My Personal Faves of 2010

To close out the year, I decided to narrow down my favorite albums of 2010; here are the top three.

3. All Day, Girl Talk
Girl Talk’s All Day is the perfect everything album. It’s great for parties, in the car, at the gym, or in the shower. Even if you’re more sedentary, Girl Talk’s third album will get your endorphins flowing no matter what musical background you’re from. Split into 12 tracks, the album was actually released for free as one seamless 71-minute MP3 file, and each track flows directly into the next. The hour plus mash up features samples from everyone from Bone Thugs to Bush to George Clinton to Nicki Minaj to the Grateful Dead. A full list of the songs sampled is available here, on the label’s website.

With the variety of artists sampled on All Day, if you like music, you’re bound to find at least a few tracks that get you out of your seat. While it’s not spectacularly different from Gregg Gillis’s (his actual name) style on Feed the Animals or Night Ripper, the wide variety of his samples and his unmatched skill in mashing them up into the perfect combinations are what make All Day one of my favorite albums of 2010.





2. Odd Blood, Yeasayer
Yeasayer has come a long way since All Hour Cymbals, and though it’s in a pop-ier direction, it worked for the Avett Brothers and Black Keys, so why not? Yeasayer brings their experimental, ambient psych rock influences to the table without coming off as pretentious indie rock, as has been said of their debut album. The threesome, which describe their music as "Middle Eastern-psych-snap-gospel", is defined by Chris Keating’s falsetto vocals, orchestral synth lines, and attention to detail.

Odd Blood is a great straight-through listen, and one that I’ve found, will continue to grow on you. Favorites include “I Remember,” a slower, “not-your-typical” love song driven by drums and “Mondegren,” a spooky, quick tempo jam with a great horn cameo.





1. Plastic Beach, The Gorillaz
Nothing held my attention all year like The Gorillaz‘s innovative, collaborative, absolutely wonderful Plastic Beach. If you didn’t know who Damon Albarn is before this year, you should now. The Plastic Beach tour marked The Gorillaz’s first performances in front of the screen, and for many fans, the realization that The Gorillaz is actually the brainchild of one man, Albarn.

On Plastic Beach he did it all; he nailed the concept album without coming off as preachy, over half of the tracks were well-executed collaborations, and each song had hit potential. Every song is so catchy it’s hard to pick favorites, but definite stand-outs include Stylo (with Mos Def), Empire Ants (with Little Dragon), Superfast Jellyfish and the title track, Plastic Beach. Albarn’s synthesized orchestra lacks no depth and vocals from Bobby Womack and Little Dragon really seal the deal. Albarn is planning to release an album for free on Christmas Day 2010 titled “The Fall” that was made on his iPad while touring this past autumn. If it takes off, its potential to influence how music is produced will only reinforce the genius of Damon Albarn.

BEP’s “The Beginning” Misses Its Mark

The Black Eyed Peas were going for a hip European-style dance album to follow up 2009’s smash The E.N.D. (Energy Never Dies). Unfortunately, what they wound up with is a 15-track argument for why the Peas should go back to their roots in pop and hip-hop.

The first single, “The Time (Dirty Bit)” has a catchy dub step style melody behind the verses but the lyrics are repetitive and uninspired (“I was born to get wild/that’s my style/if you didn’t know that/well baby then you know now”). And the worst part, the chorus is a sample from an already overplayed song, “The Time of My Life” from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. Will.I.Am’s lyrics are all auto-tuned, but Fergie’s voice is refreshingly real, one bright spot on the track.

Other singles include “Light Up the Night”, reminiscent of a broken jock jams record, and “Do It Like This”, another drum/synth club jam but featuring Fergie as an early Gwen Stefani. Fergie also emulates another female rock idol on “Fashion Beats”- Blondie’s Debbie Harry, circa Rapture. “Fashion Beats” is one of the best-produced songs on the album; Will.I.Am’s lyrics are still weak but the music sounds just like Daft Punk.

Overall, the whole album lacks depth. The majority of the songs only use a synth/drum combo and the lyrics are weak. Don’t be intimidated by Will.I.Am’s empty threat, “kill you with my lyricals, call me verbal criminal”; he’s no Talib, or even Drake. The album will make your head bob- it was definitely made for the clubs, but not to be listened to straight through or thought about.

