Wednesday night we rolled into town and grabbed some dinner at McNelis. The local magazines, like The Current, featured D-Fest on the cover and the waitress briefly asked if we were in town for the event, but other than that, things seemed pretty low key. Thursday morning was no different. As I walked through the vacant streets of Tulsa, I couldn’t get Oklahoma-based Shiny Toy Gun’s “Ghost Town” out of my head, there was just no one around and the tune seemed all to fitting. There were traces of D-Fest setting up, a few stages up here and there, but no other sign of a normal urban civilization. Extremely tired and jet lagged from traveling, we had trouble even finding a coffee shop open past 6:00 and after wandering around, aimlessly following a tip that we might find caffeine inside of an office building that still might serve us, we gave up. We called the cab, which I’m pretty sure was one of the only cabs in Tulsa, which wasn’t an exaggeration because I couldn’t count past one hand the number that I saw the whole week, and headed back to the room. I began to wonder where on earth these 60,000 anticipated festival partakers would come from.

Thursday evening we dialed our trusty cabdriver, who now had both of our cell phone numbers programmed into his phone. He picked up, graciously thanking us for using him, and headed to the Colourmusic show at the kickoff party. There was finally a crowd, all contained within the venue, but still, a crowd! When I woke up on Friday, things continued to pick up a little bit. Vendor tents began popping up and I noticed an array of signs all over town promoting a “Green” and eco-friendly Tulsa. The shows eventually started and as I had assumed, the stages brought out the people. Friday’s evening line-up of bands like Citizen Cope, Delta Spirit, and Ozomatli brought people in and EVERYONE ended up at the Black Crowes. THERE was the crowd that I had been looking for. Citizen Cope had the crowd singing along and dancing and the Crowes dished out their usual nostalgic rock ‘n roll.

Saturday, the festival continued and it was a much more crowded day. It was a stereotypical weekend of music, with the multiple stages and overlapping shows, beach balls flying through the air, funnel cakes, and giant corn dogs on a stick. The crowd was much younger today, partially due to the line-up, as bands like the Black Crowes dragged the older devotees out of the house to rock the evening prior. Plus, it wasn’t a work night, making it easier to head downtown. Blue October and Cake definitely had a more youthful and trendier draw, with the Cake crowd being the largest one that I saw all weekend.

It was easy to conclude that the people of Tulsa LOVE their music. They were so supportive of local artists. Even every underground performer that I went to see had a completely packed and very attentive audience. “Okies” were more than willing to point me in the direction of artists that “I should check out” and could not say enough about their hometown heroes such as the Flaming Lips and Leon Russell. The people of Tulsa had been talking about D-Fest for weeks and were bursting with anticipation for it to arrive. I am sure that countless hours were spent planning their weekend schedules and mapping out which artists they wanted to see. I overheard one group of fans huddled on the curb say, “OK, we’ll run and catch one song of this, then we have to be at the stage for the Cool kids and if we time it right and Joe, you run fast enough, we can then catch the end of Blue October…”

This was not your typical festival crowd. They were all so dedicated. It was hot. It was humid. They were drenched in sweat and then it even rained on Saturday. Still, every band had some sort of crowd assembled, and well before they took the stage. I didn’t experience the usual rude, drunk, and obnoxious festival feel. Even the exceptionally intoxicated found ways to be considerate and apologized profusely as they stumbled into me, and I pretty much had one guy offer to buy me a new foot after ashing on it on the patio of the Dilly Deli. In addition, I haven’t been to many shows where security actually encouraged the crowd to hit beach balls around in the audience, instead of confiscating them. The sponsors even gave them away at vendor tents. Every single person there rocked their ass off and enjoyed every living moment of the festival. I don’t think one person passed by that didn’t have a giant grin on their face, regardless of if they had the help of a ‘mood booster’ in their hand or not.

A few interesting observations: When did tie-dye become cool again? Man I don’t think I’ve worn that since 5^th grade. It was everywhere – t-shirts, for sale at vendor stands, there were even I heart Tulsa tie-dyed tank tops at the airport. The hula-hoops were out in full force, but I expected that. I saw a tent trying to sell “Okie Hoops” for a steep $25, but hey, if it’s made in Oklahoma…. Many of the concert attendees were exceptionally fashion forward. Girls wore sundresses and guys clearly spent time planning out their ‘rocker’ attire. There were, of course, the usual festival ‘strange.’ Those desperately seeking attention eagerly chucked themselves in front of our cameras BEGGING for their picture to be taken, which I found amusing because 99% of them did that without even inquiring about where these photos might be displayed. There was a girl that walked by with stretched earlobes and q-tip bouquets coming out of both ears, a guy painted head to toe in a glowing neon green, people dressed as robots, hipsters, rockers of the baby boomer era…definitely the entire array of the spectrum. One drunk kid told me that, “He was here for great music” and then paused and continued with, “There are lotsa ladies here too.” One girl at the Cool Kids flirted her way into the press pit by eventually wearing down a blushing security guard who gave in and let her stand there. I could have watched the crowd for hours, in fact, I’m pretty sure if I added up the time, I did.

