Two months back, I posted up a takeoff on a concept a friend of mine discussed at the Dinner With Strangers event. Obviously, it is the idea of a sort of mixtape or compilation for Tuscaloosa artists to give a bound together means to make people aware of the music around town. Maybe this drives up attendance or simply allows a little bit of a document of the time. Anyways, unfortunately my (completely lazy) life put this on hold for too long. I’ve left the response a bit hanging and I also did not properly plan a good list of bands to be on the mixtape.
Before we get to bands I need to contact for their best choices of songs to have on a compilation, however, I want to set a few rules for this project.
– We’re keeping this to bands that were active in the year 2012. As much as I adore The Dexateens (and in a live performance sense, I guess they were active this year), it doesn’t do much good to simply place a great Dexateens song on the list among currently active Tuscaloosa.
– And as the last sentence hints, we’re going solely for bands that mainly house members from Tuscaloosa (as well as perform mainly in Tuscaloosa). This isn’t a hard and fast rule, as in the future, I hope that this idea can fully give a window to the entire state’s music. However, for the sake of convenience and brevity, we’re keeping the list to here in town.
– I suspect this will be a common thought, but if you are not on the list, it is strictly because I didn’t think it would thematically fit with the theme of the mixtape or, yes, I forgot. As mentioned last time, if you really think what you are producing is something that fits with a rock (with shades of hip-hop in a couple of instances) mixtape, feel free to send me an e-mail at treyirby@gmail.com. Keep that e-mail handy if you’re one of the bands mentioned as well. I want to know if it is okay to actually use your songs, because it is hard to believe, but some bands do actually want to use their own platforms to make their name. If you’re not cool with this, it’s no hard feelings if you request to not take part.
Okay! Ground rules and the like out of the way, here’s a list of artists I’m in the planning stages of wanting to place on the tape. This can and will change over time (depending on who is able to send recorded material and also those who feel ), but I think there’s a substantial amount of work in just knowing what bands to put. These are in no particular order also.
Blaine Duncan and the Lookers
August Spies
Mouse Teeth
Callooh! Callay!
Looksy
Golden Monica
Mary Tylosaur
IQ
Kadesh and the Perfect Strangers
Baak Gwai
Electric Moon
American Freshman
Ham Bagby and the Siege
Sparrow and the Ghost
Model Citizen
More can be added and some can be removed. Still, that is a hopeful sign of things to come. Once again, if you’re a member of those bands, I’d love to chat about whatever, mixtape or not.
I’m glad to be back in the saddle for the new year. 2013 will hopefully be one of those cool times for music, too. I also hope to be writing with a tad more frequency than before. Consider this a start, perhaps.