[Video] From Exile: NIN Cover EP Preview

http://fromexile.com/nin/

Ohmpark’s Guide To Twitter & Musicians

The social networking website Twitter has blown up hard in 2009, so hard that it is already experiencing a Vampire Weekend-esque backlash. To illustrate just how intense Twittermania ’09 has been, the site grew by 33% in January, 55% in February, and 131% in March of this year. I first got introduced to Twitter by some of my tech savvy friends a little over a year ago, and back then having a few thousand followers was unreal, and now that douchey Punk’d guy is closing in on 2 million. But before the hype, the site started out as an efficient communication network for web 2.0, early adapter bloggy types. When I first started using it, the website would crash and go down every single day and i still liked it. Suddenly in 2009 the thing has gone mainstream with Oprah and CNN using it, so since I have been a fan of Twitter for some time now, I figured I would talk about how my music obsessed self uses it to help out the clueless.

First for the noobs, Twitter is micro-blogging. You post something that is 140 characters or less, and people “following” you can see what you post. It is basically a glorified status messages, like what Facebook, Gmail, or AOL use. Here is a good article tracing back the history of status messages. So what is so great about a status message website?

140 characters may seem like a small amount of data to be meaningful, but a tweet can pack a serious punch. Sure there are people who tweet some really boring garbage, but, you don’t have to follow them. And yes, the word “tweet” gets really annoying fast, but there cool things possible with it. I’ve seen news stories broken by people on twitter because other journalists couldn’t get access (think Gaza, India, Madagascar). Thanks to url shorteners, Twitter is used heavily to refer people to more extensive content of interest. If you are following the right people, you basically have an RSS feeder with editorial. In otherwords, Twitter helps you keep up with all the cool things going on in Internetland. For example, I follow many larger music news sites on Twitter, and those sites tweet about news stories I am interested in so I don’t miss anything.

Probably my favourite thing is, unlike Facebook and Myspace, Twitter connects people based on the content of what they are talking about, rather than static information contained in a profile. I don’t know about you, but most of my Facebook friends end up being people I already know in real life, like random people I barely even knew in High School and could honestly care less about now. I have rarely, if ever, made a new, worthwhile connection through Facebook. In contrast, most of the people I follow on Twitter I did not know before I connected with them in the virtual world. I have made so many great connections with interesting people via Twitter who I wouldn’t even know existed without it.

With respect to bands and musicians, there is a lot of potential in Twitter. Fans always yearn to have meaningful connections with the artists they love, and with technology those artists can give their fans unprecedented access. A great example of getting the most out of new/social media was Deerhunter‘s utilization of a blog, which expanded their fanbase and strengthened the connection between them and the fans they already had. Exactly how artists can make Twitter work for them will depend on the creativity of the artist in using it, but there is no doubt in my mind that many artists will benefit from using it. Others agree.

So for those of you that are either artists looking for good examples of how to use Twitter, or you just want some cool people to follow, here are my favourite 3 tweetmaster musicians and why I enjoy following them:


Edward Droste of Grizzly Bear @EdwardDroste

Droste seems to be the most genuine, accessible musician on Twitter. He talks about random things he and the band are doing. He actually responds to random people. He’s everything a stalker could hope for. One of the fun recent things followers have been able to enjoy is his attempt to get Snoop Dogg to remix/collaborate with Grizzly Bear:

Just gonna keep trying to get snoop’s attention with my twitter spirit. Where there’s a will there’s a way. Right @snoopdogg?

It is really meta to stalk someone as they are stalking someone else.




Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails @trent_reznor

It is hard for me to think of another musician who I enjoy hearing talk about things more than Trent Reznor. He always has a very insightful opinion. He also utilizes technology better than anyone, so naturally he is a Twitter superstar. He has been giving away backstage passes to fans via Twitter. He has been talking about his struggles with Apple over a NIN Iphone app. Here are a few choice tweets:

Kutcher / King / DiddyDumDum on CNN doing everything in their power to make Twitter seem as un-cool as possible.

…now maybe I shouldn’t have taken that fourth viagra…

starting to lose control of body functions, may have just pulled a Fergie and peed in my pants a little.




Nick Thorburn of Islands @NickfromIslands

My favourite twittering artist is Nick Thorburn. He comes up with really random, hilarious things to say that make me laugh out loud all of the time. The dude could be as good a comedian as he is a musician. Recently he posted a bunch of fake covers to the next Islands record:

http://twitpic.com/3xi7n – NEW “ISLANDS” ALBUM COVER + TITLE REVEALED!!!!

http://twitpic.com/40c0m – “ISLANDS” NEW ALBUM + TITLE REVEALED FOR REAL THIS TIME!!!!!!!

http://twitpic.com/43rpf – FOMGF! “ISLANDS” NEW ALBUM COVER IS FINALIZED!!! THX FOR VOTING FOR YR FAVOURITE!! WZF!

Here are some other funny tweets:

Went to the extenz party at sxsw last night, and i thought that the line up would have been, you know, bigger

Apparently if i go to exit 27, make left, go to roses parking lot and leave lights on, i will get a blow job.

I’m so behind the times I just now got a case of the SARS

Fuck, you know you’ve made it when Denny’s is following you.




Ok, so if you are into music and are looking for some folks to follow, here is some reference material for you:




International/National artists I recommend following:

Akron/Family @akronfamily
Andrew Bird @andrewbird
Blitzen Trapper @BlitzenTrapper
Evangelicals @evangelicals
Final Fantasy @owenpallett
My Brightest Diamond @zosima
Pearl Jam @PearlJam
Sonic Youth @thesonicyouth
St. Vincent @st_vincent
The Decemberists @colinmeloy
Tokyo Police Club @TokyoPoliceClub


Atlanta Bands on Twitter:

Adam Bruneau of Kiwis @adambruneau
All The Saints @allthesaints
Attention System @AttentionSystem
Attractive Eighties Women @aewsome
Club Awesome @clubawesome
CJ of A Fight To The Death @mediahostage
Dead Confederate @DeadConfederate
Dres Tha Beatnik @dresthabeatnik
Eric of From Exile @ericguenther
Janelle Monae @JanelleMonae
Judi Chicago @JudiChicago
Jungol @Jungol
Le Castle Vania @LeCastleVania
It’s Elephant’s @Itselephants
Lions And Scissors @lionsandscissor
Nerd Parade @nerdparade
Nerdkween @nerdkween
Tealights @TealightsBand
The Constellations @_constellations
The Orphins @The_Orphins
This Piano Plays Itself @ThisPianoPlays
Thy Mighty Contract @thymighty
Today The Moon, Tomorrow The Sun @TodaytheMoon
Venice Is Sinking @veniceissinking


Atlanta Music Scene Tweeters I Recommend Following:

Atlanta Music Guide @atlantamusic
Bean Summer @Beansummer
Cable & Tweed @cableandtweed
Criminal Records @criminalrecords
Dominick Brady @DomBrady
Drive A Faster Car @driveafastercar
Drunken Unicorn @drunkenunicorn
Eskimo Kiss @eskimokiss
Fear Of Arthropods @juliareidy
Have You Heard @adamtrimble @usersname
Indie ATL @indieATL
Indie Music Tech @duncanfreeman
Kiss Atlanta @kissatlanta
OK Productions @OKProductions
Pine Magazine @pinemagazine
Premier Events @premierevents
Star Bar @StarBarAtlanta
The Earl @EARL_EAV
The Happenstance @thehappenstance
The Leila @theleila
Ticket Alternative @MyTATix
Tight Bros Network @tightbros
Vacation Gallery @vacationgallery


And obviously, we are tweeting too:

Davy Minor @Ohmpark
Clint Miller @badclinty


I’m sure I’m leaving some folks out, so who do you like to follow on Twitter? Leave your suggestions in the comments…

Voodoo Music Experince 2008: Nine inch Nails, The Mars Volta, Lil Wayne

Last week we made a last minute decision to go to New Orleans and catch the Voodoo Music Experience this year. We spent most of the trip on Bourbon Street and in the casino, but we did attend Voodoo last Saturday to catch Lil Wayne, The Mars Volta, and Nine Inch Nails consecutively on the main stage, and it was a ton of fun. We arrived a bit late for Lil Wayne‘s scheduled time, but luckily he was running behind too. I will say that I did enjoy hearing the songs live, but Lil Wayne was rather unimpressive in person. He seemed like he was stoned out of his gourd, it felt like most of the vocals were pre-recorded, and the set was filled with predictable events like a prayer session and a taking off of the shirt. I rarely enjoy hip-hop live, so I’ll chalk a lot of this up to that, but to sing a song sitting down holding a guitar, and then to never actually do anything with the guitar but let it sit in your lap seems pretty lame

