WEBVTT

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So I want you to picture something for a second.

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You are looking at the official encyclopedic

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record of a rock band. And this is a band that

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played to tens of thousands of screaming fans,

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like they were sharing stages with absolute titans

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of the era, 30 seconds to Mars, the used. Right,

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massive acts. Exactly. So you scroll down this

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page expecting to read this epic chronicle of

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their rise to glory. Right at the very top of

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the page, literally the first thing you see is

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this glaring, aggressive warning banner. Oh,

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I love those Wikipedia warning banners. Right.

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It's from anonymous editors essentially asking,

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are we sure these guys were actually important?

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Yeah. It serves as this really brutal introduction

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to the reality of digital memory. An algorithm's

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definition of notability is essentially, well,

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it's overriding actual human community history.

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Yeah, which is exactly why we are doing this

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today. Welcome to the Deep Dive. Today we are

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digging into a highly specific Wikipedia article

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about a New Jersey emo and screamo band named

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Vanatta High. Or just V -A -H as they were usually

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called. Right, V -A -H. They were active from

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roughly 2006 to 2010. And our mission today is

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to use this single band's intensely localized

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history to just dissect the absolute anatomy

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of underground ambition. We're looking at the

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mechanics of building a local phenomena, the

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really harsh economic realities of hitting an

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indie label ceiling. This is the heavy part how

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real -life sudden tragedy can just instantly

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pull the plug on a collective dream It's intense

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because the entire life cycle of an artist's

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dream is just contained within a few paragraphs

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of this highly disputed web page Okay, let's

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unpack this because the meta narrative of this

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source material is really would grab me from

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the start Yeah on the van adai Wikipedia page

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editors have flagged it with multiple warnings

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One of them sites that the article relies on

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a single source, which is you know standard Wikipedia

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stuff right the sourcing issue But the other

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one The true gut punch here threatens to just

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delete or merge the page Because the topic might

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not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline

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I mean we are talking about a band that conquered

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the bamboozle festival and yet they are fighting

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for their historical lives against digital bouncers

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with amnesia. It's like the ultimate case study

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in the fleeting nature of localized fame. It

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really is. And if we connect this to the bigger

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picture, Van Adda High's trajectory perfectly

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illustrates this massive, and honestly often

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fatal, gap between being a genuine underground

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hero and achieving mainstream ubiquity. Yeah.

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Because remember, we are analyzing the post -My

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Chemical Romance era in New Jersey. Right, which

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was a huge deal. NCR changed everything. Exactly.

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MCR proved that kids from local basements could

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literally take over the global rock scene. And

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that triggered a massive gold rush. So Van Atahai

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represents what happens when you do the work,

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you hit the exact same milestones, but you find

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yourself trapped in the gravitational pull of

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your own scene saturation. Yeah, there were just

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so many bands. And to understand that ceiling,

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I think we have to look at how a band engineers

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that initial momentum from absolute zero. Right,

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the early days. So it's June 2006. Vocalist Steve

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Kellner forms the band, alongside drummer Santino

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Locante, guitarists Socrates Motsakis and Kyle

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Brazier, and bassist Jerrick Galliboli. And they

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waste absolutely no time. None at all. They immediately

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drop their first EP, We Are The Captivated. And,

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you know, I look at this mid -2000s local music

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hustle. exactly like launching a modern tech

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startup. Oh, that's an interesting way to look

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at it. Think about it. That first EP isn't a

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masterpiece. It's your minimum viable product.

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Right. You are dragging half broken amplifiers

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into a VFW hall at midnight to secure your initial

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seed funding through sheer sweat equity. You're

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just trying to prove your concept to a room of

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50 teenagers who have their arms crossed. Yeah,

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and the product they were selling wasn't necessarily

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the recording, right? It was the live conversion.

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The source material specifically highlights their

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charismatic stage presence. Which was so important

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back then. Crucial. Because in the 2006 New Jersey

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emo scene, the barrier to entry was practically

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non -existent. Everyone had a band. Everyone

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had a MySpace page. Oh man, the MySpace days.

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Right. So to stand out, you had to physically

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dominate the room. You had to make the audience

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feel something visceral. So they'd go home and

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put your band in their MySpace Top 8. It was

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a fiercely competitive attention economy long

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before we ever used that term for social media.

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And they figured out the formula really quickly.

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There's a lineup change. In 2007, they bring

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in Steven Jasco on guitar and Clark Starris on

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bass, replacing Gallipoli and Brazier. And then

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they drop their second EP, Run Like Hell. Yep.

