Illinois Times: “A Band On The Brink”

Posted on June 18, 2015 by blacksheepspringfield

The cover story for Springfield weekly newspaper The Illinois Times this week is “A Band On The Brink”- an in depth article on Springfield’s very own Looming, who recently signed to No Sleep Records, has an album coming out this August, and is also on the road for a short run with Run Forever. From the article, written by Scott Faingold:

This is clearly a band on a precipice – excited by the potential of their suddenly raised status in the music world, but still unclear as to what this will mean going forward. “I think it’s smart not to get too crazy with ambitions,” says Knight. “I think we’re trying to be happy with this right now before we take a moment to think about what we want to do next. We’re still taking in the weight of what this means to us.”
“We just want the most people possible to hear our music and take something good from it – that’s our ambition,” says Fein.

The article also touches up plenty on Southtown, including the members’ roles in our community, and their first experiences with Black Sheep. See the full article right here, or pick up a copy of The Illinois Times at various locations around town.

Looming will be playing next at Black Sheep on July 25th, for Black Sheep Fest 2015. They also have been hinting at a big album release show on Friday, August 14th with older Springfield emo band Park.

Dumb Fest 3-D Videos

Posted on June 18, 2015 by blacksheepspringfield

A good amount of videos have been turning up of Dumb Fest 3-D, which was held this past weekend at Black Sheep and Skank Skates. Below we have a few videos from the fest, including some from the sets of Diaper Rash, Bad Banshee, The Wrong, and Big Zit. Check out those videos below, or check out some additional Dumb Fest videos from these bands:

Cal & The Calories
Common Ignorance
Foreign Lawns
Genovia Forever
King Worm
Pregnancy Test
Nectar
Resinater
Slugbugs
Tenement
Toys That Kill
WARRS

Thank you to AJWF Photography, Stephen Houldsworth, and Gordon Chang for taking videos at Dumb Fest this year. We will be back soon with many many photos from the weekend. You can check out more Black Sheep videos and photos on our “vids/pics” page.

Project Southtown Kickstarter Campaign Ending In One Week

Posted on June 18, 2015 by blacksheepspringfield

It looks like we have reached the final week of the two month-long run of our Project Southtown Kickstarter Campaign- a campaign we have started to preserve some of the history of our music community and also to secure much of our future. Currently the project has over 100 donors, and we have passed up our minimum goal of $5,000. Any money raised in addition to our goal is also extremely helpful in the project and is greatly appreciated.

Donate to the Project Southtown Kickstarter and watch the video right here. The campaign will be ending in one week on Thursday, June 25th at 4:00 pm. Incentives for all of the donors will be shipping out in July, and we will also be giving at least one update a month on the project after the campaign has ended.

June 26th at Black Sheep: Bar Brawl Battle League Official Try Out

Posted on June 17, 2015 by blacksheepspringfield

Coming up at Black Sheep a week from this upcoming Friday on June 26th we are having a show filled exclusively with rap battles! Those of you who have been around for previous rap battles at Black Sheep know just how intense they can get, and this show will be no exception. Here’s what is lined up as far as who will be facing who on the stage:

Twitch and Cerius Barz face off in a battle of #3BL vets,
Decatur’s Yella takes on Peoria’s Iydiss,
Peoria’s Get Em Bo takes on Missouri’s Malado,
and two newcomers Rick Slick and Zach Gilbert match up in a battle of rookies!

DJ for the night will be DJ Juice Ortiz, and “Uncanny” himself will be the host for the night. There also might be a non-battle performance or two snuck in from 2 Live Nation, We Back Soon, and possibly more!

Doors for this show will kick off at 6:00 pm, and admission is $5. You can find a facebook event for the show right here. Follow the 217 hip hop facebook page to stay more updated on hip hop shows in town, and also check out our shows page for a look at everything else coming up at Southtown.

July 11th at Black Sheep: Black Sheep Battle Of The Bands

Posted on June 17, 2015 by blacksheepspringfield

This summer on Saturday, July 11th we will be hosting our annual Black Sheep Battle Of The Bands. The purpose of this show each year is to reach out and give some new and younger bands the opportunity to play our stage, and to try and get many younger fans of music out to Black Sheep for the first time. This year we only have four bands, but we are planning for the battle to be just as successful as the past couple of years! Here is the lineup of bands playing the battle this year:

100 Acker Wood
Caleb Johnson
Abyss
Girlboy

We are also looking for more bands if any are interested! If your band has members that are high school or college-aged, and have not gotten the chance to play very often at Black Sheep we want to hear from you! If you also have any good suggestions on good bands that would fit well for this, email us at blacksheepspringfield@gmail.com. Once again this year there will be two prizes awarded to two top voted bands- one time slot on Black Sheep Fest 2015, and one free recorded demo at South Town Studio.

The Battle Of The Bands will start at 7:00 pm, and admission is $5. You can find a facebook event for the show right here. Also check out our shows page for a look at everything coming up at Black Sheep.

