The Nashville Feed

'bout damn time! Another rock and roll weekend, yeehaw!

Seriously good stuff happening...in addition to the killer rock shows, the Belcourt is giving you the opportunity to see Star Trek: The Wrath of KAHN! at midnight Friday and Saturday...also happening at the Belcourt this weekend: Body of War opens Friday. On Saturday at 7pm the subject of the film, Tomas Young will be in attendance.

Friday!

• AutoVaughn and De Novo Dahl Doulble CD Release w/ The Pink Spiders at the Cannery Ballroom. 9pm ($8 - $10)
• The Shazam w/ The Ettes & Whip (MySpace) at the Basement. 9pm ($7)

Saturday!

• Pat Buchanan at 3rd & Lindsley. 7pm ($7)
• Matt King at Family Wash. 9pm (Free, but don't forget cash for the hat!)
• Chris Crofton Almost Standing Up w/ Apollo Up at the Basement. 9pm ($5)

Sunday!

• Lovenoise at the Place. 9pm
• DeVotchka w/ Basia Bulat & more at Mercy Lounge. 9pm ($18 - $20)

Hot Nashville Music Sales of the Week

Grimey's Best Sellers for April 28 - May 4, 2008

Flight of the Conchords fall of the list this week and Portishead appears on the top of the list.

1. Portishead - Third
2. Mudcrutch - Mudcrutch
3. Boris - Smile
4. Elvis Costello - Momufuku
5. M83 - Saturdays = Youth
6. Justin Townes Earle - The Good Life
7. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
8. She & Him - Volume One
9. The Roots - Rising Down
10. Hayes Carll - Trouble In Mind

We only list the top 10 for the rest of the top 50 visit Grimeys.com. (Please note that Amazon.com links are provided for those not in Nashville, if Grimeys had an online store we would link there.)

Have a super safe and awesome weekend!

Peace,
j.

Technorati Tags: weekend, nashville, it list, de novo dahl, the shazam

Josh Ritter might have the happiest stage presence of any musician touring today.

For all the comparisons to Bob Dylan, who rarely gives an audience anything better than upbeat indifference, Ritter defies the dour, unknowable songwriter.

While navigating through heartbreak and murder ballads, he always returned to a blissful grin.

He regularly broke into laughter while telling stories about the amount of skin he saw displayed around Vanderbilt and potatoes in his basement that look like Dick Cheney. Not there’s anything wrong with an Idaho native collecting potatoes.

On the first of two sold-out nights at the Belcourt Theatre, Ritter and his band didn’t race so much as expertly shift gears through spare ballads, some brief forays close into Strokes territory, a few fiddle tunes and Ritter playing one tune entirely in the dark. The diversity onstage was staggering, with band member shuffling on and off, acoustics and electrics traded off.

In full disclosure, I have to commit Americana heresy here - I don’t own anything from Ritter. Aside from a few promo and compilation cuts, I know him mainly by reputation.

He showed how well he earned it on Tuesday.

The touching songs – “Temptation of Adam” and “Empty Hearts” - stuck the best, although shaky moments were few for this tour-tested outfit. Even with his most vulnerable lyrics, it never took long for Ritter to return to smiling.

Ritter and multi-instrumentalist Zack Hickman (sporting an amazing handlebar ‘stache) stepped away from the microphones and amplifiers for an acoustic interlude. The power could have gone out, and Ritter’s music would have chugged along without a flinch.

Had she chosen to just talk for an hour, opener Ingrid Michaelson would have still pleased the audience with her magnificent stage presence. Switching between piano and guitar, she never stopped entertaining (the guy next to me compared her to Juno). Her voice propelled songs such as “Overboard” and “Die Alone,” although not all were as memorable. Still, her transcendent banter left me craving more.

Happy Cinco de Mayo everybody! Wish I had a list of things for you to day tonight but it looks like everything happened over the weekend. I only found one event going on at the foobar over on the east side.

Talking about parties has it come to this. In our digital connected world has dating been reduced to texting? Have you been in a texting relationship? Leave a comment and tell your story.