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But the mechanism they used to break out of the

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local pack is fascinating to me. They had these

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very scene oriented originals like Call Me Jersey

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and Birthday Girl, but, and this is so clever,

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their secret weapon was a pop rock cover of the

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1970s Starland vocal band hit. Afternoon Delight.

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Which is brilliant because covering a soft rock

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anthem about daytime hookups is a calculated

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disruption. Yeah. Emo and screamo crowds take

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themselves notoriously seriously. There's a lot

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of angst, a lot of heavy emotional catharsis.

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Lots of sweeping side bangs and crossed arms.

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Exactly. So dropping Afternoon Delight into the

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middle of a breakdown heavy set. It forces a

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jarring psychological shift. It breaks the tension.

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The audience is forced to engage, even if it's

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just out of sheer confusion. It's weaponized

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stickiness. Yeah. You are grinding at absolute

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legendary regional institutions. The Starlin

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Ballroom in Cerville, the School of Rock in South

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Hackensack, Webster Hall and the Knitting Factory

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in New York, the Crocodile Rock Cafe in Allentown.

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Legendary spots. Yeah. And you are on a bill

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with five other local acts who are all about

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broken hearts in the exact same key. The afternoon

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delight gimmick is the moment the kids standing

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by the merch tables finally look up and actually

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pay attention. And that aggressive local saturation

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didn't just win them weekend crowds, you know?

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It engineered the momentum they needed to crack

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the festival pipeline. When you can reliably

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sell out the School of Rock on a Tuesday, regional

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promoters start slotting you into the major tours

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as the local draw. Right. And that brings us

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to the peak. So we're talking 2008 and 2009.

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The strategy works, and they hit the holy grail

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of the era's alternative scene. They get the

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local slots on the Taste of Chaos Tour in 2007.

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Huge! They play the Vans Warp Tour in 2007 -2008.

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They dominate the bamboozle in 2008 -2009. I

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mean, we aren't talking about dive bars anymore.

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No, these are stadium parking lots. Yeah, they're

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sharing real estate with 30 Seconds to Mars,

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The Used, Census Fail, Pierce the Veil, Billy

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Talent, Every Avenue, Amarosa. And getting on

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those stages is the ultimate validation loop.

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and the industry media validates them in return.

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In August 2008, alternative press magazine names

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then add a high, their unsigned band of the month.

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Which was the holy grail for a band back then.

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Oh, absolutely. In that specific ecosystem, AP's

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endorsement was the signal to the labels that

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a band had been thoroughly de -risked by the

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underground. Which triggers the milestone every

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band in that era was chasing. They sign a licensing

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agreement with indie label Thriving Tragic Hero

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Records. This is the label that launched Sky

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Eats Airplane and Amorosa. And in March 2009,

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they released their nationally distributed EP.

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I mean, to anyone watching, they have officially

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made it. Yeah, the optics definitely suggest

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they've crossed the threshold into permanent

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career stability. But here's where it gets really

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interesting, because I want to completely push

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back on that narrative. OK, let's hear it. Signing

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an indie deal and playing Warped Tour is usually

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treated as the finish line. But the source text

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explicitly points out that despite massive popularity

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in the New Jersey underground, they never garnered

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the major commercial success of their predecessors.

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That indie label deal is not the major leagues.

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It is getting called up to AAA baseball. I think

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the minor league comparison is spot -on, especially

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because of the brutal economics of the 2009 music

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industry. It was a mess. It was. When Van Atthai

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signed a tragic hero, the industry was in a terrifying

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transitional freefall. CD sales were plummeting,

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but streaming hadn't yet emerged to replace the

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revenue. Yeah, nobody knew how to make money.

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Exactly. An indie label deal meant you had distribution,

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maybe a small recording budget, but you were

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entirely reliant on touring to survive. You are

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wearing the official uniform. You are opening

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for 30 seconds to Mars, but you are still sleeping

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on floors. You are splitting $100 in gas money

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five ways. It's the illusion of a ceiling. Yes.

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You climb the ladder only to realize you're standing

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on the completely wrong roof. Yeah. The mainstream

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leap requires a massive influx of capital, like

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radio campaigns, international tour support,

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that indie labels simply couldn't provide. So

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you are famous enough to have teenagers screaming

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your lyrics at bamboozle, but you aren't financially

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salient enough to quit your day jobs. It's wild.

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And this economic reality loops us right back

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to the Wikipedia notability dilemma. The encyclopedia's

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guidelines demand significant coverage and reliable

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sources that are independent of the subject.

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But underground music scenes are documented by

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Zion. blogs, and community forums. Which Wikipedia

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editors often dismiss as unreliable or trivial.

