Guides
You’re an independent band who wants to go out on the road, and you want to know where you can play.
Buy the “Indie Venue Bible.” Pronto. Big Meteor Publishing probably earned its name making this sucker: The bible contains 26,000 live music venues in the United States and Canada, from your church halls, coffee shops, community centers and book stores to actual, honest-to-god music clubs. Roughly 1,500 festivals are listed and more than 1,000 colleges.
You can buy single directories of each region of the country and Canada for $24.95, or you can buy all six regions for $99.95. There’s more at www.indievenuebible.com.
Lovers
This Valentine’s Day, John King gave me Louisville is for Lovers Vol. 8, an annual rite that makes February less dull. Chemic, Tamara Dearing, Bonnie “Prince” Billy and Teneia Sanders are featured on the compilation, which came out last week. Find more at louisvilleisforlovers.com.
Raves
José D. Neil is the publisher of Al Dia En America, a bi-weekly Spanish-language newspaper based in the Hikes Point neighborhood.
Though he listens to all kinds of music, Neil, who’s originally from Guatemala, digs Mana. The Guadalajara, Mexico, rock group saw sales of their 2006 album, Amar es Combatir (“To Love Is to Fight”), reach 500,000 copies in the United States, and were nominated for five MTV Latin Video Music Awards.
His favorite songwriter of all time? “John Lennon. I have all kinds of John Lennon,” he says. Check out www.aldiaenamerica.com.
K’s
A new issue of Metroschifter singer/guitarist/former mayoral candidate Scott Ritcher’s K Composite magazine is coming out, according to a MySpace bulletin Ritcher himself posted last Friday.
K Composite is a collection of first-person Q&A interviews about, well, whatever Ritcher or said interview subject would like to talk about. No. 13 should be available soon at newsstands everywhere, or you can order a copy online at
www.kcomposite.com.
Mat Herron is LEO’s Music Editor, and is interested in skydiving. If you or anyone you know would like to teach him, contact mherron@leoweekly.com
This article appears in February 19, 2008.