Miley Cyrus Death Metal

Usually at OBrien's on a tuesday night, there is a very, very small and quiet crowd. Sometimes an occasional bar patron will bob their head and seem to be into what Im playing. The bartenders are always great, they always give a good applause after every song. But nonetheless, its usually a quiet night for the most part, without much suprise, because its tuesday. This only one day after terrible monday, the worst day the world will ever now. The dreaded workweek is only 2/7th done, lots of pain to suffer through, so understandably, the morale of the tuesday nighters is about equivalent to the Jonas Brothers before a bare-knuckle bar fight with Jason Statham. However, last night was a little different.

A small group of my good friends came (about 10) and made OBrien's sound like a baseball game, which may or may not have been enjoyed by the manager. I'm sure he didn't mind that much when he saw the bar tab, though. I was loving every second of it. Judging by the applauses after the songs and the volume of the voices singing along, it was like playing for a family of Tazmanian devils with megaphones, every solo artists dream come true. Well, at least mine.
My dear friend Danny had a few sips of a couple beers and was Gobstoppin' (Annapolis jargon meaning "dancing") and singing opera style vocal harmonies. He's a jazz vocal major from Towson with a larger than life personality. To give you an idea, this is Danny:



(The piercings are fake)

A couple of my lovely lady friends from home, Steph and Erin, all gussied up and looking fine, made the one and a half hour journey all the way up from Leonardtown to come see me. I was quite happy about that. So they walked over and sat at the bar near the table the rest of my friends were at and began whaling away to all the lyrics of the songs also while also making the view even better. Soon after they arrived, by some strange scientific anomale, almost 30 people trickled in over the next 45 minutes. Obriens was packed with a bunch of singing, dancing fiends and it couldn't have been more wonderful.

The highlight of the night, had to be when of my friend at the table began singing along with "Party in the USA". He has a God-like volume to his voice and was screaming in death metal style "YEEEEEAAHH-EEEYAA-EEYA-EEYA, ITS A PARTY IN THE U.S. A." Now I'm aware that this glass shaking, bird-exploding, baby killing screaming (which was as loud as my voice going through the P.A.)cannot be fully described in text, but imagine M. Shadows from Avenged Sevenfold wearing Darth Vaders Helmet. Also keep in mind it was enough to make almost the entire bar stop mid- conversation in awe of what they heard.

After hearing his Miley Cyrus death metal voice, I started laughing while I was trying to sing. My attempt at trying so hard not to laugh made it even harder not to laugh, and my friends, especially Danny, whose two sips of beer had him buzzing like a neon sign, absolutely lost it and almost coughed his beer all over the table. The chain reaction spread to everyone else at the table and it just snowballed between us. I began to laugh so hard I stopped mid-song, keeled over in hysterical pain and almost fell to the floor. It was the first time in my life someone had made me laugh enough mid song to make me stop during a show. I really hope it wasn't the last, either. I finally composed myself and finished my set with half the bar singing "Wonderwall". Not my favorite song of all time, but people seem to like it.

After the show, we all headed to the famous "Double T" after an overzealous douche bag of a police officer screamed at us for standing around my car, quietly discussing plans of where to go and eating a bag of organic almonds. Then he gave Danny a stare down, as if he had just sexaully assaulted a small rodent in a public place. I guess officer douche-bag doesn't like almonds. Maybe he's having family problems. Maybe he just pooped his pants. All in all, it was a great night, definitely my favorite time at Obriens so far. Thank you guys for coming and I'm looking forward to more shows like that.



(Hey, get the hell out of here! There are no almonds allowed on this street!)

My Berklee Friends

So, in lieu of the momentum the last post has created (and honestly, the biggest THANK YOU to everyone who jumped into the fray with your insight and opinions, I loved reading every single word!) I want to share something with all of you in return for all the great recommendations.

While I was at Berklee, a few of my friends were outstanding songwriters as well as great musicians. They all had unique original sounds and it really made my time at the college even better getting to write and hang out with some of them. It was pretty cool to check out their music after class and hear these great songs written by the person I was just sitting next to. So who are these people?

For starters, my good friend and piano rocker, Mike Lombardo:



Mike was in a few of my classes at Berklee. We clicked quickly because of our mutual love for good music and Halo 3. His command of the piano is beyond professional and his writing is intelligent and frequently infused with his closet-nerd sense of humor. My personal favorite track of his is called "Joke", check it out for yourself. Mike Lombardos Awesome Website. Think a Ben Folds flavor with an aftertaste of jazz, rock and wit.
He instantly won my lyric writing class over, including our teacher, when he presented this extremely clever love ballad about Power Rangers, Dancing and Halo...(the XBOX Halo).



This dude really goes the extra mile to keep in contact with his fans. If you ever want to chat on interact personally him and I are both on a cool site where unsigned artists talk to their fans, its called Too Much Awesome.

Next up is my buddy Katelyn Clampett. Yes, that's Clampett like the Beverly Hillbillies, but she doesn't look like the daughter of a toothless imbred.



Katelyn was probably one of the best singers in the entire college as well. Her writing is a jubilation of infectious melodies and gracefully balanced instrumentation presented with flawless production. She is a well versed writer, but her current niche seems to be pop. If you want to hear a few of her songs, click here for Katelyn Clampett's Beautiful Website. The song that plays on her website is called "Sweet Tea", very, very catchy! Give it a listen.
She's playing at the US open this year, if my memory serves me right and also was in the midst of peaking the interest of Brittney Spear's A&R crew for some songs...so yeah, she seems be doing pretty well for only having been out of Berklee for about a year.

Next in line is Michael Greenberg.

His live shows are where he shines the most. WIth a loop pedal, a warm, full, almost symphonic sound and a sturdy jazz improv vocabulary he will leave the music snobs even more astounded than the music laymen. His voice is the aural equivalent of caramel. The song of his that absolutely gets me is called "See You Through", its a harmonic masterpiece of epic proportion. Click here to hear the Jazzy Goodness of Michael Greenberg. Another diverse writer; he implements funk, jazz, smooth jazz, soft rock, pop and even hip-hop.






Last on this little list is Blaze Mckenzie.




Yes his real name is Blaze. No, he was not in Dodgeball. No, he doesn't have two brothers named Taze and Laze. But I wouldn't be suprised if some day soon you and I hear one of his songs on a radio station or movie. He wasn't really a particularly active member of the Berklee songwriting crowd like the previous three, but nonetheless, his writing is obviously up to par with the best. He blends folk, blues, rock, bluegrass and country into a picturesque sound that you would swear was taken from some movie you've seen. People that love the indie artist sound will probably take a liking to Blaze. Its like Death Cab meets Tom Petty meets Bjork. I recommend listening to "Wretch" and "Might". Two finely crafted songs with tons of originality and character. Want to listen? Click here for Blaze Mckenzie.

So after the rant about how bad music has become, I had to even the score. These artists are all contemporary and are, for the most part, in the popular music category (with some rock and indie flair). Paired with all the great bands you guys suggested and the ones I didn't mention in the previous post, I think we can all rest assured music will never be entirely bad. Check out a couple of them, or all of them and let me know what you think about them. At Berklee, as well as being some of my friends, they were some of my favorite artists. I might do another one of these posts with another set of a few good songwriters if you guys really like the tunes. I have to split though, Im late for a gig.

Dylan