Virtual Music TV

Communicate Like Drugs

Ryan Van Etten — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 05:27:27 +0000

Communication is a drug. Active ingredients: Force, Information, Relevance, Entertainment. Across any medium, from email to blog, newsletter, tweet, text, status, song, or video, when you communicate you want to deliver verbal Valium. Two elements of F.I.R.E. is the survival minimum. Three is a gateway drug. Four is mainline euphoria. Molecular composition, drug facts, and suggested uses below. Warning: F.I.R.E. triggers action.

Street value.

Like drugs, great communication has high street value. It absorbs into the bloodstream and hits the heart. It expands the mind. It makes people feel better. It elevates emotions, influences behavior, and reshapes thinking. It has chaotic side effects, and it’s highly addictive. It can destroy you. You want more. When supply is scarce, the price goes up.

Art attacks.

A medical degree or a beeper won’t help you prescribe drug-like communication. You don’t need to be certified, you need to be certifiable—voices in your head. Listen to the voices, because they keep their ears to the streets of imagination. To be someone’s cure, it takes art, heart, and a finger on their pulse.

Be someone’s cure.

Say A.J. is on your mailing list. What would get him high? How would he react to this drug? What brainwave-bending experience would it take for him to peer-pressure his friends into taking a hit? What would make it matter to him, or make him love it? Experiment like a jaded teenager.

Imagine you’re a doctor. Allison is a patient in your office. You can ask questions and hear her story. You can feel her pain. You can recognize her symptoms and make a diagnosis. It’s all harder through email because you can’t see or hear the same way. You might not know if you caused an allergic reaction. You have to take empathy to the next level—you have to be human. You have to show your own emotion.

F.I.R.E.: chemical breakdown

Information is facts, news, or intel. Entertainment engages emotions, without which information has a short life span. Announcements are cyanide without a story. Be vivid. People remember stories. Entertaining stories open the emotional connection. Information blended with entertainment is a powerful memory mix. Ref.: list of emotions

Relevance is the catalyst to the reaction. Relevance is the reason. Force is the purity of the dose. Force is all about time. Force can make or break you. It’s the reason for warning labels. Information overload is overdose. Better efficacy and absorption rate are obtained when you don’t dilute the punch. Be concise. Time it right. Land every punch.

mnemonics
Force—impact t.i.m.e.
Information—k.n.i.t. what you know.
Relevance—without it you s.l.i.p.
Entertainment—open the c.a.s.e.

Art Causes Change

Ryan Van Etten — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:10:05 +0000

Seth Godin writes: “Art is a personal gift that changes the recipient. The medium doesn’t matter. The intent does. … Art is unique, new, and challenging to the status quo. It’s not a decoration, it’s something that causes change. If there is no change, there is no art. If no one experiences it, there can be no change. The more people you change, the more you change them, the more effective your art is. … Art is the product of emotional labor. If it’s easy and risk free, it’s unlikely that it’s art. … A machine can’t create art. It’s much more likely to be art if you do it on purpose.” (Linchpin, pp. 83–86)

Bob Marley graffiti at 1301 Haight Street in San Francisco in 2008. Bob Marley said, “My music fights against the system that teaches to live and die.” What music has changed you—and how? Marley also said, “My music will go on forever.” Think about it. For music to live on, you have to let it spread. Let people experience it. If you love it, you have to set it free. Let it change, like this wall, which is constantly resprayed. (IMDB, flickr/zebgoodell, map)

Music Blogs: Taste or Waste?

Ryan Van Etten — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 17:11:19 +0000

Sorry, Chris Weingarten, but some drones can write. They want a voice. Their sting is called competition.
photo: aprilesole/flickr.

The line between drone-dom and leaping into the unknown is called perception.

In The Beach (2000), Richard was a jaded youth who had traveled far abroad to Thailand seeking something different—a unique experience—but when he got there, he realized he wasn’t the only one. In a curious series of events involving suicide and banana pancakes, he recruited a French couple and abandoned the tourist road. His case: “I just feel like everyone tries to do something different, but you always wind up doing the same damn thing.”

