melissa cabral

Photo

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 16:48:27 -0500

Photo

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:10:01 -0500

scottcampbelltattoo: Taken with instagram

Sat, 20 Oct 2012 15:05:56 -0400

scottcampbelltattoo:

Taken with instagram

"If you do not advertise, you fossilize."

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 16:27:15 -0400

-Thomas Robert Dewar

: MS MR Track Addict Vol. 1

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 14:12:12 -0400

: MS MR Track Addict Vol. 1:

msmrmusic:

We wanted to take a second to say THANK YOU for your <3 and support of MS MR and Hurricane :) In return we’d like to share the first installment of our new mix series, Track Addict Vol. I, Enjoy! xx

Ps - a HUGE thank you to all these incredible artists for allowing us to use their songs for this…

can’t say i’m feelin’ the song but the quote...

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 16:27:00 -0400

can’t say i’m feelin’ the song but the quote is money.

literaryjukebox:

If you are in love — that’s a good thing — that’s about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don’t let anyone make it small or light to you.

[…]

If it is right, it happens — The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.

John Steinbeck in a letter of advice to his teenage son, from Steinbeck: A Life in Letters

Song: “Patient Love” by passEnger

iTunes :: Amazon

"If you can’t be interesting at least be clear."

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 14:17:10 -0400

“If you can’t be interesting at least be clear.”

- #fritz #knowledge

“only by accepting our desires can we have an idea of who...

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 15:01:16 -0400

“only by accepting our desires can we have an idea of who we are” -p. coelho (Taken with Instagram at The Martin Agency)

The kids in the city grow up way too fast. While the adults in my hood act like they never will.

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 21:13:07 -0400

The kids in the city grow up way too fast. While the adults in my hood act like they never will.

slow clap for frank ocean.

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 17:25:49 -0400

slow clap for frank ocean.

O, what fun.

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 17:16:50 -0400

O, what fun.

winsomebrave:

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 10:59:00 -0400

winsomebrave:

hometapes: Summer is Coming: Introducing Matthew E. White, Big...

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 14:24:03 -0400

hometapes:

Summer is Coming: Introducing Matthew E. White, Big Inner, and a New Branch on the Hometapes Family Tree.

Today we declare the grand presence of Matthew E. White, a new addition to the Hometapes family. We announce his album, Big Inner, out August 21. We’re sharing the album’s first song and single, “One of These Days,” and revealing a limited-edition 7” record featuring that track and marking the beginning of our bond with Spacebomb, White’s Richmond, VA-based label. Today is a good day.

LISTEN/DOWNLOAD: Matthew E. White “One of These Days”
Check out this morning’s premiere on Pitchfork.

And so it begins with “One of These Days,” looking in, up, and over in its declarations of love. It’s waking up next to someone. It’s feeling the wood of the church pew on your back. This is your introduction to Matthew E. White; he’s convincing you to stay the night. You give me joy like a fountain deep down in my soul. You can hear him breathe in. The first time around, White only hums the chorus. Hums it. Plants it in your head as it blooms in his. Strings enter like a siren. The guitar only talks when it has something to say. The choir lets you know you’re not alone. Overdubbed woodwinds and muted brass like it on top, dancing around the embers of the bass line. Whether you’re a woman or man, White’s mournful, get-it-on voice may be all you can hear: I don’t want to live a day longer than you, so let’s meet the Lord together. You can call it soul music if you want. It’s his soul and it’s his music.

PRE-ORDER: Matthew E. White One of These Days 7”
(b/w “Ain’t That What Love Is” - featuring Phil Cook of Megafaun on piano)

READ more about Matthew E. White, Big Inner, and the road to it right here.

HT056 / SB002
Matthew E. White Big Inner LP/CD
7-song album on LP and CD

01. One of These Days
02. Big Love
03. Will You Love Me
04. Gone Away
05. Steady Pace
06. Hot Toddies
07. Brazos

HT055 / SB001
Matthew E. White
One of These Days 7”

01. One of These Days
02. Ain’t That What Love Is

More about Matthew E. White…

On August 21, Richmond, Virginia-based singer, songwriter, bandleader, musical polymath, and visionary Matthew E. White will release his formidable self-produced debut album, Big Inner, on the newly joined labels Hometapes and Spacebomb.

Joined by a long list of collaborators, friends, and Spacebomb’s house band, choir, string, and horn sections, White will perform Big Inner in its entirety with a super-sized ensemble on September 6 at Raleigh’s Hopscotch Music Festival. The special performance, entitled One Incantation Under God, is the festival’s biggest project ever.

White builds soaring sculptures of original songs that directly reference his eclectic set of influences, while creating something entirely new on the American musical landscape. From lyrics that echo common conditions like love and death, to open tributes to artists like Washington Phillips, Allen Toussaint, Jorge Ben, Jimmy Cliff, and Randy Newman, Big Inner is its own scavenger hunt through history.

Matthew E. White is no stranger. He also walks the earth as the leader of lauded avant-garde jazz band Fight the Big Bull, which has released three critically acclaimed albums and has worked extensively with notable jazz figures Ken Vandermark and Steven Bernstein. Fight the Big Bull also teamed up with Megafaun, Justin Vernon and Sharon Van Etten to pay tribute to Alan Lomax at Duke University’s “Sounds of the South” concert in 2010 and again at the MusicNow Festival in 2011.

Big Inner marks the first release from Spacebomb Records, the analog, attic-bound studio and record label that White runs in Richmond, Virginia, and the modern-day answer to Stax and Motown. An inimitable House Band, a producer, and a unified crew of arrangers and musicians join with an artist and cut a record — with staggering results. Similarly-spirited Portland-based label Hometapes, home to artists like Megafaun and Bear In Heaven, are helping introduce Spacebomb to the world, including upcoming releases from Natalie Prass, Karl Blau, Joe Westerlund (Megafaun), and Ivan Howard (The Rosebuds, Gayngs).

Get to know the man:
Website/Tumblr
Facebook
Twitter

All in all we cannot stop singingWe cannot start sinkingWe swim...

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:54:21 -0400

All in all we cannot stop singing
We cannot start sinking
We swim until it ends

—————-

My computer crashed this evening and I lost a presentation I had been working on all day. Thankfully, my boy, Ted Leo, was around to keep me company at work. I’ve been playing this song on repeat for a while now and the cleaning crew at the office probably wants to box my ears in.

I haven’t listened to this song in YEARS. Literally years.

When this song came out, Bush was president. I drank Beast and ate Easy Mac and wore too much makeup at parties and had long long stupid long hair. When this song came out, I definitely did not know what the fuck “brand equity transference” was and I. Didn’t. Care.

This song is old.

But once the drums roll in I feel young enough to know everything and stupid enough to try anything. Turn over a car with my bare hands. Kick open a vending machine and take a bag of Cheetos. And maybe, just maybe, even start a presentation over from scratch…

When I try to chime in on a conference call with 4 other people talking at the same time

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 14:59:13 -0400

whathappensinmediaplanning:

I’m like

we got tah feel it nah!

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 02:53:39 -0400

we got tah feel it nah!

If only this were real. Man, would I love to throw back a bloody...

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:54:34 -0400

If only this were real.

Man, would I love to throw back a bloody with these bitches.

textsfromhillaryclinton:

Original image by Diana Walker for Time.

JOSHUA BELL AND THREE THOUGHTS ON BRANDING There’s a video that...

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 00:05:00 -0400

JOSHUA BELL AND THREE THOUGHTS ON BRANDING

There’s a video that keeps popping up on my newsfeed as I Facebook creep on my friends. You may have seen it already—the grainy footage of Joshua Bell, a famous violinist, playing an expensive ass violin in a DC metro station. Hordes and hordes of morning commuters pass him by save for one woman who happened to see him the night before at some schmancy concert hall.

Typically, somebody will post the vid to be inspiring in a tough love kinda way. Stop and smell the roses, jerks! There’s so much life you might be missing out on! Please pass this vid along to 5 friends or be cursed with soul rot forever!!

And while that parable is a valid one, I think the video does a better job illustrating of some very basic principles of messaging and branding.

Hear me out.

Branding lesson 1: CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING

Joshua Bell was killin’ it on the violin and you know what? Nobody gave a shit.

This guy is a fucking virtuoso and his mastery wasn’t enough to get people interested in what he was doing. And all he was trying to do was get people to listen to him!

Hence point numero uno, CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING.

There’s a reason why foreplay and opening acts exist. If you want something to be memorable, you need to put people in the right mood. Your product or service can’t just be excellent (although that certainly helps). You have to make sure your excellence connects with people at the right time and the right place.

Even if you’re providing a free experience (and do I love me some free shit) it’s always better to wrap said experience within the appropriate context. Let’s be real. Who wants listen to a famous concert violist in a dirty, loud, crowded subway station when you’re running late for work? Call me crazy, but I’d rather listen to a dude like Joshua Bell perform in a gorgeous symphony hall where the bathrooms are bigger than my apartment and the programs are printed on thick ass cardstock.

You get the point. If all you’re doing is being excellent but not taking context into consideration, you’re fucked.

Which is unfortunate considering,

Branding lesson 2: MOST PEOPLE DON’T GIVE A SHIT.

They really don’t.

People only give a shit if you make their lives easier in the following three ways: 1.) if you save them money, 2.) if you save them time, 3.) if you somehow help them get laid and/or find love. Tree of trust, how many times have you spent money, or seriously considered spending money, on something that promised to do one of those three things?

Now, not only was Joshua Bell out of context, he didn’t offer any of those three things. It’s no wonder he didn’t draw a crowd! If time is money, why should anyone stop and listen to a guy with a vague value-exchange? I mean, it’s not like he was playing dubstep or whatever the hell kids are listening to nowadays (p.s. who else thinks dubstep is the devil’s Morse Code?).

Let’s translate this thought into branding. Of all the products and services you come into contact with in a given day, how many of them do you actually give a shit about? Yeah? Me neither.

It’s easy to get lost in marketing jargon and forget that people don’t really care about brands. They use brands.

Let’s not confuse mindless usage for an actual relationship.

This brings me to,

Branding lesson 3: IF PEOPLE DO HAPPEN TO GIVE A SHIT, TREAT THEM WELL. REALLY, REALLY WELL.

If you’re a brand, an excellent brand, there has to be at least ONE person out there who is gonna like you. There are too many people crowding this earth for that to not be a reality.

If you’re fortunate enough to have multiple brand evangelists who are willing to spread the good word about you to alllllll of their friends and their friends’ friends, the least you can do is find those precious gems and thank them. With sincerity.

Make them feel special.

Your brand’s health depends on the positive associations it has in people’s minds. And at the end of the day, you’re only as good as people perceive you to be.

So what the hell was this all about?

Well, if you’re a brand DON’T be the Joshua Bell playing in a subway, trying to give your shit out for free to people who don’t want it. DO be the Joshua Bell playing in a venue with bangin’ acoustics, demanding premium pricing and giving people a memorable experience they’ll brag to their friends about.

The Golden Rule

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 11:34:00 -0400

Only works if people are as classy as you.

always a sucker for a little lady wielding a heavy...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:41:00 -0400

always a sucker for a little lady wielding a heavy bass.

“ace” by the big sleep.