Music Monday- UK Indie artist, Stuart Newman!

 

A late, Music Monday-“The Lawsuits”

photo credit Ashley Dix

Hey all, it’s a one day late (my fault!) music monday again so I thought I’d introduce you to band I had a chance to check out about a week ago called “The Lawsuits”. Not only were they great live but they were also one of the winners at the Tri State Indie music awards!

 They’re a blend of indie/folk/americana but what was just as amazing as their performance was their fans. There were people from the ages of 18 all the way to 65 that came out to hear them play and support the group. It really amazes me to see the shift in music over the past few years and I think The Lawsuits are a prime example.

You can’t look at the way a person is dressed and tell what kind of music they like. You can’t know a persons age and say “Well, it’s not worth focusing on them, they’re not our demographic”. The world has changed and changed forever and these folks are a testament to the change. Good music is good music and people are people. And you know what? People like good music. Period. Glad to see that there are artists realizing this and breaking down the artificial walls set up by a bygone and outdated model. Kudos to The Lawsuits for making honest music that bridges that gap and we at the Usic wish them all the luck in the world!

Be sure to check them out on their official website and like them on FaceBook.

And remember, if you’re in a band and would like some free exposure, then email us at hi@theusic.com for submission details.

ps.Don’t forget to like us on Facebook too!

So, it looks like someone has created a Robot kid that rather than being programmed, can instead learn everything it needs to through reasoning and trial and error. Just like a real kid. In this video watch as it learns to pick between a violin and guitar and then figures out how to do what it was told to.

So the question is this-How long until it learns to play guitar, kills the dude on the right and steals his car to answer your craigslist ad for “Guitarist needed for a sweet, Jack Johnson tribute band. Please, no drama, just looking for chilled vibes and good times”? Couple months at least….

Music Mondays! Part 2 of our post on Philly’s “Cold Fronts”

Last night I had the dual honor of being a presenter for the awesome Tri State Indie music Awards in Philadelphia and getting to interview one of the award nominees, Craig Almquist, lead singer of the band Cold Fronts. I’ll be sure to do a post on the award show in the next few weeks but here’s what Craig had to say about how they got their start, band life and  the perils of running an underground venue!

So, let’s take it from the top. How’d you guys get started?  

The band got started after I made a bunch of demos by myself. Luckily I had a few other friends who liked the songs and were enthusiastic about playing in a band. We would literally wake up at and have 8 am band practices in the middle of winter and just play all day. We started booking show in Philly, New York and New Jersey and recorded an EP.  From there we started getting offers for some small tours and everything just started snowballing since then. I think we’ve been very fortunate to meet a lot of awesome people who genuinely care about the band.

How’d you come up with the name Cold Fronts? 

I had been recording songs under the name Cold Fronts for years but had never defined what the sound was, so when I started writing some of the songs on our EP, it kind of seemed appropriate to use that name. It’s simple, its short, it has good imagery in my opinion, and its not to trendy or contemporary. 

Is that vibe what made you pick this particular genre?

As far as our genre I wanted to keep it simple and honest. I had never really written a lot of guitar riffs before the band started so it became my outlet. I like the tempo of the Ramones, the attitude of Pavement, the melody of Beach Boys, and the guitar parts from Thin Lizzy. 

 You seem pretty active on facebook and the internets, do you guys use technology exclusively or do you still use some old school methods to connect with fans?

Some people really resist social media or think its not for them. I personally love it. We are always staying in touch with people who like our tunes. We go analog from time to time and send out snail mail and post cards. It’s fun and really kills time in the van or backstage at shows. It’s not everyone, and I get that, but now a days you can stay in touch with a lot of people who want to buy your albums, or help you get a show at their school, so why not. Also, I recommend downloading Vine if you have a phone that does that.

So you ran an underground club? What was that like? Any funny stories?

My friends and I from a previous band started renting this one floor garage. It was perfect, it wasn’t attached to anything, it had a backyard, and most importantly our lease was month to month and rented “as Is” meaning we could do whatever we wanted. We started by taking out the drop ceiling, building a stage, and hanging our PA system. It became our freaky playground.  We called it the Rathaus due to its dungeon-esque nature (and because it means City Hall in German).

There’s a lot of funny stories from that place but the craziest one would be our last show. Everyone knew the place was closing and we were full on at capacity. Kids started pouring out into the streets because there was no room. Before we know it the cops show up right before we play and we cram everyone inside and play a wild set that ends in multiple people crowd surfing and the stage being broken. The party took a turn when we find out 8 cop cars are outside shutting down the whole street. There’s helicopters flying over, kids are tagging the house, kids are skating in the middle of the street drinking forties. We are convinced we’re going to jail, luckily, Philly cops got bigger fish to fry then a bunch of rats trying to rage on a friday night. That was the last night any of us saw that place.

