Imagine Dragons: A Good Bet (for BMI.com, 3.10.10)

Imagine Dragons will perform during BMI’s official SXSW showcase at Maggie Mae’s (323 East 6th St, Austin, TX) on Thursday, March 18. Imagine Dragons will take the stage at 10:30 p.m.

The landscape of Las Vegas is a fairly accurate visual depiction of all things trending. Its trademark neon glow has been remade a handful of times to reflect the changing currents of America’s idea of style, with a little bit of sin on the side. The old marquees go down in a cloud of dust, and new, more modern representations are erected in their place. The changes don’t really change anything about Vegas, other than perhaps a splash of new makeup applied to the face of what many consider to be the pulse of fun coursing through our national veins.

Imagine Dragons, who call Vegas home, know this better than anyone. If the bright lights and big bets of Sin City were to be encapsulated in musical form, it would sound like this band—bold and unapologetic on the inside, with a tinge of the old sparkle hanging around on the fringes. They’re relatively new—vintage 2008—but Imagine Dragons carry themselves on stage with the distinct traits of a band that long ago mastered the art of Vegas: entertainment.

Case in point: “Selene,” from their highly anticipated sophomore release, rollicks with the strut of a newly arrived dreamer, intoxicated by his surroundings as he makes his way down the famed Strip for the first time. Yet there’s enough of a vintage polish to the track that ensures familiarity.

Imagine Dragon gets it: Just like there’s enough room for the flashy, brand-new-feel of the Wynn and the vintage glitter of Freemont Street, there’s plenty of space for the band’s inspired glam-meets-grunge update.

And that’s something worth betting on.

View the full BMI at SXSW schedule.

Sarah Buxton Lets the Rest Take Care of Itself (2.17.10) for BMI.com

Sign artist. Record album. Release single. Release album. Tour, tour, tour.

In that order. There’s a time-tested way to do these things. Or, perhaps it’s more accurate to note that there’s a time-tested way totypically do these things.

Sarah Buxton is anything but typical.

In 2005, when Lyric Street Records signed her, Buxton had no reason to suspect that the handling of her career would go any differently. What she got, however, was anything but expected: a five-year lesson in patience. Now, after the success of her breakthrough single “Outside My Window” from her eponymous 2010 debut, Buxton is looking out at a world that will finally get to hear what she expected it would hear from her half a decade ago.

“The waiting was difficult, but I decided to embrace it rather than feel bad. I wrote my songs, and I hit the road,” she says. “The toughest part about everything came after shows, when people would ask me where my album was, and I wouldn’t have an answer for them.”

In the interim, Buxton got her first taste of success in 2007, when Keith Urban took her song “Stupid Boy” to #3 on the country charts. Perhaps more valued than the recognition she gained as a writer was the advice she received from Urban regarding her aspirations as an artist.

“Once, I asked Keith how he managed to survive the long wait before he finally found success,” Buxton remembers. “He put his arm around me and said, ‘If you’re doing this for the music, and not for anything else, it will all fall into place.’ You know what? He was right. I started to let people see me for who I was, and the rest took care of itself.”

Marina and the Diamonds Bat Eyes at Long-Lasting Pop (2.17.10) for BMI.com

24-year-old Marina Diamandis is sweeping confidently past pop-glitz pot holes. Far from a one-off wonder or celebrity-starved ingénue, Diamandis is building a lasting career, one infectious, hook-soaked jewel at a time.

The half Welsh, half Greek songbird burst onto the scene in 2009 with the release of Marina and the Diamonds’ first single, “Mowgli’s Road,” a quirky Regina Spektor-meets-Kate Bush mash-up of pure hookiness. Instantly a favorite among DJs and club-goers, Marina used her newfound momentum to steamroll into 2010’s Family Jewels (679/Atlantic). The lead single, “Hollywood,” stands not only as a tongue-in-cheek wink to the glamorized notion of the American dream, but as a fantastic glimpse into what makes Marina so irresistible as a performer: her persona vocalis.

It is this talent—her ability to bend her voice into several seemingly different, yet equally powerful vocal personalities—that sets her, and her music, head and stiletto heels above a sea of would-be contenders for the new princess of pop crown. She doesn’t hide behind fashion or commercialization, but rather, smartly embraces both, confidently navigating the whiplash-inducing pace of contemporary culture.

Her astute lyrical juxtaposition of the value society has ascribed to materialism versus intellect reveals a sharp young singer/songwriter who’s in on the joke, while her honeyed vocal chops ensure that the potentially barbed message goes down smoothly. In short, she’s entertaining, fresh, and most importantly, unforgettable.

“He said, ‘Oh my god you look just like Shakira / Oh no, you’re Catherine Zeta’ / Actually, my name’s Marina,” she sings.

Just try to get it out of your head.

48 Hours In The Life Of A Relatively Unknown Songwriter- 2.17.10

Linked here from drewkennedymusic.com

Veterans Them Crooked Vultures Wield a New Fang (for BMI MusicWorld Magazine) 2.09.10

Music fans have always guarded their album collections, and more importantly, their approval, closely. But with a lineup that reads more as a “who’s who” among veteran rock gods than it does a standard album credit listing, if any fans gave a solemn nod of approval without even hearing a note of the eponymous debut from Them Crooked Vultures, perhaps they are entitled to a pass.

After all, with John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl, and Josh Homme on the bill, how much credibility is really at stake if one gives them a preemptive passing grade? Rest assured, ye faithful protectors of all that is cool, your reputations shall remain wholly intact. This surprising lineup of stalwarts (John Paul Jones!) has delivered a modern record that smartly allows gritty musicality to remain unpolished by time.

Them Crooked Vultures, whose members have separately showcased an uncanny knack for being unapologetically rowdy while simultaneously remaining sophisticatedly sharp, mesh as if they have been playing together for decades. Lovers of Zeppelin, Foo Fighters, and Queens of the Stone Age will all find something comfortably familiar within the album’s 13 tracks, and while these references are a good starting point, the band proves to be so much more than a mash-up of three distinct styles.

Ever the proud standard bearers, the trio wears the stripes and insignias of a bygone era in which big, brazen rock edginess was the calling card of the day on their sleeves. And yet, the band still brings something fresh to the table, pointing to the crux of their appeal: What’s most noteworthy about Them Crooked Vultures isn’t necessarily individual pedigrees or the nostalgia Jones, Grohl, and Homme evoke, but rather, how much fun they all seem to still be having.