by Chad Campbell, senior producer
It’s time once again for a visit from Paul Schomer. He runs www.radiocrowdfund.com, which he calls a “new music discovery blog.” Schomer trolls the sites of crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo searching for songs that catch his ear and stories from new band’s that spark his interest. This time, he told us about an active campaign on Indiegogo by music journalist Michael Cala which seeks to commission a memorial headstone for the unmarked grave of long-deceased blues singer Mamie Smith. Click here if you’d like to contribute to that cause (if you donate the full $5,000 you get your name etched on the gravestone along with Mamie’s!). Paul also shared some of his favorite new music with us. Jack Wilson raised money from fans to promote his new CD Spare Key. Lo Fine (also known as Kevin O’Rourke) likes lo fi. He makes hand-crafted cassette tapes but also releases most of his music for free on soundcloud. Check it out here (we featured the song More Better.) Next was my favorite song of this batch, Homestead by the brand new Arizona-based duo called Northern Hustle.
Click here to sample three new songs from Northern Hustle’s brand new album Forgether. And finally, we have Huxlee, a California-based band fronted by 20-something lead singer Caitlin Notey. Paul says this is his bet for the future and can see Huxlee (inspired by Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World) developing into a very good band. After all, Notey is still in music school at USC. Here she is performing Crooked Tree, the Huxlee song we featured on our segment.