wishes everyone a happy New Year! We are being positive about the year ahead and what it will bring. Stay sharp: http://bit.ly/OR-Home

Jingle Jam 2010 was a success!

Play It Forward's Samantha Fisher just reported that the charity show raised $1,875.00 which is enough to purchase a drum line for Imagine Careers Academy. We are glad the goal was achieved and were happy to be a part of this show, it was a good time! Thanks to all of the artists that donated their time, you can check them out HERE. In addition, HEC-TV was there filming a documentary about this great cause, thanks to them, as well and to the Old Rock House for donating the venue for the cause on this night.

Christmas is 6 weeks away. If you're a fan & care to buy direct, we made it easy, you won't have to leave the page. http://bit.ly/OR-Store

'Mea Culpa' live & acoustic w/ studio edit

'A New Thing' live w/ studio edit

Rock Artist Of The Year? Ockum's Razor nominated for 'Rock Artist Of The Year' at Somojo Radio! http://bit.ly/VoteOR

We are giving away our new EP 'Pusher' for FREE in October to those who join our monthly e-mail blast: http://bit.ly/OR_Rocktober

'Two Thieves' live, studio edit

This is a finished live video with the studio recording version of the song. The credits are all in the description on You Tube.

'Pusher' EP received well at the STL Music Press:

Last Friday we received a well thought-out and positive review of the new EP 'Pusher' from the Saint Louis Music Press. The post also contains an exclusive, no-strings-attached, free download of 'Pusher' below the review. So, if you missed the compilation that was posted online briefly with it,you can still get it from the STL Music Press. The reason that the compilation was removed was mainly because of Bandcamp now charging artists for downloads and because of a misunderstanding between the two people that put it together initially. Enjoy!

'Pusher' featured on FREE digital comp. by G.E. Productions:

GE Productions presents you with 18 songs for FREE download by some of the Saint Louis areas most eclectic artists. The compilation features our title track 'Pusher' from the new EP. In addition, to the acoustic song 'Shadow'. Also, featuring tracks by Sinfinis, Murder Happens, Shinma, Spiral-Shaped Mind, Thanatos Eternal, Glitch Factor, SMP & Sons Of Black Mass. Enjoy!

Ken from Ghetto Electro mentions,"Jason Bazinet from SMP has played drums on tour with bands such as Front Line Assembly & Chemlab. Shinma's song The Noh Agents V.3 was inspired by David Mack's comic book Kabuki which was on Invisible Records, but now on a subsidirary of Marvel. He supports & promotes the shinma song & has had it on his myspace page for quite some time.
SMP has also had songs on a few Invisible Records compilations. Each band on the compilation is doing really well & trying to get out there!"

$5.00 of each ticket bought for 9/15 @ Busch goes to the STL Stray Rescue, get them @ Indio.fm : http://bit.ly/IndiofmNight

Ockum's Razor @ Busch Stadium & On The Hype Machine, Wow!

Ockum's Razor will be performing at Busch Stadium on Sept. 15th before the Cards/Cubs game for In-dio.fm night! We have tickets at a discounted price up until Sept. 1st, all of the info. you need if interested in getting them is as follows: http://bit.ly/IndiofmNight

Also, another cool thing for sharing on Facebook & Twitter, is the new song 'Pusher' that is on a few sites right now. One is the Hype Machine, a micro-blogging site that is aggregated from other music blogs, the link to that is below:


Get this widget →

Special thanks to Hype Tune for the feature, be sure to check out their blog here: http://bit.ly/HypeTune

Friday's show in Jeff. City, MO. was just cancelled by the venue & Sat. we'll not be in Conway, AR. due to circumstances beyond our control.

