Holy Sh*t! I had the time of my life

The Trash Bar Festival was an amazing success. Everyone who was there felt it. The sense of spirit and unity and purpose was undeniable. You could tell you were at something that was a little bit special. And I'll never forget it as long as I live. Clearly, the biggest achievement of my life so far.

I can't thank the bands and all the people who came out and shared in that vibe enough.

But I'll try. Here's my Trash Bar fest thank you list.

The bands, of course:

Girls like Cigarettes, Cathy, Soft Black, Ex Humans, Electric Shadows, The New Professionals, The Rats, Kissy Kamikaze, The Bullys, The Everyothers, Bruno Wizard and The Homosexuals, One Last Shot, Chumley, Super Potent Death Baby, The Naked Heroes.

My assistant recording engineer Chris Peck and 2nd assistant Matt. (Big Round of applause to those guys.)

Alex Dementia for his help and work on the video production. (another big round of applause), and the people who all volunteered to pick up a camera and shoot some footage for us (Sarah, Erin, Christian, etc etc)

And the others who made it possible behind the scenes and contributed to it's success:

Aaron Pierce, Walter Stack, DJ Mojo, Dave Brooks, Dean Rispler, Steven Blush, Owen McCarthy, Mark Fisher, Brooklyn Vegan for pushing it, Andy Shaw at Shaw Promotion, Mike Norbega at Volcom, Bebe, Tony, Maurice, Bonnie, Janine, Sherri, Eric, Zach, and the rest of the staff at Trash Bar.

Special personal thanks to my drummer Danny who promised to upstage me, and pushed me to my A game. We slayed 'em, brother.

Sorry we couldn't accomodate "The Legacy". Maybe next time.

Lots o' love,
Nick

10:51 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Live At The Trash Bar Festival

THE TRASH BAR ANNOUNCES THE RECORDING OF IT'S FIRST LIVE ALBUM; VALIENT THORR CD RELEASE PARTY
Williamsburg Brooklyn rock institution celebrates 4 year anniversary with 4 record set, 16 bands, and Valient Thorr sneak peek

New York, NY - Williamsburg, Brooklyn's rock and roll landmark The Trash Bar is celebrating it's 4 year anniversary by recording a live album featuring 16 of the club's favorite New York rock and punk acts. The "Live At The Trash Bar Festival" takes place June 4th, 5th, and 6th, 2008. "We're building a full on recording studio in the downstairs lounge of the club to tape the shows," says Nick Vivid, CEO of MegaPlatinum Entertainment, who is releasing the 4 record 7 inch vinyl set in the fall. "This club is carrying on the tradition of places like CBGB and Continental in NYC - places that aren't with us anymore. But the movement hasn't slowed down. It's merely moved to the other side of the East River." The concept was to create a document of the club that can live on forever. "This place has become so special to so many people in such a short amount of time and that's why we're doing this," says Nick.

Notable acts that will grace the stage include NY Punk Icons The Bullys and The Everyothers, as well as newer bands like The Electric Shadows, The Ex-humans, Chumley, and The Naked Heroes. British art punk DIY legends The Homosexuals are also headlining one of the nights. "Bruno Wizard from The Homosexuals spends more time in New York than London these days, so I thought it would be fitting to have him there representing what's been happening on the other side of the pond," says Nick. "All in all, it's a solid lineup every night from front to back. All my favorite bands are playing. I couldn't be more proud of what we've been able to put together."

In addition to the acts playing, special guest DJ's including DJ Mojo (immortalized on wax by The Beastie Boys) and Steven Blush (author of American Hardcore and American Hair Metal), as well as notable NYC rock and punk producer Dean Rispler, will be spinning tracks between the bands. MegaPlatinum Entertainment is also filming the entire event in high definition with several cameras.

As an extra added bonus, Valient Thorr, longtime favorites of The Trash Bar, have sent the club a copy of their new CD "Immortalizer", which comes out June 16th, giving their NYC fans (a.k.a. Thorriors) a chance to hear it for the first time during this 3 day event before it's released. Thorr's record label, Volcom Entertainment, has sent a slew of prizes and giveaways to award to patrons of the event.

The "Live At The Trash Bar Festival" promises to capture the excitement, enthusiasm, and aesthetic of the New York rock and punk scene in 2008 from the bands that make it happen, and in the one club in New York that properly showcases their live performances on a nightly basis.

