It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like: PTXmas...!

Photo: Ryan Parma

Hey Pentatonix fans, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas....Yep Halloween is over and Christmas is coming.

PTX is releasing an album for the season, and as I am sure you PTX groupies out there know, everything they do either enhances the original song they cover, or makes it better, so have a PTXmas, I know I will...!

PENTATONIX SET TO RELEASE CHRISTMAS EP – PTXmas – NOV. 13, 2012

LOS ANGELES, CA - On November 13, vocal sensations and winners of season 3 of NBC’s “The Sing-Off,” Pentatonix, will release their first-ever Christmas EP – PTXmas – via Madison Gate Records (the album is available for pre-order now on the iTunes store -https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/ptxmas/id572957637).

This news coincides with the band’s announcement of a second North American tour, kicking off January 24 at Los Angeles’ Henry Fonda Music Box and continuing through March, 2013.  The 2013 tour announcement comes in the middle of the band’s current sold-out tour, which will keep Pentatonix on the road through late December.   Full tour dates are listed below and are available via the band’s website here: www.ptxofficial.com/tour.  Limited VIP tickets for the 2013 tour will go on sale this Friday, November 2, with general ticketing commencing on Saturday, November 3.  

In other exciting news, Pentatonix has been chosen to perform at the “Coca-Cola Red Carpet LIVE! @ The 2012 American Music Awards” pre-show on November 18.  The show will stream live for fans worldwide starting at 5pm ET / 2pm PT. 

Viewers will be able to watch the live show on ABC.com, AMAs365.com, Cokemusic.com, Livestream, Ustream, YouTube, and through AP Live Entertainment.

PTXmas will feature 6 classic holiday songs (track listing below) and the group will debut a video for “Carol Of The Bells” on November 13, alongside the album release.  Entertainment Weekly magazine will also stream an exclusive full-length track from the EP beginning today.  Click here to listen:  http://music-mix.ew.com/2012/10/31/pentatonix-christmas-ptxmas-carol-of-the-bells

Surrounding the EP release, Pentatonix will be making various appearances including performing at the famed Hollywood Christmas Parade (set to air on the Hallmark Channel in December) and appearing in their only LA area Christmas performance as special guests of radio station  94.7 The Wave’s Christmas Concert at the Nokia Theater on Sunday, December 16.

“We all love the holiday season and are excited to share some of our favorite Christmas songs on this CD.  We hope everyone enjoys listening to them as much as we enjoyed recording them,” says Pentatonix. 

“We’re excited to bring Pentatonix fans a little extra holiday cheer this season.  With their unique arrangements and vocal stylings, Pentatonix adds a new twist to these classic holiday songs and has produced a collection of music that will brighten up anyone’s year-end festivities,” said Madison Gate Records executive, Shelly Bunge.

Full Track Listing for PTXmas

Angels We Have Heard On High

O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Carol Of The Bells

The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On an Open Fire)

O Holy Night

This Christmas

  

