We have a contest for all you garage rock fans out there. All you have to do is fire up your Twitter or Facebook make a tweet/like and you will be entered.
This year, the SCION Garage Fest is happening on Saturday October 2nd in Lawrence, KS. The festival will happen over 4 different local Lawrence venues and the lineup will include the likes of The Raveonettes, King Khan & the Shrines, Best Coast, Times New Viking, The Gay Blades, The Greenhornes (which is the rhythm section for The Raconteurs/The Dead Weather), and The Ponys among others. Plus, two legendary and recently reunited garage bands The Oblivians and The Gories headline.
The contest ends on September 10th. Winners will be chosen at random and notified by Facebook or Twitter. They will have 72 hours to respond to us to claim their tickets. Tickets will then be mailed to the address provided for the winner. Tickets do not guarantee entry to the Scion Garage Fest if individual venue capacities are reached.
The CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival in New York will now include a gaming event, CMJ Play, to explore the commercial and cultural convergence of music and video games. CMJ Play, “a celebration and exploration of the intersection of music and gaming”, will take place Wednesday, October 20, at New York University’s Kimmel Center and will be presented in conjunction with NYU’s Music Video Game Research Project.
Samuel Howard-Spink, clinical assistant professor of the Music Business Program at NYU and the founder of the NYU Music Video Game Research Project and CMJ Play curator, thinks that one day gaming could provide more revenues to music artists than the recorded music business alone.
“Interactive games are becoming the most significant media form in the entertainment and culture industries, and practically every single game or mobile app uses music in some way. This represents extraordinary opportunities for music creators and various tech companies to connect with the most engaged music fans and gamers…This is the real future of music business, and CMJ Play is where this future will be discussed, debated, and forged.”
Not only are gamers paying for music downloads through games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, but the inclusion of more indie-leaning music has increased dramatically in recent years as seen in the Madden and Tony Hawk series.
CMJ Play is open to Marathon badge holders, but special passes for the one-day event can also be purchased. For more information, visit CMJ.com/marathon.
One of our online properties got a face lift this past week and we couldn’t be more proud of it’s new shiny exterior and improved readability! The Laugh Button has made its comedy blog a main feature while the joke player gets reworked, but don’t fret, the streaming audio player will make its glorious unveiling again soon. The site continues to be THE destination for stand-up comedy news and audio and will only get better.
Some of the content you’ll find on TheLaughButton.com includes…
Along with over 100,000 people made up of geeks, artists, families, celebrities, actors and other unexplainables, Jon and I ventured into the enormous pop media extravaganza that is Comic-Con International last week. It was sensory overload to say the least. As much as Comic-Con used to be a convention solely for comic book nerds, just about anyone can enjoy what Comic-Con has to offer and you don’t have to roll in a homemade Voltron costume to “fit in”.
In the words of Dr. Peter Venkman, “we came, we saw, we kicked its ass!” We took part in little bit of everything throughout four sun-filled, San Diego days. Jon and I could go on for hours about everything we experienced at the Exhibit Hall alone but we thought we would allow some of our photos and videos to tell the story along with the below list of highlights. (more…)
Bonnaroo resulted in a lot more than giggly memories and sunburn for us here at The Syndicate. We met so many amazing music industry members, artists, and organizations! It is there that we met Ashley Hillis and Taina Thermidor, representatives from Rock And Wrap It Up! RWU is an inspirational non-profit, with a focus of arranging the transfer of surplus food and supplies, that would otherwise go to waste, to partners that manage distribution among the needy in local communities. Leftover musical and sporting event catering materials (food that is prepared but not served), and discarded toiletries and paper supplies from hotels are among the most frequently donated items. Aside from working to close the gap between those with extra and those in need, the group’s mission also includes reducing landfill waste (by putting perfectly good food in mouths instead of the ground).
According to an article published by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), the organization has donated to at least 41,000 shelters and locations in need, has collaborated with 150 bands, 200 schools/universities and 30 sports franchises, and have fed more than 200 million people. We had the opportunity to meet with Taina and Ashley again on our home-turf of New York City, along with other members of their team including CEO and Founder Syd Mandelbaum. I had the exciting opportunity to interview him over e-mail following our meeting. (more…)
The Syndicate is in the midst of a summer-long grassroots marketing campaign promoting Runner Runner, a group comprised of former members of Over It, Don’t Look Down and Rufio. The band recently performed ”So Obvious” on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the first single from their self-titled debut. The band showcases exactly why they are the first signing to late night host David Letterman‘s Clear Entertainment/C.E. Music – their performance has the same energy and infectious quality of the music they create.
The 
