Okay, so today is one of my fave days of the week…it’s TUNES TUESDAY!  

I had the opportunity to chat with Tom Millspaugh, owner/operator of The INN (A unique Christian coffee-house located in Salisbury NC) last weekend. He has graciously agreed to allow me to interview him in the next month.

Tom has also introduced me to some fabulous new local talent. So in the next few weeks, I’ll be posting more on the local indie musicians.  There will be a variety of music, musicians and hopefully, some interviews thrown in the mix.

******

Today’s TUNES TUESDAY group is out of Tallahassee, FL. Let’s give a warm welcome to… CANOPY RED!

Here is a link to their Indie Heaven tunes — http://www.indieheaven.com/artist_main.php?id=97069

According to their website: “Signed to Creative Soul Records, its self-titled EP is loaded with just at much variety as it is introspection. “Like our name says, we want to show more people, both saved and unsaved, what it means to live under the shelter of Christ’s blood.”

Let me know what you think about their sound and message!

*********

As for my own music, I am in the mood! I picked up my guitar yesterday and did a little practicing. My fingers are rusty, but I’ve not lost the feel. I didn’t write any new music this past month, even though it was on my nano rebel list. But – I’ve got the bug again. Are any of you songwriters? If so, what kind of songs do you write? Do you sing? play an instrument? How do you express yourselves?

Check out the Aquarium Drunkard for the decade piece they’re currently putting together. Instead of making a list of the best albums of the decade they’ve decided to allow their writers free-reign over “any and all albums they felt shaped the past ten years.”

I also discovered the Buzz Grinder recently which is a great resource for indie music and does a tremendous job helping us all keep up (plus has an incredible post entitled “82-Year-Old Metal Fan Is 82 and A Metal Fan“).

It’s a November to remember because I had been going to a lot of shows and on Monday’s radio show, I played the ones that I attended. Before I get to that, I will review the shows I attended on the final weekend of November. First, it was Hey Ocean! at Bands Undone. To my own amazement, they played a great acoustic and intimate set. Of all the previous Band Undones I have attended, this was so unique because they were missing their members and the setup was very simple. It was David Beckingham with his guitar and Ashleigh Ball on her voice. Overall, I was pleased to see Hey Ocean! as they are down to earth and nice performers. Again, thanks to Kara for always organizing a great show for the bloggers, photographers and media for this unique session.
You can check the photos by going to this link.
Link to the video should be posted later.

My radio show for Monday, November 30, 2009. I didn’t expect to go on half an hour early. Played some fillers like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Metric and Said The Whale. I aired the Immaculate Machine interview and then I played the bands and artists that I attended at their concerts throughout November. They were Elliott Brood, Silver Starling, Ohbijou, The Most Serene Republic, Think About Life, You Say Party! We Say Die!, Bravestation and Jill Zmud. The last segment of the show, let’s say that I had to talk about Lady GaGa. She performed at Scotiabank Place on Sunday night and I had a guest join in on her thoughts of the concert.
I will give a nod to the radio DJ in Hong Kong because she knows I’m not a big fan of Lady GaGa. Anyone will have a nice laugh that I try to not like her music and style. It’s difficult to admit and not give in.
Without further ado, here’s Monday’s show. Press play to listen.

Forgot to mention that I will be participating in the YouTube Battle at Bablyon Nightclub on Friday, December 4, 2009. Wish me luck!

Since 2004, Podcasts have become a permanent member of the iTunes community as well as a revolutionary resource for artists, journalists, and various experts and influencers to showcase their knowledge and abilities to the awaiting audience. A ‘podcast’ is a series of digital files, most commonly found in the form of MP3, that are released episodically and are downloadable on various websites and portals.  These podcasts are usually associated with a theme, host, or company (ESPN, for example).

Indie musicians and artists attempt to produce music without corporate interference or influence, which causes them to search for new and innovative ways to advertise and publicize their music. Podcasting allows for indie artists to target their niche audience and play to wants and needs of their fans and followers.  Interestingly enough, it’s often journalists and record labels that will solicit the songs and information from the artists. The artists are able to retain the benefits of a public appearance, which would usually be coordinated by the record label/public relations department, essentially allowing them to stay independent and produce the music they want.

