November

OK Go

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Okay, let’s just get this part out of the way. Most people know OK Go from their videos, especially those treadmills. Any video that’s well enough known to be parodied on The Simpsons is a cultural force in itself and, checking the YouTube rating right before sitting down to write this, I was amazed to see that the number of views on the band’s YouTube page alone now stands at 47,788,229. That’s a lot. That many people and a brother who’s the Governor of Florida is pretty much enough to win you a presidential election. Add the zillions who’ve seen it elsewhere, and you might not even need the brother. So if you’re reading these words, you’ve probably seen that video. I find even more endearing the video dance to “A Million Ways” that hundreds of amateur foursomes – kids and adults and church groups and school groups – have imitated in what certainly must be the world’s first international YouTube dance contest. If you haven’t had the pleasure, Google it right now and prepare to lose two hours of your life.

Music video for "WTF?"

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Ra Ra Riot

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Ra Ra Riot formed in January 2006 in Syracuse, New York while attending university. The band quickly caught the ear of the industry and the tastemakers with many stellar performances including the 2006 CMJ Music Marathon and SXSW 2007. The NME honored them as one of the Top 5 and Top 10 bands that played those festivals respectively. Ra Ra Riot had an incredibly successful 2007 releasing their self-titled, debut ep in July throughout North America and Europe, garnering acclaim in Rolling Stone, Nylon, Spin.com, NPR’s “All Songs Considered”, amongst many others. Ra Ra Riot spent November and December in the studio with producer Ryan Hadlock (The Gossip, Blonde Redhead, Stephen Malkmus) recording their debut full-length, which will see release later this year. In January the band made their Montreal and Toronto debut, to packed houses. They sold-out their first headlining appearance at New York’s famed Bowery Ballroom before heading to SXSW, making six appearances in four days. The rest of Spring ’08 will be spent opening for The Cribs, followed by a co-headlining tour with The Little Ones, which will find them hitting nearly every market imaginable.

Music video for "Can You Tell"

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Rebelution

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Hailing from Santa Barbara, California, Rebelution has developed into the front runner for grassroots, independent and touring driven music groups representing the Cali-Reggae scene. Originally formed in 2004, members Eric Rachmany (vocals / guitar,) Rory Carey (keyboards,) Wesley Finley (drums,) and Marley D. Williams (bass) met in college, while residing in Isla Vista, a popular beachside community in Santa Barbara. It was there that the seeds to Rebelution's future would be planted-- and would instill their kick back, "worry free" vibes, catchy refrain, and optimistic, inspiring, and engaging music that would leave their listeners with the sense that they have the power to make this world a better place.

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Social Distortion

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In the late 1970s the first raw, sloppy, speeding guitar chords began to blare from the garages and backrooms of a Southern California suburb called Orange County. They echoed a sound forged in the preceding years in the seminal punk undergrounds of New York City and London. By 1979, a 17 year old kid named Mike Ness had formed Social Distortion with drummer Casey Royer and brothers Rikk and Frank Agnew. The band's world centered around Mike's one-bedroom pad, dubbed "the black hole," in a nondescript Fullerton, CA apartment complex. After meeting Dennis Danell, a punk loving classmate, Ness insisted Danell, who at the time didn’t play an instrument, join the band on bass. Royer and the Agnew’s soon split from the band and eventually form The Adolescents. Local Los Angeles KROQ-FM deejay Rodney Bingenheimer embraced Orange County music, playing highlights from its major local bands, including Social Distortion, on his Sunday night radio show. In 1981, Social Distortion released their first single, "Mainliner/Playpen," on the Posh Boy label. Around the same time, Mike Ness developed a reputation as a brawler resulting in a chunk of his left ear being bitten off during a confrontation at the Cuckoo’s Nest bar.

