John Varvatos continues to design extremely fashionable, yet wearable men’s designs. This guy is the best men’s clothing designer in the world.

Alternative music has changed. It’s not alternative, it’s mainstream, which is fine but… I miss MTV’s Alternative Nation. When you’d get to see a video and hear music from a band none of the radio stations were playing… yet. If you stayed up and watched it, you knew what was up in the music everyone would soon embrace.

Well MTV is gone, it’s just some other channel with the same name, so where do we get the music no one hears but should? The Indie Rock Playlist. I’m a huge fan. Yes, indie rock is the new alternative. Every single month they release about 200 songs from obscure artists from many genres. Indie rock has become a fairly wide type of category.

Oh the second best part ,( the best part is the music itself) it’s free. Go here http://theindierockplaylist.com/

I loooooooove hot sauce. In fact, my friends bring me back hot sauce from where ever they travel. I dose almost all of my food with it, and there’s a lot of great hot sauce out there. However, my very favorite right now is the fairly new addition to the Frank’s Red Hot line; Xtra Hot. Classic Red Hot tastes great, but it just didn’t have enough kick for me… until now.

I’m a tough nut to crack when it comes to gifts. I buy myself everything I want, which makes it hard on others during the holidays. In fact, I tell people not to buy me anything. Holidays are for kids as far as I’m concerned.

Well my wife is a gifting genius. She got me one of the coolest things I’ve gotten as an adult, and I recommend it to any music fan.A Light That Never Goes Out. The Enduring Saga Of The Smiths by Tony Fletcher. If you’re a Smiths fan this is an absolute must have. But even if you’re not, this an in depth look at what many consider to be one of the greatest indie rock bands of all time. Not to mention, a look at Morrissey, who is as polarizing as he is talented.

I would never have purchased this for myself because I didn’t know it existed. This is truly a cool gift. Break out your Doc Martins, brew yourself a pot of coffee, and enlighten yourself to perhaps the most talented and dysfunctional band in history.

Have you seen the shows Ink Master and Best Ink? Although on different networks, they are virtually the same show. But which do you like better?

The most important thing when recording your voice, whether it be voice overs, broadcasting, or singing, is the microphone. Invest in a good mic, or a great one if you can afford it. It doesn’t matter which recording software you use if your microphone is below par.

I’ve had people send me audio and ask me to fix it. I can EQ it and run some plugins on it, but if the initial audio is bad… it’s bad. I can’t recreate a vocal recording unless I actually re-record it. Is it possible to make a crappy recording a bit better? Sure it is. But we can’t make it good.

Save yourself these problems and buy a good microphone. My very favorite mic for the current price is the Shure KSM32. This thing used to retail at over $1000.00 but is now commonly priced at $549.00. Listen, I like this mic at a grand, but for 549 it’s a steal.

If that’s a bit out of your price range, try Blue’s Bluebird. Priced at $299.99 it comes not only with it’s own shock mount obviously, but it’s own pop screen made specifically for this model. It’s not quite as full as the KSM32 but it’s virtually half the price and still an excellent mic.

My last suggestion for people on a budget that doesn’t even allow for the Bluebird, is Blue’s usb mic Yeti. I’m not a huge fan of usb microphones for professional work, but this one, in my opinion, is the best one out there. As long as you understand, the desk stand that comes with it is made entirely of metal. This means the vibration, and every little sound from whatever surface you’re on, travels up the stand and into the mic. The easy solution for that is to put something soft underneath it. The other issue is that I haven’t found a pop screen that fits this contraption yet.
That being said,  this is a good mic for what it is. It retails at about $149 but Amazon sells it frequently at around $89

If you podcast or run an independent radio show, the PreSonus Firepod FireWire interface with preamps is a must have. It has an 8 mic capability, so more than enough for your co-hosts and guests.

This thing is solid. We use one in one of our control rooms in the 2 million dollar studio I work out of, and I have one for my broadcast studio at home. Some people get a mixing board, but you really don’t need it these days unless you record giant projects, or you’re just trying to impress. You can run a mixer out of your audio software.

It’s not the newest tool but it is, in my opinion, the best, and has withstood time.

Yes indeed. We’re back to producing MANville.

http://www.manvilleshow.com/

I’m not an NBA fan. Not exactly sure why. Perhaps it’s because I have no interest in the New York Knicks. Maybe it’s the long season. But finally, a New York basketball team that seems attractive to me. The Brooklyn Nets.

Jay-Z the minority owner designed the new black and white logo. It’s about 100 times more hip than the old stale Nets logo. They also have a new owner in Mikhail Prokhorov committed to turning the team around. I’ve actually thought for awhile many of the NBA teams need to revamp their team brands. Some of them are so outdated.

I know the team isn’t great right now, so I’m jumping on the bandwagon today. Go Nets!