As we are gearing up for the release of LOST IN BOSTON, we needed to take some time to evaluate our marketing plan, and after a long consideration, decided to release the album under my name. And I felt this necessitated a brief explanation–not just for anyone concerned with product marketing, or anyone who is a member of my band and concerned about my giant ego, but for the simple reason that it’s part of our ongoing story.

I wanted to share that this is not the first album I’ve recorded. (If you count my attempt at being the next John Tesh with my collection of new age piano solos I sold door-to-door in college*, it’s technically my sixth.)

But LOST IN BOSTON is the first under my name, and while that might seem like a small detail, it’s not. Truth be told, I didn’t want to change the name of my band because I feel that the musicians I play with are so incredibly important, it wouldn’t be fair to claim the project as my own. But, as time marched on, a lot of people have come and gone, and the new group doesn’t really benefit from carrying on the with the name band in it, nor our previous band name, Even Elroy.

This album was more challenging than the others because along with a new name, I had to start back at ground zero. Letting go of my friends and musical experiences in California to start something new here in Boston. In 2009 I met Ben and Jason, and we formed a new trio and began rocking out in the Boston bars. Since then we’ve shuffled the lineup and I’ve been fortunate to play with some wonderful musicians. Again, many moved on–to South Carolina, Chicago, back to Berklee College of Music, and one or two just walked into the woods, never to return.

It happens.

But through it all, we’ve managed to keep going, and a new energy has emerged. LOST IN BOSTON has already been featured on a major CD compilation from Red Gorilla Music Fest, alongside such noteables as Alien Ant Farm, the NECN morning show, will be going live on Pandora.com, and in June will be kicking off a nationwide radio campaign. And that’s just the start.

While I hope to continue to play with these great and talented folks, I realize the impossibility of this as time marches on, and decided that once and for all, I’m going to be responsible for every note on every record, good or bad. And the only way to truly do this was to stamp my name right on the front. Because now, there’s no hiding.

Even Elroy was a wonderful project. Jeff Michaels Band was a great transition. But the only thing I think I was every truly capable of being was myself.

This album is for everyone involved in my journey these past four years, whom I appreciate dearly.

-jm

*True story. Want proof?

From Weird Al to Saturday Night Live to every kid with a cell phone camera and  YouTube account, making up song parodies has become a way of life. However, is it legal?

Mark defines exactly what the definition of a song parody is, and the fair use of copyrights with regards to parodying someone else’s work.

Thanks for ARC Law for having me as a guest on their show–and for ignoring my overuse of the word “actually”. (This is what happens when you don’t get your early-morning coffee.)

Click here to listen.

Or download from iTUNES: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/business-entertainment-sports/id513764391?ign-mpt=uo%3D4

DESCRIPTION:

This month on the Business Entertainment Sports and Technology Law Podcast, host Traci Holian discusses parody and satire with ARC Law Group partner Mark A. Pearson.  They’ll uncover the oft-confused distinction between the two genres and how to tell the difference for purposes of “fair use” under the Copyright Act. Listen and learn to recognize this important distinction before creating your next work of authorship.

Tickets are $10 and are available for pre-order or at the door.

HARD ROCK CAFE
22-24 Clinton St. (in Faneuil Hall)
Boston, MA

Doors open at 8PM and show starts promptly at 9PM. (21+)
w/Sara Leketa

Be sure to arrive early!

We can’t wait to share this album with you. We sincerely hope you’ll help us come celebrate. Bring you friends. Bring your mom. Bring your grandmother. All are welcome!

-jeff, ben, chris, bill & friends
www.jeffmichaelsband.com

Jeff Michaels (band) to play Hard Rock Cafe, Boston

Related show

• Torpor Records: Jeff Michaels Band
• Date: Friday, June 8th 2012
• Time: 8:00pm
• City: Jeff Michaels Band in Boston
• Venue: Hard Rock Cafe
• Address: 22-24 Clinton St. (in Faneuil Hall), Boston, MA
• Country: US
• Admission: $10
• Age restrictions: 21+
• Add to Google Calendar | Download iCal

Want to hear a little more of a sneak peak? Click here!

Aside from that, things went quite smoothly.

We were fortunate to be selected to perform as part of this years Red Gorilla Music Fest, as well as one of the featured bands on the Red Gorilla Compilation CD, alongside such acts as Alien Ant Farm.

