MelodyTrip's Podcasts

MelodyTrip's 28th Podacst: Lots of news about Hardly Strictly Bluegrass and Ticket Sales with Podsafe Music too!

2007-10-13T19:37:00Z

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Libsyn link: http://melodytrip.libsyn.com/

Welcome to MelodyTrip’s podcast #28:

I’m your hostess, Heather Larson, of 98-7 The Peak in Phoenix, Arizona. Listen online at 987ThePeak.com. I’m on Saturday nights 7-midnight and Sunday afternoons 3-7pm. I’m also on this Monday and Tuesday night filling in from 7-midnight.

Time for music festival news riddled with podsafe music breaks!

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Blogged at San Jose Mercury News
The fine folks at the San Jose Mercury news attended San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park. Here’s a good tip from the blog: there’s great music to be found in the clubs after the fest is over for the day. I guess that sounds like a given, but I just wanted to make sure you know that if you want to travel next year to this FREE weekend festival.

Winslow’s Native American Music Festival
I was shocked to find out the Winslow Native American Music festival from the end of September was put on practically overnight and with absolutely no funding. I went up there Monday to check out the city since my parents recently moved up there. I stood on a corner, of course. It’s actually kind of sad that no traffic comes through Route 66 in town anymore now that I-40 is the way to go. If you want to ever stop into Winslow, be sure to visit Standin’ On A Corner Park and The La Posada Hotel. The artist Tina Mion lives and works there. Her work is amazing! I’m putting a link to her site in the show notes. Next year I’m going to try and make that festival because I hear they got some big name bands from neighboring New Mexico and actually good acts who showed up with short notice. And well, my parents live there, so I have an excuse to go to Winslow for the big festival weekend.

Ppodsafe jazz music from Jarez…I am drawing a blank as to what song the melody of this one comes from! I think it’s “Miss You” by the Stones. But the song is called “Top The Top.”

http://www.jarezmusic.com

http://www.myspace.com/jarez2000

http://www.cdbaby.com/jarelposey

Concert Ticket Hell
Last week I was talking about the problem of ticket scalpers in Australia shutting out the fans by buying up all the Rage Against The Machine Tickets in only minutes. Looks like it’s happening in America too and people are getting fed up. The last straw? Hannah Montana. What? That’s right, it takes angry parents who can’t buy tickets for their kids to see Bill Ray Cyrus’s daughter to finally get an investigation going.

I guess this ticket buying/selling/scalping problem is another reason to hate the music industry. Or just the way things are because it’s just another example of how hard it is to be a fan and have a good music experience any more. You’re paying lots of money to have a good concert experience, or you’re over-paying for albums. Will this ever change?

Lily Allen Was a Childhood Drug Dealer
Lily Allen’s dad is the Welsh actor/comedian Keith Allen. When his now-famous singer daughter was a little girl, he dad used her to sell drugs at Glastonbury! He used her as a “sales tool.”

Jeff Tweedy Played a 100-Minute Show
Jeff Tweedy of Wilco played a super-long set at San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. Ok, now that I’ve told you a million things about this fest, there’s no excuse not to go next year if you can. Stories about this fest just keep getting better and better. That’s the Bay Area for ya!

More podsafe music: This song is from The Stone Coyotes of Greenfield, MA and is called “Party Down The Hall.”

http://www.stonecoyotes.com

http://www.myspace.com/thestonecoyotes

http://www.stonecoyotes.com/products.html

Ozzy Will Do Another Ozzfest
Ozzy’s brother-in-law started rumors that Ozzy is to “worn-out” to keep touring. But while doing press for his upcoming tour with Rob Zombie, Ozzy said he will definitely be doing Ozzfest next summer.

Another Aussie Fest Sells Out In Miuntes
This is just not going away! Here’s another story of a music festival selling out in mere minutes, again in Australia. This time it’s the Big Day Out Festival and it only took FIVE MINUTES. There’s even a purchase limit of two tickets per person just to try and piss in the Cheerios of the scalpers. The Australian ticket scalping and online bidding just keeps raging more and more out of control. There is actually word of an online bid of $22,000 and dummy bids as well.

L.A.’s Detour Festival Sounds Like It Was a Blast
Pink was there to check it out in some kind of dress that showed off her buttcrack, according to Jaunted.com. Vincent Gallo was also in the crowd. It was yet another festival where you had to drink in designated areas. Err…that is annoying. But it was possible to hobnob with the artists, which is always cool.

A much more detailed review is available at the LA Times.

You know what is great about this podcast? I don’t do commercials. I just break for music. So here’s more. I hear of a podsafe band that sounds like Muse, U2, Interpol, & Radiohead. They’re called The States so let’s check ‘em out. The song is called “The Architect.”

http://www.thestatesonline.com

http://www.myspace.com/thestatesonline

http://www.cdbaby.com/states

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass from SFGate.com
Even though I live in Phoenix, I still check SFGate.com daily. It’s the best source for SF Bay Area news and they’ve got a good article plus photos on Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. Half a million people showed up for the festival last weekend. Did I mention the fest coincides with Fleet Week? This can be good or bad depending on how you look at it. If you’re into Fleet Week, great. But if you’re not, those Blue Angels make a heck of a lot of noise. It’s the kind of noise that can drown out the sound of a banjo.

