Band Members: Matthew “Ted” Edwards, Ping Chu, Kate Weeks, Jon Brooder, Bryan Cain
Tech Industry Affiliation: Drummer Ping Chu is the Software Developer for Flixster.com.
Bobbie Gentry
Saturday
SVR: Tell us about your band. How did you get started? How long have you been playing?
The Music Lovers: Ted started the group in 2003 and we signed with Detroit indie label Le Grand Magistery in 2004. We’ve released 2 albums and an EP on LGM, and our third record “Masculine Feminine” is out in January in the U.S. (though already released in Italy and Japan). We’ve played extensively here and on the east coast (and Italy and the U.K.) and our records have garnered great praise in magazines such as The Word, Mojo, Rolling Stone.com, Exclaim, All Music Guide, etc.
SVR: Who are your major influences?
The Music Lovers: Jacques Brel, The Go-Betweens, Dusty Springfield, John Cassavetes, Memphis soul, Smiths B-sides.
SVR: What inspired you to make music together?
The Music Lovers: Ted: I can do nothing but make music. I have been singing since I was a child and writing songs almost as long. “Together”? A strange magnetic pull.
SVR: What’s your ultimate direction for your band? Are you seeking fame and fortune—at least in the music business?
The Music Lovers: Ted: I want to make the most beautiful and romantic music that we are capable of, and in doing so, I want to continue to move people, more people all the time. Being in The Music Lovers is a volition, a calling. I just want people to “get it,” and many do. I’m unsure that there is a “music industry” anymore, and frankly I don’t particularly care.
SVR: What’s your day job?
The Music Lovers: Ted: I am an occupational therapist who works with people with autism. Ping is the tech chap.
SVR: How does your music influence your work or vice versa?
The Music Lovers: Ted: Ping is very rational… I think this comes from his tech work. I, on the other hand, am not particularly rational, though I am patient—ha!
SVR: Why is music education important?
The Music Lovers: It opens portals that nothing else can… it is the “great release.” All children should have the opportunity to live in this world.
SVR: What was your own experience learning music as a kid? Who flipped that switch your brain?
The Music Lovers: Ted: My parents—a house full of show-tunes, Glen Campbell, hymns, Sinatra, big bands, country, Irish songs, etc. I bought a 2-pound guitar from a boot-repair shop and taught myself to play. Having parents who were both fine singers helped. No formal education whatsoever, just a will…
Band Members: Kevin Maney, John Given, Bill Coats, Andy Stack
Tech Industry Affiliations: Kevin writes about tech for Conde Nast Portfolio magazine; John is legal counsel for Digidesign; Bill is managing partner at White & Case in Palo Alto; Andy co-founded Oortle and other tech start-ups.
Privacy
Found It On Google
Wouldn’t Want to Be (Bill Gates)
SVR: Tell us about your band. How did you get started? How long have you been playing?
Kevin Maney & His Briefs: We first met through email introductions in the fall of 2007, and formed the house band for a jam party Kevin hosted in October 2007. After playing together for the night, we all liked each other enough to want to do it again. We next met up in April 2008 to record our first EP, titled “Privacy.”
SVR: Who are your major influences?
Kevin Maney & His Briefs: Everybody’s interests seem to run the spectrum of rock music. Kevin’s songwriting is heavily influenced by The Clash, The Beatles, Warren Zevon, and creative roots-rock bands like The Blasters.
SVR: What’s your ultimate direction for your band? Are you seeking fame and fortune—at least in the music business?
Kevin Maney & His Briefs: We want a top 10 hit, an appearance on Letterman, and license to quit our day jobs and strike it rich playing music. Short of that, we’d like to play a gig at Google and get the free gourmet lunch.
SVR: Why is music education important?
Kevin Maney & His Briefs: Getting music skills into kids’ brains early makes all the difference later on. Back in grade school, I learned the trumpet and got pretty good at it. By my teens, I gave up the trumpet, but just knowing the basics of how music works helped me pick up guitar and songwriting later on.
SVR: What was your own experience learning music as a kid? Who flipped that switch in your brain?
