NYS Music 20​13

Category: Beyond NYS

  • Meg and Laura Take Austin: An Interview With Icona Pop

    It’s a sunny Wednesday afternoon in Austin, TX and Meg and Laura make their way to the Moonshine Grill on Red River Street to sit down for lunch with one of SXSW‘s must-see acts, the Swedish Synth Pop duo Icona Pop.

    Icona PopMary Morgan Craig: So how has SXSW been treating you so far?

    Caroline Hjelt: Great! It couldn’t be better!

    Aino Jawo: It’s really been good.

    CH: Everyone warned us that it would be crazy and we can totally feel the vibe and the craziness.

    MMC: But a good kind of crazy, right?

    AJ: Yes, definitely!

    CH: It’s all about the positive chaos!

    Gauraa Shekhar: Totally! How was your show last night?

    AJ: Our show was amazing! Well, at least the first one we did. The second would have been amazing but we blew the sound system out so we couldn’t go through. We just played one song. Our lovely fans that were standing there for hours were so disappointed so we were like, “we’re so going to make it up to you tonight.”

    CH: We have four more gigs to go and we’re so excited!

    GS: Well I know everyone asks you this question, and there are so many different versions of this story, but how exactly did you guys meet?

    AJ: We met in 2009, and I was heartbroken. We have this amazing mutual friend called Emily and she would call me everyday for two weeks and she was like, “you have to get out of bed” and then one day she just came over and forced me out of bed and she took me to an amazing party. This woman here, Caroline, she was the one hosting the party. She used to throw a lot of good parties those days.

    CH: My apartment was like the center of the party and everybody was welcome. We were having a lot of fun.

    AJ: Basically the hippie collectives, really.

    CH: But yeah, I met Aino there and it was love at first sight. We definitely felt like we had this special connection immediately. We went out dancing the whole night.  When I woke up the next morning, I was a little bit nervous that it was just the wine talking. I really wanted it to work out because we started talking about how we should do something together but Aino called me the day after and she was like, “Hey, I’m on my way to your place with a computer and a bottle of wine” and we just started over a drum, writing our first song, and since that day we decided that, “Okay, we’re a band”.  A lot of our friends were definitely laughing at us but we knew that “Yeah, this is great”.

    AJ: When you think about it now, it’s kind of sick how I can kind of just laugh at all of the situations we put ourselves in because both me and Caroline are people who do stuff and then we think and sometimes it’s good but sometimes it’s really bad. But I guess that’s how we kind of put ourselves in chaotic situations and kind of rise out of it. I feel like you two are kind of the same!

    GS: Yes, definitely. Story of our lives!

    CH: I mean, if we don’t have enough chaos in our lives, we create it. That makes us so creative also!

    AJ: Yeah, we’re two girls from Sweden sitting in a sofa riffing this song we wrote four years ago and now we’re just cruising around in America!

    GS: And now you’re one of the must-see acts of SXSW. That’s amazing!

    CH: Yeah, that’s crazy! It’s a little bit unreal and I have to pitch myself once a day.

    MMC: So how’s the transition been from Sweden to the U.S?

    CH: It’s been a major difference, of course. Sweden is a very small country, you know. But really, we don’t even have a home anymore. My home is wherever this beautiful lady is (points at Aino). That’s the thing that keeps me going. I feel very home and safe wherever we go because we’re always hanging out and we have each other.

    AJ: We’re good at creating homes. We’re like snails, carrying everything within ourselves.

    CH: For us to come over here and not just be in New York and L.A., but to actually go to places like Milwaukee and meet people who’ve been listening to our songs on the radio; it’s crazy. It means so much to us to be able to share that connection with our fans. We really do love our fans, they’re the best. They’re such rebels. They stand with their fist in the air and dance their asses off every night too.

    MMC: Yeah, I mean, back at Syracuse, “I Love It” is the biggest pre-game song.

    GS: Actually, we opened our radio show this semester with your song! It’s actually incredible to be sitting here a couple months down the line and actually be interviewing you. I mean when you talk about crossing boundaries, it’s amazing because Morgan’s from Boston and I’m from Jakarta, Indonesia and we’re in Syracuse listening to a Spanish DJ remix your song and here we are discussing it Austin.

    AJ: Wow! I feel so honored! Thank you! That means so much to us.  You go, girls. A friend of ours goes to school in Syracuse. We must definitely perform there sometime soon. She’s a fashion design major.

    MMC: Speaking of style, who inspires you fashion wise?

    CH: I think we’re all about feeling, you know. Especially when it comes to performing on stage.  We wanna express how we feel when we sing that song. We want something that extends our movements, you know. Dramatic stuff. But if you’re thinking about icons, we love Prince, David Bowie, Patti Smith…

    AJ: …and PJ Harvey, of course. With the leather pants, leather jacket, in white. Ah, she’s so cool. I love it. Not to mention the red lipstick. But we don’t really follow any trends, we’re really  bad when it comes to that. In the beginning, we would kind of sewing our own stuff. The first time we were in Paris, Air France lost our luggage and then we ended up cutting and sewing our own stuff after that. We love the side of fashion when it comes from an arty perspective.

