DeadJournalist.com HAS MOVED to V3.3 - CLICK HERE to go to the new site!

DeadJournalist.com V3.3 is live and in Beta!



DeadJournalist.com has been redirected to www.deadjournalist.com/DJdc as I've moved the (almost) daily blog to WordPress.

So here's the deal, I needed a new platform that offered more flexibility, a fresher look, etc., so after a couple of months of toying around with a few different looks (including a radical redesign that I loved but wasn't as practical) here we go, with V3.3.

New features:

Search! With almost four years of content - including 71+ interviews - this was long overdue.

RSS! Finally, an RSS that works! (I hope).

New look! It's the same color, but a nice little facelift.

Coming:

Contributors! I'm lining up some West Coast contacts and hope to add a few more on the East Coast to focus on new contact and hopefully live show reviews.

The site is in Beta, so some functionality isn't complete and some item may change, but I'm happy to release it for the masses.

Chuck
DJdc

Labels: deadjournalist.com

At long last - almost five months - we're back with our 66th exclusive interview: Cymbals Eat Guitars.

Quoting InSound.com, "Cymbals Eat Guitars are very possibly your new favorite band. Prepare yourself to love again."

Here's the link to the full interview: http://www.deadjournalist.com/interviews/20090623cymbalseatguitars.htm

Labels: cymbals eat guitars, deadjournalist.com, interviews

DeadJournalist.com turns three today.

Labels: deadjournalist.com

When I was a pre-teen, I always loved listening to the AM skips late-nights. I was romanced by the idea of being on the air as a radio DJ. So when I did, for a brief time, become an AM radio DJ as a high school student, I thought I was sending myself down a career path of being the guy whose voice and taste could impact anyone with a radio, ears and a penchant for the genre I might happen to be playing.

When I went to college, I went to the intro class to become a DJ at WEGL, the radio voice of Auburn. Having already been licensed as a radio DJ by the FCC, I figured I could slide into a late-night slot once a week and be on my way. But when I found out I had to spend an entire quarter - with no credit - taking a class before I could be on the radio, I walked out. There was some other kid who had been on the radio in Florida who did the same.

In the 15 years since I hadn't thought about that decision more than a half-dozen times. Funny, now it's one of those things I regret. How it might have changed my life - friends in the music scene (even one as lacking as Auburn) would have most certainly changed me for better or worse.

Fast forward to 2001 when I was just getting my feet wet in the Atlanta scene after living here for a couple of years. I didn't know East Atlanta from a hole in the ground, but after slowly building up my resolve I was at a point where going to shows solo by '03 was no big deal. I slowly met people, developed some friendships, and saw a number of fantastic shows.

By the time 2006 rolled a round, I had been DJing for a while at one of the best scene nights in Atlanta and had decided to start DeadJournalist.com as a way to keep my feet wet in writing and music. Besides being a DJ, I always wanted to write (actually start) a music magazine. After moving here as a magazine editor (because that's what engineers do, right?) I'd been freelancing for music magazines and figured if I wasn't going to get paid to write for them, I might as well not get paid to write for myself. I wrote because I like the trade. I wrote because I loved the by-line.

So I began, in earnest, putting time and effort into DeadJournalist in hopes of being a Web site that mattered. The little engine that could. The little site with a national reach. I hobby by which I could be defined outside of my actual money-earning career.

Three years later, under the weight of the stress at work and nearing my mid-30's, I decided to put DeadJournalist on hiatus on March 5. I hadn't been to a show in a couple of years - and frankly, I didn't see myself going to one in the near future. Why go on?

For the last 20 year (EEK! TWENTY?!?!) I've just wanted my voice to be heard; my words to be read. I've wanted to attention, sure, but I've wanted the responsibility of being a voice - my voice.

It's frustrating. A total catch-22. Invest time and effort into this non-revenue generating hobby just to have an avenue to be heard ... even if no one is listening but me.

Labels: deadjournalist.com

Thanks to everyone who sent kind words about DeadJournalist.com's end/hiatus.

A few people asked if I was completely pulling the plug on the site, and that answer is no. The site will remain up and there is a real possibility that I may relaunch the site in the next few months with a new look and feel.

