Whyleaveastoria.com Turns 2 and Wants to Celebrate with You!

Presented by Spaten, in association with RethinkPopMusic, Studio Square, and Thrillist:

On Thursday, April 8th at Studio Square, Why Leave Astoria?! will celebrate two giant milestones, its second birthday and growth topping 4,000 members. The event begins promptly at 7pm at Studio Square–located at 35-33 36th St. Astoria, NY 11106

To honor the event, WLA has partnered with Spaten beer, RethinkPopMusic, Studio Square, and Thrillist to bring Astoria the largest centralized celebration Queens has ever seen. In anticipation of growth over last year’s celebration attended by over 1,000 people, this year’s event features five of the borough’s biggest musical acts and washed down by TEN FREE KEGS of Spaten and Franziskaner beer. The event will also mark the kickoff of Studio Square’s participation in the hugely popular WLA Card program.

Fifteen of the most talked about independent clothing and accessory designers in the borough will be displaying their wares throughout the evening. There will be giveaways and contests as well as performances throughout the evening by Sol Dance Center, CrossFit Queens, and the New York Circus Arts Academy.
There is no cover charge for the event.

EVENT RUNDOWN:

7:00 Red carpet guest arrival hosted by Sunday Morning Mimosa, Performance by Bobby Kane
7:45 Performance by Illimanjaro featuring Hops
8:30 Performance by TJ Moss Band & Pie Boys Flat
10:00 Performance by The Vanguard
11:00 DJ Lo-Fi of ADG, Performance by Sol Dance Studio

The Vanguard
The Vanguard have been featured on Matt Pinfield’s Morning Show on 101.9 RXP. They have played every noteworthy venue in NYC and were featured in a half-dozen SXSW 09 showcases. They also played The Exit festival in Serbia along with a 7 day UK Tour, MPMF in Cincinnati, Miami Music Festival and their video for “Both Sides” was featured on MTVu. SPIN.com named them a buzzworthy up-and-coming band because of their “bubbling melting pot of sounds, influences, and ethnic backgrounds.” With their second EP ‘Playtime!’ about to be released this fall, The Vanguard are gearing up to hit the road for their next international tour.

TJ Moss Band
TJ Moss Band mixes pop, rock, soul, Fenders and firewater to create their own unique brand of rock and roll. This Astoria, Queens based trio recently opened for Joss Stone at the BOK Center in Tulsa, OK. They were featured in TimeOut New York magazine for “Battle of the Bands: Brooklyn vs. Queens”, which they proceeded to win. Their song “It’s Over” was featured as the finale-winning performance on Bravo’s hit show, Step it Up and Dance last summer.

Pie Boys Flat
For the last few years the fan base for Patrick, Fitz, and Jason has been growing all over the city, country, and abroad! With their history of playing live shows across the world PBF has truely crafted an original live experience that you don’t find anywhere else. Known for writing songs that cross many genres (from rock ‘n’ roll to reggae, blues to bluegrass, latin rock to jazz funk) they bring all the styles home everytime with very unique arrangements. There’s something different about the voices that these three young musicians put together. But in the end you understand that regardless of how, all these sounds come together underneath the same roof that is so sublimely PIE BOYS FLAT.

Illimanjaro
Formed in 2004 and based in Queens and Brooklyn, Illimanjaro have built a reputation as a power trio with a unique brand of punk/funk-infused hip hop for the young and rowdy. Following the release of their well-received debut album ‘A Problem’ (February 2007) and four-song EP ‘Not Invited’ (February 2008), Illimanjaro are back with their third record entitled ‘Boiling Point’ (December 2009)—featuring eight tracks that bubble with the kind of scorching intensity and raw energy that has made the band such a hair-raising live act.

Bobby Kane
There are few songwriters these days that place so much of their souls into their music; Bobby Kane is one of them. Every lyric of every song comes from life and life experience. From mellow and melodic to furious and un-tamable, his styles trample the guidelines of modern music and then transcends them all. With a unique vocal style and an ear for warm sensual chord structures, the potential to go down in history as one of the “Great Ones” of our age is evident.

For More Information: http://www.whyleaveastoria.com/events/wla-turns-2-4000-member-party

Tags: astoria, event, music, NYC, queens, RethinkPopMusic, spaten, Spaten Beer, studio square, the vanguard, thrillist, why leave astoria

RethinkPopMusic Launch Party

09/17/09 was the most successful night in RethinkPopMusic history and although we formed merely nine months ago your support has been overwhelming. Therefore, innumerable thanks are in order:

Foremost, RethinkPopMusic would like to thank Crash Mansion for their incredible staff, patience and faith in us… we are forever grateful.

Our partners: U-Haul, Yak Pak, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Red Roof Inns, Spaten Beer, Absolut and Red Bull are all owed a great deal of gratitude for providing product and special discounts for independent artists. RethinkPopMusic will be traveling the world educating consumers utilizing our interactive questionnaire at our events and word of mouth at standard gigs.

Needless to say, none of this would be possible without RethinkPopMusic’s Affiliated Artists The Vanguard, The Aviation Orange, Ambassadors and Eastkoast and our adopted family members Hank and Cupcakes for keeping the crowd roaring all night!

Last but certainly not least, thanks to Jeremy Lloyd of Laissez Faire Club for making the trip all the way from London to DJ the event. Oh, and for the bottle of Veuve, you certainly are quite the gentleman.

With the help of Jeremy from MyDailyThread, Seva from MyOpenBar and Adam from Thrillist the 850+ RSVPs we received were so staggering that we had to shut down www.RPM-RSVP.com over 24hrs before the party. Fortunately, Crash Mansion was miraculously able to accommodate every attendee!

The night began with the premiere of The Vanguard’s, The Aviation Orange’s and Ambassadors’ debut music videos before the MTV music and Thrillist staffs:

Thanks to MTV for accepting all three music videos… we look forward to informing our readers on when to expect them to air.

Below are the rest of the pictures of the night… see if you can spot members of The Postelles, BM Linx, Chainsaw Trio, The Hotcakes, The Glorious Veins, Man on Earth and others who were in attendance. Huge thanks to Luiggi Tapuch for taken such great pics!

[svgallery name="RPMLaunch"]

Tags: Absolut, ambassadors, Bob Berman, Crash Mansion, Eastkoast, Hank and Cupcakes, jeremy lloyd, laissez faire club, MTV, MyDailyThread, myopenbar, Red Bull, Red Roof Inns, RethinkPopMusic, Spaten Beer, The Aviaiton Orange, the vanguard, thrillist, U-Haul, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, yak pak