I recently participated in the Contrast Podcast CD Swap. I failed in my mission to mail out a mix CD to the person I was assigned (Coxon from To Die By Your Side) but I did send him a link to where he could download the mix CD that I spent a lot of time putting together. I decided to expose someone from England to a wonderful mix of Columbus bands, past and present and 20 of my favorite songs by those artists. Coxon chose “Ditchdigger Blues” by The Evil Queens to play on the podcast – a fine, fine selection. I received a great mix CD of Canadian bands from Jim from Quick Before it Melts and I chose to play “Heaven is For Easy Girls” by The Awkward Stage.
If you want to know what bands are going to be on the cover of Alternative Press a year from now, check out Ultragrrl’s site. If you want to know what bands are going to have the biggest buzz at next year’s SXSW, check out Stereogum. You’re not going to find the “next big thing” here, but it’s not really because the bands don’t deserve it. It’s more because of where we all live.
The disadvantage to living in Columbus, Ohio is that most of the bands in my backyard will never play a show outside of the city, let alone the state. They’ll consider success getting an evening slot at the annual arts and music festival. They’ll be excited to play in front of 200 people at their CD release party. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t sign them in a heartbeat if I worked for an indie (or even major) label.
The latest band that I’ve added to the Record Label in My Head roster is The Hot Damn. I don’t get out like I used to to check out the new bands on the local scene so The Hot Damn escaped my radar until I downloaded podcast #82 from Patradio.org. Seems as if Pat included a few tracks from the OH CRAP compilation that I had put together on his podcast and I wanted to see what else he was digging at the moment. While there is a ton of really good stuff on this podcast, it was The Hot Damn track, “We Call This a Cycle”, that really stood out.
I’m currently reading the zombie novel Monster Island by David Wellington. I checked out Wellington’s website to see if there was any possibility of the book being turned into a movie when I discovered a link to a site with a very cool premise. The Page 69 Test asks authors to open up to page 69 of the book they have written and are currently promoting and has them giving some background to the content that is on the page. Is it relevant to the rest of the story? If people read this page first, would it give a good glimpse into the style and tone of the rest of the book? Seriously, you can spend days reading all the entries on this site, it’s that good. The site gave me an idea.
My old college roommate Geoff used to buy CDs and say that he could tell everything he needed to know by listening to track 3 first. “If this isn’t the first single, it’s the best single on the CD,” he’d say and maybe 7 out of 10 times he was totally on mark. So mixing Geoff’s theory with the Page 69 Test site, I’d like to introduce you to the new AtomicNed.com column … Track 3. I’ll be sending bands the following three questions and asking them to apply the questions towards the third track on their current release:
Is track 3 representative of the whole CD?
What’s the story behind the song – from the lyrical content to the way it was written and recorded?
Was there a particular reason you placed this song in the #3 spot on the tracklisting?
The first band I asked to take part in this new feature was The Yarrows, an indie rock band with members spread across three states – New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia. Setting the bar for future bands who take part in this feature, EACH member of the band offered their input into “May,” track 3 of their new CD, Plum.
