Grouplove Debuts Latest Single and Announces Second Leg of Fall tour

Grouplove Debuts Latest Single and Announces Second Leg of Fall tour Last night the American rock band Grouplove made the national television debut of their new single “Itchin’ On A Photograph” on TBS’ Conan. Amidst a stage of dozens of cardboard cut-outs of themselves, the band members – Christian Zucconi (vocals, guitar), Hannah Hooper (vocals, keys), Sean Gadd (bass, vocals), Andrew Wessen (guitar, vocals), and Ryan Rabin (drums) – performed their latest single, which definitely revives the feeling of rock within the band in comparison to their crossover pop smash “Tongue Tied.”  The tune has already earned support and airplay from major Modern Rock radio stations such as Los Angeles’ KROQ and SiriusXM’s AltNation. “Itchin’ On A Photograph” is the third single off of Grouplove’s debut full-length album “Never Trust A Happy Song” and succeeds what Entertainment Weekly deemed one of the “Greatest Songs of the Summer” – the  band’s breakthrough hit “Tongue Tied.”  “Tongue Tied” has wrangled massive success having held the #1 spot for three consecutive weeks on Modern Rock charts and practically blaring from every speaker you encounter this summer.  The track has been RIAA certified Gold and was recently performed by Grouplove on NBC’s “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “Today,” as well as on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” earlier this year. The band has also recently announced a second leg to their headlining tour that kicks off at the Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon on September 25th.  The newly added dates include the tour’s finale at Los Angeles’ Wiltern Theatre on November 17th.  Grouplove will be joined on select legs of the tour by fellow Canvasback Music/Atlantic recording artists Alt-J, the NYC-based MSMR, and Los Angeles’ PAPA. Beginning noon this Friday (August 10th), tickets for the newly announced tour dates will go on sale to the general public.  Pre-sale tickets for the second batch of shows are on sale now and all pre-sale ticket purchasers will receive a download code for a free 4-song EP, including this rare Space Brother remix of “Tongue Tied”.

Grouplove Performs

Grouplove Performs “Itching On A Photograph”

 

I’ve long been a fan of late-night television for their outstanding live music performances, and Conan O’Brien in particular has had a knack for featuring the best-of-the-best in music, often before the acts find mainstream recognition. The tall drink of water carrot juice continues this trend with the 2012 Conan Summer Music Series, and the latest band to take the stage is none other than LA’s own Grouplove.

Putting a serious emphasis on the “group” half of their name, the five band members are joined on stage for the performance by a slew of cardboard doppelgängers. With their identical outfits and animated expressions, these cardboard cutouts crowd the stage and really do give the impression that Grouplove has quadrupled in size overnight. However, the band doesn’t need any help filling the room with sound as they perform “Itching on a Photograph” off their 2011 debut album, Never Trust a Happy Song.
09/25 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theatre
09/26 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theater
10/01 – San Francisco, CA @ Fillmore
10/03 – San Diego, CA @ Humphrey’s
10/04 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Pool at The Cosmopolitan
10/06 – Denver, CO @ Chipotle Festival
10/08 – St. Louis, MO @ Pagaent
10/09 – Tulsa, OK @ Cain’s Ballrom
10/11 – Houston, TX @ House of Blues
10/12 – Helotes, TX @ Josabi’s
10/13 – Dallas, TX @ House of Blues
10/14 – New Orleans, LA @ House of Blues
10/16 – Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
10/17 – Knoxville, TN @ Bijou Theater
10/23 – Nashville, TN @ Cannery
10/24 – Norfolk, VA @ NorVA
10/26 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Altar Bar
10/27 – Rochester, NY @ Water Street Music Hall
10/29 – Washington, DC @ 930 Club
10/30 – Washington, DC @ 930 Club
11/01 – Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory

 

