Hey all,

Glad to be back for the second salvo of By Local. Since last time I figured out there’s so much going on I’ll have to divide these forays into three parts. First part will be agitation propaganda which is about taking action to support our local music scene governmentally, individually, and communally.

The second part will be about events that are coming up or past events being reviewed.

Part three will detail local album reviews or overviews of artists.

Sometimes when there will be guest bloggers these rules will apply and other times not. Now down to business.

Agit Prop

It seems to me there is always a lot of talk about supporting local things, but it is usually just talk. Because local things are harder to find and sometimes harder to understand than the usual balderdash a certain type of commitment is required. The type of commitment needed is that of intentionally seeking out local acts and going to see these acts with the mindset that all creativity starts out somewhere locally. If one expects to see super polished multi thousand dollar performance sets of course one will be sorely disappointed. If one expects to see local folks doing their damnedest then one will be pleased.

Locally in the government, particularly the DDA, the commitment to local music must be tantamount. Commitment to a variety of local music is even more important. This year in the series at Consumer’s and donwtown at Bucky Harris Park we have, once again, Kung Fu Diesel (a local band from Parma) and then we have Root Doctor (a not so local band from Lansing). I recall that most of the rest are not local at all except maybe for MOJO PHEONIX. Beyond that, all the bands are from out of town. In town, we have over 40 bands available and a mere two get the nod.

So, we get lip service from the local people and the local government. Only with a firm commitment to local performers can we get a vibrant music scene rolling and sustained.

Gone, Here, and Coming Up

An awesome show I saw recently bears mentioning. I will say I put the show together but it was good despite that. The show featured Oridjinns from Kalamazoo, Falcorps from Kalamazoo, and theillalogicalspoon from Jackson. Each band could be highly praised, but I want to focus on the spoon.

The show was the spoon’s CD release and in an ambitious move they aligned their set with the tracks of the album and played the entire album in order. Though the band is very diverse in instruments - they range from a guitar to a trumpet to an oboe-the band successfully melded a gypsy, protest folk, and world sound. They simply were spellbinding and blew me away. I have seen them roughly ten times and this was their most engaging performance ever. If you have a chance to see them, do it.

Coming up this weekend is Brunofest. It features a ton of local musicians and a few out of towners. Planners of the summer music series could bear to go to this show as it encompasses the great diversity of Jackson area musicians - from ska to grunge to punk to a scratch dj. It remains crazy to me that a show of this caliber remains free. All props go to co-conspirator in local musicism, Aaron Childs. Aaron has been doing music events and playing music in Jackson for years. If you see Aaron say ‘at a boy. Keep up the good work Aaron and you dear reader get your butt to the Riverwalk Ampitheater on Saturday. For a description of the event see Wild Bill Chapin’s article.

Local Albums

Two albums came out recently that you should go out and find. They can be found by googling the bands.

1. theillalogicalspoon - Experiment #3 Remember Your Creator in the Days of Your Youth. This album is the spoon’s most polished so far. Production on the album is complete with art and lyrics. It is based on Ecclesiastes from The Bible. Don’t worry, you don’t have to know the Bible or even be religious — it is merely a meditation on the thoughts in the book. All you really have to want to do is dig swampy folk, world, gypsy music. Look for the best tracks - Who’s the Cowboy now(a George Bush and American Imperialist lament) and Moonlight and Fog 1, 2, and 3.

2.Arcadia Zero - demo. If you haven’t heard Arcadia Zero live by now, you might never hear them. All of these guys but one have graduated high school this year and are headed for different parts of the country. Don’t despair, AZ has a recording that beautifully captures the sound of this prog rock fivesome. At times heavy and lilting AZ delivers a highly professional offering of performance and song writing. Make sure to spin Dolphin and Awakened Pt. 2.

Promote a town of locals for locals By Locals.

Be seein’ ya,

Jon

PS. Catch me in The Jackson Blazer doing the Black Arts column twice a month.