Lemondrop 2.0
…aka why Kevin’s been slacking severely on new Perch content. Alright, where to even begin?
Let’s start there. You remember Lemondrop Records right? The record label Chuck and I started two years ago and had pretty good success getting local bands out to our Springfield community. But with two guys, you can only really do so much. Chuck then brought the idea up of focusing on furthering both arts and music in our community from a grassroots level, going strictly local, rather than trying to make money by promoting bands and their music to Springfield and surrounding areas, which had begun to stall out. The resulting efforts of us pursuing this new direction was turning Lemondrop Records into simply Lemondrop, a non-profit art and music resource that brought all the brightest and best people we’d worked with freelance style over the years, in house, working as a unit towards our new mission, and acting as a central collective bridging the gap between artists, musicians, and the community. To keep this brief, I’ll point you to two links that sum up our mission and what we think the future holds for us better than I could write here…
The Lemondrop Art Directory (what we feel will be our eventual future, and will represent the culmination of all our non-profit plans in one place)
Now that you’ve read the basic idea of what we are and where we’re going, let me tell you a bit about what we’ve been up to since the switch. Last summer we had the great fortune to meet a donor who loved our vision with Lemondrop Records, and wanted to help us get this next venture truly underway. With his help, we got a window front space on Commercial Street, a budding art street, and we’ve been throwing art gallery shows in conjunction with Springfield’s 1st Friday art walks. From there, we brought in Ben the Builder as we’ve dubbed him and a stage was soon built in record time. We threw our first huge show as an experiment to see if we had the chops to not only book an out of town band, but get people to show up. We brought in Big Gigantic, a fantastic show by the way, and saw nearly 70 people travel from St. Louis and Columbia, nearly three hour drives, to catch the show, and a packed house full of locals, officially selling our little space out in our first try. I was amazed, and we knew after that show we could pull off a Lemondrop concert series.
We took a Christmas break, and after a slight complication with our space and getting it back up and running after delays due to city regulations needing to be met, we’re back in business. This Saturday we’ve got Mac Lethal over at the High Life, followed by D.J.P. and our Lemondrop DJ’s the following Thursday for Lemondrop Night at the same venue. But what I’m beyond excited about, and what should excite most my readers since I’ve written about him multiple times here on the Perch, is we’ve got Emancipator coming to the Lemondrop space March 18th.
That’s right, Emancipator. The guy who brought you one of my favorite instrumental tracks in “Anthem” [mp3]
That’s the sweet show poster. If you can make it out to that show, we’d love to have you. And you know it’ll be an amazing show.
Basically, that’s the jist of the new Lemondrop. Non-profit art collective aimed at furthering and nurturing local art culture here in Springfield while providing a means for bands and artists to get their music and art to the community, and vice versa. Sorry I’ve been lacking on the Perch side of things, but I’m back and 2010 should be one hell of a year. Thanks for sticking with me and I’ll keep you updated on all things Lemondrop, as well as keep my music ramblings coming as frequently as possible.
-Kevin
P.S. If you’re interested, here’s a couple things we’re getting off the ground under the Lemondrop Umbrella…
Ruby Jewel – “Music Inspiring Change”
Another non-profit (something we’re all about these days), that is basically a place where we bring bands and non-profit organizations together to create synergy and promote a healthy working relationship between the two. Non-profit Org’s sift through our database of songs, usually singles OK’d by the bands for free use, that fit whatever use the Organization may need (commercials, theme songs, causes, etc.). The end result, we think at least, will be a place that provides a service no one has yet to give, which is helping ease the complications for Non-profits that arise from getting and using songs by bringing bands together who are OK with having their song used by the non-profit for free, and who in turn help these bands get more exposure. Get it? Yeah, we don’t really either, but we’ll figure it out over time as it evolves. (bands and Org’s added as I snatch them up)
Music Revolt – Down with major labels and that sort of stuff. Podcasts every week (drinking of a six pack each show manditory), news and updates on everyday corruption by the major labels and what we can do about it, along with all sorts of other stuff we haven’t thought of yet. Should be fun and you should definitely join our revolution. (site not quite done yet, but you can still listen to our podcasts while we get the kinks ironed out and the site official launched)