    CH: When it comes to expressing ourselves, we’ve been to a lot of fashion weeks and we love it. Just the energy and the clothes, you know. Some people spend a whole year working on it and it’s cool because it’s chaos backstage but when they go out there everything is perfect. It’s so beautiful and well put together. We’re actually really bad at following trends though.

    GS: It doesn’t even matter because you guys set them, really.

    AJ: Aw, thank you!

    GS: Well, you guys have an amazing stage presence. Is there any specific routine that you guys follow before you go on stage to pump yourselves up?

    AJ: Oh, yeah. We call it the band tattoo. It’s kind of like a horn. We stand in a ring and choose one person that stands in the ring and we stand around the person, doing…well, it’s actually really embarrassing.

    CH: Yeah, it’s really embarrassing.  We do this rock pose and we scream, “YEAH!”. And you can feel the energy when you’re doing it. It’s really amazing! It’s kind of liberating!

    AJ: It’s liberating and yet at the same time you feel like the biggest geek on Earth. But you do it because you can’t be any more geeky anyway. And really, whenever we don’t follow through with this routine, it turns into the worst show ever.

    MMC: Yeah, definitely keep doing that! Do you ever get nervous before you take the stage? And if you do, how do you deal with it?

    CH: Oh yes. When it comes to lifestyles, we want to keep it interesting for ourselves all the time so we can also keep it interesting for the people in the audience. I mean, I’m always nervous when I go onstage because we always keep on adding stuff so I’m like, “Shit, the synthesizer and the vocals should be different, etc…” I mean it’s a lot of stuff to think about but when you’re out there you don’t end up thinking so much, you just become one with the whole thing.

    MMC: Yeah, I bet. So how did you start learning to DJ?

    AJ: Well, we just threw ourselves out there and we couldn’t even insert a CD when we started. It started out with the fact that we had a lot of parties. We decided to move in together and we had a lot of parties at our apartment, so much so that the neighbors started to complain so we had to take the party to another place; I mean, we’ve been club kids since we were sixteen years old so we knew everyone and were like, “Please, can we have a club?” and the club owner was like, “Yeah, I know you’re gonna draw a lot of people there” so we started having clubs and we didn’t even know how to DJ so that was a problem. We got so much energy out of it. In the beginning we didn’t see ourselves as DJs, we saw ourselves as just changing songs but then we saw an interest growing out and we started to love it. It was a way of expressing ourselves.

    CH: Yeah, I think it’s very important to start somewhere.

    AJ: Yes, you have to dare to make mistakes. A lot of mistakes. Just learn from them. I mean, no one’s going to judge you for that, it’s very important to start somewhere. Worst comes worst, the crowd will be angry for messing up the song. But that’s the worst scenario. You just have to go to a club and practice. It’s crucial. You just have to do it so if you just play music that you love and have fun, it doesn’t matter if you make a few mistakes.

    MMC: That’s great advice! Have you ever had people give you a lot of attitude?

    AJ: Most definitely. We’ve been through a lot of shitty situations. Times when we would come into clubs and would try to play music and people would be like, “Who the hell are you”? It’s been terrible sometimes and I think that makes you become a stronger person. I mean, there are so many times when we went to clubs and guys have been DJing. So many guys DJing before us have been like, “So girls, this is the button you push to play a song and this is where you eject a CD”. I don’t think they mean to be condescending but they just don’t know better and I think we’re here to change it.

    CH: Yes, and instead of trying to work against each other, girls should realize the power of supporting each other and building each other up. You have a lot to learn from each other and it would be so much better for everyone to understand that. That’s really important to remember. Sometimes you might feel like someone’s trying to pull you down but then you have to remember that that person is probably insecure. You should know better to do it back.

    MMC: Solid advice.

    GS: Who were your musical heroes growing up and what’s getting most play on your iPods right now?

    AJ: Well, we love Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers, David Bowie, Patti Smith, PJ Harvey, Destiny’s Child. Also, the one hit wonders and the boy and girl bands. But I think there’s a lot of women like Tina Turner and Beyoncé that we really love. The most played song on our iPod–that’s tough.

    MMC: What about recently added?

    CH: We love the producer that we worked from the start, he produced the Rihanna single, “Stay”. We love that one a lot, we’ve been listening a lot to that. The Knife is great, too.  A lot of Swedish bands, too, ha.

    GS: Do you think it is true that you need music the most when you’re falling in and out of love?

    AJ: Yes. It’s a good way to escape. Sometimes when you’re really sad, you just listen to a song and it helps. When you’re talking about love, either you feel more or you feel less. It’s very important to listen to the right kind of music.

    CH: If you’re hurt, it’s important to let yourself cry. When you’re sad, you just need to take your time but it’s also important to have those pick-up songs that really make you feel a little bit warmer inside and a little bit stronger.

    MMC: We couldn’t agree more.

    GS: Yeah, “I Love It” was that pick-up song for us, ha.

