Music GroupsCoolfer created a Twitter account quite a while ago but never did anything with it. Enough of that. Coolfer on Twitter is up and running. I'm not sure if it will have all Coolfer posts or a mix of posts and random bits. To be determined.
I forgot to mention last week that Coolfer turned five years old on Thursday. The blog has had 4,508 posts over the years. Thanks for reading and thanks for your feedback and emails.
After a couple of years on hiatus, Coolfer emails are back (at the rate of two a week thus far). To receive regular Coolfer updates with recent posts and news items, go to the small sign-up form at the top-right corner of the page.
After a two-year absence, Coolfer emails are returning. I know a lot of readers prefer to get information in email, and as a Blackberry owner I know email is preferable in some situations. Time constraints aren't what they used to be, so the emails are back.
If you would like to receive regular Coolfer emails -- a few times a week for the time being -- please sign up in the field below.
Thanks so much to those of you who have contributed to Coolfer this month. At the beginning of the month I posted that August would be pledge drive month. Well, between moving back to Nashville and starting classes, I have not mentioned it very often. As a refresher, I have dropped the ads and have replaced them with reader donations. My goal was 100 donations this month. We're short of that goal, but there are a few days left and your contributions are very welcome after the end of the month. A donation of any amount -- low or high -- is welcome and will help keep Coolfer rollin'.
Here's what your donation will get:
• $25 will get you a round of drinks if you happen to live in or are passing through Nashville.
• $50 will get you in a raffle for one of my favorite concert posters (frame not included). I have a Steve Earle at the Fillmore in March 1998, a Pavement at the Fillmore in July 1999 and a Guided By Voices at the Great American Music Hall in April 1995 (poster is by John Howard). I'll pick one donor and give him/her any one of the three.
• $1,000 will get you a five- to seven-page research paper on the music-related subject of your choosing. Why not put an industry-experienced MBA student to work for your company? Limit two (for the sake of my school schedule and sanity). If you're interested in this option, email me so we can talk about the finer points. I have been in talks with a few people about this option, so please contact me as soon as possible.
Just a quick note to say that Coolfer turns four today. Four years and 4,406 posts. Thank you for reading and for your comments and feedback.
There's a new feature at Coolfer you may have seen on the side links, a job board with music industry-specific listings. When you sign up for a posting at Coolfer, the job will be posted at Coolfer as well as the Simply Hired network. That includes places like LinkedIn, MySpace and Simply Hired. Both jobs and internships are listed.
The initial price is $99 for one month. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this new (to Coolfer) service. If you have any comments or questions, please send me an email.
Coolfer is having computer issues and I'm not sure when I'll be able to post. The blog could be very quiet over the next few days. Sorry, readers. I miss blogging as much as you miss reading it.
Update: My laptop's faulty thingamajig was replaced and its back in action. Blog posts forthcoming.
I'll be on vacation and out of the country from February 28th to March 9th. Since I have pledged to not touch a computer while I'm gone (Moby broke down...let's see how I do) Coolfer will be on break until March 10th or 11th.
Coolfer was down for a few days while the web host freaked out over the number of processes Coolfer accounts for these days. Traffic is good but not overly incredible, and the reason for the processes is probably comment spam. So, Coolfer comments are off for the time being and the site is up and running again.
Probably no posts today. Back in the office tomorrow.
Last week was indie week at CNN.com. I'm quoted in this article, "If It's Cool, Creative and Different, It's Indie," by Catherine Andrews at CNN.com. (No reference to Coolfer.com is made.) Pitchfork's Ryan Schreiber is quoted a lot more I was. And I'm quoted in a similar article at CNN.com, "Indie Stores Confront New Era," that gives me more quotes and mentions the Coolfer affiliation. Eric Levin from Atlanta's Criminal Records offers some good insights.
I'm also quoted in this SDA Asia article also. The problem is that I never said or wrote those things about the Zune. A quick Google search revealed this post at BetaNews.com that quoted my my post on the Zune. BetaNews got it right. Priya George got it wrong. She attributed to me what was written by "technology pundit" Chris Pirillo.
The neighborhood of Coolfer HQ has been without power since late last night, so posting today will be lighter than usual, and obviously way off schedule.
At the end of this month I'll be moving to Nashville to pursue an MBA at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. Coolfer will remain unchaged while I'm in school. I have worked full time and built the blog for almost three years -- Coolfer has a birthday coming next month -- and I have no plans to let it slip.
When I get to Nashville I look forward to meeting any and all readers and getting to know people in the Nashville music industry. Please send me an email and say hello. I couldn't have moved to a city without a vibrant music scene and industry, so Nashville will be a good home base for a while.
Thank you to Coolfer's generous sponsors. This week Coolfer is giving away prizes from each of my sponsors. Since Google had rendered trivia contests too easy, so Coolfer is going to do something different to decide who gets the goods. All giveaway submissions are to be sent to Coolfer HQ.
