Why I Am Addicted To Turntable.fm

The Dead Journalist Room

So a week or so ago, I started hearing a lot more about turntable.fm. The basic gist of the site is that you go on with a bunch of friends and take turns playing each other music in a "room." You can make the room private or have some fun with strangers popping in to listen. Some of the best parts are the ability to upload your own tunes and instantly add tunes to your buy lists on iTunes. Pretty neat, eh?

It's a bit like having a record party without the hassle of inviting everyone over to your place. Since logging on, I get off work, go home, and dj with friends for about an hour while doing other work online. It's pretty neat. Then one day I decided to test something out.

I was djaying in a sort of familiar room with a bunch of other bloggers I know. I decided to play a few tracks from Reptar, Misfortune500, and Monahan just to see what they'd say. As the reviews came in, the lightbulb over my head came on. We can use this. And by we, I mean everyone I've ever worked with.

Bands! You can use it to find your first radio single. PR companies! Shamelessly plug your acts in your own rooms. Bloggers! Try to impress other bloggers with your selections and make new bloggy friends. It's pretty darn cool.

Yeah, it's in beta stage and you have to already have a facebook friend on there to get an invite. There's also some minor bugs and a few more things they need to add (more than one playlist please! searchable ones!) but this looks like a pretty neat spot to hang out a bit.

And hey, if it all goes down the drain anyway, it's at least a fun way to kill a bit of time with tunes.

Weekly Show Picks

TONIGHT

Rye Bar

Old You

New Earth Music Hall

Bombtrack

JUNK

Woodfangs

George's Lowcountry Table

Ken Will Morton

THURSDAY

Caledonia Lounge

Green Gerry and the Gellyphish

Muuy Bien and Friends

Pretty Bird

Farm 255

Street Eaters

Witches

Flicker Theatre

The Head

Matt Kabus

We the Body

FRIDAY

WUGA "It's Friday"

Shallow Palace

Sleepy Eye Giant

Go Bar

Antlered Antlord

DJ Grave Robbers

Smokedog

SATURDAY

Farmfest 4

Caledonia Lounge

Thick Paint

Soft Opening

Geisterkatzen

Basshunter64

Terrapin Beer Co.

Austin Archer

MONDAY

4th of July

TUESDAY

Little Kings

Between Naybors

New Local Music Videos

While Athfest has been on the top of our schedules this month, a few local bands have released some incredible music videos that you really should see.

First up, local darkwave/industrial band Witness the Apotheosis remixed R.E.M.'s "It Happened Today". It sounds amazing!


Next up, a really, really well done video from Misfortune 500. It premiered at Sprockets after a month of teasing.


Kite to the Moon gives us another classic.


Chris Ezelle posted this one to our Fanpage. Check it out


Mark Tulk got in on the action too.


And Sam Sniper as well. He just had to be different and use Vimeo. We'll take it!

Sam Sniper, THIS Comfortable Hypocrisy [OFFICIAL VIDEO] from Sam Sniper on Vimeo.

So feast your eyes on these goodies and let us know what you think!

ATHFEST 2011: Saturday Sunday Roundup

I got a late start on Saturday, opting to cook something up at home despite the insanely good smelling food in front of the stage. No worries, I ended up getting some later. Can't. Resist. Mergh. But I managed to find a decent parking spot and my companion and I walked towards the Hull Street stage in order to see our friends in Monahan perform.

I've been invited to introduce bands at Athfest before. It's always a real thrill to get to stand in front of a crowd and wind them up a bit. When you're used to having one way conversations, it's nice to have some responses. I haven't been shy about my love of all things Monahan lately. It's hard to ignore something that good. Obviously, the crowd felt the same way.

After a brief, almost Howard Dean-esque announcement, the band got underway and captured the audience's attention immediately. It may have been the Ryan Monahan pajama bottoms but I think it was the music. Probably most inspiring was when the crowd surged toward the merch booth, picking up copy after copy of his new (and free) album. They were impressed, for sure. If Monahan isn't big by this time next year, I'll eat my hat. Button and all.

We made our way backstage to get some food and drink before scurrying off. I managed to get back to the outdoor stages in time to catch Don Chambers in full flight, howling at the moon with his band GOAT banging away behind him. He mentioned that this was his 11th Athfest. Wow. The heat was nothing compared to the day before. I'm thankful for that.


I was really excited to see the Chickasaw Mudd Puppies. My friend Wes was running the soundboard when I made my way over to the main stage.They were pretty darn good. The crowd was responding well, including a cluster of little kids who were just dancing their feet off near the new Ted's Most Best. That was adorable.

I missed Bloodkin and I'm still bummed about that. But I suppose it's ok because I got prime real estate in front of the stage for Guadalcanal Diary. Ran into some of the Crowe folk in the audience. I had on my Pylon "cool" shirt so we riffed about that for a good while. Finally, the band cranked up and started blowing minds.

Since I promised myself this year to get out more, I made my way towards New Earth and the Wired dance festival. The place was still pretty open on my first go round so I headed off towards Cine instead. Cine, which I will now affectionately refer to as "the icebox," was full of people who had just gotten out of the rock doc showings. Hug Abuse, Mike Turner's band, was setting up in the Lab, so I chatted with some familiar strangers until they began.

