[Imc-events] Re: IMC Indie Fest 2002 Featuring Charlie King!!!

[Jennifer Stewart]

The Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center is presenting
IMC Independent Music Festival 2002!!!!

This festival is a weeklong celebration of independent music, featuring
local and touring musicians, running the gambit of political folk to indie
rock to pop to punk!!
This festival runs from March 7-14 and features six shows in eight days.

Tickets for each show can be bought individually at the door the night of
the show or cheaper weeklong passes can be purchased at the IMC for
$35!!!!
A percentage of the proceeds of these passes helps to fund the IMC's new
venue space that holds about 200 people and will hopefully continue to
host independent music shows in the area!

Passes can be purchased at the IMC front counter!
The IMC is located at 218 West Main Street, Urbana.
For more information, please call: (217) 365-9497

Here is the Festival Lineup:

March 7 (Thursday):
The Mountain Goats, Paul Kotheimer, The National Splits, 7pm $7/door

March 8 (Friday): Charlie King & Karen Brandow 8pm $10/door

March 9 (Saturday):
Absinthe Blind, The Blackouts, Daily Bridge Club, 7pm $6/door

March 10 (Sunday):
Allette Brooks & MJ Walker, 8pm $7/door

March 12 (Tuesday):
David Rovics & Sarasparilla, 8pm $7/door

March 14 (Thursday):
The Violents, LipKandy, Rectangle, &
Sick of Midwifin' 8pm $5/door

Below are descriptions of the musicians playing these shows:

March 7 (Thursday)- The Mountain Goats, Paul Kotheimer, and The National
Splits (Mike from the local pop band Wolfie)

MOUNTAIN GOATS: On first listen to a Mountain Goats record, you'd think
that songwriter and principal member John Darnielle has led the most
crazed, wandering, demented, and occasionally violent life imaginable. And
then, on second listen, you realize his songs are fiction. His simple
instrumentation (often just his voice and an acoustic guitar recorded into
a boombox) belies the creative complexity of his songs, in which he
invokes everything from Latin to literary references to geography,
creating his own historical mythology that is both outrageous and utterly
mundane. Few musicians could successfully pen the line "The most
remarkable thing about you standing in the doorway is that it's you/and
that you're standing in the doorway" ("Going to Georgia," from 1994's
Zopilote Machine) without making it sound utterly inane, but that's
exactly what Darnielle manages to do. In fact, with his simple yet urgent
guitar strum and earnest though imperfect vocals, the words don't sound
inane at all; they sound wonderfully prophetic, poetic, and profound.
Darnielle's precise strain of genius has not yet been completely
understood, but legions of Mountain Goats fans will tell you that nobody
is more amazing. Not to mention prolific: Darnielle writes songs more
often than most people shower. In less than ten years, the Mountain Goats
have released six albums, three separate collections of compilation tracks
and singles, and a few limited 12-inches, cassettes, and side projects.
Darnielle is not content to rest on his laurels, however: he continues to
write new songs, blending raw emotion and lyrical finesse to create
devastating short stories that just happen to be set to music.

PAUL KOTHEIMER is continuing a dedicated, decade-long romance with the
craft of the American song and the technical art of the studio recording.
Paul takes his own HAND-MADE RECORD LABEL into new territory as a fiercely
independent Internet-based music distribution network, founded at
www.handmaderecords.com, and as he takes his music to the nation and the
streets as an artist-activist and independent media advocate.Call his work
literary-acoustic, Americana, urban-folk, post-folk, anti-folk,
activist-acoustic, folk-punk, acoustic rock, folk-rock, acousti-punk, or
simply "singer/songwriter": Paul started out in the late 1980's and early
1990's, as many gen-X twentysomethings did, spending seven long years as a
disillusioned undergrad, protesting the Gulf War, and slumming and gigging
his way through small coffeehouses and clubs. In 1993, on a teaching
assistantship from the University of Illinois, Kotheimer made the move to
the thirving indie/college music scene of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois,
where he quickly gained recognition as a solo performer at the historic
Red Herring Coffee House, and elsewhere in the region.

