Oniracom and Playback Recording Studio host the second Solutions for Dreamers Fridays event of 2015, a networking mixer for creatives, artists, entrepreneurs and community builders.
We will be unveiling some amazing art by Matthew McAvene for the Tiger Heroes initiative, so be sure to wear whiskers and ears to get in the spirit!
Read More… Post CommentFYF 2013 completely won me over, and it instantly became one of my favorite festivals. From the music to the giant emoji balloons to the food trucks to the overall ~vibes~ of the festival, FYF was an amazing experience and one of my best memories from last summer. This year’s lineup is, in my opinion, one of the best lineups of the festivals this season, and here’s a quick preview of what i’m most excited for:
Jacob, Mike, and Haaris hit up SXSW, the great tech and media conference, in Austin, TX last week.
The Oniracom crew had a great time connecting with new and old brands and businesses in Austin, and are now back with fresh ideas and ready to ring in Spring!
Be sure to take a peek at all of the fun Instagram shots below! We are feeling nostalgic for SXSW already, see you in a years time Austin!
International artists are gathering together to bring peace, music, and common ground at the One World Concert this Tuesday (tomorrow!) October 9 at Syracuse University’s Carrier Dome. World Harmony Production has organized the “One World Concert,” which is “expected to be one of the largest gatherings of international artists ever to travel to the region.” (World Harmony Production).
We at Oniracom have crafted a fully packed playlist with songs that have been personally selected from each staff member. This marks the first ever edition of our “Monthly Staff Playlist.” Be sure to come back at the end of each month for more and more playlists created by our staff here at Oniracom. This month includes loads of tracks from Frank Ocean, as our office just can’t stop listening to his new album Channel Orange. You’ll also see other tracks from new album releases such as Love this Giant from David Byrne and St. Vincent, The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind by Ben Folds Five, and many more. While listening, take a look at which staff member chose what and why!
Read More… Post CommentThe Oniracom Doheny Days crew had a blast this weekend at Doheny State Beach in Dana Point, CA. It is always amazing to see our artwork come to life. Our Art Director Tad Wagner implemented and designed this official logo for the Doheny Days music festival.
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Doheny Days is back and ready for 2012. After a successful and fun 2011 festival, Doheny Days is back for the second straight year following a seven year hiatus.
Oniracom partnered with Omega Events in 2011 to reimagine the Doheny Days brand and bring life back into the Festival. The branding we developed, including a custom logo and styling for the Festival brought large crowds over the two-day festival.
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The 2011 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) took place last night, August 28, 2011 at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. This year marked the award show’s 28th year. While the show did not have a host, it was nothing short of surprising and entertaining.
Many artists and celebrities strutted down the red carpet in fabulous garments while Selena Gomez hosted the VMA pre-show. The most memorable appearances were from Nicki Minaj, who wore metal, stuffed animals and pink hair, and Beyonce, who showed off her baby bump and announced that she and husand, Jay-Z are expecting a baby! Cobra Starship and Sabi performed as part of the pre-show.
With the 30th year anniversary of his death, Bob Marley remains the most well known reggae musician. His music is credited for spreading not only Jamaican music, but also the Rastafari movement worldwide. A truly captivating and challenging performer, we remember his music that remains timeless and universal.
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It’s that time of year—the hype for Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival 2011 has arrived! Rumors of scheduled artists and headliners have tainted the web. Over 10,000 message threads and 400,000 individual posts occupy the official Coachella Message Board alone. Line-up wish lists from fans take up countless independent blog sites as well. While the actual 2011 artist lineup will not be released until the end of January or beginning of February, the history of the music festival assures festival fanatics that this year’s will be nothing less than sensational.