M.I.A in Concert

The indie music community is full of podcasters and their appreciation for music, which they translate into a contemporary prose-style mini radio show.  On his blog, Jeff Caylor, a small time indie musician, describes what he believes to be the top 10 indie music podcasts. Normally I would compile my own list but Jeff did a great job in ranking and describing, in minimal words, the purpose and theme of each podcast.  I’ve provided the list below:

“10 Indie Music Podcasts

If you’re looking for a new podcast or just some new music, check out one of these and support independent music!

Insomnia Radio – Tight, award-winning podcast with frequent updates and lots of good music. Tagline is “the best music you’ve never heard.”

MPR Current Song of the Day – Short but sweet: song of the day from Minnesota Public Radio. Indie stuff and unreleased songs.

Indiefeed – Great new music, one song at a time. The podcast has some nice production value as well–less talk more rock. And if you don’t like rock, try the Hip Hop or Pop flavors. Enjoyable way to find new stuff. TIP: when the page loads, you can scroll down to the cassette tape flash player to stop the music.

Amplified Podcast – Fun, sorta homegrown podcast with bi-coastal hosts. Frequency is fairly sporadic. Good music here, though. Format is hosted throughout with eight songs a week.

Indie911.com – Canadian Indie music. Good production again and good music.

The Fader is an indie music magazine. The podcast has a good variety of music in all genres.

If your style is eclectic and world, check out The Sound Culture. They feature electronica, world, reggae, dub and hip hop.

Even the BBC is hip to the Indie music scene. Check out Radio 1’s Unsigned features some of the best unsigned acts in the UK.

GarageBand.com provides a simple indie music podcast. They call it the song of the week and you can subscribe via RSS, so I’m adding it to the list. It’s just a song attached to a feed, but they are featuring some good music. There’s actually a feed for each musical genre, so the song of the week is actually 10 or 12 songs of the week.

The Timpodcast focuses on the Toronto independent music scene and there’s some great music here. Production is decent and the host is good.”

My personal favorite happens to be Indiefeed. Indiefeed serves single song episodes designed to target specific audiences. They produce podcasts in various musical genres within the indie community, they include: Alternative/Modern Rock, Performance, Blues, Hip-Hop, Indie Pop, Electronica, and Dance. Listeners can tune in via website, indiefeed.com, or download podcasts on iTunes. Indiefeed describes their intentions and reason for producing podcasts for the public, “Become the trusted, reliable source for new music on the internet, create an equitable promotion model that grants bargaining and financial power to artists, and gives control and meaningful choice to consumers.” This sort of mission statement is incredibly important for maintaining the relationship between artist and organization, as well ensuring that the music be free of influence. Only music, no strings attached.

The following Indiefeed podcast focuses on Papercuts new song “Future Primitive” (although, not so new anymore). This is a great example of a short, yet informative and focused podcast where the music is truly the center of attention. The audience is able to have an “experience” with the song, which then translates into awareness and interest for the artist. A win-win situation for all parties involved—an essential for social media success.

Papercuts “Future Primitive” on IndieFeed

– Chelsea Yocum | November 29, 2009

It’s been a long time since I wrote… it seems that I write on and off. Not always consistent. Been going through a tough time, but then everyone goes through it. I just hope that 2010 brings a better year for everyone.

This song, was one of the few songs that I listened to all the time and I thought it’s nice to share this song with anyone who reads this post.

Originally written by Kanye West and I must say that the lyrics to this song was so amazing, it helped me to get over what I was so angry about, to confronting my fears and finally a resolve.

Kris Allen, winner of American Idol – not a bad looking chap if i do say, but nonetheless his rendition version of this song was probably one of the best I heard since David Cook’s ‘Alway’s Be My Baby’ version.

Kris Allen

Heartless

In the night I hear him talk coldest story ever told

Somewhere far along this road he lost his soul

To a woman so heartless

How could you be so heartless?

Oh, how could you be so heartless?

 

How could you be so cold as the winter wind when it breeze, yo?

