In my more-naïve days, I thought being a Midwesterner on the East Coast was something of a novelty. Ha! Now I understand it’s harder to meet people who actually grew up here than someone from a seemingly far-off place like Iowa. Still, I get a little giddy when my two worlds merge—especially when it’s beyond the thrill of sighting a stranger on the street wear a Drake University tee (it’s happened; I swear!).
Yesterday, Noah alerted me to the fact that one of our favorite local bands, Le Loup, recently recorded a Daytrotter session. If you’re not hip to Daytrotter, it’s a very awesome and grassroots webzine and recording studio that just so happens to be based in my and Noah’s native Quad Cities. Bands drop by the Daytrotter studio on their way through the Heartland, record four songs (many times new material or otherwise unreleased songs), and eventually the Daytrotter dudes upload the songs on their site, free for streaming and downloading. It’s up to like five bands (20 songs) a week. All in all, it’s a great way to find new music or hear a rawer, more intimate side of bands you love.
Not only is Daytrotter something—finally!—to be unabashedly proud of from our hometown, but we’ve actually been to the studio and met and interviewed the founders. (When Daytrotter was still green back in 2006, I wrote a couple of articles about the place—one for a local arts paper, the other for ReadyMade magazine.)
Let me just say from my extra-informed perspective, Daytrotter is totally rockin’. But don’t take it from me. Go listen to Le Loup’s Daytrotter session, which includes three new exlusive Le Loup songs.
And then remember why you fell in love with district, schmistrict in the first place!
Illustration via Daytrotter
