Couches on Fire: 2006-01-22

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Weekend Roundup 1/27 & 1/28

It may be cold outside, but you should get out more.

Friday, 1/27
123 Pleasant Street - Hovel, Ish
Instrumental hard rock, three peice indie rock
Archies - The New Relics
Local pop-rockers
Rosewood Theatre - Wailin' Elroys, David Childers & the Modern Don Juans
Steel Driven Honky Tonk, Straight Up Rock n' Roll
Side Pocket Pub - DJ Saenz (Up All Night, sponsered by U92FM)
Latin Dance Party

Saturday, 1/28
123 Pleasant Street - Poogie Bell Band, Thred
Drummer driven dance rock, local funksters
Rosewood Theatre - Billy Matheny & the Frustrations, the Love Me Knots
Alt-country sensations
Side Pocket Pub - DJs Cutman & Blackout from Mayday! (Up All Night - sponsered by U92FM)
Will alter you forever.
McClafferty's - Herb & Hanson
Acoustic Duo
Fuel - Dave Bello & Shane Hines
One man slack rock non-bands

Support Local Music!

Open Mics

Hey All,

Well, the weekend fast approacheth, but I think one of the biggest news items is the return of the Hip Hop Open Mic Night to 123 Pleasant Street next Thursday, the 2nd of February. If you're not already familiar with the night, people can come out and freestyle or do one of their own songs, and this time they're even having a 'beat battle' for up-and-coming producers. The night is hosted by DJ Monsta Lung and DJ Mischievious from U92, and Ace Beanz and Johnny Harmonic will be performing some sets as well. So I guess it's sort of a combination open mic / regulars night, despite the name, and that's why you'll be seeing a $5 cover. It's been a little while since the night was put on and hopefully they can get it started up in a regular way again. It's really nice to see so many different genres flourishing side by side in town and I hope it continues.

If hip hop's not your bag, the Rosewood has their regular acoustic open mic night on Thursdays as well, and you can usually catch Brett Hammon & Andrew Slater there. In fact, I believe that McClafferty's ALSO has an open mic night on Thursdays hosted by former Cheap Truckers Speed frontman Brian Porterfield. Keep in mind it's 21+ though kiddies. 123's regular weekly open mic is tonight of course, but if you're not already there you probably won't read this beforehand. I heard that Sea Hag, a metal side project of some of the boys from Librarians and Dave Bello's band, might be making their virgin voyage tonight if you make it out. Fuel has their open mic night on Tuesdays so you've got yet another place to be heard during the week. I also heard Thred would be appearing on WCLG tonight at 10pm, so if you're constantly checking out Couches on Fire you might actually have time to listen, otherwise it's probably too late (too bad I was busy at work today).

Lastly, nearly all of this info came from our brand new Myspace profile. Add us if you aren't already our friend, and if you're in a band, keep those bulletins coming and we'll pass along what information we can. Hopefully we can get another weekend roundup out before too long, but since it won't make it in before then, I should mention that the Virginia Coalition will be appearing at 123 tomorrow with support from the Underwater Sex Plants, who have some really nice sounding demos up on their Myspace profile. I can't recall the last show they played but it seems like it's been a little while.

Monday, January 23, 2006

Morgantown via Myspace

The other day it occurred to me that Myspace was taking over the universe of band websites. Here's a site that makes it easy to connect with fans, give them songs to check out and ways of giving feedback to your band/project/thingee. The other day I noticed how even though the Emergency have a lovely website complete with their own domain, I was drawn instead to their Myspace page. Now I know some people despise Myspace, but for a fan of non-mainstream music it's gotten difficult to avoid because of the promotional options for bands, dance nights, clubs, and even record labels.

I browsed through Morgantown's offerings, and I noted most of regularly gigging bands at places like 123, the Rosewood and the Brewpub have myspace pages. So I thought I'd take a stab at separating the wheat from the chaff and provide you all with a vaguely comprehensive list of who's who on the Morgantown Myspace nexus, including all genres, entities and so on. It's unavoidable that this will leave someone out, but I'm trying to include pages where people have actually put in some effort and might conceivably play a show in the future, or did in the past. I counted about 120 active bands, musicians or projects, plus a smattering of venues, defunct bands and dance nights.

Due to the immense number of links I have divided them into some rough categories. Hopefully people will understand the need for this and not be too nitpicky on who's in what category. I also tried to separate active from inactive bands but I may have lumped some of each in the wrong section. And before I go further, does anyone know who the Foolish is? It's a one-man band with some of the yummiest influences, a record deal and a bunch of really good tunes and I've never heard of him/them before. Anyway take a look, there's a bunch I'd never heard of, maybe there's someone who could open up for you next time you play a show?