Just remember you that talkin’ to me though

You need to watch the way you talkin’ to me, you know

 

I mean after all the things that we been through

I mean after all the things we got into

And yo, I know there are some things that you ain’t told me

And yo, I did some things, but that’s the old me

 

And now you wanna give me back and you gon’ show me

So you walk around like you don’t know me

You got a new friend, well, I got homeys

But it the end it’s still so lonely

 

In the night I hear him talk the coldest story ever told

Somewhere far along this road he lost his soul,

To a woman so heartless

How could you be so heartless?

Oh, how could you be so heartless?

 

How could you be so Dr. Evil?

You’re bringing out a side of me that I don’t know,

I decided we weren’t gonna speak so

Why are up 3 a.m. on the phone?

 

Why does she be so mad at me for?

Homey, I don’t know she’s hot and cold,

I won’t stop, I won’t mess my groove up

Cause I already know how this thing goes

 

You run and tell you’re friends that you’re leavin’ me

They say that they don’t see what you see in me

You wait a couple months then you gone’ see

You’ll never find nobody better than me

 

Cause’ in the night I hear him talk the coldest story ever told

Somewhere far along this road he lost his soul,

To a woman so heartless

How could you be so heartless?

Oh, how could you be so heartless?

 

Talkin’, talkin’, talkin’, talk

Baby lets just knock it off

They don’t know what we’ve been through

They don’t know ’bout me and you

 

So I got something new to see

And you just gon’ keep hatin’ me

And we just gon’ be enemies

 

I know you can’t believe

I could just leave it wrong

And you can’t make it right

I’m gon’ take off tonight into the night…

 

In the night I hear him talk the coldest story ever told

Somewhere far along this road he lost his soul,

To a woman so heartless

Oh, how could you be so heartless?

Oh, how could you be so heartless?

 

Oh, ’cause in the night I hear him talk the coldest story ever told

Somewhere far along this road he lost his soul,

To a woman so heartless

I listen to this song when I am cruising in my car with my other indie songs, along  with James Morrison and Daniel Powter. It is a good soul song for me when I am so angry with my ex and myself, and it feels good. I made my friend listened to this song and he was inspired to perform this song in his gigs too. So I thought of sharing this song to some people who doesn’t know might enjoy listening to this as much as I do. I will post the song up here if I can.

Artist: Steve Lieberman
Title: DiKtatoR 17
Website: http://www.gangstarabbi.com
Style: Diaspora Obscuro Punk/ Experimental
Label: Bad’lan USA Records
Rating: 8.1 out of 10
By C.W. Ross

The person, Steve Lieberman ‘The Gangsta Rabbi’ and his music have both been described by critics as everything from insane crap to inventive and genius. One thing is for sure Lieberman

has a talent for putting out a ton of releases, and we’re not talking 4 or 5 song EPs, we’re talking most of them with over 20 tracks including his latest, DiKtatoR 17, that comes in with a whopping 22-tracks with a running time of 77:16.

What you get with Lieberman’s music is a lo-fi palooza of musical instrumentation almost solely performed by him. While the main instruments used are, bass and flute, you’ll also here,melodica, recorder, and trombone parts all of which are topped off with Lieberman’s vocals and lots of hard driving beat machine notes.

Stylistically Lieberman describes himself as the, ‘King of Obscuro Punk.’

This latest release from him is aptly named since it’s Lieberman’s 17th CD. I’m not sure how many of his releases I’ve reviewed before but it must be up to like 5 or 6 now. There are several signature things found on all of Lieberman’s releases that make me like them.

First is his great flute work, when Lieberman puts his mind to it his flute parts harkens up thoughts of Jethro Tull with his rocking flute notes. The second thing is his bass parts that have that slightly overdriven sound that sounds like they’re coming from loosely strung strings that give them that little bit of a different sounding edge. Thirdly I like how the sound is left raw, lo-fi, and not over tweaked in production, what he plays is what you hear.

The last thing that I like about Lieberman’s music is that he’s not afraid to tackle any subject straight on from mental illness; Lieberman is very open about in his songs about his own struggles with bi-polar depression, pride in his Jewish heredity, anti-racism, politics, sex and animal rights.

While most of the songs found on DiKtatoR 17 are originals, you’ll also find several covers of some obscure songs done in a unique way by Lieberman.