Tulsa’s D-Fest may be a much smaller scale than something like a Coachella or Bonnaroo, but I really feel that the attendees probably appreciated the music more than those at the larger festivals, and without that arrogant Coachella or Lollapalooza attitude. D-Fest simply had this raw and organic feel to it. It is definitely an event of the community and locals are extremely proud to support it. The fans knew the words to EVERY song, from the Black Crowes, who are notorious for omitting singles and radio friendly material from their set, to the rapid-fire rhymes of the Cool Kids. People were really here for just the music, OK maybe a few to get laid, but mostly…for the music.

Words by Nicole Jones, photos by Sidney McMullen

Thursday night after walking out of the D-Fest kickoff party, I felt like I had entered one of those scenes in a musical where people randomly burst into song and dance on a street corner. A crowd of people had formed and was dancing circles around a man playing a very elaborately constructed homemade drum kit. This wasn’t just a drum and some sticks; this was a very intricate creation consisting of a wooden frame, pots, pans, buckets, cymbals and a kick drum, made entirely of household items. The crowd was instantaneously captured by his beat and he seemed to secure additional hostages as more and more people spilled out of the venue, seeking out some after hours entertainment. It was a picture-perfect, and almost choreographed scene: a girl holding her shoes in her hand yelled “You gotta dance people” to everyone that walked by and one guy got so lost in his ‘moves’ that he rolled his ankle in the process. The “T-Town” trolley rattled thru the streets and passengers cheered as they passed by. As our street corner friend drummed away, people drew on the ground with sidewalk chalk, scribbling all kinds of messages and imaginative images. Before I jumped into my cab, I looked over my shoulder and noticed a hopscotch had been drawn and those that had moved on from dancing had transitioned into hopping thru their own personal Alice and Wonderland.

Friday and Saturday, that same one-man-drum-show popped up at various points throughout Tulsa’s Blue Dome District. He always caused a crowd to stop and huddle around him, and he inspired many just passing by to dance to their destinations. One local that I spoke with mentioned he had seen the drummer performing several times in the streets of D-Fest and that one of those days, a guy jumped in and freestyle rapped along with his drumming.

Saturday afternoon, while walking downtown, I picked up the trail of an inviting tribal beat, which seemed to be bouncing off of the tallest of the downtown buildings and projecting into the streets of Tulsa. A drum circle had formed in the courtyard of the Crown Plaza Hotel, where many of the artists and industry affiliates of D-Fest were staying for the week.

The scene unfolded in the quad, surrounded by vibrant green grass and the BOK building soaring in the background. People knelt down straddling their drums or held them in their laps. A female participant had taken the seat off of her bike and plopped it down in the grass, to act as her chair. After they were all securely positioned, one person would start a beat, usually the guy playing the clave, and all the others would join in unison. At times, someone would change up the entire direction of the sound, which would cause the others to follow suit. Occasionally, the drumming would stop and a random person in the circle would chant or call out a “Woo-hoo,” “D-Fest,” or “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah,” which would start them all back up again, with a rejuvenated gusto.

To say the circle was diverse, would not do it full justice. There was an older lady, a guy in a cowboy hat and a wife beater, and there were those tie-dye shirts again. A guy in a rainbow top chased after his tiny puppy that had broken free of the leash as girls hula hooped along the stone patio. An overly excited passerby snatched up a hula-hoop and yelled out, “Am I a failure?” as it hit the floor. There were drums of all different shapes and sizes, very serious drummers, such as the girl with tape on her palms and fingers, and obvious amateurs. Regardless of size or ability, all were openly accepted.

They drummed until they worked up a sweat, and then took an occasional break, which didn’t last long. It was obvious from the packed coolers and nearby water bottles that they were planning on gracing the courtyard with their presence until the sunset took back their light.

Words by Nicole Jones, photos by Sidney McMullen

Sunday morning, we woke up to the once again empty streets of downtown Tulsa. It would have been nearly impossible to detect any trace of the crowd, if it wasn’t for them tipping the streets with their leftovers: ticket stubs, ripped off bracelets, beer bottles, etc… After the whirlwind of participating in the urban chaos that was D-Fest, a taste of the countryside, tall grass, prairies, and the emerald rolling hills of Oklahoma, sounded like a delightful and much needed retreat. And how about some bison? When is the last time you drove your car down a gravel road and had to pause to let a few of those boldly cross in front? I had to see it to believe it, so we jumped in a car and headed to the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve.

Driving the hour and a half out towards the prairie, we pulled off on the side of the road to a local Indian reservation with a giant: “No Trespassing” sign. As if that really kept us from running through a field, mounting a giant bale of hay, and experiencing the freedom of the outdoors. Continuing along the way, we passed by fields of tall grass, a picture perfect reminisce of several Van Gogh paintings, and blue and fluffy white clouded skies. Approaching the reserve, a truck blew past and snapped me out of my state of Zen as it kicked a trail of dust up into the air, eliminating visibility for a solid minute and a half and shifting my entire sense of trust in the direction of our fearless driver. When the dust cleared, we had driven past a “BISON ARE DANGEROUS – KEEP YOUR DISTANCE” sign and were officially inside of the prairie. From that point on, it became an instant game of “Where’s Waldo” and everyone was scanning the empty fields for bison. We saw a lot of grass, if that counted for anything. Finally, after following the signs to the visitor’s center, we spotted chocolate brown dots strategically painted upon the green canvas…a giant heard of bison, and they were everywhere!

