My annual “year in review” music post in January 2010 will be filled with fantastic music (and will actually be written properly this year). But before that happens, you should have time to enjoy the music now! So here’s a little breakdown on some stuff you should be listening to.

Alexisonfire. Old Crows, Young Cardinals.

These guys know how to rock, and this album is no exception. Their sound is familiar, yet new. Somehow, the screaming parts (the parts NOT sung by Dallas Green) are more controlled, and thus, not as irritating. Some songs have a bit of a punk influence to them (especially the single, Young Cardinals). This is not my favourite album ever, but it is a really solid album that will have you rockin’ all night long.

Green Day. 21st Century Breakdown.

Green Day has come back with what I believe will be a milestone album for the band. With a unique mix of old-school fast “machine gun” guitar riff songs that are pure Green Day, to softer ballads that elevate their songwriting skills to new heights, this album is my top pick for album of the year.

Moneen. Hold That Sound EP (full album due in a few months)

It’s no secret that Moneen is at the top of my band list. They have such a complex and deep songwriting style that is unmatched in a market full of “sound-alikes”. If this EP is any indication of what the album will be like, I expect Moneen to do quite well for themselves. Their songs are finely crafted in true Moneen fashion, and they are sure to please long-time fans as well as garner a few new fans along the way. I bought the EP instantly on iTunes. Have a listen if you get a moment. You have my personal guarantee that it is worth listening to over and over again.

Till next time.

A7

After a long wait, and large amount of planning, Hotcakes New Media‘s first weekend of shooting was finally started this past weekend. Dave and I just wrapped the “bar scene” and all the live band footage. Keep reading to see more pictures and find out how it went.

The video shoot was spread out over 2 days. Saturday night was filming the crowd, live band performances, and the final acting scene (cop chases criminal into the bar, criminal tried to get lost in the crowd, gets taken down by the cop). We started the night with the live performances of the band. We needed to run the song 5 times, each from a different camera angle (middle of the crowd, back/left, behind the band, and two roving steadicam shots of the band and the crowd). Those shots went amazingly well, though incredibly slow. The “crowd” was not made up of paid extras, just the band’s friends. So in between shots, they all left to get drinks and go party upstairs. It took forever to get everyone back in place each time. Of course, since that extended everything, it meant that people were getting increasingly more drunk as the night went on. We ended the night by attempting to film the acting scenes. By then, the crowd was drunk, rowdy and belligerent. Things were getting out of hand, so we had very little time to shoot. We gathered all the crowd we could and just shot everything as fast and as furious as we could, hoping that we got what we needed. It was hectic, and messy, and I had all kinds of alcohol spilled on me, but I think we got most of what we needed.

As a result of the drunken partying, people were stepping on the camera’s cords. The camera was unplugged abruptly on a couple of occasions, which caused us to lose some good footage. We also had a number of people in the crowd looking directly into the camera (which made those shots unusable). But as I said… there was enough footage to put the scene together (but just barely).

Now we are on to planning and shooting the final 4 acted scenes of the video, including one huge scene with police cruisers, bloody bodies, smoke machines and a cast of 10-15 actors. So far everything has gone relatively well, and the footage we have is unbelievable. I forgot just how amazing my camera is. Doing this video shoot has reminded me how much I love it. And Dave did a fantastic job of working the camera in question. I think we work well as a team… I was like the director watching the monitor to ensure the footage and shots were clean and we got the shots we needed, and he was co-director and camera operator. Judging from the footage, it looks like that setup worked quite nicely.

A few more pictures of the footage we captured are below. For more information on Hotcakes New Media, visit our site at http://www.hotcakesnewmedia.com .

A7

EDIT: More pictures from Day 2!

A7