Chances are, you’ve heard some of the buzz going around for the big music festival coming up this month, The Already Dead Family Reunion 2. In case yr unaware of the details or aren’t sure about attending, I shall attempt to illuminate and entice.

The Reunion is the second annual music festival put on by local label Already Dead Tapes & Records. The label has been around since 2009 and is run by myself and Joshua Tabbia of Problems That Fix Themselves. Our goal is to use the Reunion to bring together bands from near and far that are members, friends and associates of the label. Both the label and festival strive for diversity. We take in bands from all over the genre map. Folk, Noise, Indie, Rock, Jazz, Punk, Electronica, Pop and more! There are 28 bands playing in total over the course of three days.

This festival is very special to me. I’m excited to see every single performer over the weekend. These are bands that could literally change your life if you let them. On top of that, there are some truly great and inspiring people that will be hanging out. I want to see folks come together and share the experience. This will be a time to remember.

Discount weekend passes are available right now for only $12! Don’t wait, as prices will go up once the first 25 and 50 tickets have sold. They can only be purchased via Already Dead Tapes: http://alreadydeadtapes.bigcartel.com/category/tickets. There are no additional fees and buyers will be added to a will call list. 100% of the money made will go to the travelling bands and production cost. 17 of the bands playing are travelling here (some from very far away) and I’d like to make sure they are supported. There will also be plenty of amazing merch available from Already Dead and the individual performers.

The first show is being held at No Fun House on Thursday, September 20th. 6pm-12am. Single day tickets are $5 door and $4 pre sale.

The mood for this day will be low key as most of the artists are folk and acoustic based. Here’s the lineup:

6/6:45 – Alex Quinlan
6:45/7:30 – Peter Damien Cook
7:30/8:15 – Tim Tapper
8:15/9 – Eskimeaux (Philadelphia, PA)
9/9:45 – Lovestranger MD (Minneapolis, MN)
9:45/10:30 – About A Million (Honey Brook, PA)
10:30/11:15 – Fiona Dickinson
11:15/12 – Spectral Being

Here’s a videos of About A Million and Peter Cook playing at last year’s Reunion.

Day 2 is being held on Friday, September 21st at Louie’s Trophy House Grill. 6pm-12am. Single day tickets will be $10 door and are available right now for $7 pre sale.

Everyone on Friday will have a full band setup. There is a wide variety of styles while all featuring a sort of ‘noisy pop’ theme. Here’s what’s in store:

6/6:45 – Morseville Bridge (Flint, MI)
6:45/7:30 – Ou Oú (St. Louis, MO)
7:30/8:15 – The Binary Marketing Show (Little Rock, AR)
8:15/9 – Brown Company
9/9:45 – Problems That Fix Themselves (Chicago, IL)
9:45/10:30 – Hermit Thrushes (Philadelphia, PA)
10:30/11:15 – Daniel Francis Doyle (Houston, TX)
11:15/12 – Saturday Looks Good To Me (Ann Arbor, MI)

Morseville Bridge and Problems That Fix Themselves are both returning after playing last year’s Reunion. Brown Company are local long time avant-garde masters playing their first show since changing their name from ‘Unitard’. Rumor has it they might even be adding some members! The celebrated Daniel Francis Doyle will be making his third appearance in Kalamazoo and bringing back his solo set! A 12″ split on AD is in the works with Dan and Hermit Thrushes who will be playing back to back. Saturday Looks Good To Me are headlining the night and making their first Kalamazoo appearance in years! SLGTM’s singer, Fred Thomas did an AD tape split with Radiator Hospital earlier this year.

Here’s a few videos to check out:

The final day of the Reunion will be on Saturday, September 22 and is a two part show. The first part is at Louie’s Trophy House Grill, 6pm-12am. This will be immoderately followed by an after party house show at Wayne Manor. Single day tickets are also available for only $10 door and $7 pre sale.

Saturday will be the loudest of the weekend. Many of the bands have a more ‘punk rock’ influence with a few notable exceptions. Here’s what’s on the slab:

LOUIE’S –

6/6:45 – Jeremy Ruggles & The Echo Chamber Family Band
6:45/7:30 – The Reptilian
7:30/8:15 – The New Diet (Chicago, IL)
8:15/9 – Br’er (Philadelphia, PA)
9/9:45 – Spelling Bee (St. Louis, MO)
9:45/10:30 – Hypocrite In A Hippy Crypt (Bloomington, IN)
10:30/11:15 – Emperor X (CA)
11:15/12 – Forget The Times Infinite Family Arkestra

AFTER PARTY –

1/1:30 – WearWolf
1:30/2 – Braining (St. Louis, MO)
2/2:30 – Anybody But The Cops
2:30/3 – The Grow Fangs (Minneapolis, MN)

