The Sixty One

So a friend on Facebook turned me on to an amazing music website that you should check out called The Sixty One (http://www.thesixtyone.com/). It's kind of hard to explain how it all works but here's the gist: artists upload music to their profile and listeners use a preallotted amount of "hearts" to bump music they like. It works kind of like digg but instead of "digging" something on the web you "heart" songs you like. Also, there is a levelling and achievement system that allows you to unlock advanced features and get more daily hearts based on reputation you earn from hearting popular songs. The game aspect of the site makes listening to music fun and the social community is nothing short of spectacular. I've never been apart of an online community where the members are so generous and respectful.

Honestly, I have found more amazing bands/artists in a month of perusing this site than in the last year of actively searching for new stuff to listen to on my own. One of the first artists I found was William Fitzsimmons who I actually got to see last week at The Square Room here in Knoxville. If it wasn't for T61 I would have probably never even heard of him. And he is just the tip of the iceberg.

So seriously, do yourself a favor and join up... I promise you'll love it.

Riddit-dit-da-roo

For so many years I've endlessly made fun of all the hippies that go to Bonnaroo. I just don't see what is so appealing about going to a field for 4 days with thousands of unshowered idiots to listen a bunch of music that I hate. Why would I want to spend $4 for a bottle of water? Who gives a shit about the stupid ass Dave Matthews Band or Umphrey's McGhee? THEY SUCK BALLS FOLKS! Who wants to swelter in 90-degree heat with nothing but patchwork pants and a wife beater on? Not to mention all the mud, murders, rape... oh wait, that was Altamont.

I have had nothing but hate for this stupid effing festival for as long as I can remember... so why am I going this year?

I'll tell you why.

1) The Lineup. This year's lineup is simply put... amazing. Sure, there are a bunch of bullshit bands that I couldn't care less about but I am definitely going to get my money's worth. Grizzly Bear, The Mars Volta, Bon Iver, Bruce THE EFFING BOSS Springsteen, Beastie Boys, NIN, Wilco, Costello, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Band of Horses, The Decemberists, Coheed and sooooo many more that I don't even have time to list. This is also not including the comedic stylings of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Arj Barker and Kristen Schaal to name a few. Seriously.... this is going to be amazing and will be worth every penny of the $267 I dropped on a ticket.

2) The Friends. I'm happy to report that I'm going to be sharing this experience with some of the best friends in the world... Pan, Cole, Paul, and Thomas. I couldn't ask for a better group of dudes to go to this with me and honestly think it will be something we remember sharing for a long time to come.

3) The cleanliness factor. From what I hear, the aforementioned dirty skanky nasty hippies aren't so bad. Apparently there are showering stations and plenty of bathrooms but we'll see.


There are a million other reasons why this is going to be, quite possibly, the highlight of my year. I'm sure there will be many more that actually spring up when I'm actually at Bonnaroo and I'll be sure to share once we return home.

Effing Bayless effing out bitches.