I highly recommend running a DIY venue, great way to meet a lot of cool bands, people, and best of all, you control the party.

Tonight is pretty crazy! Tri States doing a great job, and your set tonight was killer. How was it being nominated?

Yeah it was sweet to play in front of so many people. Definitely been a dream of mine to play downstairs at World Cafe Life and in front of so many people. Never been to big on awards but its flattering to be nominated. I like what tri state indie is doing for the scene in and around Philadelphia.

Anything you would like share, from new merch to upcoming shows/tours or songs/albums?

We’ve got a lot of stuff in the works. We’ve been recording pretty consistently, gonna have some new shirts for our tour starting February 27th. We’re going to SxSw to play some shows and are going to be stopping in some cities on the way. 

Thanks for checking in and have fun at SxSx! Be sure to check out Cold Fronts at http://coldfronts.us/ for the latest and greatest on music, tour dates and shows! 

And remember, if you’re in a band and want to get some free exposure be sure to email us at hi@theusic.com for details on submission!

Music Mondays! Part 1 of our 2 part post on Philly’s “Cold Fronts”

Hey All,

So welcome to the first of our Usic Band showcases! This is part 1 of our 2 part post on a great band from Philly called Cold Fronts. I’m gonna wet your whistle with their official band Bio and a link to some videos but next week I’ll have my interview with lead singer Craig Almquist. I’ve actually been able to catch them a few times when they’ve come through town and I can say they’ve never disappointed. High energy, catchy riffs and tons of hook. They’re currently in first place on the Jansport Battle of the Bands so if you dig their stuff head over and vote for the guys!

Check out some videos here!

The band formed in 2011 and started performing shows/Dionysian Rites in West Philly at the infamous Rathaus, which was dubbed “Satan’s dorm room” in the Philadelphia papers. The Rat was converted into fancy condos after two years of hard partying. Boo. 

By 2012 the band had been supporting act for mewithoutYou, Free Energy, The Morning Benders, The Gay Blades, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr, + Vacationer. They recorded a Daytrotter Session and played a string of SXSW shows after camping (in a tent) in downtown Austin.

One time Andrew W.K. destroyed their drum set.

The band will be on the road in 2013, doing what bands do, playing live shows of material they have recorded. They will also def be eating pizza. Lots of pizza.

Hey Bands, want some free publicity?

 I remember the good ol’ days of posting flyers all over people’s cars, harassing your friends to come see you at the same crappy bar for the 15th time this month, only to have one dude at the show, who has no clue who you are, is drunk and boos to the point of throwing up all over himself. Sound familiar? Yeah, thought so.

In the spirit of sharing the Usic is going to start doing Music Mondays. We’re gonna do our best to try and bring you at least one new band every monday and sometimes we’ll even throw up an interview! So, if you’re in a great band and you’d like to reach out and get some new fans this is what I want you to do-

1. Email us at hi@theusic.com

2. Tell us you band name, website and a little about yourself

And that’s it! We’ll do our best to check out everyone that submits and we’ll even pump out your show schedule.

Did I say FREE PUBLICITY? The price is right so submit!

Cool, definitely cool, but is it the Future of the musician?

So, some of you may know that I’ve made a living the last several years as a photographer but what you might not know is that I’m also a paid musician and recording guy (from time to time). Getting a startup going takes a ton of work and over the last year I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time on trains, planes, buses, cars, motorcycles (a lot of travel) and bringing my guitar and recording stuff just wasn’t possible.

That got me thinking…i can’t bring a whole setup so what do I have with me all the time that could maybe fill that gap and get me making some cash on the road? I pull out my iphone and immediately start googling “recording on the road” and it hits me. What do I have with me all the time? MY IPHONE! 

Lo and behold, I find the “Akai SynthStation”!

I’ll tell you what, I was SUPER skeptical at first but combine this with the app “Nanostudio” and I was able to lay down some pretty sick stuff that actually became the building blocks for some of my contract work (a few tracks actually made it to the client!).

That was a while ago but what got me thinking about smart phone and instrument integration again was something I saw the other day.

It’s called an  Artiphon 1 and I’ll be honest, it’s pretty incredible. Click on the link below to check out a demo.

http://youtu.be/VIRYbkjJJTE

But my question to you musical types is this….

