Jimmy and Doug's Farmclub.com is real. A gritty music show on the USA Network, hosted by Matt ''120 Minutes'' Pinfield and Ali ''Doritos Girl'' Landry, Farmclub.com is a groundbreaking Star Search-meets-Friday Night Videos hybrid that combines live performances, band interviews and backstage footage with world-premiere videos. Here's the twist: If you are in an unsigned band, you can upload your music to the Farmclub.com website. Site visitors, in turn, download your music for free and vote on whether they like it. If you get enough votes, Farmclub.com will fly you to Los Angeles to perform on the show. And if Formaclub.com honchos Jimmy lovine (Interescope cochairman) and Doug Morris (chief executive of Universal Music Group) take a shine to you, you'll snag a record deal on the Farmclub.com label. In other words, thanks to the Net, you can go from being in a garage band to being a rock star overnight. ''It's guerrilla record making,'' says lovine. ''For the first time, fans and musicians have a direct effect on the music that will be available in the marketplace.'' One of Pinfield's duties as host is going out like Ed McMahon, surprising no-name bands with plane tickets and a chance to make it big. This, of course, inspires loads of tears and exclamations: ''Oh my God, you're Matt Pinfield! We're going to be famous!'' Call it real TV at its finest. Back in the studio, television debuts are juxtaposed with performances by the likes of Beck, Primus, Fred Durst, Method Man, Korn, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Macy Gray and NWA. (''We're gonna rock out here!'' Pinfield shouts in the first episode--and he's right.) Of course, the freshman Farmclub.com is far from perfect--sometimes it feels like you're watching Battle of the Bands in your high school gym--but that's cool. We dig it raw, and Farmclub.com serves it up that way.
