Indy In-Tune

Show #170: Bashiri Asad Forever

… and so we kick over into a new year, 2015. I keep a black moleskin with all of my various projects, initiatives, goals, and hair-brained schemes in it. I'd say we got through quite a few last year, from a revamped website to some new equipment, and finally to building a makeshift stage and video studio down in the secret underground bunker we call "Indy In-Tune Studio B." This year, the goals are fewer, and possibly less-ambitious. Put simply, my goal this year is to be as busy as humanly possile. Specifically, I want to be at 250 podcasts, 50 mini concerts, and as much archived on-air fun as I can accumulate under the belt by this time next year. Why? Because it has not escape my attention that after 9 years, I should be coming up on episode #450, and in the past two years that veritable conucopia of weelkly shows that have popped up (Free Beer Express, Brother Brother, Chris Brake Show, DoIt Indy, et al.), and some of them are already approaching their 100th episode. That part of my brain that's ruled by numbers tells me that this is unacceptable. I am the longest-standing podcaster in Central Indiana, I should have an episode count that inspires awe. So if anything, as I've always said, I love the fact that shows like those come along, since they make me step up my game.

2015 kicks off with our third visit from the great Bashiri Asad, this time in support of his brand new release, "Bashiri Asad Presents the Gil Suite: A Toast to Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson." This is an amazing album he has put together as part of his "Year of Tributes" (more on that during the interview) and features some top-notch talent from around our scene including, but not limited to, Brandon Meeks, Devon Ashley, Justin Brewer, Rob Dixon, Nick Gerlach, Max Allen, Phil Geyer, and Ashton Kleeman. He joined us in the studio with guitarist John Fell where he gave an impromptu acoustic set of numbers spaning all of his releases. How's that for kicking the year off with a bang?

Links referenced in the show:

• Bashiri Asad can be found here: Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr
• The first three tracks were recorded live on the air in the studio and are presented in their original raw format, just they way they aired -- mostly because I'm not a producer.  Bashiri is accompanied by John Fell on guitar for these tracks.  Apologies for the webcam blips, beer bottle clanks, and awe-inspired whispering in the background.
  
• Co-hosting on this episode are Brandon/Benjamin Cannon of Shine Indy and singer/songwriter Brandon Wilson who first appeared on Show #157.
  
• His latest project, "The Gil Suite," along with his other releases, can be found on his Bandcamp page.  It is a tribute to poet/author/musician Gil Scott-Heron.
  
• It was conceived at Yatz (a much good art is) in a conversation between Bashiri and Rasul Mowatt.
• He first teamed up with Davidson Robie (Max Allen Band) and Matt Vice (sound engineer at The Mousetrap) when he contributed vocals to their EP1 project.
  
• Everybody is on about Red Rocks.

Darrin Snider is the OCD music nerd responsible for creating Indy In-Tune. By day he's a cloud engineer and business analyst, but he still hopes to someday be an overnight freeform disc jockey married to the local weathergirl who happens to be a former eastern-European supermodel.