For more information on THE NATIONAL SPLITS, go to:
http://www.prairienet.org/nationalsplits/

March 8 (Friday)- Charlie King & Karen Brandow

CHARLIE KING and Karen Brandow are a new duo with a long history. Their
repertoire covers a century and a half and three continents. They perform
with the sweet and precise harmonies of life partners. They sing and write
passionately about the extraordinary lives of ordinary people. Their new
duo Appleseed Recording, I STRUCK GOLD, won rave reviews and much radio
airplay: "lively & engaginga wonderful album" All Music Guide: "two voices
that complement each other beautifully & instrumentation that is spare,
acoustic & just right" Victory Music Review. It was selected from all
American releases for inclusion in the John Shelton Ivany Top Twenty-One,
published in 200 national newspapers. Charlie King has been at the heart
of American folk music for over 35 years. His songs have been recorded and
sung by other performers such as Pete Seeger, Holly Near, Ronnie Gilbert,
John McCutcheon, Arlo Guthrie, Peggy Seeger, Chad Mitchell and Judy Small.
Honors include an "Indie" award for one of the top three folk recordings
of 1984. In May of 1998 the War Resisters League gave their Peacemaker
Award to Charlie and to Odetta. Pete Seeger nominated Charlie for the
Sacco-Vanzetti Social Justice Award, which he received in November, 1999.
Charlie has released a dozen solo albums since 1976, three albums with the
touring ensemble Bright Morning Star, and numerous compilation albums with
other artists. Charlie King is a musical storyteller and political
satirist. His central vision as an entertainer is to leave audiences with
a sense of optimism and possibility about the future. "I try to cover a
broad emotional landscape in my concerts. The stories I collect and the
songs I write take the listener on a journey of humor, heartache and hope.
What I most value in a song is the way it helps us see an old reality in a
totally new light." Folk legend Peggy Seeger says, "If we had more Charlie
Kings in the world I'd be less worried," and Tom Paxton adds, "Luckily, we
have him!"

KAREN BRANDOW has been performing with Charlie King since 1998. Prior to
that, she was a member of the Amandla Community Chorus. While doing human
rights work in Guatemala from 1986-1994, Karen studied voice and
performance at the Angelica Rosa Academy of Performing Arts, and classical
guitar in the National Conservatory of Music. She performed at numerous
political/cultural events in that country as a soloist and was a founding
member of the a cappella singing group, the Non-Traditional Imports. She
began singing and playing guitar as a teenager. While living overseas, she
broadened her repertoire to include Latin American music of the "Nueva
Cancin" or New Song Movement. She performs songs in English and Spanish
that reflect her passion for justice and romance.

March 9 (Saturday): Absinthe Blind, The Blackouts, Daily Bridge Club

ABSINTHE BLIND

Absinthe Blind began in as four teenagers from a Midwest college town
merging their thoughts. By the fall of that same year absinthe blind
created a buzz in a scene that was changing. Bands such as HUM, the Poster
Children, Menthol, Sarge, and Hardvark were moving up and new bands were
breaking in. In the summers of 1997 and 1998 absinthe blind recorded two
full length albums with Hammerhead Records. Through the music of the first
two albums, absinthe blind was able to expand. They performed in venues
all over the United States. Media attention of the Absinthe Blind rose to
a pinnacle when the band was bestowed with the honor of "Best Band in
Champaign-Urbana" by the prominent local entertainment magazine, The
Octopus. Drawing comparisons to Radiohead, early U2, Pink Floyd, and the
Stone Roses, live shows became larger and crowds grew to hundreds.
Absinthe blind began sharing the stage with national acts such as Citizen
King, Swervedriver, Dovetail Joint, Sponge, Jeb Loy Nichols, The Flys, The
Gigolo Aunts and others. Their mailing list numbers had greatly increased
and the fans begged for new music. 2001 saw the band switch to the Parasol
Records Label and release 'The Everyday Separation'. Their most recent
non-full length release is a version of 'Silent Night' on Parasol's
Christmas Compilation released in November 2001.

