Last week we helped get the word out that Ryan Adams was returning to Cincinnati for a show at the Taft Theatre. Adams recently announced a slew of tour dates, several of which are here in the midwest, in support of his excellent album Ashes & Fire. We love the record and recommend you grabbing it on vinyl at your local independent record store of choice, as it was recorded entirely with analog devices.

Well, today we have the privilege of putting up some tickets to the show, which takes place on January 28th.

To qualify for the tickets, I’m asking that you put your favorite Ryan Adams lyrics, from any album, in the comments here on ENS. I’ll choose one of your favorites and that person will win a pair of tickets to the show.

A couple months ago, we helped let the cat outta the bag in regards to Sebadoh coming to Cincinnati. Let’s just say the response from Sebadoh fans was pretty big. You guys were really excited to hear the news of the legendary band coming to town so I have a feeling this news will be equally, or maybe more exciting.

We have tickets to Thursday nights show at Southgate House up for grabs! This one will be a Twitter re-tweet contest, so jump over there and retweet the message pasted below to be qualified. This one will only run for about 48 hours, so get your tweet in there fast! We will select a winner on Wednesday afternoon, also via Twitter, so hurry and enter for your chance to see Sebadoh live!

http://twitter.com/#!/eachnotesecure/status/128490574796955649

This Saturday, one of the best psychedelic rock bands in recent memory are in the Cincinnati area and we want you to go, for free. On Saturday night, Austin’s The Black Angels return to the area for a show at the Southgate House in Newport. Of course, you know about these guys by now, and they have made a handful of stops in our fine city in the past few years to solidify their excellent reputation, but just in case you forgot or have missed out on their live performance, we are here to nudge you in that direction.

I’ve seen them several times, and each time feel like they dominate the stage, they recently completed a slew of dates overseas and I found this description from one of those shows appropriate….

“They are the sludgy Doors, the hypnotic Elevators, the battle-worn Spacemen, the backwater Velvets….”

The sludgy Doors? Yes, they truly are, and their third full length album Phosphene Dream sees the band taking those parallels along with their own unique fingerprints to new levels. And while the latest album is a year old, the tunes still feel fresh to the live audiences that have been in attendance. And as mentioned, you have the opportunity on Saturday night. And of course, we want you to go for free, so just send an email to enscontests at gmail dot com with the subject line reading “Black Angels.”

On Friday, we will draw a winner and you’ll have some plans for Saturday night, so get those emails to us…now!

Have you heard the latest offering from Handsome Furs yet? In my opinion, it’s their best to date and with the recent announcement of Wolf Parade’s ‘indefinite hiatus’, its the closest thing to WP that fans can experience. Handsome Furs has always sounded like a dancier, electro cousin of Wolf Parade anyway, but the landscapes explored on their latest album Sound Kapital, should not only help mourning ‘Wolf’ fans make it through, but carves out a solid place for Dan Boeckner’s “side project” moving forward.

The band are hitting the Southgate House next week on Monday August 22nd and we think it would be a bad idea if you did not show up. To entice you to do so, I have some tickets to the gig to give away to you, for free. So send an email to enscontests at gmail with the title ‘Handsome Tickets’ and you will be entered into a drawing for free entry to next weeks show. It’s as simple as that, and what else are you doing next Monday night anyway?

MP3:Handsome Furs – Repatriated

@Handsome_Furs on Twitter

A show that got me really excited initially, and then fell off of my radar for no specific reason is suddenly staring me right in the face. Hometown heroes Heartless Bastards are back in town again this week, for a special show at Southgate House and we want you to be in attendance. The Cincinnati natives are doing something a little different this time around, rather than a raucous rock show, the band will be performing their songs in a slightly more toned down way, with a special acoustic performance.

This is special because it’s not something the band do often, and so if you are in the “oh I’ve already seen that band” crowd, take a second look at this show and understand it will be unique.

As for the free tickets, we have some and want you to win them. Here is how you can. Leave a comment on this post letting us know what your favorite Heartless Bastards song is and why. Get on this fast people, the show is Thursday night!!!

