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More than 20 record dealers from up and down the east coast will be present, plus Guest DJs Sam “The Man” Burns, John Davis (Title Tracks), Larry Grogan (Funky16Corners), Matty Taylor (Tennis System), Ryan Walker (Beanstalk Library) and David Malitz (The Cheniers) on the U-Hall decks.
Also—for the very first time—we'll have turntables on site for purchase.
The day kicks off at 11AM with a with a special $5 “early bird” hour and continues from noon to 5PM at our regular entry fee of $2. U Hall’s full menu will be available and full bar for those 21+. Download the high-res poster here and feel free to repost it any place you wish.
This week I’ve been visiting my home town, New York City. Walking the streets these past few Indian summer days gave me time to reflect on this week’s Idelic Hour muse, The Big Apple. This city will always be at the core of my musical make up. What keeps coming to mind is just how much the town has changed while still staying the same.
Yesterday I had a New York Day. Getting off the shuttle at Times Square I ran into Cliff, an old friend from my schoolyards delinquent days. We embraced and laughed about growing old. It’s been 35 years since we were kids jumping turnstyles. I got off at Penn Station sitting below Madison Square Garden, the building that houses many of the greatest rock shows I’ve ever seen.
I will never forget that feeling when I realized I was in the same room as The Rolling Stones playing Honky Tonk Woman! Headed west for lunch with my sister then downtown to 23nd street where I took in an exhibit of photos of Max’s Kansas City. Max’s was the 1st club I ever fell into. With these images stuck in my head I walked over the new High Line and strolled downtown carrying a state of mind I liken to this City, unchanged.
The Big Apple dig it is on this week’s Idelic Hour.
Today marks my last day of the TVD blog takeover. I'm pretty sad about it, honestly. It's hard to make time to write or give yourself some space to think and process what you're experiencing when you're on the road. I've brought two different journals with me: one for thoughts/musings/straight diary entries, the other for little moments in the day—revelations, experiences, street scenes— that have made me smile or laugh out loud. But in the day-to-day driving, unloading, sound-checking, singing, reloading, driving, sleeping and starting it all over again, those journals have been completely untouched. So this has been good for me in so many ways. Hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. I only wish I'd been writing each note at an old mechanical typewriter looking out the window of a cabin in upstate New York at a slope of autumnal leaves thatching me up under the sky with a mug of hot black coffee at my fingertips and an old yellow dog at my feet—instead of in the backseat of a van, typing with my thumbs. No, wait. I wouldn't change a thing! I wouldn't be on my way to DC tomorrow if I were sitting in one spot somewhere.
I can't tell you how excited I am to be back in DC on Saturday. Even though I moved out of town a year and a half ago, DC will always be home for me. Can't wait to see my friends and family and get back to play one of my favorite venues in the entire world. Oh, Black Cat, how I love you (and have missed you!) so...
While I haven't been writing anything on paper, I have tried to keep up with the photojournalism for my memory books. I'll leave you with a story, strung together with haiku explanations. I started something I called a "haiku project" years back that I haven't quite kept up with: one photo for each day accompanied by a strict haiku (lines of 5/7/5). It was a great way of documenting each day. And it was funny the way that certain unassuming scenes were the ones that warranted the entry for the day -- they were the ones that told the very best story. It was a great way of getting new perspective. Anyway, here goes. Hope you enjoy it. And hope to see you in DC tomorrow.
Love, Laura.
OMAHA, NE: Kaneko's sculptures Backdropped Rosanne, Dan and I: Our brains on music
CHICAGO, IL: Family Portrait Post ode to Gene Smith, singing our song: "Shit Happens"
DETROIT, MI: Bowling and border Crossing. Sadly no time for The Motown Museum
TORONTO, ON: Lights in a line like Planets, tying us to Neil, The first Mynah Birds
TORONTO, ON: Home with the Rural Alberta Advantage, beers Til the sun came up
UPSTATE NEW YORK Missed Montreal in The shuffle. Too quick a trip! Zut zut zut alors!!
