Introducing Eight Track v3.0

I assure you that during the NEXT Eight Track you will receive all necessary updates via text message, and by Eight Track 5 I will be in everyone’s living room, via hologram, encouraging your voting paw to find its way to RVANews.com.

November 7, 2008; 8:00 AM • by Matthew E. White

Ladies and gentleman, I am happy to announce the imminent appearance of the Eight Track v3.0 (and by imminent, I mean Monday). If we were a bit smarter over here there’s no doubt that we would have pushed this voter-centric extravaganza of ours during the election cycle. Obvs, we have a way to go in our planning and administration skills, but I assure you that during the NEXT Eight Track you will receive all necessary updates via text message, and by Eight Track 5 I will be in everyone’s living room, via hologram, encouraging your voting paw to find its way to RVANews.com.

If you are unfamiliar with how the Eight Track works I will attach the basic rules to the bottom of this article. More or less, it is a Richmond-centered song competition, albeit a playful one. There are, however, some key changes this time that I would like to highlight…

First and foremost I will not be curating this event from the back of a touring van. Although that is an ideal place for a handful of activities, it is not the ideal place to handle the delicate work that the Eight Track requires. I, for one, am excited about that, but please brace your face and space inboxes for the promotional whirlwind that comes with my more static residence.

Secondly, instead of tracking down sixteen different artists, which, believe me, tests my organizational prowess, I have come up with a new strategy that not only decreases my workload but will energize voters and excite the constituency. It’s something like that Tom Sawyer whitewashing the fence trick. I have invited three local labels, Triple Stamp Records, Pop Faction Records, and Concice Records to submit four tracks from their respective catalogs. Those, plus a track from each of the top four finishers in the last Eight Track, round out the 16 tracks that we need to move forward. In addition to the Eight Track’s already superior coverage, I will be including a feature on each label over the course of the Eight Track’s glorious four week run.

ALSO, if you haven’t already picked up on this using your accomplished local music scene intellect, 8Tv3.0 will, thanks to Concice Records, feature a healthy and certainly appropriate dose of hip-hop/rap. This is notable as, not only has this lacked from our previous selection, but Ross has been yelling at me across the room to include some damn hip hop for weeks. Also, I am stoked to have increasing diversity in our stable of artists (read: I’m excited about having Black rapper dudes amongst our pasty white indie rockers dudes).

So, in conclusion. Eight Track begins Monday. It will feature songs from Concice Records, Triple Stamp Records, and Pop Faction Records, as well as giving our previous top four vote-getters a chance to defend their honor and slay our minds with new tunes of their own device. If you are ill-informed of the detes see below. If you run a record label and are jealous of free publicity, email me and we can talk. If you or your friend or your friend’s band is really just that good and you can’t imagine why I haven’t tracked them down, you also should email me. I am excited. Richmond’s musical prowess is only growing – track down the last few Eight Tracks and see for yourself. Be involved, vote up a storm, and stay in touch.

Best,
Matt

Truthfully, I lied about actually PUTTING the detes down here. INSTEAD, I will link you to charming prose “explaining” the detes.