the dotmatrix project

Music doesn’t just happen; music evolves into existance. From tangible chords to sweet harmonies to lyrics that appear from life’s ups and downs, music become real through patience, guidance, sacrifice and plain old hard work.

Blood, sweat & tears, if you will.

These talented women found each other, discovered their gait and with the assistance of Jim Avett, produced one hell of an album in their own time, as they envisioned it to be experienced. Won’t you support the miracle of that happening?

Tomorrow night, the North, South CD release party is happening at The Blind Tiger.

Enjoy every minute of it.

I know it’s a Tuesday night, but c’mon, you know you don’t hit the sack until 11pm or so. Even if you show up for an hour, you’ll be doing your part to help out our neighbors in Haiti.

There’ll be great original, local music, high energy DJ’s, fantastic artists at work and a silent auction of DMP photographs from shows past.

Hope to see you there.

Bart Trotman, the funkiest DJ/sound maker this side of a Mad Max meets Buckaroo Bonzai dance party (look it up, kids), has dropped his latest Workday/Schoolnight effort entitled, Plastic Ocean (available free here for a limited time).

Invisible’s beat maker gives some details behind the project:

A year and a half ago Workday/Schoolnight stopped being just a recording project when I took it to various venues, houses and apartments around NC. This meant writing songs and organizing sounds based on the equipment I would have with me. All my other Workday/Schoolnight albums were very much a product of the recording process. This new album, “Plastic Ocean”, is a combination of songs written for performance as well as experiments utilizing home recording technology. However, the overall idea here was to record an album that would preserve the themes and songs of the live shows of the past year.

Using roughly 6 different consumer keyboards from the 1980s (casios, yamahas, kawais), a hammond rhythm machine, a bank of drum samples, and dozens of cassette tapes bought from thrift stores (as well as some other stuff), “Plastic Ocean” flows between experimental found sounds and synth-punk songs. Clocking in at over 70 minutes, “Plastic Ocean” keeps the listener tuned in by often times speaking directly to him or her. So, this may not be the best album to listen to while multitasking. The themes of alienation, working, pessimism about the state of the world, and general good ole antiestablishmentarianism found in the sung lyrics are put in an unsettling light when juxtaposed with self-help tapes, self-hypnotic tapes, daily affirmations, and vocabulary lessons

I’m listening as I write this post. Bart wasn’t kidding. I gotta sign off and take it in sans blogging.

Check it out.

UPDATE: Track 17, Affirmations, is killing me.

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DMP’s first show in the Triangle was inches from being cancelled last Friday night. Actually about four to five inches to be precise. As sleet and snow quickly turned driving in a straight line a pleasant memory, I had my doubts about the turnout for this show that we had been planning for almost half a year. Thankfully, those doubts were eased by the determined crowd that filled the Duke Coffeehouse to hear the Drughorse Collective play.

photo credit: Stephen Charles Photography

Comprised of talents from nine interweaving bands throughout the Triangle (keeping a tab on the actual numbers gets a bit blurry), the Drughorse Collective is producing some of the most exciting music in this area today. They clearly win the award for the most collaborative. There are distinct musical presences amongst the Drughorse Collective and yet they’ve done a remarkable job of not stepping on each other’s toes when constructing songs or performing. A Max Indian song is clearly going to sound different from one written by Ryan Gustafson and yet members of both bands are performing together seamlessly on stage. Members of the audience were treated to three very different bands on Friday night but these bands had more or less the same lineup, albeit with the musical chairs switched.

photo credit: Stephen Charles Photography

The Light Pines were the first to warm up the crowd coming in from the elements. This is a band that thrives on explosive stabs of drums and shaking bass from Josh Pope. Check out “Climbing Towards You” off the Myspace to see what I mean. This is music that can tower above you at times. Clear guitar lines from Carter Gaj of Max Indian danced over a thick layer of dual synthesizers. Songs featured the driving comfort of swelling chords over heavy-handed drums that built and lifted the groove out of washed out guitar. Capable of intricate polyrhythms for one bar and then an all out slamming, bashing explosion of the lower end on the next, the rhythm section of the Light Pines was at times more captivating than the melodies of the songs. Never having heard this band before, they quickly caught my attention Friday night and I’m pumped to get my hands on a copy of their record once it’s released for mass consumption.

photo credit: Stephen Charles Photography

Ryan Gustafson and his appropriately-titled-for-the-night Snow Angels came on second. There’s a tender quality that runs thoughout his music. They’re songs of departure and of loss that conjure Gram Parsons and that classic era in the Stones catalogue where he and Keef Richards were closest. These are songs obviously written in transit from one far away place to the next and they seem to take on a different meaning when sung back at home in Carolina. Gustafson takes on the role of the observer in his music and his contemporary folk sketches are some of the most captivating I’ve heard in recent memory. Songs like “Sudden Sadness” feature the forlorn warmth of harmonies over finger-picked guitar. “Soul Train (Red or Black)” got the kids up and dancing with its swirling breakdown in the chorus which lifts into the pained release of “please don’t go.” Live, “Let Go” had more punch than Gustafon’s version featured on the Donkey LP, but the band still captured the remarkable pain inside the song, that overwhelming sense of simply being unable. And the solo on the song’s outro still causes something inexplicable to happen in my skull every time.

