Grooveshark

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If I were forced to only listen to one genre for the rest of my life it would be jazz.

Jazz is the only music that has never failed in keeping elevated levels of happiness in my system.  It has become my drug of choice recently; being an au natural auditory seretonin booster.  Personally, I flock to music that offers no lyrics, or lyrics in another language, because I find that vocals and lyrics distract from the music itself.  The only thing you have when you listen to the majority of jazz is the arrangement, the music, and yourself.

So if jazz can have this effect on me, does it have the same effect on other people?
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The Republican National Convention is not just stirring up emotions in Democrats, but also musicians who are angered over the use of their songs during the convention, campaigns, and advertisements.

Barracuda by Heart

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Stupid Sarah Palin’s nickname in high school while she was playing basketball was “Barracuda.” The song was used during her speech on Wednesday night at the RNC. The ladies of Heart are fuming mad, publicly asking the RNC not to use their music and telling EW.com “I think it’s completely unfair to be so misrepresented. I feel completely fucked over.” Later on they stated that “Sarah Palin’s views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women.”  That is one big DITTO from me.

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What are the most entertaining musician to fan interactions? Here are my top three favorite antics:

1) One-Eyed Doll

Kimberly from One-Eyed Doll slaps her biggest fans and they totally love it. I’m not going to say when or for what because I remember her telling our mutual friend not to say anything and to just let me see it for myself!

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First of all, the tribute to London at last night’s Olympic closing ceremonies was a bit embarrassing. Words cannot describe how excited I was to see Jimmy Page rip it up for a worldwide audience, but I thought the whole thing was a bit cheesy (did he and Leona Lewis reaaaally have to perform on top of a double-decker bus??) and Page’s long-celebrated stage presence was dwarfed by the overall circus of 2008 Chinese performers (yes, there were exactly 2008 in each act.. 2007 if David Beckham had taken better aim with his soccer ball). Any thoughts?

Second, my friend sent me a link she Stumbled Upon (with the note: “it better not come to this.”) and it even made this Zeppelin enthusiast a bit nauseous.

Teen Who Just Discovered Led Zeppelin Starting to Piss Off Friends

The article is from an old edition from The Onion and basically calls out a 16-year-old boy who alienates everyone around him with his incessant “get the Led out” banter. He also re-named his car and cat (”Honda of the Holy” and “Bonzo”, respectively), word-vomits random Zep trivia and -my personal favorite- spent $73 at a carnival ring toss trying to win a Swan Song mirror.

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What are some good practices for using Twitter for band promotion? I’d like to hear your thoughts before starting my own band’s Twitter, in addition to already keeping up with my own. So far, many of the bands I’ve seen on Twitter just look like spambots with their 5,000 follows and only about 30 people following them back.

Disclaimers:
But before we get into the meat of this topic it’s important to note that Twitter, just like any other social network, is just a tool for us musicians. You still need to meet people in real life to build on all your relationships. Also, beware of spending too much time online and away from what really matters, creating your music.

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When I was younger, my cousins from up north used to brag that they got time off of school via snow days. My counter to their braggadocio was that while they got snow days, we got hurricane days and they were way more fun than running around in what really just amounted to miserable, cold ice. While most people might be afraid of an impending hurricane, Gainesville never seems to be hit hard because of our North Central Florida location. I’ve lived here for 20 years and the worst thing that ever happened because of a hurricane was a few fallen trees and loss of electricity.

Of course, by saying that I’ve ensured that the storm looming in the Carribean, Hurricane Fay, will undoubtedly ravage Gainesville and leave the Grooveshark offices in shambles. I’m hoping that nobody gets hurt, and that Hurricane Fay is more like this:

…and less like this:

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