Americana digs country’s musical roots
(03/15/11 7:15am)
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"Hold It Against Me"Britney SpearsAt one point Britney Spears was on top in the pop world. She's slipped a bit over the years but don't hold it against her. Her more recent music has stabilized her career and her hair has grown back, unless that's a wig. In her new video for her single "Hold It Against Me," Britney crashes to Earth in the year 2011 and right into a photo shoot. She then floats around in a white wedding dress with the longest train you've ever seen surrounded by televisions showing clips from videos throughout her career. From her train, faceless dancers emerge wearing all white. The entire video is a compilation of several scenes broken up by one another, with the director managing to fit a good number of frames into the four-and-a-half-minute video. When the music breaks down, the video flashes between scenes of Britney and her back up dancers, an array of colorful paint shooting from her nails onto the white dress and the screens surrounding her. The sequence creates a colorful paradise, and shows Britney in a fight with a clone of herself. The video's grand finale consists of Britney and her dancers dressed in black on a stage equipped with pyrotechnics, confetti and an explosion of greatness.
Haley Dreis, a fourth-year music student and popular Columbia singer/songwriter, will release the music video for her song “Where My Heart Is” today as a part of her senior thesis for the South Carolina Honors College.
These days, there are just as many musical genres as there are performing artists.
Tin Roof Columbia, “a live music joint,” is offering free lunch Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., with no strings attached.
Ever since they first popped up on MTV in 1981, music videos have been used to express what songs simply could not say over the radio. New videos with blow-your-mind antics premiere almost every day, and it’s clear we’ve come a long way from Michael Jackson’s famous illuminating tiles in the “Billie Jean” days.“The Creep”The Lonely Island feat. Nicki Minaj
The Grammy Awards are among the strangest of awards shows, especially in the last handful of years. As the music industry has struggled to adjust to that all-consuming entity “The Internet,” its shows continue to get louder, more elaborate and full of more and more awards.
The 53rd annual Grammy Awards brought together the music biz’s biggest names at the Staples Center in Los Angeles Sunday, with the night’s performances proving to be amazing but the awards going to some surprising recipients.
A bit less bluegrass than the Avett Brothers and a bit more country than Corey Smith, American Aquarium frequents Columbia with its heartfelt lyrics and unique mix of influences. The six-man band will be playing at The House in Five Points with Cary Ann Hearst and Adam Glover Saturday at 9 p.m.
Far from the tired lyrics on ex-lovers and young heartbreak, Senseless Beatings, an alternative/progressive band from Rock Hill, S.C., presents a new breed of rock.The sound is best represented in the tagline for its debut LP: “An exploration of World War II as the event that ended the dialectical movement of history.”
Relaxing on their tour bus parked just outside Five Points’ Group Therapy, The Supervillains seem just like regular guys knocking back a few and shouting at the television as their favorite NBA team, the Orlando Magic, takes on the Philadelphia 76ers in a close game that’s come right down to the wire. “If you want to know what really keeps us going, it’s Magic games,” vocalist and guitarist Scott “Skart” Suldo said, keeping his eyes glued to the screen as the team lined up for a foul shot. “That’s really all it is.”The Supervillains include original members Suldo, drummer and vocalist Dom Maresco and bassist Dan Grundorf. New to the band are sax player Nathan Anderson and the keyboardist simply known as T-Rex, who joined after two members of the band’s horn section left. Originally formed in Orlando, Fla., during their school years, the band released three albums before they struck gold with 2006’s explosive “Grow Yer Own.” Since then, The Supervillains has been on the climb in the reggae charts, dropping hit singles like “Little Girl” and “Resin” while touring across the country with Pepper, Slightly Stoopid and Fishbone. “When we met, we all kind of decided that we didn’t want real jobs like most people, but we never thought it would get this far,” Suldo said. “We idolized groups like Fishbone and The Mad Caddies. And the cool part is that now we get to tour with some of those same groups that influenced our music.”When listening to any Supervillains track, a common thread is apparent. The songs are heavily influenced by a grooving island sound, complete with blaring horns and classic ska bass strumming alongside tongue-in-cheek lyrics. They’re easy to sing and chill to, drawing audiences from the West Coast. However, Suldo said one of the most unique things about the band is its ability to remain immune to stereotype.“When I read the press, I don’t really want our sound to be pigeonholed because we do a lot of songs about weed and women,” Suldo said. “That’s why our new album is probably the best we’ve ever done, because it’s where we are right now, and it’s free of curse words and drug references. We tried to keep it kosher so that everyone can enjoy it and not feel alienated.”The House in Five Points hosted The Supervillains Wednesday night, and although the crowd was slightly smaller in comparison to the sold-out tours with Pepper and Slightly Stoopid, Grundorf said no matter the crowd’s size, it’s all about the vibe. “You can have as much fun playing to a 20-person crowd as you can with a thousand people,” the bassist said.Their set at The House certainly proved that point, as the band ran through fan favorites like “Car Sex” and “Mary Jane and Jagermeister,” still managing to interact with the dancing and swaying crowd. “We sure have a good-looking crowd here tonight!” Maresco shouted to the audience halfway through the 90-minute set. “I guess they were right about South Carolina girls being so beautiful.”As far as the band’s future, Suldo said they plan to continue touring as long as they can, even though things are not always as fun as they may seem.“There’s not too many ska-punk bands blowing up out there, so it’s like we’re a part of an inner circle of doing what we love,” he said.
