Below you’ll find all the independent and unsigned artists that were profiled on MusicKO in 2012.

Vincent Vega

The Bear Season

La Medio Siglo

The Blueberries

Miguel Campal

Picnic

Laura Chinelli

Erika Chuwoki

Matías Cantante

Los Pazientes

El Umbral

The following videos were also featured on the blog:

“Llevame” by Laura Chinelli

“Normal” by La Medio Siglo

“This Is Not A Test” by The Bear Season

“El Piso Se Va A Manchar” by Vincent Vega

“POU” by Closet

“Please Don’t Be Like Me” by Casablancas

“Decidir” by Andrea Deleón Santos

“Gigantes” by Orgánica

I also interviewed Pablo Faragó, and covered the release of his first solo album here.

Well, this is the last post of 2012. I want to wish you all a happy New Year, and thank you for your support. Keeping this blog alive takes me a huge amount of time, but it’s always something I do with a lot of conviction, a lot of determination and (most of all) a lot of illusion.

Always will.

Emilio

This is a list including these sites and apps that I regard as the finest of 2012. I’ve linked to the original posts on MusicKO. And in many cases, you’ll also find links to interviews with their founders and developers.

Tomorrow, I’ll post a list with all of the Uruguayan artists featured on MusicKO over the course of the year.

StoryAmp: The Place Where Musicians And Journalists Meet

SpotMeUp: Upload Your Music To Spotify

PumpYouUp: Free Indie Electronic Music (Interview with Robert Dede)

WildChords: An iPad Game That Lets You Become A Guitar Player
(Interview with Christoph Thür)

Veenue: Collaborate With Musicians From All Over The World
(Interview with Dario Zampetti)

SongSpin.fm: Discover And Share The Latest Sounds

Restorm: Letting Bands License And Sell Their Music
(Interview with Jonas Brander)

JamCloud: Like Hangouts, But Strictly For Music Lovers
(Interview with Jason Gruntra)

JazzCypher: Social Network For Jazz Musicians And Enthusiasts
(Interview with Chris)

OneSheet: Build A Rich Profile Page For Your Band

PitchImprover: All You Need To Play By Ear To Recognize Intervals And To Develop Perfect Pitch
(Interview with Anton Naumovets)

SoundSpar: Compete With Other Bands And Win New Fans

RecooMe: In Search Of The Ultimate Playlists
(Interview with Kailash Subedi)

1Band1Brand: New Bands & Fashion Brands (Interview with Kyle York)

GigValley: Like Facebook, But Only For Bands

FindYouSomeVinyl: A Search Engine For Nothing But LPs

Bandhack: Local Bands On Facebook (Interview with Josh Roberts)

Crowdbands: A Record Label Run By The People

Morrissey used to sing that one November spawned a monster, but as far as I’m concerned this November has been pretty terrific. Two major international artists landed on Uruguay for the first time right there and then: Beady Eye and Sonic Youth. Beady Eye headlined the first night of the brand-new festival “Primavera 0″, whereas Sonic Youth were the main attraction on on the following datel. I was fortunate to be there. This is what I had to say about Beady Eye’s show, and this is how I felt about Sonic Youth’s set.

Uruguayan artists featured over the course of the month included Vincent Vega and The Bear Season. I reviewed Vincent Vega’s eponymous debut and their newest single, whereas I featured The Bear Season’s latest video (“This Is Not A Test”).

For its part, the sites for musicians and music lovers that were reviewed on MusicKO on November were PlaylistHQ, Veenue, Myxer and PumpYouUp. And I also got the chance to talk to Veenue’s Dario Zampetti, and ask him all these things you’ve always wanted to ask him yourself, but never did.

October’s highlights included the release of Pablo Farago’s “Mantras” (a compilation of some of his finest work, as recorded over the past ten years), a post on electronic music pioneer Daphne Oram, and an article about the day Manhattan thought Radiohead would play a free concert. If anything, that post is worth a good look because it showcases how quickly a mere rumor can spread online nowadays, until everybody is repeating something that is plain wrong as if it were the gospel truth.

And as far as websites for music lovers were concerned, the startups I reviewed on October included ListnPlay, LyricStatus and MyDjSpace. And the one iPad app that I got to feature was WildChords, a game from these great folks at Ovelin that lets you learn to play the guitar. And by “great folks”, I mean it – just look at the interview they gave me! Thanks, guys!