2012 TOUR DATES

November 2012

3                      Live at SoJam                         Raleigh, NC

7                      Mill City Nights                      Minneapolis, MN

8                      The Majestic Theatre             Madison, WI

10                    The Englert Theatre             Iowa City, IA

11                    Old Rock House                     St. Louis, MO

14                    Lincoln Hall                            Chicago, IL

15                    Blind Pig                                 Ann Arbor, MI

18                   American Music Awards

27                    Revolution                             Ft. Lauderdale, FL

28                    House of Blues                      Orlando, FL

29                    Variety Playhouse                 Atlanta, GA

December 2012

1                      Cat’s Cradle                            Carrboro, NC

2                      Jefferson Theater                  Charlottesville, VA

4                      Sound Stage                           Baltimore, MD

5                      The Howard Theatre               Washington DC

6                      Mohegan Sun-Wolf Den       Uncasville, CT

8                      Westcott Theatre                  Syracuse, NY

9                      Phoenix Concert Theatre     Toronto, ON

10                   Hollywood Christmas Parade Concert – Hallmark Channel

13                   Home & Family Show on Hallmark Channel

15                    Hard Rock Café                     Las Vegas, NV

16                    Nokia Theater                       Los Angeles, CA

18                    Aladdin Theater                    Portland, OR

19                    Showbox                                Seattle, WA

31                    Big D NYE –Victory Park      Dallas, TX

NEW 2013 TOUR DATES

January 2013

24                    Henry Fonda Theatre           Los Angeles, CA

27                    Warfield Theatre                  San Francisco, CA

28                    LJ Williams Theater              Visalia, CA

30                    House of Blues                      Anaheim, CA

31                    House of Blues                      San Diego, CA

February 2013

2                      Marquee Theatre                  Tempe, AZ

16                    Neighborhood Theatre        Charlotte, NC

17                    The National                          Richmond, VA

18                    The Fillmore                          Silver Spring, MD

20                    The Electric Factory             Philadelphia, PA

21                    Best Buy Theater                  New York, NY

23                    Calvin Theatre                       Northampton, MA

24                    House of Blues                      Boston, MA

25                    State Theater                         Ithaca, NY

27                    House of Blues                      Cleveland, OH

28                    Royal Oak Music Theatre     Royal Oak, MI

March 2013

2                      Riviera Theatre                     Chicago, IL

3                      Pabst Theater                        Milwaukee, WI

6                      Val Air Ballroom                   Des Moines, IA

7                      The Pageant                           St. Louis, MO

9                      Midland Theatre by AMC     Kansas City, MO

10                    Ogden Theatre                      Denver, CO

13                    House of Blues                      Dallas, TX

14                    House of Blues                      Houston, TX

For complete up to date info please visit:  http://www.facebook.com/Pentatonix/events

T.G.I.F! Woodson ft: Bizzy Boy "Killing Me"

T.G.I.F! Time to roll out a new video...this one is by an artist who I wrote up here on "Entertain Me" and interviewed for "Chorus & Verse" - Woodson.

Refresh yourself, so you can respect yourself, here is my previous "EM" write up:

http://mshinafelt.blogspot.com/2012/07/his-name-is-woodson.html

Woodson has a new video out for his song "Killing Me" ft: Bizzy Boy, so  kick off your weekend with some Woodson Michel!

Where's the party? Let's have some fun!

His name is Woodson: http://woodsonmusicblogs.blogspot.com/

"Make Believe" With Tom Goss

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  Singer/Songwriter, Tom Goss is here with his latest song "Make Believe". Tom is a well known musician who is about to get a lot more notoriety with the release of the video for "Make Believe".
  
  Check it out, I think you can guess why....
  
  MS: The video for your latest song "Make Believe" is so original what inspired you to turn your naked body into a fantasy world?

   TG: You know, I have no idea. The day I got back from my Spring tour I was exhausted. I had been on the road for 13 weeks straight and I was looking forward to not working like a maniac, just spending time at home with my husband. I laid down in my own bed for the first time in months and all the sudden this idea of manipulating time and imagery on my body with paint popped up. Well, now I couldn't sleep, all I could do was think about how cool it would be to pull off. A couple weeks later I got a hold of Scott Brooks to see if he would be into working together. I've been an admirer of his work for years and I was pretty nervous and intimidated to be honest, his work is so amazing. Luckily he was into the idea and we started talking logistics. The more we talked, the more complicated (and fun) it became. Eventually it became what you see today.

  
  
  

  

  MS: How does this relate to the actual song for you personally?

  
  

  TG: It relates a lot actually. I wrote this song thinking about how I would approach love if I wasn't me. If I was someone with no inhibitions, no insecurities. Someone who could see what they wanted and go after it. Triangle (the pursuer in the video) is pretty much like that. As soon as triangle sees circle (the pursued) appear on the island, he (or she or it) knows there is love in the air and goes after it.

  MS: Who came up with the visual concepts of the body paint and the creatures etc..?

  TG: Scott Brooks and I did together. My initial idea was in black and white and had the animation painted on me. However, it became quickly obvious that that was impossible. We brainstormed a lot of ideas, that we thought might actually be possible, and then tested them out. Usually the ideas didn't work, hahahaha. There were a lot of tricky logistics to consider. Eventually we found a story & paint scheme that worked as well and characters we could introduce that would appear to be animated. We simplified our techniques a lot, let time work for us. There are no special effects or edits in the video, so you see every second that took place during the 80 minute shoot (watch the clock). It's pretty amazing actually. I still can't believe it works.