In the meantime, thanks again to everyone who wrote.

Chuck

Labels: deadjournalist.com

I'd like to thank everyone for their support and patronage of DeadJournalist.com. It is with some sadness that I am announcing that I will cease publication of the site (at least for the foreseeable future).

It's been a great three-year run, but in the end, I just don't have the time to dedicate to keep the site evolving in order to remain relevant.

For those of you who contributed to the site over the years - thank you.

Chuck

Cause=Time

Labels: deadjournalist.com, rip

DeadJournalist.com now redirects to DeadJournalist.com/blog.htm. It's honestly something I haven't wanted to do but it gives me the best way to get people the most up-to-date information ... at least for now.

I have steadfastly fought to maintain DJdc's status as a Web site - not a blog - but my inability to code the main page to my liking combined with my want to update remotely led me to this cop-out option.

I hope this is only temporary. I hate how this format prevents me from featuring things like Jon Wolf's Monthly Playlists and the recent Dent May Interview but at least for the next few days this is the new reality.

So if you read this site I really want and need you feedback. If you don't want to leave a comment then e-mail your thoughts, ideas or solutions about what you think I should do because I could use the advice.

With the site's three year anniversary only a month away I only have a month to figure things out.

Thanks in advance,

Chuck
DeadJournalist.com err DeadJournalist.com/blog.htm

Labels: deadjournalist.com

From time-to-time an artist comes along who has the uncanny knack of mixing the unique with the popular and ending up with a distinctive sound that is unmistakably their own.

Welcome to the music of Dent May.

May isn't your typical indie-flared musician hailing from New York, Portland or Canada. May isn't even from the southern indie hot spots of Nashville, Atlanta or the tobacco roads of North Carolina. He's is from the land of the Blues, Mississippi.

But before you conjure misconceptions base on geography, erase thoughts of a bluegrass player in overhauls and a straw hat. May is signed to Animal Collective's Paw Track label and was in film school at NYU. He was a sensation at last year's SXSW festival for his showmanship and stage presence. And on February 20, he kicks of his first national tour opening for A.C. Newman of The New Pornographers.

And what of that unique? That would be the ukulele. The instrument native to Hawaii, and known by many from the exploits of 1960's icon Tiny Tim, spent years as more a novelty instrument but has in recent years found favor with musicians such as Zach Condon, Jens Lekman and Patrick Wolf. It is one that May also embraced, so much so, that his band is officially named Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele.

Don't let the guy who sometimes rocks the 1970's era Elton John-esque glasses fool you into thinking he's a one trick pony with his ukulele.

While it is the instrument that takes primary focus on this album it is not an instrument that, in the end, will define him. This is not to discount the seriousness of which he takes the ukulele but to emphasize the range of talents he possesses.

For more information on Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele, visit his Web site: DentMay.com or his MySpace page: www.myspace.com/dentmay.

Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele will release their debut LP The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele on February 3, 2009.

DeadJournalist.com brings you this exclusive interview with Dent May of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele.

Your debut album is released tomorrow, February 3. How does it feel to finally have that day upon you? How long did it take you to write and record The Good Feeling Music of Dent May?

DM: It's an enormous relief. I wrote most of the songs within a relatively short period of time. Perhaps it was several months. I had the whole album written with demos recorded long before recording with Rusty, and it's been seven or eight months since we recorded. So I'm pretty psyched to finally have it available for public consumption.

How did you come to work with the other members of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele? What led to the band signing to Paw Tracks, the label formed by Animal Collective?

DM: When I got involved with Paw Tracks, it was a solo project and still is essentially. There have been many lineup changes in my band, but everyone in the band I've been friends with for a long time. Basically, I just recruited friends. A couple of the bandmates on the record can't tour because of their jobs.

Click here for the complete interview with Dent May

Labels: deadjournalist.com, dent may, interviews

It's a new year, and it is already starting off on a good note, as I'm pleased to announce that DeadJournalist.com's the (almost) daily blog is now available by subscription via reader services!

