Daytrotter.com: five featured bands, 20 Daytrotter Session songs each week.

There are so many music/entertainment websites that copy one another, scrambling so fast to “discover” or present something new to the world. And just because you get there first, it doesn’t really make you an explorer. We did poke a stars and stripes into the moon, but we could always see it. We knew it was there. It wasn’t new. We can always come along and say we did, saw, heard something first, but we’re never right. What Daytrotter is attempting to do is to not kid around with you and tell you that we found something that you never knew existed. We are going to contribute to the musical landscape, not just toss it around like a used book or a stolen pick-up line. We’re going to give you something that you truly have never heard. We are not giving you songs from someone you love’s record album, thereby stealing from someone you love. We’re giving you exclusive, re-worked, alternate versions of old songs and unreleased tracks by some of your favorite bands and by a lot of your next favorite bands.

Daytrotter Sessions

These fine people – as they’re traveling through America’s heartland – take two hours out of their travels between shows to stop in for a Daytrotter Session at Futureappletree Studio One in downtown Rock Island, Ill. The name of the city is not ironic. They use borrowed instruments, play with their touring mates, utilize an often unkempt toilet, eat some food and then cram back into their vans for the last half of the drive. What they leave behind is a pile of ashes, sometimes a forgotten stocking hat and four absolutely collectible songs that often impart on whomever listens to them the true intensity that these musicians put into their art, sometimes with more clarity than they do when they have months to tinker with overdubs and experiments. These songs are them as they are on that particular day, on that particular tour – dirty and alive. We want you to make this your new home as it is ours. We promise that you will love it here.

Sean Moeller

Sean sean@daytrotter.com is a Mike Morgan type of guy, journeying around the indie rock magazine circuit for the last four years, writing for everyone from Rockpile, Filter (online), Playback St. Louis, Salt Lake Weekly, DIW, Skyscraper, North County (San Diego) Times, Wisconsin State Journal, Ames Tribune, Punk Planet, Kitty Magik, Caustic Truths, Noise Pop program and the Quad-City Times, but got tired of not being able to get a damn Aloha story pitch picked up by some editor out there. And even the things he was greenlighted to do, they never paid him for. It got to be too much. He enjoys his beautiful wife (Maggie), his two cats (Russian and Finn), Big League Chew, when Al Swearengen calls someone a cocksucker on “Deadwood,” re-reading Richard Brautigan books and eating asteroid-sized burritos in his free time. You should too. Except for the part about his wife.

About the studio

Futureappletree Studio 1, Rock Island, Illinois. MySpace Page »
All Daytrotter Sessions are engineered by Patrick Stolley and/or Brad Kopplin.

The Daytrotter recordings are made with minimal mic’ing, through discrete preamps and with some limiting to the mixing console, where they are printed to 1/4” analog tape running at 15 inches per second (usually BASF 468). The analog master is later transferred to a computer and converted to MP3.

There is no set formula or pattern to the recordings, no specific mic setup, etc. They are all live, no overdubs, straight to tape. What you hear is what happened in the room that day.

Patrick Stolley

Pat is the recording engineer at the controls for many of the Daytrotter sessions. Despite the limited
number of hours in the day and the requirements of two future engineers to raise, he fiddles with the minutiae of sound at Daytrotter’s studio: Futureappletree Studio 1. He has a sailboat and occasionally tinkers with old German cars.

Brad Kopplin

Brad has been dubbed “the most modest engineer ever” for not touting all the great projects he’s worked on, but he has done quite a few over the years. A veteran of the now defunct Chicago Trax Recording and former
Chicago studio owner himself (Taotog, DAM), he now makes his home in Rock Island, where he can steal studio time in between diaper changes from his two boys, Ethan and Leo without a long ride on the EL.

johnnie cluney (daytrotter illustrator)

johnnie has been drawing pictures for most of his life. over the past 7 years johnnie has designed many flyers, cd layouts, t shirts, and so on. johnnie has gone through many mediums as an artist and has finally settled on all of them. while johnnie is not drawing for daytrotter, he is working on home recordings for his music project “quiet bears,” and spending lots of time at home with his wife bambi, and their two cats (peekaboo and ella.) and just like sean and pat, johnnie likes good music. thank you. like the artists and designers of the bauhaus, johnnie dismisses the need for capital letters.

