Thanks

I am going to stop my blogging. I had fun with thisfor a while, but have other things that have taken my attention. Thank you to those of you that have subscribed and followed more-w-less I hope you have connected with some artists that you enjoy.

Alternative Past

Growing up a good friend introduced me to three bands that changed how I forever listened to music. These three bands were Depeche Mode, New Order and Duran Duran. My friend copied a tape for me with their songs and I listened to that tape for years. Now as I referred to, in a previous blog,  I grew up in the hills of the Ozarks and you can imagine how my interest in "New Wave" music was accepted by my peers. Three years of swirlies later my family moved out of hill country and moved to … Iowa.

I know for most people Iowa doesn’t shout metropolitan, but my family actually moved to a good sized city and I had opportunities that I had no previous exposure to. I was far more in my element in the city then I was in a small town. The people in Iowa were more accepting of me then where I had grown up and my small townness seemed to set people at ease.

Through someone that would eventually become a very close friend I was introduced to a new world of music, dancing, clubs, bands and vice. I worked in nightclubs with some bands that would eventually become stars of grunge, alternative, and industrial genre of music.

“My Future Lies” is an alternative band from Australia that reminds me of the 80’s. Luck Lukess is the singer, songwriter, guitar player for the three piece band. “My Future Lies” has been playing venues for nearly six years and has three albums all independently produced. On of my favorite songs is Summer Rain

(You may have to refresh your brouser to load the mp3 players on the page.)

Lukess has produced songs played on MTV, The Apprentice, and more recently MTV's reality series Freshwater Blue which features 6 of his tunes. I was fortunate enough to be introduced to “My Future Lies” by one of my goallineblitz buddies. This group of  Australians have a song called Miss American Girl



You can go to "My Future Lies"to find out more about the band or you can check out their myspace page. One of “My Future Lies”best known song here in America is Kissing you in the Driveway.

Do you like “My Future Lies”? Let me know what you think about My Future Lies music in the comments section. If you like “My Future Lies” music you can find more on Itunes, and tell your freinds about their Music; or better yet send your friends a link to More w/ Less and let me tell them about great artists I've found on the internet.

Next Update

Next Udate 3-14-11

Do you know of a self distributed artist that you would like to be spot lighted on More w/ Less? Email me at more_w_less@yahoo.com with a name of the artiest and any possible sources. Thats more_w_less

Pull My Finger

Pull My Finger—I have been watching a delightfully sardonic show that’s aired on Fox called “Raising Hope.” The last episode I watched included a montage of a man and his son's life and the recurring theme of them bonding as the son gleefully pulls his father's finger. Personally I have never been much for lowbrow humor, but I can’t help but crack a smile, even if in disgust, as someone let’s one rip. For men in particular there is something hardwired in us that find’s the inner workings becoming an outer working amusing to no end.

I am the funniest man alive to my son. I lean back in the comfy chair and my sphincter trumpet becomes overly relaxed as I blow that note of pure hilarity; causing my son to harmonize our duet with his angelic giggle. “Daddy you funny,” he inevitably says. And, through my shamefully disgusting act never a sweeter moment have you seen. Having kids renews a man’s appreciation for a good fart joke.

Jack Vale is a comedian from California who also loves a good fart joke. He in fact has 200 clips on you-tube  about farting. Jack travels all over the world taping people’s reactions to him breaking the sound barrier.

Ok! So Jack does many different types of hidden video comedy, not just farting. Mr. Vale really puts himself out there to find those moments that will bring a little chuckle and occasionally he finds that spark of truth where he catches someone totally of-guard.

You can find more of Jack’s clips on You-Tube jackvalefilms where he has a variety of pranks and I’m sure he would love for you to be one of his 120 thousand subscribers.

Do you enjoy video pranks? Post in the comments and let me know. If so, you can follow Jack Vale on histwitter page twitter.com/jackvale or if you would like to experience these pranks first hand you can learn to fart like a pro by going to thepooter.com As always let your friends know about Jack Vale or better yet send them a link to More w/ Less.

Hillbilly Heart

So I’m a hillbilly, this is a proclamation I share with most people I’ve known for awhile. My mom was born in Kentucky and married off at age 14. My dad was raised in the hills of West Virginia and his brother’s wife didn’t have to change her last name. I was raised in valley just south west of the Ozarks about 60 miles south of Branson where I grew up fishing, hunting, camping, ect. My family had a large van growing up where I spent many hours reading while listening to my father's music as we drove on family vacations. So as to my father’s taste in music I grew up listening to bluegrass, hymns, gospel, folk music and combination there of and most of it I actually enjoyed.  

