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Festivals

Photo Of The Day: Old Crow Medicine Show

Sometimes, it’s the middle of January. And sometimes, it’s really icy. And sometimes, it’s really cold. And sometimes, you want to remember that nice, calm, warm weather actually still exists in this world. So, behold today’s photo, which harkens back to the Hot August Music Festival last summer and the great Old Crow Medicine Show rocking and rolling through some tunes. Remember: It’s almost spring! Ok. Not really. Photo courtesy of Cassandra Mullinix. For more of her photos, visit https://www.facebook.com/bucketofrock.

January 12, 2015 0 comment

Videos & Photos

Photo Of The Day: Fishbone

written by contributor

Let’s head on back to The Shindig this morning with a photo of Fishbone working their way through that insanely awesome Baltimore crowd. Why? Because it’s Wednesday. And this is a good way to remind everyone that the weekend is nearly here. Kind of. Maybe. Either way, you get it. Because Fishbone are fun. Really fun. Photo courtesy of Cassandra Mullinix. For more of her photos, visit https://www.facebook.com/bucketofrock.

October 8, 2014 0 comment

Videos & Photos

Photo Of The Day: J Roddy And The Oriole Bird

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What better way to celebrate the Baltimore Orioles heading to the ALCS than to post this picture of The Oriole Bird along with J Roddy Walston and The Business at last weekend’s Shindig?! The answer? None. There is no better way. Duh. So, bring on those Royals, Hon! Or something. Anyway, if nothing else, check out Mr. Boh creeping in the back. Weirdo. Photo courtesy of Cassandra Mullinix. For more of her photos, visit https://www.facebook.com/bucketofrock.

October 6, 2014 0 comment

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Five Things We Learned From The Shindig

written by fnpdigital

Hey, look. It’s The Shindig. Photo courtesy of Cassandra Mullinix. For more of her photos, visit https://www.facebook.com/bucketofrock.

Note: The below story was written by Cassandra Mullinix. You can check out all the great stuff she has going down on her Facebook page, or, if you’re so inclined, you could follow her on Twitter.

Baltimore, Hon! Yes. We love that this just-right-sized festival is nestled away within the city limits of Baltimore, and The Shindig certainly provided a sense of place. Between freak shows, bird and babe stages, hot rods, and crab pretzels, 24/7 Entertainment did a fantastic job of sprucing up Carroll Park with a little bit of old school rock and roll on Saturday. Here’s what we walked away with:

1. Being a teenage rock star just means that you have more energy than everybody else. Bad Seed Rising did not disappoint and they took every opportunity to engage their audience like every good rock star should. It was pretty awesome to see a group of teenagers so dedicated to rocking out.

2. How can a J Roddy Walston and The Business performance possibly be any more fun? Add Mr. Boh and the O’s Bird. That’s how. If the crowd wasn’t already having a really good time during the up-and-coming hometown heroes set, the surprise stage crash by Mr. Boh and the O’s Bird surely got them smiling from ear to ear. Let’s go O’s!

3. Marylanders love their Clutch. In fact there were many people who wanted Clutch to headline over Jane’s Addiction. Would you agree? Clutch had a beautiful sunset show and a sea of familiar fans in front of them, which seemed perfect to us.

4. Jane says. Returning rock veterans Jane’s Addiction took the late-night stage, which seemed to be a better conduit for all of Perry Farrell’s charm and Dave Navarro’s bodily perfection anyway. Another Jane’s Addiction highlight was the addition of Angelo Moore from Fishbone on sax during “Idiots Rule.”

5. You will never say the word “Wow” more times than when watching a Gogol Bordello set. We expected the Gogol Bordello crew to get the crowd all riled up, but it’s something you can’t fully appreciate until you witness it live. There’s an alternate world created between the raw gypsy punk-rock energy of Eugene and the crew on stage and the entranced crowd that allows for amazingly unexpected opportunities. It was a beautiful moment when Eugene hopped off stage and balanced on top of the barricade gate with his acoustic guitar slung across his back while leading a chorus chant, looking at the many arms extended from the crowd. You had to be there.

October 1, 2014 0 comment

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Photo Of The Day: Jane’s Addiction

written by contributor

Oh, how cool is this photo? Come on, now. We mean, how cool is this photo?! Check out Dave Navarro performing with his band, some unknown rock thing called Jane’s Addiction, on Saturday at Baltimore’s Shindig. We’ll have more on the event later today, but for now … again: How cool is this photo? Photo courtesy of Cassandra Mullinix. For more of her photos, visit https://www.facebook.com/bucketofrock.

October 1, 2014 0 comment

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Bad Seed Rising To Play Baltimore’s Shindig

written by fnpdigital

As the name implies, Bad Seed Rising represents a new generation and the career beginnings of four young professional musicians. From babies who were likely using their bottles as microphones to teens whose lives revolve around the Frederick School Of Rock, the members of Bad Seed Rising have come together not only as a band of musicians, but also as best friends.

