Backseat Sandbar

The ninth Midpoint Music Festival is reloading in Cincy and is scheduled for September 23-25. The acts include J. Glenn from Louisville. Wussy, Pomegranates, Buffalo Killers, The Seedy Seeds, and more from Cincy. Also look for a ton of huge acts like Van Dyke Parks, Justin Townes Earle, Tom Tom Club, Caribou, Elf Power, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, Holy Fuck, Cults, Surfer Blood, Best Coast, and others.

Tickets are available at ear X-tacy. 

Here is the line-up so far…
A Place to Bury Strangers (Brooklyn);
Adrien and the Fine Print (Nashville);
Annie and the Beekeepers (Brooklyn);
Barnaby Bright (Brooklyn);
Best Coast (Los Angeles);
Black Owls (Granville);
Boutros (Chicago);
Brighton MA (Chicago);
Buffalo Killers (Cincinnati);
Candy Claws (Fort Collins);
Caribou (Dundas, ON);
Clare and the Reasons (Brooklyn);
Clovers (Cleveland);
Colour Revolt (Oxford, MS);
Cults (New York);
Death On Two Wheels (Atlanta);
Drink Up Buttercup (Philadelphia);
Elf Power (Athens);
Early Day Miners (Bloomington);
Fang Island (Brooklyn);
Forest City Lovers (Toronto);
Gaby Moreno (Los Angeles);
Gentleman Jesse and His Men (Atlanta);
Gringo Star (Atlanta); Ha Ha Tonka (Missouri);
High Heels (Germany);
Holy F*ck (Toronto);
House of Heros (Columbus);
J. Glenn (Louisville);
Justin Townes Earl (Nashville);
Ketch Harbour Wolves (Toronto);
Light Pollution (Chicago);
Magnolia Mountain (Cincinnati);
Male Bonding (London);
Margot and The Nuclear So and So’s (Indianapolis);
Milktooth (Nashville);
Natural Child (Nashville);
O’Brother (Atlanta);
Oh Dorian (Macon);
Oh My God (Chicago);
Orgone (North Hollywood);
Overnight (New York);
Phantogram (Saratoga Springs);
plus/minus (Brooklyn);
Pomegranates (Cincinnati);
Richard Buckner (Brooklyn);
River City Extension (Toms River);
Run With Bulls (Nashville);
Sam Lamont (Morgantown);
Say It With A Smile (Champaign);
Seabird (Cincinnati);
Sea Wolf (Los Angeles);
Shiny and the Spoon (Cincinnati);
Shonen Knife (Japan);
Soapland (Cincinnati);
Star & Micey (Memphis);
Surfer Blood (West Palm Beach);
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists (D.C.);
The Bastard Suns (Atlanta);
The Coppertone (King City);
The Delta Saints (Nashville);
The Hounds Below (Cumberland);
The Lions Rampant (Cincinnati);
The Prohibitionists (Cincinnati);
The Ready Stance (Cincinnati);
The Right Now (Chicago);
The Seedy Seeds (Cincinnati);
The Strange Boys (Austin);
The Sundresses (Cincinnati);
The Tillers (Cincinnati);
The Tony Castles (Brooklyn);
The Young Republic (Nashville);
Tom Tom Club (Aurora);
Unicycle Loves You (Chicago);
Unwed Sailor (Tulsa);
Van Dyke Parks (Pasadena);
Via Tania (Chicago);
Villagers (Dublin);
Wussy (Cincinnati);
You, You’re Awesome (Cincinnati)

As a few of you know, I have a few musical projects that take up a lot of my time, and one of them is the indie-folk band Bro. Stephen which just finished up a month-long tour and which will keep me out of Louisville for quite some time.  Now, you will have to excuse the shameful self-promotion because this really isn’t about me.  This is about all of the bands that I’ve met and will meet along the way and who you should check out and support in hopes that we can lure a few of these acts to play in Louisville in the near future.

