It's Fruitcake!!

Fred Schneider (of B-52s fame) keeps coming up with ridiculous songs and they amuse me. Check out his current band the Superions in this video called "Fruitcake."

National artist: Graceann Warn to be featured at the River Art Gallery

National artist: Graceann Warn to be featured at River Art Gallery for the “Sotto Voce” Exhibition in Chelsea, Michigan opening on November 13, 2010.

The exhibition will feature art by Graceann Warn, along with fellow artists and special guests Jaye Schlesinger and Mark Chatterley. The River Gallery was founded in 2000 by Patti Schwarz. The Gallery expanded to what it is today from its humble beginnings when originally Shwarz was just looking to have a place to house her husband’s artwork. As things progressed and grew, Shwarz formed a business partnership with entrepreneur and art lover Deborah Greer. Together they oversaw the completion of the major renovation of the historic downtown Chelsea site which is the current home of the River Gallery today.

Featured artist Graceann Warn began her art career after realizing that landscape architecture was not the path for her. After a chance encounter and a rather intense emotional response to viewing a Mark Rothko art exhibit, she realized her true calling and decided to become an artist. She merged beautifully with the Ann Arbor artist’s culture and has been one of the lucky ones to make a living solely off of her art. Her work has been featured nationwide and internationally. Also this coming year Warn will once again be showing her artwork at the critically acclaimed SOFA Chicago art gala and will be taking part in The Artist Project in New York. The Artist Project is an exhibition that offers collectors, curators, dealers and the public direct access to a juried selection of emerging and established talent.

“Sotto Voce” is Italian and translates to “in an undertone.”  Graceann explains, “I decided to call my show at River Gallery Sotto Voce because it describes the intent of the paintings while also speaking to the process I undertake to make the paintings.  “Sotto Voce" implies a hushed tone, a whisper- it is something spoken under the breath. The surfaces of my paintings obscure and hint at underlying messages without giving too much away which allows for a certain amount of interpretation by those viewing them.”

Don’t miss out on “Sotto Voce,” at the River Gallery in Chelsea located at 120 S. Main. The event begins at 5pm and goes till 8pm. For more information on the River Gallery call 734-433-0826 or visit http://www.chelsearivergallery.com/ Graceann is available for interviews. For more information please contact Natalie@dreamtownmedia.com or Melissa@dreamtownmedia.com           

Five Finger Death Punch Review & Photos

Photo Credit: Miss Shela

Five Finger Death Punch played a sold out show at the Fox Theatre on Saturday night. Sharing the stage with headliners Godsmack and special guests Drowning Pool, they brought their metal A-game to the forefront. This is a band that in a short period of time has risen from the metal underground and is quickly becoming a lethal force of musical mayhem. They're still quite an underrated band, but as they tour and play some of the biggest and best rock and metal festivals they're shredding their way to success.

Five Finger Death Punch's live show is high energy with intense drums and guitar, blasts of smoke, laser lights, and a taste of red hot metal. They opened up with the song "Burn It Down," the lights painting the stage in red and yellow as lead singer Ivan Moody stormed the masses with his in your face vocal dominance. Adding quite the wicked accent as a centerpiece on stage is their one of a kind stainless steel microphone stand. It features a gothic design with a skull attached to a spinal cord, grenades at the hip bone area, and a swirled pile of bullets at the base. Fellow band members that complete the Death Punch camp are Zoltan Bathory and Jason Hook on guitars, Matt Snell on bass, and Jeremy Spencer on drums. They played a total of eight songs and after the third song "Hard To See," Spencer rocked the house with a heavy drum solo. With two albums under their belt; The Way of The Fist and War is the Answer, this is a band that is blazing the steel towards metal greatness.

Full Set List:

1. Burn It Down
2. Salvation
3. Hard To See
4. Devils Own
5. Bad Company
6. Dying Breed
7. Never Enough
8. The Bleeding

For more info on Five Finger Death Punch visit http://www.fivefingerdeathpunch.com/

Photo Credit: Robert McKnight

CAKE ANNOUNCES FIRST NEW ALBUM IN SEVEN YEARS * SHOWROOM OF COMPASSION OUT 1/11/11 ON THEIR OWN LABEL, UPBEAT RECORDS

FIRST SINGLE, "SICK OF YOU," NOW PLAYING ON YOUR LOCAL RADIO STATION * LISTEN TO IT AT SPIN.COM

CAKE - John McCrea (Vocals/Piano/Nord), Vincent DiFiore (Trumpet/Euphonium/Keyboards), Xan McCurdy (Guitar/Synthesizer) and Gabriel Nelson (Bass/Guitar/Rheem/Bandalero) - announces their first album of new material since 2004's Pressure Chief. They'll release Showroom Of Compassion, their 6th studio album, January 11th 2011 on their own label, Upbeat Records (through Warner Music Group's Independent Label Group). The album was recorded over the last two and a half years and was produced and engineered by the band themselves at CAKE's own solar electric powered studio in Sacramento, CA.

The first single, "Sick Of You," is off to a great start at Alternative, Rock and Triple A radio with early adds coming through at stations in big markets like WRXP/NYC, DC101/Washington DC, WRFF/Philly, 91X/San Diego, KTBZ/Houston, 99X/Atlanta, WBOS/Boston, KNDD/Seattle, KNRK/Portland, WXDX/Pittsburgh, KRBZ/Kansas City, CD101/Columbus and KKDO/Sacramento among others. As Spin.com can attest, "['Sick Of You'] is vintage CAKE, with frontman John McCrea's jaded, semi-spoken vocals, crunchy guitar riffs, a skippy beat, and blasts of trumpet." Spin.com has the exclusive online premiere of the song, listen HERE.

Fans have the opportunity to pre-order Showroom Of Compassion at CAKE's own webstore http://cake.hasawebstore.com/ - They'll be able to choose from bundles small and large that include autographed vinyl and CD's, a limited edition 7-inch and exclusive t-shirts. By pre-ordering Showroom Of Compassion fans will receive an instant MP3 download of the "Sick Of You."

Showroom Of Compassion official track-listing

1. Federal Funding
2. Long Time
3. Got To Move
4. What's Now Is Now
5. Mustache Man (Wasted)
6. Teenage Pregnancy
7. Sick Of You
8. Easy to Crash
9. Bound Away
10. The Winter
11. Italian Guy

Web: http://www.cakemusic.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/cakemusic

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cake#!/pages/Cake-music/24063159304?ref=ts

Na Na Na

The video for ""Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)," the new single from Reprise Records' My Chemical Romance, will premiere in primetime on MTV at 11 p.m. EST on October 14th following a new episode of The Jersey Shore. The clip will go live on MTV.com at 12.01am EDT on October 14th before it debuts on MTV, MTV2, MTVu, MTV Hits, AND MTV Tr3s at 11 p.m that night.

The track is the first single from My Chemical Romance's highly anticipated fourth studio album Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, which will be released by Reprise Records on November 22nd, 2010. New Warner Bros. Records Chairman Rob Cavallo, who produced MCR’s platinum-selling album The Black Parade as well as albums by Dave Matthews Band, Jawbreaker, and The Goo Goo Dolls, among many others, produced the album.

MTV reaches more than 500 million viewers, while MTV's web properties garner an astounding 60 million unique visitors per month.

For more on My Chemical Romance, including album trailer, please visit www.mychemicalromance.com.

Five Finger Death Punch October 16th at the Fox Theatre

Five Finger Death Punch is a heavy metal band that takes their namesake from the "Dim Mak" technique. In essence the name means The Death Touch and it has been used throughout classic Hong Kong Kung-Fu cinema. The name is not as flowery in wording as the "Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique," used in the Kill Bill series. But metal has never been about flowers. Unless perhaps, they're poisoned or sharp like a razor that can be used to draw blood or induce a state of darkened existence.

This is a band that is in your face hard metal, but they don't leave out the melodic side either. Their music breathes with a life of its own, it finds a symmetry that balances peaks of chaos in heavy guitar riffs and solos. Their lyrics dig deep into a state of mind, and the bass and drums meld and shape the expanding Juggernaut that this band has become in just five years. With currently two albums under their belt; The Way Of The Fist and War Is The Answer, this is a band that emerged from the metal underground and has become a force to be reckoned with. They continue to grow in their instrumental and lyrical maturity and have brought along with them an extremely loyal fanbase that continues to grow.

Five Finger Death Punch will be sharing the stage at the Fox Theatre on Saturday, October 16th with headliners Godsmack and special guests Drowning Pool. This is a line-up of hard rock and metal that promises to shake you with a full throttle assault of intense musical proportions. 

Godsmack wsg/ Five Finger Death Punch and Drowning Pool - 10/16, 7:30 - Fox Theatre, 2211 Woodward - Detroit - 313-471-6611 -http://www.olympiaentertainment.com - $25, $35 & $45 - Click here for tickets

For more info on Five Finger Death Punch visithttp://www.fivefingerdeathpunch.com

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Announces 2011 Nominees!

As the seasons and temperatures change, it's that time of year when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation announces its nominees for induction into the country's most prestigious Rock and Roll club. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was created in 1983 and several cities were considered before taking up its residence in Cleveland, Ohio. New York City and Memphis were a couple of those considered. Cleveland lobbied the hardest to bring the Hall of Fame to their city and it paid off. To have such a monumental collection of Rock and Roll paraphernalia in their town is a fantastic privilege. With no further ado, the nominees are:

• Alice Cooper
• Beastie Boys
• Bon Jovi
• Chic
• Neil Diamond
• Donovan
• Dr. John
• J. Geils Band
• LL Cool J
• Darlene Love
• Laura Nyro
• Donna Summer
• Joe Tex
• Tom Waits
• Chuck Willis 

In order to be eligible for nomination into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an act must have released its first single or album at least 25 years prior to the year of nomination. The 2011 Nominees had to release their first recording no later than 1985.

For more info on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame visit http://rockhall.com/