First up is The Attorneys, who are playing Union Pool in Williamsburg, Brooklyn tonight. The band is giving away two copies of its seven-song EP to Coolfer readers. To win, send Coolfer your best lawyer joke. Best two jokes get the CDs. Put "Lawyer Joke" in the subject line.
Next, St. Martin's Griffin is giving away three copies of the book Fool The World: The Oral History of a Band Called Pixies. To win, tell Coolfer what you favorite Pixies song is and why. Put"Pixies book" in the subject line, please.
Lastly, Focus Features is giving away two "Brick" t-shirts. "Brick" is a film by Rian Johnson that won the Sundance Film Festival's special jury prize for originality of vision. T-shirt hopefuls, in 20 words or less tell Coolfer how good you'll look wearing a "Brick" t-shirt. Put "Brick shirt" in the subject line of the email, please.
Many thanks to Coolfer's generous sponsors, which if you haven't noticed are a good match for the blog's readership. That's targeted marketing for you.
• Stars of CCTV by HARD-Fi. Album is out next Tuesday, March 14th.
• Be Here To Love Me, a film by Margaret Brown about Townes Van Zandt, starring Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris.
• Oh My Rockness. Check out their SXSW show list.
• Shop Kelloggs. Or don't you want a vintage Frosted Flakes t-shirt?
• Elefant's The Black Magik Show. The new album is out now at iTunes and available on CD on April 18th. Currently on tour with BRMC.
• ESP Billy. An MSN Messenger film.
• Alligator by The National. Click to preview one of 2005's celebrated albums.
• American Shmidol Karaoke Showdown. Be a good Jew: get drunk, sing your brains out, win stuff.
Five days in Amsterdam and I'm about to head back to New York. It's been a good trip. Got to meet some other bloggers, found some good record stores, saw some live music and did some of the normal tourist things. This evening it was a powerful performance by The Subways at the Melkweg. Notes on other happenings after the jump.
This evening Coolfer will be flying to Amsterdam for a five-day trip. I'll be there as a part of Bloggers In Amsterdam, a promotion created by BlogAds and Holland.com. To keep this an industry-related site, I will pass on telling you what I had for breakfast and will do my best to find Coolfer-related things to post. You can be I'll search out some music shops and live bands.
If you are in Amsterdam or will be going, and you'd like to meet up, send me an email. I'll have my laptop and a reliable wifi signal. Or if you'd like to email your favorite Amsterdam spots and recommendations, I'd love to hear from you.
Come by for happy hour at 7pm. The bands start at 8pm. See you there.
On Wednesday , February 1st, Coolfer and Daily Refill will host Shake Your Halo, an event with bands and DJs. We've got a great evening lined up Fat Baby, a new club in the Lower East Side. On stage downstairs will be Bravo Silva, Overnight and Nepo. All three are excellent bands who we're excited could join us. Upstairs we'll have some DJs, including Craig Wedren (ex-Shudder to Think) and Michael Jurin (stellastarr*).
Since there hasn't been a Coolfer gathering in quite some time, everybody is invited to Fat Baby's happy hour from 7pm to 9pm for a meet and greet. You're welcome to stay later and check out the bands ($8 to see the bands downstairs, no charge upstairs). Bands play at 8pm, 9pm and 10pm, and Shake Your Halo will go until closing.
Listen to the bands of Shake Your Halo:
• Bravo Silva: "Strawberry Blonde" MP3
• Overnight: "Sorry" MP3
• Nepo: Go to Nepo's online player to listen to songs
Our apologies for the recent technical problems. They should be behind us now. Unfortunately the posts were rare over the last week, and some data was lost. My intended post of readers' top tens was lost, as were all the emails containing the readers' lists. If some of you can re-send your emails I will see if I can salvage that project.
There will be a few posts on topics that aren't exactly current. Coolfer will play catch up a little bit since some topics and articles are too good not to mention.
Coolfer has been experiencing some technical difficulties since Friday. We hope to have everything back to normal very soon.
A big thank you to Coolfer's advertisers. Give them your clicks, your attention, your business.
• Gigantic Music. Win a free iPod Nano filled with songs from Gigantic Music artists like The Cloud Room, Shelby and Human Television. Go here to sign up.
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force The Fourth, now on DVD. Go here for info, video clips and downloads.
• Nokia. It's your life in there. Go here to watch commercials, see featured phones and get ring tones and wallpapers.
• Oh My Rockness. The ultimate indie rock concert calendar. Now in Chicago as well as New York.
• Standard Motion. All concert posters are on sale for $10.
• Southpaw. In Park Slope, Brooklyn. Upcoming shows include Cormega and Slum Village, Omar, The Spinto Band and Apollo Sunshine.
Coolfer regularly checks the referring links to see what search queries led a person to the site.
