indilean

[Update 3/16/2010] Just saw Circa perform live in San Antonio at a sold out show at the White Rabbit. They confirmed the song Frozen Creek will be on their new album Blue Sky Noise, Anthony also explained that the song is about the house where they wrote the album. Other confirmed songs for Blue Sky Noise include Get Out and Strange Terrain which has a new sound to it and will be the first song on the album.

[Update 3/11/2010] Circa Survive just sent out a notice that they’ve launched a new website. Official communication follows:

Hey creatures,

Love,
Circa

Today Circa Survive announced a street date and title for their highly anticipated upcoming third full length album. It’s called Blue Sky Noise and it hits shelves April 20th 2010. Circa recently signed with Atlantic Records when their terms ended at Equal Vision Records. They’ve kept ties with Esao Andrews who did the album artwork for previous covers and that’s great news (see album cover for Blue SKy Noise below). Anyone who preorders the album (or one of their special bundles which include a vinyl, shirt and messenger bag) gets the digital version a week early on April 13th as well as an immediate download of Get Out.

One other song expected to be on Blue Sky Noise has also been released a bit early via YouTube recordings from live Circa Survive performances. That song, Frozen Creek, has yet to be confirmed but is not available on any of the other two full length albums or their EP. Great luck to Circa Survive as they hit the road for a short tour in March and then pick up with Coheed & Cambria in April. I’ll be catching a performance in San Antonio on March 16th, say hi if you’re going to be there too.

Circa Survive performs the song Living Together live at the Metro in Chicago, Illinois in 2007. The energy and passion is top notch, I love when the confetti comes down. Keep your eye out for a fresh album from these guys sometime this year and get ready for an album version of their newest song Frozen Creek.

Circa Survive Concert Dates for 2010:
3/11/10 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
3/12/10 – Nashville, TN @ Exit/ In
3/13/10 – Birmingham, AL @ WorkPlay Theatre
3/14/10 – Little Rock, AR @ The Village
3/16/10 – San Antonio, TX @ White Rabbit
3/17/10 – 3/21/10- Austin, TX (SXSW festival) @ TBD
3/22/10 – St. Louis,MO @ The Firebird
3/23/10 – Indianapolis, IN @ The Emerson Theater
3/24/10 – Cleveland Heights, OH @ Grog Shop
3/26/10 – HOODWINK Anaheim, CA @ Grove of Anaheim
3/27/10 – THE BAMBOOZLE Anaheim, CA @ The Festival Grounds at Angels Stadium

I do a lot of listening and surfing on my Mac laptops and recently discovered two tips I’d like to share. The first one has to do with lowering volume and the second has to do with monitor brightness.

1. When I’m listening to music I use Sony earbuds which can be pretty loud for some songs, I’m usually at the lowest bar on the volume meter but sometimes that’s just not low enough. I discovered that if you go all the way down to zero on the volume bar using the keyboard volume buttons and then hit the mute button it brings you half a step up to a lower level not reachable by using the volume buttons alone.
2. I bought a MacBook Air second hand recently and started to worry when the screen brightness began changing (seemingly randomly) as I used it in certain environments. Don’t worry if this is happening to you too, it’s not defective… turns out that’s a feature built into the new OS to reduce eye strain. The problem is, the brightness changes so much and so quickly that it can be distracting at times. I didn’t really like the feature and found out you can go into System Preferences > Displays and then uncheck “Automatically adjust brightness as ambient light changes” to turn the feature off.

Hope this helps someone, if you have any tips about using a Mac feel free to share below.

I recently put this video tutorial and guide together to help generate ideas for how new bands can promote online. Several of the ideas came directly from friends who are in bands, others aren’t so intuitive and could really give you an advantage, check it out!

10 Steps for Promoting Your Band Online

1. Get a website, use BandZoogle, Bombplates, or WordPress if you’re more advanced
2. Sign up for Twitter, try to get your name and vanity URL, connect to Twitterfeed
3. Get a MySpace… register your vanity URL, post updates and ping your Twitterfeed
4. Register for TheSixtyone, Uvumi, & PureVolume post some songs & Art
5. Post your lyrics here at indilean so people can find you & comment, link your songs to your website or MySpace
6. Play small local gigs, go for Battle of the Bands and consider the Van’s Warped Tour Battle of the Bands contest. Encourage friends to film and post online with a link to your site and your band name in the description (URL’s highlight automatically in YouTube if you use http:// at the beginning)
7. Film a music video or some of your live shows and put them on YouTube, ping Twitter, share them on Facebook (videos automatically embed if you use the link URL from YouTube)
8. Share your music with friends who are making snowboarding, skiing, biking, sports videos. This will expose a new audience to your music and help them avoid copyright infringement since your music is label free
9. When you get bigger and have a full set sign up for Sonicbids so organizations and parties can find and book you for gigs. Post availability for gigs on Craigslist and look for parties that might need music.
10. Update your website blog regularly with short stories and summaries of what’s going on with the band and where you’ve been, the stories will help you get exposure in new locations, also consider playing a charity event at a hospital or local vet center (depending on your band) this will help get you gigs later and spread the word