Daytrotter sets the pace

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By David Burke | Wednesday, January 31, 2007 12:02 AM CST | () comments

(Photos by Jeff Cook/QUAD-CITY TIMES) Patrick Stolley adjusts a microphone before a recording session by a Brooklyn-based band called Asobi Seksu at the Daytrotter.com studios in The District of Rock Island.

Sean Moeller records music performed by touring bands at a downtown Rock Island studio and then makes the audio available on the Daytrotter.com Web site.

His 1 p.m. appointment is late, and Sean Moeller is pacing the sidewalk in front of a discreet doorway in downtown Rock Island.

Moeller is waiting for his recording session with Asobi Seksu, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based rock band, at the home of Daytrotter.com, his 11-month-old Web site that has garnered national attention from both mainstream and music publications.

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“I thought I knew every possible way to get here” from Interstate 80, Moeller says, shaking his head and looking for out-of-state license plates outside the third-floor walkup in The District that houses Daytrotter. “But they still can’t find the place.”

The band arrives at 1:13 p.m. in a rented, beige Ford Econoline van, apologetic for getting lost on the city streets.

“This ... place was tough to find,” tour manager and van driver Jay Hancock says.

While Daytrotter may be physically difficult to locate, it’s become an Internet destination for thousands of music fans around the world. More than 13,000 people have visited the site daily this month, with 700,000 to 800,000 page views projected for January. It’s received attention from USA Today, which picked it as a choice site earlier this month, and Wired magazine, which features Daytrotter in its February issue that was released last week.

The site combines interviews and reviews of rising independent rock bands written by Moeller — who has been published in numerous independent and mainstream publications, including the Quad-City Times — and recordings of each band in sessions that are exclusive to Daytrotter.

Moeller, 28, said the idea grew out of the frustration he felt while trying to pitch various magazines on bands he thought were worthy of attention.

“I wanted to just be able to do more of it. It wasn’t that it was unfulfilling, I just wanted to do more,” he said. “There were so many times when ideas got shot down by these various magazines. There’s only so many people who come to town ... so there’s not many chances to do it for the paper.”

Moeller, who has been a sportswriter and staff member at the Times the past 11 years, said Daytrotter gives him the chance to “write about people I wanted to write about.

“There’s so many great bands out there and there’s more every day,” the Davenport native said. “There’s this mentality now with media and music publications that it’s constantly jumping from log to log — this is the next band, this is the next band, this is the next band.”

Since its first recording session on Feb. 28, 2006, 85 acts have recorded in the Daytrotter studios, which previously housed the former radio station WPXR-FM. Most bands get to record four songs, either reworked versions of tunes they’ve already recorded or new music that’s been written on the road.

Original portraits done by Davenport artist Johnnie Cluney complete each band’s session and portion of the Web site.

Moeller’s original pitch to the bands was for them to stop in the Quad-Cities when their touring route took them across the Mississippi River via I-80. He said it was a tough sell in the beginning, but then word about the Web site spread among those in the music business.

He stops himself after calling the site and the project “culturally valuable.”

“What we’re doing is providing something to people who really like music,” he said. “I don’t think that’s blowing our own horn too much. We’re recording new music, live music that will stand the test of time. When something in that room happens, it’s there forever.”

While Moeller handles the booking and the interviews, Patrick Stolley is the sound engineer.

“I thought it was crazy,” Stolley, a house painter and musician, said of Moeller’s original plans. “It seemed like a lot of work. It is a lot of work.

“I’m a healthy skeptic, but I said, ‘You do it.’ ”

Part of the appeal of the recording aspect is that the songs are recorded on reel-to-reel tapes rather than digitally. A melange of vintage sound equipment surrounds Stolley as he records the bands, which are performing two rooms away.

“The idea of doing it to tape is what’s really appealing,” said Yuki Ehikudke, lead singer and keyboard player for Asobi Seksu (which means “playful sex” in Japanese). “Just lots of cool equipment. It was fun coming in and playing around.”

“We get up here, we walk in the studio and it’s (freakin’) amazing,” said Hancock, the band’s tour manager. “Half the stuff I see up here I haven’t seen in years.”

Others in the Daytrotter studio have included Of Montreal, shortly before the band broke on the national scene, and Bonnie Prince Billy (one-man band Will Oldham), who, Moeller said, still was bragging about his session days later in the green room at NBC-TV’s “Late Night With Conan O’Brien,” where he also performed.

“To have that unprovoked endorsement from a guy like him is unbelievable, really,” Moeller said.

Moeller — himself an experienced singer-songwriter with the one-man band Make Way For the Uno Champion of the World — said he and Stolley listen to stacks of music from possible Daytrotter subjects. If both of them like the music, an attempt is made to contact the band.

“Pat and I have this little democracy,” Moeller said. “Why waste our time if we don’t like them?”

Although most of the recording has been of independent rock bands, Moeller said he wants to branch out into rap, hip-hop, electronica, bluegrass and folk.

“The only requisite is that it has to be good,” he added.

While the Internet is packed with thousands of music critique sites and blogs, Moeller said the recording sessions set Daytrotter apart.

Because every recording session remains archived on the site, it can be a lasting memento for both fans and those acquainting themselves with the music.

“We’re not writing about this band quickly so we can write about the next band,” Moeller said. “This is the one way we can be different — and different in a considerable way.”

Daytrotter already is getting a reputation in the music community, he said.

“I’ve heard from a number of labels now that it’s a badge of honor if they get invited to come and play in here,” he said.

In the Internet world, where a 4-year-old site is still considered a “startup,” Moeller said he can’t think of any limits for Daytrotter.

“I see it getting as big as it can be. I don’t see a cap on it. I think it’s going to lead to some real nice longevity. I think what we’re doing is good for music.

“I tell people it’s a rare thing when you can feel like you’re doing something that no one else in the world is doing. It really feels like that to us.”

David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com.

WHAT’S A DAYTROTTER?

Sean Moeller may have asked many bands how they came up with their names, but he doesn’t have a great answer as to why his music Web site is called Daytrotter.com.

“I guess I wanted something that sounded like ‘day trader,’ ” he said.

Since the site launched 11 months ago, its motif has included the outline of a horse.

“I just thought it was cool,” Moeller added.

— David Burke