Grooveshark Artists

Last Halloween, we had the opportunity to meet & mingle with several artists during the Fest 9 and our first annual “Grooveshark Sessions”. Around 17 artists met up with us at Medusa Studios to record one live, acoustic track and an interview to be exclusively released via Grooveshark. After months of unwinding, editing, mixing, mastering, etc. - the tracks and interviews are here!

Next is Red City Radio, a group of self-proclaimed democratic anthematic punk-rockers whose music can’t not remind you of late nights speeding down the highway in a packed car, blasting your favorite tunes, and singing along to all the words. We got to spend a fair amount of time with these inspiring dudes, not only witnessing their Session recording, but also witnessing their “Bathroom Tapes” recording. The resulting interview following their recording of the Session and the Tapes is below:

We’re here again at Medusa Studios for the Grooveshark “Fest” Sessions with Red City Radio. They just did an amazing track – tell me more about the album that this track is on.

It’s off our new album called The Dangers of Standing Still. The song is called “Spinning in Circles is a Gateway Drug.” It’s about… a lot of people don’t really feel like they have anywhere to go or anything to do, and sometimes a lot of people don’t even have dreams. They just spend their lives not knowing how important things are. They don’t really realize how following your dreams and doing what you really believe is true is the most important thing in the world. Hopefully, someone will listen to that song and find something they believe in.

I just want to point out that we’ve had our tour manager ask us – how does the title of the song tie into what the song is about? The title is just a reference to youth. Spinning in circles is the first way we as people get a head change. You spin in circles to get dizzy and change your consciousness. Just sort of a nifty little reference.

Is that new album on Paper + Plastick?

Yes sir! Early this year – January, February – it’ll be out.

So, Oklahoma is where you guys stay when you’re not touring and what nots – is that correct?

Yes.

I heard little snippets of everyone talking about the scene there, it sounds like there’s a lot of really cool things going on there.

It’s a very eclectic scene. There’s a lot of good music there. There aren’t a whole lot of punk bands, but the ones that are there are really good. The best thing about Oklahoma City is the people. Everyone is very friendly and accommodating, and we have a reputation for niceness. I think that it’s a well-deserved reputation.

I agree. You made the beds here.

[laughs]

You guys were telling me about Johnny Polygon earlier - tell me about him.

He’s a hip-hop artist originally from Tulsa. He’s in L.A./New York now, blowing up! We love him and tell everyone we know about him. He pretty much owes us some marketing money. [laughs]

Johnny Polygon and Gabriel Royal, those are two guys that you should really look into right now.

So, if you could grab these yogurt-punk-rock/indie-rock fans - kids that you’ll metaphorically pass the torch on to - if you could sit them down and impart some wisdom, what would you say?

Brush your teeth, take your vitamins, and flushable moist wipes. Stay hydrated! But in all seriousness, we don’t really have a lot of wisdom to pass on because we’re in the same place anyone else is. So if anybody out there has any kind of wisdom, you can hit us up on myspace.com/redcityradio. For everyone else – musician or non-musician – follow your heart and fuck everybody else.

There you go.

I think never allowing anybody to tell you no is the best thing. No one was knocking on our door trying to put out our record and we’re like, screw it. We think we’re a good band and we’re worthy of people’s listening time, so we’re going to make our own record! We’re gonna go, we’re gonna spend the money to record it, we’re going to release it and tour on it, and we don’t give a shit what anyone has to say about it. And people seem to like us.

And it’s a hell of an album! Thank you guys so much, everybody check out the new album. Thanks for coming to our quaint little booming metropolis of swampland. Hopefully we’ll see you at Fest 10!