Archive for September, 2010
Q&A: Local filmmaker discusses web series on one year anniversary
Sep 30th
Derek James Hauk
Web television, which are shows filmed and released only on the internet, are gaining in popularity. It goes along with the DIY (do-it-yourself) mentality, of shooting, editing and posting things yourself. Recently, I had a local web show creator contact me about his show.
Derek James Hauk, 25, of Warsaw, Ill., went to college at Quincy University and recently lost his job, so he thought a web series was a good way to fill his time. He started “Music Video Theatre 3000″ about a year ago and it runs on AudibleUnderwear.com.
I checked out a couple of his episodes and I must say, it is creative, silly and fun. Each show must be watched all the way through to catch all of the craziness, so it is definitely worth checking out.
Hauk answers some questions about the show below:
Martin-Cate
MARTIN-CATE: Why did you start the web series?
HAUK: I had a full-time position teaching music at a small school south of Jacksonville, Ill. I lost it and had to move back home. Unable to find other full-time employment, I decided I needed something to occupy myself with and since I was a fan of other online shows, it was an easy decision to start my own.
MARTIN-CATE: What inspires your show?
HAUK: My inspirations are my love of music and my time in the Quincy University drama club. While I was at QU, the members of the Brother Sun Sister Moon Players encouraged me to write plays, so I’m very comfortable with scripting the series. Probably the most well-known of the online shows that I draw inspiration from would be the Angry Video Game Nerd.
MARTIN-CATE: Please describe the series.
HAUK: Every episode reviews a music video and finds humor in all the strange things artists do to try and grab our attention and each episode is part of an ongoing story with recurring characters all played by myself. There area also cameos from other online hosts and even the occasional cliffhanger.
MARTIN-CATE: What are your plans for the future of the web series?
HAUK: I will be branching out into reviewing more movies in the second year, and also trying to include more musical analysis in each video. I also hope to upgrade the camera and special effects eventually, and make the episodes feel more like short films.
MARTIN-CATE: What can viewers expect from the show?
HAUK: People can expect a lot of mostly clean humor, a lot of wacky characters and even a little bit of education. If you’ve ever sat through a movie cracking jokes to your friends the whole time, you’ll feel right at home.
“Music Video Theatre 3000″ can be seen anytime at AudibleUnderwear.com or on YouTube. Also, a teaser of the series featuring “I’m Not Okay,” by My Chemical Romance is below:
Jessica M. Martin-Cate
jmartin@thelocalq.com
Kix Club is listed on Indie On the Move
Sep 27th
Martin-Cate
Quincy’s Kix Club, 509 S. Ninth, has put Quincy on the Illinois map of top indie music venues on the website Indie On the Move.
Kurt Jansen, who books shows at the Kix Club, says it takes “a little work and a little luck” to book local to international bands at the small venue (the rest of the interview is here).
I previously wrote about another area venue, Music @ the Mall in Keokuk, being recognized as the number #1 indie music venue in Iowa.
The Kix Club, which is described as specializing in heavy rock and punk (AWESOME), has yet to be rated on the site, but as people continue to tout the indie hub, it can only help to bring even more acts to the area.
P.S. Thanks to Danny Mabie, Quincy drummer, for letting me know Kix Club was listed, yay for the local scene!
Jessica Martin-Cate
jmartin@whig.com
LIVE BLOG: Royal Bliss at Backwaters now
Sep 25th
VIP winners from The Local Q!
The Local Q team is at Backwaters outside now, giving away gift certificates and the grand prize of a VIP booth will be given away shortly. The winner will get to meet Utah’s Royal Bliss. I will be keeping you updated all night here, so check back!
7:27 p.m. Antidote is sound checking and fans are lining up around the block, we can’t wait to rock!
7:47 p.m. Jason Launer, the acoustic opener, is currently sound checking, we are getting close to start! Chris Cornwell just called me his biggest critic, he is the sound engineer for the show. I told him, it is hard to review music when the sound is bad, but he’s doing a great job at Backwaters.
