[ALBUM REVIEW] – Imagine Dragons – Continued Silence

Imagine Dragons BandThis post might be a little premature, but I felt obligated to quickly write this review. This is another one of those situations where I started listening to a band, and within a couple months, I see them slowly climbing up the charts on iTunes, which is great for the band!

To begin, let’s talk about the band’s name… Imagine Dragons. Can you get a cooler name than this?! I’m a big fan of imagination and dragons, so I thought this was pretty clever.

I started listening to this band after their increasingly popular song, “It’s Time”, popped up on my Pandora station. So I did what I always do… Find them on Spotify, listen to the album, and determine if they are worthy to make the “Best of the Best” playlist. Guess what…. They made the cut!

The album itself is very fun. It has all the pep you need to help get your day started. The lead singer does not have the most amazing vocals, and is average at best. However, the lyrics compensate for the lack of high notes.

My favorite songs on the album include “I’m on Top of the World”, which will make you feel happy all day. “It’s Time” is another catchy-tune that is sure to get stuck in your head all day. Another song that has grown on me is “Demons”… (we all have our own personal demons).

I would say their sound is a mix between ‘The J Band’, which has an alternative reggae feel, combined ‘The Wheeler Brothers’, adding a folk-vibe into the mix.

The complete CD is not available on Spotify, but I’m looking forward to the day this happens. In the mean-time, you can check them out here….

Catalonia Royal Bavaro – Punta Cana – Domincan Republic [REVIEW]

Over the past week, my wife, and a couple friends of ours decided to take a break from the real world, and spent the week at Catalonia Royal Bavaro, which is a slice of paradise nestled in Punta Cana (Dominican Republic). Here’s a review of what this amazing all inclusive resort had to offer.

Best Parts
- The Beach. Absolutely perfect. There was about 2 miles of private beach you could walk down, which had stunning views of different peninsula’s and exotic trees. The resort had several amenities ready for your entertainment, including snorkeling, kayaking, archery, boche ball, and all sorts of beach games. The lounge chairs were extremely comfortable, and you can swap in your towel any time if it gets too sandy. Also, having a couple beach-bars fully staffed never hurts :-)

- The Room. Our room came complete with a king-size bed, and a king-size bathtub in the middle of the room. It included a balcony which overlooked the spa, and tropical palm trees as far as the eye could see. The room was cleaned every day, and they even mopped the floors which anybody who is staying the week on the beach can appreciate. Bathroom was also very clean and nice.

- The Food. At first, I was spectacle about the food. They did not have a place that was open 24/7 which surprised me, as this is a very large resort. Also, the room service menu was weak with only 4 sandwiches available at all times. They once even told us they were out of ketchup! (Christie loves ketchup more than anything so this was quite upsetting to her). However, the restaurants they had on site were very delicious. Our favorites were the hibachi, tapas, and breakfast buffet.

- The Casino. This was honestly the first time I’ve been able to legally gamble at a casino, so this was new to me. Luckily, this was not Dave’s first time at the rodeo. We found the casino a great place to end the night. Not really knowing what the exchange rate was, it took some of the pressure off when placing the bets. Lady luck must have been with us on the trip, as we both left with a few extra pesos in our pockets…

Downsides
- The Staff. Maybe we just had the best staff ever at Couples Resort in Jamaica, or the Dominicans aren’t as friendly. However, we found the staff to be a little rude at some points, and a little inconsiderate. However, given how much alcohol people are drinking at these resorts, I can understand how they could get annoyed with us tourists. They were also more aggressive in trying to sell us cheap merchandise, and getting tips which was odd.

- Ocean-view. We love being able to sit on our own balcony and watch the waves across the ocean. We had this in Jamaica, but then realized how much more we spent on that trip, so I guess this is one perk you sacrifice for such a good deal.

Overall.
We all decided we would definitely come back to the Catalonia Royal Bavaro. We are certain that the Catalonia Royal Bavaro has to be one of the best resorts in Punta Cana. Dominican Republic is a beautiful country, but a bit in poverty. The Catalonia Royal Bavaro is surrounded by several local towns and villages. While in Punta Cana, we also went dune-buggying through a Dominican tobacco farm. We also swam in a cave through an excursion with Catalonia Royal Bavaro. Our total rating on the Catalonia Bavaro Resort would be 4 out of 5 stars.

Queens Cup at Steeplechase

Joe RestivoA Saturday afternoon in the Carolina countryside… what else could a guy ask for? How about adding your friends, family, finger-food and alcohol into the mix, and you’ll have quite the fun day!

The Queen’s Cup at Steeplechase is like no other event in the Charlotte area. Thousands of people flock to Steeplechase from across the country to partake in the festivities. Other than the normal excitement of the actual horse racing, there are several other family activities. Steeplechase has spectacular views of the entire racecourse from wherever you sit, which is pretty cool!

One downside to this race is the fact that gambling is illegal in the state of North Carolina. There are ways to ‘bet’, but I’m not going to share them here. Just know that I won the first race :-)

The weather was OK, as we were hoping to sunshine, but we were still able to have a good time without it. It took us some time to get there, but traffic to Steeplechase was not as bad as we were anticipating. It’s fun to dress up in bowties and funny hats, as is something I’m sure me and my crazy friends will go to again next year.

