the dotmatrix project

The [Oliver] guys gave me this flyer a few weeks back at the kick-off DMP show. While the kids are celebrating moving on to the real word — man, they’ll have no idea how ironic that celebration is until they’re out a few years — I’ll be scouting the show for future DMP acts.

So if you have the time, come on by.

Andrew Dudek — singer/guitarist of Dawn Chorus, former proprietor of Gate City Noise (RIP) and the founder of The Beard and Moustache Club of North Carolina — has a radio show this summer:

Peoples,

I wanted to tell each and everyone of y’all of my new summer Radio Show, as if I didn’t have 1 million things on my plate already. The show is called “The Punk and Soul Radio Show”. The concept of alternating Punk and Soul came from a mixtape that Zach Blue made in our high school days. Pure genius. Anyway, the show starts this Monday night (the 19th) at 11pm to 1am. For all those who live out of town you can stream it. Just look for the live stream heading at the top of the page. Listening to music is a big part of my life and playing some of favorite hits for you gives me great joy. I hope you all can find the time to tune in for a song or two.

Thanks,
Andrew k Dudek

I’m not a huge radio listener, but I’ll definitely catch a few of these puppys. You gotta respect the passion Andrew brings to everything he touches.

(photograph by Dan Bayer)

Serving, mixing, recording, crafting and shaping Triad musicians one act at a time. That would be Danny Bayer.

Dan is also a Photojournalism student Randolph Community College in Ashboro, NC. A rockin’ self-portrait, no?

I know how very lucky we are to have Dan serve as sound engineer extraordinaire on the dotmatrix project. Thanks again, man.

[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 Pro Tools 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.

Another John Ford special is hot off the presses and ready to be served. Yes, John Ford is a front-end engineer God. No, he does not pay me to say such things. He simply makes cool shit work on the intertubes, super fast and to spec.

I swear I could take on Silicon Valley if I only had 20 John Ford clones.

What we have to the right is a dotmatrix project event calendar. As new gigs are scheduled, we post the event to Upcoming.org, add them to the dotmatrix project group over there and this fansy, shmansy, customized badge dynamically displays updated show dates within our custom design. It’s not revolutionary or anything, but I dig it.

The super cool thing about this particular pimped badge is that now you can use it as a promotional widget on your own blog, Live Journal, web site, etc.

Yes, you — the person who says that he digs live music, but never seems to finds the time to hit a show. I know you — you tell your girlfriends that you’re going to check out this awesome underground band at this totally cool spot, and then you bail to watch a Sex in the City rerun.

Tell me I don’t know who you are.

So now that you blog and participate with every social network known to man, you can wash away your live music dissing sins by simply posting the following code into your sidebar:

<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://www.dotmatrixproject.com/badge/"></script>

For those of you whose sidebar is a different size than the default 210 width here at HQ, simply use the following code and customize the width setting to your liking:

<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://www.dotmatrixproject.com/badge/?width=210"></script>

Down the road we’re going to support various visual themes and potentially accept styles submitted by you, our loyal readers. We do things like this because we love you. And because without your uncontrolled fanatical support of this here project, it’s not going to go anywhere.

So if you love music and want a pain-free, cost-free, time-free, guilt-free way to support your neighbors trying to gain exposure in an industry that’s tougher than ever to catch a break within, well, you know what to do.

-Sean

Wow.

That’s pretty much all I can say. Today, I just got back from my first trip to Boston. It was cold and rainy for the most part but a very interesting city.

I was in the walking city because Inflowential, an artist I manage, won first place in an mtvU competition to open up for Wyclef Jean at UMASS. It was my first time seeing Wyclef perform and it was definitely the most exciting concert I’ve ever been to.

He is the most passionate performer I’ve seen live and everything he did was with such amazing ease.

He kept us on our toes for the entire performance with the surprises of:

• Playing the guitar behind his head
• Bringing his wife on stage — a beautiful lady who I had never seen before and who he admitted didn’t come to a lot of his shows
• Inviting 50 audience-member “Shakira’s” on stage to perform “Hips Don’t Lie” with him. (I had to be one..)
• Undressing down to his T-shirt in what felt to me like 40 degree weather and convincing the audience to do the same. (I did as well)
• Climbing the scaffolding
• Mixing his own vocals from the DJ booth

The picture above that I took from backstage shows right where he got everyone to take off their coats as well and wave them above their heads as we chanted “O-O-O-O-O” to a particular tune in support for Barack Obama.

