News

The All-American Rejects At El Rey Theatre

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THE GRAMMYs
GRAMMYs
Dec 2, 2014 - 3:22 pm

Welcome to The Set List. Here you'll find the latest concert recaps for many of your favorite, or maybe not so favorite, artists. Our bloggers will do their best to provide you with every detail of the show, from which songs were on the set list to what the artist was wearing to which out-of-control fan made a scene. Hey, it'll be like you were there. And if you like what you read, we'll even let you know where you can catch the artist on tour. Feel free to drop us a comment and let us know your concert experience. Oh, and rock on.

By Julie Mutnansky
Los Angeles

There was no better way to start May than to head over to the elusive El Rey Theatre for a concert that not only hit my nostalgia nerve, but also helped support an important charity.

Lyme Light: The Concert raised funds for Lyme disease awareness and kicked off with musical guests the Lonely Wild, Aaron Embry, In The Valley Below, and Hey, King! Event coordinator and Hey, King! vocalist/guitarist Natalie London was brave enough to share how Lyme disease has affected her life. Local indie rock band Youngblood Hawke followed and headliners the All-American Rejects closed out the evening.

One thing that was unique about this show was that it was all acoustic. There's something about an acoustic show that really allows you to feel and hear each piece of music. Sporting a Coachella-inspired look, the members of Youngblood Hawke took the stage with their tambourines ready to play fan-favorites such as "Stars (Hold On)" and "We Come Running," while drummer Nik Hughes kept the beat on his mini cajon drum. Their energy left the audience dancing and enjoying the show like it was a concert in your best friend's living room.

The red velvet curtains opened to release the silhouettes of the All-American Rejects lead vocalist Tyson Ritter and lead guitarist Nick Wheeler. Usually a four-piece, Ritter and Wheeler started the show with "Dirty Little Secret," the opening track from their 2005 sophomore album, Move Along. Not wasting any time, Ritter showed his comedic side by telling a story about going camping in his grandparents' "shag carpet trailer" back in Oklahoma where the band's notorious song "Swing, Swing" was born. The song took me back to warm summer nights in Arizona and the pure innocence of a high school girl spending her nights out at rock shows.

Highlights included Ritter's ease at making fun of the people of Los Angeles and their light clapping that he referred to as "diet clapping"; the performance of "One More Sad Song," which Ritter referred to as the lucky "rabbit's foot"; and the changeover in the middle of "Gives You Hell" to the late Michael Jackson's "Man In The Mirror" that made the audience really move.

After a cover of the Pixies' "Where Is My Mind," the All-American Rejects closed the show with the Top 20 hit "Move Along" and I left feeling fortunate to have supported a great cause and traveled back to 2002 all in the same night.

To catch Youngblood Hawke in a city near you, click here for tour dates. To catch the All-American Rejects in a city near you, click here for tour dates.

Youngblood Hawke Set List:

"Stars (Hold On)"
"Pressure"
"Sleepless Streets"
"Glacier"
"We Come Running" 

The All-American Rejects Set List:

"Dirty Little Secret"
"Fallin' Apart"
"Swing, Swing"
"I For You"
"Put Me Back Together"
"It Ends Tonight"
"Gives You Hell"
"One More Sad Song"
"Where Is My Mind" (Pixies cover)
"Move Along"

(Julie Mutnansky lives in Santa Monica, Calif., where she serves as the Senior Administrative Assistant for the GRAMMY Foundation. She is a graduate of the University of Arizona and a Southwestern girl at heart. She enjoys going to concerts and taking adventures. You can follow her on Instagram@juliemut or on Twitter @juliemutLA.)

Tyson Ritter of All-American Rejects in 2016

Tyson Ritter of All-American Rejects 

Photo: Brian Gove/Getty Images

Interview

All-American Rejects: Tyson Ritter Talks New "Chaotic, Polarizing" Music

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The frontman for the power pop-quartet gets deep on why he's glad to be back with brand-new music
Brian Haack
GRAMMYs
Oct 16, 2017 - 1:25 pm

Tyson Ritter, frontman for the All-American Rejects, has been living life at a frenetic pace since before he could drive.

