One of the best things about discovering bands and listening to new music online is when you can turn what initially begins as a virtual experience into a live music experience. The first time that I heard Souljacker was on their Myspace page after I was tipped off by a friend to check them out. I really liked their sound and had to wait about three weeks to see them play live at the Temple Bar in Oxford, England – and last Saturday the wait was finally over.

The Temple Bar has been around for quite a few years now, and in the “old days” was a place where a lot of musicians would gather and hang out. Over the years, there hasn’t been much going on there and I never really heard anyone talking about the Temple Bar – good or bad.

Things are different now. New owner Barry has opened the doors to musicians and has set up an open mic night on Wednesdays and live music on Saturday nights. There’s a great atmosphere, the bar staff are friendly and you can’t beat Barry’s enthusiasm toward live music and helping bands and musicians hone their craft, while entertaining the punters.

It was good to see the room begin to fill up as Souljacker started their set. They play guitar rock – originals that sound like old classics (“Jimmy Drank My Tea”), along with classic covers by bands like Free, Motorhead and Jimi Hendrix Experience. They even played a funky cover of “Ghostbusters”, which caught me by surprise. The crowd loved it.

Souljacker played two sets – and for each set, the crowd was engrossed. The band is full of confidence which, considering how young they are, is refreshing to see. Singer/guitarist Patrick Burley (and his soulful vocals) is entertaining and interacts with the crowd like an old pro. Same goes for guitarist Hamish Denny. The guitar solos are stand-out and drummer Josh Catling is incredible. As a unit they’re tight and sound like they’ve been playing for years.

I think that it’s easy to forget that while the area (Oxford) tends to be over-saturated with indie bands, that there are other styles out there. Saturday night proved to me that the public is hungry for something else.

If steered in the right direction, Souljacker could reach many more people who have missed hearing new rock bands on the scene. They are definitely a band to watch out for, and if they’re playing in a town near you, I highly recommend going to check them out.

Souljacker Band Members:

Patrick Burley – Guitar/Vocals
Hamish Denny – Guitar
Rowan Mayo – Bass
Josh Catling – Drums
Robbie Moore – Keyboards

For more information and live show dates go to:

Souljacker on Myspace

Photo Credit: Dave Tommo

By: Jenny May – Band Weblogs

New single, “Listen Up!” was released on June 11th with remixes by MSTRKRFT, Touche, Trevor Jackson and Arthur Baker and is set to have the dance floors rocking once again with its rhythms and beats acting as a simplistic base for Beth Ditto’s soaring bluesy vocals.

Hit sensations Gossip are set to play an intimate show at Carling Academy Liverpool on July 9th 2007 following their festival dates around the UK and Europe and we’ve got our hands on 10 tickets to giveaway to Carling.com members – all tickets include a few free pints of ice cold Carling for you and your lucky mate so get clicking for your chance to spend the night with Gossip!

Check out Carling music competitions for more info.

A quick sum up of what a music blog is: a blog about bands and music.

Comments are welcome if you have additional ideas and thoughts.

Okay, let’s get started:

1. Promotion
Music blogs are amazing promotional tools for bands. They are their own mini buzz machines. If the blogger likes the band they’re writing about great, if not they’ll still probably link to the band for readers to check out for themselves and at that point, readers and potential fans can make their own minds up.

2. Links
As the population on the internet continues to grow, it becomes more difficult for new up and coming bands and artists and their music to be ‘found’ by potential fans. When a music blogger adds links to bands either in a blog entry or on their sidebar, this helps expose the band more to the public eye.

3. Music
Music bloggers writing about music on a daily basis will most likely be linking to the band website and/or adding mp3s for readers to hear first hand what the blogger is writing about. If they are adding mp3s to their blogs, hopefully they’re getting permission from bands to do so.

4. Videos
For bands with videos, websites like Myspace and YouTube have made it easy for bloggers to embed video codes onto blogs. Videos are excellent on music blogs as the reader not only gets to read about the band, but can also hear the band and watch their video.

5. Fans
If a particular band is being written about favorably by influential, popular and/or trusted bloggers then there is a great chance that new fans will be made from readers of music blogs. As mentioned before, even if what the blogger is writing isn’t favorable, then there is the chance the reader simply won’t agree.
6. Community
There are quite a few music bloggers out there who dedicate blogs to specific bands and music styles ranging from jazz, blues, rnb, country, folk, punk, rock and more as well as blogs with various music topics. This can create a community of dedicated readers, subscribers and commenters who visit the blogs frequently.

7. Sales
Numbers 1-6 above could all lead to sales of music for bands and artists. Whether music blogs have direct links to artist downloads and online CD stores or if a reader decides to go out to a music shop to buy a CD after learning about a new band or album/single release after reading about it on a blog, then the music blog was indeed influential to the sale!

8. Live Show Dates
Fans are always interested to know when their favorite band will be playing live in their hometown. Music blogs help to keep the reader informed and reminded of tour dates, shows, gigs and live music events.

9. Opinion
Music blogs are great places to go for readers to find out what other people are thinking of a certain band, musician, singer. A blog search in Google or Technorati for “music blogs” can result in hundreds of current conversations taking place.

10. Easy Access
It’s so easy to find music blogs by doing a search on Google or to go to blog directories and browse their music categories. Music blogs also tend to link to and recommend other blogs on their sidebars.

Bonus:

11. Free
For now, most music blogs are free (hopefully it stays that way). The information about bands, opinions, music, videos and podcasts are free for music lovers to devour!

Bands who want to request a review from a music blogger can usually get in touch by contacting them via an email address provided on the blog or a contact page.

BandWeblogs.com adds a twist to all that is written above. Bands and artists can come here to promote themselves, in their own words as Guest Music Bloggers. PR companies, record companies and management companies can also send in formal press releases and reviews of bands for publication on Band Weblogs. I also like to write about bands and music here, from a singer/musician point of view.

Sign up as a Guest Music Blogger to add entries and promote music at Band Weblogs!

By: Jenny May