While it’ll be bit longer until the compilation album is complete as a fundraising vehicle for both Tim and ALS awareness, Andy and Blake just released what I feel is so far the best episode of their Often Awesome web series.

Spread the word, people. This disease is too terrible to continue in existence.

The event occurred at the Green Street Club in downtown Greensboro. Donations were collected, raffle tickets sold and seven local bands came and performed for a wall-to-wall crowd, showing their support for Tim and Kaylan. Halfway through the show, Tim gave a moving speech where he asked for one more favor: keep spreading awareness for ALS.

Photo by Elizabeth Lemon

All Aces Media shot video and the dotmatrix project recorded the show to create a compilation album. Both the video and album will be available shortly. All Aces is also currently working on a web series about Tim called, Often Awesome The Series.

Thanks to everyone who came out and made this wonderful night possible, especially Michael Sileno, who organized the entire evening.

Photo by Elizabeth Lemon

Photo by Elizabeth Lemon

Photo by Elizabeth Lemon

Michael Sileno introducing Josh Neas

Photo by Mark Smith

Photo by Elizabeth Lemon

Chris Jackson of Citified joins Josh Neas for a song.

Photo by Mark Smith

Treason and DJ Royale

Photo by Elizabeth Lemon

“if you love hip hop…”

Photo by Elizabeth Lemon

Social Life giving it their all.

Photo by Mark Smith

Photo by Elizabeth Lemon

Raffle ticket sales were through the roof!

Photo by Elizabeth Lemon

Photo by Elizabeth Lemon

Mutant League

Photo by Mark Smith

Photo by Mark Smith

The Numbers

Photo by Elizabeth Lemon

Photo by Mark Smith

Jews and Catholics

Photo by Elizabeth Lemon

Photo by Elizabeth Lemon

Come Hell or High Water

Photo by Elizabeth Lemon

Come Hell or High Water
Photo by Mark Smith

To see more photos from this show, check out our flickr site.

Sometimes, when the band you’ve booked begins to play you instantly know the evening is going to be special. Other times, it happens when you get yelled at by everyone involved.

The Filthybird show, by all accounts, was special.

I had to run back to HQ as the sound check got underway and made it back to the show just prior to Renee starting up. As I heard her last warmup on the keys and vocals, I jumped out of my seat in the packed house and yelled over to Don to turn down the reverb.

NO!!! came from every direction on stage.

Trust your crew was the lesson I learned that night.

MUSIC VIDEO CREDITS
Editor: Blake Faucette
Camera: Andy Coon, Blake Faucette, Sean Coon
Sound: Don Ravon

The live album is available at Amie Street, with all proceeds going to the Filthybird crew.

IMHO, the coolest aspect of what we do here is our documentation of the music scene, specifically in Greensboro, where I call home. And not just individual shows, but the gestalt of the entire scene as it unfolds over different periods of time.

While some bands find a modicum of success and play for years to come, touring regionally at times, many more bands form, play out locally for a while and disappear into the ether without the notice of more than a handful of friends and family and only the most hardcore music lovers in town.

Albina Savoy falls into such a category.

And while that’s a shame on many levels — their sound was so unique, beautiful in ways that’s hard to describe — at least we have a few reminders of their sound to enjoy.

If you like what you hear in the video, be sure to check out the band’s live album on Last.fm and AmieStreet (all proceeds on AmieStreet go to Albina Savoy).

MUSIC VIDEO CREDITS
Editor: Blake Faucette
Camera: Andy Coon
Camera: Blake Faucette
Camera: Sean Coon
Sound: Danny Bayer

Don and I made the trek out to Durham with Elizabeth yesterday to be interviewed on WUNC’s The State of Things. I had pushed for a group interview — so many people have made this project a reality that quite honestly, my voice matters much less than theirs — but Laura Leslie was sitting in for Frank Stasio, who had prior knowledge of the project whereas this was all new to her, so it was deemed best to keep it relatively simple.

That meant Prez and Andy had to stay home, and Liz had to sit in the hallway and do her best to take a few shots for posterity.

The interview happened, and Laura was extremely warm and gracious and overall it went well. I flubbed the end, as unbeknownst to me, the engineer behind me began a countdown to armageddon that Laura needed to react to, but otherwise I think we represented ourselves alright.

We’re in the midst of making a number of changes two years deep into this venture — in particular, leaning towards documenting paid shows only. What we’re unsure of is how such a shift in direction will impact the community building / participation aspect of the project and whether or not that in and of itself will effect our happiness with the direction of DMP.

At least we have the power to reform our wayward direction if we so choose.

Here’s the interview:
[Click through to the post to listen to audio]

A lot of folks in this area would rather have it that way. They call it a blight on our fair city. An isolated incident that had no relevance to the nature of Greensboro — regarding race relations, mill worker’s rights or the ability of our police to protect and serve.

My brother, Andy Coon, strongly disagreed with that sweep under the rug mentality.

As a fresh graduate from UNCG, without any financial assistance or years of documentary production know how, Andy took on the facts of the days surrounding that horrific tragedy and made the incident personal and relevant to the present day by telling the story of Kwame Cannon.