We stopped and took in this sight for a while and it was pretty surreal, very far from anything you’d experience in the city. There were countless clusters of bison and even newborn babies; apparently the light colored cinnamon ones are less than 90 days old and won’t hit that mocha hue until they reach a month and a half in age. The brute alpha males were slightly more intimidating, and we gladly yielded as they scuffed past our tiny helpless car and darted across to graze.

We found volunteer, Mark Manuel, on the porch of the red barn-like visitor’s center. Just like Mr. Rogers and his neighbors, Mark was eager to invite us into his ‘home’ and show us around the center. We learned that tallgrass prairies originally spanned portions of 14 states and covered 142 million acres, serving as one of North America’s major ecosystems. Today, there are fewer than 10% of those prairies left. In an effort to preserve what little remains, the Nature Conservatory organization purchased the 29,000 acre Barnard Ranch as the cornerstone of the current 38,700 acre Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, whose mission is to “recreate a functioning tallgrass prairie ecosystem using fire and bison. “This was never plowed,” explained Mark. “It was easier to get back to the full nature where we haven’t had that much impact as a human race out here. So we’re trying to get it where all the animals flourish and do their thing and nature has it’s way with the world.”

Inside the center, located about 10 – 15 miles out from the border of Kansas, Mark taught us all kinds of interesting things about the prairie. “The grasses that make the tallgrass grow 10 to 12 feet tall, if it’s not burned or grazed. It will get that high every fall. Because it wasn’t plowed, we still have it here. Kansas, Iowa, all those places used to have the same grasses. Millions of bison would go across the land, feed, and spread the seeds, but in our infinite wisdom, we destroyed almost all of them. We got down to about 500 head in the United States back in the 1800s. Now I think the bison herds are probably about a half a million to three quarters of a million head now. Mark went on to explain the bison all breed naturally in the wild and rarely come into contact with volunteers at the center: “It’s all self done. We don’t try to do any artificial breeding or anything like that. We don’t bother them, except once a year when we have to do the roundup. We have to play predator; there’s no wolves out here, there’s no bear out here anymore, or big cats, which bison are their food supply. So we’ll take and sell heifers that are over 13 years old, males that are over 7 years old, the males don’t have their full weight. They’ll be about 1,800 pounds. The females are about 1,400.”

The gift shop sold everything bison: from cookie cutters to stuffed animals. You could even purchase the different types of grass seeds that make up the tallgrass prairie. Apparently, western Oklahoma is made up of more short grass prairies and “Little Bluestem” grass. The most prominent grass in this tallgrass prairie was “Big Bluestem.” The conservatory center had skulls from various animals to touch and there was even a case, acting as a Vanna White to the different types of animal ‘droppings’ that you might find in the park.

Mark says the preserve attracts visitors from all over. He recently had a guy from Moscow fly into Oklahoma just to spend a day at the center. There are many studies done each year at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve and nature conservation efforts are always in effect. Having volunteered with the center since 2005, Mark comes in at least once a month to get away from the city. “You don’t hear the sirens, you don’t hear traffic, you meet a lot of nice people out here.” He grew up on a ranch and is a huge fan of bison. The fun facts kept pouring out, such as, “Did you know they can jump 6 feet? Imagine something weighing 1,400 pounds lifting itself that far off the ground!”

As we drove away, we discussed the details of our crazy weekend and how we would have never survived the almost 24-hour days without a steady supply of cappuccinos, lattes, and Red Bull and vodkas. As our driver Stephen Lassiter, listened intently to our words, he chimed in and concluded with: “It’s not Red Bull, it’s Red Bison,” to which all I could do was roll my eyes, but secretly I did chuckle inside.

Words by Nicole Pajer, photos by Sidney McMullen

Diversafest (D-Fest), aka Oklahoma’s Music Conference and Festival, is an annual event with a primary focus of “promoting and empowering emerging artist from around the United States.” The annual event, which takes place in the streets of downtown Tulsa OK, features independent and emerging artists. In addition to the budding stars, the evenings of the two-day festival are topped off with well-known headliners, in an attempt to draw out the large and energetic crowds that are stereotypical of festivals.

D-Fest is the brainchild of Tom Green and his wife, Angie De-Vore Green. Back in 2002, Tom and Angie were looking for a way to bring some attention to their band Ultrafix. In an effort to gain voting support from fans and to ultimately win a Jim Beam/Rolling Stone Magazine Best Unsigned Band contest, they decided to round up some local bands and throw together a small festival downtown. The Green’s successfully booked 12 bands, however, the rain also RSVPed for the event and only about 150 people ventured out to attend. Aside from the smaller than expected turnout, Ultrafix did in fact win the contest. Those 150 fans must have really enjoyed themselves, as the Green’s began receiving requests to hold the event again, eventually deciding to make it an annual ordeal that took place in Tulsa’s Boston District up until 2006.

