“I Saw Them When” featuring – Walk The Moon – Battleme
Event on 2012-05-29 19:00:00
McMenamins and 94/7 present"I Saw Them When" featuring
Walk The Moon
Battleme
- Crystal Hotel & Ballroom – Crystal Ballroom |
- Website:
- http://walkthemoonband.com/
- Official website:
- http://battleme.tv/
- Myspace page:
- http://www.myspace.com/battlemeatx
- Facebook page:
- http://www.facebook.com/battlemeatx
Tuesday, May 29
Nicholas Petricca (vocals, keyboards)
Kevin Ray (bass, vocals)
Eli Maiman (guitar, vocals)
Sean Waugaman (drums, vocals)
This past June, Seattle news and culture blog Seattlest.com posted a review of a show by Walk The Moon. It read like this: "Walk The Moon hit the stage with so much energy that the crowd immediately pushed forward and started dancing. It's refreshing to see a band that's having as much, or more, fun than the people there to see them. They took us back to the days of basement dance parties on hot summer nights, where everyone's just happy to be alive and among friends."
That review pretty much sums up this young Cincinnati band's mission statement: "We want our music to be the most fun thing you've ever listened to in your entire life," says bassist Kevin Ray. "We want it to not just affect you emotionally, but also physically in that it makes you want to dance."
Everything Walk The Moon does is infused with a playful spirit, from their radiant live shows, where the crowd often coalesces into one joyful, pogo-ing mass, to the songs the band are currently recording for their debut album. The music brims with sparkling synth-heavy pop hooks, chanted melodies, sunny harmonies, and agile polyrhythmic grooves – a sound influenced by the New Wave stylings of their favorite artists Talking Heads, David Bowie, and The Police. "We started describing it as an ‘indie-pop fiesta' and that kind of stuck," says singer, songwriter, and keyboardist Nicholas Petricca.
Launched in 2008 by Petricca, Walk The Moon has steadily made a name for itself as an unsigned band over the last few years, attracting a broad mix of fans who have happily submitted to a pre-show face-painting ritual conducted by band members to get everyone into the communal spirit of the event. "Sometimes it's like, ‘Dude, what are you doing here? How have you heard of us?'" marvels guitarist Eli Maiman. "But they're there, they've got face paint on, and they're playing air guitar. It's awesome. We just create the music we love and hope that other people love it, too."
Walk the Moon's appeal has also extended to such press outlets as Spin.com, The New York Post, Esquire.com, MTV.com, as well as Nylonmag.com, who called them "pure, unadulterated fun" and NME.com, who raved about their "bold, broadly beaming" sound. They were also handpicked to be featured during SXSW on Last Call With Carson Daly.
So who is Walk The Moon? Petricca, Ray, Maiman, and drummer Sean Waugaman are all Ohio natives in their early 20's who became acquainted in various ways. Petricca and Ray knew each other as toddlers (their mothers were close friends), Ray and Waugaman had played in bands together, and Petricca met Maiman through the local scene in Cincinnati.
"Being a musician has always been a career dream for me," says Petricca, a golden-throated crooner who began playing piano as a child and singing in high school. "So I needed to find people who wanted to do this as badly as I did, which these guys all did." Their first gig together was at Cincinnati watering hole the Northside Tavern. "We thought, ‘If we could just get 50 people in, the room would look fine," Ray recalls. "Then 350 people showed up." Walk the Moon's shows, including jubilant sets at this year's SXSW, Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza festivals, boasted a similar vibe. "Bonnaroo was everything we could want from a Walk The Moon show," Waugaman says. "Everybody was sweaty and muddy. There were people standing on tables and on each other."
Walk The Moon are currently in the studio, and are looking forward to finishing up their album, which is being produced by Ben H. Allen (Gnarls Barkley, Animal Collective). The album will feature a host of new songs as well as new versions of songs from their independently released 2010 album I Want, I Want, including the viral sensation "Anna Sun." The eye-catching video for "Anna Sun" sparked major buzz when it was posted on tastemaker blog "All Things Go" and tweeted about by indie label Neon Gold Records.
"We wanted the video to get people interested and then for the live show to kick their asses," Petricca says. The clip for "Anna Sun" – a happy-sad sing-along affair that claims "this house is falling apart" before declaring "We're gonna rattle this ghost town!" – features Petricca cavorting with colorfully dressed young Cincinnatians sporting leotards, headbands, and face paint. The video neatly captures the creative heart of Walk The Moon's music.
"I like to write about this idea of feeling young throughout your life," Petricca says. "'Anna Sun' is about eternal youth, and it recalls a lot of my memories from college, but it also addresses the fear of losing that innocence and falling into a routine. I feel like the things we do to escape, like going out and partying, are to recapture the imagination you had a child, which is something that speaks to me personally as a songwriter. All of my favorite songs have always set my imagination running. In that sense, I love the idea that we could be a band that gets people into Neverland, and lets them make their own movie in their head while they're listening."
About Battleme
Battleme is the story of an artist’s re-birth and re-discovery. It is the timeless sound of an artist coming of age. A view from the other side. Songs with no boundaries. Battleme is Matt Drenik, an artist who has always grown up in music environments from his early days in the Cincinnati suburbs, to his life in Austin, to his current residency in Portland. His early influences came from his brothers — one was in a noise band, the other with a keen taking towards New Wave. “You had the Jesus Lizard in one room and The The in the other. I was just a kid. I didn’t understand the difference between the two.” While he didn’t understand the differences, these would be key stepping stones to the evolution of Battleme.