Just last weekend I caught up with one of the most exciting bands in the country: Cincinnati’s The Seedy Seeds.  TSS closed up the opening night of the Midpoint Music Festival in Cincinnati, OH at Cincinnati’s famed Contemporary Arts Center.  I have had the pleasure to catch this band quite a few times in the past 6 months since they’ve played Skull Alley a few times (to a lucky few folks) and even played the Buzzgrinder Birthday Bash at The Rud with J Roddy Walston and The Business (which was one of the most fun shows in Louisville I’ve ever been too).  That’s not to mention the times I’ve caught them in their native Cincinnati where they are indie-pop royalty with the support of their city like Louisville hasn’t seen since The Merediths (remember them?).  Their set at MPMF had over 200 people crammed into a hot, sweaty room totally blissing out on every note and beat that came from the stage. (more…)

MidPoint Music Festival, an amazing event up in Cincinnati, is now taking applications for the 2009 festival (Sept. 24-26, 2009).  We were there for two of the days last year to see Why? and Mates of State, among others, and had a blast.  We would love to see Louisville represented at this fest so get your app in by the deadlines below.  Good Luck.

Submissions are open now!

Early Deadline is April 17, 2009

Late Deadline is May 1, 2009

Accepted MPMF2009 performers will be notified by May 30, 2009

GO HERE FOR MORE INFO ON YOUR APP SUBMISSION

Details From the MidPoint Music Fest Webpage:

MidPoint Music Festival is the Midwest’s premier independent music festival. Now celebrating its eighth year, MPMF2009 will be held on September 24 – 26 throughout the downtown Cincinnati area. The festival lives up to its slogan, Music Starts Here, by bringing the region together to celebrate the music of nearly 250 bands from all around the world.

The festival atmosphere is always friendly and supportive as musicians, fans and professionals all enjoy the midwests annual musical mecca. MPMF focuses on helping emerging artists gain quality exposure by performing for a dedicated and passionate audience. MPMF2008 also featured special performances from Robert Pollard, Mates of State, Why?, Jukebox The Ghost, Felice Brothers, Ha Ha Tonka, Sonic Boom, Radio 4, The Sadies, AA Bondy and introduced the first of MPMF’s ongoing independent record label showcases.

MidPoint Music Festival 2009 has expanded by adding several new stages to keep up with the growing MPMF audience and the increasing quality of MPMF submissions. MPMF2009 intends to showcase the most performances of it’s eight year history.

MPMF2009 is now accepting submissions from Sonicbids artists for general performance consideration. Compensation is offered, but is negotiated at the time of booking. The promoter has requested that all EPKs include 3 full-length original songs.

The band with the undisputed (in my mind) best album of the year, Why?, whose Alopecia garnered a undervalued 8.2 on Pitchfork, will be playing Cincinnati’s MidPoint Music Festival on September 25th. Back in March when I saw Why? with Thao Nguyen (one of the other best artists of the year), Yoni told us we’d see him again in the Fall.  While the entire schedule isn’t announced, Pomegranates, Boston Spaceships, The Purrs, Backyard the Fire, and Mystery Palace will also be there.

If you’re not yet a Why? fan, buy Alopecia, then get the entire back catalog in reverse chronological order (the albums are progressively easier to listen to).

For the full tour schedule, (more…)

Cursive is coming to Cincinnati along with Capgun Coup to get everyone excited for this year’s Midpoint Music Festival. I guess it’s intending to be a toned-down Halfway to Forecastle type deal.  The show is Wednesday April 9 @ Below Zero Lounge (1120 Walnut Street, Downtown Cincinnati) starting at 8pm, so you can get up for work the next morning.  The Midpoint Music Festival started in 2002 in Cincinnati’s Over the Rhine district with 10,000 people and has grown more than 5 fold since. I saw Cursive 2 years ago at Lollapalooza and it was an incredible show.  Their discography is huge, and I consider them to be amongst the more important and under-appreciated bands of today.

Doors open at 7, Capgun Coup goes on at 8, Cursive at 9.  However, you should get there early if you can, because upstairs there is a free party with cheap beer & free food to announce some of the things that will be going on at this year’s Midpoint Music Festival.  Don’t get too excited though…the line-up isn’t expected to be released until late July for the late September festival.

Click here to buy your tickets online!

Cursive - Bad Sects
Cursive - Dorothy at Forty