The Aviation Orange @ D.I.Y.Bushwick Music Festival

The Aviation Orange is playing in the inaugural D.I.Y. Bushwick Music Festival on:

Wednesday 3/26 – 11pm at Brooklyn Fireproof – 119 Ingraham St

Thursday 3/25 – 11pm at Bushwick Music Studios - 55 Waterbury St.

C0ming off a huge buzz from SXSW, The Aviation Orange is the must-see band in Brooklyn this week.  Read the details below and buy passes HERE

Official Site

INAUGURAL DIY BUSHWICK MUSIC FESTIVAL CELEBRATING ARTISTIC DIVERSITY AND PERSEVERANCE IN BROOKLYN, NY

“Let the music industry have South By Southwest and the CMJ festival. Brooklyn has its own DIY Music Festival for Brooklynites by Brooklynites.”
- NY POST

Brooklyn, New York – Bushwick Music Studios in association with Deli Magazine and Arts In Bushwick are proud to announce the official schedule for DIY Bushwick, A Musical Festival, taking place March 24-27, in nine venues throughout Bushwick. The inaugural festival will feature Brooklyn-based bands, DJs, and artists performing in alternative Do-It-Yourself spaces just a walk or a bike ride apart. Admission prices range from free to $10 with an average ticket price of $5. Festival passes will be available online for $20, with Friday/Saturday passes available for $10. This is part of an effort by festival organizers to make sure that the events are accessible to all.

Tito Fleetwood Ladd, owner of Bushwick Music Studios, decided to organize the festival in an attempt to galvanize the neighborhood’s flourishing music and arts scene. In the last few years, Bushwick has emerged as a frontier for DIY venues, attracting artists and musicians with the limitless opportunities provided by these raw spaces. Although the scene has been growing for some time, a Bushwick-centered festival of this scale has never been attempted.

Ladd’s vision was that by working together, the Bushwick music scene would ultimately receive more visibility. “There’s this incredible energy and all these cool spaces with amazing talent in Bushwick,” says Ladd, “This is our way of showing that to anyone who wants to pay attention to us. We’re all doing it together.” When he reached out to several venues and organizations in Bushwick, he immediately received enthusiastic support.

Deli Magazine and neighborhood stalwart Arts In Bushwick have both signed on to help coordinate and produce the event. Bushwick Music Studios will be joined by nine spaces including Party Expo, Goodbye Blue Monday, Brooklyn Fireproof, Castle Braid, The Opera House Lofts, House of Yes, Eastern District, and Northeast Kingdom.

Two Brooklyn-based companies have pitched in their efforts: The first, an online gig-booking agency, GigMaven, has been helping to book bands. And the innovative StreamJam will stream the shows live online. The festival is truly a local DIY effort that takes pride in its self-dependence. Corporate sponsors are nowhere to be found. DIY Bushwick is pure grassroots.

The festival kicks off at Wednesday the 24th at Eastern District at 5:00 with a free show!

Passes cost $5 for the day, $10 for Friday and Saturday, or $20 for all four days.

Tags: brooklyn, bushwick, bushwick music studios, diy bushwick, music festival, RethinkPopMusic, SXSW, the aviation orange

RethinkPopMusic Presents: Ambassadors, The Yes Way, Fugitive Souls, Emily Long and Dinosaur Bones – The Village Voice

A little RPM love over at The Village Voice camp. Reposted from: http://www.villagevoice.com/slideshow/rethinkpopmusic-presents-ambassadors-the-yes-way-and-dinosaur-bones-1655446/

“Five bucks, five bands, free booze” RSVP at http://www.RPM-RSVP.com to enter for only $5 and get a FREE download! RethinkPopMusic’s youngest band Ambassadors, is excited to announce that they are back and stronger than ever after a 2009 full of adversity. Ambassadors’ keyboardist (Casey Harris), who has been blind since birth, had to have a kidney transplant (from his mother) last November. The kidney disorder wasn’t discovered until he was a senior in high school and little is known about the disease because the correlation with vision loss is EXTREMELY rare. However, have no fear! Casey is back to 110% and the time off allowed Ambassadors to incorporate some new instruments into their already outstanding live show. The showcase at Santos Party House on 02/18 will be Ambassadors first since taking 3 months off following a very successful UK Tour and CMJ Showcase. RSVP and RethinkPopMusic will email you a secret link to download their first single “Tropisms” which was featured on mtvU The Freshman. Their self titled debut EP is slated for an early summer release.

