The Good

All the colors of the rainbow set to perform at this month’s GRAMMYs

P!nk: Tickled

The list of artists slated to perform at the 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards on January 31 reads like a box of crayons: P!nk, Green Day, Black Eyed Peas, Zac Brown and the always-technicolor Lady Gaga, who was added to the schedule this week. If the committee adds Yellowcard and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, well, color us happy.

Kelly Clarkson joins Twitter, the masses follow

Don’t be jealous, but Kelly Clarkson just joined Twitter two days ago and she already has more followers than you. See for yourself.

Michael Cera stars in new Islands video

Hip to be Square: Michael Cera

You may not know who Islands are, but you probably know Michael Cera, who played the adorable geek on “Arrested Development,” the adorable geek in “Juno” and the adorable geek in “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist.” Cera tries out a new character (adorable druggie) in the new Islands video for “No You Don’t.” In it, Cera pops some pills, jogs aimlessly, unsuccessfully climbs a tree and gets hugged by Elvis — not to ruin the ending. Watch it here.

The Bad

Katy Perry is off the market (again)

Thank You India: Brand and Perry

Katy Perry engaged to Travis McCoy? That’s so 2009. Katy Perry engaged to Russell Brand — totally 2010! The American pop singer and her British beau announced their engagement this week following a romantic trip to India. (2011 prediction: Katy Perry and The Situation.)

The Ugly

Freaky Fruit
New Peaches video for “Relax” off her upcoming album “I Feel Cream.” Enough said.

Miscellany

• New Of Montreal album to feature Solange Knowles
• Beyoncé performs for Qadaffi’s son
• Mariah Carey hits the bar, then the mic
• Santigold and Lupe Fiasco to climb Kilimanjaro
• Pete Wentz and Mark Hoppus record track for Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland”

Elephant House provides listeners with a unique blend of genres and creates an addicting soundscape of musical styles. Simply put, not many bands can place in the Top 10 of both Hip-hop and Alt Rock here on OurStage. With the professional musicianship of the group, we can even hear many Jazz and classical guitar elements that clearly provide direction for their unique sound. Recently these three musicians have performed around the East Coast, and have even opened for Rich Robinson of the Black Crowes, among many others.

This band was one of the first here on OurStage so it’s great to see them still working so hard.  In December, the band placed 8th in Alternative without a bit of difficulty. Give them a listen! Who knows, soon enough you may be seeing them rockin out in a town near you!

So you’re looking for a way to further your career as an independent artist? Not sure which label is right for you, or if a label is even a possibility? Well, you’ve come to the right place. This blog will hold all the necessary tools that you’ll need to build that beautiful ship and set a course to sail on. Your music career, full steam ahead.

Here you will find weekly updates full of tips ranging from how/where to showcase your music, to different marketing tools to push your group past the local threshold and into the industry. And now that we’ve hit the digital age with full force, making an imprint on the online community is a must to survive. Start off with researching different networking sites such as your defaults: MySpace, Facebook, Twitter. Other sites you can check out and upload your music to are OurStage, Buzznet, Purevolume (just to name a few). Working on these different sites will help you showcase your music to different parts of the nation and world, expanding your digital fanbase to create the “buzz” needed to tour and gain that much deserved exposure. Next week’s post will go more into depth about different ways to utilize these Web sites without “burdening” your fans while keeping yourself proactive and fresh in the game.

With this sole purpose, this blog is here to spark some creativity; these are but building blocks, it’s up to you to build your city.

Welcome to Generation D.I.Y.

Traveling by plane with equipment and gear can be a stressful and expensive task for many musicians. With luggage surcharges, unwieldy and heavy cases and the fear of lost or damaged goods looming over one’s head, embarking on a tour may seem like one giant headache. With a little luck and a whole lot of smooth talking though, a situation can turn from bad to outstanding in a matter of seconds.

Continue Reading Special DJ Clearance

Welcome to our second Honor Roll video playlist. Just in case you missed them, here are some killer vids featuring acrobats, clowns, street dances, talking rainbow tiki men and other completely normal, everyday things. These videos all competed in the Rock and Pop Video Channels last month.  If you dig them, drop by the Artists’ pages and let them know!

