The Bass Geek

Radio Radio only has one show this weekend, but it’s a good one -rockabilly legend Sleepy LaBeef with opening act Mandy Marie & The Cool Hand Lukes tonight.

Sam’s Saloon also has a sizable show this evening, featuring Black Diamond Heavies(TN), The Wisebloods, Shelby Kelley, and Scotty Lust. Peewee Moore & The Awful Dreadful Snakes and Will Stockwell (one of the best voices Indianapolis has to offer) play tomorrow.

Deano’s Vino hosts the Shirtless Biddles tonight and the Circle City Bluegrass Band tomorrow. The Tim Brickley Quintet plays Swing Night at the Fountain Square Theater this evening.

And, in a show that neatly ties in Fountain Square and shameless self-promotion, the Playboy Psychonauts will play the Big Car Gallery stage at tonight’s Indyfringe Festival. The stage is in the general vicinity of the Massachusetts Avenue/College Avenue intersection, and we go on around 7pm (just follow the sound of the sitar).

It’s up, folks - download it directly or listen at the site.

We should have some decently sized news about the show in the next few weeks. Not huge, not minor - just the right sort, really.

Not only does David Hasslehoff decide to open his own social networking site, but he commits MySpace suicide at the same time. No word whether he’s going to link it to OpenSocial or not, but we can always dream.

Somehow, I don’t think there’s a book in this one. Sorry, Hoff.

SimplifyMedia has put together a little package that allows music to be streamed from a home base computer to other devices, including the iPhone and other machines. My brief tests have encountered no problems, and it’s a pretty cool thought that I can access music on the handset and not have to worry about filling up the hard drive (my 60GB iPod is currently bloated and staggering under its full conditions). My only worry is the portable battery life - heavy 3G usage would no doubt shrink my listening window. But it’s a handy idea for work or scooting about town.

I’m a little less enamored with BeatMaker’s potential, enough that I can’t see purchasing it based on reviews that claim there’s latency in the pads. Devices and programs like this are made or broken on their ability to provide real-time response to a musician’s playing. It was the most frustrating part of working with older sound cards and MIDI devices for me, and I’ve got no desire to go back to square one.

To be fair, a lot of these programs seem like a land rush for prospectors, with the reasoning that it’s better to get the apps out there and the name made familiar and then work on the finer points. And it’s unfair to expect high performance from a handheld device right now. Hell, ProTools is just getting around to debuting on OS X Leopard, and that’s on a full-fledged computer and operating system. So it’s possible these things will get better - that’s why software always seems to have new releases and updates. I’m just not panning these waters yet.

Aside from a hard fall whilst carrying equipment yesterday (my knees have been in a constant state of revolt since the afternoon - don’t try to skip stairs with two basses and a laptop in tow), “The Wiz” and Playboy Psychonauts rehearsals concluded without incident. The ‘nauts will be taking part in the Indyfringe Festival this Friday, at a stage located near the intersection of College and Massachusetts Avenues. The time right now is somewhere near 7:30, but I can’t promise for sure. I CAN promise a full set with dancers. To further enhance the show, I will not dance. It’ll be better all around, I promise.

The next day will be full of zombies. At least the cinematic kind. Some friends made me aware of this local film festival, and I am both thrilled at the occurrence and disappointed in my lack of awareness of said festival to begin with. Were it an actual zombie, the consequences would be too horrible to consider.