Friday, May 21, 2010

TVD's The Idelic Hour with Jon Sidel


“Who’s Afraid of the Dark?” | The death of Ronnie James Dio feels like a dark and strange muse for this week’s Idelic Hour playlist but upon hearing the sad Dio news, a few things came to mind.

First was that both my parents have outlived the singer of Rainbow. I guess we all will eventually make the journey up “the silver mountain” but “Dio dead at 67” was a reminder of just how temporal we all are. Well at least in a mystical, magic, 70’s heavy metal kinda' way.

Funny, I have more of sentimental connection to Rainbow than many albums in my collection. It’s ironic that Blackmore decided to name his band Rainbow too. I don’t recall seeing any color other than black at a Blackmore show. Save of course his white boots and Strat, everyone wore black (crowd and band!) Maybe Ronnie and Richie never realized their audience was comprised of petty thieves, drugstore cowboys, and juvenile delinquents.

What’s so scary about the “dark?” When I was young “darkness” seemed so cool. Now older, the colors of the Rainbow brighten up my day and warm the soul. With this in mind I set out to create a spirited playlist inspired by thoughts of life and death, darkness, and the color black.

Songs of note: new Black Keys and The Hundred In The Hands on Warp Records as well as revisiting a couple of cool releases from 2009—Telekinesis and Magic Wands.

xosidealer
idelicsounds.com | @sidelic

The Idelic Hour [5/21/2010] (Mp3, 86Mg)

TVD's Washington, DC Record Fair Flashbacks


A last batch of mystery DC Record Fair tracks is posted below, this time from this past February's post-blizzard event which saw close to 1,500 snow-weary vinyl fanatics leaving their frosty confines and thawing out together at The Black Cat. (That's the poster art up there rendered by our pal ElJefe.)

We're back at The Black Cat on Sunday and while we were thrilled with the turn-out and the enthusiasm shown the event last time, we did receive a few complaints:

The lighting:
Right, it was dark. But leave your spelunking helmets home this time, we're doing our best Sunday morning to remedy the lighting issue and bringing in additional light sources.

The crowd size: While we can't control the number of folks who show up, last time the downstairs Red Room was closed and not an option for decompressing with or without a pint. This time we're opening it up and making it available throughout the afternoon to hang and enjoy a frosty beverage.

All the vinyl vendors will still be upstairs in the main stage area but we're hoping by providing an option downstairs, we can lessen the crowd size a bit to make it easier to move around and get where you need to go.

There's been a little tinkering with the DJ's set times, but this is the final schedule:

Noon to 1: Alec MacKaye | 1-2: Cobruhhh (Windian) | 2-3: Emily/Susan from Exit Clov | 3-4: DJ Dredd | 4-5: Fort Knox Five | 5-6: John Foster (BYT)



Lastly, have fun and happy hunting. Let us know how we're doing and what you scored on Monday. If you've taken photos, we'd love to see 'em and share them right here.

Track 1 (Mp3)
Track 2 (Mp3)
Track 3 (Mp3)
Track 4 (Mp3)
Track 5 (Mp3)

TVD's The Ardent Sessions Presents: Parachute Musical


Our experience with the Ardent Sessions was just awful. (Completely joking!)

We had an amazing time. The tour through Stax was incredible. The history behind the place is magical and I felt like some of the good vibes wore off on us for the performance. I know that I personally felt like there was a positive energy to the place.

However, I will say that Tom was sick as a dog that day. Sick with a flu that we all caught just before our next tour. Thanks Tom. The people couldn't have been more hospitable and professional toward us. They gave the run down of how the session was to go down and we felt comfortable with what they were asking of us. I had the privilege of playing on their grand piano, something that rarely happens for me when playing live. I think I can actually count on my hands how many times it's happened.


When we got the recordings back from the show and sent them to some friends we heard a lot of the same comments: you should release this as a live album. We're not really at that stage in the game and have a lot of other material to release, but the quality of the recordings is that good and I would be proud to put that out on the market. I am thankful to their great staff, the wonderful coffee and the wizard store across the street. Thank you for an experience that I will never forget.
—Josh Foster, Parachute Musical



The Ardent Sessions Presents: Parachute Musical | The Vinyl District Podcast [86Mgs] (Mp3)

You can purchase Parachute Musical's latest album Everything is Working Out Fine in Some Town for just $8.99.

Enter to win a Parachute Musical T-shirt by simply leaving a comment, your name, and a contact email address in the comments to this post. We'll choose one winner each Friday for that week's giveaway which ALSO includes the entire Ardent Music catalog. (That's just 2 artists at this point, but who's counting?)

To hear more great Ardent Sessions please visit Ardent Presents.