Give a Hoot!

Hey guys! In case you've been a bit disappointed with my sporadic blogs about the occasional free music or hot new artist (by the way, anyone see Lightfoot last weekend? I was sick and couldn't make it) over the past 4 months, I am here to say that I have been planning a massive Year In Review extravaganza that at this rate should show up around mid-January (coincidentally, around the same time as the weekend after my mid-terms. And my birthday. Just sayin'.) I've also been planning The World's Biggest, Comprehensivest Blog Ever About the Life and Work of Adam Young, also known as Owl City. And before I post the list of all his MySpace pages (I lost count after the first 12 or so, but believe me when I say it will be massive), I'd like to thank the site that has taught me so much about Adam and exposed me to all of his beautiful work: the Hoot Owls, Owl City's official street team.

Like Relient K and a bunch of other great bands, Owl City's street team is hosted by Fancorps. For the uninitiated, these street teams basically have a website with a list of "orders" for street teamers to complete. All the orders are optional, and they can range from circulating banners and putting up posters to making chalk art and Christmas ornaments. Besides the obvious allure of hanging Owl City on your Christmas tree, one of the main incentives for completing orders is accumulating points. (And of course, you get more for covering your street in chalky lyrics than putting a banner in your Facebook status). All orders require photos, screenshots, or written proof that you completed them, which actually gives me a reason to open the Photoshop program I got 3 years ago for Christmas and never learned to use. (I can't doctor any photos with it, but I can convert my screenshots for web!)

I've heard a lot of people complain that street teams are ways for artists to get free labor, but there's so much more than that, including but not limited to nice prizes like merch items for people who complete the most orders. (I'm shooting for a vinyl copy of Ocean Eyes at the moment!) I also get the personal satisfaction of knowing I am 65th highest earner of points out of the 3,605 members on the team. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

But really, the best part about the Hoot Owls is that it really is a street team. We're a little community that all have one big interest in common, so we all help each other out and don't get in too many heated confrontations!

In fact, my favorite part of the site is the forums. Wayyy back in the day before "Fireflies" exploded (a whopping six months ago!), this was THE place for me to talk to other Owl City fans. Now that us fans are everywhere you look (especially on the iTunes Top Downloads list), you would think the forums would be a bit less special. Actually, they're even better. Now, they're THE place for me to me talk to kids in Nebraska, Utah, and even the UK. Of course, most of our conversations (like the rest of our thoughts) are dominated by Owl City, but we've also had some really good conversations about religion, songwriting, being a fan of a very popular artist vs. a very small one, the coolest hotels in Dubai, and the cutest breed of owl (it's pygmy owls, by the way). It's also a meeting place for some of the most obsessed - er, knowledgeable fans of Adam Young, which means you get to find out about loads of interviews, videos, and side projects that would be virtually impossible to stumble across on your own.

So in conclusion, if you like Owl City, you should definitely check out the Hoot Owls! You can choose to complete as many orders as you wish. (I usually complete as many as I can on Fridays, then attempt to do schoolwork the rest of the week. Though I stop by the forums almost every day... It's all about priorities.) And unlike most lame-ass fan clubs, there's no fee to join - and almost none of the orders require you to own anything but a computer.

Also, we are planning a field trip to Dubai to stay in the hotel on the cover of Ocean Eyes. We are inviting Adam Young and Matthew Thiessen to join us. You doubt that we'll actually accomplish it (I do too), but you know you want in on this action. And the pictures of pygmy owls.


^props to the amazing Hoot Owl Chelseaoyesums for enhancing that natural cuteness with the design and caption

So. Damn. Cute.



Thank about it. :)

Free (Ear) Candy!

I would like to apologize from the bottom of my heart for forgetting to blog about Orianthi's kick-ass new single "According to You," which was iTunes' Free Single of the Week... until today. I thought I was so over the whole tough-girl-with-guitar thing, but Orianthi's new single just drew me back in to that world of Kelly and Avril doppelgangers who think "I'm the girl with the worst attention span; you're the boy who puts up with it" is a well-written verse that contains two rhymes.

I also wish the song gave Orianthi more opportunities to showcase the guitar goddess skills her Wikipedia insists she possesses. ("Her style is often compared to other virtuosos such as Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and Eddie Van Halen." I am not making this up, I swear.)

Still, the song is catchy as hell (assuming hell is as catchy as a Hannah Montana song), and I would consider paying ninety-nine cents for it.