Continue reading ‘The Honor Roll: Videos You Don’t Want to Miss’

Every Wednesday on the OurStage blog I’ll be featuring artists and bands hitting the road, playing shows and taking names. Literally. Today’s artists can no longer rely on record sales to make a living, so many hit the road seeking names to add to their email lists and fans to buy their merch. With this touring explosion comes an influx of hilarious tour videos, stories and songs, all featured right here on Tour De Force.

Allison Weiss

“Allison Weiss Was Right All Along” is not only the name of Weiss’ recently self-released album, but also pretty true. As she said from the beginning, “My favorite part of playing music is paying my dues. I like to work hard and be rewarded. I like to play out of state and sleep on people’s floors. I like to make xerox CDs and sell them for production cost. I like crowds who pay attention, and crowds who get drunk and dance. I like to break strings and break hearts and lose sleep and make friends.” This is what being a DIY musician and developing a fan base is all about. It is key for people to realize that working hard, touring, and promoting yourself is the backbone to succeeding in this business.

Luckily Allison Weiss is a marketing machine. As a DIY artist and a graphic design student at the University of Georgia at Athens she is already busy enough, but she still manages to find time to market herself online through every social networking site imaginable: Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr, Formspring, YouTube, last.fm etc. Weiss applies her graphic design knowledge to make posters, create websites, develop merch, take pictures, edit video and so on. When combined with her extensive online presence (she currently dominates the whole first page of Google – not an easy or insignificant feat), the result is deadly. Allison Weiss is on Mission Impossible IV: Being Heard Through the Crowd. Weiss’ extensive promoting and playing out wherever and whenever she can truly makes her a tour de force to be reckoned with. Check out her tour stories and videos below.

Continue reading ‘Tour De Force: Allison Weiss’

Florida's Finest: Boxer and Clover

Plenty of successful pop-punk bands call Florida home—Dashboard Confessional, Further Seems Forever, New Found Glory, Yellowcard. Maybe it’s teenage rebellion against the state’s bountiful sunshine and retirees that produces so many pale, restless rockers. Whatever the case may be, here’s another entry to add to Florida’s pop-punk wiki: Orlando’s Boxer and Clover. Listen to “Adding to 100 Years of Silence” and you’ll hear all the touchstones— fuzzed-out, chugging guitars, methodical drum-pummeling, call-and-response chants and heart-on-tattoo-sleeve lyricism (see chorus: We all dance and let our hearts collide / Bring it back to a better time/ When the world was young and we all felt so alive). Boxer and Clover keeps it tight and interesting, with polyrhythmic arrangements and catchy, sing-a-long melodies. One detail that may separate the band from the pack is their cover of Alicia Key’s “No One.” Even if the execution is a little shaky, it’s still pretty courageous.

The last year and last decade were a mixed bag musically-speaking, and all over the map. From Sri Lankan M.I.A. to Canadian Feist and Londoners Amy Winehouse and Adele, it has been impossible to predict where the next break-out scene will come from. As we begin a new year and a new decade, I have compiled a list of 10 fascinating female artists to keep your eye on. Some are new artists but most are on their way to becoming well-known and one even became a full-fledged superstar in 2009.

10. Visqueen: Rachel Flotard is the undisputed Visqueen of Seattle but has yet to make the national impact she deserves. With a stint as Neko Case’s backup singer on her resume, I’m thinking that 2010 will finally be her year. Visqueen’s latest album, Message To Garcia is filled with catchy hooks that are brainy too.

Continue reading ‘Fine Tunings: 10 To Watch in 2010′

Dawes is a band that won’t be neatly defined in a bio. They’re storytellers that make soulful Americana music reminiscent of Neil Young yet as contemporary as Fleet Foxes. They let their music speak for itself while sharing photos, blog entries and short films for anyone interested in getting to know them better. Case in point, the “Dawes EPK” below:

Q&A after the jump…

With a new year ahead of us, the rock genre is still keeping its high pace with artists emerging from every nook and cranny across our nation, as well as the seasoned rockers spicing up our lives with expected new releases. As many of you know, the lines around rock have been blurred over the years with the emergence of sub genres like indie rock, electro rock, dance-rock, death rock, emo rock, etc. It’s not so easy to decipher what genre most bands are apart of (unless you check their MySpace page to see what they put down, of course), but this blog is here to help you rockers out there find your niche.

Continue reading ‘iROCK: Charged And Ready To Rock!’