Hey y'all . . .

So, we've finally joined the 21st century and reached out to the bloggers and podcasters of the world, and today we're being played on our first podcast!

Hello Powderburn Fans!

We've decided to join the ranks of trailblazers like Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead, and we are now offering a digital-download of One Fix, free of charge. That's right. FREE.

All you have to do is follow the link I'll post below to our ReverbNation page, enter your email into our mailing list, and you will be able to download the ENTIRE RECORD with absolutely no strings attached . . . .

So . . .GO! Do it! Tell your friends . . . . please help us get our music out there and help us hit the mainstream this year!

And hey, for those of you that already pre-ordered packages on the MySpace or intend to buy a physical copy of the CD at one of our shows . . . PLEASE don't let this stop you. We're not in this for the money (yet), but all the stuff we do sell will help us finance our next record/tour/trip to Thailand for prostitutes . . I mean . . inspiration. You get the idea.

All of you who have or will purchase the record are the reason we're able to keep doing this, until someone signs us and puts us on tour for good. We love you all and couldn't do this without you.

Thanks, and go download our songs!

http://www.reverbnation.com/powderburn

And post this widget everywhere!!



- Patrick

(If you're on our mailing list then you should have just received the following email. If not please sign up as one day myspace may not be around but powderburn will)
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Hope you're all having a glorious week of October! We just wanted to give you a quick update about the latest in Powderburn world. First off we want to thank you for all the great feedback on the "One Fix" album trailer video. Keep spreading that around to all your friends and be sure to add comments and ratings on the youtube page....this helps get the video featured on youtube and then we'll be right up there with the Chocolate Rain guy and the Dancing Wedding Party. 

Speaking of youtube the band has recently purchased a video camera with the sole intent of posting more youtube videos from the road, the practice room, seaworld and whereever else. Ken posted the first video yesterday, entitled "Day 1" of him driving down the highway and giving the latest info on the cd release shows. (see the new dates below) 

We plan to do this on a regular basis now so if you want to see more, please subscribe to the powderburn youtube channel and be sure to rate/comment the videos...otherwise we think you don't care. :)
 www.youtube.com/powderburn 

Have a good weekend and hopefully we'll see some of you this Saturday in Houston for Pat's birthday show!!

Hey all,

This is Patrick, here to do all of you who are still here on MySpace a favor by taking some time out of my day to design a little primer for those bands that are not yet gracing MySpace with their presence . . . . all two of you.

Now, if you're not in a band, you don't have to feel left out. Feel free to copy this blog and send it to any of the bands that are currently clogging up your inbox and friend request pages. . . . please. The more bands that see this, the more we all benefit.

Now, we in Powderburn have been MySpacers for about four years now. We weren't the first, but we've been around awhile . . . so pre-Fall Out Boy, but we got here before HIM, Iron Maiden, and quite a few others, so we've been around a bit and learned some MySpace etiquette that I am more than happy to pass on, as I've seen what was once a viable, useful tool for both bands and friends become an annoyance, and then a full-scale assault on everyone's personal Internet space. So, let's begin. . . .

INTRODUCTION -

Bands around the world - pay careful attention. YOU HAVE RUINED MYSPACE FOR EVERYONE IN THE WORLD, INCLUDING ALL OF US FELLOW BANDS. Ahem. There. . .  I said it . . . and it needed to be said. I think it's not your fault. We all want to utilize MySpace to help our bands, but a lot of the behavior I see actually makes normal everyday people see a friend request from a band and stick pencils through their eardrums, so they never have to hear a band ever again. It's that bad. So, read and learn . . .

1. PURPOSE

What is your MySpace for, if you're in a band? Well, you want everyone in the world to know how awesome you are. Cool. So do we. However, like every other tool in the world, it has a time and a place to be used. You don't use a hammer to open a window, and you don't use MySpace to send comments and friend requests to everyone in the world with an internet connection.

Think about who your target audience is. If you're the self-styled "Finest death metal band from Hamburg, Germany", does sending a friend request to a convent of nuns in Wakuesha, Wisconsin make much sense? No, Dieter Von Axehammer, it does not. Instead of buying one of those ridiculous Addbots or hiring some jackass "publicity firm" to get you friends and hits on your page, get off your ass and do some research.

If your band sounds like Daughtry, first of all, don't. But if you insist on going the post-American Idol route, doesn't it make sense to go to Daughtry's page and send friend requests to those people? Yeah, it takes a little work, but you're actually investing time in some people that might actually like your songs and accept your friend request. . . . and more importantly, when you post a blog or that new love song, they might actually give a fuck. Something to consider . . . . stop spamming the world and start focusing your efforts. It makes the rest of us not want to take your death-metal stage weapons and shove them through your cerebral cortex.

2. PROPER APPLICATION

MySpace is a great way to not only unleash your songs on the world, but a place to share your thoughts in a blog (like this one, for which I'm sure there's at least ten death metal bands in Hamburg that will be after me for my "thoughts" by next week) and really let the world see your personality.

As long as you aren't the type to skin cats and post photos or write blogs about the "superiority of white people everywhere", this can only work in your favor. Even if you don't have a GREAT personality, people are more apt to like a band and buy your music if they feel like you know what they're going through, or if you are funny, or even if your lead singer is attractive. People are strange like that.

Work to make your page a little more interesting. If you keep it with the same white background and grey text boxes the site defaults to, you are only making someone laugh to themselves if they even end up there in the first place. The music world is a competition and it's not fair, so dress to impress, would you? There's like forty-seven good websites that show you how to customize your site, or there's literally hundreds that make free and premium codes that you just put in your profile, and it's instantly less annoying. However - the more you have going on, the longer it takes to load, and the less someone might actually stick around to hear your cover of "You Give Love a Bad Name" or see how awesomely long your bassist's hair is. Learn to strike a balance.

