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News

Watch CMA Music Festival Tonight on ABC!

If you weren’t able to make it to Nashville for the CMA Festival in June, you can watch over 20 performances tonight on ABC. Join host Tim McGraw as he introduces sets by Jason Aldean, Billy Currington, Alan Jackson, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride, Reba McEntire, Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, Taylor Swift and more.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY5tfIEqMD4?fs=1]

If you haven’t seen Taylor Swift’s latest music video for “Mine,” you can below. Do you think she’ll perform it tonight? Tune in at 8/7C to find out!

Taylor Swift
 
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Contest

Introducing New York Summer Music Junkie Contest

Since moving to Brooklyn this past weekend, I’ve been constantly urged to visit Brooklyn Bowl, a super hip music venue so I hear. After learning about the NYC Summer Music Junkie contest sponsored by SuperGlued, I just may be making a trip sooner than I thought.

A friend recently sent along information about a music contest through SuperGlued, a community for live music lovers, where you earn points and prizes for all the things you do before, during and after shows, such as Twitter updates, FourSquare checkins, blog reviews and photo and video uploads. The more frequently you post something, the better chance you have to win prizes from Brooklyn Bowl, CMJ, Seaport Music and more.

Points earned will be tracked on SuperGlued’s homepage, and top scorers earn weekly prizes throughout the summer. The contest runs until September 4th, so if you haven’t yet, be sure to create a profile and start posting! This week the highest earners win a CMJ badge, a pair of tickets to Rock the Bells at Governor’s Island, and a pair of tickets to see Bloc Party’s lead singer perform at Webster Hall in September.

The biggest music junkie of all wins the grand prize package, which includes a Brooklyn Bowl 365 pass (free admission for you and a friend for one full year) and a guest DJ spot on the Seaport Music Show on East Village Radio. To find out more and sign up, click here. I just may myself too. Good luck!

Categories
Concert Reviews

Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers and Matt Hires Satisfy Fans at Maxwell’s

Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers took the stage shortly after 9:30 Tuesday night while Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” blasted from the speakers.

“Welcome to Bulletproof Heart night everybody,” frontman Stephen Kellogg told the crowd to screams after the band performed first track, “Scorpio,” off their debut album, Bulletproof Heart.

Their 90-minute set included every song off the album played in order as well as newer material during their encore. Many of the tracks were performed live for the first time and at times the band stopped to regroup.

“This is why we’re doing this at Maxwell’s and not at Madison Square Garden,” Kellogg joked midway through “You’ve Changed” after forgetting the lyrics. The second song of the night, the audience didn’t seem to mind.

For my complete review visit Hoboken Patch.

For more on Matt Hires, read my interview with him here.

Categories
Concert Reviews

Cristina Fontanelli Closes 100th Year Celebration at St. Ann’s Feast

Performing Italian classics, Sinatra hits and Andrew Lloyd Webber favorites to an enthusiastic crowd, award-winning international recording artist Cristina Fontanelli closed the 100th anniversary of St. Ann’s Feast Monday night. The classically trained opera singer and former Hobokenite explained just how much the city means to her.

“I’ve been to some of the most exotic places on the planet,” said Fontanelli, who was the first classically trained female singer to sing in Uganda and Kenya. “But,” she added, “here I am at St. Ann’s 100th festival. I’ve been to so many places, but let me tell you something: There’s no place like home.”

For my complete review and interview with Cristina, visit Hoboken Patch.

Categories
Concert Reviews

Dawes Impress at First New Jersey Gig

California-based folk rockers Dawes performed to a packed room of enthusiastic concertgoers for a little more than an hour at Maxwell’s Friday night. While crowd favorite “When My Time Comes” felt like a spiritual experience with fans screaming the lyrics word for word with their fists in the air, the remainder of their hour-long set was nothing short of energetic with minute long musical jams throughout.