 Subscribe in a reader

Labels: deadjournalist.com

Rather than work on my second interview with Nyles Lannon (which will be one of the best interviews to date), I decided to do something I had not done in quite a while: attempt to write an actual article.

I Believe in Consonants: My Life Without an iPod

Today, as I was looking through a six month-old issue of Paste magazine, I thought about how I never read music magazines anymore. Fifteen years ago, my dream would have been to write for one. But now, they just seem dated and constantly behind the curve - even the best ones. That's the reality of living in this digital age where your status may be dictated by which version of the iPod, or iPhone, you own.

Shocking admission number one: I do not own an iPod or an iPhone.

Shocking admission number two: I still buy compact discs.

Last weekend, on a trip to Target, my wife and I were discussing how we weren't, "iPod people." While it may be the greatest musical breakthrough since the Walkman, it seems like a waste of time and money. At least it does to me.

Believe me, I know how asinine that statement sounds. Millions upon millions of people have them. Apple reinvented itself with it. It makes taking your favorite music where ever you go as easy as carrying your wallet.

But still, the idea of spending $300 on an iPod?

It's not like I am anti-digital music. Far from it. I started downloading MP3s at college in 1997. What do you do when you have access to a T3? You use it. And when you can download 40 different remixes of The Cure's, "A Forest"? You do. When your college wipes your account and there is no way save your MP3s? You cry. When you get a real job and a dial-up internet connection and to try download MP3s? You stop.

Since I started DeadJournalist.com in March 2006, I've used it as a tool to realize my want to start a music magazine. But the music magazine is a music web site, and while I do have my fair share of readers, it doesn't exactly have the readership of Rolling Stone in 1973. But I evolved with technology just as I evolved with music.

So if I could channel my creative outlet to a technological form, what can't I take my music there?

Maybe it started when the iPod came out - just in time for Christmas 2001. It had been a rough year and I was starting over with a new company and a new career. I wanted one, but frankly, I couldn't afford an iPod. When you are living on Taco Bell and generic lasagna, investing in a MP3 player isn't the like the wisest of choices.

As the years went on, my pay increased and the iPod got bigger and better. I had bought a laptop, gotten high-speed internet, began downloading MP3s like it was 1997 all over again and even started deejaying using MP3s. One could have drawn a logical conclusion I had added an iPod to my list of depreciating assets. But I hadn't.

I could never shake the feeling that if I moved all my music to MP3 and sold my CDs, as several of my friends had done, I would somehow manage to loose my iPod and in turn, loose all of my music. But that could never happen, right? Plus, my music would be backed-up on a laptop, so what could go wrong? Sure, it sounds great in theory, but for some reason, I could never buy in to it.

So I kept doling out $10 or $15 a pop for compact discs, save when Tower Records and Blockbuster Music (or whatever it had changed its name to) had going out of business sales allowing me to spend $100 on 30 CDs. Before I knew it, a couple hundred CDs because a couple thousand CDS. It was CDs, CDs everywhere. CDs had become my tribbles.

With all the clutter, I began to think it might be time to change. I could go modern and get clean by ditching my CDs by uploading them to my laptop. I could then sell my CDs and get enough money to buy an iPod and still have a couple grand in my pocket. All I would need would be a month of weekends to uploaded music and I could be a walking television commercial for the iPod!

Shockingly enough, I kept putting it off, because it not only seemed like one helluva daunting task, but I really didn't want to commit a month of my life to music conversion. So, like many other "sounds good in theory" projects, I never got around to it.

Then September 2006 happened.

It was a Thursday night (the week after I took a Friday night off from deejaying and got a spur-of-the-moment interview with TV on the Radio). Sometime around 2AM a sharp, shrieking, metal-on-metal noise woke me and my future wife. Cue the nightmare.

It was my laptop. It was dying a long, painful death. With its death went gigabyte after gigabyte of MP3s that I had uploaded or downloaded. Despite a noble and partially successful attempt to reclaim the lost data from my sputtering hard drive by a friend in IT, much of the core collection had been lost or damage.

I was determined to recover. I bought an external hard drive and backed up my music. A catastrophe of this magnitude would not happen to me again. Famous last words. Two months later, my external drive shorted out causing me to loose my backed-up digital music collection. While I had backed-up the back-up on my new laptop, any remaining thoughts of converting my music collection to digital only gone with the wind.

