Thank you to all of our beautiful media coverage in this city about Dumb Fest and everything we do. Today featured on the front of the A&E section of The State Journal-Register, local paper, is the headlines “Dumb Fest 6 Kicks Off Friday” and a photo of the band Earth Witch playing at the very first Dumb Fest which occurred at Black Sheep five years ago now. Stephen Spearie wrote the article and interviewed the band Telephone Junkies and festival organizer Brian Galecki. A snippet from the article:

That was the case with the Buffalo, New York-based band Radiation Risks, which plays a gritty, hard-driving brand of rock-infused hardcore punk. It played a Black Sheep show in March, but when Galecki showed them around Southtown, including neighboring Skank Skates, another venue for the festival, they confirmed for Dumb Fest nearly on the spot, he said.

Galecki said he pursued Matrix after a three-and-a-half minute demo tape showed up on the internet.

Find the article inside today’s issue of The State Journal Register or check out the full article online right here. Dumb Fest 6 kicks off tomorrow at 5:00 pm inside Black Sheep and goes on all weekend. Find a facebook event for Dumb Fest 6 right here.

Wow, it looks like things are really getting serious for The Black Sheep and the times we are in because today we made the front page of local paper The State Journal-Register with an article titled “All Ages Music Club Facing A Dark Time.” The article was written by Steven Spearie, who interviews co-owners Brian Galecki and BJ Pearce as well as NIL8 frontman Jeff Williams about Black Sheep. Pick up the Sunday paper at a gas station near you today for $3 or find the article online right here. From the article:

“We have a history, a culture in Springfield, a community that’s been around and we have stories to tell that can last a lifetime,” contended Pearce. ”(Black Sheep) is going to be around if people choose to attend shows.

“It’s a spot unlike anywhere else in the Midwest.”

We will also be holding a roundtable meeting inside Black Sheep at 7:00 pm tonight to further discuss topics going on in the article, and what’s next for us in these dark times.

Today we are excited to announce that we’ve made it to the January/February issue of Springfield’s Own Magazine! Springfield’s Own is a magazine focusing on happenings of Springfield IL and comes out every other month and goes out to subscribers of the SJ-R. This Jan/Feb issue is the entertainment issue and we are happy to be able to share it with some of our close friends in HISO Music, Lincoln’s Legends, The Studio Show, Boondocks, and more. Also check out Pryss and more as featured bands.

Copies of this issue should be available inside Dumb Records for $4.99 starting today. You can also check out the two of three pages on Black Sheep below.

Some of you may have noticed an article on Looming in today’s A&E section of local paper The State Journal-Register. You can pick up a copy of the paper around town or find the whole article here. The article focuses on the band and also lyrical content of Looming’s new album, Nailbiter. From the article:

Looming started establishing itself as a part of the Springfield alternative and punk scene in the late summer of 2013. But soon after that, the band started to turn the heads of a wider audience.

In January, the band sent a demo to No Sleep Records, an independent label based out of Huntington Beach, California. No Sleep deals mostly with alternative bands with strong, local followings.

Don’t forget that Looming will be playing their big album release show at Black Sheep tomorrow night along with Park, Hidden Hospitals, and Choir Vandals. Today is the last day to pre-order tickets for that show either at Dumb Records or online right here.

Southtown is in the news yet again, this time around we are the focus of this week’s A&E section of the State Journal Register. The article is called “DIY Music: Black Sheep Marks 10 Years, New Ownership As Alternative Music Venue.” The article talks about the venue and it’s ten years, as well as the recent ownership change with Kevin Bradford moving on to another project in town (which the article gives some more clues on what that is), as well as our Project Southtown Kickstarter campaign. The article interviews active members of the Southtown community Jessica Knight, Brian Galecki, and Brandon Carnes. From the article:

Few gave Black Sheep, which came out of the local punk scene, much of a chance a decade ago, given shifting musical tastes, the short shelf life of musical venues and its novel do-it-yourself concept that included a lack of any financial planning.

But an exploding local musical scene, fueled in part by Black Sheep’s own new recording studio, the insistence on a drug- and alcohol-free environment, an investment in the historic neighborhood and a smattering of national touring luminaries — Screaming Females, Ian McKaye (Fugazi, Minor Threat), ska punk godfather Jesse Michaels (Operation Ivy) and The Wonder Years — all have kept the place relevant and thriving.

Check out the full article by picking up today’s copy of The State Journal Register, or see an online version right here. Don’t forget that there are 49 days remaining in our Project Southtown Kickstarter and we haven’t reached our goal yet! You can find the link to donate to that right here.