So, it’s always good to check in every now and then, right? Right. Maybe refocus a little bit. Take inventory. Get the oil changed. Rotate the tires. Hold a players-only meeting. Head back down to Triple-A ball to work on that curve. Insert your own manly/sports/car metaphor here.
It’s been exactly four months and one week since our first launch weekend show went down with Heavy Lights and Can You Canoe? at Cafe Nola on June 6. In the meantime (and in between time), a lot has happened here at Frederick Playlist, so we thought it might be a good idea to reacquaint ourselves and reflect a little on some of the things that have gone down.
Thus, behold 10 things we’ve learned from our first four months of existance. There will be a lot of thank-yous. There will be a lot of parenthetical statements. There will be a lot of links. There will be a lot of love. There will be a lot of reflection. There will be a lot of hope. And, of course, there will be a lot of local music.
Come for the exclamation points. Stay for the videos. Let’s go.
1. There really is a lot of great stuff going down in Frederick. No, but really. We know that sounds far too obvious, but if you have time to step back and really consider all the talent, places, events and greatness that this tiny town has, do it. Because if the advent of Frederick Playlist has taught us only one thing, it’s the mere fact that the talent pool here runs far and deep. You can walk into any place and run into any band, and you’re guaranteed, at the very least, a night of quality entertainment. It’s easy to take that stuff for granted, but when you allow yourself time for perspective (hence this post), you quickly realize precisely how good this artistic community has it. You can end the ’90s sitcom full-circle-moment-music … now.
2. Being social. Hey we started a few social media accounts over the months and just in case you missed it, we thought we’d remind you one more time (because what’s a four-month-and-one-week anniversary good for if you can’t shamelessly plug your own social media accounts?!). For those so inclined …
– You can follow us on Twitter @Fredplaylist. We specialize in retweeting pretty much anyone who takes to Twitter to promote their shows/records/radical opinions on politics. Give us a follow and we’ll give you a kiss.
– You can like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/frederickplaylist. We specialize in linking to pretty much everything we post on this website, with the occasional share and like of our own. Feel free to leave messages and highjack our space with news of your own that you might want to share with others. Like Bill Withers said … Use us up.
– We are on Spotify at Frederickplaylist. Because, duh.
– And, of course, we have a YouTube channel where we like to post videos from around town typically taken on some shaky cellphone (but the audio is solid!). You never know where we might be next, so you might want to check that thing out from time to time. Plus, it’s better than reminding you of our Frederick Playlist Tinder profile. Kidding!
3. Dear Flying Dog. We’d be remiss if we didn’t offer another big, sloppy, passionate THANK YOU to the wonderful people at Flying Dog Brewery, who let us hang out all summer at their concerts, introducing bands and handing out koozies. They allowed a silly little website to show up and chat up their amazingly loyal and unmistakably passionate fans once a month from June to September and for that, we owe them all of our organs whenever it’s our time to give our organs away. Same place, same time next year? We hope so.
4. Dear Downtown Frederick Partnership. Likewise, we can’t write a post like this and not mention the help we received from the minds at the Downtown Frederick Partnership, who let us hop on their Movie Night on the Creek events. Old Indian, The Knolly Moles and Mr. Todd C. Walker all showed up and played in various places to varying sizes of crowds and for that, we owe these people our limbs, whenever it’s time to give our limbs away. Because, if nothing else, the Movie Night events kicked off …
5. … Frederick Playlist Presents. Which, without question, earns the award for most bland name in the history of the Internet. We presented the music at the movie night, and as we debuted last week, we also presented a brand new series that completely rips off NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert idea. Check it out:
6. Last Saturdays. Perhaps the most intriguing best-kept secret of Frederick is its ever-growing hip-hop community that has banded together for a series showcasing all the hip-hop talent in and around the area. We’ve been at the first two installments (flat tire notwithstanding), and we have every intention of making an appearance at next Saturday’s third installment. A big THANK YOU (or, as the kids might say in this context, WORD UP) to the Makeshift Deluxe crew, who has been spearheading a lot of the events thus far, for inviting us on over to Church Street Pub on every last Saturday of each month.
7. A bucket of awesomeness. In case you haven’t noticed over the months, we’ve had a huge heaping of help from the fabulous Cassandra Mullinix, who essentially provides us with 98 percent of our Photos Of The Days. And by “provides,” we mean, “she allows us to steal them,” of course (kidding again; no lawsuits please!). She’s since moved closer to the bright lights and shiny stars of the Big City, and she might not be able to get up here as much anymore, but her influence on this site has been tremendous through it all. If we have anything left after our organs and limbs, it goes to her.
8. Venues, venues and more venues. Perhaps the most unexpected consequence of starting a website like this is that it gives you the opportunity to see so many sides of Frederick you might not have seen before. Walk into Cafe Nola on a Friday or Saturday night for a sold-out show, and you feel like you’re walking into an entirely new universe that you never want to leave. That back room at Olde Towne Tavern deserves more respect than it gets because of its hole-in-the-wall feel. If you don’t love how small Church Street Pub is, you don’t have a soul. JoJo’s bleeds a particular brand of elegance. There might not be a warmer feeling in all of Frederick than the feeling you get when you walk down those steps to The Cellar Door. And so on and so forth. We’ve experienced so much in the last four months, but we haven’t even scratched the surface. For this, the word “excitement” doesn’t do anything justice.
9. Featured players. We might not have official sections for these things at the top, but if you ever browse the tags to the right, you’ll see a few things you might want to give a click to. In the last third of a year, we’ve had:
– A handful of Q&As with artists from near and far.
– Lists of five things we’ve learned through our experiences.
– Something called One Song, where we ask artists to break down one of their … well … songs. Duh.
– The Weekend Playlist, which is posted every Thursday afternoon, chronicling all that’s going on around town for the next three days.
– And, of course, contests, where you can win free tickets to shows, simply by liking us, following us or answering some always-ridiculous question.
10. Looking back to move forward. When we started this thing four months ago, we essentially had a four-month plan, knowing what we wanted to accomplish through the summer and praying that the Internet wouldn’t delete us by the time the leaves changed colors. Well, now the leaves are changing colors. Which means that we’ve been hard at work, brainstorming ways to try and expand on the foundation the last four months has brought (it’s not much, but hey: We try). So, with that in mind, we look forward to seeing what the second wave of Frederick Playlist might bring to not only this website, but to the Frederick music community as an entity. There are a ton of great pieces here, but now it’s time to start putting the puzzle together. We can only do that with unity, we can only do that with each other. So buckle in, raise a Flying Dog, and toast to (hopefully) another four months of annoyingly rambling posts from yours truly and a whole boat-ton of fantastic local music. Onward. Upward.
