The weekend on the farm in Manchester was bubbling with insanity and music galore.
We asked you, the Brite fan, to take some photos of where you were and who you were seeing and share them with us.

Through the power of Twitter and the almighty hashtag #BriteBonnaroo, we got some great shots of some even greater shows. (Even meeting Donald Glover?!)

So whether you are driving back to civilization or reveling in the fact that you don’t have to worry about a drug test today, take a look at some of our favorite user pics from Bonnaroo 2011.

Official interviews and articles from our team are on their way soon!

Special thanks to super Twitter photographers @DylanCarver & @Seleneducoudray! You guys ROCK!

In Order:
Freelance Whales / The Decemberists / The Head and The Heart / The Strokes / Neon Trees singer, Tyler Glenn (Pants on & off) / Best Coast /  Twitter user @SeleneduCoudray with rapper/actor Donald Glover / More The Strokes / Deerhunter

At a loss for what to do this weekend?
Well, don’t you worry yourself any longer. We’ve scoured the local venues for what we think might be your ticket to a fun night all through the weekend! So you can then write Prince William and Princess Kate and tell them what all sorts of goodness they missed on their honeymoon.

Friday, Friday, Friday:

• 12th & Porter: A rip roarin’ show with Eikon, celebrating their CD release // also featuring The Hollywood Kills // 9PM // $7
• Mercy Lounge: Mr. Jeremy Lister’s CD release show // pulling out the stops featuring Brite member Andrew Belle, Daniel Tashian (The Silver Seas) and more // 9PM // $15

TGIS…or you call it Saturday:

• 3rd & Lindsley: Brite member, The CO join Nathan Angelo for his CD release show// 9PM // $10
• Ugly Mugs: The Shakespeares, who we proudly introduced to you a few months back, play an early set at the best East Nashville shop // 7PM
• Mercy Lounge: Those Darlins are such sweet gals…come see them play! // also on the bill, Trophy Wife and Heavy Cream 9PM // $10

So, there you have it! Don’t come back to us on Monday morning saying how your weekend didn’t rock.
You have more than enough opportunities to go out for some great music.
Let’s get on with it!

The music world can sure be a zoo at times. And by zoo, I mean all of the bands that link themselves with the animal species. I’m sure you could name some off the top of your head.

Animal Collective … Fleet Foxes … Panda Bear … Gorrilaz … The Eagles … Lady GaGa … wait, scratch that last one.

So, today we add one more to the mix with Tigers That Talked. Fresh from “across the pond”, these guys quickly make me think if they were a part of the pack, they would be the ones with the biggest claws.

There is a richness to their lyrics and a subtle enchantment that encases the violins of Glenna Larsen. Although Jamie Williams’ voice may sound like the prettiest tiger voice you have ever heard, it’s the humanity that is left in the fleeting moments when he is singing lyrics like “I’m losing all the sparks in my life / I didn’t notice when they went out / All I do is eat, work and sleep / Never any time in between / I got a nice car, nice TV / I got a nice flat, it’s where I sleep / All of these things don’t mean so much to me / Anymore.”

The beauty of the beast with Tigers is that they do not shrink away from the good and grim of what makes up our lives. They do not shy away from making one realize that there is much more than what is right in front of our noses … or snouts.
You have to stop and listen, today.

It’s tough to say what makes the songs on Matthew Mayfield’s newest release, Now You’re Free, so captivating, but whatever it is, it has me hooked.

There’s something about a night drive that makes the music listening experience more mystical than if the sun were shining. I was driving down 16th Avenue late last week, right around midnight, when Mayfield’s “Fire Escape” started to play over my car speakers.

Something happened.

You know that feeling when you first hear a new song? Time freezes … and forever you relate that moment to that track. It could be the way the wind was blowing through the cracked windowpane. It could have been that last fleeting smell of your girlfriend’s favorite perfume (or your boyfriend’s cologne, ladies) left on your favorite shirt from a goodnight kiss.

I remember vividly when Coldplay’s X&Y arrived in the summer of 2005. I was in India in the middle of nowhere, but I still felt the buzz around their album. All I could think about was trying to find out how I could get my hands on this record. All of my college buddies were talking about it over email with me; taunting me with their favorite songs on the record.

Then, in the middle of a hot, sweat-infested day, in a small store in a New Delhi mall, a jewel-encased copy of the record glistened, awaiting my arrival. The beauty of worldwide distribution in even the largest of third world countries, even in our digital age, is that there is always some way of finding major releases.

The rest of my time spent in New Delhi that day was a countdown to when I could pop that CD (yes, a compact disc) into the portable player. I just had to make it back to the hotel room.

That night, as I lay on top of the stiff, barely clean sheets, I let the ceiling fan put me in a trance as the album began to pulsate through my headphones. When “Fix You” began, it started with the low organ. I recall seeing the neon sign outside our hotel window flicker.  It was right at Chris Martin’s last breath of,  “And I will try to fix you …” that the now famous guitar riff started to swell with Will Champion’s rhythmic banter.

Something happened.

