Sweet-ASS Columbus PRIDE 2009 flyer, eh?

The flyer was created by Jesse Smith... he also did the art on our CD... Thank you to Jesse!!!

LESSON 2: Accessories (Teaching You to Teach YOU Guitar)

Here I go into some of the accessories that you will need for playing guitar. Here's the list:

PART 1
1. Guitar Case
2. Capo
3. Tuner OR Pitch Pipe
4. Picks
5. Strap
6. Spare Strings
(7. String Winder... I forgot this in the video... they are cheap and very very helpful)

PART 2 (this will be covered next time)
8. Chord Book
9. Humidifier

Columbus PRIDE Festival

Hello!! Soooo... we are super-jazzed to share that we will be performing at Columbus PRIDE Festival on June 20th! Here's the details:

WHERE? Goodale Park (120 W Goodale Blvd., Columbus, OH 43201) on the "Gayzebo" Stage!
WHEN? 2 PM
COST? Donation (You can get a wrist band for $10 that gets you in both days from their website)

This years PRIDE Festival is a 2 day event! We will be performing at the "Gayzebo" at 2 pm on Saturday (day 2). There will be tons of performers... check out the website for more info:
http://www.columbuspride.org/

4 Bands/ Musicians To Share...

Sooo... I've been checking out music blogs... There are really some great ones out there. It's amazing how I can find some great new music just by checking out the first page of posts. Here's today's findings:

1. The Henry Clap People (found on My Old Kentucky Blog)- just real good
2. Lissy Trullie (found on Muzzle of Bees)- makes me think of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs
3. Bowerbirds (found on Obscure Sounds)- great folkie feel
4. Bishop Allen (found on I Guess I'm Floating)- this one is my fav new find...

Teaching You to Teach YOU Guitar

Here is the first part of a little series called: Teaching You to Teach YOU Guitar. Throughout this series, I'll share little tips about how to pick a guitar, what accessories to purchase, how to read tabulature, how to tune your guitar, how to change guitar strings... the basics. The idea is to empower the watcher with a few tips to get them strumming. I'll share my personal approach to playing and learning guitar. AND, hopefully, I will not bore you to tears (although, I make no promises).

The first video describes how to pick a guitar. 'Cuz really, you can't play one if you don't have one. My method is quite logical, as you can see.

social network junkie: blip.fm

Why hello~

I just learned something really neat... There is this site called blip.fm (that's the url)... If you join it AND are into Twitter, you can "blip" songs through Twitter. You can blip songs on other sites, too, but I'm not on those sites and don't know anything about them (can you believe it?). Anyways, the point is, it's a great, simple way to share what you are listening to. The sad thing is that, currently, you can not blip about Team Smile and Nod... but I hope to change this. Oh yes. Oh... I should explain what "bliping" is... basically, through blip.fm, you search for a song or artist... then you click "blip" for the song you want to talk about... then you write a little something about the song (why you dig it, your emotional response to it, it's dance-ability, whateva')... then you click "send" to tweet it... THEN it shows up on twitter with what you wrote AND the url to hear it. SOOO... whoever reads your tweet can instantly hear the song and see what they think... it's a way to start a conversation about it or at least give props to the music you love. AND, of course, you set up a "DJ" page at blip.fm to be able to do all this... and you can make friends and all that like every site. Here's my page: http://blip.fm/teamsmileandnod If you join, please friend me.

In summary, I have become a social network junkie. But I guess that was the goal. I guess. For a double summary, here's a funny pic of me with my friend Randy. I always wanted to shave my head down to the skin, so here's what I look like with no hair at all. Oh, this was years ago... like... umm... maybe 7? Yup...

Songs Posted...

So fun... I just discovered how to embed an "iLike" player on this blog. Sweeeet. Now you can hear some tunes right from this page. AND you can download "Still Stuck" for free. That's right, free download, baby. Rah ha ha!

Ummm... I guess that's all I have to say right now.

In summary, I've gotta get a shower.

6 Bands I JUST Learned About

1. Julie Doiron (3hive)
2. Rosi Golan (digital citrus)
3. Armen Firman (obscure sound)
4. Starlight Mints (you aint no picasso)
5. The Bobby McGee's (wears the trousers)
6. Animal Collective (gorilla vs. bear)

*The blog where I heard and read about them is in (parenthesis).

I look forward to checking them all out... more, that is. Whoooo!

In summary, here's a picture of our cat:

3 Thangs: TwoGroove Blog Interview, Pat Radio, & Monday's Show

Sooo... Here is Rich setting up at our show on Monday (5/4/9) at the Treehouse. As you can see, there were many stickers on the wall. Also, as you can see below, there is a tree in the middle of the listening room at the Treehouse. Not just a clever name. The show was good... got to hear Super Desserts... they were great. Jeremy Jay had a solid performance as well. We met a couple guys in a band called: The Language Our Fathers Forgot. They were super-nice guys. That is pretty much the summary of the night. My week has been bizzare. I have been quite tired. Yup.

Our song,
"They Grow It", was played on Pat Radio a couple weeks ago. It was very nice... Pat plugged our Treehouse gig, too. Give his podcast a listen here: http://www.patradio.org/blogs/archives/215-program-159-Your-Favorite-Assassin.html

We were featured on the blog TwoGroove. They interviewed us. Here's a link if you'd like to read it: http://www.twogroove.com/blog/2009/05/04/past-present-future-team-smile-and-nod/

In summary, my enthusiasm is low due to tired-ness. My apologies.

Guest blogger on Out Lesbian!

Why hello!~
I am now a guest blogger on the Out Lesbian Network... You can read my first post here: http://www.outlesbian.com/ I explain why it's important to me to be an OUT musician. Sorry I neglected THIS blog! Ahhh... alas, the main thing goin' on w/ our music at this moment is that we're preparing for our show with Jeremy Jay on Monday. It will be a GREAT show. Super Desserts will be performing as well... and gee... they're SUPER! I am TOTALLY jazzed. WHOOOO!

In summary, Katie and I need to clean our gutters. RAR.