Reina DelCid's music is of this ilk. I would classify her music by today’s standard as coffee house music. Her music is personal, usually has a story to tell and very good. Not good because she has the best voice, although her voice is nice with an impressive natural range. Not good because her songs are the best, I often question some of her lyrical choices (although some of her lyrics are genius). What DelCid has is a very skilled ear for blending her music with great alliteration; she blends sounds very well.

Reina also has a great sense of imagery in her lyrics and often shows a rye since of humor in her music. What strikes me are her memorable lyrics and represents what music by truly  independent musicians is suppose to be honest, creative and raw. You can find out more about Reina at her myspce page www.myspace.com/reinadelcid

Reina is hard to present as an artist because many of her songs have different great aspects of her talent to illustrate, but I haven’t found any one of her songs that represent all of her ability. Although a couple of my favorite songs are Wonder and Emily.

Do you like Reina Del Cid's music? Let me know what you think about Reina's music in the comments section. If you like Reina Del Cid's music more can be found on You-tube, tell your freinds about her Music; or better yet send your friends a link to More w/ Less and let me tell them about great artists I've found on the internet.

Run towards the Storm

Canada O’ Canada, since turning my back on paying for cable and beginning my foray into searching the net for entertainment I have come to appreciate Canada a great deal more. I have long been aware of some of the very talented actors in Holywood that have come from Canada, but hadn’t until the last decade given much thought to Canadian televisions, movies or other artists. There are several Canadian television and singers I enjoy and gradually I’m exposed to more.

The Band, “Like A Storm,” are three brothers from Vancouver. The Brooks Brothers are a Hard Alternative Rock group that I came across on you-tube and over the last couple of years  have researched and listened to their music. I’d love to see them live someday, but haven’t had the opportunity to as of yet.

This is one of my favorite songs by them “Enemy”

Like A Storm has been playing since 2005 and in 2010 signed with indie label Prospect Park. The three brothers have played all over Canada and the US and had just recently played in Dallas as they have been oening for Alter Bridge  . You can follow their tour dates on their myspace site LIKASTORM



Like A Storm also has a video of their last albums cover song Chemical Infatuation

You can find out more about Like A Storm on their website http://www.likeastorm.com/ If you like "Like A Sorm" let your friends know, or better yet send them a link to More w/ Less.

B & B Sketch Comedy

Barats and Bereta is a sketch comedy group consisting of Luke Pierre Barats and Joseph Daniel Bereta. Formed in 2003, the duo originally made videos to amuse friends at Gonzaga University. These videos eventually made it onto their website and onto YouTube and now have over 330 thousand subscribers and almost 100 million views.

Humor is highly subjective and Barats/Bereta is certainly amateurish and over the top, but with nearly 60 sketch’s I think it likely that a handful of them should tickle about any funny bone. I don’t tend to enjoy Dumb & Dumber type humor myself, but I have found many of their sketches entertaining.  

Barats and Bereta have been trying to break into main stream media unsuccessfully. In 2006 NBC signed them to a one year deal, but their pilot wasn’t picked up. They’re currently developing another pilot, but I am uncertain as to who for.

You can find more of Barats and Bereta sketch’s at their web site baratsandbereta.com If you like  Barats and Bereta let your friends know about them or better yet send them a link to More w/ Less.

Happy Valentine's

Happy Valentines!! I know it is starting to look like the battle of the ballads so I included 2 updates today, but I have been strategically building up for The Big Red Heart Day.  Our musicians from the last couple of weeks both have song about Valentines Day and wanted to introduce these songs for those readers who are hopelessly romantic, or even those who just think one of the songs might help them get lucky.

Kina Granis has a video of her Valentine Day song. The video is very well done, clever, creative and the song has a great melody. I’m not sure if I like all the lyrical choices, but with over 5 million views it seems to work.

To no great surprise Mr. Love Song David Choi also has a song called Valentines

Hopefully these songs can put a little more Valence in your Valentine’s Day. If you like these songs/artists let your friends Know, or better yet send them a link to more w/ less.

Crash The Super Bowl With Kina

So I have been trying to rotate a video artist with every two musical artists but in light of this special day, Super Bowl Day, I wanted to spot light someone who has a very special connection with the Super bowl. Kina Grannis was the winner of the 2007 Dorito’s Crash The Super Bowl Contest. This was a contest that was held to find a musician and allow them to play an original work during one of the commercial slots of the super bowl. To generate publicity for herself Grannis was one of the first seriously self promoted musical artist on you tube. She preformed a new song every week for months to encourage people to vote for her, many of which are still available on you tube. Once Grannis won the contest she preformed a clever, but what many found to be an under whelming video “Message from your Heart.”

