Finally I am back to post something. I told you that it probably would not be that regularly. Here goes!Rachel and I had the total fortune of heading to Louisville, KY for the above mentioned convention. It was our first time attending and I have to say one of the best conferences/conventions we have been to yet. Everyone was very friendly and everything was easy to find and get to. Big up to Dan Reed formerly of WFPK and now of WXPN and all of the WFPK folks who created such a wonderful warm experience. I got to see lots of great music in a very short time as well as meet some amazing folks. Sea Wolf played on Saturday night and blew me away. They had to play in a hotel conference room, which is not the warmest environment, and had me feeling warm and fuzzy regardless. Paula Cole put on a great performance and even though it was a small stage played it like it was a shed. Totally pro. The performance highlight of my trip was actually a tie (outside of our own artists of course but more on that in a min): Ryan Adams and Ingrid Michaelson.
First Ingrid; I had first found out about Ingrid because she sings on another record from an artist that I LOVE. Love might not be strong enough more like it is my current obsession (among many). When I heard the background vocals on his record I went a searching for the girl. Only to find Ingrid. Whereby I promptly purchased both her records from itunes. I would urge you to do the same. Now a days she seems to be everywhere. Good Morning America, Grey's Anatomy and WSJ! I did not realize that she would be playing at the conference and was beyond excited to see her in the line up. She was better live than the record and that is saying something. Her voice is like a clear beautiful bell and the songs are awesome. Truth be told, "Keep Breathing" made me cry in a room where crying is not the super cool thing to do. But, I am an honest woman: it made me cry. Albeit silently and I wiped the tears away immediately lest anyone see.
Onto Ryan, I know some people in the room were not pleased with the performance. But, I thought it was amazing. It was a show for listening not looking. Here is why: pretty much the entire theater was dark with the exception of some blue wash lighting and all of the musicians were set up in a semi-circle of which Ryan Adams was one. Furthermore, he was off to the side of the circle and had a large hood over his head for the entire show. Never once did he really address the crowd nor did he ever get up front and center. But, the sound that was filling the theater was ethereal. Truly. His voice was beyond. He did not play anything, as, from what I heard, he broke his hand skateboarding. So the show was like what I would hope a Jeff Buckley show would have been. I never got to see one but that is how one of his shows would have been in my mind at least. Spiritual: like going to church. Where it is not about the person's hotness or "presence" but just how amazing the music sounds and the fact that everyone there was experiencing the same experience in a contemplative way at the same time. OK enough waxing on the highlights onto the rest of the experience.
This is John Porter at the check out:
My other favorite part of the convention outside of the above mentioned performances was our Swati/Cary Brothers suite performance at the Brown Hotel. When we landed at the airport, Rachel, John and I picked up our rental car and headed to the local Target. I could take a min here to extol the virtues of Target but I will refrain. Needless to say we stocked up. Junk food, cups, mixers, candles galore and most importantly Christmas lights. It felt like college all over again!Rachel & I excited by our bounty:
Then it was onto pick up the backline for the suite. Being as it was KY everything moved a little bit slower. This was a bit much for us to deal with seeing as we are from NYC, we did not know what to do with this extra 15 min of time in our lives. We had all checked our blackberrys and treos a couple of times already and sent at least 5 e-mails each. So.....
We pretended to play instruments!
After we finally got all of the gear, including a direct box WITH REVERB!!!!!! That was how it read on our list. Swati would have been mighty put out had we not arrived with the aforementioned item. We jumped into our now overloaded rental car and headed to the liquor sto'. Much beer and tasty beverages purchased later, we hightailed it over to a killer record store in Louisville named EarXtacy. Please go there if you haven't already it is a very very cool indie record store with super kind and "on it" people working there who love music. Support them please!
Swati playing "MF":
Swati went on first and was feeling a little on the spot under the bright lights. It was her first in-store. While playing in a store is cool, it certainly does have a different vibe than a club. Swati mentioned that she did not think she had ever performed without at least one drink before. Cary Brothers, bless his kind soul, heard this and immediately headed to yet another liquor store to grab a 5th of Jack Daniels. He quickly returned, Swati took a swig, and the show was on! She sounded amazing as always and played 4 songs. People in the store stopped and listened and completely stopped talking when she started to play. Big up to the people in the store! I have to admit while I love Swati's song "MF" I was a little stressed out to hear the opening chords of it in the middle of the day in a record store with children in it. None the less it drew many applause. Phew. Maybe they did not notice that the chorus has a very dirty curse word in it about 4 times.Cary & Kestren:
Next up Cary B and his lovely cellist Kestren Pantera. There was swigage by both and then on to the playing. People were lining the stairs and listening intently as they began to play. I saw at least a few very cute young ladies looking at Cary wistfully. The set was awesome as always. The funniest moment was when Cary started to play the title track off his new record "Who You Are" and Kestren started to play with FEELING the opening of "If You Were Here" another song on the record. We were all told that this has happened before. :) They re-started in sync this time and it sounded just right. Cary was kind enough to dedicate one of my favorite songs on the record to me and I felt all special. Even though I do this for a living, that gets me every time.Now that we had supported our artist's lovely performances and told them where we needed them to appear next, we headed back to the hotel to set up the room for the suite performance. We could not have it feel like a cold hotel room. That would not be the bluhammock vibe! What this entailed was at least an hour of arguing between myself, Rachel and Porter as to the perfect arrangement of the furniture in the room. Who knew it could be so hard to create "vibe" in a hotel room! After we finished arranging the furniture it was on to hanging Christmas lights from the window valances and ceiling with painter's tape so as not to ruin anything. Not an easy feat.
Me taping up the lights:
The entire time that we are setting up the suite all I keep thinking and I am sure saying enough times to irk John and Rachel: "Are people going to show up?" This is why I stopped throwing parties. In the past, I threw parties for money. I always had people show up and made back my money and then some. But....I couldn't take the worrying that people would show up part. Freaks me out. Even if I have an RSVP list of 300 people for a room that holds 50 I am still freaking out. Clearly, I am not cut out to be a party planner unless it was a wedding planner. Then people are obligated to come. But...I digress. Ultimately, we built it and people came. Thank God! More importantly people seemed to really enjoy themselves and the music. Both Swati and Cary performed again to an attentive and respectful audience. This time so as not to have the same discomfort happen to our artists, being the thoughtful label we are, we created custom bottles of Jack Daniels for both of them using our extremely handy painters tape.
Many tasty beverages were had by all and the party did not stop until 6am I was told. Why did I have to be told you ask? Because at about 4am with people still in the room hanging, I fell asleep with my head propped up on my hand on the arm of the couch. Thankfully, pictures were taken of what I missed.
Light Saber Madness!! & Accordian Playing By One of the Coolest Cats In the Industry
Outside of that night, we met some great new people from both the radio side of the world and the label side of the world. Every person we met seemed to be truly about music which was beyond heartening. We got to talk about music we loved and see great artists perform. We rounded the whole thing out with a laid back dance party on Saturday night. Who could ask for a better weekend? Last but not least, if you made it this far, Rachel and I had the pleasure of having dinner at a restaurant called Proof that is a part of a hotel called the 21C Museum Hotel that is pretty much a modern art museum. Walking to the restroom was insane. The art they had in there was brilliant. If you ever find yourself in Louisville, I would recommend checking it out. Oh.. and the food was great too.
Until Our Next Misadventure (and I have the time to post),
Jaylaan
