New Weekly Feature – Local Music Scene Report
Hello Delaware Liberal (and the Conservative readership too, I can be bipartisan)!
I’m Rachel Schain. You’ve been seeing the ad for my first CD, Happy Happy, in the upper right corner of this blog for, oh, about two years now. That very brightly colored one. You’ll have a new one as soon as my next CD, LilacFace, is released (the band and I were in the studio this weekend, and I cannot wait to put this out). I happen to be Upstate Delaware’s Favorite Musician, according to the 2011 Best of Delaware poll. My reign continues this year thanks to the fact that they didn’t include the category in the 2012 survey.
You might be wondering why I’m blogging here. Well, the good folks at DL came to me, knowing that I’m fairly plugged into the local music scene. I’ll be giving you weekly recommendations for your weekend rocking pleasure. In the comments, let me know if you want me to include Philly and NJ shows or just Wilmington/Newark area shows. Sorry downstaters, I don’t have any idea what you’ve got going on. Write me and I’d love to include you.
Let’s start this off with a bang, shall we? Tomorrow night, Thursday, July 19th, is the inaugural year of The Ladybug Festival. The idea started when Gayle Dillman of Gable Music Ventures had the idea to host a big concert the night before that other big festival this weekend to welcome the out of staters to Delaware. The festival will showcase 20 fantastic local female artists in five venues along the 200 block of Market Street (LOMA Coffee, Film Brothers, Zaikka, The Lofts at LOMA, and Extreme Pizza). The entire block will be shut off to traffic and there will be a huge block party going on. There are too many artists to name them all here, but here’s a link to the site. I am one of the “Ladybugs,” and I am joined by 19 of my most exciting colleagues including Evangelina, Leslie Carey, Sarah Czechowski (FelixHunger), Melissa Cox (Mythica), Gina Degnars (Little Invisibles), and Angela Sheik.
Angela is particularly noteworthy. She won “Artist of the Year” in this year’s WSTW’s Hometown Heroes Awards (which, probably means she’s *really* Upstate Delaware’s favorite musician, but I’ll share it with her gladly). She is also the Roland BOSS National Looping Champion! If you don’t know what that is, well, just go watch her performance from the competition. It’s easier seen than explained. Trust me though, she’s Fierce. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THyiw-jhAis[/youtube]
Right?
Anyway the whole thing is free. 20 artists, 5 hours of music, FOR FREE. Well, you’re paying for what you eat and drink but that’s to be expected. And you’ll be helping to develop the local art scene, people staying after 5 is good for the city, all that. My set in particular is at 6pm at LOMA Coffee. I’m debuting a new song, too! Although, really, all of my songs will be new to the majority of the readership. Come say hi and find out why I am known as the Rockstar Bitch. (it’s not because I’m mean, I promise I’m very nice).
If you can’t wait for next Wednesday for more local music goodness, my suggestion is to check out WSTW’s Hometown Heroes program on Sunday night from 8-10. Mark Rogers, the DJ who hosts that show, is an amazing source of information on everything that’s going on in the Delaware Valley. You can find the Facebook page (where he does a complete rundown of all the local shows whenever possible) here.
My plan is to bullet point the rest of the local shows at the end of each post, but this week is kind of quiet due to Firefly.
Saturday:
Newtown Square, PA – Burlap and Bean Coffee House: Twin Ghost, Gordon Vincent, and Pete Mroz. (Acoustic Singer-Songwriters)
Check out Leslie Carey as well. Excellent local artist. If she’s got her band with her, then one of my fave drummers, John Digiovanni, will be with her.
Completely agreed! All the women on the bill are Incredibly talented. 🙂
this site has advertising?
Being from NJ, and since there is a lot of crossover (gig-wise between 3 states and you are often present in those 3 both as a performer and audience member) I think you should include NJ and PA. Or at least local counties in the three. Just my opinion.
Those that are still reading this verbose comment, I invite you to check out WBZH out of Pottstown, PA which, if you’re a local musician, plays your music regularly everyday.
