All posts by joekiller

I solve hard problems and have fun doing it.
Charlottesville, Festival, Live Music Taping, Music, Orbit, Outback Lodge

Musical Traveling Round-up

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Rainbow on the way to Wakarusa
Being that I haven’t been keeping up with all the shows I’ve attended, a round up post seemed to be the best way to go. So the last post was about Dubconscious; who were kick ass. Where have my musical tastes and taping taken me recently?

June 8th – 11th: Wakarusa
Waiting in line to get into Waka
If you don’t know, Wakarusa is a four day camping and music festival hosted by the kind town of Lawrence, Kansas. Yes, that is right, Kansas. Now while I can appropriately say that I am not in Kansas anymore, I did bring back some fond memories and made some new friends. Rain or shine (or wind), Waka must go on and it did! I flew out there to meet up with the usual crew (think Langerado crew) but it was an adventure in itself flying and getting to the venue. My plan was this:

1. Get Tickets.
2. Fly to Waka
3. ????
4. Party down!
5. ????
6. Fly back.

Please notice the ???? on steps 3 and 5, as I wasn’t really sure how I was getting to and from the airports. Luckily, when you are going to a festival like this, it is easy to pick out those who share the similar interests and intentions of attending this festival. Taking off for Kansas I proceeded to get a little alcohol buzz going before my 8:30 AM flight. *GASP* drinking in the morning? Who would ever do that… Well, I would and I know of a lot others that would too. Please don’t take this for an alcoholic rampage as only two bloody marys were involved and all I wanted to was to sleep the whole way there so that I was ready to go. Besides, drinking at the airport is expensive! Thus, I proceed to go to the plane and get on. We take off and my slumber ensues. Que Joe sleeping… zzzz…. Later on I awake to the wheels hitting the ground and we are good to go right? Nope, we had landed back where we started! Apparently we needed some federal safety whatchamajigger and took off with out it. We are sitting on the tarmac for about an hour when this sketchy heady looking guy gets on the plane and goes to the back. This guy was most definitely not in line to get on the plane when we took off the first time. The flight attendant talks to him for a while and then escorts him up to first class. I thought to myself, this is the sketchiest TSA guy I’ve ever seen. Anyway, we finally took back off and the airline did give us some complimentary snack packs for our delays. So props to them. Finally we make it to Kansas and my quest to fill in the first ???? began.

Sound Tribe under the full moon

Cue the sketchy guy from the plane. Observing his movements I came to the conclusion that the only reason that some heady looking guy is coming to Kansas is Wakarusa, duh. Our conversation was short and sweet. “Hey man, are you going to Waka?” I said. Heady dude responds with, “Yeah dude.” Pushing further I enquire, “Do you have a ride there?” Much to my delight he says, “Yeah my buddy is supposed to come pick me up.” Booya, doing well here, I ask then, “Could I catch a ride?” Headies always help out their kind and he answers, “No problem man, he should be here soon.” Wham blam, there’s the ride. Not bad eh?

Voodoo Tent at Wakarusa

Waka in it self was tremendous, the schedule heady, the weather, well a little hot but great! What bands did I attend?

Thursday: Disco Biscuits, Pnuma Trio, Lotus
Friday: MOFRO, Backyard Tire Fire, Disco Biscuits, Robert Randolph & the Family Band, New Monsoon, Greyboy Allstars
Saturday: New Monsoon, Gabby La La, Keller Williams and the Keels, Buckethead, Railroad Earth, Keller Williams, Benevento Russo DUO, ALO (Animal Liberation Orchestra)
Sunday: Tea Leaf Green, Larry Keel and Natural Bridge, Yonder Mountain String Band, Zilla, STS9 (Sound Tribe Sector 9), and Hurra Torpedo

5:38 in the morning after some ALO Love.

Not bad for four days of music right? Highlights were the Zilla show, Larry Keel with guests from both Yonder and Railroad Earth. Sleeping during Gabby La La and awakening to her staring me down for sleeping. My feelings were come on it was hot, I didn’t sleep the last night due to the fact that the music stopped after the morning came thus making the tent too hot and others were doing it too! The fire department coming out and spraying the hose up to cool down the hippies instead of turning it on us. Tapers being prepared for such an occasion by having umbrellas on hand. Meeting everyone from Jacksonville, FL as those guys filled in steps 3 and 5 with a ride. The positive vibe. The lake, the heat. Seeing tents just go flying from the fierce winds. Meeting new friends from Indiana and of course DUO! Easily said, this was one hell of a weekend.