Emmylou Harris was the closer and the highlight of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.

Telluride Brews and Blues: Another Scenic Music Festival
I know some people who would argue there is nothing more scenic than Telluride. Pair its beauty with a music festival, and this is heaven. This one is past, but you can get the review online and make plans to attend next year. It featured 50 breweries this year from all over the place.

The 35th Annual San Francisco Blues Festival
We found a nasty review online about the San Francisco Blues Festival. The review states that, “the blues are not dead, just ailing.” Ouch. I believe in last week’s podcast I talked about a favorable view of this fest.

Finally, The Big State Festival Is This Weekend
In College Station, Texas right now is The Big State Festival. Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, and Tim McGraw are performing. Hopefully Tim’s wife will also attend to keep watch over his family jewels…ha. Couldn’t resist! Since this is in Texas, there is stock car racing and BBQ served with the music.

MelodyTrips's 27th Podcast: Music Festival News & Podsafe Music

2007-10-06T21:20:00Z

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Check out our libsyn page and subscribe to our feed.

http://melodytrip.libsyn.com/

I keep checking iTunes to see if we’ve arrived yet, so I’ll let you know when we’re there.

Reach me at myspace.com/radioheather or check out my newly launched website, TheMusicStalker.com. Go there and see just how brand new it is – but bookmark it and check back soon to see how it grows. And by all means if there’s anything you want to hear more about, whether it is about an artist or a news story, let me know. Tell me what you want in the podcast.

It sucks to be an Australian Rage Against The Machine Fan!

Ticket scalpers are out of control online. Take this story for example. Tickets to Rage gigs in Melbourne and Sidney went on sale and minutes later, scalpers were already listing them for sale at expensive prices online. People who camped out for tickets and who were fifth in line when they went on sale didn’t get tickets. Scalpers got them all in minutes and Aussie fans are pissed. Rage is set to play Auckland’s Big Day Out Fest – if you can get a ticket, or have a ticket, let me know.

If you’re an Australian fan stiffed by scalpers, get in touch with me: myspace.com/radioheather

It’s week one of London’s Oxjam Festival. It goes on all month with gigs being played all over town to benefit Oxfam. Looks like there’s something for everyone and everyone should amount to around 300,000 by the end of this.

The Frisco Bluegrass Festival is going on in Dallas this weekend. It’s a baby festival, only in its second year. Acts include Rhonda Vincent and the Rage, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver, the Lonesome River Band, Carrie Hassler and Hard Rain, and local bands Cadillac Sky and Beatlegras.

Time for some podsafe music now before I tell you who sold out the Bermuda Music Festival. They’re called The Beautiful Girls and they are touring all over right now. With a reggae vibe and what has been called a “genre blurring sound,” here are The Beautiful Girls with “She’s Evil.”

http://www.thebeautifulgirls.com

http://www.myspace.com/thebeautifulgirls

The O’Jays Sold Out Bermuda. The O’Jays are playing the sold-out Bermuda Music Festival and it’s hosted today by Steve Harvey. Harvey has been broadcasting his radio show from there all week long.

Funniest Article of the Year! Thing is this came out in February in Australia, before we even started the MelodyTrip podcast, so we just found this. It’s hilarious.

The highlights of San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival are John Prine and Gillian Welch. That’s according to InsideBayArea.com. This totally FREE festival goes on all this weekend, October 5-7th. You can’t miss a FREE festival. Not with the problems concertgoers around the world face today like the Australian scalpers or the high prices for Neil Young tickets. Go see the FREE show!

Of course, I say any concert in Golden Gate park is not to be missed. Just dress in layers so you can stay warm. I’ve frozen my ass off seeing shows there. I remember freezing like a soldier just to see Elvis Costello at the Guinness Fleadh back in the day… Remember the Fleadh? That was the best!

Time to break for more podsafe music before I come back with some news about Mick Jagger talkin’ smack about one of our favorite music festivals. Our last song was reggae, so let’s hit a different genre now for some blues and the podsafe music of Chuck E. Weiss. The song is called “Saturday Nite Fish Fry.”

http://www.selectrecordsonline.com

http://www.myspace.com/selectrecordsnj

Whatsup with Mick Jagger? He doesn’t want to play Glastonbury. What’s wrong, Mick? Afraid of the mud? It’s not like Jagger can’t afford a pair of Wellies. But can he dance in them? So what? Did Glastonbury ever NEED Mick Jagger and The Stones?

How about a homo hip hop festival? Because there is one! It exists! It’s L.A.’s only *** music festival and it’s called HoMosaic 2007. I give ‘em points for a creative name.

Midpoint Music Festival in Ohio is all about networking. But you knew that. Sounds like the festival is a full-time job because you can’t just go and play. You also have to shake babies and kiss hands. A future favorite band may have just networked a deal out there, you never know.

Show Notes Bonus: More Midpoint highlights about bands to watch.

