Radiohead on The Colbert Report

For those of us who don't live in NY (and can't just gallivant up there during the week) and/or those of my New York Friends who didn't get Radiohead tickets despite how hard they tried, this might be as good as it gets... At least until their next tour.
(it's the full episode of the Colbert Report with all the songs they played and the interviews)

Midpoint Music Festival: Day Two!

Day two began with banjo, plaid and some dancey tunes. In other words, I began the second night of the Midpoint Music Festival watching the Tillers perform. These Cincinnati natives played some good-ole bluegrass tunes. Their instruments were what caught my eye. They switched between various guitars and banjos. One guitar was especially marvelous. It looked like it was snatched right out of the 1950's or something.

The band's story is very interesting. They got their start playing on Ludlow Ave. in Cincinnati. Ludlow is one of my favorite streets in town. There's tons of ethnic food restaurants, cute shops, good coffeeshops and a good indie movie theater. The street sees a lot of foot traffic so I'm guessing the Tillers came by some luck while busking.

The rest of the evening was a blast. We stayed around a bit after the Tillers and saw Goose perform a few songs. We (my friend Kayleigh and I) then headed over to Arnold's to see Alone at 3 AM, a more hard-rock band from Cincinnati. Kayleigh enjoyed them a lot. While their style is not my normal choice in musical genres, I thought they had a great set.

We attempted to see Deerhoof but failed. We arrived right before they went on and apparently the Know Theatre has space limitations for their mainstage upstairs. So a certain number was allowed in and that was that. So we went to the Drinkery for a bit and caught a bit of Scattered Trees' set and ended the night back at the Blue Wisp Jazz Club seeing Izzy & the Catastrophics. Oh what a night :)

Midpoint Music Festival: Day One!

President Obama was invited to a show I attended tonight, according to the band that performed. He gave a speech in Cincinnati that day and I suppose they may have thought "eh, why not?" Or maybe it didn't really happen and they just thought it would make for a good story to tell from the microphone. Either way, Obama had some competition today for most exciting thing happening in Cincinnati. And that competition was the Midpoint Music Festival.

Cincinnati natives the Seedy Seeds opened up the festival. Good job, festival geniuses! You could not have picked a more perfect act to kick off the three-day festival! The Seedy Seeds are this awesome up-beat folky band. The group is pretty drum-heavy and they mix in a lot of outside recordings into their songs. The banjo seems to be a staple and the acoustic guitar a visiting friend who doesn't make it into every song. They played in Cincinnati's School of Creative and Performing Arts theatre so everyone was sitting in seats. I saw a few folks in the back dancing, which was great! The Seedy Seeds are normally a band that folks get up and dance to.

I then walked up 12th Street through midway, a little outdoor section of food and vendors. Free doughnuts were given out by Busken Bakery (a Cincinnati chain bakery). That was sweet (literally). I then turned up Main Street and went to Mr. Pitifuls to see Pokey Lafarge & the South City Three, a bluegrass group from St. Lous, MO. Now I had seen them perform in my college town about two years ago, so I knew it was going to be good. A lot of their songs involved the audience, which was a lot of fun. My favorite going "Well I'm so happy you got me singing la la la."

After those two, it was a bunch of bands I didn't really know too well. So I ended up stumbling into some new favorites. I walked into MOTR as The Color Pharmacy, a band from Minneapolis, was playing. They seemed to have just the sound I like ... an upbeat but sort of indie style of rock. They sang a song about wishing they knew you when they were five. I suppose they were envious of the simpler days of childhood. And hey, I can't really blame them. It was a pleasant surprise to randomly find a band I like. And it's always good to support the out-of-town acts. One, I can't see them all the time. And two, it's probably not as easy for them to get a crowd as say it is for a group like the Seedy Seeds.