Advance tickets are available at http://www.megaplatinum.net and you can learn more about the festival at http://www.thetrashbar.com

Full Lineup:

Wed June 4 - $6 admission
Electric Shadows, Ex-humans, Cathy, Soft Black, Girls Like Cigarettes
Thurs June 5th - $6 admission
The Homosexuals, The Everyothers, The Bullys, Kissy Kamikaze, The Rats, Karen Curious
Fri June 6th - $7 admission
The Nick Vivid Effect, The Naked Heroes, Super Potent Death Baby, Chumley, One Last Shot

Doors/Shows start at 8 pm each night. 21+ to enter w/valid ID. Oh, and there's an open bar from 8-9 each night. You might want to get there early to partake.

11:12 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Brett Smiley Track on Uncut Bowie Tribute!

UNCUT have another DAVID BOWIE special collectors edition magazine published for their June issue.

On sale on 24th April, the magazine contains twelve page special that lists Bowie's thirty greatest songs as selected by a whole of host contributors including Jimmy Page, Keith Richards, David Grohl, Morrissey, Alex Turner, Ricky Gervais, Tony Visconti and many more.

Also with magazine comes with a free CD entitled 'Rebel Rebel' A Tribute To David Bowie which features songs by Mott The Hoople, King Crimson, Nico, Mercury Rev, Sigue Sigue Sputnik and more.

Brett Smiley's cover of 'Kooks' was performed by Brett Smiley with Nick Vivid and engineered and produced by Nick Vivid at MegaPlatinum's studio in Brooklyn in late 2007.

Update: The tracklisting on the free CD 'Rebel Rebel' runs as follows:

     01. Sigue Sigue Sputnik - 'Rebel Rebel'
     02. The Sea and Cake - 'Sound And Vision'
     03. The Last Town Chorus - 'Modern Love'
     04. King Crimson - "Heroes"
     05. John Howard - 'The Bewley Brothers'
     06. Ed Kuepper - 'The Man Who Sold The World'
     07. Brett Smiley - 'Kooks'
     08. LA Guns - 'Moonage Daydream'
     09. Eater - 'Queen Bitch'
     10. Mott The Hoople - 'All The Young Dudes' (live)
     11. Nico - "Heroes"
     12. Mercury Rev - 'Memory Of A Free Festival'

(Note: There was a last minute production 'hiccup' resulting in the transposition of the tracks by Last Town Chorus and King Crimson, their appearance on the CD now not matching the tracklisting on the sleeve).

Oh and there's a free Rock Trivia book to boot 'The Uncut Book of Revelations' Volume 2 which is a compendium of the very finest rock facts.

Check out uncut.co.uk for more details.

1:42 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Spread This! Get involved!

The time has come and the first of MegaPlatinum Entertainment's 2008 initiatives is upon us.

The MegaPlatinum Entertainment "Spread This!" online campaign is a peer to peer filesharing initiative that will reach approximately half a million rock, garage, stoner, and punk music fans worldwide. We will launch the campaign on March 1st, to run until May 31st 2008 via our bittorrent File Server. This 3 month promotion is a reaction to the Music Industry administering lawsuits and giving black eyes to today's rock music fans, instead of figuring out ways to understand this technology better and cater to fans' wishes for content delivery. We want to prove through our projects this year that ad supported and other forms of file sharing DO produce desirable results if done properly (which we don't believe it has been yet), and that fans want to discover bands in this way. On top of that we believe if it's easy enough for them to buy the music once they've discovered it, they will. Not to mention MegaPlatinum deals exclusively in Primal, Powerful, and Liberating rock, which is the best type of music there is!

How it works is this - bittorrent files contain a computer folder that houses the mp3 files, informational text or pdf documents, and .html files that act as direct link shortcuts to any pre-determined website. For this particular promotion, we will include a band name, song title, and web address in the id3 tags (so that you will see these on your iPod or other music player for example), and a .pdf magazine with links to your band's website and biography.

In addition to our direct contact with tons of fans, the campaign is already sparking interest from p2p filesharing news networks and music industry news sites. They're very interested in covering this groundbreaking inititative.

The music will be broken up into 3 song sets from each band - like virtual singles. The 160k mp3 files will be the free spreadable versions, and for sale will be a 320k (better quality) mp3 and .flac version (Flac is a newer audiophile-ish format which is CD quality - but for download). The for sale versions will retail at the MegaPlatinum online store for 69 cents per song (a total of $2.07). We will pay the bands $1.00 US for each copy of the 3 song set sold at the MegaPlatinum Store. (If someone buys the mp3 AND flac version, you would get $2 for that sale).

