De Novo Dahl has been a staple band in the Nashville indie music scene for quite some time. I remember seeing them play an amazing live show at Exit/In for Movement Nashville’s Halloween Bash two years ago, but it wasn’t until buying their album Move Every Muscle, Make Every Sound a few weeks ago that I got hooked. The quirky and catchty pop-filled album is incredibly fun to listen to. Below you can listen to “Shout”, the lead track on the album.
You’ll have to forgive me - I broke my blog at some point over the last two weeks while trying to updgrade Wordpress, and I left my readers with the dreaded “php errors” for viewing. Maybe after reading the list of what has been going on over the past few weeks, you’ll understand why I neglected to fix it.
I moved into my new place in Green Hills two weeks ago. Other than listening to extremely loud traffic while in bed at night (clarification: the traffic is normal. the windows are super thin), I absolutely love the place. The lady who owns the house, and lives downstairs, is a great neighbor. Thank God for that. Also, it only takes me 10 minutes to get downtown during rush hour. Couldn’t have selected a better location.
During GMA Week, I attended a preview of the Music Builds Tour with Switchfoot at the Wildhorse Saloon. For anyone who has never been to the Wildhorse, Jon Foreman said it best: “This is a nice country bar. That’s what this is.” As always, Switchfoot was incredible. I never miss an opportunity to see them live, and neither should you.
Meredith and I also attended the Dove Awards at the Grand Ole Opry. It was my first time in the Grand Ole Opry House, and it was definitely a unique experience. Sitting through a live taping of that magnitude is a very surreal experience. Even though I was actually present at the awards show, it felt as if I was watching it all through a monitor. Everything ran like clockwork. I was able to see Switchfoot play for the second time in one week. They played “This is Home” which is going to be featured on the Prince Caspian soundtrack. Do yourself a favor, and listen to it on their myspace page.
May 1 and 2 were my first two days as an employee of LifeWay (actually, it was just orientation). My official title is Internet Producer, and I will be working in Digital Media Publishing. I was able to meet a lot of great people and get familiar with the 22 acres or so of land that the campus sits on. Second only to the Tennessee state government, LifeWay is the largest property owner in downtown Nashville. If you need any advice on surviving the hiring process with a large organization, feel free to shoot me a message. After three entire months of conversations with one, I know a thing or two.
Meredith and I will be married in exactly two weeks. I can’t believe how close it is!
Please excuse the missing images and sound files throughout my older posts. I’ll work on getting those back up withing the next few days.
The Cool Hunter - “Roaming the U.S. and the globe…so you’re in the know.” A site that keeps you up to date with the latest ‘cool’ things. Great site, cheesy name. Don’t miss the pixel couch.
Dear God - “Hear us, one prayer at a time.” A site full of posts containing people’s conversations with God. Some people are gratuitous, some people are inquisitive…and others are just angry. Quite interesting to read.
PostACrime.com - “Stop Crime, Get Cash.” Taken from the website…”a free service for anyone to upload photo or video content of burglary, theft, vandalism, or other criminal acts that have been caught on camera for the purpose of identification by the public.” This could keep anyone busy.
DESIGN
Vitamin - “Nourishment to help the web grow.” A great resource for web designers and developers.
The BookScans Database - If you’re into vintage design, you’ll probably enjoy these images of old books.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Dave Hill Photo - Photography with a surreal feel. Very interesting.
David Bean Photography - Great Nashville-based photographer with a very impressive client list.
This week I introduce you to American Bang (formerly Bang Bang Bang), who was labeled as ‘Nashville’s quintessential rock band‘ by The Nashville Scene. Along with Autovaughn, who I featured in my first New Music Monday post, American Bang is one of the flagship local bands in Nashville. After forming in 2005, they quickly began to sell out some of Nashville’s premier club venues. They are now signed to Warner Bros. Records and are set to release their full-length CD later this year. Their music is rootsy yet catchy, with just enough pop flavor to be labeled radio-friendly. Below you can listen to “Rock n’ Roll Queen”, the first track off of their pre-label EP, American Ride.
Disclaimer: I’m definitely not the first person to post about this topic. However, many of the posts you will find are aimed at web and marketing professionals. My goal is to inform the general population about a few basic, useful things Twitter can accomplish.
I thought the social networking revolution hit an all-time low when I heard about Twitter. I don’t care what your dog ate for breakfast. So why would I bother following you and your too frequent and unimportant life updates on Twitter? What a terrible idea. However, I became increasingly intrigued after seeing people use it effectively as an outlet for self-promotion and marketing. Thus, I joined the fray and created my own Twitter profile. And the updates began.
From my limited experiences, I compiled a list of things Twitter can accomplish for anyone.
Keep you informed - Believe it or not, I find myself looking to Twitter for breaking news. After all, you can follow the major news networks, who automatically post to Twitter when they update their headlines.
Make you and your content known - I can’t tell you how many people I have discovered on Twitter that actually have something interesting or important to say. People that I would have never been interested in otherwise. They are effectively gaining an audience through the use of simple, one-line updates. Twitter helps bloggers and site owners drive traffic to their sites, which is great for increased paged views and therefore higher advertising income.
Act as a lightweight RSS reader - Many of the feeds I am pulling into my desktop RSS reader actively ‘tweet’ when the site it originates from has updated content. With the integration of Twitterrific and Growl on my Mac, I can get updates without opening my reader and losing real estate on my screen (although it would be even more beneficial if Growl displayed clickable links).
Provide a forum for feedback - This point is two fold. By using the @username syntax, twitter users can reply to what others have said. When you’re following major corporations, this is a great way to give them feedback or let them know of any problems or concerns you may have. Believe it or not, it can quickly grab their attention; especially if your tweet puts them at risk of being exposed in some way. Secondly, it gives others an easy, quick way of responding to you and providing you with feedback on any new content you have informed them about.
Help you find answers - Got a question? About anything? There’s a good chance you’ll get a pretty hasty response from your followers.