Chasing Lions

Puddlegum to launch Chasing Lions blog label

Puddlegum will undergo major changes during the month of July. First, we have decided to change the name of Puddlegum to Chasing Lions. Though we first began to use the Puddlegum name eleven years ago, we realize that if we want to expand and grow then we need to get away from ‘gum, considering the similarity of our name and the largest music blog, Stereogum.

Chasing Lions will be a blog label, combining aspects of a music blog and a record label. We are widely expanding our team of writers, and will cover topics on music, film, and culture. Matt Netzley is joining the Chasing Lions team as our editor, and we’re excited to bring him on board. Matt Netzley is a creative writer and avid reader, and we have no doubt that Matt will provide you with content that you won’t find anywhere else on the internet.

Brandon Cornell will be heading up the record label aspects of Chasing Lions. He has successfully managed several businesses, such as Epiphany Clothing, and has keen insight on marketing and artist management. Our ‘blog label’ will utilize free music marketing techniques, as well as offering vinyl, digital, and CDs.

Erica Todd is joining the Chasing Lions team as well. She is helping with tour support for our artists, and will expand her role in the blog label over the next few months.

My role in Chasing Lions will involve overseeing and contributing to the music blog, working diligently with the label, and spending countless hours as a sound engineer and producer. We will eventually be opening our own recording studio, using my Pro Tools digital studio in the mean time.

Expect an official press release soon, with an exciting announcement of who our first three artists and bands will be. Thank you for supporting Puddlegum over the many years. We look forward to developing the Chasing Lions blog label with you.

-Kevin Flick

Puddlegum: living in the studio

Sorry for the lack of updates during this busy week of South by Southwest. I have been engineering and co-producing a recording session for Darkroom. Our days have been filled with Blumlein Pairs, debating guitar tones, and drinking way too much coffee. We will be posting on a normal basis within a couple days.

Puddlegum: your input is needed

Puddlegum has always wanted to stay on top of the influx of news that we come across. Up until this point we have leaned towards finding stories that soak up our time, requiring research and editing. At the same time, we have wanted to provide short stories and links to stories.

We’re developing a daily wrap-up of stories, a digest of links to stories, that we can share with you every day. We’re beginning to post links to stories through our Twitter account, limited to 140 characters so the links are shortened and the description is to the point. More specifically, we’re using Twhirl, a light-weight but useful Adobe Air application.

Ultimately, we will be importing the RSS feed from our digest of daily links into a a post on Puddlegum. The best method of importing the feed is evading us, and we’re still debating on what to name the daily post.

We’ve added a link to your Twitter account, naming it News for the moment. You won’t have to wait for the daily post, but can visit our Twitter account throughout the day.

We need your input on what to call it. Here’s what we’ve come up with, but we’d love to have feedback, and we’re open to ideas:
The Puddlegum Digest
The Puddlegum Report
The Puddlegum Post

Puddlegum in Rolling Stone Brazil

While thumbing through Rolling Stone Brazil, Fernanda Alcantara noticed that Puddlegum is mentioned in the current issue, with Radiohead on the front cover. She took photos and quickly emailed me, after jumping up and down in excitement. Here is the translation from Portuguese to English:

Radiohead’s Enigma

“Out in October 10th - ten years after Ok Computer - the latest Radiohead album, In Rainbows, also has ten letters in its name, besides its 10 songs. This site brings a combined playlist, suggesting that both albums are just one. Believe if you dare.”

puddlegum.net/radiohead-01-and-10

Radiohead 01 10 playlist on imeem

Puddlegum: Sit and Stare

Puddlegum is continuing to develop the Puddlegum imeem group, posting songs, stories, and now music videos. Here is an explanation to our playlists:

Featured on Puddlegum.net - We’re adding songs that are featured in Puddlegum stories to this playlist.

Special Playlists - Puddlegum is teaming up with agencies, labels, and artists to post playlists of their artists. Our first such playlist was the Mobius Band - Love Will Reign Supreme playlist. These playlists may be entire pre-release albums, select songs, thematic playlists, or a compilation of artists.

Sit and Stare - We receive music videos in .mov format on a regular basis, and we’re now posting music videos to this playlist. We’re also adding music videos to this playlist that other imeem members have posted.

By joining the Puddlegum group on imeem you’ll have the option of uploading content to the Puddlegum group. Though the content will not be automatically added to a playlist, we’ll watch or listen and consider featuring it.

To stave confusion, we’d like to explain a few things:
* If a record label does not have an agreement with imeem or Snocap, the song will be limited to 30 seconds. All four major labels and a growing list of independent labels have given imeem permission to play full song-streams.

* When you go to a music playlist on imeem and you’re not logged in, you will be asked to join before you can listen. We hope you’ll find this network to be worth your time.

* Unlike music playlists, you can watch videos on imeem without being logged in; the same goes with listening to songs and playlists on group pages. If you go to the Puddlegum.imeem.com group page, you can stream music without being logged in.

* Individual song pages allow you to listen to the complete song without being logged in.

* Embedded music works a little different. You don’t need to have an imeem account to listen to songs or playlists that have been embedded on Puddlegum. Likewise, you can embed them on your blog without an account by clicking on the embed this button at the bottom of the playlist. To embed a song, click on open track in new window to find the code.

To post imeem content to your website, go to the content’s page and click share. Here are your options:
* You can email the content to a friend or a list of emails.
* Select the color scheme for the player, decide if you want it to automatically play, and then copy/past the given code.
* Add to a blog or another website (Myspace, Facebook, Black Planet, Tagged, Friendster, Hi5, Blogger, LiveJournal, Xanga, and imeem). By selecting the network you use, click on the tab and enter your login information.