Soundtracking - Introduction

Soundtracking is a weekly column featuring indie and alternative music, published every Tuesday by Laura Cushing on Gather.com.  

As an official Gather Music Correspondent, I'm pleased to bring my knowledge of indie and alternative music to the community. Soundtracking will feature some of the best up-and-coming bands in indie music today. Soundtracking will feature interviews, CD reviews, music playlists and mp3 downloads, and music discussions.

This column is just an introduction to Soundtracking, along with information on how you can participate. Soundtracking is meant to be more than just a music column - it's an interactive experience! 

How This Works

We will publish a new Soundtracking every Tuesday starting on February 6, 2007. For your convenience, you can click on the Soundtracking tag to view all of our columns.  You can also connect to me (angelauric.gather.com) to recieve updates on when I publish on Gather. In addition to Soundtracking, I will be posting other content, including Sound Guides to the bands that are featured on Soundtracking, CD reviews that fall outside the alternative/indie genre, and articles/interviews I have previously published elsewhere. I also write in the fields of poetry and fiction, so I will be publishing some short stories and poems on Gather as well. 

Interviews:

Every month, an interview with a musician will be posted. You will have the opportunity to participate in the interview by suggesting questions. Some bands will participate in a 'live' question and answer session; some will respond to questions left as comments for a week or so after the article is published - this will be announced at the time of the article, and is up to the musician being interviewed.  I will also keep an ongoing list of interviews we have scheduled, so that you may post your comment/question ahead of time and have it incorporated into the main article. Please don't be shy about asking questions to the bands - this is your chance to participate, we'd love to hear from you! Note that the interview schedule below indicates the artists that have agreed to interviews at this time, not the order in which those interviews will appear in Soundtracking. This list will be updated as new interviews are scheduled.

Interview Schedule:

Rilo Kiley (Pierre de Reeder)

Ozma (Daniel, Star, and Ryen)

Tilly and the Wall (Kianna)

The 88 (Adam Merrin)

The Watson Twins 

Whispertown2000 

Terami Hirsch 

Music to ___ By: 

Music to __ By will be a monthly feature of soundtracking. This is a themed mix playlist - every month, the __ will be filled in by a different subject (Music to Dream By, for example) and the songs and artists posted will fit that theme. MP3s will be posted for download when legally available, along with artist information.  Commenters are invited to post their own additions to the playlist with songs that fit the theme. You are also welcome to make suggestions for future themes.

CD Reviews:

Each month,  Soundtracking will review a CD by an indie or alternative artist.  If you are familiar with the CD reviewed, please add your own personal thoughts on the album in comments. You can suggest CDs / artist for future reviews as well. If you are a musician that would like your CD reviewed, please contact me with your request.

Music Discussion:

If you were trapped on a desert island and could only have one CD, what would it be?  See how some of your favorite indie artists answer fun music questions, and give your own responses in commentary! Question suggestions are always welcome. If you are a band who would like to participate in this category (as a one shot, or on an ongoing basis), please contact me.

Special Reports: 

Sountracking will be attending shows from time to time, and providing concert pictures, reviews, recordings, and on-the-spot interviews with indie and alternative bands. Due to our location, we will be covering concerts that come to the New York / Philly area. 

We will also occasionally provide reports on upcoming releases, concert tours, and other breaking news in the indie/alternative genre.

Soundtracking Needs You!

Here's a short list of how you can interact with Soundtracking:

• Reach out and connect with us! We'd love to meet you.
• Comment and let us know who you'd like us to interview.
• Leave a question for one of our upcoming interviews.
• Make a suggestion for an upcoming Music to __ By.
• Give us a music question for our next discussion.
• Suggest a CD we should review.
• Comment on any of our columns and let us know what you think.
• Let us know if there's a feature you'd like to see on Soundtracking.

See you Tuesday on Soundtracking!

--Laura Cushing,  Gather Music Correspondent 

Laura's column, Soundtracking is published every Tuesday in Gather Essentials:Music. Soundtracking is your guide to indie and alternative music -- featuring musician interviews, CD reviews, MP3 mixes, and discussions.

Laura Cushing is a 36 year old writer from the New Jersey Pines. In addition to music journalism, she writes fiction and poetry.

You can find all of Laura's Soundtracking columns by clicking the Soundtracking tag. Keep up with Laura's other postings and Gather activity by joining her Gather network -- just click here and select the orange Connect button on the left-hand side of the page

You'll find Laura and other Music Correspondents, plus celebrity content and plenty of other music buffs at Music.gather.com.