12/3/13

Show Preview: SPONGE / SPACEHOG 12/12/13 @ Magic Stick Detroit - Free Tickets!

Free Tickets! Video Premiere! Interviews!

Detroit's Sponge and English rock act Spacehog will headline a show next Thursday, December 12th, at the Magic Stick in Detroit. The show will also include the groove-heavy rock group, Lionize, and Orchestral rock band, The Red Paintings.  We had the chance to ask The Red Paintings singer/creator, Trash McSweeney, and Spacehog frontman, Royston Langdon, some questions about the tour and their new projects. The interviews and giveaway info are below.......


About the Red Paintings:    Known for  their visionary stage shows incorporating live art,  human canvases, and theatrics, The Red Paintings are a  multi-faceted, genre-spanning act incorporating  everything rock, from alternative to punk to industrial.  Ever since  suffering a near-fatal seizure eight years ago, Trash  McSweeney, the musical architect of The Red Paintings,  sees color in sound, a condition known as synesthesia.  His musical project has set out to share with the world  a lifetime's worth of ideas about what he has seen and  felt. Often receiving  comparisons to acts such as Radiohead, Muse, Smashing Pumpkins, and The Arcade Fire. We had the opportunity to ask him some questions about the group.

MCB: Explain the name The Red Paintings and where it came from?
 
TM: I wanted to create a musical act that mixed all different types of unusual mediums into one performance. Live painters, human canvases, opera men, strings alongside the normal rock lineup. I felt under ‘The Red Paintings’ name it was a great label for what I was presenting to an audience.

MCB: How did this tour with Sponge and Spacehog come about?

TM: As far as I know they liked our music  and asked us to join the road with them. It worked into our touring schedule so we thought why not, it sounds fun!

MCB: Those two bands will be playing with their staple instruments, guitar, bass, & drums.  From everything I've read the Red Paintings bring a heck of a lot more than that.   What kind of instruments, visual displays, etc can the crowd expect to see at this show?

TM: Paint brushes to naked bodies to geisha girls playing strings the wild list goes on and on…

MCB: Are there any unique instruments that you want to add to the live show that you have not yet had the chance to?

TM: An Icelandic orchestra would be nice, or some more traditional Chinese instruments which we are looking into for a special upcoming tour.

MCB: You've toured many many spots around the world so far.  Where have you been most accepted and where would you like to grow the most?

TM: Honestly, there’s been nowhere we have not been accepted positively by people, but playing France and London and Las Vegas is always super special to me.

MCB: To a fan coming to the show that has never heard of you guys, what would you tell them to make sure they are there early to see you?

TM: I'd tell them to come early to witness a musical artistic delirium like no other. Don't forget to bring your art smock. Our shows can get colourful!


Check out The Red Paintings at http://theredpaintings.com/


Spacehog: The English rockers are back in the U.S. after a long hiatus.  The band will perform their #1 hit, “In The Meantime”, other classic Spacehog tunes, music from the recently released album "As It Is On Earth" as well as the brand new track, “You Can’t Go Home Again”. We had the chance to ask frontman, Royston Langdon, some questions below.


MCB: Here in Detroit, Sponge is one of our biggest bands ever.  How did these tour dates with them come about?

RL: We're just lucky really I guess? I believe our agent, Phil Battiato at the agency group locked it in for us.
MCB: How are the American crowds compared to the European and overseas crowds?

RL: Pretty much the same, they merely have different accents, completions and queuing styles!

MCB: Tell me how the duet with Liv "You Can’t Go Home Again" came about along with working with the David Lynch Foundation First Responders Initiative
RL: Since Liv and I have both been practicing transcendental meditation for a while, and have been given so much by the David Lynch foundation as a result this concert was really the perfect storm for us to do something to give back together, along with Sean Lennon. It was Liv's first live vocal debut believe it or not and it was a cathartic and joyful experience. I'm very proud of her courage and heart.

MCB:  I listen to the album a few times, I'm continually drawn to the track “Oh, Dinosaur".  It's very catch and I get a vibe of reliving some old memories.   Please tell me the story/meaning of this song. 