But since the single of the week is now the lackluster country ditty "Keep on Lovin' You," I feel like I should mention some more great free music.

Hellogoodbye is still giving away their "When We First Met" EP for subscribing to their mailing list. I subscribed a couple weeks ago, and so far, I haven't gotten any annoying emails from them, but I did get two adorable songs and a renewed love for Forrest Kline. Check it out. Then watching the song's too-cute video. I could watch that until my hair grows long...

Also, go snag a free download of DC indie rocker We Were Pirates' cover of "Thriller." Though Mike Boggs' nasaly vocals are far from Jacksonian, the cover has plenty of kitschy charm. In fact, today, Towermix's Bobby Tate had a nice little interview with Boggs. Tate accurately described Boggs as "a one man bandgasm of awesomeness," which pretty much says it all.

Oh darn, I should have mentioned that one last week, too, when it was, you know, Halloween...

(Oh, and speaking of kitschy charm, who else is dancing for joy now that the full Glee soundtrack has been released?)

Sweet Little 'Echoes'

I think it's part of my civic duty to help let the world (or at least the world wide web) know about DC's next indie folk sweetheart, Lightfoot. Lightfoot is the solo project of former (and possibly current?) member DC folk rock band Vox Pop, and the only thing more adorable than her nom de plume "Jess Because" is the demo for her song "Echo." "Echo" keeps a few folk touches from her Vox Pop days, but it's far more delicate than their usual twang. Although her MySpace is peppered with morose mentions of how she is at war with herself and music is cheaper than therapy, the song is anything but a downer.

Lightfoot has a couple of shows in Virginia this weekend, leading up to her "big public debut" at Rock N Roll Hotel on November 27th. In a show that should attract many Vox Pop fans, Lightfoot will be opening for rockers Loose Lips and folk band Typefighter at that show. Then, moving to the other end of the musical spectrum while staying in the DC area, she'll opening for ethereal electropop princess Lights at DC9 on December 12th.

She might only have 14 friends on MySpace and two fans on Facebook, I'd watch out for this lightly-treading folk sweetheart. She just might sneak up on you.

Dream Team to the Extreme

My ex-future husband Matthew Thiessen of Relient K recently told Indie Vision Music that he and my current future husband Adam Young of Owl City are likely to create a side project together called Goodbye Dubai.

I will tell you how excited I am as soon as I stop hyperventilating.

A Few Open Letters about Tarnished 'Golden'

Dear Calvin Harris and Bob Sinclair,
Please stop trying to remix "We Are Golden." It is perfect the way it is.

Dear Mirwais,
I don't even know how to respond to someone who wants to turn that into a dance song.

Dear Mika,
I love how tickets for your Europe tour go on sale today, but can you please, please, pretty please grace us folks on the other side of the pond with a show or two? Pretty please with a cherry on top?

And finally, dear people actually reading this (cuz Mika toootally reads my blog...,
I swear I am going to start posting regularly again in a few weeks. Then you will have all the information you could ever want to know about Mika's epic concert in Paris, the one music video channel I have seen that appreciates him, and stuff about Owl City, a crazy Scottish boy in a lion hat (hint: he sings, er, plays the minor UK electropop hit"Lion Hat"), and the most severe injury I have ever suffered in a mosh pit. Also, I promised I'd finish the stories of my Warped Tour adventures and Martin Johnson's tongue action. But for now, I'd just keep spinning The Boy Who Knew Too Much if I were you. Or if I were me.
x3 Meredith

DC Chillin'?

Last night, I went to see Wale at the Kia Soul Collective festival.
I saw 100 uniformed police officers outside instead.

This is why I love the DC music scene.




...If the cops didn't strongly advise you to leave, and you actually saw the concert, pretty please comment & tell me how it was! I'm really curious about how it went, but... I didn't really want to end up the same way as that fabled curious cat...

More Tours to Fall For

(^Don't you love my rhyming skills? Door, chore, folklore...)

A lot has happened since I last posted fall tour info, and even though the days are getting darker earlier, the concert options are looking brighter than ever...

Didn't really want $100 seats for the Jonas Brothers World Tour this summer? Still remotely interested in checking out their protegee/Ken dolls, Honor Society? Honor Society will be playing a much more intimate show at Sonar, a Baltimore club the size of your closet in an area that will make the parents of many JoBros fans want to hop right back in their cars and take their kiddies to Port Discovery instead. But for the serious Honor Society fans, their show on Wednesday 9/30 should be the perfect antithesis to seeing them open for the JoBros. Get your $15 tickets here and wonder when the last time you could see the JoBros for that price was.

