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Thursday, September 14, 2006
JIMMY JAMES - Jamestown (Made Records) -September 19th
It begins with a yearning….
UNABASHED. UNASHAMED. OUTRAGEOUS. All can be accurately used to describe the persona of one Jimmy James. For years, Jimmy James has delivered one of the most unique experiences on the entertainment scene, but you knew that right? Well just in case, maybe a little history lesson is in order. OK, let’s make one thing clear: history is one thing Jimmy has plenty of. Who else could boast of talents that have been called upon to perform for major celebrities such as Elton John, Whoopie Goldberg, Patti LaBelle, David LaChappelle, Luther Vandross, Debbie Harry, Boy George, Cyndi Lauper, Desmond Child and more? Jimmy James can make that claim….loved and revered for his unique impersonation talents the world over. But yet still, a yearning…..
Yes, Jimmy’s talents have always been recognized by his peers and audiences alike, and for that he is grateful. Who wouldn’t be? Yet, deep inside this talented man was a desire to be seen differently, a desire to deliver a different entertainment experience than that for which he had become so well known and adored. A desire to share with the whole world the musical calling that has been burning up inside of him. Call it….a yearning.
Enter top-shelf producer Markus Moser, world renowned himself for his many dance/pop hits and chart topping records. Markus meets Jimmy, Markus studies Jimmy…and Markus gets Jimmy. Oh don’t get it twisted, everybody gets Jimmy for what he does. But Markus gets Jimmy for what he is yet to do, what is his destiny, what is his….yearning.
Together Markus and Jimmy tackle that desire head on to create a musical collaboration with JAMESTOWN that transcends all of the repetitive and recycled sounds of today’s dance/pop scene. An amazing culmination that can only happen when talent and desire meets opportunity and vision, when a yearning becomes a reality.
Warming things up for the clubs, first single “FASHIONISTA” teased dance floors across the world. “Is that the same Jimmy James?” they asked. And a funny thing happened with a song that was meant solely as an introduction—a Billboard Club Chart smash.
Now comes the full-length release of JAMESTOWN that finally showcases Jimmy James’ stunning vocal prowess and performance abilities. With an uncanny ability to transform himself visually and vocally into many different personas, James is set to establish himself as a dance and pop icon.
As Billboard Magazine recently stated “Jimmy James is so damn clever, it is hard not to offer a howling squeal of approval before clicking replay—again and again.”
No longer just….a yearning.
View the Fashionista Ecard
www.myspace.com/jimmyjames
Sunday, September 03, 2006
"Voluptuous, luscious, provocative. Along the lines of Nighmares on Wax. NeoJazz, dub, and even a touch of 70's sleaze (done most tastefully, of course)"- All Music Guide The production duo behind redCola, Jonathan Paul and Damir Price aka Paul & Price are set to release their newest collaboration, Sounds Like Sex 2 - After Midnight Music.
Guest vocalists and collaborators include Angela McCluskey, the voice behind Telepopmusik's "Breathe", and Toddy Ivy, LA's refreshing and inovative chanteuse. "I Adore You", the single featuring Angela McCluskey, was originally written for the Nike campaign featuring Serena Williams which played throughout Europe during Wimbledon and the Olympics. After much anticipation the full-length version finally makes its debut on SLS2.
The album is a follow up to Sounds Like Sex 1, the first in the series whose sales continuously rank in the top 3 at CDBaby's Music to Have Sex To.
The sound of Paul & Price combines somatic beats with lush orchestration - often provacative and exotic, creating sexy downtempo and intoxicating electronica. Since joining forces in 2002 Paul & Price have released 5 albums and licensed songs for compilations by Hugo Boss, Six Degrees Records and Invisible Records.
Paul & Price is the music of the Virgin Airlines Upper First Class and has been featured on MTV, NBC and Fox. Their prestigious clients include Nike, Infiniti, and Cadillac, as well as films such as Mr. & Mrs. Smith, The League Of Extrodinary Gentlemen, Final Destination 2, and The Watcher.
www.myspace.com/paulandprice
www.paulandprice.com
www.redcola.com
Saturday, September 02, 2006
LEXICON.
The Rapstars E.P. (B.E.A.R./Alpha Pup Records)
iTUNES EXCLUSIVE DIGITAL EP - 10/3/06
After releasing two successful indy hiphop albums and becoming one of the bigger names in the LA underground hiphop scene, Lexicon was frustrated. They felt they weren't expressing themselves creatively how they wanted to, so instead of building on the props they'd achieved in the underground scene, they tore it all down, to build it up again. And in the process, they committed an underground hiphop cardinal sin -- they added live instruments to their music. Lexicon began to grow weary of the un-originality that is pervading hiphop, in both the mainstream and the underground . They wanted to seperate themselves from the muck and break through the ceiling they felt was put on top of the type of music they were making. And most importantly, they wanted to make the kind of music they always wanted to make! Risky decision yes, but what's more gratifying than doing exactly what you want to do? They spanned their influences from dance- rock to modern rock to the raw drums and stabs of classic hiphop, until they found a perfect mesh. And the thread that ties them together are that Oak and Nick are better MC's than ever, and C-Minus is still providing neck breaking beats for every song. With C-Minus manning the beats, Oak and Nick doing what they do best, and bassist Alex Pauley and guitarist Jason "Metal 24/7" Zimmerman adding what Lexicon felt was always missing, this is truly like nothing you have ever seen or heard before. Will the risk pay off? We'll begin to see as Lexicon now unveils what they've been working on locked away in the studio for the past 2 years. Ladies and gentlemen, Lexicon presents to you THE RAPSTARS E.P, available exclusively on iTunes through B.E.A.R/Alpha Pup.Stats
-Song "Ordinary" was featured in the season finale of "Viva La Bam" on MTV.
