the dotmatrix project

When I saw Molly after her technical practice ended yesterday, she let loose a quote through a grin that’ll ring true for the next six weeks or so:

My days are no longer my own.

Arrgh!

That pirate grunt was mine, for after her eight hour walk-through rehearsal today of Triad Stage’s Bloody Blackbeard, I’d have to agree with her perspective.

Neither she nor I are complaining in the least — Molly’s been looking forward to being a featured musician, singing and playing original music by Laurelyn Dosett in the Preston Lane original since last summer, so I am too — but the reality of her schedule over the next six weeks has definitely hit home.

From June 8th until July 6th, she’ll be performing seven shows per week at the quaint theater down on S. Elm (you can purchase tickets online), so she’ll be on a hiatus from performing with her band on weekends until mid-summer or so.

She’s also taking a break from playing her recurring Tuesday night set at M’Coul’s Pub, which has turned out to be quite the community draw with Todd “Mystkdog” Verts and Jennifer “Guitar By Fire” Dalton practically transforming into full-fledged musicians before our very eyes.

A bit of good news for fans — in preparation for the play, Molly headed back into the studio to record a few new songs to add to her best selling debut, Girl With Slingshot. And as she hit the studio, I hit the drawing board to come up with a new album design for the professional run we’re about to invest in with Discmakers.

Here’s what I sent off last week:

It’s a bit different vibe from the original cover, but thanks to the photographic genius of Michael Dunn, we’re both really happy with the results. Molly will be selling the CD’s at the play and will have them with her once she returns to gigging.

With the craziness of scheduling studio time and cat herding musicians into collaborating, Molly wasn’t able to get the three new tracks finished in time to be available in the lobby of Blackbeard so this short-run will consist of the previous ten tracks. We’ll include a sticker on the cover of the abbreviated copy with directions for downloading the additional tracks next month when they’re available, and then print a larger run that includes the full 13 tracks sometime in the fall.

This is going to be a nutso summer, but a memorable one.

[photograph by Michael Dunn]

Above is the working cover for the 14 track live album we recorded last month at The Green Burro for the Greensboro-based, Southern Rock, alt-Americana group, The Radials. Our featured act on opening night, Sorry About Dresden, will have their 10 track live album finished sometime this upcoming week.

Each band we put on receives a live album, professionally recorded, mixed and mastered in downtown Greensboro. We record live on 6 to 8 separate channels — depending on the amount of vocal mics and mic’d instruments needed — through our Mackie Onyx 1620 w/ a Firewire card straight to Tracktion 3 Logic Pro on our MacBook Pro. Dan “Mixmaster” Bayer, our resident sound engineer, has been mixing both live and in the studio for years with outstanding quality.

Once the album is complete, we license it with a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license. It basically means that anyone can use the music, even remix or sample it, as long as they give proper attribution and don’t use it commercially. Of course individual cases of copyright permission can still be managed individually, so the artists have complete control of their product.

Our distribution plan is where we shift away from the traditional label route — not to say that we consider ourselves or strive towards being a “label” on any decipherable level. Each album will be uploaded to the Internet Archive, where fans can download the tracks for free. We’ll also work with artists to get their albums out to spots such as Last.fm, iLike and AmieStreet while schooling them on how their fans can help them in the internet age by doing simple, free things like scrobbling tracks to their Last.fm account when using iTunes or their iPod, tagging tracks, recommending tracks, etc.

We’ll provide a package of audio tracks to the musicians — along with cover art, a professionally mixed video and professionally shot pictures of the show — but it’ll be up to each band to get their music to online stores such as iTunes and CDBaby or physical retail spots. We’re not interested in managing the machinations of music sales. Our profit margin is much greater designing software.

Once the product has been delivered, we’ll provide a free download of each album, along with links off to corresponding media from the evening back here at HQ. All we ask in return from people downloading the tracks is their email address and an optional PayPal donation to help us recoup our initial costs.

All of this is a designed effort to build community around diverse local artists, with local music fans, while still providing access to people around the world with overlapping tastes of music.

Prego, baby. Prego.

The Radials Live at the dotmatrix project by the dotmatrix project is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

When I first met Shawn Patch, the lead guitarist of The Radials — a high-energy, twangy, “Hank Williams Jr. dueling with Johnny Cash in the back lot while Patterson Hood pours Jack Daniels lyrics over their heads” band out of Greensboro, NC — he was one-half of a two piece ensemble with vocalist & rhythm guitarist, Stephen Corbett.