Tyson Ritter Teases New All-American Rejects Music

Having grown up, in his own words, "in front of a record button" since the age of 17, Ritter spent the next 15 years recording and touring nonstop. Following their 2012 album, Kids In The Street, the group went on a much-needed hiatus. They've reemerged in 2017, this time with a new single, "Sweat." And there are more single releases in the works — the Rejects' future plans hinge upon releasing tracks in pairs over the course of several months, then compiling them into a full album offering.

Ritter stopped by the Recording Academy's Santa Monica offices to talk a bit about his band's new music, their recent Rejected short film and why touring with Dashboard Confessional was surreal, among other topics.

After about five years away from the grueling pace you've been keeping for most of your adult life, how does it feel to be back with new All-American Rejects music?
It feels great to be back after five years of nothingness, musically. The man I've partnered with in this band, Nick Wheeler, we'd been at each other's feet, or ankles, since we were 17. Technically, I was 14 when I started playing in bars with him, and we became the All-American Rejects when I was 16. Fifteen years on the road solid left us with this sort of desire to taste life in its real form, instead of 10 feet above everybody every night on a stage. It feels great to be back.

You've used words like "chaos" and "polarizing" to describe the upcoming record. Anything else you can tell us about the new material you've been working on?
I use words like "chaos" and "polarizing" to describe the new record because I don't want anyone to hope for something that has been. I understand how certain fans, especially younger fans, get this chip on their shoulder. … Because [they] want [their favorite band] to stay pure in this time capsule. But this isn't 2002 anymore, and I'm not 17. I like to say I've grown up in front of a record button since I was 17. Whenever anybody goes, "How have you changed?" I answer that question with, "How many different people did you turn into from 17 to 29 to 30?" That's like trying to calculate madness in a condensed form. This new offering [is] going to be a kaleidoscope because I don't want anyone to be able to be like, "Oh, this is All-American Rejects." There's some of that, but then there's the adventure of going beyond that.

Is there a particular track on the record you think fans are going to be most surprised by?
We're getting ready to put out two more. We're doing this in-pairs release [strategy]. Every time we put out more music, instead of putting out a full record or putting out an EP, we're going to do two songs at a time until there's [enough for] a record … and then [we'll] kind of put it all out together.

There's a song called "Send Her To Heaven" [that's] like this tribute to the Pixies, because it's in the chord progression of "Where Is My Mind?" But we kind of sent it through a Rejects lobotomy, and you get this song that is kind of the chaos that I'm speaking about. That song, we're pairing with a song called "Demons," which we recorded with this kid named Justin Raisen. Sonically, [it's] probably the most confused landscape we've ever designed because you hear guitars, you hear all sorts of things that sound like there could be a band in there. But to me, it's kind of a revelatory song; it's pushing the sonics for us.

Let's talk about the short film Rejected. What do you think the film captures best about the kind of transition you've been going through personally and with the band?
When I watched the documentary, I went through many feelings about it. I was always worried it was too self-indulgent, but I think the thing that it exposes, that I'm proud of, is that there's a bit of a reckless desire to kick the archetypical band — in the terms of having to fall inside these lines of "a band can do this" or "a band can't do this."

You did an Ask Me Anything on Reddit recently, which attracted a pretty cool outpouring of fans from all over the world. Was there any memorable story from a fan saying how they'd been affected by your music that you remember picking up from that?
I always love hearing about people passing our music to their children. There was a really great story about this lady who said she'd listened to us growing up, and then one day her kid was like, "Play the All-American Rejects!" That's such a surreal thing to me. That makes me feel completely touched, but also completely mortified — knowing that something I wrote laying on the floor when I was 17 is now getting passed down to children.