Larry Keel and Natural Bridge

Big Field

Hurra Torpedo

During the summer it is harder to see good stuff here in the ‘ville so I generally travel to the shows, but this hasn’t prevented me from taping. Crazyredbeard and I have been working on a demo tape for himself. Basically a compilation of all of his best live stuff. We did some recording sessions in house too which turned out great.

June 20th: The Slate Hill Show

Slate Hill Show

Feeling the pains of not having taped anything for while, I ventured into the Outback Lodge hoping for some good tunes. I was rewarded with a fine, slightly drunken, showing by Slate Hill Phil and his Slate Hill Show. The music, which he claims is country though sometimes sounding like grass, is a combination of banjo, mandolin, and guitar. Perfect sounds for some grass, er uh, country. Being that it was acoustic the sounds came out really well through the C4s but man, some people were talking right in front of the microphones generally the whole time. Furthermore, there were a grand total of perhaps seven of us there so you can hear their conversations loud and clear. *grumble grumble* Oh well. I take the passive approach to taping because I have found that if you start asking people, especially drunk people, they generally just get louder or do something drunk like try to fight you, throw beer on your gear and generally stuff that we don’t want going on. Besides, their stories are funny, but shit y’all, STFU.

June 25th: Peen, Man Mountain Jr. and Intents

MMjr

These shows were in honor of Natalie leaving the area and going on to graduate school. The whole setup could be attributed to a community effort. Everyone brought out their equipment which allowed the show to sound great at Orbit and we got a fine recording. Music started around 8:30 PM or so and ran until they kicked us out at 2:00 AM. I have the vast majority of the show tracked out already and will get it up on tapers.org when I can.

Tucker and BJ Jamming!

June 28th: Phil Lesh & Friends / Trey Anastasio & Mike Gordon with The Benevento/Russo DUO

I traveled to Raleigh, NC to the Walnut Creek Pavilion, now called the Alltel Pavilion at Walnut Creek, for a full day of music. Starting at 4:00 and going until 11:00 is not bad for one show. The Duo opened it all up with a normal however short set. We had just finished our margaritas and charged into the venue, which has a no re-entry policy, and they stopped. Well damn! Now we are stuck in $10 beer land and having just paid $500 to fix the car, that just wasn’t happening. Oh well, Phil came out fairly soon and we were taken for a ride. Here is the set list:

Set 1: Good Lovin, Tenessee Jed, Friend of the Devil > Hardest Part, Next Time You See Me, Berthaet
Set 2: Loose Lucy > Shakedown on 9th Street > Shakedown Street, They Love Each Other > Unbroken Chain > Death Don’t have no Mercy, Gimme Shelter, The Weight

Very solid. I really enjoyed the Friend > Hardest part. Joan Osborne was on vocals and did a beautiful job.

Next up was G.R.A.B:
Jam> Play, Pause, Stop, Dragonfly, Suskind Hotel, Sleep Again, Goodbye Head > Something For Rockets, Car Carrier Blues, Mr. Completely > Spin, Trouble, Seasons, Drifting, Mud City
E: Let Me Lie, Tuesday

Good stuff. A little sloppy I felt but this was their first gig (other than the impromptu Bonnaroo showing). I thought the best was the Mr. Completely > Spin. Sickness!

GRAB BT:
http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=26683 (wayback machine)
https://archive.org/details/duo2006-06-28.flac (current)
Phil BT: http://bt.etree.org/details.php?id=26748

This post is dedicated to Natalie who, for the short amount of time I knew her, turned my world upside down, inside out, and every other way possible. I loved every minute of it. Holler on back girl!

Boomer and I hiding under the pool table.

