TomFlannery.com

Blog of NEPA musician/singer/songwriter Tom Flannery.

TomFlannery.com
https://kikomusic.wordpress.com/

From his Bio page:

A songwriter from Northeast Pennsylvania. He’s been called “One of the most gifted songwriters to emerge at the turn of the century” by the esteemed All Music Guide. He’s written hundreds of songs for his own records, for other artists, for movie soundtracks (critically acclaimed national documentaries Facing Sudan and Crayons and Paper), and for theatrical productions. He was the founder of the now-defunct songaweek.com, where he contributed one brand new song (for free)  every week for over 5 years.

Jenn Johnson Music

This is a blog that I set aside a while ago for later reference. It's good to see that it's still active!

http://www.jennjohnsonmusic.com/

Jenn Johnson Music

The blog of NEPA musician Jenn Johnson. Information, inspiration, performance schedules, and more!

Kate Hearity: Shadows and Smoke...

For twelve years the musician known as k8 has rocked Northeastern PA and beyond with her hard-driving, folk-tinged original songs. After twelve years k8 has decided to step off the stage - to make room for Kate Hearity!

Shadows and Smoke...
http://katehearity.tumblr.com/

Check out k8 - sorry, Kate's blog for all sorts of insights into the life of a singer/songwriter. If you've never heard her, she has links to some of her songs, and news about upcoming performances. The next one is this Tuesday, May 5 at Breakers inside the Mohegan Sun Casino in Plains Township.  Her show runs from 7:00 - 8:00 PM, so don't be late!

Highway 81 Revisited

Are you looking to quell your inner savage beast?  Well then I have a local music blog that might do the trick.

http://www.highway81revisited.com/

From the about:  Highway 81 Revisited is made up of music-loving writers who hail from all over. Each writer shares his or her unique perspective on music via album and concert reviews, interviews with artists and industry professionals, recaps of the nation's biggest music festivals, and commentaries on the latest music news and videos. 


Michael Lello is the founder and editor of Highway 81 revisited.  If his name sounds familiar to you, it's probably because he was the editor at The Weekender circa 2007-2011.


Right now the blog has reviews of the Peach Festival which is taking place on Montage Mountain this weekend.  I've also noticed reviews of other local and regional concerts.  Of course there are interviews and a fun section called "My Back Pages" which explores our relationships with the music we grew up with.


If you have a suggestion of a blog we should be featuring on NEPA Blogs, drop us a line at nepablogs@gmail.com.

570 Mine Fire

I first met Bill Thomas at the annual Sideshow Gathering at The Woodlands. After the 2011 Gathering I also found out that he had an interest in blogging. This blog has been around since July 2012, but it was on hiatus from September 2012 through March 2013. It's active again.

570 Mine Fire
http://570minefire.wordpress.com/

A blog about independent music in Pennsylvania - not just NEPA - by Bill Thomas. From the About page:

Independent music is like a mine fire. It’s always there. Burning underground.

Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. And no matter what you throw at it, you can’t snuff it out. It’s damn near impossible to kill.

Like any fire, though, it still needs fuel and oxygen to thrive. Without recognition and support, especially on the local level, there’s always the danger of fading, of being reduced to mere embers.

Throughout Pennsylvania, there are countless artists carrying the torch of independent music. This blog is a celebration of them. It’s also meant as a show of support, one minor contribution towards keeping those creative flames lit. Long may they endure.

Burning underground.

(There's a heck of a lot more on the About page. You should make yourself a snack, maybe a nice drink, throw on something comfortable, and set aside some time to read it.)

From the Mailbag (sorta): Doom Nation

I received a Facebook message from Scott Carey about a new blog venture he is starting called "Doom Nation".  Scott is a friend, my former manager's son, and a blogger!  You may remember his last project, the (now defunct) Old Soul Swagger blog. 


Doom Nation
"The Saddest Place on the Web"
http://doom-nation.com

Hey,

I am launching a blog called Doom Nation (doom-nation.com). It's basically all about doom metal, sludge metal, stoner rock etc... I am planning to do a soft launch this week but my full launch on October 1st. Can you please add me to the NEPA Blogs list?

