Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Bandamonium at The Crown and Harp

This Friday night, November 9th, get ready for a musical adventure that you'll need to be there to believe, we like to call it Bandamonium.  In one evening starting at 8:30 you will go through an entire spectrum of popular music at the Crown and Harp.  To set the night off on the smooth and easy, we have the song stylings of Dallas' Pop jazz queen, or if she prefer president, Emmeline.  A semi-finalist in Dallas' RAW awards, come out and support her Wednesday.  Then come out again Friday to unwind and celebrate.

Next it is time to start the drinking, with Levi Cobb and the Big Smoke.  They'll bring their whisky soaked folk rock and you bring the matches to what could be described as simulteaneously raccous and tuneful.  They'll be passing out copies of their new album at the show.


Next is Denton's finest, your favorite rock band My Kickdrum Heart.  Playing an amalgam of dancing rock from the 50 years, the band is high off radio airplay of their new single, "Falling",  released on Bandcamp.
The snakey slink of Dallas' We'rewolves comes howling at you.  Lyle Brooks of FortLive.com describes it best, "With each minute of each song, one can hear the group evolving more and more into its own atmosphere. Stirring the pot, the Wolves explode from a classic rock launching pad onto an alien landscape. The tune, a voodoo mudslapper, creeps up under the floorboards. Grappling with a flesh-and-bone inertia, the drive gives way to a menacing toe tapping."







And then to bring it on home the sweet fuzz garage grooves of Dead Mockingbirds.    Expectations are they will straight up bring the rock.

So get there early,  stay late and then call someone to carry you home.

Friday, November 2, 2012

Rock the Metroplex: Titus Andronicus and Japandroids.

For those of you who are fans of Denton's local rockers, My Kickdrum Heart, this weekend will bring two bands on two nights from two coasts to the Metroplex to rock your collective socks off.
Most likely ready to work out the frustrations of the storm that ravaged their home in New Jersey, Titus Andronicus, comes Tapatio Studios, Saturday November 3.  Tickets are merely ten dollars and local band Soviet has been added to the bill.  Check out this video from their album "The Monitor".

Coming Monday November 5th to Dallas's legendary Trees, Vancouver duo Japandroids , hit the scene fresh off a stint in Europe.  They are known for high energy performances that you don't soon forget.
Here is a video from their latest release "Celebration Rock".





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Thursday, November 1, 2012

How to make sure your MP3's are right for internet radio

In today's highly competitive independent music industry you need to do everything you can to stand out.  One thing you can do is make sure the meta data on your MP3s has all the pertinent information.  Here is a except from the submission requirements from Soma FM.

Make sure your MP3 files are high bitrate (256kb or "v0"/Highest Quality VBR). No WAV files please; no m4a files. Check your Metadata! Make sure your artist name and track names are correct. Include the album name where available, otherwise leave blank. Put your website and email address in the comments field. Use the "Grouping" ID field to put the name of the channel you think will best fit. Set the Genre to be something that best describes your music. 


So how does one do that?  Well if you have a I tunes it is a snap.  First go to I tunes and locate the tune.

Then once you highlight the tune go to File and select Get Info.


Here you can enter all the relevant information, including adding the artwork for the track.
Next go to the summary to make sure the information is correct.
You'll be able to look at the bit rate here.  The normal encoder will do that at 128 kbs.  As you can see in the example above a higher bit rate is required.  For this in I tunes go to preferences and chose Import settings.

Import using MP3 encoder, setting custom.
Click on Custom and from there choose 256 kbps.
And there you have it.  Happy sharing.