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Featured Playlists & Artists International Beer Day I’m not sure what music would go with a beer video. I’m not sure if anybody even makes beer videos. But international beer day is August 5th and I’ve decided that the next wave of videos will be about beer or about drinking beer or about the glory of making and drinking beer. It’s the most widely consumed, oldest alcoholic beverage and is just beat out by water (curse you, water) and tea (ok fine, tea is awesome) as the most popular. Beer is ancient: the Code of Hammurabi contains beer parlor regulations, the Hymn to Ninkasi is a pre-Mesopotamian prayer to the goddess of beer that acts as supplication and recipe guide. Our home-state of Oregon is the second largest producer of craft beer in the US and has the 4th highest percentage of draft beer consumed in the US and the Portland metro area is the largest craft brewing market in the US. We are through the looking glass, people. So let’s start the revolution now—get a nice IPA, get your video camera, we’ll provide the music below.  Holiday/Vacation My version of vacation is a good drink, a place to sit with a little shade, a good book and the promise of a big meal at the end of the day. Not so for my wife. For her, vacation is dust in your mouth, shaking out a tent, fighting a bear, maybe grubbing for berries and potentially suturing your own wounds with squirrel intestines. Different strokes. I think the best vacation I’ve ever had was a trip we took to Kauai. Half of it was camping on the beach (happy wife) and half was spent in a house with a big shady porch. Everybody wins. I found out that the Mai Tai is a glorious thing, that given the chance I might actually like camping as long as there’s a beach ten feet away and that there are lots of chickens on the island of Kauai. That’s another story. Take a look below for some tunes for your holiday/vacation videos. Nothing says I was there and did that like a good song.  Inventor's month I don’t have an inventor’s mind. I’m more of a synthesizer of information and I’m fine with that. But, I would for once like to have that ability to see into the unknown, pluck out a practical device, design it and make it real in the here and now. It’s kind of magic. Think about it—Bluetooth, anti-bacterial soap, the dishwasher are all freaking amazing. The television? Frozen meals? Cell phones? Ok, before this gets into a magnets-and-how-do-they-work kind of thing, we should take a step back and realize that all these creations have practical beginnings and a lot of trial and error and heartache involved in their devising. Fine, I know it’s tough. But I’ve taken apart a portable CD player and while it looks pretty simple, imagine your ancestors—imagine your great-grandparents—holding a CD player and you’re telling them that this thing plays music. Then tell them that the portable CD player is almost obsolete. Your great-grandmother just got her mind blown.  Carly Comando You might recognize Carly Commando’s “Everyday” from the Where Amazing Happens commercials during NBA games. But she’s more than just a one hit wonder. Take a listen for her breadth of music—and of course, if you’re making your own Where Amazing Happens video, you can find “Everyday” too.  Lotus Explosive beat, wide-screen instrumentation and catchy hook define Lotus.  Friska Viljor Catchy European dance and moody ballads run amok in Friska Viljor’s discography.
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Free Song of the Week "Streetlight" by Derby Here’s a toe-tapper by Portland pop maestros. Get a free license to use “Streetlight” by Derby for your video soundtrack.
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Featured Playlists & Artist Fail There are a lot of famous quotes about failure—most of them the diction equivalent of a cat poster in the workplace (you know the ones)—but my all time favorite is by Samuel Beckett, Mr. Cheerful Irish, who wrote, “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” There is something beautifully contrarian here, something that runs counter to the prevalent American mindset to never fail, never let them see you sweat, never crack under pressure. Anybody who’s ever put themselves completely into their passion knows too well that failure is not only a part of one’s process but maybe the most important part. But I’m not sure. It’s hard to tell the kid who has crushed his manhood on a handrail that he needs to deepen his capacity for negative capability. Beckett never did a rail-slide, am I right? So if you’re that kid, or you’ve just royally failed and want the world to know about it, here’s a collection of songs to get the fail across.  Baseball I have no shame saying here that I am a baseball fan. Some would say fanatic. Some would say fan is just a shortened form of fanatic, but let’s leave that for the etymologists among us. My father was a second baseman for the Cardinals though his career was cut short for reasons I won’t elaborate on. From an early age, baseball was a part of our family culture—playing catch in the backyard became equal parts meditation and exercise. It’s hard to explain to someone why baseball matters, why grown men getting paid way too much to swing a branch at a stitched leather rat’s nest means something fundamental about strategy, purpose, concentration, even, forgive me, family or country. It’s an engrained part of our national psyche, as powerful a symbol as any. With that in mind, here are some tracks for your baseball videos that celebrate the boys (and girls) of summer. (And if you need a good baseball book, we recommend anything by Roger Angell.)  Surf I grew up in Arizona. We didn’t have that much surf out there, but I was obsessed with it—I mean, really obsessed. I won a wave tank surfing contest when I was about 18 and flew to Hawaii to get as close as I could to the real thing. My folks wanted me to use the money for college, but I couldn’t help myself. When I got to O’ahu, I had a pretty rude awakening. My stuff got stolen. I had no place to stay. And really, I couldn’t surf at all. I was pretty low. Luckily, I ran into a guy named Turtle who in turn introduced me to Chandler—a sort of Zen monk of surfing, a “soul surfer.” He showed me that surfing was a beautiful extension of self and not some ego trip with which to make money. It was a pretty intense summer, not only because I met the girl of my dreams (I miss you, Kiani) but also because I wound up winning the Banzai Pipeline after only really surfing that water for a few months. It’s a time I’ll never forget. Anyways, I hope the below playlist leads you to a more spiritual surf and a more fulfilling video, brah.  Justin Jude Singer-songwriter crafts great songs, breaks hearts, melts minds.
