Our last show in NYC was a good two months ago and it is about time to hit the stage here! Come out to our next gig on Friday, October 17 at Rockwood Music Hall 1am. Rock with us because we’ve got some new songs to introduce!
Mandy will also debut some stellar new dance moves. Think Blue Steel meets Gangnam style with Beyonce like booty action and Este Haim bassface. Is the world ready for this? Be there to find out!
Listen With Monger is a blog by Roland Monger from West Country, United Kingdom. If you are looking for new music, I definitely recommend checking this out! He’s got really great taste in his selection and he pulls in a lot of knowledge about bands and songs to present music from a cool new angle. Basically, he know his stuff and he knows it well.
Annnd he reviewed Confluence of Anomalies!! So yeah, we are officially big Listen With Monger fans 🙂
Check it out:
http://listenwithmonger.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-rungs-single-review.html
Earlier this month, we had the pleasure of meeting the man behind the Azltron Music Blog at the Ithaca Festival. Today he shares an interview covering the formation of our band, how we write songs and what’s in store for us this summer. Check it out here!
Hailing from Oswego, Azltron is a major supporter of the upstate NY music scene. The blog covers photos and reviews of live shows in nearby cities, band interviews, and music reviews. June marked the beginning of a music series organized in partnership with ZINC Shirts, a screen printing shop and live music venue in Oswego. We will be heading up to Oswego to participate in the series this fall and we are super excited!
Now, since I’m a plant science nerd, let’s say that music blogs today are the soil and all of the unsigned indie bands are the plants. Without the support of blogs like Azltron, we would just be shriveled seeds!
That is why we are super thankful for this interview and the other bloggers that have supported us since the release of our EP in January. (aka nurtured our root growth, if you know what I mean – winky winks 😉 )
Now where you come in – you can be the water. Tweet this interview, or support Azltron music blog however which way you desire, and let’s keep this little music ecosystem alive!
So many artists came together to rock Motown songs Thursday night at The Bitter End! The Leave a Lasting Mark event raised over $1900 for the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America and was sponsored by Noble Steed Music and Funkadelic Studios.
The ladies of the night really made this event special for me. With so many beautiful and talented female musicians there was definitely some strong girl power in the air! Performing covers of Motown’s girl groups, like the Marvelettes and the Supremes, you gotta bring the GP!
Here are some shots from the practice the night before the show. I want to introduce you to some of these lovely ladies and their music!
From left to right
– Amy Rivard Singer/Songwriter, she has performed on Broadway and in over 30 countries with shows like Celtic Woman, Riverdance and The Roy Orbison Story.
– Ebonee Reigne New York based singer and model with a voice that dazzled everyone at the show!
– Jenn Summers Singer-songwriter with the indie record label Noble Steed Music, she brings a feel good beach vibe with her upbeat songs and has a cd release show coming up 6/18 at Rockwood Music Hall.
– Jenni Alpert Pop songstress with haunting, powerful, and sultry voice. She has independently performed in over 14 countries and her music has been featured on many major Network Television shows.
– Kate Steinberg She is a composer, performer, songwriter, session singer, music supervisor, vocal and piano instructor, musical theater enthusiast, and multi-instrumentalist based out of New York.
– and who is that last weirdo all the way on the right?? hehe 🙂
Now above we have Jonatha Brooke here on the right. She has been writing songs, making records and touring since her early days in Boston with her band The Story on Elektra Records. She currently has three musicals in development: Quadroon, with legendary jazz pianist Joe Sample; Hopper, and Death and Venice, both with playwright Anton Dudley.
And on the left is Michele Zayla, an amazing vocalist who has performed with Pink Floyd cover band The Machine. Her vocals will mesmerize you, whatever ‘it’ is, she’s got it!
I didn’t get photos of them, but Wendy LaManque is another talented vocalist who nailed her Supremes cover. And Annie Halo rocked the bass! She is also a sound engineer based in New York.
(PS: to all the guys, you rocked too!)
Now how could I not have an awesome night in the presence of all this talent?! I’m looking forward to the upcoming Leave a Lasting Mark events. There will be a Motown encore in Central Park on July 10th and back to The Bitter End on August 11th!
Oh and last but not least, there is video of each song on Leave a Lasting Mark you tube channel!
Here we (the rungs) are with our ‘Please Mr Postman’ cover!
A launch party will take place this weekend for the filming of a Mexican-American coming of age story, Last Day, and we’ve been invited to perform! The Launch Party is a fundraising event that will feature live entertainment by four bands and three DJs Saturday May 31st at the Greenpoint Gallery. Tickets are only $20, include one drink ticket, and can be purchased here.
