Kate Laine: “Made A Poem”

Posted on December 5, 2018 by blacksheepspringfield

This evening we are bringing you a stream of a brand new song by Kate Laine! The song is not a part of any release as of yet, just as a single entitled “Made A Poem”. You can stream it on the player below. Also head over to Kate’s bandcamp page to pay to download the mp3.

You can vote for “Made A Poem” as favorite song for this year on our Best of Springfield Music 2018 Poll! Going on now through December 13th. Kate Laine will also be performing next at Black Sheep for the big big concert with Park on Saturday, December 15th.

December 16th at Black Sheep: Open Mic + Gift Exchange

Posted on December 5, 2018 by blacksheepspringfield

We have another something special lined up on Sunday, December 16th! This one is going to be the last ever open mic we hold in the current space that is Black Sheep, so we want to make it a special holiday time. We are holding a gift exchange in addition to an open mic. For the gift exchange – if you want to participate – you bring a wrapped gift (can be anything, as long as it’s wrapped) – we will form a pile of these gifts on the stage – and at the end of the night everyone takes a different gift and opens it! Surprise! Great!

For the actual open mic, we have plenty of open slots! Post in the facebook event to claim any open 15 minute slot:

10:15-10:30 – *spot reserved for anyone to claim at show*
10:00-10:15 – (open)
9:45-10:00 – *spot reserved for anyone to claim at show*
9:30-9:45 – (open)
9:15-9:30 – (open)
9:00-9:15 – (open)
8:45-9:00 – *spot reserved for anyone to claim at show*
8:30-8:45 – Pureheart
8:15-8:30 – (open)
8:00-8:15 – (open)
7:45-8:00 – (open)
7:30-7:45 – Emasculate Regression
7:15-7:30 – (open)
7:00-7:15 – (open)

As you can see, things start at 7:00 pm and go until 10:30 pm (we will be opening presents right around then). P.S. if you don’t have money, you can still make something and wrap it up, or just pick one of your belongings at home and bring it wrapped up! For fun! We are asking for $1-5 donations at this show to go to us and our big move. Find a facebook event for this right here. Also check out our shows page.

Oh! We should also mention that this day will also be the last one open for Dumb Records! (The 16th of December, that is). The store closes at 9:00pm that night. Be sure to stop by the store at some point!

December 9th at Black Sheep: Eric Marvel, Imaginary Colours, Layers, Glower, Neala, +Art

Posted on December 5, 2018 by blacksheepspringfield

Black Sheep is closing its doors at the end of the month and we wanted to be sure to squeeze one more art event in before it’s all over! (Or at least until we are moved into a downtown space next year). Fun! For this event there will be a live painting going on (like we did for this painting pictured above a couple of years back now). Come out and bring painting close if you want to add to a giant canvas that everyone is going to paint on. There will also be musical acts. This includes Eric Marvel, whose music you can find streaming below. This also includes Imaginary Colours – electronic act that has three releases in the running for our Best of Springfield Music 2018 Poll. Layers will be performing as well – the local two-piece spoken word and guitar act. Glower will be performing as well, the only full band on the bill. Opening up it looks like we have “Neala” the solo project of Kristin Walker.

This event starts a little bit earlier at 6:00pm. Bring $5. Check out a facebook event for this one right here. Also be sure to check out our shows page to take a look at everything lined up from now until we are gone at the end of this month.

Best of Springfield 2018 Music Poll

Posted on December 3, 2018 by blacksheepspringfield

Greetings! It may be just the beginning of December, but we are kicking off our annual best of Springfield music poll a tad early this year so that we have plenty of time to compile results and get together write-ups because this year our results are going to be published in the January issue of Activator Magazine! Our poll has three parts: your favorite albums/releases that came out by local bands, your favorite songs by local bands that came out this year, and your favorite local shows of 2018. This is open to all Springfield local music of any genre! And not just Black Sheep shows of course! We compiled a list of 64 local releases this year (wow, that’s a lot)! You can view them all and find links to listen to most of them on our Springfield release guide right here. At the end of our poll usually we put in a suggestion box for Black Sheep / Dumb Records – we are doing that again this year, but instead it’s a suggestion box on the types of things you would like to see with a new space we are opening up downtown in 2019.

>>>VOTE IN THE BEST OF SPRINGFIELD MUSIC 2018 POLL HERE.<<<

If there are any local albums that we don’t have listed, there is a box at the bottom of the first portion you can still write-in your votes – we would also like to hear about anything we’ve missed! You can email us at blacksheepspringfield@gmail.com and we can always add releases to the poll.

The poll will be open now for the next ten days until December 13th! We know that for the shows portion of the poll, there are a LOT of HUGE shows lined up after that deadline happening as The Black Sheep’s final shows!! Maybe you can enter in shows that haven’t happened yet if you want? IDK!

We will be posting results of the poll at the end of this month or the beginning of next month along with physical copies of the January issue of Activator!

