Countless musicians and fans converge on downtown Tulsa today and tomorrow for the inaugural edition of FreeTulsa.
Admission is $10 per day.
Below, watch some great videos of FreeTulsa artists Brine Webb and Deerpeople!
After the jump, get a handy hour-by-hour FreeTulsa show schedule.
A new music festival, FreeTulsa!, is filling the gap left behind by DFest. The festival will take place on July 30 & July 31 in downtown Tulsa’s Brady Arts District.
Bands: Submit at OKKLE.com!
Live music promoters Jeff Richardson (Hard Work Records) and Marc Matheos (owner of Crystal Pistol and The Marquee) have joined forces to put on an all-ages two-day music festival featuring top bands from Tulsa and surrounding areas.
Recently announced acts:
Alex & the Anders, Aquahead, Chrome Pony, Crystal Vision, Dance Robots, Dance, Deerpeople, DJ Elliot Poston, DJ Robbo, Gang Starr Museum, Ghosts, Guardant, Here is There, Ill Fated, Kite Flying Robot, The Living Machines, Lizard Police, Midtown & Down, Montu, Mucho Mustachio, The Nghiems, The Parakeet Chiefs, People, People, PilloTalk, Rsun, The Secret Post, Silver Medals, Steve Liddell Band
You can view the previously announced bands here.
Acts will play on nine stages, including two main outdoor stages, The Soundpony, two stages at the Crystal Pistol, Bob’s (Cain’s second stage), The Marquee, Hunt Club outdoor stage and Lola’s.
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!
70. Engine Orchestra - Become My Army (2009)
“Like the winter bite that spawned it, “Become My Army” is dark and icy throughout, an impressive first outing from an Engine build that could break down beautifully with future wrenching.” - Joe Wertz (Oklahoma Gazette)
The first day of DFest 2009 was an exhausting and sweaty mess. And I enjoyed every bit of it.
6pm - Other Lives @ Poseidon Stage
Photo: Michael Cooper
Playing a breathtakingly lush set in the blistering July sun, Other Lives did not disappoint. Sounding as crisp as ever, frontman Jesse Tabish might sound even better live than on record. The Stillwater band is one of the most consistently great live bands in Oklahoma. If you haven’t seen them live, you’re hurting no one but yourself.
In the crowd: members of Colourmusic and The Uglysuit.
6:30pm - Ptiaradactyl @ Joe Mamma’s Pizza
Photo: Jeremy Charles
Tulsa art rock freaks Ptiaradactyl was one band that really interested me heading into this year. Playing to a nicely-sized crowd in an always-weird restaurant situation, the band was very loud and very raw. Band members wore dinosaur masks and shrieked intermittently throughout the set.
In the crowd: members of The Nghiems, Rainbows Are Free, Eric and the Adams and Ithica.
Thousands of musicians and fans converge on downtown Tulsa this weekend for the ninth edition of DFest.
I will be there solo this year and I hope to see many of your faces there as well. (Buy your tickets by midnight tonight or pay an additional $15!)
Throughout the coming weekend and into next week, we plan on bringing you recaps on the conference and festival, as well as Q&As, videos and pictures.
To get your ears ready, here’s a collection of free mp3s from DFest 2009 artists:
DOWNLOADS:
8Bit Cynics - “You Ain’t That Pretty”
Ali Harter - “Grandpa”
Astellaway - “It’s Not Worth It”
Callupsie - “The Murderous Type”
Crocodile - “August is Over”
Dead Sea Choir - “Image D93″
Ghosts - “Nuts n Boltz”
Hush Hush Commotion - “The One That Got Away”
I Said Stop - “Born To Be Great”
Jabee - “One”
Junebug Spade - “Buckshot”
Kawnar - “Lost”
Maggie McClure - “Out of My Mind”
Marcy Priest - “Never Ending”
The Nightlife - “Take My Hand”
Other Lives - “End Of The Year”
The Pretty Black Chains - “Ambulance”
Rainbows Are Free - “Are You Dead?”
The Romantic Disaster - “Full Blooded Fool”
Stars Go Dim - “Come Around”
The Uglysuit - “…And We Became Sunshine”
Van Risseghem - “We Are All Full of Love”
Western Heritage - “She’s Only 16″
X-Cal - “Starving Artists”
Ziff - “The City Knight Life”
After the jump, get your hour-by-hour show schedule, which should come in handy.
A final round of band announcements for DFest 2009 was revealed today. The festival and conference will take place on July 24 & July 25 in downtown Tulsa’s historic Blue Dome District.
Oklahoma artists in bold. You can view the previously announced bands here and here.
Emerging Artists:
8bit Cynics, Bald Eagle, Beau Jennings, Blue Island Tribe, The Boom Bang, The Boxing Lesson, Brine Webb, Broke City, Bruder, The Calm Blue Sea, Canja Rave, Damn Bullets, Death is not a joyride., DJ Demko, Derek James, Dogsway, Don’t Wake Aislin, Exit 380, French Horn Rebellion, Ghosts, Goodbye To Pretty, Haley McGuire, Here Is There, HighFiveLowFive, Jacob Abello, DJ Jason Sterling, DJ Jeff Haze, The Jonbear Fourtet, Junebug Spade, Love in October, The Moai Broadcast, Muchos Backflips!, The Nghiems, Oso Closo, Proprietors Of The Earth, R.C., RadioRadio, Rainbows Are Free, The Romantic Disaster, DJ Sea, Sherree Chamberlain, Taddy Porter, Turk, The Venditos & Western Heritage
Ticket and more festival information available after the jump.
