ONPOINT at KARMA LOUNGE review

Jaded Scenester added another (positive!) review for ONPOINT playing at Karma Lounge Oct. 26th.

The show was a good one. It wasn't the place, it wasn't the sound, it was the crowd that fueled a lively energetic and memorable performance.

Here's the review on Jaded Scenester blog!

Brooklyn, NY

camera crew of 3

1 director

Lola de Hanna and Danny Boushebel

September 2009

10 am

Last stop productions was generous to provide me this opportunity to make a music video for my song "Words". It was a fun, beautiful Sunday morning.

Hope you enjoy it. Please comment and share :)

NEW LOLA DE HANNA SONG

I have been absent for quite some time now.

Was in Greece for a month, started a full time job, but now I'm back with more creativity and more to write/say about the music (metal and non metal) scene in NY.

Lets start by listening to my newest song called "Words". Just like most of them, it was a spur of the moment type inspiration. Production/mixing is poor; but it's from the heart :)

what a mess-live ONPOINT

MySpace.com Blogs - Lola de hanna MySpace Blog

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SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL METAL SCENE!!!!

Here's another metal show coming up that's going to be CRAZZYYYY!!!
and the best part, it's free! (even though the poster says otherwise)
It's in Brooklyn at Club Europa. Show starts at 8
Line up includes ONPOINT (www.myspace.com/onpointtheband), Eyes like Cyanide, Nahual and Headsnatcher.

Even though it's a Sunday, it's going to end early so it's worth checking out.
Onpoint's last show was great! It was short due to the singer's medical reasons but it was still energetic, powerful and headbang-inducing. check out a vid (not good quality) below

ONPOINT on FACEBOOK

For all you Facebook lovers out there, we created a facebook group page for ONPOINT -behold the robot rebellion. check it out here and become a member if you want. Updates and invitations will be  sent through there.
:)

Me Talk Pretty Show at Santos April 24th

 This band is not metal but they are from NY and I haven't written any show reviews so I'll go ahead and say a few words.

Me talk Pretty are a four piece whose main attraction are the catchy songs and the compelling, energetic presence of vocalist Uliana (Julia). I had heard their songs on myspace and often found myself singing some vocal lines in the subway "I shouldn't let you, I shouldn't let you know, oh oh". The live execution of the songs was just as good though the sound was not ideal. Highlights of the night were "Wake up and wake up" and "Flame". 

The crowd was also amazing. Lots of heads going up and down, lots of singers and people jumping around. 

I would definitely go to another show even though it's not right in my musical preferences category. catch them here. 

video I made

Here's a video I made on iMovie with some pics and music from the band ONPOINT (0n901n7)

check out this BLOG

I came across the blog of Chad Bower, a music journalist, who has interviewed lots of BIG names like Judas Priest, Metallica, Sepultura etc. He seems to update his blog daily or weekly with some insightful and interesting reviews/interviews.
There is an interview with Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro on their latest album Shallow Life. I haven't heard it all yet but I'm not tooooo impressed with the first single Spellbound. But still, you gotta love Lacuna.
Check Chad Bower's blog here.

METAL MAY

There will be many many things going on in May.
For starters we have Nightwish May 2nd at the Nokia Theater. I must say that I am not a big fan of operatic metal so Tarja's departure did not bother me. i know she has a lot of faithful followers but I prefer the sound of Anette.
Then at the end of May we have legendary Opeth playing at the Grand Ballroom with Enslaved on the 26th. This has got to be a very powerful show.

Of course there will be a much smaller-scale metal show May 30th at the Delancey with my band and Invidia and Metal John. This is a "proven-to-work" formula guaranteed to get your heads banging.

Thoughts

There are definitely a lot of indie rock, metal, pop rock, alternative band in NY playing shows at every live gig place in the city. It's a challenge to try to keep up and to spend time distinguishing between what's good and what's bad. Sometimes there is no such thing as good and bad. Sometimes it's the music that makes one band stand out, other times it's the frontman/frontwoman, other times the energy during shows, other times some shocking memorability trick...
Of course I have prejudice for bands that I know and am affiliated with. For example, Invidia are a great example of a band that combined skilled musicians, energy and catchy songs. www.myspace.com/indiviatheband (of course this true if you like death metal)

Other "big" events coming up are the HAUNTED April 19th 2009 at BB KING BLUES CLUB AND GRILL and one of my old favorites QUEENSRYCHE at the NOKIA THEATER May 15th 2009.
Price is usually an issue with such bands. I'm starting to become a bigger fan of local, smaller gigs where the atmosphere is much more personal and there is more human contact.
Nevertheless, all bands need our support so....