Tags: 5 bands 5 bucks free booze, ambassadors, dinosaur bones, emily long, fugitive souls, RethinkPopMusic, santos party house, the village voice, the yes way

CMJ 2009

[svgallery name="RPMCMJ09"]

RethinkPopMusic CMJ Showcase

On Thursday, October 22nd RethinkPopMusic hosted an unofficial CMJ Showcase at Crash Mansion with the assistance of Absolut, Spaten Beer, Red Roof Inns, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, U-Haul and Yak Pak.

Once again we had 350+ through the door but I think that has much more to do with great performances by Ambassadors, The Vanguard, The Aviation Orange, The Glorious Veins and our late night guests Lindsay Luv and Mikealis.

Thanks to everyone who came out including all our friends from MTV, S1Songs, The Postelles and ALL!

Tags: Absolut, ambassadors, Bob Berman, CMJ, cmj 2009, cmj rethinkpopmusic, Crash Mansion, lindsay luv, mikealis, Red Roof Inns, RethinkPopMusic, spaten, Spaten Beer, The Aviaiton Orange, The Glorious Veins, the vanguard, uhaul, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, yak pak

New Villager at CMJ

New Villager review through the eyes and ears of Alex Beninato of The Aviation Orange

New Villager – Bowery Poetry Club – 10/21/09

New Villager must pride themselves on their stage ingenuity to pull off their dense sound. The fact that the band is only a duo (made up of Ben Bromley & Ross Simonini) must have forced them to get creative with their stage instrumentation. They don’t take the easy backing track way out that is the downfall of many bands now a days. The pair actually play their drum parts with their feet as they interchangeably play keyboards, bass, guitar, and sing. This combined with looping pedals allows the band to create a sound that seems like it would take about 4 people to make. It also keeps the set from getting stale and lifeless. We’ve all heard horror stories of MGMT’s live shows, I can assure you this is not a problem with New Villager. Although their style is a bit similar to MGMT, New Villager comes off a bit trippier. They move from pop to soul to psych. Their playing at Bowery Poetry Club was extremely tight and the band had great energy. I enjoyed their set tremendously. Despite this they didn’t really get the crowd into it. It seemed as though the audience didn’t know how to react to their music. There were a lot of blank stares. Maybe everyone was too enthralled with their show to move or maybe they were all waiting for the next band.

Tags: CMJ, New Villager, RethinkPopMusic, the aviation orange

London Day 7

We had our second day off on Friday and Jeremy took us to see Ice Black Birds. at The Macbeth.

Ice Black Birds is the second project of Sam Dennison who used to front The Matadors. According to their myspace: “IBB are a bluesy four piece from Brighton via London. They draw influence from 60s and 70s rock ‘n’ roll. They formed from the ashes of old London, Sheffield and Scottish bands and seem set to bring a fresh burst of modern blues back into the industry. The energy created on stage by this band is second to none and with catchy songs that maintain their own dignity, they are most definitely one to watch for 2009. They have already been hand picked by the likes of Golden Silvers, Joe Gideon and The Shark, Wave Machines and We Have Band to support them on tour and played various venues across the country such as Concorde 2, Club NME and Proud Galleries amongst others.”

I thought their guitar and bass play were exceptional and although Sam doesn’t have the extensive range expected of American acts, he commanded the stage like few can. I also heard some definite dance influences in many of the song breakdowns especially when they threw in a cover or two. Great band to check out if they make it here.

We called it an early night because we have one last show to play tomorrow before heading back to NYC for CMJ. Day 8 coming soon plus a full recap of the entire trip.

Tags: ambassadors, Ice Black Birds, jeremy lloyd, laissez faire club, the macbeth, the matadors, the vanguard

RethinkPopMusic CMJ Showcase – 10/22 – RSVP Today!

RSVP Below!

Tags: Absolut, ambassadors, Bob Berman, CMJ, cmj 2009, RethinkPopMusic, Spaten Beer, The Aviaiton Orange, The Glorious Veins, the vanguard, uhaul, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, yak pak

Gallery

Events Gallery

RethinkPopMusic Launch Party

RethinkPopMusic CMJ 2009 Showcase

Due to the overwhelming response RSVP closing soon

Well, the day has finally come… RethinkPopMusic is officially launching on September 17th at Crash Mansion. Despite the fact that at merely 8 months since our inception we have been provided with unprecedented opportunities: 11 SXSW showcases last March, an official stage and partnership with Midpoint Music Festival later this month, 8 upcoming London tour dates with Laissez Faire Club, a CMJ showcase this October and now we are finalists for an official panel at SXSW 2010 based on our business model… we still haven’t thrown YOU a party!

