I have long been an advocate for the service provided by NoiseTrade.com. The concept is simple. Artists provide free access to selected songs to their fans in return for the fans marketing the music for them or a donation. What better way to the personal endorsements out on the worldwide web?
To celebrate their first year of existence,the are dropping the artist signup fee. Artists can now create a NoiseTrade widget (for inclusion fans blogs, websites etc.) and give away music to their fans for FREE. What's more they get given access to their fans' email addresses anytime they want. SA artists, it's a great time to take advantage of the service ... go for it!
I saw these guys interviewed on some local Dstv show and really liked their personalities. Their knowledge of the local music scene within their genre and the energy they exude, oddly in a super laid back way, caught my attention. So I did the Eishman thing and began trawling the interwebs. Like any self-respecting musician they have a MySpace and Facebook page and although they could probably make better use of these platforms there was enough for me to take a good listen and be extremely impressed. My personal taste in electronic music is somewhere on the chilled, world, acoustic and eastern groove side. However there is just enough late 80's, early 90's edgy, synth electronica to grab my attention. Check out my favourite track 'Bloodlines' (available for free download here) and Fossils, and you will see what I mean. These guys are destined to make it big if they can stick at it and build up their audience. Cutout Collective is Tim Apter, Jason Hartford, Flikkerr & Max Lehr and the for their sins are Johannesburg locals (Cape Town streets are too narrow for them!), keep your eye out for them their debut EP Eponymous will be released shortly and their tunes seem like they would be wild live!
It's been a while, but the Eish!! SA Music Spotlight is back! I like to do the bands I highlight justice, so when time is short I prefer not to post a half-hearted attempt and wait until I have some quality time available. This week was almost another one past, when I got a quick reply from one of the bands on my shortlist. The enthusiasm and willingness to interact inspired me to drop what I was doing and start typing this post.
'If you’ve ever been stuck in a dead-end job (hopefully not anymore) you’ll know exactly what it means to be ‘chasing Friday’. Phill Black on lead vocals, Brendon Hull on backing vocals and lead guitarist , bass guitarist Nico Mouissie and drummer Andrew Mellish make up Chasing Friday a Cape Town band making waves on the local scene and seemingly on the brink of making that all important leap into the commercial success on the SA music scene.
Their current single 'It's not like London's calling you' is a moody/grungy melody fits into the current consciousness of the SA youth torn between the love of their country, the perceived greener pastures beckoning and the bonds they have built with their peers at home. This, along with the tunes I have heard around the various internet properties they are utilising to get their gospel spread, already illustrates a growing, quality catalog of raw grungy rock and roll.
With the music video below already featured on Fuse TV in America , MK and DSTV's HD channel and singles getting airplay on Radio 2000, Tuks Fm and Mfm almongst others things are happening for these guys.
I thought it would be fun to get to know the guys a bit better, so here's a short text interview with the lead singer Phill.
How did the various band members find each other? Nico bumped into Andrew on Facebook, I pulled in a few months later (knew Andrew frm school, since 96, we went to SACS together) through another band, Autopilot, we met Brendon! (he was good buddies with them!)
What names were in consideration before Chasing Friday won? One was wilderthanvan....pretty crap! Can`t remember any others???
How are you using the web to market the band and how do you intend to going forward? We are doing the obvious thing.....Facebook!But we also take pride in www.chasingfriday.com keeping it updated every week. you can download our debut produced track on iLike. We also have our music vid on various US sites and as a result it aired on Fuse US TV in the states shoot funny vids of us messing around.....and stick em up all over! Myvideo, youtube etc
What is the weirdest gig you have played? ROAR springs to mind, you need garlic to fend off the vampires....... also after winning the CT leg of the RBF SABC battle of the bands, then having to pay for ourselves to get to the final in Gauteng, then waiting 12hours with 22 bands ahead of us, to only allowed to play 2 tracks????? ( you just gotta smile and wave boys! )
How would you describe the SA music scene? Growing, with great potential! It is a very exciting time to be part off it! We love rocking out in SA.
What is Chasing Friday aiming to do during 2009? Dominate South Africa and the world....seriously!!! Also shoot our 2nd music vid, get onto 5fm and work with our chosen charity REACH FOR A DREAM!
What will you be doing during the 2010 World Cup? Apart from watching all the games, playing at one of them to. Listen out for our second single LET ME BE YOUR CHAMPION and you will know what i mean!
The Garritan Community is offering a downloadable MP3 Christmas album full off Christmas classics.
The current album '2008' has 19 tracks and if you search around you can get up to 79 from previous year's albums dating back to 2004.
Garritan is 'a community of musicians from all over the world met on the Garritan community forum and agreed to submit their own recordings of holiday music, to be freely distributed. Each of these orchestral recordings were made not with large live orchestras in vast recording studios at huge expense, but rather were created by a single person working on their own desktop or laptop computer. What they have in common is the use of Garritan libraries representing software musical instruments based on samples of real instruments.'
Even though jacSharp won HP's Design you personal life at the beginning of the year already, I must admit they have not been on my radar at all. However they are creating quite a buzz all of a sudden as they release their debut album Technicolor this month and quite rightly so.
Juliet Harding (Vocals and Keyboard), Emelio Gassibe (Bass), Ben Peters (Drums and Sampling) and Carl Wegelin (Guitars and Vocals) make up the band who put themselves into the Electro/Afro/Jazz/Pop/Rock genre. Personally I would reorganize this to Rock/Electro/Pop/Afro/Jazz. Man, I pity the music store assistants as they try and figure where to put the upcoming cd. As I write this, I am listening to the tracks they have posted on various sites and find myself backspacing and re-writing my descriptions. Their offerings are so diverse that I has actuall given up. Perhaps the only constant is that they are distinctively South African.
I enjoyed this bio from laodtheshow.com though:
What do you get when you mix an electronic drummer, rock/funk guitarist, afro/jazz bassist and a pop/jazz singer? A completely new, eclectic genre of music that's unique to Cape Town based band, jacSharp. If you dig to the core of this band, you will find something magical that has been built on a foundation of nothing but good times, good tunes and keen understanding of musical diversity. All of this has been melted down, mixed together and energetically thrown at their enthralled audiences.
Their debut album bash is on the 18th December @ the Assembly but they are embarking on a nationwide tour with Plush from tomorrow, so I strongly suggest you follow the links and give their tracks a listen and then make a note in your diary to go check them out when they are in your neck of the woods. Oh, and when visiting their website jacsharp.com you can download the title track of the new album Technicolour (check the SA spelling!) for free, gratis. Well worth the visit.
I have long been an advocate for the service provided by NoiseTrade.com.