This is Greensboro’s Child.

We document music here at DMP, but we can only do so by collaborating with the finest local filmmakers who graciously donate their time and intellectual property to the cause of exposing local musicians to a greater audience.

If you don’t get to know my brother on any level outside of this post, just know how much of his heart and soul went into making this film years before the Truth and Reconciliation Committee came out with their findings that matched what he discovered as a first time documentarian.

And know that he can produce a killer music video too.

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

Power chords. Smoking & playing. Moshing. Yeah, we had a punk rock show. QAR killed it that night.

MUSIC VIDEO CREDITS
Editor: Ashley Panzera
Camera: Andy Coon
Camera: Blake Faucette
Camera: Micah Moore
Camera: Ashley Panzera
Sound: Danny Bayer
Sound: Don Ravon
Video Producer: Matt “Beard” Williams

If that got you worked up, you might want to check out the live album, currently available over at Amie Street.

Enjoy!

I’ve been surrounded by creative people all my life, but not in the way I am here in Greensboro, NC. The passionate vibe to create and the hustle people have to support themselves is unlike anything I’ve experienced before.

I mean, both of my parents were art teachers, which provided them a consistent income, but they spent a vast majority of their creative energy fostering the creative development of others. They both had the skills to pursue doing art for a living (I’ve seen their work), but at some point early on they made pragmatic, career-based decisions to teach and raise a family instead.

They chose one life over another.

Over the years that I lived in NYC leading up to my move here, I befriended numerous people who were musicians, composers or artists after hours with a consistently advancing career in the commercial art world by day. Sure, there was always a struggle for time, but the job could be replaced in the blink of an eye with a linear move elsewhere in town. Making it as an artist, first and foremost, was a goal, but it was without a true sense of immediacy.

In These Parts

The people I’ve come to know here live their craft, bent on doing whatever it takes to keep doing what they do — whether they’re single or married with kids, creating is not an option, it’s a necessity… like breathing.

Take Harvey Robinson at Monkeywhale, or his PiC Carolyn de Berry. Not only do they create beautiful short films and photographs, but they prolifically pimp the best work that our creative community has to offer, 24/7. All of this with an eye on financing a feature film. Somehow, they make a living doing commercial work in the short time between.

Matty Sheets is a Monkeywhale contributor, member of two bands — Eating The Invaders and Come Hell Or High Water — and the MC of The Flatiron’s Tuesday night open mic. Last I heard, Matty was slinging coffee at The Green Bean, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was hustling elsewhere to grab a buck to make ends meet.

My brother, Andy Coon, is creating, producing and shooting a web series, The Corporate Assassin, while taking on numerous freelance gigs to contribute to his mortgage payments. He’s married, wants kids and needs health insurance.

Molly McGinn works part-time at an agency, runs three blogs and assists at her friend’s palates studio so she can make both rent and music with her girls in Amelia’s Mechanics.

Dan Bayer shoots local HS sporting events and runs sound at shows around town (including ours at DMP) while trying to get a sound studio off the ground.

I could go on for a long while like this.

This is Greensboro — a town chock full of talented artists, musicians, filmmakers… but also defined by an aggregate population seemingly more interested in what’s on television & clubbing downtown than supporting the arts.

Check that. Not the arts, their arts.

See, that’s what community is about — recognizing common interests and supporting each other in our pursuits. At least it is to me.

So you say we’re not Austin, or even Chapel Hill. Go where the interest and action is, right?

You tell that to one of my friends. You tell them that if they want to make a living at their craft, they should uproot to find a “market” willing and able to support them.

These people aren’t suits, willing to constantly start over, moving from one town to another to make a better buck. They’ve invested time, energy and love to help shape this community and honestly love what they do while valuing their place here.

So they do what they have to do to get by.

Josephus Thompson III wrote an article, steeped in personal experience, about this very subject in GoTriad last week. He ended it as such:

[...] The Bible says, “Faith without works is dead,” so we work and keep the faith; we pray and we stay on the straight and narrow, traveling the unbeaten path believing we can make it and cascading through all the gray areas of the unknown, postponing or as Langston might say, deferring our dreams. So, we must not defer, we must not linger in our fantasies, but pursue our desires and our dreams. And at the end of the day we do, doing whatever it takes to get us through to the next stage of our lives — hopes, dreams and ambitions in tow. For we understand and know that we must do what we have to do in order to do what we want to do.

Sometimes, that notion becomes lost in the darkness of pursuit and struggle. I’ve experienced it myself. So to both the friends I’ve come to know over time and the creative souls I’ve yet to meet, I’ll let Josephus III take us out…

In The Morning
[Click through to the post to listen to audio]

We’ll get there.

I might be a bit biased with my brother’s involvement in this film, but I highly recommend checking out Dogs tonight in Winston-Salem. It’s a full length feature that not only looks beautiful, but is filled with kick ass fighting scenes, smoking hot women and some funny moments as well.

What else could you ask for?

9pm @ The Garage. (directions)