Suggestfest: Who Are You Seeing at Secret Stages?

Recommendations from Local Luminaries:

John P. Strohm (Birmingham-based musician and entertainment lawyer): Dawes, Wooden Wand, Through the Sparks, Venice is Sinking, Nightmare Waterfall, Jack Oblivion

Rick Carter (Rogue Tavern owner and local musician): Dylan LeBlanc, Sharif Simmons, Dawes

Scott Register (Radio personality at Birmingham Mountain Radio): Dawes, Futurebirds, G-Side, Noot d'Noot

Jon Poor (Secret Stages organizer): Dylan LeBlanc, Green Seeds, Love Language

Four Questions with Brad Armstrong of 13ghosts

Four Questions with Brad Armstrong of 13ghosts, a band from Birmingham, Alabama who will be appearing at Secret Stages. They are scheduled to appear Saturday night, May 14th at 9:00 PM at the Rogue Tavern.

• Lame question, but I have to ask: How do you describe your music?  13ghosts started off as an attempt to make high art concept albums that were written around a single idea, and we tried to experiment with any sound we could come up with and paint a huge, messy, diverse landscape with our music. But, that kind of thing is no fun to play live and no fun to listen to unless you have a good supply of morphine and a bottle of whiskey. So now we make rock and roll records and play them on stage.

• How have you been dealing with the “digital revolution” and its effect on music and art? Has it helped or hurt you?  13ghosts started off as an attempt to make high art concept albums that were written around a single idea, and we tried to experiment with any sound we could come up with and paint a huge, messy, diverse landscape with our music. But, that kind of thing is no fun to play live and no fun to listen to unless you have a good supply of morphine and a bottle of whiskey. So now we make rock and roll records and play them on stage.

• What are your plans for this year?  We've got an album coming out with Skybucket that was recorded a couple years ago. We just recorded something else, something fast and live and loose, and a new startup called This Is American Music is going to put that out on vinyl, also this year. Which is great, because we haven't put anything out since 2008. Jason was touring with the Dead String Brothers for a year or so, and I did a year or so touring with the Dexateens. It was a long break, but I think it was great for us. It made us much better players than we were before. We're bringing a whole new aesthetic to 13ghosts now.

• What do you hope to accomplish by performing at Secret Stages? Per this last question, my main goal at any show is to play rock and roll and commune with the audience. All the rest of it, the networking, the hobnobbing, the deal-making and trash-talking, is just smoke and mirrors and confuses the issue. Why am I there? Because I like to play music. Why are you there? Because you like to listen to music. I say let that be enough reason to do it.  

Four Questions with Lucas Jensen of Venice is Sinking

Four Questions with Lucas Jensen of Venice is Sinking, a band from Athens, Georgia who will be appearing at Secret Stages. They are scheduled to appear Friday night, May 13th at 9:00 PM at Rogue Tavern.

• Lame question, but I have to ask: How do you describe your music? Hmm.  This is a tough question, actually.  It's hard to step outside of your own music and say, "This is what we sound like."  We get a lot of comparisons to Low and Mercury Rev and Everybody has to have an elevator pitch, right?  Ours is "orchestral indie pop with ambient and Americana flourishes."  Okay, so, wow, that sounds banal.  Maybe tell everybody we sound like Katy Perry jamming with Robert Fripp at Dr. John's house.  That's a total lie, but I'd totally go to that show.

• How have you been dealing with the “digital revolution” and its effect on music and art? Has it helped or hurt you? We're of two minds about it.  Being able to connect with your fans and self-promote and communicate with folks all over the world...well, that's invaluable.  We can get music out there to people way more efficiently than before.  But all of this comes at a price.  First off, we spend sooooo much time online managing all of the social media, and not enough time, you know, writing and making music.  It's just a fact that people are buying less music.  We sell considerably less physical merchandise than we did before, both on tour or through stores and online retailers.  Heck, we sell less digital files, too.  Lets face it: the reality of the marketplace is such that if you buy music, you're doing it for charity, because you're a super-fan, because you bought vinyl and are some kind of audiophile, or you just don't know any better.  But the model that artists deserve compensation for their work has been completely destabilized and that's distressing because, at first, it seemed like the semi-collapse of the music industry might be freeing for artists.  Instead, it seems that independent artists are still bearing the brunt of this.  When your record is on 20 Mediafare download links four months before release, you know you're not going to sell a lot of copies.

• What are your plans for this year? We've been touring and playing around a bunch, but now we are finally hunkering down to write and record songs for what will hopefully be Album #4 and possibly some EPs.  When we have made records in the past we've sat down to make an album in one fell swoop.  We're thinking of recording a lot of songs and carving them up for different purposes.  Also, we are a band that has recorded largely analog on tape.  It's going to be exciting to finally join the 21st century and do some digital recording!  Have you ever heard of Autotune?  Expect oceans and oceans of Autotune on the next album.

• What do you hope to accomplish by performing at Secret Stages? Sadly, we haven't played Birmingham in a while, which is a shame because we've encountered such great people and music fans there.  We are excited to come back and play with all of these amazing bands for this great event.  Despite the problems with the music industry, at the end of the day it's still about putting your music out there for new ears, and we hope to do that at Secret Stages.

