A few months ago I wrote about a new, very cool Facebook application for musicians – BandPage by RootMusic. This week a new feature was rolled out that helps to put more dough in musicians pockets. RootMusic has partnered with YouTube and integrated a method to collect royalties through the BandPage media player. In addition to creating a customized tab on Facebook that includes music downloads, videos, photos and more, BandPage is now a source of revenue. Through YouTube Tracks and YouTube’s existing partner program, musicians can collect ad revenue with each play of their songs on Facebook, changing the way artists look at the platform.
Furthermore, RootMusic has also reconfigured the app to meet the new 520 pixel specification rolled out by Facebook through an automatic update. All artists who use BandPage are given a handy-dandy listn.to short link when they register, which allows them to send fans directly to their BandPage on Facebook.
Oddly, no classical artists are using this app meaning there is definitely an opportunity here. I am sure solo artists, ensembles, orchestras and opera companies would benefit from this app.
On the other hand, rock and metal artists are using this app quite effectively. Here is a shortlist RootMusic sent us:
During this year’s Fashion’s Night Out on September 10, music fans can join the ranks of rock royalty and have their portraits taken by rock photographers Mick Rock and Robert Knight at award-winning menswear designer John Varvatos’ fashion boutiques in New York and Los Angeles. Guests who make a purchase of $300 or more will be given their own photo session with one of the photographers, depending on the location.
Mick Rock will be in the Soho boutique (122 Spring St., New York, 212-965-0700). Known as “The Man Who Shot the 70s”, he has photographed images for rock legends including David Bowie, The Ramones, Joan Jett, and Blondie. More recently, he has worked with The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Snoop Dogg, and Lady Gaga. His new book, EXPOSED: Faces of Rock ‘n Roll (to be published in October 2010) collects over 220 of Mick’s best photos across nearly 40 years.
Robert Knight will be in the West Hollywood location (8800 Melrose Ave., California 310-859-2791). A 42 year veteran, he has worked with rock royalty such as Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Jeff Beck, and U2. He’s the subject of the soon to be released film Rock Prophecies, and has published the book Rock Gods.
Fashion’s Night Out is a worldwide event created to celebrate fashion, restore consumer confidence, and boost the industry’s economy. In the US, the program is a partnership between American Vogue, the Council of Fashion Designers of America, NYC & Company, and the City of New York. For more information, you can go to www.fashionsnightout.com/, visit Facebook, or check out the Twitter feed www.twitter.com/fnonyc.
John Varvatos represents an entire men’s lifestyle which includes footwear, bags, belts, eyewear, limited-edition watches, and men’s fragrances. His awards have included the CDFA Menswear Designer of the Year (June 2001 and June 2005) and was honored as GQ’s “Designer of the Year” in 2007. Information about John Varvatos boutiques can be found at www.johnvarvatos.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/JohnVarvatos.
The Baroque Band, Chicago’s period instrument ensemble, is offering a special four-concert subscription series for their 2010-2011 season. The series, entitled Angels & Demons, includes innovative programming which features “hellishly” difficult music by Arcangelo Corelli and “angelic” music from the court of English monarch Charles II.
A subscription to all four concerts can be purchased for $126 ($114 for seniors). Performances take place in venues all across the Chicago metropolitan area including Hyde Park Union Church, the Music Institute of Chicago in Evanston, Byron Colby Barn in Grayslake, and Symphony Center. Tickets can be purchased by phone at 312-235-2368 or online on their website.
Here’s a complete listing for the subscription series:
Hell’s Angels – Masters of the Violin
October 8, 9, 13
Garry Clarke – Director
Arcangelo (“the archangel”) Corelli was known for writing some hellishly difficult music to play! When he played the violin it is said: “His countenance [became] distorted, his eyes sometimes turn[ed] as red as fire…[and] his eyeballs roll[ed] as in an agony.” Corelli’s student Locatelli was said to “sound like the devil.” The music and playing of Tartini is our other angel this evening.
Corelli – Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 11
Locatelli – Concerto Grosso Op. 1, No. 1
Torelli – Concerto Grosso Op. 6, No. 3
Tartini – Concerto Grosso in G Major (reconstructed by Garry Clarke)
Charlie’s Angels – Music from the Court of Charles II January 13, 15, 19
Garry Clarke – Director
In 1660, Charles II returned from exile in France as Monarch of England. While in France he became a great admirer of Louis XIV’s violin band, “Vingt-quatre Violins du Roi.” Back in England, it wasn’t long before Charlie had his own angels, called “The Twenty-four Violins (even though there were many more than 24 players!). Baroque Band will recreate the era of Charles II with music including:
Purcell – The Staircase overture
Grabu – Incidental Music to Rochester’s play Valentinian
Blow – Chaconne
Locke – Suite from Cupid and Death
Croft – Sonata in 5 parts
Heavenly Angel
March 17, 18, 20
Lucy Crowe – soprano
Harry Bicket – guest director
You won’t want to miss one of Britain’s most exciting young sopranos, the heavenly Lucy Crowe, who will join Baroque Band between her performances in Hercules at Lyric Opera.
Harry Bicket, Artistic Director of the world-renowned period-instrument orchestra The English Concert, will join the Band as Guest Director. The program will feature all-time favorite baroque opera arias, including Cleopatra’s great lament, Se pietà (If you feel no pity), and the dazzling Da tempeste (Ravaged by storms), from Handel’s Giulio Cesare.