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I mean if you look at your own greatest achievements

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how many of them rely on a single source of truth

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that a stranger could just delete tomorrow? That's

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a terrifying thought. You can be the king of

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New Jersey in 2008 but if the mainstream media

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apparatus doesn't write a feature about you to

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the algorithm you effectively never existed.

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We are watching an encyclopedia of what was monetized

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rather than an encyclopedia of what actually

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happened. That's perfectly said. The lived cultural

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impact of a community is entirely divorced from

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its documented historical impact. Yeah. And usually

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that realization of the plateau realizing the

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commercial ceiling is made of concrete is what

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slowly starves a band out. Just burning out on

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the road. Right. But Van Etta High's story doesn't

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fade into obscurity because of bad economics.

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It hits a violent, catastrophic wall. Yeah, the

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timeline shifts dramatically and permanently

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here. In January 2010, the band is still pushing.

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They release what will be their final EP, Love

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Blitz. United. Glenn Petnall had taken over on

00:10:24.190 --> 00:10:26.970
drums. Justin Makish had joined on guitar and

00:10:26.970 --> 00:10:30.509
wildly. Bagpipes. Bagpipes. Yeah, bagpipes. They

00:10:30.509 --> 00:10:33.610
are actively trying to evolve their sound and

00:10:33.610 --> 00:10:37.070
break through that indie ceiling. And then three

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months later, April 11th, 2010. This is where

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everything changes. Original bass player Jarrett

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Gallipoli, who had been so instrumental in building

00:10:46.110 --> 00:10:48.649
that initial foundation, was killed in a car

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accident. The details provided in the source

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are just incredibly sobering. Jarrett was a student

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at Bergen Community College. He was accepted

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to Pace University and West Virginia University.

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He was just starting his life. Exactly. He was

00:11:01.429 --> 00:11:04.769
down in Maryland on an exploratory visit to WVU.

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He's driving his 2006 Honda Civic on Interstate

00:11:08.649 --> 00:11:12.009
68 near Keyser's Ridge. And the Maryland State

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Police report states the car skidded through

00:11:13.889 --> 00:11:16.309
the center median and slammed into a guardrail.

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Yeah, the physics of the crash were unsurvivable

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for him. The impact stopped his heart instantly.

00:11:21.750 --> 00:11:23.809
A young man in the back seat who wasn't buckled

00:11:23.809 --> 00:11:26.190
in was ejected through the windshield, thrown

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down an embankment, and died at the scene. The

00:11:29.190 --> 00:11:31.149
female passenger in the front seat was the sole

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survivor. It's just a profound localized tragedy

00:11:33.990 --> 00:11:36.289
that instantly reverberates through their entire

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community. So, May 13th, 2010. Barely a month

00:11:41.090 --> 00:11:43.809
after the crash the band posts a blog on their

00:11:43.809 --> 00:11:46.269
myspace page announcing their breakup They commit

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to one final show at the School of Rock in South

00:11:48.889 --> 00:11:50.990
Hackensack for August and then they are done

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Yeah So what does this all mean when we look

00:11:53.409 --> 00:11:56.289
at this transition? Dropping a highly anticipated

00:11:56.289 --> 00:11:59.210
EP in January and posting a breakup letter in

00:11:59.210 --> 00:12:02.649
May it obliterates the entire conversation we

00:12:02.649 --> 00:12:05.370
just had about indie labels and touring logistics.

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It really does. What's fascinating here is how

00:12:07.269 --> 00:12:09.750
the introduction of mortality forces a complete

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reassessment of the band's narrative. How so?

00:12:11.889 --> 00:12:14.470
Well, from a purely analytical music industry

00:12:14.470 --> 00:12:17.409
perspective, you might cynically categorize their

00:12:17.409 --> 00:12:20.049
breakup as a failure to launch. A band hitting

00:12:20.049 --> 00:12:22.509
the tragic hero records plateau, realizing they

00:12:22.509 --> 00:12:25.210
won't be my chemical romance, and folding. But

00:12:25.210 --> 00:12:27.149
the reality is completely divorced from business.

00:12:27.350 --> 00:12:29.769
Exactly. It becomes an entirely human response.

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The source notes that the members dispersed into

00:12:32.200 --> 00:12:34.100
various different careers following the split.

00:12:34.740 --> 00:12:36.659
When you lose a founding brother in a catastrophic

00:12:36.659 --> 00:12:39.159
accident, the idea of grinding out another regional

00:12:39.159 --> 00:12:41.860
tour in a cramped van loses its romance immediately.

00:12:42.240 --> 00:12:44.100
Yeah, it just doesn't matter anymore. Right.

