Check out Massey Media’s rocking-est clients, Power Pirate, as they promote themselves in a national battle of the bands contest on NBC4. They need your vote to win: http://www.power-pirate.com/vote.html.
This young band is focused on getting their music out and getting noticed. Their approach is completely DIY, which means Do It Yourself. They are building a studio, producing their own album, and finding great PR help to push them to new audiences. And, they are 15 and 17-years-old.
Massey Media leverages our DC media contacts to promote Power Pirate because we see this as a positive, uplifting story about what teenagers can do. The Power Pirate story is a strong antidote to the usual “if it bleeds it leads” or negative stereotypes about youth.
Freedom is Created by Collaborative Experimentation District Calling Brings Together Up-and-Coming DC Artists
(Washington, DC) – District Calling, a Washington, DC-based multidisciplinary arts project, hosts its first collaborative performance showcase at the District of Columbia Arts Center on December 5, 2009 at 7:30 and 10 pm. District Calling: Freedom is a tightly choreographed, full-length performance, featuring the collaborative work of artists from across various performance mediums, and highlighting a diversity of perspectives around the theme Freedom.
District Calling showcases up-and-coming (yet still under-represented) Washington, DC artists across a map of performance media, including music, storytelling, dance, and video. These artists, some of DC’s most exciting talent, have made a considerable contribution in their own performance mediums, but have had limited opportunities and venues to collaborate with artists working in other media. District Calling has provided a venue for bringing these artists together to encourage exploration of new ideas and the possibilities of collaborative performance. By providing structured workshops as forums for artist exchanges, District Calling sought to dissolve traditional artistic silos and build a space for artists to forge new, exciting partnerships, and establish a freed sense of what is possible in their performance work. The result has been an environment of heightened creativity and impassioned commitment to breaking from the traditional boundaries of the artists’ respective mediums.
In District Calling, freedom is examined in personal, social, and structural terms: it is found in the boundary blurring of storytelling backed by projections and music; the dancer’s movements that toy with freedoms of a captive audience; and in the improvisational music of a string quartet whose piece is an ode to creating structure only to become freed from it.
John Moon, sound artist and member of the group Cornel West Theory says this project is perfect for what he’s been wishing to explore artistically. “I have all these crazy ideas in my mind but most of them require other people, so this is forcing me to get a lot of these ideas out of my head. I get to work with some really obviously talented and interesting people. I’m blown away.”
“I’m really ecstatic about the opportunity to work with string instrumentalists again,” says Britton Powell, a classically trained turned experimental musician. “I’m excited to collaborate because it always opens your eyes up to another perspective.”
A grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities made the project possible, enabling co-producers Sean Peoples and Melissa Krodman to provide artist stipends and host workshops. Peoples and Krodman chose the theme of freedom as the project’s first showcase as a nod to the process of artistically breaking from the norm, but also as an acknowledgement of the word’s semantic power. “In the last decade there’s been a dramatic shift in people’s association with the word ‘freedom,’ says co-producer Melissa Krodman. “In a way we’re seeking to reclaim the word from the realm of the political and re-explore what it means to us individually, as artists and as humans.”
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District Calling is partially funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and sponsored by Massey Media and Affinity Lab.
District Calling: Freedom
Saturday, December 5
DC Arts Center, 2438 18 Street NW, Washington DC
7:30 pm and 10 pm shows / $10
For tickets call: (202) 462-7833
District Calling artists are:
Carmen Wong, Producer and Creative Director of Banished? Productions
John Moon, Sound Artist, member of Cornel West Theory
Ayo Okunseinde, Video/Visual Artist and Co-founder of Ayyoko Confidential
Sean Peoples, Sound Artist, owner of experimental label Sockets Records, DJ (Fatback)
Vivianne Njoku, Percussionist, Storyteller, and Member of the Band noon:30
Britton Powell, String Instrumentalist and Member of the Band Save Hume
Melissa Krodman, Performer, Writer, Producer
Rashad Dobbins, Lyricist and “Blak Fantasy” Experimental Theatre Creator
Heather Doyle, Dancer (Daniel Burkholder/The Playground, Liz Lerman)
Yvonne Gilmore, Poet, Lecturer, Member of Cornel West Theory
Aaron Thompson, Singer, Songwriter
District Calling: Freedom, is a collaborative performance project featuring the work of Washington, DC’s rich artistic community, and highlighting the diversity of perspectives around the theme Freedom.