It was a shame that she hadn’t had a better song selection because she has a lot of wonderful material, but as the mantra goes "song selection is everything." Some of the material Kina creates will probably leave you wanting, but much of her work is simply brilliant. This dichotomy is one of the things that makes Grannis such a special artist, she’s unconventional, willing to experiment, and doesn’t let herself become overly transfixed on a singular style of music. She is one of the most prolific musicians I know of, which goes a long way for me in illustrating her own fascination with music. The first song I came across was “Strong Enough” and instantly made me a fan. (you can jump to :41 to skip her introduction)

Most of Kina’s you tube videos you can catch a sampling of her vivacious personality. She has an infectious joy of life that comes across in her videos and even more evident when she performs live. She tours quite frequently across the country and well worth the opportunity to spend a night out relaxing and getting to meet her if you have the chance. You can find a listing of her tour dates on her website kinagrannis.com 

One of her most popular self written songs is a beautiful song called “Stay Just a Little” (you can jump to 1:18 to skip Kina's silliness, personally I love silliness)

Kina Grannis signed with One Haven Music Records in December of 2010, but I present her because the majority of her work has been independently released and she has three self produced albums which you can find Kinna Grannis ITUNES  You can find out more about Kina Grannis at kinnagrannis.com If you like Kina let your friends know or better yet send them a link to More w/ Less.

Acknowledgments

WOW!! It’s February already, hard to believe we are a month into 2011 already. I wanted to share More W/ Less progress with those of you who may be curious. More w/ Less has exceeded my expectations in its first month. The website has had 170 views this month now averaging over 40 viewers a week, not bad from word of mouth. I wanted to acknowledge a few of the websites that have been the source links that the viewers have come from.

http://movie-ozone.com

http://pingywebedition.somee.com

http://goallineblitz.com

legendrealms.com

www.facebook.com

ourworldgus.blogspot.com

http://blogspot.com/

The month of February I have decided to try submitting to some Web Directories for some additional exposure.

I also wanted to acknowledge those that have taken the time to view the blog. I hope you have found some things that have entertained you. I’m going to try to start including more bands and sketch comedy after Valentine’s Day and hopefully this will help the material on the website have a more diverse appeal.

David a Love Song

David Choi is one of the most successful, prolific, well known self-promoted musicians from you-tube that you have probably never heard of. He is ranked as the 6^th most popular musician on you-tube and has a popular song vocalizing his love affair with you-tube.

David’s trademark gravelly voice that he skillfully weaves into silky smooth tones has made him a master at the art of the love song. If you’re a sucker for a good ballad then you just might want to be one of David Choi’s 600 thousand subscribers. Listen to what David has to say about love

Beyond being a very talented musician David also is quite an accomplished producer and with the assistance of Wong Fu Productions has produced a couple of very nice high quality videos that have gathered over 3 million hits

If you like David Choi then subscribe to his you-tube, buy his songs from David Choi ITUNES and tell your freinds about his Music; or better yet send your friends a link to More w/ Less and let me tell them about great artists I've found on the internet.

You don't know Jack

Straight Jack is an unsigned alternative band based out of Chicago. They excel at taking big band, jazz and blues rhythms and creating new sexy sounds and poetry. I was lucky enough to see them when visiting a friend few years back and was really impressed with their song LUSH

Straight jacket is an 8 member band and usually overflows most of the stages they command. The lead singer is named Amber, but unfortuantly i don't know her full name.  They had there own website but it has been down for about six months hopefully they are still together because when they play they set the stage on fire.

Click on the strightjack link to find out more straightjack If you like straigh jack let your friends know or better yet send them a link to more w/ less.

In The Begininng

So a few weeks ago a friend of mine posted a link on a forum. This link was to a creative show called Journey Quest. This was the inspiration for more w/ less. Journey Quest is created by Zombie Orpheus Entertainment; reading their mission statement and their ideals on self distributed and fan supported content got me to thinking about things that I like to watch and admire on the internet. I had thought about doing a blog for sometime, but the idea of espousing intellectual pontification I found over done, however, the idea of sharing entertainment with people attracted me a great deal. So with my inspiration from Zombie Orpheus Entertainment and the use of their fan supported/ self distributed logo as my new mantra I decided to share hidden works of art I have found. Journey Quest is wonderfully hokey, fun, and outlandish series of short films that are a mixture of the Guild and Monty Python.

