Backstage Pass

Matthew Bair hasn’t wasted any time since announcing the disbanding of Bandcamp earlier this summer.

Following his appearance on “The Real World” and his resulting work with Brianna Taylor – whose single “Summertime” did so well that she was recently signed to Universal Motown and her EP will be re-released shortly – the Seaford-based singer-songwriter has been busy writing new songs under the name The Sequel.

The first of those songs, “Memories (All We Need),” makes its debut on the CW’s “One Tree Hill” on Sept. 15. “Memories” is a bit of a change for Bair, best known for power-pop hits like “Celebrity.” The song has a bit of an alt-country vibe – more Ryan Adams than, well, Bryan Adams – thanks to an acoustic guitar accompaniment and the sweet harmonies of Avenue B’s Dominique Arciero.

It’s another surprising piece of Bair’s ever-more-eclectic catalog of songs, another sign that the 21-year-old has no plans on getting boxed into a specific genre, one of the many traits he clearly admires in his influences Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen.

“Memories” could just as easily fit next to Secondhand Serenade’s latest hit as it could on Ryan Adams’ “Heartbreaker” record, which seems to suit Bair just fine. More importantly, it could just as easily fit on the radio as it could in any number of teen dramas.

Matthew Bair featuring Dominique Arciero, "Memories (All We Need)"

Now that Glen Cove's Ashanti has been named a Long Island ambassador for tourism, it got us thinking about who else should be showing tourists around the area. We'll leave the Hamptons out, since all those celebs can have their assistants help them navigate. (PHOTO: Ashanti by Matthew Rolston for Universal Motown.)

1. Mariah Carey: Mimi feels her emancipation includes a sometimes-unhappy childhood in Greenlawn and various other Long Island towns, so she's not too keen about reliving those times. But it would be cool to see where she grew up.

And she could point out the schools where she says her teachers said she couldn't sing, then get into some glitter-encrusted pink helicopter and laugh as she flew home to count all her newly minted cash.

2. Joan Jett: She still loves rock 'n' roll and she still loves Long Beach after all this time. Now, it might get a bit dicey for Jett to show off all her favorite places in her neighborhood since, well, she still goes to them, but it could be a great tour. And if nothing else, maybe she could help explain why so many L.I. rockers (the gang from Straylight Run, Taking Back Sunday's Mark O'Connell) call Long Beach home.

3. Chuck D: This is a tour that actually could happen. When Public Enemy isn't on its international tours, Chuck is a fixture in Roosevelt and is proud of his neighborhood and his neighbors. He would provide another homegrown success story that would work wonders at changing the world view of what Long Island is all about. Maybe he could Flavor Flav to share the mic for the tour bus. Think about it, Tom Suozzi.

Apparently, MTV still can launch musical careers, though not necessarily in the way the cable network has in the past.

Brianna Taylor, pretty much the breakout star of this past season of “The Real World: Hollywood,” has herself a hit single. “Summertime,” written and co-produced by Seaford’s Matthew Bair and co-produced by Massapequa’s Tomas Costanza, who also released the song on his Chamberlain Records, cracked the iTunes Top 100 in the wake of the show’s finale. And the “Brianna Taylor” EP, which features more songs written by Bair and Costanza, has already sold 60,000 copies and reached No. 16 on iTunes’ albums chart.

Taylor’s meeting with Bair and the recording process with Bair and Costanza became part of the show’s storyline and continues to be shown on the channel. And on Monday, Taylor was on WPLJ to celebrate “Summertime” getting added to the station’s playlist.

Brianna Taylor w/Matthew Bair, "Summertime" (live)

Not only did Chrisette Michele like Tyler Perry's TBS show "House of Payne" enough to write a new song, "Love Jones," promoting it, but the Patchogue singer-songwriter made up a new dance for it as well. [Click on pic for the video]

