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Welcome to Alternative Nation! Notes on Posting in our Community.
HELLO & WELCOME to Alternative Nation, the Fediverse's largest alternative & indie music community!
We are all so happy you are here. You love music, we love music, and here we are, headphones on, in our own little world happily outside the mainstream while also supporting the growth of Lemmy, Kbin, & the Fediverse at large. π
Figured it was time to talk about recommendations on how to format your posts for maximum visibility & engagement and also let you know the different ways you can post to the community.
Sound good? Let's go!
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βοΈ POST FORMAT RECOMMENDATION ππ΅
Key word here is "recommendation". I don't think we need strict rules to post, but here's what I recommend:
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Band - Song or Album Title: At the very least, this should be included in your post title. Pretty standard way of identifying something. No worries about quotation marks, the text and the dash are more than enough. Obviously, if it's an article link, the article title would go here.
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[Description Brackets]: Totally up to you, but personally I've been enjoying adding [Fresh] if the song or album is pretty new within the last week or two or so, or adding [Stream] if it's a link to an album stream link on Songwhip. I also sometimes use brackets to indicate the source if it's an article like [BrooklynVegan]. Not a rule, I just think it's nice to give some cred out.
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Dates or small commentary after the title: Again, you do you. Year of release can be nice for older tracks & albums, or if you have a strong emotion about the album that you think needs to be in the title, go for it - though I think the caption section is probably best.
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Album Art/Image or Link?: Lemmy is set up to share an image or a link as the primary content. Personally, I love album art or a cool image of the artist and would rather share the link to the music, video, or article in the caption. Lemmy's auto-thumbnails seem hit or miss, so to me it makes a richer post. But again, you do you!
Great! But let's say you aren't posting from Lemmy or Kbin?
. . .
βοΈ POSTING FROM MASTODON, FIREFISH, & OTHER FEDIVERSE MICROBLOGGING PLATFORMS ππΆ
While having a Lemmy/Kbin account is the best way to not miss any comments, you don't need to be on Lemmy to post here. By tagging "@[email protected]" in a Mastodon, Firefish (Calckey), or other federated microblogging platform post, you also actually post to our community! How cool is that!
But the format of your post can get real janky if you don't follow a certain format. My recommendation is set up your Mastodon et al post in the following way:
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Make the 1st line of the post the title like "Band - Song or Album Title" - no hashtags or account tags here, they get real messed up on Lemmy.
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After the line break from the title, include your caption and any links. Feel free to add hashtags in the caption area (I know people follow hashtags on Mastodon et al)
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Include "@[email protected]" in the post (just not in the first line, please). This is how the post gets posted here!
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Finally, I recommend adding an image to the post - this will be the thumbnail on Lemmy!
. . .
π€ HAPPY LISTENING! π§
That's it y'all! Hope this helps. Please spread the word to all your alternative music fans here, on Mastodon, and even on Reddit. Let's build something special together.
Cheers,
ren ππ
comfort - What's Bad Enough? (2023)
Here's an album I've been enjoying from Glasgow sibling duo comfort released a few months ago. I'd describe it as punk with experimental electronic sounds and witty social commentary. Songwhip below. Enjoy!
https://songwhip.com/comfort2/whats-bad-enough
Laura Viers - July Flame
Easing into Monday with an old fave by Laura Viers - this is her 7th album of 12 so far (+1 collabo album with Neko Case & KD Lang). Prolific amazing songwriter.
Bandcamp: https://lauraveirs.bandcamp.com/album/july-flame
Songwhip: https://songwhip.com/laura-veirs/july-flame2010
"I Can See Your Tracks": https://youtu.be/YVITux76S0U
Purr - Who Is Afraid Of Blue? (2023)
just discovered this - really beautiful.
Album - https://songwhip.com/purr/who-is-afraid-of-blue
βDriftβ https://youtu.be/7DZwqj5bkco
Off the charts: SinΓ©ad's versatility and range
Managed to put together almost all of the tracks on SinΓ©ad's album "Collaborations", from 2005 (and a couple of later ones). Truly a cut above.
Young Fathers - Heavy Heavy
Album https://songwhip.com/young-fathers/heavy-heavy
"I Saw" single video https://youtu.be/uPyC0JUfZrU
This is surprising!
Kevin Morby - This Is A Photograph (2022)
https://songwhip.com/kevin-morby/thisisaphotograph
title track video - https://youtu.be/hmxrnAouciM
One of my faves from last year.
Beach Bunny - Emotional Creature (2022)
Just straight up indie alt pop-rock, feels inspired by cali 90s alt rock - uncomplicated and really good!
https://songwhip.com/beach-bunny/emotionalcreature
"Weeds" video https://youtu.be/aglrswZJosc
Noah And The Whale - Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down
Stream - https://songwhip.com/noah-and-the-whale/peaceful-the-world-lays-me-down
5 Years Time - https://youtu.be/T8YCSJpF4g4
Dark with a positive veneer. Another favorite album for my existential dread days.
Sinead O'Connor - Faith And Courage R.I.P.
https://songwhip.com/sinead-oconnor/faith-and-courage
Rest in peace, OβConnor. You are a legend and your music will always be cherished. This was one of my favorite albums of all time. Hope sheβs finally at peace.
R.E.M. Top Forty Playlist (according to Berry, Buck, Mills and Stipe)
All services: https://found.ee/rem-top40-playlist
The folks at REM each picked 10 favorite REM songs to create their own Top 40! love it!
Clem Snide - The Ghost Of Fashion (2001)
an old favorite of mine to kick off the 00s. "Moment In The Sun" with it's Velvet Underground "Heroin"-like ending is so so good!!
Album https://songwhip.com/clem-snide/the-ghost-of-fashion
"Moment In The Sun" https://youtu.be/DDJsMlAadj4
Guster - Look Alive (2019)
https://songwhip.com/guster/look-alive
"Overexcited" - https://youtu.be/IXfpyfqGGZ4
Absolutely obsessed with this album for a few weeks in 2019
The Dears - Times Infinity Volume 2
Album stream https://songwhip.com/the-dears/times-infinity-volume-two
Absolutely loved this album, was on heavy rotation for me in 2017.
Standout song is 1998, imo.
RosΓ©wave: Best Summer Ever Tracklist via NPR
https://www.npr.org/2023/07/19/1188103330/playlist-rosewave-best-summer-ever
Stream the playlist via Apple Music (clean), Spotify (clean), Tidal (clean), YouTube (clean).
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2cNbd91fD8CfjOLuRPwovf?si=29a88a986d154d66
https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/ros%C3%A9wave-best-summer-ever/pl.4ea7fac6c8d0429992fba06c69c562e0
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy2PCKGkKRVb3ghwy37-f8xjI-F7GNqBN
In summer, we party, we dance, we love. We try to pack in as much bliss as possible, as if the sun will one day stop shining, your favorite ice cream spot could discontinue your favorite flavor or Taylor Swift won't release another album ever again. Summer feels infinite, but also rushed in its impermanence β every moment lasts in memory, but disappears quicker as days become shorter. RosΓ©wave bottles that infinity with a soundtrack that spans generations and genres of music, celebrating the feels, friendships and fizzy drinks of summer.