The Vanguard is a Top 15 Indie Pop band – The Deli Magazine

RethinkPopMusic’s artist The Vanguard are listed in the Top 20 indie pop bands by Deli Magazine. They are in good company with artists such as Santigold, Islands, MGMT, Vampire Weekend, Chairlift and Ra Ra Riot. Check out the full list here: The Deli on the left side of the page.

Catch the Vanguard on Sept 17th at the RethinkPopMusic Launch at Crash Mansion: RSVP at http://RPM-RSVP.com

About the Vanguard:
In order to create the Vanguard, Zeus pinned a gigantic map of the world to the wall in his office. He picked up four golden darts. Blindfolded, he reached for the first dart, drew his hand back and flung it to the map. “Ah I see, the singer shall be from the mountains of Virginia,” and so, Aaron Barr was born. Flying through the air, the second dart dropped down in Przemysl, Poland. “How cute, a potato baby will be the guitarist.” The next was raised and thrown, descending upon the spot of earth called Serbia. “This little guy will witness the partition of his country. This will make him very good on the keys and bass guitar.” The creator reached for the final dart, but stopped before throwing it.” I need someone steady and dependable, unlike those other kookie kids. A drummer to hold the beat to the music.” He let it fly and it touched down in Buenos Aires, Argentina. “Young man you will be the drummer,” the creator told the tango baby who had yet to be born. And, my friends, the rest is history. Since then, The Vanguard was featured on Matt Pinfield’s Morning Show on 101.9 RXP. The boys also just returned from playing five shows in four days at SXSW 2009 in Austin, Texas. SPIN.com named them a buzzworthy up-and-coming band because of their “bubbling melting pot of sounds, influences, and ethnic backgrounds.” They have pre-released two songs off their forthcoming LP to be fully released later this year. Make sure to look out for their music video directed by Patryk Rebisz for their song “Rio.” – Maria Clark

Tags: Chairlift, Crash Mansion, deli magazine, gregory hewes, islands, mgmt, new york, ra ra riot, RethinkPopMusic, santigold, the vanguard, Vampire Weekend

Support RethinkPopMusic for a SXSW 2010 Panel – 24 Hours Left!

Once again, thank you to everyone for keeping RethinkPopMusic waaay up on the ‘hot music’ list over at the SXSW Panel Picker 2010. We are sure that we can really open some eyes to our business model if we get the opportunity to have a panel. And our business model helps independent musicians, so its a win – win for everyone!

With that said, voting ends tomorrow! So, if you have not voted for us please do so and share this with anyone you know who supports independent music.

Click the image below:


THUMBS UP!

Tags: Bob Berman, business model, gregory hewes, RethinkPopMusic, SXSW

And the winner is…

Freelance Whales! RethinkPopMusic’s first ever “Put Your Music Where Your Mouth Is” showcase can only be described as an absolute success. All the bands; Julia Barry, Freelance Whales, Shoe and The Glorious Veins were incredible, however it was the Freelance Whales who edged out The Glorious Veins with a score of 136 to 134. Thanks to shoe from coming all the way from Detroit and getting the crowd dancing like no one else did all night. Also, if you haven’t heard Julia Barry live you are missing out. She has an exceptional voice and her skills on the keyboard impressed everyone, especially Casey from The Ambassadors.

A huge amount of gratitude is owed to our fantastic judges:

Laura Miller – MTV U
Sami Jarroush – RockItOut! Blog
Dan De Lara – AsianManDan.com
Ben Foxx – RethinkPopMusic
Greg Hewes – RethinkPopMusic

Here’s a video of Bob Berman introducing the judges:

Full HD footage of all the bands performing will be available soon…

This event would never have been a success if it weren’t for the amazing staff at Crash Mansion. Thanks to Stephanie and Mindy who made this idea a reality. We can’t wait to officially launch RethinkPopMusic at Crash Mansion on September 17th.

Here are some pics from the evening:

Soundcheck

Judges Table

Julia Barry

Freelance Whales

Shoe

The Glorious Veins

A very special thanks go out to our RethinkPopMusic artists The Vanguard, The Ambassadors and The Aviation Orange who were all in attendance to see who would accompany them to midpoint music festival. Here’s a pic of the back of The Aviation Orange’s heads!

