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9 Favorite Shows From 2011

December 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The year is almost over! New Year’s Eve is a busy time of year for DJs. I’ve got two big shows coming
up this weekend. I’m grateful for every opportunity to do what I enjoy. Meanwhile, I want to look
back at some of my favorite shows of the year. Here they are in no particular order (maybe
chronological though).

1. Me with This is ART in Knoxville.
We did this show way back in January. It might be my favorite. It was the show that I unofficially
anointed myself as This is ART‘s understudy. This was the first of a bunch of shows we did
together this year. For this one, he gave me a great opportunity to go out there to Knoxville and
showcase my unique live PA set. They have a great music scene in Knoxville. We were part of
Midnight Voyage, which is a great weekly party based around their UTK radio show. Also with FTW (Meatball Madness & J-Mo).

2. Me with Spoken Nerd, Manchild, The Billy Goats, & Get Got
This was my Almost Too Good To Be True show at The 5 Spot. The 5 spot is one of my favorite places
to play in Nashville. Great vibes. It was also the show that I was kind of in charge of. Good
weekend for all of us. Great to do a show with friends. I got a lot of great video; including a
special moment with the MCs getting on stage with me and Jed Smith while freestyling.

3. Me with Evolution Control Committee, stAllio!, DJ Empirical and Pimpdaddysupreme at The End.
I felt like such a rock star that weekend. Great to mix it up with some pioneering electronic artists. I was inspired all weekend by watching ECC do their thing. Also the night before, I saw Hobbledeions. That was awesome.

4. me with Get Got, Sharone Digitale, & Orig the DJ
This was our I Love Trip-Hop show. It was a concept show from Orig (You know Orig the DJ). So we both like vibed out hip hop and trip hop. And he had a connection with Exit/In. This was a great show because it exposed a lot of people to Sharone Digitale. Also, this was a great show with Jed Smith. Jed has been drumming with me for a little while now. This was my favorite time to play with him. It sounded good and it felt good. I remember that most everyone was there to see Get Got and then a few people stuck around for Sharone Digitale. By the time I went on, there were just a couple of people left plus all the artists and bands. But that last group of people were going nuts for our set and dancing it up. It was one of the most fun shows I’ve done in a while. And my first time at Exit/In since Valentine’s Day in 2007 (my 2nd worst show ever). This was a great redemption show.

5. me with The Billy Goats, Smokee B, Bobby Exodus, Ugly Lovely, Darian D & Jermy J, Ol Man
Delusional & Blak Tha Map at The Coup
This was fun. We made it kind of a hip hop festival in Clarksville. Up to that point mostly
everyone had been doing only dubstep and bass shows. So it was very cool to get a group out to see
some good hip hop. We didn’t pack the place but we had a good sized crowd of people who were
really into each and every artist. I was glad to have put that show together. Also, it was good to
get some shows for guys like Darian D & Jermy J. I don’t book for other people really anymore. But
when I do, I’d rather it went down like this.

6. me with This is Art & Satoru at 12th and Porter
This was a Name Your Own Price show! I was scared of how that would go. We packed the place out. I had a good crowd for my set. I got to collab with Art on stage the way we did in Knoxville. I met Satoru. Met the sound people and light people at 12th. Also important, it was the first show I had done after releasing Q-Gaze. So it was the only time I had ever done the Q-Gaze mix live from start to finish. I got a great response. This was my favorite show I’ve done in Nashville.

7. Silent Disco with This is Art, Dope Dialect, & Beat Repeat.
This was very cool. Only because of the uniqueness of the Silent Disco. My set went surprisingly well. If you’ve never been to a Silent Disco; you have to try it. It’s very different. But I like it. I want to do more of these. The headphones made my computer voice trick more effective!

8. Sayonara at 12th and Porter.
My favorite show is always my next show. And this one is Tonight! It’s free. I’m opening. It’s Arkiteqt‘s debut performance I believe. Glad to be a part of that. Also with Ziggurat, Beat Repeat, Blaque Masque Bellydance and Umbra Fusion Bellydance in the main room. Squake, Saejma, Suga-Free, & Chris Rodriguez in the lounge room.

9. UNIFY on New Year’s Eve
This party is too massive to sum up in a small blurb. Yet I try. 3 rooms. 40+ DJs. Mostly dubstep with some drum and bass and house. Then there’s me. haha. Click the flyer!

Live Concert Pics by Raywen.org, Audible Imagery, & Ramiah Branch Photography

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Interview with Orig the DJ Part Two: Get Got

August 29, 2011 By 3 Comments

"get got" "ray riddle" "gary hundley" "skyler glover"

Get Got

This is part two of my interview with Orig the DJ. If you missed part one where Orig discusses the origins of Mashville, you can click that link to read it. In this section, he discusses Get Got.