Like with all of Lieberman’s releases you’re either going to appreciate the fresh, experimental, raw edge style of music that he puts out or you’ll think he’s a total madman, either way you can’t help but listen to his music and come away with a very strong opinion of what you’ve just heard.

Artist: Brant Christopher
Title: Climb
Website: www.brantchristophermusic.com
Style: Folk / Acoustic / Roots Music
Rating: 8.6 out of 10
By C.W. Ross

Brant Christopher music career has grown over the years first starting out as a solo artist before forming and fronting the very successful trio Fort Pastor. Now he’s back as a solo act, this time though he’s combined his music with his passion for social activism.

Christopher serves as the Director of Strategic Initiatives and Artist in Residence for the Not for Sale Campaign. The Not for Sale Campaign is aimed at ending slavery in the world.

If you’re like me you probably thought that beside the unusual case here and there that slavery was a thing of the past – be prepared to be stunned. In the material that I received about the organization they say that there is a shocking 27million slaves in the world today, 200,000 of which are located in the United States!

I would invite you to visit the organizations website to learn more. You can visit them at:

http://www.notforsalecampaign.org.

Christopher will donate 100% of the proceeds from Climb to the Not for Sale Campaign. Climb was produced by Stephen Gause (Downhere, Dave Barnes, Derek Webb) of Invertigo Productions.

The ten songs that are found on Climb fall into a guitar driven acoustic, folk rock style of music. The song lyrics are powerful as they weave stories from the victim’s side of modern day slavery.

“I started writing this album that I thought would be focusing on the concept of freedom and awareness and how we need to open our eyes to human trafficking,” Christopher explains. “I feel like it’s kind of the next generation of singer/songwriter… people are getting a little more savvy with their music and they want more than just music. They want to get behind a cause. They want to get behind something that their favorite artist believes in. They want to know more than just the music. There’s a whole generation that doesn’t want just talk – they want action.”

Christopher vocals are filled with real passion that you can tell is coming straight from his heart. What for me is the most powerful and heart wrenching track found on Climb is, “Shoes For Margaret.” This gut wrenching, tear jerker, tells the story of a woman from Uganda who at the young age of 9 became a victim of modern day human trafficking. The song is based on a story taken from a book by fellow activist and author David Bastone who Christopher met at one of his concerts. Bastone also from time-to-time tells stories between songs at Christopher’s concerts that help to drive home the point of the song.

Climb also has a very noticeable faith element that’s found in the lyrics of the songs that helps to add a sense of hope, that even in the toughest of times you must never give up, even when it seems like all hope is lost.

Sometimes releases that are tied to a cause offer up only mediocre music but that’s not the case with Climb. When you buy it you’ll not only have some good music to listen to you’ll also be helping to fight the modern day tragedy of human slavery.

Long weekends are nice.  It gives me a chance to do something creative.  So here’s what I created…..a video for Red River’s song, “Lovely Day”.  I hope you like it!

Found some more music from Swollen Members this is from Monster in the Closet  2003 album.

Bring it home, is a hip hop, rap, indie styled rock song.

I like this one for surfing the net with.

Or playing at a party.

swollen members monsters in the closet album cover 2003 idea girl consulting

dscshift provided the video and lyrics for Long Way Down

Swollen Members: Long Way Down

Yo I’m still trying to figure out this Venus and Mars thing

But every time I see you all I hear is a Harp String

We chilled last night, I had to record this
Listen to portishead
Makin love in the forest
Were not stuck in this orbit
Its gonna work out for us
So gorgeous like the voice of the woman gracing the chorus
A newborn in its true form
Gentle and precious
We connect on more than just mental
Dont let this shit stress us
Im okay if youre okay
I know it sounds cliché
But we’ve built a whole relationship from sand and clay
Now it’s so strong
Weve got a concrete bond
And complete so solid yall
I had to write this song

And its a long way down
Its a long way down
Its such a long way down
to the place where we started from

We met when we was young
Two hearts that beat as one
I knew it from the start
Not till death do us part
Nothing compares to you (keep blazin)
Im a fine young cannibal
And you drive me crazy
I know your looks attracts guys
But that dont phase me
Soul mate, make me feel like they got nothing on me
Just your taste, your lips
Plus your voice is calming
I know its hard babe cause i’m always on tour
But my love is fucking pure
And thats for sure
Been around the world
Feel like Ive covered whole earths surface
Stressed out to the point of askin if its worth it
Sometimes it trips me out kid
Cause youre so perfect
I gotta keep working, striving and building
So we can get a house, have kids and grand children
Till then Ill make sure you dont regret
That you gave me another chance girl I wont forget!

