TONIGHT ALIVE
Hailing all the way from Sydney, Australia, feisty fivesome Tonight Alive are ready to attack the U.S. with their irrepressible, female-fronted power pop-punk. Lead by Jenna McDougall, their 19 year old ingenue-with-attitude, Tonight Alive has already taken their native scene by storm, developing a rabid young fanbase enthralled by the band’s ebullient, fist-pumping anthemery, arena-sized hooks and high-voltage live performances.
Produced by Mark Trombino (Blink-182, Jimmy Eat World) and featuring Blink 182’s Mark Hoppus, the new album What Are You So Scared Of?, is the perfect snapshot of this thrilling new Fearless Records signing - a collection of five tracks with as much gravitas as gusto and good times. Already gaining a cult audience in the U.S. thanks to key music placements on MTV’s The Hills, and tours with Anberlin, Simple Plan, The Wonder Years, Breathe Carolina and The Fearless Friends Tour already under their belts, the band is set to storm the nation this spring on the road with Go Radio, followed by a full summer on Vans Warped Tour. Keep your eyes on Tonight Alive!
THE CALIFORNIA HONEYDROPS
Digging deep into the roots of American music, The California Honeydrops embrace the traditions of Blues, Gospel, Second Line New Orleans Jazz, and early R&B. With stellar performances of traditional material as well as their own innovative music, The California Honeydrops offer an irresistible sound that blends the energy and intimacy of a street performance, undeniable talent and musicianship, and the soul and fervor of a spiritual street parade. Since their formation 4 years ago in the subway stations of Oakland, CA, The California Honeydrops have completed 6 European tours, spread honey on crowds throughout the US, and recorded 2 full length albums of original music, all without the help of a record label or major booking agency.
Learn everything you’ve ever wanted to know in the LA Times write up:
STANDING SHADOWS
Listen to the ONE BY ONE EP here
With the latest installment now available, Standing Shadows continues the release of an EP TRILOGY, stemming from recent recording sessions in Joshua Tree desert with producer Chris Goss (Queens Of The Stone Age, UNKLE, Duke Spirit, The Cult) at Rancho de la Luna studio with engineer Ethan Allen (Gram Rabbit, Daniel Lanois, Spindrift). The band sweated out 3 new songs in the ungodly desert heat that draw on the issues and emotions of a world that is ever more competitive, corrupt, and complicated. Songs like “Freakshow” and “Everything You Want” proclaim an injustice in the world, while the emotionally-epic song “Just a Part of Me” gives us a glimpse into the heart of the band, reminding us that what we do today “…could be everything.” Perhaps the most epic of this collection is “One By One”, which ignites fans to “break those chains…”, and features the likes of Dave Catching (QOTSA, Eagles Of Death Metal) on guitar. Each EP also includes a variety of b-sides produced by the band.
With over a hundred live shows in two years, including several tours spanning the Southwest, Northwest, and Midwest and two consecutive years attending SXSW, Standing Shadows continues to forge ahead in 2012. Starting in March the band will embark on a 10 date tour from Los Angeles to Austin for SXSW. Two new music videos are planned for release this Spring, and in addition, the band will release an Exclusive Featured Remix album with Beatport which will also be available in all major retail later this year.
L.A. GUNS
L.A. Guns started in 1982 as a straight up dirty rock and roll band. The band was put together by Tracii Guns in his last year of high school with singer Michael Jagosz, bass player Ole Beich and drummer Rob Gardner. When Jagosz had to leave the band soon after, Axl Rose of Hollywood Rose replaced him.
After some lineup changes, the band got signed with Polygram Records in 1987 with Tracii Guns on lead guitar, Phil Lewis on vocals, Steve Riley on drums, Mick Cripps on rhythm guitar and Kelly Nickels on bass, recording their first album titled “L.A. Guns” that summer. Over 1,000,000 copies were sold earning the band its first platinum album award. A compilation of the videos made for this first album also earned the band a gold video award.
In 1989 the band went into the studio to record their second album titled “Cocked and Loaded”. Again, they sold over 1,000,000 copies earning the band its second platinum record award. The video compilation of this second album earned the band a second gold video award.
Their third album “Hollywood Vampires” was released in 1991. Over 1,000,000 copies were sold earning the band its third platinum album award.