The Beginning was released November 26th, 2010, ending its first week at #6 with sales of 119,000. That’s not as well as 2009’s The E.N.D., which debuted at #1 with 304,000 copies sold in its first week. It’s doubtful that The Beginning will reach the same success as its predecessor, which has sold over 11 million copies, but maybe the loyalty of the Peas’ fans (including Oprah who included the album on her “Favorite Things 2010”) will make it happen.

“...Featuring” a Great Pick for Fans New and Old

Norah Jones steps outside of her comfort zone on her newest album, released November 16th, “...Featuring Norah Jones”. Jones doesn’t let any kind of genre lines hold her back on “Featuring”, playing across country, hip hop, jazz and more, showing the broad spectrum that she can bring her bluesy style to.

Rather than releasing the standard greatest hits compilation album, Jones made the right decision to put together her favorite collaborations from the last ten years. Her radio hits don’t capture her versatility like this album can, and two heads are better than one; in each song the influence of the collaborating artists is evident. With guests from Willie Nelson to Outkast, she even managed to find a good flow for the album, which is a great straight-through listen.

Album standouts include Charlie Hunter’s “More Than This” featuring Jones, a light loungy tune with the vibes of a dreamy night on the beach, and “Virginia Moon” a surprisingly smooth and soft Grohl/Jones duet with the Foo Fighters.

While more of the songs on the album lean towards country or jazz, the contributions of Q-Tip, Talib Kweli, and Andre 3000 of Outkast bring some edge. Talib is an undeniably outstanding lyricist and lays it down proper with Norah making her appearance in the chorus. “Take Off Your Cool” off of Outkast’s “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” album might sound familiar, but the naked acoustic guitar sound is a side of Andre listeners don’t get to see very much.

My favorite track on the album is “The Best Part” with El Madmo, Jones’s former band. The spooky, sexy groove is one of the band’s more serious songs, and it conveys a lot of emotion in the singing and guitar melody. Many of the members of El Madmo play in Norah’s band, yet when they are playing as El Madmo the sound is dark and different.

To top it off, a refreshingly distinct rendition of “Baby It’s Cold Outside” with Willie Nelson will get you feeling festive, rather than annoyed (as Christmas music has a tendency to do as the season wears on).

Acknowledging the importance of collaboration and showcasing her talent as a session musician, Norah has put together a great record for her established fans and new listeners (and what is there to lose?, the CD is only $10). Not only is “Featuring” an excellent representation of Jones’s talent, it shows a different side of both her and her featured musicians.

Track Listing
1. Love Me – The Little Willies

2. Virginia Moon – The Foo Fighters featuring Norah Jones

3. Turn Them – Sean Bones featuring Norah Jones

4. Baby It's Cold Outside – Willie Nelson featuring Norah Jones

5. Bull Rider – Norah Jones and Sasha Dobson

6. Ruler Of My Heart – Dirty Dozen Brass Band featuring Norah Jones

7. The Best Part – El Madmo

8. Take Off Your Cool – OutKast featuring Norah Jones

9. Life Is Better – Q-Tip featuring Norah Jones

10. Soon The New Day – Talib Kweli featuring Norah Jones

11. Little Lou, Prophet Jack, Ugly John – Belle & Sebastian featuring Norah Jones

12. Here We Go Again – Ray Charles featuring Norah Jones

13. Loretta – Norah Jones featuring Gillian Welch and David Rawlings

14. Dear John – Ryan Adams featuring Norah Jones

15. Creepin' In – Norah Jones featuring Dolly Parton

16. Court & Spark – Herbie Hancock featuring Norah Jones

17. More Than This – Charlie Hunter featuring Norah Jones

18. Blue Bayou – Norah Jones featuring M. Ward


`My Resume

Meghan Bender
I am a passionate, idealistic, communicator looking for a position writing about or promoting something I can believe in.

