One of my duties for being on the Alternative Press Magazine street team for Minneapolis is to post blogs about the shows I promote at for the magazine.
I just posted a blog about the Flogging Molly show I went to on the 23rd and before that I posted a blog about the Street Dogs show I went to in October.
Please head over to the street team blog and check out the blog posts and let me know what you think! I will be posting blogs on there for every show I promote at so make sure to keep checking back there.

I read a really interesting and informative blog today about the current state of and future of radio. The blog was written by Alternative Press founder and CEO Mike Shea and can be found here. It's a good read and something worth thinking about if you're in the music business in any way. 

 I recently discovered the music website imeem.com. At first I was hesitant to use it because I am strongly against listening to or downloading music that is illegally shared and in violation of copyright laws, but I went into the legal part of the website, read most of it, and discovered, as far as I can tell, that this website is completely legal.
I used to frequent a similar website called Pandora.com that depending on how you rate the music that shows up will play songs similar to the ones you like. If you listen enough, you can really get to the point where only styles of music you like will come up. You can type in artist names and usually get a song by them to come up, but you can't relisten to the song and you can only skip a certain amount of songs per station per hour. Essentially, pandora is like a radio station that you have some control over. It's a good website to use if you simply want it to start playing a musical style that you like and find out about new artists at the same time; I found out about many different artists that I eventually bought CDs from. Pandora however does not give you the control that imeem does.
There are many features that I love about imeem. First, you can search any artist name and pages of songs are bound to come up. All the artists I have searched for had a good amount of songs in the imeem network. Second, you can listen to the songs over and over and over and over...there is no limit! I love this feature because it puts the control in the users hands. Third, and the most important, is that you cannot download any of the music illegally. I truly believe artist's should be compensated for their work and this website simply supplies links to itunes and amazon.com where people can buy the music if they so choose. Imeem also works to protect the artist so their music is not upload illegally:


I could go on about other features I like such as that you can creat playlists of all your favorite songs, have featured playlists and songs on your profile, the ability to imbed content, and a media tracker that notes everything you watch and listen to so you can easily go back to it again, but I would encourage you to just go and play around with the website and see everything it is capable of.

The music business is in an interesting transition phase where digital music is becoming all the rage and ultimately I think the only way people are soon going to be listening to music. I think websites like imeem are encouraging the move in that direction. I've been resistant to this digital age music for a long time (I like my CDs dang it!), but websites like imeem make it very attractive to me simply because of the control which is given to me as a listener. I can find what I want, when I want, and listen to it whenever I want. Personally, I still want to buy CDs, but I want to hear music from them before I buy them and imeem makes that really easy.

My imeem page

I recently found a website (www.zreomusic.com) that is devoted to recreating the music in all the Zelda games. Yes, this sounds slightly geeky (the people involved in this project must have a lot of time on their hands), but I've always been a fan of the music in the Zelda video games and various classic Nintendo games, but never really found anything that was up to par. Everything that I've come across sounded very hokey and poorly done. I mean the music in the games wasn't amazing, just basic MIDI, but there was something about those tunes that made every level memorable. It's not uncommon that the music from Nintendo games has been performed orcherstrally: I have a CD of a live orcherstra performance of Super Smash Brothers Melee, but until I found out about zreomusic, that was the only good recording of Nintendo music I had found.
At first I thought zreomusic was an actual orcherstra that decided to record music from the Zelda games, but then I read into it more:

It really would take a well trained ear to recognize that it actually isn't real orchestra music. It sounds entirely realistic to me.
I would suggest listening to the music from Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess because they are the newest and best quality tracks that I have heard so far. There are older tracks that they are actually redoing with better programs so that they sound more realistic. You can listen to the music on the website or you can download it  all free of charge.
So even if you find this entirely geeky and nerdy, take a listen and simply enjoy the music for what it is. For video game music to transfer so easily to orchestra music proves that the people who wrote the music for these games are freakin genuises.

I just posted a review of the State of Grace tour show I promoted over on the AP Minnesota street team page. Please check it out! 

They're amazing. Check them out and then go to the show!:

www.station-4.com

I think this conference is going to be amazing. Just check out the video from last year:

I live in Minneapolis, but I don't want you in St. Paul or anywhere near my city. Why do you bring your mindless violence to St.Paul?
You're not accomplishing anything nor are you being exactly clear about what the crap you're protesting. All I've seen is you guys being idiots.
What in the world does smashing windows at Macey's and a bank accomplish?
What does pushing dumpsters into the street and smashing police car windows accomplish? Nothing.
Don't even complain about being arrested! Don't even start whining about how you're being mistreated! When you start breaking windows of businesses and destroying park benches and dragging them through the street and smashing police car windows and slashing bus tires YOU'RE BREAKING THE FREAKIN LAW! The police have every right to arrest you!
You kind of people don't accomplish ANYTHING politically. You just become a problem for the police because you refuse to be peaceful in your protests.
I may not agree with everything that the Republican National Convention represents, but violence does not change anything.
Freedom of speech is not FLINGING URINE AT POLICE OFFICERS, it is an intelligent, peaceful articulation of your views and beliefs. Presenting yourselves as intelligent people that have a purpose takes more time and patience, but would actually give a better impression and maybe get people to listen to you.

All you have to do is go to their myspace and sign up for their mailing list. A link for the download will be sent to you through email.

All you have to do is click the image below and enter your email address in the box and they will send you a link for the download. You can also sign up to get 2 free issues of Alternative Press magazine. I'd say that's a pretty good deal. Get it while you can! I believe it is only available for the month of August.