click above for the Big Phony interview

Went to see the opening screening for Tamar Halpern’s movie, Your Name Here last Saturday. It’s a semi-fictional movie about her son’s garage band as captured in their teenage years. It was a great experience because it took me back to when I first tried making music in my friend’s garage.

( left) Here we are at the reception! (right) Tamar - the director, and friend.

Tamar truly captured a genuine duo in Jordan and Michael by simply filming them at what they were doing (to a fictionalized script). The music sounds like a more straight forward rock version of old Weezer stuff. You can take a listen here: myspace.com/yournamehereband
(left) screen shot from the website. (right) Dawn Dunbar and Michael Mctaggart taking a “serious” pose.
After the screening Jordan’s band got on stage and put on a show… to my disappointment Michael and Jordan had since split ways. The new sound is metal - I gotta really sit down and listen to a recording to see if I like it or not, but I can’t help but feel a little let down. After watching the movie I was totally looking forward to seeing the duo play live.

Either way, go to Tamar’s website for the trailer: tamarolandpictures.com
I had a blast watching it.

1) Oh, Sleeper - When I Am God

I can’t remember the last band on Tooth & Nail, let alone Solid State, that made me happy to be alive. Oh, Sleeper makes me smile. This was a great year for music but it was lacking that one hardcore album–finally it arrived. Can you believe it’s composed of ex-Terminal members? Neither can I. Oh, Sleeper’s new album is straight up in-yr-face rock.

www.myspace.com/ohsleeper

2) Scott Tang - Radiant

Listening to the first track of Radiant leaves you with a feeling that Scott watched his TGIF. I’ll admit I miss my Family Matters, Step by Step, and Full House too but Scott really missed his Boy Meets World. Well it turns out he never heard of the show. Regardless, “Topanga” is upbeat, catchy, and Keane-esque. I resist the urge to air drum along every time I listen to it. As for the album as a whole, Radiant is a genuine piano-driven pop record. It’s obvious that Scott’s love of music drives the entire record.

www.myspace.com/scotttang

3) Anyband Digital Single

I’ve been playing this non-stop. To promote their new Anycall phones, Samsung created Anyband, composed of BoA*, Tablo from Epik High, Xiah Junsu from DBSK/TVQX, and pianist Jin Bora. The two songs are just rock driven pop masterpieces. Even though a face-less corporation is behind it, Anyband is one of the best things I’ve heard come out of Korea lately. I’ll definitely take this over Paramore any day. Yeah I said it. Don’t believe me? Watch Anyband’s music video on youtube.

Just in case you missed this meme blowing up all over the internets here is rap as represented in graphical form:

More available here

The highly anticipated follow up to their debut album, We Don’t Need To Whisper has landed and is shaking things up.

Angels & Airwaves’ sophomore album, I-Empire was released this past Tuesday with the lead single off the album, “Everything’s Magic” and finds itself sitting in the number 1 spot on iTunes, bumping Britney Spears off the top spot.The album is an epic journey in music, but without the hard to grasp melodies of the freshman album. Simply put, it’s more “Blink 182ish”, radiating catchy hooks, while preserving the bold crescendos, climax, and denouements they’ve now come to own.”

Everything’s Magic” is an ode to a simpler time, harkening back to the innocence and naivete of love, friendship, and when and where everything is purely magic. Close your eyes, and just remember those times without worry, without callousness, when the world around you was nearly perfect.

Those Friday nights when you’re under the bleachers with your friends, hear the stomping above you in the rafters, the cadences from the drumline, the impacts of the players, and smell the brisk dew of the night, under the bright lights, and building up the courage to talk to a crush of yours just standing yards from you. You build up that courage and you say hello, and at that moment, everything’s magic.

I-Empire is an experience, that brings you to another place, where you are within your own empire of thoughts, reflection, hope, and refinement. The trailer made for the album encapsulates the epic journey within the music and body of work that is I-Empire.

Watch and experience your own empire.

People will go on and on and debate about who the best guitarist is. My favorite is Jimmy Hendrix. To me his style is the epitome of what Rock guitar should be like. Not only was his aggressive, blues, induced rock awesome, but he was a great songwriter as well. He wasn’t all about the speed, but rather about the soul of the sound. My favorite piece of guitar writing ever is the intro to “Little Wing”. In addition to the guitar playing itself is his flare; it wouldn’t be rock n’ roll without his creative stage presence. Playing the guitar behind his head, lighting his guitar on fire, to doing a tripped out rendition of the star spangled banner (musical metaphor for war) were all just pieces of amo to his music.

Here’s a famous clip of him at Woodstock:

Go to the official Jimmy Hendrix site.