I ended the night at the Know Theatre. The venue was on the way back to the car so I thought "hey, I might as well stop in and see if I like what I hear." Well, not only did I like what I heard but what I saw was my favorite act of the evening. The group in the photo here to the left is Merely the Mocs, a Cincinnati indie folk group. Indie folk is perhaps one of my new favorite sounds. They have a violinist and it just provided a really beautiful touch. Overall, the group has catchy songs with some pretty deep lyrics. So it made for the most pleasant surprise!

Tomorrow is day two. The Tillers, The Pinstripes, Alone at 3 AM, Deerhoof and at least 40 other bands are on the lineup for tomorrow evening. Stay posted for more Midpoint coverage :)

Win OK Go! tickets and support Water For People

Starting today, OK Go fans will have the chance to win two tickets AND BACKSTAGE PASSES to an upcoming concert at a location nearest them (oooooh). The prize is being offered as part of Water For People’s Donate To Drink Crowdrise campaign that aims to raise $2 million through the crowd-sourced, online fundraising platform. To make a donation, OK Go fans & GFP readers can visit my crowdrise page at http://www.crowdrise.com/emmadonatetodrink/ 

or you can start your own crowdrise page and get your friends to donate!

A donation of $10 or more between today and 11:59 PM EST on 9/27 enters each donor into the drawing for the chance to win. Also, if you donate $25, you get a bracelet made in Rwanda!

The winner will receive two OK Go tickets with backstage access at a location to be determined based on upcoming tour schedule, the winner’s location, and ticket availability.

Big Troubles: New tour dates and video

Lo-fi rock group Big Troubles has released the first single entitled "Sad Girls" off their latest album "Romantic Comedy." The band is made up of old high school friends and influenced by brit-pop and 90's indie rock. This is their second album.

The group also released a new video for "Sad Girls" and they just released a bunch of new tour dates. So go see if they're playing in a city near you!

Big Troubles - Sad Girls from Slumberland Records on Vimeo.

09/22 Brooklyn, NY Glasslands
09/24 Cleveland, OH Beachland Ballroom *
09/25 Champaign, IL High Dive *
09/26 Madison, WI High Noon Saloon *
09/28 Winnipeg, MT Royal Albert *
09/30 Calgary, AB Dickens Pub *
10/01 Edmonton, AB The Starlite Room *
10/03 Vancouver, BC Biltmore *
10/04 Seattle, WA The Crocodile *
10/05 Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom *
10/09 Los Angeles, CA The Echo / Part Time Punks #$
10/10 Tucson, AZ Club Congress #
10/12 Norman, OK Opolis #
10/15 St. Louis, MO Stylehouse #
10/31 Chicago, IL Lincoln Hall %
11/01 Minneapolis, MN TBD %
11/03 Denver, CO Moe's %
11/04 Salt Lake City, UT Urban Lounge %
11/05 Boise, ID Neurolux %
11/11 San Francisco, CA Slim's %
11/12 Los Angeles, CA Echoplex %
11/13 San Diego, CA Sunset Temple %
11/14 Tempe, AZ Sail Inn %
11/16 Austin, TX The Parish %
11/17 Dallas, TX Club Dada %
11/18 Memphis, TN Hi Tone Cafe %
11/19 Lexington, KY Cosmic Charlie's %
11/20 Pittsburgh, PA Garfield Artworks %
11/21 Philadelphia, PA Johnny Brenda's %
11/23 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom %

* = w/ The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
# = w/ Young Prisms
$ = w/ Kids on a Crime Spree
% = w/ Real Estate

http://www.slumberlandrecords.com/
http://www.facebook.com/BigTroublesBand
http://bigtroubless.angelfire.com/
http://twitter.com/#!/big_troubles

Ok Go! on Tonight Show

Happy Labor Day weekend folks!

A video of Ok Go!'s performance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno caught my eye tonight. Not only was the performance fun to listen to and watch as these guys always are but they brought a little friend with them. Yes, yes Animal from The Muppets made a cameo on the drum set. It definitely made me laugh and I hope it will make you laugh too :)