Dave Matthews Band is performing at the North Charleston Coliseum on November 17, 2010. Tickets are on sale now. One of Dave Matthew’s Bands concerts in New York is already sold out – so don’t delay.
My Morning Jacket will be playing at Family Circle in Charleston on April 28th. Don’t miss this high energy rock band!
Although they first emerged in 1998 as devotees of Neil Young’s country-tinged classic rock, My Morning Jacket steadily widened their sound throughout the following decade, embracing everything from neo-psychedelia to Americana, funk, prog, and reggae. By the time Evil Urges arrived in mid-2008, they had successfully molded themselves into Kentucky’s answer to Wilco, with unexpected detours and sonic experiments adding complexity to the band’s alt-country roots.
My Morning Jacket’s de facto leader is vocalist/guitarist Jim James (birth name: James Olliges), who founded the band in 1998 alongside his cousin Johnny Quaid (guitar), Two-Tone Tommy (bass), and J. Glenn (drums). Headquartered in James’ hometown of Louisville, KY, the young group released its debut on Darla Records in 1999, with keyboardist Danny Cash joining the lineup one year later. Although The Tennessee Fire only found modest success in the U.S., the debut effort became a genuine smash overseas, particularly in the Netherlands. My Morning Jacket responded by launching a tour in Europe, where they were featured in a Dutch documentary film and received accolades from the Dutch music press. A Christmas EP was released in 2000, but it was My Morning Jacket’s follow-up effort — 2001′s At Dawn — that helped exponentially expand their audience at home. Jim James recorded his vocals in a grain silo, and the resulting reverb-heavy sound became a hallmark of the band’s early work. Upon the album’s stateside release, James’ best friend from childhood, Patrick Hallahan, was enlisted as the band’s new drummer.
My Morning Jacket maintained a grueling tour schedule throughout the early 2000s, hitting the road with such acts as Guided by Voices, the Doves, and the Foo Fighters. They also made the jump to a major label (RCA/ATO Records) for the 2003 release of It Still Moves, but the frantic pace had already taken an irreparable toll on Quaid and Cash. Tired and burnt out, the members announced their departure in January 2004. Keyboardist Bo Koster and guitarist Carl Broemel joined soon after, and the group continued to tour as a unified five-piece. My Morning Jacket’s energy remained, and their sound took an experimental turn on 2005′s Z. Produced by John Leckie, the album did away with the heavy reverb that blanketed the band’s earlier efforts, while the addition of synthesizers and reggae influences introduced audiences to My Morning Jacket’s experimental side. Tracks from Z were also present on Okonokos, a live album released in 2006, and the band’s sonic experimentations continued with Evil Urges. Arriving in June 2008, the album showcased James’ expanding vocal range, his bandmates’ fascination with Prince, and My Morning Jacket’s eagerness to challenge the boundaries of alternative country-rock. -Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide
The Rocket Summer will be playing with the Goo Goo Dolls at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center on April 24th. Robby Takac of the Goo Goo Dolls – Pictured
“The Rocket Summer is the rock solo-project of Bryce Avary, and is based in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas. Avary is known for his unique talents as he plays every instrument on his records as well as produces them. The Rocket Summer’s live shows are uplifting, energetic and emotionally charged. Avary’s music has unique emotional qualities that has created a loyal and rabid following of fans around the world.
Bryce became interested with music around the age of 11, when his father bought him his first guitar from a pawn shop. He then started playing drums and various other instruments. After being in a high school “indie rock punk” band inspired by Pavement, Archers of Loaf and Weezer, Avary began performing local acoustic shows as a teenager in Dallas, Fort Worth and Denton. As Avary’s local fan base grew, he released his first EP at the age of 16 in limited release during 1999. Distributing the EP himself under the name The Rocket Summer (the name inspired by Ray Bradbury’s short story) to local stores to be sold on consignment, his music appeared on The Adventure Club segment of the KDGE radio station, and quickly became the most requested local band on the program that year. With increased interest in the music from local, national, and international magazines and the EP selling in 5 continents, in 2003 Bryce produced and released his debut album Calendar Days. The album title comes from a line in the song “TV Family”. Using a $15,000 budget, the album was recorded in Kansas on the label The Militia Group. The album was critically praised as being extremely uplifting, and included varied music (for example, the track “What We Hate, We Make” which includes the 6th grade choir that his younger sister was in from Texas). The album sold well throughout the United States and Japan.
In November 2004, Bryce began working on his second album Hello, Good Friend – the album title coming from the song “Never Knew”. This album included more piano central songs than his previous album. The Rocket Summer has toured the US and Japan extensively and has gained a large fan base. Although not immediately obvious in his lyrics, Avary is a Christian and lets his faith and stories influence his lyrics and his music. Avary says that his faith is the most important thing in his life. He has always said that TRS music is for everyone which is why The Rocket Summer hasn’t ever gravitated toward being a christian market type of band.
