The Real Blog

Feb 28, An Insight Into The Rejuvenated Manchester Music Scene

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 18:51:36 GMT

By Kieran Farrell-Mitchell One name can sum up the pinnacle and the death of a once thriving and well revered music scene in Manchester. Oasis. Arguably

Jan 13, Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:53:31 GMT

This thing is so far outside of anybody's envelope, that it's practically impossible to like it first time. If you approach it with a checklist of preconceived

Jan 13, Some Alternatives To Your Interpretation

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:47:38 GMT

I know it's long but please have a read and see what you think; I reckon it could be worth it but I would, wouldn't I? Anyway, have a go: Well, so far

Nov 14, How To Write Music Suppression Stops Creativity

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:05:15 GMT

How To Write Music. One struggle that I have found to become really common when writing in a band, is that when things get bad between the members, the music usually suffers. You can try and keep you

Sep 29, Born Gold

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 07:54:13 GMT

Born Gold (Previously named "GOBBLE GOBBLE" has one of the most unique live shows you'll ever see. Focusing mainly on the interactive aspect of the show, they definitely thrive in a "small venue" type

Sep 29, Genghis Tron

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 07:12:24 GMT

Genghis Tron is the perfect combination of Electronic + Metal. Their intense, almost danceable sections (Especially the song "Laser Bitch") combined with a solid foundation of groovy bloody metal cr

Sep 29, Flying Lotus

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 06:02:09 GMT

Flying Lotus is one of the giants in the electronic scene over the past few years. Although Aphex Twin ruled the 90's (And is still huge today), Flying Lotus seems to have taken the world by storm. H

Sep 29, Explosions In The Sky

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 05:57:58 GMT

Explosions In The Sky is a band that could put you to sleep. And I mean that in the best of ways. Their calming instrumental tunes are soothing, pleasing, and melodic. There's no intense beats or

Sep 29, David Crowder Band

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 05:55:22 GMT

David Crowder Band is the pretty much the first Christian Worship band that actually captured my musical attention. My general attitude towards worship music is: "Musically, this sucks". And it gene

Sep 28, Converge

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:06:14 GMT

Converge will rip your gallbladder out of your nipples and then write a poem with your plasma. Don't believe me? Listen to some of the tracks below. Being one of the most hardcore bands I've ever

Sep 28, Cloudkicker

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 03:54:01 GMT

Cloudkicker is an unsigned one-man band, but you would never know by listening to his albums. Once you get past the first track on his album 'Beacons', it's a non-stop ride of tasteful forward-motion

Sep 28, Bonobo

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 03:52:44 GMT

BAM! You've just listened to Bonobo's "Black Sands" with the Subwoofer turned way up, and got completely blown away as the Intro song transitions into "Kiara". Oh wait, you didn't? Do it now please.

Sep 28, Bjork

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 03:51:15 GMT

Björk is one of those long standing musicians that doesn't even really need to promote herself anymore. She's even been parodied on SNL by Wynona Ryder, and you know when you've been parodied by SN

Sep 27, Atlas Sound

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 23:18:28 GMT

I remember when I first listened to Atlas Sounds' song "The Light That Failed". I felt like natural sounds of reverb and echo were penetrating me from every-what direction. It was a new experience fo

Sep 26, The Arcade Fire

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 23:41:24 GMT

The Arcade Fire is a fairly "world-renowned" indie band. They've been featured on huge festivals like Coachella, and don't seem to be letting up at all. I first remember seeing the "Power Out" music

Sep 26, Animals As Leaders

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 23:39:53 GMT

That's the same for their drums on the first album Animals As Leaders Released (Self-Titled). The drums were entirely MIDI based. "But Andrew!" You may ask. "How can they tour if they only have MIDI

Sep 26, Amon Tobin

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 23:38:11 GMT

Amon Tobin's electronic grooves are easily recognizable within any compilation that he does. Whether it's the aforementioned videogame music, or on the pop-styling's of Mike Patton's "Don't Even Trip"

Sep 26, Nosaj Thing

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 22:42:46 GMT

I've mainly only listened to Nosaj Thing's album "Drift", but boy has it been a great ride. Although there are no vocals in the tunes, there is just a special quality about him that I can't really de