It appeared most of the crowd was there on Saturday to see the hometown acts, and as soon Lil Wayne finally got his mic shut off, most of the crowd took off enabling us to get very close for The Mars Volta. TMV were their typical amazing selves playing mostly newer stuff, and in long, extended jam versions. Cedric seemed angry about something and was taking on-stage lights, his mic stands, and whatever else he could find and smashing them, and even tried to mess up Nine Inch Nails‘ lighting system that hung above the stage for the entire day. While that spectacle is fun to watch, I find myself being fascinated much more by Omar’s forceful conducting through the jam sections. I keep trying to decipher what all of his hand signals denote. It’s unbelievable to me that there are still so many people out there who hate this band because I can’t get enough of them:


Click here to read the entire post…

Nine Inch Nails New Album Has Been Dropped: Ghosts I-IV

Totally out of nowhere, a new Nine Inch Nails album has been released at The NIN website. Here is what Trent Reznor has to say about it:


This music arrived unexpectedly as the result of an experiment. The rules were as follows: 10 weeks, no clear agenda, no overthinking, everything driven by impulse. Whatever happens during that time gets released as… something.

The team: Atticus Ross, Alan Moulder and myself with some help from Alessandro Cortini, Adrian Belew and Brian Viglione. Rob Sheridan collaborated with Artist in Residence (A+R) to create the accompanying visual and physical aesthetic.

We began improvising and let the music decide the direction. Eyes were closed, hands played instruments and it began. Within a matter of days it became clear we were on to something, and a lot of material began appearing. What we thought could be a five song EP became much more. I invited some friends over to join in and we all enjoyed the process of collaborating on this.

The end result is a wildly varied body of music that we’re able to present to the world in ways the confines of a major record label would never have allowed – from a 100% DRM-free, high-quality download, to the most luxurious physical package we’ve ever created.

More volumes of Ghosts are likely to appear in the future.

– Trent Reznor, March 2, 2008

I am just now listening to the album, which is very different than the last few albums so don’t be discouraged if you didn’t really enjoy them as much as other NIN material, but it is a little too early to talk about what I think of it (although I’m liking it so far). So instead, we’ll discuss the distribution method. Ever since Radiohead came out of nowhere and dropped In Rainbows on the world for free, concepts of how to distribute an artist’s music have been shattered, and everyone has been speculating on its implications and what the new business model will be exactly. Even some Atlanta bands have jumped on this bandwagon. The Sonz Of Acworth gave away their latest album online, From Exile re-released their 2006 Crushing Reality for no money, and of course band blogs from the likes of Deerhunter/Atlas Sound and Snowden have been feeding their fans digital material on the free. Trent Reznor was actually the quickest to get experimental after In Rainbows, releasing the Saul William‘s The Inevitable Rise And Liberation Of Niggy Tardust for free in lower quality mp3s or for $5 in higher quality formats. His first experiment didn’t seem to meet his expectations, but it appears he did not abandon hope, and instead went back to the drawing board and hit us with this.

The pricing scheme offers many choices. You can download the first of the four movements for free at high quality mp3s or you can purchase all 4 movements digitally at $5 and the double disc CD at $10. For the high rollers and NIN diehards you can get a Deluxe Edition for $75 and a Ultra-Deluxe package for $300. If that is not enough, you can buy it digitally from Amazon right now, or the CDs and Vinyls hit stores next month.

I really like this model because it offers the consumer so many choices, and I think Trent is going to find this experiment much more satisfying than the Niggy Tardust deal. Saul Williams is about as unaccessible as an artist can be so I believe that only tested the far limits of the free model at an extremely early stage. These are exciting times as we watch the music industry transform before our very eyes and a pioneer like Mr. Reznor may go down in history as a whole lot more than just a brilliant musician. We’ll see what happens next, but until then there is a new NIN album to jam:

Stream Ghosts I-IV Here

Buy/Download Ghosts I-IV Here

Nine Inch Nails : 3 leaked songs and all sorts of weirdness

So, NIN has been up to some crazy stuff in promoting and releasing forthcoming tracks from the new album. First, this song was found on flash drives found in bathroom stalls at 2 different NIN shows last week:

My Violent Heart

Then, KROQ played a second leaked song Friday:

Survivalism

Last night another flash drive was found in a bathroom of a NIN show with two mp3s. One is another song:

Me, I’m Not

and the other some weird morse code that contains information encoded in it:

2432

To find out everything going on with this NIN craziness, a wiki page has been created to catch you up:

NIN Wiki