Four Questions with Janet Simpson of the Delicate Cutters

Four Questions with Janet Simpson of the Delicate Cutters, a band from Birmingham, Alabama who will be appearing at Secret Stages. They are scheduled to appear Friday night, May 13th at 10:00 PM at the Wine Loft.

• Lame question, but I have to ask: How do you describe your music? Rock and Roll

• How have you been dealing with the “digital revolution” and its effect on music and art? Has it helped or hurt you? I feel the power shift caused by the digital revolution is making for a very interesting world for the musician.  More possibilities for control, for creativity have been created.  We are still learning what that means, but ultimately, I believe the result will be positive. 

• What are your plans for this year? We are releasing an album, "Some Creatures" on local label Skybucket Records on July 19th. We will be celebrating that release locally in late June.  Along with that of course, some videos, some free bonus tracks, etc. will be hitting the web.  To support "Some Creatures" we'll be hitting the road to play more shows throughout the southeast and will be recording our next release very soon. 

• What do you hope to accomplish by performing at Secret Stages?  We're just thrilled to be a part of this great festival with so many other bands we love from throughout the region.

Four Questions with Daniel Pujol

Four Questions with Daniel Pujol of Pujol, a musician from Nashville, Tennessee who will be appearing at Secret Stages. He is scheduled to appear Saturday night, May 14th at 10:30 PM at Metro Bar.

• Lame question, but I have to ask: How do you describe your music? Southern Gothic Rock

• How have you been dealing with the “digital revolution” and its effect on music and art? Has it helped or hurt you? I think it has helped me..there seems to be a false/artistic dichotomy emerging between vinyl and digital. Digital recordings and means of circulation really democratizes the ways an artist can get music out there; which CAN cut out a lot of middle-man bologna. When it comes to vinyl, digital means of exposure can be used to generate enough interest or support to have someone sane/not-evil press your record for you and capture it on a vinyl as a releasable piece of art. There are some prevailing commercial undertones to it all, but you’re always painting pictures for the king, but now you can just pick the king instead of pretending like you want to kill one.

• What are your plans for this year? Getting X FILE ON MAIN ST out on Infinity Cat and finishing a Turbo Time LP called TCB247, and finishing another LP called United States of Being. Then probably subsequent tours split between both live ensembles, and solo shows.

• What do you hope to accomplish by performing at Secret Stages? Being told about all the different stages of a secret afterwards.

Four Questions with Carter King of the Futurebirds

4 Questions with Carter King of the Futurebirds, a band from Athens, Georgia who will be appearing at Secret Stages. They are scheduled to appear Saturday night, May 14th at 11:30 PM on the Outdoor Stage.

• Lame question, but I have to ask: How do you describe your music? You know, Rachel, it's this kind of lazy journalism that really ticks me off. Describing music, by definition, is your job, not mine, and I don't plan on doing it here for you now. I have enough of other people's jobs to do as it is. Just kidding. How about, psychedelic-partridge-
  family-style-harmonious-and-chivalrous-movie-theater-butter-alt-country-popcorn with extra sprinkles. and chocolate syrup.

• How have you been dealing with the “digital revolution” and its effect on music and art? Has it helped or hurt you? Hard to say on this one. Without the whole pirating music thing we'd probably either be millionaires or working other jobs by now. But things are the way they are, so you really just have to embrace it and use this monster to your advantage. If someone who wouldn't have paid for your music in the first place buys a $15 ticket to your show because they got your music for free, then it actually works in your favor. So i guess we'll wait til we're selling out venues everywhere we go to start fighting music piracy. But, by then the whole business will probably have been turned on its face again, so...

• What are your plans for this year?  The tentative plans for the year are to tour hard as we can, find some time in there to record another album, and sign an exclusive deal with Wal-Mart with the possible back-end option for a fragrance down the line. just like Tim McGraw.

• What do you hope to accomplish by performing at Secret Stages? We hope to have fun, be safe, learn a new skill, and make new friends. 

Four Questions With TJ Young

Four Questions with TJ Young, a comedian from Athens, Georgia who will be appearing at Secret Stages. He is scheduled to appear Friday night, May 13th at 10:30 PM at Pale Eddie's Upstairs.

• Lame question, but I have to ask: How do you describe your comedy? My humor is a healthy mix of american renaissance, baroque and spaghetti western. Well, the funny parts of the first two and the spaghetti part of the last one. 

• How have you been dealing with the “digital revolution” and its effect on music and art? Has it helped or hurt you? For comedy, the digital/online age has bee mostly advantageous...with the onset of sites like YouTube and Facebook, we are exposed to a larger swath of comedy from a lot more and smaller places. And, inversely comedians can gain exposure for their own comedy beyond their own local area. The downside is that there is more potential for material to spread and potentially be stolen or misrepresented...therefore, there is more pressure to be constantly creating and writing...which sucks, because now we're all wasting so much time on Facebook.

• What are your plans for this year? Branching out to new cities and venues. Record another album and produce/promote a lot more video content...clips, sketches, etc. And, to rewatch the Back to the Future trilogy.

• What do you hope to accomplish by performing at Secret Stages? I'd love to connect with new comedians and fans of comedy in Birmingham. And, hope in the course of the weekend to complete 4 sudoku puzzles.