First Sniff

This weekend marks the 30th annual Sweetcorn Festival in downtown Urbana. Perhaps I was a little harsh with my words recently about my hometown. But it's an event like the Sweetcorn Festival that makes me remember just how and why Urbana will always be a better city than Champaign. And now that we have a new mayor and a new uber-liberal city council, despite our trash can problems, we just might qualify as being one of the greatest cities on Earth. I mean, come on! The Family Stone is playing the Sweetcorn Fest! You've gotta love that...

You have a music scene!

Looking around campus, it's nice to see, for the first time in years, all the students back and getting into the swing of things. Perhaps it's because I don't live anywhere close to campus any longer, or maybe it's just because I am three years removed from finals, but, welcome home or here students, new and old. For the third year in a row, I will now list for you the local bands that you absolutely must go see while in school down here:

Bailey, The Beauty Shop, The Living Blue, The Invisible, Green Light Go, Relenter, Headlights, Terminus Victor, Triple Whip, The Chemicals, Shipwreck, Lorenzo Goetz, Tractor Kings, Pulsar47, Ambitious Pie Party, The Elanors, Angie Heaton, i:Scintilla, JigGsaw, Apollo Project, Theory of Everything, Mike Ingram, Darling Disarm, Beat Kitchen, Kate Hathaway, Greytones, Fireflies, Mad Science Fair, American Minor, Rob McColley, Emotional Rec Club, Delta Kings.

And there are so many more. So much so that my editor told me that I had to cut 50 of them due to space. But I should mention that this semester, you can also go see HUM, the most important band to ever come out of Champaign-Urbana. And yes, I am aware that REO Speedwagon is from here. In fact, and this is no lie, my father gave them their first show ever. True story.

And, if you like to get down...

I should take the time to also acknowledge the fact that we have a badass DJ scene here too. Personally, I don't get it, the whole DJ thing. What on Earth compels someone to shake that ass? I do not have the answer. But I know that a lot of people like to do it. So, for those of you out there who dig on the DJ thing, I have only a couple recommendations:

DJ Mertz and DJ J-Phlip (Thursdays at Soma), DJ Elise, DJ Bozak, DJ ZoZo and DJ Twinscin (Tuesdays at Highdive), DJ Resonate, DJ Limbs, DJ Lil' Big Bass, DJ Nachos BellGrande, DJ Delayney (the ultimate).

And I know that there are so many more that my DJ friends are going to slaughter me about, but this was the best I could do damnit! Given the space I have...

Also, for those of you who have some knowledge of years past, rumor has it that d-Lo and Spinnerty will be in town in late September and will be tearing up Soma. True story.

Shameless Self Promotion

I learned the art of shameless self-promotion as a child. I saw a band play where the bassist decided to inundate everyone he saw at the record store he worked at with news about his band. So, I find nothing wrong with it. To get to the point, my buddy and I are putting on a music festival in late September. It is called Pygmalion Music Festival. If you are so inclined, you can search online and find out more about it at www.pygmalionmusicfest.com. After all, Buzz Magazine is a sponsor, so I guess that makes this type of promo okay.

In any event, I do hope that all of you new students and old students help support the music scene here. Without us, it is nothing. Go check out

champaignofblogs.blogspot.com for updates about the scene. Greymatter tends to post great content. True story.