Last Thursday, we recorded the “Octopussy” edition of the Buzzcutz Podcast. Since it was Episode #008, we named it after the James Bond film in contrast to last week’s “Double O Seven” edition. It’s just our way of adding a bit more color to an already controversial and intriguing experiment in podcasting at GoTriCities.
Podcasting is simply an audio program that uses the Internet as a delivery method. Instead of radio frequencies, the Internet distributes the show via an Mp3 file and listeners can subscribe to the show via Itunes or any other RSS Reader.
Other than a couple of modified holiday schedules, we record the podcast every Thursday afternoon around 2pm at our offices in Downtown Kingsport. We started with a few audio problems and shaky turns here and there, but over the past several weeks, the show is starting resonate in both form and audience as Jared, Tom and myself gather to discuss regional music scene.
We certainly haven’t run out of topics. There’s no doubt this show appeals to a narrow audience, because I know only a handful of people who care to discuss or hear about the various hype and gossip from local scene, but our passion makes up for the doubt, because we like what we do. We get an opportunity to synthesize the week’s music news from the streets, expose some of the local music and talk to some of the area’s musical creative class. Besides that, we’re simply getting better at podcasting.
Over the weekend, I was talking with Tommy Starnes and Bennie Wilson at MeadowView. I stuck my head into a party in one of the ballrooms and they were performing on stage. They must have seen me wander in too because they came looking for me at another wedding party where The Carousel were performing. They were on a mission too because they had heard Buzzcutz. A couple of months ago, Tom started to hastle Tommy on the podcast for promoting karaoke at Get Rhythm in downtown Kingsport. Tommy wanted me to clearly understand that he no longer worked there and they both laughed about the funny threats we made on the podcast before they had to get back on stage.
We’ve had some interesting guests over the past several weeks too. Rich and Rick Wagner were an interesting interview on Episode 6. They play together in a local cover band called Altered State.
The next week, we had one of largest acts as The Carousel joined us downtown for a late night interview. This was a long one too. There were about eight musicians in our make-shift podcasting studio and we had a great time talking about their 40 year reunion. It was historical too. One of the features on the show was the music we uncovered from a 40 year old performance at the old Kingsport Arts Center. The Carousel played a show back in 1969 and Bill gave me the tapes to tweak and we featured several songs on Episode 6.
Episode 7 we dubbed as the James Band Episode and we interviewed Jeff Hashbarger who owns Jeffs Music in Kingsport. We had a good time talking about the music store and all the players who had visted there since 1977 and we called the podcast the “Black Friday Podcast” and talked about Jeff’s business after Thanksgiving.
Last week was Episode #008 and we titled that show the “Octopussy” show. We had a problem with one of our acts who had been scheduled and decided to go it alone with just the three amigos. We had a good time talking about our Friday Night Nights soundtrack featuring local music and we also scoffed at Guitar Hero and other video game karaoke machines while Tom got all worked up about the 5 O’Clock bar in Glade Spring, Virginia.
Jared had to use the censor this past week and we’re trying our best to deliver an open conversation without editing the content. We sometimes talk a bit too candid, but we’re hoping we come across with a sincerity that is remotely entertaining.
The podcasts have gotten easier too as the weeks have gone by. We’ve got a pretty good system now and it doesn’t take long to process the audio. Jared has got a good intro for us and we’re starting to settle into an easy pace with several interesting shows in the works including Greg Smith and Richard Houser (December 6), the Celtic Band, Siegen on December 13th and The Swinging Pachyderms from Erwin on December 20th.