Red Gorilla takes place along the madness of 6th Street during the world’s largest music festival, SXSW. We performed two rocking sets on Friday and Saturday, comprised of tunes from the new album, and some old favorites.

Beyond that, we spent the weekend making new friends, catching up with old ones, and eating a tremendous amount of BBQ along the way.

Here’s the recap:

7. With 2000 bands in one city, the term “We’re with the band” holds little value

6. It’s true everything is bigger in Texas–including the worlds’ biggest vending machine (below), and the cockroach in our hotel that Ben so calmly crushed with his boot

5. Monitors are for wussies

4. Musicians continue to be the most friendly, peaceful people on the planet—not one drunken disturbance with 20,000 attendees.

3. Rachel Ray is quite bluntly, adorable (She hosted a private show with Train.)

2. Drummers are musicians too

1. There is nothing that can replace seeing a familiar face in the crowd when you are on the road.

A very special thank you to our good friends Jerry Becker (with Train), Megan Slankard, Jeff Campbell, Brad Brooks, and Matt Langlois, who fought the crowds to make our Saturday night set, as we did theirs.

Austin may pride itself on being known as a city of freaks, but we unanimously decided that at a time when so much of our country and the world at large is in turmoil, the freaks may just be the answer.

Either way, it was nice to be reminded of the capacity for music to bring people of all walks of life together, in nothing but peace.

-jm

We talked about this as a band, and decided to let the track speak for itself, as in no way would we want to capitalize on such an event.

But we although thought we should mention that this particular song meant so much to us, enough that it was the first cover song I ever chose to release.

Davy Jones and The Monkeys represented much of the music I grew up on–that good-feeling, beautiful, 3-minute pop song perfection, which eventually evolved into the classic singer/songwriter material of the seventies. Daydream Believer captures every bit of that 60s nostalgia, and happy-go-lucky essence of wanting to make someone’s day just a bit brighter, often missing in our music today. Right from the opening piano notes you are transported back to a simpler time–not necessarily better, but simpler. There aren’t a lot of songs out there that accomplish so much, with so little effort.

I am probably one of the biggest fans of the Brady Bunch out there, and while this occasionally helps me at trivia night, it also keeps me humming another of Davy’s lovely songs, Girl, that he sang for Marcia (Maureen McCormick, when he made a guest appearance at her prom, all those years ago. That single episode might have defined his career in a way he never dreamed possible. They don’t make television like that anymore.

Thanks Davy for all you’ve done, and we hope we’ve made you proud with our version of one of John Stewart’s finest songs, made famous for all eternity by your groovy, tight pants, tambourine-shaking way. I’m not sure I will never be able to sing this song the same way again.

Click below to listen to our recording of Daydream Believer.*

Daydream Believer – Jeff Michaels

-jm

*Due to copyright law, we can’t offer this track as a free download, but we have licensed it for use on our new album coming this spring. Please be sure join our mailing list so we can let you know when it’s available.

This is our second time playing at Red Gorilla Music Fest, although the first time with the full band. For anyone in the Austin area (or the Northern hemisphere), come on down!

Show’s are free, beer is cheap, and we’ve even managed to line up a special guest for our set.

Click here for the festival schedule.

See you in Texas!

Living On a Prayer by Bon Jovi just came on the Oldies station (scary how quickly time flies). Love it or hate it, you can’t deny their epic anthem has all the ingredients necessary for everything to make you sit up and take notice.

It’s got a story—Tommy and Gina.

It’s got pain—Tommy’s down on his luck (it’s tough).

It’s got conflict—If Tommy doesn’t find work, Gina’s gone

It’s got an unnecessary key change in the final chorus…

My lord.

Why a blog entry about an 80s hit? Because for the first time in a while I feel like the world has shifted (ever so slightly) back to the days of Bon Jovi. The days when we actually had hope for the future. A decent stock market. A promise of finding work. A release of the tension that’s held us captive for far too long. Yet this is not reflected in our music as much as it should be.

Music has always been representative of the times we live in. Sometimes, music even defines the times. The Roaring 20s. The free-love hippy-dippy 60s. And the epic, soul-searching, man-against-the-world power ballads and anthemic hits of the 80s.

What is defining us now?

