Naama Kates: It's Good To Be "King"

Naama Kates

Naama Kates is back, after her critically acclaimed debut "The Unexamined Life" and the hit single "Before You Lose It" Naama has recently released the CD "King for the Day" I highly recommend it!

Ms. Kates has this to say about her latest: "I wrote it when I was working on"The Unexamined Life", it was the first song I wrote after that record, while it was in production because I felt like, I was kind of living this dream really that I didn't even imagine, having my record done by this amazing producer, its like a lot of musicians' dreams when they come to LA I think".

I caught up with Naama during her album release show at The Silverlake Lounge on March 13th, where she and her band performed a flawless hour long set - It's Naama time!

MS: How are you my dear?

NK: I'm alright, how are you?

MS: Fine. You were so amazing tonight, The Silverlake Lounge has really great acoustics.

NK: Of course I didn't hear what my band sounded like, but I heard what the other ones did, it can be a little loud acoustic wise in there.

MS: I thought the acoustics for your show were dead on.

NK:  You're right, I have seen other shows there and they have sounded really good.

MS: When I go to a live show, I always expect a glitch here and there, but yours was like hearing the album, except it was live.

NK: You know what that is? It's because that is the way we recorded the album actually. There are no overdubs on it at all, all the songs are just a take that we chose, we did maybe a couple on each one, and just chose one. We played them how they are on the album, partly because it was more time and cost effective, that we did it that way (laughs) Hey, it worked!

MS: Very well by the way. I heard most of the album before I came to your show, my thing is I have to hear something a few times before I am super familiar with it.

NK: I so get that. Especially with this album it's not like other things. The structure is kind of wandering and stuff. I know I have to listen to music, a lot, before I know it, enough to know it when I go hear it live. 

MS: What the Hell with that girl who was talking louder than your show?

NK: Yeah, she was talking the whole time, I could hear the same voice, at the same frequency in my ear the whole time, but I couldn't see anything with the lights on me, but the TV in the corner. 

MS: I could not locate her either, I'm like "WTF is that coming from"?!

NK: She was near the front I think.

MS: Well I said something to Andrea ( Delesdernier Naama's PR person) She said "that happens with every show" I'm like noooooooo, that was really special, I mean I talk during a show, but you can't hear me over the whole thing!

NK: Oh, I know, I know. My thing is, I don't mind people talking at my shows, people are there with their friends. But if I am at a show or whatever and I am sitting really close to the front, I won't talk. All I heard was "wa wa wa wa"

Myself & Naama Post Silverlake Lounge Show

MS: Yeah, it was really rude. What I would like to say about the music off of "King for the Day" is it is a lot more low key than the "Unexamined Life".

NK: It's more down tempo.

MS: The more uptempo songs were not as frequent on "King" as they were on "Unexamined". Is that where you are at right now?

NK: You know, I don't really plan that when I write. Like, I don't ever have any pre-conceived ideas what I am going to write, period, when I do. All I know is I am going to write...I just sit down and do it, I guess it is a reflection of where I am. The things I am talking about on this album are a little more calm, it also has a lot to do with the arrangements. It was arranged with a four piece band, it was really organic.

MS: I get that, that's the way I write, and I think all writers do too. But, even though you say "it's what comes out" it is not as random as we writers think.

NK: There is definitely some driving force behind it, with the subconscious and everything...pushing the message out. But you are not calculating it or contriving it consciously at the same time.

MS: I one hundred percent agree with that. Creativity is winged on it's own level.

NK: Definitely! Life is not that deliberate. 

MS: BTW, since I turned you on to it, are you loving "Pretty Little Liars"?

NK: Yes! Great characters and story, good call!

Check out one of my favorite artists  Naama Kates and crown yourself "King" at: http://www.naamakates.com/

Traci Lords Revisits "Stupidville"

Actress/Singer and Writer Traci Lords was born in Steubenville, OH where she was the victim of a sexual assault at the age of ten.

Today: March 17th 2013 two football players living in Steubenville, OH were found guilty of raping a sixteen year old girl and sentenced accordingly.

By all accounts Steubenville, OH is very proud of it's "Boys Club" and the outcome of this trial is a victory.

The trial and national focus that was shined on it brought Ms. Lords back to the place she was all too happy to leave. She took her thoughts, feelings and opinions public via the media. As a fellow writer she expressed to me how one of the ways she got those feelings out was via her song "Stupidville".

Although the trial had an outcome in favor of the victim, rape is an experience that stays with the violated party forever. Sexual assault is a huge epidemic in the world with one occurring on an average of every two minutes...."Stupidville" indeed.

MS: Hi Traci, what was it like growing up in Steubenville, OH?

