N E W R E A L M S M E D I A

You know what pisses me off about any tragedy? Those people who claim “false flag” or bring up “this happened too”. The fact remains is that people died. And to make things worse, these events over the weekend took place in nightclubs in Orlando.

Imagine being in a nightclub and seeing your favorite artist gunned down in cold blood while signing autographs. An artist who mind you was stoked to be playing in Orlando in the last video she released. Look at the genuine joy on her face in that video.

https://www.facebook.com/christinagrimmie/videos/1142937129082213/

“And sometimes even now, when I'm feeling lonely and beat. I drift back in time and I find my feet. Down on Mainstreet.” Bob Seger - “Mainstreet”

As most of you may have heard today, Innovation Concerts will be taking an indefinite hiatus in the coming month. This means that Frankies and Iggys (formerly Bar EDM and Rok Bar), will be shutting down, alongside the already shut down Mainstreet Bar and Grill. The response that was given was due to low crowd turnouts. When I first read this on Facebook, I was speechless and devastated. The venues of Main Street have been a part of my life for ten years. In those ten years on Main Street, I’ve seen My Darkest Days before they blew up (mostly because Hazard Perry was playing), Psychostick, Hopsin, I Prevail exactly one week before they signed to Fearless Records, and countless other national acts that came through.  Broc Curry was a champion for Toledo’s music scene like no other.  

When I decided to overcome my fear of driving 7 years ago, the moment I got my license I went to Frankies for their Auto Tune Karaoke. There, I had begun to strike up several friendships along the way. In that moment, Frankies became my second home.

Fast forward to 2011, a year I consider to be the best year of my life. I had recently purchased a camera, with the intention to make short films. One day I decided to go to one of Ian Thomas’ Freakouts at Frankies, just snapping pictures. I took a picture of my friend Nate Sorg doing his DJ set. It was this photo below that I knew I should take my photography seriously, and the reason why I’m primarily shooting photos today:

Later in 2011, I was asked to be a part of a music video for the band Bury Your Dead. The video took place at Frankies. It was such a fun moment in my life. And yes, that is me getting smashed on the head with two sugar bottles.

Then there were the local shows. Dear God, the local shows. Being a band manager for the band A New Factor/Edge Water Drive, I made a lot of friends within prominent local acts. Local acts that I actually love. The local shows were always the best times on Main Street. Whether it was a rock show, Broken Glass, a Freakout, or a hip hop show, it was always a good time. Granted, there was that one time some asshole beamed me on the head with a jar of baby food on the Frankie’s patio from behind, but for the most part, I loved being on Main Street for the local shows. Those tiny, intimate venues where everyone’s body heat would come together to make for a sweaty good time. Those young and dumb days where I had no problems jumping into a mosh pit. Granted, there are other venues, but none as important as the ones on Main Street.

Which me brings me back to why Innovation is going on hiatus: low crowd turnout. Please, do me a favor: when these Main Street venues shut their doors, go support a local band. I’ve been on the other side of putting on shows. I know what it’s like to see maybe 10 people in a venue at any given time, and only making enough money to cover advertising costs for the next show. There is so much talent here that is scary. On top of that, in recent years the Toledo music scene has been more unified than ever.  So I will link you to some local acts to check out on Facebook:

Onceover

Tropic Bombs

Goodbye Blue Skies

Raine Wilder

Ordway

Fail and Deliver

Hour 24 (who has a checkmark by their name)

C-Fifth

You Are a Toy

The Super Bowl, a time of football, food, friends and family. For one day, people are huddled around the TV, regardless as to who plays. It’s also a time for Madison Ave. to show off the best they got in the advertising world.

Enter Nationwide Insurance.

Nationwide started off just fine with a commercial involving Mindy Kaling thinking she is invisible, up until Matt Damon actually sees her. It was a harmless and funny commercial. But that’s not the commercial we’re going to talk about.

We’re going to talk about a commercial that’s more tasteless than the pulled Godaddy.com commercial that depicted a lost puppy being sold at a puppy farm.

The commercial in question involves a child who is pondering his life and how he feels that he will never grow up. The stinger of this commercial reveals he is dead. Cue nearly silent minor key music, an overflowing bathtub, a kitchen cupboard full of chemicals and Nationwide pimping out dead children to sell insurance.

Let’s get one thing straight Nationwide: Super Bowl commercials are meant to be fun, funny and/or uplifting. I’ve never once seen a dead child in a Super Bowl ad. You know, like the Mindy Kaling ad you were already hyping on TV before Super Bowl Sunday.

