At virtually any music venue in Fayetteville, it would not be uncommon to see a skinny young man with a striking resemblance to a Blonde on Blonde-era Bob Dylan performing onstage. However, despite the physical resemblance, the indie-electronica music of local one-man dance party, Messy Sparkles, would have surely blown the minds of music fans in 1965 even more so than Dylan going electric. Dylan, with his all his music and pop culture-shattering efforts, also never performed in his underwear. The same cannot be said for Messy Sparkles.

The man behind the moniker of Messy Sparkles is 21-year-old JD Paul. Despite his young age, Paul is a veteran of the Fayetteville music scene. His first band, Apartment 5, was a popular act in Fayetteville for several years that fit in nicely with the post-Strokes generation. Since the dissolution of Apartment 5 just a year or so ago, Paul has been a man on a musical mission. Aside from his focus on his Messy Sparkles solo-project, Paul currently performs in two other bands as well, The Memphis Pencils and Niall. However, Paul hasn’t always been the center of attention on stage, performing in his underwear and instigating uncontrollable dancing, as he is with Messy Sparkles. In fact, in the early days of Paul’s musical career with Apartment 5, he was found at back of the stage hidden behind his drum kit.

After receiving a drum set for Christmas as a 10-year-old (due to much begging on Paul’s part), he got his first taste of music. It was a taste that he liked, and he hasn’t been able to get out of his mouth since then. “It was like all I did was play that drum set,” said Paul. “I quit playing video games. I quit jumping on my trampoline. I quit riding my bike. It was all that drum set.”

Not long afterwards, Paul and a few of his friends formed Apartment 5 and developed a following, but after six years of playing together he felt a growing urge to crawl out from behind his cymbals and toms and do something new. “I was getting kind of sick of having the drum set be my only input in songs. I wanted to be able to write melodies and harmonies,” he said. Paul also mentioned that he has always had a passion for singing which was an opportunity he was never afforded in Apartment 5. “Now I’m singing my little heart out,” he said. “It’s pretty much the main thing that I do.”

Now that Paul has been performing under the Messy Sparkles moniker for a little while, he feels like he’s gotten the hang of it, and when he’s onstage he makes it look effortless as glides around in a trance-like state, eyes closed and mic in hand. However, he wasn’t always so confident. He describes his first shows as very nerve-raking and scary. At one of his first shows, he even performed behind a curtain with his silhouette and a live projection of him on television screen as his only exposure to the audience because he was so nervous.

The nervousness is obviously no longer a factor for Paul anymore. Instead of hiding himself behind curtains and warped TV screens, he performs in his underwear – as stripped-down and naked to his audience as possible without getting arrested for indecent exposure. Despite Paul’s increase in confidence, he said that he still doesn’t really like to be the center of attention going as far as to built light set-ups for his stage performance to take the eyes off him a little bit. “I’m not too terribly interesting to watch . . . but I have a blast being up in the front and rockin’ it.”

What sets Messy Sparkles apart from other musicians in Fayetteville is that he is performing in a style that, while not completely new, is not really being done by anyone else in town. His music is heavily electronic, and while there is a definite electronica scene in Fayetteville, Paul’s music doesn’t quite fit into the DJ-mixing style that is most prevalent. “What makes mine different is that I sing, and I do a lot of it live rather than mixing other people’s stuff. Everything you hear, I wrote it all, and I recorded it all.” However, when it comes to the actual sound of Paul’s music, he is reluctant to put a label on it. “I’m not good with adjectives,” he said, but most fans of his music compare him to the indie/experimental rock band, Animal Collective, who Paul cites as an influence along with other artists like Panda Bear and Paul Simon.

As far as the future of Messy Sparkles is concerned, Paul hopes to release an album before next summer, write new songs, tighten his live show, tour, and possibly add some supporting members. He was recently featured on the Art Amiss XIII compilation album along with several other fine members of the Fayetteville music scene, serving as his first official recorded release. However, at the moment, Messy Sparkles doesn’t have any future shows booked, and Paul likes it that way. He plans to spend his next couple of months off living alone in a one-room cabin fine-tuning his album. “I wanna come out with an album and then another one and another one. I really just wanna keep writing and learning.”

