blog.jamlegend.com

In early September, a kind soul by the name of Chris entered our lives and followed us around (Office-style!). Here's a peek into the startup world of JamLegend:

Can you name one of the bands featured in the background of the video? Psst... here's a hint on JamLegend.

A bug preventing Firefox 2 users who have chat enabled from being able to interact with the various Flash applications on JamLegend has been fixed. We apologize for the annoyance, and are happy to have this issue behind us.

Game on!

The rains of Seattle bring us The Flood, a mighty prog metal deluge ready to drench you with their intense sonic energy.  Often compared to Korn, Tool, and the Deftones, The Flood has perfected the brooding, simmering fury that drives their progressive metal sound.  Their live shows assault the audience with a very tight performance backed with a dark vortex of visual effects, creating a complete sensory experience. 

With a SnoCore tour stint with Static-X under their studded belt, The Flood is ready to expand their fanbase beyond Seatlle and North America, which brought them to JamLegend.  The Flood says, "JamLegend has helped open the floodgates for the band, introducing them to a whole legion of new fans. So go rock out to the sounds of 'Flood' now and try and beat the high score!"

The Flood just completed recording their debut full-length with Sylvia Massey (Smashing Pumpkins, System of a Down, Tool) at her Radiostar Studio in Weed, CA.  And for you torture horror movie fans, the Flood is featured in the soundtrack to Saw VI, the sixth installment of the Saw movie franchise, in theaters now!  The Flood has plans to tour this autumn, so stay tuned to their official MySpace page!

For today's Feature Friday, we travel to Germany and meet son et lumière, one of the most played bands on JamLegend with over 2 million plays--that's TWO MILLION, holy cow!!--on their rocker "On the Rocks."  In recent months, the band has been laying low in search of a second guitarist (thankfully, they found a great one!), and in the coming weeks they will be writing and recording new songs.  But in the meantime, we caught up with bassist/vocalist Pascal to ask what it's like to be one of the most played on JamLegend.

Pascal told us son et lumière found JamLegend because of an article in the famous German online magazine spiegel.de back in January 2009:  "We tried it immediately and ended up playing the whole night battling for the high score."  They contacted Ryan, one of the JamLegend founders, and asked if they could put their music on the site and that's how it all began.  At the time, son et lumière were working on their album Stay Classy and picked "On the Rocks," a song they though had potential as a single.  With 2 million plays, it's not surprising that the band has been contacted by fans from Peru, China, Singapore, France, New Zealand, Norway, Hawaii, Brazil, Morocco, Russia, India, and many more places. "I mean the whole world is online, but with normal measures such as MySpace or others we could never reach such an audience. Jamlegend.com has become such an important promotion tool for us," says Pascal.  He showed us their favorite comment written on their JamLegend band page wall:  When I pressed play i really felt good. 'On the Rocks' is one of the best songs I heard.  They also love watching YouTube videos of fans playing "On the Rocks" on JamLegend, and they even found one of someone playing the song on a real guitar while his mom made dinner in the background which they found "lovely."

While son et lumière have connected with fans from across the globe, maybe the best and funniest fan interaction happened right where they live.  Linda the vocalist was on the bus when she overheard some kids talking about JamLegend.  Here's Pascal's account of what happened next: "She first listened a bit to their stories and high score debates and then joined in and talked to the boys. Of course they did know 'On the Rocks' and were truly going nuts when she told them that she was actually singing this song. It ended up with a little a capella version in the bus with Linda singing and all the little boys imitating the guitar sound with the mouth."

Even though JamLegend and the online world has helped son et lumière find a global audience, the real world has yet to catch up with their explosive success.  While the band is set up to sell digital downloads of their songs, they find it difficult to find distribution for their CDs.  Pascal laments, "We haven’t got the opportunity to sell our record worldwide physically and are sad to disappoint the request for it coming from South America or East Asia but we are still trying to find a way out of this misery. If anyone can help us out on this one, we would be very pleased."  Can we work some JamLegend community magic and help find son et lumière distribution for their CDs?

You can find out more about son et lumière on their MySpace page or, if you speak German, their official site, and play their JamLegend smash hit "On the Rocks" below!

World domination is bad foreign policy for nation-states, but for bands, it's a noble cause.  We think The Ruse is well on their way to world domination, and we're glad to know JamLegend has a hand in their non-nefarious global conquest.  Established in New York City in 2004, The Ruse criss-crossed the United States on tour before settling down in Los Angeles, CA.  It wasn't long before the entertainment industry noticed their hard work and bottomless pool of talent: The Ruse's music has been featured numerous times on the MTV hit show "The Hills", they had a cameo on "Entourage", and they were nominated for an MTV Video Music Awardfor Breakout Artist in Los Angeles.  And really, isn't television the first logical step toward taking over the world?  Plus, they have accomplished all of this as an indie artist with no major label support, which is an incredible feat and a testament to their dedication.