Would you ever see yourself rocking one of these on stage?

Let us know and if you’re interested in checking out any of the other stuff I mentioned click on the links below!

http://www.artiphon.com/

http://www.akaipro.com/synthstation25

http://blipinteractive.co.uk/

The long-promised speech from the Lebanon Valley College Revolution Music Conference. We were asked to speak with students a few months back, and then asked to come back and be keynote speakers at their Music Conference a few days before Thanksgiving. We had a blast, and a lot of the students from the event ended up joining The Usic!

Recap of LVC’s R ||: Evolution Music Conference

It’s always really neat when we get asked to speak somewhere. It’s happened once or twice now - and this time around it was for a conference held annually by the music and music business students at Lebanon Valley College, in Annville, PA. 

Originally, we were asked to speak about the current state and the future of the music business. It would have been fun to pontificate on those things, especially since we started off as just a way for musicians to get the creative services that we’re currently helping to sell. The scope of this has grown only because we’ve recognized that everyone deserves access to creative services, not just musicians.

But we got asked to make a special presentation instead. Jeff Snyder, our inside man at LVC, asked us to think about what we wanted to talk about - and we settled on “Lessons Learned in the Creative Enterprise”. Finally, an opportunity for us to talk to students about the hard lessons we’ve learned as a company, the hard lessons that we’ve seen creatives make, and the hard lessons that we’ve seen entire creative industries make.

We didn’t really go in with a game plan. We started off by talking about what we’ve done, where we’ve been, and where we think we’re headed. By the time we got halfway through, we realized that our entire speech could be boiled down to two simple rules for anyone, anywhere, anytime (but especially for creative students today).

1. You can always make more money, but you can never make more time.
2. While you’re learning, others are out doing.

They seem like simple points. But this is wisdom that has been acquired through pain - not just our pain, but the pain of thousands, maybe millions of artists all over the world as they struggle to find meaning, clients, and new talents in the technological age.

We videotaped the entire talk, and plan on releasing it soon. But until then, we’d love for our community to think on those two points. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.

Spotlight: Jennifer Logue - Musician, Actress.

Jennifer Logue is definitely an inspiring person. She’s got an incredible work ethic, an optimistic spirit, and the ability to spread both to anyone she seems to talk to. Fortunately for us, we got the chance to speak with her and absorb some of this “go-getter ‘tude” for ourselves not too long ago. She’s a musician and an actress from the Philadelphia area who’s definitely going places, and was eager to share wisdom with those looking to accelerate their own journeys.

Jennifer got started in music at a really young age. She said that she’s been a songwriter since she was 15, and since then she’s done quite a bit. Let’s rattle off a few highlights of her journey so far. For starters, she’s performing on her second full-length CD release. She’s opened for Cee-lo and The Black Keys. She’s performed at Sundance AND the Madeira Film Festivals. “This is my biggest year so far. Things are just clicking.”

Okay, so how does an aspiring musician get to this point? We were curious to say the least. But if you speak with her, it’s easy to see that at least part of her success, aside from the talent - has got to do with her perseverance and positive attitude towards her craft and her willingness to work collaboratively with others.

“I wake up in the morning and I do what I love. It’s not a monetary thing. Money will come as a result of being excellent and devoted to your craft,” she says. “I’m still completely goal oriented. I still work from 9am to 5pm, and often more, but it’s on the things that I want to do. I think things are clicking for me because I know what I want out of all this.”

It wasn’t too long ago that she was working a 9-5 in an office, though. “It was a total corporate job,” she confessed. “I’d majored in English and Spanish Literature, so it was safe.” But she walked away from it so that she could focus more purely on the things that she cared the most about. “Having a 401k is nice. but you need to make things happen for yourself. live your dream, become your dream, and make it happen.” She attributes her love of literature and appreciation for writing as a major source of expressive strength in the songwriting process.

When we asked her for advice that she might give our readers that are trying to grow within their artistic and creative crafts, she didn’t hold back on her biggest secret to success. “You need to collaborate. When you work with other people, you bring out the best in each other. You should be genuinely interested in other people, and each day is an opportunity to connect with someone new.” Within the next year, she’s planning on playing Sundance, Madeira, and hitting the college venues pretty hard. She’s also working on a really cool food-tv series called “Best in The City”, and would love to get that picked up by a major network.

If you’re interested in learning more about how Jennifer Logue is tearing it up, you should pay her Usic page a visit. By the way, Like us on Facebook.