And fans of Joy Division should check what happens when our favorite Mancunians meet some playmobil…

On November, I’m certain to review Vincent Vega’s self-debut album. I know them personally, I’ve been to a good couple of their shows, and I’ve pogoed with delirious abandon right at the front, along with the horde of misfits that follows them through light and shade.

Well, not really. They are an acoustic duo, and their live shows could perfectly be the recipient of a Nobel peace prize.

Vincent Vega

But I’ve been there, and I’ve greatly enjoyed their music throughout. I’ll be delighted to feature them on MusicKO this month. Check the blog later next week to read about them!

The best post of the whole month was undoubtedly the review of La Medio Siglo’s debut EP, “Altos Con Rulos”. La Medio Siglo is an emerging Uruguayan funk/rock band, and (as evidenced by “Altos Con Rulos”) they seem to have quite a bright path ahead of them.

I also managed to upload the newest videos of two artists that were previously featured on the blog: Laura Chinelli’s “Si Me Pierdo” and The Blueberries’ “London Eye”.

On the startup front, I covered the following five services: MPlayr, Nogeno, JamCloud, Restorm and MuseSpring. And while I only managed to conduct one interview in the whole month, it was a really enlightening one with Jason Grunstra from JamCloud.

And those of you who are always wondering in which ways music will be marketed and presented in the future might like to check the first app album ever, as released by Bjork.

More Uruguayan artists than you could shake a stick at were featured on MusicKO this month. These included Andrea Deleón Santos, Casablancas, ELSANTOREMEDIO and Closet. The videos for “Decidir” (Andrea Deleón Santos), “Please Don’t Be Like Me” (Casablancas) and “POU” (Closet) were all listed on the blog as the month ran its course. And the download link for ELSANTOREMEDIO’s first album was made available on this post.

I also managed to cover a good range of web apps and sites for musicians/music lovers on July. In order of appearance, these were LYRICSnMUSIC, OneSheet, Jazz Cypher and Fuse Trade. And as far as interviews were concerned, I did the digital equivalent of sitting down for a chat with Anton Naumovets from PitchImprover and Chris from Jazz Cypher.

And if you’re looking for an outright chance to relieve some tension, then check Incubattle out. By jingo, these Incubus folks do know how to promote an album!

I see many people have visited MusicKO as of late looking for information on how to play the 30 Day Song Challenge on Facebook. The post I recently published where I highlighted my 30 days of music seems to have motivated that.

I recall that I also had trouble getting started, so I decided to write this post. It basically tells you what to do in order to start posting videos once you have liked the page itself on Facebook.

This is the way it’s done:

1) Log in to Facebook.
2) Go to YouTube, and look up the video you want to post for that particular day.
3) Click on “Share”.
4) Click on the Facebook icon. This will open up a pop up (E, a separate window) that you will use to post the video to Facebook. This is done by addressing 30 Day Song Challenge (@30 Day Song Challenge), and then pasting (or typing) the information for that specific day (as found on the “Rules” section of the 30 Day Song Challenge page). This is the step that can confuse people. Look, a picture is worth a thousand words:

This Is How Videos Are Posted To Facebook When Playing The 30 Day Song Challenge

There. It wasn’t that tricky, was it? But we all definitely agree this info should be provided on the 30 Day Song Challenge page itself.

There is a game going around on Facebook named the 30 Day Challenge. Well, I have taken to it, and just for those who are curious-enough what my full month looks like, here you have the 30 songs filling it up:

