Nashville Rocks LaLa & WOXY!!!

I'd read a little about LaLa, this service that allows you to trade in CDs that you don't want for discs that you might want, at a minimal cost of $1.00 or something like that. Since I have a few promo discs laying around that I've reviewed and just don't have room on the shelves for, I figured that I'd check LaLa out and see if I could trade 'em in on the couple of new releases that I want but can't currently afford to buy.

After listing a half-dozen discs on the service, and quickly trading five of them (which gets you points to use against future trades), I decided to look around for a while. I looked up the discs that I wanted to try and score copies of and, sadly, nobody had copies to trade right now. I went ahead and placed them on my "want list," hoping that somebody will come up with a copy of the new Patti Smith covers album, but while digging through the site, which – with the addition of a digital download store – seems to be trying to be all things to all people, I ran across the WOXY sessions page.

Best I can tell, WOXY-FM was a "Modern Rock" radio station launched back in the early-80s in Oxford, Ohio. The station broadcast an alternative format, with an emphasis on indie rock, which earned WOXY all kinds of kudos from the likes of Spin and Rolling Stone. In the late-90s they began simulcasting programming on the Internet. When the station's ownership sold the broadcast license and assets to a Texas company in 2004, the idea was to take the station online full-time, and a group retained the "intellectual" assets (i.e. call letters, web site) and music library with this in mind. Lack of funds caused them to close up shop, but investors cropped up the day after they closed the doors and, in July 2004, WOXY-FM became WOXY.COM, the first terrestrial radio station to reinvent itself online.

Anyway, WOXY is hooked up in some sort of deal with LaLa, providing free mp3 podcast downloads of short-performances by a wealth of indie rock and Americana artists. Each session "in the lounge" runs 20-30 minutes in length and there are some pretty cool people who have dropped by the WOXY.COM studios to perform, including Frank Black, Gomez, Heartless Bastards and French Kicks.

Nashville's current rock scene is strongly represented, perhaps more so than any other city. Of the nearly 100 podcasts available on the site, eight or nine of them are by Nashville bands, some of 'em twice! If you want to get a good idea of what Nashville rock is all about these days, check out LaLa, click on the "discover" tab at the top of the page and scroll down to the bottom right corner where it says "Download free MP3s." Scrolling through the pages, you'll find sessions by the Features, the Hotpipes, De Novo Dahl, Forget Cassettes, the Carter Administration and Apollo Up! All of these are very cool Nashville bands and I've downloaded all of their sessions for frequent future listening. The Rev sez "check it out!"

Rebecca Writes, The Velcro Stars & More Bands!!!

The Reverend recently heard from his old friend Rebecca Luxford concerning "The Other Side Of Nashville" Project. Rebecca was editor of The Metro during a particularly difficult time for the magazine and successfully oversaw its evolution from an inconsistent, narrowly-focused music rag into a more professional and diverse publication. Rebecca brought up a couple of bands that should be on the list, the first of which - Joe, Marc's Brother - I simply overlooked for some inexplicable reason. The other band she mentioned, the Times, was pretty well known on the local scene but I don't remember them and don't know anything about them. I've added them both to the "official" list.

My old high school buddy Ron Graham submitted the Nashville band Ligion for the list, as well as John Davis, formerly of Superdrag. I've added them both, and although Davis is shooting for a CCM audience these days, his music is straight indie rock. I think that there's enough flexibility in the list to include Davis. What about Superdrag, though? They've been recommended by just about everybody that has emailed me to date and although they started in Knoxville, did they play around town enough or have enough of a Nashville presence to include them on the list? Please let me know your thoughts on this, either by email through the nifty new link to your right or in the comments box.

Speaking of bands that are on the edge of "the list," what are your thoughts, readers, on the Immortal Lee County Killers? They're originally from Alabama if I remember correctly, but band leader Chet "Cheetah" Weise moved to Nashville a few months before the band recorded their excellent 2005 CD These Bones Will Rise To Love You. Have the Immortal Lee County Killers done enough locally to be included on the list? Do they receive a similar sort of "pass" as Will & the Bushmen? Inquiring minds want to know....

I also heard from Shane of the Velcro Stars, who also recommended a bunch of great bands, including the Hot Pipes, Apollo Up!, the Friendlies and Tony Danza Tap Dancing Extravaganza, among others. Reader Linda Barnett wrote to recommend Alien In The Land Of Our Birth, who I had thought that I put on the list but obviously overlooked. That band's Steve Austin went on to form underground icons Today Is The Day, who were already on the list. Some of the other new bands listed below, which have also been added, I found through their MySpace pages.

Finally, another old friend and a big supporter of the project, Donna Frost, dropped me a line to recommend the Purple Giraffes. Fronted by wildman Billy Stickers, Donna remembers him wearing a tutu on stage and performing all sorts of antics; the band also counted Jeff Johnson, Greg Herston and Richie Owens among its members at one time or another. Donna also brought up Psychic Surgery, and has found some recordings of that band, who were pretty hot in town during their time if my memory serves me right. They're both in....

ALIEN IN THE LAND OF OUR BIRTH,
AN ARIATIC SILENCE, APOLLO UP!,
BUBBLE GUM COMPLEX,
CAESAR'S GLASS BOX, THE DARLINGS,
JOHN DAVIS, THE FRIENDLIES,
THE GOLDEN GEARS, THE HOT PIPES,
JOE, MARC'S BROTHER, LIGION,
PSYCHIC SURGERY, PURPLE GIRAFFES,
THE REDOUBTS, SERATONIN,
TREY STEIN, THE TIMES,
TONY DANZA TAP DANCING EXTRAVAGANZA,
THE WHOLE FANTASTIC WORLD

Kudos to Rebecca for recommending the Enkoder software for our email link. Thanks to her, I can provide a "mailto" link for you all to contact me without getting swamped with spam and porno links. You'll find that link in the column to the right of the screen, and if you have any info on any of the bands on the list, I'd like to hear from you. Rebecca also recommended some improvements to the band list and project pages and so I've made them better and easier to use (I hope).

If you're just now finding this blog and wonder what the project is all about, you can find the project's details here and last of all, the "official list" is now 410 bands big! I know that I've said it before, but unless somebody comes up with a real hot band, I think that the list is closed. Now I've got work to do and a book to write....