December 14th at Black Sheep: Graveswitcher, Prowess, MAC, No Cash Value

Posted on December 3, 2018 by blacksheepspringfield

We are wrapping up on all of our final show announcements at Black Sheep in the space we have known it to be for over 13 years! It truly is a bittersweet time. Here is a show happening on Friday, December 14th featuring a solid group of local punk bands. We have Graveswitcher – the loud and crushing new hardcore band featuring members of many other local groups. We also have Prowess – this will be their last set inside Black Sheep so surely something goofy will happen, right? Also MAC – the punk rock group that released an EP earlier this fall. Last but not least is No Cash Value – back and better than ever with a brand new lineup.

This show will start at 7:00 pm and admission is just $5. No reason not to come out and have a good time! Check out a facebook event for this one right here. Also be sure to check out our shows page for a good look at what all is coming up at Black Sheep before we shut our doors at the end of the month and begin a big move.

Timothy Donavan Russell: “Best Of Ambient / Best Of Experimental”

Posted on December 2, 2018 by blacksheepspringfield

It’s not every day when any local Springfield band or artist has so much material that they are able to drop “Best Of” albums, let alone TWO “Best Of” albums. Springfield solo sound artist and member of The Pharmacy Gallery, Timothy Donavan Russell has released just that – one 27 track Best of Ambient 2003-2018, and a 20 track compilation Best of Experimental 1995-2018. You can find both of those albums streaming below. Both feature material that Timothy recorded over the years, and also feature some previously unreleased material as well. You can head over to Timothy Donavan Russell’s bandcamp page to pay to download the albums and check out more of his music.

Timothy has a whopping NINE releases that have come out this year which will all be in our “Best of Springfield Music 2018” poll being launched tomorrow. Check out that running list on our album archive right here.

Videos: Black Sheep Band Lotto 2018

Posted on December 2, 2018 by blacksheepspringfield

BL22

Black Sheep Band Lotto 2018 was a few weeks ago now, and those of you who were there or performed know how much of a great night it was. Soon after the show we posted a few photos of the night. Today we are back with a full video we have of every single band’s full set big thanks to big MVP Gordon Chang on the video camera. You can stream that video (over one hour long) on the player below.

Head over to our vids/pics page for more videos taken at Black Sheep over the years.

December 8th at The Radon Lounge: Levi The Poet, Dan & Kris, Simply Fair

Posted on December 2, 2018 by blacksheepspringfield

Every year in December our good friends over at Springfield basement venue The Radon Lounge put on their annual Christmas show, and it’s usually a nice time. Usually it’s a Christmas “explosion” but it looks like this year there will be no exploding, instead they are calling it “Dressember” looks like. This is happening this upcoming Saturday, December 8th. This one features a special local vendor (not a music group) called Simply Fair. For performing acts there is “Levi The Poet” doing spoken word coming all the way from Albuquerque, New Mexcio! Wow! Musical acts include Dan Smith – who is a part of the project Listener who has played a few big shows at the Radon before. Also Kris Rochelle of Red Sweater Lullaby and also Listener will be performing.

Looks like that’s the show – we are sure The Radon Lounge has some other things up their sleeves like coffee and arcade games and art and stuff (they usually do). Admission is $10 and tickets are sold in advance right here. 7pm. Check out a facebook event right here. Also check out our Springfield shows page where we only have this show listed right now.

Resistant To Reason: “First Year”

Posted on December 1, 2018 by blacksheepspringfield

Taylorville-based punk rock band Resistant To Reason have recently released a collection of songs under the title First Year. This includes seven tracks, all of which you can stream on the player below. Also head over to the band’s bandcamp page to download the entire release for free! Resistance To Reason don’t have any shows lined up at the moment as far as we can tell.

We are counting this one as well as many other in our Best of Springfield Music 2018 list which we are still working on compiling! The poll for that is set to launch this Monday!

December 8th at Black Sheep: Summoning The Lich, Dr. Dick Ramirez, Eyes From Above, Primitive Deception, Nethersphere

Posted on December 1, 2018 by blacksheepspringfield

It’s December! That means it’s our final month in operation in the current locations of Black Sheep and Dumb Records before we pack up at the end of this month and move downtown. It surely is sad, but also very exciting times. We have just a handful of shows left to announce – there will probably be right around ten shows this month total, and some surely wild ones. This one one week from today on Saturday, December 8th is going to be the last metal show at Black Sheep! It features touring act Summoning The Lich from St. Louis, which you can find streaming on the player below. It also features local act Eyes From Above who just released a new EP! Very cool. We’ll also have a visit from “Dr. Dick Ramirez” which happens to be another metal band from Quincy, Illinois. If that’s not enough metal for ya, we have Primitive Deception up before them from Decatur, Illinois. And opening things up is Nethersphere from Jacksonville!

This show will start promptly at 7:00 pm and admission is $7. Check out a facebook event for this show right here. Also check out our shows page for a look at everything left happening at Black Sheep in our current location.