Niels Aalberts is a well-respected blogger with an opinion about nearly everything related to the music industry. Today, he published two guest items written by me (Leon). The topic: how to use Twitter for your band: Twitter as a market place, survey panel and helpdesk. Read part 1 and part 2 on his website.
Tag Archives: internet
Coverclub 'Guilty pleasures' now live!
We’re happy to announce a new edition of the Coverclub! The theme we’ve chosen this time is ‘Guilty pleasures – songs you always wanted to cover but were afraid to like…’.. Download all the mp3’s and artwork here!
The Gasoline Brothers did a lo-fi stalker vocal version of The Carpenters’ song Close to you. You can listen to it below.
Coverclub Guilty Pleasures
While many coverbands may think it’s cool to play and record Top 40 hit songs, covering popular tunes is really not done among indie bands with a bit of street credibility. However, for the latest Coverclub edition, 10 cool Dutch indie acts came out of the closet and recorded their favourite ‘guilty pleasures’. Want to hear the songs? Listen to the songs with the player below – use the arrow buttons to navigate.
Here’s the complete track listing:
1. Silence is Sexy – Billie Jean (Michael Jackson)
2. Novack – Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless) (Crystal Waters)
3. Anne Soldaat – Lydia (Dean Friedman)
4. Markowski – Durch den Monsun (Tokio Hotel)
5. The Gasoline Brothers – Close To You (The Carpenters)
6. Solo – Annabel (Hans de Booij)
7. Ponoka – Can’t Get You Out Of My Head (Kylie Minogue)
8. Pien Feith – Englishman in New York (Sting)
9. Tom Knol – Cry (Godley & Creme)
10. Pondertone – We’re All Water (Yoko Ono)
As a bonus, there are 10 rather hilarious video available on Youtube. Have a look at ‘our’ video below!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUg7MNDQlQg]
Once again: download all the mp3’s and artwork here!
Coverclub 'Guilty pleasure' update
We’ve discussed the Coverclub before on this blog. The basic idea? Take an artist or a theme and have a couple of bands record some cover songs. Then put the mp3’s on a website and let everyone download them for free. Preparations for the June 2009 edition of the Coverclub are in full swing. This time the theme we chose is ‘guilty pleasure’ – songs you always wanted to cover but were afraid to like… We’re hoping to present the entire edition on June 22nd. The update (and mp3’s) will be posted on this blog, as well as www.coverclub.nl.
Here’s the preliminary list of artists and songs:
- Anne Soldaat – Lydia (Dean Friedman)
- Silence is Sexy – Billy Jean (Michael Jackson)
- Tim Knol – Cry (Godley & Creme)
- Pien Feith – An Englishman in New York (Sting)
- Ponoka – Can’t get you out of my head (Kylie Minogue)
- The Gasoline Brothers – Close to you (The Carpenters)
- Pondertone – We’re all water (Yoko Ono)
- Solo – Annabel (Hans de Booij)
- Markowski – Durch den Monsun (Tokio Hotel)
- Novack – Gyspy Woman (Crystal Waters)
During preparations, something cool happened. Dean Friedman, writer of the song Lydia, found out on Twitter that Anne Soldaat was going to record it for the Coverclub. He send tweets to both Anne Soldaat and The Gasoline Brothers and told us he’s very proud his song was selected for this project. Yesterday, Anne sent him the final mix of his recording and got a message back. I’m quoting Dean Friedman: ‘I love it! Really nice hearing such a convincing and gutsy rendition of that tune. So cool! Just out of curiosity, any plans to release it in the UK? I think they’d eat it up.’
If you want to keep informed about the Coverclub, just follow The Gasoline Brothers on Twitter, or read this blog.
Search engine gives you… The Gasoline Brothers
So you thought you already knew everything about The Gasoline Brothers? Then check out this beta version of a new cool search engine called Spezify. Now that’ll give you all the details (articles, pictures, sounds, you name it) about your favourite little band! Check it out!
Know thy Gasoline Brothers
For those of you who are on Facebook: there’s a funny little quiz there that lets you test your Gasoline Brothers knowledge. How well do you know your Gasoline Brothers stuff? Take the test and find out!
Gasoline Brothers team up with online eyeglasses retailer for new single
The contract for the release of the album was signed, the ink is still wet. Here’s the press release (mind you, it’s in Dutch):
Nieuw album The Gasoline Brothers komt half oktober uit by MFSW
The Gasoline Brothers werkt voor nieuwe single samen met online brillenwinkel Brilerbij.nl
Dat er een nieuw album van The Gasoline Brothers aankomt (getiteld ‘Tsk!’), was via de tamtam al bekend geworden. Vandaag werd duidelijk dat – ondanks recessie, kredietcrisis en G20-protesten – de plaat net als het debuut ‘Hm!’ uit 2006 wordt uitgebracht door platenlabel My First Sonny Weissmuller Recordings (MFSW). ‘Tsk!’ verschijnt op 5 oktober.
Labelbaas Aldo Perotti: “Cd’s van Nederlandse bandjes verkopen natuurlijk voor geen meter. Daar verdienen we dus geen droog brood aan. Maar bij MFSW vinden we The Gasoline Brothers een heel toffe band en bovendien hebben ze gewoon weer een ontzettend goeie plaat opgenomen. Dus natuurlijk brengen we dit uit!”
Samenwerking met online brillenboer
Vóór de release van het album brengt de band in september al een single uit: ‘Psychosomatic Heart Failure’. Het nummer is straks uiteraard gratis te downloaden. En wie daarbij zijn e-mailadres achterlaat, dingt ook nog eens mee naar een coole (zonne)bril. Die prijs is niet zomaar gekozen: de clip bij ‘Psychosomatic Heart Failure’ draait om het thema ‘bril’ – als gevolg van een uit de hand gelopen running gag binnen de band. Voor het weggeven van de (zonne)bril werkt The Gasoline Brothers samen met online brillenwinkel brilerbij.nl. Verder krijgen downloaders een gratis remix erbij van Vincent Koreman (bekend van Ra-X, Generationbass en This Is Total War!).
Ook voor de release van het album heeft de band een aantal bijzondere acties gepland. Daarover wordt in een later stadium meer bekendgemaakt.
The Gasoline Brothers Asteroids Game
Take this: addictive game with Gasoline Brothers noise in the background. Click the grey button to start playing!
Psst, don't tell anyone: there is a new song on the Web
You’d better keep this silent: thanks to our friend Mister Mailmen Studio, there’s a song from our upcoming album available on the Web. He accidentally uploaded the song to his new (Bandcamp) website and forgot to tell us. Naaah, we’re not mad at him. If you promise you don’t tell anyone, have a listen to this new song called Watch the Fireman. So do you like it?
To cd or not to cd?
OK, so here’s the question: in modern times, should an internet-savvy band still put out their new album as a physical cd and have it sold at record stores? Or should we just put 11 MP3’s on every website and music community we know and forget about those silver discs? We contacted some experts and friends and asked them this question. To cd or not to cd: what do you think? Give us some sound advice please!
Do the RSS!
So you follow The Gasoline Brothers on Twitter, you read this blog regularly, you check our Facebook page every single day and you have our mobile numbers in your cell phone. What more can you do to know what your favourite band is doing? It’s simple: do the RSS! Subscribe to the RSS feed for The Gasoline Brothers Blog and you will know what’s going on.