An Empty Pockets Holiday ( or Holiday Music Doesn't Have to Suck )

The snow is on it's way and the holiday season is in full swing. That, of course, means it's time for Christmas music playing on home radios, blasting from car stereos and being piped into every major shopping center in the nation. Josh and the Empty Pockets are proud to say we can be heard during this holiday season through fine listening devices everywhere with our tasty single "Baby It's Cold Outside/Baby Please Come Home." We're spinning on Sirius XM's "Radio Holly" as well as on Y94FM (Syracuse, NY), The Mix 98.7FM (Jackson, MS), Star 92.9FM (Burlington, VT) and The New Mix 97.7FM (Bakersfield, CA). We think that's awesome!

What if you can't listen to any of these fine radio or satellite stations and would like to have Josh and the Empty Pockets throw you some holiday ear-love? Why, you can contact your local station and request they play "Baby It's Cold Outside/Baby Please Come Home!" Below is a (very) brief list of stations, along with their request line telephone numbers, Facebook and Twitter. Let them know you want Josh and the Empty Pockets to make your holidays ROCK!

Denver, CO - 101.1FM KOSI - (303) 631-2101 - [ Facebook ]

Chicago, IL - 93.9FM WLIT - (312) 591-9548 - [ Facebook ] [ Twitter ]

Fort Wayne, IN - 95.1FM WAJI - (260) 467-9500 - [ Facebook ] [ Twitter ]

Jackson, MS - 98.7FM WJKK - (601) 956-0102 - [ Facebook ]

Buffalo, NY - 96.1FM WJYE - (716) 644-9696 - [ Facebook ] [ Twitter ]

Long Island, NY - 94.3FM WMJC - (631) 955-0943 - [ Facebook ] [ Twitter ]

New York, NY - 106.7FM WLTW - (800) 222-1067 - [ Facebook ]

Syracuse, NY - 94.5FM WYYY - (315) 421-9494 - [ Facebook ]

Cleveland, OH - 102.1FM WDOK - (216) 578-1021 - [ Facebook ] [ Twitter ]

Cincinnati, OH - 93.3FM WAKW - (513) 542-9393 - [ Facebook ] [ Twitter ]

Don't forget to come on out to The Snuggery [ Facebook ] in Chicago on Wednesday, December 8 for a rockin' Josh and the Empty Pockets acoustic show starting at 9 pm. That's at 6733 N. Olmsted Ave, in the Edison Park neighborhood.

Zip it up and zip it out,
-Nate Bellon(bass)

Throw Down Your Review (or The Banjo's from Africa?)

I really dig non-western music, from gamelan to J-pop, Irish folk-music to Siberian women's choirs. I get a large sampling of music from my local library and find the rest online and I often subject my friends to it, bobbing my head and emitting cries of joy at a particularly difficult or odd part. I've more than once been caught jamming at a red-light to traditional Tuvan throat singing.

Of course, I listen to a lot of western music as well and pay special attention to the groups that use non-western influences in their music. A favored western band that utilizes a lot of non-western musical forms and musicians is Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, so when I saw "Bela Fleck: Throw Down You Heart" show up on my Netflix queue, I knew I had to watch it. Besides, it had received the Audience Award at both South-By-Southwest and the Vancouver Film Festival, so it couldn't be a disinteresting trip into ethno-musicology set to a snore-track. So I set it up, popped some popcorn and immersed myself into the music of Africa.

This film is awesome. We join Béla Fleck on his journey to Africa to explore the little known African roots of the banjo and record an album with some seriously ripping African musicians. He travels to four African countries: Uganda, Tanzania, The Gambia, and Mali. Along the way, he works with a wide array of musicians – from local villagers who play a twelve-foot xylophone, to a family that makes and plays the akonting (thought by many to be the original banjo), to international superstars such as the Malian diva Oumou Sangare.

The music on this documentary can be stirring and joyous or somber and liltingly sad, but it's always incredibly heartfelt. Aside from learning the history of the banjo and being introduced to unfamiliar-yet-familiar instruments, like the akonting and the xhalam (an African variation on the lute), there are also plenty of familiar instruments played in unfamiliar ways, like the blisteringly fast guitar playing of Oumou Sangare from Mali. One of my favorite moments of the whole movie happens in the village of Nakisengi in Uganda, where the village musicians assemble themselves around a giant twelve-foot long xylophone that's played with a mixture of hands and wooden stick-mallets. Twenty or so musicians, six of them playing the xylophone, create a beautifully thick and rich music that Bela weaves his banjo intricately and respectfully through.

Assembling the giant xylophone

Part of what makes this documentary so moving is that Bela is not on a mission to show the citizens of Africa his (astounding) banjo chops, but to learn techniques, scales and musical motives from the musicians there and integrate them into his own playing. He's constantly seen with a pencil and staff paper, diligently transcribing anything that hits his ear. For Bela Fleck or world music fans, this film is highly recommended, and there is also a CD available from iTunes and Amazon that contains recordings done in Africa featuring the musicians and musics from the movie. It will quickly be finding it's way into my collection and perhaps yours as well.

Word to the Brett,

-Nate Bellon(bass)

Throw Down Your Heart on Amazon [ link ]

Throw Down Your Heart on IMDB [ link ]

Official Site [ link ]

Awesomeness is Back in Style (or Gaffer's Guff a Gaffe)

Awesomeness. For awhile, it seemed that awesomeness was on the run, that it was all tapped out. A thick malaise lay across the land, rivers of lameness threatened to tear the land asunder. Just as everything looked it's same-old-day-grey, the sky cracked open, and a thick beacon of awesome shot through, spilling it's glittering gift upon the earth. Boredom dissolved, disinterest faded into non-existence and "ennui" changed to "Oh Yeah!"

What is it that has summoned such vivid awesomeness? The newest Josh and the Empty Pockets Music Video, shooting this week! And the thing that makes it even more awesome than the simple word can convey? You could be in said music video.

All you have to do is head to this website [ link ] and check out the information provided. You could be involved in the experience of a lifetime, something that's sure to create great memories and stories you'll share for years to come. Plus, who could resist so much concentrated awesomeness? Nobody, that's who.

"A tale of the power and passion exhibited, infused and expressed through the exquisite notes of music. "

-Nate Bellon(bass)