New Arrivals This Week At Dumb Records

Posted on June 16, 2015 by blacksheepspringfield

It’s another week at Southtown record store Dumb Records, and there are plenty of new arrivals in. A good amount of vinyl and cassettes were picked up from some bands that played Dumb Fest 3-D just in case you were unfortunately not able to pick up certain releases at the merch tables. We also have a few things in from Deathwish, Inc. including some new releases that are just out today. Let’s go over Dumb Records’s operation hours for the week and then get into the new arrivals:

Tuesday (show): 12:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Wednesday: 12:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Thursday: 12:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Friday (show): 12:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Saturday (show): 12:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Sunday: 12:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Monday: 12:00 pm – 8:00 pm

New LPs
Ceremony – The L Shaped Man
Cold Cave – Full Cold Moon
The Coneheads – LP
Dowsing – It’s Still Pretty Terrible
Fucked Up – Year Of The Hare
Kittyhawk – Hello, Again
Oathbreaker – Eros | Anteros
Tidemouth – Velvet & Stone

New 7”s
Dowsing – All I Could Find Was You
Pregnancy Test – Pregnancy Test
Run Forever – A Few Good Things
Short Stories About Their Distance / A World At Glance – Split
Short Stories About Their Distance / The Truth About Dreaming – Split

Cassettes
Leech – Leech
Mayfair – Demos / Singles

Tonight at Black Sheep: The Convalescence, Kharybdis, Noesis, Abyss

Posted on June 16, 2015 by blacksheepspringfield

We are all cleaned up from Dumb Fest 3-D here in Southtown and are ready to jump back into a summer full of good shows, starting with this rockin’ metal show happening tonight! Tonight we have quite the bill of a metal show, featuring the Toledo Ohio death metal band The Convalescence, who played here just earlier this year. Once again they will be joined on stage with local progressive deathcore band Kharybdis. Stream some of their music on the player below. Also on the show is progressive metalcore band Noesis, from Central Illinois. And then opening up this show we have the metal band Abyss from Athens, Illinois.

The show tonight will start a tad bit earlier at 6:30 pm, and admission this time around is $7. You can find a facebook event for the show right here. Also check out our shows page for a look at everything coming up at Black Sheep this summer.

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July 25th at Black Sheep: Black Sheep Fest 2015

Posted on June 15, 2015 by blacksheepspringfield

As we just got done with an incredible Dumb Fest 3-D this past weekend (be on the lookout for pictures and videos soon), today we are announcing our other summer festival- Black Sheep Fest 2015! This will be the eighth Black Sheep Fest in Black Sheep’s ten years of being a venue. (Flier above done by Clare Frachey of SAP). Black Sheep Fest this year will be happening on Saturday, July 25th. There will be 15 acts performing, all of which are local to Springfield. Ready to hear who those acts are? Here we go:

OUR LADY
LOOMING
THE TIMMYS
ASTHMA
HOSPITAL JOB
KING WORM
SAP
TEEN FREAK
WIR KONNEN
HISO MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT
THE LOCALS
DIAPER RASH
(Spot reserved for Battle of the Bands winner)
WARRS
PANZYS

What a lineup! Once again we have a spot reserved for the Black Sheep Battle of The Bands winner- the battle will be happening on Saturday, July 11th (lineup announced soon). This is also the first Black Sheep Fest in many years where we have brought some hip hop related acts, and there will be a 30 minute block set aside to HISO Music Entertainment. The festival will be starting this year at 3:00 pm and admission is just $5. Find a facebook event for the fest very soon! In the meantime check out our shows page for a look at all of the other shows coming up at Black Sheep this summer.

New Band Pages: Sgt Karate

Posted on June 15, 2015 by blacksheepspringfield

Today we are bringing you a brand new band page on our site for the one-man black metal act, Sgt Karate. Sgt Karate, also called “Sargent Karate,” “Sargent Karate- Everyone Is So Pretty,” or “S.K.E.I.S.P.,” was a project forged from the Black Sheep Band Lotto which happened last summer. You can learn more about the project and stream some of the band’s music on the newly created page right here.

Check out many of the current band pages we have set up on our site right here. Do you play in a band local to Springfield that has not yet set up a page with us? We would love to work with you in setting one up! Email us at blacksheepspringfield@gmail.com and we can get something together.

What A Weekend!

Posted on June 14, 2015 by blacksheepspringfield

Wow! Somehow we all just pulled off an incredible weekend and just finished up what was probably the best Dumb Fest yet! THANK YOU to all of the bands who played, the volunteers who helped run the festival, and to all of you who came out to the fest or who stopped by even just for a little bit. We couldn’t keep this going without you! We’ll be back sometime soon with a better re-cap of the weekend along with plenty of photos and videos. Stay tuned for the Black Sheep Fest lineup (happening July 25th) being announced later today. Don’t forget we also have ten days left of the Project Southtown Kickstarter Campaign, were we are continuing to collect funds to launch a new non-for-profit organization to protect Southtown!