the dotmatrix project

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

photo by Paula McLean

We’ve put on over 50 acts since 2008 and not once has a band approached me with the impetus for a live recording as Crystal Bright did last week.

In late June, Crystal and the fellas plan on touring up and down the NE coast — potentially heading as far north as Boston. The only problem is that since they’re such a new act, they don’t have much material to share with booking managers.

Enter DMP.

This Friday night we’re putting on a mini-show, focusing exclusively on a live recording for the band. I just booked the gig with Max Benbassat over at CFBG’s. He already had an act booked for a 9:30pm start time, so we’re going to slide in around 6:30pm and get started at 7:30pm sharp.

Come on out and bring the love. I’ve no doubt it’ll all end up on the album.

18+ $4 donation at the door.

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?

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

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

For the twelfth dotmatrix show, we happily welcomed Mr. Rozzi to the DMP stage.

Photograph by Kevin Belton

Blackbeard the Voyager, a truly hip poet, has been throwing it down for NC Hip Hop for a hot minute.  He’s got a presence and a style that’s difficult to duplicate.  His performance is always full of energy and always something special.

Photograph by Kevin Belton

For his DMP performance, Mr. Rozzi brought along an entourage.  They weren’t just there to pump up the crowd.  One person or another shared the stage with Rozzi for at least half of his set.

Photography by Kevin Belton

Vanessa Ferguson belted out background vocals before and after taking center stage to treat the audience to an a capella interlude.

Photo by Ioannis Batsios

Jeremy Johnson also offered up backing vocals as well as belting out one of his R&B jams during the set.

I know what you’re wondering.  With all these performers, who was the DJ for this whole  affair?  We had none other than L in Japanese holding it down all night long.

Photo by Ioannis Batsios

You like Hip Hop, right?  Well then, in the words of Jeremy Johnson, “Get the album.  Get the album.  Get the album!”  To pick up – or rather download – the album, you can check out Amiestreet and 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 Engineers: Don Ravon
Cover Design: Sean Coon
Cover Photograph: Kevin Belton

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:

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   Mix collaboration with Studio 4 w/ album mastering:

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   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.

What is this Rockabilly-thing? Is that the devil’s music?! Maybe. It’ll definitely make you scream, hoop, and holler like your soul’s on fire! If you don’t believe me, just listen to some of The Tremors. Self-described as one-third Greensboro, one-third Burlington and one-third Hell, Jimmy Tremor, Slim Perkins and Stretch Armstrong will make you believe.

Photo by Elizabeth Lemon

For the tenth installment of the dotmatrix project, we were fortunate enough to capture a sampling of the Hell-raising hits they make together. That was back at the end of January. Even though it was a bit cold outside, it was nice and hot next to the DMP stage that night!

Photo by Alex Maness

In case you don’t believe me (or somehow don’t remember), you can check out the pictures from that evening on the DMP photostream. Or you can check out the video on vimeo . Oh yeah, and you can listen to the live album on Amie Street.  To make the whole process a whole lot easier for you on Amie Street, here’s our promo entrance page to sign up for an account and receive free money to support our local artists by putting coin directly in their pockets.  (It should be on Last.fm before long. You can check back here for the link when that happens.)

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

In December of 2008, we put on the ninth DMP show. That evening, two local punk bands set the DMP “stage” on fire! The evening started with The Leeves.

Photo by Stephen Charles

With a little help from their friends, they put on a fantastic performance! You can listen to (and buy) a copy of that performance at Amie Street, or Last.FM.*

ALBUM CREDITS
Recording Engineers: Don Ravon, Dan Bayer
Mixing Engineers: Don Ravon
Cover Design: Sean Coon
Cover Photograph: Kevin Belton

After their fellow rockers finished warming it up, and Doug Pike got a chance to rest his limbs, Queen Anne’s Revenge claimed the stage to finish off a great evening of Punk for the dotmatrix project!

Photo by Kevin Belton

Photo by Stephen Charles

You can get a copy of their live album on Amie Street or Last.FM, too.*

ALBUM CREDITS
Recording Engineers: Don Ravon, Dan Bayer
Mixing Engineers: Dan Bayer
Cover Design: Sean Coon
Cover Photograph: Eric Velarde

*To make the whole process a whole lot easier for you on Amie Street, here’s our promo entrance page to sign up for an account and receive free money to support our local artists by putting coin directly in their pockets . My advice…USE IT!