Indie Sounds NY & Austin

Help Befriend The Bears Go To The Bahamas

Never thought I'd be promoting Bud Light, but it seems they are running a Battle of the Bands, and Austin's own Befriend The Bears are in the thick of it.  Help them out by voting again, and again - every day!


Photo by Mimi Daugherty

The top 3 bands on August 27th get to go on a cruise to The Bahamas, and then to open at Bud Light's Music Festival.  Voters might also win a trip on the cruise too!  All the info is here.

Erin Ivey Wins MEOW Discoveries 2012 Playlist Grand Prize

Austin's Erin Ivey has won the Grand Prize in the Discoveries 2012 Playlist competition, created by MEOW - Musicians for Equal Opportunities for Women.  She wins lots of goodies, including a Daisy Rock guitar, a Fender amp, a Toca tambourine and djembe, and consulting sessions with producer Mark Hallman and MEOW director Carla Black.  Ivey won for her song Amelia, a tribute to lost (and possibly about to be found) aviator Amelia Earhart.


Photo by James T. Parsons

Amelia is the opening track to the playlist, which features 15 songs in total - listen to all of them here.  Six other Austin acts are included - Emily Wolfe, Karen Chisholm, Naga Valli, Brooklyn James, Sue Young, Miranda Rose and Juliana Murphy - while the sole NYC song is from Allison Tartalia's project Allison's Invention.

There were nearly 100 submissions for the contest, which was judged by Austin musicians Sally Crewe (Sally Crewe and the Sudden Moves) and Christa Hillhouse (Four Non Blondes) as well as two music industry veterans, artist manager Emily Lichter (Sallie Ford, Erin McKeown) and Clear Channel radio programmer Julie Pilat of KYSR and KIIS-FM in Los Angeles.

Band of the Year @ ACL Live on Saturday

Band of the Year is a big indie fest featuring seven acts from Austin and Texas competing to be able to perform as part of the F1 Grand Prix this November.  Following their shows, there will be a 'one off' group performance by John Pointer, Ginger Leigh, Wendy Colonna, Guy Forsyth and Patrice Pike - all on stage together with a backing band.

Not that I'm biassed, but I want Little Brave to win.

Get your tickets here.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit HAAM.

Michael Daves Celebrates Five Years at Rockwood, GRAMMY Nomination

Michael Daves will be celebrating his 5-year residency at Rockwood Music Hall tonight, Stage 1 at 10pm.


Photo by Rafael Fuchs

He'll also no doubt be celebrating his GRAMMY nominaton, along with Chris Thile of Nickel Creek for Best Bluegrass Album - for their album Sleep With One Eye Open.

The 54th GRAMMYs take place on February 12th, 2012.

A GRAMMY Nomination for Seth Glier

Congrats to Seth Glier - and all at MPress Records - on the GRAMMY nomination for his album The Next Right Thing - for 'Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical'.



The album was recorded at The Carriage House studio in Stamford, CT, with additional overdubs completed in Glier's basement in Shelburne Falls, MA. It was co-produced with Glier's long-time collaborator, Ryan Hommel, recorded by Brendan Muldowney, and mixed by GRAMMY winner Kevin Killen (U2, Elvis Costello) as well as by John Shyloski (Beyoncé, Johnny Winter), who also mastered the album.

The 54th GRAMMYs take place on February 12th, 2012.

Lelia Broussard's Bonnaroo Set for the Cover of Rolling Stone ...

Lelia Broussard played a great set at the Bonnaroo music fest at the weekend - a Battle of the Bands final to get onto the August 18th cover of Rolling Stone magazine.  You can still vote for her here.

Vote for Lelia!

Lelia Broussard - Live Video for "Shoot for the Moon"

This performance/video is for a competition that Lelia is in to be on the cover of Rolling Stone.  She's in the final four, and you should vote for her here, as she deserves to win it!

Bright Light, Sahara Win Big at Austin Music Awards

As an indicator of current local popularity and fan passion - and perhaps the organizational ability of acts to 'get out the vote' - the Austin Music Awards have some validity, I guess.

But for sure, winning an award as a musician is a great booster, and seeing an act one supports do well is a good feeling.  And Saturday night it was The Bright Light Social Hour and Sahara Smith who were the big winners.



Bright Light won for Band of the Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year. Also, Jack O' Brien won for Best Bass Guitar, and A.J. Vincent for Best Keyboards. Just missing out, Curtis Roush and Jo Mirasole both came in #2 for Best Electric Guitar and Best Drums, respectively. And Danny Reisch picked up Best Producer for the band's self-titled debut album.



Meanwhile, Sahara Smith picked up Best Folk artist, Best Female Vocals and Best Songwriter. And Emile Keiman came in at #2 for producing Myth of the Heart.

In other news ... Fresh Millions won Best New Band, Mother Falcon won Best None of the Above Band and The Jitterbug Vipers placed #2 for Best Jazz.

Do Something Good: Vote for NLX on MTVU

NLX's video for Young Love is in The Freshmen competition on MTVU.  If she wins it, the video goes into full rotation on the channel.  No registration is needed, and you can vote as often as you like, all week, until 2pm Eastern on Friday.



VOTE HERE.