Next week kicks off the 2nd annual Next Big Nashville music festival. And you can see it for free.
Next Big Nashville is a five day event featuring over 130 (mostly) Nashville based artists. Basically, it's the cream of the crop of the local rock, indie, alt-country and singer-songwriter scenes.
The Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau is giving away a package that includes a three night stay at the Radisson, wristbands for free admission to all NBN shows, and "Music City Star" cards good for free admission to stuff like the Country Music Hall of Fame. Register here, but hurry... the contest only runs through tomorrow, August 30. If you don't win, you can always snag a wristband for the festival here.
If you're curious about the band's playing NBN, I highly recommend you check out the festival previews at Out The Other. Janet is a bit of a music blogger legend for having previewed every single act who played the 2005 and 2006 Austin City Limits festivals, and she's applying a similar tenacity to the hometown festival. So hit her up for MP3s and interviews with many of the artist's who are playing next week.
And if you need a recommendation to start you off, I suggest you mark your calendar for Cortney Tidwell, who plays at The Basement next Thursday, September 6 at 9:30 pm.
Cortney Tidwell - "Missing Link" (mp3) from Don't Let The Stars Keep Us Tangled Up
The New Pornographers - Challengers
Based on my experience with their last album, I really shouldn't be writing about the latest New Pornographers the first week it's out. My connection with their sophmore disc, Electric Version, was deep and immediate, but it took me a while to really bond with Twin Cinema. Honestly, it wasn't until after seeing them live that those songs really hit home, but once they did, the impact was every bit as heavy as their previous albums.In the five days I've been listening to it, Challengers is proving to be another grower, not a shower. Nothing really jumped out at me on first listen (though I was listening at work, so I wasn't really focusing on it), but since then every time I play it, it reveals another charm. Most of the blogs (like fellow Nashville scribe Caleb) seem to be favoring Dan Bejar's "Myriad Harbour," but personally I'm partial to A.C. Newman's "Unguided," which seems to be this albums answer to Twin Cinema's "Bleeding Heart Show" as the quasi-epic emotional center.One of the frequent complaints I've heard about this album is that the band is somehow going soft. The way some of the reviews have read, you'd think Newman's initials stood for "Adult Contemporary." Sure there are some slower numbers on the album, but there were mellow songs on Twin Cinema too. I'd argue that "All The Things That Make Heaven and Earth" and "Mutiny, I Promise You" rock as hard as anything they've ever done. You'd think that music listeners have become more sophisticated over the years, and the classic indie-rock whinery of "I liked them better before they changed" everytime a band tried to incorporate some new ideas and arrangements would have died long ago. I can't help but think these would be the same people complaining if they made Mass Romantic four times in a row.The New Pornographers - "My Rights Versus Yours" (mp3)
After three weeks, five phone calls, four service appointments, two apartment sitting trips by my dad so I didn't have to miss work, and countless headaches, Comcast finally got my internet access working at my new apartment yesterday. I can't decide whether I'm overcome with happiness or relief. If you don't we've become completely dependent on the interweb, trying going without it for almost a month. It sucks.
You know what else has sucked lately? This blog. Now that I've got the computer issues resolved, and I'm done with the distractions of moving and going to funerals, I can get back to making this place worthy of a weekly visit or two. After all, it's supposed to be about music, not bitching about Comcast's lousy customer service. To start on the road to recovery, here's a song who's title is somewhat apropos... David Gedge and company covering Take That (thanks to Elizabeth at The Roaring Machine for the hookup).
The Wedding Present - "Back For Good" (mp3)
I wanted to post Elastica's "Connection" as well, to celebrate my modem finally being all lit up with pretty green lights. But despite having unpacked about a dozen boxes of CDs over the past two weeks, I've still got ten more to go, and that album is in one of those. Oh well.
Today is Page 300's one year anniversary. Twelve months ago on a Saturday afternoon I sat down at the computer and wrote this post. It's kind of served as a mission statement about what this blog is supposed to be. I'd like to say doing this has been one hundred percent successful at making me feel reconnected with music, but it hasn't. I've pretty much accepted that I'll never be the all-knowing music geek I was ten years ago. That said, I've discovered a lot of great bands doing this over the past year, have gotten good feedback from people I've been able to expose new (and old) music too. I've definitely enjoyed the entire process.My original plan for today was to put up a birthday themed mix. Unfortunately, despite three different service calls over the past week and a half, Comcast still hasn't fixed my internet access. So instead I'll post something that I meant to post months ago, as it's the only mp3 I haven't posted yet in my fileden account.
When I was a kid, I used to listen to Casey Kasem do the Top 40 religiously every weekend. I'd carry around my mom's old transitor radio on Saturday afternoon (and often on Sunday too if I missed any part of it), and I'd have the entire list memorized throughout the week. If you wanted to know what song was number 19 with a bullet, I was your man. Listening to the Top 40 was a lot more fun in those days. Sure there was the same kind of pop drivel that you hear today, but there was also a lot of crossover from the jazz and country charts. Chuck Mangione and Dolly Parton may not be the same as Miles Davis or Hank Williams, but it was still more adventurous than what you hear on most radio stations these days.I'm not sure what my 8 year old self would have thought though if he knew this was the kind of thing that went on behind the scenes of his favorite radio show. Warning... this is very much not safe for work.
Casey Kasem - Long Distance Dedication (mp3)
Today's math lesson... no internet = no posts. Comcast was out yesterday, and not able to fix the problem. They'll be making another attempt on Friday... fingers crossed.The silver lining is I've been able to get lots of unpacking and organizing done without the distraction of a series of tubes.Still, being offline sucks.
You might have noticed the lack of posts on here for the past week or so. Apologies for that. Every minute of time I haven't been working or sleeping the past two weeks have been spent moving. And even though I've been paying rent on two apartments for the last two weeks, I've basically felt homeless. Everything I own is in a box, and I've spent the last few nights sleeping at my parent's house. But as of yesterday, I'm officially out of my old apartment, and today I start the start the slightly less arduous task of unpacking.One of the things I'm looking forward to about getting settled into my new place is rediscovering old music. I'm going be unpacking and reorganizing 5000 plus CDs, and there will be plenty of stuff in there that I've basically forgotten about. It's one of the drawbacks to having an obscenely large music collection (the other drawback is, uh, moving). So over the next couple of weeks, you can expect to see lots old stuff posted on here, because that's probably what I'll be listening to.The soundtrack for today however is something new. Janet at Out The Other posted this on Friday, and I've listened to it about ten times today. This song is just completely awesome.Maritime - "For Science Fiction" (mp3) from Heresy and the Hotel Choir (out October 16 on Flameshovel)
