KEN'S BLOG

Three Local Bands Make Local Visits To The Night Mix.

2010-03-16T19:40:00.001-04:00

F.Y.I – Listen to all Night Mix performances by clicking the highlighted title of each song. All live performances can be requested during The Night Mix.

Cody Hughes

February was a very busy month for The Night Mix and local bands. Three made their first appearance on the show. Cody Hughes, The Vexed and Introspect all made debut appearances in February.

Cody Hughes, a sophomore at Indian Lake High School, was the first to visit in early February. Hughes has attended three different schools in the past three years and uses his music to help adjust. Hughes is a singer/songwriter that tends towards the emo style of music. Cody discussed the inspiration behind his songwriting, citing his experiences growing up and his girlfriend, Kenzi. Cody was given recording software as a gift and produces his own music from home. Hughes’ song “Gods Gift To Me” was played off of his demo cd and Cody performed “I’m Sorry” live on the show. Learn more about Cody by visiting his Myspace page.

The Vexed

The Vexed. Aaron, TJ, Petey and Conner.

Bellefontaine rock band The Vexed were the next to appear on the show. The Vexed have performed with other Friends of The Night Mix Absent Effect and Pleading The Fifth. The Vexed feature a pop punk sound, citing bands like Blink 182, Sum 41 and Yellowcard as influences. The band uses a group method of writing songs and music. The Vexed have performed at The Vineyard Cafe and will perform at The Attic in Kettering March 20th. The band performed a new song called Catch Me live on the show. Follow all news on The Vexed on their Myspace page.

Introspect

Aaron Chalcraft from Introspect performs.

Introspect isn’t exactly a local band. The band is based out of Columbus and most had never been to Bellefontaine before appearing on The Night Mix. There is a local tie to the band. Drummer Greg Braun has visited the Night Mix nearly a dozen times as a member of Myopia and Pay The Girl. Braun is a graduate of Ridgemont and is one of the more accomplished musicians to appear on the show. Braun joined the band in 2009 and was involved in the recording of the band’s first album “Evolutionary”. Introspect discussed the new album, comparing the sound, but not limiting it to Three Doors Down and Rob Thomas. “Always” is the first single from the album and can be requested on The Night Mix. The band performed another song off the album titled “No Good Reason” acoustically on the show. The band was on to also promote a showcase concert at the Newport in Columbus. Go to Introspect’s Myspace page for news, show dates and to purchase Evolutionary.

If you know of a local band that would like to appear on the Night Mix, contact the show at nightmix@wpko.com for information.

Where Are You Houston “Call Out For Help” On The Night Mix

2009-12-17T17:52:00.001-05:00

Social networking has it’s advantages, just ask Benjamin Logan student Katie Cole. Cole, a drummer was discovered by startup group Where Are You Houston through the website, YouTube. Cole, 17, has been drumming for years but had never been in a band before joining WAYH.

Cole has been with the band for just over a month. Practicing has proven to be a challenge due to logistics. Cole lives in Bellefontaine and the rest of the band lives in Canton, at least two and a half hours apart. The band drives to Bellefontaine once a week to practice.

WAYH is a pop-punk band that got it’s name from a Blink 182 song. The group was started up by lead singer Andy Potter and guitar player Zach Negulis, who played together in a previous band.

During the Night Mix, the song “Villians” was played. Then the band played a live version of a new song called “Calling Out For Help” The band plans on recording a batch of original songs on January 2nd. Learn more about Where Are You Houston at myspace.com/whereareyouhouston

Where Are You Houston? Visits Night Mix Wednesday, December 16th

2009-12-16T16:51:00.001-05:00

Canton rockers Where Are You Houston? will make their Night Mix debut Wednesday, December 16th at 7:30. Drummer Katie Cole lives in Bellefontaine. You can learn more about the group by checking out:

myspace.com/whereareyouhouston

We will discover the meaning behind the name and listen to a live performance.

Steve Dashner’s Weekly Review of Louie Vito On Dancing With The Stars

2009-09-23T18:51:00.001-04:00

Steve Dashner

With Louie Vito competing on ABC’s Dancing With The Stars, The Night Mix thought it would be a good idea to seek local, expert opinion to keep the television judges in line. Steve Dashner is a ballroom dance instructor from the Marysville area. Each week, the night after Louie performs, we will talk with Steve and get his thoughts on how Louie did. Steve will offer insight, opinion and analysis from an instructor’s perspective.

If anybody is interested in taking ballroom dancing lessons. Steve can be reached at 937-246-6990 or email dakotasranch@hotmail.com

Steve Dashner’s thoughts on Louie’s Jitterbug, the judges and more….

