Tag Archive

Listening Party: The Free Music Challenge

By Steve Shanafelt

As many of you may know, we’re slowly trying to incorporate more and more video into what we do here at the Spark. When it comes to local music, however, we’re in a weird position. You see, as long as we’re reviewing local music, and stick to short clips rather than entire songs, we’re... »

Listening Party: More Local Music Videos, You Say?

By Steve Shanafelt

In sticking with the Spark’s recent appeal for more people to participate in local video-making and video blogging, this week we’re highlighting a few local musicians who have already made the leap to video. If you think about it for a moment, online videos are actually a big leap forward for local talent in... »

Listening Party: Watch More John Watson Videos

By Steve Shanafelt

This week, I thought I’d go for something very simple and suggest that we all take a few moments to check out John Watson Video on YouTube. Watson has been capturing a lot of local concerts, most notably the Live at The Showroom series, and since we’re pushing pretty hard for more video coverage... »

Listening Party Video: Coma Cinema and Aaron James & The Adrenaline Junkies, revisited

By Steve Shanafelt

Has everyone gone video-blog crazy? Quite possibly. This week, we revisit two local bands Coma Cinema and Aaron James & The Adrenaline Junkies, with the hopes that actually being able to hear the bands perform will give everyone greater appreciation for the local music scene, but without the hassle of dealing with other websites... »

Listening Party: Is There Something In The Water?

By Steve Shanafelt

Earlier in the week, I found myself listening to SC ETV radio’s Clemson-produced radio show Your Day, which is a sort of general interest “radio magazine” about South Carolina. I was really just wanting some noise to occupy me while I made a slightly complicated lunch, and didn’t really expect to hear anything that... »

What You Missed: Pharma Sutra and Cotton Jones at The Showroom

By

While the entire Upstate prepared for a cold snap that would (apparently) cause havoc and the apocalypse, I was waiting patiently, and warmly, within the confines of Hub-Bub’s Showroom for another Friday evening of music. This past Friday’s choices of live music were Spartanburg’s own Pharma Sutra (great name), and Cotton Jones from... »

Listening Party: New Directions

By Steve Shanafelt

I suppose it was only a matter of time before MySpace’s old music search function stopped working, making it all but impossible to find local band profiles easily. Their new search page is all but useless from a local music point of view, and there are tons of threads about how terrible this move... »

Listening Party: Blasts From The Past

By Steve Shanafelt

Every so often, every reviewer should go back and review their own work. Not in the sense of self-mockery — although that can be fun, too — but rather re-examining their earlier reviews to see if time and experience has changed their perceptions of the work in question. And perceptions do change over time.... »

Video-O-Rama: Libraries, Cupid Shuffle, Sights, Ouch and Hedless

By Steve Shanafelt

It may not surprise you to learn that the Spartanburg County Public Library system is still vlogging like crazy. Here’s Ashley Layne talking about some of the huge variety of programs the library offers. Good stuff, as always. Some people spend Christmas Day gorging on food, enjoying new presents, watching TV or getting hammered in... »

Listening Party: Darkest Of Days And Dave Lambert & The Carolina Rails

By Steve Shanafelt

Here’s the gimmick: Each week, we’ll pick two local bands — an opening act and a headliner — link to a site where you can listen to their songs for free, then ask you to spend a few moments of your precious time to tell us what you think about them. Some may be... »

Sparkle City Headlines: SH-J’s Suprisingly Deep New Year’s Eve Coverage

By Steve Shanafelt

Seeing as how I gave the Spartanburg Herald-Journal such a hard time earlier this week for their top-down coverage of downtown’s new “vibrancy,” I thought I’d give them props for something they actually did right. No … better than right … for something they totally schooled the Spark on. Their coverage of the New... »

Listening Party: No Listening Party Today

By Steve Shanafelt

Owing to the Christmas holiday, there will be no Listening Party today. The local music column will return next week. In the interim, feel free to post suggestions for Spartanburg-area bands you’d like to see covered in the comment fields below. And happy holidays! »

Video-O-Rama: Panacea, Ecotherapy, Macbeth, And An Overdose Of Cuteness

By Steve Shanafelt

Local heavy rock group Panacea has a new video out. The song is called “3/30/33,” and it’s a slower, more somber tune than you might expect. Let’s take a look. If there’s any consistent, reliable indicator that Spartanburg’s culture is becoming a less rigid, more open thing, it’s the existence of programs like “Mindful Ecotherapy”... »

Listening Party: Regional Holiday Music Bonanza

By Steve Shanafelt

Rules are made to be broken, particularly when it comes to the holidays. Sure, you know that everyone agreed to cap off their gifts at $20 this year because of the economy, but — gosh darn it — your mom would really like that MacGyver box set on DVD, and it’s only $35 bucks,... »

Listening Party: Favorite Local Music Moment Of 2009

By Steve Shanafelt

Each week on Listening Party, I find some element of Spartanburg’s musical culture to explore. Usually, this takes the form of music reviews focusing on the work of local bands, but I’ve also tried to keep the format fresh and change things up regularly, the larger goal being to get people thinking about the... »