The city’s venues can be hard to spot, so we’ve gone ahead and scouted out the best music joints in the area. We primarily looked for upcoming acts, venue vibe and menus. These are the five local music venues we’re obsessing about this week.
After only eight months and roughly 10 gigs, A Brighter Life is set to release its debut EP, entitled “Where Tonight Can Go,” at New Brookland Tavern tonight. The band cites its eclectic tastes, ranging from Taking Back Sunday and Four Year Strong to Lupe Fiasco, as main influences on its music, which is labeled as pop-punk. Despite understandable hardships with the local music scene, A Brighter Life has spent the last eight months using Internet resources like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace to build up its fan base and promote the its EP. “[Our biggest challenge has been] just trying to stay relevant in a dying scene. Columbia’s really known for its indie music scene and not its pop-punk scene. We’re in a dying genre and at a weird age for it, but we’re working every day and writing, so I guess we’re overcoming it,” guitarist Alex Koss said. The band members draw mainly on their own life experiences to create their music, including inspiration from work and school. Koss, bassist Chris Cousins and vocalist Jordan Kirk all attend USC, while guitarist Byron Dooley and drummer Chris Seiferlein have full-time jobs. “[We write] mostly just about life in our early 20s, but [we are] reflective about where we came from. Half of us are at school, and the other half work, so we just write about the monotony and the ups and downs of it all — just things that kids like us have to think about,” Koss said.A Brighter Life has used its music to grow both personally and musically since its formation in May 2010. Koss maintains that the band’s main goal is not fame and fortune, but rather to connect with listeners and provide an outlet for the pressures of young adulthood. “The ultimate goal is just to write music that someone thinks is relevant to them. When we were growing up, and even now, we used music as a way to figure out what everything’s all about. We just want to make something that means something,” Koss said. While the songs on the EP were written by Kirk and Dooley before the current lineup was in place, Koss said the band has grown since then and has written songs together that further flesh out its signature sound.The EP was recorded and mixed by Charlie Jackson of West Columbia, who has worked with other South Carolina bands such as Clever Words and the popular Columbia-based ensemble CherryCase. The record will be available in physical form at the release show tonight and for digital sale on iTunes and abrighterlife.bandcamp.com soon.
One year after tragic earthquake, aid still offered by students
From "OK Computer" to "Kid A," the band has garnered a large following of fans from every corner of the world and certainly shows no signs of stopping. And now for the first time, USC students can chart Radiohead's musical journey from beginning to end, as the music department has introduced its brand new course, which will focus strictly on Radiohead's impact on the music world.
"I remember the first day of that tour, I called Chad from New Found Glory and told him I had a picture with him. It was really cool for me to be able to do that after being such a big fan of them growing up," Howard said.
It's been one tumultuous year for Atlanta-based rapper T.I. After his release from prison late last year, he seemed poised for a comeback, releasing the well received "F--k a Mixtape" and two promising singles, "Get Back Up" and "Castle Walls," from his upcoming album, "No Mercy." That all tumbled down as the rapper was sentenced in October to an 11-month sentence following parole violations. Regardless, "No Mercy" is still slated for release this month and looks set to match the rapper's past commercial and critical successes.
Sweet melodies and a soulful strum fill the terrace behind West Quad, with passers-by stopping to take a listen to the captivating sound coming from the upper ledge. The acoustic guitar and stripped-down pop vocals command attention, adding an unexpected backtrack to campus life.
The audience at last Friday’s Battle of the Bands came to New Brookland Tavern expecting a showdown of the best bands in the area. The floor in front of the stage filled up almost as soon as the doors opened, proving that the final round of the two month-long competition would be the most exciting yet.