    AJ: Thank you! It makes us very happy to hear you say that!

    MMC: Well, you have already given us some very good advice and our final question for you is if you have something to share with us for aspiring females in the music industry?

    AJ: Yeah, most importantly, don’t be afraid of making mistakes. That’s what you learn from. You learn from them so much more than you learn from people telling you what to do.

    CH: If you just take a direction and go with it, the worst thing that could happen is  you have to change the direction and move another way but if you never dare to do anything, you’ll be walking around in circles wondering what it would be like if you tried it. Just don’t be scared. Surround yourself with people you love and who love you.

  • Pitchfork 2013 Announces Full Lineup

    Pitchfork Music Festival returns for its 9th year and has announced its full lineup, taking place in Chicago’s Union Park on July 19-21, 2013. Three-day passes are currently on sale for $120 and single-day tickets are available for $50 each. Judging by previous years, three-day passes won’t last long. Although the full schedule with times will be revealed in the coming weeks, here is the breakdown of each act by day:

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    Friday, July 19
    Björk, Joanna Newsom, Wire, Woods, Mikal Cronin, Angel Olsen, Pissed Jeans, Daughn Gibson, Trash Talk, Frankie Rose

    Saturday, July 20
    Belle & Sebastian, Solange, The Breeders play Last Splash, Savages, Swans, Rustie, Low, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Phosphorescent, Andy Scott, Mac DeMarco, Ryan Hemsworth, Julia Holter, Parquet Courts, Merchandise, Metz, White Lung, KEM Mode

    Sunday, July 21
    R. Kelly, MIA, Yo La Tengo, Lil B, Toro Y Moi, TNGHT, El-P, Killer Mike, Chairlift, Foxygen, Sky Ferreira, Glass Candy, Autre Ne Veut, Evian Christ, Waxahatchee, Blood Orange, DJ Rashad, Tree

    Pitchfork 2013 lineup Website, Facebook, Twitter

  • Easter Weekend Funk-Warriors: Turkuaz

    Brooklyn based Turkuaz has a funk-filled weekend coming up and will be on the scene at both shows. The band started in Boston in 2008 as a side project of Dave Brandwein (guitar/vocals) and Taylor Shell (bass). They spent about eight months in the Boston area before migrating as a whole to NYC. Their self-described “funk army” approach is well chosen, as the ten-piece could certainly take over several small countries with their explosive all-encompassing funk spectacle brand of performing.

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    First up is a show Friday, March 29th at The Water Street Music Hall with one of Rochester New York’s finest; Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad. Panda has collected quite the following for their jammed out form of roots reggae and will be in full throw down mode with this show being the last with long time keys-master Aaron Lipp.

    Next the Turkuaz funk battalion moves north to jam mecca Nectar’s in Burlington Vermont to play with Buffalo, New York’s finest genre-shifting musical experience, Aqueous. Aqueous has been touring heavy this year in support of their new album Willy is 40 and gathering their own legion of “AQuaintances”.

    hopes to see lots of smiling faces and dancing feet at these shows, and to let you in on a secret a little bird told us – the entire band will be decked out in their finest colored jumpsuits for the Rochester show so feel free to join the platoon and suit-up for your night of funk boot camp.

  • Spolight: The Lifeline

    Picture-2Music lovers fall under the spell of such a unique, haunting melody as they tune into the band casting their magic from within their music. The dulcet sound of a bow being rhythmically drawn across violin strings, followed by the electric guitar and bass, the sounds that most are very familiar with, copying the rhythm. Definitely a different type of music, where classical meets rock. Who is this band that created such an interesting, wonderful combination of genres? Introducing, The Lifeline.

    The Lifeline originates from Chicago, IL, with members Ryan T. Hope (vocals, guitar), Rebecca Faber (violin), Rhapsody Snyder (keys, harp) and Derek Kalicky (bass). The band has released a total of three records; their debut independently released, Where There Is Life, There Is Hope… (2005), For All Who Triumph (2006) and Reflections of Hope (2011). For All Who Triumph showed the listeners that by not altering the line between the very different genres, but by bringing the concept that at the end of their record, The Lifeline would leave them feeling very content by what they had just heard. The band’s next project was a short film called “Trilogy” which contained a series of music videos placed together. Because this was past anyone’s anticipations, “Trilogy” moved onto film festivals such as the West Hollywood Film Festival and the Midwest Independent Film Festival. It accepted two awards (Golden Eagle from CINE and Best Cinematography from the Midwest Independent Film Festival’s BMA’s in 2008). Because of their increased popularity, The Lifeline opened for groups such as 30 Seconds to Mars and Saving Abel. As of March 11, 2011, the band signed with T.J. Sagen of JBM Management (Disturbed and Art of Dying). On January 2012, Ryan T. Hope’s vocals can be heard in “You Won’t See The Light” with Geno Lenardo on guitars. This song featured in the latest Underworld franchise soundtrack. As of January 29, 2013, The Lifeline released their recent single “See You Again”, a very chilling track. Upstate Metal’s Kate Drexel had the opportunity to do an interview with front man, Ryan T. Hope.