Thanks,

Scott

From the About:

I started Doom Nation to supply lovers of somber slow jams with an arsenal of doom metal, sludge, drone, post rock and all other styles of gloomy tunes. Although news and press will be posted, this site is not intended to be an all out news or press release site of the genre. I want this site to be a place where all fans of doom metal can connect and ultimately discover new music. I dub this site “The Saddest Place on the Web!” because at the end of the day my readers will know that Doom Nation is THE place to discover and explore the melancholic side of music.

Thanks,
Scott Carey

PS – I hope that you will continue to come back again and again to get lost in the spaces of music with me!


If you are looking for a great blogger networking opportunity and learning experience, I suggest you check out NEPA BlogCon on 9/29/12 at LCCC.  Scott will be there and looking forward to chat with you about your blog, as will I!  Tickets are $65.00 until the day of the event, but use code nepablogs to save $20!!!

First Friday Scranton

This event has been going on for quite a long time now, and it only just occurred to me to check to see if they have a website. They do. And whaddya know, it's in a blog format!

First Friday Scranton
http://firstfridayscranton.com/


First Friday art walks are held on the first Friday of every month at galleries and businesses around Downtown Scranton. Paintings, photography, sculpture, music, performance art…you never know what you’ll find at First Friday in Scranton.


Support local artists and mingle with your Northeastern Pennsylvania neighbors, all in a casual atmosphere. Join us for First Friday!

From the Mailbag: Go Play Project

Catherine Shefski took some time out of her busy schedule this weekend to send an email informing us of her new blog. You may recall that we added her other blog "All Piano" - http://allpiano.wordpress.com - sometime over the summer.

From the email message:

Hi!

If you have a minute take a peek at my new blog at http://goplayproject.wordpress.com/ .

Thank you!!
Catherine Shefski
(Clarks Summit Resident)

Catherine also wanted to let us know that she will most likely not be posting at the All Piano blog any more, but as long as she doesn't delete the blog, we will keep it intact on the blog roll.

Enjoy both blogs by clicking on the links from our Blog Roll!

~Michelle

Box to Abu Dhabi

Who doesn't love music? But is there any music you don't love, can't love, because you find it inherently unlovable? What can be done with such music? Some folks from Northeastern Pennsylvania came up with an idea for where it can be shipped.

Box to Abu Dhabi
http://boxtoabudhabi.blogspot.com/

The world is full of bad music, and it's about time that someone comes along to isolate it all to one location - Abu Dhabi. Meet nine NEPA 20-somethings concerned with the direction that music is going in, and are hoping to put a stop to it before it gets out of hand.

Check it out! And who knows, maybe you'll find some of your favorite music being packed up for shipment to Abu Dhabi!

Abby Millon

Each week on the set of PA Live! I meet fascinating people from all over Northeastern Pennsylvania. Musicians, chefs, community activists, people of all sorts. And true to our mission here at NEPA Blogs, I have to ask everyone: Do you have a blog?

Many do not, and I try to encourage them to start one. Often the response is "We have a Facebook page, you can look us up on Facebook!" - sometimes followed by a mind-manglingly twisted address that is impossible to remember. Facebook is nice, Facebook is useful, but Facebook does not provide the sort of broad exposure that having a website does - and just having a website does not provide the interactivity and personal touch that comes from a blog.

The musical guest on this Tuesday's show was Abby Millon, a young singer and guitar player from Honesdale. When she was talking with host Dave Kuharchik, she mentioned that she has a website of her own, http://www.abbymillon.com/, with an associated blog, http://www.abbymillon.com/blog. At the end of the show, as we all stood around the kitchen eating Hot Wing Nachos, she confessed that she hasn't done much with her blog, and really intends to do more. As of this writing there's only one post, from late November of last year, but I'm hoping there will be more to follow!

As I've discussed at length on my own blog, if you are in a band (or even if you're just a solo musician), Facebook is a good thing to have, but Facebook isn't sufficient.

Do you have a blog? Why Facebook may not be enough

It takes very little effort to create and maintain a blog, and your blog will continue to pay dividends in exposure as long as you keep it up. Just as Abby Millon's blog and website give her the exposure that every musician needs. Be sure to check her out!

You can also watch Abby perform on PA Live! here: http://pahomepage.com/fulltext?nxd_id=224852

Music Is Like Oxygen

Continuing to work through our backlog of blogs to be added! This is one that was mentioned on the NEPA Bloggers Facebook group page a while ago. It's by C.J. Marsicano, who also blogs at The Groove Music Life.

