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Interview w/ Jahred Gomes from Hed(pe) |
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Music Buzz
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Monday, 13 April 2009 |
 Sitting in Charlotte with his first off-day in
over two weeks, Hed(pe) MC Jahred Gomes is resting up before their next
gig when I give him a call. The long standing Southern California
rockers are out promoting their new record, New World Orphans, which is the third record they’ve done since
joining Suburban Noize Records, home of the Kottonmouth Kings. During
the interview, we discussed the political nature of the new record,
as well as the band’s love for the Midwest. Here’s the
interview with Jahred from Hed(pe):
MyCityBuzz: What do you think
was the major musical style that influenced New World
Orphans?
Jahred Gomes: On a record, we never try to have one major
influence that wins out over another and we like to be known for
combining different musical styles. But if I had to say if there was
one influence that won out over another this time, it leaned towards
the American Hardcore bands, like Minor Threat, Black Flag and
Suicidal Tendencies. I think the guitars are a little more thrashier
than that though, more metal. I think we did a good job putting the
emotions of what we wanted out in the music.
MCB: Do you feel
that the new record is the most political sounding record the band
has had yet?
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Interview w/ Jeremy McKinnon of A Day To Remember |
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Music Buzz
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Thursday, 09 April 2009 |
Before their sold out show at the House of Blues in Cleveland, I had a
chance to interview Jeremy McKinnon, lead singer of A Day to Remember.
Based out of Ocala, Florida, the punk/hardcore band had a bit of a major surprise with their second full length release Homesick, which debuted in the upper reaches of the Billboard Album Charts last year. We discussed that surprise as well as life on the road and their choice of a Kelly Clarkson song for a cover. Here’s the interview with Jeremy:
MyCityBuzz: How surprised were you with the debut of Homesick?
Jeremy McKinnon: It was a real big surprise. We had bets going on between the management, the band and our tour manager. When the album was released, our tour manager threw out 24,000 albums sold in the first week. Our response was “you better give over your money right now, because there’s no way its selling that much in a week!” But on the first day, it sold 9,000 and that’s when we figured we might be wrong. It ended up selling 22,000 the first week, so it was a major shock to us.
MCB: What is the major difference between Homesick and previous albums?
JM: I think there’s more structure to the album than before and it flows better than previous stuff. That’s mostly because we had a producer, Chad Gilbert (from New Found Glory), that helped reel all the
ideas in this time around.
MCB: What were your major musical influences growing up?
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Thursday, 09 April 2009 |
 Toronto group Rock Plaza Central has found a new label home with Canadian indie pioneers Paper Bag Records, and are set to release their third album on June 16th in the US. At The Moment Of Our Most Needing, Or If Only They Could Turn Around, They Would Know They Weren't Alone is the follow-up to 2006's critically acclaimed Are We Not Horses?. Unlike its predecessor the album steers away from a concept but is heavily influenced by William Falkner's Light In August.
In 2003, Chris Eaton, author of The Inactivist and The Grammar Architect (Insomniac Press), booked a show at Toronto's fabled Sneaky Dee's. Without anything but his guitar and some songs ideas, he asked members of the other bands on the bill to join him on stage with old friend Donald Murray and drummer Blake Howard. Without even knowing each other's names, something clicked. Two weeks later, they were in the studio.
Rock Plaza Central's profile grew quickly after a pair of glowing reviews from Pitchfork Media. Their independently released disc, Are We Not Horses?, made many top ten lists for the year, including #8 for CMJ Editor-in-Chief Kenny Herzog, Pitchfork staff writer Stephen Deusner (receiving an 8.4-rated album review on the site) and Americana-UK lead writer David Cowling. In early 2007, they received additional attention for their cover of the Justin Timberlake song "SexyBack".
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Artist Spotlight - The World/Inferno Friendship Society |
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Music Buzz
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Tuesday, 07 April 2009 |
When checking out
an Against Me! set a while back, I stumbled upon one of the most unusually
pleasing and hard to describe groups I’ve ever seen. The
closest I can get to describing The World/Inferno Friendship Society is a jazz cabaret revue
meets a punk show, but that might not even be doing it justice.