They are set to play The Shindig festival this Saturday in Baltimore with other big names such as Jane’s Addiction, Rise Against and Clutch.

Front woman Francheska Pastor had a few things to say about the band, being a teenage musician, and The Shindig festival itself.

Bad Seed Rising just released their debut album, “Charm City,” and their hard rock sound identifies them with other bands that they have toured with like Daughtry, 3 Doors Down and Halestorm. Because the band members are so young, it would be easy to say that they are attempting to emulate these icons. But that’s not really the truth, explains Francheska.

“Right now, we’re still trying to figure out our sound, but the boys and I have an idea of what we want,” she says. “We all have different influences. Mainly for Mason, Aiden, and I, we’re into bands like Of Mice & Men and The Story So Far. Louey likes classic rock. So, we all have different views and great ideas when it comes together.”

The band also isn’t swayed too much by the Electronic Dance Music (EDM) craze sweeping the nation’s youth right now.

“We’re not really interested in pop culture so much,” she explains. “We have our amps. We have our guitars. We have our drums. We don’t have any computers out there. We don’t like to use them because we find it very inorganic and we like it to be raw.”

The members of Bad Seed Rising are just as much best friends as they are band mates. Francheska speaks highly of the genuine nature of her “boys.”

“My bandmates aren’t afraid to be themselves,” she says. “If you see them acting the way they act, that’s just truly them. They’re not afraid, they don’t hold back. They’re 100 percent real and I can keep it real with them and they can keep it real with me. I learned so much off of them and they are so young.”

Bad Seed Rising’s next tour kicks off in November and whether the venue is a high school auditorium or an arena stage, the band is enthusiastic about playing them all.

“The venue doesn’t really matter as long as you have a great crowd,” Francheska says. “Actually, a great crowd doesn’t even matter. You always have to bring your A-Game.”

She does have a personal preference, though.

“I like smaller venues like the Ottobar,” she says. “I haven’t played a show like this, but I’ve seen concerts at small venues and I love it when the crowd gets thrown up on stage. That’s the kind of stuff that I like. Barricades, I hate barricades. Get rid of the barricades.”

If most of us recall our teenage years, we could hardly focus on our homework much less a music career, so where does Francheska’s motivation come from?

“I’ve never really asked myself that,” she answers. “I feel like I was just born to play music. I remember being six and having a tiny plastic guitar and microphone and just jamming out to music. I’ve always wanted to play music. I find music as an outlet. You can do whatever you want with music. You can say whatever you want. You can make sounds however you want.”

Being a normal teenager would seem to be a difficult task with all the success of the band, touring, recording and practicing, but Francheska seems totally at ease with her lifestyle.

“This is my normal teenage stuff,” she says. “When I go home, I go out with my friends and study school work. It’s not that difficult, really. The most fun I have is when I’m out with my boys on stage.”

She recognizes that she is still definitely growing up.

“Personally, I feel like within the last year I’ve grown so much mentally,” the singer says. “I’ve learned so much from the boys and I’m more accepting of others. This year, I’m really stoked that I can be accepting and chill.”

And if she had one piece of advice to give other young aspiring musicians, it would be this:

“Don’t listen to anybody. Forget what anyone says. Advice is nice, but take it when you need it. Go with what you want. It’s what’s inside. It’s not about what other people want.”

Being a teenage musician does have its perks. This weekend, the band gets to play with some iconic artists and it’s obviously a highlight for them.

“I am so pumped about playing for the third year in a row and seeing all the old friendly faces,” Francheska says. “I’m excited about seeing my girl from Halestorm, Lizzy Hale. I’m excited to see Jane’s Addiction; I’ve been in love with Jane’s Addiction since I was a kid. The Shindig festival is just so bomb. Everyone there is just so cool.”

September 23, 2014 0 comment

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Five Things We Learned From In The Street

written by contributor

So … did you see us? Did you see some guy with a weird hat and an un-needed blazer with a Frederick Playlist T-shirt underneath introduce some bands? Did you come say hi? Did we give you a beer koozie? Did you laugh? Did you cry? Did you … have an umbrella?

In The Street came and went this weekend, and we would be remiss if we didn’t bring it up. Bouncing around from stage to stage, making new friends while catching up with old ones, it was a hell of an afternoon (and a hell of an exhausting afternoon, but that’s neither here nor there). Because Five Things is pretty much our move these days, here’s what we learned:

1. Holy cow, Market Street is long. Like. Holy. Cow. Market. Street. Is. Long. When you have to introduce Mayweather at the Carroll Creek Amphitheater at 3:15 and somehow make it over to the Going Green Block Beer & Wine Garden next to Olde Towne Tavern to introduce The Jug Band at 3:30 … yikes. Making things harder was the revelation that Frederick is a town filled with slow-walkers. Which is fine and all, if you don’t need to sprint 4,921 blocks in 10 minutes. But we digress. In fact, we still even had some energy left in us to head over to the fairgrounds for this.

