DADDY "For A Second Time"

Drawing on juke-joint blues, swampy-groove country and a lot of rock and roll, with stops in gospel and beat-poet territory along the way, DADDY (Will Kimbrough & Tommy Womack) has been hailed by critics and fans alike for theirincendiarylive performances and recordings that embrace a wide scope of what’s great about American music. Together, Kimbrough and Womack just click. Kimbrough’s wide-ranging abilities, sweet and reckless by turns, dovetails with Womack’s slash-and-burn style to produce a sound that is both exciting and heartfelt.

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Free feedback and advice on songwriting, recording and mixing - via Twitter

This idea is simple, but fantastic:

• You send a link for a song you would like some advice about
• The link is posted on Twitter, so anyone else who would like to can take a listen, and offer their opinion
• All those comments are posted on Twitter - meaning:
• Other people can read all the opinions, and reply, if they like. Anyone is free to join the conversation
• You can see if you agree with the comments, and perhaps put them into action to improve your song, recording or mix

There are two places you can see it in action:

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How to : Facebook campaign.

I asked my buddy for some thoughts on how best to make use of Facebook’s new text message fan add feature. He had more than a few, so I jokingly asked him to make me a diagram. What he sent back was worth sharing. A bunch of good ideas, written down plainly - very helpful for someone like me. I hope this can of be some use to you guys.

Cyndi Dawson Spoken Word 'Shimmy Shimmy'

http://www.myspace.com/insideofoutside

Cyndi Dawson is a Spoken Word artist who performs internationally.

Click the title of this post to watch the video here.

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David Olney

The prolific David Olney infuses his live performances with with an intensity that converts many new listeners into die-hard fans. Olney’s intelligent compositions radiate that same intensity, many of which have been recorded by Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Del McCoury, Tim O’Brien, Lonnie Brooks, James King, Slaid Cleaves, Dale Ann Bradley, Tom Rozum, Ann Rabson, Kevin Welch/ Keiran Kane/ Fats Kaplin and others. Find out more and listen to David’s music below at: http://www.reverbnation.com/davidolney

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MTT Radio

Ive been a reader of this site for some time now, and today i jump online and discover a new feature MTT radio! Im thinking this could be amazing! What an opportunity to reach what i deem to be some of the brightest minds in the industry and maybe just maybe meet some amazing artist along the way. So naturally i head on over……i went through almost every song. I listened to around 20 to 45 seconds of the beginning of each song and i was so dissapointed.

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Our Attempt at Creating the Ultimate Band Website

Hey there,

I am a part of a funky rap/rock quintet from North Jersey called A.S.B.P.K. I recently read an article here at music think tank entitled “Forget MySpace: How To Build The Ultimate Website To Interact With YourFans” and was immediately inspired to take a crack at creating us an excellent band website to act as our central “hub” that connects all our social networks & encompasses everything that we’re doing.

I have little to no experience with web & graphic design but with about a week’s worth of REALLY late nights I was able to come up with this site for my band:

asbpkmusic.com

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Brain Grenade Entertainment announces the release of D.a. Thompson’s CD “Disclaimer” and Seattle Release Party on August 18th, 2009.

Seattle, WA, July 21st, 2009/BGE. Brain Grenade Entertainment (BGE) proudly announces the release date and CD Release Party for D.a. Thompson’s new extended play album titled “Disclaimer” on Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 at Galerias in Seattle, Washington. The first single off of D.a. Thompson’s EP is entitled, “Just you and me.”

Disclaimer is a piano driven pop/rock/funk extended play album with fun arrangements and relatable lyrics. The EP delivers memorable hooks with hints of such artists as Billy Joel, Tears For Fears, and Jason Mraz. Disclaimer was produced by Loren Weisman, mixed by Scott Ross and mastered by Mark Alan Miller in a total of 110 hours over 13 sessions in the month of June 2009. 25 percent of this EP’s sales are being donated to artists working with Brain Grenade Entertainment in the FSRP program.

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Weathervane and the Six Missing Puzzle Pieces

I Recently had a phone conversation with Brian McTear, the Founder and Director of a brand new non-profit called Weathervane Music. http://weathervanemusic.org/

I had heard about them from a friend, and after looking at their website, I was intrigued so I decided to contact them. When on the call Brian and I talked mostly about my business model, Beat-Play, ( http://musicwithoutlabels.com ) and about some other alternative industry models. After my discussion with Brian, I was still a little curious about his non-profit model. I knew that it has amazing potential, but I needed to know more. I sent Brian an email with some questions. These are his answers:

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How to Write a Music Business Plan

Updated on August 3, 2009 by Kevin English

I could start a whole new blog around the topic of preparing a business plan, but, I think it is important to touch upon a few main points now. Writing business plans are my specialty, so I plan to revisit this topic in more detail, sometime in the near future. The first two posts in my series on “How to Release an Independent Record”, spoke to the massive amounts of research necessary to prepare for what lies ahead. The logical next step is to put a basic plan on paper to make sense of all you have recently discovered.

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But it makes sense to me...

There are a lot of musicians who want to artistically stretch people’s minds. They want to make people think and really dive deeply into the meanings of their songs, their name, their image and different underlying elements, thinking that this will add a hip or cool edge to their image. The problem is that this can lead to flat out confusion or, worse, become a deterrent, keeping people away from the music instead of drawing them closer. 

Don’t get me wrong: mind stretching and creativity are great things, but think about them as a later step rather than the first. Make it something that fans will have to dig into and avoid confusing the new listener. Wild stories, confusing bios, songs that make no sense or tie into the more experimental side of you can be red lights for many people to not want to dig deeper. For example, if you are a grunge/industrial type band with fast loops, dirty guitars and in-your-face samples with brash harmonies and powerful hooks, the first sample song on your site should reflect that.  

Get over yourself.

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Is it ever too late to start writing songs??

So you say its too late to start writing songs? Its never too late.

Lets look at it.

Time is just an illusion really, a concept made up by humans to put markers on our trite little existence. It’s a measurement to make us think we somehow matter more than we do. You are where you are right at this moment and really nothing else matters, not the future, not the past. The future is just an illusion of the mind. The past is just a beautiful image recorded in our mind, a snapshot of what has been. It’s no more real than Santa Claus. At least when it comes to songwriting we can use the past to somehow tweak the emotions of others that somehow might have shared our experience.

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The Hector Letter: I Remember The Time

Hector has a love/hate relationship with The Lefsetz Letter…so he manages this internal conflict by offering this, The Hector Letter. As Bob himself might say, “Because it’s RELEVANT”.

I remember the time when the best things in life were my Technics 1200, a huge pair of cans, and a thick slice of vinyl called THRILLER. That’s when cans were headphones, and the curly wire bound me to the turntable while it simultaneously set me free.

1982 was an amazing year. I was hanging with Kool Moe Dee and Kurtis Blow before the world got to know them. We called Kurtis, “Kurtis with a K” but that’s another story. And Shockingly, KMD was no PYT, and the streets belonged to the boy from Gary, Indiana. He was the WORLD, he was the CHILDREN.

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How To Make $19K in 10 Hours on Twitter

One of my favorite blogs, Tech Dirt, reported today on the “flash mob” that occurred when one talented Tweeter updated her status. Apparently there are a ton of people who stay in on Friday nights (not me of course). Out of this discovery, led by singer, Amanda Palmer, a “Friday Night Loser T-Shirt” was born. Amanda went on to sell 400 of these tees @ $25 a piece for a total of $11K. Can we say brilliant?

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