the dotmatrix project

This is what happens when artists get psyched about an upcoming show.

Awesome!

Please feel free to post around town.

Poster design by Suzanne Stafford of Come Hell or High Water.

Photo by Carolyn de Berry

Elizabeth Lemon, one of DMP’s photography leads and curator of tomorrow night’s photo exhibit opening at The Green Bean, was featured in an interview by Matty Sheets over at Monkeywhale.

Congrats, Elizabeth.

Sin Tax rocked the Burro like it was 1979.

Check out more of Doug’s work at his site.

Decoration Ghost. Haunting, even.

For more of Doug Klesch’s work, check out his site.

Watch this documentary to its conclusion, and I guarantee your perspective on creativity, sharing and freedom will have shifted in ways that you might never have imagined otherwise.

Art is just the beginning of the struggle.

Hat tip to Atiba Berkley of Higher Underground Productions.

Yes, Sin Tax has legs, people.

And some talented fingers.

See more of Kevin’s work at his flickr spot.

I made it out to Cat’s Cradle last weekend to catch some HNMTF and by pure happenstance I ran into the CD release party for this very cool Triangle-based compilation project, Hear Here. When I say ran into, they were handing out free CD’s at the door.

Their words describing the project:

Hear Here is a North Carolina music compilation featuring brand new songs from 18 bands from Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill.?The project ties together the always growing, and very diverse local music scene. The proceeds of Hear Here are going to the Visual Art Exchange, the oldest private non-profit visual arts organization in Raleigh.

Check out the lineup:

Americans in France
The Beast
Birds of Avalon
Blount Harvey
Colossus
Hammer No More the Fingers
Inflowential
The Kingsbury Manx
Kooley High
Lonnie Walker
The Love Language
Motor Skills
The Never
The Old Ceremony
The Rosebuds
Static Minds
Sunfold

And a little video action to go with it:

We’ve been talking about doing a DMP compilation album for a while now. I’m thinking it’s about time we find some sponsors.

Photo by Stephen Charles

The exhibit… is up.

That was only a few months in the making.

This Friday night @ The Green Bean is the exhibit’s opening, featuring the music of past DMP performers: Laurelyn Dossett, Mr. Rozzi and Eating The Invaders. We’re also going to screen a slew of DMP music videos created by the ever talented All Aces Media, Ioannis Batsios, Jason Marc Pierce, Jennifer Graves, Bret Jones and Michael McQueen.

As far as the exhibit goes, we have 29 large format photographs on display, shot by 9 local photographers across 8 monthly shows, which will stay on the walls until September 27th.

Friday night, the entire month… it’s our way of both celebrating and promoting the talent found within our own community.

We do hope you can come out and enjoy it with us.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t introduce our featured photographers, so here they are:

DMP PHOTOGRAPHERS (These are the folk who signed up with us to shoot specific shows and then uploaded their high-res shots to the DMP flickr photostream under a Creative Commons license, which in turn furthers our mission)
		Kevin Belton flickr account Email | Voice: 336.816.8571 Kevin is a professional product photographer for the High Point furniture industry, second camera for John Leonard Photography for weddings and special events. He has been shooting themed based ideas in the last year or so featuring addiction, fashion, and music. Art is his passion and the camera is his medium.
		Stephen Charles CharlesMedia Photography Email | Voice: 336.682.9517 Stephen Charles began taking photographs in 1983 with a 35mm Canon Sure Shot. With the advent of Digital SLRs he has pursued photography as a growing passion, with a desire for letting candid captured moments tell the story.
		Jessi Hagood Jessi Hagood Photography Email Jessi Hagood is a native of Eden, NC and works primarily in the Greensboro area as a Wedding and Portrait Photographer. Recently her work has involved photographing Bodybuilding and Figure Competitions, soon to be featured in Muscle and Fitness Magazine and in an upcoming episode of MTV Made.
		Doug Klesch Doug Klesch Photography Email | Voice: 336.542.3071 Doug is a refugee from the cubicle farms of corporate America. Failing to have sapped all creative energy from him over more than a decade, his overlords released him back to the world. He gratefully returns wielding a camera.
		Elizabeth Lemon Elizabeth Lemon Photography Email | Voice: 719.244.3518 A recent graduate from the photography program at Randolph Community College, Elizabeth is adjusting to life outside a classroom. She is pursuing fine art and documentary photography with rediscovered inspiration and a tool box of new knowledge.
		Alex Maness Alex Maness Photography Email | Voice: 336.707.6121 Alex Maness, local boy done good, likes to travel and explore, but keeps Greensboro, NC as his center of gravity. He runs a photography business shooting for magazines and advertisers, as well as his own documentary projects.
		Mark Smith flickr account Email | Voice: 336.414.4721 Mark’s first inkling that photography could be fun was when his parents brought out the dreaded slides of their jaunts overseas. Once Mark could afford it, he bought a Pentax ME Super and “that was that.” These days, Mark happily takes sports and beach pictures as well as the live music events at DMP.
COMMUNITY PHOTOGRAPHERS (Talented, local photogs who came out to shows and documented the evening)
		Carolyn de Berry Carolyn de Berry Photography | Email Monkeywhale Productions | Email A Connecticut native and graduate of Guilford College and the Commercial Photography Program at Randolph Community College, Carolyn is a freelance photographer and assistant living in Greensboro, NC. She is also the production photographer and studio manager for Monkeywhale Productions.
		Allen Martin MartiniVision Email | Voice: 917.687.1912 Greensboro native Allen Martin is a photographer and designer who has recently relocated back to his home town after 18 years in NYC. A camera owner since adolescence, for the last several years Allen has focused on fashion, fine art and entertainment photography.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

