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Avett Brothers in the middle of their set
Last night I went to the last Summerfest — the free concert series outside of the Blue Note. It was easily one of the best concerts that I’ve seen in a long while. Ha Ha Tonka and Backyard Tire Fire opened for the Avett Brothers.

The Avett Brothers were a ton of fun. They were energetic and provided a new and unique sound. When I saw these vested-men with stringed instruments in hand, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. It was a bit of bluegrass, a bit of rock and a lot of fun. The best thing about the entire show was that it was free. I cannot believe I did not take more advantage of these free Wednesday night shows. Alas, it was the last one, but it was wonderful.

Each band seemed to have a good Midwestern sound. The songs had stories. Not only did I enjoy dancing and feeling the music, but I found myself paying attention to the lyrics, which I rarely do. And the messages of a lot of the songs, I understood and felt.

I rushed from an SPJ event to get there in time. I caught the end of Ha Ha Tonka’s set. Freshman year, I knew them as Amsterband and actually was able to interview them for a story. I put the story in this post so you can get a better idea of their southern-rock sound.

Ha Ha Tonka’s Brian Roberts

The band has performed nearly 250 shows in more than 60 cities.

By Laura Parkinson, Staff Writer
April 6, 2007

The Ozarks are home to country shows, outlet shopping and lakes. Amsterband, a foot-stomping indie band, will perform at the Blue Note Saturday, proving that there are several talented acts coming out of Southern Missouri.

Since haphazardly choosing the name before entering a talent competition three years ago, Amsterband has come a long way. It has performed nearly 250 shows in more than 60 cities and has just signed with Chicago-based Bloodshot Records.

“We didn’t plan on making it a career,” lead singer Brian Roberts said. “We wanted to have a good time, play around Springfield, play at parties and the bar scene. Those were the initial goals and aspirations. Otherwise we would have come up with a better band name.”

Although Roberts laughs about his inability to come up with a good name, the name is probably pretty apt. Amsterband was inspired by Roberts’ trip to Germany mixed with his Ozarkian heritage and desire to create a “liberal enclave in the conservative Ozarks.” He grew up with Luke Long (bass, vocals) and Lennon Bone (drums, vocals) in West Plains, Mo., and met Brett Anderson (lead guitar, piano, vocals) at Missouri State University.

“The more we did it, the more serious we got about it,” Roberts said. “We felt like mixing indie rock and Ozarkian foot-stomp style of music that we all enjoyed playing. We did some touring two years ago, and we’ve been touring it ever since.”

Roberts’ influences include Mark Bilyeu of Big Smith and more recent groups such as R.E.M., The Shins, The Magic Numbers and The Flaming Lips. The band is now moving away from other bands’ sounds to create a sound that is uniquely them.

“Any band when you start out, if it’s your first band, you are probably going to stink,” Roberts said. “We definitely stunk up the place for a long time. (But) the more time you play with each other and dig into your own background, you can carve out your own sound. We are just now doing that.”

The band’s second record, Buckle in the Bible Belt, gained the attention of Bloodshot (home of Neko Case and Split Lip Rayfield), which will release the record nationally and also add tour dates to Amsterband’s already busy schedule. Roberts said he hopes the record captures something from the band’s past, as well as places it hopes to go with its music.

“It grabs a lot of attention,” Roberts said. “I think that it accurately represents our sound on stage.”

Even though the record stands on its own, the band really enjoys touring new cities and encountering different audiences. And, even though it has traveled to many large cities, Roberts prefers playing in smaller ones such as Warrensburg or Emporia, Kan.

“I love playing in those markets,” Roberts said. “Emporia doesn’t get big bands. When you play there, it’s bonkers.”

Amsterband has toured with Ben Kweller, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Steel Train, Say Anything and Soul Asylum.

With so much traveling, the band is collecting many road stories. While in Indianapolis, Amsterband was looking for a place to stay at night. Long said he woke up in the back seat in nothing but his overalls. When a possum jumped out across the road, Long got out of the car to chase it, ran into a fence and ripped himself up pretty badly.

“There have been lots of great shows and happy moments along the way,” Roberts said. “You get to travel with three best friends and make music. We are very fortunate that we’ve made it to this point.”