  
  MS: Your fans are loving the view I bet! What kind of feedback have you gotten from them?

  TG: Feedback has been through the roof. The amount of likes in relation to the amount of views is fairly astounding. Of course there's plenty of clock jokes too, hahahaha. More than anything, I'm glad that folks are having fun with it. That's kind of the point.

  MS: My prediction "Make Believe" is going to get you a lot of attention....
  
  "Make Believe" with Tom at: http://tomgossmusic.net/wordpress/ 
  Or on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/tomgossmusic
  
  

Happy Halloween !

Wanted to take a minute and wish everyone a Happy Halloween....!

Being a fan of all things horrific and supernatural, Halloween is my favorite Holiday as it brings those things to the forefront of everyone's psyche for an entire month, love it!

So, to celebrate this day, I wanted to share the trailer to my favorite horror movie ever, "John Carpenter's Halloween". I had to tag "John Carpenter" lest it get confused with the awful Rob Zombie remake. Carpenter understands what Zombie never could, the less you know about walking evil the more terrifying it is, the biggest mistake Zombie made in his re-do was giving a lot of back story as to why Michael Myers became who he was.

This was the first horror movie that had a huge impact on me and the only one that ever really got under my skin. Images of Michael Myers in his white mask walking towards me with a butcher knife gave me the creeps for years after.

Beware tonight you never know what is out there waiting for you....Happy Halloween!

The Horror: Sing-A-Long With The Drews

Described as "Americana singer/songwriters with twisted roots", The Drews are the lean and mean husband and wife music machine Jennifer and Andrew DiMartino  and were once voted Seattle's number one band...Boo!

As it happens this duo has managed to put one great macabre song on each of their CD's that I recommend to others, listen to and use for my Halloween fun!

Their first CD "Strategically Interrupted Silence" features "Lloyd's Eyes" which chronicles the demented activity of an optometrist who steals his patients eyes and collects them as trophies. Rumor has it he and Buffalo Bill from "Silence of the Lambs" do lunch once month and talk shop.

"Lloyd's Eyes" is musically insane and perfect fun for Halloween or anytime, you want to get all "eye for an eye" on someone's butt!

Next up "Necroditty" from their great CD "Sins of Others" produced by Conrad Uno.

Time to break the title down, Yo! Necro=Dead and if you substitute the word "diddle" for "ditty" the song title would basically translate into "Diddle The Dead".

If you need more of a song explanation than this consult a mortician, because I'm not getting into it any further with you guys, so there!

Get your spook on with The Drews at: 
http://www.wearethedrews.com/

http://www.myspace.com/thedrews

The Horror: Richard Bates, Jr. "Excision"

Ever so often a film comes along that catches this writer by surprise, such is the case with "Excision" which I caught at Screamfest in Los Angeles, CA.

"Excision" is one of the most disturbing, yet honest horror films about misunderstood adolescence to come along in quite some time, with two great leading performances by Annalynne McCord as "Pauline" and Traci Lords as her Mother "Phyllis".

With an ending that leaves you speechless. Here to discuss "Excision" is the man behind the vision Richard "Ricky" Bates, Jr.

MS: After seeing "Excision" I really wanted to speak with you, I was not expecting what I saw, I was really blown away by it. The trailers lead you to believe it is more of a gore fest than it actually is, it's  actually a very intelligent movie.

RB: Anchor Bay who bought the movie said that selling it as a horror film was the only way to market it. I have not had any input in marketing it, other than the poster I did with Annalynne where she looks sort of like a Queen, Anchor Bay deemed to artsy for the DVD cover.

MS: Well the movie isn't exactly not horror, but the horror element is more psychological/disturbing than anything.

RB: Honestly 78% of my film influences in the movie are horror filmmakers.

Ricky (far right) and the cast of "Excision"

MS: One of the things that is fascinating about the film is Annalynne's character "Pauline" comes off as a misunderstood teenager in the beginning, she does not come off vile right away like she does as the story progresses. Traci's character comes off like a total bitch in the beginning and is someone you gain sympathy for as the story progresses.