Throughout the last decade, I have ventured to hundreds of concerts and music festivals, some great shows, some not so great shows. During this time I have created a mental list of everyone I absolutely must see before I die. At the very top of my list is Dave Matthews Band. Even though they tour almost every summer, I unfortunately, have never had the privilege to see DMB - I’m either too late to buy tickets or in the wrong city at the wrong time. So, Dave Matthews has been on my concert radar for years, and this past Saturday I finally was able to catch the band live in concert at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine, California. Even though the Verizon Amphitheater and venues similar to it (i.e. the Hollywood Bowl) are probably my least favorite due to their massive size - the sound quality projected by this extremely talented band probably topped my favorites list when it comes to overall concert experiences. They kicked the night off with “Minarets” a low key song to get the crowd's attention and then jumped right into their jam band sessions with songs like “Shake me Like a Monkey” and “Funny the Way It Is” from their latest album, Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King. A few of the highlights from the show included the 1995 single, “Satellite,” and the amazing light and video show that accompanied all of their songs. But the light and video show that became especially apparent was during the song, “You Might Die Trying,” from the 2005 album, Stand Up. The flashing black and white video images appeared on the LED monitors in some kind of ripple effect that gave the crowd the illusion that they were spinning away with the band or at least that we were all trapped inside one of those incredibly groovy lamp shades that spin and create images on the walls around them. Just when we thought the night was winding down, Dave came back on for an acoustic, encore performance of Pete Seeger’s, “Rye Whiskey.” He was then accompanied by the other band members and finished off the night with the classic DMB jam, “Jimi Thing,” complete with an instrumental battle between Dave on guitar and Boyd Tinsley on violin. 
The sound quality of the concert was amazing, better than any DMB album I have ever purchased. The lights and video show were unbelievable (however, Muse at Coachella might be tied with DMB for the light display), so needless to say - I can now die happy. Check out DMB's latest studio album, Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, I promise you won't be disappointed. Click here to view the setlist from August 21, 2010
“At the MobileBeat 2010 conference in San Francisco, Eric Tseng said that Facebook “really sees mobile as the future,” and that we can expect to see Facebook’s “Like” buttons in mobile applications soon.
Tseng used geolocation as an example to illustrate the power of the mobile Open Graph. If you were to walk near a coffee shop and get a location-aware notification that there’s a happy hour going on there, you’ll probably be even more inclined to visit it if the notification comes bundled with recommendations from your Facebook friends.”
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The Ocean is one of the Earth’s most valuable resources. It provides 99% of the Earth’s living space, and is the largest known habitat for living organisms in our universe. The Ocean carries more than 90% of global trade between countries, and fish supply the greatest amount of protein consumed by the World’s population. It is important for us to care for the environment and the Ocean is the biggest part of it. Heal The Ocean is a Santa Barbara based non-profit organization that serves to protect the Ocean from pollution and mistreatment. In their mission Heal The Ocean (HTO) states “Heal the Ocean focuses on wastewater infrastructure – sewers and septic systems – as well as ocean dumping practices that contributed to ocean pollution. We are focused on Santa Barbara County, but our methods are now serving as a model for other coastal communities across the country.”
Read more.
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Click Read More to see Videos of some Great Live Performances
In a time when the music industry is constantly worrying about, questioning and adapting to changes in the way that people acquire and listen to music, there is one thing that hasn’t changed. The power and draw of a great live performance.
Bands like Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead don’t need to fear declining physical album sales because of two things: 1) these bands are leading the way by adapting to the digital age of music and 2) These bands know that they have a team of fans that will fight snow and storm to get to their live shows.
These bands have established their reputation by writing great music and putting on shows that draw crowds in. Whether they incorporate leaps in live music technology—like on the last Nine Inch Nails Tour where there was a sheet of lights that would switched on and off in reaction to the movements by the members of the band—or if they strip back the flashiness and allow their songs to communicate in a simple and humble manner. The key is create an atmosphere that will connect with the fans and get them excited.
Live music is incredibly powerful—seeing the strain and the emotion that a musician puts into the music can take a song from enjoyable to meaningful. Live music can inspire people, change ones day, change the way one feels and, by doing so, change lives. When one watches a live performance by a great band, there is a feeling like nothing else that overtakes a person. If you haven’t felt the shiver that runs down ones spine or a wave of happiness that makes you want to move then you have been going to the wrong performances. (Also, there are some great videos about the power of music at whymusicmatters.org I suggest the video about Willie Johnson)
So what is my entirely unprofessional and terribly biased advice to the music industry and to musicians in general. It’s the same advice I would give to any business: focus on doing what you do well. In the case Musicians: focus on writing and playing your music well. Allow your music to connect with your fans during your live performances and your fans will take care of marketing and buying the music, tickets and merchandise.
That said, I wanted to share a few of my favorite live performances as models.
Click Read More to see Videos of these Live Performances
Read More… Post CommentSlightly Stoopid has had a long and successful career and they have never forgotten to give back. They have been ambassadors for I Went Hungry by donating to their cause and more recently they are heading down to Florida to show their support for Save My Oceans.
This is from their newsletter:
On Saturday March 27, Slightly Stoopid is heading south to Gainesville, FL to play a special show at The University of FL on Flavet Field, brought to you by Save My Oceans. This show is FREE and open to the public! Our boy G. Love & Special Sauce will kick off the show.
