Been Busy

While I've been going full speed ahead with the show, unfortunately I can't say the same about the blog. As I've been actively promoting this blog during my show obviously I haven't forgotten about it.

Just not enough hours in the day.

I will get back to actively blogging very soon.

Indie Spotlight Live Returned to the Airwaves Last Sunday

Really had fun at the show this week.

If I had to define the last couple of shows, the words meandering, lost, poorly planned would come to mind.

Fortunately this week we were able to get back on track.

We had the honor of having Australian musician Lisa J. Aston in our chatroom this week. Phenomenal musician, and one classy lady. We had a candid discussion about the music industry, it's interesting how different things are outside of the U.S. with the industry, and sadly, many things are the same.

As Lisa pointed out, when she was tied to a label she really wasn't going anywhere, when she went Indie, the sky was the limit.

Here is a link to her myspace page check out her music, you won't be disappointed, that I promise you.

We also talked about the case in Scotland about the clerk who was almost fined by a performance rights agency for copyright infringement because they were singing a song to them self while working.

I'm not kidding, the article is here and the word overkill comes to mind. I agree that songwriters should be paid for commercial uses of their music, but at the same time I think that common sense should prevail.

Special thanks to my friend Deb from the Unsigned Musicians show for sending me that article, as well as one of Lisa J. Aston's songs to play on the show.

Also, as I mentioned on the show, I am running out of room on my blogtv account for videos so over the next couple of days I will be moving them to my youtube channel, and deleting them off of my blogtv page to make room so I can record more videos.

We're back in action, every Sunday night at 9 p.m. (eastern U.S. time) and hope you folks will join us!

p.s. I almost forgot, happy 2nd birthday to the Unsigned Musicians show, on the internet that's almost an eternity ;)

"Currently There is No Schedule for the Show"

Well, there isn't. Lately my life has been really hectic so while I've still been able to continue on with my show at it's normal time, I can't say over the next couple of weeks that will continue to be the case.

One thing I really appreciate is my regular listeners/viewers who've put up with my half assed thrown together at the last minute shows. Recently on my program I spoke about "getting back to basics" and getting back to the original purpose of the show, which is to spotlight independent music.

Well, I know I've played enough of it on the show (since I really had nothing to talk about anyway) to at least get back to that part of it, now I need to do the rest.

I also know that's not really going to happen over the next couple of weeks, honestly it might be mid November before I really get back into it.

And I haven't scheduled shows because I know I might miss a Sunday or two before it's all over and my life returns to (at least semi) normal.

Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Getting Back to Basics

I'll be posting this video on my youtube channel which is http://www.youtube.com/user/IndieSpotlightLive as well (cool videos from past interviews there, check it out) about some of the things going on with the show, and some upcoming things.


Getting Back to Basics - Broadcast your self LIVE

Bill O'Reilly Makes an Ass of Himself

Ok, well he did years ago anyway. Funniest thing I've seen on youtube in a while.

Enjoy!

Jim Jeffrey's New CD is Out and Other Stuff

First, if you missed the show last Sunday, answer this question in the comments section....

For the guys, would you prefer a woman who burns her bra, or never shaves her pits?

For the ladies, would you rather arm wrestle, or mud wrestle?

In a nutshell, on top of playing some fresh music from Big Bad Sun, that was the gist of Sunday's show, more goofing off than anything. Not a bad thing I guess, with that being said I guess I should try and find some time to do some show planning. Stay tuned.

Ok, on to more important things...

After my goof-fest on my show Sunday night I headed over to Jim Jeffrey's show which is usually on after mine on Sunday nights on blogtv.

While I was there he let everyone know that his new website is up (jimjeffreymusic.com), and his new CD is out. You can just follow the link from his website to order and download it.

Jim is typical of many of the indie artists that I've gotten to know over the past year. He has nothing to do with any labels, ect. instead utilizing the internet to promote his music. He did all the work on the album, all the editing, the vocals, and the guitarwork, himself.

The music is phenomenal, I don't think I've heard anything quite like it. From the honesty in the title track "So Cold", through the raw emotion in "My Friend", the heart touching tribute to his daughter in "Sky" the talent of Jim Jeffery is obvious to anyone listening.

The CD is available at Digstation (link here)

Jim Jeffery's website

Jim Jeffery's youtube channel

Also, Jim does do free guitar lessons on Blogtv, from 7-8 (eastern time) on Sundays, you can check them out on his blogtv page as well as his regular show at midnight (right after mine) on blogtv.

Remembering 9-11-01

Do you remember where you were, and what you were doing at about 9 am (eastern time) on September 11, 2001?

I awoke to the news on my alarm clock radio, at the time they thought it was a horrible accident. I turned on the t.v. in time to watch the second plane hit. I sat glued to the t.v. and the internet, in shock.

So much has happened since, we've gone to war in Afghanistan and routed the Taliban, we still haven't gotten Bin Laden, who even today is still public enemy #1.

We've gone into a quagmire in Iraq, but by some accounts at least, are starting to turn the tide there as well.

We toppled Saddam, the new Iraqi government tried, convicted, and hung him, and while he praised the terrorists he had nothing to do with 9/11.

We did all that and still haven't gotten Bin Laden.

Conspiracy theories have been formulated about 9/11, I don't believe most of them. I don't believe that the World Trade Center was destroyed by explosives, it was destroyed by airplanes flown by terrorists. Any of the conspiracy theories I've heard about the Twin Towers being leveled by our own government have been proven wrong, and explained to me in ways that make much more sense than any conspiracy theory I've ever heard.

I love the one about us launching one of our own missiles into the Pentagon. One, eyewitnesses were on I-395 heading into D.C. and saw the plane fly over and two, yes the hole looks small, almost like a missile made it, but um, the Pentagon is very large, it covers 4 zip codes so when you take all that into consideration I call it swing and miss strike two for the conspiracy theorists.

The only one that might be even remotely plausible, is that the Air Force might have shot down Flight 93 over Pennsylvania. That might have happened. They knew the plane had been hi-jacked, had no way of knowing that the passengers fought back, and didn't know where that plane was headed. Not that this takes away from the bravery of the passengers who stood up to the terrorists, nor could it convince me of any conspiracy in regards to our government.

In the eight years since the attacks of 9/11 we've forgotten so much....

We've forgotten about the fear, and anger we felt that day. We've forgotten about the intense national pride we felt on that day. We've forgotten about the firefighters and rescue workers chanting U.S.A., U.S.A. over and over again and how in awe of their dedication we were. We've forgotten how much kinder, and how much closer we were to our fellow citizens. We've forgotten the members of Congress standing together singing God Bless America?

We've forgotten about those who lost loved ones on that day.

Today, I wonder if we've forgotten about 9/11 altogether?

The clip of that Congressmen calling Obama a liar has gotten more coverage today than any 9/11 tribute in the regular media.

Is it just the popular media deciding what is considered news, have we forgotten 9/11, or just chosen not to remember?

Did you talk to anyone about 9/11 today? Did you even mention it was 9/11?

Did anyone else?



Have we forgotten?

What is the Show About?

For newcomers to the blog, as well as my myspace page, let me tell ya'll a bit about the show.

Blogtv is basically where you can find me most nights, usually at one of these shows. I guess you can say it's become my home away from home.

Sunday nights at 9 (eastern time) I host my show, Indie Spotlight Live. The show got it's start over on blogtalkradio back last January (prior to that I was hosting a show called Newstalk which covered the news of the week as well as the elections/politics). My good friend Deb, who hosts Unsigned Musicians on Wednesdays often joins me as co-host as we talk about the music industry, how some of the crap that goes on stifles the independent artist, and we occasionally have interviews with musicians, industry insiders and so on.

We hosted the show over on blogtalkradio until last May when we made the jump to blogtv. I liked blogtalkradio because people could call into the show, and all the shows archived so if someone missed the show they could always come back and listen to the podcast later. Unfortunatly the site is riddled with technical issues and it became increasingly difficult to host the show because of it. That, and the sound quality over on blogtv is much, much better. After one especially difficult night, I decided to try blogtv, and overall I think the switch has been very good for the show.

If anyone is interested, I did leave the old shows archived on my old blogtalkradio page, you can just follow this link here and check them out.

We have had some great interviews including JC Martin from Black Angel, Pete Berwick, John Buckman (founder and CEO of Magnatune.com), Musician Chris Blake, Troy Castellano, Rob Mazurek, JD Steagall and more.

Thanks for the interest and support everyone, keep in mind as you support me, you are also supporting Independent Musicians and I'm sure if they knew, they'd thank ya as well!