With their new label, the members of Amsterband hope to continue developing and improving “both with audience and music.”

“Hopefully we continue to mature and make better music,” Roberts said. “We all four love playing together, and hopefully we continue to make interesting music.”

Past Pulitzer Prize winners
Last week was one of the biggest events in the history of the Journalism school. All of the journalism students could go for free so there was no reason not to go. Journalism classes were canceled for the centennial so we were able to go to the events. There were many events to kick off the celebration including Freedom Sings, a multimedia presentation on the First Amendment by using banned music from across the decades.

One of my favorite events was the past Pulitzer Prize winners sharing the stories for which they won one of the most esteemed journalism awards. Jacqui Banaszynski, who teaches intermediate writing and advanced reporting, shared her story AIDS in the Heartland about the life of a gay couple dying of AIDS. I found it interesting how diverse the stories were. Banaszynski’s story, she said, was a love story. The other stories were investigations and watchdog stories.

On Friday there was a technology summit. I heard from people who are implementing different models of journalism including such as Propublica.org, which is investigative reporting that is supported a large donation (or endowment). It’s goal is to find abuses of power. In a world where there is less room and money to devote to investigative journalism, it is great to be able to have opportunities to support this vital watchdog role.

The restaurant was busy that weekend. As I was refilling waters, I could hear discussions about journalism at pretty much each table. It was really interesting to just hear snippets of conversations—a lot of the time it revolved around the future of the industry—the same theme of the entire conference.

The centennial brought in some big names such as Ken Paulson, editor of USA Today and editors from the New York Times, St. Petersbug Times and the Kansas City Star, just to name a few. This just goes to prove that the MU School of Journalism is top notch. The new Reynolds Journalism Institute provided a great backdrop for this event. The building is finished and it is great, just in time for the Centennial. So much work went into it, I think that it went really well and was a complete success.

My roommate and I went to St. Louis to see Vampire Weekend at the Pageant. The concert was sold out so we were far away. I couldn’t even see their footwear choice, which I hear is predominantly boat shoes. Even being far away, it was totally worth it. They played all of their songs that we know from their first CD and played a couple of new ones. I’m curious to hear their new song in the movie Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist.

The songs went fast. They were catchy and fun to hear in person because I can now say that I saw the phenom that is Vampire Weekend. They didn’t have strings, but they did the best that they could to perform a great show.

What stole the show was not the music, however. There was an older woman who started interpretive dancing. This became really popular among the high school crowd and started cheering her on. Then she came up to our level and started dancing with the group of kids. It was great to see a group of students so excited about dancing and singing along.

As part of Society of Professional Journalists executive board, I was able to go to Atlanta for the national SPJ conference. It was worth taking some time off of school and work to attend. When we got there, I first went a program on what to expect in the first five years in the industry as well as how to craft a powerful resume.

My favorite part of the conference was the presentations on narrative writing. There was a Pulitzer prize winning author who spoke about trusting our own voices. If there was a way that we want to tell a story, then the story should be told that way. There was another features write with the St. Petersburg Times. She spoke about ways to search for story ideas as well as how to write a profile that really gets at the true character of a person. They both spoke about the importance of realizing a “universal truth” to each story. This overarching theme allows the story to have more meaning to an audience.

I really enjoyed the sessions on features and narrative writing. It was pretty great to be able to hear from people who are doing the type of journalism that I could see myself liking… a lot. I admire this type of journalism, which is almost like fiction storytelling, but it is all true. This makes the stories resonate with an audience and it is certainly more powerful when the facts are true.

Another supersession that I enjoyed was when Charlayne Hunter-Gault, foreign correspondent for NPR, spoke about integrating the University of Georgia and the state of journalism today.

We explored Atlanta, (or Hotlanta, which actually wasn’t very hot). When we visited Atlantic Station, we happened upon an outdoor arts festival. I bought a homemade necklace, and we ate cheesecake on the patio of the Cheesecake Bistro. We also found a cute Italian restaurant by the Fox Theater as well as had some delicious southern cooking at Mary Macs. It almost was as if we ate our way through Atlanta, which was just fine with me.

So the conference was small, yet fulfilling, and I hope to learn more about the state of journalism at the wonderful Journalism Centennial tomorrow through Friday.