Good stuff happening this weekend, get out and enjoy it! Make sure to take an umbrella too!

Friday!

• Naked Without Us Fashion Rock Show featuring Koopa, Mmodoc, Lorien (MySpace), Brenn (MySpace) & Damien Horne at the Cannery. 8pm ($10)
• Lou Reed at the Ryman. 8pm ($37 - $47)
• Branded Sons (MySpace) w/ Stephen Belin and The Minor Keys (MySpace) & Laura Sweeney (Myspace) at the 5 Spot. 9pm ($5)
• American Music Club w/ Umbrella Tree (MySpace) & Aaron Robinson at the End. 9pm ($10)

Saturday!

• "A Little Bit Random" Photography by Karen Hicks at Cafe Coco. Reception at 8pm.
• Foster's Day: C.C.C.P. featuring Chris Crofton (MySpace), The Carter Administration, The Clutters & Powerload at the 5 Spot. 9pm ($5)
• Shawn Byrne (MySpace) w/ The Victrolas & Stateliner (Featured in the Nashville Feed podcast #2) at the Pond. 9:30pm ($5)

Sunday!

• Lovenoise at the Place. 9pm
• Elizabeth Cook at 3rd & Lindsley. 8pm

Hot Nashville Music Sales of the Week

One of my favorite shows Flight of the Conchords returns to the list. I assume that either the reruns are back on or new episodes have begun. Either fun stuff and if you haven't see this show go and check it out.

Grimey's Best Sellers for April 11 - 27, 2008

1. Elvis Costello - Momofuku
2. The Black Keys - Attack & Release
3. The Raconteurs - Consolers Of The Lonely
4. Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell
5. Flight Of The Conchords - Flight Of The Conchords
6. Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant
7. Elbow - Seldom Seen Kid
8. The Replacements - Let It Be
9. The Replacements - Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash
10. M83 - Saturdays = Youth

We only list the top 10 for the rest of the top 50 visit Grimeys.com. (Please note that Amazon.com links are provided for those not in Nashville, if Grimeys had an online store we would link there.)

Hope your week has been good and your weekend is even better!

Cheers,
j.

Technorati Tags: weekend, nashville, it list

Social networking is a very powerful tool that empowers artists and allows them to easily reach out to their fans. The two biggies in the general category are Facebook and MySpace. Each has very different demographics meaning you probably should be on both of them. Be careful how much you push them to grow your audience because you can get deleted. Here’s some tips and information that will prevent a lot of pain and time lost later.

Different Profiles for Different Purposes Maybe

MySpace has a few different profiles but most people use either the stander member or the musician profiles. MySpace really doesn’t care what you use it for even though their terms of use states otherwise. Facebook
is a very different beast in the sense that they have many profiles for business. They really do care what you use your profile for and will disable your account if you don’t follow the rules. If you’re a Band each person should have a Facebook profile and the band itself would have a music Facebook Page and maybe a group.

Are You Human?

MySpace has Captcha so when you add too many friends, or send too many emails it pops up asking you to read and type in the squiggly text shown. Basically it’s a test to see if you’re a human or an internet bot (spam). Facebook has none of these tests except for sign-up.

Don’t Push the Facebook System

The company I work for started our Facebook profile before there were Facebook Pages available and so we used it to start a group. Without going into too much detail adding too many friends at a time can cause your profile to be disabled for a few hours at first. If you do it again the next time they disable you it will be longer. And finally you’re gone. Everything you had built gone in one digital poof! That’s not the worst of it. If you’ve created groups around the profile and only have one administrator you could be screwed. When that main administrator profile disappears it opens up the group to anybody. The first person to click “make me administrator” owns the group. There is no message send to your members saying what has happened. Meaning they can send messages to the group and most will think it is you. This had happened to our group. We got it back afterward but it was 24 hours of sweating.

Facebook Pages/Profiles Advice and Tips

• Set up individual Facebook profiles for each member of a band and a back up profile for sole artists.
• Set up a Facebook Page for Bands and solo Artists. Yes, solo Artists too.
• Promote the Page and Group; do not worry about building friends list on your personal profile. If anything let that build organically.
• If you get disabled on Facebook wait a few hours and I will come back. They don’t give you the thresholds that causes “disabling” so don’t push-it if it happens.

