Monday, September 25, 2006

NEMO Music Festival & Conference

In NYC, it's the CMJ. In Austin, it's the SXSW. In Montreal, it's POP Montreal.

And in Boston, it's the NEMO Music Festival.

The festival this year will run from this Thursday, Sep 28th to Saturday, Sep 30th. There's a boatload of bands playing around town. You can check out the schedule here. The bands that jump out the most at me are Yo La Tengo, The Mugs, Ladytron and The Long Winters. However, the beauty of these festivals is not checking out bands you already know and love. It's about checking out new bands you aren't familiar with and there are plenty of the schedule.

To check out the shows, you can buy a wristband for $25.

Or you can cough up $100 and receive access to the conference part of NEMO also. What does that extra $75 get you??? Me!

That's right. If you buy a full access badge, you can attend all of the industry panels during the festival and I've been asked to be a panelist on the blogging panel. Here's what NEMO's website says about the blogging panel:

Music Blog: Fanzines of the 21st Century9/30 1:45pm - 3:15pm Black Box
These days, music bloggers are finding themselves more and more in the spotlight of national media. But who are these people? Meet some of the area's top music bloggers as they discuss legal issues, blogging philosophies, how they select music and more.
Moderator: Robert Duffy – www.donewaiting.com
With: Jay Breitling - http://clickyclickymusic.com
Paul Irish - http://aurgasm.us
Dany Sloan - http://exitfare.blogspot.com
Despite years of education and work experience, the first time I've ever been asked to be a part of a panel discussion is for posting Art Brut mp3 files. Kind of weird. However, it should also be a lot of fun.

Now the tricky part is figuring out what to say. I have a mere "Lionel Hutz like" understanding of the law so I won't have much to say about legal issues. And I never thought I had a blogging philosophy so I need to come up with something quick. Regarding "how I select music", it basically boils down to asking my friends what they've been listening to lately. Hopefully, I'll feel inspired on Saturday and come up with some more interesting things to say.

I don't believe they are streaming the conference. However, Brad from Bradley's Almanac may record the panel discussion. If he does and posts the file, I'll be sure to link to it.

Now, here's the fun part. They've given me a wristband for the festival to give away. So, here's the contest: The first person to email me with a good recommendation of a band to check out at the NEMO festival will win the wristband. Please provide a link where I can sample a song or two from the band you are suggesting. Email me at jamkids {at} gmail {dot} com.

Yo La Tengo | Magnet (NRBQ cover) | Buy
The Mugs | Firm Ground | Buy
The Long Winters | Scared Straight | Buy

3 comments:

Kate Feld said...

That's funny - I'm organizing the exact same panel discussion in Manchester; the title is "Musos go digital." If I had a phat budget, I'd definitely fly you over for it, but that's not gonna happen.

Lucas "Kip" Owen said...

Definitely want to hear the audio of this panel. Very interested to hear the questions you're asked.

Good luck tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

Just noticed my blogger account is all messed up. Here's a clean link to my Boston blog.

http://hip2besquare.net