New shows posted in MO, IL, & AR. You can also easily share each event or each song via Facebook here: http://ping.fm/NeEzk

'Fear Of The Unknown' from the new full-band/electric EP & the acoustic version are FREE downloads this week! http://bit.ly/aDoapM

Sport our song 'Two Thieves' on pages that accept html & share in your posts, if you care to support :

'Two Thieves' by Ockum's Razor was accepted into this campaign below. Not going to bug the heck out of everyone with this. Just wanted to let you know, if you care to support us and help us gain a little more exposure, then here is an opportunity to do so. Allow us to explain. Below is what the image looks like for our DEMO TAPE for the Toyota 'Rock The Space' II competition and it is as follows:



To copy the code for this song, simply click the 'Share' button on the widget above. Note that there is a 'Vote' button to the right of that. When voting begins that will be active. Your support will help make our song more viral and we appreciate any and all support greatly. Lastly, you can always come back to this blog to grab this from this post, or by going to our 'Grab Box' at the bottom of this page. In the 'Widgets' tab you will see our band picture at the bottom w/ the title of this competition in the header. You can also copy the code there. In addition, if you want something a little more simple and smaller looking, we also created an image link to the page w/ our demo tape on it. That is located in the 'Banners' tab of our grab box. It is located in the first spot there, you can't miss it. I cannot provide a link to that directly, but it's appearance is as follows:



*Copy & paste this unique url shortened for micro-blog posts here: http://mysp.ac/2ThievesWidget

FREE 21 & up show announcement in Pontoon Beach, IL. & the Pusher EP available digitally for $3.99 : http://bit.ly/OR-Home

FREE download of the week in honor of Memorial Day/ Metal Streamer feature:

In honor of all of our service men & women this week's FREE download of the week is :

Memories by ockumsrazor

Special thanks to Metal Streamer for featuring us on their website!

Where to get digital downloads of the 'Pusher' EP as of now :

The 'Pusher' EP is now available for $3.99 on the following sites:
(Mp3's are $0.99 & make your own ringtones for $1.99)

CD BABY, I TUNES, E MUSIC, UNHEARD RADIO &
MY MUSIC SITE.

(My Music Site is where you can make your own ringtones if you like.)

New shows added in MO, IL, & AK. More to come. Mp3's from the new EP are all $0.99 and ringtones available also. http://bit.ly/OR-Home

FREE download of the week + 2 radio shows to inform O.R. fans about :

This week's FREE download of the week is 'Mea Culpa' and it is an acoustic song.

Mea Culpa by ockumsrazor

In addition, we have two radio shows that I was informed that we will be on this week:

The first is a new show to the ever-evolving Reputation Label website, it is entitled, 'Ringmaster Review'. He is doing a short special on our new
full-band/electric music and will be playing a song that will be new to their station also. Tune in this Tuesday afternoon (5/25/10) @ 3pm CST as it is aired @ 9pm UK time. Note: When you visit the site, look in the drop down menu of the 'Chat' tab of the main page, as this is also a social network and e-zine.

The second is a site that is new to Ockum's Razor and we are honored to be a part of it! Renegade Radio will be airing us on one of their shows entitled, 'Icehouse' this Thursday night (5/27/10). Show starts @ 7pm CST.

Enjoy the free download and thanks to DJ Ringmaster and DJ Iceberg for their support!
*(We will remind you the day of show w/ a status update for both shows.)*

FREE download of the week!

Chaperone by ockumsrazor


'Chaperone' acoustic is available for FREE download from Mon. May 17th to Mon. May 24th, enjoy! Don't forget to vote for us in the Metro Mix HOT 5 competition. It ends this Friday. Easy voting process, no signup's required. Thanks!

Vote Ockum's Razor in the Metro Mix 'Hot 5' Competition!

Metro Mix Saint Louis is conducting the first annual 'Hot 5' competition and Ockum's Razor is involved in it. We would appreciate your vote here: http://bit.ly/Vote4OR The first round ends this Friday, May 21st. Help us make it to the next round!

Midnight Madness - Episode 16

Special thanks to Midnight Madness and St. Luniverse for providing this service.

St. Luniverse (along with our permission) provided our live video of 'Two Thieves' for this along with a plethora of other bands videos, all of which he has filmed and edited. Here is some more info. on Midnight Maddness and it is as follows:

Midnight Madness premiered on Pegasys TV on Wednesday 12-02-09 at 10:30 PM on channel 11 in Enid Oklahoma on Sudden Link Cable Systems. Midnight Madness is a music video website at http://midnightmadnessrocks.webs.com/, and you can contact Midnight Madness midnightmadnessrocks@gmail.com, and it has rock, pop, and metal videos from local, regional, and big name bands from today and yesterday.