Kevin Maney & His Briefs: I actually have a weird story. After the trumpet, I did learn guitar, but thought I was terrible at it and mostly only played for myself through all of my adult years. Didn’t think I could sing or write songs. And then a couple decades later, my friend Mark Holmes, a singer-songwriter, started getting me to play with him—just the two of us in a basement or on a back porch. He showed me that I did have something to offer, and once I felt like it was OK to let music come out of me, the fire got lit.
Ladies, have you always wanted to rock out but were too afraid to try? Wish no further. Ladies Rock Camp, is taking applications for 2009. The camps fill up fast, so don’t wait to apply. Don’t take my word for it - even Oprah and the Huffington Post touted its awesome-ness.
As written about before and just recently by our good friends at BlogHer, Ladies Rock Camp is a four-day rock immersion program designed for women ages 18 and over. Recent college grads mix with rocker mamas and grandmamas. It’s a fundraiser for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls.
Here’s the deal:
Cost is $375 (includes meals, instrument training, and even a self-defense workshop)
Learn drums, bass, keyboards, vocals, or guitar, or just improve your skills
Form a band, write an original song, and perform it four days later at the LRC Showcase
Have a great time with staff, volunteers, and women from around the US (and beyond)
And of course, there’s the infamous Saturday night Karaoke party at the Rock Camp and the party bus to Portland’s late night spots.
Do not hesitate. Sign up now. I’ll be there rockin’ the bass guitar.
Band Members: Don Clark, Paul Bergevin, Tom Waldrop, George Alfs
Tech Industry Affiliations: Don works for the Wall Street Journal. Paul, George, and Tom work for Intel.
Friend of the Devil
SVR: Tell us about your band. How did you get started? How long have you been playing?
Spin Control: All of us have been in various bands since the last century. We’ve played together at various events, but this benefit, and the cause that it supports, is of interest to all of us, so we decided to join forces formally for this.
SVR: Who are your major influences?
Spin Control: We are all over 29+, so we tend to like a range of groups that have been around for a while, anything from John Coltrane to Grateful Dead to Beatles.
SVR: When did you form your band? What inspired you to make music together?
Spin Control: A few of us have played together off and on, casually, for some years, and played similar benefit gigs in the past involving journalists and PR types—such as Kevin Maney’s yearly benefit. In the current form, we played together this summer for the first time, and when this benefit came up we jumped at it.
SVR: What’s your ultimate direction for your band? Are you seeking fame and fortune—at least in the music business?
Spin Control: To successfully get enough songs together to do this gig
SVR: What’s your day job?
Spin Control: Don is a tech reporter for the Wall Street Journal. The rest of us work for Intel PR. Paul runs the PR group.
SVR: How does your music influence your work or vice versa?
Spin Control: For the Intel PR guys, having music in common is wonderful; it gives us a chance to talk about something beyond microprocessors. For Don, it gives him something to think about besides what these guys tell him.
SVR: Why is music education important?
Spin Control: George: I have a son and daughter who attended public school. The music programs have been wonderful; we contribute extra on our property taxes to ensure a continued arts program. We think anyone interested should have access to a great music program. Don: The PTA at my kids’ public school helped add music programs that otherwise would not have been available; not all kids are so lucky. Paul: My middle son Charlie is a tenor in the classical choir in his high school, an internationally recognized choral group. This program in his public high school aims for genuine excellence, and is supported by the community. Tom: I’ve been around long enough to remember when Prop. 13 gutted the music programs in public schools, lots of friends lost their jobs as school music teachers, and kids often had to go 100% private instruction for music—which many couldn’t afford. I believe music should be a critical part of education.
SVR: What was your own experience learning music as a kid? Who flipped that switch your brain?
Spin Control: Rock and Roll! George: I didn’t have access to a great music program as a kid, but my parents bought me guitar lessons and I loved it. Don: I had a pretty inspirational choral teacher in junior high school, and loved hearing the high school band play. But great 60s rock, aided by private guitar teachers, was my biggest spark. Tom: My mother took me to the symphony when I was in grade school, and we had a piano and good recordings at home. It was 60s rock that set the course, though.