   If you go just by his music, Johnnie Lee Jordan sounds like he's from Kansas or Texas or Minnesota, maybe, somewhere with lots of open space and from an era that's more timeless than timely.
   Jordan's latest EP, "With a Little Help From My Friends," reflects the Patchogue singer-songwriter's love of Bob Dylan and Tom Waits, along with a bit of The Replacements, but it also reflects his literary style of songwriting.
   "I love music, but I also love literature," Jordan says. "I do try to write in a very literary vein. I try to write a story in the song that people can relate to, a story that kind of takes people to a different place."
   He does that in "Tough Love," building an entire story line out of short, clipped descriptions. "Baby, you're a liar," he sings at the end of a litany of complaints, "but I'm a liar, too."<br>  "I try not to subscribe to a certain sound," Jordan explains, adding that he also enjoys jazz, blues, folk, punk and hip-hop. "I try to let it all run its course when I write."<br>   And it all does find a place in his music - well, except for the hip-hop, though that could change, too. "Pop Song" has a nice Replacements-ish swagger that sounds only more impressive when the complexities of the seething lyrics get added in, "Pop song? I hope this pop song makes me sound as phony as you," he sings.
    Jordan, who turned 21 earlier this month, says he's in the middle of writing more songs he hopes to record and release as a full album on his own by the end of the year. But he's also planning as many shows as he can do, getting the word out about his music wherever he can.
   "There are so many bands out there, it's really hard getting people out," he says. "People are so cautious about what they do, it's tough to let people know who you are or what you look like, what your music's about. You just have to keep getting out there and see who you connect with."

Jordan plays a free concert at Port Jefferson Free Library, 100 Thompson St., Port Jefferson, 631- 473-0022, at 6:30 p.m. Monday.

Johnnie Lee Jordan [MySpace]

PHOTO: Johnnie Lee Jordan

With all this Long Island music scene talk today, it seemed like a good time to talk about the launch of the Long Island Band Board -- a new forum built by our pals over at Newsday.com where local bands can announce shows, post flyers, find other bands to gig with and talk about the scene. Well, at least, that's what we hope it'll be.

Anyway, check it out. Post some info and we'll see how it goes. And, in other housekeeping, The Long Island Sound column has moved to Sundays and you can still email us links to your MySpace or new MP3s at thelisound@gmail.com. This Sunday's installment will feature Patchogue up-and-comer Johnnie Lee Jordan.

Long Island Band Board

And, for no reason other than we feel bad we missed their show Saturday night, here's Nightmare of You's "My Name Is Trouble" video

With the start of his story arc on MTV's "The Real World" set to start tomorrow, Matthew Bair has unveiled the name of his new solo project. The singer-songwriter from Seaford, formerly of Bandcamp, is going to be known as The Sequel, which will serve as a sort of Dashboard Confessional, Secondhand Serenade kind of identity, where he's a solo artist, but can also be a band under the right circumstances.

Bair's new MySpace is here, which shows off the more Costello-edged "Tip of My Tongue" and "Cigarette Kisses."

PHOTO: Matthew Bair as The Sequel.

The Blue Jackets, "Valley Stream"

The Blue Jackets were "handpicked" by Coldplay to open the band's free concert at Madison Square Garden Monday night, giving the unsigned Long Island band a huge new audience for its blues-tinged indie rock.

In its half-hour set, the band introduced songs from its new EP "No Doubt About It," including the standout "Sneaky Pete," and singer PT Walkley made sure to correct WRXP DJ Matt Pinfield, who introduced them as a New York band. "We're from Long Island, New York," Walkley told the capacity Garden crowd.

The Blue Jackets have had some high-profile help before, landing on the soundtrack to the Edward Burns film "The Groomsmen" in 2006, as Walkley wrote "Four Cheers" for the movie's closing title sequence. However, landing the opening slot on one of the summer's hottest shows can only help to spread the word about their new songs, released to iTunes earlier this month.

My new favorite "momager" is Sue Baran, who handles Long Island's Push Play, who tells Rafer in a story on the band today that she recently turned down a major label's advances, saying: "Tell me something we don't have and maybe I'll think about it."

Judging from the band's video, she's probably right.

Push Play, "There She Goes Again"

Ryan Star has a new home -- on the Web, that is. Rstar.net has undergone a renovation, serving as a central hub for all the random pages that musicians have these days (MySpace, PureVolume, Facebook, whatever).

Ever the grass-rootser, Star promises on the site: "You will never get some ---- update or response from my label pretending to be me. You will get me."

Check out the slick production on the song "Last Train Home," which was featured in the recent film "P.S. I Love You," at http://rstar.net. The song starts automatically.

The Secret History, the band formed out of the ashes of Long Island semi-legends My Favorite, have signed to Le Grand Magistery, the boutique indie label that's home to Stars, Momus, Baxendale and others.

According to Grace, The Secret History -- which also includes singer Lisa Ronson, daughter of guitarist Mick -- are working on a five-song EP tentatively titled "Desolation Town" that will include early online demos, the single "It's Not the End of the World, Jonah" and a new ballad called "Palermo." A full-length CD is due next year.