Hope to see your faces tomorrow night at the Voodoo Lounge, so we can melt them off. Seriously, though, we start the night out @ 9pm.

The place to go to hear 'Pusher' & 'A New Thing' from the new EP & FREE download of the week:

We created our own social network HERE and if you add the Ockum's Razor profile there, you may stream these two songs there. 'Pusher' and 'A New Thing' are two of the four songs now available on CD Baby & Unheard Radio right now for $0.99 each, or $3.99 for the whole EP. They are not uploaded anywhere right now. You can log in w/ Facebook connect and create your profile pretty quick. Stop by and check it out if you like. In time we will do exclusive content and giveaways there, stay sharp...

Here is the FREE download of the week:

The Question by ockumsrazor

*In our last band practice, we rehearsed a full-band/electric version of this and turned it into a punk rock type of song. We will probably perform it at one of our next two shows. This version is acoustic. Enjoy!

A nice message/review about one of our songs from OMC TV:

Hey guys,

"I have to got to do this for you, because one of your songs has grown on me and impressed me, so feel free to use this any way you see fit.

The Great Big Wheel stands out as one of the most sophisticated, yet well put together, songs around today. The vocals are world-class and flow into your mind. Ockum's Razor wrote and recorded a song that stands alone and it reaches past boundaries most artists haven't even thought about. We say it's a musical masterpiece!"

OMC TV - Steve Lovesee

(To check out OMC TV, you can visit) : OMC TV's Website

Thanks, Steve!

Topher, Viner, Ryan & Voodoo of Ockum's Razor

FREE download of the week!

Secret of the Way Things Are Ominous Spirit Mix by ockumsrazor

The FREE download of the week, is another acoustic track with some St. Louis guests on it, the song is also an alternate version of it's predecessor. It features Casey Govero from 'Kharma' & also the band 'Cronus' and he plays keyboard on this rendition of 'Secret Of The Way Things Are'. In addition, Donna Z. makes her vocal recording debut with some backround vocals in it, as well. Enjoy!

Behold, the 'Pusher' EP is here!

The new four-song, full-band/electric EP is now available online for digital download. Visit our website's home page and click on the CD Baby image, or just click the widget above and it will take you there. FREE 'Two Thieves' ringtone is available on our website also, look for the 'FREE Media' sub-header, directly under the 'Retail Store' header.

FREE download of the week!

Fear Of The Unknown (Acoustic) by ockumsrazor

'Fear Of The Unknown' (Acoustic) by Ockum's Razor, features Vijoy Rao on percussion.

Tune into http://ping.fm/MXeM4 Friday @ 3:30pm CST to hear 'Pusher' from the new EP! 50,000 listeners strong! (8:30pm GMT)

'Fear Of The Unknown' from the new Pusher EP is now posted. Get a FREE MP3 of it here w/ sign up to Reverbnation: http://bit.ly/Fear-FanExclusive

FREE download of the week!

Intercessory Wish by ockumsrazor

This is another acoustic track that features Dave Brickey on bass and also Chris Keale on drums. Both perform in several bands and they are as follows: Vijoy Rao & The Removers, The Homewreckers, The Stephanie Brickey Band. If you have a Sound Cloud account, feel free to post a comment if you like, for lyrics and synopsis of song visit our website and go to the lyrics sub-header. Enjoy!

Please vote 4 us, we've been in the Chart shows on Reputation, we're in the right column. (Check box) http://bit.ly/Vote-OR-Reputation

FREE 'Two Thieves' ringtone available now! http://bit.ly/2ThievesTone For a FREE download of the Mp3: http://bit.ly/OR-FanList & sign up!

FREE download of the week!

Dreams by ockumsrazor

'Dreams' is an acoustic track that features Nicole Lucas, Shana Lawson & Ami Amore' on it, we will keep this up for a week as a FREE download. If you have a Sound Cloud account, you may comment on any of our tracks if you like, we feature widgets like this on our website too. Enjoy!

