Lonehill Estate have just returned to SA after some successful shows in the States.

After receiving some international success through the web, the band were invited to perform at the esteemed Musexpo in Hollywood.  The event brought together some of the world’s top executive minds, emerging talents and influential figures from the press, media and technology realms. Lonehill Estate took to the stage with their neon coloured rock sound and stunned the crowd with eye-twitchingly good music. 

The band also performed at The Viper Room, home to Hollywood’s elite.  It was here that they created a roar with the newest green member, better known as The Fraq.  Lonehill Estate’s marketing strategies have never been quite modest, but it is their mischievous seal that is taking these guys straight to the top.

Lonehill Estate Release New Album

And it couldn’t have come at a better time. Just a week after their return, Lonehill Estate’s brand new album has been mixed, mastered and ready for stores!  The 14 track album is without a doubt the band’s best release yet and proves that not only Lonehill Estate but Nathan Ro as well has come a long way since his days at Project Fame.

 This self-titled album includes radio hits such as Gangstar, Technoband, Green Pocket, Daans, Look Good and more.

Nestlé King Cone and Lonehill Estate off to Montreux Jazz Festival

 As a result of the success received in LA, Lonehill Estate have achieved international airplay in the US, Germany and Japan. Most recently the band were invited to perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.  Nestlé King Cone is delighted to have come on board and together they will embark on this exciting journey beginning July and once again share Lonehill’s quirky sound with the rest of the world.  The band will be performing alongside some of the world’s most esteemed artists including Alanis Morissette, Radiohead, Noel Gallagher’s new band, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Jessie J, Tony Bennett, Lana Del Rey, Fourplay, Sergio Mendes and more.

“We are super excited that people who aren’t even South African like our music. We hope to make South Africa proud by inviting the rest of the world to join our little techno band. That is… if they don’t mind of course” says frontman Nathan Ro.

Ramfest Nation is a 3-part mini documentary produced by Boom.fm.

The 5-city Ramfest tour, a first for South Africa, serves as the backdrop for the in-depth analysis of the ins and outs of the local rock music industry from the perspective of international and local bands, promoters, brands and music journalists. 

Part 1 looks at this year’s nationwide Ramfest and gets the opinions of the organizers and bands involved. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DnBdtl-Hek

Part 2 explores what it takes for local and international bands to achieve success.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT7xOG-muIA

Part 3 examines the role that brands can play in the South African rock music scene and how brands and bands can capitalize on the investment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-plYxIB-2Y

Watch the full length video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPrYIdIeIBM

Thank you very much too Renee de Villiers who worked very hard at making this doccie and for getting it to where it is now.

What does this mean: An intern means very little money – let’s just get this straight upfront. However, because this is the music industry, this also means free tickets to loads of gigs and the opportunity to hang out with your heroes. You may also learn a thing or two about the music industry, which is kiff if that’s what you’re into.

What you need to be good at: A publicist basically makes sure bands get loads of recognition – sends out press releases, helps to organize events, comes up with rad ideas for the band – that kinda thing. You will therefore need to be a great writer, and a naturally effective communicator. Of course, most importantly, you need to be someone who is passionate about music and would like a stab at the music industry.

Details: The hours you will be required to work are quite flexible.

Die meeste van die bands is ook Afrikaans, so jy moet vlot wees in engels

en Afrikaans. You will be required to translate press releases, for example. You’ll also need to understand how social media works and be quite good at it, have your own transport and a laptop.

The reason why we (Boom.fm) are posting about this is because we’d also quite like access to a lightie who will do some stuff for us that we have now considered below us. Just kidding. But we will pay you some cash money on the side to do some odd jobs.  And you will probably get to go to a lot of gigs.

If you’re interested in this jobbie, please send us something that tells us why you are the right one for this job, what you’re good at and what you’re up to right now.  Send this info to suukiemusic@gmail.com and ruth@boom.fm.

Louise Crouse is the publicist for Jack Parow, Van Coke Kartel, aKing, Die Heuwels Fantasties, Fokofpolisiekar and Taxi Violence.

Boom.fm is an online music portal that allows bands to sell their tracks and fans to discover new music.

Live the Music. 

