The music industry’s changed quite a bit in the last few years. Used to be you had to work pretty hard to find new bands, and radio airplay was one of the leading ways to find a new band. Not that radio should be discounted these days, as Metal Insider’s parent company The Syndicate still actively promotes to metal radio. However, with everything on the internet, it’s easier than ever to find yourself down a rabbit hole of music discovery. Throughout the ’90s, McGathy, an independent promotion and management company, used to throw an annual party in New York City where new and developing bands would play for radio programmers. Those programmers would then hopefully return home and play those bands on their radio stations.
In 1999, McGathy had a showcase at legendary New York City club CBGB in which Queens of the Stone Age played. This was a pretty legendary show in retrospect, as the band had only recently released their self-titled album. However, they played some then-unreleased songs, including Rated R‘s “Monsters in the Parasol” and Songs for the Deaf‘s “Millionaire,” which wouldn’t make it’s way on to an album for another three years.
Of course, Queens of the Stone Age would go on to become a platinum-selling band, with singer/guitarist Josh Homme the only remaining member of that lineup. CBGB would close in 2006. McGathy has rebranded as Indegoot, and probably manages a few bands you like right now. John Bambino, who manages Kyng, was a metal radio promoter at the company in 1999. He unearthed a heap of the old VHS tapes, dusted them off, and started on a project to digitize some of these monumental performances. We may be bringing you some more.
