CheekyChicago

Not quite over the river, but maybe through some woods, one would come across a town known as Rock Island, IL. There’s nothing immediately dazzling about this space in the world, except that it is home to The Horseshack, the studio where Daytrotter does its magic.

What is Daytrotter, you ask? About four years ago, Daytrotter began with a relatively simple concept: it was a website built to spread music, but it was music in a way that had never been heard quite this way before.  Sean Moeller, along with Johnnie Cluney and others (the brains behind Daytrotter) would ask bands traveling through Rock Island to stop in and record some songs, take a break from touring and relax. These songs would then be recorded live onto analog tape – providing a very old, yet open, feel – and put on the website for consumers to enjoy…for free. In the present day, bands like Death Cab for Cutie, Spoon and Dinosaur Jr. have all been a part of what Daytrotter’s about – and that doesn’t even touch the surface of bands you’ve probably never heard of, but you should.

And now there’s a documentary in production which attempts to capture Daytrotter’s essence, called Welcome to Daytrotter. I don’t know about you, but documentaries always strike me as the metaphorical lightbulb which indicates “Hey, something’s kind of a big deal…” I spoke to one of the filmmakers, who said that the inspiration behind this endeavor was to not only celebrate the Midwest and the music scene in general, but to celebrate and tell the story of creative people struggling to make their dreams come true. And, hey, if the good guys win in the end, I’m all about it.

For more information on this documentary, please click here where you can get updates and raw footage clips. Also, this production is being paid for out of pocket, so if you choose to donate to the film (it’s tax-deductible), you’d be a part of music/movie-making history.

Watch the trailer below.