The band recorded other studio and live albums followed by successful World Tours. L.A. Guns has always been a work in progress without an end in sight, continually touring, writing and recording a huge variety of rock and roll sounds registered in their successful studio albums. Some people believe that L.A. Guns may be the last true Rock and Roll band that hasn’t had to rely on outside writers to have continued success.
BLESSED BY A BROKEN HEART
Change can be a great thing, but it doesn’t always happen overnight. For some bands, the process can take the better part of a decade, between locking in the right lineup, finding the ideal sound and forging a unified creative vision. After eight years as a band, heavy metal trailblazers Blessed By A Broken Heart are finally there, and are embracing the changes as yet another chapter in their already distinguished career. And the best is yet to come.
VORHEES
Vorhees is the nom de guerre of Dana Wachs, an audio engineer, musician, and sound designer, based in New York City. Vorhees began as a recording project in 2005, focusing on creating analogue textures and soundscapes for extended ambient listening sessions based on memories of childhood and teenage excursions to the Pine Barrens of South Jersey. Recordings, and now live performance, has evolved into more contemporary song structures while retaining her original ambient experiments, rejecting any assistance from a laptop.
Ms. Wachs has applied her skill and artistry in music and audio production to world tours of Internationally acclaimed musicians such as Cat Power, MGMT, M.I.A., Lykke Li, and St. Vincent to name but a few, as well as in Greene Street Recording Studios, (now defunct birthplace of classic albums by Public Enemy, Run-DMC, Sonic Youth, and New Order). She has also acted as a consultant for Visionaire Magazine’s SOUND issue, composer for Heather Kravas’ original dance piece “The Green Surround”, sound design for NY Fashion Week designers Rachel Comey, Imitation of Christ, Y & Kei, Wink, Sebastian Pons and Jess Holzworth, and her composition “Condensor” featured in a short film by the SOMNUS collective for their 2008 F/W presentation.
Learn more by reading Discovery: Vorhees in Interview
Download The Orchard here:
Listen to the live stream during New York’s Fashion Week:
And for all you New Yorkers, don’t miss this record release party at Heathers on 2/21/12:
SIRENS FALL SILENT
Formed in the Fall of 2009, Sirens Fall Silent is an American progressive metalcore quintet from TN. They released their debut E.P. “In Our Darkest Dreams” on October 31, 2011. It is available for purchase on most online music sites, including iTunes, Zune, Bandcamp, and Amazon (just to name a few), and a hardcopy form is also available from the band or their Storenvy online merchandise store. They eagerly move into 2012 with a tenacious passion to take their music to the next level, both figuratively and literally. Sirens Fall Silent have set numerous goals for 2012. They are currently writing and in pre-production for their debut full length which they plan on releasing in 2012. They are also in the process of scheduling a few tours, one of which will be in the Northeast USA, and as many weekend excursions as possible. While at the same time continue to play for their local fans. The band’s ultimate desire is to get their music out to as many people as possible.
The band acknowledges that everything they have done up until this point has simply only laid the groundwork for what is to come, and that the band’s success or failure rest exclusively in their hands. The synergy created by the members, both on and off the stage, is truly the driving force behind Sirens Fall Silent. They are honest and realistic; with themselves individually, with each other, and with anyone they come into contact with.
WASHED OUT
Within and Without is the debut album by 28 year-old Atlanta-based songwriter and producer Ernest Greene, AKA Washed Out. Long adored and critically lauded in the blog world, Greene first came to prominence in the summer of 2009 after unassumingly posting a handful of bedroom-recorded tracks to his Myspace page from his family home in the seclusion of the tiny rural city of Perry, Georgia. “I’d been writing music on my own for three or four years previous to that,” Greene explains, “mostly as a way to experiment with songwriting processes. Those were just the first I ever shared.”
Despite such modest intentions however, those first songs (many of which would appear on the acclaimed Life of Leisure EP of later that year) were about as complete an opening statement from an artist as imaginable. A heady, psychedelic concoction of what Pitchfork’s Mark Hogan termed “romantic nostalgia and homespun textures,” songs such as “Belong” and “Feel It All Around”–Greene’s biggest hit to date–artfully match the glossy melody of ‘80s synth pop, the widescreen scope of early ‘90s Balearic dance music and the slowed, heavy bounce of southern Hip Hop production to gorgeously wistful vocals with results as undeniably idiosyncratic and original as they are deeply accessible.