photo credit: Stephen Charles Photography

Max Indian, a band never to be seen onstage without at least one fedora, has been a continually evolving act for several years now, centered around Carter Gaj and James Wallace. There’s a pop sensibility that runs through their songs which draws you in instantly. The message and feel are overtly positive without the saccharine that can sometimes come with easily appealing music. The riffs and melodies conjure the Faces in a way; music that quickly brings at least a grin as you sing along with the hook. Charles Cleaver on board with his keys brings additional warmth, filling in spaces between infectious riffs. They unveiled two new songs Friday night in addition to others heard on their 2008 release, You Can Go Anywhere, Do Anything.

photo credit: Stephen Charles Photography

Meteorologically-speaking, we may have unwittingly picked the absolute worst night to bring DMP to the Triangle. Nonetheless it was a suprisingly great turnout though it was no suprise that the music was excellent. Thanks again to Michael Reklis and the bands for an unforgettable night which is sure to be the first of many in the Triangle.

Live music, Dotmatrix style.

Early morning, February 1, 2010, as I stood in-between the driving lanes of Elm Street alongside hundreds of others anticipating the opening of the International Civil Rights Center & Museum, I felt awestruck.

photo credit: Dan Routh Photography

It may have been the combination of moving words from Doctor Franklin McCain, Senator Kay Hagen and a host of other speakers.  Or it may have been an emotional release brought on by the lack of sleep I endured to be downtown at eight o’clock in the morning (not my usual modus operandi).  The simple truth of the matter, though, is that an integral part of History — not just Black History, or American History, but Human History — had unfolded less than a block from where we all stood.

Exactly fifty years had passed since that day, and about two decades had passed since the Center & Museum was originally commissioned.  I remember, even as an adolescent, being concerned about the future of the historic site.  It really is something in which every resident of Greensboro (especially those native to the city like myself) can find pride…and it honestly brought a few tears to my eyes.

So, on February 1, 1960, four seemingly ordinary Greensboro residents were inspired to do the extraordinary.  In recent weeks, I’ve wondered how many other “ordinary” North Carolinians have proven themselves capable of extraordinary feats.  I began searching for icons in the world of music whose origins can be found in the Tarheel State.

I ended up finding a long, long list of musicians all born here in North Carolina.  An abridged list (very abridged) is as follows:

John Coltrane (b. Hamlet, NC, 9/23/26–7/17/67)

photo by vanveen1967

Thelonius Monk (b. Rocky Mount, NC, 10/10/17–2/17/82

photo by Ben Pearce

Maceo Parker (b. Kinston, NC, 2/14/43

photo by dimervansanten

Nina Simone (b. Tryon, NC, 2/21/33–4/21/03)

Shirley Caesar (b. Durham, NC, 10/13/38

photo by Brendan Hoffman

George Clinton (b. Kannapolis, NC, 10/22/41)

photo by Pix Gremlin

Roberta Flack (b. Black Mountain, NC, 2/10/37)

photo by Sweeping Zen

Ben E. King (b. Henderson, NC, 9/28/38)

photo by Live at J&R

Max Roach (b. Township of Newland (Pasquotank County), NC, 1/10/24–8/16/07)

photo by lieberkater

The list grew to be far more extensive than I had imagined.  In the world of Jazz alone, there were a great number of influential figures born, raised, or educated in North Carolina.  I can only imagine what names and faces I might be able to add to this list — whether it’s five, ten or twenty years from now, or maybe even five, ten or twenty months from now!

(Information gathered from the following sites: North Carolina Jazz Musicians, Wikipedia)

William Dawson of The Alcazar Hotel brought high energy to The Green Burro for the October Dotmatrix show.

To see more of Julie’s work, check out her blog.

Josh Johnson’s one man band, Pinche Gringo, gets backup from Liza Jane on maracas and Jimmy Brad on guitar.

Hearing the blues Pinco Gringo style.

To see more of Julie’s work, check her blog

The Alcazar Hotel performs October 29, 2009 at the Green burro. Members from left to right: Edward Stanley (guitar), Steve Newton (drums), William Dawson (lead vocals) and Adam Dodds (bass).

William Dawson serenades Julie Welch.

Check out more of Michael Dunn’s work on his blog

Josh Johnson in his one man band, Pincho Gringo, performing at The Green Burro.

An audience member gets comfortable as he takes in the garage/blues sounds.

To see more of Michael Dunn’s work, check out his blog.

Will Dawson connects with camera and crowd.

Fans become part of The Alcazar Hotel’s performance as Will Dawson moves off the stage and into the crowd.

To see more of my work, check out my blog.