By Seth A. McConnell

Hot off the wires… well actually Facebook…

I’m not sure who Rapid City DIY is but the show has a little bit of everything for everyone. Well at least if your into varied styles of Rock N’ Roll.

I have this whole work thing to attend to so I will not be in attendance but I encourage you to go, American Heavy Metal Weekend, Old and Sonic Future always put up solid performances (I have yet to see Corporate Lemonade Stand but I hear good things). Its a Friday night, what else is going on?

-S

By Seth A. McConnell

After a successful 100 store test run it looks like Best Buy will more than likely sell vinyl in all 1,020 of its stores nationwide.

They won’t be devoting a lot of space, 8 square feet, roughly 200 albums, but its interesting none the less. Best Buy isn’t the first place I would think of going to buy vinyl, in fact it would be among the last places, but it should be interesting to see what they stock. While the sales of vinyl have increased in the last year, I have yet to hear the kids talk about getting the new Brittney Spears album on 180 grams of green marbled vinyl, which truly makes me wonder which audience they will pander to. Do you go after the one time novelty buy (ie a Brittney Spears/Flo Rida buyer) or the collector?

Which brings me to my question of the day: What is the last album you bought on vinyl?

I picked up a Hot Water Music single on half red/half blue transparent vinyl in Sioux Falls the last time I was through, along with some baby blue opaque Bright Eyes singles.

-S

By Seth A. McConnell

To keep up with the celebration of the 10 year anniversary of their album Clarity, Jimmy Eat World just posted a track by track discussion from vocalist Jim Adkins and drummer Zach Lind of their influential  1999 album. This of course is a follow up to their highly successful 10 city tour where they played the album in its entirety and the subsequent live album of the tours last show in Arizona. You can read the breakdown on their website.

Clarity was a hugely influential album in my musical tastes. Its one of the few albums I remember in detail where I was when I first heard it. The album was on repeat in my cd player for months and is still one of those albums when I listen to its on for days at a time. I had tickets to the Denver date of this tour but unfortunately couldn’t make it to the show. Thankfully they put out the live album but its just not quite the same.

This yields my question of the day. What album would you love to see played live in its entirety?

-S

By Seth A. McConnell

The apocalypse is nigh… late 90’s rockers Creed are reuniting to once again assault the innocent ear drums of music lovers everywhere.

“We’re not trying to stay in a certain place or conform to where we left off,” says Stapp. “The music is fresh, edgy, raw, passionate, honest and it rocks.”

“It’s just the right time and we’re all excited!”

Well if we weren’t in a depression before I do believe we are now and it has nothing to do with the economy…

Is anyone excited about this?

-S

By Seth A. McConnell

I’m just going to take a quick moment to introduce myself here. I’m Seth, most of you know me as one of the Journals staff photographers but those of you who really know me know I have a deep seeded passion for music so it was just a matter of time before I ended up over here on feedback and distortion. A little bit of background info. I’ve been involved in the music scene locally since the late 90’s and regionally for the last several years. I used to book a lot of shows/bands and still do on occasion but I spend more time going to shows and making images now. I’m going to be cliche for a moment and say that I listen to EVERYTHING…  but I actually mean it and I’m always searching out new music from alt country to obscure indie to blistering metal/hardcore to club anthems I love it all for various reasons. If the music is good and I can connect to it I will listen to it and I will tell you about it. If its bad or I don’t like it I will make it known. (Ahem… Bon Iver… TERRIBLE! Sorry I know a lot of people love Mr. Vernon but I can’t stand his voice. Its like nails on a chalkboard. As far as I’m concerned that album should have stayed in that Wisconsin cabin.) I’m not pretentious but I do have a lot of opinions.

This portion of the Journal blog-o-sphere has seen better days and I’m hoping we can bring it back to its glory days, or at least as close as we can. Those are some huge shoes to fill. If you have an upcoming show/open mic/performance of any kind toss me an email (seth.mcconnell(at)rapidcityjournal(dot)com) and I will make sure it gets posted, if you have a low res jpeg of a flyer attach it or send a link. I will try and make it out and do reviews of shows/concerts/performances as often as I can but I’m making no guarantees, its all time and work permitting.

I love sharing the music that I find and I want to open this up to you as well. I get a half dozen to a dozen new albums a week, most are not that good but when I do come across something that catches my ear I will share it with you. I would appreciate it if you did the same. Let me know about an album that you just can’t get enough of. Music is art and art is meant to be shared.

-S