Hello now that we are nearing warmer nicer weather there is so much going on here in downtown Springfield and we can hardly keep up with it all! Last weekend was the downtown sidewalk sales and now this upcoming weekend is “Open Streets” this Saturday from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm. This means the streets are closed off in downtown for those hours (including Monroe right in front of our store) so that everyone can get out and play in the streets and go wild. There’s going to be like yoga and hopscotch and skateboarding and stuff. There’s a map of what streets are closed off too somewhere on this facebook event. Check out the Downtown Springfield Inc. website right here.

Anyways, WE over at Dumb Records are going to be participating in these “Open Streets” by having the alternative rock group The Complaint Line play right outside of our store in the opening to the alley right next to us at 1:00 pm.

We are thrilled to be once again featured in SJ-R related publication Springfield’s Own Magazine with the article “Dumb Move” in the March/April issue which just recently came out hot off the presses. The article was written by Adam Nicholson and talks with Dumb owner Brian Galecki on the big dumb move to our new downtown location and how everything has been going with that so far. From the article:

Commensurately, downtown might stand to benefit from Dumb Records’ distinctive brand of levity in the face of business — one literally glaring example of being the backlit, storefront-wide poster of a rubbery, wrinkled old man’s face that has been staring out at Monroe Street from the Dumb Records windows since January, before the store officially opened its doors.

“It was a last-minute thing,” Galecki says of the garish fascinator–his idea— “and I’m very happy. I wouldn’t have done it any way different, looking back on it. It was perfect. And it’s still there. We’re having fun with it. We’re having fun with the announcement of us moving. And it’s also the way we ran our business in Southtown. Dumb Records: we kind of live up to the name a lot of the time. We’re not afraid to do things that other businesses would look at and call dumb. Like Free Record Day, just what it sounds like, or blowing up a 15-foot orange ball in front of the store. All sorts of goofy stuff. Doing that face and everything, it was just like taking that with us. I’ve been told that maybe this is the more grown-up version of Black Sheep and Dumb Records in some ways, but at the same time, we want to show that we’re not afraid to still be fun and do ridiculous stuff.”

You can find copies of Springfield’s Own Magazine for the full article for sale at Barnes And Noble, Quik N Eazy, or HyVee.

Our friends over at HISO Music, which recently opened up their facility near the corner of 5th and South Grand are hard at work doing cool things. Earlier this year they launched a new Springfield based web series called “The Meeting.” Maybe somewhat similar to things you might have seen on “The Studio Show” (put on by a different group in a building on South Grand), “The Meeting” is a fictional series about a music and entertainment company called “SOHI” starting off and overcoming obstacles together (maybe similar to what HISO music is).

So far there have been four episodes released, and the plan has been for new episodes to continue coming out every Monday. Check out those episodes on the HISO Music site right here.

Today we bring you a brand new music video from local hip hop artist a part of HISO Music – RJC. The video is for his song “Deep End” and features none other than Scott Faingold (Activator Magazine, Epsom), filmed on the ramps of Skank Skates. Wild! As you can see in the photo above, Scott plays the roll of a man who’s been kidnapped. Check out the full video below. The video was shot by Visual Paradise and edited by Twenty One Seven Studios.

Check out more Springfield music videos from over the years on our Vids/Pics page.

Surely this year wouldn’t be complete without Brandon Carnes (Looming, Southtown Studio, Diaper Rash, Big Storm, Midnight Fall, etc) releasing some new music in the form of a new project of some sort. Last year Brandon was responsible for releasing a demo for a new project called “Night Night Boy“, which ended up playing one show ever at Black Sheep. This past week Brandon was at it again with a brand new project called “Lullafy” – with a 4-song release being a description of the project: “Emo For Babies”. From what we hear, adults like this too! The release includes four cover renditions of songs by Looming, American Football, and Mock Orange. You can find it streaming on the player below. Head over to the Lullafy bandcamp page to download this at your own price.

You better believe that Lullafy is in the running in our Best of Springfield Music 2018 poll, which is still running for a few days now through the 13th. It’s also listed in our big Springfield Music archive.