the dotmatrix project

Hello internet people.

So, in case you missed it, or in case you just want to relive the awesomeness, here’s the skinny on the Matty Sheets birthday party that occurred last night, March 12th, 2010. This night happened almost exactly the way I wanted it to.

Matty Sheets and the Blockheads

Matty Sheets and the Blockheads was the first of four musical acts to go on. This group essentially involves Matty and whomever he chooses to play with him. Playing with Matty that night was Emily Stewart on banjo, Jessica Pennell on accordion, James Marshall Owen on ukulele, and Gael McKeon on upright bass. I even sat in for a few. ‘Twas a joy and an honor, as Matty’s music holds a very special place in my heart.

Antigravity Animated

Antigravity Animated, the second act of the night is a hip hop/R & B experience that I’m slightly biased in favor of due to the fact that it’s my own creation. Last night’s set starred me, Taylor Bays (if you couldn’t figure that out) as the MC, along with DJ Nincompoop 17,000, my robot DJ. The theme of the set was a dream that I had wherein I was selected for a game show called “The Mic is Right” that selects one lucky member of the audience (Me, go figure) to rap for the entertainment of everybody else. The set also included the destruction of an Olsen Twins VHS tape.

Go me.

The Leeves

Next, The Leeves shook the building with their signature make-you-laugh-cry-and-dance-your-ass-off sound. I can’t say this enough times. The Leeves kick ass. They have consistently been one of the funnest bands to see live along with playing some of the best music to be found in Greensboro. The room swarmed with little Leevlings, dancing and jumping like a solid mass of fleshy love, as is the norm at their shows. Their set included a combination of older and newer songs along with a brand new one, entitled “Carolina Nights”. Damn right. TEH LEVS!

Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands

Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands closed out the night with an hour (possibly more) of maddeningly eclectic sound. This band is truly difficult to put a label on. Depending on the song being played, I could describe them using a variety of descriptions ranging from circus nightmare theme to Spanish traditional song to experimental noise. The band is composed of Crystal Bright playing accordion and whatever other little toy she decides to pick up (There’s one instrument that I couldn’t name that looks like a big hamburger that she hits with mallets.), Pete Lewis on the drums, Chris Micca on bass, and Diego Diaz on acoustic guitar and electric lapsteel. Definitely a hell of a wall of sound.

Let me go on a rant for a minute.

Crystal Bright is an amazing multi-instrumentalist badass with the voice of a damn banshee and I’m fucking in love with her. Okay. Done. Pretty short rant really. I’m proud of myself.

A big thanks to everyone who came out. I know Matty appreciated it. I had an amazing time myself. I very much encourage anyone and everyone to create their own posts with their own pictures/videos from the night. It was EPIC!

Photos by: Taylor Bays

I’d just like to take this moment to thank everyone who came out last night to The Blind Tiger to check out the Leeves, my band the Raving Knaves, and The Goodbye House, the new project from Matty Sheets, James Marshall Owen, Dave “Driveway” Moore and Randy Seals.

Photo by Elizabeth Lemon

The Goodbye House is a great band, combining elements of all the members’ previous musical directions, but coming together in a real organic way, kinda like one of Elvis Presley’s mashed banana and peanut butter sandwiches.

Here’s a taste:

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And of course the Leeves’ brand of jazz/punk can’t be underestimated either. It was simply a rockin’ night all the way around.

The reason I’m thanking everybody is because, as a local musician, I’ve come to realize that community will get you through times with no money better than money will get you through times of no community. As part of the dotmatrix project, I’ve watched a community grow around local original music, seen more people coming out to shows — despite (or maybe because of) the bad economy — and I’ve watched musicians collaborate on some really great music.

Photo by Paula McLean

Usually I’ve seen this from behind the soundboard, but in the last few months I’ve seen it from the stage, playing with the Knaves, alongside bands such as Switchblade 85, Come Hell or High Water, the Brand New Life and so many others.

In the midst of uncertain times, to be able to get up and play your music in front of and alongside appreciative people is truly a wonderful thing.

Read this list of folks right here, and see if “singer/songwriter” comes to mind:

Johnny Cash
Bob Dylan
Neil Young
John Denver
James Hetfield
Joni Mitchell
Carly Simon
Tori Amos
Ray LaMontagne
Laurelyn Dossett
Matty Sheets
Conor Oberst
Ani Defranco
Amy Winehouse
Harry Chapin
James Marshall Owen
Scott Avett
Lily Allen
Ryan Adams
Jeff Tweedy
Dan Fogelberg
Dolly Parton

For me, there’s a few in there where the phrase singer/songwriter sticks out to me like a black turtleneck sweater.

John Denver. Joni Mitchell. Cat Stevens.

The others, not so much. But I found most on a wiki list of singer/songwriters.