It’s my favorite time again – podsafe music time. Here’s John Taglieri with “Starring Role.” Taglieri is another artist touring all over the place. His sound is more along the lines of the pop-rock or Third Eye Blind or Vertical Horizon.

http://JohnTaglieri.com

http://myspace.com/johntaglierimusic

7,000 Showed up for the San Francisco Blues Festival at Fort Mason. You go to get some good Bay Area blues, experience the perfect weather, and enjoy it all along with spectacular Golden Gate Bridge views. Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Nick Moss and the Flip Tops, Allen Toussaint, Tommy Castro, and more.

Next FREE festival is the National Folk Festival. It’s October 12-14th in Richmond, Virginia. As you can imagine, the lineup is huge. Bluegrass, gospel, Latin – you name it and the style of music will be there. If it celebrates American culture, you’ll hear it at the National Folk Festival.

The Echo Project is also coming up October 12-14th. It’s just outside of Atlanta with Michael Franti & Spearhead, Phil Lesh, Thievery Corporation, and The Flaming Lips headlining. It’s a three-day camping festival complete with a Chattahoochee River clean-up and other green-conscious events.

A website called Matador has put together a top-ten list of music festivals worldwide. Glastonbury is on there of course. Sonar and Festival au Desert also make the cut. Sonar is in Barcelona and Festival au Desert is in the Sahara of Mali. Coachella and Fuji Rocks are also mentioned – as are a couple other no brainers. But Matador, a travel site, also highlights EXIT in Serbia and Iceland Airwaves too.

Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival Replaced with Shakespeare. WTF? The successful Brooklyn Hip Hop fest has been upstaged by –kid you not—a Polish version of Macbeth if I’ve read this article right. The festival’s organizers feel as though this is a racially motivated move to keep brown folks away from the million dollar condos in the neighborhood.
Jeez, if hip hop can’t play Brooklyn, what’s next?

More podsafe music, this song from music.podshow.com. I’ve played this song for you before in the podcast, it’s “Arms Outstretched” by Rilo Kiley. They’ve made the big time now because I just saw their video for “Silver Lining” on VH1.

http://www.myspace.com/rilokiley

MelodyTrip's Podcast #26: Podsafe music and festival news covering everything from Sigur Ros to The Who

2007-09-29T20:04:00Z

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I’ve had that announcement at the top of every podcast for a while, and I’ll keep it up there. But we’re well on our way to iTunes now that the podcast is online with Libsyn. You can also check us out here:

http://melodytrip.libsyn.com/

It’s Saturday, September 29, 2007 and this is our 26th podcast. There’s a ton of news to cover this week! I’m your hostess, Heather Larson. Still working at 98-7 The Peak, coming to you out of Phoenix, Arizona.

I went to Dave Matthews this week and just have to vent about how white trashy the fans were! Horrible manners, very drunk and disorderly… Maybe I’m getting too old to sit on the lawn with all the riff raff?

Onto the news to kick it off.

Whitney Houston is doing show again! Thing is, you’re going to have to travel kind of far to see her. Whitney is set to play in Kuala Lumpur with Dionne Warwick and James Ingram at the longest-running and largest music festival Southeast Asia has to offer. “Live and Loud KL 07” is its name and it’s going on from November 23 through December 2.

The John Lennon Northern Lights Festival happens in the British countryside of Durness. The site of the festival was a favorite childhood vacation spot for Lennon, and he returned there later in life with wife Yoko and their son and daughter. This is a festival rich with history and set in a town with a population of just over 300. It’s a must for a true Lennon or Beatles fanatic!

We have a sold out music festival! The Pyramid Rock Festival in Victoria sold out in just 4 days. On the bill are The Cat Empire, Hilltop Hoods, You Am I, Sneaky Sound System, Kisschasy, Wolf and Cub, Howling Bells, COG, British India and Blue King Brown from Australia as well as The Matches and That 1 Guy from the USA. It’s a great way to ring in 2008!

I’m going to read a little blurb we found online about how KT Tunstall met her hero, Jack White, at Fuji Rock Festival:

Now time for podsafe music from Atlanta’s Sovus Radio off of music.podshow.com. The song is called Alison 3000.

http://www.myspace.com/sovusradio

So how did Jerusalem Rocks go? Pretty good! Sure, Fergie in her hot outfits got taken off the BEP billboards advertising the show, but other than that there were no snags. The band loved Israel, even missing the MTV VMAs to play the show. (Probably a smart idea). Arrested Development and the Commitments also played the fest. Tickets to the show were a bit expensive at about $95 a piece!

Here’s a video of it, made by Jeff Pulver, the festival’s co-founder:

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AEWGbfpOgww"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AEWGbfpOgww" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

Are you ready to head to San Francisco next weekend for the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival? Half a million people showed up last year showing that blue grass is hot stuff. Or maybe that a FREE music festival of any kind is unbeatable! Bozz Scaggs, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris and The Secret Life of Banjos will be there, just to name a few.

The history of the Voodoo Music Festival in N’Awlins is quite interesting. The fest’s organizer managed to hook up a performance from Eminem the second year, right as Em’s career was blowin’ up. Last year, 93,000 people showed up, which is a long way from the humble beginnings of Voodoo in 1999 when only 8,000 showed up to see Wyclef, Ben Folds Five, Moby, Dr. John, and George Clinton.

Roskilde in Denmark proved to be mud-free. With The Chili Peppers, Tiesto, The Who, a ton of other big names and perfect camping conditions, this sounds like the place to be. Definitely the ultimate travel destination for a music fan!

Time for another podsafe music break. This is another one of music.podshow.com from Adrienne Frantz, called “Halfway.”

http://adriennefrantz.com/

http://myspace.com/adriennefrantz

Going on right now in Iceland is the Reykjavik Festival, featuring Sigur Ros. There’s also a film festival involved in this. Seriously, there are 87 films to watch!

Show Notes Bonus: Live reviews of Seattle fests, courtesy of KEXP

Linkin Park and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are set to play in China in November.

A review of the Treasure Island Festival in the San Francisco Bay Area included M.I.A and DJ Shadow.

Chazzfest in Charleston featured performances from Branford Marsalis and Kool & the Gang, who are the headliners.

The Merrit Mountain Music Festival is going to go through some changes, like eliminating the party zones in Campground C and Tent City. Traffic getting into the fest will change because of a golf course development, and reserved camping areas are going to be the way of the future for this fest. The idea is to keep it quiet and comfortable, which is what we all want, isn’t it? The fest is next July in Kamloops, BC, Canada.

Our next podsafe song off music.podshow.com comes from The Passive Aggressives and it’s called “Evil Clown.”

http://www.thepassive.com

http://www.myspace.com/aggressives

Kylie Minogue at Glastonbury next year? It could happen.

The Midpoint Music Festival is giving people a reason to go to Cincinnati. With over 200 acts coming from all over the world, Midpoint is a great place to check out emerging talent. If you can’t make it to SXSW, you can always try Midpoint.

Bjork will be a part of Sydney Festival ‘08

Don’t forget Detour Festival is coming up next weekend in Los Angeles

UB40 grabbed the headlining spot at the first ever International Raggamuffin Festival in New Zealand

A lineup too huge to cover in this podcast is online for the National Folk Festival in Richmond. You may be on overload after looking at this one.

Which music festival generated 30 tons of trash in three days? Austin City Limits…so much for “green” music festivals this year, huh? Excellent article on the music festival trash problem here.

MelodyTrip's Podcast #25: Podsafe Music From Brian Setzer Orchestra, Corey Harris, & Lez Zeppelin Plus Music Festival News

2007-09-22T21:29:00Z

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It’s another MelodyTrip.com milestone with today’s podcast being #25. I’m your host, Heather Larson.

We’ll do news, podsafe music, and commentary…not so much commentary, but it does seep in sometimes.

First, let’s start with all-girl Zeppelin cover band, Lez Zeppelin and “The Ocean” for some podsafe music!

Lez Zeppelin is playing:
September 26, 2007, 7:30pm
Slim's
333 Eleventh St.
San Francisco, CA
415-255-0333
Ticket price
$17

http://www.myspace.com/lezzeppelin

http://www.lezzeppelin.com

Let’s start with Austin City Limits Festival where Bjork, The Killers, Queens of the Stone Age and Joss Stone played. James Taylor may as well have been playing this festival since a semi trailer caught on fire and a rainstorm happened sometime after that. Also playing were the reunited Crowded House and chick MC M.I.A.

I’ve got some jazz news now for you because we cover music festivals of all genres all around the world. One thing unites us all – and that’s music. So let’s talk about the Tanglewood Jazz Festival in Lenox, Mass. Hank Jones, Ahmad Jamal, and Jimmy Heath are some of the legends who played Tanglewood. If you went you’re lucky, and you’re also wondering why we’re getting to this story so late! The fest happened back in August. As we’re a weekly podcast, we’re not exactly timely with the news, for one. So when we do get to some news, it may not exactly be of the minute. But since our idea is that people travel to music festivals as a form of musical tourism, we tell you about every fest we’ve ever heard of whether the news is old or not. That way you can plan to attend Tanglewood next year if you missed it for ’07.

Here’s a great article about one of the greatest artists of all time. And yes, he’s a definite music festival artist. His son is also a rocker, in a rock band that I’m not entirely sure is even together anymore as we haven’t heard from them in a minute.

See if you can figure out who I am talking about, one of the Greatest American Artists ever, who also released a new album not too long ago:

“When ______ steps on stage, he brings America with him. America in song images…”

“_____ is our quintessential oral folk poet, in the original Greek sense, a "maker" of "things that are made." Like the first great Western songster, Homer, _____ takes from old songs and makes new ones, and then keeps remaking them.”

Want another one?

“_______ has said that he is a spokesman for no one, that his songs are not about or for other people, that the music he makes would be real even if no one were listening.”

Give up yet? Do you need something more obvious?

“As _____ told Allen Ginsberg in an interview, "Nobody's ______."

Let me finally fill in the blanks for you – I’m talking about Bob Dylan.

He just closed the Austin City Limits Festival. What a lucky crowd in Austin!

Shall we get podsafe again? I guess podsafe is music with a condom on….no seriously, it’s music I can play in the podcast and not get sued for. It’s a nice way to wage war on the big nasty music industry.

Let’s do Corey Harris, who I have found before on music.podshow.com. Today I get his stuff from his publicist, podsafe. Harris falls into the categories of reggae, world, and blues. Today’s song is Heathen Rage.