There is a fundamental difference between tourists and travelers. Mention Frommer’s to someone. If they cringe, then they’re a traveler. If not, then they’re a tourist. Travelers want to get lost. They want to leap into the unknown and experience the world as it is. Tourists want the greatest hits. Is The Hype Machine the Frommer’s of music blogging? Is Elbo.ws the Lonely Planet? Is MOG the Fodors? How would Richard ditch the map and escape the virtual beaten path through the music blogosphere?

If online music journalism was controlled by only an elite few, it would mind-numbing. Bland. Like gum from 1971. Like a rainbow in black and white. Taste is perception. It’s a point of view or a frame of mind. It’s relative. Music reviews? In ears we trust, or in Rolling Stone? The pre-blogosphere publishing era, where only a select few got published and got paid for it, now seems inherently degenerate. The era changed—a.k.a. progressed. Two thumbs up is now two million thumbs up.

virtualmusic.tv/polls/

Rock critic Chris Weingarten sees the negative flip side. He thinks The Hype Machine and Twitter have sent the masses into gravitational spin towards music mediacracy. Writing, reading, learning about music is “math”, he said last April at 140Conf, and “when you’re aggregating the shared tastes of thousands of people, that’s the very definition of the lowest common denominator.” He went on to point out that, “no one posts negative commentary anymore because no one Google’s for bands they don’t like.” Who wants to read about bands they don’t like? Criticism has been replaced by curation.

Weingarten has actually trashed-talked web culture enough that (even to his own surprise) there’s a panel lined up for SXSW next year, called Curatorial Culture: The Case Against Christopher Weingarten. The argument is this: “Cultural criticism is in fact far more diverse and productive when trusted to a representative democracy. This outbreak of curators is nothing short of a revolution and should be championed by those in the business of making music.”

Denying change is self-defeating. Denying creativity is world-defeating. Our world is a paradox without a crash course. The streets are filled with drivers who supposedly ‘can’t drive’ and writers who supposedly ‘can’t write.’ Perception is all you have. Run with it.

Count Clicks To Content

Ryan Van Etten — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:06:55 +0000

Photo: digital vincent/flickr.

Mr. Owl, How many clicks does it take to get to the rock n’ roll center of a retail mp3?

Let’s find out. A One… A two-HOO…too many!

Mr. Owl just BitTorrented right into your album because it was easier than buying it on iTunes. It took less clicks.

Jay Frank suggested counting “clicks to content.” iTunes and Amazon send you through more than 10 clicks if you don’t already have an account but P2P takes only four clicks on average, he said. Streaming takes one or two. Think YouTube or Google, who nailed it with OneBox—the player that appears in their search results. “Anything more than two clicks and you’re missing out on the majority”, said Frank, “Impress them fast.”

Ariel Hyatt asked NMS attendees to raise their hands if they’ve ever bought their own songs on iTunes. The crowd was split but most hadn’t. She used the analogy of cooking: you wouldn’t serve food to guests without tasting it first, would you?

“Make it easy to buy” said Tony Van Veen. Have “compelling offers” such as package deals or name-your-price, and “take away the fear of buying” with a money-back guarantee. He told the story about an 80s band (I forget the name of the band but please comment if you know it) who recently sold their entire back catalog + their entire future catalog + free entry to any of their shows forever all for $100. For a superfan that’s a compelling deal.

Ripping and Burning > P2P

Eric Garland and Tom Silverman talked about the so-called problem with illegal downloads. If it’s hosted on an upload site like RapidShare, then “there is a place we can bomb”, said Silverman, “but not with P2P.” Research showed that more music is actually ripped/burned than it is shared via P2P.

Bombing the service provider is no solution when “people and their insatiable appetite for free music are the real problem.” –Eric Garland, CEO, BigChampange.