While you could expect usually 8 to 10 members on stage for performances, the group has had more than 30 members
from a wide range of influences come and go since their 1996 inception. These resources have allowed World/Inferno to cobble together sounds all the various influence over the years. Not only being
punk/cabaret/you name it, the group is definitely original in creating new ideas for their high art. A lot of their
material from the latest album, 2007’s Addicted to Bad
Ideas: Peter Lorre’s 20th Century dealt with
the concept of discussing the actor’s life. It is
rumored that the band’s next record will be a punk version of
the play A Prairie Home Companion. Talk about
diversity!
The band is very
involved in the New York art scene, performing at their
Public Theatre’s Under the Radar Festival in 2007 and 2008 and
various other festivals around the country.
World/Inferno is
currently on the road with Detroit hardcore bands Easy Action and Gut
Bucket. World/Inferno’s tour runs through the end of April
before lead singer Jack Terricloth has a solo run. The band hits
Pontiac this Thursday, April 9th when they head to the
Pike Room at the Crofoot complex. It will be a good chance to see one
of the most entertainingly challenging bands out there as The World/Inferno Friendship Society comes to town.
The World/Inferno
Friendship Society plays Thursday, April 9th at the Pike
Room. Tickets are $10 and are available at www.ticketweb.com.
Additional dates and info can be found at
www.myspace.com/worldinferno. | | No comments for this item |
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Artist Spotlight - Devil Wears Prada |
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Music Buzz
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Monday, 06 April 2009 |
As one of the fastest
rising bands in the metalcore genre, Dayton, Ohio based The Devil Wears Prada is selling out venues all over the country and seems
primed to move to the next step with the their upcoming album. With Roots Above and Branches Below (out May 5th) , the band looks to
add deeper and darker themes to their music. The first
single, “Dez Moines,” was released back in March on the band’s MySpace page. With track titles like “Assistant to the
Regional Manager” and “Lord Xenu,” lead singer Mike
Hranica and company keep sticking out their tongue in cheek song titles, but
plan on delivering a far more classic metal sounding record than the band’s last record, 2007's Plagues.
Plagues helped build a devoted following of metalcore
fans, but Prada probably received the most attention for their cover of the
Big Tymers’ Still Fly. If you haven’t taken
a listen yet, you might want to; it's the kind of track that really starts to grow on you. Don't gt used to crazy covers though, the new album plans to be far more epic in
score. In the meantime, the
band is out on the Sweet Brag Tour with Florida band A Day To Remember for a
club tour that runs through the end of April. You can bet that plenty of
the band’s new material will be showcased throughout the set.
The tour hits Clutch Cargo’s in Pontiac this Thursday (April
9th) and is now sold out. Once the band is done
with this tour, they’ll join the main stage on this year’s
Warped Tour. It will be the highest profile slot for this young up
and coming band to date.
The Devil
Wears Prada plays Clutch Cargo’s on Thursday, April 9th.
Tickets are SOLD OUT, but some may open up to the public prior to the
show. Additional info and dates can be found at www.myspace.com/tdwp.
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Editorial Buzz
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Monday, 06 April 2009 |
What is DLP?
"Gartner defines DLP as tools used to prevent inadvertent or accidental leaks or exposure of sensitive enterprise information using content inspection technologies."
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is the prevention of loss or leakage of data. In other words, making certain that only people who SHOULD have access to confidential information DO have access. And DLP technologies generally are defined as ones that look at content, and through policy definition, allow you to automatically block and report on content violating that policy. It's also sometimes known as Data Leakage Prevention.
Data organizations wish to protect falls into three categories:
- PII/PHI - Personally Identifiable Information (PII) or Protected Health Information. Data that includes financial data, social security numbers, health information, contact information, credit card and bank account numbers
- Intellectual Property - Company confidential IP, blueprints, specs, source code, business plans, etc
- Company Confidential - Key financial information/results, internal communication, M&A data
Understanding where your confidential data is stored, how people are using it, where it's being sent is only a piece of the puzzle. To reasonably protect your data, it's also necessary to have and enforce business aligned policies.
Some primary concerns, or threat vectors to think about:
- Mobile devices
- Storage
- Email (corporate AND web based services such as gmail, hotmail, yahoo)
If you're a business owner, if you have departmental responsibility, if you work at a corporation, it's really part of your responsibility to understand what kind of confidential information exists within your company, AND how to protect it.
Once again, it's about knowing what your data is, where it is, how it's being used, and how to strategically apply policy to it.
Interested in learning more? Check out the Gartner Magic Quadrant for DLP found here, or on any of the other Gartner rated DLP vendor's sites. Or, you can email me at dglenn@mycitybuzz.com.