With the mystery of songwriting, there always seems to be embedded among the stanzas, the chord structures and the wavelengths—an emotion. Depending on how the emotion is conveyed, it can hit the listener several ways. It can be huge. It can be subtle. It can be life changing. Now, I’m not saying that sort of instance occurred with me that night in New Delhi with Coldplay, nor did it happen with Matthew Mayfield’s “Fire Escape” on my night drive. Yet, there is something to be duly noted: I will remember it.

And that changes everything.

Whether or not you’re listening to the latest hyped band that has risen from a pit of small-talk festivals, or the old vinyl collection your dad gave you, music is created to be memorable.

Matthew Mayfield may not have gone out on a limb to be the first at something, writing the music for his latest, but what mark he has left on me is a new memory.

The feeling of new music in your ears is something that is hard to compare. You know that we get a kick out of showing you the artists and songs that we do. However, you may or may not realize, it excites us just as much when we have the opportunity to stumble upon these acts ourselves.

That being said, here is what is currently in the ear buds, hitting the ear drums.

• “White Days”, The Lighthouse and the Whaler : This is one of the most feel-good songs I have heard all Spring. Whether it’s the sunshine that hits just right, or the fact that there is no more snow on the ground, this tune makes you want to get up and dance. When I first hit play, Michael LoPresti’s voice emitted an immediate static of attention. His voice is never over-bearing, yet, never underwhelming. These guys have drawn a fine line between stepping on the brim of folk music, as well as breaking into a new wave of pop infusion amidst the strings and bells that grace this record.

• “Super Grand Master”, Slow Motion Centerfold : Slow Motion Centerfold are the epitome of what Nashville has been fueling up for in the last few years; an epic music reinvention. You won’t find one tinge of twang in “Super Grand Master”. Alex Hall bounces up and down with the hook of the song singing “I can’t change”. For the record, Alex, I don’t want you guys to change, either.

• “Mullokian”, FOUND : Any song that comes with an accent immediately gets a few more “cool points” in my book. Although FOUND can’t help it, there is a gravity that is brought on by their Scottish flair in the way “Mullokian” comes about. Even though this is a live take from The Toad Sessions, the boys of FOUND beautifully invite the listener in; creating an intimate setting that completely surrounds you.

• “Where I Want You”, Tyler Bryant : Tyler Bryant packs a mean punch with “Where I Want You”. Tyler has the lung capacity that could keep any float at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade up between the skyscrapers; even more, the band could electrify any packed house at Madison Square Garden. Roll the windows down and turn this up!

• “Preacher’s Son”, Concerning Lions : My feet almost immediately start tapping as this song ensues. I have a hard time explaining the feeling of listening to Concerning Lions other than that I lose my breath a lot. Between the intricate arrangement of banjo, guitar, cajon, mandolin and lush vocal harmonies, there really isn’t much room left to breathe in and out. Brian Beise and Jonathan Durham’s gift of writing brings these guys front and center to a time in which listeners are recognizing the beauty in the cherished tact of songwriting that paints a picture and draws out meaning.
  

(From left to right: Concerning Lions / Tyler Bryant / The Lighthouse and the Whaler / FOUND)

The funny thing about music is that it seems to go full circle these days.

Upon first loading up my iTunes with one of our new Brite additions, The Naked Hearts, my first impression of them was something that rang a bell in the vein of the indie rock band, The Strokes. It’s nothing new these days, in casual conversation, to describe the newest band you’ve discovered to someone and compare them to one they may already know of.

Why is that, though? Do we lack in vocabulary? Is no one that original enough anymore? Is everybody already doing it?

I do not think that’s the case at all. Music of all genres has always seemed to have a melting-pot effect on me. Each artist bleeds into another. We all breathe in the same air, but we all breathe it out differently. A lot of that was spoken clearly at this past year’s GRAMMY Awards. You had more than half the nation asking, “Who is Arcade Fire?” All around the blogosphere, people were in an odd outrage because for once, a band not yet discovered by the masses had won the crown of the GRAMMYs. They had single-handedly dominated album-toppers like Lady GaGa and Justin Bieber. Someone noticed something.

The Naked Hearts hit me that way.

Just last night, I got onto Amazon and downloaded the new album from The Strokes, “Angles“, loaded it up onto my phone, and sat outside in the post glimmer of the “super moon”. The album, mind you, is one that is excellently put together. It’s slick. It’s sexy. It’s lo-fi garage rock gold.

Then, it happened.

It might have been between tracks four and five, or somewhere else in the mix. It could have been the attitude. It could have been the swagger of Amy Cooper’s voice or Noah Wheeler’s bass lines travelling jaggedly, yet perfectly, with his drumming. No matter, it was encased in what the two were doing. It was a reminder to me that music is that of interpretation. That is where the creativity is; that is where one becomes “original”. You take what is there, floating around the atmosphere, and make it your own.

That’s why bands like The Naked Hearts and so many others on Brite are unique and the first to do what they are doing; they are continuing to create. That is what turns heads. That’s what supersedes any kind of chart or awards show. That’s what ultimately reaches a listener’s ear; it sticks.

Music will always continue to go full circle, but, more than likely, that circle is just going to grow larger and larger.

So, breathe in and breathe out.