John Cade

I’m not a Coldplay fan.  It’s not that I don’t like their music, I’m just an anti-bandwagon type of person.  Usually if everyone else loves something, I will wait till things simmer down a bit before testing it out.  Well, the time has come for me to listen to Coldplay.  Why?  Because right now on Amazon MP3 you can purchase their X & Y album for only $2.

My last post about Bonnaroo was very brief, so I thought I would share a couple of details about the design contest.  Anyone with an account on bonnaroo.com could enter by creating a design and uploading it to their personal profile.  The process was extremely easy for the designers and it allowed all bonnaroo.com users to rate each design, save them as favorites, or leave a comments on them.  In all the judges selected designs by five people.  Each design will be on Bonnaroo merchandise, available for purchase at the festival, and hopefully online at a later date as well.  The design contest was a great way to get Bonnaroo 2008 attendees invovled and encourage creativity.  This is actually one of my goals at LifeWay, so it was great to have this sort of user experience on the Bonnaroo website.

The prize for winning is two free tickets for the festival.  Because the tickets are free to us, and Meredith works for Creative Artists Agency (which got us BOTH in for free last year), we have had about 20 requests from people either to take them off of our hands at no cost or to purchase them from us.  We are not sure if Meredith will be getting a free pass from work or not this year, so we have not made any promises to anyone about whether or not the tickets will be available.  Thanks to those of you who sent a nice congrats rather than simply asking for a free ticket.  Your intentions and sincerity have been noted :).

Some of the artists I plan on seeing are Death Cab for Cute, My Morning Jacket, Pearl Jam, The Raconteurs, Ben Folds, OAR, De Novo Dahl, and Steel Train.  I will also peek in on the New Orleans Superjam with Johnny Vidacovich.  He is one of the greatest drummers from New Orleans and it would be a mistake pass it up.  I really haven’t had time to plan out my entire schedule, but I’m sure there will be others I will want to see as well.

The winners were officially announced on the Bonnaroo website yesterday - here is a screenshot!  Or view the live page.

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.

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.