News Archive
Kenny Mason is a West Atlanta native who started writing raps at just 12 years old. His budding talent for songwriting and rapping coincided with his discovery of and love for bands like My Chemical Romance, Smashing Pumpkins, and Deftones (thanks to video games like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and…
A Conversation With Hitmaker Howard Benson
Producing hit songs requires as much technical know-how as the ability to let one’s head fly above the clouds, so to speak, and if there’s any producer who can legitimately claim to have mastered both skills, it’s Howard Benson. A onetime aerospace engineer, Benson has become a go-to producer for…
Indie Spotlight: Wrongchilde
Gold Blooded, the highly anticipated album from the hopelessly romantic yet slightly askew Wrongchilde (Mat Devine of Kill Hannah), was just released yesterday, September 16. Hot off the presses, the album is entirely crowd funded from PledgeMusic and from the acoustic sounds of “Falling In Love Will Kill You,” to…
Indie Spotlight: Leave the Universe
The ambitious roadtrip from their hometown of Durango, Colorado, to San Diego, California, is definitely paying off for Leave the Universe. They started their journey in 2009 playing local venues before packing up their car and heading to San Diego with ambitious determination and really good music. Counting 30 Seconds…
USA Today ‘Platinum Possibilities’ Dominated by BMI Songwriters
Autumnal album release schedules are traditionally stacked with highly anticipated music. USA Today music writers Edna Gundersen, Steve Jones, Jerry Shriver, Elysa Gardner and Brian Mansfield recently profiled the 2010 lineup, and the group’s list of promising projects is dominated by BMI singer/songwriters. In fact, all but one of
Flyleaf Ascends
The cover of Flyleaf’s self-titled 2005 debut album features a tousle-haired young man being hoisted aloft by birds. It’s a striking and symbolic image, one that serves as a metaphor for Flyleaf’s confessed Christian beliefs, as well as the band’s heavenly ascent into the hard-rock major leagues. In late 2009,…
For Shinedown, ‘The Sound of Madness’ Is the Sound of Success
Just when it seemed that the career of Florida rockers Shinedown couldn’t get any more massive, along came The Sound of Madness. The group’s third studio album for Atlantic, which came out last year to immediate acclaim by critics and fans alike, has been certified gold, while its second single,…
Run Run Run Rouses Viper Room As BMI’s September ‘Pick’
BMI hosted RUN RUN RUN at the September 3 edition of BMI’s Pick of the Month series. The highly anticipated and well attended show at the Viper Room featured the stylish, high-energy quartet delivering their infectious blend of pop/rock in the perfect Hollywood setting. RUN RUN RUN has spent the…
Escape the Fate
Escape the Fate is a Las Vegas-based band that, thanks to the group’s post-hardcore sound, reflects the underside of the city where America goes to party and gamble. But in their case, what happens in Vegas has hardly stayed in Vegas. The band members found one another through My Space,…
Seether
Releasing a song that was written as a joke could have been a mistake. But for hard-rock outfit Seether, there’s nothing funny about “Fake It,” the infectious first single from the group’s recently released third studio effort, Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces (Wind-up Records). Frontman, guitarist and principal songwriter Shaun…