WATERBURY, VT Dear Ben and Jerry: Resurrect this flavor. Name It "Mynabird Mud"?
BURLINGTON, VT Woke up in a scene For an MC Escher sketch. Good morning, indeed
CAMBRIDGE, MA Making a little Sense of the alphabet soup: Slumber party shows
CAMBRIDGE, MA Silkscreened ties and scarves; Or, how to make thrift shopping Tax deductible
BROOKLYN, NY Oh Brooklyn, your trees Grow everywhere—Zen contrast To the BQE
NEW YORK, NY The past is present, All time at once: Pavement sings For a shady lane
For close to a year now we've been privileged to present the fruits of the labor of Ardent Studios—specifically The Ardent Sessions—in this spot each Friday morning. These efforts howeveraren't self-supporting and assistance is needed to keep these sounds alive. Ardent Studios founder, John Fry fills us in:
Rachel Hurley and I decided to kick off The Ardent Sessions on BreakThruRadio.com 3 years ago this December. The idea was to give up-and-coming bands some internet radio exposure, and to give them an introduction to the Memphis music tradition and current scene by performing in front of a small live audience in one of our studios.
When possible, I enjoy combining that experience with a personal tour of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, as Stax is such a huge part of Ardent's early history. It's always fun for me to meet these young artists, and I am always amazed at how much they know about what all of us were doing in Memphis almost 50 years ago, not to mention how much they seem to enjoy some of that music.
Ardent Sessions, and its companion show, Ardent Presents (singer/songwriter acoustic) is now available on Ardentsessions.com in addition to BreakThruRadio.com.
Although this may seem like a new idea, it really goes back to the early 70s at Ardent. That's when we had a pair of 15kHz equalized telephone lines to WMC-FM100, and we would originate live broadcasts from our Studio A with artists like Lynard Skynard, Pure Prairie League, Martin Mull, Big Star, Cargoe, The Groundhogs, Stories, Hookfoot, Elton John’srecording band on Tumbleweed Connection,Ry Cooder with JLD,Wishbone Ash, Nazareth, and Charlie Daniels.
Yes, I do mean live - no delay, no opportunity to bleep or re-mix - no need to, really.
We started The Ardent Sessions because we thought it would be helpful to young musicians, and we have managed to keep it totally free of cost to the artists.
However, in the current economic conditions, this is becoming harder to do. At the moment we have no offsetting advertising income from the shows, so we thought we might ask fans to help us keep this a free service by donating to our Kickstarter Campaign. Let us know what you think. —John Fry, 9/22/2010
Today's note is getting to you so much later than I was hoping it would. Had a full day of sitting in traffic on the way from Boston to New York. But I can't complain. We had a fun time of playing 90's playlist in the van with our iPods. It was a combination of things we were listening to on repeat alone in our bedrooms and everything that was on the radio and MTV. (I know it's an overstated complaint, but hey—remember the days when MTV played videos? I think the 90's were the decade when they slid past the 50% mark.)
Here's a hot selection of some picks we hit: Nirvana, Bjork, Weezer, Blur, NIN, Tool, Beck, the Breeders, Pearl Jam (Vs. is the first CD I ever bought when I was 13, along with a cassingle—how I miss the cassingle!—of Janet Jackson's "Again"), the Cranberries, Smashing Pumpkins, and My Bloody Valentine. We had some really good (and surprising) things handy in our iPods, things some people might want to be filed under "embarrassing picks." But what the hell. I don't believe in being embarrassed about music you like, or once liked, or once hated but have found a soft spot for because it reminds you of a certain time or person or something you can't quite put your finger on, but are glad to have in your back pocket of experiences.