Some of the primary players in this space are:
There are many other solutions and strategies to help prevent data loss. Threat protection is as much about policy and a "defense in depth" strategy as it is about technology. A written physical, policy, and architectural plan that fits YOUR business, YOUR strategy, and YOUR best effort risk avoidance.
What strategy is right for you? For your business? My suggestion is for you to kick the tires. Look at what will work in your environment, ask your trusted advisors how to help protect the keys to YOUR kingdom.
Leave a comment here, or email me your thoughts. | | No comments for this item |
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Event Spotlight - NCAA Final Four Concerts |
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Music Buzz
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Friday, 03 April 2009 |
I don’t know if anyone told the NCAA organizers of the Final Four, but 'April in D' is a little bit of a dicey proposition.
Well, not so much about the idea of having pre-game concerts and events, but having them
outside. You never know what the weather is going to be in Michigan. It might be 55 and sunny (like it will be tomorrow), or 40 and rain (for tonight's forecast). But no matter what the weather is, there is a full
slate of concerts planned for Final Four weekend in Detroit. Here is
the rundown of artists heading to Detroit to celebrate college
basketball’s biggest event.
Friday,
April 3rd:
AT&T Block Party - Riverfront: Plenty of stuff
is going on at the always majestic Detroit Riverfront, and it all starts
Friday night. Pharrell Williams and N.E.R.D. headline the show, still
out promoting their Seeing Sounds album from last year.
(Waiting to see how Pharrell has to clean up songs about coke and
groupies for the PG-rated show.) Teen-bopper mainstay Jesse McCartney
and Kanye West label signee Big Sean open up the show. On the AT&T Local Stages, Twistin’ Tarantulas
and Stellar Drive perform while Paxahau approved DJs headline the VitaminWater Revive Stage.
The
event is free and open to the public. Events end at 10pm.
O.A.R.-
The Fillmore Detroit: The Ohio based answer to Dave Matthews has
created quite a popular niche for themselves in the twenty-something
crowd. This show brings them to Detroit for a invite only sponsored
by the River (93.9). Tickets are available through the River and
their contest. No tickets are available online.
Saturday,
April 4th
Big Dance Saturday - Riverfront: This all day
version of the free concerts hopefully should provide some good
weather before the games get going around 6pm. 90s R&B
crooner Keith Sweat kicks the show off at noon followed by Gavin DeGraw. After the NCAA Pep
Rally at 3, the Pussycat Dolls headline a 4pm show. I know they
sell records off how little they wear, but they may want to bundle up
(or for some guys’ sake- hopefully they don’t).
Singer-songwriter Stewart Francke and Detroit funk warriors Hotsauce
headline the other stages.
The event is free and open to the
public. Events end at 8pm.
Sunday, April 5th
My
Coke Fest - Riverfront: After the teams for the NCAA Championship have
been decided, Sunday offers us a Ryan Seacrest hosted event (don’t
know if I can contain my excitement). Before she goes and releases
what could be the final Black Eyed Peas record, Fergie headlines this
show at 8pm. Sticking out just a little bit on this bill is Staind,
whose rock ballads will begin at 6:30. Playing earlier is Gym
Class Heroes, who will make 2 trips to Detroit in as many weeks (also
playing April 11th at the Palace with Lil Wayne) and is
guaranteed to not play their cover of Lamb of God’s “Laid
To Rest” for the kiddies in the crowd. Local heroes the Muggs
headliners the smaller stages for this evening.
The event is
free and open to the public. Events end at 9pm.
For More
Information on these events, check out ncaa.com/finalfour
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Artist Spotlight - Good Old War |
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Music Buzz
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Tuesday, 31 March 2009 |
During the band’s early inception, it was obvious the guys in the band who would be called Good Old War had a few problems picking a name. The first name was KDT, then Castles. According to the band, naming it after their last names “Goodwin, Arnold and Schwartz” sounded way too much like a law firm. After some debate, the guys decided on the name Good Old War, which they picked to signify their struggle working in the music industry.
Well, the culmination of the band’s hard work has resulted in the band’s first release, Only Way To Be Alone, back in November. The band has crafted their singer-songwriter charm on this debut album. The album is lead by the dual vocal stylings of Keith Goodwin and Tim Arnold and is very evident on songs like “That’s Whats Wrong” and “Tell Me.” Probably the catchiest song on the record is the lifting single “Weak Man,” which features fellow singer/songwriter Anthony Green.