QE: Tell me about Get Got


Orig the DJ: Get Got is my band. That’s Skyler Glover, Gary Hundley and myself. We’re a three piece. We’re like a trip hop funk rock turntablism electronic just melting together. And That’s what WE are. Skyler plays the drums. He’s got an acoustic kit as well as a pad kit. So, he can get the 808 sounds and other samples he can trigger. And Gary is just playing bass guitar with no effects. He works really hard to fill in sound where there’s no guitar or piano or any other high to mid range sound. I’m more of the soloist with the scratching the vocal samples and scratching other instruments. Also I play synthesizer but I don’t use a keyboard. I use a midi controller. The MPD 24 which is basically like an MPC drum machine but without the sounds. It just controls my computer. My computer has all the sounds. I use Ableton Live to launch all my sounds with the pads. I use Traktor to scratch my sounds.
"get got" "ray riddle" "orig the dj" "skyler glover"

Get Got / Photo credit: raywen.org

Orig: So anyway! This is how Get Got happened. skyler and Gary and I were working at Whole Foods Market. At the time, Whole Foods had a month where if you were an employee and you were a musician or had a band, WF gave them an opportunity to play their music live in the lobby area. We wanted to play together but we weren’t a band or anything. so we figured we’d just come up with 4 or 5 songs. That way we could play. So, we took a couple of weeks. We came up with 4 or 5 songs. We didn’t even have a name. We weren’t Get Got at the time. We just called ourselves the Three Amigos. We were just three friends you know. anyway so we performed that day. And people really liked us. We got such a great response from the whole store. The store wasn’t really crowded around us but the sound system allowed our music to be pumped through the speakers through the whole store. A lot of the employees really liked us. Some of the people who stuck around and watched us. They asked what’s our name and do we have a CD. We had to say “No, we’re not even really a band.” So we went home with that. We just said to each other “We work really well together. We should just keep jamming.” I think the thing that solidified us as a band, I think it was Spoken Nerd…

QE: Yeah, Nerd booked you guys before I ever did.

Orig: Right, so he had a monthly night at Cafe Coco called the Holla. He wanted to book us. So we had to get back together and practice our songs. That’s when we came up with the name Get Got. That name actually came from when we were taking a little break from our practice. We were still tossing around ideas for a band name. I had the idea: let’s call ourselves The Entertainment System or The Sound System. Skyler didn’t like it, he thought the word entertainment was too long to be in a name. Entertainment is a long word…

QE: HAHAHA!!

"get got" "gary hundley"

Gary Hundley / Photo Credit: Ramiah Branch


Orig: Yeah whatever. Yeah it’s long. So anyway, we were just chillin outside. And I had to refill my dog’s water bowl with my hose. Skyler was standing right next to the hose. The hose had some holes in it. So if I turned the water on; it was just squirt from all the holes and so on. So I told Skyler “Hey watch out before you get got!” And Gary said, “Hey, that’s a cool name for a band. Let’s call ourselves Get Got!” And yeah that’s exactly how it happened.
So we played that first show. Things just started happening from there. You heard us, you booked us for the next show. To this day, it’s still a side project for us. That’s been what, 3 years now?

QE: Yeah that was a long time ago.

Orig: Yeah we had no true intentions of being a band. It was by the demand of our friends and our peers that we continued the band. We did release an album. I’d love to talk about that.

QE: Go for it.

"get got" "skyler glover"

Skyler Glover / Photo Credit: Ramiah Branch


Orig: So Skyler and Gary are in another band called Cheer Up Charlie Daniels. With Neil O’Neil. That’s not his real name. but that’s what he goes by. Good friend of mine. Once again, another person that worked at Whole Foods. Anyway, he worked a part time job at Welcome to 1979 studios. He called Skyler one night because the studio was hosting the NAMM show. They had a microphone company at the studio one night. They were showcasing their microphones. But they needed a drummer, so Neil called Skyler to come set up his drums and be mic’d up. So Neil said “hey if you do me this favor I’ll help you out.” So Skyler did that, and in return they gave us some studio time. So we took that opportunity. We had about 7 or 8 songs at that time. We came in for a studio session.

