Open Mic Night at the Cafe Virtuale #1

Our inaugural Open Mic Night at the Cafe Virtuale. Just like a great open mic night at a 'non virtual' club there is a great mix of a whole range of music: smooth, raw, country, humourous, touching, whatever. plus some interesting commentary from myself and the Cafe Virtuale virtual staff.

The Audiocast is divided into eight segments each fifteen minutes long:

Segment 1 Ez Willis (Web Site)

Songs:

1. Rust Revisited
2. Into the Fold
3. Bastard Son

Segment 2 Bulls Hit (Web Page)

Songs

1. Tailspin
2. Closer
3. Gone for Good (Collaboration Version)

Segment 3 Better off Dad (Web Site)

Songs

1. Fall Away
2. It only Hurts
3. Fragile

Segment 4 Deidre Flint (Web Site)

Songs

1. We Fit Right
2. Kim Jong Il Against the World
3. The Boob Fairy
4. Food

Segment 5 The Hamilton Steele Band (Web Site)

Songs

1. Sympathy
2. Nowhere to Run
3. Infatuated

Segment 6 Groove UK (Web Site)

Songs

1. Release
2. Never Should've Let You Go
3. Black and Blue

Segment 7 Ric Seaberg (Web Site)

Songs

1. Didn't Say I Love You Right
2. Double Wide
3. You Don't Know Dick

Segment 8 Jay Williams (Web Site)

Songs

1. Psycho
2. The Power and Glory
3. Old Man Howard

Listener Participation: Help write Britteny Spears' Public Service Announcement for Mothers Against Pathetic Trailer Trash Leeching Losers (MAPTTLL)! Suggest your ideas for the five warning Signs of Pathetic Loser Boyfriend Syndrome (PLBS)!

Alternate download location here

Site Promo

Get Audio
Obviously a audiocast has to have a promo and here is the first edition for this site. It actually gives you an idea of what Cafe Virtuale is all about, creating the feel of being live a funky club. So go ahead and give it a listen while waiting for our first full broadcast. Or subscibe so you will be automagically notified when it arrives.

Promo for audio8ball.com

Get Audio
Open Mic Night at the Cafe Virtuale will be available as a scheduled broadcast on the internet radio station audio8ball.com. Why am I posting the promo for it here? Mostly as a technology test to be sure that the whole feed infrastructure is working OK.

Submission Requirements and Suggestions

So you are a striving performer who would love the exposure and would like to submit your material to be a part of Open Mic Night at the Cafe Virtuale. Well the first thing to do is read rule 1:

Rule 1: By submitting you certify that you have the legal rights to to do so. This includes the rights to the specific performance, the rights to use the underlying work, and the rights to use any works used in the process such as samples. If somebody raises an objection to your work I will just refer them to you.

Also it wouldn't hurt to read rule 2:

Rule 2: Open Mic Night at the Cafe Virtuale does not carry an explicit tag.

If your work is a little on the 'raw' side then you have a choice; Bleep or edit it yourself or tell me up front that it is for the 'Late' file. What do I mean by that? I an considering a second show to be called Late Night Open Mic at the Cafe Virtuale. However bear in mind that Late Night might be a long time, if ever, in coming.

Having understood Rules 1 and 2 send a high-quality MP3 or WAV file(s) of up to twelve minutes of your best work to CafeVirtual@facilityinnovations.com. If larger than about seven megabytes split it into smaller files or use a file-sending service like yousendit.com. Include in your e-mail a description of yourself or band including contact information. web links, etc.

Now, that being said, here are some Do's and Don'ts:

Do's

• Think of the order that you would play your song if you were really doing a live twelve-minute set. For example you would start off with an attention-getting piece, then perhaps play a thought provoking or a humorous piece, and conclude with the rousing memorable melody that will make them want to be a fan of your music and have them going to the table at the back where you are selling the Cd's. (If you think of it that is also the order of movements in a Symphony. Those old guys were pretty smart even if there weren't any Cd's that they could sell.)
  
  
• Be honest about what is your best work and what isn't. It is better to have six minutes of good stuff than to include a filler piece that isn't that good. I will not pick and choose within your submission. I evaluate them only as a whole.
  
  
• Choose cuts that don't stretch the credibility of the concept of Cafe Virtuale. So for example if you have two mixes of your favorite composition, one that is done as a four-piece combo and another where you went wild and multi-tracked in a full brass and string section and a small choir's worth of backing vocals. You might be very proud of that masterwork of mixing but it might not work.
  
  
• Be willing to submit unusual stuff. "He's never played anything like that before" is a great reason why I will choose, a submission. One of the great qualities of going to a real open-mic is surprise of not knowing what the next act will be like. I want that quality here too.
  
  
• If you want to get into the spirit of the cafe virtuale and record yourself talking to the audience between tracks go ahead, but don't get boring and don't say so much that there is nothing left for me to say when introducing your act.

Dont's

• Don't submit a list or a link to a long list of tracks and say 'pick whatever you need'. I don't have time for that. If you don't know what tracks you would want included then you don't understand your own work well enough for me to care.
  
  
• Don't, if you can avoid it, submit work with a lot of room reverb or audience sounds on it. I will be adding the 'cafe ambiance' and the two might not mix. I do understand that with standup routines this may not be possible.
  
  
• Don't ask for a review. I would feel that it would only be fair to give every submitter a review, and there just isn't time for that. In addition I am a radio voice mostly and I don't really feel confident that I would be giving great advice. I would suggest going to a real open mic session and ask the other pros there.
  
  
• Don't ask if or when I will use your submission. If I use it I will notify you certainly. However it might be a while. Several weeks from now I might be saying 'you know, that thing I've been sitting on might follow this act nicely'
  
  
• Don't submit stuff that will soon be 'dated'. This most likely the case for stand-up comedians that like to do jokes about what is in the news. That doesn't mean you can't do jokes about what is in the news but select jokes that are likely to still be funny several weeks from now.