Today on Black Sheep Radio: Kevin Bradford

Posted on November 22, 2013 by blacksheepspringfield

Today is Friday, so that means from 4:00 to 6:00 pm there is another episode of The Black Sheep Radio Show! Today we are having a special show featuring Kevin Bradford, owner of The Black Sheep. Kevin will be in talking to us about all things that are Dumb. This includes the recently announced Dumb Records. Also in the studio we have Kevin’s special sidekicks Jordan Fein and Brian Galecki.

You can catch The Black Sheep Radio Show today from 4:00 to 6:00 pm on 88.3 WQNA fm. You can also stream the show live on the interwebs at wqna.org. If you can’t get enough of our radio show, head over to our radio tab where you can download almost all of our past episodes.

Videos: Skank Skates 25th Anniversary

Posted on November 21, 2013 by blacksheepspringfield

Today we have a video from the Skank Skates 25th Anniversary celebration earlier this month. All of us at Black Sheep and Skank Skates had a lot of fun that night! It was good to see so many faces old and new in South Town. Here is what Skank Skates had to say:

Thank You to Everyone who showed up to support us, your locally owned, oldest indoor skate park in the world!!! It was a great turn out last night for the 25th anniversary of George getting the keys to the building. December 15th is the 25th anniversary of Skanks opening to the public, we will have new shirts printed up and available to purchase! See you there!

Very cool! For those of you who are unfamiliar with the skate scene in Springfield, things are alive and well. There is a new skate shop that recently opened in town called Empire Board Shop. With the recent announcement of Dumb Records it is also clear that South Town is alive and well in Springfield. Skank Skates have also announced today that they will be hosting ANOTHER 25th anniversary celebration on December 15th to celebrate the exact date that they opened their doors 25 years ago. You can find more information on that right here. Check out a video from the Skanks 25th Anniversary below.

January 3rd at Black Sheep: Soap Scum, Falter, Table Drama, Nos Bos, Asthma

Posted on November 21, 2013 by blacksheepspringfield

It looks like we have found our first show that is happening in 2014 at The Black Sheep. This one is happening on Friday, January 3rd and it is sure to be one intense hardcore/punk show that will be sure to shake the walls and ceilings of our space. Springfield punk band Soap Scum will be coming up out of the glue tunnels to play this one. This show will also feature touring band Falter from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. You can check out some of their heavy tunes on the player embedded below. Another band coming from the depths of the glue tunnels of Springfield is the villains and heels, Table Drama. Table Drama is the newest band featuring former members of Scott Blacula. Speaking of glue tunnels, we have another band playing that comes straight from the witches’ cellars of St. Louis and that is the frightening Nos Bos. To top that lineup off we have a very special new band opening the show off and playing the very first set of 2014 at Black Sheep. That is Asthma, which features members of Mildred, Gazeebo, Scott Blacula, and Looming.

This show will start at 7:00 pm and admission is $5. You can find a facebook event for the show right here. Don’t forget to check our shows page to find out what other shows are coming up at Black Sheep in the near future.

Videos: Pound For Pound Final Show

Posted on November 20, 2013 by blacksheepspringfield

Today we are bringing you a couple of videos from the very last Pound For Pound set at Black Sheep. Hardcore band Pound For Pound played their final show on November 9th after fourteen years as a band in Springfield. The final show was held at Black Sheep along with a whole festival of ten bands called The End Is Here Fest. You can check out two videos of Pound For Pound’s set from that night below.

Owen Davis: “Cower In The Face of Death”

Posted on November 20, 2013 by blacksheepspringfield

Today we are bringing you a stream of a new noise track from local artist Owen Davis. The track is called “Cower In The Face Of Death” and you can find it right here on Owen’s bandcamp page or also streaming below. The track is also available for a name-your-price download on bandcamp and it comes from a noise compilation released earlier this year and put together by Shit Noise Records based out of Germany.

January 8th at Black Sheep: Tim Williams, Gospel & The Wolf, With Teeth & Nails, Statures, Sami-Jo Wilsing, Rella

Posted on November 19, 2013 by blacksheepspringfield

Today we are bringing you the first official show announcement for 2014! Wow! 2014 is sure to be a crazy and fun year for Black Sheep with these shows and the recently announced plans for Dumb Records opening next door. This show will be happening on Wednesday, January 8th and it is going to be a monster of an acoustic show. Headlining this mega show is going to be Tim Williams of Our Lady performing some of his acoustic solo songs. This show will feature the return of acoustic act Gospel & The Wolf from Austin, Texas. You can check out one of his tunes on the player embedded below. Gospel & The Wolf will be on tour with an act called With Teeth & Nails, which is sure to be interesting. Before that we have Statures, which is actually a former member of the band Estates from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Statures will be on tour from another solo acoustic act, and that is Sami-Jo Wilsing. The show will be opened by Rella, which will be the Black Sheep debut of Clare Frachey’s solo project!

This show will be fun. It will start off at 7:00 pm and admission is $5. You can find a facebook event right here. Don’t forget to check out what other shows are coming up at Black Sheep on our shows page.

Some Things Can’t Be Ignored: Braid Live at The Atrium in Springfield

Posted on November 19, 2013 by blacksheepspringfield

It looks like we have another update from our very own local music historians at Some Things Can’t Be Ignored headquarters. The picture above shows 90’s emo band Braid played at Springfield’s very own Atrium (the space that is now Donnie’s Homespun) way back in 1996. This makes sense since these folks orignated in Champaign, IL and actually played Springfield shows all of the time! At this January 7th show, they played with local punkers NIL8 and The Urge. Something really cool is that we have the option of listening to some soundboard recordings of Braid’s set that night, so check those songs out below and read the full article on this here!