Traci Lords

TL: I left when I was about twelve years old, and was raped there when I was ten. Which, I think poisoned my mind. Rape is not something that you can really deal with at any age, it's extremely difficult. But when you are an adolescent dealing with the violence and dealing with that kind of an assault it really does something to your psyche. It completely shaped me, it gave me a lot of angst, I completely hated myself...doubted everything...I have no doubt that it influenced me going into my teens. With the normal things going on with being a teenager I turned to drugs, ended up being on the streets, doing porn, doing all those things because of the whole mind fuck that goes with all of it. You feel you're not worthy and you try to take the power back in whatever way you can. 

MS: Tell everyone about "Stupidville".

TL: This is not about me, I was so incensed by the recent incident in my hometown that I couldn't sleep. I write a lot in the  middle of the night, as a writer you can relate to this I'm sure.

MS: Yes, I can.

TL: It haunts you, it calls you, I wrote my feelings about the what was going on, how I felt it, and it became "Stupidville". The struggle was whether I once again wanted to stand up for this, you know this isn't something I have just now come out about. For the last 48 hours I've been reading things like "Look, she's finally stepping forward with these shocking allegations"...and you know what?! I've spoke of this twenty years ago, Hello?! I wrote a book about it...

MS: You also addressed it on your CD "Control" with the song "Father's Field".

TL: That was my first record in 1997 - I've been talking about being a victim of violent assault for twenty years! It's like, "No, I'm not jumping on any band wagon" I'm just so angry, that I realized my voice, because of who I am, people will tune in and they'll look for whatever reason. Just for curiosity, or maybe they want to mock my music, maybe see how well I've aged - the bottom line is: I don't care if they like me, I care if they hear me. This is a world wide sickness that is not going away, when you talk about this poor woman in India who got rape and murdered, her crime? Going to a movie with a male friend and affording a bus, it's not even human, what's going on?! Before we can even deal with the Global issue we have to deal with what's going on in our own backyard. For me what happened in Steubenville, OH really was my backyard. So, like a lot of artists do when I can't express myself anymore through words, I do it through my art. I am a singer, I am a writer, I am an actress, I am all of those things. That's where "Stupidville" came from, that's what the locals call it, that's pretty much what all of Ohio calls it. This is not directed at the good people of Steubenville, OH, there are good people there....and to them I say, "It's time for you to step up"! It's not about bashing the good people of Steubenville, it's there to remind them that this crap has been going on and it's been going on long enough, and it's time for them to do something about it!

Traci on "Piers Morgan Live"

MS: Like you stated "deal with what's in our own "backyard".

TL: We're dealing with "Baby Athletes" here that get a free pass, that get to do whatever they want because what can they do?! Oh, they can throw a fucking ball, are you kidding me?! They're the "jocks" the "untouchables" whatever they are, they're the ones who will go and pick on the little gay boy at school and nobody does anything. Then they wonder why the gay boy goes and does some hideous thing in retaliation, or God forbid hurts himself because he can't deal with it.

MS: I've always wondered whatever happened to parents being involved in their children's lives?

TL: That's what I'm talking about, whatever kind of violence is happening in schools, why are the parents not doing more?! 

MS: While I have no desire to be a parent, one of the things I find offensive in our current state of the world is I think parents don't think they have any fucking responsibility anymore.

TL: Ask me my greatest job in my life? Being a parent, I take it very seriously, I have an amazing five year old son. He is not accidentally amazing, I am not a rich woman and I don't have a nanny, I have put a lot of time in with him and we have a lot of conversations, the amount of work and energy that goes into raising someone who is conscious is insane, but so worth the while. There are people who have looked at what I am doing and saying: "Oh, look a slut talking about a slut", those are the people I am directing the title "Stupidville" to! That kind of mentality is what feeds the ugliness of our society, you can tell I'm really pissed!

"Stupidville" video

MS: I don't blame you, when someone does something to someone I love - male or female, my gut reaction is "Tell me who they are, I 'll kick their ass" but, do I actually do it? No, but I will defend people in the appropriate capacity. 

TL: When you start taking your children to the play ground and begin teaching them to play with others. You spend that time saying: "We don't hit other people, we respect other people, we are kind, use words to communicate" - we are supposed to teach that, why all of the sudden is that gone? 

MS: The verdict came in today on the Steubenville, OH rape trial, what do you think of it?

TL: Relieved at the guilty verdict. But don't think the punishment fits the crime! One and Two years. I hope this girl sues them in civil court.

Keep up with the developments on "Stupidville" when the single is officially released proceeds will be going to a organization to stop violence against women and others. For all the latest log onto: http://www.tracilords.com/

Pentatonix + Lindsey Stirling = Radioactive

Pentatonix

What do you get when you add five part Pentatonix and one part Lindsey Stirling? An amazing cover of Imagine Dragons "Radioactive"

PTX and Lindsey are both on a roll artistically and professionally and for fans of both this is a dream pairing.

