Help, Venice Is Sinking

Every once in a while we, the singular individual behind the keyboard, here at SIO like to help out. Not in any way constructive, mind you; we're not asking you to help eliminate poverty or curb emissions or even pick up the trash around your front yard. Nope. We're asking you to help by listening to music and exercising your pseudo-democratic right to vote--for the candidates we supply you and none others. Think of it as a local election, only a lot less fascinating.

A really great band (in this humble blogger's opinion), Venice Is Sinking, has a shot at getting onto the latest Paste Magazine CD Sampler. I'm not a huge fan of Paste Magazine because they seems a little insular and generic, but I did find this article in their latest issue and found it refreshing and worthwhile. Also, they're one of the few and dwindling print magazines left covering music, so that counts for something.

Here's the rundown; follow this link:

http://www.pastemagazine.com/heineken/

And follow the instructions. Bear in mind, you may actually have to devote about 20-25 minutes of time listening to the artists, so if you don't have that kind of time, visit when you do. Five artists will play and you rate them on a scale of one to five; one being the lowest and five being the highest. I guess whichever artist scores highest by the time voting/rating is over gets to be on the next Paste Magazine CD Sampler.

Honestly, all the artists I heard were incredibly talented and very enjoyable to listen to; some I plan to read up on and possibly purchase music from. Personally, I would like for you to vote for Venice Is Sinking because they are great people, a great band, and they deserve wide recognition, but I in no way am attempting to be the political machine that attempts to influence your vote. (Though I understand that subsconsciously this post alone may have achieved that effect.)

If you are so inclined you can order the new disc by Venice is Sinking by following this link. Or it is available for download on eMusic or Amazon. (It's on iTunes, too, but I'm still bitter about how long it took them to come around to the whole "no DRM on music" idea.)

That's it. Click, listen, rate, and enjoy.

Venice Is Sinking, AZAR
(One Percent Press, 2009)