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embarrassing fruits live at dmp album cover


come hell or high water live at dmp album cover


sin tax live at dmp album cover


decoration ghost live at dmp album cover


the future kings of nowhere (solo) live at dmp album cover


the wigg report live at dmp album cover


amplify this live at dmp album cover


kristen leigh live at dmp album cover


randy furches live at dmp album cover


morgan mcpherson live at dmp album cover


filthybird live at dmp album cover


albina savoy live at dmp album cover


universal mathematics live at dmp album cover


mr. rozzi live at dmp album cover


bruce piephoff live at dmp album cover


The Tremors live at the dotmatrix project


Queen Anne's Revenge live at the dotmatrix project


The Leeves live at the dotmatrix project


Hammer No More The Fingers live at the dotmatrix project


The Bronzed Chorus live at the dotmatrix project


Laurelyn Dossett live at the dotmatrix project


janik live at the dotmatrix project


the tiny meteors live at the dotmatrix project


project tritium live at the dotmatrix project


The Raving Knaves Live at the dotmatrix project


tom beardslee live at the dotmatrix project


possum jenkins live at the dotmatrix project


dawn chorus live at the dotmatrix project


citified live at the dotmatrix project


old stone revue live at the dotmatrix project


The Radials Live at the dotmatrix project


Sorry About Dresden Live at the dotmatrix project

Archive Page 3

A Happy Accident In Art: Courtesy Of John Charles Gibbs

My inaugural post for the dotmatrix project concerns an art show that I stumbled upon quite by chance. I had just been soaking up the sounds of Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands and Amelia’s Mechanics at Center City Park, enjoying the summertime atmosphere of people enjoying live music outdoors, of kids running happily about and of vendors selling their wares. It’s a great scene. And it happens every Friday night for free.

The friend who was with me said she needed to check out a video on display at the Center for Visual Artists made by a friend of hers. I decided to tag along.

As a disclaimer, I will say that I don’t go to very many art shows. I think I’ve become jaded over the years by subjecting myself to pretentious drek. But in this instance, my cynicism was replaced by the delight of discovery. All thanks to John Charles Gibbs.

I stepped through the doorway to the Center for Visual Artists and did what I do when I shop for clothes: I breeze through the racks, rapidly scanning the merchandise for textures and colors that appeal to me. It is an inexplicable method that works for me.

I strolled past the various works in the gallery’s forefront, which remain in my mind a blur of muted colors and indefinite forms. At this point, I felt a mounting impatience. But for whatever reason, I persevered and made my way deeper inside the gallery.

I crossed a sort of threshold defined by the positioning of the viewing space and glanced briefly to my left. A bizarre portrait caught my eye. I wanted to turn away from it but it had me. I studied the flat color, the stark and disproportionate outline, the posture of the subject, the facial expression. It was a little unsettling but magnetic all at once.

When I’d taken my fill of the portrait, I glanced to the right of it. And there was my reward! There were the vivid colors, the decisive execution of form, the imaginative rendering of texture and a hint of fun.

Hanging in a row was a series of paintings depicting flowers in vases. The colors were crayola basics. The forms seemed inspired partially by Asian art and partially by Scottish painter, fabric and furnishings designer and architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh. And there was a sculptural quality to them created by what appeared to have been the hard end of the paintbrush etching outlines in thick acrylic paint.

It did not surprise me when I went deeper into the bowels of the gallery and discovered sculptures by this artist as well as more paintings: some graceful lilies in a vase, two whimsical chairs, a large tree made of plywood. Sitting off by themselves were a couple of landscapes and a portrait of a house. These generated a distinct sense of movement and a vibrant energy that, in my opinion, is rare in visual art. When I see it, my whole being responds with a celebratory, “Yay!”

I encourage you to view John Charles Gibbs’ paintings live and in person at the Center for Visual Artists on the second floor of the Cultural Arts Center at 200 N. Davie Street in Greensboro through June eleventh. Gallery hours are Tuesday 10-5, Wednesday 10-7, Thursday/Friday, Saturday 10-5 and Sunday 2-5. The exhibit is free. Call 336.333.7485 if I’ve missed anything that you need to know.

Hatchfest Asheville 2010: Words Can’t Do It Justice

Just over a week ago Elizabeth and I returned from Hatchfest Asheville 2010 where I was invited to speak on a panel entitled Building Creative Community.

I have to say, it’s a pretty cool experience to have doors open for you like this when you’re simply doing what you love to do. A big shout of thanks to both Nash and Bruce Roberts for introducing me to Sean O’Connell and this awesome event.

This decentralized conference, nestled in venues throughout downtown Asheville, was time well spent. We were able to take in the culture of the city — eating great food, watching films, catching live shows — while experiencing thought provoking panels and meeting some truly inspiring creative and business talents.

