SLB heads to DC, where we meet and mingle with the locals

Travel with us as we meet the locals before our show at The Black Squirrel.  We hit the Amsterdam Falafel Shop, Bicycle Space, the music scene as we interview shop owners at the Crooked Beat about Vinyl sales and Smash Records about the local musical talent, such as Lindsay Buckingham Palace.  So plug in your ear buds and learn with us as we find out about the best way to have a Falafel pita, which bike horn is the best, the latest bikes on the market, how to ride safely, and how vinyl rebounded, literally.

This is a 2 part episode, so listen to the deep SLB discussions as we roll to DC one early morning last Fall and then check out part 2 where we hit the ground running and find out what is happening in DC.  We close the show with great indie artists, that we listened to on the road, Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds from Brooklyn, Gin Wigmore from New Zealand, and Grace Potter from Vermont.  Come on go local with us!

/http://slbindietrailer.libsyn.com/

Getting your sh*t together – Podcast listening issues?

In a simple world everything would work according to plan, yet this is not the case when dealing with technical issues.  This podcast, “SLB Indie Trailer” has been my joy and delight to my devilish nightmare and time sucker, but I am determined.  For whatever reason, I feel driven to do this podcast and determined to make it succeed.  A few of my reasons might seem obvious, but some not so obvious.  Here they are to checklist against your list of why are you attempting to do a podcast, I am assuming that this is why you have found this blog post in the first place.

  1. I really enjoy meeting other people and hearing their stories
  2. I enjoy the challenge of telling our story as a band and as an individual, I like to document life as it happens, sort of like an audio journal, but narrowing it down to the good parts. (think Hollywood here)
  3. I started the podcast as an outlet for our music and other indie music that we run across in touring and gigging out, EXPOSURE- you know the kinds of things you are always promised when you play a venue, benefit, or something that is looking to raise their awareness and want to add you to the roster to increase their cool factor, yet can’t pay you for it.  This medium is a way for us to reach others in different parts of the world that are interested in similar topics, so yes, the exposure factor goes up with every episode we do.
  4. I love listening and learning orally and I thought others might too – I am an avid podcast listener here and if you have one to recommend comment below.
  5. I am constantly out there seeking my own answers and since I am on my own mission to solve the problems of being an indie artist, I thought I would invite the listener along for the ride

There are more reasons, but those are the main ones.  Things I did not expect to get from this podcast

  1. A lesson in everything not to do
  2. How can I save this awesome interview that should have been recorded better, stereo vs mono = technical nightmare when you don’t know what you are doing
  3. Learning on the fly many programs to make the podcast work from Final Cut Pro to Audition to ProTools, each having their advantages and disadvantages, for example,  if I am trying to kill 2 birds with 1 stone (terrible euphemism btw) and post a slide show podcast to Sweet Little Bloodhound YouTube channel at the same time, I am unable to adjust volume on a gradual basis, like you can with ProTools or Audition.  (a Trick that I may not have learned, yet, so if you know it, please feel free to comment below)
  4. How each podcast platform costs and works, encodes, and ultimately can play your podcast differently, so learning how to save it, so it will play the same on all platforms has been a real challenge, hours and days kind of challenge.
  5. I am completely off my rocker with a vision that I keep pushing forward with it, when I am not sure what rewards it is bringing me, other than enjoyment and a strong sense of accomplishment when it’s finished and “isn’t that enough?” hmmm

So I guess the moral of this technical story is, please let me know if you are still having problems hearing the podcast, like if one voice is barely audible, believe me that is not how it was loaded, but I will find out the problem, so comment below with where you are listening to the SLB Indie Trailer podcast, 1. Where are you listening to it, on what platform – Stitcher, Spreaker, TuneIn, etc. 2. How you are listening to it, (via my iPhone speaker, EarPods, car speaker, etc.) and 3. What you are experiencing? (can’t hear one voice, volume too low overall, distorted)  I thank you for your time and I hope you will continue to listen as we are fixing the issues as we go.  I look forward to meeting you on the road somewhere.  In the meantime, let’s keep road tripping together. You can always hear all the episodes as uploaded here at the host – http://slbindietrailer.libsyn.com/

 

Keep moving’ and listening and we will eventually hear one another!

Devlin

 

 

 

Let’s Start What We Have Come into the Room to Do

Just in time for our hometown show at the Cutting Room (Friday March 4th at 7:30pm), here’s a new playlist for you guys. This one is a collection of my favorite musicians from the African Diaspora and the American artists they influenced. A lot of this is stuff I grew up listening to in my house: a lot of Fela Kuti and some artists associated with Paul Simon’s “Graceland” album, one band I’ve seen live in Park Slope, Brooklyn- the Mandingo Ambassadors, and more. I hope you dig it. I’ve got 28 days to figure out what I’ll do next! -JN

This Playlist is on the Squirrel Level

Here’s my newest playlist for Sweet Little Bloodhound: all samples cleared? It’s a compilation of some of my favorite independent hip-hop and classics from the 80s, 90s and today, along with the terrific music that was sampled to help create it. In some cases, it’s literally a 1-bar clip that gets turned into something completely different! I’ll post a new collection every month. Check it out and let us know what you think -JN

p.s. check out our Atlanta podcast if you want to know about the Squirrel Level