Its a long way down
Its a long way down
Its a long way down
Its a long way down

(Madchild talking)
Listen to me man, make sure you love what you do
Cause its gonna take time for anyone to get to the ultimate goal
And As long as you love what your doing
Doesnt matter how long it takes
And when it finally does happen
Try to remember how hard you worked to get there
And appreciate that shit
Keep climbing
BATTLEAXE

BATTLEAXE

Im shark where you swim
Sharp as a dart in your skin
Weve been given a title thats not hard to defend
Not just my partners my friends
See this from start till the end
With words that alter the wind
Cause we assault with a pen
And hit with the song
No problems here we getting along
Take turns learnin from our mistakes
Admit when we wrong
And everybody knows how to fight
To shows that are tight
A Cobra that strikes
Nobodys sober tonight

Take a walk on the wild side
Give me beats and Ill never die
Hold your mind like a hypnotist
Swing the watch into overdrive
Theres no rabbit or wand
My habits ripping a song
The magic comes from the action of people waving their arms
Im as sane as I was
Given and receiving the love
Livin and breathing this stuff
[With Rob the Viking on drums]
Battleaxe warriors mad child prevail
This is music for yall bars notes and scales

And its a long way down
Its a long way down
Its such a long way down
to the place where we started

swollen members monsters in the closet idea girl consulting

Senandungkan lagu ini
Atas rindu di hati
Berlutut di lantai bumi
Bersedih menyepi

Toreh kisah senandung kasih
Maafkan tuan aku berjanji
Tak mau menuai murka
Untukmu oh kawan

Berbisik di dalam hati
Kumohon maafkan
berbagi peluh menuju cita
Daku membasuh keringat luka

Du du du du……………..

Merpati di atas dahan
Menyusun sarangnya
Kukembalikan hatimu
Seperti semula

Hapuskanlah lagu terangi cinta
Meniti lagu menyemat suka

Du du du du……………..

Gelombang nestapa…..
Gelombang nestapa…..
Gelombang nestapaku harap sirna

Gelombang nestapa…..
Gelombang nestapa…..
Gelombang nestapaku harap sirna

In a tragic, environmentally devastating accident long predicted by technology experts, the Internet today ran aground the shores of the Arctic. As a consequence, tons and tons of tedious, yecky indie music spilled out onto birds, fish, seals, bears, and countless other animals, plants, and microscopic organisms. Environmental groups were quick to arrive on the scene, denouncing the Internet for its chronic irresponsibility. “For too long, the Internet has been allowed to amass and distribute toxic indie music,” said Patty Dale, leader of the group “Citizens Against Indie Music Proliferation.” “Every day, thousands and thousands of new bands and their banal mp3s are spilled into our environment, causing congestion, distraction, and waste of precious resources. Our group for years has warned that, one day, there would be a price to pay for this massive irresponsibility.”

According to recent studies, there are currently over 8 million bands on MySpace alone, and it is believed that this represents only a fraction of the bands in existence. Each day, approximately 1,000 new bands form worldwide, each spawning an average of 8.5 new downloadable songs a year, as well as videos, demos, and other sundry digital detritus. Scientists warn that, at present rates of growth, future generations will be overwhelmed by massive amounts of hazardous indie music. “They will face daunting challenges,” says MIT researcher Zmut Koel. “Will they put the nasty music all onto spaceships and launch it deep, deep into space? Well, good luck; there are no space ships big enough for this task, and maybe even space itself will not be big enough of room for that.”