For more information on Daily Bridge Club, go to: www.dailybridgeclub.com

March 10 (Sunday)- Allette Brooks and MJ Walker

ALLETTE BROOKS is a driven, passionate singer-songwriter who's breaking
the rules and grinning. She has released three self-produced CDs in five
years. She's a classically trained vocalist now singing acoustic folk. She
didn't pick up her instrument of choice, a guitar, until she was studying
ecology in Botswana as a college junior..Allettes performance style has
been described as both "in your face" and "disarmingly relaxed."  Her
newest CD, "Swim With Me" was released Dec. 1, 2001. In the title track,
the avid swimmer paints a longing, nearly mystical invitation using
underwater imagery and experiences in rocky river canyons. The CD includes
"Rolling Blackout," social and ecological commentary about our excessive
use of energy; "Same Room," which gives voice to the fear and isolation of
a child immigrant; an ode to Midwestern fireflies and the loss of wonder;
and a piece written in the Okavango Delta in Botswana that has been an
interactive hit with live audiences. Allette's deft touch and wit leaves
listeners laughing at themselves and our species, while appreciating her
skill on the strings. A student of human biology, she recognizes the
complexity of environmental/social issues. She focuses on raising
awareness rather than preaching solutions. Although, she says, "Being a
folk artist, as opposed to being a mainstream pop artist, is inherently
political. It's a choice to relate to people on a different level, to be
really honest, and to be yourself." Her audiences respond with delight to
that honesty, as well as her strong stage presence, intelligence,
sarcastic wit and clear love of her art and theater. In an average show,
audience members vote, sing, and take a quiz or two. The title track of
her second disk, "Silicon Valley Rebel," paints a sketch of a feminist
friend who bikes her environmental, gender and economic viewpoints to the
corporate cubicle where she is a diva web designer. Her first album,
"Privilege," was inspired by experiences in Africa and at Stanford, where
her exposure to environmental problems and gender, race and economic
inequities mobilized and energized her poetry. A perfectionist, Allette
has produced her own CDs, choosing the artistic integrity and freedom over
security -- and giving herself the time to get each track just right. Her
music is available from Goldenrod Music, folkweb.com and many major online
and retail stores.

March 12 (Tuesday)-David Rovics and Sarasparilla

DAVID ROVICS is a folksinger of the rabble-rousing variety. He has become
something of a fixture in the American protest scene, performing at
demonstrations throughout the country, including A16 (the April 16th
protest against the IMF/World Bank), the School of the Americas, and many
others. David also performs regularly throughout North America, Europe and
occasionally elsewhere at festivals, folk clubs, college campuses, and at
conferences, including many SEAC conferences as well as those of
organizations such as Veterans for Peace, the Green Party, the Union of
Radical Political Economists, Independent Progressive Politics Network,
SURGE, STARC and many others. David has shared the stage with the likes of
Pete Seeger, Michael Moore, Billy Bragg, Howard Zinn, John McCutcheon,
Ralph Nader, Eric Drooker and Fred Small. David sings original songs about
the various struggles of the day, combining accomplished bluegrass-style
flat-picking with incisive lyrics. His fifth CD, Living In These Times,
was recorded in September, 2001, most of it done live at Caffe Lena in
Saratoga Springs, New York. It includes songs about the September 11th
tragedy in New York City as well as many songs focusing on the evils of US
foreign policy such as the sanctions and bombing of Iraq, songs about the
media, shutting down international financial institutions, and songs
promoting polyamory and strange bicycles. David also sings many songs of
other activist-oriented contemporary songwriters such as Jim Page, and
those of a variety of 20th-century songwriters such as Joe Hill, Woody
Guthrie, and Phil Ochs. In addition to putting on concerts, David does
performances and workshops that focus specifically on the music of
20th-century social movements such as the radical labor movement of the
early 20th century and student and anti-war movements of the 1960's.
David's recordings have been aired nationally by Pacifica Radio and by
other radio stations across the U.S., Europe, Australia and New Zealand,
including national radio in Ireland (RTE), the BBC, and the ABC
(Australian Broadcasting Corporation). His songwriting has been commended
by noted colleagues including Pete Seeger, and his songs have been
published in Sing Out! magazine as well as in the Earth First! Journal.


March 14 (Thursday)- The Violents, LipKandy, Rectangle, and Tired of
Midwifin'

THE VIOLENTS are a local "dance girl punk rock band" featuring Aimee
Rickman, Annie Poppen, and Sally Mundy. For more information, please go
to:
www.angelfire.com/indie/theviolents

LIPKANDY is a New York-based pop rock indie queer girl punk band. The
national magazine The Advocate selected them as one of their favorite
music picks of Fall 2001: "the two queer Melissas make melodic pop punk as
cute and sassy as their band's name".
For more information, please go to www.lipkandy.com


RECTANGLE: The dissonant rock outfit Rectangle displays a love for guitars
and all the strange, magical things they can do in their twisted but
catchy indie rock songs. Listen for alternate tunings, effects pedals, and
weird, almost Middle Eastern chord progressions as Rectangle's dual
tensile guitar lines twine around one another like gossamer threads woven
by hyperactive spiders. Yes, Poster Children indie rock magic carpet rides
can be counted an influence on the Illinois quartet's sound, as can a
number of the usual indie rock suspects -- Sonic Youth, Pavement, and The
Pixies -- but Rectangle has a creepy, mangled, sometimes startling mien
all its own. The band debuted in 1998 with an EP, Prowl Across the Arctic,
then came back in 2000 with their first album, Bunker (produced by the
Poster Children's Rick Valentin).