INDIE NEWS BEAT February 22, 2005 Edition

Posted by inanglia on 2005-02-28 19:00:00 (2570 views)

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* Grayson Wray Releases "Tales Of Mystery And Loneliness"
* Alicia Keys: The Diary of Alicia Keys On DVD
* CatDesigners Get Luvvied Up
* Garage Radio Offers Streaming Audio For The Masses
* The Future Of Music Is In The Force Of Gaz Reynolds
* Music Gorilla Artist Gets Signed!
* DiscoverRadio Showcases New Artists With Custom Radio Station
* Sowatt Showcases In My Life At Canadian Music Week
* Hit Song Science Picks Aslyn
* Revolutionary SMS Password Access To Desktop Concerts

Grayson Wray Releases "Tales Of Mystery And Loneliness"

Grayson Wray is releasing his third album Febuary 10, 2005. It's called "Tales Of Mystery And Loneliness " His previous two albums have been played all over the world on college, internet and satilite radio the last two years. Grayson was in the top ten on numerous major college stations like WRAS, Georgia State University. He was voted artist of the week on internet station Wizard Radio, artist of the month on internet station Radio X, and artist of the day on GarageBand.com. Grayson is currently putting a live band together with plans of touring soon.

This was said about his last album "Picassos' Dream". Grayson Wray, serving up his second CD (last year's 'Road To Paradise' was very well received) has almost single-handedly delivered one of the most impressive CD's I've heard in a long time.

He's taken a lot of familiar sounds and styles and truly morphed them into a sound that is uniquely his own. While influences can definitely be heard - from the Beatle-esque harmonies and layering of different instruments to the 60's guitar sounds - they are never stale regurgitations of licks we already know.

Instead, Grayson has done what a true artist should do - boldly go where no one has gone before!

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CatDesigners Get Luvvied Up

CatDesigners had two tracks from their album, Strange Little Creature, selected to be featured in a play, "Starving Necrophilia," at the Pleasance Theatre in May.

The writer and director of the play, Lisa Cagnacci, approached CatDesigners to ask if they had any music suitable to feature at the beginning and the end of the play. Nick Troop read the script while Lisa took copies of both albums and both hit upon "Good Thoughts" and "Strange Gods" .

"I felt 'Good Thoughts' was the most appropriate in terms of matching what I sensed was the mood of the play," said Nick. "albeit that I had only read the script and not actually seen the play. I suggested 'Strange Gods' for the end of the play because some of the words at the end of the script are actually echoed in the song. It was uncanny ... and more than a little spooky."

"The last line from the play is 'The gods are falling like rain. They know how' while the last line from the song is 'Strange gods on my side. Sky high and falling.' Almost too good to be true."

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Alicia Keys: The Diary of Alicia Keys On DVD

Eagle Rock Entertainment brings an unprecedented look into the everyday life of one of today's hottest, most admired and talented musical sensations, Alicia Keys. You've seen her on stage and you've heard her on the radio; now get a rare up-close and personal look at the young woman behind that powerhouse voice.

As a singer, songwriter and pianist, Alicia Keys has raised the bar for female musicians and has been embraced by audiences of all ages. Fans now get inside the head of Alicia Keys and an exclusive look at this superstar with the DVD release of Alicia Keys: The Diary Of Alicia Keys. Containing footage that cannot be seen on any other Alicia Keys project, the DVD goes behind the scenes to capture the true Ms. Keys and her team craft her most recent album, The Diary of Alicia Keys.

Alicia Keys took the modern R&B world to a whole new level the minute she broke onto the music scene and has since earned the title of "musical superstar." Capturing loads of behind the scenes footage, the cameras take viewers onto the tour bus, the stage and even to video and photo shoots, offering a glimpse at the daily life of Alicia Keys. The Diary Of Alicia Keys captures the true personality of Alicia, not usually seen on stage. From Spain to Arizona to Africa, The Diary Of Alicia Keys is a raw and real look at this critically acclaimed, multiple Grammy award winning, platinum selling international superstar.

Join Alicia and her crew onto the set of the "Girlfriend" video shoot and DIARY photo shoots. Get an up close and personal look at the different sides of Alicia, watch hilarious footage of fights on tour, rough crowds and clowning around between she and her team. Offering a backstage pass to all things Alicia, The Diary Of Alicia Keys is a must-have for any fan.

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Garage Radio Offers Streaming Audio For The Masses

With more artists utilizing the Internet for exposure than ever before, the most common question among them seems to be, "What's the best way to present my music from my web site?" Garage Radio, in cooperation with K-Amp, has answered with the K-Amp Player.

The K-AMP Player is a web-based service and solutions provider that enables website owners and administrators to audiocast their own web-based audio player using K-AMP's web-enabled media management solution. K-AMP succeeds in delivering a reliable on-demand experience, eliminating the need for media players while providing users with better player controls without buffering and without downloading MP3s to a user's hard drive.

"We saw the value in this product immediately," said John Foxworthy, Chief Editor and Co-Founder of Garage Radio, "I've been approached many times as to an easy way for artists to stream music from their own sites without compromising quality or just giving it away - this is the solution we've been looking for."

Garage Radio currently uses the K-Amp Player to spotlight the Top 10 tracks on their play list and many bands, including Zakk Wylde and Damageplan, have already found great value in the service.

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The Future Of Music Is In The Force Of Gaz Reynolds

Gaz Reynolds has teamed up with some of the latest & greatest producers (including the legendary Future Force), to bring you his new single 'I Don't Care/Where Will You Go?' which is scheduled for release in late March.

