Singer/songwriter Sarah VonderHaar has been included in the closed beta trial for MTV’s Rock Band™ Network.
Created by Harmonix Music Systems and MTV Games, Rock Band™ Network will enable musicians to upload their own original recordings and sell their music as playable Rock Band™ tracks through the Rock Band™ Music Store. Currently running the closed version, the Rock Band™ Network open beta will launch this August.
“Nowadays it seems like there are a lot more outlets for independent artists to reach out to their fans with Facebook and Myspace, and I know it’s still in beta, but I really think this will be one more powerful tool for independent artists to reach out to a whole new fan base,” said VonderHaar, a former contestant on America’s Next Top Model. “Plus, I think it will be fun to see how well I do playing my own songs on Rock Band™, and I’m just so thrilled VerveLife helped me to become part of this.”
MTV has announced that Green Day and Pink have been added as performers for the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards on Sept. 13 in New York.
Green Day will sing “Know Your Enemy,” off their latest rock opera, 21st Century Breakdown, while Pink is expected to sing something from her smash album Funhouse.
“We are excited to be performing at the Video Music Awards,” Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong said in a statement posted on Rolling Stone. “You never know what’s going to happen, and it’s always a memorable experience for us.”
The show will be hosted again this year by British comedian and Forgetting Sarah Marshall actor Russell Brand, and will also include performances by British rock trio Muse and country star Taylor Swift.
The Maine, a rock quintet out of Tempe, Ariz., recently premiered their new music video for their single “Into Your Arms” on MySpace Music. The song appears on The Maine’s full-length debut album, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, also available now on i-Tunes.
The video is shot in an airport and features three of our Fender guitars. Can you name them? If so, shoot an email to share@fender.com, and I’ll give the first person to do so credit in this blog for his/her good eye and expert Fender knowledge! Here’s the link to watch the video.. “Into Your Arms.”
Update: Game over. Thanks Brad of myskyrocket.com for your correct answers.
In an interview with Exclaim! Magazine, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo discuss their latest album The Eternal, the move from Geffen to Matador Records, touring and what’s on the horizon.
In one of his answers, Ranaldo segues into their new Fender signature models, saying “Thurston and I also have signature model Jazzmasters issued by Fender, which is pretty exciting after all the years that we’ve been Fender guitar players, to have models pretty much designed exactly to each of our specs. That’s something we’re pretty psyched about and we’ve designed some special artist sticker sheets to go along with them and a fanzine where we interviewed members of our crew about the development of our guitar technology. So, it’s a pretty big deal and Fender’s been super cool about working with us on that.”
The Squier® Mini Player might be a pint-sized guitar, but it comes with all the fixings––a built-in amplifier, speaker and distortion. You can also boost the volume by plugging the Mini into your favorite amp, or keep the noise to yourself with a pair of headphones.
It is the perfect traveling guitar, but as guitarists Christian Meadows and Spencer Bastian of After Midnight Project point out, the Mini packs a whole lot more.
“It doesn’t feel like a travel guitar; like a practice guitar,” Bastian says in the video you’re about to watch below. “It just feels like a Fender® guitar. The humbucker sounds great. The gain is easily adjustable. You get decent clean tones out of it, too. Overall, these things are awesome—you can’t go wrong with them.”
Find out what else they had to say about the Mini in this video, shot during their early-July stay in Pittsburgh, Pa. for the Warped Tour.
You know we HAVE to say it: the views and opinions expressed or implied here are those of the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.
You know we HAVE to say it: the views and opinions expressed or implied here are those of the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.