Lindsey Stirling

Scott Hoying's amazing tenor voice takes center stage for this cover, not to mention beat boxer Kevin "K.O." Olusola hitting the Cello.

It's time to get "Radioactive" with Pentatonix and Lindsey Stirling.

Happy Wednesday ...!

Get "Radioactive" with the gang at: http://www.ptx-official.com/

TV Watch: Booooo! "Pretty Little Liars" Season Finale Next Week...!!!

There are always a handful of TV shows I can never get enough of and, yeah I think you have guessed one of them already.

I just love, love and, yes, love "Pretty Little Liars"...!! So well written, plotted and acted, with clever references, verbally and visually to the master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock. The people behind this show know their stuff!

So, as a fan, I thought I would bring you my 10 favorite quotes from this season of "PLL" ....

Here is my number 1 favorite and the rest follow in no particular order, let's rock this!

1) Hanna - "There's a downside to being too smart"

2) Spencer: Why do you even bother coming to church?

Ali: I like to cover my bets.

3) Mona: And who's looking cray-cray now, Spencer?

4) Spencer: Is she "Saint Ali" now? Are her bones holy relics or something?

Aria & Spencer, Chillin' 

5) Aria: I wake up every morning with the intention of telling him, and then I go to sleep every night feeling guilty that I didn't. 

Hanna: At least you have your afternoons free.

6) Aria: "Unable are the loved to die for love is immortality."

Hanna: That's creepy.

Aria: It's Emily Dickinson.

Hanna: I don't care if it's Santa Claus, considered me creeped.

7) Mona: Fear cuts deeper than a sword.

8) Hanna: I always hated biology. I mean who cares how a cell divides, it just does.

Look it's Mona aka Satan in Disguise

9) Andrew Campbell: Put on your Hastings face and spank her tomorrow night like I know you can.

10) Aria: Playing dress up for your man on Halloween is one thing. You do it any other night, you end up on an afternoon talk show.

Can't wait for the Season 4 premiere on June 11th!

Watch your back, at: http://prettylittleliars.alloyentertainment.com/

"Shake Your Booty" KC and the Sunshine Band

It's KC...!

KC & the Sunshine Band has earned lifetime worldwide album sales well past the 100 million mark and secured #1 hit smashes with “That’s the Way (I Like It),” “Get Down Tonight,” and “(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty” as well as numerous signature songs like “I’m Your Boogie Man,” “Boogie Shoes,” “Keep It Comin’ Love,” “Please Don’t Go” and more...

The band is celebrating 40 years by going on tour both across the country and internationally. Oh and they have some new music out, hit it KC!

MS: Hey KC, it's funny I was watching one of my favorite shows last night, "Scandal" and you had a song on there last night.

KC: What song?

MS: "Get Down Tonight" I thought well isn't that ironic, I am speaking with him tomorrow.

KC: A little haunting there, wasn't it? (laughs)

MS: You've had a 40 year career which is pretty amazing!

KC: That is pretty killer! The fact that I'm still alive, too!

MS: Part of that has to do with your knowledge of how the music business works, you started out doing a internship in the biz.

KC: I surrounded myself with something I loved. When I worked in record distribution I was able to know exactly what was coming out on the radio before it was even promoted.

MS: Well it worked in your favor, your videos on YouTube have millions of hits.

KC: That's pretty crazy, right?

MS: I had an album with some of your music on it when I was growing up.

KC: Oh, was that one of those K-Tel compilations?

MS: Yes! It was K-Tel.

KC: There's a company called Now 100 that does the same thing currently.

MS: I've never heard of them, but my knowledge of current music is limited. I lean more towards alternative music.

KC: My musical taste is R & B, unfortunately I think music froze my taste for me on that. It seems like it's coming back around, but I don't think it will ever be like those great R & B records from the 60's & 70's, ya know.

MS: Ike & Tina Turner were my favorites from that era, their stuff was amazing!

KC: They were incredible. I grew up with all the Mowtown stuff, Atlantic Records, you know, with The Drifters and Aretha Franklin....God all that great music.

MS: Let's address what being in the music business for 40 years has been like for you, what kind of a ride has it been?

Get Down Tonight

KC: Well, you know, it has been exciting! There have been some ups and downs, some of them were calculated, well all of it has been I made all or the decisions and did what I wanted to do. In the beginning it was very lonely for me and also very exciting. I was very saddened to find out how political the business was, I knew that going in, but I did not realize it was as political to the extreme that it is. It was disheartening and kind of took the bang out of the whole thing...that was the 70's.