Live chat today around noon CST, to participate go to http://bit.ly/OR-Forum *Yesterday's In-dio.fm show will be repeated at this time also.

Log onto http://ping.fm/mRutc for the debut of 'Pusher' & 'Two Thieves' from the new Ockum's Razor EP on In-dio.fm 5pm CST TODAY!!

'Two Thieves' now up, check it out, 2 get your FREE Mp3 sign up 2 our fan list. The 'Pusher' EP debut is tomorrow 4/9 at 5pm CST @ In-dio.fm

is sending out a FREE mp3 of 'Two Thieves' to all on the Ockum's Razor monthly e-blast on Good Friday. Email ockumsrazor@gmail.com 4 yours.

35 sec. teasers of the new EP by Ockum's Razor up now!

35 sec. teasers up 4 the new 'Pusher' EP by Ockum's Razor! See home page 4 the debut @ In-dio.fm April 9th @ 5pm. http://bit.ly/OR-Store

In-dio.fm To Debut The New EP 'Pusher' By Ockum's Razor On April 9th!

Kane from IN-DIO.fm, will be broadcasting the debut of the new EP 'Pusher' by Ockum's Razor on April 9th. Tune in and you will hear it at 5pm CST, as Topher & Viner will join him from the home of In-dio.fm, Shock City Studios in St. Louis, MO. In addition, the show will be repeated the following day, at 12pm CST. We are excited about the new music and it has been along time coming. Alot of obstacles have been overcome and Mike Ryan from Mikealize Media has done an outstanding job on the music that he recorded, mixed and mastered. We are proud to have produced this new EP together with him. If you want to be the first to hear the new tracks, please tune in and if you want a FREE copy of the much anticipated studio version of 'Two Thieves' send an email to ockumsrazor@gmail.com with your name and zipcode. We will ask you if you mind being placed on our monthly e-blast. If you accept the offer, then we will email you with your free mp3 starting Easter weekend. Stay sharp for a live chat with the band soon, as we want to hear what you think of the new stuff and chat for a bit. We will post that as a show listing in the near future. Thanks for the interest!

DJ MJ spinning an extended feature on Ockum's Razor during WMC @8pm EST, 7pm CST tonight! http://bit.ly/ben3tM

Directions & info. on the party on Saturday night in St. Charles: http://bit.ly/baqgQd

The Wyrd Ways Rock Show features Ockum's Razor as the spotlight band in this weeks show! http://bit.ly/aeNCqL

Brand new layout on the Ockum's Razor main myspace page, stop by and check it out if you like! http://bit.ly/9eH4V8

Tagging Mp3's & A How To Guide On Submitting Them. (Musician Monday #6)

Last week was a busy week, so I am picking up where we left off on internet radio and submitting to stations, etc.� How To Create MP3s So Your Fans Will Always Find You Via The Indie Band Survival Guide Blog is a great reference that I recently ran across on how to properly tag your band's mp3 with your band name and song title. It also shows you how to add the meta data that will allow the digital interface to read your band and song title. These are very specific directions on how to do this and are beneficial for any musician to learn to do.

Music Nomad also passes on some excellent advice on how to submit your band's music to podcasts. In addition, it adds some sites that allow an artist to list their music for free, similar to other paid sites that allow the podcaster to download a quality, tagged mp3 of your band's music that is safe for podcasting. You can see that we use one of these free services on our website now: Official Website Of Ockum's Razor - Radio

Ockum's Razor on Indie's Top 10 @4pm CST (5pm EST) Mon. 3/15: http://ping.fm/QENw0 New shows posted too! http://ping.fm/S9AuG

P3CET4G48D9F (Technorati Code)

The 'Pusher' EP artwork unveiled, FREE 'Two Thieves' Mp3 & More Comin' At Ya!!

Note: We will be debuting the title track and will announce that in the coming weeks. In addition, we will be offering a FREE download of 'Two Thieves' with an email sign up to our monthly e-blast. If you want to reserve yours now, email : ockumsrazor@gmail.com

- In the subject header post (Sign Me Up) & in the body post the following:
(Your name, zip code and if you care to share any other info. that is your choice.)
For example, if you want text alerts to shows in your area, supply your phone #.