But I could go on and on. Instead of me babbling, check out a bit of what Elizabeth captured over the weekend.

‘Til next year’s Hatchfest!

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Our weeked kicked off with a killer tour of the Moog Music factory, courtesy of one Jason Daniello

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Purists might hate it, but the Moog guitar is capable of some truly innovative sonic goodness.

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Onto the Live at Moog Music studio, where Jason demonstrated all their goodies, from the Little Phatty to the out of this world Theremin.

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Later on Friday afternoon, we made our way downtown to catch a presentation titled, If a designer can imagine it… we can actually build it by Rajeev Kulkarni. Coming from the world of software design, I assumed I knew what this would be about. Wrong. Rajeev is the VP of Global Engineering at 3D Systems, the company that invented 3D printing. His presentation completely altered my understanding of modern manufacturing processes, no matter the industry. Pretty amazing stuff.

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After lunch we caught a panel discussion called, The End of General Interest: In the Digital Age, Does Niche Media Win?. The panelists consisted of Fritz Kramer (Producer, Frontline), Rachael Maddux (Editor, Paste), and Starre Vartan (Blogger, Eco Chick). Moderator: Jess McCuan (Editor, Verve)

Frank Bell

Matt Morris

Saturday evening, we caught Frank Bell opening for Matt Morris just hours after they spent the afternoon together writing and recording a song on the The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus.

After the music, we popped up the block to catch the amazing documentary, It Might Get Loud, sponsored by the good folks over at Moog Music. If you’re a music fan, the instruments and personalities will blow you away. I mean, Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White in one room? Each strapped with their sonic weapon of choice? Sick.

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Later than night, we stopped in for the gig at the innovator’s lounge. The sponsored (free) beer was pretty bad, but the party was fun and we got to chat with a bunch of fellow Groundbreakers and Mentors.

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Sunday afternoon, it was my turn to get on stage and share just what it is that we do in these here parts. Notice how I can’t stop speaking with my hands. Oy. The panel conversation focused primarily on the events we each put on and how we approach building community around them. From left to right are Molly Kummerle (Moderator and performer from Ruby Slippers), Matt Morris, Jason Wilkins (Owner Next Big Nashville), Catherine Enny (Guerilla Management & Power to the Peaceful Festival) and Jenny Greer (Music Video Asheville)

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Finally, a post panel Q&A at a nearby gallery where I had the pleasure of speaking with Erin Scholze from Dreamspider Publicity, Sarah Southerland (she’s trying to pull together artists out in rural Franklin, NC) and Ken Klehm who owns The Rocket Club in West Asheville, who didn’t have a card on him, so his name was stricken from my memory banks the moment we stopped talking.

Get The Folk Downtown!

Ah, the beautiful sound of guitars, mandolins, banjos and… cereal boxes with strings?

Tomorrow night, the dotmatrix project is teaming up with The Rooster’s Wife — a wonderful venue / gallery in Aberdeen, NC — to put on Get The Folk Downtown! at Studio B (520 S. Elm Street, down the alley next to The Broach Theater) here in downtown Greensboro. It’s a lineup of Folk and Americana talent, both from within the Triad and across the country, that you won’t want to miss.

Jennifer Dalton w/ Jack Benedict Bruce Piephoff w/ Scott Sawyer
jennifer dalton bruce piephoff
photo by Marc DeRoberts

 
The evening kicks off at 8pm sharp with Jennifer Dalton, an acoustic folk musician based in Greensboro, NC. Originally hailing from Gainesville, GA, Jennifer has been dividing her time between recording her first collection of music, performing locally in small, intimate venues, defending her PhD thesis and raising two wonderful children. Accompanying Jennifer will be Jack Benedict, an accomplished guitarist & mandolin player and long-time collaborator and friend. He’s a former member of the folk duo Mystk Dog and currently plays in the band Hanging Thread with other local musicians.

Following Jennifer is a set by local legend, Bruce Piephoff, who’ll be playing with Jazz guitarist extraordinaire, Scott Sawyer. Bruce has been writing and performing songs and poetry for over 40 years. He began in Chapel Hill, NC in the late 60’s while a student at UNC-Chapel Hill. He has recorded 20 CDs of original, independent, songs and poetry for Flyin’ Cloud Records, and has performed nationwide on the folk singer/songwritercircuit. Bruce just published his second book of poetry, Fiddlers and Middlers in 2009. He has shared the stage with Steve Forbert, Riders In The Sky, Greg Allman, Chuck Brodsky, Tom Paxton, and others, and has played everywhere from Merlefest to the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

Fresh out of high school, Scott met Bruce circa 1976 on Tate St. in Greensboro, NC. The untimely demise of a mutual & dear friend initiated their 1st performance together in almost 30 years in the summer of 2009. This encore performance will feature a set of Bruce’s music and poetry, spanning material from the 1970’s and forward. Fans of Townes van Zandt, Elizabeth Cotton, Dylan, Mississippi John Hurt, Joni Mitchell, the blues, roots music, the beat poets, Bukowski, jazz and more are urged to attend this “rare” collaboration.