-A Variety of Lexicon songs have been used in numerous MTV Programs including Next, Made,
and Punk'd.
-Two songs, “Rock” and “The Official” were used in 2004’s Harold and Kumar Go To White
Castle. “Rock” was prominently featured twice, serving as a book-end for the main story line.
-“Rock” has been featured on UPN’s America’s Next Top Model on 6 different occasions, and
two other Lexicon songs have been used on the show as well.
-“Rock” was featured in a 2004 episode of CBS’s Joan of Arcadia.
-“Rock” was also featured as one of the main songs in the videogame Backyard Wrestling II,
There Goes The Neighborhood.
-Two singles, “It’s The L” and “Makin Music” landed in the top 5 of CMJ’s radio chart.
-Lexicon has sold collectively 30,000 units world wide, to date.
www.myspace.com/lexicon
www.lexiconmusic.com
"Always And Forever" is not a phrase usually associated with a fickle music business, especially in recent times when one-hit wonders and manufactured artists have been especially prevalent. But for Silk, one of the few vocal groups to breakthrough in the hip-hop era, the phrase applies not only to their own longevity–seventeen years and counting with the current line-up featuring the four original members who have been together throughout–but also to the quality of their music which features finely crafted harmony singing and lyrics that deal with timeless issues of love, romance and sex. With the release of their seventh album “Always And Forever”, their debut release on Shanachie Entertainment on October 17th, Silk brings their vocal artistry to a hand-picked selection of songs that have inspired them as simultaneous homage to artists who they respect and musical statement of the ultimate quality of Silk’s music.“It all comes full circle on this album,” relates Gary Glenn. “A lot of these songs were ones we were already familiar with so it was easy for us to step in and emulate people we have a lot of respect for. It’s a chance to show off our own artistry. If someone has the audacity to do a MichaelJackson number or a Prince tune and do it well, or to really do justice to”The Secret Garden” , then they walk away with respect from the audience. That’s what we want.”
The album, which features Silk’s interpretations of major hits by Blue Magic, Switch, Shalamar, Prince, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Heatwave and others, simply builds on something Silk had already been doing.
“”We’ve done a re-make on almost every album anyway so it was like time to do this–a full serving of what we’ve been doing throughout. Like (Blue Magic’s classic) “Sideshow”, we’ve been doing that in our shows and people love it. We were doing (Switch’s) “There’ll Never Be” at shows and people start to “step” when we do it…and it’s a beautiful thing. It even happened in Aurora, Colorado, which is the last place I thought people would be steppin’!”
The young men who formed Silk grew up in Atlanta. Three of them met each other in the late Eighties in the course of working at a particular McDonald’s. Soon –Gary “Big G” Glenn, Jonathan “John John” Rasboro, Tim “Timzo” Cameron and Jimmy Gates (Tim and Jimmy were cousins)–got together around their mutual love of singing. They sang whenever and wherever they could (”I don’t think there’s a church in Atlanta we DIDN’T sing at,” laughs Gary) at talent shows, clubs, churches and in the streets. Louise Ferguson, who is their manager today, was determined to get them a shot with Keith Sweat who didn’t particularly want to audition the unknown wanna-be’s. So when Keith came to a barbeque at Louise’s house, she invited Silk to come over and they discreetly went down in the basement and started singing for the kids there. Keith heard them and liked what he heard enough to make Silk the first group signed to his Keia label in 1992 and they were featured on “two of Keith’s tracks on his “Keep It Coming” album. Silk’s first single, “Happy Days” was garnering radio play but then “Freak Me”, another cut from their first album, starting generating radio play spontaneously and when released a single became a Number 1 R&B hit and Number 1 pop hit. It was quickly followed by two Top Ten R&B hits–”Lose Control” and “Girl U For Me, which grew into a string of hits throughout the Nineties including “Hooked On You”, “I Can Go Deep”, “If You (”Lovin’ Me”)and “Meeting In My Bedroom”. Their signature sound was dubbed “baby-making music.”
“At the time we came up,” Gary Glenn notes, “producers were putting groups together but when Keith met us we were already Silk. That may be part of the reason why we have been able to stand the test of time. We didn’t just get together to get a deal; we got together to sing. We had to find our own niche. You had Boyz II Men with their harmonies and Jodeci with their “from the gut” sound, so we were kind of in the middle. We went from high school stages to arenas very quickly–that was due to Keith.”
Silk’s audience has grown up along with them and some of the children who were the result of “baby-making music” are now teenagers.
“People are always telling us,” John adds, “I made my first child to your music.” That’s just a blessing! That someone created a child with our music. We know what people are looking for from our music so as long as we honor and respect that we can keep going in that vein, like The Isley Brothers and Keith Sweat.”
It’s a difficult challenge for even a solo artist to survive in the cut-throat music industry and even more so for a group to stay together. Fourteen years together since the release of their first single, what’s Silk’s secret?
“I think a lot of prayer, patience and understanding,” says Gary Glenn. “We don’t always realize how important our commitment to each other has been. It’s like being in a marriage that you REFUSE to leave. It’s like “I got this ring and I ain’t going NOWHERE!” But we all bow down to what’s important to Silk. And in the end, we just love singing together.”
www.myspace.com/silk
