Yay!  There is a great level of stress that has been reduced to something a tad more manageable now that the Madison Area Music Awards are over.  You can see a list of the winners at http://www.themamas.org (if you care that much!).

For Local Sounds, we had a great response!  This year we debuted Local Sounds Magazine, Local Sounds TV, and MadisonUrban.com.  We also pushed out a new version of the Local Sounds site as well.  It has been a crazy few months, but we / I made it!

Local Sounds TV was by far the hit of the night.  Once we started getting some interviews lined up, it seemed everyone wanted to be on TV!  I was planning on maybe 5-8 interviews tops during the red carpet between 6:00 and 7:00.  We ended up doing tons more for a grand total of about 3 hours!  It was crazy!  And after we were done doing interviews, artists and kids alike were regularly using our Local Sounds backdrop as a place to take photos (see photo).  Awesome!  Not to mention free press for us…. suckas..

That’s right Jabloggyites.  The reason I’ve been missing in action for so long is because I’ve been going bonkers with preparing for the 6th Annual Madison Area Music Awards (MAMAs) here in Madison.  I’m winding down here finally as the music awards are this Saturday, May 9th.

Here’s a brief rundown of what I’ve been doing:

• Designed and printed 1000 hand fliers
• Launched MadisonUrban.com, a new community for the urban / hip-hop / R&B scene in Madison
• Built and deployed Local Sounds Magazine, a new online magazine covering the music scene in Madison
• Tended to and maintained the Madison Area Music Awards website (I’m the web guy on the board of directors)
• Built and deployed the website for Local Sounds TV, a new service we’re launching this Saturday
• Managed the design and construction of a 4×8 Local Sounds backdrop for the Local Sounds TV video booth at the MAMAs on Saturday
• Planned the booth for Local Sounds at the music awards in the lobby
• And I think that’s everything…

So see?  I wasn’t faking it!  Oh, and before Saturday I still plan on updating the Local Sounds website, so hopefully by this weekend you can go to localsounds.org and check out all the features I’ve listed above.

Thanks for your patience, and I should be back a little more often very soon.

Whaddup?! Last weekend was our first show as a band(s). We played a private beach party at a public restaurant (weird). Besides the icky smell of algae, the chanting biker crowd, and the brief period of rain where we had to protect what we had already setup (sound and drums), I think it went pretty well! We appeared first as our rock group without a name, then appearing as the backup band for Felicia Alima (go buy at the Local Sounds Music Store now!). Of course, we know where our rough areas are, but we hope to have those cleared up soon. Our next show is at The Frequency in Madison on Tuesday night. We’re playing for a somewhat diverse crowd and opening for a diverse main act, so come prepared to have fun (in more ways than one!) bwahahaha!

Holy crap have these last couple of weeks been nuts! Things are actually looking up for Local Sounds. Things are starting to be put into motion, making our efforts appear as if they might actually be paying off!

The wiki is due for release at the beginning of October. Right now it’s in beta testing with some of our faithful newsletter subscribers. But what no one knows (until now in this blog post) is that we have another newbie right around the corner at the beginning of November too! This new service will definitely will be a nice addition to the wiki, plus it will be perfect timing for its first Christmas season, but that’s all I’m going to tell you now. (I know, you’re probably yelling $@#& at me right now!!)

Also, I will be helping a friend of mine publish a guitar lesson and theory book that he put together a couple years ago. We finally found the perfect resource to help make it happen. More on this as it develops at a later time.

And finally, the radio widget hasn’t seen a lot of updating lately, but once I get back to it I know it won’t be long before we release version 1.1! I’m looking to get this up and ready to go during mid-October, so you’ll be able to listen to your Halloween dance tracks on the new version. That’s the goal for now, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed until it happens for sure! Also, if you have any suggestions or feedback for areas of improvement or additions to the widget, please list them in the comments of this post.

Until next time.