So that brings us to the moral of the story. I enjoy digital music, I really do. I like the remixes, the new artists and the rare tracks that are hard, if not impossible, to find on hard copy.

But I miss the rest of the experience. The album art; the joy of holding a tangible product in my hand while walking out of one of the dwindling CD shops; or the joy of coming home and seeing a package I ordered from online and ripping into it to see the latest additions to my collection.

And most importantly, I like knowing that if and when my laptop or external hard drive decides to die again, that I have to worry about far few songs being lost because I still have the original CDs or records or tapes cluttering up the place.

While I still want to have that room or basement that guys in their early twenties dream about - a room full of old music posters, old systems, old furniture and thousands of old records and CDs from bands that only a handful of people remember - maybe at some point down the line maybe I'll have a kid that will go rummaging through my CDs looking for a band that he or she has actually heard of from 30 years ago.

Regardless, I'll be able play a song and close my eyes and be at that place and time when I heard it for the first time. Who knows, maybe I'll be listening to that song on an iPod and not on the portable CD player I got from my parents for my high school graduation almost 15 years ago. Stranger things have happened. I did reference tribbles, and I never in a million years thought I'd ever make a Star Trek reference.

ipod, chuck norton, editorial, deadjournalist.com

Labels: chuck norton, deadjournalist.com, editorial, ipod

Check out this new interview with A Sunny Day in Glasgow (with MP3): HERE

Labels: a sunny day in glasgow, deadjournalist.com, interviews

Check out our new, exclusive interview with Young Galaxy!

DeadJournalist.com Exclusive Interview with Young Galaxy

Labels: deadjournalist.com, interviews, young galaxy

i really don't think anyone is reading this, since i'm pretty much on hiatus, but if you actually decided to read this ...

here's what i've been listening to:

mew (not the new one, if it is officially out yet, but the one before it) - which is amazing;
office - i haven't been able to listen to it loud, which would help;
new pony club - see above
feist - another solid piece from miss ipod nano; and
battles - i know people love this album. i'm just not one of them.

anyway, so that's that.

Labels: battles, deadjournalist.com, feist, mew, new pony club, office

Nyles Lannon is a fav of us here at DeadJournalist.com, and a few weeks ago he was kind enough to get us an advance of his sophomore solo project, Pressure.

We tend to think Lannon is an overlooked talent whose latest work is worth checking out. For more on Lannon, read our interview with him from last year at DeadJournalist.com.

Labels: deadjournalist.com, nyles lannon

Yes, you remember this song. Geggy Tah, "Whoever You Are"

Labels: deadjournalist.com, geggy tah, video of the day

What the crowd lacked in size (150+ish?), it made up for in passion for The Rentals - and Matt Sharp and company didn't disappoint by giving as max show. The band was energetic, fun and smooth as you'd hope an experienced band would be. It was truly one the of best shows I've seen, with Sharp being every bit the frontman one would expect.

The band's line-up (which included Shon Sullivan of Goldenboy filling in on guitar) was teaming with chemistry on stage. Matt Sharp, Rachel Haden, Sara Radle, Ben Pringle, Dan Joeright and Lauren Chipman exuded both enthusiasm and musicianship.

The band played through the three new tracks on their new EP, while playing a number of songs from their first two LPs. But, as one would expect, the best response was for songs from the 1995 debut, Return of The Rentals.

The band stayed true to the original versions of "Please Let That Be You", "Friends of P.", "These Days" and "Waiting" (which was the final song of their encore) but performed a slightly revised version of "Move On" as well as the version of "Sweetness And Tenderness" that is on their current EP.

At the end of the show (which ended as it began with the playing of a Nat King Cole song), it was announced that another Rentals album is in process and another tour is being planned for '08. Fantastic. More Moog, more trombone, more female harmony, more Matt Sharp and more Rentals.