    UM: How did you come up with your band name?

    RH: It was a collective effort, Rebecca and I had been offered an on-air acoustic performance from the local radio station in Champagne, IL and it was like our first real public performance. We knew we were forced to come up with a band name because we couldn’t just be “Rebecca and Ryan”, it didn’t have that ring to it. So we just stumbled upon The Lifeline. We were looking through some kind of dictionary or something like that, whatever bands go to, to try to find words and combine them. But Rebecca came across “lifeline” and I was like “That’s great! How about The Lifeline” and she was like “Okay”, and it just stuck. And after we played that on-air gig we felt like that was our name now and it just stuck with us. It’s hard coming up with a name for your band, because it’s like one word or three or whatever. You want to come up with what your band is all about. If you pick the wrong name, people might get the wrong idea about you right off the bat. Something you need to be careful about.

    UM: What gave you the idea to use the instruments in your music? Referring to the violin.

    RH: Well, it was pretty calculated. When I first met Rebecca, I didn’t even know she played the violin and as our friendship developed…she knew I was a musician…and as our friendship developed, I started to learn some things about her and that she was a music major and that kind of thing. I’m also a string player too; I played bass growing up, in the orchestra. When I found out she played the violin, I was really intrigued and I thought, “What kind of music could we create with the different kind of instrumentation?” And we just went from there and it started off very acoustic but it had a rock edge to it so eventually we felt “Hey this could probably translate pretty well, a hard rock setting.” We tried it and it worked out pretty well, so that’s how it came about. But we just use the talents that we have and the instruments that we could play and we just took it from there.

    UM: Where do your song ideas come from?

    RH: Oh man…I mean everywhere really. We’re both really heavily influenced by classical music, obviously, so occasionally we will hear a classical piece that kind of grabs our attention and several of our songs are loosely based off of classical pieces. Like “Romeo and Juliet” for instance, kind of loosely based on Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet”. Sometimes I’ll hear things in rock music that really inspire me, like the new Muse record for instance; that was something that really caught my attention so I’ve been kind of geeking on that for a while now. That’s definitely influencing me very much, but I mean, ideas for songs though, anywhere. I feel like the best songs are the ones that you write about your personal experiences, and the things that have happened to you, and everyday life. That’s what most of our music subject matter is about, and the influence definitely comes from the emotion that comes out of those experiences. Not too complex, but it’s a variety of different areas that I can say that we take our inspiration from.

    UM: Who are your inspirations?

    RH: Personally, my inspirations…I mean I’ve always looked up to Roger Waters of Pink Floyd. From a musical standpoint, the guy is absolutely genius when it comes to making compositions; I mean I’m a huge fan of the concept album and he kind of pioneered the whole thing so he is definitely one of my biggest inspirations, of course David Gilmour, the guitarist of Pink Floyd…man, there’s too many to talk about as far as musicians go. Singers, I’d probably say Freddie Mercury was my first big inspiration. I don’t know but there’s something about that guy’s voice that goes right through you, captivating and there’s no one else in the entire world that sounds like that dude. It’s kind of something that you’re born with and that’s amazing, so I’ve always been in awe of him. Every time I see a concert on TV or listen to a clean record, I’m like “wow” that’s what I want to strive for, just be awesome.

    UM: What inspiration does the band use?

    RH: We take it from everywhere, like I said classical composers are definitely a huge influence. The Smashing Pumpkins have been a gigantic inspiration, they’re a Chicago band, they made their way up the ladder of rock and roll here in Chicago and definitely a band we look up to and take a lot of inspiration from, business wise. They’re really good at promoting themselves, selling their brand, and I think that’s the reason they’ve been around as long as they have. That’s just one. One of many, but that’s probably one of the biggest collectively for all of us.

    UM: What does your music reflect about you guys?

    RH: Well, I mean, like I said earlier about the band name, you definitely want to pick something that sums up what your music is and who you are as people in one word or a phrase and in music itself and it has the same effect as the band name. We’re kind of like a quiet intensity sort of band. We are unassuming, just normally walking down the street but once you talk to us, you’ll realize that there’s a lot more than what’s on the surface and I think that’s the best way to describe us. As a band, musically, where there are a lot of different layers to our musical personalities.

    UM: What’s your favorite venue and why?

    RH: Oh, that’s a tough one…I’d probably say the House of Blues here in Chicago. There’s just something about that place, if you’ve ever been to a House of Blues, just the décor and the vibe. I know its pretty much the same at every single one across the country, but there’s something about the one in Chicago that kind of makes sense, you know Chicago being the home of the blues. And it just has this ambience that I haven’t really experienced at any other venue, anywhere that I’ve been. Plus it just sounds and looks amazing on stage, and you just feel like you’ve got the audience in the palm of your hand because it’s super intimate yet it can fit a lot of people. It’s an interesting room. So it’s definitely my favorite and I think the rest of the people in the band would agree. A close second though is definitely the Aragon Ballroom here in Chicago, a lot of the same stuff going on there. There’s such an amazing vibe that comes from being in that building, and when you’re on stage, you just feel you’re a part of something bigger than yourself.

