-by Amber Valentine

The first time Daytrotter
hit the road, I was there. So were Mac Lethal, Someone Still Loves You Boris
Yeltsin, and a pre-debut album Local Natives, in addition to all
the members of Team Daytrotter, including their fearless leader, Sean
Moeller, Mr. Daytrotter himself. Sometime between my arrival at the
barn and my departure, I received a sticker proclaiming “I survived
Daytrotter’s Barnstormer”, which I proudly affixed to my car only
moments after procuring it. On the way home, back to the outskirts of
the Quad City suburbs, I almost put diesel fuel in my Ford Focus at a
gas station. And that’s how I almost didn’t survive the first
Daytrotter Barnstormer. Thankfully, despite my brush with danger, I
made it home unscathed and lived to storm another barn.

If you aren’t familiar with Daytrotter, now is as good a time as ever
to educate yourself. Daytrotter takes the idea of music blogging and
revolutionizes it, going far past being “just another music blog” to
become the internet’s best music discovery tool. Nestled en route from
Iowa to Chicago (or vice versa), countless traveling musicians have
taken a day off their tour schedules to visit the Horseshack,
Daytrotter’s studio in downtown Rock Island, Illinois. At the
Horseshack, a short set of about four songs is recorded. Sometimes,
this includes covers or stripped down versions of set staples. This
session is posted online free (Or a lossless version is available for
a mere four bones) but the fun doesn’t stop there. After the session’s
recorded, Moeller takes a minute or two out of his life to write an
essay about the band and Johnnie Cluney sketches the artist for a full
on multimedia experience. If you have any familiarity with indie music
at all, it’s likely that you’ll find your favorite acts have done a
Daytrotter session. Everyone from Bon Iver and The
National have stopped by the Horseshack, as well as up and comers
like Indie College faves FronteirRuckus and Yuck.

Of course, it ain’t enough for Daytrotter to be on the internet. A few
years after the site’s inception, The Barnstormer was born. A
Barnstormer can best be described in the following sentence: Some of
the coolest cats you’ll ever meet in a barn while a bunch of
buzzworthy and remarkable bands that you’ve probably never heard of
but will love give it their all, surrounded by bottles of beer, bales
of hay, and an enthusiastic fervor that cannot be matched. I’ve been
to literally hundreds of concerts in my life but nothing compares to a
Barnstormer. In fact, Daytrotter’s Barn on the 4th of July remains the
best music going experience of my life. Barnstromer, in the past, has
included Ra Ra Riot, Delta Spirit, Dawes, and the incomparable
Walkmen. And now, time in nigh for Team Daytrotter to storm once more,
this time with Sondre Lerche, Keegan Dewitt, Hellogoodbye, and
more in tow!

Heartbeat Radio – Sondre Lerche

For a full list of dates and bands, see below. And take it from the
gal who once drove seven hours to barnstorm in Maquoketa, Iowa: A
Barnstormer is always worth the trip.

Daytrotter Presents… Barnstormer 4

April 26th – Free
Range Film Festival Barn
909 County Road 4, Wrenshall, MN

April 27th – Hoosier
Grove Barn
700 W. Irving Park Rd., Streamwood, IL

April 28th – Lakeview
Farms Barn
12075 Island Lake Rd., Dexter, MI

April 29th – Kalyx
Center
442 E. 1300 North Rd., Monticello, IL

April 30th – Codfish
Hollow Barn
3437 288th Ave, Maquoketa, IA

Tickets are available via Daytrotter until they sell out!