Daryl Cain is one of a kind. He is a unique talent that is a great vocalist and an all around great guy. When a friend of mine introduced me to him, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the site. I wanted a look that would not only fit his music, but fit his personality. Oddly enough, my initial thoughts on a color pallet matched his album art almost exactly, and I had never even seen it before. What’s great about this, is that it let me really trust my instincts on what would fit him well.

To start the project, I told Daryl to send me as many photos as he could. I didn’t plan on using them all, I just really wanted to see him how he wanted others to see him in photos.  This allowed me to create a style for the website that was both modern and clean, while remaining as sincere and passionate as his music and personality.

Daryl aslo has a strong presence in social media sites, so links to all of them on every page was imperative. They appear just below the navigation in a cluster making it clear of their purpose and intent while keeping them accessible.

In the end, the look really came together and fit his personality very well. You can read Daryl’s thoughts on our project together here:
Daryl Cain’s Testimonial

You can see Daryl Cain’s finished site here:
Daryl Cain

TeaHaus Website

All teas sold at TeaHaus are of the highest quality, each tea has been tested 4 times over for purity. With a selection of over 200 teas at any given time, you can always find something wonderful or new to try. The staff is very well educated and can recommend a good tea at the drop of a hat. Besides an excellent stock of tea and a helpful staff, TeaHaus hosts frequent “Teevents” that feature various teas for tasting, discussion, and presentation.

For more information visit TeaHaus or check them out online.

• TeaHaus on Twitter
• TeaHaus on Facebook

Located at:

204 North 4th Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
(734) 622-0460

No Thai was established in February of 2005 in Ann Arbor, MI.  The origins of No Thai are displayed proudly on their website,  nothai.com

This epic story begins on a cold winter day in February of 2005. On that fateful day, four close friends united to form a pact to bring a modern Thai restaurant to the University of Michigan campus. So the fellowship began, each person would bring to the table their own unique set of abilities. Ultimately, one partner, Noerung “No” Hang, rose above the rest to become the head chef, and so the restaurant came to be known as “No Thai!”. This name would come to bring amusement, confusion, and intrigue to the masses, but now you know No Thai!, or do you?

What started out as one location at 1317  S. University Ave soon branched out into a location in the historical Kerrytown area of town, and then another on servicing the North Campus of the University of Michigan.  No Thai’s modern image has built it’s reputation among the youth and college crowed as well as the older residence of Ann Arbor.

Dining at No Thai  is a must for anyone visiting or currently residing in Ann Arbor. You can try it yourself at any of their 3 locations.

1317 S. UNIVERSITY AVE.
ANN ARBOR, MI 48104
734.222.8080

226 N. FOURTH AVE.
ANN ARBOR, MI 48104
734.213.0808

1745 PLYMOUTH RD.
ANN ARBOR, MI 48105
734.663.8080

Sage Francis – The Best of Times by antirecords

“Just a few months ago I was the typical musician in need of a website for exposure purposes. Unfortunately, I had no experience with designing them nor the time to invest in learning. Through a mutual friend, I was hooked up with Scott Tolinski – my website designer.

Let me first say that I LOVE my website! It completely represents me. I didn’t know what to expect going into the project. In fact, I was slightly embarrassed at how little I knew about the process. However, my worries were absorbed by Scott’s willingness to meet me at my current level of website knowledge. He explained everything tremendously well and was relentlessly set on making sure the finished product was what I envisioned…and maybe even more.

Scott is definitely one of the most efficient people I have ever met. The turn-around time for responses to questions/concerns is nearly instantaneous. Not only is he extremely flexible but he makes you feel like you’re his only client, which speaks volumes about his dedication. He’s very professional yet very personable- the total package, in my opinion.

As far as the website is concerned, it’s very contemporary. I wasn’t sure how to go about achieving such a look but Scott knew. I simply told him what I was looking for and he did his thing.

I am MORE than pleased with my website and I have received nothing but compliments from viewers. I am so glad that I was introduced to Scott Tolinski. I would highly recommend him to anyone interested in having a quality website designed for them. I could go on with the praises but I think you get the point ”

You can visit Daryl’s new site here

What is the RPM Challenge

28 Days… 1 Album… 35min or 10 songs. That is the core of the RPM Challenge. In 2006, the RPM Challenge was born in New Hampshire where 165 bands crossed the finish line to write and record and album in the month of February. In 2007 the Challenge was opened up to the rest of the world and 2400 bands and musicians decided to take on the challenge. While the stats haven’t come in yet for 2010, the popularity of the Challenge has grown every year. After witnessing the 2009 RPM Challenge just weeks after it had finished, I knew I would have to partake in the event for 2010. One year later, Domestic Robot (my moniker) crossed the finish line in triumph with the album Poinciana.