La Resurrezione
June 2, 4, 8
Garry Clarke – Director
Dianne Atherton – The Angel
Kevin Deas – Lucifer
First performed in 1708, Handel’s oratorio La Resurrezione is his most colorful composition from his time in Rome. Written to text by Carlo Sigismondo Capece, La Resurrezione details the events between – and during – Good Friday and Easter Sunday beginning with an Angel arriving at the gates of hell to confront the ranting Lucifer. Glittering coloratura, the showy boasting Lucifer, grave laments, and sweet elegies will sweep you to the conclusion of Baroque Band’s fourth season!
Featuring British soprano Dianne Atherton as the Angel and renowned American bass Kevin Deas as Lucifer.
This weekend it was our first chance to see Rodrigo y Gabriela, the Mexican guitar duo with eclectic musical tastes that synthesize them into a Latinized metal style. The duo is currently supporting their new release, 11:11, which I previously reviewed.
Over the past couple of years, my fascination with the duo has increased for a number of reasons. The duo’s musical tastes are much like my own. But Rodrigo and Gabriela’s musical path are very different since they don’t have collegiate training, and I have yet to go to Ireland. Regardless of musical beginnings, the bottom line is on this particular evening our musical paths intersected for a couple of hours.
Since the duo was first discovered in Ireland, RyG’s fame has exploded. Based on the turnout and response at Ravinia, the duo is hovering close to mega international stardom.
The evening began with special guest, Rocco DeLuca. Prior to this evening, I’d never heard of DeLuca, and I now I know why. Although, the music wasn’t entirely dreadful, what made it painful to watch was the lack of audience interaction and the faces of sheer boredom across the audience. DeLuca appeared overwhelmed by the size of the audience in attendance, which was likely amplified by the apparent shyness of the singer-songwriter.
Performing 30 minutes of dark, slow blues, DeLuca sung music from his newly recorded album, title unknown. His voice was rather nice, but was unfortunately buried under an electric bass drum, for which he stomped away while strumming his hallow-bodied guitar. The somber pace never changed and neither did his painful use of artificial drums.
After a 30 minute break, Rodrigo y Gabriela instantly brought the crowd back to life opening with “Hanaman”, the opening track on 11:11. This ignited about an hour and forty minutes of guitar heaven. The audience’s mood instantly changed when the main act hit the stage creating a heavy metal concert atmosphere. Perhaps it is reflection of the duo’s metal roots since they both stood in spread-eagle rock guitar stance for much of the show.
The majority of the concert consisted of music from the recent release, but RyG mixed in songs from the first self-titled album. In particular, “Diablo Rojo” and an arrangement of Metallica’s “Orion” were a couple of highlights of the show. It became clear during Gabriela’s solo precisely why she serves as the rhythm section between the two. To put it bluntly, she is a badass. Don’t get me wrong, Rodrigo can jam too, proven during his own solo, but the Flamenco-like rhythms Gabriela produces are quite difficult and demand serious endurance to do for hours.
By the end of the night, one thing was made crystal clear: Rodrigo and Gabriela really have a good time on stage. The duo loves their audience and the audience appreciates, admires and craves for the unique metal-Latinized sound. No one really wanted the show the end, but to much chagrin it did.
In case you haven’t had a chance to see the duo, here is a little taste…
Trueblood-news.com shared a making-of video about “Evil Is Going On”, a song which will be featured in the True Blood season 3 finale. Creator/Executive Producer Alan Ball explains that this episode, like all of the others, takes its name from a song which appears in the episode. Country/blues musician Jace Everett and swamp rocker C.C. Adcock collaborated to make a new arrangement of the song originally by blues legend Howlin’ Wolf. Everett is best known for True Blood‘s theme song “Bad Things”, and Adcock has been featured on previous True Blood soundtracks (you can check out our review of songs by Everett and Adcock on the season 2 soundtrack here and our review of Everett’s solo album here).
Adcock describes the sound of the song as “low down and funky”, and Everett creates an interesting sound effect by singing into the guitar.
This fall, Rock-N-Roll Gourmet LLC, maker of Hippie Chips, will kick off a partnership with the GRAMMY Foundation® which will not only benefit the GRAMMY in the Schools® music education programs with a percentage-of-sales initiative but also help high schools to apply for the programs. Rock-N-Roll Gourmet was founded in June 2009 by Dan and [...]
As Contrapuntist mentioned in a previous post, we were fortunate enough to attend a performance at Ravinia Festival by Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project. The outstanding concert began with a performance of “Ascending Bird”, an arrangement of a Persian folk song by Silk Road Project members Colin Jacobsen and Siamak Aghaei, which tells [...]
Between a new band and new album, Slash is having a good year. And considering the guitarist’s history with Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver, Slash has certainly produced some nice tunes over the years. Now the rocker is set to launch his virtual radio station, Slash FM on A.P.E. Radio. Today’s announcement came on [...]
It’s hard to believe, but we have reached the five year anniversary since Hurricane Katrina and her floods decimated New Orleans. Air Traffic Control, an organization which has been co-hosting artist activism retreats in New Orleans for the past five years, is marking the anniversary by producing a benefit album featuring over 30 artists who [...]
David Garrett is a Juilliard trained violinist and composer who is committed to introducing young music fans to the classics by mixing elements of classical, rock, pop, and R&B music. His latest album, Rock Symphonies, consists of tracks ranging from rock versions of famous pieces by Bach and Beethoven to “classical” arrangements of Aerosmith and [...]
A few months ago I wrote about a new, very cool Facebook application for musicians – BandPage by RootMusic. This week a new feature was rolled out that helps to put more dough in musicians pockets. RootMusic has partnered with YouTube and integrated a method to collect royalties through the BandPage media player. In addition to creating a customized tab on Facebook that includes music downloads, videos, photos and more, BandPage is now a source of revenue. Through YouTube Tracks and YouTube’s existing partner program, musicians can collect ad revenue with each play of their songs on Facebook, changing the way artists look at the platform.