    UM: What’s the story behind your leading single, “See You Again”?

    RH: It’s not super interesting, I guess, but it’s one of those things where, like I was saying earlier about drawing inspiration for music from everyday things, and Rebecca and I got talking about life in general and loss, just an idea of what if something that you cared about was there one second and the next second gone? Like, how would that make you feel, and we took that mood and that idea and just started writing. I think the piano part was the first thing that came out, Rebecca came up with the piano line first and we just developed the entire song all around that. It happened really quickly, sometimes with songs you have an idea, you mess with it for a while and it doesn’t really go anywhere then you come back to it later. But this song, it just happened like, boom-boom-boom…it was done. And we knew we had something special there, and we wanted to use it as a model of where we wanted to take the band next, and it’s kind of a neat transitionary song for us.

    UM: How did you become a part of the Underworld soundtrack?

    RH: Well, a few years ago, I had the pleasure of working with Geno Lenardo from Filter on another project that was unrelated to the Underworld thing, and he and I have gotten together and wrote a couple of songs together. It didn’t really take off or go anywhere but we stayed in touch. He kind of has been honing on his craft as a producer and engineer and stuff like that for the past few years and when he landed the opportunity to contribute to that soundtrack, he naturally called me up and said “Hey wanna give this a shot and work on this with me?” I was like “Yeah of course!” We got together and recorded the vocals in a day and the rest is history. There was a bunch of other submissions that he sent along and mine got picked over a couple of well known artists and it was a pretty good feeling and definitely something I’m really proud of. I do have some other things in the works with Geno for the future, so it’s a pretty cool opportunity for me.

  • Gathering of the Vibes Announces Festival Lineup

    Gathering of the Vibes, a four day music, arts and camping festival, will celebrate its 18th year with some serious music this summer. Vibes today announces a lineup with headliners that include: Phil Lesh and Friends featuring Jon Scofield, John Medeski, Joe Russo and John Kadlecik, The Black Crowes, Tedeschi Trucks Band, The Roots, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Dark Star Orchestra,  John Butler Trio, the funky METERS, Railroad Earth, John Scofield, Fishbone, Lukas Nelson and the Promise of the Real, Ryan Montbleau Band, Deep Banana Blackout, plus many more talented musicians and more artist announcements still to come. The festival will also feature late-night DJ sets from James Murphy and Thievery Corporation’s Rob Garza as well as a Silent Disco.

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    Gathering of the Vibes has called Seaside Park in Bridgeport, CT home for the past nine years and has become one of the leading music festivals in the Northeast. With roots inspired from the Grateful Dead era, Gathering of the Vibes continues to spread music, peace, and love to concert-goers year after year.

    “Our 2013 lineup is a result of sorting through thousands of comments and surveys responses; we hope to deliver an experience that keeps our core fans happy while remaining diverse and current,” commented Ken Hays, festival founder. “It’s a model and approach that works for us.”

    Tickets are still available at a discounted price for Way Advance Weekend Camping Passes, as well as Single Day, VIP, Kids and RV camping. Weekend, VIP and Kids Passes include the four days of music and three nights of camping from Thursday morning, July 25th until Sunday night, July 28th. For those who wish to get a head start for the weekend, there is a $20 Thursday Early-Entry Parking Fee if you plan on arriving on Thursday before midnight.

  • Meg and Laura Get Lost in Austin: Take Two

    Two girls, one from Boston the other from Jakarta, Indonesia, sit down at a cafe in Austin with a Swedish synth-pop duo and their British PR agent, discussing a song remixed by a Spanish DJ in Syracuse. It’s safe to say that SXSW really crosses borders.

    But before divulging any more details, let’s go back to the start. It’s 9 AM on a Wednesday morning, three hours of sleep and ten outfit changes into the day, when Meg and Laura head out to take on the first of four interviews they have scheduled for the day. They head downtown to the Hilton Garden Suites to interview Ioanna Gika of I O Echo. Once in the lobby, which is bustling with the voices and ringing phones of busy band managers and artists, they find Ioanna and bandmate Leopold Ross waiting in line for some coffee at the hotel Starbucks. Ioanna donning a comfy blue smiley faced crew-neck sweatshirt and silky pink kimono graces us with her presence. There is something about her warmth that permeates the morning, setting a bright tone for the day.

    A surge of nostalgia fills the room as she takes the duo back to the bar where she first met Leo. “Neither of us knew that the other made music, but we bonded over the song “Venus in Furs” and clicked immediately”, spills Ionna. Over the course of an hour, Ioanna dished on the inspiration behind her edgy fashion choices, laser harps and growing up in South East Asia. The gracious singer songwriter talks about her upcoming projects and her collaboration with fashion designers on holographic I O Echo kimonos. After learning the intimate details behind the eccentric artists creativity the two packed up their mic and ventured across the street to hear about another’s.