The Ruse delivers a fresh take on Brit pop, Americana, new wave, etc. elevating it with honest lyrics and selfless message.  The fact that their music resonates with people from all over the world is evident in the number of plays their songs have received on JamLegend--"Beautiful is Gone" has over 260,000 plays and "Collide" with over 220,000 so far.  The Ruse guitarist Jim tells us, "We get emails from people all over the world who have been playing JamLegend and are now fans of the band. You can't put a price on that, and it still amazes us. JameLegend is really helping us branch out to a whole new base, worldwide."  The Ruse decided to put their music on JamLegend after their friend introduced them to the site.  Since then, there has been a steady stream of tweets about their music as well as YouTube videos of fans playing and FC-ing their songs on JamLegend.  One place The Ruse can use your help is conquering their own songs on JamLegend:  Jim says, "Our favorite part is playing along to our own songs (even though we still kinda suck)."  Do you have any game tips for them?  Go ahead and post them here, or on their JamLegend band page!

The Ruse's latest album, called Midnight in the City, includes the JamLegend favorites "Collide" and "Beautiful is Gone."  All their albums including their previous releases Invasion and Light in Motion are available via CDBaby and iTunes, which you can access via their handy dandy discography page on the official site.  You can find out more about the band on their MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter pages. 

The Ruse will be on the road playing shows in October and November--many of them with another JamLegend favorite Honor By August!

Wed, Oct 14  The Cellar  201 E BROADWAY LONG BEACH, CA
w/ Honor By August

Thu, Oct 15  Kimo's  1351 Polk St  San Francisco, CA
w/ Honor By August & Johnny HI-FI

Fri, Oct 16  The Viper Room 8852 W Sunset Blvd West Hollywood, CA
w/ Honor By August

Sat, Oct 17 Dakota Lounge 1026 Wilshire Blvd. Santa Monica, CA
w/ Honor By August & Johnny HI-FI

Sun, Oct 25  Rose Bowl with U2- "Picnic in the Park" Pasadena, CA

Wed, Nov 4  Franklin & Marshall College  415 Harrisburg Ave Lancaster, PA

Thu, Nov 5 StageOne  70 Sanford Street  Fairfield, CT
w/ Honor By August

Fri, Nov 6  Mercury Lounge  217 E Houston St # A New York, NY
w/ Honor By August!!!

Sat, Nov 7 Jammin Java  227 E Maple Ave  Vienna, VA

 

JamLegend Showdowns can stir up some healthy competition between players, but in the end, as cheesy as it sounds, it can bring everyone together in unexpected ways.  Euthanasie e-mailed us when this little miracle happened after a showdown with eight players playing "Unbreakable" by Honor By August: 

All eight players in the showdown got perfect scores! 

Amazing, right?  Congrats to the showdown guitar slingers for their FCs, and thanks Euthanasie for sharing this story with us.  It made our day! 

Do you have an amazing JamLegend story to share with us?  Let us know!

RIDES AGAIN mixes Foo Fighter energy along with big arena sounding choruses; a one-two punch combination that has garnered the band an extremely loyal following of fans. And since uploading their songs to JamLegend this has been an extra push to getting their music promoted and noticed world wide!

"JamLegend in my opinion is the best way for people to hear about our music online. It actually gets the listener involved with our band!" says Chad Peyton, Bassist of Rides Again.

Since the first few songs Rides Again added to JamLegend, they noticed their plays had been climbing dramatically day by day. Until finally, "Infected" was at the top of daily plays and still sits at #6 most played song on JamLegend! 

"It is pretty cool to see so many people playing our songs on JamLegend, and even uploading their videos to Youtube, showing off how skilled they are and how fast they can move their fingers. Me, well I am still a beginner... I think I have 27 Groupies though!" says Chad.

Rides Again will be back on the road early next year after they finish recording their second album!

You can find out more about Rides Again on their MySpace and Facebook, or buy their album on iTunes.

 

Kill the alarm?  Well, maybe not just yet because we want to alert you to an amazing band from New York City: Kill the Alarm.  You've probably played their song on JamLegend at least once, considering that almost all of their songs have hundreds of thousands of plays.  Kill the Alarm play soaring alternative rock with thoughtful lyrics, and their songs have been featured on shows such as MTV's Real World.

Kill the Alarm were contacted by the JamLegend founders early in the site's history, and they agreed to contribute music to the game.  Their first song "Fire Away" has received almost 830,000 plays so far, making KTA one of the most popular artists on JamLegend.  While we're impressed by KTA's diligence and songwriting talent, Garen from the band is impressed with the JamLegend community and its virtual guitar skills.  He remembers seeing a YouTube video of someone playing a Kill the Alarm song:  "He had nailed our top song 'Fire Away' on Insane level. Which is insane to me, since I tried it and couldn't make it past the first verse because it was toooooo damn difficult. and I wrote the song for God's sake!"  Garen also pointed us to this video of someone from Indonesia playing their song "Sit Up" on YouTube as one of his favorites.

You can find out more about Kill the Alarm on their official website, as well as on their Myspace and Facebook, or follow them on Twitter.

We're giving out free JamCash to users who invite friends and friends who sign up. That's right, for every friend you refer who starts jamming, you get 500 JamCash and your friend can earn 2000 JamCash! JamCash allows you to upgrade your library and in the future will also let you purchase a variety of other cool JamLegend stuff.

Don't wait! Click here to get started: http://www.jamlegend.com/share

UPDATE (09/25/09): For all of those users who referred their friends before, you can also get JamCash. Many of your friends probably never confirmed their e-mails. If you get them to confirm their e-mails, then you get JamCash when they confirm!