Music video for "Ball and Chain"

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The Dandy Warhols

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Often compared to the druggy psychedelic pop of the Velvet Underground, the Dandy Warhols do posses more than just a passing resemblance to Lou Reed and Co. at times, but elements of such modern rockers as Love and Rockets and Ride can be detected in their sound, as well. Formed in Portland, OR, during 1994, the Dandy Warhols consist of members Courtney Taylor (vocals, guitar), Zia McCabe (keyboards), Peter Holmstrom (guitar), and Eric Hedford (drums), who signed on with the independent label Tim/Kerr shortly after their formation. 1995 saw the release of the quartet's debut release, Dandy's Rule OK?, and while other rock bands may be a bit hesitant to spell out their influences, the Dandy Warhols decided to openly advertise it as the album contained such song titles as "Lou Weed" and "Ride."

Music video for "We Used To Be Friends"

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Joanna Newsom

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Have you ever seen that movie The Village? Yeah, that’s how Joanna Newsom was discovered. She came out of a dark, impenetrable forest and was so clearly from another century, it was just spooky. Fortunately for all of us, this initial impression turned out to be a complete misunderstanding! Our Joanna is clearly from the 20th century, and today, just like the rest of us, she lives in the 21st. Fact is, the newness of Joanna’s sound makes us tremble violent-like when we think back — gulp — eight whole years to when it all began. Back then, Joanna was playing keyboards with an SF group and writing songs on the harp more or less as an exercise, taping them just to remember how she’d put them together. One thing led to another and geez, she ended up selling a million(-ish) records!

Performin "You And Me, Bess" on Jimmy Kimmel Live

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Cannibal Corpse

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Formed in 1988, Buffalo born/Tampa raised Cannibal Corpse helped found, manipulate and transcend the very boundaries of death metal beginning with the scandalously controversial debut, Eaten Back To Life. Raising the eyebrows of inquisitive metalheads and incensed parents and politicians, the record - produced by Scott Burns at the now renowned Morrisound Studios - was more extreme and confrontational than anything the metal genre had ever known. As a result of the band's brilliantly gruesome cover art, grisly lyrics and song titles like "Hammer Smashed Face," "Meat Hook Sodomy" and "Addicted To Vaginal Skin," follow-up records Butchered At Birth (1991) and Tomb Of The Mutilated (1992) were met with further contempt by the likes of such organized censorship leagues as the PMRC. In just three years, the sale of Cannibal Corpse merchandise was (temporarily) prohibited in Australia, Korea and New Zealand (in fact, the sale of Butchered At Birth and the performance of those three records is still forbidden in Germany). But dissuaded they were not.

Proving technical dexterity, diabolic vocal grunts and a penchant for serial killers, zombies and gore of all shapes, sizes and textures, Cannibal Corpse won over the hearts of many a metal extremist and have since become a harrowing household name. Since the bands inception they have sold millions of albums world wide and show no sign of slowing or bowing down to the ever changing metal genre. Massive tours throughout the U.S. and Europe as well as Australia and South America only underscored the band's staying power…and all this with zero commercial radio presence and minimal video play (although the band did appear in the Hollywood blockbuster, Ace Ventura - Pet Detective).

Music video for "Make Them Suffer"

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Tickets on sale
Friday, September 10th at 12 noon!

Cyndi Lauper

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Cyndi Lauper burst onto the world stage as the quintessential girl who wants to have fun. After more than 20 sterling years and global record sales in excess of 25 million, she has proven that she has the heart and soul to keep her legion of fans compelled by her every creative move. The beauty of Cyndi Lauper is that she has evolved into a richly multi-faceted renaissance woman who strikes a resonant chord with each project. With her first album “She’s So Unusual”, Cyndi won a Grammy award for Best New Artist and became the first female artist in history to have five top-10 singles from a debut album. Along the way, she has continually won accolades as a singer, musician, actress, and writer. She has been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards, 2 Emmy Awards, 2 American Music Awards, 7 American Video Awards and 18 MTV awards.

Music video for "Time After Time"

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