Marketing Magic to a Thumping Beat.

The mix tape, is there anything more personal than selecting tracks for someone you think they will like? You try to be cool and find stuff they won’t have heard, you want killer tracks that will have them air drumming in the car. Maybe it’s a disc for your girlfriend or a buddy who’s living in another town there’s a lot to consider, time must be invested, and it has to be just right. So, maybe its been a while since you made one, maybe you need a couple of great ideas, maybe a little inspiration…listen to a few of these diverse tracks, you’re sure to find something here that will get your musical motor running. The Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound Comparisons to Bruce Springsteen abound and no one in The Gaslight Anthem camp is rushing to douse the flames. This New Jersey quartet puts a punk swagger on the Boss’s signature sound. Fu Manchu – Written in Stone Monster guitars lay down a huge pounding beat that feels as good as it sounds. This is the most under-rated heavy band on the pla...

Great songs never hurt and DMB has a plethora on this disc. But for me DMB is peering through shuttered fingers at this musical high wire act. Starting with drummer Carter Beauford and his masterful hi-hat off beats and crazy-assed fills. Stefan Lessard is the twine that binds each song carefully together and gives Carter the freedom to move around the time signatures. Lerio Moore’s sax adds jazz solos and a funk foundation to the mix. Boyd Tinsley is the tinderbox setting tunes ablaze with his sparkling violin solos. Then there is the enigmatic Dave Matthews, acoustic guitar basher, stunning lyricist and one of rock’s premier emotive singers. Experienced, inspired, staggering, swaggering and delicious all fit. Immigrate into this GrooGrux Kingdom and bask in its glory.

Already Free is a slow burn, wisps of smoke an early indication of the flames just below the surface. Smoldering liquid notes seep out of Truck’s flame red Gibson SG sustaining and vibrating with intensity and heat. This is blues old school with it’s gospel and country roots poking through the tangle of bass, drums, B3 organ and its swampy surface. Trucks holds back some powerful guitar voodoo refusing to release the fury opting instead for that laidback feel that few but the most talented (BB King, Bonnie Raitt or John Hammond) can pull off. Let the new guitar stars go for the sky, Trucks is happy digging in and keeping it grounded.

Most records coming from Red House records in St. Paul MN fit into the earnest folksy singer songwriter mold and frankly Danny Schmidt is yet another in this long, long line. His voice is unremarkable and the songs sadly predictable. There is nothing terribly bad about this record it’s just the bland sameness that is numbing. Songs like Grandpa Built Bridges and Oh Bally Ho left me sleepy and bored. Schmidt manages to lower the bar rather than raise it. Take a pass.

Ok, who remembers Styx’s Mr. Roboto? I guarantee Ursula 1000’s Alex Gimeno does. Mystic mines that 70’s and 80’s spacey, trippy, funky place and gives us as much electronica fun as we can handle. One can only hope that some radio maverick picks up on Rocket and makes it the summer hit-single it so deserves to be. Gimeno’s glam, hip-hop and funk beats are infectious and wrap around these sugar coated melodies perfectly. Smile, it is finally summer in Winnipeg and Ursula 1000 has delivered your 2009 soundtrack.

We have all heard of GPS or Global Positioning System but how many of us understand what it is and how it works? Without getting to geeky let’s take a little look and then discuss how this technology will soon change the way we navigate, make photos and keep track of our kids. The U.S. Military developed a system of 24 orbiting satellites that orbit the earth twice each day on a preset orbit. At any one time, from any position on the globe, 4 of these satellites are above the horizon. Your GPS receiver locates them and using a mathematical principle called “Trilateration” pinpoints your location. It does this by establishing how physically far you are from any three of the four visible orbiting satellites. Each satellite sends out a low power high frequency radio signal. Buy comparing how long these signals take to arrive the GPS can calculate within feet, where on the globe you must be. Throwing in the 4th satellite improves the accuracy. Many devices are making use of GPS. We’ve all...

In my business, I talk with big and small clients all the time about their marketing and advertising efforts and specifically their websites. I am often surprised that a minority of these otherwise perfectly capable business people have trusted their website to the kid down the street, a brother-in-law or the cheapest developer they could find. The results have ranged from frustration to unmitigated disaster. I have heard of major corporations being held captive as the rights to their URL’s are owned by their web development company, that the software used to create their site was proprietary and can’t be moved, updated or repaired, that the servers hosting their site mysteriously vanished taking their site down with them or that the Brother-in-law, who has taken over two years to produce three pages, has found a new job and can’t finish their site. Would you trust your inventory control system or POS to anyone other than a professional, what about your accounting or sales management?...