Here are some bands we discussed, but missed out on either because our iPods were missing some serious links or because we got out of traffic before we could finish our 90's love fest: Operation Ivy, PJ Harvey (I could not get enough of Rid of Me and still regret not buying a "50 Foot Queenie" 7" from a small record shop in Frederick, Maryland, when I was 15), L7, Tori Amos, Portishead, Crash Test Dummies, the Pixies, the Verve and a whole heap of 90's R&B that I've been craving like mad recently. (Where's my Diamonds and Pearls-era Prince, PM Dawn, En Vogue, SWV, Boyz II Men—and on and on?)
All in all, we really just scratched the surface. If we had more time, we'd get deep into our psyches and memories and pull out some really great picks—I'll call them "bedroom picks" (as in, these are the bands that somehow knew my every single thought when I was in high school—or middle school, as was the case with the baby of the band). Who were your favorites in those formative years? God, I have so many memories directly tied to songs. All kindsa trouble I've gotten into (or narrowly escaped) that wouldn't be the same without being tied to a song in my memory. Put on Portishead or My Bloody Valentine, and I'm 15 all over again, having a really amazing time making mistakes that I only got to make once. It's hell to grow up and get less fearless as the years go by.
Speaking of the 90's and songs being tied to memories, I'm happy to have a night off in New York and a ticket to see Pavement in Central Park. My friend Amanda said she just saw them on Tuesday and relived her entire teen years—every boyfriend and crazy teen-hood memory—in the span of a single set. I'm so looking forward to having that happen for me tonight.
We were talking about it a bit and seeing that we've already given away The Mynabirds'wonderful debut LP What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood earlier in the year, why not mix it up a bit and offer you guys some other stuff? (And if you're hungry from some free vinyl, we suggest you scroll down a bit lower...)
So, for TVD's Mynabirds Giveaway we've got the lovely poster at the top of this post (signed by Ms. Burhenn) and the tee shirt shown below in the size that best fits your male or female frame.
These items will take flight and be sent to the person who comments in this post as to why she or he should win the aforementioned swag. Plead your case for these and the most convincing of the lot shall be named the winner.
Remember to leave us a contact email address, and we'll choose one winner for both items a week from today, 9/30.
Well, it's the first full day of Fall (despite it being 90 degrees out there today...) and it's our very first Fall Vinyl Giveaway—and we've got a great one to kick off the our Season O' Giving:
In support of LCD Soundsytem's upcoming tour with Hot Chip and Sleigh Bells we've put together a stellar prize package which includes the following items:
(1) LCD Soundsystem Tour Poster (1) LCD Soundsystem - "I Can Change" 12" (1) Hot Chip Tour shirt (1) Hot Chip - "One Life Stand/Do Not Want" 7"
We'll make it easy to win this one seeing that it's our first of the season. Hit us up in the comments to this post letting us know why you deserve to win our first Fall Vinyl (and miscellaneous swag) contest. The most convincing up the bunch will find the aforementioned bag of swag crammed into his or her mailbox.
Remember to leave us a contact email address and we'll pull our winner a week from today, 9/30. Simple, right?
Purchase LCD Soundsystem's This is Happening at Amazon and iTunes.
It's week #2 our new Thursday fix culled from the rare and (ultra) obscure crates of 80’s vinyl:
Kelley Hunt & The Kinetics - Blue Light Special LP
Kelley Hunt & The Kinetics was a female fronted power pop rock band based out of Kansas City back in the early 80’s. They were popular in the regional club and radio scene, but didn’t manage to break out nationally. This foursome pulled their resources together both musically and financially to self produce one album on the private indie label Awake Records.
The album didn’t make any major waves upon its release and vanished into obscurity with many other power pop bands during the same time frame. They did however have some creativity under their belt with respect to the album and song titles. The album title “Blue Light Special” pokes fun at the venerable discount store chain Kmart and what is now the legendary discount practice that helped put Kmart stores on the map – the Blue Light Special.
The band even takes it a step further and incorporates quirky lyrics about the frenzy this discount practice used to cause during the 1980’s. Check out the songs “Discount Store” and “Don’t Put Up A Fight”, which provide blow by blow details of the chaos that would ensue during these specials. The overall album does hit some peaks with crafty arrangements and these lyrically amusing songs.
