My Sincere Apologies . . . .

WOW! Its been such a loooong time since my last post. I've been super busy. So I'm sorry all of you No Name Fame fans out there. But I have decided to make it up to you. I will be posting TWO bands this week to make it up to you.

Everythings Taken (Michael Thomas)

I found this guy several months ago and I've had him on my back up list I keep in case I don't have the time to find anything new.  I just rediscovered him tonight and wow he totally blew me away. He sounds even better than I remember.  Everything Taken (Michael Thomas) sounds like a mixture between Bright Eyes and Jon Forman of Switchfoot's solo acoustic stuff. And just to warn you the recordings aren't the best ever but other than that, its amazing.

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Betcha didn't know THAT, did ya? Hah, but no seriously...the name of my band this week is I Have Ears. I had always wondered what would be the outcome if you mixed OkGo with The Strokes....and I think I've found my answer! A little rough, a little different...a lot good. Check them out...NOW.

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So I'm a little late, but I did promise a new band this week and here it is!

CLATTER CLATTER
   Being students at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, these guys know what they're doing. An indie rock band with a slight expirimental feel to it, the boys from Clatter Clatter know how to weave a song that has both thoughtful lyrics and a truly different (in a good way!)  sound. They remind me a tad bit of the Beatles....back when they were good.

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I apologize to anyone who might have been reading us (Pfft! Who am I kidding...us, having readers?). I know there hasn't been a post in nearly a month, and that's because of two things really. One, is that I've been busy and Crystal has been sick AND busy. Oh and my phone (which is pretty much my only way online) got cut off one week...that was fun. Hah.

And the second reason there have been no posts is that when we DO have time to look for artists, we're having a hard time finding anything that is:
A) less than 1500 friends
and
B) good enough for our terribly picky ears

So, I asked Crystal about this and we've decided that it would be best for everyone if we raised our minimum number to 3000 friends for the time being. That number may get raised again, but for right now we think it will be sufficient to keep us going.

All of that said, I do not have a new artist for you guys today...but I'll be working on it for later this week. Keep your eyes open!  :)

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Okay I know Crystal just posted her band from last week, but I had to write about these guys before they wound up with more than 1500 friends. As of right this second they have 1494 friends, so I don't want to take the chance waiting on them. That's also the reason the blog will have two so-called Christian bands in a row. It's not that this is a Christian music blog, it's that I wanted to hurry up and feature these guys because they're great. Oh, and no they aren't girls.

Cathy Crescendo's songs (lyric-wise) are a lot like Relient K's. Some of the songs talk about Jesus and God's love, while the others just talk about hope and love in general. All the songs are awesome though, and their influences which range from Simon and Garfunkel to Jimmy Eat World can be heard through all of their music. I also thought the bio about their lead singer Jacob Champlin was funny, and had to post a bit of it below:

Jacob Champlin will be your friend. It is unavoidable. He's too magnetic, too disarming, too … friendly.
Not only will he be your friend, you will like that he's your friend. Even if you live in a cave in the middle of the mountains hoping to never see another human soul again, when Jacob comes knocking on the rocks outside that cave, you will find yourself inviting him in for tea and before you know it he will have kicked off his shoes and you will have pulled out your extra, just-in-case blanket and he will be staying the night.
He is innately engaging; he must have come out of the womb smiling and ready to shake the doctor's hand. And his songs are the same. They invite you in to tell you tales of illegal parking and cats in doorways and before you know it you've taken off your jacket and slung it over the back of the chair you're sitting in and you've kicked up your oh-so-tired dogs on the ottoman and you are staying for dinner.

And it's true! Jacob's voice draws you into the story of each song, and his thoughtful lyrics make you feel like you're walking away with new insight to life. His song The Bright Branching (which is available for a free download on Indie Vision) has become a regular listen on my mp3 player, and I intend to get their cd as soon as I get some money. Yay for broke bloggers! (Try saying THAT ten times fast)

Click here to have a listen.

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I was at Winter Jam in Atlanta on sunday. And let me just say the concert was AWESOME.  Tony Nolan gave a great message and all of the artist put on a great show.  While I was there I had the privilege to meet Stephanie Smith.  A christian artist who recently signed with Gootee Records and is on the brink of superstardom.  I got the chance to meet her and I actually bought a tutu from her that she had made. Why? Just because I could. Plus I've always loved ballet. So check her out and tell me what you think.

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Okay I felt the need to do a post on a band that I'm really close friends with, Hey Euphony. But with over 14,000 friends (the last time I checked, anyway) they're way way over our limit. For some reason, though, they're still relatively obscure. Soooo...I'm allowing each of us to do one post with a band that's still considered obscure with as many friends as we want. Just this once. Well, okay okay there's always the chance it could happen again haha. Anyway, moving on to my boys...