• seagram industry trend. This lead to a recent post in the music industry archives. Seagram was once the owner of Universal Music Group.
• starbucks "bob dylan." Coolfer's entry "Bob Dylan and Starbucks?" was the third result. Talks of a Dylan exclusive deal with Starbucks got everybody in the industry all hot and bothered.
• she wants revenge "tear you apart." Coolfer's post was the first result. She Wants Revenge, in case you're not familar, is an LA-based band signed to Flawless. They have what you could call an Interpolesque sound. They recently toured with OK Go and will be passing through New York again next week (playing at the Mercury). Their debut album will be out in February.
• chanteuse. On April 21st of this year I had a post called "Word of the Year: Chanteuse." The music critic lovefest with French singer-songwriter Karen Ann put the word chanteuse in print at an alarmingly high rate. As Karen Ann has faded from sight, the word has disappeared as well.
• song in metlife commercial. In February of last year Coolfer posted on the use of Nick Drake's "Mayfair" in a Metlife commercial. Since then Drake's music has become even more popular.
• OK Go. Coolfer is tickled that Damian Kulash's guest blogging is a higher search result than the band's MySpace page.
• inxs switch review. Sorry, can't help anybody there. Coolfer hasn't heard, reviewed or linked to a review of the new INXS album.
Coolfer already has a weekly email for new releases that goes out every Sunday, but now there's an email for regular Coolfer updates on posts, podcasts (they're on their way) and news recaps. You can be assured that your email will not be shared with outside parties.
Subscribe now:
Thanks to Coolfer's generous sponsors. Please give them your patronage.
• Nokia. Enter the "See New" competition and have your photos judge by nenowned photographers.
• Chris Brokaw. This singer-songwriter's album Incredible Love is out now on 12XU.
• The Boondocks. Part of Adult Swim. See The Boondocks premiere this Sunday at 11pm.
• Ice Cream Headache and their new song "(I Don't Wanna Go) Guantanamo!" (Download MP3)
• Up Your Budget. The 16-city, four-week treasure hunt for cash prizes.
• Standard Motion. New prints on sale now.
• Southpaw. In Park Slope, Brooklyn. Upcoming concerts by Kingsbury Manx, Brazilian Girls, Wiley, American Analog Set and Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings.
Many thanks to my advertisers. Please give them your support.
• Absinthe – the Inspiration. Yes, that Absinthe.
• The Sharp Things. "Not just another boring band with guitars."
• Gretchen Lieberum's new album Siren Songs. "Reminiscent of Billie Holliday, Fiona Apple & Zero 7."
• Chris Brokaw's new album Incredible Love. You've heard his playing with Come, Consonant, The New Year, Pullman, Steve Wynn, Evan Dando and others.
• The Exit. The new album, Home for an Island, from the NYC trio is in stores now.
• Southpaw. Upcoming shows include The Lovetones, Kingsbury Manx, The Brazilian Girls, Wiley, American Analog Set and Sharen Jones & The Dap-Kings.
• Standard Motion. A fine collection of concert posters, and six new limited edition prints.
Many thanks to Coolfer's sponsors and their ads. You've noticed those ads haven't you? Of course.
• Gang of Four. The legendary band's new album, Return the Gift, is out on V2 on Tuesday the 11th.
• The Exit. The NYC trio's Wind-Up Records debut, Home For An Island, comes out on Tuesday the 11th. You can see the band do an in-store performance at Virgin Megastore at Union Square at 6pm on the 11th.
• Standard Motion. New prints are in the store, including the heavily buzzed DUMBO poster.
• I Hope You Are Real Happy Now, the new book of photography by Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Coolfer recently moved. If I'm on your mailing list, please send me an email (coolfer@coolfer.com) and I'll reply with my new address.
Coolfer had email problems over the weekend and through part of Tuesday and no email was received during this period. If you sent an email and it was important I'd appreciate if if you could re-send. Thanks.
Many thanks to Coolfer's wonderful sponsors:
• Diamond Nights. Listen to the new album Popsicle, out now on Kemado Records.
• I Hope You Are Real Happy Now, the new book of photography by Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
• The Exit. The band's sophomore album, Home For An Island, is out on now on Wind-Up Records. Check the band's e-card.
• Standard Motion. Hurry, the concert poster summer sale is ending September 30th!
• The Silent League. Their website's media page has a lot of downloads. Check them out.
Seems there is a bug with the comments section, and former Coolfer contributor and music writer (and label owner) Alec Hanley Bemis wanted everybody to know he did not write the op-ed piece about Pitchfork. Since his comments are being rejected, and since it's a good way to continue to discourse/debate, I'll post what he wanted to say.
Hey, uh, just wanted to respond about that guy who accused me of writing this. I read Coolfer every day, but I only actually had posting privileges for a week, several months ago.
