8 great (and cheap) things about music I’ve experienced in the past 12 days

by Keith in Concert Reviews, Top 10, Uncategorized, bands to watch

My hunch is that the vast majority of people reading this are not independently (or even dependently) wealthy. That means that most likely, we’re all looking for ways to get some impact out of the money we have in terms of everything, including music. While I didn’t plan it this way, I’ve had a lot of cool little music things happen over the last 12 days – and they’re all cheap. So why not share?

1. DJ Skeme and DJ Cash Money at Silk City (Philly). Drinks were $3. Cover was zero. The insanely rare funk 45s spinning all night were free, as were the breakers, b-girls and b-boys showing off their insane moves. Plus, Skeme has a disgustingly deep funk collection. Plus, Cash Money won a DJ belt 20 years ago. Let me say that again: Cash Money won the ‘Best DJ in the world’ BELT… 20 years ago! This guy is a legend! And there are plenty of DJ nights like this, they’re waiting for you to enjoy them.

2. Saw Emmure, A Life Once Lost, Tony Danza TapDance Extravaganza and Veil of Maya at the Unitarian Church (Philly). You know how much the ticket was? $12. For an evening of metal, pits, and cheap t-shirts (which cost extra, but are cheap). The downside was I was easily the oldest person in the building – and I’m not exactly geriatric. But it was still fun, loud and damn heavy.

3. Bought a cassette player at a local drug store ($14). You remember cassettes, right? If not, they were kind of a big deal for 10-15 years. And I bet you have a bunch of them sitting in a box right now. We all kind of hate on cassettes right now, but I dug up some of mine, threw them in the portable cassette player and had some nice listening. Why wait for something to come out in iTunes format when it’s sitting right there on tape?

4. Downloaded some DJ Skeme Podcasts. But, we all have portable mp3 players and iPods, so why not get the most out of the damn things? The aforementioned Skeme has Podcasts available on the www.podomatic.com website, where he spins 40-45 minutes of the rare funk and soul for the world. These are funk and soul gems he’s spinning, and all you have to do is subscribe to it (for free) and listen to the goods.

5. Set up my own podcast site. This is what is known as a ’shameless plug’. But I mean hey, my podcasts will be free too, and everybody likes free, right? You’ll be able to find it on the podomatic site by 8/25, and it’s nothing but what I think is good music I hope people (like you) want to hear.

6. Heard the new Metallica song. Logic says we should have given up on Metallica a long time ago, but dammit – metalheads just can’t do it. Much like anything comes out that is ‘Star Wars’ makes the Star Wars heads go crazy, whenever Metallica releases new stuff the old-school thrash fanboys in all of us come out. We’ve been burned (Load), burned again (Re-load) and then burned one more time-kinda (St. Anger), but this time? We may not get burned. I like the new song even though I only heard it once, it sounds like an album that would have fallen in-between ‘And Justice’ and ‘Black Album’ in terms of songwriting, production and complexity. In other words, pretty damn good.

7. Went to see a local metal show. It was at the Street Road Bar & Grill, cover was $5, drinks were cheap and I got to see four good bands. For those of you into metal, and the new styles of metal, you are very lucky if you live in Philly/New Jersey/New York, because there are a lot of really good local bands that write good songs, play good heavy stuff and are definitely worth your time and attention!

8. Spent some time to go through music I already own. If you’re like me, you’ve probably obtained a lot of music you haven’t even listened to yet, whether you just haven’t opened it, haven’t gotten around to it, or listened to the one song you got it for without listening to the rest of the album. Meaning, there are a lot of brand-new songs sitting right there just a few feet away from you! All you have to do is listen to them.

While I’m not sure I even have a point, if there is a point to be taken from all this it’s that there is a lot of cool stuff out there that doesn’t hit you hard in the wallet, doesn’t involve $30 parking (yes, I’m looking in YOUR direction, Camden Waterfront Music Center With Some Coroporate Name I can’t Remember but Used to Be Called the Tweeter center) and packs plenty of musical wallop. Here’s hoping I’ll see you at some of these things!