2307 High Street
Columbus, OH 43207
(216) 570-9941

Education
Ohio University Athens, Ohio
Bachelor of Arts Cumulative GPA: 3.36
Major: Broadcast Journalism Graduation Date: November 24 2010
Specializing in Marketing and Sociology

In the Scripps School of Journalism, I worked in one of the most prestigious and respected programs in the country. I also focused on marketing and sociology because of their pertinence to every job and industry.

Work Experience

The Center for Writing Excellence September 2009-present
Tutor
• provide valuable advice on theses, applications, essays, and other assignments
• assist undergraduate, graduate, and PhD. students in improving their writing and utilizing the writing process
• communicate and work with non-native English speakers as a trusted resource and friend
My experience working at the Writing Center was one of the best jobs I have had. I was introduced to working with people of many different cultures, languages, and backgrounds which broadened my horizons as well as my compassion.

Athens MidDay News January 2009-June 2009
Producer, Anchor, & Multimedia Journalist
• wrote, shot, and edited news stories for a Mon-Thurs noon news cast, one man band style
• produced full episodes, presenting news in a cohesive and relevant product
• maintained Athens MidDay's online presence, through a website, blog, and Twitter
Athens MidDay was a full time hands-on experience. After my time at Athens MidDay I can say that I have worked every job in a newsroom and could do so in a real world setting.

Professional Experience
Shank Bone October 2009-present
• direct promotions and merchandise, including ordering, design, and management
• assisted with networking and booking

Freelance Writing 2006-present
• I have written pieces for blogs, websites, magazines, and print on a variety of topics ranging from music to college transfers to politics
• managed and edited online components including blogs, Twitter, etc.

The E.D.G.E. (Earth Day Green Event) March-April 2010
• assisted with booking and sound for special one-day event

Other Experience
• promoting Papadosio and Rootwire Music and Arts Festival
• promoting and advertising for on-campus events through various mediums

Internships
WBNS 10TV Columbus June-August 2009
Intern
• made calls, followed up on stories, did research
• assisted reporters with stories, shooting, and interviews

QFM96 Columbus December 2008
Promotions Intern June-August 2009
• put together contests, prize packs, and wrote on-air promos
• worked promotional events
• assisted promotions manager with writing and designing proposals for potential advertisers

Relevant Skills
• trained in Photoshop, Final Cut, iMovie, Microsoft Office, Publisher, AP ENPS, and Twitter
• highly experienced in using promotional and social networking tools like Foursquare, BandCamp, Reverb Nation, Facebook, & Myspace
• excellent networking skills, people person, friendly, focused & motivated

News Aggregators and the Future of News Media Money

Six million Americans get news and information fed to them through RSS aggregators
(Purcell 2010). The most basic explanation of a news aggregator is a site that gathers stories from other sites and lists them in one place. However, it obviously cannot be this simple. There are different kinds of aggregators further confusing the debate. For the purposes of this analysis, I will discuss four types of aggregators: feed aggregators, specialty aggregators, user-curated aggregators, and blog aggregators.



Feed aggregators typically draw from one type of source but a number of sources and then organize the information into feeds. These feeds can be arranged by source, topic, or story (Isbell 2010). Some common examples of feed aggregators include GoogleNews and YahooNews. Feed aggregators usually list the headline, lead, name of the originating website, and a link to the full story. In this sense, CNN’s News Pulse (beta) is another example of a feed aggregator, but one that only gets information from one source (CNN).



Specialty aggregators gather information about a specific topic or location. This could be a feed like Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire, which only gathers political information, or Outside.in, which gathers information about your specific neighborhood (if it is one of the 57,830 they cover). They include much of the same information that feeds do but are more limited in topic and scope.



A “User‐Curated Aggregator” is a website that features user‐submitted links and portions of text taken from a variety of websites (Isbell 2010). They come from a wide variety of sources and use a variety of media. An example would be Digg, where users post stories and
can then “digg” it, and the more “diggs” the page gets, the higher it moves in the feed.



Blog Aggregators are websites that use third‐party content to create a blog about a given topic (Isbell 2010). The Huffington Post is the most popular blog aggregator when it comes to news. HuffPost, as it is commonly called, it organized into topics. There are many different types of content, including HuffPost originals, AP stories and stories and blogs from outside sources.