The festival began to exceed expectations and grew year over year, continuously increasing the amount of artists and fans in attendance. In 2007, the location moved from 18^th and Boston to the Blue Dome District, as the area was more conducive to the multi-venue format that D-Fest was rapidly transitioning into. The 2009 version took place on July 24-25 and festival organizers predicted this year’s D-Fest to be the most successful to date, with the two-day combined crowd expectancy of around 60,000 attendees. This year featured bands such as: Cake, Blue October, The Black Crowes, Rooney, Mates of State, Bassnectar, The Cool Kids, RaRa Riot, The Knux, Citizen Cope, Ozomatli, Gogol Bordello, Dusty Rhodes and the River Band, etc… Many other bands and local artists also made an appearance, summing to around 164 acts in total.

In addition to showcasing deserving local artists and obtaining some recognition that it deserves, downtown Tulsa really thrives economically from hosting this annual event. A lot of new businesses have been built up from the success of D-Fest and many of the bars, shops, and restaurants that we visited in town were less than three years old. Tulsa is very beautiful city with stunning buildings and very modern dwellings. Perceived by the unknowing as a small rural town, it is home to some of the most up-to-date architecture, an example being the BOK Tower, which is modeled after the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Tulsa is also known as one of the Art Deco capitols of the United States. Along with recent construction, Tulsa has also maintained some of its older historical character. The Blue Dome District, for example, houses an actual piece of the original Blue Dome Gulf Oil Station, which was built in 1924. The Blue Dome is planted right in the center of the district of downtown that holds D-Fest each year and has become an emblem for the area.

Tulsa resident, Stephen Lassiter, talks about how much Tulsa has grown up since he has lived here: “Not long ago downtown was a dead place with maybe one or two venues to see bands, but it wasn’t typically a place where people casually went to hang out with friends and drink. I remember driving through the Blue Dome District in the late 90s, and it was really just a vast wasteland of vacant buildings in disrepair. But over the last few years, the Blue Dome District and downtown Tulsa have really come to life with bars and restaurants. It really feels like the city is morphing into something exciting that we can really be proud of.“ Stephen goes on to explain how many people are starting to trickle into Tulsa to attend concerts and festivals such as D-Fest. “Downtown is changing. We have a new minor league ballpark scheduled to open next year. The new BOK Center arena is drawing big-name acts like Paul McCartney, AC/DC, Metallica, Elton John/Billy Joel, Aerosmith and Bruce Springsteen. Big name acts used to pass us by all the time. It seems like for the first time, we have people driving to Tulsa from Dallas and Kansas City for concerts instead of the other way around.“

History lesson aside, D-Fest is a killer festival. Featuring emerging new talent to crowd-drawing headliners, combined with all the big-festival madness, this emerging humble town caught ChinaShop’s attention and couldn’t go uncovered.

D-Fest 2010 here we come!

Words by Nicole Pajer, photos by Sidney McMullen

I don’t always agree with the saying, “opposites attract,” but how could you not after watching The Cool Kid’s perform on Saturday night at D-Fest? First, we had Chuck Inglish, wearing a t-shirt, jeans tucked into high top sneakers, “Live 95” hanging down from around his neck, and a Chicago Cubs baseball hat. Then, we had Mikey Rocks, who rapped the whole set with his right sneaker untied, whether or not it was to his knowledge remains a mystery, dressed in a blue polo shirt, cargo shorts, and a Chicago Sox hat. After watching the set, it was nonnegotiable that Mikey and Chuck may have different styles but definitely jive very well together where it counts, and that would be the rap arena. The duo arrived on stage and immediately snatched up the attention of the crowd with lyrics like: “Cool Kids drop it like we put it in the water.”

Prior to the show, Mikey and Chuck took a break to sit down with ChinaShop and we kicked around a few topics such as how they are currently perfecting their 3^rd “first” album.

Are you guys excited about playing D-Fest?

Mikey: It’s hot outside.

Chuck: Not too much. I’m not overly excited to do it because you want to be excited about the majority of the shit you do, doing songs and performing.

Have you been doing a lot of festivals?

Mikey: Last year was all festivals. A lot of summertime gigs.

Chuck: We did like 210 to 215 shows last year. This year we probably did like 20 or 30.

Mikey: We’re making music.

Tell me about some of the collaborations that you’ve done so far?

Chuck: The only collaboration that I think recently that we’ve done is Travis Barker and no one knows that yet. For the most part, everything else has been a remix. I don’t know that much about us to be perfectly honest with you. I do it and then people tell me what we did after that.

So is the stuff you did for Travis Barker for your album?

Mikey: No, it’s for his.

Chuck: We went down and did this track and Travis will probably take it and throw his magic on it.

Is there anybody that you guys would like to collaborate with in the future?

Chuck: I never really thought about it.

Mikey: We’re already collaborating with each other so it’s kinda all you need right now. Throwing too many other people in the mix, unless it makes perfect sense… We’re not really looking for that right now.

Chuck: I mean we’ve been collaborating with musicians. For this album, I’m really trying to display a lot of different things…instead of building hip-hop tracks, building music tracks…you know. I’ve worked with some trumpet players, keyboardists, really good musicians. I am going about it the old way. Obviously no one can advance what has happened so far. It seems like hip-hop has taken on a back seat as far as credible music to the rest of the music world. That don’t sit too well to me so I’m just gonna go apeshit and make some crazy shit. It’s not even a hopefully. I know we will have it. I just don’t see vocal collaborations really helping us out.

