Music has been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember. When I was 18 I was writing for 6 different magazines, spending all my time interviewing bands, reviewing albums, and writing feature articles. It was tiring and sometimes very frustrating, but I met a lot of awesome people and got to be involved in a lot of very cool things that I’ll never forget. I’ve made friends with hundreds of record labels, publicists, and bands, spanning numerous genres. I’ve yet to make a dime for any of my work, but the beauty of being involved in the DIY music scene is that money isn’t the motivating factor,which is why I love it so much.
As I’ve gotten older I’ve been less and less involved with the independent music community because I just haven’t had as much time as I used to. I’ve been involved with numerous other magazines over the years, and I’m always dabbling with some side project and keeping in touch with all my old contacts. The last couple years I’ve been co-running an e-zine called The Silent Ballet that focuses primarily on independent instrumental/experimental music (i.e. post-rock, IDM, electronic). They’ve done a lot really influential things for that scene, and have become the best resource out there for fans of the respective genres.
Living in Florida didn’t lend itself well to the type of music I was listening to because many of the bands I liked couldn’t afford to make it out there for one reason or another. I found myself having to travel out of state to have the opportunity to finally see a great live show. As cool as taking mini-vacations was, it was expensive to do that just to see one or two bands. My plight gave me the idea of organizing a music festival in large cities where instrumental music is prevalent. That way people could make one trip and see a lot of great bands they wouldn’t normally be able to.
After months of planning and numerous attempts, the inaugural show will be taking place in Los Angeles. It will feature 10 bands from the California/Arizona area, spanning two of the coolest venues in LA. My hope is that it will attract lots of fans from out of state who were looking for an excuse to take a mini-vacation and love this style of music. It’s an experimental project, that has been fun setting up and will no doubt be an awesome experience. If anyone is in the LA area and wants to check out some new independent artists, this should be worth your time 
As much as I love talking about .NET and general purpose programming, that can only score you so many cool points. So besides geek-talk, what other topic could I go on about all day long? Music! So, I’ve decided to start a new feature called the International List of Awesome Bands (or ILab for short. Note the geek reference). Every Friday I will post a new band to the list and have a brief discussion about them. For the inaugural post, I put together a list of 50 bands from around the world that I love, making sure to cover the countries I get visitors from the most (everyone gets represented!) This isn’t meant to list the top bands of the year, or top bands ever, it’s just random bands that I appreciate. There are a lot of great bands missing from the list. Chances are if you can recognize a band missing from the list, I won’t be adding it. ILab’s primary purpose is to enumerate little-known bands that I’ve known over the years or worked with in one fashion or another, or just discovered out of the blue.
The ILab directory can always be found on the right navigation list for reference purposes. All new bands will be posted to that page.
If you have some cool international bands you think are great, let me know, and I’ll feature them in my weekly post. The only rules are they have to be good (obviously) and they have to be either unsigned or on an independent record label. If they’re really awesome I’ll even add them to ILab
joncart at microsoft dot com
One of the most exciting things to me about relocating to the Seattle area is the very potent music scene. In fact, one of my all-time favorite bands is from the Emerald City, Joy Wants Eternity. The thought of being able to see them play on a regular basis makes my knees buckle like a school girl after her first kiss. Seriously, this band is so good I flew from Florida to Washington just to see them play (they have yet to make it down to the Sunshine State), and it was worth every penny (and the long flight).
A song off their latest album entitled “From Embrace To Embrace” has been my lifeline this year. It’s one of those songs that no matter what frame of mind your in, it grabs your attention. Now I know what some of you are probably thinking: “If you love this band so much, why don’t you marry them?” The answer to that would be: the thought has crossed my mind, but the notion of marrying an entire band seems like a hefty responsibility that I’m not sure if I’m ready to take on just yet.