First off, regular contributors Nick Sylvester and Brandon Stosuy are friends of mine and I think they're both really strong writers. As is, for example, that William Bowers guy. Think that's his name.
Second, Pitchfork's actually been pretty nice to my label:
We avg an 8 or something. So, while I'd love to get hit with the best new music" stick, I'm not complaining one bit.
I do think this is an interesting debate though: yeah, Pitchfork's writing could be tighter...but that's not what the web is for; yes they get especially aggro on some record that don't quite deserve it ... but you could view that as a kind of art in and of itself (almost like exagerrating for comic effect); and finally, yes, they're super influential.
Anyone actually know what the traffic stats are? 125k uniques a day? Or 200k uniques per month? That'd be a huge difference and I'm sure some Pitchfork-er who knows is reading this.
-Alec
***
Label: http://www.brassland.org
Writing: http://www.brassland.org/AHB
Thanks so, so much to the Coolfer sponsors:
• The Silent League: Check out their CMJ shows on Thursday, September 15th at Scenic. For a preview download an MP3 of the band's song "Goliath."
• The Exit: The band's new album, Home For An Island, is out on Wind-Up Records. Their CMJ show is on Thursday the 15th at 11:30pm at The Delancey.
• Standard Motion: Indie rock lovers should take advantage of the sale on concert posters for bands such as Built to Spill, Cat Power, Mogwai, The Go! Team, Luna and TV on the Radio.
Coolfer will be attending and blogging the Future of Music Policy Summit in D.C. next month. The three-day meeting of the minds will be held at George Washington University from September 11th to 13th. The list of panelists and speakers is outstanding and features such people as Rep. Rick Boucher, Shawn Fanning (Snocap), Derek Sivers (CD Baby), Cary Sherman (RIAA), Mike Mills (R.E.M.), Gary Shapiro (Consumer Electronics Association), Fred von Lohmann (Electrionic Frontier Foundation), Jim Urie (Universal Music & Video Distribution), Don VanCleave (Coalition of Independent Music Stores) and Slim Moon (Owner, Kill Rock Stars).
I'll also be on a panel discussion titled "Hot To Podcast and Music Blog" along with Information Leafblower and Mike Holden from ArlingtonMusicScene.com.
Thanks to Coolfer's gracious sponsors:
• The Exit. The trio's Wind-Up Records debut, Home For An Island, will be out October 11th.
• Standard Motion. The summer concert poster sale is going on now. Save up to 50% on posters of Built To Spill, Cat Power, The Go! Team, Mogwai and more.
• Southpaw. Upcoming concerts by The Blue Van/The Willowz, Dead Meadow, The Pernice Brothers, New Model Army and Robbers On High Street.
Here are some reader stats for the month thus far, if you care. I believe this is the first time Lindsay Lohan has appeared twice in the 'most frequent search terms' list. Horay for Lindsay.
Browsers:
1. MS Internet Explorer: 62.7 %
2. Firefox: 17.8 %
3. Safari: 7.1 %
4. Unknown: 6.7 %
5. Netscape: 1.6 %
6. Mozilla: 1.6 %
Platforms:
1. Windows: 78.8 %
2. Macintosh: 11.8 %
3. Unknown: 8.8 %
4. Linux: 0.4 %
Most frequent search terms:
1. coolfer
2. how to dress indie
3. spooning
4. lindsday lohan
5. metlife commercial song
6. gwen stefani implants
7. indie quiz
8. lindsay lohan speak
9. taking back sunday
• Stephen Malkmus. His new album Face the Truth is out now on Matador Records.
• Audi. The 2006 Audi A3.
• Coldplay's "Speed of Sound" available exclusively through Cingular.
• Sally Crewe & The Sudden Moves on 12XU.
• Makor. Voted one of New York City's best clubs by New York magazine.
• Southpaw. Rockethouse and Junkbox perform DayInDayOut on Friday June 3rd.
• More Four-Word Reviews. Brevity rules.
• The Backstreet Boys are back. Will it be a comeback?
• Def Leppard covers Badfinger...and doesn't blow it.
• Congrats to MP3 blog Music For Robots for releasing a CD.
• Coldplay's Chris Martin demonizes shareholders.
• Alec Hanley Bemis' farewell post -- slightly higher ratings than the last "M*A*S*H" episode.
• Warner Music Group's Income Statement: Lossy.
• World Leader Pretend might ease the sting of Warner Music Group's IPO.
Another sign of of the apocalypse that blogs are taking over the world blogs are getting a bit more respect: Nike has a promotion for which bloggers -- such as Coolfer -- have designed custom Nike shoes to help announce the launch of this fancy pants Nike website they've built.
Here's what's in it for you: If Coolfer wins, you win. I'm doing this for you. I get a truckload of gift certificates for my loyal readers so they can get a free pair of shoes they have customized for themselves. How will I decide who gets the gift certificates? Three words: bribes are welcome.