Retrieved from The Dead Weather's Fan Page on Facebook

There is almost no substitute for live music. There is just something about standing in front of a stage while a musician or group put so much of themselves into their product and then deliver it directly to your ears.

It is a process.  A musician sets out to create a piece of music that meets a certain vision (whether conscious or unconscious). Then, it is typically recorded and released in some way and is purchased by the consumer.

The consumer then listens to the music and forms an opinion about the work. It is here where the musician either succeeds or fails with their vision.  (Sometimes the music isn’t received the way it was intended to, but it ends up being liked for other reasons.)

Next, the musicians will (typically) go on tour to promote their music, and this is where it all comes together. The musicians display and perform the work they’ve created (for their own specific purposes) for the people who want it.

The audience, who has actively sought out a live experience with these songs and the people who create them, receives the music in their own way and feels something from it. It is an incredible experience of give and take, and everyone experiences it differently.

That’s one of my favorite things about going to music festivals or concerts in general: There are so many different people all gathered in one place for a common purpose. Even though concerts attract a wide variety of people, they’re still all there for the music – even though no two people experience a song exactly the same way.

Everyone who attends a concert simultaneously experiences the music on a group level and on a personal level. That’s one of the best things about music – everyone experiences it differently.

I really first discovered this when I lived with my friend, Joe. We’re alike in many ways, but the ways we listen to music couldn’t be more different.

Joe is one of the most incredible guitar players I have ever known, and he perceives his instrument in a way that I have never seen in anyone else. However, Joe never really likes to show off his talents to others nor does he particularly fancy playing with other musicians.

Joe once told me that, for him, “Playing guitar is like writing in a diary.”  When Joe plays guitar, he completely lets what is inside of him come out. It’s cathartic. So it would make sense that when Joe listens to music, he listens to the music: the melodies, the harmonies, and the percussion, all of it.

I, on the other hand, am a words person. I’m an English/journalism major, and I’ve spent a great deal of my life reading. I love words. I can’t get enough of them, and I am constantly adding new ones I learn to my vocabulary.

So, when I listen to music, the words are typically what get me first. Don’t get me wrong, I love the “music” part of music as well, but typically the words are what I am quicker to relate to. Some of my favorite musicians are singer/songwriters who tell me what they’re feeling and with whom I identify.

My friend, Greyson, is the most wild of our trio, and a lot of times he likes to listen to some pretty crazy music. However, Greyson says that when he listens to music of that variety it puts him in a tranquil state.

“I like to find balance amidst the chaos,” he explains.  “I like music that seems real.  Not necessarily the lyrics or the music specifically, but the package of it – the way it comes presented as a whole.”

Although our views on music and the way we listen to it may be different, we still like a lot of the same bands. We love to listen to music and talk about music together, and when we get the chance, the three of us try to go see music performed in a live setting together.

This past weekend, Joe, Greyson, and I got to go see one of our favorite musicians perform in Kanasas City. Jack White currently has three bands (The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, and The Dead Weather), and we’ve been following his work since the beginning.

This trip was particularly special:  (1.) Because Joe now has a family of his own to take care of, and the three of us don’t really get to hang out together as much anymore, and (2.) Because the three of us have seen Jack White perform twice before (once with The White Stripes and once with The Raconteurs), but we had yet to see his newest band, The Dead Weather, play live before.

The concert was a blast! I got to see one of my favorite musicians and his new band with two of my closest friends in the whole world. While the three of us may be different people in different places in our lives, one thing we can agree on is the amazing power of live music and how great it feels to share the experience with the people you love.

Two weeks ago, on October 4th, I saw The Decemberists at Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  My friend Riley and I decided to make a big trip out of it, so we left Fayettville on Friday, stayed a couple of days with my friend Quinn in Oklahoma City, and then headed up to Tulsa for the show on Sunday.