Blog aggregators sometimes take excerpts from different stories and blogs and combine them together into one story, linking to the original posts. Sometimes they repost the original story with a new headline, and sometimes with the original headline. According to Ariana Huffington of the Huffington Post, their goal is to “guide our readers to the most interesting and timely news and opinion from places they know and from places that we introduce them to, as well as offering them original reporting, 200 original blog posts a day, citizen journalism, and our new investigative fund,” (Huffington 2009).

Why Aggregators are Making News Easier to Get, and Understand

One of the problems facing journalists and the public recently is information overload. 1.73 billions people use the internet every day, sending 247 billion emails and 27.43 million tweets DAILY, and visiting 234 websites (Pingdom2010). Aggregators help web users to filter through all of the information on the net, filtering it down to what they’re looking for and reducing information overload. Many users describe their aggregators as “as indispensable as their e-mail client,” (Singel 2003).

In on a study done by the REVEAL THIS project, they determined the most desirable qualities of news aggregator services, according to users.
1. Advanced search functionalities
2. User-friendly interface
3. Quality and reputation of sources
4. Capability of searching back in time
5. Browsing functionalities
6. Display of results in chronological order
7. Personalization features
8. Availability for free (Chowdhury 2006).

What are some other benefits of news aggregators? Posts can be organized by key words; if you write an article and tag it with all of the possible tags your readers may be looking for, you could get greater exposure. Google sends news outlets around 100,000 hits per minute (Kirby 2010). Many aggregators, such as Digg, have a “share button” that allows you to share the story with friends. Content sent to you is not dumped in a pile in your email box but organized by your RSS reader, and you control what comes to you so no more spam.

They are particularly convenient for people who consume a lot of information on the web. “I’m a voracious reader and I built the software because I couldn’t stand the web without it. The demand for aggregators is just going to tip over at some point and go wild,” according to Brent Simmons, creator of NetNewsWire. That interview is from 2003, and it could be said that that time has already come. Twitter is simply a micro-blog aggregator, and Twitter has 175 million registered users (including me). Despite the great benefits of aggregators and RSS feeds, there have been arguments emerging against it. But, before we go into that, it is important to have an understanding of the laws concerning news aggregation.

Laws Affecting Aggregators: Hot News, Fair Use and Copyright

Though the news aggregator debate is largely a legal one regarding fair use and copyright infringement, there is little legal precedent. Many related cases were settled out of court.

When Google first introduced Google News, it was to help increase popularity of its search engine. The site posted stories from the past 30 days, displaying the headline, lead, any corresponding photos, and a link to the original page. Many of these stories came off of third party websites hosting stories from wires like the AP and Agence France Presse. According to AFP the content displayed by Google was licensed content, and the only parties that were authorized to publish them were those that paid licensing fees (Isbell 2010). This meant that Google News was infringing on their copyrights and, essentially, stealing their work. AFP filed suit in federal district court in 2005. After years of litigation, in 2007 AFP and Google settled the case. Google entered into a licensing deal for the right to post AFP content.

One year later, the AP sued All Headline News for “hot news” misappropriation, copyright infringement, removal or alteration of copyright management information, trademark infringement, unfair competition, and breach of contract for “repackaging and selling” AP content to clients. The parties settled out of court. All Headline News no longer uses AP content and had to pay the AP an “unspecified amount” for unauthorized use of AP content.

More recently, Gatehouse Media accused the NY Times of stealing content for publishing the first sentences of GateHouse stories. This case was also settled out of court.

What we can learn from these cases is what the real issues are. All cases included copyright and hot news misappropriation as charges against the defendant.
Under U.S. copyright law, a work is protected if it (1) is an original work of authorship, and (2) is fixed in a tangible medium of expression that can be read directly or with the aid of a machine or device (i.e., is recorded or embodied in some manner for more than a transitory duration). With certain exceptions, the owner of a copyrighted work has the right to prohibit others from reproducing, preparing derivative works from, distributing copies of, or publicly performing or displaying the work (Isbell 2010).

However, while the articles we write and the ways we express thought can be copyrighted, ideas and facts cannot. Neither can titles nor short phrases. This is the argument of news aggregators using headlines and leads. Another argument of aggregators is fair use.