So please go to the promotion page and vote for Coolfer. Other bloggers may try to convice you that you should vote for them, but pay them no mind. You know all those election year comments like, "It doesn't matter who you vote for, just get out and vote." Wrong. Don't vote for just anybody. Vote Coolfer. Vote every day.
About the blue color...I think it'll look better in person. It looks rather glowing on the computer screen. Before I chose the colors for this shoe I saw a guy on the subway with shoes of a similar color, worn and with a little dirt on them, and I thought they looked very cool.
Many, many thanks to Coolfer's sponsors:
• Audi. Have you seen this man?
• The Mountain Goats. The new album The Sunset Tree is out now.
• Makor. Voted one of NYC's best clubs by New York magazine.
• Sally Crewe & The Sudden Take-Off. New album coming on May 24th on 12XU. Download the track "Pane of Glass."
• Southpaw. Upcoming shows include Built to Spill, Mice Parade, Stereophonics, Keren Ann and the Go-Betweens.
What the heck went on at Coolfer last week?
• Rob Thomas debuted at #1 on the album chart, while Gwen Stefani overtook 50 Cent on the singles chart.
• Discussion about album length and what is and isn't too much.
• Dollars and cents: Sony BMG's earnings reports, and Universal Music Group's revenue report.
• In learning to cope with a great deal of fan mail, Alec Hanley Bemis tells us why interactivity sucks and why interactivity rulz.
• More from Alec: "What's on the desk of a famous freelance writer" discusses where music and literature overlap.
• The CD isn't yet dead, and digital music is growing at a good clip.
• Coldplay's upcoming X&Y album, out June 7th, is already getting some nice preorders at Amazon.com.
• Four-Word Reviews for Garbage, Stephen Malkmus, Yo La Tengo, Elkland, Verve Remixed 3 and The Wonder Stuff.
• Audi. The 2006 Audi A3. Cars are fun.
• The Mountain Goats. The Sunset Tree is in stores now.
• Sally Crewe & The Sudden Moves. The album Shortly After Take-Off out May 24th on 12XU. Download the song "Pane of Glass."
• Southpaw. Upcoming shows include Stars, Richard Buckner, Built to Spill, Mice Parade, Stereophonics and The Comas.
Tonight at Hi Fi, Coolfer and Repellent are having the first (of hopefully many) Under The Roundtable happy hour for underground media and cultural producers. Heck, it's even open to those cultural producers who recently got $30 million from Warner Music Group and aren't exactly underground. Everybody's invited, especially writers, publicists, record label types, musicians, photographers and good ol' bloggers.
It's at Hi Fi, starting around 6:30-ish and going for many hours. Until 8pm there drinks are two-fer-one, and after that it's beers for $3 and $2 off well drinks (with hand stamp, so come find us).
Happy Hour for Underground Media and Cultural Producers
Join Coolfer.com and Repellent at Hi Fi for a night of dead cheap drinks and casual networking (we use the term very loosely) and conversation.
Writers, bloggers, photographers, designers, curators, artists, musicians, and interested parties are invited to meet and leisurely plot the underground overthrow of the arts - and, again, have some dead cheap drinks.
Free copies of Repellent Issue 3 and some other prizes will be given away!
WHAT: Happy Hour for Cultural Producers
- 2 for 1 drinks from 6:30 - 8:00
- 8:00 on -- $3 beers and $2 off well drinks (when you get a hand stamp from us)
WHEN: Monday April 25th 6:30 till whenever (I'd guess 11-ish, but nobody's going to kick you out until 4am)
WHERE: Hi Fi
- 169 Avenue A (btwn 10th & 11th Sts.)
- L to 1St Avenue, 6 to Astor Place, N,R,W, Q to 8th Street
RSVP or questions to undertheroundtable@gmail.com
Here are the March reader statistics:
Operatating System
1. Windows: 83.6%
2. Macintosh: 11.2%
3. Unknown: 4.4%
4. Linux: 0.4%
Browsers
1. Explorer: 69.5%
2. Mozilla: 16.9%
3. Safari: 6.5%
4. Unknown: 4.3%
5. Netscape: 1.3%
6. Opera: 0.6%
Top Search Keyphrases
1. Taking Back Sunday: 9.6%
2. Usher: 8.6%
3. Slipknot: 2.6%
4. The Bravery: 2.4%
5. Jadakiss: 2.2%
6. Lady Sovereign: 1.9%
7. Interpol: 1.7%
8. Franz Ferdinand: 1.5%
9. The Postal Service: 1.5%
Visits By Day
1. Thursday
2. Tuesday
3. Monday
4. Wednesday
5. Friday
6. Sunday
7. Saturday
• MTV2's Sic 'Em Fridays and Wonder Showzen. Fridays at 9:30pm et/6:30pm pt.
• Deeper Beats. Showcasing innovative music and media. Recent features: Roni Size and Pitchfork Media.
