Nashville for Free

The other day some fine folks at Commodore Quake approached us. They said “would you like to do a contest to give away My Morning Jacket tickets for their show on October 20th at Vanderbilt’s Memorial Gymnasium?” Our response was a solid HECK YES!

Even if you only know MMJ from Guitar Hero then you probably know that these dudes rock. They play epic shows and are especially famous for their 4 hour late night rainy set at Bonnaroo in 2008. They are modern rock gods despite their lack of radio support. And that is why we’re so pumped to bring you all this contest.

Here’s how to enter: to get one measly drop of your name in the hat then comment on this blog post telling us your favorite MMJ moment but please don’t beg (it’s unbecoming of a rock fan) using your real name. Sorry DragonLuver81, you are not going to win this contest unless you tell everyone that your real name is Eugene Greer. Also, if you don’t sign up through FB or Twitter make sure your email address is valid.

But this wouldn’t be a N4F contest without a bonus step! To get your named dropped into the proverbial hat five extra times then post a picture on our Facebook wall of you enjoying some glowsticks. Why glowsticks? Well, I’ve seen MMJ a few times and each time people throw freaking glowsticks EVERYWHERE. It’s AWESOME. Don’t have any glowsticks? That’s what Photoshop and Paint are for. Remember, you’re promised an extra five entries, but if you make us double over in laughter chances are we’ll toss your name in that hat a few extra times. Seriously, people who do this step win 90% of the time. It’s basic math, people.

I’ll announce a winner next Monday evening, October the 10th. Get cracking, people! MMJ awaits!!!

-Emily

I love these contests. They provide me with some much wonderful entertainment, especially when people actually do the bonus step. And how many times do I have to tell you people, it makes a huge difference. Once again, our ticket winner participated in the bonus step, as seen in the big photo here. Congratulations Megan French, your minimal Photoshop skills helped you win tickets to see the Arctic Monkeys at the War Memorial Auditorium in Nashville! And a poster! Wahoo!

Again, big thanks to our friends at AEG Live. And don’t feel too sad if you didn’t win the tickets. The thing isn’t sold out, and if you buy your tickets to the show at Grimey’s I hear that they’ll give you the poster that Megan won. Also, I recommend checking out AEG Live on Facebook or Twitter, because they’re known to do contests of their own (and they don’t make you get into the mindset of a monkey).

And just for kicks and since they were all most excellent, here are the rest of the pics from the bonus step:

Let me tell ya something, the folks at AEG Live sure do know how to treat a blog. They seem to really like doing contests with us and I’ve enjoyed every single one we’ve had. As you might have heard, we hit 10,000 followers on Twitter yesterday and though I was going to save this contest for next week I’ve decided to roll it out to you all immediately.
But I digress, back to the contest. If you’ve been following us for awhile then you’ll know that it’s really simple to enter our contests. All you have to do is comment on this blog post with your favorite Arctic Monkey’s lyric. Or just a lyric. Just don’t beg me for tickets, because didn’t anyone tell you that begging is unbecoming of a person? It totally is. Arctic Monkeys, those awesome indie rockers, are coming to the War Memorial Auditorium on October 5th (with the most excellent Smith Westerns), and AEG Live has bestowed on us not just a pair of tickets, but a super-sweet poster of the show to give away! Aren’t they great? You should follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

Commenting will get your name thrown into our proverbial hat. However, if you REALLY want those tickets there is a way to stack the deck in your favor. All you have to do is post a picture on our Facebook wall of you going monkey for the camera. You can pose like a monkey, scratch your head while eating a banana. Hell, if you really want you could photoshop your head onto a monkey on an iceberg. And if you really make us laugh we might even put your name in there a few more times. We’ve been doing our contests like this for awhile now, and FYI, the winner is almost always someone who did this bonus step. Think about THAT ya’ll.

I’m going to give you until Monday evening to get yourself entered, which should be plenty of time to get yourself entered properly. Best of luck to all of you and THANK YOU for your support over the years. You all rock. So do the Arctic Monkeys. So enter this contest. Word.

-Emily

In case you haven’t heard, a new show was announced today, and I’m super excited about it. Jack’s Mannequin is coming to the Cannery, y’all! That’s right, on October 18th those awesome alt-rockers will hit up Nashville and remind me of the decent part of high school.

