The internet is full of words. Why, second to tubes, I'd posit that the primary thing that makes up this weirdo placeless screen-filler we call the internet is words. I mean, case in point, I've already said 37 of them, and boy howdy, I'm just getting started. In fact, throughout the course of 2014, an innumberable assortment of delightful words from a numerable assortment of fine contributors found their way on to the blog, and I don't know, what with the "lightning fast speed" of "modern day digital life," it seemed worthwhile to revisit a few of them now that everything (the year 2014, the entire universe, etc.) is coming to a close. Many of our contributors have been pretty prolific over the course of this year, so although I stuck to just post per contributor, know that there's heaps of great stuff not mentioned here sitting in wait just out of view.

With the current word count now at 145, I'll shut right up and let the archive speak for itself.

Jacob Gardner - "Wet Heave: Mad Man Stomp, Cave Man Howl"

Gardner's all up in the scene like a reverse tick--pumping blood in instead of sucking it out in bands like Raw McCartney and MK-II, all the while working his ass off putting on shows and events throughout the city. He wrote about Bloomington's Wet Heave back in October.

"The Bloomington wet heads, Wet Heave, barrel down a song like a drunk fat man falling forward perpetually, causing all sorts of chaos. It's dirty as shit, and all together maddening when played live. It's cave man stomp; it's broke down beats; it's chewed up punk; it's fun as hell."

Adam Gross - "A.M.O. #1 Songwriting Camp with Camp Cool Crew"

Gross you might already know in his capacity as singer and songwriter with groups like Amo Joy and S.M. Wolf. With his A.M.O. project (put together collaboratively with fellow S.M. Wolf bud Ben Leslie), he flexes his teaching muscles, working to get kids excited about making and participating in music by writing and recording their own songs. You can hear some of the music that's resulted from the project over on the A.M.O. profile page.

"While most traditional music education programs teach participants things like music history, theory and performance, we'll be focusing on something different. We do certainly see the value in traditional music education, but what A.M.O. focuses on is a lasting practical experience in the creation of music. Creativity is one crucial piece that is frequently left out of traditional music education programs."

Sonny Blood - "Ray Creature's self-titled LP on Sister Cylinder"

Sonny Blood--he of Apache Dropout, The Bloody Mess, Exploding Head Scene, and that dark spot right at the corner of your vision--knows a shining oasis in a darkened post-apocalypse when he sees it. As such, he brought forth reports of Ray Creature's debut full-length on Sister Cylinder.

"If you consider the age of Fad Gadget, the Wolfgang Press and Depeche Mode to be a Renaissance, then Ray Creature is enlightenment.  Their self-titled LP is a vision of Mute Records-era England in a bleak panorama."

Taylor Peters - Music Video in a Day #1: Chicago Bull Hat's "Criticize"

If you've even halfway glanced in the blog's direction these last couple months, you've no doubt seen a good amount of talk about our Music Video in a Day series where we pair a local musician with a local fillmaker and tell them to go to town. We've had a string of excellent ones lately from Running Bodies Productions, and of course just last week BrainTwins smacked us silly with one for Ben Traub's "lets make a dial tone," but this is where it all started.

"So, Chicago Bulls Hat. I do not believe there exists a better subject for the very first Music Video in a Day series in Indiana. Over about half a million releases (literally), the guy has built up this sort of minimalism divorced from narrative. It's music made of space, like a room, a museum with no tour guide. Nothing in it insists on any one interpretation or approach. Looping beats and sounds and clicks and clangs and you and the meat between your ears is bascially all there is."

Jeff Napier - Ate Up #4: Sir Deja Doog's Freaky Ride

Q&As, bread and butter that they are, can be a little confined sometimes. On the occasion of the release of Sir Deja Doog album Love Coffin, Jeff Napier cracked the form open just a little bit simultaneously interviewing Doog and his alter ego Eric Alexander. Or wait, maybe Doog's the alter ego and Alexander's in charge--it's never quite clear, and either way, the interview went deep.

"I was wrapping up an interview with Sir Deja Doog, and as it ends I ask him if there was anything else he wanted to add. He immediately yells, "BURN MY BODY RIGHT AWAY WHEN I DIE!" Not that he is planning on dying soon, but the possiblity is a bit more likely than it is for most people. Eric Alexander, a.k.a., Doog Aloog, a.k.a., Sir Deja Doog is going under the knife to remove a massive tumor that is crowding the part of his brain that controls his right side, speech center, out of body experiences, and deja vu."

Doog Aloog - MFT EP in a Weekend #8: The Immortal Hermaphrodite

You heard it right, more Doog, and this time he's the punching the keys. In addition to our recently instituted Music Video in a Day series, MFT also has a slightly-longer-running series of time constrained creation as the EP in a Weekend series. Doog dove down deep inside the caverns of the collective unconscious of the Immortal Hermaphrodite, and came back with this report.

"Beyond the world of humankind, outside of time and space, cycling through the eternal play of opposites, exists The Immortal Hermaphrodite:  the embodiment of both the male and the female archetypes in creative synthesis, at once fully unified in its being and dynamic in the contrary aspects of its self."

Lisa Fett - MFT Noise-A-Thon

Way back in June, a bunch of freaks (myself included) posted up in the Smallbox basement from 7pm and 7am to see what sounds they could make, and then, once finished, took a quick trek to Biscuits. Lisa Fett was gracious enough to take some gorgeous pictures of the whole thing going down, which is good, because my memory of the night, at this point, is mostly just a blur of colors.

"'Noise' as a musical genre reminds me of that unabashed freedom we were all at one time familiar with as kids.  It’s also a genre in music that doesn’t seem to have much of a home in Indianapolis, but was given a grateful space for one day.  The location was the SmallBox basement, which read “children” above the door.  What a fitting room.   This celebratory show crawled into into Broad Ripple like a spidery giant where locally known and unknown musicians alike were free to show us what they wanted us to hear."

Seth Johnson - The 4-Track Physician: An In-Depth Interview with Mark McWhirter

Seth Johnson, a.k.a., Indianapolis' hardest working music writer, has written up a whole bunch of music for MFT this year (as well as for NUVO, Sky Blue Window, and others), so it was a little tricky picking just one of his pieces. I settled on his Q&A with Mark McWhirter, a.k.a., Dr. Ray, simply because Dr. Ray's music, with its experimental spirit and prolificacy, so thoroughly embodies what I love about Musical Family Tree as an archive of music. Do no hesitate to dig back both in McWhirter's and Johnson's archives--they both stretch as far as human eyes can see.

"Mark McWhirter’s 4-track recorder serves dually as his tonal time machine. When recording music as Dr. Ray and as a member of The Cowboys, the 24-year-old prefers to dig deep into the organic tones of yesteryear—before digitization besieged the studio of analog artistry, in his eyes. Musical Family Tree recently decided to catch up with McWhirter, discussing his analog addiction, The Cowboys' debut EP, and much more."

Total Word Count: 1947