Artist of the Week: Marc Armstead

by Luxi Lauri

Marc Armstead

I have had the honor to meet Marc while I was in LA. He is a true aspiring music who can put you in a state of wonder. His voice is very tender and soft and his words completely make you think about life. Marc’s connection to the guitar is simply amazing, because his skills and chord playing are smooth and emotional. I took some time to ask him a few questions and get his view on things in his life. I love his music, and I know you will too. This is my ARTIST OF THE WEEK!

1. Where are you from? What is your age?

I am from Redlands, California. I am 25.

2. When did you begin your music career?

I began to sing at the age of 2 in church. I have been singing since I can remember, and I play the guitar.

Crüefest 2: Still Going Strong!

by Vodes

Since 1981, Mötley Crüe has been cranking out hard rock and metal music to rabid fans around the world. Now, twenty-eight years later, the Crüe is still banging heads with the best of them. They released a new album and have put together a music festival, modestly named after themselves, with a lineup of some of today’s best and brightest rock musicians. I was lucky enough to catch Crüefest 2 last week and I was not disappointed. Let me take you on a tour of the White Trash Circus:

Crüefest 2 consisted of five bands on the main stage: Charm City Devils, Drowning Pool, Theory of a Deadman, Godsmack and, of course, Mötley Crüe headlining the event. There was also a second stage featuring some good, up-and-coming bands. I checked out a band called Schram, out of Detroit. These guys put on a good show. They had a ton of energy and seemed genuinely happy to get out on stage and play. I also caught a band called Silver Stone, out of Arkansas. They also put on a really good show. The singer was good and the guitar player shredded some pretty killer riffs. They also had a third band on the second stage, but I only caught a few of their tunes. Okay, okay, so I was waiting in the beer line and didn’t get over there in time. What? I was thirsty! Thankfully, the second stage was jamming while the main stage was setting up for the next band. I made my way back and forth from one stage to another all night long…with an occasional stop at the concessions.

Miss Amani!!

by Luxi Lauri

If you like the sounds of Janet Jackson, Amerie, or Rihanna, than you’ll love the music of this up and coming artist, Miss Amani. She is a very energetic performer with a promising music career ahead of her. She is 21 years old, comes from Honolulu, Hawaii and has settled, for the time being, in Los Angeles, California.

On Leaks, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Leak

by Neto

A large leak...kind of...

It has been a big couple of weeks for leaks.  Radiohead and Weezer both experienced song leaks last weeks with varied results.  Radiohead’s song, “These Are My Twisted Words”, was a very good song reminiscent of Kid A, which is my favorite Radiohead album by far.  Weezer’s leak a few weeks ago was less successful musically.  “The Girl Got Hot” was just more run of the mill Weezer from the Green Album rather than brilliant Weezer from Pinkerton (will we ever see that Weezer again?).

More telling than the quality of the songs, though, was the reaction to the leaks or the almost non-reaction.  Leaks have become almost commonplace these days.  Its the price of doing business in these modern times.  And both bands seem to have come to terms with that.

Artist of the Week: Dealership

by Neto

Dealership is…

Chris Groves – Bass, Vocals
Jane Pinckard – Guiar, Keys, Vocals
Chris Whetherell – Drums, Vocals
Jesse Hudson – Guitar, Bass

1. What is this band?

Dealership would have been on my list of video game inspired music but I wanted to highlight them in my Artist of the Week recommendation.  I first discovered this band because I was intrigued by the theme song for the video game review show Co-OP.

After doing some digging and googling, I discovered that the theme song was co-written and performed by Jane Pinckard, who writes the blog Game Girl Advance.  On her blog profile, I found out that she is a memeber of Dealership.  After a google search failed to give me anything in the way of samples, I checked iTunes.  Itunes had their latest album for ten dollars.  It was now or never.  It was a gamble but it was one that would end up paying off.

The Passing of a Legend: Les Paul

by Vodes

About a week ago, a legendary music figure passed away. I’m slightly embarrassed to admit this, but it was many years before I realized that Les Paul was a real person and not just a conceived name for a particular model of electric guitar. I remember the first time I laid eyes on a Gibson Les Paul guitar; it was the classic sunburst coloring with the inlaid mother-of-pearl on the frets. Oh yeah, and it was being shredded by none other than Jimmy Page. One of my favorite pictures of this Page-guitar tandem is when Page breaks out the violin bow and works his Les Paul sunburst like a mad scientist! I came to realize that Les Paul, the man, was also a heck of a musician and an even more impressive innovator of style, recording and instruments. Many people may never realize the impact this guy had on music and the force he was in influencing future guitar players.

