Muxtape Reports on Issues with RIAA

MUXTAPE v. RIAA

No ACL Fest this year

I have been blessed to attend each of the annual three-day music get-togethers known as the Austin City Limits Music Festival since its conception in 2002. This year marks the first year that I will not be attending the festival.

Am I bitter? Well, no not really. I will miss not being able to reunite with my fellow audiophiles in Austin this season. Although the concept is great - you get to see an insane number of great artists over the period of only three days - the logistics make the festival almost unbearable for music fans who are faced with having to trek back and forth between stages in the blazing Texas heat for a chance of POSSIBLY seeing a great band. The sets are crammed together, and it makes it difficult to see more than one song of each set.

I've come to the realization that I much enjoy the intimacy of a bar when it comes to live music. Let's face it, when it comes to the two major music festivals in Austin, SXSW is superior to ACL because visitors get more bang for their buck.

That's just my take, and I'm sure many of you will disagree.

For those who are going, a great collaboration of artists will be tickling your eardrums in less than three days.

Here are just a few recommendations for those of you who will be attending ACL Fest this year:

White Denim
Yeasayer
Man Man
Okkervil River
MGMT
Jenny Lewis
Octopus Project
AA Bondy
Mates of State
The Swell Season
and of course, David Byrne

These acts will not let you down.

To those attending:
Take a lot of photos, and contact me if you'd like to post some on BA47.

That's all for now. Enjoy your stay in Austin, and respect your fellow attendees.

-Tk

What I'm Watching: Reformat the Planet

If you find yourself more at peace when playing throwback gaming consoles, you'll love this expose of the so-called Chiptune revolution.

You can watch it in full 8-bit glory for one week only on Pitchfork.tv

http://pitchfork.tv/week/reformat-the-planet

You may never look at your Gameboy the same again.

For more info, visit 2 Player Productions

Change is in the air

Hey kids,

While I've been away from the blogosphere there's been a lot of new happenings in my life. It all started in June when I lost my dearest grandmother, after a month of being at the hospital watching her slowly and painfully deteriorate with my grandfather unwilling to leave her side, she passed away. My grandfather made the decision to take her ventilator off and for the next 24-36 hours, we sat and waited until she took her last breath as her two daughters held her hands. It was the first time I had seen my grandfather cry, and the first time in a long time I had seen a shimmer of hope that true love in this world is not impossible, but it's never easy either. Mary Louise Culpepper will be missed, but we have no doubt that she's rooting for us all on the other side. I love you Mamaw.

In other news, I started work in June on a brand new venture - equipping the bustling and occasionally blissfully ignorant town of Tyler, TX with a vintage clothing store. We call it Blue Owl Vintage, and it's taken almost 60 days to get set up, but I hope to open soon. My parents, brother, aunt, uncle and grandfather put in many hours of help and without them this thing wouldn't exist, nor would I for that matter, but I digress...

Since it's basically a homegrown grassroots effort, I will be running the entire store myself starting next week. And, being a 24-year-old recent college graduate with student loans added to a pretty large monthly rent on my store, I will be saving most of the money needed for advertising and spending it on inventory. We carry a mix of old and new, and are proud to carry Alternative Apparel.

So, if you live in Tyler or Texas or the US or the world or even this universe, tell your friends, enemies, coworkers, subordinates, etc. about Blue Owl Vintage

If you're still reading this, I love you.

Things have been busy lately. On top of my thankless underpaid day job, I'm working to open a vintage clothing store in my hometown of Tyler, TX. More details to come on that later.

However, my love of music and writing has been dormant for too long.

So, here we go again.

tk

White Denim Does Daytrotter

Check it out.

No Age Episode of Juan's Basement

In celebration of their upcoming album Nouns, Pitchfork.tv is featuring a straight-to-VHS episode of Juan's Basement featuring No Age.
I got the chance to see No Age perform last month during SXSW, and Nouns is one of very few albums I'm impatiently waiting to hear.

Check out No Age in this episode of Juan's Basement, brought to you by Pitchfork.tv:

Juan's Basement: No Age