Tag Archives: college

artists, cast members, music, youth media

Music Video Reviews

Leave a comment

The Ivy Walls “Getaway Driver” Review By Samantha Ponoroff
Newcomer, The Ivy Walls’ music video for their single “Getaway Driver” is unoriginal. The video employs the done-over and boring format of juxtaposing the safe and calmness of a band playing on a rooftop with a dangerously dramatic world, located a mere twenty stories below, on the ground. As the video continues, and the real world characters lead us from a robbery to the desert, the audience cannot help but cringe: haven’t we seen videos like this a million times?
Despite The Ivy Walls’ good sound, the “Getaway Driver” video is tedious and boring; once the audience sees the girls running away incognito with suspicious black bags they know what will inevitably occur, an escape to a place (in this case, the desert) where they think no one will find them. And even worse, The Ivy Walls, in thinking they made an artistic break-through, covered the entire end of their video with successively darker stages of the color yellow: no, the color yellow did not make me think of the girls’ final state of complacency as they reach their personal nirvana, it made me think that the director did not know his way around Final Cut Pro.

The Futureheads “Heartbeat Song” Review By Samantha Ponoroff
Finally, something I can listen to without cringing. Although their lyrics may not be of the highest quality, The Futureheads have a very unique sound—a sound that intrigues their listeners. The video accompanying “Heartbeat Song,” again not stellar, definitely has its moments: their retro-inspired game show is very cute-sey. All in all, The Futureheads have potential, but definitely need work: their lyrics need major retouching and their videos need to have more of a story life. But, needless to say, The Futureheads are much closer to fame than many of the other struggling bands and artists out there.

Blowing Trees “Goblins” Review By Samantha Ponoroff
After watching this video a few times, I have come to the conclusion that the star is not the lead singer, Chris Madden; the star of this video is its director, Ryan Scheer. While the band delivers music reminiscent of a bad high school sponsored concert, Scheer makes use of stunning visuals through his manipulation of light, televisions and angles. Because of his artful manipulation of the camera and light, Ryan Scheer is who should be remembered when one watches this video: he is the strongest artist in association with this lackluster band and their lackluster song, “Goblins,”
——————–

artists, cast members, youth media

Neon Trees create buzz in the music scene

Leave a comment

neontrees-blue

By Alison Sikes NYU

Utah. A state known for its outdoor activities and scenic views, not for flash and bright colors. Alternative band Neon Trees hopes to electrify their home state’s reputation.  Self-described as post-pop punk, Neon Trees’ sound is infectious, entertaining, and dance-worthy.  Lead singer Tyler Glenn accredits bands like Passion Pit and The Big Pink as well as French DJs to their enthralling music. These influences are apparent in their first single “Animal.” The catchy song is a solid debut about comparing the start of a relationship to…well, to an animal. The upcoming video for “Animal” also takes from an interesting source of influence—Batman. As a teenager, Glenn loved superheroes like X-Men and of course, The Dark Knight. The band drew from their love of the Tim-Burton-directed Batman and paid homage to the Joker scene in which he and his cronies wreak havoc in an art gallery. Whether inspired by caped-crusaders or by electronic tastemakers, prepare for Neon Trees’ forthcoming album, Habits, to be filled with seductive vocals and hard-edged tracks about the habits of a relationship. Be sure to give Habits a listen when it is released on March 16th!

cast members, lifestyle, music, youth media

The Evils of the Merger

1 Comment

images-1images

by Alexandra Rivera        Boca Raton Community High School

Recently, the United States Department of Justice confirmed the merger between two of the largest ticket retailers in the country, TicketMaster and Live Nation. For avid concert-goers like me, this is probably the worst decision ever made in the world of music. Is any good going to come out of it?

The world of government anti-trust issues dates all the way back to the mid-1800s, post-Civil War era, when corporate giants such as John D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan broke onto the scene with trusts and mega-corporations in the oil and banking industries. Fast-forward to 2010, and the predecessors for our anti-trust laws and governmental control over some companies sparked the beginning of this awful merger that victimizes fans across the country.

The merger clearly brings the two companies together and is now being called “Live Nation Entertainment, Inc.” to incorporate the titles of the two as well as to “reflect the combination of Live Nation’s concert promotion expertise with Ticketmaster’s world-class ticketing solutions and artist relationships,” according to the DOJ (whatever THAT means). The DOJ also states that “Through this merger, the parties believe that the combined company will have the tools to develop new products, expand access, improve transparency and deliver artists and fans more choice.  This will drive greater attendance at live events and bringing more value to all major constituents in the industry. The combined company also expects to pursue significant growth opportunities in markets around the world.” I rolled my eyes at the end of that statement.

As previously stated, I am an avid concert-goer. I attend at least three shows per year and sometimes the numbers increase, and ticket prices are already expensive to begin with, especially in the economic state that our nation is in. Throw all of the extra “service fees” and “processing charges” on top of a General Admission price and your $15.00 ticket shoots up to about twice of what it’s worth. I usually buy my tickets from Live Nation, and they charge the same fees, but the prices are usually not that bad compared to TicketMaster’s. Thus, TicketMaster merging with Live Nation is going to make the prices of tickets completely skyrocket into the clouds while simultaneously downsizing the amount of people that are going to spend their hard-earned money on tickets. TicketMaster’s so-called “ticketing solutions” are just ways to make people spend more money than they have to.