Labels: atlanta, Ben Pringle, concert review, Dan Joeright, deadjournalist.com, Goldenboy, Lauren Chipman, Matt Sharp, Rachel Haden, Sara Radle, Shon Sullivan, the rentals

We here at DeadJournalist.com are huge fans of Midlake (whose song "Roscoe" is #1 in our most played iTunes folder). The band will be making it's way to Atlanta next Tuesday at the Earl. Go show support to a band who deserves your support.

The band will also be releasing a digital-only EP on Sept. 4 with an accoustic version of "Roscoe" and three other songs. The EP, "Oak and Julian will be available at iTunes.

Track Listing:
1. Roscoe (Acoustic Version)
2. It Covers The Hillside (Acoustic Version)
3. Marion
4. Mornings Will Be Kind


Midlake Tour Schedule:
Tue - Sep 04 @ The Earl, Atlanta, GA

Wed - Sep 05 @ CatÕs Cradle, Carrboro, NC

Thu - Sep 06 @ Black Cat, Washington, DC

Fri - Sep 07 @ Theatre of Living Arts, Philadelphia, PA

Sat - Sep 08 @ Webster Hall, New York, NY

Sun - Sep 09 @ Paradise Rock Club, Boston, MA

Tue - Sep 11 @ Grog Shop, Cleveland, OH

Wed - Sep 12 @ Metro, Chicago, IL

Sun - Sep 16 @ Austin City Limits, Austin, TX

Thu - Sep 20 @ Numbers, Houston, TX

Mon - Sep 24 @ Rhythm Room, Phoenix, AZ

Tue - Sep 25 @ Henry Fonda Theatre, Los Angeles, CA

Wed - Sep 26 @ Belly Up Tavern, Solana Beach / San Diego, CA

Thu - Sep 27 @ Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA

Sat - Sep 29 @ Doug Fir, Portland, OR

Sun - Sep 30 @ Crocodile Cafe, Seattle, WA

Tue - Oct 02 @ Bluebird Theatre, Denver, CO

Wed - Oct 03 @ Jackpot, Lawrence, KS

Labels: atlanta, deadjournalist.com, midlake, worlds fair

Please let that be you

Saturday night, Sept. 1, 2007. Atlanta. The Rentals. A driving force for 12 years. Bables unite!

Labels: atlanta, deadjournalist.com, the rentals

if you read this site regularly, or if you are reading this for the first time, you've probably noticed that there haven't been any new interviews up in almost a month. i believe there's a saying, something along the lines of, "music is for the youth". while that isn't completely true - there is some merit to the concept.

a good friend of mine, who is my age, asked me yesterday what i had been listening to lately. my reply? nothing, there's simply been no time. even when there has been time, there hasn't been the drive to dive into a new cd and listen to it for hours. for the past eight months, i've been hoping that it would change. despite some blips here and there, it hasn't.

DeadJournalist.com was my next-generation way of staying in the music. i did not intend to let it languish as a time capsule; and especially not since readership was at it's zenith. reality is reality, and the reality is i'm not sure how much time i'll have to devote myself to the site in the upcoming months.

there are two three interviews that i only need to post, and six band made commitments to do interviews. i hope to complete these, at the least.

in the meantime, thank you for reading the site. i hope you've enjoyed the interviews. and hopefully, the laws of physics will get the site back in motion soon.

Labels: deadjournalist.com, hiatus, interviews

Very exciting - just got back the interview from Sune of the Raveonettes, so be looking for it in the next day or so!

Labels: deadjournalist.com, interviews, the raveonettes

March 16, 2006, DeadJournalist.com launched as a single-paged Web site. The site was an idea that I had been tossing around for several years, but it took another year of not going to SXSW to launch the site. Within a month, I had posted the site's first interview with The High Violets.

Now, almost one year later, the site has gone through three design updates, added several sections and most importantly, conducted 42 artist interviews thus far. And tomorrow, DeadJournalist.com will celebrate with its 43rd interview Jena Malone, the award-winning actress who had begun a music career.

Over the past year, we've added several contributing writers from throughout the US. I'd like that thank everyone for their contributions.

While year one has exceeded my expectations (I'm proud of what we've accomplished) I want the next year to be even better. But for now, happy birthday to us. And thanks for reading.

Chuck

Labels: deadjournalist.com, jena malone