CYHSY basically achieved success without a label, on the interwebz. They produced their own first album and were lucky enough to get an awesome review from the otherwise often prickly Pitchfork. We like this part: 

“There’s something really refreshing about stumbling across a great band that’s trembling on the cusp without any sort of press campaign or other built-in mythology— you actually get to hear the music with your own ears. While a lot of bands view the promotional apparatus as a necessary evil, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah prove that it’s still possible for a band to get heard, given enough talent and perseverance, without a PR agency or a label. Indie rock has received a much-needed kick in the pants, and we have the rare chance to decide what a band sounds like of our own accord before any agency cooks up and disseminates an opinion for us. Damn, maybe this is how it’s supposed to work!”

Yes, indeed. Perhaps this IS how it’s supposed to work. Well we think so anyway. 

So, CYHSY are coming to South Africa and we’re giving away some tickets to one lucky Capetonian band who’d like to learn a few things from these guys. And maybe have a little fun while doing that. 

HOW is easy: Post your band profile on our FB page and get your fans to like it (we don’t want to decide these things, more democratic this way). Whichever band gets the most ‘likes’ by 1pm Thursday 12th will be going. 

The-not-so-small-print: You need to be a legit band. Which means you have music up on our site. No point in trying to be discovered if you don’t have anything for anyone to listen to. 

Live the Music. 

The Great Apes play heavy, dirty, sexy rock n roll and they play it loud. Their live shows are frenetic and they are heavy-weight contenders for the best live act of 2012.

The Great Apes are releasing their first album with a tour from Cape Town to Splashy Fen via Joburg and Pretoria.

To do the raw, high-octane energy of the band’s live show justice, The Great Apes have opted to track the album live. To do this the band travelled to Ladismith to work with Jo Ellis at Blooroom Studios where they blitzed through each muscular song on the eight-track record in just two days – followed by a minimal session of adding overdubs and textures.

In keeping with the attitude of the recording, The Great Apes have hand-made the album-covers using lino prints of artwork they themselves designed.

A limited edition run of five hundred copies will be available at shows on the tour, each cover a unique specimen.

The Great Apes will be performing at:

• ALL NATIONS CLUB, Salt River (Cape Town) on Wednesday the 28^th March with The Dollfins (this is the album release)

• THE JOLLY ROGER, Plumstead (Cape Town) on Friday the 30^th March with Wild Eastern Arches

• AANDKLAS, Stellenbosch on Saturday the 31^st March with The Bone Collectors

• ARCADE EMPIRE, Pretoria on Thursday the 5^th April with Black Cat Bones, Dead Alphabet, and The Plastics

• THE BOHEMIAN, Joburg on Friday the 6^th April with Cortina Whiplash and Svage Lucy

• THE WOODS, Joburg on Saturday the 7^th April with The Brother Moves on and Cable Stealing Gypsies.

• SPLASHY FEN, Grant Erksine Stage on Sunday the 8^th April after Love Glove Pyrotechnics

• Be sure to get to at least two of these shows and pick up an album!
  If you dont know who they are check them out on; http://boom.fm/thegreatapes

RAMFEST, the Real Alternative Music Festival, is a name synonymous with the more hardcore side of the South African live music scene.

Dawid, Henk and Janneman Fourie have dedicated the past 6 years of their lives to bringing only the very best in local and international acts to a yearning crowd. 

This year the RAMFEST owners decided to try something different, something daring. They set out on a journey that will set a new industry standard to how things are done.

“RAMfest  - South Africa’s ULTIMATE Rock Festival!

5 cities! 5 days! 7 stages! Local and International artists!

Where 10’s of thousands of screaming fans converge to create a raucous spectacle of sound, light, dance and rock n roll.

We’re trucking from North to South, East to West to make history through one of the biggest events South Africa has ever experienced.

Come get buck wild with us.” (Insert from Ramfest.co.za)

Invitation accepted! boom.fm’s trusty all in one cam girl, slash, journo, Renee de Villiers went along to all 5 cities to shoot our documentary on the state of the local rock scene and where it is going. She travelled side by side with the bands, the roadies, the crew and the organisers to get a holistic view of the workings of this beast of a Festival.

Not any man can do this, but this courageous woman pulled it off with flying colours – a golden high-five to her. (Renee has taken a day off, she says that she is tired, but I think she is still overwhelmed from having lunch with Sweden’s finest – In Flames.)

More on the doccie at a later stage.