For the first time EVER RethinkPopMusic’s three premiere Affiliated Artists: The Vanguard, Ambassadors and The Aviation Orange will share a stage and give sneak peeks at all three of their debut music videos. Did we mention that Jeremy Lloyd of Laissez Faire Club is coming across the pond to DJ the entire party while Absolut and Spaten beer provides the open bar from 7pm – 9pm? Remember this a party for the 20 million independent artists who, with our help, are reclaiming this industry and reestablishing integrity in music.

Expect plenty of surprises and some incredible announcements regarding our corporate partners providing special discounts to touring independent artists nationwide!

Complimentary admission is exclusively obtained at www.RPM-RSVP.com and you must arrive by 9:00pm, but feel free to forward this email on to any independent artists looking to make a living making music.

Entry is not guaranteed so please RSVP soon!

Tags: Absolut, ambassadors, Bob Berman, Crash Mansion, Hank and Cupcakes, Red Roof Inns, RethinkPopMusic, Spaten Beer, the aviation orange, The Glorious Veins, the vanguard, uhaul, VIrgin Atlantic, yak pak

Two Thousand Eight

As 2008 approaches its inevitable fate, “best of” lists and video montages, nothing is certain and returning control to artists remains a distant possibility. We presume RethinkPopMusic is on track to reinvent the music industry and change the album sales profit model to one of integrated marketing and creative business opportunities, but let’s not kid ourselves.

As RethinkPopMusic pursues innovation, record labels further monopolize. Indie labels… are you fucking kidding me? That’s the biggest crock of shit of 2008. Is there one “indie” label that wouldn’t sell the rights to an artist to the highest bidder? How about after a success EP? The whole concept of indie labels makes me vomit in my mouth, which angers me, which turns me to Uncle Jack. Fuck it.    

2008 also blessed us with the proliferation of 360 record deals, the staple of greed and backward thinking.   As the monetary value of a song plummets with the dollar, our elders scramble like they would for a BOGO bingo night in Palm Beach. You sign a deal and the label juggernaut controls the rights to your music, your band and YOU. Yes, they own you. Your name, association with the band and any and all alias thereof. You, are no longer you, but were you ever?

It’s just like an arranged  congical visit in prison (from what I hear). You needed some and had no other option. At first, it appeared to be the only plausible satisfaction without “getting gay.” Unfortunately, once it arrived, you realized that it’s just a dude with a pretty wig. And guess what, you’re still in prison. You are there for life because you are OWNED. Analogy complete and now for Bob’s “Best Of”

Videos:

The BPA featuring David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal – “Toejam”

Wild Beasts – “Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants”

Gnarls Barkley – “Who’s Gonna Save My Soul”

Justice – “Stress”

Albums:

Ladyhawke – Ladyhawke

K’Naan – The Dusty Foot Philosopher

Lykki Li – Youth Novels

Girl Talk – Feed the Animals

Neon Neon –Stainless Steel

Black Mountain – In the Future

Kings of Leon – Only by the Night

Songs:

Radiohead – “In Rainbows”

Cold War Kids – “Golden Gate Jumpers”

Kings of Leon – “Cold Dessert” “Use Somebody”

Sigur Ros – “Gobbledigook”

Friendly Fires – “Jump in the Pool”

Fires of Rome – “Dawn Lament”

Bear Hands – “Vietnam”

EPs:

Passion Pit – “Chunk of Change”

Fires of Rome – “Set in Stone”

Bear Hands – “Golden”

EP’s  turned into Albums that needed no additional production:

Ra Ra Riot – “The Rhumb Line”

MGMT – “Time to Pretend”

Shows:

The Cazals and Fires of Rome @ Hiro

Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson @ Cake Shop after Siren

Walter Meego @ CMJ

Kings of Leon and The Whigs @ Webster Hall

Paper Route @ Bowery Ballroom

Bear Hands, Deathset and Matt and Kim @ Hugs

Albums getting no love:

Cold War Kids – Loyalty to Loyalty

Bands of 2009:

Bear Hands

Paper Route

Eastkoast

Fires of Rome

Tags: Bob Berman, RethinkPopMusic