Joe Sayers (thingpart cartoonist and daytrotter illustrator)

Joey Sayers lives in the Berkeley/Oakland area of California where she draws comics, makes things, and does stuff. Her strip Thingpart appears in a smattering of alternative newsweeklies around the country. Her comics also sometimes show up in magazines, books, and on the internet, and her first book “Teen Power” was recently published by Little Otsu. Her cat is named Monkey. For more information about Joey Sayers please consult www.jsayers.com.

Lupo Avanti (daytrotter illustrator)

What do you call it when you see a wolf driving a Studebaker? You get a Lupo Avanti. I was born in Frisco so I like to think of myself as a Bay Area artist but my friends with Trevor Linden posters might disagree. I study a variety of illustration styles from cartooning and animation to landscape painting and murals. Of course, illustration is my passion but BBQ’s, fishing, hot sauce, Sapporo and VRB’s are close in the running.
Check out lupoavanti.com for more information.

Ryan Flynn (daytrotter illustrator)

Not to brag, but way back in ninth grade, Sean, I and couple other guys created a comic in which every issue, all of the main characters were systematically murdered. That comic did not last very long. But then, not more than three years later, a certain poorly animated cartoon show appeared in which only one character was systematically killed in each episode. That, became one of the most famous cartoons of all time. During that same period, Sean and I consistently stored Tater Tots in our pockets throughout the day because we did not have vending machines around every corner like all the high school kids do now. We had to plan ahead. So I guess, what I’m saying is that, if we knew all that stuff was funny and cool way back in ’94, just imagine how cool you will be ten years from now if you start listening to us now. and oh yeah, I draw stuff. check me out at www.ryfly.com.

Illustration by Laurel Pincus.
To purchase Ryan’s Artwork visit: http://www.cafepress.com/ryfly

Josh Frankel (daytrotter illustrator)

Josh Frankel whips up comic books, strips and goofball scribbles in his East Bay comics laboratory. This output includes Deadly Combo: a weekly jumble of miscellaneous hilarity posted every Thursday on his website. Beyond comics, Josh’s hobbies include playing Boggle, full-time employment, and looking for a new apartment. And obviously there are some cats in the mix. See Josh’s web action at www.hungryforbrains.com.

Brendan Kiefer (daytrotter illustrator)

Brendan Kiefer is an illustrator, cartoonist and musician living in the giant state of Texas. Most of the time he can be found moving boulders or cooking dinner for Sean Moeller. When not slaving for Daytrotter, he enjoys comics, Cheetos, and Doctor Who. And of course listening to records. If you have the time you might consider browsing his website.

Jared Drew Moody (daytrotter illustrator)

Drew, as his mama and daddy always called him, is an artist and illustrator. He lives and works in Brooklyn, in a 1920’s red brick schoolhouse in the neighborhood of Bushwick. He grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, in a town named after American pioneer Daniel Boone. Drew was the first person in his family to leave home for college. He chose the Maryland Institute, College of Art, where he received his BFA in Painting, because it had prettier girls than the other school he visited. It was on a new year’s day that he decided to leave Baltimore and move to New York; a move that has, for better or worse, proved to be a good decision so far. Visit www.jareddrewmoody.com

Casey Weldon (daytrotter illustrator)

Casey Weldon was born and raised in sunny suburban southern California. After completing college in 2004, he relocated to Las Vegas where he worked as an illustrator and Graphic Designer. He now lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his lovely girlfriend Nadia. He enjoys Goldfish crackers, stouts and IPAs, and just about anything in audio book format.
Visit www.caseyweldon.com

Chris Gregori (daytrotter illustrator)