Want to win a FREE ticket to Silicon Valley Rocks! and an unlocked Nokia N95 8GB phone (value $600)? Send us your best party photo taken on your mobilephone by Friday, November 21. Winners will be confirmed on Friday, November 28. Five lucky winners will get exclusive rights to cover and capture Silicon Valley’s rockers from a fan’s perspective.
How to enter:
Send your picture to photos [at] svrocks [dot] com
Include your name, your company name, email address and phone number
Also add in any details about where the picture was taken etc.
We’re not uptight, but try to keep the images clean (you know, music education, kids? etc.)
If you are a winner, we will contact you after November 28 and give you details then.
Please note:
Nokia N95s only work with AT&T and T-Mobile services.
Band Members: Chuck Fishman, Neal Landauer, Jason Fifield—and too many others to mention. fONKSQUISh features members of P-Funk, and jazz legends like Byard Lancaster, Prince Lasha, as well as new school producers like G Koop and DJ Zeph.
Tech Industry Affiliation: Chuck is Manager of Media and Entertainment at Cisco.
Calling Me Back (with DJ Zeph and Michael Hampton [P-Funk])
Dippin’ Chicken (Team Facelift cover)
It’s Okay to Love (Germantown Dub, featuring Byard Lancaster)
SVR: Tell us about your band. How did you get started? How long have you been playing?
Chuck: I toured with George Clinton & Parliament / Funkadelic (P-Funk All Stars) for a few years in the late nineties. During this period, I teamed up with P-Funk’s Billy Bass and a motley cast of musicians to create the first solo album for “Chuck Da Fonk Fishman.” I realized that my musical vision revolved around a larger cast of musicians than just my own songs and material. I moved to Denver in 1997 and founded fONKSQUISh. So the unit has been around for more than 10 years now, and has been based out of Denver, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Really the key members of the band are spread about the country. When we play live we typically feature 6-8 members, and our recorded sound is lush with a diversity of instruments.
SVR: Who are your major influences?
Chuck: I would say anything with a dance component to it. I was raised on new wave, which eventually led me to listening to funk music full time. For example, I was listening to Thomas Dolby in 1986, who was collaborating with George Clinton at the time. That was my first exposure to George Clinton and P-Funk, via new wave. And I am a huge Duran Duran fan. What does this all mean for the music we make? I am not sure—I look at my Last.fm top plays and it’s all jumbled with indie hip-hop artists, jazz legends, new wave, IDM, chillout, electro, R&B funk—I listen to all kinds of music and I hope it’s reflecting in the music of fONKSQUISh. A lot of the members of fONKSQUISh bring their own perspective as well—I mean we were just working with Prince Lasha, a member of the legendary John Coltrane Quartet; he is of course going to bring a different jazz sound to fONKSQUISh.
SVR: When did you form your band? What inspired you to make music together?
Chuck: 1997. I just wanted to have a funk band and somehow I’ve kept it going all these years.
SVR: What’s your ultimate direction for your band? Are you seeking fame and fortune—at least in the music business?
Chuck: We want to keep making music, especially with the funk and jazz legends who keep contributing to the collective that is fONKSQUISh. We also want to find the freshest producers and remixers / DJs to work with, and the most current talents out there to join the effort. All of that vision takes money&mcash;cash to pay out talented musicians, and funds for studio time and completion of the tracks. At the end of the day, we want to keep making records way into the future. We are already now three years into our next collection of songs titled “Useless Education”—recording began in 2005. Really it all comes down to having the funds to match the production schedule we have mapped out for the record. That’s why our work dribbles out via EPs, digital singles, and through social networks just bit by bit in the meantime before we can assemble the full collection. All I want for fONKSQUISh is to have a small boutique label with a roster of similar artists to help our marketing efforts and to feel like we have a home.
Live fONKSQUISh shows happen all over the place—Denver, Philadelphia, San Francisco, London and Paris. We want to also have the ability to continue to expose our music to live audiences around the world.
SVR: What’s your day job?