Music Is Like Oxygen
http://www.musicislikeoxygen.com/

From the "About" page:

This blog will be devoted to one thing: album (and occasional single) reviews, irregardless of when they were released. Obviously, some new releases will get featured at our mothership blog The Groove Music Life, but for time and event-appropriate reviews and even for random reviews of older or recently issued but missed releases, this is where they’ll be posted.

So, put out those cigarettes, douse any open flames, and click on over to Music Is Like Oxygen! Just remember: you get too much, you get too high; not enough and you're gonna die...

Casa de Lola

A few weeks ago an blog was submitted to nepablogs@gmail.com that raised a few eyebrows - including the eyebrows of the anti-spam filters on my email system, which flagged it as suspicious.

Hello my name is Nathalie Sousa and I am the Editor of Casa de Lola – House of Cool, a portal for the creative community and home to all art lovers. The blog is a space dedicated to anything that is creative and thoughtful, a.k.a. cool. Through the eyes and words of our collaborators, you will find weekly inspiration from film and music to lifestyle and travel combined with straightforward, entertaining journalism.


Please check us out at www.casadelola.com and lets collaborate with each other.


Thank you so much in advance!


Best,


Nathalie Sousa


http://www.facebook.com/pages/Casa-de-Lola-House-of-Cool/201902956508196

Every once in a while we will receive a submission of a legitimate blogsite that has nothing to do with Northeastern Pennsylvania. It isn't written by someone who lives in Northeastern Pennsylvania, or used to live in Northeastern Pennsylvania, or isn't written about Northeastern Pennsylvania. You only have to meet one of those three criteria, though we have made exceptions in the past. But this blog didn't seem to meet any of the criteria: it appeared to be based outside of the area, maybe outside of the country, and the phone number attached to the email had an out-of-state area code. It all looked pretty fishy, so I set the matter aside for later.

...and sort-of never got around to following-up on it.

Fortunately Nathalie did follow-up on the matter earlier this week. This time she explained that she has recently moved into NEPA and is trying to establish a local readership for her blog. The international connections are legitimate, as is the out-of-state cell phone number. So what we have here is a blog that is both national and international in scope, being written by a recent arrival to our area.

From their "Who We Are" page:

A group of creative minds with distinct backgrounds and native languages sharing the same curious approach to the new and exciting things that life across the globe has to offer. We come together under the House of Cool domain to share our findings.

To see a cool, international blog based (in part) right here in Northeastern Pennsylvania, check out Casa de Lola - House of Cool (http://www.casadelola.com/).

Pa Live! Blog of the Week: The Plastic Waffle

NEPA Blogs will be presenting a "Blog of the Week" on the WBRE's PA Live! every Tuesday. PA Live! airs weekday afternoons on WBRE from 4:00 to 5:00.

Watch this episode on the PA Live! site:

http://pahomepage.com/palive-details/?nxd_id=218586

Our PA Live! Blog of the Week this week is The Plastic Waffle (http://pwaffle.blogspot.com/).

Bob Merc grew up in the 1970's and music has always been a big part of his life.  Disabled with rheumatoid arthritis for the past nine years, he created his music blog, The Plastic Waffle, as a way to share music with the world - and keep his sanity. His blog covers bands from 10CC ("I'm Not in Love") to ZZ Top and everything in between - nearly five hundred bands so far! (The term "plastic waffle" comes from the song "An Elpee's Worth of Toons" by Todd Rundgren, one of Bob's favorite performers. It refers to a record album, made of plastic and full of little indentations.)

The Plastic Waffle features a new and different artist every day of the week. His posts contains facts and information, trivia, videos, and reviews about the artist. He also has links to take you to the best places to buy concert tickets, music equipment, and take music lessons.

While Bob can't get around as much as he'd like, he sees music as a way to bridge the gap between people, and his blog has attracted visitors from over eighty countries in the past few months alone. Blogging gives him a way to connect with the rest of the world that might not otherwise be possible, and it allows him to share his passion - his love of music - with people from all over.

So what's your passion? Do you enjoy art, or music, or food? Maybe you enjoy coin collecting, or setting up model trains, or geocaching? There are people all over the world who share your interest, and may have something to share with you. A blog is a great way to share your passion with the world, and connect with people from all over.  Why not give it a shot and see what people from the rest of the world have to say!


If you have a blog you would like us to link on NEPA Blogs, or know of a blog you think we should link, please let us know! You can always drop us a line at nepablogs@gmail.com!