You have a lot of music that’s been placed in the media: a couple of video games and a song on Entourage. Has that done a lot for your career?

Mikey: Steppin’ Stones…especially when it’s stuff that you’re into. When it’s something that you actually do, you know it makes it a little bit cooler. We have songs on games that we actually play and on shows that we actually watch.

Chuck: Usually they step to us and they’re like, “I like this song, let’s do something with it.” It’s always a cool situation because we made the song not geared towards that and they still want it for that reason.

Tell me about the new album you are working on?

Chuck: We’re working on our first album, our first full length. We’ve hit some bumps in the road, you know whenever you do stuff on your own, it’s a little bit…we’re still trying to iron it out. We’ve made 2 first albums already and sometimes the expiration date on the content in the sound will start progressing and you think that shit is old, so we’ve scraped like two. This one is a little different. I’m not trying to capture a time period. I’m just trying to make stuff that everybody had already liked. Not just from us but sounds that people dance to and instruments that people really groove with.

Tell me about opening for M.I.A.?

Mikey: It was our first tour man. It was exciting. We got to ride on a tour bus for the first time. It was cool man. It was a part of us getting where we are now. It was fun.

Chuck: That tour is kind of a faint memory. I don’t remember too much about it (laughs).

Mikey: I would do it all over again.

Chuck: In life I would do it. I’m not trying to do that shit again now. There was too much of shit you didn’t know that you had to learn. Like you had to learn that you don’t wanna go back to the hotel 30 minutes before you got to leave because you gotta still pack your shit and packing your shit ‘f*cked up is really really bad. It’s probably the least fun thing.

Have you ever forgotten anything packing up under those circumstances?

Mike: Hell yeah! I’ve multiple things. I’ve forgotten shoes, clothes, phones.

Chuck: We did a festival in LA on my 23^rd birthday, probably one of the worst nights…best times, but worst after effects of my life. We went to the airport at 7:00 and left the party at 6:00AM and we missed our flight and we were f*cked up on the plane going back to do another show right when we landed. That’s what I learned my lesson that maybe this shit isn’t for me. Maybe I should just go back to my hotel room and go to sleep after this (laughs).

Mikey: But you gotta go through thought it to learn.

They may still be learning the rules of the road, but from what I saw on stage Saturday, combined with the audience’s reaction to their show, and their determination to release a flawless debut album, the Cool Kids may just be what the hip-hop scene has been desperately looking for.

Words by Nicole Pajer, photos by Sidney McMullen

Have you ever ridden your bike to the bar? I’m not talking about your Harley; I’m talking about your Trek or Schwinn. Many people do at Tulsa’s Soundpony, where it is not uncommon to see bicycles chained up outside the old brick dwelling which ironically has a parking lot next door that is blocked off with a “No Parking” sign chained across. Many of the locals in Tulsa told us about this homely little dive and we made a point to check it out. As we walked down the quiet street and located the bar, which is next door to the legendary Cain’s Ballroom, a lady on a bicycle went cruising down the middle of road, as if almost on cue.

I have to tell you, I walked in and the place just instantly adopts you as its second home; it has so much character and heart. The outside door of the bar showcases the official Soundpony logo, which is a horse with a megaphone at the end of its mouth, and below, the operating hours are described as “3ish – close.” To the left of the door, “Soundpony” is wreathed upon the wall and written in sod. Behind the bar is yellowed brick, and the other walls in the bar are orange and yellow. Every single intricate detail of the bar has some sort of cycling theme to it. There is a bike tire hanging from the ceiling with a disco ball trickling down, bike uniforms and ‘kits’ all over the top of the bar, cycling pictures gracing the walls, and bike handlebars at your feet. Above the couch to the right, is a 2008 Tulsa Trails and Bikeways poster, highlighting all the biking trails in the area. The back of the bar has a long wooden bench and old school joystick Donkey Kong and Galaga games, with a Ms. Packman to the side. There is no smoking allowed inside the establishment, in an effort to promote heath, but a cozy smoker’s patio is out the back door.

Co-owner Mike Wozniak has run Soundpony for the past three years and gave us a little history on the bar. “We are obvious cycling enthusiasts. We felt like sometimes Tulsa is behind the times and this is kind of a way to bring people up to speed and teach people about alternate transport.” Mike goes on to explain that they also race bikes, sponsor bike teams, and have bands perform in the bar. “This is a part of town that needs some revitalization. It’s kind of a dead part. Cain’s historic ballroom is next door and right along Route 66, so we get a lot of traffic in here due to that,” explains Mike.

