Last year’s ETH Denver conference was the first IRL web3 event for several members of the Future Surf Radio community, however we did not meet until afterwards.
This year, ETH Denver presented the opportunity for some of the aforementioned members to return with a heightened understanding of web3 and participate as event curators, panelists, and performers while having the added bonus of getting to commune with members of the Future Surf family for the first time.
There was a lot to take in, this is our attempt at a recap.
FSR 100th Episode: An IRL / URL Endeavor
On Wednesday, March 1st 2023 we celebrated the 100th episode of Future Surf Radio’s music discovery show, live in Denver.
Cam Murdoch, Scolla, Miles Ryan Harris, & Jazii, made it through flight delays and snow to convene with one another in the Mile High City with a special appearance from Nik Bean as well.
FSR100 marked the end of season 1 - following this episode we took a week off to rest, recalibrate, and plan for season 2.
We won’t spoil it by telling you what happened during this episode, but there were very special records shared by Miles Ryan Harris, Cam Murdoch, Charm Taylor, and Sara Phillips. We’ll be uploading FSR 100 and every episode in Season 2 to Lens Protocol.
In the meantime you can still listen to FSR100 on Twitter.
Future Surf Radio - “JumpRope” (starring: June Jissle, Scolla, Miles Ryan Harris, Cam Murdoch, & Woods)
It would have been a waste to have Cam Murdoch, Scolla, and Miles Ryan Harris in the same house and not deliver an astounding record.
Months ago, we’d requested the talents of our resident genius June Jissle to create the first collective attempt at a Future Surf sound.
Admittedly, we threw a lot of different influences at him but took it all in and delivered the top tier production that we’ve come to expect. Initially the record was to feature the hosts Cam, Scolla, & June - but again, we couldn’t waste the fact that Miles was literally in the room….tapping his foot, looking as if he had a verse to deliver. The result was a demo called “JumpRope” which we wrote and recorded in a couple of hours prior to leaving for Nik Bean’s Backyard Boogie.
“JumpRope” placed 3rd out of over 50 INCREDIBLE submissions including records from several familiar names in our community. (See “Bread” by Charm Taylor, Miles Ryan Harris, Sara Phillips, & Ashton Woods)
We hosted a closing party with the Reveel & Decent team along with the incredible artists that submitted their work as a special bonus episode preceding our Season opener.
The Future Surf Gallery & Listening Lounge @ The UVR
During the Underground Violet Rave, we experimented with a hybrid visual art / music gallery with help from Oohlala & On-Chain Records.
The purpose was to close the gap in how web3 music is perceived in comparison to visual art by presenting music as art and not as the cheapened commodity that it’s become.
This will be an ongoing experiment that we iterate on but here’s how the first one went.
We asked the community to submit music to be included on an Oohlala playlist that attendees could listen to at the event.
Attendees were then able to press vinyls on-site via On-Chain Records with their selection of songs from the playlist.
You can listen to the playlist here:
There were visual art pieces selected to be shown by the following artists. (Links lead directly to the art that was on display).
What did we learn?
Future curated exhibitions from FSR should present a theme and timeline for creation along said theme.
Many musicians view their creations as art (as they should) but we’re unclear if music videos counted as visual art.
Many musicians were more interested in having their creations displayed in the way that visual artists do than having their music available to be pressed to vinyl (or the messaging was not clear enough).