8:35 p.m. Royal Bliss, Antidote and Jason Launer just did the meet and greet with The Local Q VIP booth winners, don’t you wish you were the winners?
8:39 p.m. I just talked with Neal Middleton from Royal Bliss and he said they are so excited about the new label deal, where they make their own decisions on music!
8:47 p.m. Jason Launer just took the stage and is playing rock music with his acoustic guitar. Play some super happy music Launer!
8:54 p.m. The third floor is already filling up, the fans are showing up in droves for the Royal Bliss show and cheers are going up as Launer starts up a Matchbox 20 song.
9:04 p.m. The acoustic music is flowing, but it is a bit slow, let’s rock it up a bit!
9:08 p.m. Jason Launer just left the stage, Antidote is up next!
9:20 p.m. Antidote is taking the stage now!
9:46 p.m. Antidote is still playing, a bit low stuff, but it will pick up.
9:30 p.m. The crowd is kind of hanging out and chilling during Antidote!
10:06 p.m. Antidote is performing their signature ballad and the crowd is holding up lighters and cell phones, “the best I can be….”
10:12 p.m. Antidote switches to covers with some Seether and the crowd goes crazy for the “Remedy.”
10:15 p.m. Neal Middleton from Royal Bliss just said they are going on at 10:30 p.m. ish, YES!
10:17 p.m. Antidote said this is their last song and they are rocking out!
10:26 p.m. I just barely lost a push up battle on the second floor balcony at Backwaters, Local Q rocks!
10:28 p.m. Lisa is way cooler than Gavin, mostly because she has heard of The Local Q, we love her!
10:32 p.m. Royal Bliss is preparing to take the stage, yay!
10:35 p.m. Gavin is a bit sad now that he wasn’t initially in our club with knowing who we are, but you know what we will take him anyway!
10:42 p.m. Waiting for Royal Bliss to start!
10:46 p.m. Royal Bliss just took the stage and the crowd is going wild! “What’s up Quincy?” Middleton said.
10:50 p.m. The Local Q VIP winners are loving their great view of Royal Bliss and Royal Bliss is already putting on a great show!
10:55 p.m. “This is the first time our new bass player has ever been in Quincy and it won’t be his last, I can tell you that,” Middleton said.
11:08 p.m. Royal Bliss said they were going to premiere new songs and they just did, the crowd ate it up!
10:58 p.m. The crowd is singing along “we did nothing wrong…”
11:15 p.m. Neal Middleton of Royal Bliss just gave The Local Q a huge shout out for promoting the show, thanks Neal and we hope Local Q fans are out in droves!!!!!!
11:26 p.m. The new bass player just held his own on that song. Right now Royal Bliss is getting ready to play the song that was the 4:20 p.m. song of the day on KZZK, they are excited!
11:35 p.m. Middleton is talking about the last time they were here when his Gibson acoustic guitar was stolen and he was really sad about it, but he is cool now, even though they haven’t seen it since, he says they aren’t going to let anyone ruin for them, although he just said if they walk out there and their “motor home is gone, they will be pretty p*ssed!”
11:49 p.m. Royal Bliss just talked about the first time they performed in Quincy and how great Backwaters was to them, love it!
11:54 p.m. Middleton just had the entire crowd sing the Happy Birthday song to his mom, cause she is awesome!
11:59 p.m. Middleton just sang “where all the angels go” and then said this is our last song next.
12:02 p.m. Middleton is walking around while singing “I was drunk” and clinking drinks with everyone in the crowd on a wireless microphone. Great show!
12:05 p.m. In the immortal words of Neal Middleton, Royal Bliss lead-singer, “after 10,ooo beer and 28 years, I’ve finally figured it out, there’s plenty of time, to settle on down.” The crowd is chanting for an encore, will Royal Bliss give it to them?
12:07 p.m. Middleton is set to perform a rare acoustic song for an encore now.
12:12 p.m. Royal Bliss is planning to rock an extra encore now!
12:18 p.m. It all ends in a chug, rightfully so, great night!