With four part harmonies and solid musical features, Dawes’ set impressed. Their first performance in the Garden State, frontman Taylor Goldsmith seemed eager to come back.

“If this is our first show in New Jersey, I’d say we’re off to a pretty good start,” he said midway through their set. “Here’s to the first of many.”

For my complete review, visit Hoboken Patch.

Categories
Concert Reviews

Ryan Bingham Showcases Songs From Upcoming LP

Ryan Bingham performed to a packed crowd at New York’s famed Living Room venue on Wednesday night. The private event featured the Oscar winner alone onstage with nothing but his acoustic guitar, harmonica and powerful vocals. For those in attendance, that was enough.

Before his set began, a pamphlet of lyrics to the songs from his upcoming September 7 release, Junky Star, was passed out. Artist Kiki Smith then introduced Ryan with immense praise.

“We’re here to celebrate Ryan Bingham. The wounded part of him that he sings about gives me the opportunity to heal myself. For me, that is very powerful,” she said.

For my complete review, visit The Boot.

Categories
Concert Reviews

Cary Brothers and Greg Laswell Kick off Co-Headlining Tour

Cary Brothers and Greg Laswell showcased their emotion-filled songs and onstage banter last night at Maxwell’s while Harper Blynn provided a fitting backing band throughout each set. The first night of their summer tour, Tuesday was just a glimpse of what is to come.

“I’m originally from Nashville, but I hated country music and I always listened to British music,” Brothers said. “That’s why when I sing I sound British.”

Though he dislikes country, he said his song, “Blue Eyes,” is the closest he came to writing a country song. Well known for being featured on the Grammy Award-winning soundtrack to the film “Garden State,” the track was definitely a crowd favorite.

For the complete review on Hoboken Patch, click here.

Watch Cary Brothers’ new music video for “Ghost Town” below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch-0xVRfh4g]

You can see Greg Laswell’s video for “Take Everything” below. Fun fact: he’s actually singing the words backwards so it appears accurate in the video.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=11173400&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
Greg Laswell “Take Everything” from Vanguard Records on Vimeo.

Categories
Features First Person

You Sing I Write Adventures: Why I Love Taylor Swift, June Recap

Photo Credit: Wendy Hu

Last month, I posted my first “Day In the Life.” A first person article about my music adventures, I received an overwhelming positive response and my poll of the week informed me that you, the readers, would like to read similar posts on a weekly basis. I’ll try my very best to keep up-to-date!

June has been a whirlwind of CD release parties and concerts. Last week alone, I attended five shows in a row. An exciting first for me, I was introduced to quite a few new bands and genres of music.

Tuesday night I made it to the Studio at Webster Hall just in time to catch New York favorites, Lights Resolve. They debuted a few new tracks from their upcoming release to a packed crowd. Definitely a more aggressive feel than their previous material, between their gritty guitar riffs and unwavering energy, it is sure to be a success. You can download their latest EP for free here.

Wednesday night I covered Dion Roy’s EP Release Party at the Living Room. Earlier that day he debuted at No. 16 on the singer-songwriter iTunes charts and throughout the week he charted to No. 8. Pretty impressive!

Being a Jersey girl, I’ve heard of the infamous Stone Pony in Asbury Park, but surprisingly never made it to a show there. This all changed when I saw Tor Miller Band open for Quincy Mumford Thursday. You may remember Tor Miller Band from my TWLOHA benefit concert back in December. I’m in disbelief that they’re only in high school. Their song, “I’m Alright” is still stuck in my head. (Video below)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LwMe1rZReI]

Friday and Saturday I covered shows for Hoboken Patch. Good Old War, Yukon Blonde and Audra Mae quickly became new favorites of mine. While waiting for Good Old War to take the stage at their sold-out show at Maxwell’s Friday night, I learned that I was standing beside Circa Survive frontman Anthony Green. Pretty cool, no? You can read my full recap of the show here. Saturday night I witnessed my first heavy rock show when covering Chambers’ record release. I’ve never seen fans jump on vocalists and guitarists before at a concert and it was an experience I will never forget. Read all about it here.