*For more info. on us: Official Website Of Ockum's Razor - aboutus

*For lyrics visit : Official Website Of Ockum's Razor - lyrics

(Also, our new google profile) : Ockum's Razor - Google Profile

O.R. on The Scorpion's Lair from 8-10pm EST (7-9pm CST) http://ping.fm/rbvgA Sunday night! (TONIGHT)

Special thanks to IM Radio for making us a featured artist on their homepage, we appreciate it! http://ping.fm/TvZJG

DJ Turbo jammin' some O.R. Wed. 3/3 from 1-4 CST (2-5 EST) if you are online and want to tune into Thor Radio: http://ping.fm/1WZsx

60 Million Americans Listen To Internet Radio - Musician Monday #5

This is from the website Hypebot: According to a Bridge Ratings study of internet radio listeners, 60 Million Americans Listen To Internet Radio during an average week. 84% of those regularly listen to online simulcasts of terrestrial radio and 62% listen to net only stations. The study predicts that by 2015, 77 million Americans will be regular listeners of net radio, and by 2016 net-only radio and terrestrial simulcasts will have equal online listenerships.

Internet Radio Stations Play More Artists Than Broadcast Stations according to data supplied by Streamsurf, from a blog post by Audio4Cast. Internet Radio Stations Are the New Wave is a post from the New York Times.

What this means for the indie artist? It does not take a brain surgeon to figure out that this is a niche to jump aboard and take advantage of. However, I can tell you from personal experience that it is alot of work getting your work submitted and played, etc. However, I must mention a great resource that will help you right off the bat, as it did Ockum's Razor. If you are a rock, metal, or just plain brutal sounding band this is for you. (Please note that he is working on expanding genres and starting to add pop, etc.) Official Metal Castle has a blog with over a hundred stations and dj's for you to submit music to. All that you need to know is that you must follow the provided guidelines by that particular station or dj in doing so. This does not guarantee you will get played, but I know some are always on the hunt for new music. Make sure to have your song in MP3 format and tag it to their guidelines. For example, OckumsRazor__JigOfTheJuggernaut and this will quickly allow them to see what artist and what song title you are providing them. Happy submitting!

Radio Ugly Independent Movie

Radio Ugly 'The Movie' in partnership with the indie radio station is unveiling the website for the the upcoming independent film Sunday, February 28th. Ockum's Razor is being featured on the soundtrack and 'The Great Big Wheel' was chosen. Thanks to Ken and the crew over at Radio Ugly for their continued support!

Becoming a web master in one easy to use browser! (M.M. #4)

(Musician Monday - Installment Four):

I remember the days of not being able to update our band's website, because of not having the knowledge on how to do it, well thanks to 'Bandzoogle' the playing field has been leveled. We just recently got the new website up and is still in the works, but we already have alot of content up and it was easy to do. Read excerpts from this post from a recent 'Hypebot' article below and you will quickly understand why this site was in the Music Connection's top 103 web sites for the music biz in 2009.

Bandzoogle is a new self-service web-site and marketing platform for musicians. "This is the first time musicians have been able to create a completely custom website, right in their web browser. No other musician web site builder offers this design flexibility." said Bandzoogle founder Chris Vinson. Integrated with Bandzoogle's site building tools is a free direct to fan marketing and sales platform, including email and mobile blasts, a no-fee music and merchandise store, blogs, podcasting, and fan clubs. Bandzoogle powered sites also automatically update social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and detailed fan stats track the effectiveness of promotional campaigns. New features include: Full integration with ArtistData.com - In addition to Bandzoogle's existing tools integration with ArtistData enables members to easily post content to dozens more sites such as Last.FM, PureVolume, and Eventful. Mobile fan clubs - Send text message blasts to fans from within Bandzoogle. A new $9.95 per month Lite Plan includes a free .COM address. For more from this post visit the 'Hypebot' post by Bruce Houghton :

Bandzoogle Upgrades Web Site Builder And Music Marketing Platform - hypebot




*Click the image/link above and try it out for FREE right now!