Other suggestions have been to bury the indie music under the ocean, or inside mountains. Environmentalists reject these ideas, however, as wildly foolish. Says Dale, “The half-life of a derivative three-minute Emo song is ten thousand years. We simply have no plan to deal with this.” In the meantime, crews have been sent to Alaska to clean up the indie mess, a task which is expected to take the better part of the next decade.

Mrs. Dr. J and I would like to wish a very Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates.  Enjoy the time with family and friends.  Relax and as always listen to some good indie music.  We will be back this Tuesday from 4-6pm on WUDR – http://udflyerradio.com

- Mrs. Dr. J and Dr. J

One of the characteristics of the most interesting bands that have arisen in the U.S. musical scene is the dificulty to apply any labels. That categorization is needed to insert it in the musical market rules, just like a supermarket: “if you want post-rock-folk-trance, please go to the shelf 10X“.
When a group produces a music which is difficult to classify in the market criteria, will certainly be seeking new in the music and imposing its own identity. which is needed today to find out new and better works, combining talent and music knowledge with technologic resources available.
So the band Dirty Projectors (one more from Brooklyn) just brings exactly this to our ears and brains.
David Longstreth, leader of the band, have begun the project of experimental-rock in 2002 that included opera, electronic music, jazz, folk, African music, punk rock, among others.
Using all the resources of the contemporary music, that have been creating and producing sophisticated works, as could be seen and heard throughout the last years and is particularly refined in the last album Bitte Orca and th EP Temecula Sunrise. Longstreth could be viewed as this generation’s answer to Byrne, says BRANDON STOSUY.
Hype aside, the music of Dirty Projectors deserves attention: they are using all the resources of the contemporary music and exploring the limits of their own ability to create, and they are just in a good track.

In the videos below:
TIME BIRTHED SPILLED BLOOD from the Opera The Getty Address (the only animated opera about DON HENLEY. An avant-garde action flick poised for world domination, by Vs. Anna Films and Dirty Projectors. Directed by James Sumner, starring Dave Longstreth)

About the conception of the theme Temecula Sunrise, EP recently released

This entry seems to be all things Bands Undone. On Tuesday afternoon, I checked out Kalle Mattson for Bands Undone. It was booked at the last minute and was an early show. They are from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario but some or all of the members are now residing in Ottawa for their studies. Overall, the session was pretty good as it brought a folk rock style. There was one song where the lead singer sang a Bob Dylan song. Following the session, there was jokes about Bob Dylan.
You can check the photos by clicking here. The BU section is now updated at this link.
You can watch the videos from Vimeo. Excellent quality provided through Vimeo.

Onto the Wednesday morning radio show, I am still co-hosting on Audio Sensory Resuscitation. The host played some tunes and I got my friend to request a song. We made an announcement for the upcoming guests for December and that will be loads of fun.
On my short show, I finally played my own show ID and it’s the one from The Most Serene Republic. I played a Christmas Chinese song by Mavis Fan and aired the Bonjay interview at Bands Undone and then played the song, Gimme Gimme. Played “Fish” by Hey Ocean! as a preview to Saturday’s Bands Undone. I hope you will enjoy the shows. It’s in two parts. One is with the whole show in its entirety or the second part, which is my half-hour show if you want to listen to the first song and the Bonjay interview.
As for the Chinese Christmas song, I was searching on Google for any translation or info, I found this site, Asia Pacific Arts: APA Top 10: Holiday Songs From Asia. The song I played is at #4. Mind you that this top 10 was done in 2008. Not sure if there’s a 2009 version coming up.

Audio Sensory Resuscitation/The WildWorks Show for November 25, 2009
Press play to listen.

The WildWorks Show for November 25, 2009
Press play to listen.

Here is the Bonjay interview at Bands Undone.
Press play to listen or download it.

Wednesday night, I had the opportunity to check out Zaphod Beeblebrox’s 5th Annual Feed The Homeless Fundraiser. It’s the kick off to the holiday season and it was $5 which goes to buy Christmas dinners for 3 people. At $5, it’s all for a good cause. The performers at the fundraiser were Jill Zmud, Arms of the Girl and Huntley Slim. All three performers ranged from folk, rock/pop and country. All in all, it was a good show. Jill Zmud was excellent with her performance and I was a bit busy using the DSLR camera and film one of the songs. I was feeling some pain for holding long. Arms of the Girl surprised me with their hard rocking energy and I liked their cover of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory by Oasis.
You can view the photos from Flickr by clicking here.