You guys just wrapped a tour with Dashboard Confessional. Did you come back with any particularly fond moments from that run of shows?
Touring with Dashboard Confessional, for me, was surreal. That was my first show that I paid to go see in Texas. This guy named Chris Carrabba in Dashboard Confessional was opening. And I was like 16. If you would have told me then that I would have been playing with him 20 years later, I'd have been like, "Screw you, man. That's not happening."

This was a tour where I felt like I was on a tour with a bunch of musicians. And every night people would be out there standing, watching or supporting. It felt like a community of musicians. That was a tour of gentlemen.

Feature

Kacy Hill, Melissa Manchester On Building A Village Of Fans

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Social media, crowd-funding, touring, and media placement are important, but one valuable ingredient looms essential for sustaining an audience and successful music career
Chuck Crisafulli
GRAMMYs
Aug 31, 2017 - 1:16 pm

Making great music is always a challenge. But making a career of making music presents a second challenge: finding an audience who enjoys your music enough to spend money on it.

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New Orleans-based funk-soul collective Tank And The Bangas were announced as winners of the 2017 NPR Tiny Desk contest. The group has U.S. and U.K. tour dates scheduled through December

These days, with the traditional model of record sales and radio airplay having largely given way to downloads and streaming, artists now rely more than ever on profit-generating live performances and merchandising opportunities to sustain themselves. For many artists, song placements in film, television or advertising have replaced radio as a means to a wider audience and a decent paycheck.

Of course, one of the biggest keys — and potential roadblocks — to a sustained music career is social media. While Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, SoundCloud and other platforms have, in theory, made it easier for artists to connect with fans and introduce music into the marketplace, there's now so much digital chatter and material available out there that it makes it difficult hard for any one artist to cut through.

As a result, with a generation of listeners accustomed to hearing what they want when they want for free, every artist who enters the marketplace — from veteran artists and GRAMMY winners to emerging talent — has to figure out how to survive in an ever-shifting entertainment economy.

"Everything's for sale now, and I'm not sure what to make of that as a performer or as a fan," says Tyson Ritter, frontman of the All-American Rejects. The band, known for hits like "Move Along" and "Gives You Hell," has been touring in support of their first new recording in five years, an EP titled Sweat, and Ritter says he's very aware of a changed dynamic on the road.

"Not only have bands' interactions with fans changed but the fans' interactions with bands have changed as well," Ritter says. "Nobody wants mystique anymore — they want as much access as possible and are willing to pay for it. That's as much a contributing factor to the changing times as the bands wanting to monetize whatever they can.

"Bands have to make a living, but when you're selling meet-and-greets for $200, you're selling access to yourself and it has a lot less to do with actually making music."

On the recent tour, the All-American Rejects opted to use social media as a means of deepening fan connection rather than enhancing their bottom line: Through a Facebook promotion, fans who won tickets to a concert were also invited to join Ritter backstage for a free pre-show "tea time" visit.

Many in the industry feel that a focus on fan connection, rather than short-term profits, is the best long-term financial strategy, especially for emerging artists.

"If you want people to spend money, you have to give them something of value, and a big part of that is an artist's story," says Lily Golightly of No Big Deal Public Relations, whose clients include the electronic trio Cheat Codes and the GRAMMY-nominated rock band Highly Suspect. "You want people to feel they can become part of that story. Announcing that you have so many listens on Spotify or went to number one on Hype Machine is not a compelling story. Artists need to connect with fans in ways that really show who they are — through live performance, social media and everything they do."

From a record label point of view, the efforts to connect with fans shouldn't overshadow the very reason for connecting.

"One thing that's important is to not lose sight of why you're on social media in the first place and that's usually to promote your music, which needs to be memorable," says Chris Manak, founder of the celebrated L.A.-based independent label Stones Throw Records. "Some artists these days spend more time trying to promote something mediocre than they do trying to create meaningful that's worth promoting and that's not gonna be effective."