Day 01 – Your favorite song Don’t Look Back In Anger (Oasis)
Day 02 – Your least favorite song Que Ves Cuando Me Mes (Divididos)
Day 03 – A song that makes you happy Mayor Of Simpleton (XTC)
Day 04 – A song that makes you sad Concrete Angel (Martina MacBride)
Day 05 – A song that reminds you of someone Wish I Could Fly (Roxette)
Day 06 – A song that reminds you of somewhere Last Goodbye (Jeff Buckley)
Day 07 – A song that reminds you of a certain event Red Red Wine (UB 40)
Day 08 – A song that you know all the words to Runaway Train (Soul Asylum)
Day 09 – A song that you can dance to Should I Stay Or Should I Go (The Clash)
Day 10 – A song that makes you fall asleep Everybody Hurts (REM)
Day 11 – A song from your favorite band Real Good Looking Boy (The Who)
Day 12 – A song from a band you hate With Or Without You (U2)
Day 13 – A song that is a guilty pleasure Baby (Justin Bieber)
Day 14 – A song that no one would expect you to love De Nada Sirve (No Te Va Gustar)
Day 15 – A song that describes you La Cienaga Just Smiled (Ryan Adams)
Day 16 – A song that you used to love but now hate Step Out (Oasis)
Day 17 – A song that you hear often on the radio Because Of You (Kelly Clarkson)
Day 18 – A song that you wish you heard on the radio Love Me Like The World Is Ending (Ben Lee)
Day 19 – A song from your favorite album 5.15 (The Who)
Day 20 – A song that you listen to when you’re angry Please Return It (The Posies)
Day 21 – A song that you listen to when you’re happy Going Mobile (The Who)
Day 22 – A song that you listen to when you’re sad I’ve Been High REM
Day 23 – A song that you want to play at your wedding You’re The Inspiration (Chicago)
Day 24 – A song that you want to play at your funeral Aozora (Lia)
Day 25 – A song that makes you laugh I’m Gonna Be 500 Miles (The Proclaimers)
Day 26 – A song that you can play on an instrument She (Elvis Costello)
Day 27 – A song that you wish you could play More Than Words (Extreme)
Day 28 – A song that makes you feel guilty Vulnerable (Roxette)
Day 29 – A song from your childhood Sacrifice (Elton John)
Day 30 – Your favorite song at this time last year Special Needs (Placebo)

Just for your information, Divididos is a band from Argentina, No Te Va Gustar is from my country (Uruguay) and “Aozora” is a song from the anime “Air” (a great yet depressing show).

And yes, I know who is on day number 13. I wrote so many posts about him that the song wound up nestled in my head.

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa…

Spinal Tap: Derek Smalls, David St Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel

If you visit the IMDB page for “This Is Spinal Tap” right now, you will discover that its rating can go all the way to 11.

This is a homage to the classic scene in the mockumentary in which guitarist Nigel Tufnel (played by Christopher Guest) proudly shows director Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) his trademark amp – an amp that can go all the way to 11.

Nigel’s response when questioned “Why don’t you make 10 be the top number and then make that a little louder?” by Marty?

As simple (and classic) as “These go to eleven”.

I’ve had the pleasure to interview Miguel Martín from LyricsGaps, a startup I reviewed two weeks ago, and which (as a non-native speaker of English) I found more than interesting.

Below you will find the first part of the interview. Part 2 (“Music & You”) can be read here.

Full Name: Miguel Martín
Age: 30
Startup: LyricsGaps.com
Position: CEO

PART I

THE STARTUP

Tell us a little about your startup. How was it conceived? What are its most distinctive features in your opinion?

I have been studying English since I was a child, and (in my case) the funniest and easiest way to learn the language was when teachers used songs. I think this is the best way of learning new vocabulary, as this allows you to practise your English everywhere.

What did the idea for LyricsGaps came to you?

It was a few months ago, when I was studying at the Official School of Languages in my city. I suddenly had the idea of mixing my two main interests, the music and the net.

What has been the response so far? In which countries has it been more successful?

Well, nowadays it is really difficult to answer this question, but I can tell you that during this time we have been very well-accepted online, and the number of users of lyricsgaps.com has been increasing day by day.

What features can we expect to see implemented in future revisions?

We are always thinking about how we can improve our site, for instance nowadays we are thinking about increasing the number of supported languages. And we are also thinking about adding rankings …

These are just two examples of the things we have to work on in the months to come here at lyricsgaps.com.

There is a certain tendency to demonize the Internet in the music industry. I think it is all a matter of perspective – it all depends on the uses it is put to. What is your opinion? In which areas has the Internet left an unquestionably positive mark?

For lyricsgaps.com, the Internet is it the way to get in contact with users across the whole world.

Our site is aimed at e-learning, and the way to continue growing is with the collaboration of our users

What advice could you give to anybody who is launching a music-related startup in the future? What are the obvious mistakes that should be avoided?

The one and only way to develop a new project is by trusting in your own ideas, and also working hard to develop them.

Continue to Part 2 (“Music & You”)