Let’s go back to the controversial Godaddy.com ad for a moment. Yes that ad was tasteless, but at the same time it was meant to parody the beautiful Budweiser “Lost Dog” ad. Through their sick minds, I could see what they were going for. It was just Epic Movie levels of bad parody. Even if it aired, it still would have been an atrocious commercial. But the people spoke and Godaddy.com released a bland commercial of a man doing taxes. An ad that has NOWHERE near the views of the puppy farm ad (as of this typing, the aired Super Bowl ad is currently at 1500 views on Youtube) Remember, this was the company that originally prided themselves on PG-13 nudity during the Super Bowl.

Nationwide on the other hand, prides themselves on the jingle “Nationwide is on your side” and putting Peyton Manning in as many commercials as possible. So they suddenly decide “That Mandy Kaling ad was great. But you know what? let’s kill millions of people’s buzzes by talking about dead children!” The Super Bowl is meant to be an escape. For one day, every American jumps on the bandwagon of one team. It’s when people come together around the television set to celebrate. The last fucking thing they want to hear is a million dollar guilt trip.

Nationwide put out a press statement stating that “While some did not care for the ad, we hope it served to begin a dialogue to make safe happen for children everywhere.” That statement read to me as “Yeah we made you feel bad. Whatever, fuck you!” It also didn’t help that it was just a poorly executed commercial, with stilted acting and dialogue.

Yes Nationwide, it did provide a dialogue: fire the buzzkill who thought that ad was a great idea, because you actually made me briefly defend the sick Godaddy.com puppy farm ad.

As an Indiegogo contributor to Raine Wilder’s latest album, I was able to get his new album Vibes the week before it’s street date. I had no problems donating $30 to a man that appeared in my first Toledo Music Fest commercial, made a cameo appearance in an ill fated music video I shot, and most of all, featured one of my photos on one of his T-shirts. Not only do I think pound for pound Raine Wilder is the best rapper in Toledo right now, but he is also a great friend.  

It seems as though with each album, Raine Wilder evolves. On Heart on Standby, he was the former frontman of Echo of Silence and The Separation Tree trying to find a voice in a new medium. With Birthplace of Aviation, Raine found his voice and then some, creating brilliant hip hop with a rock edge. On Wildfire, he exuded confidence and gained a huge fanbase coming off of a UK tour, all the while exorcising demons from his past. He also introduced three letters into the hip hop lexicon: PMA, or Positive Mental Attitude. Not only that, I called this the best hip hop album I’ve heard in my life.

With Vibes, it is an introspective and reflective album. It’s also the second best hip hop album I’ve heard in my life. As I was typing this, he texted me and asked: “is this album better than Wildfire?” to which my response was “They are both equally great.” This album is Raine counting his blessings for everything that has happened to him.

The album starts off with the energetic title track, which features Aasen Bloe, a rapper from Orlando who is incredibly phenomenal, and then cuts to the call and response stomp of “The Truth”. With “Lights”, Raine delivers a beautiful arena rock-style chorus over introspective lyrics. This song also features my favorite line on the album: “You live every day and die once/ YOLO’s wrong.” On “Retrospect”, Raine takes a look at both his past and his present over a stellar trap style beat and a catchy chorus (no, I will not use the word hook). Granted that chorus is one line, but it’s a well delivered one. I’m looking forward to the music video for this song.

“GO!!!” is a song that reminds me of his old band Echo of Silence, with driving guitars and epic orchestration, all the while delivering clever wordplay with each song title from his previous album Wildfire. This song also features Aasen Bloe and these two play off of each other great. “Hourglass” is an interesting take on the boast track, full of clever wordplay and a great pulse pounding beat.  It’s introspective, all the while Raine is basically saying “I’m the shit”.

“Only God Knows” is a great song that also addresses the controversial OG Hip Hop BBQ Festival that took place in August, in which none of the headliners promised performed.  

But the piece de resistance of this album is the closing track, “Smoking Gun,” which samples a surprisingly good Christina Aguilera song and is quite possibly the greatest beat Just Blaze never produced. When the beat kicks in, it just goes straight to your gut. The vocal delivery on this song is fucking phenomenal. It’s the angriest song on this album, and the Christina Aguilera sample provides a fantastic counterbalance. It’s excellent on so many levels.

So next week, be sure to get a hold of Vibes and hear not only a great local rapper, but an underground legend in the making. I might be a little biased about this album, but if this was my introduction to Raine Wilder - not knowing who he was to begin with - I would want to track everything down he has ever done immediately. As it stands, I listened to this album front to back 5 times in a row and counting. It will serve as the soundtrack to some model bookings and photo edits this week.