When I started this little blog of mine I had a few people ask me, “Who is going to read this?” or even better “What are you going to write about?”. Trust me, I was asking myself the same thing for the first month or so. So I began to think about things that I enjoy and wanted to share. I quickly realized that music was a important part of my life and that would be a great place to start. Even though I was not an Indie zealot or ventured to shows all the time, my iPod was always on my person always offering a bit of a soundtrack to my days. It is about this same time that I found Funtime Ben and his Tracks Up The Tree Podcast.

Tracks Up The Tree was the first door to the world of on-line Indie music that I came across and once I opened it a whole new unknown world of great, new, and downloadable music reared its bitchin’ head. It was the beginning of my journey to find and share new music; something that I have really enjoyed over that past few months with my drops and my posts. But enough about me and my journey (all of the sudden I pictured myself in the inferno and my name was dante) lets get to the fellas.

The cast is an Indie Music Podcast based out of Brooklyn, NY and is hosted by Funtime Ben and usually his buddy Josiah. As they put it, they are “Making Indie Your Main Stream”. My impression of Ben is this. He is one of those guys in high school that you never wanted to pick for your team in gym class because he was a bit of a spaz and couldn’t quite grasp whatever game you were playing. He would always be dating some chick that was 3 grades younger than him and they would be writing on each other’s arms in study hall. Of course he always carried his French Horn around on days he had band. Then, after gradution and a semester in college you come back to the big game at Thankgiving and see him with his new hot older girlfriend, his trendy sidekick (Josiah), hear that he is in a band and you realize he is suddenly much cooler than you are. I could be wrong though.

Many times my friends and I have been all liquored up and have thrown around the idea of sitting around and recording a podcast of us drunk and shooting the shit. You know…throw back a few too many drinks, play some tunes, and record it all for the consumption of anyone who is interested. Well that is just what our man Ben does. He and Josiah get together, drink some rum and cokes (except on their 1 year anniversary show they chugged champagne), shoot the shit about what ever comes up and play really good music that you have probably never heard. Talk about a great recipe for a great podcast. These boys are doing what we all wish we could and are getting noticed for it. Recently they were mentioned in an issue of Entertainment Weekly. Check out this little bit of ego fodder.

I believe they deserve the props that they get because the show is everything a podcast should be in my eyes. Entertaining, well produced, informative, and freaking funny. It was my first podcast and will remain in my rotation until they decide to hang their shit up. One thing though. I would love to see them produce their casts on a more regular basis though I know, like in my case, there is life away from the computer that needs to be dealt with. So I will let that slide.

But don’t take my word for it. Try out their most recenty cast, TUTT: 1 Year Anniversary Show! for a great introduction into the world of Funtime Ben, Josiah and Tracks Up The Tree.

Enjoy. And thanks for the intro to the online bowels of the Indie world Ben.

Next Podcost Review - NerdBlurb