Meantime, catch The Secret History live Mar. 27 at the Galapagos Art Space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Check out the band's MySpace page for music.

PHOTO: The Secret History, by J.B. Hardy. 

Long Island's own Jesse Blaze Snider, son of Twisted Sister singer Dee, will compete against Chloe Rose Lattanzi, daughter of Newton-John, along with other offspring of famous musicians, in a new MTV reality game show.

"Rock the Cradle" features a variety of scions from A-list, B-list and Z-list celebrities, though I'll leave it to you to decide which is which in this lineup:

Landon Brown, son of Bobby

A'Keiba Burell-Hammer, daughter of MC

Lara Johnston, daughter of Tom, from The Doobie Brothers

Crosby Loggins, son of Kenny (as opposed to David)

Jesse Money, daughter of Eddie (another Long Islander, by the way)

Lucy Walsh, daughter of guitarist Joe

And Lil Al B Sure, whose father you can probably guess -- but wait, are exclamation points not hereditary?

The show debuts at 10 p.m. EST on Apr. 3.

Dream Theater, the Long Island prog-rock stalwarts, will launch a 21-date North American tour beginning May 2. The band will play two shows at the new Manhattan nightclub Terminal 5 on May 21 and 22.

The tour coincides with the April 1 release of a two-disc Rhino compilation, cheekily titled "Dream Theater's Greatest Hit (...and 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs)," a reference to the band's 1992 track "Pull Me Under," which peaked at No. 10 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart. The album marks the band's first best-of collection.

On tour with the band are Opeth, Between the Buried and Me, and the up-and-coming metal act 3.

For more information, visit www.dreamtheater.net.

PHOTO: TrialOfTears.net 

Nightmare of You drummer Sammy Siegler has been replaced by Mike Fleischmann, formerly of Permanent Me. Guitarist Joseph McCaffrey announced the news on the band's blog last night.

McCaffrey described Siegler's split as amicable, noting that the drummer -- whose previous bands include Youth of Today, CIV and Glassjaw -- was "starting a family." McCaffrey added: "The rest of us are very happy for them. Sammy is an amazing friend and drummer and we are lucky we were able to create music together that we are all very proud of and will hold onto forever."

Fleischmann, 20, of Merrick, had split from Permanent Me -- which was once managed by McCaffrey -- several months ago. He'll perform with Nightmare of You on March 13 at the Crazy Donkey. Also on that bill: Camera-Head Shark, Heavy Rescue and Aeroplane Pageant.

PHOTO: Nightmare of You, with new member Fleischmann, far right.

Nightmare of You has announced a headlining show Mar. 13 at The Crazy Donkey in Farmingdale.

Also on the all-local lineup (though there's still one slot left to fill) are Camera-Head Shark, Aeroplane Pageant and Heavy Rescue.

For information on tickets, check out Nightmare's page on MySpace here.

Nightmare of You have put their distinctive spin on Cheap Trick's little-known 1978 nugget "On Top of the World," and it's a winner -- part Smithsy swooner, part London Suede vamp-up. Check it out at the band's MySpace page here. The Nightmares also announced recently that they're planning a Northeast tour in late February and early March, with dates and cities yet to be announced.

What was that grandiose rock song that burst out in the middle of ESPN 's "Images of 2007" segment recently? It was "This Could Be The Year," a new track by Ryan Star. It comes about two minutes into the video and then plays for the duration. Star, back in Los Angeles wrapping up his new disc for Atlantic Records, is all about stealth marketing: Another track, "Last Train Home," is being featured in the Hilary Swank movie "P.S. I Love You."

After wading through 93 pages of comments in Straylight Run's chat on Absolute Punk last night, here are the Top 10 Things I Learned:

