Mona

In the last month another band just blew my mind... MONA!! They are american and come from Nashville, the city of music. Their songs Teenager and Listen to your love sound just like a classic piece of rock music, because they're pure rock.
I think that especially in Teenager you can hear a certain influence of other punk bands such as 30 seconds to Mars, but I like them more. 
So let's talk about them a little.
Mona, consisting of members Nick Brown (lead vocals, guitar), Vince Gard (drums, percussion), Zach Lindsey (bass, backing vocals) and Jordan Young (guitar, backing vocals), originated from Dayton, Ohio, though they are now located in Nashville, Tennessee. Brown revealed the band's name refers to his grandmother, Mona Brown.^[4] Formed in 2007,^[5] the band went through various line-up alterations during its first few years, including the departure of a guitarist following a heated argument with Brown. Zach joined the group following a band visit to Nashville, Tennessee, where Zach was finishing a project with another band. Jordan was brought in following the previously mentioned guitarist's exit.
In April 2009, Brown was introduced to Saul Galpern, creator of Nude Records by a mutual friend. Soon after their online introduction, Galpern flew to Nashville to meet the band. Having been very impressed by them, Galpern signed a management contract with the band which led to a record deal with Island Records in September 2010.
An announcement made on April 4, 2011, revealed the band would be playing with the Kings of Leon during a one day festival held in Slane Castle, Ireland, on May 28, 2011.

On 20 November 2010, the band appeared on the BBC's Later... with Jools Holland, in which they performed the songs "Teenager", "Listen to Your Love" and "Lines In the Sand".^[6] On 6 December 2010, it was revealed that Mona had been longlisted on the BBC's Sound of 2011 poll, which predicts artists that will become successful in the year ahead. It was also revealed that month the band had made the longlist of MTV Awards' Brand New for 2011 - and on 3 February 2011, it was announced Mona had won.^[2]

The band released their debut single "Listen to Your Love" in the United Kingdom on 13 September 2010 through their own independent record label Zion Noiz Recordings.^[7] Second single "Trouble On the Way" was then released through Zion Noiz Recordings/Island Records on 13 December 2010.^[8] Mona released their third single "Teenager" on 7 February 2011.^[9]
In February 2011 Mona announced the release date of their self-titled debut album which was self-produced by the band in their basement in Nashville and mixed by producer Rich Costey (Foo Fighters, Muse, Arctic Monkeys)

Savannah xx


P.S. NIck Brown, Mona's singer, looks a little like Joe Strummer, doesn't he? ;)

Girl Power!

my best friend and I have always been supportive to Girl Power. So here a little dedication to us:

Girl Power doesn't mean "I can survive without a boy" but "To me you are more important than every boy"
Girl Power doesn't mean "I'll always be single" but "I'm looking for the man of my life"
Girl Power doesn't mean "I can't hang out with that gorgeus guy from fifth class" but "The boy from fifth class has to                                            deserve it to hang out with me"

So to every girl in the world: GIRL POWER MEANS GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN

the Cindy Lauper song is very educational in this point of view ;)

Savannah xx

Back to Music! The Vaccines

I really hadn't had enought time to write a piece for my blog. Now that I found some time I decid to get back to the base of my blog, music. MTV has changet it's channels on sky, so now I have MTV rocks, that is an english channel (I'm also able to watch uK's adds-I can't understand the utility to show me britain's products since I'll never be able to buy them, unless I take the plane, go shopping in a supermarket in London and fly back- ).
Nevermind, the nice thing is that I was able to hear some english music, that I won't hear in Italy. What did I discover? English music is pretty pretty good, but that's nothing new I suppose. English music has been pretty pretty good since the '60s.
Well I heard this new band, the Vaccines. It looks like I'm a little late 'cause I understood that they're quite famous in Britain. But I should say that their tune "If you wanna" is very nice. I also understood that they were famous before even "being famous", I mean they were able to build their "famousness" before evn releasing their LP.
How were they able to do it? Here there are some easy steps to make of your band something big (as the Vaccines did):
1) Their identity was so hidden that someone thought that one of the musicians was a member of the Royal family for godness' sake! Being misterious always helps, even in love.
2) Their "parterre" is famous. Belive me, if between you can count celebrities such as Alex Kapranos, well you're almoust there. Is a paper writes that Alex Kapranos was spotted at your gig, they will write the name of your band in the article. Some crazy or curious fan of Franz Ferdinand's will come to a gig of yours and try to listen to you. Or meet Alex Kapranos.
3) Blog entries entirely dedicated to the fact that they did a sold out, or dedicated to their incredible talent. If you have some bloggers friends the game is done.
4)Their concerts last half an hour. That's not something that I apreciate, but the lesson that we can take is that doing something original, not only on the musical level, helps. The strange things always chatch your eye.
I mean, just look at Lady Gaga. Which popstar would ever call her fans "monsters"? Who would ever be dressed by pieces of meat? Who would make strange and horrible videos for his songs? The answer is Lady Gaga.
And she as The Vaccines started everything with a simple principal "I'm famous even if nobody knows me". And here they are, famous in the real world. Even if their music isn't this original. So if you have a band, well try these few tips, they might work on you too. ;)

Savannah xx