"get got" "ray riddle" "orig the dj"

Orig The DJ / Photo Credit: Ramiah Branch

Orig: The cool thing about 1979 studio is that everything is analog. Tape Machines…the only thing that was digital was my turntable setup. My laptop and the DVS. They were going to give us 10 hours. which would have probably cost $2500 or more. So it was a huge blessing for us. We really only used 5 hours. We basically just set everything up. and we performed like we were performing on stage. Bert Stone was the Engineer. it felt so good for me to be an artist in the situation. For a long time, I’d always been the guy recording and on the mixing board. This time, I was the guy on the couch. So I would have an idea and he would get his guys on it. We literally just re-did one song. We only punched in one part. They gave me the multitracks. They recorded everything to tape. But then we had them find a way to give me a DVD of the multitracks and I put that into Ableton and I mixed and mastered the album. It sounded so minimal. So we took time to add in sounds. All the while, I still had all these other projects I was working on. So it took us a while to finish this album. We released it in December of 2010. It’s only 7 tracks. We had an album release party. You were there.

QE: Yeah man.


Orig: You, Spoken Nerd, 247. It was great. Lot of love that night. With having an album release party, and having all these visions of where we want to go. We’d been realizing more and more that this is more than a project. But Cheer Up Charlie Daniels, they got real busy. They’re heavily involved with the scene. Neil is a super busy guy. He’s probably out there as we speak. He caused his band to get really busy. We had to put Get Got to the side for that. And I got really busy with Big Smo. So we had to push Get Got to the side again with that. So we decided to let’s not worry about it. It’s not like we pushed really hard. It’s not like something that’s going to fall apart. Despite pushing it to the side, Get Got is still performing. Still getting calls… We have a show coming up pretty soon.

QE: August 30th with me!

(QE note: tickets)

"Get Got" "Gary hundley" "Skyler Glover" "Ray Riddle" "Orig The DJ"

Get Got / Photo Credit: Ramiah Branch


Orig: Yeah It’s still happening. It’s been effortlessly happening. I’m really excited about it. It’s awesome. It’s rare that bands can just happen from nothing and continue going with hardly any effort. We want to get another album going but we have a lot of work to do…

Connect with Orig the DJ on Facebook.

This is only the Part 2 of the 3 part interview series with Orig the DJ. Be sure to sign up to receive blog updates in your email so that you don’t miss the rest of the interview!

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Get Got Album Release Party

November 22, 2010 By 1 Comment

"Get Got album Release Party with Spoken Nerd, 247, and Quiet Entertainer"

I’ve told you about Get Got before. They’ve been one of my blogworthy bands. Well, they finally have a record finished and are releasing it on December 3rd. I’m excited because they’ve asked me to be on the release show. Also, they have brought on my friends Spoken Nerd & 247. You remember that I’ve mentioned Spoken Nerd before. I also told you about 247. I’m looking forward to all of us being on a show again. It will be just like the old Cafe Coco days! Well, maybe not. But this will be a good one.

Here’s the facebook event for you facebookers.

Oh! Listen to the new record here:

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Previously…at Mercy Lounge

January 18, 2010 By 3 Comments

Quiet Entertainer

I had a pretty good show last week at the Mercy Lounge. It was the first show I’d done in a while in Nashville where I had also booked the other acts. Thanks to Billy Gemmill of Naked Without Us for giving me that opportunity; and thanks to Mercy Lounge for having us.

The pic you see at the top is from raywen.org, run by Ray & Wendy. I mention them here because they have been faithfully coming to QE shows for over a year. Furthermore, they’ve been taking pics for several bands and have done a lot to enhance and document the music scene, especially the hip-hop scene and the goth scene. I have a LOT of pics from shows thanks to them. Of course, they have a plethora of pics from that night.

This night was Get Got’s last show for a while until they get their album done. Right now all they have out is their demo. If you haven’t gotten to hear it, Check it out: Get Got Demo by origthedj

Also, were the Billy Goats, I’ve mentioned them here before. I perhaps will mention them again. I might get to do a remix of theirs. If I do; it probably will be to this song:


Quantcast

The big deal of the night was Spice J; I had never seen him DJ before. I mainly booked him because he’s a friendly guy and I’m a friendly guy. but it was my favorite part of the night. He did kind of a dubstep set. If you don’t know about Dubstep, click. But anyway, I was highly impressed. He says he’ll have a mixtape coming soon. He does play in another band, the Protomen. Probably the best live show in Nashville. My opinion.

Anyway, this past show was one of my favorite shows; mainly because I got a chance to talk to a lot of new people and just had fun overall. I have another Nashville show coming up soon (January 26 @ The Rutledge) so I hope it’s just as much fun.

Keep in touch.