Q&A: Royal Bliss guitarist talks label, management changes
Sep 23rd
Royal Bliss
Martin-Cate
Utah’s Royal Bliss is returning to Quincy Friday for a show at Backwaters with local act Antidote. The guys are putting the finishing touches on their next big studio album in Nashville, breaking in a new bass player and going through label and management changes. To find out more about the album and Friday’s show, click here. To find out more from the group’s guitarist Taylor Richards on the management and label changes, read below.
LABEL NEWS
“We have left Capitol Records, but have stayed with EMI, who owns Capitol, we have kind of skipped the middle man. They want us to stay in the family and distribute our record, what we basically have become with EMI is our own label with major label distribution. There’s still that option of reverting back to a record deal with them or staying independent.”
What this means is that Royal Bliss is in charge of its direction in terms of music.
Because of this, “this was the first record where we went in with the songs we felt comfortable with and recorded them. We are working on a kind of one big game plan for the new record. We want to make sure that when we come out we come out firing on all cylinders, we want to make sure the campaign behind it works.”
MANAGEMENT NEWS
“We are right in the middle of separation with our management. They were wanting us to do some things we didn’t want to do, and we decided it was best for us to part ways. We’ve been talking to a new management company, The Union Group, and they manage bands like Candlebox, Nickleback, Steven Tyler and more.”
RANDOM SIDE NOTE
Royal Bliss performed at Steamboat Days in June this summer with Buckcherry and local act TNT (read here), and Richards said that was the biggest crowd they have every performed in front of, which ended up being around 16,000 people. Richards couldn’t believe that out of all the cities they’ve performed in with big bands like Stone Temple Pilots and even large shows in their home state, that they couldn’t believe that the biggest show they have ever performed at was in Burlington, Iowa.
To listen to audio of an interview by Jessica Martin-Cate with Royal Bliss lead-singer Neal Middleton on previous label issues and how the band started, click here. To read the last Royal Bliss show blog, click here.
Jessica Martin-Cate
jmartin@whig.com
Double Vision and promoter cancel St. Louis show
Sep 22nd
Double Vision
Quincy hip hop stars Double Vision was set to perform in St. Louis at Fubar Sept. 30, but the show was “mutually canceled” between the guys and the promoters.
Lack of ticket sales is said to be the cause.
Double Vision is currently signed to California-based label No Sleep Records and is planning another Midwest tour soon.
Jessica Martin-Cate
jmartin@whig.com
Chicago band has fourth number one album on Billboard
Sep 9th
Rock band and Chicago natives Disturbed just nabbed a fourth consecutive number one album on the Billboard 200 chart with the new album “Asylum,” which sold 179,000 copies last week. To read more about this and the other top five artist, click here.
According to radio DJ, Kidd Kraddick, the only other bands that have had four consecutive number one albums are Metallica and Dave Mathews Band. Whether you like Disturbed or not, you have to give them props for such a milestone.
Here is a video interview with Disturbed:
Below is a random, but interesting bit of music history:
MOST NUMBER ONE ALBUMS ON BILLBOARD:
- The Beatles (19)
- Jay-Z (11)
- Elvis Presley (10)
- Bruce Springsteen (9) (tie)
- The Rolling Stones (9) (tie)
- Barbra Streisand (9) (tie)
- Garth Brooks (8)
- Elton John (7) (tie)
- Led Zeppelin (7) (tie)
- Madonna (7) (tie)
- U2 (7) (tie)
Jessica M. Martin-Cate
jmartin@whig.com
My lifelong guilty pleasure is still going strong
Sep 8th
Pop sensation Justin Bieber. (Photos from mtv.com)
What are your plans for the weekend?
One of mine is to tune into the MTV Video Music Awards at 8 p.m. Sunday. It is the only time all year long that I watch MTV on purpose.
