Tag: "pop rock"

Alas, ye salty dogs! We have quite the adventure for those OurStage artists daring enough to rock the boat. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to take your music off land and across the sea, now is your chance. Enter the “Rock Boat Lucky 13″ Competition. One Grand Prize Winner will join a cruise to the Great Stirrup Cay in February 2013 to perform not one, but two 60-minute sets, along with Sister Hazel, NEEDTOBREATHE, Rusted Root, Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, Will Hoge, Tony Lucca, OurStage artist Bronze Radio Return, and other artists. The prize will also include a travel stipend, accommodations, meals, and more. So batten down the hatches and prepare for battle. Click here to enter now!

According to NME.com, Rivers Cuomo says he and his band Weezer want to launch their own summer camp. The frontman says, “We’d like to put together some sort of Weezer camp, but we’re just beginning to talk about it, so I don’t have any details yet,” but it will be like a “conventional summer camp” says NME.com. Bummer, I was really hoping for a rock n’ roll space camp. Either way, that will probably be the coolest place to send your kids during the summer.

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It’s officially summer, and Warped Tour has begun! In case you haven’t heard, we’re sponsoring our own stage for twenty-two dates and bringing over twenty-three artists out to perform on it. We decided to catch up with these artists to get the scoop on their summer plans.

Over the past few years, Phone Calls from Home have become a pop rock staple in their local scene. These boys will be bringing their exciting live show to Warped Tour all month long, with hopes of bringing feel-good vibes to fans new and old. Read on to find out how the band met, what they’ve been doing this year, and what they hope to accomplish on Warped Tour.

OS: How did you guys all meet and start the band?

PCFH: Dave, Zack, and Jason met in high school and they met Danny when they were on tour and played a show in Alabama.

OS: Like OurStage, Phone Calls From Home is a Boston-bred operation.  What’s your favorite local venue to play?

PCFH: We played at the Brighton Music Hall recently with Paradise Fears and it was great! Definitely a new favorite for us.

Continue reading ‘OS @ Warped Series: Phone Calls From Home’

June Divided

The genesis story of June Divided isn’t that different from the vast majority of bands. Boy meets girl at college. Boy and girl write songs in dorm rooms. Boy and girl find drummer through Craigstlist; recruit college buddy on bass. But not every band immediately goes on to gigs at SXSW, Warped Tour, and mtvU. The velocity of June Divided’s career can be attributed to the band’s potent pop rock. Think Jimmy Eats world meets Thrice meets Paramore. On “Bullet” jagged guitars intersect with the candy-coated barb of singer Melissa Menago’s vocals. It’s a joyride through distortion and melody, meant to be cranked up and rocked out to. The adrenaline levels don’t dip in “Perfect Storm” where guitars are braided together, drums crash, and Menago’s plaintive voice reaches up into the firmament. “I think this might be the calm before the storm,” she sings. So do we.

Niño Lobos

Not too long ago, Niño Lobos (translation: Wolf Boys) were just two guys, delivering tortillas by night and taking college courses by day. But then they decided to start a band. Now, like Michael J. Fox in Teen Wolf, they’ve become something fierce. The Boise band’s youthful blend of hip hop and electro pop claws into your brain with hooks upon hooks. “Hey Girl” has got a fat funk bass line, stabs of reverb guitars and some serious girl problems. “She got me like Stiffler in ‘American Pie’ / Scratch me up like Wolverine.” But it’s “Taking Over Stereos” that could be and should be a monster hit. Part dance rock, part hip hop, the track is a free-flowing, adrenaline-fueled blowout. Over a compressed, percolating beat the duo name-checks anyone from Cypress Hill and Jonah Hill to Lupe Fiasco, Mr. T, Gorillaz, Run-DMC and more. If Niño Lobos keep dropping tracks like this one, some of those dudes will be name-checking them.

Brittany Campbell

You want untapped, gutsy, street cool? You go to Brooklyn. And if you’re lucky, you just might find an artist half as interesting as Brittany Campbell. The singer-songwriter/producer/guitarist cross-pollinates doo-wop, Motown, new wave and pop rock for a completely fresh and revelatory sound. Like Amy Winehouse, Debbie Harry and Santigold, Campbell’s an original. On “Call Me Baby,” vintage guitars strut against a beat while Campbell summons the soulful angst of a 1950s teen, singing “There’ll be no mercy now / Wherever you are is where I’ll be.” “Nerd,” with its handclaps, 8-bit synths and bouncing beat is instantly infectious even as the singer delivers dubious lines like, “Guess you haven’t heard / God, I’m such a nerd.” As if. “Goody Goody” is the track you’ll want to put on repeat. New wave synths, surf guitars and Campbell’s powerful voice make for a smart and sexy rocker with a vintage edge. Have mercy.

With all this talk about Warped Tour, I’ve been getting pumped up for summer…which means blasting loud, energetic pop rock from my car stereo whenever possible. I’m a firm believer that the right music can change your mood, and I guarantee that these tunes will have you feeling stoked and stress-free. OurStage artists Letterday, The Reel, Bright and Early and Forget Paris join Jimmy Eat World, Paramore, Sugarcult, Fall Out Boy and Something Corporate in this Pop Rock Party playlist. What are you waiting for? Put on your shades, roll down your windows and crank it up.