Grouplove Debuts Latest Single and Announces Second Leg of Fall tour

Grouplove Debuts Latest Single and Announces Second Leg of Fall tour

Last night the American rock band Grouplove made the national television debut of their new single “Itchin’ On A Photograph” on TBS’ Conan. Amidst a stage of dozens of cardboard cut-outs of themselves, the band members – Christian Zucconi (vocals, guitar), Hannah Hooper (vocals, keys), Sean Gadd (bass, vocals), Andrew Wessen (guitar, vocals), and Ryan Rabin (drums) – performed their latest single, which definitely revives the feeling of rock within the band in comparison to their crossover pop smash “Tongue Tied.”  The tune has already earned support and airplay from major Modern Rock radio stations such as Los Angeles’ KROQ and SiriusXM’s AltNation.
“Itchin’ On A Photograph” is the third single off of Grouplove’s debut full-length album “Never Trust A Happy Song” and succeeds what Entertainment Weekly deemed one of the “Greatest Songs of the Summer” – the  band’s breakthrough hit “Tongue Tied.”  “Tongue Tied” has wrangled massive success having held the #1 spot for three consecutive weeks on Modern Rock charts and practically blaring from every speaker you encounter this summer.  The track has been RIAA certified Gold and was recently performed by Grouplove on NBC’s “Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “Today,” as well as on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” earlier this year.
The band has also recently announced a second leg to their headlining tour that kicks off at the Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon on September 25^th.  The newly added dates include the tour’s finale at Los Angeles’ Wiltern Theatre on November 17^th.  Grouplove will be joined on select legs of the tour by fellow Canvasback Music/Atlantic recording artists Alt-J, the NYC-based MSMR, and Los Angeles’ PAPA.
Beginning noon this Friday (August 10^th), tickets for the newly announced tour dates will go on sale to the general public.  Pre-sale tickets for the second batch of shows are on sale now and all pre-sale ticket purchasers will receive a download code for a free 4-song EP, including this rare Space Brother remix of “Tongue Tied”.

Musician from 60s rock group Love

Musician from '60s rock group Love has dramatic encounter with God

Rolling Stone Magazine recently released a special edition publication featuring their selections of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The special edition magazine (out on newsstands until July 25th) selected the album Forever Changes by the late '60s group Love as the 40th best recording of all time. While the group Love doesn't elicit the name recognition of far more popular rock groups of that era (i.e. the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Animals, Mommas & the Papas, Jefferson Airplane); being named the 40th top album of all time is certainly noteworthy.

Love was a popular LA band in the mid-sixties. Prior to the release of their third album, Forever Changes, the group released two other albums (Love and Da Capo) under the Electra label. By the time the band released their third album the group consisted of Arthur Lee (vocals, guitar), John Echols (lead guitar), Bryan Maclean (rhythm guitar, vocals), Ken Fossi (bass) and Michael Stuart (drums).

The band was invited to well known venues during this era but often declined. Obviously the band's self imposed limitation on touring significantly affected their popularity. The band's leader even passed on an appearance at the famous Monterey Pop Festival held during the "summer of love" in 1967. The festival featured a number of groups (including the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Who and the Momma's and the Papas) who later gained international fame from their appearances at this music event. Also, a young movie producer by the name of D.A. Pennebaker released the film, Monterey Pop, in 1968 which highlighted many of the historic performances from the festival. The popular movie was shown in movie houses around the country.

Years later, band leader Lee as well as other members of the group expressed regret for not touring more during the time of their greatest musical creativity. It was later revealed that members of the group were heavily involved in the drug culture, which caused their reluctance to tour.

One of the members of the group, Bryan Maclean, was trying to find himself. Bryan was a talented musician and song writer. He was credited for writing the album's lead song Along Again Or. Maclean later left the group and attempted to record as a solo artist in New York City (where Electra Records was once headquartered).

For many months Maclean experienced the up and downs that many musicians in their careers shared. Nevertheless, he always had the strong support of his mother, Elizabeth McKee, who had a most unusual experience during this period of time.

One night Bryan's mother was channel surfing on her television and came across a Billy Graham telecast. It was during the one hour program that night that Dr. Graham carefully expounded the Gospel message of love and forgiveness. Elizabeth received it as it was explained clearly to her for the first time in her life. In the telecast, Graham outlined how someone could obtain salvation through the evangelist's citations of various passages from the New Testament in the Bible. That night Bryan's mom made the decision to give her heart to Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior.

Everything changed. She started regularly praying for her two children; Bryan and her daughter by another marriage, Maria McKee. She also began attending a church where she found comfort and encouragement from other Christians. But her biggest surprise was yet to come.

Bryan was in New York at the time working on a solo recording career. One evening he visited a bar that he regularly frequented. Funny thing was that the taste of the beer he liked to drink had an incredibly sour taste that night. Bryan went home and opened up his Bible. He knew his mom had become a Christian so he decided to read the pages of the same book that had so significantly changed the life of his mother.

By the time Bryan arrived back in Los Angeles that December for Christmas, he had a surprise for his mom. After being separated for many months, Bryan held up the introductory page in his Bible where he had signed and confirmed his decision to make Jesus Christ his Lord and Savior.

Elizabeth was overcome with joy. She knew her son had finally come home.

