Velvet Starlings is picking up steam with its brand of retro  rock. Behind Velvet Starling is Christian Gisborne a 15 year-old indie rock singer/songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist. I think we are seeing more of these type of 70’s influenced type of acts pop up, while Greta Van Fleet, the most popular of the pack right now, just received a Gold certification for their debut album. The latest track Sold Down the River opens up with a moody organ swell and takes you on musical journey. Think Black Keys meets The Yard Birds. The band started making waves after receiving heavy spins on Sirius XM. Additionally, they are tapped to play festival “Summerfest” in Milwaukee and will tour Europe in 2019. Give it a stream.

Today, the Music Modernization Act has been officially signed into law by President Trump.  Kanye West among others witnessed the historic moment. Artists have been treated very unfairly for a long time. The Music Modernization Act will modernize copyright protection for recording artists and songwriters in the digital and streaming age. Simply, artists will get paid fair market value.

The bill revamps Section 115 of the U.S. Copyright Act. Their are the act’s three main pieces of legislation:The Music Modernization Act, which streamlines the music-licensing process to make it easier for rights holders to get paid when their music is streamed online. The Compensating Legacy Artists for their Songs, Service, & Important Contributions to Society (CLASSICS) Act for pre-1972 recordings. The Allocation for Music Producers (AMP) Act, which improves royalty payouts for producers and engineers from SoundExchange when their recordings are used on satellite and online radio.

Matthew Rapp started making noise with duets and mashups often with female singers. The videos racked up thousands of views while “We Don’t Talk Anymore” mashup/duet with Denisse Borquez clocked over 340,000 views on Facebook.  Not surprisingly, the video was taken down due to copyright issues, but was uploaded on YouTube. Moreover, the Las Vegas indie artist dropped a new original track Place which was just added to Spotify’s Friday Cratediggers playlist. Musically, think Charlie Puth meets electro pop. Give it a stream.

You’ll never get a second chance to make a first impression. Before you hit the share button on Instagram, make sure you’re visually literate. In fact, social critic Camille Paglia takes on the current state of Instagram in her latest article “The Rise of “Strangely Unsexy” Instagram Exhibitionism — And Why It Hurts Women”. Consequently, whether you’re are a boy or girl, artist or model, actor or actress, unflattering photos will kill your opportunities in seconds. Camille Paglia targets women more than men since Instagram is used by more than twice as many women as men.

Camille, a staunch feminist says this, “I have to say that an overwhelming number of today’s female-authored Instagrams seem stilted, forced and strangely unsexy. Visual illiteracy is spreading: It is sadly obvious that few young people have seen classic romantic films or studied the spectacular corpus of Hollywood publicity stills, with their gorgeous sensual allure.

Ironically, she praises Rihanna for her visual aesthetic. “The leading artist of Instagram eroticism remains Rihanna, who for several years uploaded one brilliant image after another, often via the intuitive camera of her best friend, Melissa Forde. Rihanna understands magic, mood and mystique — sex as a shimmering state of mind. But the bright and shiny surface of too many of today’s female-generated Instagrams conceals a bleak and regressive reality, with men in the driver’s seat for careless, hit-and-run hookups”. She even rips Ariana Grande for performing at Aretha Franklin’s funeral while wearing a sleeveless minidress. CONTINUE READING

Sub-Radio will perform Rockwood Music Hall (Stage 2) tonight October 9th. The 6 piece pop-rock act based in DC has a catalog of fun-upbeat songs filled with ‘woah ah oh’s’ and gang vocals. Think Walk The Moon with big dance hooks.  The band notes, ” I think we’d like fans to take an optimistic view on whatever they’re doing. There’s a lot of negativity in the world today and we wanted to make something that oozes positive vibes, floral prints and lots of dancing”. The band has been packing out 200 capacity venues in DC and while carving out a path to NYC.