2. Have you checked out our YouTube page recently? We have a gaggle of videos up from this weekend (thanks to Ms. Rachel S. Karas) and they are most certainly worth your time. Among the artists featured are Mayweather, The Jug Band, The Frederick Catoctones, Higher Hands (above, and more on them in a second), and Jeremy McComb. If nothing else, you can check out how rainy everything was. Yet feat not, because … .

3. … The rain eventually subsided and we got to see for the first time precisely how popular In The Street is. Sure, it wasn’t until after we were soaking wet due to the running and the rain, but even so: There’s no denying how affecting this thing continues to be when it comes to this fine city of Frederick, Maryland. Once the sun was out, the crowd doubled (if not tripled) and everybody – everybody – appeared to be having a pretty great time. If you weren’t there, you missed out.

4. While it was great to see some familiar faces – any day you run into Mark from Old Indian, Matt and E.J. from The Knolly Moles and the dudes in Twin Radio is a good day – we left the event oozing with admiration for a few of the bands we caught for the first time. First was the de facto farewell-from-Frederick show that Carousel Rogues offered up to kick off the festivities. Having never met or listened to them before, it sure was sad to hear that they are on their way to Nashville now. Lovely, lovely people. Then, there was The Jug Band, who is hands-down the funniest band Frederick has (especially the bass player, who didn’t not remind us of Bill Murray in some weird way). Eclipsing everybody else, though, was our introduction to Annapolis’ Higher Hands, who sit right up top with Brooks Long & The Mad Dog No Good among our favorite local-ish bands. Oh, boy, are they good. Oh, boy, are they good. So good, in fact, that some of us even offered to help the drummer out when his kick-drum beater went ka-put during the band’s opening song. We left believing this, wholeheartedly: If we see the name Higher Hands on a marquee, we’re there.

5. Now, what’s a great festival if you can’t cap it off with a solid night of entertainment (sans a Brantley Gilbert concert, of course)? Nothing, we say! Nothing! That’s why we dipped over to Cafe Nola Saturday night to check out Seaknuckle for the first time, and wow, were they impressive. Checking out a Seaknuckle show is sort of like getting punched in the face for an hour-and-a-half and it is amazing. Better yet was the company – it’s always a good night when you can talk drums with Chris from Heavy Lights and watch his singer Ryan bop from person to person, being the charming devil that he is. The only mishap? We weren’t able to make it in time to check out Blind Man Leading. There’s always another night, though, friends. There’s always another night.

September 15, 2014 0 comment

Videos & Photos

Photo Of The Day: Old Crow Medicine Show

written by contributor

Well, this is a pretty great photo. Check out Old Crow Medicine Show gettin’ on down with Mr. Boh at Saturday’s Hot August Music Festival near Baltimore. If this doesn’t get your Wednesday started right, who knows what will. Photo courtesy of Cassandra Mullinix. For more of her photos, visit https://www.facebook.com/bucketofrock.

August 20, 2014 0 comment

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Five Things We Learned From The Hot August Music Festival

written by fnpdigital

Dr. Dog perform at the Hot August Music Festival on Saturday. Photo courtesy of Cassandra Mullinix. For more of her photos, visit https://www.facebook.com/bucketofrock.

We were so grateful to be part of this year’s Hot August Music Festival. It was certainly one for the record books, this being the 22nd consecutive installment of the event. Here are five fantastic things we discovered at this year’s festival:

1. There’s not a bad seat in the house. Go ahead and sit, stand, or dance wherever fate lands you. There’s plenty of front row real estate along the main stage barrier to scoop up on, but if you want to spread out a little, the jumbo-tron and gently upward-sloping field at Oregon Ridge Park are extremely conducive to some great views. I made my way up to the “cheap seats” at the end of the night and thoroughly enjoyed the laid back atmosphere. Even better: The upper field is closer to the beer stands! And if you want to throw some real excitement into the mix, you might try reverting back to your seven-year-old self and roll down the slope as a few folks did during Nickel Creek! Festival-goers were pretty chill over at the two side stages and it was entirely possible to maneuver into your own personal sweet spot.