The New Diet are driving out from Chicago to share their heartfelt brand of post punk. AD released a 7″ split with them and The Binary Marketing Show a few weeks ago. I’m super excited to see Br’er again after touring with them for two weeks back in May. Spelling Bee is one of the greatest math punk bands I’ve ever seen. Without question. AD is pressing their new full length on vinyl right now. May even be available at the Reunion. Hypocrite In A Hippy Crypt is making his first ever live appearance! Emperor X is one of my all time favorite pop song writers. His live performances are not to be missed! I will personally be closing out the Louie’s portion of the night with a one off performance with The Forget The Times Infinite Family Arkestra. We’re assembling a 12 piece band exclusively for this show. Full horn section, extra synthesizers, and a drumline. Prepare yrself!
As everyone knows, after the party it’s the afterparty. We’ll be taking you into the wee hours of the morning. At 2:30am, the legendary Grow Fangs will be wrapping up the whole festival. GF were a local favorite good natured thrash punk super group. They’ve since all moved away. This is the first full reunion in quite some time. Heads will explode.

To hear more of the bands, go to: http://alreadydeadtapes.com/adt/?page_id=795

If you feel like being super helpful, hop on over to facebook and spread the event around: http://www.facebook.com/events/424137840941510/

Thanks for reading! I’ll leave you with these videos:

The Already Dead Family Reunion is almost here (September 20-22)! There will be 17 bands coming from out of town to play and we need to pay every single one of them. In order to raise some cash, we’re having a pre-event fundraiser show at Milhouse.

The bands joining the cause are as follows:

ROTTEN WOOD MOON –
Their second show since reforming. As they said, this will be a ‘classic quartet’ performance feat. Sean, Alex, Benji & Josh and they may even receive a little help from their friends.
MySpace

GREAT AMERICAN WITCH HUNT –
2 friends from different musical backgrounds, joining forces to make passionate music for your ears to in take
Facebook

SLEEPEATER –
A cerebral event of cosmic consequence
Facebook

SPECTRAL BEING –
three friends setting out to discover and explore sonic realms with a collective consciousness of heightened awareness
BandCamp

Show Starts @ 9pm.
Event is free however there is a $5 suggested donation.
Every bit helps!
To recap, all proceeds go towards helping the touring bands at the Already Dead Family Reunion Show September 20-22.
Check out the facebook event and invite all of your friends.

RESPECT THE BANDS. RESPECT THE HOUSE. RESPECT YOURSELF.

When writing a show preview it is often difficult to avoid hyperbole—providing the ample amount of excitement and vigor to transfer over to those that brush their eyes across words to energize legs into moving is a unique task. One doesn’t want to appear false in their enthusiasm or else it lends to a discredited event, and possibly a disappointed audience at both the show and on the article.

That’s why it often gives the writer the utmost pleasure and satisfaction when the topic , or rather the person or persons involved already possess a vigor and enthusiasm that allows for proper representation of their event. Ulysses Eatah, WIDR DJ, blogger on ufodictator.com, and owner of the small label that operates out of it, is earnest of his love for music while simultaneously holding a humble position on his role in its production, and the bands he has gathered together for the eighth UFO Dictator show at Louie’s this year. In an interview Ulysses provided a comprehensive run-down of his history of blogging, and with his inspiration for UFO Dictator, check it out. This is more his article than mine:

OK, brief history.

2007 started putting out records.

2005 first annual UFO Dictator show.

2004 I started a website called UFO Dictator to talk some shit about music and things that really mattered like baseball, OCD, and records found at Goodwill.

1997 started DJing on WIDR and playing the kind of music that I still like: loud, fast, rock ‘n’ roll AKA punk rock.

1987 I heard some weird, abrasive shit on WIDR when I was in middle school and that started me on the path to enjoying weird stuff.

The reason why I started my radio show, having an annual show, and putting out records were all for the same reason: the shit that I really dig wasn’t being fairly represented in my hometown. You gotta think that late 90s in Kalamazoo and most of the midwest was 3rd generation emo, 6th generation hardcore, and penultimate edition college rock. I’d go to shows, I’d have an OK time, but nothing got me that excited. So I apply at WIDR do 6 months of rotation and take over the Friday night slot that’s been the time for punk rock and I start playing Rip Off, Crypt and In The Red Records instead of Dischord, Vermiform and Kill Rock Stars. Dig stuff on all of those labels then and now but I was tired of Buddy Holly glasses and dudes wearing sweaters in August.

The radio show is fun, introduce the fine listeners to worldwide punk rock stuff from the late 60’s up to the current crop of stuff and I only play stuff that I personally enjoy.

In 2005 I ask my buddy Matt Dorbin who’s booking shows if he would help me get some of my favorite local bands that play loud, aggressive rock’n’roll a show and we’ll name it after the newly minted UFO Dictator website. He says yeah and we do an annual show every year since.