• Southpaw. Upcoming shows include Mason Jennings, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, M. Ward, The Undertones, Ben Lee and Built to Spill.
• MTV2's Sic 'Em Fridays and Wonder Showzen. Fridays at 9:30pm et/6:30pm pt.
• Deeper Beats. Showcasing innovative music and media. Recent features: Roni Size and Pitchfork Media.
• Southpaw. Upcoming shows include The Go! Team, Mason Jennings, Hem, M. Ward, The Undertones, Ben Lee and Built to Spill.
Thanks to Coolfer's sponsors:
• Quannum Projects. Hip-Hop and more from Blackalicious, DJ Shadow, Lyrics Born, Lateef and Lifesavas, plus new signees APSCI, Curumin, General Electrics, Honeycut and Pigeon John.
• Deeper Beats. Showcasing innovative music and media. Recent features: Roni Size and Pitchfork Media.
• Southpaw. Upcoming shows include Catpower, I Am Kloot, The Go! Team, The Undertones and Ben Lee.
Don't forget, NYC's music bloggers and bloggers in general and friends and relatives and people who read blogs will be at The Magician tonight for happy hour and conversation.
Coolfer finally updated some of those download links in the middle column. Hope you enjoy them. One of the MP3s is a new track by Mobius Band, the first rock band signed to shit-hot electronic label Ghostly International. Great tune, and not even the best one on the EP.
Since the last gathering was such fun, Coolfer is getting people together again to have some drinks, talk about the pros/cons of various weblog publishing platforms and discuss our favorite Arcade Fire moments. It will definitely be the paparazzi event of the week.
What: Music Blogger Happy Hour
When: Thursday, March 3rd
When, specifically: 6:30pm
Where: The Magician (Rivington at Essex)
It's not just for music bloggers. Everybody is invited. Many of you have already given me your RSVP, and I've talked to others about this. I'm expecting to see your smiling faces there.
And I know some of you have tickets to Sleater-Kinney's show at the Merc that night. No problem. You'll have plenty of time to hit the show after stopping by the Magician for a while.
So bring youself, your friends and some money for discounted happy hour drinks. Happy hour goes until 8pm. See you there!
You may have noticed -- in case you're one of those visitors who actually looks to the right of the main blog body -- that Coolfer finally updated the sidelinks. Purging and updating was long overdue, and the job is not yet finished. More will be added in the near future.
That sexy red block ad to the right comes compliments of Quannum Projects.
Hip-Hop and more from Blackalicious, DJ Shadow, Lyrics Born, Lateef and Lifesavas, plus new signees APSCI, Curumin, General Electrics, Honeycut and Pigeon John.
www.quannum.com relaunch March 05
Twelve Years of Quality from Northern California, Still 100% Hemp Clothing-Free
Again this week, Coolfer is sponsored by Vice Recordings, home to The Stills, The Streets, Chromeo, Panthers, Death From Above 1979 and its new signing, Bloc Party.
Click here to stream Death From Above 1979's album, You're A Woman, I'm A Machine.
From page 32 of the Jan/Feb issue of XLR8R magazine:
"Blogs du jour: Everything you wanted to know about the music industry in New York (plus loads of useful links) is found at www.coolfer.com/blog."
Good to know people are reading.
Coolfer loves getting reader mail. Recently I got some mail from a bitter reader who has been banned from leaving comments at both Coolfer and Gothamist. He wasn't aware that Movable Type collects the IP addresses of everybody who leaves a comment. (Remember when the folks at Warner Bros. failed to realize that very fact?)
So here's a Christmas present to my readers: Half-witted, laughable commentary from a reader's email. It's also the first negative reader mail I've received, which also makes it very dear to me.
Enjoy.
What a nerd - you search my ISP out to ban me. Afraid of what I might say? Can't defend yourself? So weak. Keep your one-way communication going so you can feel good about yourself. Realize that many probably think you're an idiot. Ignorance is bliss, right? Truly though, my problem with you is the same as with Gothamist - your sites have no passion, no free thought. You're as PC and all-pleasing as CNN. Read Gawker to see how a true blog should read. Jessica has soul; Jessica is real. You're not. You're transparent. Just trying to help as I do feel sorry for you (as well as Gothamist). The number of clicks you may get is only an indication of popularity; not quality. Open your eyes. Feel music rather than listen to it. Love is the law.
Alien X, I shared your email with Jessica. She said you're wrong, she has no soul.
In case you all are wondering, I don't do this blog to make myself feel special. Like all other bloggers I've met, I have a life outside of my blog.
Many of you who have read for a while know that I started my blog to present a different side to the music industry dialogue on the Internet. I didn't agree with much that was said, so I started my own blog, and I hope I've been able to improve the discourse over the last year and a half.