[ALBUM REVIEW] – Fun. – Some Nights

Before you read any further, it’s very important to know that I was listening to Fun. before they became cool. Heck, I was listening to Fun before Fun was even Fun. Did you know the lead singer, Nate Ruess, was also the lead singer of this great little band called ‘The Format‘. I rocked out to The Format all throughout my college days. When I started working in the real world, I put The Format on Pandora, and bam, on comes Fun. I remember thinking “hey this is pretty good”, and telling some of my friends to listen to them. They didn’t listen to me. Now all the hipsters put “We Are Young” on their ipod, and think they’re pretty cool. That’s great!

Back to the actual album review… Fun’s second album, “Some Nights” has easily become one of my all-time favorite records. To give you some comparison, my other top albums all time include Jack’s Mannequin, ‘Everything in Transit‘, 50 cent’s ‘Get Rich or Die Trying’, and The Beatles “1″. Those are some big names to be put into the same category as, but once you pop this record in, you’ll understand.

Did I just say record?! Yes, yes I did. Me and my wife got a record player for Christmas, and are quickly becoming quite the collectors. We do not have too many ‘modern records’, but after listening to “Some Nights” a couple times, we picked up the vinyl and listen to it at least once a week (she likes to put it on repeat).

I can’t quite figure out what makes this album so good. The lyrics are not inspiring. I don’t think the lead singer has that great of a voice, but it is unique. The band itself is actually kinda geeky, and after reading a few interviews with them, they don’t seem very nice. However, they must have used a synthesizer in almost all of their songs which makes the album ‘Fun’.

One of my favorite things about the album is that they say “Some Nights” in almost every song. I love when albums tie all of the songs together. It makes it unique and harmonized.

I’m trying to think of what the best songs would be. “We Are Young” has been #1 on the charts for weeks, which surprises me, as it’s not your typical song. However, it’s grabbed the world’s attention, and a couple parody videos have actually been made in response to its popularity. Nonetheless, I believe my favorite song would be “Out on the Town”. Christie’s favorite is “Stars”.

One question I have for Nate would be… What is up with your family life? He makes several references in all of his songs (even going back to The Format) days, about how his dad was sick, and his mom has to take care of him. I’d just be curious to learn more about his life growing up.

Anyways… Check out this video, buy the album, and then let me know what you think!

My Favorite SEO Tools

This is for my fellow SEO / Computer geeks out there…

There’s a couple tools I use on a regular basis that I really think help me in day-to-day operations. Some of these tools are free, and some of them have a small monetary cost. However, the cost is miniscule compared to what you would pay to hire somebody, to run the program. All of these tools are extremely user-friendly, and come highly recommended from others in the search engine optimization community.

My favorite SEO Tools are…

  1. WordPress – Do you need a blog for your website? How about a new website altogether? WordPress is hands-down the easiest content management system to use, and heavily favored in the eyes of search engines. My agency is constantly converting old static HTML sites into WordPress. The business owners love it because they can actually go in and edit content, as opposed to having to ask their webmaster to do so. It’s also free!
  2. Wufoo - Cool name huh?! Besides being fun to say, Wufoo is a fantastic way to create forms for your website. Once a contact form is submitted, you can set-up various rules and notifications. Creating forms is fast and easy. Best of all… it has a free version!
  3. Twilio - Do people come to your website, and are not filling out contact forms, but you swear your visitors are just picking up the phone and calling you. Well, Twilio will enable you to create custom phone numbers, so you can easily track visitors who found the number through your website.
  4. Open Site Explorer – A product of SEOmoz, OpenSiteExplorer (OSE) allows users to get in-depth information about a websites backlink portfolio. For example, if you want to see where your top competitor is getting all of their links from, go ahead and throw the domain name in OSE, and viola, you will have an abundance of information. However, to get complete access, you need to be a member of SEOmoz, which is about $99 / month.
  5. Google Keyword Tool – I share this tool a lot with people who are just interested in getting ‘keyword data’. For example, if you want to know if more people are searching for ‘seo agency’, or ‘seo company’, by using this tool, you will be able to get insightful information regarding search volume for various keywords.
  6. Hootsuite - If you are focused on Reputation Management, and want to monitor any online chatter in regards to your brand, use Hootsuite! You can create feeds based on keywords, so you can see if anyone ‘tweets’ about your company. Additionally, it’s a great source to manage all of your social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
  7. Mailchimp - Have you ever done an email blast (or wanted to)? Mailchimp is extremely easy (and fun) to use. You can use one of their templates, or use your own. Best of all, it’s free up to 1,000 recipients! I use it all the time!
  8. Google Analytics – The ultimate Free SEO Resource. You can spend days digging through insightful information in regards to visitors to your website. Whether you want to know which city a visitor came from, what pages they clicked on, or what keyword they used to fill out a contact form, Google Analytics has it all.

Want more?! I have a couple, but I’m keeping them a secret. If you want to talk about it, shoot me an email at joe [@] stonefishmarketing.com. Cheers!

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