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YouTube sensations Chloe x Halle scored a viral video in 2013 with their cover of Beyoncé's "Pretty Hurts." The performance caught the attention of the GRAMMY winner, who signed them to her management company, Parkwood Entertainment.  In 2016 the duo opened dates on the European leg of her Formation World Tour

That point is seconded by manager Sam Feldman, who is currently working with Jordan Smith, an exceptionally talented young singer who won season nine of "The Voice" and who now faces the challenge of leveraging a legion of TV fans into a sustainable career.

"You can work hard to build up followers all sorts of ways, but if you're a musician you can't forget that sooner or later you've got to deliver some music that people respond to."

"You have to prioritize the opportunities that really count towards building a career," explains Feldman, "and just getting your music streamed isn't enough to build a career on. In terms of marketing, things are always changing and you have to take advantage of it all, but the basics tenets haven't changed: You can work hard to build up followers all sorts of ways, but if you're a musician you can't forget that sooner or later you've got to deliver some music that people respond to."

In the realm of crowd-funding, fans have the opportunity to respond as directly as possible to financially support their favorite artists. GRAMMY winner Melissa Manchester has enjoyed a long, accomplished career marked with a catalog of hits, including "Midnight Blue," "You Should Hear How She Talks About You" and "Don't Cry Out Loud." But without a major label home, she launched an Indiegogo campaign to finance the recording and release of her 2015 album, You Gotta Love The Life.

Manchester recently repeated that strategy to create her latest album, The Fellas, a tribute to such personal favorites as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and Nat "King" Cole. She first became aware of crowd-funding as a career option through her work as an adjunct professor at USC.

"For my students, this is just their version of normal. And since the complexion of the recording industry has changed so drastically I thought, 'Well, let's give it a go," Manchester says with a laugh.

"I was so surprised to see how interested fans are in the process of recording and putting it together. Some who donated enough were even invited into the studio to watch the albums be born. It's been a fantastic experience and it’s made me closer to the fans. It's very touching because I didn't know what to expect but now I really see where my 'village' is."

Kacy Hill recently released her debut album, Like A Woman, through Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music label. The 23-year-old electro-pop singer/songwriter is doing all she can to launch a career and build up her 'village' of fans, whether it's performing live, releasing buzz-worthy videos, pursuing merchandising opportunities, and attempting to establish an authentic voice on social media platforms. But above all, Hill is trying hard to stay level-headed and focused.

"I'm trying not to panic," says Hill. "It would be easy for me to panic about a career in music right now because it seems like every time I open my phone — Instagram, Twitter and everything else — I feel pressured to be doing everything at once. Certain things are going to help and certain things won't, but it doesn't feel like there's any algorithm to it that you can follow.

"So, I'm just trying to be calm and centered and do what I enjoy doing most, which is making music."

(Chuck Crisafulli is an L.A.-based journalist and author whose most recent works include Go To Hell: A Heated History Of The Underworld, Me And A Guy Named Elvis, Elvis: My Best Man, and Running With The Champ: My Forty-Year Friendship With Muhammad Ali.)

Read Our Interview With Maggie Rogers, Pharrell Williams' Protégé ​​

GRAMMYs
News

Bob Dylan At Dolby Theatre

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THE GRAMMYs
GRAMMYs
Feb 20, 2015 - 3:06 pm

GRAMMYs
Bob Dylan At Dolby Theatre

Welcome to The Set List. Here you'll find the latest concert recaps for many of your favorite, or maybe not so favorite, artists. Our bloggers will do their best to provide you with every detail of the show, from which songs were on the set list to what the artist was wearing to which out-of-control fan made a scene. Hey, it'll be like you were there. And if you like what you read, we'll even let you know where you can catch the artist on tour. Feel free to drop us a comment and let us know your concert experience. Oh, and rock on.