Joe Craven Martha Bassett Band
joe craven martha bassett band
photo by Carolyn de Berry

 
The second half of the evening will get rolling with Joe Craven. Hailing from Dixon, California, Joe has been described as a madman with anything that has strings attached — violin, mandolin, tin can, bedpan, cookie tin, tenor guitar, mouth bow, banjo, berimbau, balalaika, boot ‘n lace — plus a world of percussion instruments including animal bones, squeeze toys, cake pans, waste cans, umbrella stands, martini shakers and Himself. Joe is an educator, former museum curator, visual artist, actor/storyteller, festival emcee and former 17-year vet for mandolinist David Grisman, He has recorded and played with folks ranging from jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli to Grateful Dead Guitarist Jerry Garcia to The Persuasions. We are extremely excited to have him for this show, with all credit due to Janet Kenworthy of The Rooster’s Wife.

North Carolinians have known the music of our featured act of the evening, Martha Bassett, for some time now, but in the past couple of years, she’s been finding a new audience throughout the southeast due to increased touring, her work on the Sony Classics film JUNEBUG, festival appearances, and numerous articles in the press. The Martha Bassett Band have opened for Lyle Lovett, played Merlefest, and although they are known for their ability to incorporate jazz, country, traditional, and rock standards into the live shows, it is their original music that fans appreciate most.

If you enjoy live music steeped in stringed instruments and beautiful lyrics, well, this is the show for you.

The DMP crew will be there documenting the event, as always. Tomorrow night’s team includes Dan Bayer (Sound Engineer), Stephen Charles & Doug Klesch (Photography) and Michael McQueen, Louis Bekoe and Ioannis Batsios (Videographers). This is an exciting evening for us, as it’s the first paid gig we’ve put on since we started documenting live shows two years ago this month. We can use all the support you can muster, so feel free to drag your neighbors out for a great time.

Tickets are $10 at the door and are also available with your debit or credit cards at Etix.

Hope to see you folk downtown!

Shayne Miel Live… And Don’t Forget It

When I opened the email from Shayne on the eve of the DMP show last July, asking if The Future Kings of Nowhere (Solo) could get on the bill, quite frankly, I didn’t know how to respond. I mean, he’s friends with The Wigg Report, our opening act for the evening, and I love FKoN’s music, but we had already scheduled the sound, film and photo crew for the evening — since they were all volunteer, I didn’t want to take their time and effort for granted.

In the end I caved. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Shayne is just that talented. So we worked out an abbreviated opening slot and agreed to forgo a music video.

Future Kings of Nowhere-9
photo by Doug Klesch

His set was sick. We should’ve filmed it.

Shayne has this uncanny ability to cut right through the uncertainty of a crowd and capture their attention with songwriting that somehow pushes the buttons of common denominator emotions, but in truly unique ways. I guess that’s just a blowhard way of saying the man can write a damn good tune.

That said, here’s the six track EP we recorded that evening.

FKoN album cover

LIVE ALBUM CREDITS
Recording Engineer: Dan Bayer
Mixing Engineer: Don Ravon
Album Design : Sean Coon
Album Photo: Jason Ellison

Since our show, Shayne’s life has been a roller-coaster ride — moving up to Brooklyn to see if his music could take off, getting the shitty news of being diagnosed with cancer, picking up and moving back to Durham and then jumping straight into undergoing chemo and radiation therapy. He also got married along the way, and while I’ve never met Rebekah, I’m sure she’s a major reason why he has such a great attitude and sense of humor about all of this. I mean, seriously, check out this post at his blog (now a movement), This Machine Kills Cancer.

How many people can joke about this kind of an experience?

shayne miel radiation album cover

Probably cancer patients. God bless ‘em.

All proceeds from Shayne’s Amie Street album go straight to his pocket, as well as sales from This Album Kills Cancer (a bunch of DMP musicians donated tracks to the cause).

If you consider yourself to be a supporter of the arts, particularly the art scene here in North Carolina, please consider purchasing one or both of the albums. Great music and a great cause. What could be better?

The Wigg Report: Therapy [Music Video]

You know, words can’t express how much fun The Wigg Report are live.

Enjoy!

MUSIC VIDEO CREDITS
Editor: Louis Bekoe
Camera: Mark Steinberg
Camera: Blake Faucette
Camera: Louis Bekoe
Sound: Danny Bayer
Sound: Don Ravon

This Report Just In… Wigg Out!

