the dotmatrix project

A few months back, we (and by “we” I mean DMP sound engineers Don Ravon and Dan Bayer) were lucky enough to be able to record the 3rd Often Awesome Benefit Show, held at Greene Street in downtown Greensboro. Seven different acts performed, with many having no connection to Tim LaFollette prior to the evening.

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.

A while back I wrote a post about how I imagined Creative Commons might play a role in our project over the long haul, particularly in regards to how we might contribute to building community. As I often tend to do, I imagined on a grand scale, outwardly hoping that people, both locally and around the world, would find our media useful and merge it into their own works of art.

Well, I’ve yet to hear back about anything as grand as a French mashup, but on the local front, I do get calls, quite often, regarding the use of DMP media from the artists themselves. Can we send a photo to a newspaper to run in an article about the band? Can I use this image on our upcoming album? My answer is simple: give attribution back to our independent photographers and you’re good to go.

Earlier today, I stopped by The Green Bean to get my mid-afternoon drink of choice and I caught the following on the upcoming events wall:

This was the first time I caught one of our shots being used in a local show poster. Check out the solid attribution for Kevin Belton, added as an element of the poster design itself.

No calls to me, no direction needed.

It doesn’t hurt that Dan Bayer (of The Raving Knaves) is part of DMP’s core team, I’m sure he influenced the process, but how about that CC license love?

Tito, get me some tissue.

We’re still wheeling about, doing shows when we can, figuring this all out as we go, but it’s nice to see part of the plan of local artists cross-promoting local artists coming together here and there.

Oh yeah, if you’re in the area, be sure to go check out the show!

If you’re ready and you know it clap your hands.

Bet.

There won’t be a better place to be this Saturday night.

See you there.

How does a group of professionals-by-day, rockers-by-night get multiple songs banned on a local, independent radio station?

photo by Kevin Belton

Ask Sin Tax.

Sin Tax is comprised of founding member Dr. Nancy McCurry, on bass and vocals, Doug Baker, with guitar and vocals, Moxie Campbell, on drums, Dave McLean, on guitar and vocals and Marilyn Wolf doing vocals and percussion.

In August of ‘09, Neill Clegg Jr. joined Sin Tax on the ol’ DMP stage, tooting his horn alongside these crazy kids.  It was a powerpop, rockabilly, glam-rock kinda night, with a distinctly punk edge.  Sin Tax brought the spice!

photo by Alex Maness

Was it the pretty instruments that helped them rock so hard that night?  Maybe it had something to do with the three flights of stairs up which they hauled their equipment.  Maybe it was the pretty outfits that made them shine.  Or maybe, just maybe, they were showing off a little.

My opinion?

It had to be the shoes!

photo by Doug Klecsh

photo by Kevin Belton

You can come up with your own conclusion.  To hear what I’m talking about, check out their 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.

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

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
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
		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!

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.

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.

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?

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?

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

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.)

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.

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

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

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.

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?

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