A remarkably impressive feat of songwriting and production given Greene’s means at the time (essentially little more than a laptop, sample bank and microphone), the songs of Life of Leisure saw him, alongside friend Chaz Bundick, AKA Toro y Moi, and the more established likes of Ariel Pink and Panda Bear, designated leader of a newly emerging DIY movement identified by David Keenan of The Wire magazine as “hypnagogic pop” for its romantic, retro-futurist re-imagining of pop music past.
“Hypnagogic pop is music that reaches beyond its performers’ abilities. It refashions ‘80s chart pop-rock into hazy, psychedelic drone,” wrote Keenan at the time. Although, as Within and Without proves, it was merely Greene’s simplistic working processes and not any lack of ability that lent Life of Leisure its slightly lo-fi tone. And while all the dubious new genre tags attached to Greene (“hypnagogic pop,” “glo-fi,” “chillwave,” etc.) serve to illustrate his importance as a genuine leader they should not be allowed to distract from his primary talent as a great pop songwriter in the purest sense.
The rest of 2009 and early 2010 saw Greene taking Life of Leisure on tour in North America and Europe; working through various incarnations (initially solo with laptop and then joined by contemporaries Small Black as backing band) with increasing success. Along the way Washed Out inspired a legion of devoted supporters, followers and imitators before seemingly wilfully slipping back into obscurity again–just as the project was beginning to leave the internet ghetto behind in favor of bonafide real world success.
It’s fair to say, then, that Within and Without arrives with a great deal of expectation in tow. Rather than capitalize on the momentum of Life of Leisure immediately by rushing another record out, Greene consciously took a step back from the label scrum surrounding him and considered how best to move the project on. “The sound of those early songs was an aesthetic choice, but also a practical one,” as Greene puts it, “it allowed me to merge and blend a variety of samples and sourced work I was incorporating into my songs at the time. With Within and Without, however, I wanted the songs to develop from a more live, organic place and so some things necessarily changed.”
These changes, however, were not simply the results of a bolstered budget and heaps of studio polish–Greene self-funded the record and actually returned to the perfect isolation of the idyllic lakeside Georgian settings where the Washed Out project began in order to get to work. Instead, he set about adjusting his working methods, “re-learning traditional ways of writing,” as he puts it.
Whereas before Greene pieced his gauzy, looping pop songs from obscure samples and segments of re-constructed found-sound plucked from an intimidatingly vast record collection, the widescreen, ecstatic melodies of Within and Without are all of his own composition and Washed Out no longer just a bedroom production project but a real band (now playing live as a five-piece that includes Greene’s wife Blair). “A lot of the focus while writing the new songs was on how they’d sound live,” says Greene, “that’s something that never quite translated how I wanted with the earlier stuff.” Not quite flying entirely solo, however, the services of esteemed producer and fellow Georgian Ben Allen were enlisted for co-production duties–Allen added a certain poise and conciseness to proceedings in much the same way he harnessed Animal Collective’s psychedelic sprawl into pop gold without sacrificing any of their inventiveness on the group’s breakthrough LP Merriweather Post Pavilion.
The result of this more considered approach to composition and enhanced production is a record that retains the jubilant, sun-kissed energy that lit up the imaginations of so many the first time around but also refines it–conjuring a far more nuanced and balanced sense of emotion from a more organic pallet of sounds and textures. At times Within and Without is almost orchestral in its arrangements and it is consistently, achingly beautiful in its effortless, longing melody. Whereas much of the talk around Life of Leisure was focused on its lingering sense of nostalgia, of halcyon summers spent loafing in the sun, Within And Without exists very much in the present, encompassing all the excitement and turmoil which that entails; for all its romance there is a deep yearning. Across its nine songs it feels equally sad and triumphant, anxious and blissed-out, often all at once.
PANIC! AT THE DISCO
This past Dec. 8, Logitech Ultimate Ears brought more than 200 lucky fans in Austin, Texas a once-in-a-lifetime surprise concert experience with the alternative band Panic! At The Disco. After fans spent weeks trying to discover who would be headlining the surprise show, fan excitement was at a fevered pitch when the 3.7 million Panic! At The Disco Facebook fans got the news that their beloved band was our chosen headliner!
The announcement was a team effort as the Austin-American Statesman, Austin Chronicle, Do512, Study Breaks magazine, Panic! At The Disco and the Logitech UE Facebook pages all revealed the band and location simultaneously. All of these partners were also given a designated number of tickets to the event to give away to their fan bases. With that news, fans that were lucky enough to win a pair of tickets began lining up hours ahead of time in order to get a spot as close to the stage as possible. And for those who did not win, we reserved a select number of tickets on a first come first serve basis at the door. By the time the doors opened, the crowd was lined up around the corner and down 6th Street.