10. Singer/guitarist John Nolan likes Barack Obama and Ron Paul: “i've actually found myself getting pretty excited about the prospect of barack obama winning. he seems like the only person on the democratic side who's actually a real person and not just a political machine. on the republican side i think ron paul is very intriguing. he doesn't have a chance of winning but his ideas are really different and really interesting.”
9. Bassist Shaun Cooper’s favorite Billy Joel song is “Goodnight Saigon”
8. Nolan’s favorite album of last year was Radiohead’s “In Rainbows”
7. They would happily tour with Brand New: “Anytime they want us, we’re there” (Cooper)
6. Drummer Will Noon prefers stick shift to automatic, PC to Mac. And he reads. A lot.
5. The song that had the biggest effect on Nolan in high school was Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
4. Singer/keyboardist Michelle DaRosa is working on a children’s record and her favorite song from the new album is “Cover Your Eyes”
3. Why they toured with Simple Plan: “honestly, we went on tour with simple plan because we had just come out with an ep and we had no other tour offers to go out and support it. and also they offered us a ridiculous amount of money and we needed it at the time. that being said, it was a horrible, horrible thing to do and we definitely regretted it.” (Nolan)
2. Nolan thinks “Take It to Manhattan” should have been the first single from “The Needles The Space” (I kinda agree)
1. A lot of people obviously still care about Straylight Run and maybe Universal could have figured out a way to reach some of them before pulling the plug on “The Needles The Space” so quickly. Just a thought.

Edison Glass has finally posted a newly-minted video for "Let Go," the title track from its EP, released this summer. You can check it out at MySpace here. Note: The cell phone number at the end actually works -- you can leave a message for the band members, who promise to call back.

Before Bayside hits the road with Straylight Run and Tokyo Rose in January, singer Anthony Raneri has booked a secret acoustic show at the Knitting Factory on Jan. 18. Tickets are $14 and go on sale at TicketWeb at noon tomorrow (12/20).

PHOTO: Anthony Raneri by David Schrott for Victory Records. 

In the run-up to his new album, Everlast is promoting his anti-war video for the track "Letters From the Garden of Stone," in which a soldier seems to be discussing his tour of duty from beyond the grave. It's unclear whether the solider is American or Iraqi, but as he notes in the song, "We all end up on the same side."

The video, filmed in Nashville and directed by Everlast's childhood friend Mazik (formerly of the band Blood of Abraham), focuses on the human cost of the war. There are shots of what appear to be a bloodied Iraqi child and an Iraqi man with his arms raised in surrender.

As with most protest songs, "Letters" doesn't get into questions of policy. But in a statement released today, Everlast -- whose Website displays his name in Arabic-style script -- said American troops are "not just fighting the good fight for the Red, White and Blue. They're fighting a mental and emotional battle every day, and as each day passes, they lose a little more faith, and a little more hope."

 It may have seemed like a risk when he did it, but Fred Mascherino’s decision to leave Taking Back Sunday to pursue his own band The Color Fred is looking more and more like a sure thing. When The Color Fred first came through, it was playing the small Knitting Factory. On Friday, the band played the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza with Straylight Run. When it returns on Feb. 15 with Angels and Airwaves, it will be playing Roseland Ballroom.

“It’s crazy,” Mascherino told me Friday night, after his set at Irving Plaza. “It’s way too early to be playing Roseland with this project, even if we are just opening.”

But fans of the band’s debut “Bend to Break” (Equal Vision) or those who have seen its increasingly more powerful live shows know that The Color Fred is quickly coming into its own. And Mascherino said he’s once again enjoying the climb up.

“It’s like going back in time,” he said. “I’ve had so much fun on this tour. And it’s so rewarding to be playing my own music.”

SETLIST: Get Out / Complaintor / The Tragedy / Hate to See You Go / Minnesota / If I Surrender / Don’t Pretend

On a related note, Taking Back Sunday has gathered in New York this week and is apparently auditioning guitar players to replace Mascherino. The band is looking at five guitarists, including Andrew Jackson, lead singer/guitarist from the recently broken-up Connecticut rockers Hot Rod Circuit.

On Friday night, as the Straylight Run / The Color Fred tour (a.k.a. The Former Taking Back Sunday Frontmen Move On Tour) wrapped up at the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza, there was this enjoyable exchange.

FAN: Universal sucks!

JOHN NOLAN: Universal does suck!

FAN: I hate Universal!

NOLAN: I hate Universal too!

And so the Long Beach band's unceremonious dropping from its major-label deal with Universal was announced to the hometown crowd. Bassist Shaun Cooper announced it last week in a post on the band's message board, saying, "We did everything in our power to avoid the horrible situation we were put into, but I guess that wasn't enough. I guess the label is kind of in shambles. I mean, if you feel like the man that brought you The Killers and Fall Out Boy is expendable; what the hell are we?"

