Caitlin Hoffman wrote a fantastic post about us on Bigger Than Beyonce today and I'd highly recommend you check it out. I'm not just writing that because her review of our album, Lensing, is stellar (although, admittedly, that doesn't hurt). Honestly I'm encouraging you to read it because of what a remarkable job she does of articulating everything that we aspire to achieve with our records. Here's a gem of an example:
To read the rest of this entry, please visit a’tris HQ. Thanks!
While you may not know Marlee by name, if you IMDB her, I'm pretty sure you'll recognize her face. Marlee has an incredibly impressive filmography. She's been in everything from "The L Word" to "The West Wing". She even sang the National Anthem at Super Bowl XLI in 2007. However, as Ari writes,
Despite her credentials and expertise on deaf issues, an internalization she can relate, Marlee’s reality show was rejected by television broadcasters because of an assumption that primetime audiences wouldn’t appreciate watching closed captioning. That’s you. Would you appreciate it? Keep reading…
Would you choose not to watch a program because it had subtitles? What are your thoughts on the decision to reject Marlee's show?
I believe in always trying something different and I'm dismayed that a show like this didn't get the green light. I don't own a TV, and I've never watched more than a few minutes of a reality television program, but I'd tune in to catch this one.
Hope this finds you feeling well! If you're reading this message on one of our social networking website's blogs, there's a good chance I didn't get an opportunity to share some posts with you here. If you'd like to see what you missed, please visit http://atris.wordpress.com.
In case you don't follow us on Twitter, I thought I'd take this opportunity to let you know that I created a Facebook Event to make it super easy for you to share some info about Fame Games with your friends. Can you think of any other ways I could help encourage people to vote and review? Drop us a line!
Click the above screen shot to visit the event. Hope to see you attending!
After another day of apartment hunting in NYC, I was stoked to return to Nate's place to find a message from Brian Hazard in my inbox. For those of you who don't know, Brian is the creative force behind the electronic indie piano-popband, Color Theory [Official, MySpace, Facebook]. I write that because he does everything, and I mean everything: Songwriting, recording, programming - the whole nine yards. In a recent phone conversation, I asked Brian what he didn't do. I'm pretty sure he said he had a little help with graphic art :)
While I was first officially introduced to Brian by Kevin English from eleetmusic, I realized that I'd bumped into his work on several occasions before we first met. Color Theory was a fellow Microsoft sponsored songs artist and Brian's music was featured on Playlist 7 as well [See: How You've Helped us Share Our Music]. Color Theory was also recently named the grand prize winner in the annual John Lennon Songwriting Contest. I think, once you listen to his tunes, you'll immediately see why.
To read the rest of this entry, please visit a’tris HQ. Thanks!
A while ago, I wrote a post inviting you to reach out to me through Google Voice. As you may know, GV allows you to receive and manage voicemails just like e-mails. It also attempts to transcribe your messages using speech recognitiontechnology. Many of these messages are seriously entertaining, so I thought it would be fun to use them to share behind-the-scenes type stuff from some of our favorite artists with you. Geeky stuff aside, I'm seriously excited to introduce this new a'tris tradition to our 'Meet Our Friends' series, courtesy of Aric Jorgenson and Leia Manuel from Tragic Chemistry.
I met Leia at an Open Mic I started in my hometown, Charlottesville, VA, and was immediately blown away by her voice and her music. Leia's vocal super powers combined with Aric's equally awesome chops and songwriting skills make for some seriously captivating tunes. One of my favorite songs of theirs is called "Holiday" and Leia and Aric were so kind as to leave us this message about it.
Was that transcript great or what? I hope that, after listening to "Holiday," you will be recruited into their fan club! I've included it below for your listening pleasure. Enjoy!
To read the rest of this entry and listen to "Holiday", please visit a’tris HQ. Thanks!
Last night I watched directorJohn Carney’s modern musical, Once, and I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed the it! Actually I could, but that would take a while, and I bet some of the 143 critics who positively reviewed it here have already done a better job. Suffice to say though, the movie almost perfectly represents many aspects of independent artists’ lives. Aside from a scene in which the main characters secure a loan to fund their recording by playing one of their tunes to a banker, (yes folks, if you need a loan and your credit isn’t so hot, just press record!) the film is really honest. As I watched it, I really empathized with Glen Hansard‘s portrayal of the lead character and I couldn’t help but notice how many of his experiences in the film paralleled my own.
One of the most memorable scenes in the movie involves Hansard’s band ‘car testing’ their first album. For those of you who don’t know what a car test is, it’s when a band sets off to listen to their music outside the context of a studio. What I mean by that is that, during this time, the artist tries to become the listener. This is a chance for everyone involved with a project to take off his musical magnifying glass and stop listening to every detail. It’s fun. And the best place to do it is in a car. Why? Because you can’t tinker with a mix there even if you wanted to! Also (ideally) you’re driving far away from the studio so you have to make piece with what you have. I’m pretty sure that every band has done this at some point; but I never really thought about the ubiquity of it until I saw this film. How funny is that?
After watching Once, I felt compelled to go back and check out some of the photos I saved from a’tris’ first recording sessions. I thought it would be fun to share some of those with you here. I hope you enjoy these! Feel free to comment about how incredibly young I look in them if you’d like. I know it’s true.
To read the rest of this entry, please visit a’tris HQ. Thanks!
If your answer to the question I posed in the subject of this post was yes, allow me to introduce you to your new favorite electro rock duo, LIGHT ALIVE.
This morning I received a friend request on SoundClick from LIGHT ALIVE. As is often the case, after approving it, I visited their page to check out their tunes. I figure this is a karma thing. If I take a moment to listen to other artist’s music, I’m creating some positive energy in the community right? Maybe I’m wrong, but the worst thing that happens here is that I spend half an hour or so each day listening to new tunes and I discover some great new bands. I’d say that’s a win. Especially in this case!
To read the rest of this entry, please visit a’tris HQ. Thanks! -Mason
