Alert! Alert!

Hey Comrades!

Boy, I'd make a terrible little old lady. I'm such a gossip. I'm more hesitant to hear what people are saying about me, although I am a sucker for compliments.

In today's industry, no matter what your field, it's important to keep an eye on what's being said on the world wide "interweb", as some old people call it. There's a lotta information out there, but Google Is Your Friend.

Did you know you can set up a Google alert for yourself? I've got a few: Guitar lesson alerts, Josh Urban alerts, They're coming to get me alerts...wait, that's just the minefield around my house.

It's a snazzy way to keep tabs on your web presence. Just punch in "Alerts" in Google, or go to www.google.com/alerts

You can have 'em delivered with email or on a feed. Great stuff! I just saw my listing for a show this weekend thanks to the alerts, AND I've discovered that I have a "twin brother" who's a great pitcher in Texas. Cool, I always wanted to be a pitcher...

Give it a shot! You'll take one more step towards global domination!

Vive la Revolution,

- Josh

If musicians were firefighters

Hey rockers!

I've been annoying my students all day with this piece of insufferably preachy advice:

Practice to your weakness! If musicians were firefighters, we'd be putting out garbage pail fires while the house was burning down around us. Tackle the big stuff!

I just read an article on fitness, and the author was saying that if we work the big muscle groups, we'll lose fat a lot faster than our typical easy lame workouts that just strain the little muscles.

Get to it!

- Josh

300

Happy Tuesday, Comrades!

I'm proud to announce the 300th blog post on The Doghouse!

Thanks for listening to so many words from yours truly!

They say that brevity is the soul of wit. I'm afraid I must be rather dull, then. However, I'll keep it snappy with this maxim I'm always repeating from some rock star interview (I think it was Eddie Van Halen.)

If it sounds good, it is good.

Here's to the next 300 posts!

Vive la Revolution,

-Josh

Introducing The Signalman

Hey Comrades!

Happy Saturday to you. Four announcements to make today.

1. Do not eat at Cracker Barrel restaurants. Ever.

2. "In The Heat of the Night" is a powerful movie. Wow, if you haven't seen it, you've gotta. It's a moving drama that serves as quite a reminder that the disease of racism must, must, must be stamped out. I think I'm gonna write a song called "They call me Mr. Tibbs."

3. I've finally got a name for this revolutionary, community-building, fortified-with-the-power-of-Rock radio station I've been yammering about! It's called The Signalman. Huh, seems like I've heard something like that before...Well, I just built a Facebook page for it - please check it out!

I'll be featuring local and touring musicians, both by playing their CD's and conducting interviews. If you'd like to be on my show, please drop me an email and we'll talk. I'm very excited to have the opportunity to build a community, and I so so so hope you'll be part of it! Even if you don't play any music, feel free to call in requests, or just drop a note to say hello. I'm figuring out that The Revolution is built of people like all of us, and the more participation, the better!

4. This just in: John Lennon was a communist. I heard my buddy Lynn Hollyfield play a great cover of "Imagine" yesterday at her show, and sitting there in my comrade shirt, the lyrics really struck me. Commie! Great tune, though...And a great concert by Lynn! It was outside. It was cold. It was windy. But it was rockin'! Good job, Lynn! Check out her great contemporary folk sound here: www.lynnhollyfield.com

Hope you have a great weekend!

Hey, check out my new friends I made at Lynn's show yesterday. It was good seeing a few old friends as well!

Framing the Debate

Happy Friday, Comrades!

Or would you prefer "The week is almost dead?"

There's always two sides to any story, and since we're storytellers, we can tell either one we choose. We're also salespeople, and the sooner we realize that, the better. We're selling our music and opinion to the masses. I like to think of it like the American gangster Al Capone put it - "I'm just a businessman providing a service that the people want" (Something like that.)

How we frame the debate directly affects our sales pitch. Jumping in the time machine, let's go back just a few years to a stifling summer in Quantico, Virginia. My Kirk Hammet meets Eddie Van Halen hair didn't help matters, but hey, it sure looked cool. I was smack in the middle of my days as an environmental organizer. (Actually, that's one right there - I could say "my days as a long haired hippie", but that doesn't sound good.) The teacher of the class outlined some important principles. There was, and always is, a fight over the oil reserves in Alaska. Proponents of the drilling call it "ANWR" (ann warr), and the environmentalists call it "The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge."

Big oil calls it "exploration." Hey, didn't Lewis and Clark explore America?" That's a great vibe!

The greens call it "drilling" - casting it in a much more negative light.

Now, I happen to be on the side of the greens with this issue, but details don't matter for our discussion.

What you can see is the word choice is vital. Looking back at the healthcare spat would provide many good examples of what I'm talking about. Read editorials from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal if you're really serious about research.

Moving to music: Let's say you're an unknown band trying to break into the scene. Bad choice: Unknown band tries to break into scene. Good choice: A fresh new band is set to rock the town - don't miss their show to hear the very latest of what promises to be a bold new trend in music!"

OK, maybe that's overkill, because people can see through your "legal troubles" to know you were in the slammer. But again, it's all how you frame it. Hey, let's say you WERE in the slammer, and starting a new band.

Bad choice: Ex-convicts try for fresh start.

Good choice: John Smith knowns what it's like to be on the wrong side of luck. He also knows what it's like to work your way back to the right. Come out to hear his authentic fire-tempered blues.

Spin it!

- Josh

Authenticity

"Bluetooth or not?" I asked myself the other day, as I walked into a business appointment.

On one hand, I see it as a symbol of status and business, mixed with a bit of importance because, frankly, I might get a call that's more important that you.

On the other, I think props like that come off about as convincing as 12 year olds using profanity.

The topic of Authenticity is an important one for everyone in general, and musicians in particular. I often lecture my students about how, in my opinion, the real key to the genius of Hendrix was in that he wasn't trying to sound like anyone else, only purely, fiercely himself...and the occasional war sounds reflected in his renditions of The Star Spangled Banner and Machine Gun.

There's half a dozen people in my town alone that can play faster than Jimi, know more about chords, and have way more theoretical knowledge.

But until we stop trying to emulate other guitarists, we can only hope to be pale imitations of our true glory, a fleeting ghost in the rear view mirror of what we could sound like.

And what a shame! Beethoven didn't even step into his own until he stopped trying to copy Mozart. What if he had gotten bogged down in the details of what piano Mozart used?

I heard somewhere that we're all like radios, tuned to our very own frequency, and receiving a unique sonic blend. I think it's time we all turned up the volume!

- Josh

Toys 'R Us rockin' the world

"Rock 'n roll ain't no riddle now. To me, it makes good, good sense."

Hey Comrades!

You know what my favorite band of all time is? The Electric Mayhem - The house band from the Muppets.

Besides having great stage presence, they've got a totally killer sound. It's what people think rock music should sound like. It's literally a caricature of itself.

I also like the sounds that kiddie guitars from Toys R Us make. Talk about some pure voltage rock! I've got this little guitar that some kid probably got at McDonald's and then gave to me, and it's got the BEST riffs in it ever!

So, next time you're getting all stressed out about trying to beat Steve Vai at his own game, or invent a new chord voicing to knock 'em all dead - step back, and remember what the essence of rock is. If it can sound cool in Toys R Us, it can rock the world.

- Josh