    Next on agenda: an interview with the Stockholm/London based co-ed duo K.I.D.S. As Meg and Laura set up their equipment on the porch of the Moonshine Grill and Patio, they are interrupted by paparazzis shouting from across the street: “K.I.D.S. are the next big thing! Keep an eye out for them!” The girls sit down with the band to listen to backyard tales from their childhood. They learn that despite the duo’s polarizing taste in music – as diverse as Kendrick Lamar and Yoko Ono – they bring a refreshing twist to the musical table and share one of their music making secrets which is, “Don’t take yourself too seriously.” Just like a couple of kids, with hearts warmed by the bands take on music and life and with two interviews down, Meg and Laura move from the porch to a table on the Moonshine patio for a third interview.

    You would think that any artist with a single sitting on top of the charts for as long as Icona Pop’s hit “I Love It” would have big egos.  As Meg and Laura sit down to have lunch with the duo, they’re pleasantly surprised to find their feet on the ground and their hearts still very much into the music. There was a certain sincerity in the advice they had to offer which made Meg and Laura feel like they were listening to their own story. “We find ourselves constantly trying to create chaos in our lives so that we can rise up above it.”, claims Aino. The co-hosts exchange bewildered looks – an undeniable and almost tangible synergy is shared at this table for four along with the compulsive need to keep the adrenaline pumping.

    Only hours later, the two put their life motto into practice as they marched purposefully to each and every +21 venue determined to get in. Five rejections and failed attempts at pulling the we-know-the-manager card later, the two did what any two girls would do to get in (and no, they didn’t pull up their shirts to get in if that’s what you’re thinking). They took the road less traveled, i.e. the dark alleyway that led to the back door. Let’s just say they pulled a G.I. Jane but got to keep their hair. As it turns out, La Zona Rosa is much more fun when you’re inside, falling victim to Rudimental’s jazzed out drum and bass Meg, being the heavy bass line fiend that she is, decides to stay backstage at the venue to watch 12th Planet, UZ, and Baauer do the real-live Harlem Shake while Laura gets religiously overpowered by her Faith…Paloma Faith, that is. She decides to head over to Eighth Street to the Central Presbyterian Church to catch the British songstress in person.

    Though being chased down four blocks by a homeless man while navigating her GPS was a little more than Laura had bargained for, it was well worth seeing the performer take the altar in her all her glittering glory. The church resonated with hits like “Agony” and the singer got hearts racing as she raced down the pews in her Christian Louboutins with the grace of a goddess and a Chelsea Handler-esque sense of humor.

    The best part about SXSW is never knowing whats in store! Stay tuned for tales from day 3 of #LostinAustin. For more details, follow @themegandlaura  

  • Album Review: NERO DI MARTE

    Nero di Marte is an experimental metal band based in Bologna, Italy. Formerly known under the name “Murder Therapy” since 2007, the band released their debut album Symmetry of Delirium in 2009 and the EP Molochian in 2011.

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    Michael: Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.  This is my first confessional in the Church of Metal.

    Father Ozzy: What is it?

    Michael: I was assigned the task of reviewing Nero Di Marte’s self titled, debut CD.  Well, technically it’s their third CD, but they changed their name from Murder Therapy recently, and this is the first CD under their new name.

    Father Ozzy: Stop bloody wanking and get on with it.

    Michael: Uh, right. Anyway, I got the CD, and I listened to it.

    Father Ozzy: Are you asking me? How am I supposed to bloody know you listened to it?

    Michael: I mean, I listened to it, but…(pause)

    Father Ozzy: Yes?

    Michael: Well, you see. It’s…(pause)

    Father Ozzy: Will you come on with it, already!

    Michael: Father. I didn’t like it….(pause)

    Father Ozzy: Where’s the sin in that?

    Michael: I only listened to it once.  I couldn’t stand to listen to it anymore.

    Nero Di Marte is a quartet out of Italy.  They have a world release out of Prosthetic Records in a few days (March 18th in the United Kingdom, March 19th in the United States and March 22nd in Eurpoe), and I don’t want to pick it up anymore.  It scares me.

    Father Ozzy: You’re talking to the Prince of bloody Darkness, how is this CD scary?

    Michael: I know the band likes to experiment with their sound, but everything was off. The guitars drowned the vocals. The guitars were out of synch with everything. And, don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of drums, but the drums overpowered everything.  Not only that, the cadence was off at times. It sounded like the guitars were playing to a different song than the drums! It was bedlam!

    Father Ozzy: (pause)

    Michael: Father?

    Father Ozzy: What else can you say?

    Michael: Lead singer, Sean Worrell is a howler monkey?

    Father Ozzy: Stop with the bloody howler monkey thing! It’s metal!

    Michael: You didn’t do it!

    Father Ozzy: Don’t you think I’m challenged enough with my speech?

    Michael: What’s my penance, Father?

    Father Ozzy: Listen to the CD again. Ask people not to take your judgments into mind, but let them decide for themselves the quality of this work.