He signed with Island Def Jam Records for his third record, Do You Feel, which was released on July 17th, 2007. The first single from the album is So Much Love. The Rocket Summer has released the music video for So Much Love. On September 5th, 2008, the music video for Do You Feel was released. The music video for Do You Feel was co-directed by Bryce Avary with director Nate Weaver. The video was funded by Avary. The video for Do You Feel featured stories of real people with “real issues” such as homelessness, addiction, disease and abuse. The video also featured cameos from artists Andrew McMahon of Jack’s Mannequin, Matt Theissen of Relient K, Josh Farro and Jeremy Davis of Paramore, Mike Herrera of MxPx, Forrest Kline of Hellogoodbye, Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low and Jonathan Cook of Forever The Sickest Kids.
While Avary writes and produces his albums while playing every instrument, he is also known for his hard work ethic on the road. The Rocket Summer has toured the US, Canada, The UK, and Japan numerous times and have been responsible for taking now popular bands such as Paramore, The Plain White T’s, The Format and Phantom Planet as support acts.
The Rocket Summer has headlined many sold out tours in the US, Canada, The Uk, and Japan. The Rocket Summer has also played many worldwide festivals such as Glastonbury Festival in England, T in the Park Festival in Scotland, Summer Sonic Festival in Japan, Oxygen Festival in Ireland, Austin City Limits, SxSw, Bamboozle and Cornerstone. The Rocket Summer toured with the Vans Warped Tour in the summer of 2007 for two months. Although Bryce records all of his own instruments for his records, he tours with a band made up of mostly high school friends.
In January 27, 2008, The Rocket Summer played a series of dates in the UK including major cities such as London, Manchester, Newcastle and Cardiff, with The Secret Handshake and Between the Trees supporting. Before The Rocket Summer’s set every night, Jamie Tworkowski spoke briefly about To Write Love On Her Arms. Without even having an album released in the UK, these dates sold out weeks before the tour began. Beginning March 14, 2008, The Rocket Summer co-headlined the Alternative Press tour. It started in Houston, Texas and ended in May in Cleveland, Ohio. Also co-headlining was All Time Low, with The Matches, Sonny, and Forever The Sickest Kids supporting The Rocket Summer returned to the UK with a headlining show beginning on June 28, 2008 in Yeovil and ending on July 16, 2008 in Birmingham. The Rocket Summer returned to the United States for a headlining fall tour with support from The Secret Handshake, Phantom Planet and The Morning Light. After conclusion of the tour, Bryce Avary took some time off to write a new record. He recorded the new album at Ocean Studios in Burbank, CA from February-April. Bryce produced the record with CJ Eiriksson, who also engineered the album. Some of the tracks were mixed by Neal Avron. The album, titled “Of Men and Angels” is expected to be released in 2009 by Island Def Jam.”
Join Cage the Elephant fans at Music Farm in Charleston on the 22nd of February for a great concert. Cage the Elephant will be accompanied by As Tall As Lions and Morning Teleportatio, this is a concert you don’t want to miss!
A little about Cage the Elephant:
Music critics who have witnessed the eye-popping spectacle that is a Cage the Elephant live performance have likened the band’s singer to many things, among them “a demented Bible Belt preacher,” “a Tasmanian devil whooping and jumping up and down like a frenzied gibbon.” And that’s just frontman Matt Shultz. The verdict? “Exhilarating, 100 mph stuff,” raved British indie music bible NME about one of the group’s U.K. gigs last fall. Cage the Elephant’s raucous live show — which made this red-hot Kentucky-bred band the talk of this year’s South-by-Southwest music festival, and led USA Today to single them out as a band not to miss at 2009’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival — is the perfect showcase for their buzzed-about self-titled debut album for Jive Records. Recorded over 10 days with Grammy Award-winning producer Jay Joyce, and a Top 40 hit when it was released on British indie label Relentless in the U.K. last June, the album is a genre-defying blend of rock n roll and raw youthful punk energy all propelled by Matt’s taunting, Dylan-esque rhythmic vocal delivery, Brad Shultz and Lincoln Parish’s furious twin guitar assault, and bassist Daniel Tichenor and drummer Jared Champion’s rock-steady funk grooves. “The music comes from a pure place,” Matt says. We really like the energy of music that feels passionate, raw, unplanned emotion. That’s what we were really trying to capture in the studio.” And although the grooves are designed to make you move, there’s more going on in these punk funk tunes than the reckless abandonment that first meet the ear. Lyricist Matt tells stories about his life. The first single off of the album is “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked,” in which Matt describes being mugged by a drug dealer and picking up a young female hitch-hiker he soon finds out is a prostitute. “That song is about realizing that everyone’s got a back-story and that essentially we’re all the same,” he says. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a priest, a coke dealer, or a prostitute; we all struggle with the same things, so how can we sit in judgment of others when each of us has something in our closet that we’d never tell anyone.” Or like his experience dealing with shady shit-talkers on the instantly addictive track “In One Ear” (sample lyric: “They say I’m just a stupid kid / another crazy radical / rock n’ roll is dead / I probably should have stayed in school / Another generation X / who somehow slipped up through the cracks / Oh they’d love to see me fall / But I’m already on my back”), then tackles corruption and hypocrisy on “James Brown” and religion and war on “Lotus.” Throughout the album’s 11-song cycle, Matt’s frustration with society is readily apparent. “But mostly you can hear the frustration I have in myself,” he says. “Like why did I buy into certain things the world has sold me? That’s where I was coming from when I wrote the songs — just looking at the world and realizing it’s full of hypocrites and I’m one too.” Given Matt’s background, it’s not surprising that such searching subject matter would find its way into Cage the Elephant’s songs. The band members hail from Bowling Green, Kentucky — a town where working in the nearby Chevrolet assembly plant or Fruit of the Loom headquarters were the main employment games in town. “It was the kind of place where if you didn’t play football, or you were a little bit different, people thought you were gay,” Matt says. “I didn’t want to be part of that jock world. I liked music so I quit the football team when I was a jr. and started a band. Forming Cage the Elephant was a rebellious thing — a way for us to carve out our own path instead of following the path created by the community that surrounded us.” The Shultz brothers grew up poor, sharing a tiny room in the family’s two-bedroom apartment with two other siblings. “Our dad drove a supply truck and he was gone a lot,” Matt recalls. “There wasn’t a lot of money or anything to do so we would make up goofy songs to pass the time.” At age 12, Brad bought a beat-up guitar from a neighborhood kid for $20 that he played until it literally fell apart. Not long after their parents were divorced, Brad snuck home a cassette of Jimi Hendrix’s Live at Woodstock, which the brothers listened to obsessively for three years, cementing their love for rock and roll. A few years later, Matt bought Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are a-Changin’. “That was a huge, life-changing album for me.” he says. “Just the honesty in Dylan’s music and how he looked at society, it really opened my eyes to how blind we really are.” After the brothers’ parents divorced, the music floodgates opened and they began to devour everything they could find from the Beatles, The Ramones, Led Zeppelin, Chuck Berry, the Rolling Stones, Nirvana, and the Pixies, to name but a few. “A lot of bands put themselves in a box and say, ‘We’re not going to be influenced by anything,’ Matt says. “We don’t mind being influenced though. I don’t think you should force influence but to fight against it would be like fighting against nature. You have a responsability to innovate but a lot of the time people mistake pretentiousness for innovation and allow that pretentiousness to taint their creativity. What you end up with is very contrived soulless music. Everything we love about music we wanted to put in our own music. When it comes down to it, we just want to make music that we love.”
Join Beatles lovers from around the world at the Times-Union Center for Performing Arts in Jacksonville Florida this Valentines day at 7:00 pm. This is one experience you don’t want to miss!
In their production of “Rain: The Beatles Experience”, this show is a multi-media, multi-dimensional event which features 5 different scene and costume changes, 3 video screens, and live camera projection, combining television commercials and historical video footage from the ’60′s. As anyone who has witnessed Rain in concert will attest, the music is first and foremost, and is recreated with the utmost care and integrity. Rain distinguishes itself by focusing on details, and delivers a perfect note for note performance. All the music is performed live, with no pre-recorded tapes or sequences.
The first set is an astonishing recreation of the Beatles stage set from the 1964 Ed Sullivan show, with the band dressed in the authentic Saville Row custom tailored suits, Beatle boots, and donning hair styles to match the likenesses of John, Paul, George and Ringo. The set, combined with black and white camera work instantly takes you back in time to that historic first night that the Beatles appeared on American television.
Second Set – Shea Stadium
After a brief interlude of songs from their movie era featuring selections from “A Hard Days Night”, the band is suddenly transported to Shea Stadium via helicopter where nearly 56,000 fans witness the group’s highest attended concert to date. Live video technology provides views of the band through close- ups and different angles, as members of the audience are projected onto the main screens for a completely interactive experience.
Third Set – Sgt. Pepper Era
The third set features the music and colorful costumes of the “Sgt. Pepper” era. Behind the band, a huge backdrop of the Sgt. Pepper album cover is shown. Or so it seems. Upon closer inspection, you’ll see that the band has cleverly interspersed their own photos to completely re-create the famous album cover. With the use of sophisticated sound and lighting, audiences will experience the music, energy and excitement of seeing the Beatles live in concert – something that the Beatles themselves never did during this period.
In fact, the Beatles stopped touring after 1966 and never performed the music of Sgt. Pepper live.
Fourth Set – Flower Power
After a quick intermission, the fourth set opens to the strains of Indian music where a brief description of the “Summer of Love” and the group’s new-found interest in meditation transports us back to that memorable time. The curtain opens to reveal the band attired in costumes reminiscent of the flower power era, as they perform the music of the years 1967-68. Of special note here is the performance of an acoustic set, revealing to the audience what the Beatles’ actual song writing processes may have been like.
Fifth Set – Abbey Road
The Abbey Road period brings the show to its fifth set. A re-creation of the famous “Abbey Road” album cover provides the backdrop, while stage props such as the doorway to EMI studios add to the visual effects that accurately reflect this period. The transformation to this era is complete with yet another costume change, reflecting the style of the Beatles during 1969-70. The visual effect is such that you think the band has stepped out of the album cover. The music within this set includes selections from the “Golden Slumbers” medley through “The End” — the Beatles’ swan song of their short but magnificent career.