As far as music, Mike is a big supporter of many local artists. He says that many of the bands that are playing D-Fest have played at Soundpony. They play a lot of different music in the bar and are known for spinning vinyl and have a decent sized record collection. “We play everything,” says Mike. “CSS – that’s a dancie album that we play a lot, Nation of Ulysses, Blue Reed…”

Mike told us that the bar attracts a lot of scensters, but we found it to be the case that many locals are also fairly addicted to the magical atmosphere of Soundpony. Everyone that we talked to had so much pride for the bar and was overly exited to show us every little detail, while praising Mike relentlessly. “This is the coolest bar in Tulsa,“ states regular Scott Craig. “Mike has not only created a bar, but created a brand and a culture.” Sitting at the end of the bar was former welder, Roger Condrey, who was responsible for constructing the sign out front of a bicycle coming thru the top of the brick dwelling with “Soundpony” hanging below. In addition to the sign, Roger has also contributed a chair made of bike parts, and a ramp out back. Roger says, “What the bar is doing for the community is great. “ He now rides his bike to work and didn’t used to.

The bar really engages the people. Mike got on the microphone at one point and welcomed everyone to “Happy Hour Q&A time.” The guest that got the question correct earned a ‘shitty prize’ from a box of random stuff. Today’s prize was a piece of an old belt buckle and a random t-shirt. Scott Craig told us that there is also a $40 Guinness glass jar that holds an obnoxious amount of Guinness. “If you drink it in under an hour, it’s free but pretty much impossible.” In addition to their interactive happy hours, the bar also sponsors pub-crawls and cycling teams.

Soundpony serves a variety of beers, boxed-wine, and liquors. There is a very unique beer tap that is made out of a bike petal that says “Soundpony Specialized for $1,” which happens to be Miller High Life. There is a hotdog machine spinning franks in the back of the bar, as happy hour includes free hotdogs, however, that’s not the only reason for the machine. There is a shot that is unique to this bar which is made out of a hot dog that is cut in half, hollowed out, and filled with, of all things, blackberry brandy. “It’s the Soundpony signature shot,” Mike explains. “It’s kind of a birthday thing. It’s pretty gnarly.”

Mike made us feel right at home. He even put an empty Budweiser can to his ear and said, “If you girl’s miss LA, you can hear the ocean in here.” The first drink that he poured us as a Marshall Wheat, which is a local beer. The second drink was one that patron Scott Craig insisted we order, a Franziskaner, and the third…well, let’s just say it was a terrible idea to suggest for Mike to make the famous hotdog shot for someone in the bar to take so that we could snap a photo, because he agreed, but then mischievously plopped one down in front of each of us. The entire Soundpony community gathered around to encourage us and the pressure was on. I felt as if it was part of our initiation into Soundpony so I grabbed the greasy hotdog skin, put it to my lips, and well, there is a video floating around somewhere on You Tube by now, I’m sure, if you really want to know the rest of the details.

“It’s our shitty little bar,” states Mike. “We seem to be almost a liberal outpost in conservative Tulsa. I have a partner and we maybe work like 20 – 25 hours a week and ride a lot of bikes and that’s beautiful. I tell people, it’s not money. It’s lifestyle, and I’m richer because of my lifestyle.”

Soundpony – 409 N. Main, Tulsa, OK
(918) 582-PONY (7669)

Mary Beth Babcock is the proud owner of Dwelling Spaces, a jewel in the heart of downtown Tulsa. The store will have graced the streets of the Blue Dome District with its presence for almost 3 years this coming August according to Mary Beth, who remembers the day that she stumbled upon the building. “I remember coming in and it was rough and dirt everywhere. I told the landlord, I have a vision.”

Dwelling Spaces is known for it’s unique merchandise and events that unite the town thru supporting local music and artists. The store has gatherings every month featuring DJs, local artists, and art shows. “We just have little restaurants around here cater the events and try to keep things creative,” explains Mary Beth.

They just recently had an interesting appearance by a local artist named Chris Wollard. Mary Beth described the evening more in detail, “We just had this thing called Build-A-Bot with this local metal sculpture and he makes robots. He just did that big tiki and the samurai and those little silver guys up all over the counter (points to some of artist Chris Wollard’s work).” She goes on to explain about another upcoming event, “We’re getting ready to have something really big next month, an artist, his name is Joe Andoe. He’s from Tulsa but lives in New York. He sells his pieces to like Steven Spielberg, Ralph Lauren. His stuff’s in Architectural Digest but he has agreed to hand paint 100 t-shirts and sign and number each one of them and they’ll be $100 each. All the money will go back to this thing called the Tulsa Girls Art School. It’s a school that this local artist has put together for girls that may not be in the most positive environment. So it helps boost their self-esteem. We have the potential to raise $20,000. “

While we were in the store, Jay Lashley of the band Western Heritage stopped by with a camera crew. Jay is currently filming footage for an upcoming reality show that he will be starring in which is based around a recording studio and features two producers, two artists, and possibly a talking dog. Western Heritage is playing D-Fest on Friday but considered Dwelling Spaces to be the perfect venue to do some pre-performance taping. Jay is a six foot four redhead who dresses like a rapper and is definitely ‘made-for-reality-TV’ material.

