Well, back home now and recapping Day two at this point is really unfair. But, since I spent a chunk of time with Eric from Marathonpacks Friday and he happened to do his recap on time, a quick jaunt over to his site helped me recall a few parts of the day I may have forgotten otherwise.

Friday morning started off with “the” blogger panel. Myself, Dodge, Eric, Duffy, Craig and E to the J sat in front of a group at the Jazz Kitchen and talked about blogging. Yes, people actually came to hear us discuss our pet peeves, the what not to do’s and a few inside jokes as well. Somehow the whole thing went off without a hitch and I actually had quite a few folks tell me afterwards how much they enjoyed our discourse. So, big sucess after all, Id love to do it again.

I sat in on the next two panels as well. The first featured our favorite promo gal Wendy from Toolshed. I must say she stole the show, and thats not easy to do up against the likes of Audiolunchbox and CNET. Dodge also snuck into this panel as well, not sure how but he did his thing and kept the blogging contingent well represented. Next was the A and R panel which had reps from Columbia, Geffen, Capitol, and Asthmatic Kitty. Yes, thats right, Michael from AK also stole the show during this set, he showed the big label folk that the indies are still the place to be for the artists at a festival like MMS. But he also assured us that the other label A and R reps were not “the devil”, but maybe their bosses were?

After this and a quick bite to eat I stepped over to Luna Music and made a few purchases I really should not have made, my CD bad was already overflowing. Petticoat, Petticoat from Lexington, KY played the first set and brought some sweet indie pop into the day. These kids didnt look to be over 18 but played a tight, entertaining set which included a cover of the Pasty Cline classic, “Walking After Midnight”. I stuck around to see the guys in Captain of Industry play next. Nathaniel had slipped me a CD the day before at the party and since I was already familiar with these guys since I had seen them earlier in the summer at Desdemona I made a point to catch this set. Captain started things off with a really great Neil Young cover of “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” and as Eric said, “I sort of have to like them after that.” True indeed, Captain of Industry were quite impressive to say the least.

After that Eric gave me a lift back to the main Broad Ripple area and I took a quick break for some water and advil as a headache was tearing me up, (no, not a hangover). I ran into EJ and we hoofed it over to Connors to check out The Apparitions, another Lexington band. This was one of the better sets of the weekend I must say and the boys were really punching out great sounds. EJ was most impressed by the tune about monkeys and robots.
The Apparitions – God, Monkey, Robot
This tune and the entire set was really, totally robots. After that we caught up with the guys from the band a bit and the leadman Mark (pictured above) told us that he was playing a solo gig the next day under the moniker Vandeveer that deserved our attention as well. We quickly agreed and then set off to catch one of the things I was most looking forward to during Day 2 which was songwriters in the round.

So EJ and I got to the Jazz Kitchen in just enough time to grab a table at the front of the house. Its funny because this venue and gig did not fit in well with the rest of the summit. When you go from a seedy, smoky bar to an outdoor tent where they are cooking out hot dogs and burgers and jerking beers you dont expect to next be in a nicer $25 a plate restaurant as part of the same event. But that is just what he encountered at the JK. We ordered dinner and were treated more by the music as Otis Gibbs, Vess Ruhtenburg, and Richard Edwards (see Margot) sang and picked acoustic tunes for nearly two hours. The night came to a close with a burrito as big as your head in the company of the Captain of Industry guys and EJ. Sleep on night two was much better and refreshing.

I’ll have day 3 thoughts and photos up a bit later today to wrap things up.

Technorati Tags: Capitol, Asthmatic Kitty, Captain of Industry, Broad Ripple, The Apparitions, Vandeveer