The desire for free music isn’t going away. Don’t blame the consumer. Musicians need to find ways to work free into their strategy. e.g. Free downloads for email addresses. Use free to convert strangers into fans. Tony Van Veen said, “Free music is the way to do it. Aggressively offer free. Do swaps. Use P2P. …Don’t fear free. …Build your list. …Don’t be afraid to steal a good idea and make it your own.”

One Call To Action

Ryan Van Etten — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:49:25 +0000

Photo: matthileo/flickr

“Why make your own website? You own it. You own the experience.” –Chris Vinson, Founder, Bandzoogle.

Since before you heard of Google, Chris Vinson has been designing musician websites. Like many today, he was in a band that needed a website. He did what anyone with enough determination would have done—he built it. 1000+ people were on his email list before email was a staple. Based on the success of his band’s site, he was later hired by his record label to build hundreds more. In 2004, he launched Bandzoogle—now a comprehensive, subscription, website platform for musicians.

“Decide an important action and encourage fans to do that action.”

Tracking website analytics for years, Vinson has concluded that “elaborate sites lose traffic.” Simple is better. Having a complicated, all-Flash website is self-defeating. “Flash sucks” was rule #1 in his 18-minute intensive at NMS about ‘how to make an artist website that rocks.’ He echoed these rules and really drove the idea of having exactly one concept per page. Have one call to action—e.g. ‘download this’ or ‘become a fan on Facebook.’

There are three phases according to Vinson: Attract fans from social networks a.k.a. “outposts.” Engage them with a “compelling fan experience.” Sell through simple calls to action. “Artist websites emphasize an artist’s own brand.” Make it personal. “Frequent updates = repeat visits.”

Bandzoogle founder Chris Vinson explains how to make an artist website that rocks. Photo: virtualmusictv/flickr

[photo break]

Brand isn’t something you sell. It’s not schilling other people’s products, and it’s not selling out. Brand is what you stand for.” –Liz Leahy, Co-Founder, Section 101.

What about fan mailing lists? What’s the right frequency? Ariel Hyatt suggests one email per month. Each should contain a single call to action—a different call to action each month. Disc Makers CEO Tony Van Veen said, “Retain mindshare. Don’t let them forget about you.” and “Add value in your communication.” Everything you do online is communication and should reflect your brand vision.

You Have 10 Seconds

Ryan Van Etten — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:17:37 +0000

Photo: bjornkeizers/flickr.

10 seconds to engage someone—to impress them.

In his research for Futurehit.DNA, Jay Frank discovered an impressive trend: Shorter song intros lead to better sales. “2/3 of bestselling songs have an intro that’s less than 7 seconds.” The average intro length for Top 25 songs is 6.6 seconds. “You really have 10 seconds to engage people.” Get to the hook. “Make it impactable.”

Frank stated that “people are going to come to you first through song.” Through Google. Essentially, bands can expect fans to find them through song names and lyric clips because that’s how fans search and discover. “Make sure you search your own song.” That is, search the title before you release it suggested both Jay Frank and Ariel Hyatt. Based on the initial search results an artist can tweak their titles for SEO.

NMS NYC 2010 | Day 1 | First Movement: The Next Music Business Unveiled
LTR: Ariel Hyatt (moderator/Ariel Publicity), Jay Frank (Futurehit.DNA), Gwen Lipsky (SoundThinkingNY), Eric Garland (BigChampange), and Mike Doernberg (ReverbNation). On this slide they brought up the issue that a lot of artists are trying to monetize too early. Create, grow, and then sell. Photo: virtualmusictv/flickr.

“Don’t try to sell something if you’re trying to get fans because that’s an obstacle when what you want is their attention.” –Mike Doernberg, CEO, ReverbNation.

