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You Sing, I Write Anniversary Concert

As you can see on the sidebar on right side of the blog (and from the image above), I posted the flier for the concert next Saturday that I’m hosting. I’m really psyched to be able to get such great bands to play Maxwell’s and hope you can all come out!

Check out the MySpace for each band and the lineup for the night below:

Doors 8:30 p.m.
9 p.m. Josh Charles
10 p.m. Joey DeGraw
11 p.m. The Canon Logic

If you have any questions feel free to leave me a comment or email me.

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You Sing, I Write Celebrates 1-Year Anniversary!

It’s really crazy to think that exactly one year ago today I began my blog. Originally, I started You Sing, I Write as a creative outlet since my current day job didn’t (and still isn’t) writing-related. Growing up, I always knew I wanted to be a writer, just not sure what field or genre until my senior year of college. When I landed my internship at MTV News Online I knew for sure that becoming a music journalist was my career goal. Little did I know how competitive the field was and with the current job market, the outlook doesn’t look too promising. So, to keep up my writing and creativity I thought, “Why not start a music blog?” I go to tons of concerts throughout the year, might as well cover them and try to get interviews with each band.

The History:
It was the middle of October and I already was planning to see Switchfoot at Hammerstein Ballroom with a bunch of friends, so I decided to contact their management and see what I could do. Surprisingly, within 24 hours of emailing I received a response back and was able to set up an interview with the band. Lucky for me, MTV was just launching it’s own concert blog so I began covering shows and writing up my reviews for them as well as my own blog. Everything spiraled from there and soon I was doing phone interviews with bands on my lunch breaks, getting CD’s sent to me in the mail on a weekly — sometimes daily — basis and the rest, as they say, is history.

This past year alone I’ve conquered some of my life goals, strange enough as it may seem. I lived my own version of Almost Famous when I went on tour with Army of Me for a few tour dates. That experience was like no other and I was able to meet and interview not only each member of Army of Me, but another up-and-coming band, Lights Resolve as well as interview Jeph from The Used on their tour bus. Looking back, never in a million years would I have dreamed my blog would have taken off to where it is today and there is still so much I want to do with it within the next year!

Of course my goal is to eventually have a full-time writing gig somewhere in New York, or maybe California. Hey, even Nashville sounds pretty nice at this point too, who knows. But for now, I couldn’t be happier. I’ve been introduced to some amazing bands this past year and hope you all have enjoyed my interviews and reviews of each of them. While I can cross off going on tour with a band on my life “to-do” list, I hope that in the near future I can have many more amazing touring experiences and be able to vividly capture and chronicle each tale on this blog. I hope you continue to read and look forward to the new bands I feature each week. Thanks for all of your support and continuous comments throughout the past year. Keep them coming!

And, for being such loyal readers, I want to invite you all out to Maxwell’s in Hoboken on November 8th. I’m planning a concert with three amazingly talented bands that I think you should all spend some time getting to know — Josh Charles, Joey DeGraw and The Canon Logic. Check them out on MySpace and hope to see you Nov. 8th!

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You Sing, I Write Invades the Blogospher, Part 2

October is already off to a great start. Lots of exciting things happening! I’ve gotten word that I’ll be covering New York’s CMJ Music Festival the end of the month for the UWire, so once I find out where my reviews and interviews will be posted I’ll fill you in. Check out the artist line-up and let me know if you have any requests of bands to cover!

In addition, another place you can search for past MP3 interviews from You Sing, I Write is on The Hype Machine. It’s a pretty cool site that automatically updates MP3’s from my blog as well as hundreds of other blogs onto their site so members can search for the latest interviews and songs invading the Web.

I’ll also be writing for ReviewYou.com — a service that provides album reviews for musicians who typically aren’t guaranteed their reviews in music magazines or Web sites due to lack of space or other reasons. (You can check out a photo of me and a brief bio featured on the site here). I’ll probably add these reviews to my blog as well, just so you can check out some artists you might not have come across yet.

Feel free to keep e-mailing me/leaving comments about bands I should cover or review. While it sometimes takes me a while to get back to everyone, I plan to write a new blog each day and cover everything! Also, I’m trying to revamp the blog a bit. If you haven’t noticed, I added all my interviews on the sidebar of the page so you can easily click on many of the artists featured on the blog. I’m hoping to add another section that features upcoming concerts in the New York/New Jersey area I think you’d be interested in. Still working on that, but if you’re interested in a free show tomorrow night, I’ll be at the Blender Theater covering my previous “Artist of the Week,” Josh Charles. Admittance is free before 8 p.m. Check out Josh’s MySpace for more information.

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Save the Date: Saturday, November 8

I’ve covered shows at numerous venues throughout New York and New Jersey, never really in search for the perfect venue, more so in finding the perfect band — the new, next big thing. Along the way, however, there are certain locations that feel more like my home away from home and this past year it has definitely been Maxwell’s in Hoboken. I’ve witnessed so many great acts there and interviewed some amazing artists as well, including my favorite band throughout most of high school, The Ataris.