Our Lady: “Dawning II”

Posted on November 18, 2013 by blacksheepspringfield

Today we are bringing you a stream of Springfield emo band Our Lady’s newest release Dawning II. From Our Lady’s facebook page:

Dawning II is now up for online order from It’s a Trap! Records as well as available for stream and download on Bandcamp. We are very excited to be releasing this with such an awesome label like It’s a Trap! and even more excited to finally be able to share it with you. This is a very emotional record for us and everyone’s support over the last year has not only made this revision possible, but has really pushed us to make it happen. Thank you to Brandon Carnes for putting in so much time recording and producing this EP, Ashley and It’s a Trap! for all the hard work and being so onboard to put out a very strange version of a re-release, and thank you to anyone who has let us sleep on their floor, bought a shirt, followed us on our stupid social media sites or have supported us in any way.

You can find a stream of the new EP right here or also streaming below. You can also download all seven tracks off of the band’s bandcamp page for $3. The EP is being released on cassette through It’s A Trap! Records. Our Lady also released Dawning and their Vessels 7″ earlier this year. The band is currently on tour out to the west coast.

New Band Pages: The Oswalds, Paqui

Posted on November 18, 2013 by blacksheepspringfield

It’s still 2013 and there are new bands popping up all over Springfield by the minute! We are struggling to keep up with all of the bands that have been forming. Today we are bringing you two new band pages for two newer projects. Those are new punk band The Oswalds and solo acoustic project Paqui! The Oswalds are a new three-piece punk band that will be playing their first show on Friday December 13th at Black Sheep along with Gnargoyle, Mystery Gift, and Antithought. You can find out about who is in this new band and what they are all about by checking out their band page right here. Paqui is a newer solo acoustic act that has been playing shows for close to a year now. You may recognize Paqui as being one of the main rivals against Table Drama or Scott Blacula. You can check out Paqui’s new band page right here.

We now have a lot of band pages. You can find the long list of current bands in Springfield right here. Do you play in a Springfield band that we do not have listed? We would love to hear from you! Send us an email at blacksheepspringfield@gmail.com.

BLACK SHEEP AND ERROR RECORDS BRINGING DUMB RECORDS TO SOUTH TOWN

Posted on November 17, 2013 by blacksheepspringfield

We are very excited to announce that some of us involved behind the scenes at Black Sheep are teaming up with some of those at Error Records in Champaign to bring you DUMB RECORDS – a brand new record store in Springfield opening early next year.

Everybody here around Black Sheep Land are very excited! We are pleased to announce a partnership between people from our local BXS community and Error Records in Champaign, IL to produce our very own record store here in South Town called DUMB RECORDS! We know this will be a tremendous boom for the neighborhood, having a one stop shop for all things music. Now not only can you see cool shows at Black Sheep but now you can buy cool records and hang out in the new shop! We will be offering records, CDs, tapes, and all sorts of cool schmoz! Be sure to come down! We will announce the grand opening in the near future. In the meantime we are looking for any used music items for the shop, so if you want to help us do this thing we will have a drop off box at the sheep. We appreciate it! We are stoked to say the least! We are excited about the future of South Town and our underground music scene here in Springfield!
-Kevin Bradford

We know that with this huge and exciting news brings up a lot of questions about the record store and about Black Sheep. Before going any further we thought we would answer some of the questions that you probably have.

What is Dumb Records?
Dumb Records is a new record store that will be opening early next year in the South Town neighborhood. It will be ran by people involved with Black Sheep and Error Records, but it will also be a separate entity. We will be selling new and used records, CDs, cassettes, and other band merchandise. There will be a focus on local music and bands that have played Black Sheep, but we will also feature music of all sorts of genres and eras.

Is Dumb Records a record label?
No. However, we will be carrying a lot of local and Midwest releases inside of Dumb Records. We will be working closely with local and Central Illinois labels such as Patch Records and Error Records to make music easily accessible to anyone visiting South Town.

Where is Dumb Records?
Dumb Records will be located at 1107 South Grand Avenue in Springfield. This is the space that once was the Artifacts Art Gallery.

When will Dumb Records be open?
There is still some work that needs to be done to the space and we are currently working on collecting stock. Right now we are shooting for a grand opening sometime in early 2014. You can expect another announcement with a more definite opening date sometime before the end of the year. Once Dumb Records is up and operating, we plan on having limited hours during shows and on weekends. A more definite schedule will be announced later this year.

How will this affect Black Sheep?
Black Sheep will not be going anywhere any time soon. Shows will continue at our normal pace. The record store will be ran separately from Black Sheep, but the two will be working together so that Dumb Records is always open during shows. You might also see Dumb Records become tied in with Black Sheep special events such as art shows and summer festivals. Dumb Records will help our neighborhood become even more of a hub for local and touring bands and musicians.

It is 2013. Why are you opening a record store?
Because we are dumb. Other than that we are doing this because we believe it will be something that will benefit our local music community in Springfield. Aside from selling records and other stock, we intend for this new store to be a safe and fun hangout spot during the day.

What can I do to get involved?
We will be taking donations of used records, CDs, cassettes, and band merchandise at Black Sheep during shows. We will have a bin set aside for these donations. You can also check out our get involved page to find a more detailed list of what you can do to get involved around the Black Sheep community. Also on the page we will be details on our upcoming meetings regarding Black Sheep and Dumb Records.

Again, those of us at Black Sheep would like to thank all of you who have been supportive of what we have been doing over the past eight years. We would have not made it this far if it were not for the tremendous amount of support that we have received from the community here in Springfield. We will take on this new and exciting project with a positive attitude just like we have with other new things that have come up at Black Sheep and South Town over the years.