The Association of Music Producers’ (AMP) West Coast chapter hosted its first “Battle of the Ad Bands” competition on Monday night (11/19) at The Mint in Los Angeles. The event–with proceeds benefiting The Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation–drew a full house of 150 and six competing bands. Winning the $500 Grand Prize was the Crash Kings from S! Studios.
“The AMP Battle of the Ad Bands in the West is a great opportunity for the community to come together to seek out new talent, and help a really worthy cause,” said event chairman Liz Myers of Trivers/Myers Music. “We’re really excited with the turnout, knowing that we’ve raised much-needed funds for Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, the charity that supports public school music and gives instruments to talented musicians who otherwise couldn’t afford them .”
The musical acts competed in an American Idol-style talent competition. Judges included: Scott Cymbala of Elias Arts, Julie Ward of Groove Addicts, and head judge Stephen Dewey of Machine Head. Bands were invited from the ad business at large, including production companies, mix and editorial houses and ad agencies. Each group was allowed one ringer, and had 12 minutes to perform three songs. Covers were permitted—with one exception: a performance of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” in its original form was grounds for immediate removal from the stage. Bands were judged on originality, stage presence and talent.
Competing in the competition were: Devastating Karate from Rubin Postear & Associates; Hard to Nailer from AddMarketing; Crash Kings; Joanna Equilibria of Latin Sphere; The Monthlies out of TBWA/Chiat/Day; and The Exaggerators of WongDoody.
The style of the Crash Kings was described by judge Cymbala as “Ben Folds lives in a trailer park and runs a meth lab.”
AMP was founded in 1998 for the purpose of educating its members, and the production and advertising community as a whole, on all facets of music production, from creation to final use. Headquartered in New York, with regional chapters in Los Angeles, Chicago, Florida and Minneapolis, AMP is the first organization to represent the commercial music industry on a broad platform of creative, business and community matters.
Review: Steven Soderbergh’s Eerie Haunted House Drama “Presence”
The camera is the ghost in Steven Soderbergh's chillingly effective, experiential haunted house drama "Presence." The filmmaker traps the audience in a beautiful suburban home, letting us drift through rooms with this curious being, in and out of delicate conversations as we (and the ghost) try to piece together a puzzle blindly.
Often in haunted house movies where a new family moves in and starts sensing strange things, the ghost knows exactly what they want — usually their house back. In this one, the presence doesn't have such a clear objective. It's more confused, wandering around and investigating the surroundings, like a benevolent amnesiac. Occasionally, though, big emotions erupt, and things shake violently.
Mostly, they go unnoticed. They observe the chipper real estate agent (Julia Fox) preparing for a showing, the painting crew, one of whom believes there's something around, and finally the family and all the complexities of its dynamics. Lucy Liu (a delightful, wickedly funny scene-stealer) is the mom, Rebecca, a wealthy, successful, type-A woman hyper focused on the success of her eldest, a teenage boy named Tyler (Eddy Maday). The father, Chris (Chris Sullivan), is more of the nurturer, concerned about their teen daughter Chloe (Callina Liang) in the aftermath of her friend's unexpected death.
There is a family drama transpiring inside the house, only some of which will make sense in the end. We overhear Rebecca drunkenly telling Tyler that everything she does is for him. We listen in as Chris confides to someone on the phone about a hypothetical partner being involved in something illegal and whether they still would be if legally separated. We see Tyler often with his head buried in his phone. And then there's Chloe: Sad,... Read More