Panic! put on a personal and intimate acoustic performance for these true music lovers in Austin, in what was one of the last acts at the renowned and now-closed Momo’s 6th Street venue.
AN INTERVIEW WITH SCOTT CRANE, DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT FOR NOISE POP INDUSTRIES
As part of our monthly “Inside the Industry” series, we look behind the scenes at what makes the music industry tick. We talk to experts about what is really going on and we show that there is always much more than meets the eye. This month, we spoke with Scott Crane about the new dynamics and relationships between bands and brands. Here is what we learned.
Hello Scott and thank you for talking with us today. All of our readers are music lovers but few of us think about the logistics involved in putting on a live show - let alone an entire festival. You are the Director of Business and Sponsorship for Noise Pop Industries. Before we dive into specifics, can you please tell us a bit about what Noise Pop Industries is? What festivals do you host?
In February we’re celebrating the 20th Annual Noise Pop Festival, which started with five bands in one club on one day in San Francisco. Since then, Noise Pop has grown into an institution, with over 100 bands at over thirty different shows in more than a dozen venues in just six days. We also have a number of film, art, and culinary events, and produce several weeks of our Noise Pop-Up Shop leading up to the festival. We calculated that we are producing about 80 events in the month of February alone, believe it or not. Our other big property is the Treasure Island Music Festival (produced in partnership with Another Planet Entertainment), which happens mid-October. So those are the two major events that anchor our calendar, and then we have a number of projects throughout the year: producing events at SXSW and other major festivals, programming for a few other partners, and creating bespoke programs for both emerging and established brands. We keep ourselves from getting bored pretty well.
So how do you even start to plan on organizing a festival? There must be a million moving parts….
Yeah, there really are. Fortunately, I get to work with an amazing team who handle all the heavy lifting on the programming and the production, while I focus more on developing and managing the brand relationships around the festivals. One of the great things about a company as small as ours, in organizing something as massive as a city-wide festival, is that everyone has a chance to get their ideas in at the planning stage. We all muse on about the bands we want to see on the bill, come up with new ideas for events… Honestly at that stage, few things are considered too absurd. The fun part is trying to figure out how to make it all happen, and seeing some of the most ambitious ideas actually come to fruition. But in between, yes, there are a lot of late nights and weekends involved. Fortunately, we all love what we do.
How do you go about choosing the line-up?
Well you know, it starts with the wish list. We all love music, from the owners to the interns, so we all have a short list of artists we want to see. Whether it’s a local band you just really love, or that dream gig that you think is actually impossible to pull off. And yet we have a lot of both on the festival this year! All of the booking goes through our talent buyer, and the two partners get very involved, the producers are very hands on with the programming, but we all get to chime in and pitch ideas. But then they deal with availabilities with tour routing, venue cooperation, financial realities, production issues, putting the right fits on the same bill. Again, I’m amazed with this team. They crush it. To go from joking over lunch that “we should get the Flaming Lips to play ‘The Soft Bulletin’ at Bimbo’s” to actually having that exact show as our opening party just a few months later is a pretty incredible thing to watch materialize.
OK. So your area of expertise is really interesting. You’re in charge of brands and sponsorships. Most people don’t think about this aspect of the industry. Can you please tell us a bit about what you do and how you involve companies that are outside of the music scene?
Sure. To keep it concise, my area of focus is developing and managing brand relationships and revenue streams for Noise Pop and all of our projects. So that means I’m managing and renewing business with former and existing sponsors, creating new opportunities for companies to be involved in, and also developing entirely new properties to plug some of these relationships into. There are also some instances where a brand can benefit from our expertise for a specific event or campaign that isn’t branded under the Noise Pop banner, which can also get really interesting. But I feel that in every case, the execution has to be clever, tasteful, subtle, and has to be on brand for us. Most fans really don’t understand or even think about what I do, if I’m doing my job right. If they do, I start to worry.
What are some of the biggest challenges that you face?
