OneRepublic: Live in South Africa ONEREPUBLIC: LIVE IN SOUTH AFRICA (2018) Featuring Ryan Tedder, Zach Filkins, Drew Brown, Eddie Fisher and Brent Kutzle. “Don’t Look Down” written by Sam Dunn. Directed by Scot McFadyen & Sam Dunn. Distributed by Eagle Rock Entertainment. 119 minutes. Not Rated. OneRepublic rarely gets much credit as a rock band, beyond their fan base. Perhaps because lead singer/songwriter Ryan Tedder is such a terrific commercial pop songwriter, specializin

Secondhand SerenadeSecondhand Serenade Secondhand Serenade Taking Your Call By Deborah Wagner If you want to launch a music career in this very tough industry, it used to be about who you knew.  However, John Vesely – the solo artist who calls himself Secondhand Serenade – is changing all the rules.   Vesely is rocketing his own career towards stardom.  He is finding this stardom by getting to know millions of people – not from the record companies, but the people who really

Ingrid Michaelson performing at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia. Ingrid Michaelson The Way She Is by Jay S. Jacobs It used to be in order to get your songs heard; you had to hope that somehow radio would catch on to you (often through payola).  The whole business has changed, though, and Ingrid Michaelson is riding the wave of the new world order of MySpace, iTunes, television placement and national ads to a quirky and surprising bid at stardom.  And she’s doing it her way. T

Red Jumpsuit Apparatus THE RED JUMPSUIT APPARATUS NOT FAKING IT by Jay S. Jacobs You may have thought that you were catching something brand new when the passionate anti-domestic violence song “Face Down” started taking the music world by storm this summer.  With its disgusted and angry lyrics (“Do you feel like a man when you push her around?  Do you feel better as she falls to the ground?”) the song struck a huge chord.  Red Jumpsuit Apparatus became that most rare of anima

Matt White Matt White Best Days… and Getting Even Better by Ronald Sklar How’s this for destiny’s child? At five-years-old, Matt White spots and says hello to Bruce Springsteen in a Jersey diner. The meet-and-greet is totally by chance, but contains powerful, earth-shaking, life-changing impact. Not that White needed anyone to be The Boss of him – he was born into a musical family and had been playing piano since he was three-years old. Still, the soundstage was set. Of that

Pauley Perrette in “NCIS.” Pauley Perrette NCIS Punk by Jay S. Jacobs When you think of scientists in the Naval police corps, do you picture someone in pitch-black retro clothes, with goth boots, spider-web tattoos and with a serious caffeine addiction? If you do, chances are that notion is thanks to Pauley Perrette. Perrette plays Abby, the overstimulated-but-quite-brilliant lab worker on the CBS smash series NCIS.  The quirky show is about a troupe of Navy investigators who

Josh Kelley Josh Kelley Life in the Pop Game by Jay S. Jacobs Back in its heyday, lots of musicians had a problem with the peer-to-peer file sharing program Napster. Josh Kelley was not one of them, though – it was through the site that he was discovered. Through Napster, Kelley was able to get his music to an A&R rep, leading to his signing with Hollywood Records. His debut album, For the Ride Home, was released in 2004 and featured this hit single “Amazing.” The guitar-base

The Lashes The Lashes Get What They Want By Jay S. Jacobs Seattle is known as a hotbed for music mostly because of the grunge bands of the early 90s. There is a whole world of musicians from the city who never wore flannel, though. Jimi Hendrix, Heart, the Posies, MxPx – lots of talented artists have flourished under the shadow of the Space Needle. The latest group to appear from the scene is The Lashes – a fantastic pop/rock band who built a buzz on a self-released EP called