Of course, the show isn’t free. I know, I know, it sucks, but that’s how bands make their money. However, just for you all, our friends at AEG Live (who you should totally follow) have graciously given us a pair of tickets to give to a randomly selected winner.

I like to think that Nashville for Free contests are pretty standard. To enter to win tickets to the show all you have to do is comment either on this blog post or on the Facebook wall. That will get your name thrown into our proverbial hat exactly once. Now, that’s boring and makes the lazy fan as likely to win as the awesome and active fan, so as usual I’ve thought up a way for you to significantly improve your chances of winning…

If you want to get entered into our random drawing FIVE extra times post a picture either in this thread or on our Facebook wall of you posing with a mannequin. I’d also gladly accept photoshopped images with your face on a mannequin as long as it’s not too disturbing. The mannequin does not have to belong to someone named Jack, but it couldn’t hurt, right? As usual, if your picture is the most hilarious thing we’ve ever seen and we might even enter you an extra time or something. So get creative! It pays off. These drawings really are random, and most of the time our winners are people who followed the bonus step.

I’ll be randomly choosing a winner on Monday August 8th, so that gives you the weekend to get all America’s Next Top Model with a plastic statue at Macy’s. If you get escorted out, you don’t know me, got it?

Best of luck,

Emily

I’m not going to lie, I was kind of bummed when only one person did the bonus step for this contest. Seriously you guys, look at the record of winners, almost all of them have done the bonus step! And predictably, the person who did the bonus step and got the extra entries won this time (you can see the scientific process here). Congratulations Alex Miklich, you win the Tracy Morgan tickets!

Not that the rest of you entrants weren’t awesome, far from it. I cracked up at the quotes you all picked. Here are some of my personal favorites:

• The Mento has become the manatee
• You can’t ask a bird not to fly. You can’t ask a fish not to swim. You can’t ask a tiger not to turn back into a Chinese dude at midnight!
• I once saw a baby give another baby a tattoo! They were very drunk!
• We all thought once that pigs would fly the day there would be a black president. Now we have Barack Obama in the White House and swine flu.
• Where are the french fries I did not ask for? You guys need to anticipate me!
• Stop eating people’s old French fries, pigeon! Have some self respect! Don’t you know you can fly?
• I was born to design a video game where characters get weird with each other for golden points.
• I love this cornbread so much, I wanna take it behind a middle school and get it pregnant.
• What’s the past tense of scam? Is it scrumped? Liz Lemon, I think you just got scrumped
• It’s an honor for you to meet me.

Didn’t win? Sorry dudes, I know that it sucks, but at least there are still tickets available here. Thanks again to AEG Live for hooking us up with the tickets! Make sure you check them out on Facebook or Twitter because they have their own contests all the time.

-Emily

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched through all of the episodes of 30 Rock. It’s embarrassing. I watch it when I get up in the morning, when I’m at the gym, when I’m at the airport waiting for my flight to board – I LOVE this show. It’s not just that I adore Tina Fey (which I totally do), it’s really everything about it, including the craziness of Tracy Morgan playing Tracy Jordan, which I sort of get the feeling is just him playing himself (is Alec Baldwin the only person on that show who has to actually act? Maybe).

In case you haven’t heard, Nashville is about to experience the crazy comedy train that is Tracy Morgan. That’s right, our friends at AEG Live are brining him to the Ryman on June 3rd, and they’ve decided to be generous and give us a pair of tickets to give away!

The contest is pretty standard as far as our contests go. It’s a random drawing, and all you have to do is comment on this blog post with your favorite Tracy Morgan quote. It can be from 30 Rock, SNL, his standup, a random interview, whatever. Please just make sure you either login with Facebook, Twitter, or leave your first and last name and a valid email address.

Yes, a comment is all you need to get entered, but as usual we’ve decided to challenge you to complete the bonus step for five extra entries! Usually I give you some sort of specific photograph to create and post to our Facebook wall, but to be honest I can’t think of just one Tracy Morgan-ism to have you all document, so I’m giving you free-reign. Dudes, you can take off your shirt and do a jedi pose, you can dress up as Who Dat Ninga or Honky Grandma from Honky Grandma Be Trippin’ or photoshop yourself into Tracy’s posse. You can even post a video of you re-enacting one of Tracy’s SNL sketches. It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it’s Tracy-related and (hopefully) hilarious you get your bonus points. Hell, if you make us liz or jack we’ll probably give you more than five points, but that’s reserved for the most incredible hilarity.