2. Even when it’s not hot, it’s hawt. It wasn’t quite as hot as in years past, which made this year an exceptionally awesome Hot August Music Festival on top of all the hawt, hawt, hawt headliners the event boasted. There were so many highlights every hour between stages, it’s hard to single out a few. Certainly, the main headliner, Old Crow Medicine Show, did not disappoint and played a rowdy Baltimore-themed set where even Mr. Boh got down to Ketch Secor’s fiddle. Nickel Creek provided the oohs and ahhs from a musicianship perspective. Dr. Dog took no prisoners and rocked the midafternoon crowd, as if to say “welcome to the party” to all the late comers who had just finished trickling in. And highlights from the side stage included Cabinet and Sister Sparrow and The Dirty Birds, who both had an absolutely wild party raging over at the tree-lined end of the festival grounds.

3. Every band gets more than 15 minutes of fame on stage. Hot August Music Fest is without doubt one of those festivals that’s really about the music and the bands. Main stage performers were given two-hour set times and side stage performers enjoyed one-and-a-half hour sets. Houndmouth wasn’t quite sure what to do with their two hours because they have only one album to date. Still, they managed to keep the main stage rocking by relying on a few tricks up their sleeve, including taking cover-song requests from the audience. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the lengthy set times came in handy for Turkuaz whose gear was held up in traffic and did not arrive until 10 minutes after their set time was supposed to begin.

4. Brad Selko can sing and play the harmonica. Founder. President. Director of Hot August Music Festival. Whatever you want to call Brad Selko, at least call him awesome for jumping on stage with Old Crow Medicine Show during a grand finale song.

5. A one-day festival can actually feel like a legitimate festival. Festivals are known for having that sense of reprieve, that vacation-like feeling of getting away from it all. That’s a feeling that’s hard to accomplish in one day and in a location just north of Baltimore City, but the Hot August Music Festival pulled it off pretty well. The event does a really good job of creating a self-contained, own-little-bubble-world of fun where even the kids are entertained (between hat making with Tattered Hatters and harmonica lessons with musicians, your kids can enjoy the festival as much as you might). There’s plenty of room to explore, and many food and beverage choices are at your fingertips. There are no worries once you’re in the gate.

August 18, 2014 0 comment

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Houndmouth set to bring their stories to the Hot August Music Festival

written by fnpdigital

The most exciting thing about the Hot August Music Festival this weekend at Oregon Ridge Park in Cockeysville has to be all the phenomenal fresh faces supporting this year’s guaranteed-to-be-amazing headliners. Among the up and coming great new bands on the festival lineup is the small town Midwestern band Houndmouth. Not so very long ago, this group of four fell right into place with one another and immediately began to win the world over with their fun and fresh romanticized neo-folk songs about storybook hard-luck souls of the Great Depression era. Those songs can be heard on their debut album, “From The Hills Below The City.”

In between boot shopping and studio recording, I got a chance to chat with Matt Myers (guitar/vocals) to get a more personal feel of the band. Houndmouth recently played the increasingly important Newport Folk Festival and the excitement of the event was still fresh for the group. Though it was not the first year the band had played the festival, it was a good feeling for them to be invited back and upgraded to a bigger stage.

Myers recalled his favorite behind the scenes moment: “I met Jack White for the first time there. My buddy who I was with dropped a whiffle ball. They (friends and band members) had organized a whiffle ball game and it landed right by Jack’s foot. He was like, ‘Can you pick that up for me?’ Jack reaches down, grabs it, turns around and goes, ‘I told you kids to stay out of my yard – I’m trying to get some rest.’ So that was funny.”

The members of Houndmouth have been performing together for only a little more than two years, but they are definitely solid in each other’s company.

“Every once in a while, you get to that point where you’re telepathic with the people you play with and you kind of know what’s going to happen,” Myers said. “We’re there, but we’re still trying to do more. I hope that never ends. I hope that’s just how it is. You never want to get to a pinnacle because I think the process is the pinnacle.”

The band came together and sprouted in the small Indiana town of New Albany. It’s still their home base.

“There really wasn’t a music scene,” he explained. “There was like two or three other bands that weren’t cover bands. But Louisville is right across the river and they kind of open up their arms. It’s weird, but nice. That really helped us get our start. There is this kind of underground scene that’s nice.”

Even though the band’s debut album was released a little over a year ago, Houndmouth is already back in the studio between tours.

“We’ve been writing a lot,” he said. “We had like 25 songs before we decided to go into the studio. Now we’ve cut it down to 15 and we still have to make some cuts, but I can’t wait. We’re only like two songs in so far.”

Similar to what gained the band some fame and fortune after releasing “From The Hills Below The City,” the new studio album currently in the works will have a storytelling, folk song theme, but it will not be limited.

“We like folk songs and we like telling stories,” Myers noted, “but there are other songs that are more personal to us and aren’t necessarily folk songs. But there’s definitely some storytelling folk songs. They are just fun.”

There’s certainly plenty to come from this youthful and jangly bunch of storytelling Midwesterners, so catch them at this year’s Hot August Music Festival and keep your eyes on the horizon for a new album!

August 12, 2014 0 comment

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