In case you didn't get tickets to Owl City's show this Saturday before they sold out, don't worry too much; there are other fish in the sea and birds in the electonica sky. Lights, often called Owl City's female counterpart (a moniker I completely disagree with, but whatever) is playing at Sonar on Saturday 10/3. Electronic indie trio Stars of Track & Field are opening. At Warped Tour, Lights performed one of the most awkward sets I ever seen (and I have seen Hottub, so I know awkward). There were over 150 people in the mosh, and I was one of the six who danced. The rest just stood there and gaped at her. I mean, she is certainly worthy of gaping at, but really, she's up there for half an hour; surely you can wrap your mind around her music within that time. Anyhow, when people have to shell out $12 for tickets, more than 4% of the crowd should dance. Get your tickets here.

Saturday 10/3 is actually a pretty huge night for Sonar, what with Geist's CD release party in the Talking Head Club and five bands playing a Sonar-sponsored event at Ottobar. Jay Reatard is headlining the Ottobar event, and if you're not the electropop type, his punk rock should provide some equally-electrifying entertainment for the night.

Is touring the East Coast every fall an annual tradition for Relient K? For the second year in a row, Relient K is coming to the area in October. Last year, I missed seeing them play at the 9:30 Club on a school night. This year, I'm going to miss seeing them play at the Recher Theater in Towson on a school night. Tuesday 10/6, to be specific. The same day they release their new album, which I'll talk more about later. Last year, their fall tour had a Halloween theme. This year, it's called "A Three-Hour Tour," so can we hope to see Matty T dressed up as Gilligan and Matty H as the Skipper? I think the guys would tell us there's always hope... More info on the tour with Barcelona and Copeland here.

Kate Voegele is coming to Rock & Roll Hotel on Friday 10/16 with Green River Ordinance. I saw the perpetually sunny Kate perform at Ram's Head a few years ago, and her on-stage exuberance matched only the love coming her diverse group of fans. Buy tickets here.

You might want to save your $16, though. The Friday after that, 10/23, though, mtvU brings out the big guns. Their inaugural Haloween-themed Ulalume fest will move in to the Merriwether Post Pavilion. Supporting acts Kid Cudi and Dead by Sunrise are sure to scare up a crowd before big-name headliners Paramore and AFI go in for the kill. With costume contests and other events that should put the "boo" in "booths" scattered around the pavilion grounds, this festival should be spooktacular. (Don't you love Halloween-themed puns?) Zip over to mtvu.com for all the details and ticket info. Hurry - I hear everyone's dying to get in (Oh gosh, I'm even making myself groan now...)

Give yourself a day off, then check out The Used at Sonar on Sunday 10/25. Or just go there instead of Ulalume because my incessant punnery has made you despise everything Halloween-related. (Sorry!) Get your tickets, along with a free song and uncensored music video, here.

Sunday 10/8, go to the Black Cat to get one last glimpse of local rocker-philanthropists Mae (buy a new song for $1 every month, and the money will buy materials for underfunded schools) before they jet off to Japan with Owl City. Or just for them to come home; they're only playing 3 shows in Japan. But still, isn't it so exciting when people tour Japan?

It's a pretty good season for electropop buffs: Pretty Lights is bringing his jazzy electronica to the 9:30 Club on Wednesday 11/18. Not to be confused with just plain Lights, Pretty Lights is actually not a pretty girl. (I think a name swap may be in order here.) He is actually producer Derek Vincent Smith, who brings a live drummer with him to live shows (as opposed to the dead drummers at... okay, I'll let it go). He also happens to be my newest favorite reason why electronic music is not all soulless, evil, and murdering other genres. To hear the instrumental beauty for yourself, download all three of his albums for the unbeatable price of free at his official site, give him a donation on his PayPal because, dude, you just three albums for free, then head over to his MySpace to leave a little more love and find some more info on his tour with Gramatik.

And last but definitely not least, Boys Like Girls is headlining one of the most exciting tours of the fall for the Fueled By Ramen crowd, supported by the dream team of Cobra Starship, The Maine, A Rocket to the Moon, and VersaEmerge. The only problem? It's not stopping in DC. But anyone who cares to travel a few hours to Philadelphia should be in for a treat on Saturday 11/21, when they play at Electric Factory. Tour dates & tickets here.