Even superstar Rihanna had trouble getting high in Google with “Russian Roulette” because there were already so many results for that term. What an artist can do is either make titles more unique, or, even better, tag-along existing popular search terms by using slight variations. Be clever—keep a handle on artistic integrity. Ralph Simon later pointed out that based on Google Trends, people search for ‘lyrics’ more than they search for ‘sex.’

10 seconds. You already lost me. 28 hours later a different panel, The Creative Conundrum, critiqued the three artists who made it to the Artist On The Verge finals. Only half the panel had seen the show the night before and the rest were judging based on a 10-second video clip. Were they insensitive? Yes. They were ruthless. But were they true to life? You tell me.

NMS NYC 2010 Photos

Ryan Van Etten — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 01:38:56 +0000

New school and old school collide here. New Music Seminar in New York last week was a 2.5 day collision of industry minds talking strategy and technology in today’s music market. NMS, which first took place in the early 80s, was relaunched last year by its original founder, Tom Silverman. You’ll see a mix of photos from the discussions and performances which included the Artist On The Verge contest, where three bands from OurStage were voted on to perform and compete—Yonas, Comic Book Heroes, and HotSpur (the winner). (28 photos total. Photos are by yours truly via flickr except for #28. Editorial coverage about ideas/strategy/tech. to follow.)

01The crowd was lined up outside Webster Hall for the NMS opening night party on July 19. (flickr/virtualmusictv)

02iPad DJ Rana Sobhany was first to perform on opening night, July 19, at Webster Hall. (flickr/virtualmusictv)

03$8 drinks a special?! I wasn’t drinking anyway, but this is pure craziness—even for NY. (flickr/virtualmusictv)

04Comedian Margaret Cho was hilarious—a nice surprise on opening night. Hurt locker! (flickr/virtualmusictv)

05On our way to Webster Hall for opening night. Left: Steve Klein (Sound Around). Right: Ryan Van Etten (me). (flickr/virtualmusictv)

06NMS NYC 2010 | Day 1 | July 20 | First Movement: The Next Music Business Unveiled.
LTR: Gwen Lipsky (SoundThinkingNY), Eric Garland (BigChampange) and Mike Doernberg (ReverbNation). Out of picture but also in this panel were Ariel Hyatt (Ariel Publicity) and Jay Frank (Futurehit.DNA). (flickr/virtualmusictv)

07British Tour:Smart author Martin Atkins explained 20 strategy tips like this one during his F-bomb-saturated 18-minute intensive. (flickr/virtualmusictv)

08NMS NYC 2010 | Day 1 | July 20 | Second Movement: The Future of Media.
LTR: Peter Kafka, Joe Kennedy, Courtney Holt, Richard Yaffa, Frank Cooper, and Alex Cameron. (flickr/virtualmusictv)

09Nimbit co-founder Phil Antoniades (left) and CEO Bob Cramer (right) perform a rockin’ intro to demonstrate ‘emotional connection’ before their 18-minute intensive geared towards direct-to-fan music. (flickr/virtualmusictv)

10Scott Klein—the engineer brain behind Sound Around—in Tahini on 3rd ave. (flickr/virtualmusictv)

11Jim Moeller from New York based jam-band artist mgmt. service Soulever Music. (flickr/virtualmusictv)

12Sound Around brothers Steve and Scott Klein. They stayed at my house during the seminar so I was hanging out with them quite a bit. Here we were on our way to Santos Party House on day 1. (flickr/virtualmusictv)

13Electro-rock dance duo The Fire and Reason opened at Santos Party House on July 20. (flickr/virtualmusictv)

14The Fire and Reason singer Bella Saona had some serious dance moves!
(flickr/virtualmusictv)

15Rapper Yonas was up next. Yonas was the first of the three Artist On The Verge finalists to perform. “I don’t sing, I rap” Yonas said as he worked a part of the next song out for the audience to sing. (flickr/virtualmusictv)

16Faces in the crowd during the set by Yonas. (flickr/virtualmusictv)

17Yonas gets the crowd moving. (flickr/virtualmusictv)