This week's 'FREE Merch Friday' Winners Announced!

Russ Russell, Jerry Rabushka & Tina Ashing-Forsythe are this weeks winners! Congrats and be sure to send us an email to: rockums@yahoo.com and thanks for participating. Stay sharp for another one next week and if you haven't checked out the new website yet, stop by and check out the progress!

Short O.R. Url's For Easy Sharing Everywhere:

We now have a quick reference for some of our media and sites, where the url is shortened, this way if you like a particular song or site it is easy to share everywhere! Click the image above and F.Y.I. the link is on our blog permanently now too, directly above the 'Topher's Topics' bundle for RSS feeds via Google Reader. Just a head's up, thanks!

The brand new website is up and running now, check it out if you like, still a work in progress. http://bit.ly/cbOz5a

Tips for Musicians to tap into Twitter. 'Musician Monday' Pt. Tres

Twitter has become a great source for short posts of media, or status updates, in the form of micro-blogging. The maximum allotted characters are one-hundred and forty. When I first set up twitter I went on google and did some searches on twitter, learned the lingo, then watched for how-to-guides. I found lots of great resources and I will touch on a few in this post. The first thing I did was follow some like-minded tweeters in the Saint Louis, MO. area and soon learned that, over time, some don't follow back. Twitter then introduced the twitter lists and I was even more confused on my approach. Once I got a small amount of followers going, I made sure to list our band on every twitter-directory site that I could find. Most of the twitter directories that we are on can be found on our list: @Ockumsrazor1/Resources For Musicians. (Now this list is dissolved into others, just google the keywords: twitter directories.) Also, another great site to be on that I must mention is Twibes. It is more than just your average directory site as it is also comprised of very comprehensive categories, lists and groups. Definitely worth the time and effort. Adam Loving, the site's administrator, is now beginning to offer a thorough webinar on how to do pretty much anything on twitter.


Another thing to keep in mind, being a band and all, is that you do not want to make it all about you and promoting your music act. There are numerous twitter-tip sites out there, but one relevant post that I found is as follows: 5 Things Every Band Should Know About Twitter. Tweeps like users that follow back and list them, etc. I like to also shout out all of our new followers to welcome them, etc. Re-tweeting others posts, use of hash tags, participating in 'Music Monday' and 'Follow Friday' will increase your chances of being followed. You will quickly notice how other tweeple perceive you, as to how they list you. There will be profiles that choose not to follow back. This is just a fact. I have even found that users purposely follow us to be shouted from our profile, getting them more exposure, then unfollowing. I just don't do it again for them. I have even found a way to address this problem too. I created a list just for this scenario, because of the fact that we follow back everyone and list them, plus shout them out. When time allows, I will block these people, so I don't have to waste time on following the same people or having them follow and then unfollow.
A good site that I use is Tweepi and it helps by doing bulk unfollows. However, twitter recently made them complicate the process of doing so, by making one manually click on each user not reciprocating your follow. Another thing to look for when trying this out is that if you have recently followed someone, make sure to give them a few days or so, in which to follow you back. Once you have allowed a window of time, you can see when each person's last tweet was and whatnot. Keep that in mind when on twitter following a person, as well. In addition, the best two twitter browsers that I personally enjoy were listed in our first 'Musician Monday' post. HootSuite and TweetDeck are good ways to keep up with not only twitter, but a couple of other social networking sites, as well. Last, but not least, when posting a link from twitter you want to use a url shortener. Some browsers may provide a shortener for you, however, I recommend that you use a site like bit.ly.


For those who have not seen our blog yet, I went back and added links to particular sites, and also added a link for you to email the post and also to share it on any social networking site of your choice for easy sharing. Stay sharp...

FREE Merch Friday Part Deux! http://bit.ly/8zhRqI
*Also, info on upcoming live chat's w/ us and the new music coming, stay sharp...

FREE Merch Friday Part Deux Winners!