If you enjoy Journey Quest you can find the rest of the episodes at http://www.journey-quest.com/

They are completely fan supported so if you would like to see more send them a few dollars and please let your freinds know Journey-Quest or better yet send your freinds a link to more w/ less 

Sam Hart

I have never been musically inclined or followed music much, although for some reason I have always seemed to have very intimate (emotional speaking) friendships throughout my life with extremely musically talented people. I say this as an introduction to my own experience with music or lack there of (I’m not sure which) and to describe my own tastes in music, which tend to be erratic. I like things that I simply find well done.

This rambling has a segue into our next artiest Sam Hart. Sam is a singer, songwriter, musician that is hard to define. He has a beautiful voice and sings songs from quirky Adam Sandlerisk to Irish ballads. What first impressed me about Sam is that he is the first artist that I have know to write a Lullaby, and it impressed the hell out of me. Not only was it quite good, but simply the … well I can’t think of an appropriate word, but I was impressed by him desiring and creating such a piece of art.

I can’t say that his music is ever going to be top 40, indie dance, or to everyone’s liking, but for me at least he’s simply fun to listen to. His most well received song is one he wrote about Mario Kart.

Currently Sam Hart doesn’t have any albums out, although he says he is working on putting one together. You can follow him on Twitter or find his music on you tube. A shout out to the super hero fans, Sam has a funny little song about a villian turning to the side of good.

So if you like Sam Hart tell your friends or better yet send them a link to More w/ Less.

Ana Free

Ana Free is the stage name of Ana Gomes Ferreira, a self distributed singer, musician, songwriter and performer from Portugal who has had a series top 5 hit singles across the pond. You can find some of her songs HERE. Ana calls her fans the Free World, which makes me chuckle as I find it kind of clever. Ana has quite alot of good songs and you can find a lot of her raw acoustic versions on you tube.The one I feature today I chose because of the high quality video (although my quality is not so good)..

This next video isn't on of my favorite songs by Anna but you get a good sense of who Anna Free. She just gives you a sense that she's one of those people that is fun to be around.

Anna gives a great interview where she talks a little about her You-Tube experince and realizing that she could have a career as a performing artist. I think it's a very important interview that can help understand the experience associated with most all the artist that are/will be presented on More-w-Less.





You can find more about Ana Free at Ana Free. If you like her Music then let your friends know, or better yet send them a link to More w/ Less. 

Chose your own adventure.

So this isn’t what I originally intended to begin my blog with, but I decided it was probably more versatile in its appeal. You remember those choose your own adventure books? Well there are a group of guys who created interactive choose you own adventure movies/shows and have posted them on Youtube. This first adventure is called time machine and is pretty nostalgic and fun. You can watch the first one that I watched

These guys have more adventures at chadmattandrob.  There is a variety of quality in their adventure series. The acting is pretty cheesy but it is fitting to the shows humor and there is a surprisingly high quality in its production. Check them out and if you enjoy them share it with your friends or better yet let your friends know about More w/ Less.

Where to start?

 Starting a blog can be difficult. You want to share something that is going to be captivating for your readers. You want to make connections, enrich people’s lives; feel like you’re contributing plus it’s not much fun to share things if you’re just sharing it with your self. That’s like emotional masturbation, it may be fun for awhile, but eventually it looses it’s attraction and you desire someone to share/connect with.

So that being said I decided to start my blog with something that most of you are going to find dry and uninteresting, however, I think it’s necessary in defining what fan supported performance art is and why people choose to do it.

David Choi is a talented musician/songwriter/producer that has over a half a million subscribers on youtube. I’ll be spotlighting some of his work at a later date, but today I want to talk about a piece of work he had done on signing with record labels.

David points out the most obvious reason for being independent, which is of course creative control, other things David points out is that there is little control of money by the artist, that the artists are actually financially responsible for paying back the money that labels invest in them and that labels have the right to drop artiest which can severely stagnate their careers. David also suggests that with the exception of cash advances that most artists never actually see any money from the royalties of their sales.

The advantage of signing with a Label is that they have resources to provide upfront costs of producing music and touring. Being talented often isn’t enough it of course costs a lot of money to become a famous musician and record labels can provide that investment upfront. David does a better job, if not overly casual one, of explaining his experiences with Labels.

Similarly I imagine the same concepts can be true when working with movie and TV producers/companies. The people who choose to be independent do so for a variety of reasons that frankly I could only speculate on, but I’m glad there are people out there who create and want to share and entertain just for the thrill and excitement of doing so. Hopefully together we can spread the word about these entertainers and help gather them more support.