Gaz said; 'Its been great having Future Force on board for this project. They have an incredible track record of hits behind them including remixes for; Ian Van Dahl, Pink (God Is A DJ), Attomic Kitten & many more!'

This great package also includes remixes by Karma Farm, Panik Brothers, SleazeSisters & 'New Kid On The Block' Nathan Bennett.

The single 'I Don't Care' was selected as one of RRadio Network's Top 10 Pop songs & has been picked up by DJs around the world. The single has already hit the No.1 Dance Spot in the UK & Europe & is now impacting US radio stations on CHR Formats.

Gaz Reynolds has already clocked up an impressive track record of HITS including; 'DEEP', 'In This House', 'On Holy Ground' & the massively successful 'Electric Kama Sutra' which was recently voted by Euro Dance Hits as one of the best Euro NRG Club Trax of 2004.

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Music Gorilla Artist Gets Signed!

Music Gorilla, a new and fast-growing resource in the online repertoire of both independent musicians and label scouts, is helping break down the invisible yet substantial barrier between labels and emerging artists.

Music Gorilla congratulates their Artist Member Bridgett Huffhines who was recently signed to a two year songwriting deal with Lamon Records. The label found Bridgett at MusicGorilla.com. Lamon Records is just one of the labels that works with Music Gorilla to find new artists. Some of their other artist members are in discussions with reps at Sony Records and Hollywood Records, those artists were also heard by the reps of these labels at Music Gorilla.

Built specifically for the needs of the A&R community, label reps sign written commitments to screen artists from the Music Gorilla community. The system works because reps only get the genres that they have expressed interest in, therefore, they don't have to go through music that they are not signing at the time.

Music Gorilla's unique service benefits all parties involved. Each artist gets to post their state-of-the-art "online resume," thereby gaining crucial exposure to label insiders, and the labels get tipped off to talented artists. The user-friendly, ad-free environment is also a significant draw for the label reps and bands alike.

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DiscoverRadio Online Indie Radio Showcases New Artists With Custom Radio Station

Indie music fans have found a new way to discover up-and-coming artists. discoverRadio, part of the Globaldust network, allows listeners to set their preferences and listen to music tailored to their tastes.

"The station is 'smart' in that respect," says John Patrick, developer. discoverRadio lets users set their genre preferences before tuning in. Listeners can choose to listen song-by-song or let the player choose for them. The 20-year-old founder receives hundreds of indie song pitches per week and approves only quality music.

discoverRadio plays music of all genres, ranging from Alternative Rock to World Music. The station continues its rapid growth, with thousands of listeners per week. "We're turning into an indie Launch.com," says Patrick.

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Sowatt Showcases In My Life At Canadian Music Week

Quebec City band SOWATT brings its personal brand of power pop/rock with radio friendly melodies, solid lyrics and high energy level to Toronto's Canadian Music Week.

Who: SOWATT
What: CMW Break Thru Series presented by ACCESS / Randy River
When: Thursday, March 3rd, 2005, 1am
Where: Club 279, Toronto, Ontario
Why: To catch these rising stars at the beginning of an incredible year

SOWATT's debut English album In My Life produced by Canadian producer Tino Izzo has not been officially released; however, the song "Just For A Day" and the video for "Move On" are creating quite a buzz. The band has acquired a solid fan base playing over 200 live shows and acquiring opening slots in 2004 for Simple Plan and David Usher.

The band plans to tour extensively in 2005 and is working on securing a Canadian release for a new version of In My Life with new mixes and additional songs. There is enormous reaction on websites world-wide and solid interest in the band from a few prominent labels so 2005 looks to be the year the band breaks.

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Hit Song Science Picks Aslyn
The technology that predicted the success of Norah Jones and Maroon 5 says Aslyn has what it takes to be the next big pop star

Polyphonic HMI predicted the success of Norah Jones' debut album, Come Away With Me, well before it won 8 Grammys in 2003. Soon afterwards the global microscope was directed at this firm's curious technology called Hit Song Science (HSS for short), focusing the music industry's as well as the media's attention on their ability to predict the likelihood of market success for songs well in advance of the music's release.

Since announcing the existence of HSS, Polyphonic has begun working for many of the major labels within each of the major music companies and a variety of independents. HSS technology predicted the success of all of Maroon 5's hits from their Songs About Jane album and predicted the success of their current hit, Sunday Morning a year and two months before other hit prediction services, although the company wasn't permitted to say so publicly at the time due to a confidentiality agreement with the label group. BMG later granted Polyphonic permission to speak about it.

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Revolutionary SMS Password Access To Desktop Concerts

My Virtual Business eXchange has chosen m-commerce giant, txtNation to deliver their revolutionary new service broadcasting live concerts for viewers to watch from the comfort of their browser window. The concerts are password protected using SMS billing through mENABLE, a service owned and developed by txtNation.

The next concert will be broadcast on the 18th February live from the Cockpit, Leeds, featuring the critically acclaimed The Go! Team. The concert will also be available to streamed after the event at http://MyVBX.com.

The concert is the third to be broadcast by MyVBX, who have a full programme for 2005, bringing a number of top acts to the web. Further details will be announced on MyVBX.com for more details.

"MyVBX is determined to ensure that the fans receive the optimum concert experience online, and our investment in infrastructure, and the mobile payment solution provided by mENABLE certainly reflects this", said Forbes Hamilton, Managing Director of MyVBX.

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