Buy his album Zion Crossroads: http://www.telarc.com/Blues/title.asp?sku=CD%2D83656

http://www.myspace.com/coreyharrismusic

http://www.coreyharrismusic.com

Could Coachella be going to Australia? Yes, and for summer 2009!

If you have plans to go down yonder to the Chattahoochee River, just south of Atlanta, GA for the Echo-Project Festival, remember that they’re trying to make it carbon-neutral. Make the festival and enjoy some eco-tourism if you go. Festival organizers are looking for volunteers to help them clean the river.

You can now own a piece of the Monterey Jazz Festival. Recordings will soon be made available for purchase! There are tapes of festival recordings, whether you knew that or not. I didn’t. Through a $350,000 grant the recordings are going to be converted to digital and sold.

The festival itself is happening this weekend at the Monterey County Fairgrounds. Artists include John McLaughlin, Los Lobos, Diana Krall, Terence Blanchard, Ornette Coleman, Dave Brubeck, Sonny Rollins and others.

For schedule and ticket information, call (925) 275-9255 or www.montereyjazzfestival.org.

Ricky Scaggs just played Dollywood with Dolly Parton herself in Pigeon Forge.

Look for Dolly’s new song, “Better Get Living” to hit radio right about now.

I’ve talked about how we like to share travel information for the musical tourists who listen to the podcast, so check this out! For Austin City Limits, there’s an Austin Kiddie Limits for the children.

Moms and dads can check out City Limits for the music, then take the kids to Kiddie Limits for arts & crafts, cheap food, kid music, fun and games.

We found an article for you about how Austin City Limits is a good music festival because it was without the 2007 Music Festival must-have – mud.

Can I just propose a lot more winter music festivals where I live, in Phoenix, Arizona? There’s plenty of room here and definitely no mud.

Now we go to the UK for some news about how music festivals are damaging the palaces there, including Kensington Palace. It seems it’s not good for historical palaces to be exposed to lots of vibrations, stomping feet and fireworks.

Makes you feel almost guilty, doesn’t it?

Trent Reznor has told Chinese fans to download his music for free and vows to sell his music independently through his website.

AWESOME!

Does it pertain to American fans too? I don’t know how many people in China might listen to this podcast…

Here’s the exact quote:

"As for the special situation in China, it does not seem to be easy to obtain Western music via legal channels, so I have the following suggestion for our fans: If you can find and buy our legal CDs, I express my thanks for your support. If you cannot find it, I think that downloading from the Internet is a more acceptable option than buying pirated CDs. Our music is easy to find on the Internet, and you might not need to spend much effort to find most of our songs. If you like our songs after you've heard them, please feel free to share it with your friends. As I have put all my effort and heart into my music, I sincerely hope that more and more people can share the enjoyment with us."

Which music festival artist said this?

“I love the festival setting. The whole family can come and it's affordable in you don't have to pay 50 bucks and be over 21 just to get in.”

None other than festival lover Jo Dee Messina.

Show notes bonus:

Check out the Fresno country music fest going on today.

Since I’ve been talking for a while, it’s time once again to break for some podsafe music. This time, I’ve made quite a coup in obtaining something podsafe from the Brian Setzer Orchestra!

http://www.briansetzer.com

http://www.myspace.com/bsowolfgang

Buy This, Baby!

The song is called “One More Night With You.”

MelodyTrip's 24th Podcast: News & Clap Your Hands & Say Yeah Podsafe Songs

2007-09-15T21:01:00Z

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Today is Saturday, September 15 and this is MelodyTrip.com’s 24th podcast. My name is Heather Larson, your host. Catch me on the air at 98-7 The Peak here in Phoenix…for a limited time only…it’s a possibility I may be moving in a new direction soon!

More on that in a later podcast though. (Much later, like a couple weeks or more).

If you’re new to the podcast, welcome!

We’re MelodyTrip.com, a music site that covers music festivals of all genres, all around the world.

Nothing is off limits. We don’t discriminate, we don’t even care if the lyrics are in English. Speaking of, I went to see Mana last Sunday night at U.S. Airways Center here in Phoenix! It was one of the best concerts I have ever seen.

You can check out my full review at Batanga.com.

Definitely my pick for a phenomenal band for the music festival of my dreams that would also include Tori Amos, Common, Arcade Fire, and what’s a music festival without Kings of Leon? Do those guys ever get a day off?

Speaking of Tori Amos, she’s made a few fun little songs lately poking some motherly fun at Britney Spears. The song was all over the Internet and it certainly wasn’t the first time I’ve seen Amos take a shot at a pop starlet…

A YouTube version of the Amos song:

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It’s about how Britney got set up to fail by MTV last week at the VMA’s.

Did you watch the VMA’s? Neither did I. Let’s move on to this week’s music festival news!

Brian McKnight is headlining this year’s Cayman Jazz Fest.
Diane Reeves and Musiq Soulchild will also be there. It’s November 29th- December 1st.

Guess How Many Artists Will Play The Monolith Fest at Red Rocks?
Just 50. No big deal. Yeah kids, move along, nothing to see here. FIFTY! Wow.

That includes Kings of Leon. Of course.

If you’ve never heard the podcast before, I like to poke fun at Kings of Leon –in a good way—for being at any and every music festival in the world. I don’t think any band does more festivals than Kings of Leon. They may be the hardest working band in music today just for that reason alone.