Hey Euphony is a band that I got to know about a year and a half ago. What drew me in (besides their awesome pop-punk music) is that they really stress the fact that they want to talk to all of their fans and become their friends. They all have personal myspaces, and encourage people to add them and talk to them, and they respond to nearly everything on the band site. I've had the chance to become friends with Canon (lead vocals &  guitar), Chris (drums) and former guitarist Brien since I've been talking to them, and they are some of the most awesome guys I know. I haven't gotten a chance to meet them yet, or see them live (they're in North Carolina and I'm in Georgia with no car...ugh.) but I plan to as soon as possible. In the meantime, I'm listening to them as much as possible and getting all of my friends (and now you guys!) to do the same. Click the banner below to go to their page.

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This week Lanna and I have decided to break the rules. We will be posting a band each with a higher number of friends than we would normally allow, but are still considered "obscure".  We will do this periodically. So stay tuned for that. They should be up sometime this weekend.

-Crystal

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Ok, so I'm way behind this week with my post. I tried to contact the band to tell them about us and ask them a few questions. But my myspace was being a jerk and wouldn't let me send the message due to a spam blocker. But whatever. 

So anyways my band of the week is Sorren Maclean.  Named for their lead singer, Sorren Maclean derives from Isle of Mull, Scotland. Driving beats and a classic rock sound make them one of the best celtic bands I've heard in a long time. They remind me of a better version of the Bravery.  I just can't get the song "One Last Dance" out of my head. Its so catchy.

*click on the band name to link to their myspace music page.

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So not even an hour after I uploaded my post about Morgan Laurence last night, he replied to me! Here's what he said:

hi Lanna! sorry i haven't gotten back to you sooner, i've been sick the last few days, so i haven't been good at checking the space.

anyways... thanks so much for the support. it really means a lot, especially in a world where any music can be accessed at the click of a mouse. promoting myself can get pretty tedious at times.

here are some of my influences (least to greatest):

the umbrellas
as tall as lions
sufjan stevens
don mclean

and most importantly: balance problems

brack cantrell (balance problems) basically inspired me to write solo material, and also influenced me to learn how to sing. he used to play in the two man band Sky Eats Airplane before he separated and started writing indie/acoustic stuff.

i suggest everybody take the time to listen to this artist.

i hope that helped a little.

once again, thanks for the support!

-morgan

Isn't that awesome? I feel bad for implying that he was the type not to read his mail, but I have a reason for that. Being a fan of obscure/underground music doesn't mean that every artist takes the time to befriend all of their fans. I've been lucky enough to make friends with several bands over the years, but not everyone is as nice as them. Going into making this blog I already knew there were going to be people who wouldn't reply to us, so I wasn't dissapointed that Morgan didn't reply. I was, however, thrilled when I found out that I had a message from him! It's nice to know there are people out there still that will talk to you.

So, I encourage all of you to not only check out Morgan's music, but check out some of his influences! I haven't gotten a chance to yet, but I will be doing that and you may even see one or two pop up on the blog in the future!

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I know I'm a little bit late writing, but I was waiting to hopefully hear back from this guy before I wrote. I sent him a message on myspace telling him he was being featured here and asking him if he'd tell me a couple of his influences, but he didn't even read it. Maybe he gets a lot of junk mail, I don't know, but his music is still really awesome. Hailing from Albequerque, New Mexico, Morgan Laurence is my featured artist this week. Right now you can download his demo cd from his purevolume page (visit his myspace for the link) but when I visited the link it said there were no songs in the player, so I'm not sure what the deal is there. His tunes are good, and for the fact that he claims it's something he works on in his spare time, he seems to have a great setup going on. Be sure to check him out...and tell him he should read his mail every once in a while!

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Freely, from Dallas, Texas, is a  christian rock band with smooth vocals and powerful lyrics.  They play at various camps and conventions.  They love to write worship music and glorify God with the gifts that he has given them.  Their influences range from Tom Petty and Chris Tomlin to Coldplay. 

 And for all of you musicians out there their profile even features the chords and lyrics to the song Portrait. 

To listen to them, click here.

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I would like to welcome you to No Name Fame, where me (Lanna) and my friend Crystal are going to feature two new, awesome bands each week. When we search for our featured artists, we will be looking for bands with less than 1500 friends, (or sometimes a *little* more, if they are exceptionally good) as stated on their myspace page. We're looking to promote the bands that just aren't that well known, but certainly deserve to be. With each post, we'll give you a little info about the band and a link to their page, where you can hear them. Be sure to let us know what you think of the bands each week by commenting on the posts!

And that brings us to our first artist --

AUBREY WOOD 

I was doing my usual form of music searching, clicking from band to band through top friends lists, and simply wasn't turning up anything...until I found Aubrey. She's only fourteen, has an extremely mature sound, and from what I gather she writes and records everything on her page herself (other than any covers she has up at the moment). Her sound reminds me a bit of Badly Drawn Boy, and her lyrics are straight and real, maybe even stories from her own life. She's definitely worth a listen, just follow the link here.

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