The Ninth Circuit has repeatedly found that certain reproductions of copyrighted works by a search engine are a “transformative” use (United 2010). In Perfect 10, Inc. vs. Amazon.com, the court found that “a search engine may be more transformative than a parody because a search engine provides an entirely new use of the original work, while a parody typically has the same entertainment purpose as the original work,” (Isbell 2010). This protects aggregators under fair use.

The amount of text that is reproduced can also be used in an argument for fair use.
Aggregators that only use the headline and lead could argue that they are protected under fair use, but news sources will counter that the lead constitutes the “heart” of the article, and the courts weigh against a finding of fair use if the excerpt reproduces the “heart” of the work (Isbell 2010). However, copyright law provides “greater leeway being allowed to a claim of fair use where the work is factual or informational” (Harper 1985).

Of the four conditions for fair use, there is one that news sources can use to battle the fair use claim. That is, the effect of the use on the potential market for the copyrighted work (United 2010).

In the 1918 Supreme Court opinion, International News Service v. Associated Press, 248 U.S. 215, the court found that AP had a quasi-property right in the news that it had gathered. This right existed not against the world at large, because news is based on unprotectable facts, but against competitors, (Spaulding 1998). This finding is what formed the misappropriation doctrine cited when news sources sue for “misappropriation of ‘hot news’”. This is another tool of news content generators against aggregators.

In this video, a panel discusses hot news and copyright issues affecting news aggregators. The panel includes lawyers from both sides of the Gatehouse/NY Times case, the AP's in house counsel, and experts on hot news and fair use.

According to Kimberly Isbell, author of “What’s the law around aggregating news online? A Harvard Law report on the risks and the best practices,” there are 5 measures that aggregation services should take to protect themselves short of licensing all content:

“1. Reproduce only those portions of the headline or article that are necessary to make your point or to identify the story. Do not reproduce the story in its entirety.

2. Try not to use all, or even the majority, of articles available from a single source. Limit yourself to those articles that are directly relevant to your audience.

3. Prominently identify the source of the article.

4. Whenever possible, link to the original source of the article.

5. When possible, provide context or commentary for the material you use,” (Isbell 2010).

Big News Media vs. Aggregators

As traditional media continues to lose money and newsrooms across the country are shutting down, many fingers are being pointed at the Internet, particularly news aggregators.

According to the theory that news aggregators are destroying traditional news, services like Google News and The Huffington Post “are free-riding, reselling and profiting from the factual information gathered by traditional media organizations at great cost.” This is, as Rupert Murdoch described it, “theft”.

According to Murdoch “There are those who think they have a right to take our news content and use it for their own purposes without contributing a penny to its production. They are feeding off the hard-earned efforts and investments of others. And their almost wholesale misappropriation of our stories is not ‘fair use.’ To be impolite, it’s theft,” (Kirby 2010).

Rupert Murdoch, owner of NewsCorp, is leading the fight against news aggregators. Murdoch was the first newspaper publisher to get into the business of online sixteen years ago when he bought Delphi Internet Services. The venture, however, never took off, and in the meantime, more and more newspapers crashed and burned. Now, Murdoch is proposing a full-fledged battle, and his first opponent is Google.

Murdoch’s main weapon is blocking Google’s search engine from indexing News Corp. sites. According to Kirby (2010) Google sends news outlets around 100,000 hits per minute, which translates to a lot of revenue, however, Google is making plenty of profit of its own. The search engine has been able to make billions in profits from free content on the web by selling advertising beside results. Content creators can fight Google and other news aggregators but what they get if they win is a 50% drop in traffic (Huffington 2009).

Murdoch’s next attack? Putting up pay walls on all content. For a long time, though, Google could even get users around pay walls to view content for free. Now if users access a paid site through Google, they will be limited to five free page views to subscribe.

Newspapers make about 80% of their profit from advertising and the rest from subscriptions. The theory, when print news went online, was that the addition of online ad revenue would make up for the cancellation of print subscriptions. However, content is quickly copied and reposted across the web, leaving online newspapers and their advertisers high and dry. In the third quarter this year, online newspapers were only able to generate $623 million in ad sales, while print versions earned $5.8 billion (Kirby 2010).