If you follow some of this advice you won’t go through what we did. Use the system to it’s fullest for maximum benefit but don’t abuse the Facebook system.

Technorati Tags: facebook, disabled profiles, music business, how to, social networking

Happy weekend! What a beautiful week it has been (except for the whole getting up early to go to work thing, but on a week like this...it's actually okay). Unfortunately we are due for some rain, but don't let that spoil your weekend fun.

Midnight movie week! I am officially a geek for the midnight movies at the Belcourt. This week they are showing one of my all time favorites, Pulp Fiction.

On to the music...

Friday!

• I've been looking forward to this one for a while...Sonic Youth at City Hall. 8pm ($25)
• Jonell Mosser at 3rd & Lindsley. 10:30pm ($10)

Saturday!

• The Mattoid, Shmelby, Leslie Keffer (MySpace), Rodger Stella & Stoney Tusco at the Springwater. 9pm
• Hillbilly Casino w/ The Clutters & 7 Shot Screamers at the 5 Spot. 9pm ($7)
• The Protomen w/ Wax Fang & Heypenny at Mercy Lounge. 9pm ($7)

Sunday!

• Lovenoise at the Place. 9pm

The list is short, but I'm not going to put a bunch of stuff on here that I don't recommend just for filler...so yeah, if you have any suggestions, feel free to add in the comments! I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Cheers,

j.

Another linkfest for you today.

Report: Amazon MP3 Gains Don't Affect iTunes - News and Analysis by PC Magazine
Gains for Amazon's MP3 service have not significantly affected Apple iTunes sales, due largely to the different demographics the two services attract, according to a report from NPD Group .

Anybody See My 4.9 Billion? : Teenage Music Purchases - Chuck Klosterman
There's a lot of money out there in the economy that people used to spend on CDs. The question is, where, exactly, did it go?

How can I sell my music online? | New Music Strategies
When I go and give lectures and seminars, this is by far the most frequently asked question by the musicians in the audience. There are variations on this theme, but essentially it boils down to this very simple question: now that there’s this internet thing, where’s the money and how do I get at it?
What’s the best way to sell music online?

Fine On Media The Wisdom Of The Commenters - BusinessWeek
When I’m coldish and kvetching and dizzy from decongestants, it’s nice that some smart commenters can stop by and make arguments better than I could make even if I weren’t totally coldish and kvetching and etc.

Radiohead allows fans to remix new single | Technology | Reuters
LONDON (Billboard) - Radiohead is using the Internet for another initiative built around its chart-topping album, "In Rainbows."

The UK rock act has teamed with iTunes and GarageBand for an interactive project that allows fans to rework the album's second single, "Nude."

Are Always-Connected Consumers Really Virtual Crackheads? - Advertising Age - The Media Guy
Look out! The internet is ruining your life! Again!

Last week the blogosphere busied itself with obsessing over the publication of an editorial in the American Journal of Psychiatry by Dr. Jerald Block, a psychiatrist at the Oregon Health & Science University, in which he argued that internet addiction should be included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

The Year's Hottest New Music Stars - Forbes.com
Some recording artists toil for years without ever scoring a big hit. Then there's the fortunate few who skip all the dues-paying hardships and skyrocket straight to stardom.

That pretty much sums up the experience of Sean Kingston, Colbie Caillat, Flo Rida and other new music acts on our list of music's hottest new stars.

These crazy bloggers still think they understand the music business | Internet Marketing News and Blog | E-consultancy.com
In an op-ed piece in the New York Times on Saturday, British musician Billy Bragg suggests that social networks like Bebo and MySpace should pay royalties for the music that is made available through their services.

He argues against the notion that the "free promotion" provided makes a royalty unreasonable, pointing out that radio stations, which also provide "free promotion," pay royalties.

Can't wait for a linkfest post? Follow what I'm bookmarking on del.icio.us.

Technorati Tags: linkfest, itunes, music business, how to, news