One of the most powerful things on earth is a musician with a message.  Yes we all love music with no meaning just to bop our head to sometimes, but when an artist shares his true feelings about a subject in song there is a passion there that can not be falsified.  The artist we found today plans to educate the world with his music.  Welcome to Absoloot’s world. He is an independent rapper that has made quite a name for himself by getting involved and working to improve his community.  The Fort Lauderdale, Florida native has devised his own style of hip hop based on positivity without the profanity and gangster speak that has become prevalent in the crowded rap scene.  , Absoloot uses intelligent lyrical content and live instruments to amaze listeners and offer them a deeper message through song.  Everyday life and the injustices that he sees are his inspiration to do his part to make a better society.  He was involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement penning the song ‘99%’ which was named the theme song of the movement by Huffington Post.  He is now involved with the Men2Boys organization (http://www.men2boysmentoring.com/) to help influence kids to make … [Read more...]

People come out of every corner of society to become musicians.  One of the most important things in becoming a good songwriter is having experiences from all aspects of life to serve as inspiration.  Our latest discovery Richard MacDonald comes from quite an interesting background. Prior to moving toward the songwriting craft later in his life, Richard was heavily involved in the boxing business.  After years of training, he ended up opening his own boxing club to share with others his love for the craft.  He claims what drew him to boxing was to help take fear out of people’s lives.  There is a similar draw to music.  The ability to lose yourself in writing a song makes all of the negativity simply disappear.  Richard MacDonald has worked with some of the best musicians in Canada and is now ready for his next adventure. He has now hooked up with the band Somebody’s Kids to release an album to the world.  The record titled Shake A Leg is a 10 song collection of fun bluesy rock.  It is obvious from the first, and title track, ‘Shake A Leg’ that this group plays music to have a good time.  ‘Fifteen Minutes’ is an enjoyable track featuring a back and … [Read more...]

The Long Island, NY scene has been a hot bed of talent over the years.  The suburban area has supplied such varied artists from Billy Joel to Public Enemy and Taking Back Sunday to Blue Oyster Cult.  The fans out there support their hard working bands.  We may have just uncovered the next big thing from the LI in alt-rockers Truth Table. The band is full of successful veterans of the local scene.  Singer Mike Fries won Long Island Idol back in 2007, and drummer Dennis Leeflang has played with the likes of Lita Ford and Bumblefoot.  Bassist Chris Schropfer, and songwriter/guitarist Brian Johnston round out the foursome.  This combination of talented musicians creates some real depth to their songs by using lesser-used chord progressions, riffs, melodies, and syncopated rhythms while holding on to just enough of the familiar rock staple to provide a sound that strikes the balance between originality and tradition. Late last year Truth Table released their debut album This Is Not A Casino to a waiting fanbase.  The 12 track record ranges from up-tempo rock to dark, spacey jams with some mellow acoustic songs thrown in to keep the balance.  The ready for AAA radio … [Read more...]

Brooklyn-based electro-pop outfit Body Language’s newest release, the Grammar EP, is an unapologetically poppy and deeply, deeply sexy celebration of 80’s excess. With these three songs (well, four, including the live cut of “The First”), we see a band negotiating a lust for Hall & Oates style R&B with a love for filthy, glammy electro-clash. This is a tricky balancing act, but these guys pull it off pretty gracefully. The EP’s opening track “Lose My Head” could forgivably be mistaken for a Goldfrapp deep cut, with its buzzsaw synth tones and pure-sex sing-along chorus. The production here is simply immaculate, and like much of the rest of the record, the denseness of the instrumentation rewards repeated listens. It’s with “The First” and “I’m a Mess” that Body Language really starts to show us the depth of their sonic palette. These cuts feature the warm bass-line grooves that defined their R&B influences, but they inject a little modern flavor with distinctly indie-rock vocal performances. I’ll go ahead and confess up front that, with the same vein of postmodern lovers’ funk, Chromeo stole my heart many years ago, so these two … [Read more...]

We all know that getting to open for a major star in your genre can be a huge boost to your career.  The key is to use that moment in front of another artist’s fanbase to make an impression and turn them on to your music.  One person that has had this opportunity and may be on the verge of breaking out himself is DraMatiQue. The talented west coast rapper began writing rhymes and performing back in his high school days.  Along the way DraMatiQue (pronounced like the word "dramatic”) has opened for the likes of The Wu Tang Clan, Tha Alkaholiks, Talib Kweli, A+, and Mims.  He has built a nice following and has received some great reviews from top authorities in the hip hop scene such as Urb.com and The Source magazine.  His style fits right along with the radio friendly mainstream but offers a fresh twist to show off his entertaining talents. Late last year DraMatiQue unleashed his first solo industry project, the Kill The Game Mixtape.  Working with well-known NYC DJ Omega Red has given the record some instant credit and explores the flair of DraMatiQue’s flow.  The production is solid and ready for any mainstream radio show.  His metronome style on the heart … [Read more...]

It’s early Saturday morning and I am getting ready to take my 3 year old to a birthday party at Gymboree.  Problem is; I had a late night last night and just can’t get my ass in gear.  As usual, I turn to music to get me in the right mood.  There are not many better “wake-ups” than the music of Neverwhas. The modern rock, high energy band from the outskirts of Chicago, Illinois has just what the doctor ordered.  Consisting of three brothers and one good friend, they are focused on writing and performing original music in the crowded hard-alternative rock scene.  Neverwhas is full of influences and ideas leading the boys to write over 50 songs and record 3 albums in their relatively short 4 year existence.  Their skills are evident right away as well.  Mike’s vocals are gritty and powerful over the shredding guitar of Nik while Rick and Chris keep up with a tight rhythm section. The band’s last full length album is Solid Will Into Sacrifice, a 12 track testament to energetic modern rock.  The opener ‘Listen Closely’ attacks the listener right from the outset with aggressive guitars and Mike’s in your face vocal style.  Neverwhas shows their … [Read more...]

There are many kids that think they want to be a rock star when they grow up.  Few have the talent and even few follow through when they see how much work it is going to take to reach that lofty goal.  A true passion for the craft of songwriting needs to be in there too.  Today we found a young lady that has all that and is on her way to getting noticed by the mainstream music world.  Let us introduce you to Sarah Petrella. The path to success started at a young age for Sarah as she wrote her first song before she was 10 years old.  She was immersed in musical theater in her formative years as well which really developed her vocal skills.  She says her true calling is songwriting though and it is obvious that she has a real hunger to write impressive songs.  Her style is not one that can be pigeonholed either.  There are touches of pop, rock, folk, and even some country in her tunes.  When she lists such diverse influences as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Sara Bareilles, this is to be expected. Recently Sarah Petrella released a 3 song EP titled Summer to the world to demonstrate her talents.  She brought in some industry heavyweights as well when she got Geza X … [Read more...]