After battling toll roads and a dying iPhone, we finally made it to Cain’s.  We got a good spot and stood waiting for the show to start.  Fairly quickly we started talking to some of the people around us.  One guy I talked to told me The Decemberists put on the best shows he’s ever seen.  So, needless to say I was more than a little excited.

The opening act was a group who I had never heard of before, but who I’ve recently noticed being mentioned here and there since then:  Laura Veirs and the Hall of Flames.  Veirs is a solo singer-songwriter who has recently been touring with her backing band The Hall of Flames.  Their performance was very entertaining and her songs very sweet.  Before the show started, I told Riley that I really had no interest in an opening band because I was so ready for The Decemberists to start, but after Veirs began these thoughts quickly vanished.  Veirs’s music has a very folky sound to it enriched with beautiful harmonies supplied by herself and the band.  I definitely intend to check out some of her albums when I get the chance.

Following Veirs’s performance, The Decemberists took the stage, and I could barely contain my excitement.  The show was everything I could have hoped it would be.  They performed their latest album, the rock opera aptly titled The Hazards of Love, from start to finish, complete with subtle costumes.  While the band did not necessarily act out the story, there was definitely a theatrical aspect to the show.  There was a lot of hand gesturing and subtle dancing going on that made the performance seem like more than just your average rock concert.  Some of my favorite parts were during the duets between William and Margaret, the story’s lovers and main focus, when Decemberists frontman, Colin Meloy, and Lavender Diamond vocalist, Becky Stark, would be positioned front and center on stage singing to each other.  Another highlight was during the song “The Queen’s Rebuke/The Crossing” when My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden was running back and forth across the stage passionately singing toward the audience in her portrayal of the evil Forest Queen.

After the conclusion of The Hazards of Love, The Decemberists took a short break followed by a 2nd set of some of their older material.  I wasn’t as excited about this set simply because I’m not as familiar with The Decemberists older work, but I was definitely entertained.  One of the highlights of the 2nd set was when the band brought Stark and Worden back on stage for an incredible rendition of Heart’s “Crazy on You.” I don’t even like Heart (or that song for that matter) but I must admit that the performance was extremely impressive.

My only complaints about the show would be that I wish it had been a little louder.  There were several rockin’ points from the album that I was looking forward to hearing in a live setting, but they simply weren’t loud enough for me.  This, however, did not really take away from the enjoyability of the concert.  It’s just something I would like to have been different.

There was also a point when the guitarist invited someone from the audience onstage to provide a reggae guitar solo for one of their songs and after playing for about a minute Meloy “gonged” him offstage while making fun of his performance.  This, I thought, was a little unnecessary.  I have heard that Colin Meloy is  a bit of a pretentious ass hole and, while I didn’t really get that vibe from him at any other point in the show, I definitely felt it hear.

However, the show was a blast and I couldn’t have been more pleased as I stepped out of Cain’s Ballroom preparing to make the trek back to Fayetteville.  I would love to see another Decemberists performance in the future, and hopefully I will be a little more versed in the rest of their catalog by then.

Here are a few pictures from the show taken by Jon Haque courtesy of Carly McGehee.  Thanks guys!

And here’s a video of “The Rake Song” from the performance:

Thom recorded a cover of Miracle Legion’s “All for the Best” for a tribute and benefit album titled Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy that was released on September 29th.  I’m not sure why, but even though I heard about this song months before it was released I didn’t really make a huge effort to seek it out and listen to it, and then I kinda forgot about it.

Then a couple of days ago a friend from work (who is a fellow Radiohead fan) mentioned it to me, so I decided to check it out.

I was blown away!

I must have listened to that song 15 times that day, and it is still in heavy rotation on my iPod.

The music video is also really awesome, so check it out and let me know what you think.

I love exchanging artists and songs with friends and strangers.  I have made many friends by doing this as well as picked up a host of my favorite musicians in the fashion.

I love how personal sharing music can be and one of the most personal ways to share music is to make a Mix for someone.  The Mix as it exists in the digital age has evolved from the Mix Tape of the 80s and the Mix CD of the 90s and first part of the 21st Century.  When I make mixes for people, I still burn them to CD, but I’m sure it is almost instantly imported into their iTunes and put on their iPod.  I know this because I do this is well, but I always save the physical CD for sentimental reasons.  It makes looking through my CD collection all the more nostalgic.

I make mixes for all my close friends and I like to think I’m pretty good at it.  In high school, I was often commissioned by friends to make them mixes because they had heard mine were so good.  I have been know to make mixes for girls I had a crush on and I have definitely made more than one break up mix in my life.

Recently I made a mix for my roommate, Vera, at her request.  Although it is a mix made personally for her, I thought it might be fun to make them available to my readers in case you guys see a mix you like.

Feel free to copy it!

“Using Your Headphones to Drown Out Your Mind”

1. Magic – Ben Folds Presents: The University of Chicago’s Voices in Your Head

2. Eet – Regina Spektor

3. Until I Die – Ben Kweller

4. I’ll Fight – Wilco

5. Why Do You Let Me Stay Here – She & Him

6. Easy – Deer Tick

7. On Her Own – Ben Kweller

8. You and I – Wilco

9. Silly Love – Daniel Johnston

10. Woods – Bon Iver

11. Swimming in the Flood – Passion Pit

12. Love Dog – TV on the Radio

13. Digital Love – Daft Punk

14. All Day Love Affair – Cee-Lo Green

15. I Had Lost My Mind – Daniel Johnston

16. This is Not a Test – She & Him

17. Landed – Ben Folds Presents: The University of Colorado Buffoons

18. The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned) – The Decemberists

Me and a few friends made the 2 hour drive from Fayetteville, Arkansas to Cain’s Ballroom.

I have heard a lot about Cain’s Ballroom over the years, and I was not disappointed.

Even The Mars Volta commented on what a great venue it is and how its audiences are always some of their favorites.

Here are some pics from the show:

Omar and Cedric

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez

Cedric Bixler-Zavala

One of my favs

He melted my face off!

The Mars Volta

Here is a high-quality video of “The Present Tense”:

Check out these other great videos from the performance:

“The Eraser” – High Quality

“Atoms for Peace” – High Definition

“Harrowdown Hill” – High Quality

“Everything In Its Right Place” – High Definition

“Black Swan” – Awesome acoustic rendition.  Watch for Thom to start singing into his guitar:

“Videotape” – High Quality

“There There” – High Definition

“True Love Waits” – High Quality

Full Setlist:

“The Eraser”

“Weird Fishes/Arpeggi”

“Atoms for Peace”

“Harrowdown Hill”

“Follow Me Around”

“Everything In Its Right Place”

“The Present Tense”

“Cymbal Rush”

“Black Swan”

“Videotape”

“There There”

“True Love Waits”

P.S.  I promise I’ll have a more full update soon.  I’ve been flooded with new music lately and I’ve been doing way more listening than writing, but that will soon change.

A lot of them I had heard before, but there were several that were completely new to me and, I must confess, that I was very impressed.

One of the songs was a cover of Fleet Foxes’ “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song,” performed by a female duo that goes by the name of First Aid Kit.

Check out their myspace here.

After falling in love with the song, I decided to look it up on youtube.  When the video started, I thought I might have picked the wrong one.  I couldn’t believe that that voices I had heard from the track on my sister’s Mix could have come from these two girls.  They have a very natural look that is innocent and unassuming all at once.  But, as soon as they open their mouths, all doubt disappears.  This is an extremely moving song to begin with and their rendition is haunting, yet beautiful and moving as well.

Give it a listen.

Part I

Part II

I actually took this picture when I saw Wilco in Columbia, MO a couple of years ago.