Charlottesville, Live Music Taping, Music, Starr Hill

Listen to Disco Biscuits from Starr Hill April 18, 2006

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Bisco rocked it out back in April and I ran my microphones however my Mini-Me was still set to high gain which is a huge no-no at Starr Hill (That place is freaking loud!). So my recording came out like crap however someone was running Nuemanns behind me (as mentioned in my previous post, creatively, entitled stated: Disco Biscuits 04-18-2006 @ Starr Hill Music Hall, Charlottesville, VA) and it has finally been released to the Live Music Archive!

You can listen to the whole show directly from the detailed listings here:
http://www.archive.org/details/db2006-04-18.tlm170.flac16

Here is the text:

PLAN C APPROVED

The Disco Biscuits
April 18, 2006
Star Hill Music Hall
Charlottesville, VA

Source: Neumann TLM170 (card, 15 ft. from stage, DFC, FOB) > sound devices 722 @16/44.1

Transfer: Sound Devices 722 > Macintosh G5 > Spark XL > Xact > WAV* > FLAC(8)*

Taped and transferred by Jonathan Hatgis

*Edited and encoded by Dave Cooke (WaveLab/SoundForge 6/CDWave)

Disc 1:

Set I:
1. Crowd/Tuning
2. King Of The world
3. Triumph ->
4. Pilin’ It High (1) ->
5. Triumph ->
6. Run Like Hell

Set II:
7. Crowd/Tuning
8. Crystal Ball

Disc 2:

Set II (cont.):
1. Aceetobee
2. Banter
3. Abraxis
4. Once the Fiddler Paid
5. Strawberry Girl
6. Save The Robots

Encore:
7. Tuning
8. Helicopters

(1) – Unfinished

* The 722 was accidentally run with a “no clipping” compression level
* set. I’ve done my best to try to counter some of that, but the bass
* at its peak is still distorted. However, this is all that has
* surfaced as of yet. — DC, 6/21/2006

General News, Real Life

Scientology is not Science

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…dedicated to all the victims of scientology, free speech, and, Lisa McPherson. Mirrored from codebot.


Scientology hurts people a lot. It hasn’t stood the test of time, which makes it more of a cult than anything else. I researched Scientology for my college journalism graduate studies project and here’s what I found.

As it’s core tenet, Scientology teaches that all the bad things in the world come from negative life experiences. For example, if you were bitten by a dog as a child, without realizing it you might develop an irrational fear of dogs (preventing negative life experiences is why they insist their babies be born in complete silence). Using special auditing techniques and e-meter technology, both of which Scientology claims L Ron Hubbard created, they believe they are able to remove these bad thoughts from your body.

This premise of Scientology, when explained as being part of science, seems reasonable enough to get people started in the cult.

In actuality though, both auditing and the e-meter existed before L Ron Hubbard created them. Auditing was an early type of psychoanalysis experimented with in the early part of the last century. It was soon discarded when the experts of the time came to the conclusion it had no real lasting therapeutic value. The e-meter is based on the same technology as a primitive lie detector.

At first they introduce you to courseware and studies using seemingly innocuous subjects such as tapes on how to have a happy marriage, and how to control you’re eating habits. Where things get really weird is when they teach you to hate psychology and require you to pay money, lots of it, for the courses and auditing sessions. These materials and sessions are required to progress up the Scientology ladder.

As you progress up the ladder, the church begins to reveal more information about itself to you. They contend it can’t be revealed to you all up front, because the information is so powerful, that if you were to hear about it with an unprepared mind it would kill you (it’s that powerful). What they begin to reveal is that all the negative energy trapped inside you are actually thetans, and that thetans are wandering immortal souls carrying past life experiences.

If at some point you cannot continue to pay for the courseware and the auditing sessions, you will be offered a thousand year contract to serve the church for free, in lieu of the fees. You see, the church begins to teach their followers that by following the courseware they will eventually become immortal, and a thousand years is pittance in comparison to forever.

Working for the church is something that can turn quite unpleasant. It’s like an army structure without the organization. Superiors abuse and degrade their workers. They make them do the worst jobs, and can have them locked away using a special confinement technique.

Eventually the courses teach you that once you reach the state of “clear” all thetans will be purged from you body. After “clear” you progress to an OT (operating thetan). As an OT you will begin to develop supernatural powers (John Travolta is a high level OT).

