It's A Hit!

The Midnight Youth Album was released two days ago in New Zealand, and is already #1 album on itunes New Zealand! The single “All On Our Own” moved passed Kings Of Leon to take the #9 spot on radio charts and # 20 on the Top 40 chart! Off to a good start ! The band is planning a big NZ and Australian tour with thousands in attendence, and I’m sure it will be great. This is stikiness in real time folks, jump on board!

One year ago today I was with Midnight Youth on our 2nd to last day of recording, mostly guitar overdubs and some piano. We were marathoning because they were leaving in 48 hours and we still had a bunch of stuff to do. Simon and Nick were working on Guitars at the Buddy Project studio, and I was with Jeremy working on vocals at Goodle string studio. It was a good thing Nick was a talented Pro Tool engineer as well as musician so they could crank.It was hectic but we got alot of work done.

These Guys have come a long way in the last year, if they keep it up they will be a houshold name world wide!

Hear are 5 podcasts...

http://jessierocks.podbean.com/

http://sumlite.podbean.com/

http://web.me.com/mayasolovey/Site/Podcast/Podcast.html

http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&id=29532

http://jackieshalackie.podbean.com

High Tech vs. The Simple Life:

High Tech vs. The Simple Life:
The Tipping Point, Aesop, and backwards compatibility.

So I bought an ipod nano since my original ipod fried. This little device seemed simple and elegant. I was looking forward to getting some songs, audio books and podcasts loaded up ASAP!
When I got home and hooked up the USB to my 12” Mac G4 laptop
I was informed by a pop up menu I needed the latest version of itunes in order to use the nano. The computer and itunes recognized the nano but for some reason it would not work with my somewhat recent itunes version. Ok, I thought, I’ll just go to apple and download the latest itunes. After a brief download, I clliked on the installer icon and a new pop up informed me that the new itunes is not compatible with OS 10.3.9 , (panther) I needed at least 10.4 (panther). OK, well the new version of flash doesn’t work with 10.3.9 and it was as bad of time as any to upgrade my system software. So, 24 hours and $150 later I was the proud owner of OS10.5.6. I inserted the dvd and clicked the install Icon. “there is not enough room to install another 11 gig is needed”
Holy shit! Thi system is more than 10x the size of 10.3.9! I have a 40Gig hard drive with less than a gig available. What a pain in the ass, Ok, so I’ll back up the laptop on an external drive and delete a bunch of photos …well that was not enough so I had to start a looking at my itunes library. I actually buy my music so my library is all songs I either paid to download or bought the CD, and it would all have to be re authorized if I erase it. But I had no choice so I wiped the drive and installed the gigantic 10.3.9 onto my laptop. I was able to import my itunes library and re authorize most of the songs and it has been working ok so far. I remember the days when apple products were always backward compatible. WTF?


Meanwhile my black berry track ball stopped tracking, so I cant txt,email or look up phone numbers.

I canceled my data plan and I am about to throw the thing in the river and get a $30 unlimited calls plan from metro pcs and call it a day. Since I moved back into my apartment I did not bother turning cable back on. No phone, TV, or internet. I love it. I am reading again, maybe in a year or so I’ll remember how to spell. I don’t know if Im at a “ tipping point” or a “Snapping Point” but I will blog a twit and my way to canceling con ed and living with candles. I guess I enjoyed the pain so much I decided to do a system and computer upgrade. I wont even get started about transferring my hundreds of plug ins from my powermac g4 to my G5, I think a picture is worth a thousand words…ho right I cant take a picture with my blackberry because the button is broken!!

Rocco Deluca Show

Last week I was off to see Rocco Delucca at the bowery ballroom. It was a great time and Rocco put on a great show. His bluesy style and electric feedback was really intense and he had the audience enthralled for he entire show. After the show we went to a local watering hall to have some drinks and talk about the show and music in general. I spoke to Rocco about his slide style and found out he makes his own slides! He actually takes some hot wax on a string and melts the top off of wine bottles. (still trying to find out the vintage of choice but based on the tone it must be red)

Rocco’s Drummer Ryan Carman totally rocked with some heavy grooves and wide dynamics. There is no bass player ,just electric dobro and drums with three amps creating sort of a feedback triad which Rocco moves about to ride the feedback as part of the sound and performance. We had a long discussion about Bohnam and Moon among other great drummers and bands.

The folks at Ironworks Records were supper cool. As a producer who specializes in artist discovery and development it was refreshing to meet Kiefer Southerland , the record man, and talk about lost art of artist development. Ironworks has it right and I have enormous faith in Kiefer’s leadership and vision. In 20 years I would not be surprised if Ironworks is responsible for the careers off future legends. Most labels lack the patience and consistence required to break an artist and develop a career.


Over al a great nigh, I will show up again when Rocco is back in town and I look forward to checking out the other Iron works Artists!

http://www.roccodeluca.com/

Save Yourself!!!!!

Had to chance a recording session today because of some computer problems. I was resetting some software and lost power right in the middle and now my entire system is screwed . I will likely have to restore the system which if that is the case I’ll have to buy a new computer. One song file from a\ client will not open now and may have been corrupted. We ueually back up after every session but may not have last session which was a vocal session. It would be a total drag if we cannot load the session, I need to try it on another machine with digital performer.

If I can load it on another machine I will be stoked, but I will not have a chance to do that until tomorrow. NOTE TO SELL : ALLWAYS BACK UP!!!!! I’ll see if I can save Myself!
Speaking of ….
Tonight I am off to see Rocco Delucca & the Burden at Bowery. They have that song “Save Yourself” which I think is pretty Rockin’ reminds me of a Chris Cornell? Zep vibe, and the band sounds tight. I look forward to hearing them live! I will post about it latter.`

Check out the video:

Save Yourself!!!!!

Had to chance a recording session today because of some computer problems. I was resetting some software and lost power right in the middle and now my entire system is screwed . I will likely have to restore the system which if that is the case I’ll have to buy a new computer. One song file from a\ client will not open now and may have been corrupted. We ueually back up after every session but may not have last session which was a vocal session. It would be a total drag if we cannot load the session, I need to try it on another machine with digital performer.

If I can load it on another machine I will be stoked, but I will not have a chance to do that until tomorrow. NOTE TO SELL : ALLWAYS BACK UP!!!!! I’ll see if I can save Myself!
Speaking of ….
Tonight I am off to see Rocco Delucca & the Burden at Bowery. They have that song “Save Yourself” which I think is pretty Rockin’ reminds me of a Chris Cornell? Zep vibe, and the band sounds tight. I look forward to hearing them live! I will post about it latter.`

Check out the video:

So I’ve been blogging about Midnight Youth a lot. Now they played a kik ass show in NYC last week and we had a great after party at Norwood House hosted by director Guy Quinlan who is directing the video for the Midnight Youth song “ Learning To Fall “.I am planning a US mix of the song with a string arrangement by Jesse Pynigar and myself . Jesse worked with film composer Howard Shore on Lord Of The Rings and many other projects. The parts are really cool and I can’t wait to get the players together. We may use some Suny Purchase Orchestra players on the recording!
I’ve posted some photos that Midnight Youth Documentary filmmaker and photographer
Michael Humphrey took while we were recording the album.












I am in the market for a new car and I test-drove the all-new infinity G37 coup.
It was pretty sweet and the folks at Pepe infinity were nice. The car was surprisingly stiff and bumpy at slow speeds but handled well on the highway. I was not blown away by the timing of the 6 speed transmission and in manual mode I found the Farrari inspired paddles not worth the effort. In the end It would be hard for me to rationalize a car that gets the same mileage as my 1998 ford explorer. 18 mpg city!