RB: Yes, it really interesting watching this movie with parents and their children, it's like before you have children and see a Mom yelling at her kids and you think "God what a bitch". Then you have kids and you see a Mom yelling at her kids and you think "What did that little shit do"?

MS: I love the way you did not make "Pauline" an outright evil character.

RB: What I tried to do was balance her, I didn't want her to be too bad. I pulled her back a little bit, because I didn't want it to be a "F#$k You Mom" movie. I tried to make her confused about it all. Hopefully that translates.

MS: It did for me, and what's great about the ending is you do see it coming at some point, but it still has a strong impact.

RB: Yeah, it's not like there is a twist ending (laughs) it was the only way for me that the movie could end. It's funny when I made the short, the people who saw it were excited about the feature, they were like "I can't wait to see it, finally we get to see what happens after the garage scene". I'm thinking: "you are going to be sorely disappointed". (laughs) That's it, that's the end of the movie.

MS: In my opinion the ending was perfect.

Good Times

RB: Truly I would not know what to do past that, for me that's the end of the story. Traci and Annalynne really brought it that day. I think it helped that we shot that scene near the end of the shoot and they were so on the verge of killing me at that point. (laughs)

MS: Another interesting thing about "Excision" is how you cast everybody against type. For example I never thought Annalynne was a bad actress, but I did not know she could deliver the kind of performance she did as "Pauline".

RB: Yes, it's funny you should say that, so I told my Mom there was this actress, Annalynne McCord who wants to be in the movie, she said "The girl from 90210? Let me watch it and tell you what I think". she calls me the next day from West Virginia and says "Now honey I just don't know if she can pull it off". But I had seen interviews with Annalynne and spoke with her and knew she could do it, my goal was to cast against type, take a chance on actors since they were taking a chance on me. Plus I'm a young director and wanted to make a ballsy a statement "they're actors, it's not their job to be one type". It was a crazy experience dude shooting this thing, you have no idea.(laughs)

MS: Oh, I think I might. (laughs)

Ricky & "Excision"

RB: Dude, you know what I didn't tell you? Do you remember the cotillion scene when Annalynne sits next to that girl with the black glasses?

MS: Yes.

RB: That girl with the black glasses is the decoy girl on "To Catch A Predator". She is actually 28 years old and looks like she is 16! Annalynne and I were on her getting her autograph and grilling her about the show. She was the only one we were star struck over.

MS: That's funny! What inspired you to write "Excision"?

RB: I tried to make the most personal movie I could about growing up. When I was in the eighth grade I saw this movie called "Happiness" that inspired what I wanted people seeing "Excision" to experience as many extreme reactions as possible while watching it. Half of this movie is super personal kind of stuff about growing up in Virginia, me wanting to be a filmmaker and "Pauline" wanting to be a surgeon. I actually did have to go to cotillion with a cold sore on my face like "Pauline" did too, that was straight out of my life, but she does what I wanted to do, I wanted to kiss the chick, like she did to the guy with a cold sore on my mouth. This whole movie is very therapeutic for me. (laughs)

MS: Well Ricky you have a lot to live up to, what are your plans for a follow-up?

RB: I'm shooting it in March and right now it's called "The South Will Rise Again". It's a horror comedy , it's about a kid who moves to the big city and then has to move back home to the house he grew up in and live in his parents basement, but the house is now haunted. So, he, the punk rock chick from the bar and all the town weirdos get together and try to solve this mystery, it's like the "Goonies" on crack. (laughs)

Got something you want "excised"? Go to: http://excisionmovie.com/

The Horror: Pentatonix "Aha"

Myself & PTX, Hey Where's Avi?! Perhaps the Zombies have him...

Just in time for Halloween one of my favorite groups evuh - PTX aka Pentatnoix cuts loose with a cover of Imogen Heap's "Aha" -

In the tradition of George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" and the current runaway TV hit "The Walking Dead" PTX gets all zombie on your a$$ and comes for you ...Eeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

These creatures of the night are a treat, no tricks here.... so, get down with your inner flesh eater and watch the video...Brains!

Brains are yummy at: http://www.ptx-official.com/