WATCH: Freelancers web series

The first time I saw my good friend and fellow West Virginia expat Erica Lies perform comedy was as part of an improv troupe in New York City upon a visit in 2005 (I think). One skit called for the audience to recommend a place you'd go on Spring Break, and I shouted "coal mine," which the cast used for a performance that made me proud. Soon after I moved to Austin for grad school, and a year later Erica, a Morgantown native, followed for the same reason. Since then, my former roommate has been heavily involved in the improv community in Austin, as well as hard at work on a new web series over the past year.

The series "Freelancers" is about two freelancing friends living the post-college career dream of offering a creative life, flexible schedule, and never working for “the man.” But navigating life as a freelancer can be perilous at best for the most talented and tragically hilarious for the hopelessly hapless. Freelancers explores the latter as a work-place comedy about the self-employed. It follows ambitious would-be journalist Anna Feils (Erica Lies), a plucky twenty-something with Joan Didion aspirations but sub-TMZ skills. Her march toward success is alternately aided and upended by the self-aggrandizing Mark (Ted Meredith), a libertarian yoga instructor.

Written by Erica and Ted, the series is based on real-life experiences. "Freelancers" has produced six episodes, and has received positive words from local critics. "The web series totally gets it," said the Austinist, and Austin Eavesdropper wrote, "Something almost every twenty- (or thirty-) something can relate to." As a freelancer myself, I can only agree, and as awkward as it is to watch my friend on screen, the series is quite funny. All episodes are available on the series' YouTube channel, but you can check out the first three here.

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

DOWNLOAD: Neutral Agreement - I Bet You Never Thought...

The first time I saw Neutral Agreement was at the Brickhouse in St. Albans around 2002. I had never heard the band before, but I knew they were described by many as Christian pop punk. For someone who is not religious and had grown past said genre of music at that point in my life, I'm sure I approached the show with a sense of cynicism. Over the next half an hour, I bore witness to one of the most energetic, passionate and sincere performance from a local band I had ever seen. The instruments were loud, they sang from their guts and they were tight but still with a sense of improvisation. While they made coordinated jumps, posed with their instruments and fell to their knees like I had seen many bands do, it seemed less contrived. At the end of the show the quartet stopped played, turn toward one another, raised a hand in the air and finished with a song of prayer. Had I not just been shocked by such a powerful performance, the cynic in me would have walked out. Yet I remained, excited to meet the guys in the band, who I saw and photographed a dozens times after. They are guys with whom I became good friends for years after this first performance.

Unfortunately for Neutral Agreement, who were from Hurricane, their live performance was so impressive, any recording couldn't quite do the band justice. I Bet You Never Thought... hints at the band's ability to write a heartfelt punk song with catchy hooks, but doesn't do well to represent the band's spirit and vigor. Following in the footsteps of youthfully sentimental acts Further Seems Forever, Juliana Theory or The Get Up Kids, Neutral Agreement play a brand of rock that is sweet and upbeat yet at times urgent and volatile. Matthew McDowell's untrained vocals ring of characteristics of many late '90s emo-punk bands - at times nasal or off-key but always earnest. While the band's instrumentation certainly matured over the following the year, dual Les Pauls provide an enjoyable crunch, especially on the album's highlight "Five Hours to Elwood."

Neutral Agreement eventually became a three-piece and took on a new style after McDowell moved onto real world obligations. Bassist Matthew Jenkins has continued to run Future Destination Records, which put out the band's albums as well as a number of nationally touring groups. I miss that guy. In fact, I miss all these guys and the sincerity with which they played that few bands from the region could ever touch.

Artist: Neutral Agreement
Album: I Bet You Never Thought...
Year: 2002
For fans of: Further Seems Forever, The Juliana Theory, Get Up Kids

DOWNLOAD: Neutral Agreement - I Bet You Never Thought...

LOOK: Viva La Revolución de Appalachia T-shirt campaign

For nearly two years, I've spent a lot of time on this blog promoting other artists. Because of that, I am going to justify this shameless self-promotion.

In 2007, I was living in McDowell County, West Virginia, working on a documentary photo project. As I was deeply in touch with my Appalachian pride at the time, I wanted a way to show it off. So I designed the Viva La Revolución de Appalachia T-shirt. I did an edition of fifty shirts, which received a great response. Four years later, I've done five runs of the shirt, each in limited editions on different colors. While I donated the slim profits from the first couple editions to the Big Creek People in Action non-profit in McDowell, I have since used the income (of which there is not much) to support Appalachia awareness projects such as photography exhibitions, community discussions or even this blog.

