TheFourFour

The 2009 Year In Music: The Web Exclusives

Posted on29. Dec, 2009 by thederosh.

You’ve gotta love The Internets. In a year full of full-album releases and newly pressed singles and their corresponding parties and concerts, The Springfield Music Scene still found time to throw web-surfing fans the occasional bone. Whether you wanted a single song, a crazy cover or a whole album, bands provided examples of each on their MySpace pages and websites for your perusal and download. Some couldn’t be found anywhere else, either, making them web exclusives, an idea near and dear to our hearts since we’re a sort of web exclusive ourselves. Game recognizes game. You’ll find some of 2009’s most memorable songs released only on the Internet after the break.

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The 2009 Year in Music: The Albums

Posted on23. Dec, 2009 by thederosh.

Tick tock. The clock continues to wind down, signaling the end of 2009. We continue our look back on the year that was by examining the albums that rocked/bluegrassed/metaled/reggaed/punked/Irished/danced our worlds this year. As you might imagine, many of these albums contained our songs of the year, too; great songs rarely travel alone on record. Also, these are only chosen from among the pressed official albums released this year; web-only releases will get their own category. Let’s begin, shall we?

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The 2009 Year in Music: The Songs

Posted on22. Dec, 2009 by thederosh.

The end of 2009 is rapidly approaching, and that means it’s time to look back on everything that defined the year in local music. Since it has been a boom year for the scene, with new venues, killer shows and a wealth of new music to digest, we’re not in a hurry to get though it all. With that in mind, we will be bringing you a series of the high points in the year that was 2009, starting today with some of the songs that wouldn’t get out of our, or many other people’s, heads. Click the link to read about them and to hear them for yourself.

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A New Era Begins: TheFourFour.com moves to TAGSGF.com January 4

Posted on17. Dec, 2009 by thederosh.

In the almost two years of TheFourFour.com’s existence, we’ve taken a lot of pride in covering, reflecting and galvanizing the music scene to the best of our this-isn’t-our-only-job abilities. Along the way we’ve come to some interesting realizations, or, better put, some understood realities that need an occasional pointing out. As our time contributing to S.A.U.C.E. Magazine showed us, there is more to our music scene than music; like any community, it is as multi-faceted and multi-dimensional as the individual people in it. We know musicians who can talk sports for hours, others who are arts and theatre junkies and countless numbers who ride their bikes everywhere, take an interest in sustainable living, want to help a fellow SGFer and love being sort of a Springfield insider. Similarly, we know people whose specialties are not music who enjoy seeing shows and follow what we do. Knowing people who work as tirelessly to cover those specialties as we do ours, we thought, why not put it all in one place? So we are.

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Waking the Dead Horse(s): Bottlefish and Jah Roots return this weekend

Posted on15. Dec, 2009 by thederosh.

Because your holiday season simply hasn’t been crazy enough already, we’re hit with the double whammy that the recently relaxing (i.e. taking a break, rather than a “hiatus”) alt-country/Americana rock group Bottlefish is playing a show at The High Life Live Martini Lounge this Friday night, December 18, followed by the first Jah Roots concert [...]

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The Forgotten Venues Tour, Stop 4: Fusion Bar & Grill

Posted on14. Dec, 2009 by thederosh.

Okay, we have a quick confession to make: Our never-ending mission to present you with Springfield’s lesser-known and overlooked places to see or book a live music show hit a bit of a snag in the last several months. The Forgotten Venues Tour van broke down, if you will. Thankfully, after some roadside work using a matchbook, two stick of gum and the plastic hula girl we pulled off the dashboard, we’re back on a roll again. The tour lives, people!

So what would be the next logical stop? How about a location with one of the best-sounding rooms in Springfield not dedicated full-time to live music, a place where you can keep up with The Big Game while taking in a show and maybe even squeeze in a game of pool while you do it. You know, that kind of place that’s a fusion of a sports bar, a music venue and a pool hall… hmmmm…

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Unity II: It’s On

Posted on14. Dec, 2009 by thederosh.

For a long time music in Springfield was subject to genre-based cliquishness, but there has been a groundswell of effort against that in recent years. The countermeasures arguably culminated in the Unity concert last June at Remmingtons Downtown, a show that brought together acts from numerous genres onstage and brought their fans into the same room offstage. Roots Of Mankind led the way with Queen City Saints, Jam Room, The Spacetones, Only the Brave and We Voyagers sharing the bill and the chance to bring people from the hip hop, jam band, punk, indie and hard rock communities together as what they really are: music fans. It turned out to be too good an idea to do only once–and too good to wait a full year for. So how does spring sound? We’ll tell you more after the break.

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The Great Recording Update of However Long It Has Been Since the Last Recording Update

Posted on09. Dec, 2009 by thederosh.

We have noticed an exciting trend in recent weeks: A lot of local bands are either headed into the studio to start working on a new album or are finishing up a CD for release. Most of them won’t be done in time to make them into your next holiday stocking-stuffer, but some will be in hand to celebrate Groundhog Day (2/2) and more will be available by Valentine’s Day. See? We’ve got this gift-giving thing on lock, especially for that pesky Groundhog Day gift. Perform clicking motions below and you will, too.

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Fearless Before Persecution, Vance Productions return

Posted on09. Dec, 2009 by thederosh.

Some good news for the new year ahead: Local hardcore group Fearless Before Persecution, dismantled in June 2008, is back with a new lineup, a revived concert to headline and a promotion company back from hiatus to put it all on. We’ll tell you more after the break.

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Rock It Old School: Barefoot Revolution reunites 12/26… with the original Speakeasy lineup opening

Posted on07. Dec, 2009 by thederosh.

Flash back to the late ’90s for a minute. Ally McBeal was one of TV’s most-watched shows, Jennifer Lopez was still an actress with a bright future and Limp Bizkit ruled the rock airwaves. (Don’t try to deny it. All of that actually happened.) In local nightlife we still had The Regency Showcase (now the location of Icon Nightclub) and Culley’s (now the location of a dead space with Culley’s signage over the front of it) and jam rock was arguably at its apex, with Barefoot Revolution and a young, three-piece Speakeasy at or near the top of the heap. For one night, you can relive those shows, or, if you weren’t there, experience them for the first time. Find out more after some clickage.

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The First Teenager Ever announces CD release concert

Posted on07. Dec, 2009 by thederosh.

If a CD is released and there’s no corresponding party, did the release really happen? The First Teenager Ever won’t give you the chance to find out. The band’s album has been out for a little while now, sure, but it’s finally party time and the band is throwing one in style. Bring a pointy hat and streamers… okay, maybe not, but be prepared to get your new-album groove on. Details after the break.

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