Sep 26, James Blake

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 22:20:09 GMT

James Blake is an Experimental Electronic artist from London. He was originally a producer, and a lot of his early EP's consist of only sampled vocals (Never his own voice). In his first full album,

Sep 26, Animal Collective

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 21:16:06 GMT

Animal Collective is one of those bands that is so unique that you aren't quite sure what type of genre restriction you could put on them. They use a combination of incredibly reverb drenched electro

Sep 26, MGMT

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:29:58 GMT

I don't do drugs, but listening to MGMT (And watching any of their music video's) is a perfectly acceptable (And adequate) supplementary experience. When I first heard of MGMT, I saw a music video of

Sep 26, Bon Iver

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:15:51 GMT

I only just got into Bon Iver's newest album ("Bon Iver"), so I'll only be speaking from my experience with that album. The thing that first stood out to me was the unique approach to the vocals. The

Sep 26, Outkast

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:21:42 GMT

I only started listening to Outkast recently, but I remember when their album "The Love Below" came out when I was a kid. At the time I didn't really appreciate it as much, with their big singles bei

Sep 24, Jamorama Review

Sat, 24 Sep 2011 04:31:42 GMT

In this Jamorama Review I'm going to take a deep look through the program, pointing out every flaw that I can find about the Jamorama Online Guitar Course. Read now to make sure you make the right cho

Sep 16, Line 6 DL4

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 13:40:01 GMT

So you've got that new fancy $300+ Line 6 DL4, but you aren't quite sure how to use the looper function on it yet, hmmm? For most people that have never used a looper before, the idea of it ...

Aug 17, Powered PA Speakers

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 01:45:24 GMT

3 Reasons Why Powered PA Speakers Knock Passive Ones Out Of The Park. Many people argue about whether Powered PA Speakers are better, or whether Passive speakers are the way to go in live music perfo

Aug 10, Battles July 23 2011

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 22:48:03 GMT

When the band first walks on stage, everyone's first thought is; "Where the heck is John Staniers' comically raised crash cymbal?" In case you've never seen how high that cymbal is normally; here it..

Aug 8, Facebook Advertising Lower Your CPC

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 21:50:41 GMT

Facebook Advertising is easily becoming the best way for a band to get the word out there for their band. But with the competition rising and rising, the cost per click (CPC) is becoming increasingly

Jul 28, In Search Of Hipster Women!

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 17:30:43 GMT

No comment needed!

Jul 22, In Case You Didn't Get My "General Mills" Comment From The Last Post...

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:46:15 GMT

In my last post, I made a comment somehow relating "General Mills" with "Post"...well...something like that. If you didn't read it, this will seem somewhat incoherent. Anyways, hopefully this will clear it all up for you.

Jul 22, I'm Practicing Word Masturbation!

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:43:51 GMT

My biggest inspiration for the following is Allie Brosh. I was recently reading a post about how her How her boyfriend would be a Headless, Dignity-less torso without her. Without reading her article, or at least part of it, I'm afraid you might not understand the following comment that I made on her blog. Anyways, I wanted to take a stab at how she is so creative in her writing, and was truly inspired. So I decided to do it (For just a comment!) As lame as it sounds for me to simply share a comment I left on her blog, just think of it as...a mini article. This is the type of random humor that just makes me fly off the wall. It's kind of like some sort of...free association thing. Where you just start writing the first related thing that comes into your mind. Sometimes you just start writing sentences and you have no idea where they are going to end up. Anyways, here it is!: "Your creepy cellar is totally straight out of Evil dead! Also, your amazing writing has inspired me to try some of this "word masturbation" where you just go on amazing tangents of anger and metaphor, similar to if a bear took a ball-peen hammer to merriam-websters' grandchildren and held them hostage until she wrote him a complex novel piece describing all the ways in which he is superior to dolphins. And it's not that's he's entirely superior to dolphins'. The bear is actually quite self-conscious of himself and just needs a boost in confidence. In fact, Merriam Webster is a complete moron. Because instead of writing a ridiculous novel in which she needs to somehow spin the word "opprobrious" into a 7-bar stanza haiku praising the bears internal organ superiority, she probably could have just given the bear a hug and told him "Hey you know what? You are a really decent guy, and the way your parents treated you when you were a kid was completely wrong. You are good looking, and your males parts are very large". I think that would have entirely done the trick. And she could have saved her grandchildren from the Mechanics' "Thors' Hammer". Unfortunately, she was not that smart at all and the grandchildren suffered a terrible, terrible fate. In any case, I felt that I wanted to do something similar to this on my own site; but I was too self-conscious to pull off such a task, so I decided to write about it on your amazing comment stream instead. But now that I've gotten into the groove, I'm going to post this shiz like some general mills cereal. Thanks for being such a wonderful inspiration with your overtly-honest writing style. It brings me feelings of flying pigs and rainbow-colored lamp!" What do you think of the writing style? Do you think I should try and incorporate some of that into my future articles? Give me feedback here!