So what if News Corp. sites are blocked by a pay wall? With the smorgasbord of online news content, readers will happily go elsewhere. Unless the rest of news’ big business goes behind the pay wall, as well. News Corps other papers, including the New York Post, the Times of London and the Australian will be protected by this summer and MediaNews Group, Inc. plans to do so with its 56 daily papers this year. Bloomberg and the AP are both considering their options as well.

“People certainly won’t pay for information that’s easily available elsewhere for free, but I do think there’s a lot of evidence that they will pay for truly differentiated, distinct journalism,” says Gordon Crovitz, former publisher of the Wall Street Journal (Kirby 2010).

Barry Diller, CEO of InterActiveCorp concurs, pointing out ““I absolutely believe the Internet is passing from its free days into a paid system. Not every single thing, but anything of value,” (Kirby 2010).

Solutions to the Media Money Mess

While critics may describe aggregators as freeloaders, users can attest that aggregators “bring context and clarity to the 24 hour news cycle,” (Stearns 2010). According to their website, the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard is “a collaborative attempt to figure out how quality journalism can survive and thrive in the Internet age.” Josh Benton from NJL pointed out at a conference this spring “journalism is the original aggregation,” (Stearns 2010). As journalists, we gather information from diverse sources to understand what’s going on. Early in the history of America press, postal policy allowed newspapers to exchange papers for free with other cities’ papers. They would use stories from papers around the country to share national news with the readers of their local papers (Stearns 2010). In this video, Benton speaks about "the history of content aggregation, and how the practice has shaped journalism."


Acknowledging the indispensable value of news aggregators and the legal protection they have, what are news content providers going to do about it? The AP is leading the battle, and they have specific goals. One goal of The A.P. is to make sure that the top search engine results for news are “the original source or the most authoritative source,” not a site that copied or paraphrased the work. The A.P. will also pursue sites that reproduce large parts of articles, rather than using brief links, and is developing a system to track articles online and determine whether they were used legally (Perez-Pena 2009). They have committed to working with the aggregators, but promise to seek legal action against those that won’t cooperate. This progressive action is reflective of the views of their president and CEO, Charlie Rose. “We have seen the future and it is here. It is a linked economy. It is search engines. It is online advertising. That’s where the future is,” said Rose, “And if you can’t find your way to that, then you can’t find your way,” (Huffington 2009).

As we move forward into the digital age, the profit model being used by the news media is going to have to adapt. Fighting the aggregators is not the answer. Aggregators send traffic to your site. They’re convenient for users and add value to the system. We can’t pretend that the last 15 years didn’t happen. Technology has advanced and we can’t ignore it. This leaves the news media with a few options. Laura Indvik of the Poynter Institute outlined five ways to monetize the future of news media.

The first option, as was addressed earlier is pay walls. The Times’s network of sites went under an impermeable pay wall earlier this year. This means that not even search engines can reach the content without paying a yearly subscription fee. However, this could be potentially damaging in a few ways. First of all, since search engines account for over 20% of upstream traffic to news sites (Indvik 2010). Also, when the Wall Street Journal first established their pay wall, they only had 35 subscribers in the first 3 months (Indvik 2010). That’s a mere $9,000- can that account for the loss in traffic?

A more flexible option is to establish a semi-permeable pay wall. This allows search engines to find your articles but also may allow some of your content to leak through to Google. Another disadvantage is that other sources may not want to link to your article because there is a chance that their readers won’t be able to reach it.

The New York Times utilizes a metered pay system, or a premium, in which users get to see a set number of pages per day if they pay.” The New York Times believes it will be more profitable to target the 19% of readers who say they will pay for online news content than to extract revenues from increased page views and/or higher online ad revenues,” (Indvik 2010).

The most progressive option is to remain free. But with newsrooms being cut and budgets clashed, how is this possible?; by generating page views more quickly. Hosting free blogs and articles by unpaid writers from across the country can offer new perspectives and more places for ads. The incentive for writers is to be published on a reputable site, but the risk for the news media is poor quality. Citizen journalists must be carefully monitored to protect the brand image.