Three from one

Michelle has been very hard at work tracking down blogs to add to the NEPA Blogs link list, and I...have not. The closest I came to adding a blog this past week turned out to be one Michelle added over a month ago! These three blogs are just some of the many that Michelle has located and put on the list to be added.

These blogs are written under two different names, but they're all by the same person! As Catherine Shefski she writes the All Piano blog (http://allpiano.wordpress.com/), a blog which is, unsurprisingly, all about piano. In this guise, Catherine is a piano teacher who has taught at many institutions (see her linked bio for a full list!), and currently teaches at The Music Studio just outside of Scranton. From her bio there:

Catherine Shefski received her undergraduate degree from Smith College. After graduation, she enrolled in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, England where she studied with Carola Grindea, founder of the European Piano Teacher’s Association (EPTA) and earned an LGSM Diploma in Piano Performance and Pedagogy. In 1982 she received her M. Mus. Degree in Piano Performance from New England Conservatory in Boston, MA.

...A former faculty member of Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, Ms. Shefski has also held teaching positions at Wilkes Community Conservatory and Doylestown Community Conservatory. She currently teaches over forty piano students at her studio in Northeast Pennsylvania.

But Catherine is also a published author of urban paranormal fiction (The Doppelganger Song) who maintains an eponymous blog under the pen name of Caitlin Sumer (http://caitlinsumer.wordpress.com/). Here she writes not only about her own works of fiction, but provides reviews of and commentary on the works of others.

In addition to these two she also maintains a Tumblr blog, Not Just Piano (http://notjustpiano.tumblr.com/). It's primarily a freeform photo/image blog, and as the title suggests, not all of the posts are related to piano - though many of the earliest ones are.

Three aspects of one person, expressed in blog form. Do you know of anyone else in Northeastern Pennsylvania who has chosen to creatively express their innermost self through the medium of blogging? If so, we'd like to list them here on NEPA Blogs!

The DNA Project Band

I received a Facebook message from one of my friends, Allan. He requested that I give his band's new blog a mention on NEPA Blogs. We are birthday buddies, both born on New Years Eve.....so I couldn't refuse his request. Allan is a member (and the webmaster) of "The DNA Project", a four member rock band from the bowels of the Poconos.

The DNA Project Band -- Your genetic building block of kickass music!
http://thednaprojectband.com
@The_DNA_Project on Twitter

As I mentioned before, this blog was just created as an offshoot of their main website http://www.thednaproject.net. The band is going through a webpage redesign and decided to incorporate a blog as a way of better connecting with their fans.

From the About:

Just WHO IS The DNA Project?

Simply put we are four guys with a mission and purpose. We love making music, we love sharing what we create with you, and we just f*****g LOVE MUSIC! Need anything else be said?

(A)l was created implanted in the genes of human parents by Apollo, greek god of music, and Selene, goddess of the moon. A creature of the night who sings nearly constantly, his words can move people to tears, lust, love and war.

Dave is the bastard child of Ares god of war, and Eris Goddess of Discord. seriously his musical nature is dark and foreboding, and his physical nature matches it don't piss him off.

Chaz well Chaz happened when Dionysus went on one of his many benders during a festival and got all hot and heavy with Athena, goddess of city, science and war. His fingertips having been blessed by Hermes control an unbelievable speed in lead guitar playing and his warlike nature comes through in the utter beautiful chaos of his solos.

Nitro Nick offspring of Zeus and Artemis (goddess of the wild) watch out.. his drumsticks have minds of their own and will impale you if you re not careful. But his beats summon all races of beings to march towards the cause that is The DnA Project.

Yeah that's us till we change this JAM ON!

The website and blog have links to their music (free download!) and videos to their performances. They do something really cool at their shows - improv song creation using interaction with their fans. Think Drew Carey's Improv-a-Ganza meets the bastard brothers of Green Day. Check out the video. Pretty neat stuff.

Also, *shameless plug*

The DNA Project has a show planned on Saturday, December 3rd at Luna Rossa on Rte 209 in Gilbert, PA. Some of the details are still being worked out, from my understanding. However, the band invites you to stop by and listen to some killer music.

~Michelle

The Plastic Waffle

Happy Thursday everyone! Time for another mailbag submission. Our latest mailbag submission arrived yesterday to the NEPA Blogs Gmail account from Bob Merc (a huge Todd Rundgren fan) who would like us to add his blog to our ever expanding blog roll.

