Good news everyone, the Who, will be rocking the Super Bowl 2010 half-time show, releasing a new studio album, and have live performances in the near future.
The two surviving band members of the Who, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, will be performing on Dec. 7th, at the Miami Dolphin’s stadium. With over 100 million viewers, the Super Bowl will be sure to give the band a huge commercial boost.
For those of you who don’t know much about Pandora.com, here is a quick Pandora radio review.
Pandora Radio is a music discovery service that allows you to discover new music online, while listening to music you already love. Pandora is powered by the “Music Genome Project”: a comprehensive analysis of music that sought to match you up with similar musical sounds and styles based on what you say you already like.
Looking for a present for the family member or friend who loves indie music? We’ve got some awesome indie-music books lined up for you with something for everybody. We have everything from an indie-cook book, to enjoyable fiction, to an indie-music encyclopedia. Take a look:
*Every book is available on Amazon.com with new and used copies.
So The Killers are not so underground, but their catchy Christmas tunes tend to be. Did you know that The Killers have released four Christmas singles for the last four years?!
Keeping up their holiday tradition, the Killers just released their fourth Christmas single for (RED) campaign against AIDS; this time the song is entitled “Happy Birthday Guadalupe” and has a fresh Mariachi sound.
The Killers worked with friends Wild Light and Mariachi Bronx on this year’s Christmas track. They also, asked Beverly Hills 90210 actor, Luke Perry, to star in their mesmerizing music video, which is filled with symbolism hidden under a seemingly haunted Christmas song.
However, like most Christmas songs, “Happy Birthday Guadalupe” leaves you with the spirit of giving. And likewise The Killers keep giving their fans new surprises that leave us craving more.
Get in the holiday spirit with your friends and family by watching or listening to the Killers Christmas music videos.
For those who don’t know, TWLOHA (To Write Love on Her Arms) is a non-profit organization that provides hope and help for those struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide.
You may have noticed a large number of bands wearing and sporting TWLOHA apparel; bands like: Forever the Sickest Kids, The Rocket Summer, The Almost, Jimmy Eat World, Meg and Dia, and about 30 other bands.
TWLOHA began as an attempt to help a friend in the Spring of 2006 by telling a story. The story’s title “To Write Love on Her Arms” represented the goal that a better life is possible. They began selling t-shirts to raise money and created a myspace page to be their hub.
After awhile, they began hearing from people who wanted help, or asking what they could do to help their friends. The starters of TWLOHA realized that they had stumbled upon something bigger then they could have imagined. People needed to be able to have these conversations about suicide and depression.
In recent celebrity gossip news, Jessica Simpson is dating Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins. The 13 year age difference doesn’t even come close to the differences in their music styles. But apparently Simpson is smitten. Who knew?
A source close to Jessica said: “They are getting to know each other. He’s a nice guy.” The source later added, “She has completely fallen for Billy and his easygoing, smart attitude. She says she wants to take things a lot further.”
It’s well-known that Simpson has jumped from guy-to-guy after splitting with hubby Nick Lachey. She has dated people like: Dane Cook, Adam Levine, John Mayer, and Tony Romo. Billy Corgan doesn’t exactly fit into the above category of sexy, funny guys.
Anyway, this will either turn out to be the weirdest musical-duet in history, or a relationship E! will keep their eye on.
In my previous post I mentioned Making April, an indie-band that is known for its beautiful piano melodies. One of my favorite songs is from their debut EP, “Runaway World”, and the track is called Roses and Butterflies.
You can listen or download the acoustic version of the song here: Roses and Butterflies.
Playing the piano is such an important part of my life. I love the peaceful feeling you get when the whole world seems to just melt away and all that matters is you and your instrument. You guys know what I’m talking about. Creating music, to put it simply, is a magical experience.
So, for those of you who loved this song, I have the Roses and Butterflies sheet music for you guys to download here to play on the piano. Enjoy!
Making April once had the #1 spot on Myspace’s Top Unsigned Artists list and since then, they have come a long way.
Making April’s hit three man band started in Sean Scanlon and Steve McCaffrey’s dorm room. The third member of the band is one of their long-time friends, Greg Federspiel. While still in college the three friends managed to record five songs on their demo tape, which eventually was the inspiration for their debut EP: Runaway World.
Since college, they have sold over 100,000 songs on Itunes and have toured with well-known bands like: Secondhand Serenade, Rookie of the Year, Automatic Loveletter and White Tie Affair. In 2008, Making April signed with Universal Records and produced their debut album The Egg Hunt earlier this year.
The band somehow manages to perfectly incorporate the best of alternative music with awing piano solos, which makes them one of today’s top indie bands and a personal favorite of mine. Make sure and check them out on itunes or Myspace.
Hey Monday is an indie rock/power pop band from West Palm Beach, FL. Though the name Hey Monday sounds like an oxymoron, since the majority of us don’t look forward to the end of the weekend, Cassadee (the lead singer) explains:
“We liked the name Hey Monday because it’s very contradicting,” says Cassadee. “Most people don’t really say they’re happy about a Monday, they view it like it’s the first day of the rest of their week, but Monday can also just be a new beginning…”
And the band definitely has reason to look at their career as a ‘new beginning’. With a powerhouse voice that has been compared to Paramore’s Hayley Williams and Avril Lavigne, the music industry has been blown away with her and her band’s talent. After signing with Columbia, Hey Monday released Hold on Tight October 2008.
Since Hey Monday is a band with a pop-y and mainstream sound, I wasn’t expecting much. But the album pleasantly surprised me. “How you love me now”, the second song on the track-list has an explosive chorus and is one of the songs that is easy to rock out to. The following track “Homecoming” has an awesome bridge, while “Candles” is strikingly emotional and one of the two ballads on the album. It seems that the farther you get in the album, vocals get stronger and riffs hit harder. My personal favorite, “Hurricane Streets” will blow you away with the energetic beats and stunning hooks. Basically the whole album is filled with songs I could easily score spots on the hot music charts.
Listen to a few songs:
Hey Monday – Candles
Hey Monday – Hurricane Streets
Hey Monday – How You Love me Now
If anyone wants to download the full album for free, just Tweet a link to this post or post the link in your status update and send me either your twitter user-name or a screen-shot of your facebook profile and I’ll get that to you. No limit on how many people can enjoy this album! Email me this info at: madisonhawkins28@gmail.com!
In the past few decades there have been some pretty awful music videos. Unfortunately, these musical-nightmares are now available for anyone to stumble upon them (thanks to the internet). This particular one, the one I dub as “The Worst Music Video Ever” is by an 80’s band called The Europeans who perform “Animal Song” in this featured video.
Some of you may recall this parody on a Beavis and Butthead episode back in the day. The video leaves me speechless, words cannot do this video justice. The only two things I can think of that would have the audacity to inspire such creepy/weird-ness is either: 1. drugs or 2. an attempt at exploring ‘artistic creativity.’ Either way I’m left baffled. Check it out for yourself. Props if you can get through the whole video.
Other equally horrible music videos:
2. Heidi Montag – “Higher” : You think with someone having as much money as they do, that the Speidi could fork out a little cash for the video. False. Anyone can re-create this video. Use a moderately hott chick in a bikini and your parent’s old video camera and your golden. You could have your 12-yr old sister even make up some lyrics for you to sing, it’d be just about the same.
3. Armi and Danny – “I want to Love you Tender” : First, it looks like they got their dancers from a local jazzercise class. Mix that with an awful Star Wars/Star Trek setting and it really comes together.
4. Jan Terri – “Losing You” : The best part of the video is when you realize that the frumpy woman in the limo is actually the one singing the song. Crazy plot-twist right there. Besides the fact that there are extremely bad vocals and a lack of attractive people, the camera man’s cinematography skills really blow me away.
5. Carl Lewis – “Break it Up” : Being an Olympic champion does not give you the right to act like an idiot and get away with it. Love the belted work-out leotard though.
6. David Hasselhoff – “Hooked on a Feeling”: Offensive (scene with African villagers) and Cheap (painfully obvious green screens) . Gotta love it.
7. Billy Squier – “Rock me Tonight”: Squir is dancing (if you consider skipping around dancing) in his pajamas. Weird.
8. Vanilla Ice – “I Love You”: A video that is even more ridiculous than “Ice Ice Baby,” no joke. A few questions though: Why is that woman dancing on top of a phone booth? Who the heck is RIFF? Why is everyone dancing so fast if this is a “slow jam”?
9. Journey – “Separate Ways” : It looks like it was shot during their lunch break at their warehouse day-job. The air keyboard, by the way, really adds something special. Plus there is a creepy lady wandering around in a leather skirt. Doesn’t get much better than that.
10. Britney Spears – “Gimme More” : This video is comprised of Britney dancing around a stripper pole. She could have saved some money by releasing the notorious MTV VMA performance for “Gimme More”…it’s practically the same.