By Jamie Wayt
Hollywood, Calif.

Set in the grit of Hollywood Boulevard, the Dolby Theatre, the glamourous venue that hosts the Academy Awards, is akin to an indoor Hollywood Bowl, but on a much smaller scale. A giant half-moon-shaped stage sits in front of rows of seats, with opera-style boxes hanging magically on the sides. It was perhaps the perfect place to see 2015 MusiCares Person of the Year Bob Dylan on Oct. 26.

This was my third Dylan show; my first concert was in 1999 at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. Even at a young age, I grasped onto Dylan's songwriting (he wrote "Knockin' On Heaven's Door," which was later covered by Guns N' Roses), his rebellion (he controversially played electric guitar at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival), his personas (John Wesley Harding), his mystery (a 1966 motorcycle accident led him to take some time off from performing, which resulted in some of the first bootleg tapes from diehard fans), and his knack for cultural commentary ("Hurricane," a protest song he co-wrote about the imprisonment of boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter). I subsequently bought a greatest hits album and educated myself on his tales — some of the best songs ever written — marveling at the transformation of his voice over time.

But Dylan barely played any of those greatest hits on this evening.

A loud gong made everyone jump, and the lights quickly dimmed as the band came onstage wearing matching red coats, which immediately signaled they were a class act. Dylan wore a hat reminiscent of his period with the Rolling Thunder Revue in the '70s and a unique Western suit comprised of a long black jacket and pants with stripes down the sides that were tucked into short white-topped boots.

Dylan's voice always invites much discussion; he is perhaps the most renowned artist who isn't a skilled vocalist. But his voice morphes into another instrument onstage, cutting and turning around the guitars, drums and bass unlike any instrument made of wood or brass could do. The first time I saw Dylan he was still strumming a guitar; on this night he oscillated between commandeering the microphone, a harmonica and playing keyboards.

With no cell phones or professional photographers allowed, the show felt suspended in time, a truly special moment. This was his third show of a three-night stint at the Dolby Theatre, and in my mind the other two nights must have just been warm-ups for this. Dylan stood at the mic with the conviction of his early years and the wisdom of his later ones, a wide-legged stance as his words careened across the crowd.  Occasionally he would bring a harmonica to his lips, the pitch piercing our ears.

This show was a stop of the Never Ending Tour, but Dylan's command of the stage showed no signs of a farewell tour, an obligatory money grab or a compulsory showing of face. This was a demonstration of an artist who has been in his prime for decades and shows no signs of rusting, except for that patina on his voice. But some would call that "character."

After a single song encore, "Stay With Me" by Jerome Moross and Carolyn Leigh, I was not only glad to have been an excellent show, but to have experienced the work of a legend once again. A man near me in a Cream T-shirt reminded me of the passing of Jack Bruce, and how important it is to see the shining stars while we still can.

Set List:

"Things Have Changed"
"She Belongs To Me"
"Beyond Here Lies Nothin'"
"Workingman's Blues #2"
"Waiting For You"
"Duquesne Whistle"
"Pay In Blood"
"Tangled Up In Blue"
"Love Sick"
"High Water (For Charley Patton)"
"Simple Twist Of Fate"
"Early Roman Kings"
"Forgetful Heart"
"Spirit On The Water"
"Scarlet Town"
"Soon After Midnight"
"Long And Wasted Years"
"Stay With Me"

Catch Bob Dylan in a city near you

(Jamie Wayt lives in Los Angeles and is the rock community blogger for GRAMMY.com. She has attended and written about more than 700 shows since 2007. You can follow her musical adventures at www.hardrockchick.com.)

