"A Few Confessions" by Crystal Thomas *OUT NOW!!!*

Crystal Thomas' music has a magical way of drawing you in and taking you on an amazing adventure of feelings, excitement and sheer brilliance. Her brand new EP "A Few Confessions" just went up for sale yesterday, and the few songs I've heard so far are enough to make me want more. I'm sure you'll feel the same way!

If you haven't heard Crystal's music, go to her MySpace page now, add her as your friend and then buy her CD! It's a must buy!! You can purchase it right from her MySpace page for only $8.00 (plus $2.50 s+h).

Here's a few words from Crystal about her new EP:

Band Focus: "The On Offs"

A hop, skip and a jump over the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of the United Kingdom is a town called Northampton. And apparently good music comes from Northampton because that's where this week's featured band hails from. The On Offs are the first in our British Uprising series. I keep hearing amazing bands from the UK, and I want to start sharing them with you.

I absolutely love The On Offs' music, it's the kind of tunes that I enjoy speeding down the freeway to. Some of their songs have a certain vibe that just makes me want to get up and move, while others just seem to make me happy. So, sit back, grab a cup o' tea with some tasty biscuits and enjoy The On Offs. You'll be glad you did!

To buy their music, check out "This Town / Grow Your Own" - Single on iTunes, or you can get their latest single "Wrong Upstairs" from www.hmv.co.uk (if you don't mind buying from the UK).

Find out more about The On Offs at www.theonoffs.com or on their MySpace page.

The On Offs - Wrong Upstairs

Free Music Video Codes @ ProfileMix.com

10-24-06 iTunes Free Single of The Week

This week's iTunes Free Single of The Week "Apocalypso" comes from the Danish quartet Mew. Download it for free from 10-24-06 through 10-30-06 (why not, it's free?).

Here's what iTunes has to say about Mew:

"In a music industry where things are too easily compartmentalized, the Danish quartet Mew is able to avoid classification. The group is as etheral and adrift as Sigur Ros, as compelling and inventive a rock band as Sunny Day Real Estate or Muse, but also contain a grandiosity that is nearly theatrical and yet also melancholy. Check out our free Single of the Week, 'Apocalypso,' and decide what for yourself."

And now, for your viewing enjoyment, here's a video of Mew performing Apocalypso live:

Fore more on Mew visit their site: www.mewsite.com

*Please Note: Last week's free download expired at midnight on 10-23-06, but can still be purchased at the iTunes store for only $0.99!!

Weekend of Oct. 20-22 Boxoffice Results

Movie Boxoffice top 10
1.	The Prestige	$14.8
2.	The Departed	13.4
3.	Flags of Our Fathers	10.2
4.	Open Season	8.1
5.	Flicka	7.7
6.	The Grudge 2	7.6
7.	Man of the Year	7.0
8.	Marie Antoinette	5.3
9.	Texas Chainsaw Massacre	3.7
10.	The Marine	3.8
Weekend of Oct. 20-22. Estimated figures in millions.

10-17-06 - iTunes Free Single Of The Week

If you've ever been to the iTunes Store, you know that every Tuesday, they give away a free song available for download for an entire week. I've been introduced to some amazing bands through this feature, such as Snow Patrol, and now I want to start helping you out. Every Tuesday, I'm going to start posting the iTunes Free Single Of The Week, here on The Firebare Blog. And the best part, it's not going to cost you anything! I'll be linking each post directly to the artist's page on iTunes, so you don't have to do any unnecessary searching if you're not familiar with the process.

This weeks featured iTunes artist is Paolo Nutini with his extremely catchy single "New Shoes" Here's what iTunes has to say about the song:

Paolo Nutini comes from an Italian family - but one that has lived in Scotland for generations. He's fresh out of his teenage years and he's got a voice that channels Ray Charles, Bill Withers, Van Morrison, Rod Stewart, Chris Martin, and well, whoever you happen to like. Let's just say he's got an amazing voice. "New Shoes" is an uptempo, ridiculously catchy folk-pop track that we'll also call Single of the Week.

Now for some fun, here's a video of Nutini performing "New Shoes" live:



Go here to download "New Shoes" free from the iTunes Store

TV, Film & Music Charts From Last Week

Charts from The Hollywood Reporter

Top TV shows in total viewers
1.	CSI, CBS
2.	Grey's Anatomy, ABC
3.	Desperate Housewives, ABC
4.	Dancing with the Stars, ABC
5.	CSI: Miami, CBS
6.	NBC Sunday Night Football, NBC
7.	Criminal Minds, CBS
8.	Ugly Betty, ABC
9.	CSI: NY, CBS
10.	Survivor: Cook Islands, CBS
	For week ending Oct. 1. Source: Nielsen Media Research

Movie Boxoffice top 10
1.	Grudge 2	$22.0
2.	The Departed	18.7
3.	Man of the Year	12.6
4.	Open Season	11.0
5.	Texas Chainsaw Massacre	7.8
6.	The Marine	7.0
7.	The Guardian	5.9
8.	Employee of the Month	5.6
9.	One Night With the King	4.3
10.	Jackass Number Two	3.3
Weekend of Oct. 13-15. Estimated figures in millions.