My goal was to make something that people would wear to show off their pride of a region I love, as well as to encourage awareness or discourse of cultural, political, social or environmental issues in Appalachia. Where I understand it's not much, I am proud that it is anything.

With that said, I am currently accepting pre-orders on the newest edition of the shirt, which is red ink on a light blue garment. (Maybe my favorite yet.) The shirts are $20 each, and that includes shipping. If you are interested, please order today. As always, the edition is limited to about 50. And thanks to everybody who has supported this project over the last few years. Click here for ordering information. Viva La Revolución de Appalachia!

WATCH: O Lendário Chucrobillyman live in Lexington, 2011

Klaus Koti is known as O Lendário Chucrobillyman, a one-man band from Brazil who wears his Hasil Adkins influence on his sleeve. Koti's The Chicken Album gives a nod to the West Virginia rockabilly madman who recorded an album by the name of Poultry in Motion. Koti's album features tracks such as "Chicken Flow" and "Chicken Strangle." Adkins had a multitude of similarly-named songs - "Chicken Walk," "Chicken Flop" and "Chicken Run" to name a few. Other songs on Koti's album are "Love Miner" and "Whiskey River," which seemingly are also nods to his Appalachian songwriting influence. The music of O Lendário Chucrobillyman lives up to the influence, which is why it received such high praise from fellow Adkins-influenced multi-instrumentalist J Marinelli, who after sharing the stage with Koti, called him the best one-man band he'd seen. Check out these videos of O Lendário Chucrobillyman's show in Lexington.

READ: Tristan Egolf - Lord of the Barnyard

I was recently in Chicago visiting my old friend Aaron (formerly of The Warriors). Aaron, a native of the Charleston area and son of a retired coal miner, is currently an instructor of creative writing at Columbia College. During my visit, Aaron was nearing the end this book - Tristan Egolf's Lord of the Barnyard: Killing the Fatted Calf and Arming the Aware in the Cornbelt. Lord of the Barnyard is a fictional biography/history of farm boy John Kaltenbrunner and the Appalachian-affected Middle America coal town of Baker from where he comes.

Salon wrote of Egolf's 1999 debut novel: "He practices a form of shotgun writing -- aim in the right direction and spray words on the page -- always searching for another country-fried turn of phrase that will one-up his last one. Egolf mixes fable, metaphor and pure anger to attack mob mentality, class warfare, the mindless media and the just-under-the-surface madness of the Midwest. His brilliantly warped, pedal-to-the-metal vision has the obsessive quirkiness of a Pynchon, the rough-and-tumble bad-assness of a Daniel Woodrell and more than a malignant touch of the Faulkner who created the Snopeses."

I'm nearly half-way through the book's 400 pages, and my anticipation builds with every new paragraph. In fact, I missed my bus stop yesterday because I was so entrenched in what was going to happen to Kaltenbrunner next. Though the author or the story have no significant relationship to West Virginia (one minor but memorable character is a Mountain State native), Lord of the Barnyard does ring of Appalachian characteristics familiar to anyone from the region. I highly recommend it. Thanks, Aaron.

WATCH: Daniel Martin Moore - Flyrock Blues

I recently posted a video of Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore performing "Dear Companion", a song about a miner's letter to his wife. It is the title track from their collaborative album, which was produced by Jim James of My Morning Jacket. Also on the album is the soft-spoken track "Flyrock Blues," which is played by Moore alone. It is one of my favorite tracks on the album - probably because he mentions West Virginia. Nevertheless, here is Moore very elegantly playing the song in a shed.

DOWNLOAD: Transistor Indiana - songsforanactivelifestyle

After multiple requests, I'm finally posting this demo from yet another unfortunately short-lived Charleston-area indie rock/emo band. Transistor Indiana formed in the early 2000s around the same time as similarly-styled Apart From the Projector. In the same vein as No Knife, Burning Airlines or Trail of Dead, the Kanawha Valley quintet play a brand of rock that is aggressive, dramatic and some times sweet. A threesome of crispy guitars is fronted by Bud Carroll whose passionate vocals are backed by hollow screams. It is a sound that could have easily found the band on Jade Tree Records in the late '90s. Transistor Indiana recorded an album for North Carolina-based indie metal label Tribunal Records, but it was not released after the band broke up. What remains is this four-song teaser, while certainly representing the young musicians' ability to write quality songs, does not live up to the band's intense and provocative live performances. Carroll, along with bassist Bruno, went on to play in American Minor, but the demise of Transistor Indiana left many people in the region wanting more.

Artist: Transistor Indiana
Album: songsforanactivelifestyle
Year: Early 2000s
For fans of: No Knife, Trail of Dead, Burning Airlines

DOWNLOAD: Transistor Indiana - songsforanactivelifestyle