A one time payment will be made for all copies sold at the end of the promotion.

Interested bands need to send us a CD of their band's music as soon as possible along with a list of the 3 songs they approve for inclusion. No cover songs. The bands need to hold all Copyrights to the works they are submitting. In addition the bands need to fill out the release form (link below) and send it in with their CD. (If you want to burn a CD of 3 songs from different releases that is fine, but please no rough demos or live soundboard recordings. All recordings need to be of a professional quality to maintain the integrity of the campaign).

A high quality photo and/or logo and 1 paragraph biography would also be appreciated. You can send those to mp@megaplatinum.net so we can include them with promoting your release at www.megaplatinum.net

Release Form link:
http://www.megaplatinum.net/stsrelease.html

The Deadline for entry is February 20th. Any questions can be sent to mp@megaplatinum.net

Submission for entry is not a guarantee that we will choose your music for the campaign.

Bands selected will be qualified for entry for our Summer 2008 project, which will be even bigger. More details to come.

Send to:

MegaPlatinum Entertainment LLC
1027 Grand St. 2A
Brooklyn, NY 11211
USA

12:09 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Montreal Fistful of Rock Festival Lineup Confirmed!

GREAT NEWS! MOST OF THE BAND HAVE BEEN CONFIRMED and here is the list:

What: 1st Annual international  "Fistful of Rock & Roll Festival" - 4 shows !
When: Friday December 7 & Saturday December 8
Where: Les Saintes & Katacombes - 2 shows each club each night
MONTREAL, CANADA - "The City of Festivals" and "The Most Rocking City in North America!

7th and 8th of December at les saints (30, rue Ste-Catherine O.)

Friday doors open at 5PM starts at 6 sharp
Electric Frankenstein(NYC)
Turbo A.C.'s (NYC)
Big John Bates(Vancouver)
Million Dollar Marxists(Ottawa)
The Shifter
Cobra A.C.'s

Saturday doors open at 4:30 show stars at 5:30 sharp
Danko Jones(TO)
Gutter Demons
Adam West(DC)
The Nick Vivid Effect(NYC)
Maximum RNR(TO)
Trigger Effect
The Arson

16$ in advance 18$ at the door for each night or 30$ in advance for both

After party shows at Katakombes (5$) (1222 St-Laurent)
Friday
Dutch Oven
The Dangers

Saturday
Very special guest
The hypnophonics

For tickets and information, contact:
Janick at  http://www.myspace.com/katacombes 

For information for Sponsorships contact:

Sal Canzonieri of Electric Frankenstein
Contact info at http://www.myspace.com/electricfrankenstein

11:44 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

My weekend at Dai Bosatsu Zendo
Current mood: peaceful

I had the opportunity to spend the weekend at Dai Bosatsu Zendo, a Buddhist Monestary in NY's Catskill Mountains this past weekend. It was the most amazing experience. I can't thank the monks, nuns, and students enough. They made my friends and I feel at home. (A special thanks to Emily, Jokei, Stefan, Andrea, and Nick). We stayed in the Guest House down the road from the Monestary, which was up the hill from a beautiful large pond surrounded by statues and shrines. Mornings started with the wake up bell at 4:15 AM. I then had about 20 minutes to put myself together, get my robe, and head to the Zendo in the darkness to begin morning meditation. Following this was Morning Service (chanting) in the Dharma Hall and breakfast in the dining hall. Around 8 or 9 am there would be a small reprieve (and the day's first chance to exchange informal hellos) before Samu (work practice) was to begin. My team was to cut wood for next year's winter heat supply. We cut and stacked a pile of wood nearly 6 feet high and 20 feet long the first afternoon. (The second day, by hand, I wiped the floors of the Zendo, Dharma Hall, and other areas of the Monestary, as well as cleaned insense holders.) There was a small informal snack break somewhere in there, and finally dinner and one hour of silent evening meditation followed in the zendo. Around 9 pm we reprieved for down time and meeting at the guest house, all to get up again the following morning at 4:15 to do it all over again. The amount of dedication to not just the practice of meditation, but to the practice of one's entire day, even life - the focus and sheer discipline that the buddhists of the monestary embodied was inspiring. I hope to return for another visit soon.In the meantime here are two photographs that Emily helped me take on my cell phone camera.

