know your own
Neighbors will be helping neighbors over at Al Bar’s tonight. The occasion is a record release party for the third and newest edition of Know Your Own, the free CD anthology series of local indie music compiled and overseen by the ever-industrious Ross Compton.
But that’s just half the agenda. The celebration, along with performances by four Know Your Own acts - Thee American Revolution, Bedtime, Matt Duncan and The Joybombs - will help raise further funds for WRFL-FM’s “Build the Tower, Boost the Power” fund.
There is barely a wasted second on the newest Know Your Own sampler - literally. It squeezes in tracks from 29 different artists onto a single 80 minute CD. The running time: 79:59. Really.
Among the many highlights: the jangly power pop of The High Water Marks’ Finding Clovers, the folk/jazz psychedelia of Eyes and Arms of Smoke’s In Your Room at Night, the flamenco-friendly strut of Noisycrane’s I’m Walking Through the Room and You’re Asleep, the cheery electronica of Big Fresh’s As It May Be, the organic hip-hop of Dialectics’ Incognito, the orchestral loops that give way to the wide-eyed pop of The Joybombs’ Washed Away and the aloof guitar beatfest of The Oxford Farm Report’s We Wear Blinders.
(Above photo of Jeremy Midkiff by Herald-Leader staff photographer Whitney Waters. Midkiff plays with The Joybombs, although this shot caught him in action earlier this month at FreeKy Fest with Big Fresh.)
The release party for Know Your Own, Vol. 3 gets underway at 8 tonight at Al’s Bar, 6th and N. Limestone. $5. Call (859) 252-9104.
I am a native Kentuckian and freelance journalist who has been writing about contemporary music for the Lexington Herald-Leader since 1980. I have not a lick of honest musical talent myself, just a pair of appreciative ears for jazz, folk, blues, bluegrass, Americana, soul, Celtic, Cajun, chamber, worldbeat, nearly every form of rock 'n' roll imaginable and, when pressed, the occasional tango and polka.