It’s in the OT levels that the church begins to tell you the true story of the universe. They teach you that the thetans were actually hundreds and hundreds of billions of interplanetary space beings placed on Earth by the evil galactic ruler Xenu. They were killed by Xenu when he placed their bodies around volcanoes (somewhere around Hawaii) and bombarded them with H-Bombs. Their souls attempted to escape after death, but Xenu anticipated this and had machines ready to capture them. The souls were taken to giant 3D cinemas and brainwashed into believing all kinds of bad things, like the story of God and the devil. Finally, Xenu released thetans into the atmosphere, where they began to clump together and make their way into our human ancestor’s brains.

To protect all of this information, the church uses its vast sums of money to litigate into oblivion those that speak out against the church. They have an entire dictionary of terms and plays to use against people. For example, if you were in the church and knew someone critical of it they would label you a PTS, or potential trouble source. The outside person would be called a suppressive person. As a PTS you are required to get rid of the suppressive person. This leads to the Scientology policy of disconnection.

Another trick Scientology uses is spying, threatening, and record keeping. See, the contents of your auditing sessions are kept by the church. They have all your deep dark secrets, and if you ever leave and are perceived as a danger in any way, they won’t hesitate to threaten you with this information. Watch the scary video of scientology doing it’s spying.

Scientology is dangerous cult. They have ruined lives and killed people. If your are interested in learning more the many true life stories of people hurt by the cult, search the Internet. Just don’t join their cult.

Charlottesville, Live Music Taping, Music, Outback Lodge

Dubconscious – May 05, 2006 @ Outback Lodge

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I ran my mics at Dubconscious on Wednesday last week. They are a kick ass Dub Reggae band with some jam mixed in there. Coming from Athens, GA they brought the sweet sounds that make you want to get down. The guys were down with C’Ville so much that they came and ran another show Friday night. I didn’t get to record that one, however I believe someone else was running a SBD feed to Minidisc, so hopefully that is true. The show is on the archive, check it out:

http://www.archive.org/details/dubconscious2006-05-31.spc4.flac24

Dubconscious
May 05, 2006
Outback Lodge
Charlottesville, VA

Source: SP-C4 > mme > mt24/48
Transfer: Compact Flash > Audacity > FLAC
Taped By: Joseph Lawson (joekiller dot com)

01. A-Spear
02. Under the Weather
03. Possibility
04. Be Free
05. Trinity !
06. One Tribe !
07. Constantly Inspired !
08. Hear Who Knows !
09. Sufferers Dub
10. Ring the Alarm >
11. Kelvinator
12. Much Respect ^
13. Unchain ^
14. Spell ^
15. Wise Man Say ^

! – Shelly Olin singing
^ – Roger Lonne on Bass

FLAC Footprint:
dubconscious2006-05-31t01.flac:6a35dbb8933c834ebf257c9a85eb1fcb
dubconscious2006-05-31t02.flac:692f9accbfe5b35bd2e54a54b7e56a56
dubconscious2006-05-31t03.flac:1a3e3564b6331c3700dd6f2baadc7678
dubconscious2006-05-31t04.flac:c8fa1cd27d531669ae721df4b51a5fef
dubconscious2006-05-31t05.flac:1e5a21c358b88ee25e02fc5685dcbc6b
dubconscious2006-05-31t06.flac:2cd573afdd7d7c14b01ebb091c473e38
dubconscious2006-05-31t07.flac:7023bc935903298591efb9bac38e1aeb
dubconscious2006-05-31t08.flac:d30d9b0df0702b26b5d2ce48f795c430
dubconscious2006-05-31t09.flac:eb34123f37680fc13fad8fa82a061678
dubconscious2006-05-31t10.flac:4773832b9a9d18c59d9cb4f0d6211a8d
dubconscious2006-05-31t11.flac:d40f14a4e18d4c99141336f8e95f33d3
dubconscious2006-05-31t12.flac:d89f17b3538387be6442e493742297ca
dubconscious2006-05-31t13.flac:81df3589dda62d32a1f6de59d87b768d
dubconscious2006-05-31t14.flac:466d2656e260ae30425f3ecbee8920ff
dubconscious2006-05-31t15.flac:94d0bee065be21b9ce0a7b6a293c6350