Currently listening : Vespertine By Björk Release date: 28 August, 2001

10:39 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

AMP Magazine Review - Aug/Sept 07

by Sal Canzonieri.

WOW! I am almost totally speechless! A real motherfucker of a debut! THIS IS AMAZING Alice Cooper Mott the Hoople style GIGANTIC RIFF Glam ROCK!  This band is way TOO GOOD for shithole NYC! Man, RUN to get a chance to see this TWO piece band blow everyone off the stage! Featuring the ever talented Nick Vivid on guitar and vocals, who along with drummer Shane Kerton were in the also amazing Drag Citizen. This is so super amazing, purely emotional, hard felt, real, FUCKING ENJOYABLE and FUN TO LISTEN TO, jaw dropping song writing that most bands will pale in comparison to! I listened to this 3 song demo like 10 times in a row and it still sounds great. If Bush didn't cheat to be president and set the world off kilter fucking everything up so much that even the frigging Boston Red Socks won the world series against the NY Yankees, then the Nick Vivid Effect (or their previous Drag Citizen band) would be RADIO GODS! Fuck what is wrong with the world? Can't we just storm the radio stations and the rest of the crooked music biz and just kills those bottleneck control freak assholes once and for all so that everyone can hear PURE TALENT again on the radio! GOD DAMN! This band is SO GOOD that I get this MAD at the injustice of it all! If you every trusted me about REAL ROCK & ROCK then listen to THE NICK VIVID EFFECT ! Check them out on www.myspace.com/megaplatinum

11:07 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

State of the Vivid
Current mood: amused

I certainly fent the effects of the full moon/mercury retrograde mix this past weekend. Saturday afternoon the police lock on my loft's front door broke, and while sussing out the situation with my roommate, a portion of the building caught on fire and it spread through 2 floors. Luckily it was not near my side of the building, but with the dry heat, it certainly could have spread without reservation. The Fire Dept was here within minutes, and we got to fix the door lock after the alarms and fire were simultaneously squashed. Upon the completion of fixing the lock, I packed up my gear and headed to the gig, which was a strange sight in of itself. This used to be my crowd, my people, my world. Most don't seem to be anymore. I tend to feel vindicated when the feedback on the gig, the music, and my art in general is polarized. As soon as one person says I stole the show, another shakes their head in confusion. Half the room went apeshit. The other had no idea what to make of my new band. I am constantly told that we need a bassist. I am constantly told how huge and big it sounds for 2 people and that it's the best thing I've ever done. My former manager called me up today, and his review of the first Nick Vivid Effect single was that of disappointment. A magazine on the west coast just sent me an email saying how kick ass it sounds. I'm certainly on to something.

3:42 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Zunevibe.com Review.. niceness..

The Nick Vivid Effect
Nick Vivid: Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards
Shane Kerton: Drums

Welcome to the first installment of ZuneVibe.com's own Featured Artist section. It's our pleasure to introduce to you, from Brooklyn NY, The Nick Vivid Effect.

Reaching deep into the pockets of the post-glam 70's comes a power chord duo that makes more noise than most bands of four members can muster. Nick Vivid leads the way with his full throttle crunch-throb guitar and dizzying vocals. Shane Kerton pounds hard, frequently, and with precision on his massive Fibes drum kit - outfitted with a twenty-eight inch marching band kick-drum. This mix of minimalist rock and punk, served up at full volume, is a sonic buffet for the ears.

"I wasn't planning on doing a 2 piece," Says Nick Vivid, "..but while jamming with a friend uptown one night in early December and plugging into 2 amps, I felt such a full sound happening and felt so inspired to riff out all over the place with fresh ideas and complete freedom, that I knew it was the new direction to go in."

Grab your Zune and head over to MegaPlatinum Entertainment [Nick's own label] and grab a copy of The Nick Vivid Effect's first digital release "Baby Better Look Out" which features 3 masterful tunes: Baby Better Look Out; And Now, The Moment We've All Been Waiting For...; Go Get 'Em, Kid! Your ears and your friends will thank you for turning them on!

2:31 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

my father was black. this is the proof
Current mood: nostalgic

who knew a "cool" could spawn a "vivid"? circa 1970... (yes, my dad is bradley j cool)

Currently reading : Power vs. Force: The Hidden Determinants of Human Behavior By David R. Hawkins Release date: April, 2002

1:37 AM - 0 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment