News

I recently discovered Rawktumblr on Tumblr and I freaking love it. A must read for any fan of music journalism.

Journalist David Greenwald posted some really good tips for bands on how to get press. As someone whose inbox has 2,000 unread emails (I wish I was kidding), I love that this post exists. One of the duties as a writer and an editor is weeding through all the story pitches thrown your way, so there's a lot of competition out there to get a media person to pick your band as their next story. I've been wanting to write a post like this, but alas, just never had the time. Story of my life.

But David got the point across. So bands, if you're struggling for media attention, give this a read and most importantly, use his advice.

"Print (and many web!) publications still make plans months in advance. You need to get your material to writers and editors before that so they can even have you to consider when they start making plans."

My personal favorite (and what really gets me to schedule an interview.)

Writers like a hook. It makes it easier for us to tell people about your music instead of just saying, 'It’s really good, check it out!'

Click here to read the rest at Rawkblog.

Also a great post for inspiring writers out there, read his post "14 Ways Music Blogs Could be Useful Again" here.

In case you aren't aware by all the Christmas lights around town, Christmas is coming (in exactly one week in fact)! And several Austin bands have released Christmas tunes to bring in that holiday cheer.

I haven't listened to that many Christmas tunes this year, because I, for one, am tired of Christmas music. It's a result when your former boss kept her radio on all day to whatever station plays Christmas tunes 24/7 from the Monday after Thanksgiving to Christmas day. There's only much Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Christina Aguilera trying to outdiva each other a girl can take, you know what I'm saying?

But these Christmas tunes prevent me from acting like Scrooge.

First up is Little Lo's "Toyland" as part of Skank Family Collective & Chinquapin Records Presents: A Holiday Charity Jungler). Vocalist/guitarist Ryan McGill takes a step back as vocalist/keyboardist Bailey Glover takes over lead vocal duties in this dreamy lullaby. Makes me want to break out the eggnog and yearn for snow.

I love this Zorch interpretation of "Last Christmas." This song, originally written and performed by '80s duo Wham!, is usually covered in the pop world (Glee, Ashley Tisdale, etc.), but Zorch brings in their interesting style. This may be the best version ever, at least in my opinion.

Kris Keyz, professional pianist (you can see him perform with Tje Austin), released "Kris KeyZ Productions Presents: This Christmas" with 10 tracks of traditional Christmas tunes sung by local musicians.
Edited: The album was free to stream and download for a limited time. Contact Kris if you would like a copy.

Speaking of Tje Austin, he will perform with Nakia at 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 22 at Zilker Park's Hillside Theatre. They will perform Christmas songs at this FREE show.

And SPEAK released an interactive SPEAKMAS card. So break out the artistic skills and doodle away here. It's in realtime too.

They are also selling a limited edition SPEAKMAS Singing Greeting Card which plays a SPEAK rendition of "O Holy Night," and the cover was drawn by guitarist Nick Hurt himself.

See? Isn't that cute?

I don't have a tune to share, but The Shears posted on Facebook on Dec. 11 that they are working on a Christmas tune. Come on guys and gal, stop the teasin' and get to releasin'. There's not much time left!

Added: A little bit after I posted this blog post, I got an email from Mobley with a Christmas tune of their own. Here's a video with 2/3 of the band, Anthony Watkins and Tim Shelburne, performing Wham!'s "Last Christmas." You can download a copy of the single here.

Post-rock band Equals is up for Artist of the Month at The Deli Austin. Normally I don't promote these voting things, because it brings me back to high school politics. You know popularity contests, unfairness, blah, blah, blah. So glad adult politics are nothing like that.

However, I do promote good bands. After all, the tagline for this site is "I write about bands. Good ones."

Equals is a good band. And they need your help. The voting ends on Dec. 1 and it's been pretty close between Equals and Auto Body.

Sooooo do me a favor and vote for Equals, ok? All you have to do is go to the page HERE and click that little circle next to their name. No registration. No email address. You don't even have to prove your citizenship (not that I know of..).

Still not convinced? Listen to their EP below or grab a copy, because after all, it is a free download. And why did they do that? Because they care.



To find out more about Equals, you can read the UWeekly article I wrote about them by clicking on the photo below.

Sorry, I've been MIA lately. I enrolled back in school this semester and that took up ALL my time. I still wrote some articles, but I'm moving those to my personal blog, which you can find here. Slowly, the rest of the published articles will be deleted off here and moved to my tumblr.