Dwelling Spaces sells a collection of intriguing “funtire, accessories, gifts,” and pieces from local Oklahoma artists. Cuddle Monsters, which were featured in Oklahoma Today, are the creation of employee Ashley Carver. These little creatures resemble shapes such as the state of Oklahoma and are constructed from felt made from 100% post consumer materials like recycled plastic bottles. Near the cash register is a case of buttons proudly boasting “Dome is where the art is” and “Dome sweet dome.” On a table near the back of the store is a stack of books from the Oklahoma History Center, showcasing the many prestigious musicians to come out of the state, such as the Flaming Lips, Hanson, and Leon Russell. Dog clothes with “Don’t Hate the 918” scribbled across the front and rings made of antique buttons are a few of the other noteworthy items gracing the shelves of Dwelling Spaces. When asked about the best selling items in the store, Mary Beth said those would have to be the T-Shirts that read, “I love Tulsa” and “Okie Grown” which the locals purchase and proudly wear. “There is a weird energy going on in Oklahoma, I never realized how proud everyone is. It’s like yeah we’re from Oklahoma,” states Mary Beth.

Mary Beth did not envision the store becoming such a crucial part of Tulsa culture when she first opened it. Eventually, though, it just seemed logical to vend art from local dealers and to host events to support them. “We have a festival down here called the Blue Dome Art’s Festival and I just kept getting exposed to more and more local arts. I mean, I still like to go to New York to market but if I can get some stuff that is just as cool, I might as well mix it. So I try to keep the local but bring in LA and New York and Italy.” She finds her local artists by word-of-mouth, thru store pop-ins, or by stumbling upon them at art shows. Mary Beth makes sure, however, that she really likes the merchandise before agreeing to sell it within the confines of Dwelling Spaces. “It’s one of those things where I have to love it to do it. It’s hard to sell something that you really don’t believe in.”

An avid music fan herself, Mary Beth explains that she listens to “every style you could imagine” and some of her favorites are Ella Fitzgerald, Elvis Costello, and the Avett Brothers. She is looking forward to this year’s D-Fest and the performance by Cake, as well as some of the local artists. “The music that comes out of Oklahoma just blows me away when you start to hear the names.” In addition to the anticipation of the music, D-Fest brings a tremendous amount of traffic into the store and this year Mary Beth is prepared for the crowds and all the chaos. “Each year I’ve learned you need more people on staff. One year we had a guy run out with a stack of Oklahoma t-shirts. We had a guy chase him down and fortunately we got them back.”

Words by Nicole Pajer, photos by Sidney McMullen

Dwelling Spaces:  119 S. Detroit Ave, Tulsa, OK 74120 (918.582.1033)

You never know what to expect when you are standing in front of a stage waiting for Colourmusic to come out.  The band has been known for putting on some extremely wacky live shows, from wearing dresses and acting out roles of kooky family members to allowing audiences to paint them on stage.  The inspiration behind their music is just as out-of-the-box as their live show, with color being the force that drives and inspires them.  They are big supporters of Isaac Newton’s Theory of Color and Sound and each of their songs represents a particular color.  Hailing from the college town of Stillwater, the band has played D-Fest the past 3 years, is a frequent performer at South by Southwest, and has toured around the Midwest.

According to the band, the current goal is to focus more on the music and to tone down the theatrics of their stage shows, however, yesterday’s set at the official D-Fest Kick off party definitely did not leave audiences visually disappointed.  Colourmusic took the stage for their 11:00pm show at Tulsa’s Blank Slate, on a stage covered floor-to-ceiling in multi-colored streamers, with shiny metallic paper lining the back wall.  Ryan fiercely belted out a rainbow of lyrics while poking his head through decorations and it was humorous to watch Colin tear down pieces of streamers at various times throughout the set that were obstructing him from reaching his pedals.

China Shop was able to round up Ryan, Nick, and Colin from Colourmusic for a quick Q&A before they went to prepare for their set.

Are you guys excited to play D-Fest?

Ryan: D-Fest is awesome.  It’s a really fun festival.  It’s like a micro South by Southwest.  You get people like going all out, especially the bands locally.  Honestly I think the best bands are the local bands because they all just have hard-ons and are just ready to go all the way.  And people really have a good time out here.  You see a lot of drunk “Okies.”

Nick: It’s always a good time down here.  It gets bigger every year too.

Do you play it every year?

Colin: Well, 3 year’s now.  Ever since we’ve been a band.  This is our 4^th year.

So tell me about this whole color inspiration thing?

Ryan: Well we wanted to have a sort of program so every time we worked on a new album we had to change the emotional vibe of it.  It was something that we always thought.  Every great band has always been able to find ways to change who they are and have a different element and this was our way of doing that.  It’s been a really successful way for us because by changing the color and the emotional feel of the record, it kinda gives us a producer without having to pay for a producer.  What we’ll do is we’ll sit and talk about what we were thinking, what it sounds like.  We might reference artists, we might reference sounds, we might reference lyrics, something like that…kinda create a shape of what we wanted to do and it really works.  I mean no one knows it really works, but we do.  Our second album though is off the chart.

Nick: Totally different genre from our first record.