00:12:44.279 --> 00:12:47.460
The breakup isn't a failure. It is a vital, necessary

00:12:47.460 --> 00:12:50.320
closing of a chapter because the emotional foundation

00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:53.100
of the project has been shattered. We spend so

00:12:53.100 --> 00:12:56.340
much time talking about bands as these monolithic

00:12:56.340 --> 00:12:59.019
entities. We critique their marketing, their

00:12:58.960 --> 00:13:01.919
label choices, their trajectory. But Jarrett

00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:04.940
was just a kid looking at colleges. Right. They

00:13:04.940 --> 00:13:06.840
were all just young guys trying to figure out

00:13:06.840 --> 00:13:09.600
their 20s. When the house lights violently kick

00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:12.779
on like that, the illusion of the rock star vanishes.

00:13:12.860 --> 00:13:15.759
And you were just left with a group of grieving

00:13:15.759 --> 00:13:18.840
friends. Which renders the debate over their

00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:21.659
Wikipedia notability almost grotesque in its

00:13:21.659 --> 00:13:24.299
sterility. Yes. Grotesque is the perfect word

00:13:24.299 --> 00:13:26.580
for it. How does a digital editor measure the

00:13:26.580 --> 00:13:28.799
notability of a group of friends who willed a

00:13:28.799 --> 00:13:31.600
community into existence? lived the absolute

00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:34.679
peak of the mid -2000s festival dream, and then

00:13:34.679 --> 00:13:38.039
had to navigate the unimaginable grief of burying

00:13:38.039 --> 00:13:40.419
one of their own. You can't quantify that with

00:13:40.419 --> 00:13:43.120
secondary source citations. The algorithm doesn't

00:13:43.120 --> 00:13:45.419
have a metric for human resilience. It really

00:13:45.419 --> 00:13:48.159
doesn't. But the story does offer a momentary

00:13:48.159 --> 00:13:50.220
epilogue of closure, which I'm glad we get to

00:13:50.220 --> 00:13:53.799
talk about. Two years later, on August 24, 2012,

00:13:54.440 --> 00:13:57.840
Van Adda High reunited. Oh, wow. Yeah. One night

00:13:57.840 --> 00:14:02.240
only. A sold -out show at Mexicali Live in Teaneck,

00:14:02.360 --> 00:14:04.440
New Jersey. That's a controlled environment to

00:14:04.440 --> 00:14:06.879
finally honor the legacy of the music, the community

00:14:06.879 --> 00:14:10.120
they built in the memory of their friend. Exactly.

00:14:10.240 --> 00:14:11.980
So if you are listening to this right now, the

00:14:11.980 --> 00:14:13.860
odds are high that you had never heard the name

00:14:13.860 --> 00:14:16.299
Van Etta High before today. Very likely. But

00:14:16.299 --> 00:14:18.980
their digital footprint represents something

00:14:18.980 --> 00:14:22.379
massive. They are the proxy for the thousands

00:14:22.379 --> 00:14:26.039
of intensely passionate, incredibly complex ecosystems

00:14:26.039 --> 00:14:28.580
operating in your own local venues right now.

00:14:29.220 --> 00:14:31.320
People who are pouring their absolute souls into

00:14:31.320 --> 00:14:34.259
projects, whether they eventually headline stadiums

00:14:34.259 --> 00:14:37.059
or quietly disband after a devastating phone

00:14:37.059 --> 00:14:39.440
call. This raises an important question and it

00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:41.360
is the thought I want to leave you with today.

00:14:41.419 --> 00:14:43.710
Get laid on us. If a group of people can build

00:14:43.710 --> 00:14:46.330
something capable of moving thousands of fans,

00:14:46.929 --> 00:14:49.629
share stages with global icons, and navigate

00:14:49.629 --> 00:14:52.549
life -altering personal tragedies, yet their

00:14:52.549 --> 00:14:55.450
entire existence is reduced to a disputed page

00:14:55.450 --> 00:14:58.049
overseen by digital bouncers, how much of our

00:14:58.049 --> 00:15:00.470
own passionate, everyday histories are actually

00:15:00.470 --> 00:15:03.649
safe? Man. Right. And moving forward, who are

00:15:03.649 --> 00:15:05.789
the invisible editors we are allowing to decide

00:15:05.789 --> 00:15:07.889
if our stories are notable enough to survive?

00:15:08.190 --> 00:15:10.990
That is a lot to think about. The next time you

00:15:10.990 --> 00:15:13.210
see a warning banner on a forgotten corner of

00:15:13.210 --> 00:15:15.629
the Internet remember that beneath the algorithmic

00:15:15.629 --> 00:15:18.350
bureaucracy There is always a deeply human story

00:15:18.350 --> 00:15:20.070
that happened that we just have to be willing

00:15:20.070 --> 00:15:20.769
to look for it