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.

Come early to take advantage of the $5 cover charge ($10 after 11:30pm), where you can enjoy a great night of hip-hop and R&B with Tefman (L.O.S.T. S.O.U.L.S.), Rob DZ, DLO (with KALO), and 2007 MAMAs winner Felicia Alima. DJ Fusion will be performing before the show and in-between sets. Proceeds will support the Madison Area Music Awards, which raises money to help put instruments into kids’ hands. A MAMAs booth will be set up for your convenience to help you register to become a MAMAs member and vote in the first round.

The first round of voting will run from February 5th through March 20th. The Nominee Announcement Party will be held at the Brink Lounge on Saturday, March 28th and the final round of voting will run from March 28th through April 28th. The 2009 Madison Area Music Awards will take place at the Barrymore Theater on Saturday, May 9th. Performers for the awards show and other fundraising events will soon be announced.

Calendar of Events

• February 5-March 20-1st Round of Voting
• February 21-The Urban Fundraiser at the High Noon Saloon featuring Tefman (of the L.O.S.T. S.O.U.L.S.), Rob DZ, DLO (w/KALO) and Felicia Alima
• March 21- JT Whitney’s “Free Beer for a Year” Fundraiser
• March 28-Madison Area Music Awards Nominee Announcement Party at the Brink Lounge featuring live music by MB3, raffle and silent auction
• March 28-April 28-Final Round of Voting

Join JJO Local Stage host Kurt Baron at the first ever Launchpad Benefit “Rock for Launchpad”, this Saturday night, January 24th at the High Noon Saloon on East Washington Ave, just a few blocks from the state capitol. The show is 21+ and there is a $5 cover at the door. The show starts around 9:00pm, so come on down and hang out with us and support the cause.

Local bands Silence is Broken, Snooky, Planet of 9, and Dissent & Revolt offer up alternative rock & metal to support Launchpad, the only statewide music competition in the nation for high school students in garagebands, celebrates its 5th year in 2009 and is a program of the Wisconsin School Music Association and is produced by Dennis Graham Associates.

For more information, go to www.wjjo.com.

So this past weekend was the annual Johnsonville World’s Largest Brat Fest here in Madison.  There goal this year was for 200,000 brats to be consumed.  Unfortunately they missed that ever so slightly, coming in around 191,000 (give or take a couple hundred).  But don’t let that fool you.  They beat their record of 189,432 from last year.  So we’re still in the black.

Anywho, of course there are a ton of brats (the edible meat food product) but then again it’s like a giant daycare.  Lots of families, lots of kids (or you could just pronounce “brat” a little differently and sum up the entire thing).  But besides that, I guess Brat Fest is now officially the largest music festival in Madison, which after being there really doesn’t say a whole lot.  I mean they only had 2 stages so the one way they got there was that they had 50 or so local bands playing over 4 days.  I’m having a tough time digesting that (and this brat (the food), yummy).

For more details, you can check out www.bratfest.com