Good Old War now gets on the road in probably their most high profile tour as of yet, where they open for the Gaslight Anthem, whose buzz behind the band is starting to become deafening. The dates with Gaslight Anthem and Dayton, Ohio based band Heartless Bastards keep them on the road through early May when the tour wraps in the Gaslight Anthem’s stomping grounds of the world famous Stone Pony club. Dates are selling out all over the place, and tickets still remain for the April 1st show in Detroit at St. Andrew’s Hall. With the press for this show reaching critical mass, we don’t think this show will not be sold out for long. So, make sure you pick up tickets early for the joyous songs of Good Old War as they open for one of the fastest rising bands in music.
Good Old War opens for the Gaslight Anthem on Wednesday, April 1st at St. Andrews Hall. Tickets are $15 and are available at www.livenation.com. Additional dates and info are available at www.myspace.com/goodoldwar.
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Event Spotlight - The Battle for Music as a Weapon IV |
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Music Buzz
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Thursday, 26 March 2009 |
 Normally when a band wins a battle of the bands
competition, they get $100 to share between them or get an hour
of recording time in a local studio. But with the 10-band
competition for the Battle For Music As A Weapon IV, the winning band gets a spot opening the 2nd stage on the Detroit date for the Music as a Weapon Tour rolling through here on May
2nd at Cobo Arena (featuring Disturbed and Killswitch
Engage.)
As part of a four show deal, 10 bands per night will get a
chance to show off their talent for a spot on the bill. The first
show took place this past Saturday in East Lansing, but the second of
these concerts is taking place this Friday (March 27th) at
the Eagle Theater in Pontiac. The winner gets a spot on the Ernie
Ball stage, playing alongside second stage acts such as Suicide
Silence and Bury Your Dead.
The March 27th show
features local metal acts such as November Fire, Leviathan, Shudder and
I Have Seen Fire. Bands
will get a 20-minute set to wow the fans in attendance and every
cut-throat moment will be for a chance to be seen
on an arena level. If you're looking to sign up, sorry, the deadline for band demo
submission has already passed and the lineup for Friday night’s
show is all locked in. There will be additional shows on April 10th
at the Machine Shop in Flint and April 17th at the Hayloft
in Mt. Clemens. So make sure to head to the Eagle Theater and
check out the bands duking it out for a chance to go on tour with
Disturbed at least for one evening.
The Battle for Music
As A Weapon takes place at the Eagle Theatre in Pontiac this Friday,
March 27th. Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door.
Additional information can be found at www.fusionshows.com.
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Interview w/ Liam Cormier & Mike Peters of Cancer Bats |
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Music Buzz
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Thursday, 19 March 2009 |
 Right before doors
opened up for the Taste of Chaos show in Detroit, amid the growing
cold and rain descending on the city, I hopped into the Toronto based
Cancer Bats’ tour van. Found along with energy drinks and
backpacks was one of the band members, getting a few more minutes of
sleep buried in his sleeping bag before hitting the stage. After he
gave us permission to do the interview in the van, I interviewed lead
singer Liam Cormier and drummer Mike Peters before the gig and
discussed life on the road, the band’s relationship with their
Canadian fans and what sort of musical influences they bring to the
band. Here’s my
interview with Liam and Mike from the Cancer Bats:
MyCityBuzz: How
has the Taste of Chaos tour gone so far?
Liam Cormier: It’s been cool.
We’re normally the first band to go on, so the kids are showing
up. But they seem to like it, they come up to us after the show and
say things like “the band’s so cool, I only heard you
guys on MySpace for the first time last week,” so we’re
getting the exposure that way. But they are always coming up with
other band’s merchandise after the show. We look at them like
“it’s cool, but we got CD’s for 5 bucks, pick one
up.” Money’s not really punk, but high fives aren’t
gonna pay for a tank of gas. But if it did, our gas tank would be
really fuckin’ full right now.
MCB: You guys have been
on the road for most of the past year behind “Hail Destroyer,”
any fatigue setting in?
Mike Peters: I pulled a hamstring, and I have no
clue how it happened. (laughs)
LC: Like anything
else, it's been the same on tour in 2008 and in 2007. My main goal is
just not to get sick. That and trying to sleep as much as I can; try
and get the full 8.
MCB: What were the
major influences for the “Hail Destroyer?”
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