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"I haven't heard of any of the bands" is one of the few complaints we've heard about the MidPoint Music Festival, taking place Thursday, Friday and Saturday at various venues along the Main Street corridor in Over-the-Rhine and Downtown. That kind of dismissal completely misses the point of MPMF and the main reason the fest is set apart from its bigger counterparts in Austin, Toronto and New York City.
MidPoint is exclusively built for the unsigned artist — the stars of tomorrow, if you will. As this year's slogan says, MPMF is "Where the buzz begins." Break the force-fed music discovery cycle and understand it's OK to go see a musical act you didn't hear on your radio or get turned on to by all of your cool friends.
You be the cool friend now — find a great new group at MidPoint and spread the word. If you don't find one band or artist you like among the multitudes, you don't like music. Or you're really, really lazy.
We're here to help a little. With previews of all 254 acts scheduled to play, info on all of the venues and panels and the latest on MPMF extracurricular activities (for that, see Spill It, page 57), what follows is the most comprehensive coverage of MidPoint anywhere.
We guarantee it. Prove us wrong, and we'll give you back the money you spent on this paper.
For a little extra nudge, we've stolen CMJ magazine's "Recommended If You Like..." tag line (morphing it into "You'll Dig It If You Dig...") to give club hoppers a general sense of what kind of music each act offers.
Here are some things we learned putting this extensive MPMF preview issue together: Lots of singer/songwriters love Jeff Buckley, but none of them sound much like him; lots of bands are taken with the dulcet tones of matchbox20 Rock (and, unfortunately, many of them nail it); some artists who take the time to perform at an industry-centric, showcasing event don't even have a Web site; and some artists who do have Web sites often don't have good information on them (which is great for people trying to, say, offer you a record deal or write about you in CityBeat). Would high-res promo photos on your sites really kill you people? A good bio? Anyone?
But MidPoint is as much about learning as it is about rocking out in the clubs to a vast array of musical styles (see the sidebar story on the panels at MPMF's conference portion, page 42). And the experience of listening to and researching every band playing the festival this year has yielded more optimism than misery.
There are some very cool and interesting artists performing at MPMF who deserve to have the house packed when they play. To that end, our writers have selected a few of their top favorites as "Critic's Picks." Special thanks to Dale Johnson, Ezra Waller, Brian Baker and Jacob Richardson for their vigilance on blurb patrol.
Dig in, get out and find your new favorite band. And don't forget to check
Susan Smith
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"I haven't heard of any of the bands" is one of the few complaints we've heard about the MidPoint Music Festival, taking place Thursday, Friday and Saturday at various venues along the Main Street corridor in Over-the-Rhine and Downtown. That kind of dismissal completely misses the point of MPMF and the main reason the fest is set apart from its bigger counterparts in Austin, Toronto and New York City.
MidPoint is exclusively built for the unsigned artist — the stars of tomorrow, if you will. As this year's slogan says, MPMF is "Where the buzz begins." Break the force-fed music discovery cycle and understand it's OK to go see a musical act you didn't hear on your radio or get turned on to by all of your cool friends.
You be the cool friend now — find a great new group at MidPoint and spread the word. If you don't find one band or artist you like among the multitudes, you don't like music. Or you're really, really lazy.
We're here to help a little. With previews of all 254 acts scheduled to play, info on all of the venues and panels and the latest on MPMF extracurricular activities (for that, see Spill It, page 57), what follows is the most comprehensive coverage of MidPoint anywhere.
We guarantee it. Prove us wrong, and we'll give you back the money you spent on this paper.
For a little extra nudge, we've stolen CMJ magazine's "Recommended If You Like..." tag line (morphing it into "You'll Dig It If You Dig...") to give club hoppers a general sense of what kind of music each act offers.
Here are some things we learned putting this extensive MPMF preview issue together: Lots of singer/songwriters love Jeff Buckley, but none of them sound much like him; lots of bands are taken with the dulcet tones of matchbox20 Rock (and, unfortunately, many of them nail it); some artists who take the time to perform at an industry-centric, showcasing event don't even have a Web site; and some artists who do have Web sites often don't have good information on them (which is great for people trying to, say, offer you a record deal or write about you in CityBeat). Would high-res promo photos on your sites really kill you people? A good bio? Anyone?
But MidPoint is as much about learning as it is about rocking out in the clubs to a vast array of musical styles (see the sidebar story on the panels at MPMF's conference portion, page 42). And the experience of listening to and researching every band playing the festival this year has yielded more optimism than misery.
There are some very cool and interesting artists performing at MPMF who deserve to have the house packed when they play. To that end, our writers have selected a few of their top favorites as "Critic's Picks." Special thanks to Dale Johnson, Ezra Waller, Brian Baker and Jacob Richardson for their vigilance on blurb patrol.
Dig in, get out and find your new favorite band. And don't forget to check citybeat.com early next week for full wrap-up coverage of MPMF.
— MIKE BREEN