This Examiner Interview with Lucy Dreams: Life for Young Musicians!

Music is indeed getting younger and younger, in age, not necessarily in style and technique. Communication between older and younger generations - and older and younger techniques - generally goes from old to young and hardly ever vice-versa. The cycle will continue for pop culture, and generally the same for hiphop and punk within mainstream realms.

Interviewing Lucy Dreams for Examiner reminds me that not all fresh meat musicians have complete sponges for minds because of how eloquently they speak and how hard they work on their music. Not that they don't need to listen to their elders - I'm sure they do - but they seem like they haven't arrived to the sea of music as dry sponges ready to soak up whatever they can. In this excerpt I talk to Lucy Dreams, who came together while they were still in high school, about their textured sound and how they form their music:

Does your sound come about organically? Do you try to form the right music and notes?

When we’re practicing we do play around until something comes out right, we rarely ever bring something prepared to practice. The songwriting process is very organic compared to our sound because of how we jam. What isn’t really organic is the actual sonic sound of our music. That’s a little more conscious on our part. We have this idea, not really exact, but a vague idea of what we want our sound to be. Being a band that’s so focused on the textures and wash of everything, it can be kind of tough for our shows too. Getting something like that to sound just right, especially with all the pedals, that’s a lot of work.

I noticed that throughout your performance you guys were going back and forth with the pedals and the knobs. You guys worked the hell out of tweaking your sound onstage!

Yeah, we kinda were. Whenever there’s nothing to do though, I’m like “eh, I bet this will sound better,” and start messing with the sound.

It was really interesting watching that, and watching your sound unfold. Can you guys describe what your sound or where it’s going?

It’s textured. It’s atmospheric. I think the idea of it is to not be simply chords and notes, but invoke something more than that. The noises that you’re hearing set different kinds of moods. It’s more than just the backing of our vocals. In fact, it’s the other way around – the vocals are the backing of our noises.

You speak so well about music. Are you guys still in school? You look so young!

No, well, we’re in Georgia State. Except Dani’s still in high school, she’s a junior.

 Continue reading on Examiner.com Get to know: Lucy Dreams - Atlanta Local Music | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/local-music-in-atlanta/get-to-know-lucy-dreams

Photos: 2011 Little Five Fest (taken by Dave Batterman)

Last year, when this was The Other Sound festival, I didn't know about the event until the middle of the day it began. I promised myself I would not miss this year's, and, fortunately, I am a person of my word!

I covered Little Five Fest for Examiner this year, despite some camera issues, but was taken care of by the Little Five Fest crew. The photos you'll see below are taken by Dave Batterman, a well-known concert photographer, a man who knows his stuff.

Curio Museum In Exmainer Reveal Honesty and Emotions

Every week in Little Five Points are at least five shows that are worth going to, regardless of what type of music folks actually listen to - because it'll all be there one way or another. Whether it's rock or rap, in some way, shape or form there's something from all genres for someone from all walks of life.

That's what Curio Museum helped me realize when I a) saw them perform one Thursday night and b) interviewed them for Examiner.

In this excerpt, Nadia (the band's lead singer) talks about her crazy vocals and how expressing their emotions can make one feel dirty after:

With your performances, as innocent and laid back as you guys are, it gets really tense up there with all the yelling. Where does that come from and why do you do that?

I’m gonna be 100% honest, the band wanted me to just stand there and sing with my cute voice. One day, I got really upset while I was singing during a live performance, and I screamed one line. It stayed with me, so now I continue to do it every now and then. It was totally an accident, but I stuck with it because it sounds great. Plus, all the songs are really emotional, and I love to try and capture that. I put a lot of myself into these songs so that it’s very real and very a part of me. It overcomes me a lot because most of the time it’s the deepest darkest secrets I’m telling. Encoded, but still telling.

Wow, so how should I listen to it?

You should feel dirty afterwards.

Oh, like I should go wash after this show then, huh?

No, maybe, but it’s a very serious thing I do. I hope the emotion shines through even beyond the meaning, and I hope people feel it. People can take and mold their own meaning to our stuff, I just would really like it to mean something to someone else.

Continue reading on Examiner.com Get to know: Curio Museum - Atlanta Local Music | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/local-music-in-atlanta/get-to-know-curio-museum

Video: Abby Gogo Rocks Out at Star Bar

For Examiner, I caught some sweet, colorful footage while covering the SXSW Send-Off Party for Back Pockets, Reptars and the video performers Abby Gogo.

Abby Gogo, in one word, is versatile. They flip their garage rock sound in just about any way possible - from the slow, noisy kind to the fun and fast kind. They have punk tendencies and lyricism, but they successfully complement it with an experimental and quite sluggish music.

In this video, the band performs "Louder Than Dreams," a sick single off their self-titled album. The song shows off how versatile these cats are, with riffs that go against their typical repertoire and with lyrics that can amp up the coolest person (even though you can barely hear them in the video, thanks to the bad sound). Overall, Abby Gogo is a fun band to listen to and see perform.

Atlanta's lucky to have such a diverse local music scene! Well, at least I'm glad to witness all of it.

Oh, and check me out on YouTube because I always try to upload music videos!

Some Personal/Professional Updates...

I've been making a lot of cool moves this past week!

1) I am working for Lee Bailey (famous announcer dude from RadioScope... you know? The guy with the sick, sick announcer voice) as the web intern for his website Electronic Urban Report (EUR) Network.

Check out the site at eurweb.com

2) I am an Examiner! Yeah, although the many classified ad postings on Monster, HotJobs, and CareerBuilder (or any other job posting site) looks extremely shady, it's not that bad of a place to work for! Not to mention it is a "paying" job, so I'm not mad at all.

Anywho, I cover the Little Five Points music scene. In other words, I cover everything music-wise that goes on in the bars, coffeehouse, and other wicked places in the awesome Little Five Points area in Atlanta.

If you live in the ATL (or around it), check out my site to get all the happenings in Little Five Points, one of the most diverse and coolest areas in all of Atlanta!

The more readers I get, the more money I get, so please check out my Examiner page!

Read here!

I also got some other updates, but I'll save them for the right time...