Pinfield ditches MTV for ‘Farm’

Justin Kendall

Crammed full of exhilarating performances, new videos from established stars and behind the scenes looks at up and coming bands, “Jimmy and Doug’s Farmclub.com” keeps the party rocking Monday nights, following the WWF’s “Raw is War” on the USA Network.

Former MTV VJ Matt Pinfield brings his wealth of music knowledge to the Farm Club as host of its weekly TV show.

The program is dedicated to finding the best unsigned artists and also delivering performances from today’s hottest established artists.

“Farmclub.com” works similarly to a baseball farm club, nurturing young talent and allowing them to grow musically.

“It’s a place where people develop their chops and come up through the ranks,” Pinfield said. “It’s another way for players to get in and get started.”

Featuring performances from Powerman 5000, Redman, Methodman, Limp Bizkit and Sonique, the first artist signed to the Farm Club label, the show has already hosted some big names.

Farm Club is the brainchild of Jimmy Iovine, co-chairman of Interscope/Geffen/A&M Records, and Doug Morris, chairman and CEO of the Universal Music Group.

Pinfield came to the show after parting ways with MTV as a fulltime member last August.

“When I found out about Farm Club I said to myself, ‘This is custom-made for me,'” Pinfield said. “This is the most perfect thing that I could be doing in my life right now.”

Pinfield’s calendar has been filled since joining the show. He has been traveling across the country scouting out the best unsigned talent and has also been involved in the production side of the show.

Farm Club also premiered Limp Bizkit’s “Break Stuff” and Korn’s “Make Me Bad” videos.

Featured this week will be Third Eye Blind, The Lox, DMX, Eve, Jimmie’s Chicken Shack, Rough Riders and Eastcide. Eastcide is an unsigned band from Massachusetts that Godsmack and Staind have opened for.

Pinfield called them a cross between System of a Down and Pantera, and said that he hopes that the label will sign them.

The show is supplemented by a Web site, www.farmclub.com, where unsigned artists can upload their music onto the page and be heard by an online community of artists, fans and music industry experts.

Viewers of the site are encouraged to vote on the bands that they want to see perform on the weekly TV show. If the artists make it to the “FC 5,” a weekly countdown of the five most requested artists, they will be considered for upcoming TV shows and possibly be offered a recording contract with Farm Club’s independent, self-contained record label. This year alone the show will feature over 100 unsigned artists.

“What’s great about this is that you don’t have to be in New York City, you don’t have to be in L.A., and obviously we are not going to just focus on bands from major cities because there is no reason to,” Pinfield said.

In the future, Pinfield believes that everyone from Pantera to Oasis will be appearing on the show.

“Expect to see great new artists emerging and some really cool performances and a lot of stuff that hasn’t been on regular television in a long time,” Pinfield said. “You can see us pushing some serious limits on the air.”