Finals are approaching so life should be a little less busy soon. We'll see. Knowing me I'll probably pick up more work.

So don't fret little readers (and when I mean readers, I mean my mom), I'm back to blogging original content on this site. I put out a call for album reviews and I got a bunch of submissions. So look for those soon.

The roommate, Tje Austin, is battling with Austin singer Nakia in tonight's episode. So I'm going to tweet during the show. No, I don't know if he wins. No matter how much I pry, the boy keeps his lips shut. Stay on this page to see my thoughts below or just follow me on Twitter. :) This should be interesting.

EDIT: Live tweeting is done. Here are the tweets:

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
Ahh! It's time! #thevoice
1 hour ago

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
I have to admit. I'm behind on the episodes. I've only see the first episode because I had class. I need to catch up. #thevoice
1 hour ago

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
I sat next to @tjeaustinmusic when we watch his blind audition on TV. There was a lot of cheering and laughing involved. #thevoice
1 hour ago

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
@tjeaustinmusic I'm so jealous you met her! #thevoice
1 hour ago

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
Aww I'm nervous for you @tjeaustinmusic #thevoice
1 hour ago

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
Here we go... #thevoice
1 hour ago

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
I gotta give props to @Nakia for singing this song. Tje seems more natural for this song, but Nakia is definitely working it. #thevoice
1 hour ago

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
Haha. @tjeaustinmusic just blushed. #thevoice
1 hour ago

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
Come on Cee Lo! ah, what a tease! #thevoice
1 hour ago

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
My heart seriously just stopped. Haha! I'm way too invested in this show. #thevoice
1 hour ago

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
@tjeaustinmusic, your friends went to the show to support you!? And I stil didn't realize you were gone. Geez. #thevoice
1 hour ago

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
And we're back #thevoice
1 hour ago

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
Come on @tjeaustinmusic #thevoice
1 hour ago

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
Oh no. :( #thevoice
1 hour ago

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
Congrats @nakia! #thevoice
1 hour ago

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
@tjeaustinmusic, you know I'll still root for you. Does that mean the paparazzi will leave our house alone? ;) #thevoice
1 hour ago

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
I do find it funny that @tjeaustinmusic wouldn't tell me if he would move on or not. #thevoice
55 minutes ago

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
But he would also say things like "IF I were to move on, I would probably leave..." I was totally not expecting the outcome. #thevoice
54 minutes ago

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
However, @VicciMartinez made it the next round! I interviewed her in 2009. http://tinyurl.com/3w8va7f #thevoice
51 minutes ago

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
@tjeaustinmusic I bet you're relieved now. :)
50 minutes ago

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
What's awesome is that @tjeaustinmusic left for a month to do this show and I never noticed. I figured he was touring. Ha. #thevoice
46 minutes ago

@michaelcorcoran michaelcorcoran
by sarahmvasquez
Nakia beats fellow Austinite Tje Austin in the Voice battle round. Love Nakia, but I would've picked Tje.
42 minutes ago

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
BTW @tjeaustinmusic, I bought a shirt with your face on it. That's gonna be weird around the house. http://tinyurl.com/6jyyod6 #thevoice
37 minutes ago

@sarahmvasquez Sarah M. Vasquez
.@LisaKCarter just texted me: "MY roommate is freaking out about how YOUR roommate gave her chills." Nice! #thevoice
16 minutes ago

Here’s the latest news from my inbox.

Tonight is the first of four nights of the Echotone premiere. I saw this film during the Austin Film Festival back in September, and instantly fell in love with it. No surprise as it’s about our local music scene. Seriously, if you can see one of the screenings, go see it. It's beautifully shot and showcases from our favorites bands in Austin.

If you haven’t seen the trailer by now, here you go.



Click here to purchase tickets.

Zlam Dunk has a chance to win an Unsigned Artist Competition. But in order to win, they have to get the most votes. Usually I don’t promote these competitions, because we all know it’s a popularity contest, but what the hell, right?

This competition could earn them a chance to perform in front of some very important people in the music biz. Now you wouldn’t want to deny them that, right?

Zlam is up against other Austin bands such as Dertybird, Fulton Read and Schmillion. Click this link to vote.