Ben Riseling, the sax/keyboard player of the Durham based pop punk trio, The Wigg Report, contacted me in the summer of 2007 to see if the band could get in on the Converge South Music Festival that I was in charge of producing that fall.

(To be clear: three original acts — Little Mascara and Thacker Dairy Road were the others — getting guaranteed money at a downtown venue pseudo-qualified the event as a “festival” in Greensboro back in the day.)

the wigg report
photo by Stephen Charles

Anyhow, I was happy to have them play, and at the last minute decided to document the show — my brother stepped up to shoot the video with me while Michael Dunn brought Stephen Charles along to shoot photographs of the evening.

While the music video didn’t have a clean audio track captured from the board and the cameras weren’t synced — we had to drop to black & white as a last resort — the experience of making the video and culling through all of the great shots of the evening was too much fun.

By all accounts, this show was the precursor to the dotmatrix project.

And that leads me to today. Two and a half years since their initial performance and eight months since their official DMP show, we here at HQ are proud to announce the release of The Wigg Report Live at the dotmatrix project. There’s not much you can enjoy on this spinning chunk of rock for $1.30. This album definitely qualifies.

Please support your local artists and download the tracks today.

the wigg report album cover

ALBUM CREDITS
Recording Engineers: Don Ravon, Dan Bayer
Mixing Engineer: Don Ravon
Cover Design: Sean Coon
Cover Photograph: Doug Klesch

Amplify This: It’s OK

Steve, Chuck and Tim rocked out & Louis Bekoe caught it in action.

MUSIC VIDEO CREDITS
Editor: Louis Bekoe
Camera: Mark Steinberg, Blake Faucette, Louis Bekoe
Sound: Danny Bayer, Don Ravon

Amplify This: Making Music In The Shadows

Amplify This
photo by Jason Ellison

To say that Chuck Folds, Steve Williard and Tim Poole — the Amplify This crew — are a staple on the music scene in these parts would be an understatement.

If we didn’t document these guys, it’d be like pretending that yellow cabs never existed in NYC. Come to think of it, these guys put on about the same amount of mileage each day — Steve and Chuck play in three other bands (Big Bang Boom, Rubberband and Steve & Chuck) and write music for numerous sports teams, while Tim also holds down the longtime cover band Suckerpunch.

If there’s such a thing as a blue collar musician, these guys bring their lunch boxes to work.

Chuck Folds in the spotlight
photo by Doug Klesch

With a dedication of playing music not only for fun and the potential of personal gain — these guys play to support their families — it was nice to be in a position to shine a spotlight on their work, though I have to admit it was Chuck Folds’ story that interested me the most.

As much as I can relate to the closeness between brothers, I also know how a sibling rivalry has the potential to deteriorate the very same relationship. Looking in from the outside over the years, I often wondered how Chuck and his uber famous and music prodigy brother, Ben Folds, got along, but I have way too much respect for a sibling situation to ever ask. Luckily, Chuck felt he needed a release in the form of a song, which he performed for us last July.

Shadow of a Genius

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It doesn’t get much more real than that.

It’s been almost nine months since their DMP show, so we’re happy to finally be able to announce the release of Amplify This Live at the dotmatrix project. Purchasing this release at Amie Street puts money directly into the pockets of these guys, and the album starts as a FREE download, going up in price as more people purchase it. Currently, you can get this 10 track release for only $.94.

Show these guys some love and tap the piggy bank, won’t you?

amplify this album cover
photo by Jason Ellison

ALBUM CREDITS
Recording Engineers: Don Ravon, Dan Bayer
Mixing Engineer: Don Ravon, Cesar Oviedo
Mastering: Cesar Oviedo
Cover Design: Sean Coon
Cover Photograph: Jason Ellison

Kyle Rhines Photography: Israel Darling

If you missed the intensity of the last dotmatrix project show with Israel Darling and The Brand New Life, you can still get a glimpse of the night through the photographers who documented the show. It was an inaugural show for Kyle Rhines whose work ranges from photojournalism to commercial. To see more of his great work, take a look at his website.

DMP / Green Bean / March 5th, 2010

Anna Harris on violin

DMP / Green Bean / March 5th, 2010

Jacob Darden – lead vocals, guitar

For more photos from this show and previous shows, check out the dotmatrix project flickr site.

Stephen Charles Photography: Israel Darling

Stephen Charles is at it again with fabulous shots from DMP’s March show at the Green Bean! Check out all of Stephen’s work on his website.

DMP / Green Bean / 030510

DMP / The Green Bean / 030510

Jacob Darden – lead vocals, guitar

To see more photographs from this show and others, take a look at our flickr site.