Jul 19, BandCamp Gets A New, Simpler Shopping Cart So You Can Sell Your Music Easier Than Ever!

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 22:37:03 GMT

Here's a quick teaser for the post. I'm gonna love this new feature, and I'll bet anyone with a Bandcamp page will love it too! "It’s true, every Bandcamp-powered site now has a shiny new shopping cart. You can add stuff to it, remove stuff from it, and even umm…check out. And yet we’re sincerely excited about it, and think you should be too. Why? Well that requires a story. It’s kind of long, but as you’ll see, that’s kind of the point."

Jul 18, Also, The RubberBandits are funny guys!

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 23:01:39 GMT

I definitely found myself laughing out loud at these guys...really interesting sense of humor. I don't really know what I think of the music, but at the very least they are incredibly funny.

The main premise of this video, is that the band wrote a song about Ice Cube, and they ended up doing a show with him because of it. Convinced that their songs come true, they decided to write a song about flying to the moon, in an attempt that it might become true. 'nuff said?

Jul 18, Submit Your Band To Red Bull Records!

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 22:35:15 GMT

I use a service called "Music Xray", which is an online service that helps bands get paired with music industry professionals. What professionals am I talking about? Well they might be:

Record labels looking for up and coming artists
Producers
Music Critics
Online Music Radio Show hosts
And More!

I've been subscribed to their service for over a year now, and after careful screening I've decided that it's a worthy service to be using. I'm going to be doing a write up on it soon enough, but for now I'll simply be telling you here on my blog. And for the news! Red Bull records is currently looking for indie artists, and you can submit your band for consideration through Music Xray. Periodically I'll be posting about opportunities to get your band heard by record labels and such, if I feel the opportunity is neat enough. In any case, you can submit your band Here or through the link below. Even if you don't feel that the Red Bull Record Label opportunity fits, I recommend that you sign up for a Music Xray account, and they will mail you new opportunities every week. In fact, they actually will match your specific songs (Using complex Algorithms...oooo!) to deals that are fitting for your music. I've found that most opportunities that were matched to me were pretty relevant, so that is a huge bonus. Anyways, Sign up right away if you don't already have an account!

Jul 18, Live Music Performances Open Mic Night

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 21:33:58 GMT

Live Music Performances. It can be really tempting to go out to open mic nights for quick and easy gig. Why wouldn't you? Well it might not be quite as sweet of an opportunity as your originally thoug

Jul 14, How To Write Music Brain Automatic Filter

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 18:21:31 GMT

How To Write Music. When you first start writing music, most things that you write are really not...all that excellent. And it's not because you are a terrible musician or anything, or that you don't

Jul 13, Music Marketing Band Press Kit

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 19:01:09 GMT

Band Press Kit. I know the idea of EPK's, RPK's, and any other sort of promotion items can sometimes seem a little overwhelming. You can think of all the difference resources that it takes to creat...

Jul 12, Bandcamp

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 18:01:10 GMT

Putting your songs up on BandCamp is actually one of the easiest uploading services available, and that's including the functionality of selling the songs! I would even say that it's easier than u...

Jul 12, Ninjaspy Interview April 29 2011

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 00:59:42 GMT

My band "A Human Nothing" recently played a show with Ninjaspy (Played On Warped-Tour). The show was absolutely stunning, and most would say the best our town (Chilliwack) has ever seen.

