Alliesays

Charities/ Organizations Rock For Kids

“Rock For Kids is a non-profit organization that provides support, hope, inspiration and assistance to underserved children and teens. Realizing that music can be a positive motivator in a young person’s life, Rock For Kids provides free year-round music education for children in need. Rock For Kids positively impacts and celebrates young lives by offering access to safe and constructive learning experiences through which children may challenge themselves, build self-esteem and explore their own creative potential.

Rock For Kids (RFK) was initiated in 1988 by volunteers in Chicago’s music and entertainment industry who wanted to give back to the community. Started as a grassroots effort to raise money to purchase holiday gifts for homeless children. In the beginning, Rock For Kids functioned as a grant-making body, giving holiday assistance to agencies in need, and supplying Chicago’s homeless children with toys and necessities for the holidays. The founders and volunteers involved in Rock For Kids shared a love of the arts, and music in particular. Many of the participants were musicians themselves or worked in the music field. And so as the need to provide stimulating activities for children living at sites benefiting from Holiday Shopping became apparent, it was only natural that Rock For Kids shift to a programmatic format, bringing free, quality music education into the lives of Chicago’s under-served children. While Rock For Kids still honors its past by continuing its holiday shopping program, the main emphasis on programming is Youth Jam.” — Rock For Kids

Rock For Kids provides free, and qualilty intraments to homeless and underprivledge children via their Youth Jam music education programe. The music classes take place in Chicago schools, after-school programs, homeless shelters, and domestic violence shelters. Current studies include: choir, ethnic percussion, guitar, rock band, piano, and production.

Even though there are several programs like this estabished throughout the country, I think that there is always more room for more. The underprivaledge children in our country need to be exposed to the wonders of music, not only for the joy it will bring them in life, but also to streng their academic and social skills and to build self-esteem.

The Punk Goes Series a compilation series produced by Fearless Records. The series is basically bands covering songs from a certain genre, and reinventing them as their own. There are eight different compilations in the series which begins with Punk Goes Metal, released in August of 2000. Following this were: Punk Goes Pop, Acustic, 80’s, 90’s, Acustic 2, Crunk, and the newest addition, Punk Goes Pop 2.

I think this is a great musical compilation series because most of the songs that are being covered were popular by themselves in the first place; and now being remastered and covered by other bands just makes them all that more interesting. It also makes me realize the creativity within them. Having a screamo band, for example, cover a Brittney Spears song, is pretty entertaining; and hearing a rock group covering a rap song, shows me that sometimes the dividing line between genres, is not always so clear.

Florida band #11

Between The Trees

Andrew McMahon

Andrew McMahon is one of my all time favorite lyrists and musicians.

Born in Massachusetts in 1982, McMahon moved alot (his father being a retailer), and soon found solance in his mother’s piano when he was eight years old. During high school, he moved to Orange County, California and this senary seemed to stay with him for the rest of his life as it proves to be a great inspiration for many of his songs.

McMahon went on to form a short lived band, then record his own four track demo entitled Andrew McMahon, with several friends playing the back up intraments. This was the first beginnings of Something Corporate.

They recorded a 10 song demo Ready…Break in 2000 and was then signed to indie label Drive-Thru Records. Drive-Thru released their EP Audioboxer the following year, but was soon signed over to MCA (now Geffen Records), Drive-Thru’s distributors, where they released Something Corporate’s Leaving Through The Window in 2002. The album went to #1 on the Billboard charts and quickly shot Something Corporate to the top.

In October of 2003 their sophomore album North was released, and not achieving as much success as Leaving Through The Window, it did secure the bands standing as one included for the title of iconic, and an influence for many musicians to come.

In 2004, Something Corporate decided to take a hiatus (though promised not to be permanent), and are still currently not under contract to any label.

Shortly before the bands announced hiatus, Mcmahon began working on some new material he thought wouldn’t really fit into any of Something Corporate’s records. This was the dawning of Jack’s Mannequin (derriving from a band name he was playing with, The Mannequins, and a song he was currently writing, Dear Jack).

After writing a lot of new material, McMahon laid down vocals and piano, while requiting friends for the other instraments and recorded what came to be Jack’s Mannequin’s debut album Everything In Transit.

On June 1st, 2005, three months before Everything In Transit was released, McMahon was diagnosed with Acute Lymphatic Leukemia. After recieving a bone marrow transplant from his sister Katie, and going through several different treatments, McMahon made a full recovery, as the disease was caught in its early stages.

In July of 2006, McMahon founded the Dear Jack Foundation which raises money for cancer treatment and awareness.

Jack’s Mannequin’s highly anticipated sophomore album The Glass Passenger  was released on September 30, 2008.

Jack’s Mannequin was one of the first bands I ever saw live, and seeing McMahons stage performance I was immidiately awed. I could tell that playing music was his passion. Never have I seen someone play the piano so forcefully and emotionally as him. He was jumping around, interacting with the crowd, and even standing on top of the piano, all the while playing out his heart and soul.

This man and his music has grealty inspired and impacted my life and it is rare that I come across a musician who plays with such ease and compassion.

Festivals

Buzz Bake Sale

Buzz Bake Sale, an all day music festival hosted by WBPZ 103.1 in West Palm Beach, FL every year, is one of the biggest annual music festivals in South Florida. 103.1 or “The Buzz”, holds the festival at the Cruzan Amphitheatre and is generally held on the first Saturday in December. The festival got its name because in the first year of its existance the lineup included 13 bands, or a “bakers dozen”.

The 2008 line-up consisted of such bands as: Anberlin, Mayday Parade, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Jack’s Mannequin, Reel Big Fish, Saving Abel, Flobots, Hawthorne Heights, Atreyu, and Avenged Sevenfold.

Florida Band # 10

Dashboard Confessional

Dashboard Confessional, from Boca Raton, started as vocalist Chirs Carrabba’s solo acustic project from his previous band Further Seems Forever. He released one album on his own, Swiss Army Romance, but left Futher Seems Forever shortly after their debut album The Moon Is Down, was released. Carraba then recorded two more albums, The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most, and the EP So Impossible.

Two years later, Dashboard came into three new members and began its first recordings as a whole band.

Dashboard won the MTV2 award at the MTV Video Music Awards for their video “Screaming Infidelities” in 2002 which jump started the bands voyage into commercial success.

A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar was released the next year and peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200.

Their next album, Dusk And Summer, proved almost as successful as A Mark, A Mission, by achieving Gold RIAA certification; and later, The Shade Of Poison Trees, selling over 200,000+ albums.Thus proving the bands social standing in the rock community.

What started as a solo project has since turned into a band well established among alternative and acustic rockers alike. After five albums in (in the process of writing a sixth) I doubt the end is near…