The rest of the Monolith Lineup, which you can catch TODAY (the fest started yesterday)

The Flaming Lips, CAKE, The Decemberists, Spoon, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Ghostland Observatory, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Flosstradamus, Kid Sister, Cloud Cult, Earl Greyhound, Das EFX, The Broken West, Yacht, Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band, Bob Log III, Lords of the Underground, Mobius Band, Ra Ra Riot, Minus Story, and Otis Gibbs.

Let’s hear some Monolith podsafe music from music.podshow.com. You know, any excuse to play Clap Your Hands Say Yeah in the podcast!

This song reminds me of Muse…It’s called “Gimme Some Salt.”

Back to the news…

So I spaced this week and forgot to call my buddy Danny Brown up in Canada. He just went to the Toronto Virgin Fest. I was going to try to catch up with him again until I realized he had some work done on his teeth. So Danny’s getting well right now and we’re onto some more music festival news.

The best thing about a music festival is that thing that makes it unique. Country Thunder had a midway where you could practice your roping skills or buy a Florence State Prison t-shirt. McDowell Mountain Music Fest kept with the overall theme of 2007 and had a *** of a rainstorm. Glastonbury had mud. And shitty weather every year anyway.

What made the Waveney Greenpeace Festival unique was a priest you could confess your eco sins to. Forgive me father, for I don’t recycle my ginseng soda cans as I live in an apartment in a city that lacks a recycling program.

The priest says, “I know the Pope has now set up his own airline, but I am told the Vatican will be planting trees every time it flies. I do think the way we treat our environment is important.”

So it’s best to carpool to a music fest these days, no?

A story in The Baltic Times asks if a music festival can really bridge borders. It’s a story about the Be2Gether Festival featuring Belarusian rock on the border of Lithuania and Belarus. I was surprised to learn that rock bands in Lithuania haven’t been able to release new albums for three years. That’s in the article, but it doesn’t exactly explain why. I’m sure it has something to do with the hot and nasty political goings-on of the country, but I’m not sure what.

Read the rest of The Baltic Times’ article here.

Going on right now, this very weekend, is the Austin City Limits Festival in Austin, Texas. Three days, eight stages, 130 bands…and I thought Monolith was big! We all know Austin is where it’s at.

What’s the deal with Amy Winehouse? Is she really there? Was she stoned up and moving slow or was she with it? I’d love to hear from those who attended… hit me up at myspace.com/radioheather.

We found an article with some Austin travel tips on which hotel is cheap and where to find a kick-ass margarita. And something really wild – a snow cone with ice cream on top. Maybe people aren’t just heading to Austin City Limits for the music…

According to the San Jose Mercury News, the best FREE Bay Area music festival is coming up October 5th in Golden Gate Park. It’s the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival with performances by Buddy Miller, T Bone Burnett and Jeff Tweedy. Oh wait, it’s a three-day fest through the 7th!

That same weekend, down south in Orange County (very far south) is the Detour Fest starring Bloc Party.

Kanye, who outsold 50, will headline the Bang! Music Festival with The Smashing Pumpkins.

By the way, do check out Shepard Fairey, who did the art for the cover of the latest SP album, Zeitgiest. I never realized until this week Fairey even existed until one of my Boston University classmates informed me about him. Fairey also did album covers for the Black Eyed Peas and the movie poster for “Walk The Line.” He also created SWINDLE magazine.

But I digress…

Kanye West and Smashing Pumpkins will headline the 2007 Bang! Music Festival, to be held Nov. 10-11 at Miami's Bayfront Park Amphitheatre.

Bean Blossom, Indiana, has a big bluegrass festival next weekend.

Another story about rainy UK music festival #534…

The Lifelight Christian Music Festival in Sioux Falls just celebrated it’s tenth year

But the National Folk Festival has that fest beat – the fest just celebrated its 69th year

The O’Jays are headlining this weekend’s Greenville Blues Festival

NME Readers Have voted The Reading Fest the best of 2007 so far

Even more strange than the earlier story about Lithuanian bands not being able to release albums is a story about Budapest trying to ban a music festival altogether

People are trying to ban Sziget unless soundproof walls are built around it, I kid you not.

Finally, before I finish up this podcast with Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah’s song Heavy Metal, let’s talk BESTIVAL.

That’s right, Bestival.

A festival with burlesque tea parties and a beard/mustache championship.

I think there’s music too… Oh yeah, Chemical Brothers, Primal Scream, and Beastie Boys!

Now onto that podsafe music from music.podshow.com. Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah! It’s “Heavy Metal.”

In the time it has taken me to post just this written portion of the podcast show notes, my crazy cat has finally succeeded in opening the bedroom door. I let him go nuts. It burns calories. At 17lbs, he needs it!

MelodyTrip's 23rd Podcast: Bumbershoot, Music News, World & Native American Festivals, Plus Podsafe Music From EverBlue and Zap Mama

2007-09-08T19:03:00Z

****PAGE DOWN TO ATTACHMENTS TO DOWNLOAD THE MP3 OF THE PODCAST****

Welcome to MelodyTrip.com’s 23rd podcast. It’s Saturday, September 8 and I’m your host Heather Larson. You can reach me on MySpace at myspace.com/radioheather.