Two New Local Bands Make Recent Night Mix Debuts

2009-09-22T17:27:00.001-04:00

Local bands Toxemia from DeGraff, and Ajar Jamb, from Bellefontaine recently made their first appearances on The Night Mix recently.

Andy, Dustin and Joel from Toxemia

Toxemia, named after a blood disease, is a Christian metal band that plays shows around the area, including shows in Bellefontaine at the Vineyard Church. Adam Lautsenheiser is the lead singer, Joel Holycross plays lead guitar and Dustin Long plays bass guitar. Darrel, the bands’ drummer could not attend the interview. During the interview, Joel discussed how the band formed. Toxemia recently played their first show. The show was at a very large venue, The Al Rosa Villa, in Columbus. Adam spoke on how the band performed. Song writing for the group tends to take on a darker yet hopeful vibe that explores the deeper questions in life. Toxemia performed one such song, Impromptu Invite at the end of the interview.

Ajar Jamb performs. Joe Hartley (front)

Jeff Tontonoz (drums), Scanny (green shirt)

and Justin Stratton (guitar)

Ajar Jamb made their visit to the Night Mix on September 16th. The members consist of Joe Hartley, Matt Sandlin, Jeff Tontonoz, and Justin Stratton. Hartley was a member of Awake, a former guest on the Night Mix. Sandlin and Tontonoz were also in a local band to appear on Night Mix, Sandwal Schultze. Hartley spoke on how the band started out as solo project. Hartley would play sets at Canteberry Coffee in Bellefontaine. Hartley then recruited the other band members and began recording songs in Tontonoz’s home studio.

The band is a complete change of style for Hartley. Hartley’s former band, Awake, had a much heavier sound. Hartley stated age and change in preferences as reasons for the much more mellow sound of Ajar Jamb. The band’s acoustic sound has a folk, country blues mix. Ajar Jamb performed to live songs. The first was called “Burnt Cigarettes” The second performance was a song called “Covered Bridge” , which was an original song from Sandwal Schultze. Scanny sang this song while Joe sang on the first performance.

Scanny plays harmonica during Burnt Cigarettes.

2009-08-17T15:21:00.001-04:00

Beach Spectacular Wet, But Fun

2009-07-08T15:24:00.013-04:00

The Night Mix was live once again this year at Oldfield Beach for the 2009 Fourth of July Beach Spectacular. Three bands were scheduled to appear, Pleading the Fifth from Kenton, Absent Effect from Bellefontaine and Alert The Press from the Springfield/Dayton area. On again, off again rain raised concern about the status of the activities for the day, but the Chamber of Commerce assured everybody that the fireworks would happen rain or shine.

That meant so would the Night Mix. We went on the air at 5:30 and started the afternoon taking the beach goers' requests. There was a surprise visit from Bellefontaine rapper Yung C after his song "Krank It To Da Left" was played. Yung C spent a few minutes talking about upcoming projects.

The first band of the day was Pleading The Fifth. Dustin, Wes, Holly and Brandon were all on hand promoting upcoming shows with Absent Effect, including Bellefontaine shows towards the end of July. PTF broke out the guitars and performed the song "Weathers Changing", a song they played back in March during their first trip to The Night Mix. Later on in the interview, the band played again, playing a song called "Fireworks".

Listen to Pleading The Fifth perform "Fireworks"

Bellefontaine band Absent Effect arrived next. Lead singer John Whitehead and guitarist Tyler Rose were on hand to talk about their upcoming show at the Logan County Fair on July 17th.

John and Tyler performed the first of two songs, "Two Years Mean Nothing"
Watch below:

Absent Effect would then perform a song called "Nothing Like A Comeback".

John and Tyler would stick around and help judge the first annual Night Mix Nutty Bar Eating Contest, our less disgusting version of the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating contest held in New York. Night Mix listeners Damien and Emerson competed to see how many Nutty Bars they could eat in one minute. Emerson won, eating three. Damian ate two.

Alert The Press were the final band to appear. ATP promoted their new album "We're Going To Have a Parade" which features 10 songs. ATP performed an acoustic version of their song called "Gone". The band finished up with a great rendition of their popular song "Pick Me Up"

To watch video of all of the performances at Saturday's Beach Spectacular, go to my videos at myspace.com/wpkonightmix.

During the show, Bill Tipple checked in with interviews with Steve Austin's Auto Group, sponsors "Countdown To Skyfire" At 10:00pm, requests gave way to Skyfire, a patriotic mix of music set to the fireworks.

Thanks to the listeners that attended Skyfire and to the bands that performed. See you next year!

Welcome to Ken's Page

2009-06-27T19:21:00.001-04:00

Watch this space as I fill it up!

- Ken