So what better way to celebrate the one-year anniversary of You Sing, I Write and tie in three birthdays — myself and two close friends — than spending a night out enjoying live music at my favorite concert venue? I’m still working out the details, but I’m hoping to set up a band line-up by Friday to book the back room of Maxwell’s so if you or a band you know is interested in a night of fun and want to play, hit me up! Feel free to leave me a comment on the blog or E-mail Me!

As you can tell, my weekly blog schedule is not going exactly according to plan this week, but next week will be more promising. I have about 10 minutes more of an interview with piano pop/rock band Strive to finish transcribing and post, but I’m putting that on hold to prepare for my interview with frontman Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind tomorrow afternoon! Feel free to email me or leave me comments on anything you might want to know!

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You Sing, I Write Invades the Blogosphere

I’m psyched to report that Paste Magazine‘s new Local:NYC blog has You Sing, I Write featured as a local blog they trust! You can check it out here. Filter will be featuring my blog soon too, I’ll let you know about that as soon as it’s up! In the meantime, I’ve added my own Blogroll of different blogs I read, mostly music related but there are some other interesting non-music blogs in there as well. You can check that out on the right side of the page, under the archives section.

In addition to the new band of the week feature each week, I’m trying to work out a schedule to stick to so you know what’s coming each day. Here’s my tentative schedule, let me know what you think or if you have any suggestions of topics to cover.

Monday: Band of the Week/Artist of the Week
Tuesday: Q&A; Tuesday (I like the rhyme to it . . . lame, I know). Interviews from me or random, intriguing interviews I find.
Wednesday/Thursday: Concert reviews/album reviews/other music news
Friday: Song of the Week
Saturday: Blast from the Past — reviews/interviews/articles I’ve previously written. I’ve gotten a lot of good feedback from featuring some of my earlier writing samples so I think I want to keep this going. However, if you get bored of this let me know!
Sunday: Whatever else I find blog worthy.

I also wanted to congratulate Caitlin from Vernon, New Jersey, for winning the All-American Rejects contest! You have an autographed mug from AAR headed your way, so be sure to check the mail! Below are her answers to my questions.

1.) If you could ask the All-American Rejects one question, what would it be?
I would ask them, “You’ve made 2 albums and are in the process of releasing a third. In the editing process, which song did you hate taking off any of those records and why?

2.) What’s your favorite AAR song and why?
My favorite song by them is “Dance Inside.” This is because it is different from any of their songs on Move Along or their self-titled album. It can be interpreted as sexual or passionate, and the lyrics paint a really good picture of a couple in love. It’s a beautiful song.

3.) If you could spend the day with AAR, what would you do?
I would make sure they relaxed somewhere . . . my house, their tour bus . . . wherever. I feel like they never really get much of a break. I would love to treat them, like give them ice cream and lots of junk food. (And in Mike’s case, Dr. Pepper.) We could watch movies, hang out, goof off . . . I would love to get to know them on a personal level.

I’m hoping to have more contests in the future, so be sure to check back!

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Add You Sing, I Write On MySpace!

My summer goal was to create a MySpace for my blog. I still can’t believe it’s Labor Day weekend, marking the end of the summer! I feel like over the past few years each summer flies by faster and faster. I’m currently in the process of merging my MySpace into one for my blog, hoping to get more readers and fans of music interested in reading. Feel free to check it out and add me as a friend! Definitely leave me comments or suggestions on making my MySpace better because I’m still a bit new at it. Feel free to check out You Sing, I Write on MySpace here.

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You Sing, I Write Hits 10,000 Views!

A few months ago I set up something called Google AdSense which basically calculates how many page views I get per day, giving me a certain amount of money per click on the ads on top of the blog. It seemed like a good idea at the time, just to get an idea of how many viewers I get and make a little money in the meantime. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought this blog would have become so successful!

I originally started “You Sing, I Write” back in October as a writing outlet, since my current job wasn’t writing related. I just assumed my family and friends would read it and leave comments and that was good enough for me at the time. It all began with my Switchfoot concert coverage and interviews which were eventually posted on the band’s homepage. Other blogs and websites linked to my blog and I began setting up interviews with more bands, practically covering a show every week or two. Eventually, that led to living my own version of Almost Famous when I spent a few days on tour with Army of Me.

I’ve come a long way over the past few months, but there’s definitely a lot more I want to do with my blog — set up a MySpace, branch out to more genres of music and update it more often. I’m always welcome to suggestions, so feel free to leave comments or e-mail me bands you’d like to see featured! It means the world that I can actually do what I love and you all enjoy reading it so much! Now on to finding a full-time job doing what I do now with my blog for a living…