Vinyl Notes

I was a little early to the Troubadour to see Tim Fite perform so I thought I’d try to see if I could get an interview. One of the bouncers told me Tim was around somewhere so after looking around the showroom lazily, alone and bored with staring at the empty stage, I wondered into the bar-room to sit for a few minutes before the show started. Wouldn’t ya know it, my wandering around led me to a seat right next to Fite.

He had a calm, friendly demeanor and surprised me by remembering my name from the MySpace message I’d sent him. It was 20 minutes to showtime so I had to make the interview relatively quick.

When I started off thinking he’d grown up in Brooklyn Fite quickly corrected me. “I grew up in the sticks,” he said telling about the weekend trips to into the City; mom went to the art gallery, Fite & dad went to the record store. It was in these very record stores that Fite heard Cool DJ Red Alert’s song “Don’t Believe the Hype” and began his lifelong love affair with hip-hop.

While his first two albums are largely a blue grass, folk, country fusion, the third album was the one that won me over with its quirky satirical hip-hop style. “Hip-hop is the foundation of the music,” Fite explains. “It’s all sample and loop based; it’s how I think about what I’m making.”

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Last September, embarked on a social networking experiment by spending a weekend with people I’d met on Newsvine. This Vinemeet was the event that sort of solidified my theory that Newsvine was much more than just a social networking site but a place where virtual friendships become real. There have been several Vinemeets over the last year but this weekend I hopped on a plane (gasp!) to meet a few more practical strangers and reinforce the since of community and camaraderie on the ‘Vine.

While Columbus may not be the most happening town, one might be surprised to find out that it is the indie art capital of the world, a noteworthy designation as one of the highlights of the trip was a live performance by our host, a member of Flotation Walls. Friday night, approximately 10 Newsviners from across the country (mostly the eastern seaboard) gathered at Andyman’s Treehouse, most of us exhausted from a day of traveling, looking forward to a good show nonetheless.

The show took place in a tiny room with a huge tree in the middle (hence the name Andyman’s Treehouse and no elevated stage; suffice it to say, the show was intimate. Considering the amount of equipment Flotation Walls had to set up – keyboards, a synthesizer, saxophone, bass, drums, percussion, violin and three guitars – they moved quickly and got their set started with surprising speed. The set up was interesting to watch, everyone in their different zones, tuning, testing, listening to each other, completely in sync and comfortable with each other.

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Spring and Summer are prime time for people to get out to some of the best music festivals. Whether your taste is for indie rock, hip-hop, pop, gospel or jazz, there’s a something happening for everyone.

Since keeping it up with everything can be a chore, my gift to you today is a non-exhaustive list of concerts and festivals taking place May through September. The theme for the Summer seems to be going green and getting outside; go figure.

KJLH Gospel Music Showcase
When: May 17 (yes this Saturday!)
Where: Knott’s Berry Farm

Quite possibly one of the biggest gospel music events of the year, the artists featured at this festival are picked straight from the playlist of KJLH radio show “Spread the Word.” Shikinah Glory returns this year! I know some folks super excited about this one.

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In the mid-90s Portishead became the pioneer of the trip-hop genre with their debut LP Dummy. The album with its melodic melancholy, looped sampled baselines and the haunting sorrow in vocalist Beth Gibbons’ voice, became an underground success and has been heralded as one of the best of all time.

With their self titled sophomore album, Portishead’s style took a decidedly dissonant and abrasive turn. The melancholy was still apparent, however, the songs were less demonstrative of victimization and sorrow but contained a rather bitter biting edge.

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Being a blogger is quite possibly one of most fun jobs to have. Even though I was given my own network blog recently, I have been blogging for almost two years now. I have to say that it rocks! For me the best part about it is the networking, finding people with like interests - either by chance or purpose - and making real connections in a virtual world.

To wit, I’d like to shout out Liz from Shame Free and say thanks again for the T-shirt. I met Liz by recommending her blog for Listen In’s weekly music blog review. Like any good blogger, Liz tracked down the review, made a comment and offered the reviewer a T-shirt. For whatever reason he declined but I’ll gladly accept swag from all corners of the world, I asked (rather loudly perhaps) if I could have one.

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Unable to sleep in the middle of the night, I decided to appease my insomnia by getting some reading done. Imagine my surprise and excitement to find my feedreader loaded with news of Nine Inch Nails new album. The best part? It’s available on the NIN website as a free download. Yay!

If you are an avid NIN fan like myself this album – The Slip is especially for you. From Trent Reznor himself:

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Lately I’ve been sort of inundating myself with music I’ve never heard, from artists I’ve never heard of. Recently I found out about a site called TheSixtyone (hat tip: Ontological Zombie on Newsvine), a site that allows artists to upload their own music for users to “bump” as it were.

Immediately I liked the look and feel of the site; easy to navigate and not too busy. You might think that you’ll only find the most obscure of underground groups, but after tinkering with the site for only an hour or so, I found new music from Arctic Monkeys and Death Cab for Cutie neither of which are indistinct.  

All you have to do is click the play button on any given song, and you get to stream the music on TheSixtyone to your heart’s content. If you want to “bump” or vote something up, you’ll have to register. Registration is not without its perks. Users are rewarded with influence points and experience levels for their skill and expertise bumping good music on TheSixtyone. When you level up, you gain access to locked features such as multiple bumps.

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The first of the month is blogtipping day, designated by my colleague Easton Ellsworth. Unfortunately, I was sick yesterday, so I tip blogs today. In case you’re wondering, blogtipping is when one blogger finds three others “giving them each three good compliments and a gentle tip." I’ve always liked the concept, so I’m going to do some music blog-tipping of my own today.

Stereogum

Quite possibly one of the top music blogs there are, always up to date with the latest business news; so much so that I can hardly keep up. But hey, that’s what feeds are for right?

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