Maggie Rose opened for Dispatch tonight at the Windjammer and she was excellent. She was promoting her latest album No One Gets Out Alive and the single “Fake Flowers.” She also came out on stage twice with Dispatch, for covers of “Don’t Let Me Down” by the Beatles and “Crazy Train” by Ozzy.
I’ll have a full review of that show up soon in the live music reviews section of the main blog.
For now, check out the single
P.S. – Tour manager was wearing a dead hat. Sold me a koozie and commented on my dead shirt. Good band good vibes
A couple of new releases from Columbia, SC artists:
Kat Hammond – “Thank U 4 Trying”
I can hear an Alanis Morissette influence on this, Kat is awesome.
Produced by Wolfgang Zimmerman, in collaboration with Kat Gandy, Jon Warf, and Luke Reeves.
MIDS – “Jonesin'” and “Song For Lars”
A heavy rock & roll band featuring Dylan Dickerson on vocals, Jon Warf & Roger Caughman on guitars, Michael Crawford on drums and Cam Powell on bass. All members of well-known SC acts like Dear Blanca, Stagbriar, Numbtongue and more.
Updated the “Quick Post” feature so that it allows users to post replies to various topics, including their own Independent Artist boards. This should make it easier for people to share quick updates with the community
The Quick Post box also now uses the same post editor that the regular forum pages use
User Dashboard Updates
I also updated the User Dashboard, especially for artists, and generally made it more navigable.
Editor
Removed the header, paragraph dropdown, added undo, redo, and blockquote
Login Form
Added a password reset link in case anyone loses their password.
When I was in college I smoked a joint with my friend and then we went skating down by the battery, around 1 or 2am. We always liked to skate down Legare Street because it was exceptionally smooth. After a while of skating around, enjoying the breeze, we slowed down to take in the sights on Tradd Street.
Somewhere along the way we encountered an old cast iron gate. We stood there admiring the gate for a while — it really is a nice gate. Then, out of nowhere, the two of us got absolutely spooked. We felt the need to get out of there immediately. We skated off as fast as we could and didn’t stop to regroup until we got back to my house, which was on Barre Street at the time (the house has since been knocked down).
Still to this day, both of us remember this night and don’t have a true explanation for it. Other than the possibility that we were both just stoned… or we saw a ghost.
I could not tell you the exact gate that we stopped at, but I did come across this page in the Southern Spirit Guide, which offers a possible explanation.
“These gateposts, marking where Ruth Lowndes Simmons’ home once stood, serve as sentinels to remind us of a tragic love story. While Ruth Lowndes was from a noble Charleston family, she was almost a spinster when she married Francis Simmons, a wealthy planter. Simmons provided his wife with a fine house here, though he had his own home on nearby Legare Street. When their separate carriages would pass, the couple would rise and bow to the other. An old Charleston legend says that the sounds of a horse and carriage are heard here. James Caskey reports that he felt the rush of air and smelled the odor of sweaty horses as he visited these gateposts at night.”
For those who aren’t familiar with Mantra, they’re a laid-back indie rock band from Charleston who have become a core part of the city’s DIY music scene. In addition to frequent performances at the Royal American, Mantra recently opened for Twen at the Charleston Pour House, have been known to play at Recovery Room, and most importantly, they have their own DIY venue in North Charleston called Stuart’s House.
Mantra’s latest single, “To Understand Why” is a slow groove with layers of piano and acoustic guitar, quietly building intensity as frontman Ben Patrick sings about confusion in a relationship. A false peak tricks the listener first, and then the beat drops out to reveal a buttery guitar solo, leading into a peaceful jam to close out the final minute of the song.
I’ve always enjoyed Mantra’s music and collaborating with the band and its members on various things has been great so far. Also, I don’t know if I should fan the flames but Ben’s frontman antics are entertaining.
Here is their latest Instagram post showing upcoming shows. Give them a follow and keep up with what they’ve got going on!
For the intro to YEM they brought out Tiny Trampolines. Pretty silly. I love how they played YEM plus an encore at a Tiny Desk. Someone also pointed out how its the longest Tiny Desk of all time.
I think Phish loves YEM as much as Phish fans love YEM.
@JerryGarcia I saw that on social media a few weeks ago. That would have been really cool, especially if it led to either:
A. Jerry sitting in with Bob Marley & The Wailers
B. Bob Marley sitting in with Jerry or the Dead
C. Jerry & Bob Marley duo
Something tells me that Jerry Garcia and Bob Marley would have been fast friends. Natty Dread on Grateful Dead records is an interesting alternate timeline to imagine.
@killdoji I think some of it is coming to life for sure. @kaitheczar has been taking his time promoting his I Exist album, with multiple music videos released from it. The show we just did at the Music Farm with the Wu-Tang / Rage tribute was epic and UnHeard did a great job with promotions for it, especially with showing up at Wu Wednesdays to cross promote. That said, it was a Wu-Tang Tribute, and marketing originals would have led to a much smaller turnout.
Nowadays I think the problem with our entire music scene, not just hip hop, but all original music being played at the local level. We struggle with a small community of people who care. We need to find a way to reach a lot more of the people who live in Charleston and get them interested in what’s happening.
Otherwise, the scene will remain small.
Part of this is absolutely building a story behind yourself as an artist, but some of it also has to be done in another way. Social media becomes an echo chamber of all the same voices sharing the same things, but there aren’t as many new faces.
One example of how to do this is what I’ve seen the local rock band Easy Honey doing. They’re sponsoring Beach Cleanups in cities they stop through on tour, including here in Charleston. This exposes them to an entirely new group of people who would have never known they existed if they didn’t hear about the beach cleanup.
They’ve also set up on the site of the road during a busy traffic day and jammed, with a sign in front of their setup that reads “Traffic Jam” with ways to follow them.
This kind of stuff can be adapted for other genres of music and types of events, it’s just a matter of finding the ways to do it. I’m trying to do it for Extra Chill as well, but it takes some creativity and lots of effort.
