Inkshares’ Second Annual Horror Novel contest is going on right effing now

We have been big fans of the various horror novels released by the publishing house, Inkshares. When we read Scott Thomas’ Kill Creek earlier this year, we saw it as a “a solid modernization” of the haunted house novel, and referred to the ending as “sheer fucking terror.” J-F Dubeau’s A God in the Shed is a novel you’ll “try to burn through this in a weekend, because it’s the sort of story where you’re desirous of knowing every maddening aspect of this strange town and the people within it.”

We really like their stuff, so when we saw that they were sponsoring a second annual horror contest — and because we’re now a solid five days into NaNoWriMo — we thought we’d share with you the opportunity to submit your manuscript (partial or complete!) to the company. They’ll be picking three authors for consideration, and given their ever-growing stable of solid reads, you’d do well to enter right here at this link. The contest runs through December 14.

Tiger! Tiger! makes their entire discography available for free download

tigertigerjan2013_mattradick
Nothing makes me happier than music, most days. Really, the only thing that’s better than music is free music, and that’s what we have here. Michigan’s Tiger! Tiger! somehow ended up with a bunch of Bandcamp downloads, and decided to bestow them on fans or curious lookie-loos such as myself. So, now through February 22, you can hit their Bandcamp page and download anything you like, free of charge.
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Night Birds, “Fresh Kills Vol. 1” CD – save the date cards

cover-fresh-killsNight Birds
Fresh Kills Vol. 1
(Grave Mistake)

Normally, we try and steer clear of CDs here in the basement, because … well, first of all, we don’t have a CD player down here. Running CDs through the PC speakers is fine a and dandy, but for full effect, we really like to rattle things off the desk and shelves with a run-through on the ol’ Frankenstereo.

Still, most of the material on this here Night Birds disc comes from previously released vinyl (specifically, the Art of the Underground single series #48, the Midnight Movies EP, and their self-titled 7-inch), as well as the band’s demo cassette. So, we felt honor-bound to let you know you can get everything the band has thus far released in one easy location, and get addicted before they release their first full-length, The Other Side of Darkness, later this summer. So get your save the date cards ready and make sure to remember this release.
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A Day to Remember contest winners

flyer-adtrHoly fuck. People really want to go to this show, don’t they? This contest had the most entrants we’ve ever had. I guess their appearance at the Night the Buzz Stole XX-Mas wasn’t enough for people.

Congratulations to Zach Nelson and Kelly Oliphant. They each won a pair of tickets to see A Day To Remember at the Beaumont Club in Kansas City on Saturday, March 26.

Tickets to the all-ages show, with openers Bring Me The Horizon, Pierce the Veil, and We Came As Romans are still available via Ticketmaster. Thanks again to Velocity Marketing for the hook up.

Win A Day to Remember tickets

flyer-adtrWe’re back after a two-week break for the holidays. I know you missed us, but to make up for it all, here’s another ticket contest, courtesy of Velocity Marketing. We’re giving away two pairs of tickets to A Day To Remember with Bring Me The Horizon, Pierce the Veil, and We Came As Romans at the Beaumont Club in Kansas City on Saturday, March 26.

To enter, send an e-mail with the subject line “A Day to Remember contest” to nicholas dot spacek at gmail dot com by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, January 28. That gives you the entire rest of the month, more or less.

As always, if you don’t want to take your chances, you can get tickets for the all ages show right now from Ticketmaster. They’ll run you $32.45 with service charges, or you can get them from the Beaumont box office on the day of the show.

Contest winners

Stupid holidays. My birthday weekend had me a little too excited (movies, concerts, DVDs, sushi, Christmas shopping, etc. – to say nothing of the expected drinking that comes with a three-day weekend), and I completely forgot to select winners for our Dropkick Murphys and True Grit soundtrack contests.

So, apologies being said – mea culpa, mea culpa – here are the winners of our assorted contests, of which I was supposed to announce the winners yesterday:

Paul Serena takes home a copy of the True Grit soundtrack on Nonesuch Records.
Sean Brimer and Misty Nuckolls have two guest list spots each to see the Dropkick Murphys and Against Me! at the Beaumont on Wednesday, March 2, courtesy of Velocity Marketing.

Thanks to all who entered. We’ll have a contest for A Day to Remember with Bring Me The Horizon, Pierce the Veil, and We Came As Romans (at the Beaumont Club in KC on Saturday, March 26) starting January 3. Until then, we’re on winter break. We’ll be back in a couple weeks with a slew of vinyl and book reviews, but we’ve got the holidays to deal with and prezzies to open until then.

Happy holidays!

Win a copy of the True Grit soundtrack

cover-true-gritJoel and Ethan Coen have remade the John Wayne classic, True Grit – or, to be more accurate, they’ve made their own adaptation of the Charles Portis novel. The film, starring Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn, will be released into theaters on Wednesday, December 22.

If you’d like to win a copy of Carter Burwell‘s score for the film, we’ve got one to give away, courtesy of Nonesuch Records. To enter, send an e-mail with the subject line “True Grit contest” to nicholas dot spacek at gmail dot com by 5:00 p.m. on Monday, December 20. We’ll announce the winner on Tuesday, December 21 (coincidentally, the day the soundtrack is available for purchase).
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Want to be in a Dollyrots Christmas song?

dollyrotsPoppy, perky, and exceptionally cute California band the Dollyrots are recording a new Christmas song. They already do the timeless, slightly naughty Eartha Kitt standard “Santa Baby” on A Blackheart Christmas.

If you want to be included in the special new Christmas song, submit the one “little messed up” thing that you want for Christmas and it may be included in a the song “A Little Messed Up Christmas” (coincidentally, their new album on Blackheart is called A Little Messed Up).

Please email your entry, name, mailing address, and phone number to contests@blackheart.com by midnight on Friday, December 10 (that being two days from now). Winners will get a holiday card from the band and a “Happy Holidays” call from frontwoman Kelly Ogden.

Stream A Blackheart Christmas over at AOL’s Music’s Full Listening Party.

Win tickets to see Dropkick Murphys at the Beaumont

flyer-dkmIt was just announced last week that Boston street punks Dropkick Murphys will be hitting the Beaumont as part of their annual St. Patrick’s Day tour. They’ll be landing in Kansas City on Wednesday, March 2, with openers Against Me! for what is sure to be a drunken show.

Velocity Marketing hooked us up with two pairs of tickets to give away, and while it’s quite a few months from now, we figured you could use a little pick-me-up here before the holidays. To enter, send an e-mail with the subject line “Dropkick Murphys contest” to nicholas dot spacek at gmail dot com by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, December 17. That gives you nearly four weeks to enter.

If you don’t want to take your chances, tickets to the all-ages show can be had from Ticketmaster for $25 plus egregious service charges.

Reel Big Fish / Aquabats contest winners

flyer-rbf-aquabatsCongratulations to the winners of our Reel Big Fish / Aquabats contest. Laura Hancock and Taylor Thompson have each won a pair of tickets to the show at Kansas City’s Beaumont Club this Friday, November 12.

Interesting side note: Taylor’s the other half of Rocket Heart Records (we interviewed Colby Blanton a few weeks back).

For those of you who didn’t win, you can still buy tickets via Ticketmaster to the all-ages show. Thanks again to Velocity Marketing for the tickets.