The summer concerts in Cincinnati this year are almost as hot as the temperature, almost. And there is another really excellent one coming our way in a couple weeks. It’s been a relatively short 5 years since 2006, when I received two EP’s in the mail from an unknown band called Cold War Kids. The two albums quickly became favorites of mine and remain so to this day. In the time since, the band were the subject of a label bidding war, and have released three full length albums.

Of course, the guys have continued to tour like crazy as well, and to support the album they released earlier this year, Mine Is Yours, they are preparing a stop here in the Cincinnati area. The show is Friday August 5th at the Madison Theater in Covington and the band are being supported by up and coming locals Belle Histoire.

And you know we want to give you some tickets to this gig right? We do, and wanna make it really easy for you to win. So all you have to do is hop over to Twitter and ReTweet this message. Doing that gets you entered into the contest for a pair of tickets to the show. Got it? Good.

Best of luck!

There is another great show coming to the Cincinnati area, and we want to make sure you check it out. Interpol are returning to Cincinnati in a couple weeks after having a May show cancelled after the band decided to instead play a run of shows opening for U2. The show is slated for July 6th at Bogarts and as a nice bonus, Asobi Seksu are opening the show. Two quality bands for the price of….well…nothing.

We have a handful of tickets to give away here on ENS, and we really want you to win them, so I’m going to make this as simple as I can. To qualify for the tickets, simply hit the Facebook Like button on this post (above). Thats it! I’ll be keeping tabs on who Likes the post and picking a winner next Friday.

In the meantime, check out this great interview with Interpol’s Daniel Kessler.

Good luck!

Ok, so it’s pretty obvious we are geeked for Record Store Day tomorrow, and as it turns out, so are our friends from the MusicNOW festival, which is only a month away now. Tomorrow, if you are at Shake It Records and purchase some vinyl or CD’s with a MusicNOW connection, you could win tickets to the festival.

We have three pairs of one day tickets to give away tomorrow, and here is how you can get your hands on them.

Step 1: Go to Shake It for Record Store Day
Step 2: Buy some vinyl or a CD of an artist with a MusicNOW tie, this year or another year. So if you buy the new album from Little Scream, that counts since she is playing the festival this year, and Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire produced the album, and is playing again this year. (for a full list of previous artists that have played, go here)
Step 3: Take a photo of yourself with the album at Shake It and send it to Facebook or Twitter.

Share the photo on twitter and tag @eachnotesecure or @musicnowfest. Or if Twitter isn’t your thing, tag the photo on Facebook with MusicNOW or EachNoteSecure.

Good luck!

There is a great double headline bill coming up at Bogarts on April 26th. The Walkmen and The New Pornographers will be in Cincinnati, and we really want to get you to the show. Set aside any dislike you might have for the venue and realize that this is an excellent show that is worth going to. Both of these bands are arguably in their creative primes and the fact that you can get to see them both for one price (or maybe for free) makes it worthwhile.

Alright, who wants tickets? We are giving away a pair each of the next few weeks leading up to the show on April 26th, and the first pair if up for grabs starting now.

For the first pair of tickets, send an email to enscontests at gmail dot com with the subject reading ‘Walkmen / New Pornographers’, we will select a winner at the end of the day on Friday.

Another week, another pair of tickets to give away. This week to enter, just ReTweet this specific tweet…..

Alright, last pair of tickets up for grabs, another social media pull this time, you need to ‘Like’ this post on Facebook by clicking the link above. I will select a winner early next week for our last pair of tickets. Good luck!

Good luck people!

Heard the latest album from The Decemberists yet? If you are like me, you have been enjoying it since it was released earlier this year, and if you are also like me, you are planning to pick up a vinyl copy as soon as possible. The King Is Dead is excellent, and we want to give you a chance to win the album on high quality vinyl. To be qualified to win, here is what you need to do.

Pick from more than 2,000 of the Polaroids taken by Autumn De Wilde during the recording of The King is Dead and sort into a custom slideshow. Select one of four album tracks to use as a background song. Then share your slideshow on Facebook and Twitter. Some of the bands favorites will be featured on The Decemberists Facebook page. Once you complete this mission, send an email to enscontests at gmail dot com with a like to your slideshow and I will pick my favorite.

I just did my own, have a look.

Create your own slideshow here.