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Happy Friend Day!Happy Friend Day! Let your friends know just how important they are to you, create a video slideshow with all of those crazy photos to celebrate all the legendary times you’ve shared! To help get you started, check out our photo albums playlist http://bit.ly/cim6nJ and find a great song to match your memories.  Photo Album
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Friendly Music TutorialFind the music that will make your video say “you complete me” . . . check out this Friendly Music tutorial to help guide you through the process of searching, listening, and discovering the perfect soundtrack.
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Free Song of the Week Bell Plaines Get a free license to use Untitled by Bell Plaines. Great for those hazy, lazy days of summertime videos. http://bit.ly/aiNBcA
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Friendly Music is proud to announce our partnership with Partisan Records recording artist Deer Tick Deer Tick We’re proud to announce our partnership with up-and-coming roots-rockers, Deer Tick. Hailing from Providence, RI, Deer Tick is led by the gruff and raspy vocals of John McCauley. Recently, the Tick made their network television debut on the Late Show with David Letterman and below you can find each song from their first studio album War Elephant and their follow-up, Born on Flag Day. And if you haven’t seen them live, do yourself a favor and go. Deer Tick on the Late Show with David Letterman
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Featured Playlists of the Week Pets and Kids W.C. Fields said never work with children and animals, but he never watched a three-year-old hit a line drive into his dad’s crotch. That’s comedy gold. And cat videos? Are you kidding me? I’m not a big fan of the fancy felines, but one of those things licking a puppy and I’m in tears. If cats and dogs can clean each other, why can’t we? But I digress. We’ve put together a collection of tracks for your pet and kid videos. Whether it’s baby’s first words or Fido’s apoplectic attack on your floor-length mirror, you can has the right music for the occasion.  Photo Albums The word photography comes from the Greek words for light and to write, so that yellowing photo album of yours is actually a history of light written on paper. Maybe it’s a bit too poetic for that picture of your gap-toothed brother in an Alf t-shirt, but you get the idea. My favorite t-shirt as a kid was from Rush’s Moving Pictures tour. I didn’t go to the show but the neighbor, a tanned, loose flip-flop wearing teenager named Sandy brought it back from the concert. My parents didn’t care for the “star-man” pentagram (it’s right-side up, guys) but I must’ve worn that shirt every day in the summer of ’82. Good times. Anyways, below is a playlist to go along with your memories may they all be sun-dappled, lightly faded and right-side up.  Vampires These new vampires are young, sexy, overzealous and kind of dumb, like a cross between James Dean and a terrier puppy. Back in the day, vampirism was relegated to the sole figure of Dracula, a stately, I guess sexy, older gentleman who lived in a castle with lightning bolts around it. As long as you didn’t vacation in Moravia you were just fine. Now, the lingering undead could be your bartender or boss or banker or brother. And they look great. Tortured and pasty and great. But I ask you this: if everyone is a vampire, what is there to be afraid of? Join them! Nowadays the biggest problem you have is being a non-vampire. Go on, be immortal and sexy and misunderstood, and if thirsty is your big character flaw, sister, you’re way ahead of the game. So in the spirit of going with the flow, here’s some music for your vampire vids. Oh, and there’s some movie that just came out about all this.
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Featured Artists of the Week Arts & Kraphts Wildly diverse and influential collective gets cinematic, lays down the beats.  Loch Lomond Lilting chamber folk from one of Portland OR’s biggest bands.  Andre Williams and the Diplomats of Solid Sound Deep soul and R&B from a mainstay on the scene.  Derby Pop band masters the art and science of heartbreak, going all-in, toe-tapping.  Moonlit Sailor Instrumental Swedes bring the melody, the emotion, the power  Andre Nault Cinematic power, sweeping grace, a touch of the bittersweet for your video. Arts
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