Bieber Fever? The fact that Adam Levine from Maroon 5 can dance as well as Mick Jagger? That’s w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l. But why can’t you stop dancing for a moment and write a song about anything other than the women you’ve slept with?

Could’ve been the fact that I was only ten when Living On a Prayer came out that I feel such an attachment to it. After all, I didn’t know anything about global economic meltdowns. I was only concerned about being able to ride my bike after school as fast as humanly possible. All I know is whenever it came on, I was in my happy place. The feeling I got from listening to Bon Jovi’s amazing vocals, or Richy Sambora’s scorching guitar solos… nothing else mattered. And I remember people were in their happy places much more than I see people in their happy places now.

Could it be because there were just better songs on the radio?

Guns n’ Roses. Poison.The Boss, in all his glory. U2. Tom Petty. Michael Jackson. Billy Joel. Aerosmith. John Mellencamp… these weren’t on the Oldies station… they were on the Top 40 airwaves. And let’s not forget the women. Lita Ford. Pat Benatar. Even Tiffany rocked her mall tour wearing her legwarmers on her arms.

Look at our charts now…

So where did we go wrong? Certainly the 90s didn’t help. Remember the 90s’? Grunge and doom and gloom? Indie band melancholy? How about the first decade of the two thousands. Can you pick out ten songs that instantly brought you to a feeling of invincibility like Living on a Prayer? Or Sweet Child O Mine? Or anything off of Journeys’ Greatest Hits?

Save for a handful of songs that managed to slip through the major label curtains in the past decade, there ain’t much to fill up the old iPod that can do what Living On a Prayer does. Songs that make you drive a little faster. Songs that make you sit up and take notice. Make you root for Tommy and Gina, without needing to know anything more than one of them used to work on the docks and the other was working at the diner to keep them alive.

What beautiful work.

There is hope… last year we had Katy Perry’s Firework to lift our spirits and get our hearts racing. Adele is surely doing her part… exporting as many Grammys as she can (and deserves) back to the UK… so where is the rest of the gang? Why is the rest of the 2012 Grammy nominee album filled with mediocre ballads and teeny bop pop tunes? Major label execs, it’s time to lift up the curtains again. Give us a shot at discovering some artists with balls. Give us some new blood. Don’t make us relive our glory days on the Oldies Station, or the Springsteen channel on satellite radio.

John Mayer is sitting around waiting for the world to change. Jon Bon Jovi changed the world.

I’m just saying…

-jm

FILM / TV PLACEMENTS

Teen Mom (Season 2) (MTV) “All The Stars” – 2011

Ep. 6 Taking Sides

Watch episode

JamParty video game (Zivix / Peavey) “No More Rainbows” – 2011

Featured Download

The Terrell Owens Show (VH1)  “Girls Kissing Girls”  - 2010

Ep. 210 Taking Side

Watch episode

The Terrell Owens Show (VH1) “No More Rainbows”  - 2010

Ep. 207 Love Game (intro plays while Terrell meet tennis legend Andy Roddick)

Watch episode

The Real World: Brooklyn Season Premier (MTV)  “Ballad of Tommy Lee Jones” – 2009

Ep. 2101 Brooklyn Bridging (played when the transgender roommate came onto the scene)

Watch episode

(Also used as intro teaser in episodes 2103 and 2107)

Real World: Brooklyn (MTV) “Closet” – 2009

Ep. 2103 The BFF-O-Meter

Watch episode

The Restaurant “Maybe Someday Soon” – 2011

Theme song for sitcom pilot , featuring the largest ever Boston SAG cast

DIY Network’s Sweat Equity Ep. 81 ”Closet” – 2011

CBS Interactive “Closet” – 2011

VSA web usage “Imagine” – 2011

Lyrics for our song Ciarda were featured in the German book, Along the Sound, by photographer Sabine Kocem

And of course, let’s not forget the music for Wanna Meet Katie lives and breathes daily on the flesh of our favorite fan, Katie from New Mexico.

For more pictures of her amazing artwork, click here.

If you’re into teen moms, you can watch it here:

http://www.mtv.com/videos/teen-mom-2-ep-6-taking-sides/1658011/playlist.jhtml#series=2211&seriesId=539&channelId=1

Thanks to our friend, Jon Delange, president of Tinderbox Music for orchestrating this placement!