Earlier this month, after writing an article for Lemondrop, I learned it was featured on AOL’s homepage. I received an overwhelming response (nearly 300 comments) and learned that my piece struck a chord with many readers. That’s the main reason I decided to pursue journalism — to make an impact. Unfortunately, my family was less than pleased as they feel I portrayed them in a bad light. Read the article here and let me know what you think. If I at least made a few people smile and realize they’re not alone, then I’m satisfied.

A journalist’s job is not always an easy one, but at least I can live with knowing I was 100% “honest and unmerciful” (cue one of my favorite “Almost Famous” lines). This whole experience really made me curious as to how songwriters do it. Artists like Taylor Swift display their inner most thoughts and feelings for everyone to hear. Not to mention, name their ex-boyfriends! Don’t they ever face resistance and shy away from it? I’ve always loved Taylor, but this month really put things into perspective.

Perhaps, subconsciously this is why one of my favorite questions to ask artists is if they’re ever afraid to reveal too much in their songs. I asked Taylor Swift this very question last year at the CMA Music Festival and this is what she said:

“For me, writing a song, I sit down and the process doesn’t really involve me thinking about the demographic of people I’m trying to hit or who I want to be able to relate to the song or what genre of music it falls under. When I sit down and write a song the only person that I’m thinking about in that room is the person that I’m writing the song about and what I want them to know and what I wish I could tell them to their face, but I’m going to say it in a song instead. So, for me, music is really more about a diary and a confession. I love it. I love getting to say things to people that I wouldn’t say to them if I was standing face to face with them. Music is a way of verbalizing those things that I feel that I can’t say.”

For Taylor’s complete press room conference interview from the 2009 CMA Fest, click here.

Insightful answer, no? In fact, every time I’ve ever asked a singer-songwriter this question, they’ve pretty much said the same thing, adding that when they have held back in songwriting, they’ve regretted it. While I definitely still have a lot to learn, I think I’m on the right track.

Updates from last month’s post:

I FINALLY got to chat with Benny from Gaslight Anthem (photo above) and am working on setting up an interview with the band. You can read my review of their sold-out New York record release show on Venus Zine.

My Hanson interview was posted a few weeks ago on Lemondrop. Check it out here. I’d love to know your thoughts!

Categories
Concert Reviews

Chambers Celebrate Record Release at Maxwell’s

Photo Credit: Robert T. Huber

As Chambers took the stage late Saturday night, it was evident this would be a record release party like no other. A mosh pit soon formed a few feet from the stage while frontman Dan Pelic told the crowd, “Come closer. I promise I won’t hurt you.”

Together for just more than a year, Chambers’ debut album, Old Love is aggressive rock & roll with heavy vocals and ear-grabbing guitar riffs. With the goal to make a record that captured the band’s live sound, after witnessing their performance Saturday it was obvious this was accomplished.

For the complete review, visit Hoboken Patch. Stay tuned for my interview with Dan of Chambers in the upcoming days.

Categories
Concert Reviews

Good Old War, Yukon Blonde and Audra Mae Impress at Maxwell’s

It was evident on Friday night that Good Old War, Yukon Blonde and Audra Mae don’t want their current tour to end. With two shows remaining, the bands couldn’t get enough of each other. Whether it was Audra Mae calling members of Yukon Blonde and Good Old War onstage during her performance or a nearly five-minute jam between members of all three bands during Yukon Blonde’s set, their excitement permeated into the sold-out crowd.

Good Old War began with “My Own Sinking Ship” complete with accordion accompaniment. As the trio alternated instruments they continuously danced around the stage. Circa Survive frontman Anthony Green surprised concertgoers at the end of second track, “Weak Man” when he jumped onstage to sing along with the band.

For the complete review, visit Hoboken Patch.