I went to the JHB and CT leg of the RAMFEST circuit. JHB was my favourite of the two. Not because of the fact that CT wasn’t an all weekender like in the past, but because the CT fans, in a very ungrateful way, kept reminding me. The Joburg fans were all too stoked to just have a fucking awesome line-up. The CT crowd was just to bleak because they couldn’t trip their balls off for three days, that they kind off missed the fact that this is one of the best line-ups to ever grace the stage in the Western Cape.

Top Five Local bands that played RAMFEST 2012 in no particular order.

Newtown Knife Gang, Pestroy, The Narrow, Fokofpolisiekar and Taxi Violence.

Fourie brothers - job well done on bringing the music to the overlooked areas that sorely lack a live music festival presence. PE, Bloemfontein, Durban – you’ve been Rammed.

What started out as a small 3 day festival in a holiday resort just outside of Worcester in the Western Cape, is now slowly growing into a rock ‘n roll empire that will one day soar the global festival skyline.

By Jacques van Straten

When we first saw Black Handed Kites’ self-made music video for ‘Up’ we were immediately interested in doing something with this band. We passed it onto Cannes Award winning Director Robin Goode.

We loved their inspiring up beat sound so much, that we immediately agreed that a song as rousing as “UP” definitely needed a music video that will elevate the song and the band in the same way it does the spirit.

We approached BHK and told them that we know this cool Director at Giant Films who is really keen to make a music video for their single ‘UP’.

Teejay (Banjo) tuned sweet, lets meet. And so we did. Richard (Guitar) couldn’t stop smiling, not in a non-cool way or because he was goofed. He was just very stoked.

Hands were shaken preliminary dates were set. A co-production between Boom.fm and Giant Films were underway.

Robin proposed a couple of concepts to the band. They were all great ideas. But the obvious choice was of course the one that required an entire production unit, a two man band and Boom.fm’s behind the scenes team to carry film equipment, props and wardrobe up Cape Towns sentinel, Lions Head, a good 45 minute climb.

What was the end result?

The magnificent mountain scenery, never ending blue skies and the vast Atlantic made a spectacular backdrop for this Indie Folk sensation’s debut music video.

If you want to know more, you will just have to keep your eyes peeled and your ears plugged into the the internet. Black Handed Kites behind the scenes video, music video, and debut album coming soon.

All of Black Handed Kites’ tracks will be available for purchase on Boom.fm

Read, Who Are The Black Handed Kites here: http://blog.boom.fm/post/13499334442/who-are-the-black-handed-kites

By Jacques van Straten

“The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent in an unprecedented way, with unlimited opportunities. But does democratized culture mean better art or is true talent instead drowned out? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era.” (http://www.presspauseplay.com/)

This is an awesome documentary – a great overview, beautifully presented.

Throughout the doccie, various opinions on the current stage of affairs are offered by musicians, producers, publishers and marketers - like Soth Godin who enthusiastically states that now is the time to take on the opportunities the digital age awards one - while entrepreneur & author Andrew Keen basically says we’re all screwed culturally.

Ólafur Arnald, an Icelandic musician, is used as a bit of a case-study throughout the documentary and speaks about how he essentially launched his career using social media platforms like Twitter to become an instant hit.  He also collaborated with his fans creating a Flickr account to house all the artwork and videos that fans sent him - in the end using one submitted from Argentina as an official music video for his track “‪Ljósið” (which generated more than 5 million views on Youtube and Vimeo).

That video here: 

Born in 1986, Olafur is a lightie that gets the current status quo of the music industry. His music is described by Wikipedia as “strings and piano with loops and edgy beats crossing-over from classical to pop”. Olafur says in the doccie  that he doesn’t really like the classical music scene and wanted lots of people to listen to his music – inferring that he’d like to make niche music more accessible.

For a more detailed interview with Ólafur, click here. He provides a handy How To guide for artists on how to manage oneself professionally in the music industry - even little things like always responding to fans on social media platforms (something we are always griping on about in the office).

 You can download the documentary on http://www.presspauseplay.com/ or buy it on iTunes or Amazon. 

After our previous two updates (detailed here and here), we have just deployed another small update to Boom.fm. This one doesn’t bring new functionality, but fixes some more bugs and, more importantly, makes the service fully compatible with Internet Explorer 8 and 9. Enjoy!