    For more information, please go to www.nerodimarte.com

  • Meg and Laura Get Lost in Austin: Deadmau5

    Being at South by Southwest is kind of like being a kid at Disney World. Between the sun and the millions of rides to choose from, you’re left delirious to make your decision. Meg and Laura weren’t any different. Well, except for the fact that they had press passes hanging from around their neck this time.

    The duo kicked off Monday by sharing the bus with The X Factor Contestants to the Austin Convention Center, where all the conferences were taking place. The ACC was bustling with people from every corner of the world talking about music.  Being thousands of miles away from home, there was something easing about being surrounded by chatter about music that made feel like they belong.

    deadmau5After getting their bearings straight (a.k.a. capitalizing on the abundance of free food), the pair decided to take on the big panel challenge that had been surfacing the air – getting into room 12AB for Richie Hawtin’s interview with deadmau5. So they did what any other fan girls would do: they decided to line up three hours before the panel. “You could probably go to the Building Movements panel before deadmau5 so all you can just stay in the room for the next one”, suggested one of the staff members. And so that’s what they did.

    Not to say that watching Andy Ross talk about another life threatening concept idea for the next OK Go music video wasn’t enjoyable, but if only Meg and Laura knew about the last-minute room change for deadmau5, they would’ve stayed in line outside. When Meg’s Twitter feed updated her on the room change, the two headed for the door and found themselves to be the last ones in a long and winding line, surrounded by people pronouncing the DJ’s name as “dead-mau-five”.  It wasn’t long till the co-hosts charmed their way to the front with their radio personality (a.k.a. they spewed sarcastic remarks at everything that moved, until the people in front of them budged). Cut to: two seats, five feet away from deadmau5. The wait was definitely worth it. Though it took Laura a second to recognize the DJ without his headgear and Meg to well, keep her composure, the wait was well worth it. deadmau5 addressed a lot of the difficult points concerning EDM that most DJs prefer not to discuss. He advocates “throwing away being a purist”, specifically talking about how style isn’t something that can be taught. There are many institutions today that focus on teaching people the art of EDM. Instead of teaching students how to think, they teach them what to think, pigeonholing their creativity in the mold of preset sub-genres. The DJ also comments on how the industry has homogenized EDM, saying, “it seems like all the mainstream EDM artists are making the same cookie-cutter tracks, and then I wonder why the people at the labels don’t just go home and try to make the music themselves. I mean, why not just cut of the bands?”. Although Hawtin and deadmau5 are glad that EDM has appealed to the masses, they reminisce the two percent days back when it wasn’t so homogenous.

    With less than two hours of sleep from the night before, and a truckload of work to do, obviously the only sensible solution was to go out.  The two knew that it would be impossible not to spend the night out on the town when they were in the live music capital of the world. Meg and Laura took the streets of Austin, scouting from venue to venue, in search of good-time. After being turned down at The Warner Sound, The Belmont, and Maggie’s, the two realized that they had a hook-up: The North Door. Nicolas Jaar, minimal house DJ, was spinning a set and they knew his manager Alastar Dunkin. At 1 AM, the ambitious duo walked over about a million and one blocks over to Brushy St. in the unwelcoming windy weather (I guess Syracuse isn’t the only place with bipolar weather), and pulled the press card from under the sleeve. There was no way they were going back without getting in to a show.

    Jaar played Meg’s favorite track, “The Ego”, putting the lyrics, “the ego is the most expensive thing” on loop. Jaar really did speak the truth with his minimalist beat that took us on a tempo roller coaster. Unlike the typical female vocals that DJs sample, Jaar used a voice modulator to sample his own soulful vocals, giving the track a jazzier feel and filling up the entirety of the room with sophistication.

    All in all, adventures and glitches accounted for, there really couldn’t be a better start to South by Southwest for Meg and Laura. As it turns out, everything really is bigger in Texas.

    Continue following the #lostinaustin for more updates of Meg and Laura’s SXSW antics on Twitter!

  • Spotlight: ACIDIC

    Spotlight on a small killer band from Southern California by the name of Acidic. They’ve toured with major bands such as Hinder, Trapt, and Hawthrone Heights.

    The band consist of Mike Gossard (lead vocals/guitar), Ted Dubrawski (bass), and Matt Whitaker (drums), with a special guest guitarist; in this case on the Hinder tour it was Josh Bennett. Their first record, Chronic Satisfaction, produced by John Ryan of Chicago Kid Productions, a platinum award-winner (produced Styx, Santana, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Badfinger, and the Allman Brothers. As of recently, the band signed with SONY/RED through a special arrangement with MegaForce Records. Acidic’s latest record, Copper Man, is expected to be released March 19, 2013. The leading single, “Copper Man”, was picked by Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx on his nationally-syndicated radio, “Side Show” to kick off February. Upstate Metal’s staff, Kate Drexel, was lucky enough to do an interview with the band’s front man, Mike Gossard.

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    UM: How did you come up with your band name?