I’ll be announcing a winner next Monday, the 16th, so let the games begin!

-Emily

I don’t really know what to say about Yelawolf. Hip-Hop isn’t really my thing, but from what I can tell Yelawolf has had a pretty cool career so far.

He’s a Southern rapper from Alabama who’s half white and half Cherokee (the name Yelawolf is a sort of tribute to his heritage). He tried to be a professional skateboarder but had to give it up due to injuries, so he turned to hip-hop. He’s only been actively rapping since 2007 but he’s already had some significant success; he was just recently signed to Eminem’s label, Shady Records.

But why in the world am I talking about Yelawolf? Well, if you ever look at concert calendars you’ve probably noticed that he’s playing the Mercy Lounge with Wick-It and Chancellor Warhol next Tuesday, April 12th, and thanks to our fantastic friends at AEG Live we have a pair of tickets to give away!

The contest starts today (obviously) and I’ll announce a winner this Friday. All you have to do to enter is comment on this blog post and say something witty (or not witty, if that suits you better). Please please please, if you don’t comment using your Twitter or Facebook accounts then please leave me your real name, first and last. I need to know who to put on the list and don’t really want to chase you down. As always, the winner will be chosen by random drawing.

As always, there is a bonus step. For five bonus points post a picture of yourself with a skateboard (as an homage to Yelawolf’s first career choice) on our Facebook page. Heck, I’ll give you six bonus points if you’re riding it! Since a lot of you might not be the skateboarding types I’ll give you one bonus point for holding up a sign or piece of paper that says “I love Yelawolf and N4F!” You might get more than that if you somehow manage to make me bust out laughing.

Again, I’ll announce the winner this Friday, so you better get yourselves entered ASAP!

-Emily

All I can say is wow. It was our biggest contest ever. You guys left some great comments and sent in some great pictures but there can only be one winner.

And her name is Erin Elliott!

Congratulations Erin, enjoy the Dashboard show! Don’t cry too much, and if you do cry may it be from joy and not a sorrow in your angsty, emo soul.

Again, thanks to AEG Live for making this contest happen. And for all you sad souls who didn’t win tickets, don’t fret! There are still some tickets available but I’d act soon to save yourselves from any heartache. Sorry dudes, when they’re gone, they’re gone. It’s going to be a great show, isn’t it Erin?

As always, for your pleasure and mine, here’s a sample of some of the pictures submitted for the contest:

Once upon a time I was in Jr. High School and everyone I knew loved loved LOVED Dashboard Confessional. I mean, these guys were just massive, especially in my group of wannabe punk friends. And I can understand why, the singer is dreamy, the songs are catchy and the lyrics are dramatic. That’s probably why they’re still a successful touring band today. They really struck a chord with my generation.

That’s why I’m so excited that our friends from AEG Live offered us a pair of tickets to give away to their March 31st show at the Cannery Ballroom! You know, when Dashboard was at their biggest I would’ve been too young to see them there, but damnit, I’m old enough now, so watch out!

The steps for entering this contest are pretty standard. To be entered into our random drawing all you have to do is comment on this blog post. It’s so easy, you can even log onto our commenting system via Facebook or Twitter!

But, as usual, that’s not all. You can get yourself entered five more times by posting a photo to our Facebook wall. Not just any photo though! You see, Dashboard Confessional was the band that started the whole “emo” movement, so I want to see a picture of your emo moment. It can be an actual picture of you or it can be your face photoshopped onto the emo-est person of all time. As usual, if you make us laugh our asses off we might throw in even a few more points for ya.

Well, what are you waiting for? Enter thyself! I’ll announce a winner next Monday.

-Emily

Congratulations to Nick Floyd, your Ted Nugent-y entry was hilarious and disgusting, and the bonus points undoubtedly helped you win our first contest of the year: a pair of tickets to guitar virtuoso Leo Kottke’s March 16th show at TPAC. Thanks again to AEG Live/The Messina Group for making this contest possible.

As usual (which is why I love you guys), a lot of you sent in some great pictures, and I’d be a fool to not share them with the world, so here they are. As you might remember, the theme was to send in a picture of yourself playing the real guitar, air guitar, or photoshop your head onto the body of a famous guitarist.  There’s even a bonus pic from our contributor Matt Kraatz in there!

So, what’s your favorite pick? Aside from our winner I think I’m partial to the jumps accomplished by Mr. Dan Berrios. How is that humanly possible??