Wikipedia

I was reading an interesting article in TPM (the philosopher's magazine) about Wikipedia. There was a debate concerning the entries in Wikipedia in terms of their ability to make qualitative distinction on information and knowledge. In other words, one author suggested that there should be a prioritizing, a hierarchy of information like in an encyclopedia written by experts, while the other author supported writers' rights to define for themselves what is important information, what gets to be included etc without setting limit. For example, the opposer of Wikipedia made the point that in Wikipedia, an article about Pamela Anderson may be longer than an article about the Edgar Allan Poe. In addition, the later may be filled with information written by people who are not experts. On the other hand, the supporter was saying that since Wikipedia entries are not in paper, thus there is no need to save space, there shouldn't be such limitations. And that the entries should reflect the writer's perceived notion of importance.
Nevertheless, this NY times article makes a good point by saying that "the greater the foot traffic, the safer the neighborhood". This may have implications about the importance of multiple voices and opinions for each entry.

Twitter and Status Updating and Friends, Until I delete you

Twitter and Status Updating
The article makes a thorough analysis of the nature of twitter and the multiple aspects of status updating. For some, updating a status can seem meaningless, pointless and uninteresting. They see it as an intrusion to another person's personal life or an unnecessary display of thoughts and actions. However, the article touches upon the multiple effects of updating such as advertising, promoting, informing, sharing ideas etc. Furthermore, the article provides some surprising statistics such as that most users of Twitter are of a lower socioeconomic status and that they are younger. I'm not quite sure as to why these statistics hold; it would be helpful to have some sort of hypothesis or explanation about this. It would be intuitive to think that online users are adults with a level of affluence hence the ability to spend time on updating devices! On the other hand, other statistics make perfect sense; such as the one that Twitter users are more mobile. I do not have internet access on my cell phone, so unless I'm on a computer I am very unlikely to inform others as to what I am doing.

Friends, Until I Delete You

This article addresses the contemporary, cultural phenomenon of "friending" and "unfriending" somebody on online venues such as Myspace/Facebook etc. I must say that I have "suffered" the consequences of becoming somebody's friend on facebook and later on regretting it since this is someone I have seen once and will never see again, but then feeling embarrassed to do so at the risk of seeming "dramatic, snubby and full of myself". This article does a really good job of expressing the various ways in which social and casual relations have changed in nature, ever since online friendships took place. Now we now what our 1st grade classmate whom we haven't seen in 25 years in up to and our bosses can now where we went Saturday night. The process of occassional massive deletes seems like a good idea in order to keep Facebook and similar services somewhat useful and unobtrusive.

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the West Pole

Although this has nothing to do with NYC, I feel compelled to write about Silje Wergeland, the new singer of the GATHERING.
What I wanted to hear was the GATHERING as I know them with a different twist added by the new vocalist. What I heard was a completely different band that unfortunately is nothing extraordinarily unique compared to other bands of similar genre.
I hate to compare vocalists...But I think that this is inevitable. Silje has a beautiful voice and complements the new compositions; however, lets just say that before the gathering was Anneke, now the Gathering is NOT Silje. Maybe eventually this will happen, but for the 3 songs on myspace, the atmosphere of all elements combined transcended the uniqueness of the voice.
I really like the song WEST POLE and TREASURE

LIT

My band, ONPOINT (www.myspace.com/onpointtheband) played at the LIT lounge last night.I had never played there before. A friend called it the new CBGB. I was impressed. The soundguy was great, the atmosphere was fun, it was crowded... it was a great night. the rubes definitely got us dancing.
next ONPOINT show March 7th at Ace of Clubs.

Other than that, I won't hide my excitement and curiosity about the new Gathering album, West Pole and their surprise new singer.Sources say she's an Octavia Sperati ex-member. Lets see...

ACE of CLUBS

This Friday, Jan 9th, there will be a rock/metal show with four bands at the ACE OF CLUBS bar at 9 Great Jones Street.
Proud to say that my band, 0n901n7, will be the opening act at 8 o clock. The bands that will follow are fellow female fronted metal act, Ray Gun Girls. Then, there will be the band Landing Project (punk-rock) and finally the band YesMisterBloodVessel will follow (rock-grunge-alternative)

The show is $10.
It's on a Friday so it should be fun

ROCK THURSDAYS @ La Kueva

I've heard of La Kueva in Queens.
Never been there, but it's supposed to host a Rock Thursdays night which has a bunch of rock, metal bands which are also rooted in the Latin/Spanish speaking rock scene.
this place is at 39-31 Queens BlvdSunnyside, Queens718-786-8490
www.lakueva.com

My band (www.myspace.com/onpointtheband) will plan a gig there soon. but I don't know much about the place. Hopefully it supports the local metal/rock scene.
If anyone has an opinion I would love to hear it

ROTTING CHRIST @ B.B. King Blues Club & Grill

I have a sentimental connection to this band since they are from my hometown, ATHENS GREECE.
They are a widely recognized black metal band that have been around since the early 90s.
check their myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/rottingchristabyss

it should be a really cool show. it's at the B.B. King Blues Club & Grill 237 W 42nd St ths Thursday, Jan 8th
doors open at 8 and tix are $28 or $30 at the door.

NY METAL

This is a new blog that started in January of 2009 hoping that it will keep NYC metalheads together, more informed about events and up-to-date on shows, news, etc.