Chuck: I currently examine the digital media industry for Cisco and manage company relationships with media and entertainment partners. For the past 12 years, I’ve been creating and producing new radio ventures for Clear Channel, Bloomberg, CNET Networks, and Dow Jones. At CNET, with Brian Cooley, I helped build CNET Radio, the first all technology news radio network. From 2002 to 2006, I headed up the Wall Street Journal’s long form radio programming ventures. I created two shows, The Wall Street Journal This Morning and The Wall Street Journal This Weekend, and in four years time I grew distribution of the programs from only two terrestrial radio stations to 220 plus stations, airtimes on XM and Sirius Satellite Radio, and 100,000 monthly podcast downloads without marketing support. As a radio producer, my love of the intersection of entertainment, technology, and business was reflected in my programs.
I’ve been a member of the digital music networking group Pho since 1999, and I continue to remain engaged and excited by everything that is going on with digital music and media. I participate as a member of the IAB Digital Video Committee, the IAB UGC and Social Networking Committee, and at the Entertainment Technology Center at USC.
SVR: How does your music influence your work or vice versa?
Chuck: Since day one with fONKSQUISh, I’ve utilized online platforms to promote our music and connect with fans. Over the years, the time I’ve spent on mp3.com, MySpace, Facebook, and a myriad of other online communities and forums promoting the music—well, it has informed and expanded my knowledge of the digital media marketplace—the industry I work directly in. I can relate my knowledge of digital media and music business models, social media marketing tools, and the user experience on such platforms directly to the online creative efforts I’ve put toward fONKSQUISh.
SVR: Why is music education important?
Chuck: Learning how to play an instrument well offers a student the ability to practice discipline. That’s what I think of first off. But there is the enjoyment of playing—and I want every child to have the ability to enjoy that. I hope that music education also includes exposure to the business elements of the music industry as well. I’m still learning myself—I spend many hours with these older talented musicians. I call it “people digging.” We are currently losing our greatest generation of R&B and jazz musicians—just this year: Levi Stubbs, Isaac Hayes, Buddy Miles, Pervis Jackson, Jerry Wexler, Norman Whitfield—just to name a few. It’s time for the younger generation of musicians to go out and “people dig” the great musicians in their neighborhoods and get the knowledge before these musicians pass on.
SVR: What was your own experience learning music as a kid? Who flipped that switch your brain?
Chuck: I’m not sure. I certainly could say that it was a healthy dose of MTV, and UK music magazines like NME and The Face, that got me engaged. I also lived in downtown Philadelphia, so there were plenty of record stores to stop by on the way home from school. So I would say I spent almost a half-hour in a record store every day after school.
“Giving back to the community has always been a cornerstone of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, which is why one of our five core values is to have a connection and responsibility to our community,” says Linda Palermo, Joie de Vivre Chief Revenue Officer.
“We wanted to be a part of Silicon Valley Rocks since we are deeply ingrained in the Silicon Valley community. Our Silicon Valley hotels include the Wild Palms and Domain in Sunnyvale, the Avante in Mountain View, the Moorpark in San Jose, and the Hotel Los Gatos. Not too far south, we also launched the Dream Inn on the beach in Santa Cruz this year and are re-opening the Ventana Inn and Spa in Big Sur this November.”
Joie de Vivre has always been very involved in the communities in which its hotels are located. Hotels are given an annual goal of how much money they should donate throughout the year to local causes. Connecting to the community is so important to Joie de Vivre that hotel general managers are evaluated on this donation metric, along with employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and profitability.
Ocean Beach Clean Up
In 2007 alone, Joie de Vivre hotels donated a total of over $1.3 million to local organizations in the form of gift certificates, cash donations, in-kind donations, and events. Joie de Vivre continues to take a grassroots approach to philanthropy, staying true to its entrepreneurial roots, rallying behind causes and organizations that inspire its employees. Because of that, the company is able to help organizations who may not receive much attention or support from the broader community. Supported causes in 2007 were primarily in the areas of arts and culture, education, and family and community.
Joie de Vivre will also have several hotel packages for the Silicon Valley Rocks! silent auction. Stay tuned for more info!
About Joie de Vivre Hospitality
Based in San Francisco, Joie de Vivre Hospitality is a creative collection of lifestyle businesses. As California’s largest boutique hotel collection, Joie de Vivre encompasses other hospitality businesses such as restaurants and spas. Celebrating more than 20 years of creating dreams, Joie de Vivre Hospitality is expanding its California presence in Sacramento, Oakland, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Sunnyvale, Huntington Beach and beyond.
