Backseat Sandbar

Roughly 6 months out, we’re Halfway to Forecastle, and to celebrate, JK brought out a diverse group of artists to the Green Building on Market. Despite the cold and some electrical issues due to the greeness of the building, the show went really well.  The first thing anyone would notice the moment they entered the concert area, after passing through the sponsorship room with Louisville Public Media, Jansport, Louisville Water Alliance, Ohio Valley Creative Energy, etc.  was a series of large screens projecting images of previous Forecastle photos, interviews, etc, all of which are mashed together with some intriguing effects. People came in from all over, including a huge group of cool kids in from Cincinnati.

The show started roughly around 7:30 with Louisville-based jazz band Squeeze-bot armed to the teeth with an accordion, tuba, banjo and drums and not at all afraid to cover Elliot Smith.  That is exactly why this is one of Louisville’s more important bands that you need to see.  Following Squeeze-bot, we experienced a little power outage, which slowed down the next stage of the night, and forced several of the heaters to be turned off as well as many of the lights being turned off.  Next in line were the Cincinnati-based rock trio Buffalo Killers, who were introduced by the Louisville Water Alliance, and who might have been a smidgen too loud for the space because they nearly blew my eardrums out.  The Buffalo Killers are what it means to be a rock band, and are kept in good company having shared the stage with the Black Crowes as well as the Black Keys, as well as having had their latest album produced by the Black Keys’ guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach. Following, a big chunk of the crowd showed up for Ekoostik Hookah.  Hippies everywhere showed en masse to catch the iconic jam band who put on just the type of show you’d like to see.  Forecastle tends to mix together indie rock & hippie, and EH provided the later for the night.  Following EH was Jansport’s Battle of the Bands winner Broderick, who put on a much better than expected show.  You never know what you’ll get with a Battle of the Bands winner, but I was pleasantly surprisde by the talent these guys showed up with.  The best thing is that, out of the 1400+ submissions from across the country, these guys just happen to be based out of Bloomington, IN.  Our friend Dodge at My Old KY Blog has made his feelings well known about the evolving group, and we can’t help but echo the sentiment that these kids may well have a good future ahead of them with a very tight sound for such a young band, and a great stage presence.  Following Broderick was the band I was most excited to catch, The Protomen, who kicked off Forecastle last year at the Glassworks opening party.  Keith Robbins had gotten some great video of that performance (Promo Video 1, Promo Video 2).  The Protomen have been making some recent changes, relocating from the land of Thundercon to America, but continuing the epic struggle against Megaman from our National shores.  The bands debut album is described as a Rock Opera about their war against video game legend Megaman.  In full armor, The Protomen took a break from their battle to call all participants to arms against Megaman by playing us for the music fans we are.  You’ll see from the photos below, but several persons from the army came into the crowd, dressed for battle.  Perhaps one of my favorite moments of the night happened when we caught part of the crew dancing to OK DJz spinning vinyl upstairs where Narwhal & A.Bell kept kids warm all night by going track after track of great dance music for dancing close and sweating on one another.  Protomen’s act thrives on schtick and recontextualizing rock with elements of Nintendo 64 while reworking kitsch characters into rock legends.  It’s the kind of set where they’re just as likely to use an 80s ballad to talk about destroy planets as they are making love to robot-girls.  Put that together wiht an energetic, raucous live show and you’ve got got the makings of concept-band legend.   DJ 2nd Nature finished the night with those fans still going strong around 1am.

We had the opportunity to interview Squeeze-bot, Broderick & The Protomen, so be sure to look out for each of those soon to come.

For more photos, (more…)

Lawlapalooza is the Louisville legal community’s annual battle of the bands, staged since 2005, to benefit the Judge Ellen B. Ewing Foundation. The Judge Ellen B. Ewing Foundation was established at the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law in 2005 with generous gifts from the Louisville Bar Foundation and the Women Lawyers Association. The fund provides up to $4,000 in summer fellowship funding for a University of Louisville law student to work in the areas of family law, domestic violence and spouse abuse, and HIV/AIDS.

October 2, 2008 @ Phoenix Hill Tavern.  Tix are $25 ($5 for students).

SCHEDULE
6:00 PM Doors Open
6:30 PM Schuyler Olt
7:00 PM Assault with a Deadly Weapon
7:30 PM Elvis Cardozo & the Attractive Nuisances
8:00 PM The Frank Galvin Experience
8:30PM 100% Legal
9:00 PM Freakin’ Sweet
9:30 PM HeadTap
10:00 PM Shine-Ola
10:20 PM Voting Ends/ Votes Tallied
10:30 PM Winner Announced

More info here.

I posted earlier about the upcoming Battle of the Bands at Headliner’s going down on March 9th and on March 30th and I was really psyched about it because the line-up included a lot of bands that I like to see around town. That said, there was some commotion over on the 502 Scene message board (back in late 2007) regarding the possible shady business practices of the event’s promoter, Gorilla Productions and it has resurfaced as this event approaches. You can go here and read all they have to say, but I’ll sum it up for you. Apparently a company under the name Jam Solid ran a similar competition and had a practice of putting on these shows and then not following through with the finals. I found that the main issue was that the production company was taking too much of the pie based on the work from the bands selling tickets (someone broke out the calculator). The theory is that Gorilla Productions, based 8 miles from Jam Solid, is run by the same people. One guy even said that the Wave 3 Troubleshooters should be called to action. Several people on the message board had made attempts to contact both production companies and had no response. As a result of all this hoopla at least two bands, Weber and Local Villians, have pulled out of the competition, and I wouldn’t be surprised if more did the same.

On the flip side, there were comments regarding the fact that the system is fair because for some bands, the chance to get to play at a venue like Headliner’s is worth the effort. It would be nice to tell your kids that you played on the same stage as the long list of talent that has played there.

You can make your own opinion, but I wanted to give a heads-up. If anyone has info from either production company or has more updated info, I would love to hear from you. Please comment below.

UPDATE:

Brandon from Gorilla Productions posted this comment below:

“Hello everyone who is reading this blog. I am Brandon from Gorilla Productions. I actually booked these shows that are in question. I urge anyone who has any questions about any of my shows to call me or email me with any concerns. Jam solid is NOT the same company as ours. In fact, we are currently in a lawsuit with them for the reasons that are brought up in this blog. I am not at liberty to talk about anything that concerns them because of that. I believe that what my company does is very good for the bands and I have also been in contact with the local Villains and we are totally on great terms. I urge anyone to email me that has any questions about this situation so I can clear up anything that is in question. I am also a musician and would NEVER dick over any band that I have worked with. You can ask anyone who has worked with me and they will assure you that I am legit. I don’t even understand how this happened and I will not stop until our name has cleared. My number is on our web site so if you want to call me I would be glad to talk to whoever has any questions. Thank you and rock on!”

Here is his contact info if you want to take him up on his offer.

The Instruction is a band from right here in Louisville. You may have seen them around town playing random live shows, but here is your chance to check out a few songs and a music video. They are extremely talented and have a great sound, ala The Pixies/Mars Volta. The next chance you will have to see them live is on March 30th at Headliner’s for the Battle of the Bands. Tix are $8 bucks and you can get one in advance from the band here (the more tix they sell, the better slot they get at the show). Here are our favorite songs from their demo, Failure By Design:

The Instruction- Mayday
The Instruction- Change in the Merge
The Instruction- Hello Darlin’

Music Video: The Instruction- “Mayday”