Usher, LMFAO, Grouplove

Weekly Chart Notes: Usher, LMFAO, Grouplove

This week, Usher enters atop the Billboard 200 and R&B/Hip-Hop Albums with "Looking 4 Myself" and logs a 10th week at No. 1 on R&B/Hip-Hop Songs with "Climax."
usher, famously, was instrumental in launching the career of Justin Bieber. After Scooter Braun became Bieber's manager, he invited Bieber to sing for Usher. The result? The then-13-year-old Bieber joined Usher and Braun's Raymond Braun Media Group and began his rapid ascent to pop culture prominence. Currently in the Billboard Hot 100's top 10 for a 12th week with former No. 2 hit "Boyfriend," Bieber is set to make the year's splashiest bow on next week's Billboard 200 with his third studio album, "Believe."
Now, Bieber can take partial credit for the No. 1 song on the Hot 100. His viral video of Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" - co-starring Selena Gomez and Ashley Tisdale, the clip has racked more than 43 million YouTube views - and an endorsement of the song to his more than 20 million Twitter followers helped propel the song up the chart and on its way to No. 1.
("Big Shoutout to @carlyraejepsen for getting her first #1 on BILLBOARD HOT 100!! SO PROUD!! CANADA STAND UP!!!," Bieber Tweeted on June 13. "@justinbieber ... What can I say? I believe you when you say NEVER SAY NEVER! Thanks for believing in me. Really, really :)," Jepsen beamed back.)
From Usher to Bieber to Jepsen, an artist's influence can help other acts garner greater popularity. Stars throughout the rock era, in fact, have long used their high profiles to help sway public opinion favorably toward developing acts in which they believe.
Surely consumers trusted Diana Ross' taste when she introduced the Jackson 5 on Aug. 11, 1969, on the stage of California club The Daisy. With the quintet's debut album titled "Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5," co-opting a name like Ross' - singer of 12 Hot 100 No. 1s between 1964 and 1969 with the Supremes - the new group wasn't quite so unfamiliar, after all.
"He won me over the first time I saw him," Ross told Newsweek of Michael Jackson, as cited in former Chart Beat author Fred Bronson's invaluable "Billboard Book of Number One Hits." "I saw so much of myself as a child in Michael. He was performing all the time. That's the way I was.
"He could be my son."
In 1989, Garth Brooks arrived with his first Billboard chart entry, as "Much Too Young (to Feel This Damn Old)" climbed to No. 8 on Country Songs, marking his first of 36 top 10s on the tally. Thanks to a memorable lyric, the song also helped spur the recording career of a rodeo cowboy.
"A worn-out tape of Chris LeDoux, lonely women and bad booze seem to be the only friends I've left at all," Brooks sings in the song. At the time, country music fans might not have been too aware of LeDoux, as he'd placed just three titles on Country Songs in 1979-80. None rose higher than No. 96 on the then-100-position chart.
LeDoux was, however, successful in his other career, becoming a collegiate and professional rodeo champion. After retiring from competition in 1980, he released a series of country albums independently, but none charted on Country Albums.

Brooks' hit helped LeDoux lasso widespread country music success at last. Rodeo fan Brooks (he even sent his single "Rodeo" to No. 3 on Country Songs in 1991) successfully pushed for his label, Capitol, to sign LeDoux. His first album under the deal, "Western Underground," spent 54 weeks on Country Albums, rising to No. 36. Follow-up "Whatcha Gonna Do With a Cowboy" gave LeDoux his first (and sole) Country Albums top 10 (No. 9), while the title cut likewise opened the gates for him to the Country Songs top 10. Reaching No. 7 in 1992, the track features Brooks on backing vocals.
Brooks made one more very public ode to LeDoux following the latter's passing in 2004. His "Good Ride Cowboy" peaked at No. 3 on Country Songs in 2005. "I knew if I ever recorded any kind of tribute to Chris, it would have to be up-tempo, happy ... a song like him ... not some slow, mournful song. He wasn't like that," Brooks told CMT.
"Chris was exactly what our heroes are supposed to be. He was a man's man. A good friend."
More recently, acts have employed multiple media, a la Bieber, when hoping to help another artist gain wider exposure. In an interview last year on pop radio station WRVW Nashville, Taylor Swift requested that the station play Nicki Minaj's "Super Bass." "I've been listening to it on repeat and I really freak my friends out because I can recite every single lyric to the rap," she boasted on-air (before bowing to DJ pressure an
In turn, Minaj later told pop station KIIS Los Angeles just how much Swift's impromptu campaigning helped the song soar to No. 3 on the Hot 100. "Swift did her little interview about 'Super Bass' and (it) took off. It's just really uncanny how all that stuff happens. We didn't plan it like that."
Also last year, Swift Tweeted that she was a "superfan" of the Civil Wars: "@CivilWars show. Belcourt Theatre. They RULE live!" By this February, the duo - John Paul White and Joy Williams - was taking home Grammy Awards for best folk album ("Barton Hollow") and best country duo/group performance. Swift and the twosome's collaboration "Safe & Sound," from the soundtrack "The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond," reached No. 30 in a 17-week chart run on the Hot 100 this year.