So you have 2 EPs, called Red and Yellow…

Ryan: Yeah, well we self released those.  Technically we have an album out and it’s called, are you ready for this? F Monday Orange February Venus Lunatic 1 or 13.  We were just kind of parodying sort of the old enlightenment clockwork idea of the Universe, which is like a mechanical clock, and so you had all these sort of systems in place and all those systems sort of equated to each other.  So you have like color systems and time systems and music systems, because they are all like 7 and 12’s, so it’s the second of all those: orange is the second color…red, orange, Monday, Tuesday, …well I guess it’s Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.  We kinda changed it how we felt they were supposed to be. You know 1:00, 13…Lunacy is the second of seven Greek emotions.  The color thing, Isaac Newtown said it.  Actually he said D was the first note because of the wave-form.  I don’t know what he’s talking about though.  It’s not like he studied it.  It’s kind of a thing we sort of used to be funny.  It’s not science. Which is why it didn’t work.  The Clockwork view of the Universe did not work.  We all accept that now.

So you guys have a pretty notorious stage show.  I’ve heard of workout shows, you’ve had audience members paint you…?

Colin: That was actually our first D-Fest show.

Nick: We were getting on stage; the sound guys were really freaking out because we were throwing down clear plastic stuff so we wouldn’t get paint on their gear.

Ryan: Yeah that was really ballsy when I think about it.

Nick: Yeah it’s like we just got up there and did that and were like “Oh it’s no big deal, we just won’t tell them about it.”  Luckily we covered the stage well enough.

Ryan: And they liked us.

Nick: They were like “At least they brought the tarps”

Ryan: We’re considerate boys.

Tell me about these family shows where people come out in dresses and you act all this stuff out…

Colin: I was the slutty daughter and he (Ryan) was the mom.

Nick: I was obsessed with the daughter because I was the creepy uncle.

Ryan: And I made cookies the shape of David Duchovny’s head and was giving them to people.

So I hear that you describe yourselves as “hardcore with a little Oklahoma sex rock.”   Is that a standard description or something that just came out of an interview once that stuck with you guys?

Nick: I only said it just because we were annoyed when people would ask us what we sounded like.  We used to hand out flyers a lot and some people would be like “OK cool, what do you sound like?” and what do you say to someone to get them to come to a show? I figured just say something kinda smart ass back to them and then you don’t have to worry about it anymore.

So you guys opened for the Flaming Lips at a past D-Fest?

Nick: Yes and we opened for Helmet last year actually.

Ryan: Flaming Lips were great.  The problem with the Flaming Lips is their live show is just so super-fantastic that nobody remembers that you played.

Nick: They kind of erase you.

Ryan: And we put on a really big show, for us.  We had like stage performers and people dancing around in costumes.

Colin: We went crazy.

What did you do on stage at that one?

Ryan: I don’t really know.  We had like 15 people with us.  It was like we’d play a red song and we’d play a yellow song and we’d have like a red creature and it would come out and do weird things.

Nick: Then we had some cowboys I think.

Colin: It was really absurd.  It was like we kinda just threw everything we could think of …

Have you ever tried anything on stage concept wise that didn’t really work that you kind of had to abort halfway thru?

Colin: I can think of one.

Nick: I was ready to not be in a band after that.

Ryan: We were making fun of romantic gurus so we had our drummer making speeches about rules of courtship and everything he said was very misogynistic and so we were acting it out on stage and Oh my God.  It was just terrible.

Nick: Part of it was he would never help us with the other shows.  He would just show up day of and want to change everything.  So we were like, “This is your show, you do everything” and it totally backfired on us.

Ryan: And the other reason that show was not very good was because a couple of days before, we put on the biggest show we had ever done at Eskimo Joe’s.  For half a set, our guitarist was in a casket.  Our British member was dead.

Nick: He hadn’t gotten back yet and nobody knew he was back in town yet, so we did it as his funeral…synched it up to where he was playing from Heaven and there was this TV above us.  So then like midway thru the set, we asked him if he could ask God to come back down and play with us.  So then he comes out of the casket and plays with us.

What do you guys have planned for tonight?

Ryan: Nothing excessive.  We’re going to rock our balls off.

That sounds excessive!

(Band laughs)

Ryan: We were doing a lot of shows like that.  I think South by Southwest was the very first show we did when we just played.  It felt really really good just to play and not worry about this other stuff.  So we’ve just kind of gone into that direction as a band.  We love it.

Colin: I mean the music speaks for itself now rather than saying we have to do something else to make sure that people are enjoying themselves.

Nick: I think that’s still important but…

Ryan: We want to put stuff on. We want to it to be interesting outside of just the music so it’ s the full experience, but you know, I just don’t think it’s important to emphasis that over the music itself.  Because to be honest, you go watch these huge bands that have all this stuff going on onstage and even though the show is entertaining and it feels fulfilling, it kinda lacks heart.  In the end, you kinda feel like you are watching TV.

So you’re working on a new album.  How is it different from your previous work?

Nick: Completely different in every way.

Ryan: I mean, it’s pink.

Colin: The first album kind of had a child’s feel to it.  This one is more like child rape.

(Band laughs hysterically)

Nick: It’s just really different.  It’s pink.  We think of it as being really nasty and more indulgent.

Ryan: Musically it just hits you a lot more than the first record.  Pink is the inspiration and it will have a different album cover but will have a different name.

What is the plan for after the new record comes out?

Ryan: Our goal is just to get bigger.  Basically if we can write the records we want to write and keep pursing sort of a different music path and to keep growing.