Yesterday's drive from Maine across the White and Green Mountains to Burlington afforded me a lot of time to let my mind wander. I put my old iPod on shuffle and let it go where it wanted. It played some Brian Eno, Caribou, Clash, Jefferson Airplane, went on a nice sidetrack through Duke Ellington and Glenn Gould, and landed on a strange piano piece that sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite place. I grabbed the iPod to check out who it was and laughed out loud when I saw the artist and album: Laura Burhenn, Not Ashamed to Say. How is it possible I couldn't place something I wrote, performed, and recorded myself? It's probably a good thing -- I've come a long way since I made that first solo record at 17.
Since I was driving alone (the rest of the band opted for a day off from driving in Burlington), I decided to listen to the whole album. There were some pretty painful parts (hearing my 17 year old self doing her best Nina Simone and Tori Amos impressions), but there were some good seeds. I remembered how bold and self-assured I was back then. And as my older self, I felt grateful that I had people all around me who encouraged me to keep going: my mom who lent me money from a nest egg she'd been saving my whole life to let me start my own record label (Laboratory Records) Ani Difranco style, and all my friends who came to those shows in the early, super awkward years, helping me carry my enormous keyboard up and down endless flights of stairs to supremely bizarre bars and venues to play to supremely bizarre crowds. I also felt slightly worried that I'd look back on my latest work (What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood) in ten years and wince. Oh well, if that happens, it only means I will have kept growing. And that's not such a bad thing, I guess.
After I put out my second solo record, Wanderlust, in 2004, I put out a split 7" on clear vinyl with my then boyfriend, Dagon James, who's now publishing an amazing art/music/fashion magazine in NYC called LiD. We pressed 500 copies. I'd be surprised if we even sold 100. We had a release party at a venue in Adams Morgan who's name is currently escaping me -- they had weekly open mics and an upright piano on the stage that had its back to the window to the street. (Speaking of open mics and upright pianos, I have a real fond spot in my memory for the original Food for Thought on Connecticut Avenue, with its big red upright piano. That's the first open mic I ever played in my life.)
I haven't listened to that 7" in years. I recall that my side of that record was particularly rough. I meant well with my stripped down arrangement of drum machine, thrift store toy organ and bare vocals, but that organ was incredibly out of tune and pretty piercing on the treble end. I've got a big box of those records in storage somewhere. Maybe I'll pull one out in a few years and give it a listen. I like to have a little more space between the me of me then and the me of me now so I can reflect on how far I've come. Maybe after the *next* Mynabirds record comes out...
Kaleidoscopic Sunset somewhere in New Hampshire (maybe near the clean slate of where the Old Man in the Mountain use to be)
"Growing up, my family had an old stereo with a record player in our finished but little-used basement and, as a high-school kid, it was the perfect place for me to go listen to my parents’ old records, alone and undistracted. I would sit cross legged in front of the stereo and, with lyric sheets in hand, listen to the same few records over and over. I had singled out a particular few, absorbed their melodies, words and images; The Beatles’ “Abbey Road”, Laura Nyro with Labelle’s “Gonna Take a Miracle,” and Joni Mitchell’s “Ladies of the Canyon” (as well as a record of Mitchell doing all Bob Dylan covers.)
But my favorite was a somewhat obscure record by a 60’s era folk duo called “Lily and Maria.” What grabbed me about them were their unsettling harmonies and almost creepy psychedelic touches. It was my mom’s record—turns out it was reissued in 2008—and she didn’t remember much about them other than that they never made it very big. The picture on the album cover was of the two women resting their heads against one another and staring hauntingly into the camera. The image was overexposed and washed out, so much of their features remained indiscernible other than long, straight hair, and no makeup other than looong lashes. My mom would tell me “that was the style back then,” and I would get her to elaborate on stories about being a teen in the 60’s – like when her older sister, my aunt Bonnie, ran away and hitchhiked to Woodstock at 16.