This week's winners of the Facebook FREE Merch Contest are Ken Lytle & Teddy Kingery! Congrats, fellas. Send an email to us at rockums@yahoo.com and let us know what piece of merch you want. Thanks for participating, we appreciate it. Tune in next week same time and same channel for the next round of the contest if you want to participate and win something for practically nothing. Also, for anyone reading this post, notice the live chat box on the right of the page, towards the bottom. When we start debuting some of the new full-band/electric music, we plan to do some live-chat's via Meebo. Very easy site to set up an account for and it is worth it if you enjoying chatting. It is similiar to Facebook chat, however, the cool thing about this site is that you can add other accounts and chat w/ all kinds of friends if you like. We will be doing an opt-in live chat for peeps that want to discuss the new music. Stay sharp...

Sound Cloud Player & why it's rad.

Easy to share player that is optimized by Hype Machine now too. Find contacts on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Gmail, Yahoo, Windows Live and you can even import them from a CSV file. Many music bloggers use this site and another cool attribute is that anyone can share music with you, whether they are a member of Sound Cloud, or not. For future reference to Sound Cloud and our music, note further down on the right of the page is an image w/ direct link to our profile. Here is the player:

Latest tracks by ockumsrazor

The Facebook Fan Page & How To Get Started.

For the second installment of 'Musician Monday' I thought it would be a good idea to touch on Facebook Fan Pages. If you missed last week's post on how to save alot of time on posting onto multiple sites, etc. You can view it in our blog archive, or scroll further down the page.

Lately I've gotten alot of people asking about how we got our facebook fanpage lay-out looking the way it does. When I first got on facebook, I had some old school friends wanting me to get on there, so I did. Then I decided to make a page for our band and quickly learned that it was not as easy as I thought. I was also spending some considerable time on Reverbnation at the same time and saw that you can make a fan page from there. (For more on ReverbNation, check out their blog by clicking link.) Since I had my own profile on facebook, I started the process and after a few tries I got it. The reason that it is important to have a fan page is that you can have an unlimited amount of fans that opt in, as opposed to a profile page that will only allow up to 5000 friends. Another excellent attribute about fan pages is that they allow FBML, also known as, Face Book Markup Language. It is an html-based language just for facebook.

Once I learned the above facts, I stumbled on two really helpful ladies that I have to mention and credit for their great resources. First is Madalyn Sklar from Social Networks For Musicians. She has some free tutorials on her site and also some more in-depth one's for a small fee. D.I.Y. musicians should be able to figure it out on your own and if you can't, her resources are affordable and worth the investment if you cannot do it yourself. Second is Ariel Publicity who has some great resources to make your facebook fan page pop, as she explains it. In addition, Reverbnation has been adding more resources for musicians recently, and those will help you too.
These three sites are a great place to start learning more of what you can do to build you own band's fan page. It will take some time to get there, but the end result is worth it!

FREE Merch Friday

Another thing that we are going to try out is FREE Merch Friday's, something special for our fans, so congrats to Dawn Wilfong-Scott and Tammy Graham Sleczka for being the first two winners! Please send an email to us at rockums@yahoo.com w/ your mailing info. and be sure to let us know which merch piece you want. Hope your weekend rocks! Stay sharp...

Musician Monday (What is a musician to do?)

In an effort to try and expand this blog to more than just relevant updates on our music, etc. I have been thinking of extra ideas on possible segments to add. One that I think is a good idea is to share ideas on time savers and marketing techniques with other musicians. So, every Monday I plan to do a quick segment on something under this category. Hope you enjoy and please share your thoughts and comments below this blog post.

Social networking has become somewhat of a vital part in the life of a dedicated musician. The problem with this is one main factor. Time. Updating statuses, listing shows, promoting and all the other countless things that seem to pile up. Alot of musicians have simply relied on just their myspace site alone to network and get peeps to shows, etc. As you may or may not know, Facebook has become the new social network juggernaut and Myspace has declined in numbers and is more oriented towards music-lovers.In addition, their are countless existing and new social networks and music sites out there and seem to continually multiply everyday. Not to mention going out and promoting shows in person and getting yourself out there. What is a musician to do?