In the 80's after my last hit with "Give It Up" I kind of retired and partied up until '93 - '95, until I went into drug rehab. During that part of my career I didn't want to have a career, I didn't want to be told what to do anymore...how to do it, when to smile, when not to smile, when to be happy, when not to be happy, I didn't want to have to worry about making a record or dealing with lawyers and agents, managers or anything. I just shut down and partied, I wanted to get back to the reality of life, which was who I was, all that sort of thing.

Then in the 90's Arenio Hall wanted to see a reunion of the band. I did a reunion show and realized: "Wow, dude this is what you really love to do". So I started booking shows and started doing it again, but in '93 I was still on the drug thing, I had to make a choice do I go back to my career or keep partying? I chose my career.

I've been performing again for the last ten years doing all these shows and stuff. It's taken me thirty to forty years of the last ten years to realize "I'm KC of KC and the Sunshine Band" number one, number two to understand everything that happened to me and be comfortable with it. Most importantly to go with the flow more and stop fighting everything.

MS: Oh, I get that.

KC: Understanding being KC and having my life outside of that.

MS: The down time can be weird, you kind of feel like you should be on all the time.

KC: Right!

MS: Let's talk about your song "I Can't Get You Out of My Mind".

KC: My manager suggested I get in touch with Bimbo Jones - their DJ's in Europe, who've done remixes for Madonna, Lady Gaga...you name it. I met with them, they sent me this track and nothing clicked. So I went on tour and then went on Holiday, so a year later I contacted them about working on the track, I was procrastinating, I don't really know why I was doing that. So I put that track on and listened to it, and all of the sudden, boom! The melody was there, the word were there, the title was there! Everything just started happening like crazy, insane I had no control over it, I went in the studio and did the vocal, pretty much within an hour.

Right now we are getting a lot of remixes of the song, from the song an album has started happening as well, that has evolved into two albums now. (laughs)

MS: The one thing I found interesting about revisiting your music that I did not notice growing up was, how much of an actual R&B artist you are. All I heard then was disco.

KC: I just did what was natural to me.


"Shake Your Booty" with KC at: http://www.heykcsb.com/

Scott Hoying and "The A Team"

Kevin, Scott & Kina sitting on a couch

Psssssssssssssssssssssst! Did you know Scott Hoying 1/5 th of Pentatonix has his own YouTube music channel?! 

Well, OK, he does! Scott has teamed up with fellow PTX'er and beat boxer Kevin "K.O" Ulusola and Kina Grannis on a cover of Ed Sheeran's "The A Team".  

Let's make this something other than another Manic Monday, kick it Scott, Kevin and Kina.... Oh Yeah! 

Follow Scott on YouTube at:http://www.youtube.com/user/scotthoying

10 Stupid Questions: Ralph Cole, Jr. "K-11"

Ralph Cole, Jr.

Ralph Cole, Jr. is a versatile and amazing actor. From the New York stage to the Hollywood screen, Ralph has done it all, including winning a NAACP Theater Award for Best Supporting Actor in Larry Hart's "Sisterella" produced by Michael Jackson and Robert DeNiro. 

Ralph's latest? Well it's none other than Jules Stewart's (Yes, mother of Kristen "Bella" Stewart) directorial debut "K-11". In which he plays a pre-op transsexual named Kay-Kay in  the prision drama whose synopsis is: A record producer comes around after binging on drink and drugs. He finds himself in a section of the Los Angeles County Jail reserved for homosexuals, which is ruled by a transsexual named Mousey...Oh My!

Hey Ralph, it's time to answer my stupid questions, let's go....!!!

1) If Jules Stewart were an actual jewel what would she be?

RCJ:  Diamond

2) Would you rather stay at "K-11" or the K Club Luxury Hotel in Ireland? 

RCJ: The latter.

3) Do you prefer Male or Female drag? 

RCJ: Female drag

4) Have the "Photographs of Your Junk" ever been publicized?

RCJ:  If "Junk" refers to my face, then Yes!

5) Which one of the "Desperate Housewives" is your favorite? 

RCJ: Edie Britt played by Nicollette Sheridan

6) Applying mascara, or applying lipstick which would you rather do?

RCJ: I would rather apply lipstick.

  

7) What would your dream role be?

RCJ: Series regular on a network multi-camera sitcom.

8) Name the character from "Dreamgirls"you identify with most?

RCJ: Lorrell Robinson

9) Are you rated G, PG, PG-13, R or NC-17? 

 RCJ: NC-17

10) If you could pick anyone fictional or real, dead or alive as a cell mate in "K-11" who would it be?  

RCJ: Maxwell Caulfield

"K-11" opens March 15th...!

"Wreck It" with Ralph at: https://twitter.com/ralphcolejr