SHNTool Output:
length expanded size cdr WAVE problems filename
10:20.827 178798124 cxx — —– dubconscious2006-05-31t01.wav
7:22.040 127307564 cxx — —– dubconscious2006-05-31t02.wav
5:48.640 100408352 cxx — —– dubconscious2006-05-31t03.wav
3:53.667 67296032 cxx — —– dubconscious2006-05-31t04.wav
4:55.280 85040684 cxx — —– dubconscious2006-05-31t05.wav
6:20.960 109716512 cxx — —– dubconscious2006-05-31t06.wav
5:49.547 100669472 cxx — —– dubconscious2006-05-31t07.wav
7:24.347 127971878 cxx — —– dubconscious2006-05-31t08.wav
4:48.427 83066924 cxx — —– dubconscious2006-05-31t09.wav
7:30.080 129623036 cxx — —– dubconscious2006-05-31t10.wav
3:36.840 62449958 cxx — —– dubconscious2006-05-31t11.wav
6:33.013 113187836 cxx — —– dubconscious2006-05-31t12.wav
8:37.480 149034230 cxx — —– dubconscious2006-05-31t13.wav
14:10.067 244819244 cxx — —– dubconscious2006-05-31t14.wav
11:05.893 191777246 cxx — —– dubconscious2006-05-31t15.wav
108:17.106 1871167092 B (totals for 15 files, 1.0000 overall compression ratio)

Music, Phish, Random Links, Real Life

Junta

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Word of the Day for Thursday, June 01, 2006

junta HUN-tuh, JUHN-tuh, noun:

1. A governmental council or committee, especially one that rules after a revolution.

2. A closely knit group united for a common purpose and usually meeting secretly; also called a junto.

His greatest fear, said Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian Nobel laureate and ardent foe of military rule, is that with the death of one tyrant, the world will not press for the entire junta to step aside.
— “Nobel Winner Calls for Nigerian Ruler to Release Political Prisoners”, New York Times, June 12, 1998

The Greek junta that seized power during 1967 mobilized the courts against its foes.
— Charles S. Maier, Dissolution

Two days after the coup, the junta announced that General Videla had been designated President of the Nation.
— Marguerite Feitlowitz, A Lexicon of Terror

Still, the resemblance to political revolution is, in important ways, only metaphorical. Computer nerds aside, there is no junta driving this process of change.
— Andrew L. Shapiro, The Control Revolution

Junta comes from the Spanish word for “joined” (hence, a group of persons joined for a common purpose), from Latin junctus, past participle of jungere, “to join.”

    Phish: Junta. Its true.

Uncategorized

One Billion People!

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Yes people, in your best Dr. Evil voice, One Billion People now have internet access. I think that is a tremendous accomplishment for humanity in general. Granted not everyone has uncensored access but as any one knows, you can do anything on the internet if you just try, good or bad. The internet is the instantaneous door to the world.

Congratulations to everyone.

Yahoo has the story: One billion people have Internet access

side thought, is internet a proper noun?

Charlottesville, Live Music Taping, Music, Starr Hill

04-26-2006 Particle @ Starr Hill Music Hall

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Particle 04-26-2006

Particle came in a blew the house down as usual. Usual blow outs aside, this is pretty much a brand new band! There are two new guitarist whom which have added some rock into the space! These guys are totally cool and I would party with em any night. Seriously…

Sketchy videos and torrent below:

Particle 04-26-2006

 

Bittorrent of my tape: https://archive.org/details/particle2006-04-26.spc4.flac16

Music

Benevento-Russo Duo with Mike Gordon and Trey Anastasio

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Yes people it is happening. In my opinion there isn’t a better collaboration out there. This is going to be HOT! Personally I plan to catch 6/28 Alltel Pavilion at Walnut Creek – Raleigh, NC. This should be good people.

For the first time, Trey Anastasio and Mike Gordon are hitting the road together for over three weeks of dates, and they have asked the Duo to round out the band. The run of shows begins on June 28th in Raleigh, NC and includes a double bill with Phil Lesh & Friends for ten shows beginning on 6/28. Though we have been performing with Mike on and off for the past three years, the genesis of the group came together earlier this year when Trey asked us and Mike to join him for a recording session at a Brooklyn studio. Suffice to say, the material rocks. In addition to the new songs, the group will also draw on each other’s repertoire and beyond.

Trey, Mike and the Duo’s dates with Phil Lesh & Friends follow below. Both bands will play full shows — Trey & Mike w/ the Duo will close a handful of shows, and Phil Lesh & Friends will close the rest. In addition, The Benevento/Russo Duo (hey, that’s us!) will open each show on our own. We expect to announce up to an additional week of Trey & Mike with the Duo dates sometime shortly.

Tickets will be available through a real time presale beginning Friday, May 5 at NOON EST at http://treytickets.rlc.net. Public on-sales start Friday, May 12. Full show and ticket information will be made available on the [Duo] Shows page over the course of this week.

TREY ANASTASIO & MIKE GORDON with the Benevento/Russo Duo and PHIL LESH & FRIENDS SUMMER 2006

6/28 Alltel Pavilion at Walnut Creek – Raleigh, NC
6/30 Tweeter Center At The Waterfront – Camden, NJ
7/1 PNC Bank Arts Center – Holmdel, NJ
7/2 SPAC – Saratoga Springs, NY
7/3 New England Dodge Music Center – Hartford, CT
7/7 Nikon at Jones Beach – Wantagh, NY
7/8 Darien Lakes PAC – Darien Center, NY
7/9 Bethel Woods Center For The Arts – Bethel, NY
7/11 Toyota Pavilion – Scranton, PA
7/12 Champlain Valley Fairgrounds – Essex Junction, VT

Real Life, War

What is REALLY happening in Iraq

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Originally Posted By Rayman1:
Just reading some of the posts on the Zarqawi stuff. I’m currently working in Baghdad doing intel/security work and my daily grind is dealing with these things. Zarqawi is a Sunni from Jordan and his kind are very much the minority here. His group is attributed to several beheadings, execution killings, bombings, etc. but nothing of major note in comparison to what the Shiite-dominated security forces we put in place here are doing to the people and us.

He more than likely got his AKS-74U from his Chechen merc buddies who came here as snipers. And yes, there are a lot of US weapons out here to include M4’s, M16A2’s, SAW’s, and 240B’s. Getting ammo for them is a problem, though. But they pump out videos in the marketplaces showing attacks on convoys, etc. and grabbing up our guys’ guns and equipment. Most of those scenes are 2003-2004 dated. However, they do have a lot of our stuff.
Continue reading What is REALLY happening in Iraq →

Charlottesville, Live Music Taping, Music, Starr Hill

04-22-2006: DJ Williams Projekt with the Bridge and Calf Mountain Jam opening at Starr Hill

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DJ Williams Projekt
DJ Williams Projekt rolled into Starr Hill Saturday night with an opening act that brought sounds from Waynesborough, VA, and Baltimore, MD. Calf Mountain was charged with warming up the crowd followed by the Bridge. Near the end of the night brought DJ Williams and his saxophone sounds to full peak.

Calf Mountain Jam is a band that I have been watching for about a year and one half. They were one of those bands that you would say, hrmm, give it a year. Well, it has been a year since I thought that and you know what, these guys are really getting it together. They have a small but very solid following. High energy jams with a good groove to move to. That’s what I’m talking about! Calf Mountain is getting it together. Listen to the tape.

The Bridge was the next opener. I was curious about these guys and again, delivery straight down the pipe! Starr Hill’s musical lineup Saturday night was supreme as the jams kept flowing and the talent never stopped. Near the end of the set Gordon Sax and DJ Williams were playing up on stage and I would say the crowd was really filling in with a groove. By the end of this set, everyone was really ready to rock. Excellent first time viewing of The Bridge in my opinion.

DJ Williams Projekt was another strong band that I had not yet had the pleasure of viewing. I missed some parts of the show however in catching with I did I am continuously amazing at the quality of music Virginia has floating about it. From the valley to the capital, tunes flow like water, sparkling in the pristine environment, bars. Yes, here at these bars we experience the vibe that moves the crowd like a current through the ocean, nudging, sometimes harder than you might like, for you to move your butt and get down!

Whats up to my sketchy crew that kept the rig going in my absence.

Links:
DJ Williams Projekt
The Bridge
Calf Mountain Jam