Out of following numerous online sources advice, being experimental and creative on my own. I have seemingly found a system that works for me. The first time-saver site that I came across is Ping.fm and it is great. There are many sites that you may already be on that you are unaware that you can update them all from one place. This is a great place to start. Notice everytime I send a ping out it gets listed on this blog. It gives little micro-blog updates on here every time I update a status, etc. from ping. I like it because it continues to add content on here, inbetween regular blog entries. Also, I have it synced to our fan page on Facebook. If you like this idea, you will need to use the facebook application NetworkedBlogs. From Ping.fm I can also update many other sites that are listed on our myspace site entitled The Razor's Edge. It is kind of a visual hub for our online presence. The link for that and the accompany page for facebook are on the right-side further down this blog.

A couple of others that we use are FanBridge and also ArtistData. I like fanbridge, first of all, because we already had one set-up. They recently added a FREE function to update Myspace, Facebook and Twitter accounts all at once. I use this inbetween pings or also for additional sites that I cannot send a ping from. Artistdata is another you need to check out. They are constantly adding new features and the beta version has recently been implemented. You can post a show and have that event synced to your Myspace and your Facebook and also have it sent to additional sites to announce your show and also remind peeps the day of show. You can update your statuses and both Artistdata and Fanbridge have other paid resources available. Last but not least, a few others that you may want to check out are Pixelpipe, Seesmic, HootSuite and TweetDeck. Pixelpipe allows you to update statuses, etc. but also you can upload a picture to multiple sites at once. Seesmic, which is now apart of Ping.fm too, is a downloadable browser in which you can utilize similiar to ping.fm but on a smaller scale. It is also like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck because these three are all used for Twitter and Facebook primarily. However, you can create columns to follow people's updates on twitter, facebook, etc. and the functions differ and range from showing twitter lists that you have made to using a column for following myspace updates, to seeing your comments and likes and also for sending them. One site even lets you follow your facebook fan page's posts. I hope that you spend a little time over the next week checking out these resources and be sure to have patience and take the time to get through set up. Just remember that you will be updating multiple sites and not just one, a mess up means that you will have to go into all the sites seperately and delete/re-do them manually. Utilize google if you have trouble with any of these sites, it can be your best friend online, at times. We hope you find this useful and remember, everyday sites are being standardized, this means even more benefits down the road! Stay sharp...

Special thanks 2 everyone 4 coming together 4 a great cause last night! Demand us in your town: http://bit.ly/7EhEWG See ya in April STL!

Which do you agree with and why? http://bit.ly/4YQojQ or http://bit.ly/dmsrcz *Comment here: http://bit.ly/bGMzfe

1/23/2010 - Today's indie world stage belongs to Ockum's Razor! http://ping.fm/oW9yD *Stop by and rate us and get some free mp3's.

Deadline to vote for us as Band Of The Year is Jan. 31st http://bit.ly/65aqEo *Email rockums@yahoo.com for tix to the 30th. Thanks!

Here is the link to The Rock Deli 27 http://bit.ly/4nF65y if you care to check out the show. Shout out to Kimmi, thanks!

On the Rock Deli 27 & this Sat. we will be band of the day at IndieSolo, email us for tix to the 30th! http://bit.ly/8zhRqI

The Rock Deli #27 & Indie Solo Band Of The Day

Starting on Wednesday, Jan. 20th the Rock Deli will be featuring 'The Great Big Wheel' on Kimmi's weekly show/podcast. The show will be up all week long: http://www.therockdeli.com

Also, Ockum's Razor will be the 'Band Of The Day' for Saturday, January 23rd over at: http://www.indiesolo.com

*Make sure to email us at rockums@yahoo.com for your tickets to the Josh Herr Memorial Concert!

Band Of The Year? New Compilations & more... http://bit.ly/5XUGRV

Josh Herr Memorial Show

*Email rockums@yahoo.com or message us for $5 advance tix.

In case you missed the Head Case Radio best of 2009 show, here is the podcast, OR is on it! http://bit.ly/6eSaZQ

If you have a music, press, media blog, etc. & want it listed here http://bit.ly/8zhRqI just leave a comment on our blog w/ the info. TY!