Weekend of local rock volume 6

Today’s a good day to take a break from politics. It’s been about 4 months since I had one of these posts and to be honest I cheated a bit since the Friday I rocked out to Semiblind and the Saturday I got to see Crossroads jam weren’t consecutive…but consecutive weekends, close enough for government work.

We’ll start by talking up my friends from Semiblind. They rocked Ponzetti’s in OC a week ago Friday.

Jim on guitar, Michelle singing, and Lynn on drums. I didn't forget Asher on bass, he's in the next shot down.

Lynn on drums and Asher on bass provide a formidable rhythm section.

It’s hard to describe why I like Semiblind as I do. I guess part of it is that they’re genuinely nice folks and the other part is I like their sound. It doesn’t come across as slickly packaged, they’re just an entertaining band that does a mix of good classic and alternative rock with outstanding originals. I use one as my Myspace song called “The Box I’m In.” Ok, you got me. Michelle is good looking and can sing!

Truly they are a talented group that I wish would gain more of a following. You do get a chance to hear some of their stuff on their Myspace page I link to as well as another appearance on the “Live Lixx at Six” radio show on Ocean 98 (98.1 FM). That will be on Wednesday, September 5th.

I got a message from Jim after I saw them at Ponzetti’s because I told them I’ll see them again on my birthday weekend. (This is assuming Coyote’s doesn’t cancel ANOTHER show.) Actually, I’d be interested to know how many original songs Semiblind has on their overall playlist – play ‘em all because they’re great! Yeah, you folks do a lot of great covers but I love the originals. I realize it’s a lot tougher for you to write a song than it is for me to write a post but you’ve done well with the ones I’ve heard.

Another band that makes its living off doing some seriously smokin’ covers is Crossroads, who I saw on Saturday night here in Salisbury at the Cactus Club. If you like Southern rock and blues, you’ll like Crossroads.

Crossroads jamming at the Cactus Club last Saturday night.

Now I hadn’t seen them before and I found out about them by their request. Their singer and guitarist, Doug Bounds, is a monoblogue fan (thanks Doug!) and asked me to link to them in my “local rock” link section. So I did after checking out the site and then made an effort to catch one of their shows. And after they ripped through their opener of covering Molly Hatchet and ZZ Top tunes I didn’t regret stopping by.

While I’ve only seen the band once, I’m betting that Crossroads has a pretty loyal fan base that’s built up over time. All four guys are veterans of a number of local bands and have gotten to a point where they’re comfortable in their style and just enjoy bashing out a few of their old favorites every weekend. Their fun is putting a few twists here and there on the old standbys and exhibiting their talent by playing them well.

I enjoyed seeing both bands over the last two weekends. But while I’m on the subject of the local music scene, I need to go into a rant.

In late July, events sealed the eventual doom of a good outlet for local rock bands to have their music played. The station known as X106.9 (WRXS-FM) was sold to the company that owns public radio outlets in Baltimore (WYPR-FM) and Frederick (WYPF-FM) and its current alternative rock format will be no more after Friday. Of course, that also ends the weekly hourlong show X106.9 had that featured local bands and also concludes their sponsorship of shows at the Monkey Barrel here in Salisbury on Friday nights. (However, that may continue without the benefit of X106.9 giving them publicity since TMB is right across from SU and draws a good college crowd.)

(By the way, in reposting this I found a Daily Times article discussing the sale as well.)

So local music is essentially down to one radio outlet, the aforementioned “Live Lixx at Six” on Ocean 98. And maybe it’s my imagination, but it seemed like this summer there were more venues who featured a DJ at the expense of live original local music. Do me a favor, save the DJ’s for weddings and give me a band to see. Why do I want to hear the same tunes I hear 300 times on the radio with blather between the songs? Even if the band does covers of familiar tunes, they do put a different stamp on the songs and that’s more entertaining to me.

If I wanted to support a guy who spins CD’s for a living I’d link to them. Instead, two things I thought were great about Delmarva when I first moved here were the local bands and all the support they got from local radio (and other venues like the Shorebirds) – but that support has all but petered out now with the acquisition of WRXS. (Yeah, like we need more NPR here. Bleah!)

With the end of the Pennsyltuckian tourist season and college kids getting back to school, hopefully my summer lull in the “Weekend of local rock” series will also come to an end. As long as there’s a band I like playing in a place and time that works for me, I will be there and I’ll keep posting on them.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.