In the end, the move really wasn't a surprise. The band's album, "The Needles, The Space" is a pretty bold experiment that would've been hailed as an indie record, but was never a high priority over at Universal because it would simply never go multi-platinum. It was a weird match from the start, though Straylight did get the chance to make the album they wanted to make, glockenspiels and all.

And as their concert Friday night showed, the band and its ambitious sound only continue to improve. Cooper said the band is working on new material already and it has already lined up a tour with Bayside starting in January.

SETLIST: Soon We'll Be Living in the Future / The Miracle That Never Came / Hands in the Sky / The First of the Century / Who Will Save Us Now? / A Slow Descent / The Words We Say / How Do I Fix My Head? / Sympathy for the Martyr / Mistakes We Knew We Were Making / Still Alone / Take It to Manhattan / Existentialism on Prom Night // ENCORES: Your Name Here (Sunrise Highway) / Another Word For Desperate / Tool Sheds and Hot Tubs / Dignity and Money.

PHOTO: Straylight Run for Universal. 

Leave it to the music industry to come up with new, creative ways to downsize.

Bellmore’s Permanent Me didn’t get dropped from its label, the Stolen Transmission imprint of Island Def Jam Records. However, its entire label got dropped in a new restructuring that went into effect on Dec. 1. So now Permanent Me – along with The Oohlas, Monty Are I, The Photo Atlas and others – is still on Stolen Transmission, but Stolen Transmission is no longer part of Island Def Jam.

“Our departure from IDJ had nothing to do with the performance of our artists (we were a label focused on developing artists – an art form often not practiced in A&R),” Stolen Transmission’s Sarah Lewitinn explains on her blog. “Our departure was due to restructuring. On my last day, I gave everyone that gave us a chance a hug and thanked them for an amazing experience. I learned so much being there and was put on a very fast track to learning how to A&R.”

Permanent Me, which marked its new status with a headlining show at the Landmark Theater in Port Washington on Saturday, gets another chance to celebrate change when it headlines the Knitting Factory on Wednesday.

PHOTO: Stolen Transmission 

Rockville Centre's Show Me Action has recorded an unlikely track using classical instruments such as piano, violin, cello and upright bass. Is Carnegie Hall in the band's future? Decide for yourself by checking out the untitled composition here. And be patient with the quiet beginning -- this ain't no rock song.

Queens-based up-and-comers The Shake have released the video for their nifty garage-rock single "Manic Boogie." Check it out here:

The folks at Looney Tunes are filming a documentary on the rebuilding of their store, which was burnt to a crisp earlier this summer thanks to a faulty electrical cord. Three "chapters" of the documentary have been posted on YouTube.

In the first, you can see co-owner Karl Groeger, Jr., walking through the charred store and holding up a shriveled piece of coal that used to be an autographed Warren Haynes guitar.

In Chapter Two, Groeger promises a new, radically low pricing structure: "We're not gonna just have one or two things on sale, we're gonna put the entire store on sale."

Chapter Three stars Motion City Soundtrack, one of the first bands to play a benefit show after the fire.

LL Cool J, Grandmaster Flash and Darryl McDaniels of Run-D.M.C. have confirmed their attendance at the Second Annual Long Island Music Hall of Fame Induction Gala, scheduled for October 21.

The troika of rap pioneers marks another feather in the cap of the Music Hall, which over the past few years has grown from a pipe dream into a key player in the Long Island music community. Last year's inaugural ceremony surprised skeptics by securing appearances from Billy Joel, Joan Jett, Peter Criss of Kiss and Leslie West of Mountain, among others.

The strong showing by rappers may also help bring Long Island's music scene out of the classic-rock and grunge eras and into the current age of hip-hop-dominated music.

LL Cool J, a Queens native, will be inducted into the Music Hall by Grandmaster Flash, who hails from the Bronx but now lives on Long Island. Another Queens rapper, McDaniels, better known as D.M.C., will induct the Roosevelt rap group Public Enemy.

Other inductees include Simon and Garfunkel, Blue Oyster Cult, Carole King, Mariah Carey, Neil Diamond, Pat Benatar and Barbra Streisand.

The ceremony will be held Oct. 21 at the Kupferberg Center for the Arts at Queens College in Flushing. 

You know the old saying: One man's icon is another man's fan. Bayside proved that during a recent Vans Warped Tour date when the emo heroes got a picture of themselves hanging out with Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and Chris Mintz-Plasse of "Superbad." Like true fanboys, they emailed the photo all over the place, so here it is, below: