CLEAR YOUR CHANNELS: THE WATERMARKS ARE CATCHING A BUZZ

Occasionally, Clear Channel gets some things right. Like the time they had approximately half the people we know on their payroll. Or when they thought it would be hilarious to bring the Smashing Pumpkins back to Houston after they swore they would never return. Plus, we’re pretty sure the last time Stereolab came through town, it was a Clear Channel event. Now, we can exchange lots of heated (and generally chorus-preaching) words about how massive network-owning radio conglomerates homogenize broadcasts and remove local flavor vs. the need to consolidate operations and appeal broadly in light of competing new-media outlets for advertising revenue till we’ve bored even ourselves. And we can bitch how the company was the only place ever that our Chief Senior Editor in Chief in Command ever had a job interview for where he wasn’t made an offer. Fortunately, this is not the sort of place where we talk about media ownership laws (and real talk – the overwhelming majority of the time nearly anything on any Clear Channel station is more listenable to that whatever bush-league amateur talking head is spouting off about on KPFT).

Nope, this is a place where we talk about music so whips, we’re apt to put the band’s name on a t-shirt. Among those screened and printed are stalwarts of the hybrid electro indie pop, The Watermarks, who, it seems, are being taken a shine to by more than a few fans of the New Music Alternative.

Clear Channel, which owns The Buzz and quite a number of few other similarly programmed stations across the country, have started letting unsigned bands submit their jams (sweet or otherwise) to the network, which are posted online. The more the songs are played, the higher they rise in the charts. Granted, you could see this as a cynical ploy to unwittingly enlist working musicians as street teams to drive traffic (and therefore eyeballs and therefore ad clicks and therefore cash) to CC’s various local sites, but in the end, successful acts get some broader exposure as well, and so everybody wins (bands that make it to the top ten, for example, get featured on the ‘New Music’ section of The Buzz’s website).

SO – WHAT OF THE WATERMARKS? Well, they submitted a track of their own, and why the heck not. Free publicity is free publicity. As of this morning (the charts are updated in real time), their song ‘Face The Wall’ had risen above thousands of other tracks to claim #82 on the charts. Fantastic. Granted, the number one song has been listened to over 500 times for every instance of someone hearing The ‘marks, but that just illustrates the serious promotional appeal of being in the top ten (ATTN PEOPLE IN BANDS – Did any of the rest of you throw a track in the ring?).

So – if you haven’t heard the watermarks in a while (and we sheepishly admit we hadn’t heard anything studio-produced since their ACES debut ep), here’s as good a chance as any to take a listen to what their up to. Bzzzzz.

Stream: The Watermarks - Face the Wall