Audio Exposure

A few years back, a buddy of mine Adam started a nonprofit organization with a friend of his call Critical Exposure. The aim of Critical Exposure was to provide cameras and photography instruction to underserved kids in the Baltimore public school system - you don't need to watch an entire season of The Wire to get that this system is broken. Not only do these kids learn a valuable trade in photography but they are encouraged to take photos of the decrepit conditions of their schools which in turn increases awareness and mobilizes public support of the great problems these schools encounter on a daily basis.

Now, some other close friends, Jared & Stacey, have created the music site Audio Exposure to benefit Critical Exposure. For every legal mp3 link posted, one dollar is donated to Critical Exposure. Check out the site to add a song or to download a host of songs ranging from indie to 80's metal. And while you are at it, consider donating to a great cause.

The Sea and Cake

The Sea and Cake

When I was first really getting into music in the late 1980's as a teenager I was always fascinated by the concept of a local scene. Initially, it was the scenes in Athens, GA, Minneapolis and Boston, but by the time college and the early 90's had arrived there were scores of scenes in places like Chapel Hill, Amherst, Louisville, Austin and of course, Seattle. All of this was going on while I was living in the most incestuous scene of all, Washington DC. Nowadays, one thinks of Portland, Brooklyn or Omaha although many of the aforementioned scenes still thrive to this day (yes, yes, yes, I realize I neglected to mention Manchester, Montreal and Glasgow, but for the purposes of this post we are talking about American indie rock).

For me, something that takes a scene to the next level is that previously mentioned incest or cross-pollination that exists between bands within a scene. Take Janet Weiss in Portland - most famous as the drumming force behind Sleater-Kinney, she also plays drum with ex-husband, Sam Coomes, in Quasi and is now behind the kit for Steve Malkmus and the Jicks.

As I spent more and more time thinking about the concept of a scene, I forgot probably the most vital scene of the last ten years - Chicago. Given my east coast bias, I often forget the great midwestern mecca where styles collide and new ones develop. Much like DC or Seattle, there are well respected independent labels like Touch and Go, Thrill Jockey and Quarter Stick that document the scene on vinyl (or at least digitally). Chicago may just be my new DC.

Which brings me to the true subject of my post - The Sea and Cake. In many ways, The Sea and Cake are a Chicago indie pop supergroup with members of Tortoise, Gastr del Sol, and The Coctails in the ranks. Singer/guitarist Sam Prekop and guitarist Archer Prewitt are accomplished solo artists in their own right. This summer saw the release of their first album in four years entitled Everybody out on Thrill Jockey. Although I've had the album since release it was only in the last couple of weeks that I have fully digested it. Gorgeous pop songs that while they don't blow you away, don't disappoint either. To sum it up in one word - it is dreamy.

Check out "Coconut" from Everybody
Coconut (mp3)