-QE

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Top 6 Bands I ever booked for BlogWorthy

December 29, 2009 By

It’s been a while since the first ever Blogworthy show. I was thinking about all of the great music I’ve gotten to see. All of the fun I’ve had and relationships formed through booking these shows. It’s been a unique growing experience and an experiment in trying a different side of music performance. While a lot of people didn’t participate in the original Blogworthy concept, I did see a lot of great live music in Nashville.

I decided to make a list of my Top 6 favorite bands I’ve booked for BlogWorthy shows. This is pretty much a subjective list based on my own personal taste of the music and of the particular performance at the BW show. A lot of bands are being overlooked. That’s unfortunate. Most everyone I booked was actually BlogWorthy. Again, lots of great memories and highlights.

6. James Fate – He played at the first Blogworthy show; He played at the last one. He played at some in between too. He’s been kind of my go-to guy for shows. He’s just really good. He has great written material; but also, he can freestyle rap. He’s a hybrid pop-singer/hip-hop artist. His dominant strength is with the hip-hop. He’s obviously spent a lot of time learning how to interact with the crowd AND stay on point with the emcee flow. You almost have to see it to believe it. Check him out on myspace or youtube.
http://www.myspace.com/jamesfate

5. Molly Jewell – I have a girlfriend who is not Molly. And I love my girlfriend. So I mean no disrespect. but Molly is “da bomb.’ She’s like…two bombs. I first saw her perform at Starbucks. She was incredible. Whether she is just by herself or if she has a full band, she can really connect with the crowd. I think that is the key. I really don’t know if she is really that shy and awkward for real, but the way she plays it is very endearing. And so, when this girl gets up there and then decides to be amazing; you don’t know how to take it. She has a really funny song about being felt up by a doctor? Ok. Well, check her stuff out.
http://www.myspace.com/mollyjewell

4. The Billy Goats – 247, Iller, & DJ Eticut have been talked about and blogged about a lot around town. It was a no-brainer to bring them onto a BW show. The show they played for me was not well attended. I blame myself. Two months prior, we played a show together in the same venue and had 120 people there. Maybe it was too soon? Anyway, they are really good. Sadly, I didn’t get all 3 of them at my show. Wick-It the Instigator was their DJ instead of DJ Eticut. They just released their debut record. Check them out.
http://www.myspace.com/ilovethebillygoats

3. Get Got – Ray, Gary, & Skyler are three of the nicest guys you’ll meet. They performed at the last BW show ever held at Cafe Coco. They are a blend of funk, hip-hop, & electronica; the kind of genre (con)fusion that I always hope to bring to any Nashville show. They brought a lot of people to the show and those people were dancing! In Nashville, that’s a big deal for an indie show. This is kind of how it was anytime I saw them play. So I loved to book them. Check out their online demo; and go see them perform live!
http://soundcloud.com/origthedj/sets/get-got-demo

2. Derrek Phillips’ Manufactory – This has got to be the most skilled band I’ve ever booked. I couldn’t believe that they agreed to do the show! I was so excited. This was another genre fusion band: rock, hip-hop, jazz, electronica, r&b, all that. It wouldn’t be uncommon for Derrek, Paul, & Adam to write a new song as they were performing live. But it never sounded like they were writing. Up until they played the BW show, I felt like I knew this really great secret. Even though Paul wasn’t able to make the BW show, they are the band that I personally have received the most feedback about afterward. I would rank them #1 if not for the next band’s story. But Manufactory is wonderful and you should absolutely listen to them immediately and DEFINITELY see them live!
http://www.reverbnation.com/dpmanufactory

1. Tallest Trees – I just love this band. It’s strange because I think a lot of their influences are bands that I don’t listen to. However when you see them live, you immediately can deduce that this is an ambitious musical effort. I had seen them play a lot before, but by the time they played the BW show (the last one I’ve been able to do at Mercy Lounge); they were a two piece band officially (Thomas & Dabney), plus their drummer (Art). The reasons I put them at number one: They’re probably my favorite local band (note: I don’t consider Paper Route local anymore because they live on the road and haven’t played here in forever). Their BW performance specifically was absolutely brilliant. And what happened after they played was exactly what I had hoped would happen. I started seeing a lot of blogs and tweets pop up about them and the show. That’s really what I’ve hoped for each time I booked one of these shows! Check out Tallest Trees:
http://www.humantrees.com/tallesttrees/

So much great talent in Nashville performs to empty rooms or to indifferent crowds. These Blogworthy shows have just been a way for me to give another platform to a lot of great music that I see live. Plus it always ensured that I’d get to see some of these great bands! BlogWorthy is not dead; I don’t think. I haven’t gotten to do one in a while though. Keep your eyes open for more Blogworthy shows and for more Blogworthy artists and bands!

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