My home radio station is 98-7 The Peak in Phoenix. We put on a Smashmouth concert last night after the D-backs game at Chase Field. The first time I ever saw them was 11 or 12 years ago at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Northern California. It was, of course, at a festival. A radio station festival – the old “Kamp KOME” put on by a radio station long gone now but that was once responsible for giving bands like Smashmouth and the now long-gone Carson Daly their start.

Tomorrow and Monday night I’ll be at the Phoenix Mana shows, covering them for Batanga.com. Now Mana would be my ideal music festival artist. There’s nothing more diverse, I think, than putting Mana in an American music festival…so cross your fingers!

This week there will be a couple podsafe songs to listen to and we’re going to catch up on a LOT of news.

The Connect Festival: Got Mud?

The Connect Festival just went down in the UK. The fest was full of “Glastonbury-style mud” and acts like The Beastie Boys, Jarvis Cocker, El Padre, who you can check out at http://www.myspace.com/elpadremusic, Regina Spektor, M.I.A., and Bjork.

Badly Drawn Boy Draws a Crowd in Istanbul

Now imagine Badly Drawn Boy playing a festival in Turkey. It was the Rock n’ Coke festival in Istanbul with the Smashing Pumpkins, Manic Street Preachers, and Franz Ferdinand.

Penang World Music Fest in Malaysia

If you’re into world music, you may want to head to Penang, an island in the Straits of Malacca. That was the site of a three-day world music festival featuring bands like Darsa, Ensemble Kaboul, Farafina from Burkina Faso and many more. You can read about it in The Hindu Business Line.

The Winslow Native American Music Festival in Winslow, Arizona

Closer to home for me, as you may know I live in Phoenix, is the Winslow Native American Music Festival in Winslow, Arizona. Yes, that Winslow that is the subject of the Eagles’ lyrics in “Take It Easy.” The Native American Music Festival coincides with…wait for it…The Standin’ On A Corner Festival. There’s also the Just Cruisin’ Car Show, and the High Desert Piece Makers Quilt Show. Eight Native American bands are playing including Badlands, Triple Cross and Stateline, and even Can Carlos Apache Comedian Drew Lacapa. I recommend staying at the La Posada Hotel because I’ve heard wonderful things about it. It’s a historical landmark.

The Jewish Limmud Fest

Now onto a very Jewish festival, the Limmud Fest, which included a lot of cultural flavors. It’s a very faith-based festival but it’s also concerned with the environment and having discussions about genetically modified foods. There’s also something called “Bibliyoga” in which a yoga session is called, “Freedom for a Stiff-Necked People.” Maybe there was a blossoming Matisyahu at the fest?

Time now for podsafe music from an L.A. band called EverBlue.

http://www.myspace.com/EverBluemusic

This song is called Baby’s Lullaby.

Too Many Festivals?

As the summer has now come to an official end, the question is this: are there too many festivals? I don’t know how there could ever be too many festivals. It seems like there’s one for everyone now. Each one is diverse, yet we do see a lot of the same really big artists (Kings of Leon, anyone) at every festival.

Bumbershoot in Seattle

Seattle is addicted to music festivals. That’s the charge in an article we found in the Seattle Times online. Sure Seattle, rub it in…you’re full of fabulous fests. Actually, the article is really about Bumbershoot, which happened last weekend. The festival starred The Shins, a reunited Crowded House, Sean Paul, Fergie without her Peas, the aforementioned Kings Of Leon – see they really are at EVERY festival on the planet.

Can I just award Kings of Leon the MelodyTrip 2007 Festival Award of Merit? Shall we talk to the boss about this?

Let’s see who else was at Bumbershoot…Wu Tang Clan, Lyrics Born, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Gym Class Heroes, and then a million other bands on a zillion other stages.

Chicago Jazz Festival

Another great Labor Day weekend festival is the Chicago Jazz Festival. It’s a lakefront fest that starred Herbie Hancock of “Rock It” fame. Wynton Marsalis and Nancy Wilson were also there to perform.

Chemical Brothers at Creamfields

At the end of August, the Chemical Brothers played the Creamfields Festival in Manchester along with Kelis and Mark Ronson. Don’t feel bad if you missed that Creamfields – there are more on the way. Electronic music fans can travel the world to go to the festival in various cities. Creamfields in Chile is November 9th. It’s in Argentina November 10th, Brazil November 30th, and on December 1st. (In Belo Horizonte and Rio De Janiero, respectively).

http://www.myspace.com/officialcreamfields

Let’s break for more podsafe music before I come back to tell you about the Show Notes Bonuses. They are little tidbits I save just for the show notes on the blog…this week I have everything from Ozzy’s daughter to blues festivals and Michael Franti.

Our podsafe music comes from Zap Mama, who will be at the Monterey Music Summit Festival October 20th.

http://www.myspace.com/zapmama

Zap Mama is also doing the Voodoo Fest in New Orleans October 28th.

The song is called Affection.

Show Notes Bonuses:

Another muddy festival, this one a world music fest, The WOMAD.

Could My Bloody Valentine reunite at the next Coachella?

Rockers Daughters Hang At Reading
Ozzy’s daughter and Bob Geldof’s daughter chill at Reading.