Chelsea Handler
Since the onslaught of “Jersey Shore” and all the pregnant shows, I haven’t been a devoted viewer of the network, like I once was many, many years ago, but for one night, the self-proclaimed Music Television network, actually has music on it. Now whether you like that music or not is whole other issue, but who cares. Itt is like being outside watching the fish bowl full of pop tarts and punk and gangster wannabees and then every once in awhile, a true icon shows up and gives us hope for the future of music.
Plus Chelsea Handler (the host of “Chelsea Lately”) is hosting this year and you just never know what is going to come out of her mouth.
Also, does anyone else see Justin Bieber and think “how did this happen?” It is just about the oddest phenomenon yet, but hey people have a right to like what they like.
This past weekend, some friends and I, all of us parents, were watching Saturday Night Live when Bieber was the host and we all stared in awe with someone finally asking, “how is he that popular, what is like 12 years old?”
Others said he is the death of the music industry and some went so far as to feel sorry for him saying “he is going to be a mess when he grows up.”
Who knows what the fates have in store for the little tyke, but either way it will be interesting to see if he transitions into a Justin Timberlake or ends up hosting infomercials.
We can’t forget little miss Taylor Swift, who is up for Best Female Video again. Can anyone say SECURITY? Will Kanye West or someone else steal her thunder yet again? My bet is on the dirrrty Ke$ha, who will attempt a joke while intoxicated or just out of it. Truly though, I don’t know that she stands a chance against Katy Perry, Ke$ha, Lady Gaga and Beyonce, but her fans are fanatics, so we shall see.
Video of the Year has some really great nominees this year with Eminem’s “Not Afraid,” 30 Seconds to Mars with “Kings and Queens,” B.o.B. and Hayley Williams “Airplanes,” Florence + the Machine’s “Dog Days Are Over,” and Lady Gaga up for two with “Bad Romance” and her collaboration with Beyonce in “Telephone.”
And don’t forget, you can still vote for Best New Artist nominees, Broken Bells, Drake, Justin Bieber, Ke$ha and Nicki Minaj, by clicking here.
Eminem, Katy Perry, center, and Taylor Swift. (Photos from mtv.com)
Check back for my tweets during the show Sunday!
Jessica M. Martin-Cate
jmartin@whig.com
P.S. The video below is Will Smith’s 9-year-old daughter, Willow Smith, singing the pop song “Whip Your Hair.” Can anyone else see this craziness hitting the stage next year? I predict her as the opener for Bieber’s next tour.
GUEST BLOGGER REVIEW: The Graduate still has it
Sep 5th
The Graduate
On Friday, Quincy’s Turner Hall had a turnout of just shy of 200 kids that showed up to support the release of The Graduate’s second full-length album “Only Every Time,” officially released Aug. 31.
The new album is under the label Razor & Tie, based out of New York, and is now available online or in a record store near you.
Members include, Jared Wuestenberg and Corey Warning, who are Quincy natives, and Max Sauer, Tim Moore and Matt Kennedy, who hail from Springfield, Ill. The group is kicking off a tour with headliners Ludo at the Metro in Chicago Sept. 9; also accompanied by There for Tomorrow, and Tommy and the High Pilots. The nationwide tour closes out back in the Midwest at the beautiful St. Louis venue The Pageant, Oc. 17.
What’s Fair played first followed by Fielder, who I must say even with a different drummer, sounded incredible. The Graduate opened with the superlative and energizing song, “Anhedonia,” off their last full-length album. Then the following song, “Siren,” really got the place dancing with Kennedy’s keyboard and Sauer’s guitar riffs that have flawless harmony.
After those two opening songs, it really is quite evident that these guys are extremely talented, and put on an amazing live performance. I’m a huge fan of live music, and when bands can sound just as good — if not better — live as they do on their recordings it’s quite impressive. These guys have such a creative and exciting live show that Quincy should feel proud to its contribution of 2/5ths of the band.
That creativity really peaks with the instrumental song, “Interlude 20.” Moore is an incredible drummer, who keeps an awesome head banging beat and Warning’s falsetto is quite remarkable with his ability to maintain and control the pitch. The whole band contributes enough talent to have an overall sound that is indie rock with a little melodic pop and undeniably unique.
