Hundreds of musicians and tens of thousands of fans converge on downtown Norman this Saturday and Sunday for the third edition of Norman Music Festival.
More bands playing this year’s Norman Music Festival (April 24 & April 25) were announced this week.
This is only a partial list. More bands will be announced in the coming weeks. Oklahoma bands are in bold. You can view the previously announced bands here, here and here.
The free two-day festival will take place in downtown Norman on Saturday, April 24 and Sunday, April 25. Saturday performances will take place at night inside downtown venues, while Sunday performances will take place all day on stages set up on Main Street and inside downtown venues. NMF is for all ages and FREE!
More than 30,000 people attended the 2009 edition of the festival, with an estimated $2.5 million being spent locally.
Over the next couple of weeks, we will be counting down the Top 100 Oklahoma Albums of the 2000s. Every weekday, we will unveil another ten Oklahoma albums that helped shape the way Oklahoma music is heard by the outside world.
We asked three dozen musicians, fans and journalists for their opinions on the top albums of the past decade. With their guidance and our own opinions, we compiled what we hope is a decent and fair list.
Hopefully, there’s a good bit of reflection, discovery and enjoyment when listening to these albums through Lala (when available). Enjoy!
“Garage rock lives, and so does the power trio, in the form of Norman band The Options, but this no throwback to the hair bands of yore. Bassist-vocalist Robbie Egle tailors tough, smart, straight-forward songs for Pat Quigley’s sharp, spare, stinging guitar work and brother Billy Egle’s surefire slapshot drumming.” - Gene Triplett (The Oklahoman)
“The Options’ sound is pitched somewhere between the snarling punk of the Sex Pistols and the glam rock of Mott the Hoople. And while its influences scream the obvious from time to time. “Romance is Bullshit” is quite a breathtaking showcase. It shows the band has its heart in the right place and knows how to careen through the musical landscape without being superficial or beholden to anything.” - Patrick Crain (LOUD Magazine)
To subscribe to the Nice People podcast and get all of the Nice People singles for FREE, click here to open the iTunes page for Nice People. There you can download individual singles or subscribe to get them all automatically.
As Twitter gets bigger and bigger every minute (the site gained five million new accounts in March), bands are realizing how useful the service can be. Tweet about upcoming shows, tweet while you’re recording, tweet about new music and videos and get instant feedback. It’s all relevant and interesting to your fans.
After you get figure out the @’s, #’s and RT’s of Twitter, it’s ridiculously easy to use. And, it opens a whole new world of interaction between bands and their fans.
The second-year festival will feature around 68 artists on ten stages in historic downtown Norman. Over 13,000 people attended the event last year and this year promises to be bigger and better. NMF is for all ages and FREE! So, if you like free stuff, sunny sunshine, good music and trains, they you’re in luck.
Norman Music Festival is looking for about 150 volunteers to assist in crowd control, clean up, hospitality, parking and many other areas of the festival. Volunteers will work in four hour shifts and each receive a free t-shirt. Sign up to be a volunteer here.
No plans tonight? Check out these two big CD release shows:
In Norman, Cheyenne releases their new disc, The Land Rush EP at The Opolis at 9pm. Just $8 to get in. Locust Avenue will also play. If you can’t make it tonight, pre-order the album through Clerestory AV. It drops June 5.
El Paso Hot Button — “Turtle Wars” (Little Mafia)
Aqueduct — “I Sold Gold” (Barsuk)
Acid House Kings — “Sing Along With Acid House Kings” (Twentyseven Records)
Neil Diamond — “12 Songs” (Sony)
Fiona Apple — “Extraordinary Machine” (Sony)
Cheyenne — “I Am Haunted, I Am Alive” (Record Machine)
Foo Fighters — “In Your Honor” (RCA)
The White Stripes — “Get Behind Me Satan” (V2)
