classes and trying not to have a melt down. In fact it would take something pretty horrendous (or KC doing anything) for me to get worked up enough to write about. Well, Vampire Weekend has done just that.
As frequent readers of the blog will know, my big thing (besides CDs being released at the same time on both sides of the Atlantic) is how frequently a band tours the States. Most of the bands I focus on mainly tour Europe and Europe. They make few and infrequent excursions to the American continent (and I do mean the whole thing) and make very little effort to build up any kind of fan base over here (and then they complain about it.) This is true even with certain American bands who feel that building up a fan base in Europe is more important than building one in their home country. So when bands cancel American tours (even if said tours are really just three dates) to work on their next album it annoys me a little. As I've stated before I can deal with "fake" medical reasons for cancelling tours, but the example I'm about to present to you just makes my blood boil.
Vampire Weekend has cancelled three gigs so they can play on SNL. Some might argue that it's an excellent idea, that playing on a nationally broadcasted show is a brilliant way to get their music across to everyone, that I'm just being a stick in the mud. Yeah, explain that to the people who thought they were going to get to see the band live and in person. Seeing a band on a crap TV show were they perform two songs does not make up for a live performance were they might play, oh, maybe all of their songs and you don't have to pretend to enjoy the comedic stylings of the SNL troupe. Sure, they've rescheduled for June, which means that the money those fans spent on tickets hasn't gone to waste, but cancelling three tour dates for a cumulative eight or ten minutes on a show that a relatively small number of people watch. (I can't actually substantiate that last statement because I've no clue how to find viewer numbers. If somebody can point me in the right direction, that would be very much appreciated.)
So what's the bottom line folks? Tour before television. Tour, tour, tour, tour, tour. And then tour some more, preferably in the US/North America.
On a lighter and more vain note NME will be launching an American version of it's "highly influential" (there exact words are "the world's most influential") awards show this April. The article goes on to say that the show has helped launch the careers of many important acts such as The Killers, Pete Doherty, Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs and My Chemical Romance (yeah, they really said MCR.) The whole thing is just so obscenely vain it's actually funny in a way. Sadly I don't know enough about popular or current musical acts to help skew the voting, but god I wish I did.
Finally, the Young Knives recently bit off the hand that feeds them as well as everyone who reads DiS and makes comments. Also Take That won best single at the NME awards and the Kaiser Chiefs came away with nought to show for their existence this year. The world continues to turn on its axis and I continue to hoard episodes of NMTB in my secret lair.
Ta!