There was no lyric sheet for the Lily & Maria album, and no Google search I could do to get more details, so the record remained a delicious bit of mystery which seemed to be my own personal revelation. Although I was discovering different kinds of music at that time, and while in my bedroom I would listen to Nirvana and Sonic Youth, I looked at the basement and its records as my sanctuary when I wanted to be alone and reflect. During those confusing and overwhelming years of being in high school, the basement was not only the perfect place for me to get lost in these old recordings, but also to play and write my own music on our old piano.
Now that I’m reflecting on Lily & Maria, I suppose the song “Time to Listen” on our new album must have been inspired partly by their aesthetic…" —LoreleiPlotczyk(Bass)
"I didn't have an older brother or sister to guide my music taste as a kid so I had to turn to cues from classmates. This led to an "interesting" exploration in music in my youth. I was actually all over the map as a kid, but the first album I remember asking my mom to get for me was Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast.
It's comedic now to think about my 5'4" mom walking into a record store asking for Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast, which was probably written on her "to do" list. Moms are great, right? I have to actually write out the opening lyrics to Number of the Beast so anyone who isn't familiar with this song and album will get an idea of what's going on. This is read before the song begins in a demonic, frog-like voice:
Woe to You Oh Earth and Sea For the Devil sends the beast with wrath Because he knows the time is short Let him who have understanding Reckon the number of the beast For it is a human number Its number is six hundred and sixty six.
I mean, wtf? Music for kids, clearly! I also had the black light poster." —Greg Bertens (Vocals)
Nicole Atkins—who held the fort down here fora week last year in the same manner Laura Burhenn of The Mynabirds is doing this week—returns with her sophomore release Mondo Amore in January, 2011—and we've got the first track kicking around the internet (as of just yesterday) streaming below.
Nicole's currently giving the track away as a free download on herwebsite, so head on over there to add the quite excellent 'Vultures' to your ipod.
What the rest of the internet doesn't have however is an advance 7" of 'Vultures' which we'll award to one of you in exchange for your comment to this posting. Stream the track above and offer your critique in the comments and the most insightful of the bunch will take home the 45.
We'll keep this one open for a week and choose our winner next Wednesday, 9/29. Remember to leave us a contact email address as well!
Join the conversation about the future of music in DC!
The Future of Music Coalition (FMC) celebrates a decade of fighting for musicians this October with their empowering three day flagship conference, at Georgetown University from October 3-5. The 10th Anniversary Future of Music Policy Summit unites the brightest minds in the music industry to discuss the key issues affecting the entire music ecosystem.
This is a can’t-miss event for musicians, songwriters, composers, students, and music industry professionals. The conference will feature presentations and panel discussions from T Bone Burnett (renowned musician, composer and producer), Chuck D (Public Enemy), Damian Kulash (OK Go), Craig Finn (The Hold Steady), Eric Garland (founder, Big Champagne Media Measurement), musician Erin McKeown, independent label legend Tom Silverman of Tommy Boy Records, plus representatives from YouTube Music, Facebook, Google, Pandora, and TopSpin to name a few!
There is a special musician and student scholarships available starting from $20 upward. Hurry now as tickets are going fast.
A must is the “Musicians Education Day” on Sunday October 3 which will feature a host of exciting panel discussions empowering musicians at every stage of their career. The day will kick off with a master class by music PR supremo Ariel Hyatt, followed by "To-Do's And You: The New Artist Check List" which will focus on 12 things all new artists should do at the beginning of their career. There will also be a panel discussion on “The New Hustle: Direct to Fan Case Studies” and "Indie Labels in 2010."
There will also be various informal “supersessions” throughout the conference which will encourage interactive discussions on topics including Music Access on Campus, Live Music and Social Networks, Artists Activism, and Music in the Clouds. Plus a host of networking opportunities with label representatives, managers, media, and promoters, including the traditional FMC Pho Welcome Dinner on Sunday October 3.
The full conference line-up can be found right here.