• Katie Southard, Owner of The Green Bean
• Elizabeth Lemon, for matting, framing and curating the show
• Laurelyn Dossett, Mr. Rozzi and Eating The Invaders, for generously donating their talent at the exhibit opening
• Don Ravon for running sound at the exhibit opening
• Don Ravon & Dan Bayer for mixing the music video tracks
• Ioannis Batsios, Blake Faucette, Michael McQueen and Bret Jones for scrambling to produce their music videos on time
• Andy Coon for helping prep the music video DVD
• Allen Martin for the beautiful show poster
• All of our talented photographers, many of whom aren’t represented in this show. You can see their all of their work at our flickr spot

A SUPER SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR FRAME SPONSORS:

• Mark Wagoner Productions
  Email | Voice: 888.854.0406
• 243 Framing
  243 E. Salisbury St., Asheboro, NC. 27203
  336.629.5101
• Martin’s Frame and Art
  336.274.2426

Photo by Mark Smith

After two wild months of hard-rocking and hell-raising tunes, the dotmatrix project got a little mellow for the month of February.  The audience buzzed with a cool anticipation as Bruce Piephoff and a small orchestra of musicians took the stage to kick off the eleventh DMP show.

Photo by Mark Smith

Bruce has been around a while and he’s got plenty of music to show for it.  He dipped into his collection and pulled out several great tunes for us here at DMP.  His set included a song referencing his time in Texas (Rosalita), one about a local basball hero (Big Foot In The Door), and a tune about a one-time Tate St. staple known as the Nightshade Cafe (Old Crow).  Check them out, along with the rest of Bruce’s live album, on Amiestreet or Last.FM.  For the newbies, here’s our promo entrance page to sign up for an account with Amiestreet and receive free money to support our local artists.

One more thing…

This is the first DMP album to be mastered thanks to the gentlemen at Studio 4.  Bruce likes it.  We like it.  I’m pretty sure you will, too.

ALBUM CREDITS
Recording Engineers: Don Ravon, Dan Bayer
Mixing Engineers: Dan Bayer, Cesar Oviedo
Mastering Engineers: Cesar Oviedo
Cover Design: Sean Coon
Cover Photograph: Elizabeth Lemon

We here at DMP are stoked to announce a partnership with Prez (owner) and Cesar Oviedo (chief engineer) at Studio 4, also based here in Greensboro, NC.

Looks like Cesar is happy too.

Here’s the press release:

Greensboro, N.C. – Local music media group, the dotmatrix project, is teaming up with Studio 4. This relationship will combine the recording and mixing expertise of DMP engineers, Dan Bayer & Don Ravon, with the mixing and mastering expertise of Studio 4, all at an exclusive discount to the featured musicians.

The DMP is a collective of musicians, photographers, videographers and sound engineers who put on and document live shows. Each month they rotate in original acts from Greensboro and surrounding counties in North Carolina. To date, the media team numbers more than 40 all-volunteer participants.

“The partnership falls into our plan of establishing relationships with local businesses that share our vision of building community around local, original musicians,” says Sean Coon, the executive producer for the dotmatrix project. “Until this partnership, the best live album we could produce was a high-quality, multi-track mix. The staff at Studio 4 brings 20 years of mastering expertise to the table with chief engineer Cesar Oviedo and, along with our engineers, a deeper, more fine-tuned final mix. We want our participating artists to be able to use their live album to book gigs or sell at shows, so the pressure is always on us to replicate the sound and vibe of a live show the best we can.”

Owner of Studio 4 Prez is excited about this effort, as it will increase the amount of local musician recording at his studio. “Our studio looks to be a thriving source of recording, mixing, and mastering for local and non local musicians alike,” Prez says. Studio 4 is a professional music recording and film production studio based out of Greensboro.

For inquires about the dotmatrix project, contact Sean Coon: sean@dotmatrixproject.com
For Studio 4 inquiries, contact Prez: prez.psyoptic@gmail.com

There are two specific elements of this partnership that I want to explicitly highlight for past and future bands:

1. Quality
   We were proud of our recordings prior to this arrangement, but quite honestly, the potential quality of our live albums has now been drastically improved. Don’t just take my word for it, listen to the difference yourself in these two versions of Bruce Piephoff’s track, Notes From Knoxville (live @ DMP):
    

   The original DMP mix:

   Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

   Mix collaboration with Studio 4 w/ album mastering:

   Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

   The differences in vocal levels, the new found twang in the guitar, the violin’s sweeping song, the umph of the upright bass — it really is an amazing improvement.

2. Cost
   Prez is a big supporter of local independent artists, so he was willing to provide these services at a ridiculously low, bargain basement price that allows each and every DMP musician to participate, from the veteran players to the garage rockers. As long as the artists are serious about the project and invest studio time to get the mix/master done right the first time through, the cost stays nominal. Guaranteed.

   It really is a sweet deal.

If you have a partnership idea that could serve you/your company well while positively adding to our project, definitely hit me up.