Teen Battle of the Bands Contest Aimed at Encouraging Music Making Among Teens and Helping School Music Programs
[Washington, DC], November 12, 2009— Power Pirate, DC’s youngest electronic rock band, has been selected by NAMM to move on to the semi-finals of the SchoolJam USA teen battle of the bands competition. To win this round, Power Pirate’s fans support them with votes at http://www.power-pirate.com/vote.
“Power Pirate is thrilled to move up to the semi-finals of the NAMM teen battle of the bands,” says Emily Pakulski. “Our audience is growing as we grow.”
Power Pirate recently released its first single “And We’re Off” on iTunes and other digital music stores. Since their formation two years ago, Power Pirate has found its place in the DC/MD/VA music scene through catchy melodies and complex instrumentation. Power Pirate’s sound combines hard rock with video game synths.
Power Pirate is a three-piece band from Washington, DC with Emily Pakulski (15, vocals & guitar), Michael Garate (17, keyboards), and Annika Monari (15, drums). The three attend DC-area high schools, Georgetown Prep and the International School.
The nationwide contest, sponsored by NAMM, the trade association of the international music products industry, is designed to encourage teen bands across the United States to demonstrate their musical talents and enjoy the many proven benefits of making music.
Power Pirate is included in the Online voting portion of the competition that began November 1, 2009, at www.schooljamusa.com. Everyone is encouraged to visit the site and vote for their favorite band. The top two bands in five designated regions that receive the most votes will be announced on Dec. 19, 2009, and will be invited to the live SchoolJam USA battle of the bands finals held at the NAMM Show on Saturday, January 16, 2010, in Anaheim, CA.
The SchoolJam USA Battle of the Bands helps highlight the best and most talented teens across the country, while supporting the bands’ school music education programs. The winning band will receive $750 toward new musical equipment and could win a trip to perform at the SchoolJam Germany live finals in Frankfurt, Germany, at the MusikMesse trade fair. The top band’s school music program will also receive $5,000 toward new musical equipment purchased at their local NAMM Member retailer of choice. The competition is sponsored with the help of MENC, the national association for music education; the Music Education National Conference; Music For All; the John Lennon Educational Bus; SchoolJam and InTune Monthly magazine.
Biography: Power Pirate is a three-piece electronic rock band from Washington, DC formed in the fall of 2007 by Emily Pakulski (vocals & guitar), Michael Garate (keyboards), and Annika Monari (drums). The three met when Annika and Emily hosted an informal session to meet new musicians. Among them was Mike, who stayed with them with the goal of creating original music that fuses innovation and traditional musical theory.
The band is determined to employ a D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) philosophy by recording and producing their music at home, which is available on iTunes, as well as doing all the graphic design, photography, promotion, and booking themselves. The members make a strong effort to spread their spirit of self-help to other artists.
Since their formation two years ago, Power Pirate has found its place in the DC/MD/VA music scene through catchy melodies and complex instrumentation. The group has played at popular local venues such as the Black Cat, the DC9 Nightclub, the Fort Reno summer concert series, the Santa Fe Cafe, and many more. Inspired by modern artists such as Muse, Infected Mushroom, and Daft Punk, this trio fuses 80s-styled techno synths with hard-rock drum beats and guitar riffs to create the new, uncategorized genre unique to Power Pirate.
About NAMM
NAMM is the not-for-profit association that unifies, leads and strengthens the international musical instruments and products industry. NAMM’s activities and programs are designed to promote music making to people of all ages. NAMM is comprised of approximately 9,000 Member companies. For more information about NAMM or the proven benefits of making music, interested parties can visit www.namm.org or call 800-767-NAMM (6266).
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For photos and interviews, please phone 202 445-1169
Today, the Mobilization for Health Care for All returned to Sen. Joe Lieberman’s office to ask him to stop taking private health insurance company campaign contributions. When he refused to meet with the mobilization, they sat down in his lobby until forcibly removed by the police. Today’s action included Sam Pullen, 31, who said that his mother was denied a lifesaving bone marrow transplant by an insurance company. Pullen was previously arrested during a sit-in at the Los Angeles office of Blue Cross.
Here is my video from last week’s sit-in at Lieberman’s office:
Great coverage from Julian Hattem of the Huffington Post today. And, see more coverage here at ABC’s The Note from last week.
You may ask why did they do the sit-in again? For one, there are two members of the movement still in jail from last week’s action. Lieberman has refused to answer calls for a meeting or make a statement about his relationship to private health insurance money. For two, the Mobilization had already invested a lot of time and resources into an action that was popular with the press. So why not do it again? CBS network, the Associated Press, and CNN joined the Huffington Post in coming out to cover the action.
