I. Love. This. Album.

Last night I downloaded about seven new albums worth of music. I woke up this morning and decided to start listening to all of it. I'm only on the second album I downloaded, but I HAVE to share this. I'm so amazed.
I don't normally go out and look for music in the "ambient electronic" genre, but I don't mind listening to it if it's interesting and makes me feel something. And damn, this morning, I'm feeling it.

Introducing Tycho.

Tycho - Hours [Dive LP - Nov. 2011] by Tycho

Here's a little example of what to look forward to when the album comes out later this month. I don't know a lot about Tycho, it's kind of hard to find any sort of biography other than what's on Facebook. But Tycho is made up of Scott Hansen, a graphic artist from San Francisco, who apparently decided he also needed a music project on the side. This guy's sound is genius. One look at his artwork will give you an idea of what his sound is like. Everything you feel when you look at Hansen's art is echoed perfectly by every track of the album. Although some songs have a much more prominent beat than others, giving them almost a pop-like sound, I think any actual lyrics over these tracks would take too much from the way the songs allow a listener to form their own opinions and own feelings within the music.
I'm giving this album five stars, and I'll definitely be keeping Tycho under close watch in the future.
Click for Scott Hansen's Facebook, Twitter, and Website.

April Fools...?

Something magical happened last night. At first, I couldn't quite explain it. I was thinking it was one of three things:

1. Someone is playing a massive April Fools joke on me... seven days too late.
2. Blogger is having some major issues and needs to call a tech doctor.
3. I really did get 4,043 views last night.

I really wish I could've seen my own face this morning. It was about 9am, I barely had my eyes open all the way yet. This is when I started my morning routine. Check my phone- five missed text messages. Wow, that's kind of a lot. Next, check my Facebook. Eight new notifications? Geez, that's a lot too. Check my blog stats. Yesterday's stats were still there. Fifteen hours ago, I had been all excited because I had gotten 21 hits pretty quickly, after the Discovered and Reviewed post.

I clicked refresh.

HOLY TOTS. WHAT?!

At this point, I'm sure the look on my face said something like, "How dare you lie to me! People in Moldova don't use the internet!" Because honestly, I didn't even know where Moldova is, let alone that it exists. My apologies to Moldova, I Googled you guys, and apparently there are over 3 million people living there.

This is insane, guys, really. Over 4,000 views in one hour, in the middle of the night? I must've done something right...

Okay, that kinda makes sense. I mentioned 3 people in my Tweet that have a lot of followers. Sure. 

But that really doesn't explain 4,000 views. I wasn't convinced. 

I posted a status on Facebook: 

Well, that was no help. So, how did this happen? I then consulted my wonderful Blogger friend, Elika (visit her blog!). I sent, "Hey, I have a question for u... Rather, a concern u might be able to help me with... How long have you had your blog? Have u ever had a weird number in your stats? Cuz.... There's either a glitch in my stats, or I got 4,000 hits in one hour last night. I don't think it's right and I'm wondering if there's something wrong with my stats. Lol..."

She replied, "I've had my blog since dec. 2009. And I had that happen once, when I was using a 3rd party app, but then I switched to a blogger stats counter and it's been normal. Maybe you just got super popular last night :)"

That makes perfect sense. Except I'm not using a 3rd party app... I've always only looked at my Blogger Stats, right from my dashboard. So I was still very confused.

I checked Twitter again. Something was still off, I just knew it. I left my computer and started getting ready for the day. I was in the middle of straightening my hair, when it hit me...

#newmusic (cue Twilight Zone theme song)

This had to be it. I clicked the link from my Tweet, and Oh My Goodness, there was the answer. 

It took me to a magical place I'd never even dreamed of. A hashtag trend so powerful, it gave me 4,000 views in one hour. I call this "The Twitter Phenomena". When a person uses this trend in their Tweet, it gets put with any other Tweets using that same trend. I kid you not, approximately every 30 seconds, someone is tagging their Tweet with this trend. Granted, most of these people are underground artists linking their own new music in their Tweets so people will listen to their music... but that's just it!!! It's completely genius!!! If I want something noticed, I have to tag it the right way, even on Twitter! Now, come on, I already knew the tagging trick. It's just like uploading a YouTube video and tagging it with the words "naked" and "Sarah Palin"... trends that are extremely popular on YouTube and the internet in general. But this... Twitter Phenomena... this will get me far. I've officially mastered the Twitter world. So, look out! Here I come.

What's been going on?

Alaska Press Club Conference 2011

Follow me on Twitter @spreadthywings

Pictures of J-Week so far: click here. More to come!

Sorry for the lack of blogness lately. I've been SO BUSY!!! Click the first link to see what I've been doing for the past 2 days, and please follow my twitter as well :) 

Here's some music for you:

Band of Horses- Infinite Arms

Sufjan Stevens- The Age of Adz

Deerhunter- Halcyon Digest (Desire Lines is my fave song from this album)

Just kinda found these while snooping through iTunes. 

Anyways, I'll be posting more soon. I'm going to do an entire write up of my time here at the Press Conference, pictures and all.