Battleme really began in 2009 on accident when Matt Drenik, the frontman of the Austin- based band Lions, was diagnosed with uvetis, an auto immune disease that affects the eyes of which there is no known cause or cure. At the time of his diagnosis, Matt was coming off of four years recording and touring with Lions who exploded noise and energy – touring nationally and internationally with the likes of the Toadies, Local H, and Monster Magnet. Fans gravitated towards their raucous live shows as spectacles of Drenik’s heavy state of mind.
After he got sick, things began to change. He fell in love all over again with the songs on the Rolling Stone’s Sticky Fingers, Beck’s Mellow Gold, and Flaming Lips’ Clouds Taste Metallic. With his head full of ideas and a refreshed outlook toward songwriting, Drenik set out to create something different. The music is a clear departure from what he was doing in previous projects. He decided to call this new project Battleme.
Soon after, his songs began to show up in FX’s Sons of Anarchy. He was asked to open for Joe Ely at the famed Cactus Cafe. His version of Neil Young’s “Hey Hey, My My” saw over a million hits on YouTube. Wanting a change, Drenik moved to Portland, OR in the summer of 2010. He spent the next several months recording over 40 songs in his girlfriend’s basement, bending from one genre to the next. He eventually narrowed them down to an 11 song record. After burning a few CDs for friends, Thomas Turner from Ghostland Observatory got a copy and responded. Drenik thought Turner might offer him a show with Ghostland. Instead, Turner gave him a record deal.
With Turner signed on to produce, the two lived and breathed the songs for the next six months. They sent mixes back and forth, collaborating on the sound. Drenik’s songs took on new forms – powerful hooks, bottom heavy grooves, and ethereal textures blended effortlessly with drifting, falsetto vocals to create an adventurous mix of post- modern rock and soul that would come to define the record. Synthesizers generate “Touch.” A solitary guitar builds into a wall on “Trouble.” The cosmic call to kill the quiet in “Wire” gives way to the sweet satisfaction of a “Killer High.” Genres coalesce, dividing lines disappear, and Battleme allows the sounds to create their own field of vision. A view from the other side. Songs with no boundaries.
Battleme’s eponymous debut on Trashy Moped Records was released April 24, 2012.
Wanting a change, Drenik moved to Portland, OR in the summer of 2010. He wrote over 40 songs in his basement. A handful of songs got in the hands of Thomas Turner of Ghostland Observatory who offered Drenik a deal on his label, Trashy Moped Recordings. With Turner signed on to produce, the two lived and breathed the songs for the next six months. The result is a sprawling mix of post-modern rock and soul — powerful hooks, bottom heavy grooves, and ethereal textures blended effortlessly with drifting, falsetto vocals. Genres coalesce, dividing lines disappear, and Battleme allows the sounds to create their own field of vision. Battleme’s eponymous debut on Trashy Moped Records was released April 24, 2012.
at Crystal Ballroom
1332 W Burnside
Portland, United States
CloudCamp @GlueCon May 22, 2012
Event on 2012-05-22 13:00:00
About CloudCamp:
CloudCamp is an unconference where attendees can exchange ideas, knowledge and information in a creative and supporting environment, advancing the current state of cloud computing and related technologies. As an informal, member-supported gathering, we rely entirely on volunteers to help with meeting content, speakers, meeting locations, equipment and membership recruitment. We also have corporate sponsors that provide financial assistance with venues, food, drink, software, services and other valuable donations.
CloudCamp Schedule: May 22th, 2012
- For complete schedule, visit http://cloudcamp.org/denver (CloudCamp is FREE as in beer).
- Gluecon is May 23th & 24th – Register here: http://www.gluecon.com/2012 Get 10% off your GlueCon registration with the code: "ccamp12".
Location: (Co-located the day before GlueCon)
Omni Interlocken Resourt (map)
500 Interlocken Blvd
Broomfield, CO 80021
Workshop Schedule:
1:00-4:00 pm Private IaaS Workshop (Conducted by Greg de Koenigsberg using Eucalyptus v3.x)
1:00-4:00 pm Private PaaS Workshop (Conducted by Dave McCrory & Chris Richardson using Cloud Foundry)
1:00-4:00 pm Communications-as-a-Service Workshop (Conducted by Carter Rabasa using Twilio)
CloudCamp Schedule:
4:00pm Coffee, Cookies & Networking
4:30pm Welcome and Thank yous
4:45pm Lightning Talks (5 minutes each)
5:30pm "State of the Cloud" Unpanel
6:00pm Begin Unconference (organize the Open Spaces)
6:15pm Open Spaces Round 1
7:00pm Open Spaces Round 2
7:45pm Wrap-up & Networking
8:15pm Drinks sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent
Organizers:
Dave Nielsen
Note: CloudCamp is FREE (as in beer). Get 10% off your GlueCon registration with the code: "ccamp12".
For more CloudCamps, visit: www.cloudcamp.org/schedule
at Omni Interlocken
500 Interlocken Blvd
Broomfield, United States
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