"you go and save the best for last"...

so the last day of the conference was by far better than the first 2 days combined....for me anyway. i have so much to write about and so many pithy comments to make that i have actually been trying to put off writing this post because it looms in my mind as this monster that deserves all of my time and goodness, it needs to be funny and poignant and blah.... anyway, yesterday i was recovering from the day that you are about to read about by going to a wedding shower in big canoe, ga, so that gave me excuse #1, then it was the end of the weekend and there was laundry, etc...(excuses #2-7) and then there is this introduction and explaining why i'm not writing about that day that is helping me not write about the last day.... so i'll just get on with it... i'm going to be horribly original and just work my way through chronologically: 12pm (noon) - finally get out of bed after watching nick cannon's "wild 'n out" and laguna beach for like 2 hours... like, oh my god. 1pm - 2:30pm - eat mellow mushroom for lunch, for the second time in as many days....its just really good food... 3pm - 3:45pm - watch more of the same MTV drivel and nap some more... 4pm - 5pm - this was the first AMC+F event of the day that we attended. it was a panel entitled DIY: true confessions of indie artists and entrepreneurs. this was the first industry panel that i have ever been to and i was very underwhelmed and unimpressed. apparently, the people who work behind the rock stars run on the same schedule as their puppets and show up a good 20-30 mins late. however, this wasn't as bad as the constant stream of people that were coming and going while everyone was trying to listen. its very hard to concentrate when people are trying to give you demos and cds in the middle of the panel and then coming back 5 mins later to reclaim their wares when they realize that you really aren't as important as they might have thought (yes, this actually happened to us...humbling to say the least). although, concentrating on the panel might have been easier if i didn't hear a constant stream of self-promotion coming out of most of them. one guy kept talking about this super-influential band that he was in from 1971-1974 that never recorded a retail album and only distributed to rock journalists....hey thanks, now i know what it takes to put out an album....to nobody. this other guy's position was that being on an indie or major is irrelevant because they are all being bought out by each other, brilliant!, just what i like to hear from a panelist talking about indie artists and entrepreneurs. the most helpful and interesting people of the whole lot were John Szuch (owner, Deep Elm) and Shaun Rogers (vp int'l marketing/a&r, SubPop). they described what it's actually like for indie artists to get heard and what the labels can and cannot do to help (tv licensing, promotion, etc....). it was very informative and i would kill for Shaun Roger's job. most painful moment: a panelist referenced how many albums Death Cab had sold on SubPop before going to Atlantic, Shaun looked a little exasperated as he pointed out that Death Cab was on Barsuk and The Postal Service is on SubPop. (i'm a snob...) oh, i almost forgot ... 2-foot long fingernail girl was there with her entourage, but left 10 minutes into the thing as part of that neverending stream i mentioned. 5:30 - 7:30pm - i didn't think that my second opportunity to see second shift would come so quickly....but it did and at the tiny tapas cafe, fuego. this performance, with my readiness in place, far outstripped the performance at 10high. i thouroughly enjoyed the show in this small space, and i realized that i have always enjoyed shows more in smaller spaces....so i may stick to those from now on. the guitar parts were more distinguishable, the vocals were clearer, and it seemed that the band was really playing off the crowd. here's the thing that struck me the most: i was singing along to some of the hooks....already, after only one live performance....apparently i wasn't as distracted the first time as i thought. this is huge for me because i'm not usually much of a sing-alonger these days and i rarely find songs that stick in my head after one listen....even if they do it's usually from a CD or radio source, not a live show. me and my "asst. editor" have moved from enjoying the live show to wanting to hear something from the studio to clarify their sound even more in our head-ears. good stuff...good times. 8:00 - 10:45pm - we left the small party and went to the big party.... downtown rocks, known as dtr to the cool kids, is a free concert series put on by 99x at underground in which thousands of teenagers pack themselves into the narrowest street in all of atlanta and crowd-surf and mosh to the filler music between sets....needless to say, not my scene. it quickly becomes my scene when the words backstage/vip become involved. i now will go into this completely elitist and self-serving rant about how cool it is to have access: it is really freakin' cool.... i was standing just a few feet from Butch Vig and couldn't say a word to him, what do you say to the guy who produced Nevermind, Gish, and Sonic Youth? exactly, mouth agape wonderment....nothing, speechless, and i'm a total dork. one i recovered, we went up to the vip "loft" that overlooked the street and ate free food and drank free booze and hung out with "the beautiful people"....which was also pretty cool. standing apart from the unwashed masses and observing is definitely an experience, people do really stupid shit in crowds....it was so stupid that shirley manson stopped singing and pointedly asked a few members of the crowd to join the army if they wanted to fight and leave the rest of us to enjoy the music ... i thought that was great. 11:00pm - 11:10pm - we were advised to go and see a band named lennex play at future (while trying to find a link for this club, i found a posting for a vampire meet-up there, but no website, a sign of things to come). there were pictures of naked anime girls on the walls, then a little guy dressed inleather carrying a whip... somthing should have tipped me off as to the sound of the band, i'm not sure what but i feel like i should have noticed something.... the band was "incubus doors down" or "three doors incubus", maybe "incudoors down"...i'm done now. anyway, there was a trumpet and we left....what is it with random brass instruments and bands? 11:15pm - 11:50pm - back to the loft, more drinks, food and hanging out with other people who felt out of place... who feels in place at these things? everybody i met got in through a friend of a friend and couldn't believe they were hanging out there ... is there just one central friend that everybody in atlanta knows? 11:55:30 pm - 11:56:30 pm - i tried to be cool while introducing myself to John Szuch(the deep elm guy) while he was standing in line for a drink at underground and failed miserably... but at least i said "hi"... he told me to joing their e-mail list and check out their new bands, i said ok.... but the new will never be the old (pop unknown, camber, brandston, planes mistaken for stars, the appleseed cast, etc...) , oh well....maybe i'll give it a shot. 12:00 (midnight) - 1:00am - why is it that the 30-year-old guys rocked my face more than any other "new and upcoming" band that i saw all weekend. i haven't seen five eight play in about 4 years and they have/have not changed a bit .... they still write really good pure rock songs in the old-school athens way, but the songs also have a great indie-rock edge that i am in love with again. the self-titled album put out last year is light years better than the good nurse album put out on deep elm, for the love of all that is holy...buy it. oh by the way, you have never seen such a good live show, mike was actually hanging upside down from the framing of the stage, throwing guitar stands, and yelling at the crowd...it was awesome!! here are some songs from the new album: - criminal - i'm still around - magnetic fields - the liquor song - square peg - bad juices find some of the old stuff from their site and give it a listen also, you won't be disappointed. 1:00am - ? - hanging out, drinking, sleeping ... weekend done. i will now return to a regular schedule and normal, regular guy postings.... i already have a huge emo-geek revelation to make, maybe tomorrow, or maybe i'll take a day off.