Jul 11, How Has Tijuana's Music Scene Changed Over The Years?

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 21:55:51 GMT

I think one of the neatest parts about music in Tijuana (from this interview) is how the place is really open, and if musicians have music to share, they can play it at most venue's.

Listen to Nortec Collective to learn how Tijuana's music scene has gone from crazy frantic and booming, to slow and dreary, back to booming again! It's definitely interesting to learn about another culture like this, as it can completely change the way you might plan to go on tour. I thought it was interesting that they mentioned Nine Inch Nails playing there, as that's not necessarily something you might expect from Mexico if you are ignorant like me!

Jul 11, How To Use Torrents Music Marketing

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 19:03:10 GMT

Music Marketing: How To Use Torrents To Further Your Career As A Musician (Without Hindering Your Profits). There is an incredibly large debate about whether learning how to use torrents to syndica...

Jul 8, Music Marketing Michael Haddad Interview Part 7

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:45:42 GMT

In My Music Marketing Interview With LA Music Manager "Michael Haddad", we talk about my final advice for Musicians, what things they should take responsibility for, and how to make it in the mode....

Jul 8, Guitar Pick Necklaces - Original And Freaking Comfortable

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:36:37 GMT

Today a co-worker of mine, Brenda Woelder's, showed me some of the crafts projects that she's working on. Once I found out that she makes these super comfortable Guitar Pick Necklaces, I freaked and I just had to post it here. Click the Link Below if you wanna check em out and buy them for yourself. That's some Canadian handmade goodness! I'm really not the kind of guy who likes necklaces. I just feel like there is a very small person try to choke me at all times. But I didn't really experience that with this necklace. It was really comfortable to try on, and I would definitely wear it on stage heheh...

Jul 6, Music Marketing Michael Haddad Interview Part 6

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 20:02:26 GMT

In My Music Marketing Interview With LA Music Manager "Michael Haddad", we talk about what a music manager gets paid, what his responsibilities are, and more!

Jul 5, Music Marketing Michael Haddad Interview Part 5

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 18:09:10 GMT

In My Music Marketing Interview With LA Music Manager "Michael Haddad", we talk about what area's of your music you should focus on to make more money, and how to use Reverbnation and Facebook for ...

Jul 5, How To Write Music - 6 Ways To Recover From Your Musical Discouragement

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 17:00:55 GMT

How To Write Music - There comes about 136 times in every musicians life where you become incredibly discouraged. Maybe a few of these things apply to you. No matter which of those apply to you...

Jul 1, Music Marketing Michael Haddad Interview Part 4

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 21:38:41 GMT

In My Music Marketing Interview With LA Music Manager "Michael Haddad", we go over how ReverbNation stats can tell you where a tour will be most effective, and how to get on the charts!

Jul 1, MTV IGGY Actually Doesn't Suck!

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 18:17:50 GMT

I recently came upon a somewhat decent site called "MTV IGGY". I learned about it because they were hosting the taping of a secret show for the band "La Vida Bohème". The band is somewhat decent (Not my favorite, but they have a few original elements in them). Anyways, the whole contest is basically that if you go to (facebook.mtviggy.com) and say why you deserve to attend the concert, you could win a chance to...win... Never has been something that I've been big into, but I thought I would at least mention the MTV IGGY Site, as it's actually pretty decent. They had an artistic feature on Gobble Gobble, and a dedicated page for Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, so the taste in music that they support is pretty decent. Actually, the Gobble Gobble video is absolutely amazing and I think you will definitely get a huge kick out of it. So I've embedded it below!

Go ahead and check it out in the permalink below.

Jun 29, James Warner Prophecies Interview

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 18:33:17 GMT

The band started as a side project for me (Joe) at the time I was learning how to record music and I had just got my first home setup so it was kinda a blank canvas to play with I had lots of songs"

Jun 28, Music Marketing Michael Haddad Interview Part 3

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 22:47:54 GMT

In My Music Marketing Interview With LA Music Manager "Michael Haddad", we talk about how your stats from Facebook, Myspace, and Reverbnation can be used as leverage to gain attention from record la..