This is not a hipster contest. I'm not out to try to be cooler than thou. Nor am I going to approach news and issues in a Gawker style. I read Gawker and I think Jessica does a great job, but that's not my style. If my style is too dry for you, if you think Coolfer is transparent and idiotic, you have some options:
• Don't read it
• Keep reading it and keep your rude comments to yourself
• Keep reading it and leave intelligent, thoughful comments
• Start your own blog
• If you are going to try to put me down, at least do better than the guy above. He gets an failing grade. No game, guy. Zero.
If you do like my blog, I hope you'll keep reading, keep emailing and keep leaving comments.
Happy Holidays.
Coolfer is officially on hiatus from posting about the following topics: the iPod, U2, the U2 edition iPod, the Arcade Fire, Ted Leo and anything to do with music awards shows.
It's nice to take a break sometimes.
Not that I'm one to toot my own horn, but...
On November 18th, Coolfer posted about the soundtrack for the Stubbs the Zombie video game and linked to a site that gave the entire tracklisting.
Today, Pitchfork has a piece on the very same sountrack, calling their scoop "early, strange, marketable news." Strange, yes. Early, no.
Is it me or would it be best for Pitchfork to just skip the story when they're so far behind bloggers? Over two weeks have passed since this tracklisting started to make its way around the blogosphere. That delay means Pitchfork was moving at the speed of old media, if not slower. New media should react much faster.
All this goes to show the value of blogs in gathering information. Blogs are never going to replace resources like Pitchfork, but they will give readers better, faster options for finding news items.
Here are the November Coolfer reader stats:
• Operating System: Windows 78.5%, Mac 14.8%, Unknown 6.1%, Linux 0.3%.
• Browsers: MS Explorer 69.4%, Mozilla 14.1%, Safari 8.9%, Netscape 1.3%, LibWWW 0.9%, Opera 0.6%.
• Most Popular Search Keyphrases: Usher, Slipknot, Gretchen Wilson, Coolfer, How to Dress Indie, Alex Kapranos, I Am Not That Adam Levine, New Slipknot, British Boy Bands, Story of the Year Band.
• Most Traffic By Day of the Week: Wendesday, Monday, Thursday, Friday, Tuesday, Sunday, Saturday
In case you haven't noticed that block ad sitting in the middle column, Coolfer's latest sponsor is Brassland, a NYC-based label that merits your attention. They do, after all, "put out the good music." They've got a small and diverse roster.
So click away on that cute little block ad--and the sexy one that's currently below it, too.
Check out a couple of MP3s from the Brassland site:
- Baby Dayliner's "Raid"
- Clogs' "Pencil Stick"
In case you haven't noticed, the Coolfer family has grown. I've enlisted a few contributors to add content and different perspectives.
Bob and Marah are going to contribute mainly music reviews, and David will cover music-related technologies. All three have already turned in some great posts.
One of these days I'll make a nice "staff" page so you can keep track of everybody.
Since the month is almost over, let's take a look at some Cooler reader stats for the month.
Operating Systems
- Windows: 81%
- Macintosh: 11.8%
- Unknown: 6.8%
(Windows had a 76.2% share in September. Mac had a 12.4% share.)
Browsers
- Explorer: 52.6%
- Opera: 23.2%
- Mozilla: 9.2%
- Safari: 7.1%
- Unknown: 6%
- Netscape: 1.1%
(In September, Explorer had a 65% share, which was down from 69% in July.)
Links from an Internet search engine
- Google: 60%
- Yahoo: 30%
- MSN: 4.6%
- AltaVista: 1.9%
- AOL: 1.8%
(Two search engines dominate. Is this because people are using Google and Yahoo searches in their toolbars?)
Traffic Rank By Day
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Tuesday
- Monday
- Friday
- Sunday
- Saturday
(Most bloggers take the weekends off. And why not? Most blog readers take the weekend off.)
Most Popular Search Keyphrases
- Usher
- Slipknot
- Coolfer
- Alex Kapranos
- Gretchen Wilson
- British boy bands
- Indie Quiz
- Pictures of Amoeba
- Creed
Coolfer was having some problems with its comments. Our apologies if you ran into problems while trying to leave a comment. The problem has been fixed, temporarily.
Coolfer is looking for a few regular contributors. The two areas of need are music reviews and music-related technologies.
If you're interested, please email coolfer at coolfer dot com.
Because I know you care so much about Coolfer's visitor stats:
- Explorer is the #1 browser, but's share has dropped to 64.9% (down from 69% in July). Mozilla is up to 14% from 12.6%.
- Windows is sitting at 76.2%. Mac is at 12.4%. Unknown operating systems are 11.1%. Linus has a big 0.1% share. And though WebTV's share was rounded down to 0%, I did get six hits from WebTV operating systems.
- Most popular keyphrase: "Johnny Ramone"
Coolfer got a few mentionable pieces of reader mail the other day, both following up on Coolfer posts.