Prior to Yoshi’s, he founded Astor Place Recordings in New York, an imprint of Profile Records, the home of famed rap group Run DMC. He was also director of publicity at GRP Records, which included Impulse!, Chess, Decca, Blue Thumb, and other labels, and he began his career as a publicist at Verve Records.
SVR: Do you have a favorite story about your career in the music business?
Marshall: There are so many! From backstage at Metallica in Dallas with the Moss Brothers to making a CD with Jason Newsted to seeing all of the great jazz artists, but one that my friends sure like is this one. I helped start Astor Place Recordings with Profile Records in New York, the home of Run DMC and other rap artists. On several occasions, rappers would come up to the office and have a beef with someone, or there were threats and the like. One day, MC Hammer and Eric B, the DJ, came up to the office. I was a big Eric B and Rakim fan, so I went to introduce myself to them and as I got closer, MC Hammer looked at me and motioned into his jacket like he was pulling a gun out to shoot me or something. It was more funny than scary. At that time Hammer was on Death Row; they wanted to talk about Run DMC with the label owner. Turned out that a few days later Tupac Shakur was killed in Las Vegas, on the way from the Tyson fight to a Run DMC show at a local club. I have now met Hammer a few times and I did bring this up with him. He certainly remembered me!
SVR: Tell us about your work with young people in your business.
Marshall: I try and do so much with young people, from my involvement with several local organizations including SFJAZZ, Yerba Buena Gardens, Union Square, Music In Schools Today, and the Oaktown Jazz Workshop. When I was at Yoshi’s I created the very popular and ongoing Sunday matinee series to create an environment for families and to cultivate the future jazz lovers. As the publicist for SFJAZZ, families are very important and the organization presents family matinee programs; some have included the amazing Orff programs. I have worked with the Young Musicians program at Cal and have worked extensively as a board member of the Oaktown Jazz Workshop. I also book and promote the annual Jazz on 4th Street festival in Berkeley that benefits the Berkeley High Jazz Ensemble. I am most proud of my work with the Moss Brothers, Reuben and Evan. I produced their two albums, the second of which included Jason Newsted. Reuben is now a sophomore at Stanford and Evan is a senior at Cal.
SVR: Why should music and art be taught in schools?
Marshall: If music and arts are not taught in school, where else can they be taught? Kids need active programs from recess to arts and music. It is imperative that creativity is fostered and nurtured not only at school but also at home.
SVR: Based on your experience mentoring young people, how does music education help kids academically and personally?
Marshall: It helps by giving kids discipline, goals, and the courage to overcome difficult obstacles, and to conquer seemingly insurmountable challenges in life.
SVR: Was there an important person in your life who provided a positive influence on your becoming involved in music?
Marshall: Duke Dubois at GRP Records. He passed away several years ago, but he had a profound effect on my life, as well as the lives of many others.
SVR: Tell us why you support Music in Schools Today.
Marshall: MuST is one of the best youth music programs that I have worked with. The people involved truly care about the future of the arts and are committed to seeing that kids can realize their dreams.
Mike Kappus began his career in his hometown of Eau Claire, WI. During college he promoted regional bands with friends and became a licensed booking agent in 1970 at age 19. Just over a year later he was invited to join an agency in Milwaukee. In his five years working full time as an agent there, he also bought talent for several local showcase clubs and a few festivals and universities. As a talent buyer and promoter he booked artists as diverse as Asleep At The Wheel, Jimmy Cliff, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley…Read on for more powerful names in music.
SVR: What do you do?
Mike: I am a booking agent, manager and occasionally have taken on roles in record production. I started The Rosebud Agency in 1976 with the intention of offering greater service to an intentionally limited number of artists whose musical integrity is a stronger factor to us than their current trend value. We focus mainly on roots influenced artists from all over (Central America, London, Paris, Africa, New Orleans and all over the US) and we book those artists’ tours worldwide. Some of the artists from our earlier years include Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Los Lobos, John Hiatt, Captain Beefheart, The Staple Singers, Ben Harper and Robert Cray while some current ones include JJ Cale, Allen Toussaint, The Weepies, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Mavis Staples, Loudon Wainwright III, Tommy Castro, Bill Frisell, Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars, Charlie Watts and Meshell Ndegeocello - see the full list here. I have worked as co-producer or executive producer on projects involving Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt and Ry Cooder among many more. I’ve also coordinated two compilation CDs for environmental organization, Earthjustice with contributions from Norah Jones, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Tom Waits, Michael Franti, Rubén Blades and
more.
SVR: Why is it important to support music education?
Mike: Education prepares us for life in general and lays the groundwork for becoming self sustaining and productive citizens. Exposure to music education has been proven to increase attendance and scores in other studies, especially for at risk youth and is therefore not only crucial for its own values and cultural development but also for what it can do to motivate students in all other areas of academic pursuit. In many cases when school budgets tighten, music programs are among the first to be de-funded. It’s crucial to work to insure that music education is available to all students and to support other efforts to connect students, especially those at risk, with music.
SVR: Do you use technology (such as MySpace or Last.fm) to discover bands?
Mike: Our company is unique in that we try to stay small and focused. Either a good reputation and/or an overflow of musicians sees us turning down over 500 groups every year without even pursuing anyone so we don’t really seek out groups - especially given our goal to remain small and focused. We do check out everyone who approaches us, whose work could potentially align with our focus so we learn more about them via their myspace or sonicbids pages when they used to have to mail us CDs and promotional materials. We also have changed our business from being almost all phone driven to being almost all e-mail driven. We also reduce mailing costs by supplying promotional materials digitally. In the meantime, our office has been fully solar powered since 2000 so, in each of these ways, technology enables us to
leave a much smaller footprint environmentally than previously.
SVR: What do you look for when signing new artists?
Mike: First of all we want to be moved by what the artist is doing. Since we work primarily with booking live shows, the stage performance should be exciting or touch the audience emotionally in a genuine and not contrived way. While we don’t pursue the most commercial artists, we do need to stay in business so we need to have a good feeling about an artist’s potential to cover its share of our costs for the time and energy we invest in developing their careers. Finally, we want to feel good about the people we are working with.
Sometimes a great artist or their representative is not realistic about their needs and that will only lead to frustration down the road. The best situation is working with artists we admire who are surrounded by realistic associates with all of us working together as a team to develop the artist. We have had and continue to have numerous artist relationships that have lasted over 20 and 25 years - which is very unique in this business.
SVR: What are you up to now?
Mike: As always, I’m overseeing close to 2000 bookings per year worldwide and surprisingly this will be our second best year in 32 years. On the management front, I’m currently finalizing record and publishing deals for a new J J Cale CD. Among numerous other projects, I’m also working with Amnesty International on a music project supporting the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Also working with the US-Cuba Cultural exchange on a project to unite Cuban and US musicians for a high-profile collaboration next summer just outside our borders since our government no longer allows cultural exchange between our countries or any touring here by Cuban artists. I also continue to do what I can to support Music In Schools Today and their tireless efforts to make sure that our youth get the exposure to music education that they need and deserve.
If you are in San Francisco this Thursday, November 6, check out Project Ahimsa’s West Coast Sessions. The event is a benefit for global music education. Vijay Chatta - of Silicon Valley Rocks! band blacK Mahal - is the co-founder and board chairman.
Project Ahimsa is a global effort to empower youth through music, with offices in San Francisco, California and Tampa, Florida. Since its inception in 2001, the organization has reached nearly 10,000 children around the globe through music education grants and musical instrument donations. Inspired by the teachings of non-violence and cross-cultural understanding of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., Project Ahimsa creates and supports music education programs for children around the world.
Event details:
Tickets are $30 - and the first 200 get a the “Global Lingo” CD
Thursday, November 6
10:00pm-2:00am
@ SupperClub 657 Harrison St.
(between 3rd & Hawthorne St.)
San Francisco, CA 94107
Give
Polls (sponsored by Strands)
What's your favorite "pickup" band name (a band of individual contributors... or is it)?
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