ROCK CITY: Portraits of Tulsa Musicians opens tonight (6pm - 7:30pm) at Shades of Brown Coffee & Art, 3302 S. Peoria Avenue, in Tulsa. The exhibit features photographs by Jeremy Charles. You seen a lot of his work here and we absolutely love his work.
If I had to pick one photographer to document my existence, it would be Jeremy Charles.
If you can attend, do. And buy a print.
To the outside world, Tulsa is merely a dot on the map, smack dab in the middle of America. But this small city has produced more than it’s fair share of musical talent since the dawn of Rock and Roll. Photographer Jeremy Charles has focused his attention on the best, brightest young musicians in town over the past two years, from American Idol David Cook to underground porn-sampling electronic artist Kamikaze Slut.
ROCK CITY is a small sample of portraits selected from over 50 band shoots during 2007 and 2008. Some of these works have appeared in the Urban Tulsa Weekly and other publications. Many of them have lived only on the band’s Myspace until now.
Tulsa bands featured in ROCK CITY include Callupsie, Fiawna Forte, The Red Alert, Annie Ellicott, The Doldrums, Jesse Aycock, Ghosts, Congress of a Crow, Admiral Twin, David Cook, Blackswan, Straight Lines, Cecada, Congratulations!, My Solstice, Crooked X, and many more.
After the jump, an article on Charles from Urban Tulsa Weekly.
(Click image for the full poster.)
Thousands of musicians and fans converge on downtown Tulsa this weekend for the eighth edition of DFest.
I will be there with Mrs. OklahomaRock. I hope to see many of your faces there as well. (Advanced two-day passes are only $33.50!)
For those of you that cannot make it, we hope to provide you a glimpse into the world of DFest. Throughout the coming weekend and into next week, we plan on bringing you recaps on the conference and the festival, Q&As and pictures.
To get your ears ready, here’s a slew of free mp3s from DFest 2008 artists:
DOWNLOADS:
BlackSwan - “Clearcoat”
Callupsie - “The Murderous Type”
Cheyenne - “The Whale”
Edison Glass - “In Such A State”
El Paso Hot Button - “Hot As Fuck”
Ghost of Monkshood - “Moon Signs”
Ghosts - “Nuts n Boltz”
Gravity Propulsion System - “Note to Girlfriend”
Jabee / Regina Spektor - “Breaks My Heart” (Remix)
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey - “Tae Parade”
Kawnar - “Lost”
The Oh! Johnny Girls - “Blue Eyes”
Philip Zoellner - “Carolina”
Rainbows Are Free - “Are You Dead?”
The Stock Market Crash - “Blueprints of a New Friend”
Sworn Against - “Stand and Strike”
Tech Tonic - “Vitamin B”
After the jump, get your hour-by-hour band schedule, which should come in handy.
A partial list of bands playing DFest 2008 was announced at a press conference this morning at Dwelling Spaces in downtown Tulsa.
DFest will feature 150 artists and 20 plus musical genres on 12 stages in downtown Tulsa’s historic Blue Dome District. The two-day festival will also include a conference comprised of music industry panels, a tradeshow, music clinics and mentoring sessions designed to educate working musicians and music enthusiasts in any stage of their career. The conference will take place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel downtown, just walking distance from the Blue Dome District.
As we reported earlier, Martin Atkins of Tour:Smart, Pigface and Ministry will be the keynote speaker this year.
This is only a partial list. More bands will be announced in the coming weeks. Oklahoma bands are in bold.
Headliners:
Paramore, Ghostland Observatory, Zappa Plays Zappa, Helmet, The Disco Biscuits, Edison Glass
Regional & Locals:
40engine, Adam’s Attic, Admiral Twin, Animate Objects, Annie Minogue, Astellaway, Before Dawn, Blake O., Callupsie, Cat-a-tac, Cavedoll, Cheyenne, Colourmusic, Congress of a Crow, Crocodile, El Paso Hot Button, Gentlemen Auction House, Ghosts, Glister, Greg Summerlin, Hush Hush Commotion, Jesse Aycock, Leopold and his Fiction, Love In October, Mama Sweet, Matt Stansberry Band, Maxtone Four, Motive For Movement, PDA, People Noise, Ravi, Red Dirt Rangers, Ruthie Bram, Ryan Lindsey, Sam and The Stylees, Scott Goldman, Sir Threadius Mongus, Sleeperstar, Slorder, Soulfege, Sparky Quano, Stars Go Dim, Stop, Revolt!, Taddy Porter, The Abdomen, The Boxing Lesson, The Compulsions, The Effects, The Feed, The Forms, The Randies, The Starkweather Boys, The Uglysuit and Unwed Sailor.
Tickets are on sale tomorrow at okctickets.com.
Festival tickets: $30 plus 3.50 service charge in advance and $40 plus $5 service fee walk-up. Good for both days of the festival.
Conference badges: $50 Early-Bird, $100 Advanced, and $150 walk-up. Good for conference and both days of the festival.
The Tulsa music scene got a great write-up by former Tulsa World music editor Matt Elliott in the April issue (R.E.M. on the cover) of SPIN Magazine.
(Click the picture to zoom-in.)
Featured (or mentioned) in the article are: Adam Lopez, Angie DeVore-Green and Tom Green of DFest, Aqueduct, Callupsie, Crooked X, Davit Sounders of iROK Radio, The Effects, GHOSTS, Hanson, JJ Cale, Leon Russell, P.D.A. and Sam and the Stylees.
You can also view the April issue online here.
