Category: Music

Dying for some live music this fall in Los Angeles? Check out the Sunset Strip Music Festival featuring CHRIS CORNELL, PEPPER, KOTTONMOUTH KINGS, LMFAO, SHWAYZE, SHINY TOY GUNS, UNWRITTEN LAW, THE DONNAS, FISHBONE, IGLU & HARTLY, LIVING THINGS, THE RINGERS, THE PRICKS, NICO STAI and THENEWNO2. The Festival takes place at famous LA venues like the Cat Club, House of Blues, Key Club, The Roxy Theatre, Viper Room and Whisky A Go-Go. They’re also doing the first street fest on the legendary Sunset Strip.

Tickets go on sale this Friday, July 24 via Ticketmaster. Street festival tickets are available for a special three-day sale rate of $35 through July 26. Beginning July 27, tickets will be $39.50.

If you’re in Los Angeles, make sure to check out Shiny Toy Guns, I absolutely love them. If you’re not in LA buy their album Season of Poison.

The Dells, that area of Wisconsin known as the “Waterpark Capital of The World”, now has its own novelty song. On July 7th the artist known as The Great Luke Ski released We’re Goin’ To The Dells (The Wisconsin Dells). The song serves as both a tribute to and promotion for The Dells.

Luke “the great Luke Ski” Sienkowski is a dementia artist- a musician who writes funny songs- who has become one of the most popular artists on the nationally syndicated Dr. Demento Show . He writes pop and rap songs about various pop culture and nerdy topics such as Star Trek, Babylon 5, and Family Guy. Recently he turned his songwriting muse to a place where he spent a lot of time growing up.

“I’ve been in love with the place since childhood,” says Luke “and this song is my love letter to it.”

Luke also hopes the song will help promote The Dells which were hurt last year by flooding. The floods caused Lake Delton to breach its shoreline which emptied the Wisconsin River in just four hours. Many homes were literally washed away and local businesses that relied on the lake couldn’t operate because the lake had mostly emptied.

The song pays tribute to the entire area, often mentioning some of the more popular attractions by name even though Luke is not formally associated with any of them.

At Big Sky Drive-In your ceiling is starry.
Pirate’s Cove Mini Golf, where the staff is all “ARR!-y.”
I used visit reptiles at Serpent Safari,
Now I’m a Flowrider at the Kalahari.

We’re Goin’ To The Dells (The Wisconsin Dells) by The Great Luke Ski is currently available as a free download from The Funny Music Project at www.TheFuMP.com.

Buy Mary Mary CDs on Amazon.

Mary Mary was named this year’s Best Gospel Artist at the 2009 BET Awards ceremony held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday, June 28, airing on BET. Mary Mary’s soulful performance of the group’s “God in Me,” with guest artist Queen Latifah, was one of the highpoints of an emotional BET ceremony.

The groundbreaking contemporary gospel duo had racked up seven BET Award nominations in years past, beginning with a Best Female Group nod in 2001, culminating in 2007 with noms in both the Best Gospel Artist and Best Group categories.

Mary Mary also won 2009’s Best Gospel Performance Grammy while taking home this year’s NAACP Image Award — for Best Gospel Artist (Traditional or Contemporary) — and the Urban Recorded Song of the Year Dove Award for “Get Up,” one of the key tracks on the group’s #1 Gospel chart-topping album, The Sound.
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Heralded as “Praiseworthy” by People magazine, Mary Mary’s latest album The Sound peaked at #1 on a variety of Billboard Christian and Gospel albums charts shortly after its release in October 2008. The Sound entered the Billboard Top 200 at #7, giving Mary Mary their highest charting — and second Top 10 — album on that chart (2005’s Mary Mary peaked at #8 on the Top 200). Mary Mary and The Sound achieved one of the highest chart debuts on the Top 200 of any gospel album released in 2008. A bona fide crossover smash, The Sound made a “Hot Shot” debut on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart at #2.

“Get Up,” the Grammy-winning lead single from The Sound, garnered massive crossover radio play on Urban, Urban Adult Contemporary, Rhythm Gospel and Dance radio formats while charting in a number of formats. “That song embodies what the whole album is about,” says Mary Mary’s Erica Campbell. “It asks people, ‘Why are you waiting? Why do you care what other people think?’ It reminds us that your beginning can be whenever you want it to be.”

Source.

I enjoy traveling. Well, the traveling itself. The packing and making sure everything is in order is for the birds. But, I enjoy the traveling. And of course, like most Americans, I’ve said to myself: “you know what airport travel needs? A concert!”

Right?

Okay, maybe I’ve never thought of that, but I wish I had.

The good folks at Jet Blue (seriously, it’s one of my favorite airlines to ride — I wish they went more places) and Superfly Marketing Group are bringing concerts to JFK with Live from T5.

Live from T5, a six-month, 12-date live music concert series at the airline’s new Terminal 5 at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). The concert series, which takes place on select Fridays throughout the year, will feature hand-picked emerging artists from around the U.S. as well as bands chosen based on public votes in a national online competition hosted by OurStage.com.

According the the press release, “Today through July 22, aspiring artists can upload one original song to www.OurStage.com/go/jetblue for a chance to win one of five acoustic gigs at the JetBlue terminal in New York. Winners will be announced during the first week of August. In addition to a show during Live at T5, the top artist as determined by JetBlue and Superfly will also perform as the opening act for a headlining artist at Bowery Presents’ Terminal 5, the popular concert venue in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, or another Bowery Presents show.”