Lester William Polsfuss was born in June of 1915. You may know him better as Les Paul. He apparently had an uneventful childhood in Wisconsin until around age 8. He then discovered music by way of the harmonica. He moved on to the banjo and eventually settled in to play the guitar. By the age of seventeen, Les Paul was a professional musician who had played guitar and harmonica on many recordings and radio shows under several different pseudonyms. As successful as he was, he was unsatisfied with the limited sounds that he could create on a ‘traditional’, acoustic hollow body guitar and set out to produce the first solid body, electric guitar. It was dubbed ‘The Log’ because that’s basically what it was; a regular old 4-by-4 piece of lumber with a bridge, neck and self-invented pickup attached. I don’t want to muddy the waters (no pun intended), but Leo Fender was working on a solid body guitar around the same time (so was a fellow named Adolph Rickenbacker). I mention this fact because the folks at Gibson were not interested in Les Paul’s ideas regarding solid body electric guitars until Fender put out an instrument that was well-received…Gibson didn’t want to take the chance. Eventually though, the Gibson folks relented and in the early fifties, Gibson and Les Paul struck a deal and designed the first Gibson Les Paul guitar. And the rest is history, as they say!

Album Reviews – Green Day’s “21st Century Breakdown”

For this album review, meandthestereo did something a little different (like we did with the Street Sweeper Social Club review) and handed off the album to two of our columnists. Check out Neto’s (from Texas) and meandthestereo’s (from DC) differing takes on this album!

Artist: Green Day
Album: 21st Century Breakdown
Label: Reprise
Release Date: May 15th, 2009
Decision: 1/5 OMG…This album sucks!
Favorite Tunes: “Viva La Gloria”

1. The Background

Neto says,

For a long time Green Day was one of my favorite bands. Way back before I was really into music, my fellow sixth graders and I would hang out in an empty classroom in the minutes before school started. One day someone took Green Day’s Dookie (on tape!) to school and we played it on a boom box that our teacher had in the classroom. The experience was revelatory. I took the tape home and listened to it all day. After that, as my interest in music grew and grew, I kept listening to Green Day. In middle school it was Dookie and Insomniac. In high school it was Nimrod and Warning. And then there was college. When I was starting out college International Superhits but they were mostly silent for a long time as far as studio albums went. Then in 2003 they released American Idiot. I think American Idiot is their best album since Dookie and it is a hard act to follow. This is made evident by their new album 21st Century Breakdown.

Joey says,

I grew up with a lot of Green Day playing in the background. “Basket Case” was one of the coolest music videos I thought I had ever seen when I was in middle school. I listened to Insomniac and Nimrod constantly through middle and high school, and I still listen to these albums from time to time on my MP3 player. I never listened to Warning or American Idiot, but Green Day had already earned a spot in my ‘Top Bands’ list. With this album, they apparently attempted another rock opera. It’s not what I’m used to hearing from Green Day, and it’s now what I’d like to hear from Green Day, but I was definitely excited to listen to this album.

Nervous Energy

by Belle

I’m not naturally a performer, but there is an element of performance to being a musician.  So I have attempted to transform my nervous energy into stamina for singing and playing music onstage.  Usually, the crowd is nonexistent or mostly intoxicated if I was lucky enough to play on a weekend evening.  Perhaps the most nervousness comes from playing at open mic opportunities, when some of the crowd is actually listening!

I can’t say I ever feel comfortable or at ease on stage.  But I still value music performance, because I believe it is an opportunity to share.  I spend a lot of time working on songwriting in the privacy of my own living room with a notebook and a guitar.  The process is not really complete until I share the song with a few listeners.

The Recording Studio!

by Luxi Lauri

Going to the recording studio can be the most exhilarating adventure of all time. Whether you are singing in the vocal booth or watching and/or producing in the control room, every true artist should have their material recorded. I believe I have been waiting years upon years to go and record my own music, and maybe you have had the same feeling. Since being in California, I did have the opportunity to experience this. Although the process was very tedious, it was well worth it.

First things first, you need your track. Picking the actual track gave me the enjoyment to hear all kinds of music and concentrate on what style I would like to focus on. It’s better for you, the artist, to be involved as much as possible in this process so you can be comfortable and really treasure your work. After I picked the music, I took a few days to come up with the lyrics, drawing from my relationships and experiences in the past.  I picked which part of the song was going to be the verse, the chorus, and the bridge. The next step was rehearsing and rehearsing with my producer to get a feel for the song as well as have the chance to switch things up if need be; this  helps you spend less money and time in the actual studio. Now off we go to the studio!!!

When Videogames Inspire Music

by Neto

As an avid fan of videogames, I have a soft spot in my heart for video game music.  I’m not talking about video game soundtracks, though.  Those I will write about at some later date.  I will also save covers of videogame tracks for a later date.  Today, I am talking about artists who create original music inspired by, and sometimes using, classic videogames.

Anyone who was born after Pong (1972) probably grew up playing videogames.  So their influence should be reflected in music, just like we see the influence of movies and books in music.  Some bands reflect that influence into the themes of their music.  Both Horse The Band and The Protomen liked the classic game Mega Man enough that they decided to write music about some of the characters.  Horse The Band wrote a great hardcore song called Cutsman.  As the name implies it tells the story of the Mega Man villain.