"Greetings ! My name is Bob Merc from Scranton, Pa. and I have a music blog called "The Plastic Waffle" I would like to have it listed at your site.. the addy is www.pwaffle.blogspot.com Thank you!!! "

The URL is http://www.pwaffle.blogspot.com
You can also follow him on Twitter: @BarreChordz

The Plastic Waffle blog features a new and different recording artist every day of the week. These featured blog posts contain faction information, trivia, videos and reviews about the artist. There are also a ton of links directing you to the best places to buy concert tickets, musical equipment and get musical lessons (if you are so inclined). You can learn more about Bob's focus for this blog by reading the first blog post here.

If you would like to feature your blog/list you in our blog roll, please send an email to nepablogs@gmail.com with your info!

~Michelle

The Groove Music Life

A blog submitted via the NEPA Bloggers Facebook group:

The Groove Music Life
http://thegroovemusiclife.com/

From the "About" page:
The Groove Music Life is a total reboot of what once started out as Stuck In A Pagoda With Motoko Aoyama. It is wholly devoted to intelligent musical commentary on Japanese pop and Western punk rock, alternative, and independent music, placing both musical cultures on equal footing, as well as promoting the wider legal availability of Japanese pop and rock acts to Western and European music fans by way of a grass roots campaign to obtain live and retail access of these acts to the general public at large.


From the "About the Author" page:
CJ Marsicano is a writer and musician from the Northeastern Pennsylvania area. He has written about music and pop culture for such online publications as Scoops, The Bagpipe Report, and Project X, and conducted interviews with such noteworthy musicians as Mike Watt (Minutemen, fIREHOSE, The Stooges), Bif Naked, and Brendan Canty (Fugazi, Rites of Spring, Bob Mould). In addition to his music blog The Groove Music Life, he maintains worship blogs for Morning Musume vocalist Reina Tanaka (So Hot She Shits Fire) and SDN48/ex-AKB48 member Megumi Ohori (My Sweet Meetan, in collaboration with Christopher Knuody of Chuo Dori)

He is presently wrapping work on his first novel, Here Is The Wonderland, as well as a non-fiction project presently in the embryonic stage.

If you're from Northeastern Pennsylvania, live in Northeastern Pennsylvania, or blog about Northeastern Pennsylvania, we'd love to link your blog! Contact us through the NEPA Bloggers Facebook group, drop us a line at nepablogs@gmail.com, or leave a message in the comments!

MAYDAY! Music Festival

I found this through convoluted means: Someone hit the NEPA Blogs site by way of a Google search for "mayday nepa." The only way I figure they could have wound up here was because of a tweet that appeared in the live updates for NEPA Twibe:

NEPA Blogs
May 24, 2011 ... NEPA Twibe - NEPA Twitter Users · LeesaCee: RT @MAYDAYMusicFest: MAYDAY is THIS Sunday at Kirby Park, Wilkes-Barre, PA. NOON-DUSK. ...

So, naturally, I drilled down a bit and found this:
 
MAYDAY Music Fest
http://www.maydaymusicfest.com/
Sunday, May 29, 2011
A music festival to benefit Soldiers' Angels
Kirby Park
Wilkes-Barre, PA
Noon - Dusk
Rain or Shine!


Visit our official blog to check out artist profiles and all the happenings!

Which of course brought me here:

http://www.maydaymusicfest.info/

Welcome to the official Blog of the 4th annual MAYDAY! Music Festival.

MAYDAY! first started in 2008 and continues to take place every Memorial Day weekend at Kirby Park, which is located alongside the Susquehanna river, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. All proceeds are donated to Soldier's Angels (http://www.soldiersangels.org/).

MAYDAY! features more than 50 musical acts (with an emphasis on electronic dance music and hip-hop, with some indie rock too!) performing on 6 stages as well as plenty of vendors, artists, great food and more!

This year's event will take place on Sunday, May 29, 2011. The festival starts at 12:00NOON and ends at 8:00PM sharp. MAYDAY! is an all-ages, family friendly, rain or shine event. Admission and parking are free.

Don't forget to visit the official MAYDAY! homepage at http://www.maydaymusicfest.com/

Thanks for reading and stay tuned!

I wish we had known about this sooner! The Mayday Music Festival is this Sunday. Check out their blog for details - and stay tuned, because this is an annual event!