Party on Fountain

Party life at Wesleyan. I'm disappointed they didn't mention Pearl Street, or feature me shouting out the window: "Shut the fuck up."

H/T Aural Wes.

Middletown music: the Wesleyan scene

You may recognized Wesleyan as a hotbed of counter-culture intellectualism, and as the birthplace of Hollywood's "Wesleyan mafia."

It has now become a petri dish of new music activity.

The band MGMT (pronounced management - check out the video), got its start playing in dimly lit great rooms of High Street frats.

The throwback/throwforward music label Goaty Tapes, which releases its new music on arty cassettes, was created by Wes freshman Zully Adler.

But more than anything else, the live music offered each weekend makes campus seem a bit like a trendy club neighborhood in Brooklyn.

This weekend, in checking the mighty AuralWes website (with great audio clips), you'll see that there are four live shows, with a total of fourteen bands (my favorite set is the women in folk showcase at Earth House, featuring Deer Tick), and a DJ. In addition, there's a Community Barn Dance, with a hot string band called The Fox Hunt from West Virginia.

Not all events are open to non-Wes people, so before you venture on the road to hear any of this great and peculiar music, please check in advance.


(The Fox Hunt)

These kids have ears....

It was a pleasure to discover Aural Wes, a preview site for alternative music acts appearing at Wesleyan. Thanks once again to the estimable Wesleying (a good debate about chalking going on there) for making the discovery possible.

What's most surprising is the sheer number and quality of these live acts. This is really interesting stuff, and the site is filled with sample music files. The current batch seems to lean toward freak folk, but some of it is deliciously undefinable.

I don't know how someone like me (see photo on the left), or you, might get into some of these shows. I did attend the Vetiver show at Eclectic last year, and felt like the ultimate outsider. I'm not even sure that outsiders are welcome. But I'd sure like to score some of this music to play on my show.

My favorites on the site currently: Deer Tick, Horse Feathers and Phosphorescent.