18Yonas brought some of the crowd on stage for a song at the end. Also you can see DeadStock Ric in this shot (on the left) who performed with Yonas. The next day, The Creative Conundrum panel criticized Yonas for not creating enough “separation” between him and the fans. In this situation—a small-medium club—I disagree, and—unlike half of that panel—I actually was at the show and not watching only a 10 sec. clip. The panel critiqued all three Artist On The Verge bands (Yonas, Comic Book Heroes, and Hotspur) without (flickr/virtualmusictv)

19Rock band Comic Book Heroes was up next. They played a tight set, but I had to leave right after it, and didn’t get to see HotSpur. I met the rhythm half of Comic Book Heroes the next day at the seminar. (flickr/virtualmusictv)

20Koz—Comic Book Heroes guitarist—at Santos Party House on July 20. (flickr/virtualmusictv)

21Steve—Comic Book Heroes bassist—at Santos Party House on July 20. (flickr/virtualmusictv)

22Aspacia Lindstrom from gen2media outside Santos Party House during Artist On The Verge on July 20. (flickr/virtualmusictv)

23Day 2 | Next Big Sound was upstairs at NMS. LTR: David Hoffman and Colin Willis. (flickr/virtualmusictv)

24NMS NYC 2010 | Day 2 | July 21| Third Movement: Your Live Tour
LTR: Martin Atkins, Steve Ferguson, Jim Glancy, Corrie Christopher, and Stephane Minier. (flickr/virtualmusictv)

25NMS NYC 2010 | Day 2 | July 21 | Fourth Movement: The Creative Conundrum
LTR: Bill Werde, Kelly Cutrone, Little Steven, Just Blaze, and Tom Jackson. (flickr/virtualmusictv)

26Just Blaze meets attendees after The Creative Conundrum. (He was one of the few smart enough to wear shorts.) (flickr/virtualmusictv)

27NMS NYC 2010 | Day 2 | July 21 | Fifth Movement: The Breaks
LTR: Margaret Cho, Nile Rodgers, Alex Suarez, Jesse Malin, Vin Rock, Swizz Beats, and Tom Silverman (NMS Founder). (flickr/virtualmusictv)

28NMS Artist On The Verge finalists. Top row: Yonas (DeadStock Ric and Yonas) and Comic Book Heroes (Ned, Steve, Koz, and Collin). Bottom row: the contest winners—HotSpur. These three artists were chosen by the OurStage community and the winner was voted on via text message on the final day of NMS. (NMS/Jen Maler)

More NMS photos: Launch slideshow.
Post-event coverage: What I learned at NMS10.

VideoSong Schooled The Video Star

Ryan Van Etten — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:56:16 +0000

In a VideoSong

1. What you see is what you hear (no lip-syncing for instruments or voice).

2. If you hear it, at some point you see it (no hidden sounds).

VideoSong is medium defined by Jack Conte with those two rules. In addition to his solo production, Jack is the orchestration half of the indie music duo Pomplamoose, who chose video as their social medium of choice largely due to the magnetic attraction emitted by YouTube. They popularized their music on YouTube with videosong—a format that seemed functional and easy—and inspired viewers.

Last Friday, Kevin Breuner at CD Baby interviewed Jack Conte in DIY Musician Podcast #096. I recommend giving the full podcast a listen. Jack explained why he and Nataly chose to cover the songs that they did, and how it helped them become sustainable on mp3 downloads alone—covers and originals. Here are two excerpts from the podcast—the first is about the attraction to videosongs, and the second is about why Pomplamoose resisted record deals from all four major labels.

DIY Musician Podcast #096 19:30

Kevin Breuner: Why do you think the videosong, just in your opinion, has caught on so well on YouTube? It seems like it’s becoming this, like, genre of its own just on YouTube with lots people really interested in checking out other people’s videosongs and creating them themselves.

Jack Conte: Right. I think there’s a couple reasons for that. One, it’s an educational experience. There’s a lot of DIY musicians out there who want to learn about production, who want to learn recording techniques, and are interested in what other people are using. Stuff is changing so fast right now and it’s tough to keep up on what’s going on. I watch other people’s videosongs for cool recording ideas. You know, ‘oh wow that’s an awesome sound.’ If you’re listening to a record in your car, you know hear a sound you go, ‘man what a great sound—gee wish I knew how to make that.’ You know? And when you’re watching it on YouTube it’s, ‘wow what a great sound, I’m going to try that because I know exactly how to do it’, and then you can put your own little twist on it. So that’s the first reason—it’s a good educational experience. It’s fun to be able to pick out things that you enjoy and be able to replicate them yourself.

The second reason is because everybody loves music and people have loved music for tens of thousands of years. And now there’s this shortform content [that] is starting to catch on, you know—shortform videos. It’s a very popular medium because shortform videos are entertaining and it’s quick little snackable moments in your day that pick you up and make you feel good. [...] It’s something that’s really interesting to watch that’s almost mathematical to make. That’s what I enjoy about it. I’m a really functional person and as creative as the video end is, you know, it follows a strict set of guidelines, and it almost makes itself. Once you make the audio, the video can only be a certain thing—it can only be a certain way. I think that’s an easy thing to make, since there’s that set of clear rules and guidelines, it’s a relatively small initial investment, and you can create shortform content on a regular basis to engage a fanbase. That regular engagement of a fanbase is super important because it’s not just about one giant music video—it’s about a 10 or 15 little videos over the year that keep your fans interested in what you’re doing and interested in your music.

DIY Musician Podcast #096 33:00

Kevin Breuner: I would assume that people have approached you offering you deals—traditional record deals. What’s kept you from going down that path?

Jack Conte: When “Single Ladies” came out, we were approached by all four majors. [...] The labels don’t get it. And I know it’s so like stereotypically indie hipster to say, ‘they just don’t get it.” It angers me. we’re making a living. We’re doing fine. We get to keep our album sales. What exactly is it that you think labels do for you? I have a bunch of friends in the music industry, in the music world, and some of them play with signed acts and some of them are in signed acts. The labels give them, I would say, half the publicity that Pomplamoose can give itself.

By releasing a new video we get millions of hits and a ton of records sales, and usually when we release a big video we get some licensing deals that come in—some of them come to fruition and some of them don’t. That kind of publicity that’s available at your fingertips these days—for free! You don’t even have to pay to upload something onto YouTube. YouTube just lets you put video on their server and expose it to anyone you want. It’s an amazing time we live in. The backdoor around those gatekeepers is such an unervalued thing for musicians. So the reason we didn’t sign to the labels—first and foremost—is because we don’t need them. Anything they can do for us they subcontract out to smaller organizations that we could pay for ourselves and then not have to recoup those expenses and hand over all of our finances to the label.

For instance, if we want a PR team, which the label would just say, ‘hey we have access to PR teams, we have access to distribution, we have access to publication, blah blah blah…’ Well guess what? So do everybody. [...] It’s just such a backwards, antiquated, poorly designed system that is meant to f*** musicians. It’s so bad and none of them even know it. None of them even get it. They don’t get the power of online video. They still call it ‘viral video’ which just like kills me.

[...] You can’t make a viral video. A viral video is something that happens that has to do with the current culture, and the current norms, and the current blogs, and whatever it is that’s happening in society at that current time that causes it to expand like a virus. It’s not something that you can decide. And the labels don’t get that. And they don’t get how video can be used on a regular basis for musicians. I mean labels are still spending 10, 15, 20 thousand dollars on a music video, and if they were to spend that money across 10 videos that were more sincere, and less smoke-and-mirrory, and less flashy, then I think they would actually do way better.

In an Anti-VideoSong

1. What you see is not at all what you hear (all lip-syncing for instruments or voice).

2. If you hear it, you probably won’t see it (all hidden sounds).

Most of Jack’s videos are videosongs, but he has dabbled with the opposite too—a humorous spin-off, a fake videosong, dubbed the Anti-VideoSong: Anti VideoSong – Jack Conte

Music Blogs: Don’t Kick This Addiction

Ryan Van Etten — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 01:00:16 +0000

Alkaline Trio singer/guitarist Matt Skiba waves from behind the microphone at the Regency Ballroom in San Francisco on Feb. 18, 2010. Five days later they released their 7th full-length album, This Addiction.
Photo: whenwedie/Flickr | view set
alkalinetrio.com | thisaddiction.org | blood-pact.com
Epitaph | iTunes | Amazon | Insound

Last month I wrote about five tactics for finding music blogs. Let’s revisit this addiction with three more massive resources and a hit of punk rock.

1. MOG Music Network is a network of music blogs integrated with the social music community MOG. An estimated 800+ external music blogs are now part of MMN—including ours—so MOG it up.

2. CaptainCrawl is an extensive up-to-date music blog aggregator similar to elbo.ws. I even like CaptainCrawl better because of its cleaner design. Thanks to MTT for dealing me this one.

3. Image search engines that crawl the blogosphere can help too. Search for artist images on Google, Bing, NachoFoto, and Picsearch. You’ll be able to discover the blogs that posted them.

From MOG to Twitter to Facebook to Tumblr to last.fm, fans have the voice. Don’t kick this writing addiction. Alkaline Trio hasn’t. That is, they haven’t kicked their addiction to writing pure punk rock. Feeling the need to get back to their indie roots, they started their own label, Heart & Skull, and partnered with Epitaph Records, to release their seventh full-length album, This Addiction.

Alkaline Trio is on the Warped Tour this summer. The more I listen to This Addiction the more I get hooked. What sets the Trio apart for me has always been their clever writing and live energy. If you’ve seen them live, then you know the real thing. IMO this is their best album since their BYO Split Series in 2004. You hear the honest, raw vibe they were going for, but it’s larger, more fluid, and upbeat now—it’s most reminiscent of those champion BYO Split Series or “War Brain” days. The new song “Piss and Vinegar” is a worthy sequel to “Cooking Wine”, which, like “Radio” or “My Friend Peter”, is a gateway drug into the heart of the Trio’s sound. It’s rad that Alkaline Trio produced This Addiction with Chicago engineer Matt Allison, who produced their early albums/EP’s. His mixing is straight up.

7 Ways To Search The Photosphere

Ryan Van Etten — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:47:43 +0000

Image searching can be sensory overload. Depending on the nature of your search, you’ll want to use a different image search engine. Let’s say you want real-time visual news—well, Nachofoto is the place to get it. If you’re looking for hi-quality images in certain colors, then you’ll get your fix from Multicolr. Timeframe. Location. Topic. Style. Quality. CC license. Everyone has their own angle. Here’s seven ways to switch up your photo search—I mean switch it up from your average Google, Picsearch, or Bing image search. This tour starts with tools powered by Flickr, then moves to the blogosphere, and finishes with Twitter—where trending images snap a photo of human nature.

01. Multicolr: (Don’t clash!) Search Flickr by color. Amazing results.

02. Flickrstorm: (Love this!) Fast hi-fi Flickr search with Creative Commons options.

03. Compfight: (Take 2!) Hi-fi Flickr search with Creative Commons options.

04. Findr (Flash-based) Flickr search driven by related tags.

05. Nachofoto: (Breaking!) Real-time blogosphere image search with an awesome timeframe slider.

06. Picfog: Twitter real-time image search with trends and search-by-location options.

07. Twicsy: Twitter real-time image search—trending images and related tweets. Free iPhone app.

Bonus Tracks:
08. TinEye—reverse image search.
09. Twitcaps—real-time Twitter image search.
10. Twipho—search twitpic.com, img.ly and yfrog.com.