The SAVE MY OCEANS TOUR is part of Participant Media’s Social Action campaign for OCEANS, which recently launched online at http://www.savemyoceans.com, and is designed to provide information about the various issues currently affecting our oceans as well as solutions and actions that people can take every day, from supporting national oceans policy to modifications in the types of fish they eat or household cleaning products they use.
We at Oniracom have had a long partnership with Heal The Ocean and like to partner with like minded people, groups and organizations so its great to see our clients Silverback Mangement (Slightly Stoopid) and G. Love and Special Sauce backing this great cause.
In the past year I’ve been getting more involved in shooting live music, and one of the people that I’ve been able to meet through it is Anna Webber, a highly accomplished live music and studio photographer for the music industry. She began studying 35mm B&W photography, printing and processing, at age 18 under British photographer of rock music Jill Furmanovsky in Florence, Italy 2005. Furmanovsky was responsible for images of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon tour, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, The Pretenders, Bob Marley, Eric Clapton, Blondie, The Clash, and many more.
The following summer, she met and aligned herself with Baron Wolman (wikipedia him), the first lead photographer for Rolling Stone Magazine. She spent summer of 2006 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, as his intern and assistant. During this stint, she flew with him to gallery openings, helping to document Mr. Wolman’s activities through both photographs and the written word. In his studio, she helped catalog and touch-up Mr. Wolman’s priceless collection of rock shots from the late 60s through the present.
I was able to catch up with Anna this past week and get some insight on her views on the industries of photography and music, and how they intersect. Have a read:
SFDblog: Who do you shoot for and where are your images primarily used?
Anna: I am a freelance photographer and music writer for LA Weekly, and gettyimages. The LA Weekly material is exclusive to run through LA Weekly, but will also appear on my blog at www.annawebber.com/blog. GettyImages is a clearing house that syndicates images out, which can then be purchased by publications worldwide for use online, in-print, or for television. My photos have also been featured in Angeleno Magazine, Rolling Stone, Forth Magazine NY, THEM magazine, LA’s Campus Circle publication, and others. Primarily, I shoot independently, shooting album cover art and commercial collateral.
What’s your favorite photo you’ve taken this year?
Yeesh… I will go with King Washington‘s main shot - the four piece band on a broken white bench, processed in HDR (High Dynamic Range Imaging), really super saturated and vibrant…
Marc B recently came up and played a show at SoHo, one of our favorite venues in Santa Barbara. Here’s a little video we got of Marc and his percussionist Maxx Farris jamming out. You can grab this song on iTunes if you dig it.
Permalink Post CommentThis past weekend, I was running around as the Official House Photographer for Santa Barbara’s New Noise Music Conference & Festival. It was a blast attending both the shows and the music industry panels (future blog posts will unfold my thoughts on these). Over a span of three days, I saw and shot probably over 40 sets of music at night and ran around the industry panels all day.
Here is a comprehensive look at what you missed if you weren’t there:
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Oniracom will be well represented at this weekend’s New Noise Music Conference and Festival, held in Oniracom’s backyard of Santa Barbara, CA. New Noise Santa Barbara is a three-day music and digital media conference that will showcase emerging and established bands, host educational panels on the music industry’s hottest topics, present esteemed experts from all aspects of the business, and serve as a place for players big and small to connect and plot the future of music….
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I’m diggin’ on this blog, Copy Cat, where people can upload covers of songs.
Not only can you find your favorite songs covered but you can also find some of your favorite artists taking a stab at other peoples songs.
Their tagline says it all: “No Original Content Here!”
So far we like Beck covering The Flaming Lips, Norah Jones covering Wilco, Elliot Smith covering The Beatles and Oniracom’s client Zee Avi of Brushfire Records covering Interpol.
You can check them out at copycats.tumblr.com or have your covers delivered right to your door step by following them on Twitter.
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I got the chance to head out to West Beach Festival to support two of our clients, G. Love and SOJA. Both of them played great sets to a barefoot crowd of thousands who were hanging out on the beach and loving every second of the festival.
It’s always great when you see great music come to your hometown, especially when you know it will happen again the next year. Many thanks to Twiin Productions for putting on the successful event. Can’t wait to see what the lineup is like next year.
Below are some pictures I shot while at the Festival on Saturday (many more coming!). Double click on the picture to see a larger version.
The Festival Grounds in Santa Barbara, CA
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