I've been trying to see Hug Abuse ever since I heard Turner formed it. Finally, I catch a show. They sound a bit surfy, no vocals (let's hear you sing, Mike!). Well worth the walk over. About this time, I started getting texts from people at the 40 Watt. The place was apparently jam packed with people wanting to get in to Reptar. Ironically, it included Reptar themselves. The story goes that Reptar was trying to get in through the main entrance, couldn't wade through the crowd, and so had to be let in a back way. That's the word on the street anyway.

I ran back over to Wired at New Earth and found it jammed as well. At least they were all dancing. Not how I dance but to each his own. I kinda shuffle....

Anyway, back to Cine for Tunabunny! They've gotten a new drummer! But they still rocked pretty hard. I think I'm in love with Scott's butterfly bass. Quite possibly the most unique looking instrument at Athfest. After a short break, Flash to Bang Time took the floor with an impressive projector set up. Lynda uses an auto-cad system that creates some cool effects. The show went over well and so I stumbled home tired.

SUNDAY

Talk about a late start. I guess the weekend had finally caught up with me. After staying up all night to get footage loaded onto Youtube, I suppose it's amazing that I got to the festival in time to catch Dank Sinatra. Not really my thing either but everyone seemed to enjoy it. I heard Col Bruce starting to tune up so I half-ran towards the main stage.

I'm never sure whether to call these guys jam or jazz funk or what. All I know is that bands like Col. Bruce's are the reason why I keep a ton of camera batteries on me at all times. I saw the red flashing light of death on my camera in the middle of a song. A ten minute long song. Times like those you get a bit nervous.

I was curious about Dr. Arvin Scott so I skipped the last bit of Bruce to see him. Man, if there was a prize to find this weekend, it was him. Surrounded by his many electronic drum kits/machines, the man managed to weave intricate patterns of rhythm using influences from hip-hop to middle-eastern. It was truly a sound to be heard. And he was so nice.

My Athfest ended with one of my favorite performers, Kevn Kinney. Having seen what he could do back in March, I was really, really, really happy that he was playing the outdoor stages. I hummed and swayed and just generally enjoyed myself as the sky seemed to get a bit darker, heralding the incoming storm. But all in all, it was a great weekend. Hope yours was too.

ATHFEST 2011: Friday

Past Athfest Photo because my camera keeps mucking up

Waves of heat and humidity kept sweeping over me as I walked from my office towards the music downtown. While my day job affords me a bit of air conditioning, Athens itself wanted to make sure I felt the burn. But I was curious about the vendors setting up their stalls. So on I trudged.

I was very pleased to see a vast array of white tents, blue tarps, and interesting artwork. Probably most exciting was the inclusion of a sweet tea vendor: a must in Georgia. I wandered around a bit, enjoying the sights and sounds. The air was heavy with the promise of rain. 

Easter Island had taken the stage and was jamming pretty well by the time I made it up to the front of the Athfest area. I met up with a few friends and we discussed the oncoming weather and the events we were attending that night. I had to run a few errands at six and didn't get back downtown until around 9:30 but I suppose that was a good thing after what happened.

Lightning struck the Trapeze building during Lera Lynn's set, sending bricks raining down onto the people below. Fortunately, the only person hit seemed fine. My twitter feed filled up with images of the broken part of the building. Talk about starting off with a bang! Organizers postponed a few shows but managed to get everything back up and running smoothly after a short while.

I had decided to wander around a bit but spend most of my night between the 40 Watt and the Arch bar where I was to run merch for Misfortune500 again. The set up in the 40 Watt was pretty cool. Band set up in the middle with speakers all around on high supports. A bit like surround sound really. The rock and roll was pretty great coming from 'Powers and Manray. After a little while, I hightailed it back to the Arch bar.

Photo/ David Manning/OnlineAthens.com

I managed to catch a bit of the Futurebirds set in between my wanderings. Really not my thing, I'm afraid. I just shrugged and continued onward. That's the great thing about Athfest; you can leave and find a decent show if the current one isn't doing it for you. Just keep walking around and you're bound to stumble onto something. It just may take a while according to the year.

My night ended at the Caledonia. Since the Arcs and Spring Tigers had decided to switch places on the schedule, some of us were a bit confused. I hung out at the gate, chatting with our good buddy Gordon about bands, ATHFEST, and the insane heat. The place was a little too packed to really enjoy standing in but you could hear the band from outside. All in all, a pretty good start to Athfest. Just watch for falling bricks.

A few small things before Athfest

 

Walking History Tour. It's awesome. Check out the above poster for details.

Gig Worn is putting everything 50% off today and tomorrow so get by there and check out the really awesome band shirts.

Monahan's incredible album, Stop Saying I, is available for free THIS WEEKEND ONLY.

And a blog related thing:

Due to the weird schedule we keep during ATHFEST, you'll see content Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Each will cover the bands and whatnot from the day before. Good? Good.