GRAMMYs
News

Babymetal At Hammerstein Ballroom

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THE GRAMMYs
GRAMMYs
Feb 20, 2015 - 3:05 pm

GRAMMYs
Babymetal At Hammerstein Ballroom

Welcome to The Set List. Here you'll find the latest concert recaps for many of your favorite, or maybe not so favorite, artists. Our bloggers will do their best to provide you with every detail of the show, from which songs were on the set list to what the artist was wearing to which out-of-control fan made a scene. Hey, it'll be like you were there. And if you like what you read, we'll even let you know where you can catch the artist on tour. Feel free to drop us a comment and let us know your concert experience. Oh, and rock on.

By Randee Dawn
New York

Never underestimate the power of teenage girls. More importantly, never underestimate the power of three teenage girls dressed in red crinoline skirts with long pigtails and backed by a four-piece band featuring two guitarists, a bassist and a drummer.

When that unstoppable force comes across your path, it's wisest to stand back and rock out while the group — known as Babymetal — shred the night away.

Who is Babymetal? They're a trio of Japanese girls (Suzuka Nakamoto, 16, and Yui Mizuno and Moa Kikuchi, 15) whose fashion is partly inspired by goth and Harajuku styles, and whose music is a blend of synth-laden J-pop and seriously dark, thrashy metal (with the occasional dip into reggae). A prefab band constructed overseas, they released a self-titled debut studio album in February and charmed both Lady Gaga and U.S. listeners alike with tunes such as "Gimme Chocolate!!" and "Head Bangya!!"

And on Nov. 4 they brought every metal trick in the book (plus a few more) to their first New York performance at the Hammerstein Ballroom. You name it, Babymetal have it. Six-foot blasts of fire? Check. Fireworks? Check. Strobe lights? Check. Extended guitar solos and an enormous LED screen filled with mythos-enhancing pronouncements such as "All heavy metal roads lead to the USA"? Check and double check. 

But the ladies of Babymetal never picked up an instrument (their backup musicians, who got more than one shot at extended unnamed instrumentals, do the heavy lifting). Instead, they emerged from a mid-stage platform as a tight group (over the course of the night the members sang as a trio, a duo and solo) and leapt to the main stage to twirl and shift in enthusiastic, elaborate dance routines while singing almost entirely in Japanese. Yet their fans knew all the words and all the right hand gestures to make — language was no barrier.

Describing Babymetal suggests cognitive dissonance: Cute teenage girls singing about eating chocolate in super-catchy choruses alongside the hyper-macho tradition of death metal cacophony. But it works. The ladies were eminently watchable, sliding from headbanging noise into danceable, grinding pop ("Uki Uki * Midnight") and then into what is (for them) a power ballad ("Rondo Of Nightmare").

If there was any downside to Babymetal, it was that they can seem a little too pre-programmed live. There wasn't any audience interaction until the end (when they told fans in high squeaking voices they were so happy to see them). But that's perhaps understandable given the language barrier. But to see them perform "Gimme Chocolate!!" in a YouTube video is to know virtually exactly what it was like to see them perform live. And the lack of spontaneity didn't seem to hurt the audience reaction, or interrupt the occasional crowd-surfer.

But in the end, the real surprise with Babymetal was this: Beneath all the choreographed cuteness is the fact that these ladies rock hard, rock loud, and get the job done. They are powerful in a way that has nothing to do with demographics or purchasing power. They're subverting traditional "guy" music and making it their own while retaining its loud, visceral, angry quality. They are women, hear them roar.

Set List:

"Babymetal Death"
"line!"
"Uki Uki * Midnight"
"Rondo Of Nightmare"
"Song 4"
"Catch Me If You Can"
"Akatsuki"
"Onedari Daisakusen"
"Megitsune"
"Doki Doki * Morning"
"Gimme Chocolate!!"
"Head Bangya!!"

Encore:
"Ijime, Dame, Zettai"

(Randee Dawn is a New York-based entertainment writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Variety, NBCNews.com, and Emmy magazine. Her short fiction has appeared in 3:AM Magazine and on the podcast "Well Told Tales," and she is the co-author of The Law & Order: SVU Unofficial Companion.)