Johnny Cash? Come on. Singer/songwriters don’t flip the bird at Columbia Records.

They whine about it.

And that’s the basically the idea I’ve been carrying around about the singer/songwriter genre for a few years now.

The switch flipped a few years back. Precisely the moment when, sitting in the home studio office of an LA-based music producer, the man said in a very kind, very matter-of-fact way, something like, “We’ll try and make your songs sound a little less singer/songwriter.”

My brain did something like:

Singer/Songwriter: Bad
Metallica: Good (for your reference)

And for the last two years, I’ve tried shaking the term off like, well, a tight black turtleneck, throwing as many musicians and arrangements and Garage Band beats as I could at songs to take them out of the coffee shop and into the coliseum.

I wanted my songs to flip you the bird. Not sing about them.

Dammit.

Recorded a bunch of songs in a studio with some fine musicians. And when I heard the playback the first few times, realized the songs I’d worked so hard to write, were now so far away from the original purpose, far from anything I could ever duplicate live.

Far from tunes that literally stood naked in front of you. Not the first blush of love, naked, when everything sounds like a pop song, new, and not yet overplayed. The naked-in-the-bright-light, when every thing about the person is real with flaws and missteps and wrong notes. That kind of naked.

Being naked in front of people takes a lot more courage than flipping somebody the bird.

So I took the term, singer/songwriter, back.

Took off the black turtleneck.

Realized again it takes a kind of unordinary courage to be a singer/songwriter.

Where you have to sing the notes – not scream – into the mic.

Where melody can’t hide inside some refrigerator-sized amplifier.

Where the singer, songwriter alone has to fill the room.

That unordinary courage is what you’ll see this week at the dotmatrix project with the singer songwriter performances of Kristen Leigh, Morgan McPherson and Randy Furches.

Authentic, real and naked.

Dress appropriately.

Live at the dotmatrix project
Thursday, June 25
at the Green Burro

The sci-fi sound of ETI’s name gets a boost from this photo…

…where James Marshall Owen appears to be transported by the music.

A different perspective on ETI, as Alex has Matty Sheets apparently getting ready to go right through the camera.

For more of Alex’s work, you can go to Alex’s web site or check out his other shots in the DMP photostream.

I really dig how Don has classified The Leeves — Punk jazz. Fits, doesn’t it?

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

If you’d like to hear more from The Leeves’ set that night, the live album is currently available for the low, low price of $1.53. If you’re new to the Amie Street process, be sure to use our promo entrance page to sign up for an account and receive free money to buy albums and support our local artists by putting coin directly in their pockets.

Enjoy!

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!

Subterranean Bums’ continually shifting lineup both layered and stripped their folk format. Friends jumped on and offstage with new instruments to add to the mix of songs like “World Full of Downers” and “Oklahoma Thunderstorm.”

Off with the electric bass and on with the horns. Now let’s get some upright bass.

Photo by alex maness

Their show at The Burro on May 28^th was blissfully youthful Americana. It was something in the same vein of The Avett Brothers before they became the Avett Brothers, though perhaps more pharmaceutical, so to speak.

Wiry vocals, jittery melodies, outbursts and prone to lampooning, it was a performance that literally had the babies in the crowd dancing along. Seriously, I saw it with my own eyes. You must be doing something right when that happens, right?

Photo by Mark Smith

Sticking with the friends theme, there was no shortage of supporters both on stage and in the crowd for the Subterranean Bums/Eating the Invaders show. You couldn’t help raise your glass to the music of Eating the Invaders. They write suburban hymns which are best enjoyed while drankin’, which was especially fitting for a show at The Burro. Their songs are played seemingly for fun’s sake. This seems obvious, but it’s not every band’s MO. It’s easy to tell when a group plays songs regardless of audience reception–though it’s important to note that the audience certainly enjoyed themselves as much as the band did that night.

Photo by alex maness

Where the crisp trumpet of Steve Jackson was often showcased in the music of Subterranean Bums, Eating the Invaders music isn’t the same without the harmonica of David “Driveway” Moore. Rumor has it, he even snuck in a kazoo solo.

All in all, a great night accompanied by friends and acquaintances, offstage and on. And maybe a few cabaret dancers thrown in there for good measure.

Photo by Mark Smith

From the May 28th ETI set….

Marshall Owen, picking at the speed of sound.

And one shot of most of ETI….

Matty, Marshall and “Driveway” Moore belt out a chorus.

Jack Carter of The Subterranean Bums.

A group anthem from the Sub Bums.

To see more of Jessi’s work, check out her blog.

These misfits will be playing in just a few short hours at The Green Burro.

C’mon, brave the ridiculous downpour from the Gods and come on out to our free show.

Local talent documenting local talent.

Word.