You know, it’s a funny thing. I remember when I was doing deals for artists and events back in the mid to late 90’s. I had artists turning down everything from tour sponsors to content deals to national commercials, because they were afraid of how they would be perceived. And not just artists — even the managers, agents, labels. Fast forward to now, just a decade or so later, and EVERYONE is fighting to be in this space. Look around. What was once a very niche and somewhat frowned-upon corner of the business has now become a very cluttered space. I see new “decks” every week for artists seeking sponsorships, music events seeking brand deals, see upcoming indie artists at every single brand launch… And yes, I’ve made a lot of that happen over the years for different clients as well, sure. But now I think the biggest challenge is that too many of the folks in this part of the business––which to them, by the way, is very new––are only thinking about how little they can do for the largest amount of cash, and simply don’t deliver value to the brands who are investing. I see major companies overpaying for talent, I see events and artists undervaluing their true worth to the brands, all of it. So there are a lot of best practices that aren’t being employeed, because the space is littered with the hunt for quick money to fund this or that, not an effort to create lasting relationships. The good news is, if you’re diligent on this side of the deal, and go above and beyond to give ROI to your brand partners, you can cut through all the noise. To this day, some of my closest friendships grew out of these working relationships over the last several years, so I see that from experience.
So silly question - but what’s in it for the companies? Why do they want to be associated with a festival or with musicians? (As a caveat, Logitech UE has been a sponsor of Noise Pop in the past so we actually are quite familiar with how this works…)
That’s a great question. And it kind of builds on what I was just talking about. On a simple level, brands want to be involved with music and artists because of the fans. Brands want––and really they NEED––consumers to have the type of emotional connection that fans do with music. Companies want fans, not customers. Fans are loyal. Even if you make a bad record, real fans know you still have another good one. Fans get depressed when your band breaks up and fans start message boards lamenting it every day. Fans hope and pray for reunion tours. Fans get tattoos with band names and logos. On the other hand, there are only a handful of well-known brands you can point to that have customers that loyal, and we all know who they are. So brands want that, for sure. They also want authenticity. And, hey, so do customers. This is why Etsy and the whole Renegade Handmade movement are so huge, why words like “local” and “sustainable” are so omnipresent. And when a brand achieves a certain size, they tend to become disconnected with their customers, and customers lose interest. This is what I tend to hear with the larger companies. The blue chips. With a lot of the brands that work with us at Noise Pop, though, they do actually really get it, they have a great product, and just really love supporting artists and music and independent companies like ours. And those are the best partnerships. Fortunately, I get to work with a lot of those. But these are also the brands that everyone else WANTS to be. So the others can look to us to help them get there. Personally, I love to be part of that process. Keeps things interesting and gives me a much better perspective from the other side of the deal.
How do you think this effects the music industry? Where do you think the brand/band partnerships will eventually lead to?
I think you’re going to see more and more where the brands are striking direct 360˚ deals with artists. There have been a few high profile deals like this of course, to varying degrees of success, and they get a load of press because of the dollars attached to them. But I’m talking about deals with independent artists, emerging artists. The ones that don’t make Billboard or Wall Street Journal. And even smaller brands. Local and regional businesses with local and regional talent. And think of the impact that can have, organically, on the music scene under the waterline of the Fortune lists and charting artists. It’s a scaleable model that so few have tapped into, but I really think you’re going to see more of it. I hope so.
And lastly, you mentioned before that Noise Pop Industries is moving beyond the traditional festival approach — that you’re moving into pop-ups, culinary events, and music series at museums and science centers. We’d love to hear more about this.
That’s right. We’re all excited about these things. Realizing that most music fans (and just residents) of the Bay are food geeks, and most chefs anywhere are music fanatics, Noise Pop started a series of underground dinners last year with a very talented young chef. They were wildly successful, received far more press than anyone had imagined. And we’ve built on those to do more and more in the food and beverage arena. We’ve curated music at local restaurants, started a new DJ series with Stoli, are doing more with programming music at food and beverage festivals, expanded the dinners to other markets, and created partnerships with wine and spirits companies to create pairing menus for each event. Then there’s our Noise Pop-Up Shop leading up to the festival, which features a few rising food stars in the Bay (and nationally in some cases), so we’re having a blast with all of that. And yes, we’ve also been programming a live music series at the California Academy of Sciences as well, and in the past we’ve done events at SF MoMa. We’ve got a number of other things up our sleeves along those lines for the next year. So those projects all keep it fun and exciting. Definitely be sure to keep watching our site at www.noisepop.com for the latest developments.
Thank you Scott - see you at the next festival!
My pleasure. We have the Noise Pop-Up Shop February 2-18, then Noise Pop 20 is February 21-26. Come visit us in San Francisco!
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