It’s a small over the air station which has an outstanding internet stream at http://www.wbzh.net I’d put the sound quality of the stream against any station. That’s not hyperbole, if you have some decent speakers on your computer, I’d imagine your reaction to be, ‘… holy flippin’ cow!!’
Tell your friends if you truly want a station that actually plays your music everyday of the week, takes requests, and caters to the local music community, you really should be listening.
Charlie
Welcome. Rachael- us downstaters are used to being left out but thats ok- less tourons to deal with for the locals……
But – no mention of Firefly at all- i would have thought that might be pertinient….or at least big enough to mention….ah well
Such is life in the boonies……..
Hi Aoine! I wanted to address your point about Firefly. I am VERY excited about Firefly; I will be there as an audience member. My favorite band on the planet, OK Go, will be playing Friday at 5 (seriously, look for the redhead losing her damn mind as close to the stage as possible). I didn’t mention it on purpose; Firefly doesn’t need me to mention it. First of all it’s getting national press from every single music publication, so if you don’t already know about it, you’re not paying attention. 3 day passes have sold out entirely; all that remains are 1 day passes. The acts are almost all national acts with label backing. They have entire teams of people devoted to getting people talking about them. Firefly doesn’t need publicity from me.
Ladybug, on the other hand, is not in competition with Firefly, is comprised of nothing but local, or at the most regional, artists, and is organized by a local business. No one outside of Wilmington is reporting on Ladybug. The artists playing Ladybug don’t get the publicity or press that the national acts get. DL asked me to write about the LOCAL music scene. Just because an act is playing locally does not make them a suitable subject for my weekly feature. I am more than happy to give you links to where you can find out what national acts are playing in the area, but that’s not what I’m here to write about.
If a Dover/Dewey area band is going to rock my face off at a venue down there, let me know and I’ll write about it.
Welcome Rachel! And thanks for stepping up to do this. It is a really good time for local music (music in general!) in the Wilmington area.
My pleasure, Cass! Thank you for the opportunity. Getting the word out about my fellow locals is very important to me.
Oh, and lest I ignore you, Charlie, excellent points all. Thank you for raising them. 🙂
A weekly music blog you say, good show. Carry on.
A vibrant and talented local arts community is growing in Delaware thanks to the efforts of many businesses and artists. Although Firefly is a great draw this Summer, I am concerned about some of the staffing issues which seem particularly anti-union and out-of-state in nature. Ladybug is a fantastic local event and I hope it gathers momentum and expands in the future. Perhaps moving the venue around the state each year would help it grow? I look forward to your updates and support our growing population of musicians and artists. Thank you for your reporting!
Welcome
sounds like you know a lot about music, so i’ll be happy to read. but doesn’t writing only about bands that “need the publicity” make your work essentially public relations? might be more interesting if you write for your readers, not for the bands.
Sum guy, she’s only one person – If you want to know what major acts are coming to town, you can read Spark, which is a fine and free newsweekly put out by the NewsJournal. Her column is about local area musicians.
xstryker, thank you for putting this succinctly. I have a minor tl:dr problem. 🙂
i can find out what acts are coming to town anywhere. i’d just like to see some interesting comment on the bands (not just the ones that “need” the publicity, and not just the ones from wilmington). i would expect better commentary from rachel than from anything in spark that ryan cormier doesn’t write. but, really, it’s not a big deal. do what you want, of course.
Sum Guy, head over to my Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/rachelschain and like it. I’ll give you my opinion on any band when they’re coming to town. 😉
saw your facebook site. looks good, but clearly you’re really, really into the local band scene, from a “here’s what we’re up to” point of view. i think we just care about different things in music. no big deal. love the joni mitchell namecheck. about her greatness, we totally agree.
Well, there’s always room in the comments section to talk music. I’m going to Firefly, really looking forward to seeing the Black Keys – really hope they play “Same Old Thing”.
Ha! I care about those things too, they just have enough other people writing about them to make it not worth my time to add to the noise. It would be like creating a site called Delaware Also Liberal.