My Impressions

End of January / Beginning of February

With anticipation for the coming weeks, I could hardly keep myself from jumping the gun and starting early. This was so much the case that I started my first track after midnight on the last day of January, effectively jumping off at the earliest possible moment. The first tracks started were… Black and White, Japan, and Plastic. Black and White and Plastic were both washed in distortion which is a technique I rarely used previously. Japan started as my strongest track, but went through man versions and didn’t have a vocal track until the February 25th! I found that my anticipation for the challenge lead me to start really hard out of the gate. My initial tunes reflected this agression that I had built up waiting to start. I exploded out with my two most agressive songs on the album.

Beginning / Mid February

Soon after, I composed A Feeling, Cranes for Winter, Poinciana and the version of Motion that appears on the album as “Motions”. RPM purists will look down on having a song that was written earlier appear on an RPM album, however the addition of Motions follows the RPM rules. In the end it was really important for me to have a complete album, and that completed album need this song. A Feeling was toned down from the first few tracks created and was the only song on the album that was composed on a guitar. Cranes for Winter is a really nice poem surrounded by heavy, dark synths that build and eventually explode. Poinciana is the soundscape of a Japanese story about robots in Tokyo and the song Poinciana by Henry Mancini who also composed the track that inspired earlier Domestic Robot album, “Just Wine and Roses Tonight”. These 3 songs were composed, recorded, completed in 1 day each. Then all the sudden something happened. It was Mid/Early February and I had both no time or inspiration to write songs.

The Final Days

I was frustrated with hitting brick walls in both “Japan” and “Black and White”. I didn’t like the vocals I had written for Japan and the vocals I had recorded on Black and White were no longer acceptable to me. On top of that, I still needed 2 full songs. It was now the 23rd and after a great start, my enthusiasm and inspiration had reached a standstill. At this point, I resorted to drastic measures and forced inspiration by opening up Abelton Live and just started pressing buttons. After an hour I had an very disjointed song that was not pretty in the least bit. As a final effort to save a dying song I knew had to go somewhere… I change the key drastically and made the song in a minor key. Soon after, things began to click and Sunrise was completed in 5 hours total. This would later become one of my favorite songs on the album. The next night I did 4am, a cover of a favorite song from the 90′s. I substantially changed the parts and reworked the song to make it 100% my own. The next night I belted out new lyrics for Black and White and Japan successfully reviving one of my favorite tracks so far at the last moment. Along came Feb 25th where I wrote, recorded and finished Dream in Digital in 3 hours, something I don’t think would have been possible if not for the punishing nature of RPM and deadline at hand. After bouncing the audio to disk, there was a great feeling of accomplishment and at the same time a giant pressure was lifted from my shoulders. With Poinciana in the mail on the 26th, I had officially crossed the finish line!

The Finish Line

Poinciana is available for download at the Domestic Robot Bandcamp site for FREE.

According to Flowplayer.org (the creator of jQuery Tools) the jQuery UI is, “… a collection of the most important user-interface components for today’s websites.”

Similar to jQuery UI, jQuery Tools builds on the concept of a one stop solution for the most common jQuery uses. jQuery UI features 7 built in tools with a bountiful set of options and tweaks for each one. These tools include:

• Tabs
• Tooltip
• Overlay
• Expose
• Scrollable
• Flashembed
• Flowplayer

Just like jQuery UI, you can: download the entire package, pick and choose your tools ala cart or link to their hosted file containing jQuery Tools. You may be thinking… “why do I need another set of jQuery Plug-ins when there are already so many online that do the same thing?” Well, I can assure you that JQuery Tools offers a sleek interface and a unique take on many of these familiar tools. For instance, the “Overlay” is a lightbox style image viewer that allows an image to be shown with caption as an overlay on the existing page content. One thing you will notice quickly is that this is no ordinary lightbox like we see over and over again. Rather, it is a fresh take on an old idea. Allowing for customization in the appearance, jQuery Tools gives your lightbox a look that can really be expanded to easily fit the overall look of your site.

jQuery Tools offers solutions for everyone on skill level spectrum by making the tools very easy to implement without much knowledge of how they work under the hood. They also offer methods to expand and re-write their plug-ins for those that have the training to do so. While in the end, jQuery Tools are really just another set of jQuery plug-ins, I found it to be an enjoyable one worth checking out. Who knows, these tools might even just show up in my next project!

upc:897531 912007
DOWNLOAD HERE!
Movement is a new free E.P. from Domestic Robot available to you from FoldedCat. Movement was recorded all in 2009 in Ted Studioz by Scott Tolinski aka Domestic Robot.