Also, how is this merger going to increase the attendance at shows? When I go to shows, they’re usually at smaller venues, such as Culture Room (Ft. Lauderdale) or Revolution Live (Ft. Lauderdale), and even then the venues don’t reach their maximum capacities. As a matter of fact, Culture Room receives more shows because they sell their tickets so cheap that it costs Revolution too much money to hold a show there. But, this merger won’t increase attendance, it’ll just decrease it, because no one has the money to go see their favorite artists anymore, and if they do go to shows then they will attend them at smaller venues that sell tickets for more affordable prices. The days of shows at sold-out arenas and theaters are far from over, and the times of shows at underground clubs or bars are ever-present.

Aside from the merger directly affecting fans, it also directly affects bands. From their perspective, the merger means less and less fans at shows since the price of renting venues is  constantly increasing and also because ticket sales are so low. According to Yahoo, artists and bands are not thrilled about this at all:

“Bruce Springsteen, already furious with Ticketmaster for directing fans to a subsidiary selling tickets for above-face value, recently posted a statement on his Web site saying a deal with Live Nation could end up ‘returning us to a near-monopoly situation in music ticketing.’”

Clearly, this merger poses hundreds of problems and it hasn’t made people very happy. America is supposed to be a democracy, which also means that mega-corporations cannot monopolize and break our anti-trust laws just to get more money to line their overstuffed pockets. With that said, although we as fans may not have a lot of power to do something about this, the only thing we can do is continue to support our artists and try not to let the merger get in the way of what we want as an audience—real live entertainment.

artists, cast members, music, youth media

Owl City-A Show Review

Leave a comment

by Melanie Hemminger

edited7

Like pictures, music an have a powerful effect on a person. Music can bring you back in time or strike up a memory of someone you love or hate. For most when Owl City comes to mind we think of the single “Fireflies,” and the music video , directed by Steve Hoover, with childhood toys; allowing the audience to feel youthful once more. Creating music that is truly one of a kind.

A insomniac with a imagination through the roof, Adam Young began Owl City in his parent’s basement in the little town of Owatonna, Minnesota. The synthpop musical sensation has the world wide web to thank for such great success. His Myspace player reached over a million plays, and youtube star Mitchell Davis could only help by adding the fun visual of glow sticks to the hit song “Salt Water Room.”

His talent was recognizable and Universal Republic was not about to pass up an opportunity to work with one of pop’s next hit artist. Owl City released there major label debut album “Ocean Eyes” on July 14, 2009 on iTunes followed by the store release on July 28, 2009. The album was a success reaching number 27 on the Billboard 200.

There has only been good things said about Owl City’s live shows. I attended Ft. Lauderdale’s show at Culture Room, and the show sold out in the first two months of ticket sales. The hype about the live show did not fail either. The line up was a new one for most onlookers with three girls and three boys on stage. A violinist and cello player would do synchronized dance moves while Adam Young sang in harmony with Breanne Duren. It was a fresh line-up to the typical synthpop boy bands.

For anyone attending an Owl City show, be prepared to watch one of the most unique live shows of today. You will not leave disappointed.

cast members, music, youth media

Haitian Benefit Show at Radio-Active 1/24/10

Leave a comment

IMG_9533IMG_9549IMG_9553

by Diana Ciuca

Haitian Benefit Show at Radio-Active 1/24/10

In the quaint corner of a vinyl-ed up, toned down records store, stood two mics. Unoccupied. It wasn’t long until two ‘punks’ grabbed those mics and started jamming out. Not just singing for the sake of singing, or for commission, or even to attract a crowd. They sang, danced, yelled for charity. Thanks to Radio-Active Records, one of the only venues which allows bands to play shows without charging an entrance free, boxes of caned food and stacks of water bottle packs were gathered for a Haitian Relief Effort.
The show featured a few local bands, mainly playing ska/punk/folk music. Since its a local show, not many people in the crowd were singing along and swaying to the music. That gave them an opportunity to do their own thing, like dance around a bit. Nevertheless, the bands each played a few covers and asked audience members to join in. The lively action of the shows along with energetic band members infused the entire atmosphere with energy. Loud, fun, free… what more could anyone ask for? And you even help out charity and local mom & pop small businesses that are struggling in these rough economic times.

Special light on The Strikeouts!
As on of the bands there, you could say that their range is not so local. With a guitarists who goes to college in Miami, an Argentinian guitarist, a bassist who’s last name is Parisi, and a tenor saxist who’s name is Curtis, The Strikeouts! are definitely a mosaic of diversity that’s also reflected in their music. They describe themselves on their facebook page, the band represents “no frills South Florida Skacore.” Returning from an exhausting tour around Florida from Jacksonville to Orlando and back down to Boca, The Stikeouts! have started doing some professional recordings. Their next show is February 17th, check out their page for more information. If you’re looking to dance and jump around, you better be there.