Then a reminder that the roommate Tje Austin will make his debut on NBC’s The Voice at 8 p.m. on Tuesday (April 26). Sadly, I have class that night, and if this class wasn’t needed for graduation, I would just skip. Damn responsibilities. Hopefully, my professor will be understand and let me miss.

In the meantime, check out this preview about one of the judges, Cee-Lo, that also features our afro-sporting R&B singer.

Then... Motel Aviv (one of my favorite bands) is finally releasing their album, Post Modern Nation. I’m so excited about this. I first saw them during Free Week for a Red River Noise showcase and they just won all of us over. It’s incredibly hard to resist dancing to that bass line.

The album will be released through online stores (iTunes and Amazon) on April 26, but the album release show is May 6 at Beauty Bar with synth-pop Sphynx.

RSVP on this Do512 page for a $5 cover and a chance to win a free copy of the album. Again, I can’t wait to listen to it. I’m pretty sure it’s going to get a great review from me. :)

And last but not least, here’s a free album download:
Free mixtape from the Manateam Group
Enjoy.

3D Friends, who I've wrote about for Accent Newspaper, released a music video for the song that won the "Score Skins Music Project." I ran into Daniel Chavez Wright, the singer and songwriter of 3D Friends, during the MTVU Woodie Awards during SXSW. We finally got to meet in person (we conducted our interview over the phone). It was a brief conversation, but it was nice to finally see the face behind the music.

Anyway, check out the video. I personally love how the tune is so simplistic, yet oh so catchy. I think it perfectly depicts what Skins is all about.

So the roommate Tje Austin has been teasing me about this new show premiering on NBC called The Voice. I don’t know details as he's being hush hush about it, but I do know he auditioned for it.

Basically, the show features four judges, Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton, Adam Levine (Maroon 5), and Cee Lo Green with host Carson Daly, who will decide which up-and-coming singers will make it to the next level. The catch is that they will sit with their backs against the singer, so they will only judge by the voice.

This should be interesting. Again, I don’t know details, but I can say that everyone needs to catch the premiere on April 26 to see how Tje did. Gotta represent our Austin musicians!

Here’s a track from his upcoming album called “City of Me.” What do you think? Think Tje has "the voice?" Yeah, I totally went there.

I'm reporting on SXSW again for The Accent. The music portion doesn't start until Wednesday but I've been down there every day since Saturday hanging out with Accent's Editor-in-Chief Karissa, who I always say is my partner-in-crime. It's true though. We have a lot in common.

Anyway, here is the link to my blogs. As always, I'll post my separate blog posts here as well.

Accent: Sarah's Abusive Pencil
UWeekly: SXSW blog

I'll also be checking in on Gowalla: The Accent
and follow my tweets on twitter: @theaccent

Also, while I was at SXSW, I had my photo professional taken (which ended with me handing the photographer my business card. He makes records.) and created an about.me page. It's a great landing page for all your social media links. Since I created my page at SXSW, I got free Moo cards, which uses your flickr photos to create business cards. Naturally, there's a lot of SPEAK photos in the batch.

Check out my about.me page here.

With SXSW coming up, I bought a new toy to record better audio for my multimedia videos, the Zoom H1 voice recorder. Everyone, say hello to Finn (yes, it's in reference to the tall and lanky Glee character. See the resemblance?)

Isn't it adorable? I freaking love this thing. It's so tiny, but those two mics on top are freaking powerful little guys.

So naturally, I brought it with me to test it out at a free show at Red 7 with two of my favorite bands, Zlam Dunk and Markov.

I also filmed some video with my Lumix camera because my set up for multimedia is going to be the zoom recorder mounted on top of my camera. But I couldn't get close enough to get any good footage. Zlam fans love to dance so they were so close to the stage that it was hard to get good close ups. Oh well. Instead, I'm going to share the audio.

Now keep in mind that I was standing next to a speaker (thank goodness for earplugs. Thanks Tina!). There is some distorting every now and then (because the recorder was on my camera so I couldn't monitor both at once. Hey, this is a learning process.), but overall, it sounds pretty freaking awesome. So can't wait for SXSW.
By the way, my newspaper adviser also taught me how to properly use shutter speeds. After years of my so-called photography, I finally understand it. So I tested that out too with Zlam Dunk, who by the way, is the perfect band to test shutter speeds on. They move all over the freaking stage.

See that photo of Charlie right there (click on it to see it bigger and more photos from that night)? Epic win.