Lastly, by all means, post as many blogs and bulletins as time allows (or before carpal tunnel sets in), but christ's sake, please actually have something to SAY! If you want people to come to your show at VFW Post #666, don't just say "come to my show". Nine million bands are doing exactly that, and it's annoying and sad. Be funny. Come up with something new that will bring people to the show, don't bore them to death with the same crap every time. It's as easy as finding one band that does it well, and copying them mercilessly. . . .that's what we did.


3. COURTESY

If you're going to take my advice, the most important thing I can tell you is to not treat the people on this site like cattle or like your personal vending machines. I know you want everyone in the world to buy your shirts and help you pay for that unwanted pregnancy you left back in Skokie, Illinois, but people actually have feelings and want to seem important to you - even on MySpace.

The friend request thing I mentioned earlier is really the most important thing I can tell you - 50,000 friends on MySpace will no longer get you a record deal, okay? Make your friends count, and leave the rest of us out of it. You'll go a lot farther.

When you do manage to get the right people on your friends page - don't abuse them. Emails inviting them to your show are fine, but do a little work, would you? These new invite emails are the most annoying thing in the world when someone doesn't actually
enter any pertinent information. Make it seem like you care enough about the person you're inviting to actually tell them what you're inviting them TO. For all any of us know, it could be the annual South Dakota Gloryhole Fest.  . . which only sounds appealing to  . . . well, actually . . . .that doesn't sound TOTALLY terrible. Bad example. Moving right along . . .

The upshot is that you just need to make sure you treat people with more respect. . . its like band friend requests are the new Jehovah's Witnesses on your doorstep. Most people turn the lights off and pretend they're not home, and it doesn't have to be that way.

CONCLUSION:

So, that's pretty much it. Simple rules, don't you think? I don't write this trying to sound like I or my band are better than anyone else - we made a lot of these mistakes too, and there's enough bands from Sweden and Brazil in our friend list to make going through updates kind of a chore. Don't be that band - it's as simple as that.

If you learned anything from this - pass it on. Us bands have to work together if we're going to make MySpace something we can all use to our advantage again. Thank you for your time.

- Patrick

PS - This is my opinion, and mine alone. If this pissed you off beyond belief, you're probably guilty of everything I'm talking about, but still - it's not necessarily the belief of Powderburn. Thanks again.

Hey friends -

The video is done and edited, we have some exciting options in store when One Fix comes out - there will definitely be some choices as to how far you want to get into the Powderburn universe . . . as will be revealed in the next few weeks.

Another exciting opportunity has arisen as of today, and it's something you can help us with! I signed us up at http://signmeto.roadrunnerrecords.com, and posted two new songs from One Fix on our profile. Here's where you come in . . .

You can also sign up on the page, as a Talent Scout, and you can help Roadrunner Records decide who's good enough to sign next year.

If you sign up, you get a free CD from Roadrunner records, featuring metal, rock, or alternative music, depending on what happens to be your cup of tea, and you can listen to a bunch of new and cutting-edge (or lame and totally terrible) music and rate them on a scale of one to five. The highest rated bands end up on the front page and likely get noticed by the label fellas and ladies at Roadrunner, which incidentally is home to many of the bands we love, including Slipknot, Machine Head, Dragonforce, Nightwish, and a whole host of others.

See what I'm getting at here? You can help us get noticed by Roadrunner, and in addition to our eternal gratitude, you get a free cd from the label! How can you go wrong?

So go, follow the link, make us famous, and we probably won't forget you when we are! It doesn't get better than that, people.

Also, keep coming back to the MySpace page - things are fixin' to change up very soon around here. Stay tuned.

- Patrick

Hello guys!

The video shoot was just what we expected - it was 16 hours, it was over a hundred degrees, and there was a six-foot wall of flame behind me while I played drums. All in all, it was every inch as awesome as we thought it would be!

We shot with the Red Camera (http://www.red.com/cameras/), which is probably the second-most expensive and awesome camera after the IMAX. The guy who shot it, Mike, just worked with Rob Zombie, we hear. The lads over at Sneaky Giants (http://www.sneakygiants.com/) were at the helm, with Adam absolutly frothing on like twelve cans of Red Bull and spouting ideas while showing absolute disdain for the crushing heat and sun, while Walker stood quiet and impassive, reining and whipping the entire lot to make sure maximum efficiency and minimum of bitching took place. It was godlike. It was like we were in Heaven, and Heaven was a Rammstein concert. Awesome!

The album artwork is also done. I'd love to show it to you, but Ken would hire a sniper to paint my wall with my own brains if I posted pics just yet. It's surprising and a bit controversial for us, but we are proud of it and think you'll like our new direction.

So, we're at the eleventh hour, and this record is nearly finished and out. We are hoping to be doing a run of CD release shows in several major urban areas around Texas (and maybe elsewhere, but we'll let you know more about that later) by August or September.

I know it must be annoying for us to keep talking about a record you can't buy yet, but head to www.powderburn.net, where we have a selection of new material you can check out before you do, just to be sure you wouldn't rather get Enya's Greatest Hits, or perhaps Joe Pesci's new album (http://music.msn.com/music/album/joe-pesci/vincent-laguardia-gambini-sings-just-for-you.2/).

We thank you for your patience and post these blogs to keep you informed, because we hope you're as excited to hear this music as we were to make it and record it.

Be sure to subscribe to this blog if you're a fan, because we'll be updating a lot more leading up to the record, and then to let you know all the cool stuff we're doing to promote it.  Until then, ciao, baby.

- Patrick