Fast-forward six months to last Friday when The Radials opened up for Sorry About Dresden at the kickoff dotmatrix project event and the dynamic duo had grown to a full five player band. And while I was beyond taken by their full sound and stage presence, it was their lap steel guitarist, Tom Beardslee, who I couldn’t stop watching.

After the show, Tom and I chatted for a bit and he passed me his last album, Good Company. As I do with all artists I discover, I ran Tom down online later that night and low and behold — his story matched the uniqueness of his play:

Tom is not your average pop musician. He has made several trips to West Africa to study highlife, soukous, Afrobeat, and traditional music. He also worked in Ghana as a studio and live guitarist, playing with musicians like Okyerema Asante, Pat Thomas, Jewel Ackah, Sharon Katz, and members of Osibisa. He lived the life of a highlife bandsman with Amakye Dede’s Super High Kings, with whom he toured all of Ghana, as well as in Togo and Cote D’Ivoire.

In the US, Tom has worked with musicians from all over the world since his early teens. He has played styles as diverse as flamenco, punk, reggae, ska, rockabilly, blues, country, bluegrass, funk, and soul. His diverse musical wanderings have led him to work with such artists as Country Joe McDonald, Clarence Bucaro, Sekouba Bambino, Kaikpai Ukpendi, Big Dread, and Alassane Sarr.

Tom has recently earned a Master’s Degree in Ethnomusicology from Ohio State. He studied at OSU with Dr. Daniel Avorgbedor and Dr. Margarita Mazo, and at the University of Ghana with John Collins and J.H.K. Nketia. His studies have led to work with Afropop Worldwide, Guitar Player Magazine, Acoustic Guitar Magazine, and Fingerstyle Guitar.

Not a bad prelude to a listen, so I popped in Good Company, kicked up my feet and closed my eyes for a listen.

I’m not sure I can classify this album. It definitely has deep roots in wide range of blues, but it also has such an interesting contemporary feel without it being stereotypical. Good Company is mature, familiar and arranged, yet Beardslee’s layering has a real, substantive and simultaneously sweet edge to it.

It’s a sound that I haven’t quite heard before.

Beardslee’s storytelling is steeped in rich metaphors and interesting instrumental juxtapositions, yet it’s his lyrical delivery that cuts through the air and exposes his old soul. Whether he’s playful, crooning, narrating or belting, Beardslee brings it with an authentic flavor.

Toss in his picking and well, it’s found a home in my rotation.

Take a listen:

Stacks

I Would

There’s a dirty rumor floating around town that Tom is leaving Greensboro for the Midwest to head back to school. If true, it’ll be a loss for our music community.

From the Ghostly International site:

Record label Ghostly International and modern cult classic programmers [Adult Swim] have paired up for a compilation of new music and art.

A genre-busting 19-song collection, stretching the entire Ghostly International galaxy, Ghostly Swim explores the Avant-Pop style that the Ann Arbor/New York City label has been been championing for the past 9 years. Ghostly Swim features artists like Matthew Dear, Dabrye, Tycho and Aeroc and features new signings like UK cult band The Chap and NYC producer Michna.

The free collection also includes favorite friends of the label like School Of Seven Bells, and Detroit’s Deastro, Milosh (Plug Research), FLYamSAM (Warp’s Flying Lotus and SAMIYAM), and Dark Party (Mush). Along with the new music, BoyCatBird (Ghostly’s mascots) make their animated debut in the awesome “City Suckers” video by Daniel Garcia/Superfi.

If you dig avant pop and industrial, instrumental funk you might want to check this out. Download the entire compilation here for free.

(via fiftyfootshadows)

The Truckers are a band that I’ve paid top dollar to see live. They’re an amazing mix of talent, personality, storytelling and rock bravado. I’ve paid merchandise prices for all of their albums as well.

But in this day and age, don’t you think that a $17.98 pre-release price might limit the reach of their voice into other markets? I could be completely wrong. Maybe they’ve developed a core following of folks like me who can fulfill their sales goals without worries.

In any event, I’m on this like a rat on a Cheeto.

I just uploaded the final album art to each service that’s currently featuring Molly’s album (Last.fm, Amie Street & Virb).

If you’re a fan of beautiful songwriting and support local/indie music, pick up a copy today!