Speaking of Reading, of course The Arcade Fire wowed the crowd as they always do…

Limestone City Blues Festival

Labatt Blues Festival

NIN at Leeds

Michael Franti and Spearhead Not Doing Australia Fest

Pink Changes Lyrics at V Festival To Snipe at Britney Spears

A Review of Ozzfest

Not a Gay Old Time at New York Reggae Fest….

Idiots at Clear Channel have anti-gay acts headlining a New York reggae festival. GLAAD spokesman Rashad Robinson says, "Buju Banton and Bounty Killer continue to perform songs with virulently homophobic lyrics that in some cases support the murder of gay people.

Speaking of Reggae, Here’s How It’s Done in Santa Cruz, California
Lost of good shows coming up at Moe’s and the Catalyst in the very best place I can think of to get irie…

The Neighborhood Music Festival in Los Angeles
September 29th is the Neighborhood Music Festival in L.A. with performers Mickey Avalon, Spank Rock, DJ AM, Steve Aoki, Crystal Castles, and a ton more.

The Duke Ellington Jazz Fest in DC
The 2007 Duke Ellington Jazz Festival will be held in Washington, D.C. from Sept. 9 to 17. If it’s named after Duke Ellington, it has to be great, right?

Is ‘Girlfrenzy’ a Lillith Redux?
According to Billboard, “Avril Lavigne, Sheryl Crow and Fiona Apple will headline the first Girlfrenzy music festival, to be held Oct. 27 at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Irvine, Calif. Colbie Caillat, Sara Bareilles and Antigone Rising are also on the bill for the event.”

At least they didn’t call it ‘chickfrenzy.’ They can’t call it “A Fine Frenzy” because there is already an artist by that name…

Rock The Bells San Francisco Review
This article calls Rock The Bells “a rap concert on steroids.” Is it any coincidence this show was held at McCovey parking lot, right next to where Barry Bonds takes his steroids…err, hits his homeruns?

Melody Trip's 22nd Podcast: Interview with Phoenix Rapper Grime, getting ready for the Virgin Festival, and the world's first carbon-neutral album

2007-09-02T18:17:00Z

****PAGE DOWN TO ATTACHMENTS TO DOWNLOAD THE MP3 OF THE PODCAST****

(And yes, we're this close to getting this bad boy on iTunes!)

It’s Saturday, September 1, 2007 and this is MelodyTrip.com’s 22nd podcast. I’m your hostess Heather Larson based out of Phoenix, Arizona. We’re the city having one of its hottest, nastiest summers on record statistic wise.

My Stalking of GRIME Finally Pays Off in an Interview
It’s 107 degrees at the time I’m recording the podcast. Coming up, I have an interview with GRIME, an Arizona rapper who’s been all over the country this summer with the Paid Dues and Rock The Bells traveling hip-hop festivals. I’ve been stalking him for several weeks trying to get the scoop from him on Rock The Bells and even tried to catch up with him at Arizona’s Paid Dues Fest – but he had already left to play a show with Talib Kweli that day.

The interview is pretty long and covers more than just the festivals. We also talk about politics, DMX, Michael Vick, and the question on everyone’s minds these days it seems – 50 or Kanye? Whose album are you buying on 9/11? I think it’s kind of a fun, escapist thing for us to focus on hip-hop that day instead of it being the sixth anniversary of our nation’s biggest tragedy.

A Hiatus From The News This Week
So since it’s Labor Day weekend, I’m going easy and taking a break from the news for this podcast. We’ll pick it up again next week.

Next Weekend, The Virgin Festival!
Speaking of next week, my friend Danny Brown will be at the Virgin Festival. I’ve had him on the podcast before. So we’re going to get some reports from the Virgin Festival so we can live vicariously through Danny!

Buen Chico Creates World's First Carbon-Neutral Album!
One more thing I wanted to tell you about before we get into my interview with Grime is the band Buen Chico. Here’s a band that just played the Rough Beats Festival in North Yorkshire on August 31. They’re an indie band and have been playing festivals with folks like The Kaiser Chiefs. Now the band is putting out probably the first carbon-neutral debut album. It’s called “Right To Re-Arrange,” because all the CO2 produced in order to make this album will be offset.

“Neil Claxton from Buen Chico’s record company, Faith & Hope, explains that all the CO2 produced in the manufacturing process of the CDs will be offset. He says: ‘Our manufacturer, Key Production now has an arrangement with The CarbonNeutral Company and we pay extra so that all our manufacturing is carbon neutral. In addition, for each release we purchase a 3-bed house annual offset package as well to take account of promotional stuff - and will buy more if things go better than expected.’”

Podcast Links:

Buen Chico
http://www.myspace.com/buenchico

For the rest of the scoop on Buen Chico's Carbon-Neutral Album:
http://www.newconsumer.com/news/item/2932/

GRIME
http://www.myspace.com/grimemusic

My links:
Listen to me online at 987thepeak.com and catch up with me at myspace.com/radioheather. I'd tell ya when I'm on the air, but it always changes so I post my on-air schedule at the myspace. However, I am on every weekend regardless! And in interest of full disclosure, Danny Brown and I both write for Suite101.com. He's the indie guy, I'm the pop gal.