It’s time for me to shut up.
For all the times I complain quietly to myself about feeling left out or slept on, this is definitely not one of those times. On Saturday, I’ll be one of the DJs as part of 9 Deep, this weekend’s Mashville event. Mashville is the monthly DJ event showcasing great DJs in the area. It’s always an honor to be a part of a such a fun event. Definitely come check it out. Also, check out the Mashville blog plus their bandcamp page.
247 is a good friend of mine here in town, but more importantly he’s the hidden force behind a lot of great things happening in Nashville! 247 has done a lot of production for other artists around town, including my friend Spoken Nerd. I’ve told you about him before because he’s one-third of The Billy Goats. Also, he appeared on the Machismo EP.
One of my favorite things he’s done was his project with BlackatSylvesta & Ugly Lovely called Out of Place. 247 is the main lyricist in the project. You can get their entire Genetic Defects album for free by going to the Out Of Place Bandcamp page. Or just play it here.
He’s been doing a lot of video production as well. Recently, he began an online interview series highlighting some of his favorite artists around Nashville. You can catch interviews he’s done with James Fate, Bobby Exodus & Spoken Nerd on his youtube channel. Finally, I was able to “take my talents” to 247’s place and shoot an interview video plus a live performance featuring Jed Smith on drums. Take a look!
We are in the 6th month of a 12 month year and I wonder what I have to show for it. My dreams of doing music full time have been hanging on for dear life. Why? I could blame poor time management, insufficient hustle, cluttered workspace, etc. But I’m going to blame all of the above. Yet, these are silent killers. I wouldn’t have noticed it until the finale of LOST a couple of weekends ago. In fact, a bunch of my favorite shows ended for good this year: LOST, 24, Heroes, & FlashForward. I’ve been obsessed with watching these shows instead of getting Quiet Entertainer off the ground.
Here’s how it happens. I don’t watch TV on actual TV. I use Hulu and Yidio to watch pretty much everything I’m going to watch. I think if I watched on the regular timetable, I’d at least be able to say “oh I’ll work on music until 24 comes on.” But as it is; I can watch at anytime; and I’ve been lazy and finding an urgency to get things done. I love Hulu and Yidio, but in this case it’s been sucking all my time! I blame myself. But who could resist watching every clip and web exclusive of LOST leading up to the finale? And Jack Bauer’s finale season: How far will he go?? And a Hulu bonus! the entire series of the A-Team is on Hulu right now! Should I watch the entire series before I go see the movie in theaters?
I wouldn’t have noticed the slow death of my music career if not for a few artists. Let’s look at The Hood Internet. They recently came through Nashville on their tour. I had never heard of them before but they were booked to play Mashville, Nashville’s monthly DJ party. So, I went online to check them out and they had released 9 free mixtapes over the past 3 years! How did I miss this? So I downloaded just 4 mixtapes (for free) and I instantly had 4 hours of music to listen to. Well these guys aren’t lazy. This exact thing happened when Pretty Lights came through half a year ago. I had never heard of him, but he was coming to Nashville so I looked him up. He had four free records on his site too! I don’t know when he started but I think it’s also been 3 or 4 years his current setup. I downloaded it all and had about 4 or 5 hours of music with which to get acquainted. I’m a big fan of both now.
This discussion made me remember a blog post I read a while back from Justin over at AudibleHype.com asking Is Touring Really Necessary? I encourage artists of any genre looking to do this for a living to go read that. Long story short though, He says the five core ingredients to success without touring are:
1. Great Music
2. Easily Accessible
3. Prolific Output
4. Evangelist Fans
5. Low Overhead
I had to look around; is anyone doing this in my town? DJ Wick-It is pretty close. I think he’s got at least 4 of those 5 goin for him if not all 5. He’s got all of his (very dope hip-hop & dubstep) music available on his soundcloud page. Also, Spoken Nerd is super prolific. Since I’ve known him, he’s always put out a lot of music and is always thinking two records ahead. Check his latest from his bandcamp.
So, I am looking to these artists for inspiration. With some of my favorite shows out of the way, I have no excuse. I have to get to work and make actual music. I know my e-mail list will keep me accountable. Maybe you will too. So thankfully, I don’t have to worry about Jack Shepard OR Jack Bauer. At least not until the 24 movie comes out.
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My friend Spoken Nerd recently released his new record, Apocalypse Awareness Day. On that record, he has a sick track with Listener of Deepspace 5 called “The Dark Lords of the Cupcake Forest.” I guess it’s kind of a battle track for emcees in a mythological, video-game themed wonderland. Anyway, he did a remix contest for the song. I entered but didn’t win. I think you can hear the winning remix on Spoken Nerd’s myspace. However, you can hear my version right here:
The Dark Lords of the Cupcake Forest – feat. Spoken Nerd & Listener (Quiet Entertainer remix) by Quiet Entertainer
And if you’re interested, you can hear the original song & you can download Spoken Nerd’s Apocalypse Awareness Day from his bandcamp page.
Usually, I go through these spurts where I get really into an artist. Then I go and try to find everything I can of theirs and listen to it. I thought I’d let you know about my most recent 5 artists and bands with which I have done this. Here we go!
1. Pretty Lights – It’s really easy with Pretty Lights because his entire discography is online for free! I’d say it’s electronic music with hip-hop and dubstep tendencies. I think the guy performs live as a DJ and then has a drummer with him for shows. Again, his whole catalog is online at his website! That’s great!
2. Blue Sky Black Death – I found these guys while listening to my Pandora station. I love it. Listen to all those samples. All of those sounds. I think they are playing live instruments in there too! I can’t tell what is sampled and what is real-live. That’s what I’m talking about. Hard to find a lot of their stuff online. But I did see their myspace page.
3. Emancipator – I got lucky on this one. He was recently on tour and came here to Nashville. I didn’t have anything going on; I decided to check him out online first to decide if I wanted to go out. I was blown away! It’s such amazing music! He’s a DJ/producer. He also plays guitar. I saw him do it live. I don’t know if he plays any other instruments. Can’t wait to check it out again though! Listen to everything on his bandcamp page!
4. Pigeon John – I’ve been a Pigeon John fan for a long time. He’s got a pretty extensive discography and it would take a while to listen to everything he’s got. Also, he does a LOT of guest features on other people’s records. But anyway, he’s really unique and different in the world of hip-hop but really really GOOD. I lucked out and saw him live a year or so ago play in some art gallery. I’d love to see him play live in front of a lot of hip-hop fans in a bar or something; just to see how it would go!
5. This Will Destroy You – I found these guys on Pandora. At first, I didn’t really listen much to them. However, I was telling someone about Saxon Shore (another band I found on Pandora); and they started telling me about This Will Destroy You. I went back and gave them another listen. Wow! I like ambient post-rock a lot. So this was an easy fit for me.
Well? Who are you listening to these days? Let me know in the comments.