Chris is a graphic designer and illustrator that was born and raised a 30 minute train ride away from Chicago and now lives in Denver with his fiancée Sarah and Emily the cat. In his free time you will find Chris creating postcards, eating Golden Grahams, playing drums, playing Revenge from Mars pinball, drinking beer and drawing people and animals in red striped ties. See more of his art at www.cgregori.com

Shannon Palmer (daytrotter illustrator)

Shannon Palmer likes to draw stuff. Especially people. Especially people in bands. Her illustration career started around 1981 or so, when kids in her 2nd grade class would get her to draw Snoopy or Garfield on their notebooks, and teachers asked her to draw posters to hang on the classroom walls. She spent her high school years drawing pictures of her favorite bands while the ‘cool kids’ were out somewhere drinking beer and making out. In an interesting turnaround, she spent her art school days drinking beer and making out while the ‘cool kids’ were drawing stuff. These days, 32 year old Shannon is an actual grown-up, with a husband named Randall, a six year old daughter named Riley, and a blue eyed cat named Sushi. She spends her days doing graphic design for a local newspaper, her afternoons writing about indie rock and sharing her favorite music on her mp3 blog, and her nights (you guessed it) drawing pictures of bands for daytrotter.com. To see more of her work, check out her portfolio site.

Erica Parrot (Daytrotter Illustrator)

Erica Parrott is an emerging visual artist who lives and works in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her favorite pastime is fantasizing, with Diddy Kong Racing as a close second. Visit Erica’s MySpace page or her artblog

Lindsay Preston (Daytrotter Illustrator)

Lindsay is an illustrator and graphic designer from San Diego, California, where she does some freelance work for clients like the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. Lindsay enjoys drawing things and people, riding her Centurion bike around town, making things, reading out loud, collecting records, and hearing people use phrases like “as the crow flies.” You can view more of her work at www.lindsay-preston.com.

Lisa Romero (Daytrotter Illustrator)

Lisa Romero says: “I am a freelance artist living in California’s beautiful Bay Area. I love independent music, especially folk and bluegrass, so hanging out with Daytrotter just makes perfect sense! To see more of my work, please visit my site

Victoria Scott (Daytrotter Illustrator)

I was born in 1982 and grew up in Richmond, Surrey. At the age of 5, I had decided my future career as an illustrator.
In 2004 I graduated from the University of Brighton with a BA Hons in Illustration. I’m now based in South London where I live with my boyfriend and lots of pieces of coloured card! In the last few years I have completed designs for several card companies, created illustrations for websites, T shirts and magazines as well as showing my work across the UK. My work is fashion based often with a 1920’s feel, although influences range from food, animals, humour, found images and often just pure fantasy. All my pieces have a handmade aesthetic by using a variety of materials including coloured card, paint and fabric. To maintain a certain ambiguity over the characters identities, I often represent them as silhouettes. I like my work to remain uplifting and although it sounds cheesy I like the idea that my picture has brightened up someone’s day.

Sina Sohrab (Daytrotter Illustrator)

Sina Sohrab is an eighteen year old boy-man-illustrator from Michigan. He spends most of his time deciding whether to go to RISD or Parsons in the fall and has an almost inhuman love for licorice. Also, he is down with OPP. Most of everything he makes is on www.sinasohrab.com..

Jorge Tapia is a record/art pusher from watertown(em)illinois. With his wife and 2 children he runs his record label out of his house. and with over 10 years of graphic design efforts, now works as a full time tattooist/freelance artist. i also jam in Humans. and Lazer Mountain.

ally trigg is an illustrator of adventures, mostly.  she likes to live near the ocean, make things up, and shop for sweaters.  she spends too much time wandering around.  she can drink 5 redbulls and fall asleep immediately. she draws pictures for daytrotter in her free time.  ally lives in oakland, with her husband, who also illustrates things, but with more lines and less colors.

Mark

Mark feels like the den mother of this Cub Scout pack. He keeps the site running and makes sure there’s enough bandwidth to keep those copies of Wicked Winged Things flowing. His favorite tune from all the Daytrotter Sessions so far is Erin McKeown’s rendition of Fats Waller’s Honeysuckle Rose, which should give you a clue about his age.