The video below is very simple but touches my heart. I put together a quick video of two of my favorite clips of the concert, one from the beginning and one towards the end where his head was steaming in the chilly weather.

I had never seen something like this before.

I really hope you get to check out his live performance one day, it’ll be well worth it.

Disorder has to be the best way to describe the state of FM radio today.

Here we have this ingenious group of people whose music individually (and now we know collectively) is always on the cutting edge, always leaving us wanting more. They all have such great originality and musical ability.

Why are they not all over the radio like maybe Young Joc, Young Dro, Young Jezzy, Young Buck?

Music is becoming more the business than the art.

So we have to ask ourselves what actually sounds good and makes you feel good? And, if you came up with that feeling on your own.

In business, the best way to sell your product is to know the market. Hopefully you can know it so well that you can make something they like before the consumer even gets to test it out. If you’re very lucky (or the most clever) you can mold your customer to want whatever it is you sell. The latter is the hardest but is that not where record labels have gotten so many people with their huge sphere of influence? An influence that dictates what is played on the radio and what is most accessible. An influence that makes people feel almost inadequate if they are not in with the trends.

I must admit I’ve fallen for some of the Soulja Boy songs against my (hopefully) better judgment. My disorder? I go to clubs for business and I would be so disappointed at what I heard, yet, I found myself wanting to like the music like I thought everyone else did.

Thank goodness a friend of mine who was all into this fad admitted to me that he really wasn’t as in it as much as he lead others to believe. Can I be mad that he wasn’t truthful with himself and others? A little maybe, but I was turning into a hypocrite myself.

So since I’m not the only one feeling this way there still just had to be a reason why it’s so popular.

That’s when I realized maybe people just don’t care about what they hear anymore; they just want to have “fun”. Add some deep bass and words they repeat over and over, loudly at that, and it feels “fun”, I’m only guessing? I too let go, my ex roommate Dima wanted to kill me for that; I just told her “It’s just fun, I just don’t think about what I’m listening to and pretend that I really like it, it’s the new thing!” She knew I was kidding, but I don’t think the other people who say that to themselves realize how detrimental this music is to the progress of our music and to the people as well.

We really can’t have more children wanting to be the next [insert sucky rapper] when they grow up.

On a side note, since when did you have to stop thinking to have fun? Oh yea, that goes with those who have to get sloppy drunk to have a good time too…

Try this: Next time your alarm goes off get out a pen and paper and write down what you’re going to eat at the next fast food restaurant you go to… Post the “song” with the “music” from the loud beep on YouTube and it really could be the next big thing.

Just like Wale said “Hip Hop’s not dead,” but I’d add the radio is.

: (

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)

(originally uploaded by ElPrimo181)

NYOIL on that “Nigga” Nas

[…] Nas you’re that nigga that pretends to have a grasp on the social quagmire that our people are stuck in and yet cannot for the life of you articulate or justify your position on this obvious plea for controversy. Does this brother realize that his attempts at diffusing the word “Nigger” by making it some all inclusive colloquialism to represent all races is as weak as the beat he spit it too?

Does he realize that when Robert Schwartz decides to stop being a nigger all he has to do is change his look; maybe trade in the bapes and backpack put on a suit and he’s right and exact.

When Robert Yung decides he’s no longer a nigga he can be whatever an person of Asian decent can be in the country stereo types not withstanding.

When Robert Rodriguez decides to stop being a nigger he can become a proud man of Latin descent.

However for Robert Jenkins, whose Grand parents were NIGGERS, blown over by fire hoses and beat within an inch of their lives, when the term meant what it will always mean despite his attempts to make it a term of endearment. Whom despite his affluence or allegiance has to be as scared as a runaway slave when pulled over for driving black or shopping black, or standing in a group of more than 3 in his own neighborhood while black or any of the number of things blacks can do innocently while being black and end up dead because the Cop who shot him 50 times like Shawn Bell or 42 like Amadou Diallo didn’t consider himself a nigger… We’re the only race that embraces our disgrace, and now you would have everyone else sing along with us in our shame.

My nigga Nas

You’ve been everything they ever told you to be. Nasty Nas, Nastrodomas, Nas Escobar. and now you’re their Nigga.

At what point are you going to be a MAN? […]

I’ll save my opinion until I vic the album, digest the lyrics and flow and write a review. Of course I’ll be coming from a different position with my opinion than NYOIL, but I think I’ll be able to speak to dispersing self-degradation as a concept.

In any case, can you say, “OUCH!?”

UPDATE: I had to include NYOIL’s What Up My Wgga? in the conversation: