At Guitar Center With Nic Harcourt Podcasts

The amount of interesting content online is staggering and the micro cultures that are evolving are creating entirely new forms of communication with levels of depth for any one to plunge into at will. Meander over to Guitar Center and check out the podcast interviews with Nic Harcourt. We happened to stumble into this while looking for some portable recording microphones for our video work and quickly found our new morning listening booth. The best part about these interviews is the peek behind the curtains and hearing the stories of what makes these folks tick.

At Guitar Center with Nic Harcourt

Download or stream the podcasts via itunes

At: Guitar Center with Nic Harcourt

More on Nic Harcourt:

Regarded as the ultimate "tastemaker" in music, Nic Harcourt is the former host of both Morning Becomes Eclectic and the syndicated show Sounds Eclectic. After 10 years as KCRW Music Director, Nic stepped down in 2008 to pursue other opportunities. Still a DJ at KCRW, Nic currently serves as an Editor-at-Large for Music and Culture at the Los Angeles Times Magazine and is music supervisor for the hit show 90210.

Born in Birmingham, England, he started his world travels in Australia and lived there during his mid 20's. He arrived in the United States in 1988 with a bagful of records and charmed his way into a part-time gig at the well-respected independent station WDST in Woodstock, New York. By the time he left for KCRW, he had gone from the midnight shift to Music Director.

He began hosting the daily Morning Becomes Eclectic in 1998 featuring his picks from the best new music, spanning a wide range of genres. A weekly version of the show, then-called Sounds Eclectic, aired on a number of other public radio stations around the country and worldwide. The shows include live performances by both established and rising stars.

Many artists, including Dido, Coldplay and Norah Jones, have credited Harcourt for putting the map and helping them achieve stardom. He's also helped launch the careers of Ting Tings, Sigur Ros, Damian Rice, Death Cab for Cutie, Franz Ferdinand, Interpol and countless others. He has been described by music writer Mark Weingarten as "the most influential DJ in America."

KCRW has long been regarded as a Los Angeles cultural institution, and Harcourt raised the bar for the station by introducing events such as station-sponsored KCRW and KCRW.com Presents concerts. KCRW was the first station to broadcast from remote locations like SXSW, CMJ and the Latin Alternative Music Conference. Nic also produced the Sounds Eclectic CD compilation series. The latest CD, Sounds Eclectic: The Next One, is available via Amazon.

Harcourt's first foray into literature was Music Lust,a book of "recommended listening for every mood, moment and reason."

He has also worked as music consultant/supervisor for several television shows including: 90210, Queer as Folk, Life as We Know It, In Justice, What about Brian and Love Monkey (for which he was also a co-producer), as well as advertising campaigns for Mitsubishi Motors, Apple's iPod and Victoria's Secret. Nic has helped to select music for the motion pictures He's Just Not That into You, Pride and Glory, Ice Age, Ice Age II, Anchorman, Igby Goes Down, Gone Baby Gone, Dukes of Hazzard and the upcoming Fireflies in the Garden. For the last two years, Nic was the "voice of Land Rover" for all of their television and radio commercials.

Green Lady Killers At Hollywood Alley, Phoenix Arizona - March 9th 2012

The Green Lady Killers will be invading their home turf of Phoenix, Arizona on March 9th. Get out to the show and see what the buzz is all about in Los Angeles surrounding these femme fatales.

The Green Lady Killers on Facebook

Green Lady Killers play Hollywood Alley on March 9th, Phoenix, AZ

CherryBomb behind the drums and melting hearts

Ivy Rose in the studio prepping some new bass tracks

Lady Van Buren staring down the crowd at a recent Los Angeles show

In The Studio With Rory Kelly...

Over the weekend we rolled out to Rory Kelly's studio to film some tracks being laid down and to work on ideas for the album. To say that this album is going to be smoking hot southern rock is an understatement. This is an album that you need to hear and one for which many new doors are about to be kicked open by a pair of worn in size 11 boots. The fellas are lock step in their sound and road bound for much of 2012. With dates at SXSW coming up in March and a European tour being booked as we speak, be prepared for the rock n' roll invasion.

Check out Rory Kelly on Facebook

Rory Kelly album (Don't Shake My) Family Tree out May 22nd world wide

Rory Kelly and the fellas in the studio finalizing some tracks - © Rusty Knuckles Music 2012

Rory Kelly, Mike Kelly & Billy Miller by the studio in western North Carolina - © Rusty Knuckles Music 2012

Rory Kelly, Billy Miller and Mike Kelly - © Rusty Knuckles Music 2012

Rory Kelly in the studio - © Rusty Knuckles Music 2012

Rory Kelly Bio

Blame it on the heady highs in the air that permeate the Black Mountains of North Carolina, but the state has produced an artist in Rory Kelly that will surely bring new dimension to the tour de force that is America’s beloved Southern Rock. Possessing a playing ability in league with prodigies, Kelly is a self-taught musician that picked up the guitar as a boy and cut his chops in the rural town of Marion. While his mother slung drinks behind the bar, Rory strummed alongside his father, drummer Mike Kelly, in a family dominated house band in a local music dive. Mike Kelly has quite the backstory in thrash metal as well, being part of the infamous Old Bridge Militia of thrash metal fame.

Tapped a few years later, first by heavy metal outfit Intethod and later by Asheville based sleaze masters, the Crank County Daredevils, who found success both in the US and abroad; Kelly developed a keen ear, and playing ability to match, for what would develop into an ever widening spectrum of rock n roll sensibilities. After the unforeseen dissolution of Crank County, in 2010 Rory Kelly began to hone his own dirty rock n' roll based signature sound and recruited his former musical partner and father Mike to form two-thirds of what would ultimately become their current band. Together they recorded, and Rory Kelly produced, what critics deemed a “swamp rock” sound in their first release, Better Than The Blues.

When demand for that record began to outweigh supply, Rory Kelly began to branch out regionally, playing live with a hired gun on bass and gaining footholds with venues and audiences throughout both the Carolinas. In March of 2011 they scored a coveted series of showcases with Texas Rockfest, which takes place in the heart of downtown Austin, Texas each year during the world famous South By Southwest music conference. Those showcases brought Kelly interest from endorsement companies and rekindled a connection between him and Rusty Knuckles, his former label from the Crank County days, that was in the midst of successfully developing its’ own niche signing renegade artists from within the ranks of southern sleaze. Summer ’11 brought more recognition to Rory Kelly as they were thrust into and embraced by the Southern biker circuit and a permanent bass player joined their ranks. Billy Miller, also a seasoned musician from touring gigs with Voodou and Super Sport, brought the final element needed to round out this dirty rock n' roll trio, forming a mercurial rhythm section with the elder Kelly to compliment the smoldering swagger of Kelly’s rock riffs.

The addition of Miller has brought a new dynamic into the band and, with that, an ever evolving definition of what Southern Rock means to Rory Kelly and how they intend to translate that to their followers. The new album is done and scheduled for release in late Spring of 2012, and has captured the interest of well-known NC radio personality Steve Blanton who will assist Kelly in the production of their second effort. Revealing a band edging toward a harder sound, (Don't Shake My) Family Tree, will be released to world-wide distribution through Rusty Knuckles with both US and European tours planned for early 2012 in support of the record. 

- Tammy Moore

How Musicians Used Facebook in 2011

Some of yall may have noticed on a few of the band pages on Facebook a particular looking music player on the landing. You know, the one with the cool graphics and enables you to play the music and buy it or also pass it along. Well, that player is called RootMusic and we currently use it on a few of the pages we help to maintain. Not only is it a superior choice over ReverbNation but you can customize the graphics and the features are far more vast. 

To really get the app working the best way, also build out a SoundCloud page for your music to be delivered from. With these two apps working together you can direct your music to the masses far easier and let the end user also listen and share or even better yet, repost into their blogs. Dig more into the article below to find out how other bands are using RootMusic to their advantage.

Rusty Knuckles Facebook page using the RootMusic Player

Link to RootMusic to add to your Facebook Page

At RootMusic we’re constantly asking ourselves how we can give the most value to musicians through providing tools, guidance, support, and today we want to give you information. We’ve been tracking the Top 250 Musicians on Facebook, looking at best practices and strategies to be successful on the Platform. In most cases, these are musicians that have teams of people working with them and making their Facebook presence really effective, so we’d like to share with you what they’re doing that has worked for them over the past year.

Imagine handing out fliers to 10,000 people every day, starting a conversation with each person, letting each one listen to a few of your songs, and telling them about your upcoming show. With Facebook, you can have the same effect with just a few clicks of the mouse. We’ve put together this Infographic to provide a picture of what the most popular artists are doing with Music on Facebook.

Click on the image below to see the hi-res version, and read after the image to see some additional info and takeaways:

RootMusic has a phenomenal music app, see who is using it

The important points to takeaway from this is that there is a huge active audience of music fans on Facebook, and a large part of your success comes down to how to properly engage those fans. Even just posting updates a few times a week or more on your Facebook Page can make a big impact and lead to success in other areas. Actively posting and engaging your fans leads to more people talking about you, leads to more new fans, leads to more people at your show, leads to more cash in your pocket, leads to a sustainable career as a musician.
More info to takeaway:

• The Music category is extremely popular on Facebook, and the amount of people following musicians is massive! Of the top 1000 pages on the platform, the most common type of Page are those of musicians and bands. Over 2 billion Likes are spread across the Top 250 most popular artists we tracked
• More and more artists are using Facebook to engage with fans like never before, especially when on tour. We found that, of the artists we tracked that are currently on tour, 78% use Facebook as one of their main platforms to share that content with their fans.
• Most of the top artists on Facebook are posting new content and messages for their fans at least once a week. In fact, 88% of the top 250 Artists are posting at least once a week on their Page. This is important, as the more that your fans Comment, Like and Share your posts, the higher your Facebook “EdgeRank”, meaning the more often Facebook’s system will display your page’s content in News Feeds.
• Most artists use Facebook to share music and tour dates with their fans. 89% of Artists are using some sort of Music App like BandPage to share their tracks and tour dates.

We believe in helping every musician be successful, and today Social Media can be a very effective part of that. We hope that you can use some of this information to grow your career using Facebook.
Comment below with your feedback on the infographic, as we’ll be making more in the future. Also, let us know if there are any nifty infographics or subjects that you’d like to learn more about next!