Darling Parade

When Darling Parade couldn’t find a genre that described their sound to their liking, they took matters into their own hands and invented one. It’s called popcore, and for the uninitiated, it sounds a lot like emo-pop—the kind of music you’d expect to find on Fueled By Ramen. And although they may not appreciate the comparison, Darling Parade has a lot in common with acts like Paramore and Flyleaf. Each band softens their aggression with soaring female vocals. On “Never Wrong,” guitars run wild, alternating from chunky, buzzsaw riffs to urgent peals while singer Kristin Kearns powers through with her impressive pipes. You’ll find this dichotomy of ferocity and femininity throughout all the band’s songs, from the polyrhythmic “What You Want” to the galvanizing “Take This City.” Popcore, emo, rock—the label doesn’t really matter. Just crank it up and you just might feel young and reckless again.

Despite being leaked, A Day To Remember‘s most recent effort, What Separates Me From You, has experienced great success, presumably to due to the fact that the Florida rockers possess a great skill in blending styles seamlessly, finding themselves on the brink of genre reinvention. While other bands are quick to chastise those who try to pigeon-hole their musical tastings, ADTR has found a sweet spot and settled into their unique fusion of metal, punk, hardcore and pop.

We caught up with guitarist Neil Westfall to discuss the success of What Separates Me From You, why a leak wasn’t the worst thing the in the world and the band’s return to Warped Tour.

OS: Your new record, What Separates Me From You, received rave reviews from multiple Web sites and magazines. How did you build on the success from Homesick on this album?

NW: When we went into the studio, we had a lot of momentum coming off a hard touring cycle.  So we just capitalized on that by not really taking any time off and paying shows even while we were in the studio.

OS: Unfortunately, the new album was leaked a few days prior to the release. How did you react to that?

NW: We were actually kind of happy—it was only like 5 days out or something. Homesick leaked 2 and a half weeks out.  It worked out well, because our fans are amazing.  They may have downloaded it early to check it out, but they also went out and bought one to support us.

OS: You’ve faced some criticism for mixing the genres of pop-punk and hardcore. How do you respond to people who say that blending genres is a bad idea?

NW: Well, we don’t respond to people like that.  We just keep doing our thing.  We just keep touring and writing music we love.  That was one of the first lessons we learned as a young band coming up.

OS: In mixing the two genres, your influences must be varied. Who are some of the artists that most influenced your songwriting for each record?

NW: Well, every record we’ve made has been influenced by Blink 182 , Millencolin, NOFX, On Broken Wings, Seventh Star.  We were playing a lot of European festivals during the time that we wrote WSMFY, so we were surrounded by different types of music.  That helped us take our music in new directions.

OS:  Chad Gilbert from New Found Glory produced both Homesick and What Separates Me From You. What made you want to work with him for a second time?

NW: He really gets us.  He understands exactly what we are trying to do with our sound.  He’s also an awesome guy… and it doesn’t hurt that he’s in one of our favorite bands.

OS: You’ve spent a lot of time touring around the US and overseas. How do crowds in different countries receive you?

NW: I think the best way to describe it is that before every show, the crowd is a little different.  But when we play, and everyone is in there, and it’s dark, it is pretty much the same everywhere—people just having a good time.

OS: Josh and Jeremy have launched their own record label called Running Man Records. What do you look for in artists to potentially sign?

NW: I think they are just looking for something good and original.

OS: Despite originally saying you weren’t planning on it, you’ve already announced that you’ll be out on Warped Tour in 2011. What made you change your minds?

NW: Warped Tour is badass!  We know it will be an awesome summer getting to share the stage with some of our best friends!

You can buy What Separates You From Me on iTunes now.

With charming melodies over electronic pop rock, Philadelphia’s Find Vienna have garnered the attention and earned the adoration of music lovers from coast to coast.

Led by vocalist Patrick Mencel, Find Vienna have been dubbed “Philly’s Buzz Band” and have racked up numerous local music awards, including Best Band, Best Lead Singer, Best Drummer and Best EP for their release In Your Favorite Colors.

The EP, which was released in November of ’09, has seven tracks of beautifully-crafted pop numbers, placing FV somewhere between Coldplay and Death Cab for Cutie. Mencel’s vocals are soft and ambient against the more industrial sounding instrumentation, complete with driving drums, melodic picking, piano chords and the faint sounds of tambourines and acoustic guitars.

In addition to touring the country, Find Vienna have also shared the stage with The Script, The Ataris, Mae, Parachute and more. While they’ve been actively considering signing to a label, they’ve had their music placed in MTV shows like The Real World, True Life and The City!

With big choruses, dynamic instrumentation and pristine production, each track on the record is radio-ready. The group has been working on new music, and will hopefully be putting out a new album in 2011.

Be sure to check out some of the tracks from In Your Favorite Colors below! You can also purchase the whole album on iTunes.