Lastly, Indvik proposes creating better value for advertisers. News sites need to find what they can offer advertisers that the rest of the web can’t. One example that Indvik cites is The Palm Beach Post. By using Twitter streams and aggregators, they were able to increase their advertising profits and increase visits to their site. By making themselves out as “online experts”, advertisers come to trust and rely on The Palm Beach Post.

There is not one correct way for the news media to proceed. There will be overlaps and a lot of experimentation. But what can be said for certain is that the technological future is one that we must embrace in order to succeed. Fighting the forward progress, including aggregators, is not the answer. Perhaps by embracing aggregator’s ability to generate traffic to their sites and by working with them the news media will be able to make more profits.

Pretty Lights Sells Out BoMA Columbus

Check out the review I wrote for OurVinyl.com! It will be posted on their website soon with photos by Laura Isreal!

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Pretty Lights are no strangers to selling out shows, and Thursday night they showed Columbus that they can not only bring the crowd, but deliver one of the best nights of electronic dance music you can find.

The Colorado-based duo of Derek Smith and former drummer Cory Eberhart sold out every date of their fall 2009 tour, and, now armed with new drummer Adam Deitch, Pretty Lights is selling out dates weeks in advance. The show was rumored to be oversold before we even got to the venue. The front lawn was crowded with people looking for extras. The show was absolutely sold out, and BOMA employees were estimating the crowd to be larger than 2,000 people. Big props to Pretty Lights for selling out the show, but what it resulted in for fans was one crowded, sweaty mass of people. Getting onto the floor was nearly impossible by the time Pretty Lights started, and the balcony loft was only open to VIPs.

The venue had an electric energy before the set. An anxious half hour after the opener, Pretty Light’s protégé Michael Menert, Smith and Deitch took the stage. True to their name, they supplied plenty of pretty lights, including a huge screen behind the stage where different visualizers for each song were projected. Standing to the left of the stage directly in his path, I was blown away by Deitch’s skill. You could hear the precision and style of PL’s new addition and feel the kick drum in your chest. Once you get to see a D.J. with a live drummer, you’ll be wishing that every electronic act had one. Obviously the sounds and vibrations that a live drummer brings can’t be truly replicated by electronic drum pads, and Dietch doesn’t let you forget it. His rhythm is on point and precise, but watching him play he seems smooth and loose. Previous drummer Cory Eberhard was replaced in August because, as Smith told The Boston Herald, “I really wanted to have a drummer onstage and have that dynamic, but I wasn’t feeling like he was bringing an extra flair or flavor to the show.” Eberhard was not involved in the inception phase of the music, but Deitch, a producer and Berklee grad, has already released three new EPs with Smith this year alone.

PL’s set was well rounded and displayed their flexibility and broad taste. Within the first few songs they played around with deep bass synth lines, quick higher grooves, and hard drum features. Smith waited until nearly halfway through the set to really drop the WOMP, which I thought was smart. Too many DJs today rely on the instant body-moving gratification of the filtered bass sound, as any of the many critics of dub step will tell you. Smith’s samples and higher synth melodies are so catchy, he almost doesn’t need it. I’m not complaining though; when the bass dropped the crowd went into a frenzy, myself included.

The second half of the set featured more of his popular songs like the bluesy piano and horn heavy “High School Art Class” off this summer’s Spilling Over Every Side EP, and “The Time Has Come”. He surprised the crowd with what I can only describe as a disco throwdown before he ended the show with “Finally Moving”, really capturing the vibe of the crowd; “Oh, sometimes, I get a good feeling, yeah, get a feeling that I never never never had before...”

Though the show was set to go until 2:30 AM, he ended his set at one, and wrapped up the encore at 1:30 AM. The crowd was, from the beginning of the night, rowdy, and when it came to the point of someone throwing a beer at the stage and hitting his laptop, I think he was totally justified cutting the hungry fans off.

Musically, Pretty Lights’s show was an irresistible dance party and the crowd was loving it. Hopefully next time he comes to town people will keep their drinks to themselves so we can get more of PL’s unique and cutting-edge beats.

ChatRoulette Story for Athens MidDay

For my first post, here is a package that I did for Athens MidDay on Chat Roulette. :)