We still have one more competition set for August 7th at Cameo. RSVP

Tags: 3rd Ward, ambassadors, AsianManDan.com, Ben Foxx, Bob Berman, Cameo, Crash Mansion, Finding Fiction, Freelance Whales, gregory hewes, Julia Barry, Kingsfoil, MTV U, put your music where your mouth is, RethinkPopMusic, Rock It Out Blog, RockItOut Blog, sami jarroush, Shoe, Sydney Wayser, the aviation orange, The Glorious Veins, The Narrative, the vanguard

TONIGHT TONIGHT TONIGHT

Come out tonight for RethinkPopMusic’s first “Put Your Music Where Your Mouth Is” showcase. Open bar from 8-9 and only 5 buck with RSVP

Performances by:

8pm Julia Barry
9pm Freelance Whales
10pm Shoe
11pm The Glorious Veins

Appearances by:

Bob Berman – RethinkPopMusic
Dan De Lara – AsianManDan.com
Laura Miller – MTV U
Sami Jarroush – RockItOutBlog.com
Ben Foxx – Producer/Engineer
Gregory Hewes – RethinkPopMusic

Members from The Vanguard, The Ambassadors and The Aviation Orange will be in attendance.

Tags: ambassadors, AsianManDan.com, Ben Foxx, Bob Berman, Crash Mansion, Freelance Whales, gregory hewes, Julia Barry, MTV U, put your music where your mouth is, RethinkPopMusic, Rock It Out Blog, sami jarroush, Shoe, the aviation orange, The Glorious Veins, the vanguard

The National at Pitchfork

We camped out a bit early to get a decent seat at The National. It was well worth it, they legitamately suprised me by the performance.

They started with a slower song which had me worried it might stay slow the whole night, but they quickly brought it up to speed and really got it going. Great chemistry between all the members of the band (including twins). Good stuff.

Pretty exhausted, caught some sushi after leaving the show. Looking forward to Day 3.

Got some decent pictures also this time, check it:

Tags: chicago, gregory hewes, pitchfork music festival

The National coming soon to Pitchfork

Getting ready for the national

Tags: chicago, gregory hewes, pitchfork music festival

Flatstock at pitchfork

No, flatstock is not a band, but instead a huge collection of show poster designers displaying/selling their stuff. Pretty awesome stuff from and for tons of artists around the nation.

There also are a few tents dedicated to record labels, pretty much every indie label is represented.

Weather has cleared up, only thing that sucks now is the wait for the bathrooms….

Still up tonight: Beirut, matt and Kim, the black lips and the national…. Things are looking good

Tags: chicago, gregory hewes, pitchfork music festival

Yeasayer at pitchfork

Yeasayer rocked it, crowded clapping and dancing. Through rain and shine it ripped. So far the best act.

Tags: chicago, gregory hewes, pitchfork music festival

Day two – pitchfork

Day two kicks off at pitchfork music festival in Chicago’s Union Park. What’s better after breakfast than listening to ‘Fucked Up’ and having the lead singer eat a beach ball. I heard it’s good protein.

Anyway, moved over to check out ‘The Antlers’ very solid, check them out.

All the stages are open today and it’s getting more crowded every minute. I’ll try to get some better pictures as they all look the same. (blame he iPhone). I brought my camerA today so I will upload those real shots at the end of the day.

Tags: chicago, gregory hewes, pitchfork music festival

Built to Spill – Pitchfork

Friday night at Pitchfork Music Festival ended on a very good note. Built to Spill was awesome, you can tell when a band has played together for a while, they hit everything. Set the bar pretty high for tomorrow’s acts.

Day One at Pitchfork was successful. Learned to stay away from Sparks and was glad I wore layers. Tommorrow’s high is only 68 in Chicago, I’m sure the performers weren’t planning on having to warm up their hands for their show in mid-July.

Time for sleep, greg

Tags: chicago, gregory hewes, pitchfork music festival