One was from Greg Beshers, guitarist for Moe Tucker and member of the Pillcrushers. Coolfer linked to an article about Moe, the drummer for the Velvet Underground, recording a few songs with the Raveonettes. Greg contacted Coolfer to add that the session took place last Thursday and a friend of Moe's had been trying to hook them up for a while. After the session, everybody threw a birthday party for Moe--her 60th! Thanks, Greg.
The other email was from Richard Terzieff, owner of Recorded Memories in Spokane, WA. In a post about Minimum Advertised Prices, Coolfer quoted from a letter to the FTC written by Terzieff in which he complained about what a loss of MAP would mean to independent record stores. Richard gave Coolfer an example of how indies cannot match the prices of mass merchants:
"Our cost for the $29.99 list price Passion of the Christ DVD is $20.39 and $21.99 from two of the last music wholesalers in business. On top of that there is shipping from Reno, Momence, Ill. or Coral Springs, Florida. It's being sold at Best Buy for $15.99 and grocery stores for $19.99."
Summation: Locally owned independent merchants cannot match the prices of grocery stores and mass merchants, and four years later they're still mad about the FTC's ruling. Said Richard: "If I was as good at picking lottery numbers as I was inciteful on what abolishing the M.A.P. would do, I'd no longer be an indy store owner!"
The Fiery Furnaces' Eleanor Friedberger and Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos are both so very searchable...especially when you combine the two. (There are "rumors" about the two. Their bands just toured Australia together. Hardly a coincidence, me thinks.) I'm looking over my Coolfer statistics report and it's nice to see that I'm getting trafic from such search engine keyphrases as:
- eleanor alex kapranos,
- alex kapranos eleanor,
- alex kapranos eleanor friedberger,
- eleanor friedberger, and
- alex kapranos.
Oh. And very nice to see that somebody is looking for:
- pj harvey nude, and
- poses of female strippers (how did that lead to Coolfer?!)
The current logo was designed by FOC Andrew, who was the one to suggest that should Coolfer solicit logos from my readers. I've got a few more logos I want to get into the rotation, but I'll leave this one up for a bit.
Is the layout looking weird? It is from where I'm sitting. I'll try to get these technical problems fixed as soon as I can.
In case you care, here's the most recent Coolfer visitor stats.
Browsers: Explorer 69%, Mozilla 12.6%, Safari 10%, Netscape 1.9%.
The Windows-to-Mac ratio is 77.2/17.5.
Days with most visitors, from most to least: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Monday, Friday, Sunday, Saturday.
The latest of the Coolfer logos was created by Marleigh of Hyperkinetic.org. She's also on the blogging staff of LAist, the new Los Angeles version of Gothamist.
What do you think? I like it. Nice job, Marleigh!
Coolfer has received a lot of great logos from readers, and starting today I'll show y'all a few of them. This particular logo--the Google/Coolfer logo--was created by BOC (that's Brother of Coolfer) Jim. Go check out his junk food blog, Phooood, and his Ramones website, Ramones Online.
If Google can have fun with its logo, why can't Coolfer? So last night I spent a whole of ten seconds making a new logo, just for fun. Its stay will be brief.
Then FOC Andrew emailed with a great idea: Have a "Design A Logo" contest, pick a few winners, and put up profiles of the winners.
Great idea, Andrew! So, let's give this a shot. Let's have a logo-making contest. Let's see if I can get even one submission. (I'd be thrilled to get just one, frankly. It'd be nice to know y'all care enough to make a logo for my site.)
Here's the skinny:
- The logo should be 85-100 pixels in height and 300-400 pixels in length.
- The file should be a transparent gif.
- Um...that's it. The rest is up to you. Whatever you want to do it cool with me.
And now for the bad news: There is no cash prize involved. I'm going to put up each logo for a week, maybe two. Maybe I'll send you a few of the promos that I get in the mail, but that would be the only compensation involved. As if often the case with blogs, it's just for fun, not money.
Email your submissions to coolfer at coolfer dot com.
In case you care, here's some statistical nerdery on Coolfer visitors:
- 71.8% are running Windows, 19.8% are on Mac, 0.4% are running on Linux and 7.8% is unknown.
- 65.2% use MS Internet Explorer, 10.8% use Safari, 10.8% use Mozilla (which is what Coolfer uses at home), 1.8% use Netscape, 1% use Firebird and I'll skip those that don't even account for 1%.
- Popular search phrases include "riff random photos" (2.4%), "ipod market share" (1.3%) and the crush-worthy "eleanor friedberger" (1.0%).
Coolfer's use of the term "Von Bondied" to describe the beating the Kings took at the hands of the Nets was noted by fellow blogger So Durst.
Von Bondied v.,
1. To beat, as with the fists; pummel
2. To swing or strike in a manner suggesting the action of a flail
3. a complete thrashing