It was exactly around this time last year when I became obsessed with Minus the Bear.  I had Menos El Oso in my possession and over Thanksgiving “break” I would discover El Torrente while driving in the rain at night and realize just how awesome MTB is.

The soundtrack to my Winter vacation with Harriet last year was “Thanks for the Killer Game of Crisco Twister.”
The soundtrack to my suburban adventures with TWT was, “Double Vision Quest.”

Erin Tate has truly inspired me more than any other professional drummer to get better and really practice at my drumming skills.

I bought all of MTB’s albums- not a single thing was downloaded or burned from a friend.

Here’s to a year of being into ridiculously awesome indie rock music.

The Rebel Set stopped by the studio today and we all had a blast.  The stream from the interview will be available soon.  Look here for more details!  We can’t thank them enough for coming by!

We hope to have them back in the new year to do a live in-studio performance!

If you have not checked out their new CD, Across a Relentless Sea, you should!

- Mrs. Dr. J and Dr. J

After I saw the first Twilight movie, and yes, I’m admitting to actually seeing it, but anyway, as I as walking out of the theatre, yeah I paid to see it in the theatre, I was thinking that this movie is so bad that there is no way that this fad could infect more of my life. I was wrong. Somehow this romance novel for teens has spread it’s influence beyond the throngs of single women and infected the music industry, more specifically the indie music scene.

The last person I want to be is the hipster music fan who thinks that the more popular a band gets, the worse they become musically. I think radiohead and the white stripes have already proved that wrong. But what is startling to me is that millions of pre-teens and adults with terrible taste in most things artistic (I base this assumption off the fact that they are obsessed with Twilight and I don’t feel bad about it at all) are suddenly listening to Grizzly Bear, Thom Yorke, Death Cab, Lykke Li, and Bon Iver to name a few of the amazing artists featured on the soundtrack. Will the lure of Edward’s pasty skin be enough to get people to stop filling their ears with fast food music like Lady Gaga, Adam Lambert, and 3 Doors Down and start consuming heartier music?

If this soundtrack is able to spread amongst the hive mind of the preteens out there today then pop music will be changed forever. This could be a great thing, I mean, just look at places like London where the radio plays great music all day, instead of playing Kid Cudi on repeat like here in America. But there is still that empty feeling in your gut, like when your parents hear the Cake song playing during the tv show Chuck’s intro and they say, “I love this song!” and something dies inside of you. I wish I didn’t get that feeling like people are copying me but I’m not gonna lie, I do, and I think most “indie” fans out there do the exact same thing.

If New Moon launches these indie artists into mainstream, it’s only a matter of time before all of indie music does the same thing. Who am I kidding? It’s already been on the verge of that anyway even before new moon came out. It’s about the equivalent of some of the “independent” movie studios which are making 150 million dollar “indie” films.

The point of all this ranting is that we need to be prepared to say goodbye to indie music as we know it, accept the fact that our parents and 12 year old cousins are gonna be looking on pitchfork to see what albums to download, and that in spite of how much it hurts, this is a good thing. I would much rather have talented musicians on MTV than an over produced bimbo who couldn’t play “Mary had a little lamb” on the piano. It’s about time america’s musical tastes improved, it just means that us indie people will have to find some new unpopular genre to overhype. How about mariachi?

"Into The Sun - Unplugged"

It is true! I have project coming out on December 13, 2009. It is what I like to call “organic” recording. For the fans who never miss a coffee house gig, this album is for you.

Heartfelt vocals with minimal processing, guitar, and some piano, will make you feel like we are all right there together. With favorites like “Ordinary People” and “You’ve Won My Heart” I hope to win YOUR heart with this album.

10% of proceeds from this album will go to local non-profit organizations, and 50% to fund my feature full length CD coming out in 2010.

I hope that when you hear these songs, you’ll remember the days when…
That you’ll be able to dream about the future, and that you’ll feel warm memories as if you’ve just found your way into the sun.

Love Muchly,
Emily