Top DVD titles
1.	The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
2.	Curious George
3.	Lake House
4.	The Wild
5.	Stick It
6.	Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses
7.	Grey's Anatomy - Season 2
8.	One Tree Hill: The Complete Third Season
9.	Stay Alive
10.	Lucky Number Slevin
	For week ending Oct. 1. Source: First Alert

Top albums
1.	Evanescence, "Open Door"
2.	Killers, "Sam's Town"
3.	George Strait, "It Just Comes Natural"
4.	Tony Bennett, "Duets: An American Classic"
5.	Justin Timberlake, "FutureSex/LoveSounds"
6.	Ludacris, "Release Therapy"
7.	Beck, "The Information"
8.	Monica, "The Makings of Me"
9.	Janet Jackson, "20 Y.O."
10.	Hinder, "Extreme Behavior"
	For week ending Oct. 11. Source: SoundScan

Sell Your Music On iTunes with TuneCore!!!

If you're a solo musician, or a band that's trying to get your act off the ground, a great place to sell your music would be iTunes right? Well, that's a nice idea, but how on God's green earth are you supposed to get it on the iTunes Store in the first place for people to buy? You'd have to be signed with a big record label right? Not if you use TuneCore.

The description on their site says:

"TuneCore is a music delivery and distribution service that gets artist's original music (even cover versions) and record label releases up for sale on iTunes, eMusic, Rhapsody, Sony Connect, MusicNet and Napster without asking for your rights or taking any money from the sale or use of your music."

You're probably wondering how much a service like this costs. It's more affordable than you'd think. Here's their cost info:

TuneCore Cost Breakdown:

$0.99

per song (one time charge)

FREE

first store/service

$0.99

each additional store per album (one time charge)

$7.98

per album maintenance and storage (per year)

TuneCore, not a bad deal if you ask me! Especially if you're trying to expand the market for your music.

YouTube Underground Contest by Cingular

If you have a band, or create music by yourself and think you're good enough to be a real rock star, check out YouTube's Underground Contest by Cingular (if you haven't already heard of it). The deadline is in a little over 2 days, October 18, so you'd better hurry up!

From their site:

YouTube is on a quest to find the most talented and entertaining U.S. based unsigned musicians and bands out there.

Submit videos that best represent your group's musical, lyrical and video-making skills. The YouTube community will vote and decide just who rules the YouTube Underground!

For more info and prize details go to: The YouTube Underground Contest site

Up And Coming Artist... Soyu Sae

Our Sunday Music Recommendation: Soyu Sae
by Daniel Matsuura

Soyu Sae is a hybrid performer who captures the art of storytelling through undeniable melodies. Her music is proof that she can not only carry a tune, but can carry her own weight in emotion as well. Each song is a time capsule of a moment in her life that she shares as a universal outlook that anyone can relate to. Her eclectic style is a musical amalgamation of indie, pop, and gospel double-dipped in traditional American folk. Soyu Sae has mastered many traditional-folk instruments, as well as many modern instruments. Fluent in both the guitar and banjo, she brings new perspective to a well constructed song. She accompanies herself with an aray of other instruments from the piano, harmonica, and recorder. When Soyu Sae preaches her unique perception on life, listeners can only nod in agreement as if they had lived through the same experiences she has.

Why Haven't We Heard of The Zutons?

I don't care what a zuton is, I just want to know why The Zutons haven't become more popular on our side of the pond. I guess the Brit's just get all the good stuff, and we get the leftovers years later. In the UK, this Liverpool fivesome are stars with five No. 1 hits and a Mercury Prize nomination.

I just heard the title song off their New Album "Tired Of Hanging Around", and absolutely loved it! I want more Zutons!

For a fresh change in music, check out The Zutons.

Listen to "Tired Of Hanging Around" and then buy it at the iTunes Store

Your Search For New Music Just Ended

Have you ever had a friend who just seems to have some kind of built in radar for the latest and greatest music? I think I just found their secret. Pandora Internet Radio, a free web based radio player created by the Music Genome Project that lets you customize your own stations to the kinds of music you like.

This Flash based player allows you to begin customizing your station by asking you for the name of a band or song that you want to hear. If it's in their database (odds are it is), they'll either load the song you wanted, or one of the songs from the band you entered. Then, you can tell Pandora if you like that song or not. If you don't like it, they adjust their search, and send you song after song that they think you'll like from thousands of different bands. You can also bookmark favorite songs and bands so you can go back, see what you liked about them, read band biographies, and then if you want to buy their music, you can link to the Amazon.com and iTunes stores right from your profile page. For a small fee, you can get the service without adds, but if you don't mind having an add or two on the page, you can have it for free! (Needless to say, until they make it a lot more worth my money to pay for something I can have for free, I'll suffer through a few adds.) And, if you don't have a great sterio system hooked up to your computer, a company called Slim Devices have developed a player for the price of an iPod that hooks up to your sterio system, and uses Wi-Fi to stream music collections over the Internet through a software player such as Winamp or iTunes on your computer.

From their site:



"Ever since we started the Music Genome Project, our friends would ask:

Can you help me discover more music that I'll like?

Those questions often evolved into great conversations. Each friend told us their favorite artists and songs, explored the music we suggested, gave us feedback, and we in turn made new suggestions. Everybody started joking that we were now their personal DJs.

We created Pandora so that we can have that same kind of conversation with you."

Andrew Bird... If You Haven't Heard Of Him, It's Time!!

In September of 2003, I was visiting my parents when they lived in Connecticut, and they told me about a place just around the corner from their home called "The Space". They're a music venue with an open mic once a week, and concerts on the weekends. Well, I was immediately sucked in to the environment of the place, and it was there that I discovered one of my now all time favorite musicians, Andrew Bird.

Here's a snippet of his bio on Myspace:

"Andrew Bird is a man of constant surprise. The instant some hapless journalist on a deadline attempts to pigeonhole him in any kind of tidy, one-dimensional category, he changes direction and creates new music that defies the description. He's been tagged at various points in his career as a neo-traditionalist, a maverick experimenter, a Beatlesque pop/psychedelic revivalist, and a creator of ambient soundscapes, among other things. But none of those catchphrases does justice to the full span of his musical vocabulary. The simple truth is this: Andrew Bird creates sounds on his own terms, and as far-ranging as his various incarnations may appear, they are remarkably consistent when it comes to clarity of purpose, craftsmanship, wit, and sheer audience appeal..."

Watch this video, and go check out Andrew Bird either on his MySpace Bio or at andrewbird.net.

Enjoy this video of Bird live at The Mercy Lounge in Nashville, TN:

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

Dallas Does Indie Podcast

If you love podcasts, and music, the Dallas Does Indie Podcast is for you. The weekly podcast is pretty much an hour long radio show hosted by my old friend Jasien Swords. Jasien has been influencing my music listening habbits since the early '90s, and he somehow seems to keep doing it.

You can either download the latest podcast as an mp3 right off their site, or subscribe to it through iTunes.

If You Missed The Season Premier of LOST, All is not Lost...

LOST is back, and I'm proud to say, better than ever. Creator J.J. Abrams and his crew have been able to keep the story moving forward with great momentum. Ever since I finally got caught up in the LOST craze, I haven't missed an episode! But, just in case you missed the Premier of Season 3, you can watch it for free online at ABC.com. Even better, download it for keeps at near DVD quality at the iTunes Store.

And if you're always looking deeper into the making of LOST, or just want to know more about your favorite show, you'll probably interested in this interview with writer J.J. Abrams at TV.com: "Given the sheer quantity of episodes that need to be created, there is just no way you can foresee where the story will go," he said. "The rhythm of the piece kind of defines itself...and is also the result of actors, directors, and editors. The audience might see something important that we don't, as well."

Fox Shows on MySpace

Ever since Apple started selling TV shows through it's iTunes Store, and networks started realizing that viewers were downloading episodes of their shows using P2P software, I have seen network after network start airing free episodes of their shows online (which is a nice feature for those of us who don't always have the chance to see our favorite shows when they air on TV), and aren't quite sure if we want to download an episode onto our iPod. I've tested out the players on ABC, NBC and CBS (my favorite of which is ABC's player).

This morning, I learned of new updates to Fox's Full Throttle page on MySpace.com, allowing viewers to watch their favorite new shows from Fox. Among the lineup: “Bones,” “Prison Break,” “Standoff,” “Vanished,” “Talk Show With Spike Feresten,” “’Til Death,” “The Loop” and “Justice,” among others. The site seems to work quite well, with two minor downsets: First, you have to download a video player to watch the shows. Secondly, if you use a Mac you're going to get one of those grand old messages saying the video player doesn't support your platform yet.

Full Throttle, not quite ABC's media player, but great none the less!