1. Motion
2. Anemic
3. I’m Just Tired
4. Pins & Needles
5. Don’t Stop (Chex Mix)

Coming in 2010 from Domestic Robot… 2.1 Technology

For a free basic SoundCloud account, you can upload up to 5 songs a month in as high quality of a file as you would like. While SoundCloud doesn’t have the community features that some do, their inclusion of high quality audio makes sharing your music a pleasure. The community elements of SoundCloud are “Groups” where you can upload your songs to the groups playlist to share with like minded people. SoundCloud also offers very nice and simple social networking tools to help you connect SoundCloud to Facebook, Twitter, or whatever else you use. While SoundCloud offers the best in quality, it is mostly musicians on the site, so if you are looking for a mass of new fans this might not be the place to go, however it is a must in your online arsenal.

The Good : High quality audio files, community sharing
Needs Work : Artists profiles could be more full featured

The Sixty One

The Sixty One follows the same basic principal as sites like Digg, or Reddit… users of the community offer their votes or “<3′s” on T61 to move your music up to the front page.T61′s point system makes the site a great place for listeners to find new music and for musicians to get their music heard by offering rewards for hearting songs that you like. The site also gives listeners a limited amount of hearts based on their performance, so that hearting a song is a thoughtful process rather than just one that is done though habit. T61 also boasts community playlists where people can put your song up for 1000′s of willing listeners to hear. While T61 has gone away from its roots of primarily independent musicians, the amount of listeners has gone up dramatically.

The Good : Many listeners, great promotion system
Needs Work : Independent artists get overlooked for label artists

BandCamp

BandCamp is THE place to sell or give your music away online. While BandCamp does not have any social features, that’s not really what it’s for. BandCamp acts as a base site that is yours to do with what you please in terms of selling your music. You can keep track of an email list by having emails required for free downloads, or you can simply have the music free to download. You can also set up a required donation or have tiered pricing that determines the quality of files or extras received. BandCamp also has impressive stats tools to know who is listening and downloading your music.

The Good : Many options to sell your music
Needs Work : No community options

MySpace

While MySpace is old news at this point, the site is still one of the best places for artists to put their music and to gain fans. MySpace’s tools for adding shows and keeping in touch with your fans are really some of the best there are. Having a MySpace for your band is a necessity at this point and should be one of your main locations for sending soon to be fans.

The Good : Still many users, good promotional tools
Needs Work : User interface is ugly, declining in popularity

Facebook

Facebook’s semi-new Fan Pages are a great way for musicians to keep in contact with the people that want to hear their music. Facebook offers status updates so that your fans always know what’s up with your band. Facebook also includes an audio player in their band pages, however the authentication process is overly cumbersome and takes a long time to activate. Facebook’s band pages have a long way to go, but since almost everyone these days is a member, it is essential to have a band page.

The Good : Easy updates, lots of users
Needs Work : Audio player is poor, could use more music related features

Reddit: WeAreTheMusicMakers

The We Are The Music Makers sub-reddit is a great community driven place to share your music. This sub-reddit is a great place to have people not only listen to, but critique your music. You will find fans of all kinds of genres and many users are always willing to give new, free music a shot. The only downside here is that you have to have your music hosted somewhere else, however if you have gotten this far, then that really isn’t a problem. I would recommend BandCamp for free albums/songs and SoundCloud for people to listen and critique.

The Good : Users are always happy to critique
Needs Work : Audio must be hosted elseware

Last.FM

Last.fm is primarily known for it’s iTunes tracking information, however the site also has many features that will make your music readily available. By creating a band page in Last.fm, when users listen to your songs in iTunes, their information will be tracked and displayed on the artists page. This is a great tool for understanding who your listeners are. You can view their other favorite artists and use that information to know what audience to try and reach. You can also gauge the popularity of your songs which could come in handy while building sets to play live.

The Good : Best listener tracking information
Needs Work : Artist backend could use more features

Grooveshark

Grooveshark is an internationally available music streaming and discovery site, streaming up to 50 million songs to its 1,000,000 users monthly. One thing is for sure, Grooveshark is only going to get larger overtime. The artist back end is very full featured giving you controls that aren’t available other places, such as a “Sounds Like” tool where you can compare your music to other artists so that it is easier to find. Grooveshark is still new, so it’s kinks are still getting worked out. The backend is buggy or slow sometimes, however the tools are there to get your music heard!

The Good : Lots of users, polished look
Needs Work : Often slow or buggy