The label starting was more of the same. Some of my friends are in bands, I like their bands, I want to see them release on vinyl, so we did. All of the bands are based out of SW Michigan so far except for a few of the bands on the I’d Buy That For A Dollar comps where Spain, Milwaukee, Memphis, Chicago and Lafayette are represented. Haven’t put anything out since 2010 and really don’t plan on putting anything else out in the next year or two as it’s hard as hell to release records. I was going to put out a single by my own band on my label but that would mean that we’d break up within a month of the record coming out. Rimshot.

A lot of people think call this UFO Dictator fest but it’s not a festival. There’s no ninjas riding tilt-a-whirls spraying Faygo at people while Andrew WK is trolling the crowd who’re fucked up on Oxys and fried Oreos. That’s a festival. This is just a show with some bands that I wanted to see. Sometimes we have had it 2 nights and that’s fucking awesome but also a nightmare and my 25 friends already complain that I ask them to come out and watch some amazing bands play for 1 night and by the second night they’re back at home watching Soap on Antenna TV.

I’m always thankful that anybody gives a rat’s ass about music. Especially the little sub-genre of rock’n’roll that I’m still a huge fan of. This year’s show is scaled back in the fact that it’s only 1 day, 1 venue, and 5 bands. But it’s pretty huge because we’ve got 2 metal bands to start and end the night in. Beast In The Field is playing for the 2nd time this year at Louies. So crazy, 1 drummer and 1 guitar playing through 4 heads and 8 cabs. I know that you’ve seen them before, fuck. Barring any power failures it should be the loudest thing at Louies ever. The Manatees from Memphis are Abe’s baby and he’s making his 2nd UFO Dictator appearance and I think that he’s played drums in at least 5 different bands here in the past 7 or 8 years. Total fucking punk. Corrosive Kids from GR are total art scum punk Electric Eels nonsense. Kalamazoo upstarts Bat Cave are bringing the WIREy styled drone. And opening up the show with their first public appearance is Bonehawk. I guess that they’re going to play some secret style of metal at fucking 8pm when the show starts. Considering that the core of the band was in stoner jamz Mesa, the whole night should be pretty heavy.

Oh yeah, I really don’t like promoting stuff. Makes me feel like I’m selling life insurance for babies. That said though, the show is going to be awesome. I’d pay $7 to see any of these bands separately and you get them all in 1 night. Fuckit.

-Ulysses Eatah

Check out the show tomorrow night at Louie’s. Bring some seven dollars, and a pair of effective eargplugs, because your  drums (of the ear variety) are going to fly out and pierce the eyes of the person behind you if you don’t.

This weekend, a new house venue sprung from the madcap cultural excavators who brought you such beloved house venues as Village Castle and The Band Cave will be having their inaugural show down where the rivers run deep, the trees grow like weeds, and the coffee and cigarettes flow in prodigious cadence.

The Black Lodge, a place which may or may not exist only in Agent Cooper’s mind (a matter of large and varied debate), will be holding a birthday celebration for one of Kalamazoo’s most eccentric of sonic treasures, Sid Redlin, the musical genius behind such projects as Boron Nuzzle, Sista Mista, Sneak Attack, and innumerable side projects, collaborations, and art installations of varying points of eccentricity.

Starting the night will be R. Mutt and Fitzgig Henson, an experimental three piece assembled by Sid Redlin himself. R. Mutt combines the sonic experimentation of Redlin’s noise music with a bottom-line danceablility (for those comfortable dancing to very peculiar music, that is). They do not form up very often, and their sparse appearances always leave their audiences in a state of bewilderment and profound gratitude to the universe for having witnesses such a unique and awesome performance.

Afterwards Everyone & Their Empty Cups are going to stop by. If you haven’t heard them before, Everyone & Their Empty Cups are the punk rock band that generic punk rock bands in coming-of-age movies about young college students wish they could be. They infect basements with terminal cases of fun that serve as a perfect soundtrack for your own personal life narrative (which, given the flexibility of their particular sound, could very well be anything from a lighthearted tale about finally asking out that girl you like or a dark, Fincheresque descent into your drug and alcohol addiction).

Closing out the festivities are Inflatable Best Friend. The fellows at IBF are well known for their catchy garage punk, and have been quite ubiquitous in the Kalamazoo music scene for the better part of the year. If you haven’t seen them yet, which seems an absurd proposition at this point, this would be a great opportunity to not only see the band play but catch the drummer as he exists in his natural habitat. If you come extra early, you may even catch him doing household chores or playing Ocarina of Time!

The show is Sartreday the Twenty-FiF, starting roundabouts 10 o’ clock in the PM. Contact the host for the address, or one of the admins over at The Black Lodge facebook page.

The owls are not what they seem…