    MG: We went out to Joshua Tree for a weekend with a…you ever see that movie where Johnny Depp goes to Las Vegas and has a crazy weekend? Yeah, well it was kind of like that, and we came back and we didn’t know what the fuck had happened but saw that we had written on a little piece of paper the name “ACIDIC” and we were like, “what?” That must be the band name we decided…kinda catchy, y’know, unknown. There was a lot of ‘shrooms involved probably, we’re not really sure. But we had a good weekend; we know that, we came back safe.

    UM: What’s your favorite song off of your record?

    MG: Off our new record? Well, I’ll just do it from the new record, which is out March 19th; it’s going to be released by SONY/RED. My favorite song off that record is called “Copper Man” and I know we sound like total douchebags right now but we wrote it in jail. So yeah we got arrested the first day of our tour for Fuel, for being a “rock ‘n’ roll” band and I’m not going to go into any more detail than that. And we decided we were going to write a kickass song about being on the road. And so we wrote a song about the chronicles of this guy going across the country, getting into all sorts of shenanigans and partying with people and having a great time and everywhere he goes, he’s the life of the party…he’s the Copper Man. And he’s just all around the country, and when they let us out, we had a full song and we played it that night and it was pretty cool. We’ve never done anything like that since. We’ve only been arrested twice last year so it’s all-good.

    UM: How did you become a part of the Hinder tour?

    MG: Actually, our management is good friends with their management and they hooked us up and I have to say…Hinder, they are the nicest bunch of dudes on the face of the planet, I mean seriously, they have taken such good care of us. We are so grateful about that. So yeah, mutual friends.

    UM: What’s the story behind “Satellite”?

    MG: Okay, I went through a bunch of crazy stuff last year, right? And usually, it revolves around a girl and so I went through a bunch of stuff with a girl and I ended up getting sober and that was the first song I had written sober in years. I wrote it about always feeling like you can’t quite connect with somebody. I mean, everybody’s had that feeling where they’re just like, the one person they really want but can never say the right thing to or can’t connect with, it’s all about that. It’s the idea of being a satellite and they’re being a fucking planet.

    UM: What does music mean to you?

    MG: Everything. I try to think “Could I be a lawyer?” and then I realize, when I’m not on stage, I’m always listening to music, or when I’m watching a show, all I pay attention to is the music in the background. If you watch a TV show, there is never more than 30 seconds of that music, and if it’s done, it’s done on purpose to get attention…but it’s everything and it’s everywhere you go. You cannot escape from music. So it’s my life.

    UM: What does your music reflect about you guys?

    MG: Our general attitude and our transgressions on the road. Seriously, we write everything about experience, things that have happened to us…oh god, people we’ve known, people we’ve had drinks with, people we’ve had smokes with, people we’ve had sex with, y’know that’s the classic thing. It’s great, it’s honest…may not be very polite, but it’s honest.

  • Album Review: Chariots of the Gods – Tides of War

    Touting themselves as “straight up, balls to the wall, in your face Heavy Metal”, Chariots of the Gods have been spreading their melodic death-thrash across Canada since 2008. Though they’ve been around for five years – they have an EP (Reverence – 2010) and cameos on a few compilations to show for it – Tides of War marks their first, full length studio effort, and it doesn’t show.

    chariots of the godsFrom the rip, Tides of War gleams of a polished effort from this Ottawa quintet, thanks in part to producer, Glen Robinson, an acclaimed music veteran whose long list of work includes the names of Queensryche, AC/DC, David Bowie, GWAR and more.

    The band describes itself as showing only nuances of metalcore, but frontman Renaud Jobin certainly rings true to that genre (I call it being a howler monkey, but I can’t pan his efforts only because it doesn’t agree with my own personal tastes). His singing fits in well with the music. These nuances, as they say, really comes out on the CD’s third track, “Blind Assassin”. Guitarists Mathieu St-Amour and Dimitri Gervais each play with such precision and at lightning speed on this track, and throughout their entire work, to work in concert with Rich O’Neil’s rapid drum work is enough reason to pick up this CD.

    But, what impresses me most from Tides of War, and what I think really shows the personality and drive behind this band, lies within “Revillusion (1905)”, “Snow Falls on the White River (1914)”, and “Severing the Bloodline (1917)”. As it stands alone, “Snow Falls” doesn’t sound like it belongs on this CD. Its slow, melodic acoustic guitar is joined by piano play that slows down the overall pace. But, in fact, it accompanies the introduction to “Revillision” nicely. It’s a brief, minute-and-a-half transition that indeed fits. You can see Chariots of the Gods are not interested in serving up the cliché, and that they push to stretch out beyond being just another metalcore band. Tides of War does not have the theatrics of Queensryche’s metal operetta Operation Mindcrime, but the subtleties are present enough to sense Robinson’s influence here as well.

    If this is your first time hearing of Chariots of the Gods, I guarantee this will not be the last. The howling of lyrics that goes with metalcore may not appeal to me, personally, but these guys have a whole lot going for them. Their debut installment screams of an ambition and a discipline that exceeds their peers. Their sound is polished and can appeal to the masses. Tides of War showcases a wide breadth of talent, a talent that will take this band wherever it is they choose to go.

    For more information, visit www.chariotsofthegods.net