RL: I didn't write song, hahaha! I'm glad you like as do I. It started out as an idea Richard brought. It was something he'd been playing around with during our ten year holiday. It was a welcome guest while working on new material. As an idea lyrically it wasn't fully developed until Johnny penned the words (and the lyrics). Rich had always had the 'oh dinosaur' bit but Johnny defined it toward the end of the time with Bryce in Brooklyn. I remember it was Bryce who was telling us a story about taking his kid to school and her not wanting to be seen with her father and so he had to 'walk a block behind'. I kind of brought it all together with the bridge but I didn't get a credit. It's a marvelous universal message dressed up in a spacehogian frock. This record is quite dark and I felt it was important to bring some relief and 'oh dinosaur' is just the ticket.


MCB: What songs off the new record are you receiving the best live response too?

RL: I notice people naturally respond to 'love is a curious thing'. I'm working on a remix of that with my friend Larry presently. I feel it comes to life live and I want to rework it with that in mind.

MCB: Using the Pledge Music Campaign, funding for the new record was mostly secured through fans if I'm correct?  Tell me how this came about/ why the decision to fund a record this way?

RL: The missing ingredient within the music industry these days is do$h. It's a necessary tool that has brought great success on many an artist like the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, MGMT, Britney Spears, you name it.  However, music is now free essentially and so we had to, like many others 'be creative' which is an oxymoron really as it takes one away from being creative musically. We funded the recordings of 'as it is on earth' under our own steam. We licensed 'in the meantime' to guitar hero and rockband video games around '08/'09. The money we made from Pledge Music was for promo of the album. I think we raised only a little really, somewhere south of 10K which is infinitely small in relation to what Elektra say spent on promoting 'In the Meantime' upon it's release. Pledge heralded it as a huge triumph because we raised all the dough we were after in a day. We shot a bit low I suppose but we aren't university material in business acumen (musician historically aren't). Today, for instance with the likes of urban music's particular penchant for success of one's art or rather brand represented by the amount reddies in one hand spacehog are I guess languishing in the 'where are they now file' somewhat to mass media because there's no do$h for advertising etc...

MCB: Having reached the funding goal so quickly did it give you a burst of energy going into making the new record? Maybe a new respect for fans for fronting so much money for a record before they have even heard a minute of a song?


RL: Our true fans are the greatest and know what's what and we love them, so there........hahahaha

MCB: What is next for Spacehog?  Where do you see the band in another 10 years?



RL: I like to keep it in the moment today. i think our past is clearly audible through our work over almost 20 years. What we do accumulates, our future is a result of what Spacehog does right now. Through the grace of you know who, the sky is no limit. 

Please Follow the band on Facebook and check out Spacehog.com for updates on new music, videos, philanthropic projects and collaborations.  Hang on, the ride is just beginning….

Sponge: Detroit's own has just debuted a new video for their single, "Come In From the Rain", off their new record titled "Stop The Bleeding". "The concept is what if Marilyn Monroe did not die of the drug overdose but miraculously survived,” Sponge singer Vinnie Dombroski says about the video, which was directed by Steve Greene. “She sheds everything about the old life/lifestyle and leaves it all behind. It’s a pretty ambitious concept to nail down in a video, however, we thought the concept was something to pursue in a broader sense using a Marilyn Monroe type character who eventually sheds the facade walking away from the trappings of a destructive lifestyle.”

Check out Sponge at http://www.spongetheband.com/ and on facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/Spongerocks

Send an email to motorcityblog@earthlink.net for your chance to win a pair of tickets to the show!

The tickets are courtesy of Black Iris Booking, Majestic Theatre/Magic Stick and Aural Pleasure Music.    Please submit email by 8pm this Sunday, December 9th.


Show info:  Thursday December 12th @ The Magic Stick in Detroit 
Doors 6:30 PM   |   All Ages   |   Tickets: $17 Adv./ $20 Day of
Buy tickets HERE