I predict good things for this band on behalf that their new album is fantastic in its entirety. I very much look forward to seeing The Graduate again, but this time at The Pageant on Oct. 17.
Daniel Pritchett
Pritchett
BIO
Daniel “The Man” Thomas Pritchett is a sophomore at John Wood Community College and majoring in liberal arts. He hopes to transfer into journalism in the near future.
He was born in August of 1989 and says the 80s were a great decade to be a part of. He has lived in Quincy since January. He previously lived in St. Louis and before that in Boston, where he discovered the thrill of rock shows and that activity is now his passion.
Pritchett’s Random Music Stats
• He grew up on the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Mellencamp and too much country music.
• The first concert he attended was As I Lay Dying, Atreyu and Deftones.
• Best concert he has attended was Stevie Wonder opening for Jay-Z.
• He loves the chill that goes up his spine when he hears amazing music.
• If he was stranded on a island and could only bring one record with, it would be The Killers, “Sam’s Town.”
Only the best-of-the-best in live music for three days
Sep 3rd
Odd Order
Per a new weekly ritual, the following is a guide to live entertainment this weekend. You can find shows yourself our new entertainment site, The Local Q, but there are so many live music shows listed that it can be difficult to choose.
Here are my choices:
FRIDAY
The Graduate at Turner Hall in Quincy
• Pick up the new Graduate CD, “Only Every Time,” while also enjoying Quincy’s Fielder and What’s Fair. I suggest starting and ending your night at this display of pop meets indie. To read the story, click here.
SATURDAY
Odd Order at the Kix Club in Quincy
• Knoxville, Tenn., trio Odd Order is set to bring surf meets punk meets metal to Kix Club for all to enjoy. Their EP “Secret Crime,” which they are touring to support, is killer. You can buy it at the show. To read the story, click here.
SUNDAY
TNT at the Nauvoo Grape Festival in Nauvoo, Ill.
• This Classic rock cover band covers the hardest bands in rock and nails every song. Click here for my review.
Support local music and go to a show!
Jessica M. Martin-Cate
jmartin@whig.com
Q&A: Kurt Jansen of the Kix Club in Quincy talks about booking shows
Sep 1st
Kix Club show organizer Kurt Jansen recently talked about the process of booking regional, national and even international music acts at his bar. This year alone he has booked bands from Germany, Israel, Kansas City, Mo., and more. Saturday’s show at the Kix Club features Knoxville, Tenn., artist Odd Order.
Israel band Carusella performed at the Kix Club in March.
How do you continue to have out-of-town bands perform at your bar?
JANSEN: “A little work and a little luck. We get them a number of different ways. We work with local bands and promoters who are bringing bands in to play with them and we go looking for bands through various websites. I am always scouting for bands when I am out. That is how we were able to get The Samantha Fish Blues Band to play here in June. My wife and I were in Kansas City looking for blues music when we came across a barbecue place with live music and when we heard Samantha play the first song, I thought we have to get her to Quincy. That was quite a thrill as they have gone on to be named the top blues act in Kansas City.”
What else helps with booking?
JANSEN: “We are starting to build a bit of a reputation of hosting touring bands. It helps that we have a great and enthusiastic crowd and an intimate venue with good sound. We also try to treat the acts right. As a matter of fact, we just booked an Irish bluegrass/punk band for November, that got a hold of us after they were referred to us by another band we had booked.”
What shows are you working on currently?
JANSEN: “I am in talks with an act out of St. Louis and one out of Columbia that plays regularly in Columbia. We just need to settle on dates that work for everybody.”
What are your plans for the future with booking shows?
JANSEN: “We hope to keep doing more of the same. Our goal is to continue to provide great live entertainment. We have a great amount of respect for the wealth of talent that exists right here in the area and want to continue to provide a place for them to perform. We are going to continue to bring in the best acts we can get from around the region and around the world.”
Jessica M. Martin-Cate
jmartin@thelocalq.com
