Always down to take some time off work to hang out in the nice summer weather; Graham headed down to the pier in NYC to hang with the CMJ Staff outside of the Dr Pepper bubble where the band CARTEL were currently holed up in there writing a new album and recording a reality television show.
Graham brought Walter Lovett aka “Salty Walty”, current Syndicate intern and music director from KWSB in Gunnison, CO.
You can read Walter’s review of the night after the jump.
I have only been in the city for a week now but I have seen more these past few days then I have seen in my whole life. I started interning here at The Syndicate this past Tuesday. I was honored and surprised when Patrick asked if I would like to cut out of work early to see the band CARTEL down on the pier. Cartel is the main attraction in MTV’s latest promotion entitled Band In A Bubble. They were locked in the bubble for 20 days with the goal to write a new album during their stay. A staff member from CMJ mentioned that the band is tennitivly planning to have nine tracks on their new album. As of the time of our visit, they had three songs written and and even performed a few of them for the crowds that came to visit.
I was not present to see the mothers of each of the band members, but I was told they briefly showed up a few nights earlier to see their sons and during their visit had the misfortune of witnessing a portion of the bubble breaking during a night of high winds and rain. The bubble monitors the band from all angles at all times of the day. Always there on hand to capture the magic of the band in all it’s glory. A steady crowd of kids have been posted in front of the bubble the entire tenure asking Cartel to sign everything fro Dr. Pepper cans (the major sponsor of the event) to T-shirts and whatever else they could find.
Cartel made the best of the small mail slot giving them access to the outside world. Trying their best to deliver to the masses, authentic signed goodies and more. It must have been flattering to the band to get free fruit roll ups from a group of teen-age punk princesses! Dr. Pepper was on hand to give away free soda throughout the say making it a nice refresher to the the scorching temperatures. KFC (another sponsor) was in full force but failed to deliver like the doctor, only offering coupons and toys rather than food. You can only imagine the frustration as a result of having dreams of tasty, crispy and all so familiar fast food craving shattered. I myself was very upset, as were many others.
Being at this event was definitely one of the highlights of my internship thus far. I certainly hope there are more days to come that will be just as comparable or better than this. To all of my fellow music brethren at CMJ, I’d just like to say that I share in the grief of having those delicious Lays’ potato chips and ranch dip stolen by the mother and her gang of kids. If she hadn’t coughed on it, we’d been able to enjoy those fine fruits throughout the day. Many thanks again to Pat and everyone at The Syndicate.
This is Salty Walty signing off!
For more information on the Band In The Bubble promotion. Visit www.drpepperbubble.com
Tags: Cartel, Dr Pepper, Guest Poster