So Jet Blue has managed to merge two of my favorite things – a live concert and flying out somewhere. My only disappointment is it’s New York and not Los Angeles. I have to give this marketing campaign props. Not only is it a hip and fun way to add something unique to your image (I mean all airlines fly, not much you can do to change that), but it extends their mission to be entertaining for their passangers. And who doesn’t like a good acoustic concert? AND they’re supporting small time artists. Win, win and win.

So the next time you’re in JFK and think you’re hearing music playing Eli Stone — it might not be in your head.

Amazon.com is now taking pre-orders for Twilight: New Moon Soundtrack due to be released on on October 6, 2009. Why so early? I guess they’re trying to capture the Twilight hysteria.

If you have a burning desire to pre-order feel free, and remember the awesome thing about Amaon pre-ordering – if the price drops, you get the lower price.

Twilight: New Moon is due in theaters November 20, 2009.

For more information check out New Moon in IMDB or watch the awesome trailer.

Multi-platinum Fiction/Polydor/Geffen recording artist Snow Patrol have announced dates for their upcoming headline tour of the U.S. The tour starts September 10th in St. Paul, MN, and will criss-cross the U.S. and Canada before finishing up in Los Angeles on October 20th. The band, led by frontman Gary Lightbody, has been keeping some high-profile company: They are currently on the road with pop megastars Coldplay and will also support fellow Irishmen U2 on their 360 Degree Tour this fall.

Snow Patrol are on the road in support of their current album A Hundred Million Suns, which was produced by Jacknife Lee (U2, R.E.M., Bloc Party). The follow-up to 2006’s worldwide smash Eyes Open, the album debuted at No. 2 in the UK, where it has been certified Platinum, and climbed to No. 9 on the Billboard album chart in the U.S. Praised by All Music Guide as “the group’s best work yet,” A Hundred Million Suns has also earned raves from The Daily Telegraph, which proclaimed it “an epic, widescreen, decidedly modern rock record.” In its grade-A review, The Onion declared “A Hundred Million Suns might just be Snow Patrol’s biggest, most genuine effort yet.”

A Hundred Millions Suns has spawned two No. 1 Triple A radio hit singles, “Take Back the City,” and “Crack The Shutters” and is on pace to become the band’s third multi-platinum-selling release in the UK, following 2003’s Final Straw and 2006’s Eyes Open, featuring the smash single “Chasing Cars,” which has sold 2.5 million downloads in the U.S. alone.

“There aren’t many songwriters who capture the vulnerability and humor of being stupid in love as masterfully as Snow Patrol singer and main songwriter Gary Lightbody.”

— The Los Angeles Times

DON’T MISS SNOW PATROL ON THE ROAD THIS FALL!

9/10 St. Paul, MN Myth (on-sale June 27)
9/12 Chicago, IL Soldier Field (with U2)
9/13 Chicago, IL Soldier Field (with U2)
9/14 Detroit, MI Fillmore (on-sale June 27)
9/16 Toronto, ON Rogers Centre (with U2)
9/17 Toronto, ON Rogers Centre (with U2)
9/18 Montreal, QC Metropolis (on-sale June 27)
9/20 Boston, MA Gillette Stadium (with U2)
9/21 Boston, MA Gillette Stadium (with U2)
9/22 New York, NY Beacon Theatre (on-sale June 27)
9/25 Washington, DC Constitution Hall (on-sale July 10)
9/26 Philadelphia, PA Tower Theatre (on-sale June 27)
9/27 Columbus, OH LC Pavilion (on-sale June 27)
9/29 Kansas City, MO Uptown Theater (July 11)
9/30 Indianapolis, IN Egyptian (on-sale June 26)
10/2 Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium (on-sale now)
10/3 Atlanta, GA The Tabernacle (on-sale June 27)
10/5 Houston, TX Warehouse Live (on-sale June 27)
10/6 Austin, TX Stubb’s Bar-B-Que (on-sale June 27)
10/7 Dallas, TX Palladium Ballroom (on-sale June 27)
10/9 Denver, CO Fillmore Auditorium (on-sale June 27)
10/10 Salt Lake City, UT McKay Events Center (on-sale June 27)
10/11 Boise, ID Knitting Factory (on-sale June 26)
10/13 Portland, OR Schnitzer Concert Hall (on-sale June 27)
10/14 Seattle, WA Paramount Theater (on-sale June 27)
10/16 Oakland, CA Fox Theater (on-sale June 28)
10/17 San Diego, CA Open Air Theatre (on-sale June 27)
10/20 Los Angeles, CA Wiltern Theatre (on-sale June 27)

Hankering to get a taste of the behind-the-scenes of the CMT Music Awards? Nationwide Insurance is giving you a sneak-peek – Social Media style. Through Twitter, Facebook and Flickr, Nationwide will be showing fans tomorrow a view from behind the red curtain. If you’re interested in following all the action live head over to nationwide.com/cmtawards

Here’s the details from their press release:
When: Nationwide’s live behind–the-scenes coverage will begin Tuesday morning, June 16 and stretch through post-event celebrations.
The 2009 CMT Music Awards will air on CMT on Tuesday, June 16 at 8:00 p.m. EST.
Who: The top stars in country music.
Where: Visit nationwide.com/cmtawards to begin following the action from your home computer or mobile device.
Why: Nationwide is a proud sponsor of the CMT Music Awards. Tune into the show to see which up-and-coming artist will win a special Nationwide On Your Side® Award, based on fan voting at CMT.com. Nominated artists will perform on the Nationwide Insurance Performance Stage during the awards.

For more information about the CMT Music Awards, visit the show’s official web site: http://www.cmt.com/cmt-music-awards/