To crowd fund the movie, the film makers from 4&1 Sibling Productions and Fox Yew Media hit the streets running! For the past six months, they’ve embarked on daily runs wearing t-shirts that say, ‘I am running to fund Last Day’ to spread the word. They also gave free shirts to anyone who wanted to run with them and the entire journey can be tracked here.
Now, they are ready to begin filming. Hope you’ll come out to the Launch Party!!
https://www.facebook.com/events/272581382921539/
Our first gig in Manhattan! I cant wait to play, Thursday night at 7pm. Here is the funny poster I made for our set 🙂
We played our first radio show! Before the gig last Sunday night, we were kindly invited to the new show, ‘Live from Studio B,’ which features local bands every Sunday from 5:30pm to 7pm on our local WRFI (88.1 Ithaca, 91.9 Watkins Glen) station. We performed two 30 minute sets before and after a 20 minute interview, hosted by strong local music supporter Jonathan Hochberg.
It wasn’t Diwas’s first time playing on the radio, but it was a first for The Rungs, and a first for me! Most of our songs are still unrecorded, so the only chance our friends have to hear them is by seeing or listening to live performances. It was great to play these songs to new listeners, a handful of which made it out to our show that evening after hearing us on the radio!
WRFI is a listener-supported non-commercial radio station run by volunteers. We love the goals of this station, that include promoting peace, justice, sustainability, and freedom of expression. The volunteers share so much more than music! Local news topics, education programs, and promotion of community events are just a few of the things that WRFI covers and we’re so thankful we were invited to be a part of it!
The benefit was a success! We raised over $1000 for women’s and children education programs in Nepal, and attendance at the door was just over 100.
Diwas rode the bus in from New York City late Friday night arriving only a few hours before setting up for the 4-8pm Saturday evening benefit. After not seeing each other for a couple of weeks, it felt so good to play our songs together on stage! Much of our set is dependent on bouncing spontaneous ideas off of each other, so it’s a little different each time. Sometimes being a little less rehearsed makes for a fun energy on stage and after being under the weather for practically all of January, it felt good to just let the songs take me away.
Gabe Tavares and Sisu PTM followed The Rungs opening set. It is usually just Gabe Tavares and Powder the Moon, but Diwas played drums with them for the first time, hence the addition of ‘Sisu’ in the name. I loved the sound of the trio!
Following their set, Diwas joined the drummer from his old band Ayurveda to play some popular Nepali songs. Those two can really rock together and I enjoyed jumping up to play bass on a couple of songs with them.
Closing the evening was one of our favorite Ithaca bands, Boy With a Fish. We were so happy they agreed to volunteer their time for our event, it was really very special! The crowd just lit up when Boy with a Fish began to play, everyone danced and cut loose to the music.
After breaking everything down we had to hustle over to another venue, the Haunt, where the Sutras were opening up for the Fly Rod’s CD release. I’ve been singing with the Sutras since July and I just love it! I feel so lucky to be a part of this band.
The Fly Rods are good old rock ‘n roll and they capped the night with just that. My sister and I got our groove on the dance floor while they rocked on stage. Overall I’d say they had a successful CD release, but I do wonder what’s going to happen to CDs as the Internet continues to influence music. The amount that people are willing to pay for music seems to decrease. I know these guys put a lot of hard work into putting their album together and it sounds fantastic. Definitely a staple in my car cd collection (since long drives are when I really enjoy my cd collection!)
Lots of pictures and videos were taken at the events by local music promotion team, Local Shakes. Artists can just be the worst at promoting themselves and local shakes is doing something really important for local musicians, promoting and spreading the word about music and events. If you are in the Finger Lakes region, get in touch with these guys!! All (but one) of the pictures in this entry are by them and more videos are available on their facebook page.
I just wish every Saturday was filled with back-to-back shows like this!!!
Months ago when I thought we would record and release our songs, I shared a demo recording with the writer of the music blog ‘Through My Headphones’ to inquire about a review. He gave me the most encouraging response, and when we didn’t finish our songs until 4 months later, he was still readily willing to review our tracks.
I love the thoughtfulness he put into describing our music and the effort he has made to help us get it out there. Thank youuuuu!!!! The pic he chose to share is also one of my favorites of Diwas and Me. It was taken on the beach in Florida, in my hometown, and I feel a little warmer just looking it.
Check out Through My Headphones here: http://www.throughmyheadphones.com/#axzz2qncXd7TQ
If you have twitter and facebook, do like and share the review. For both of us, the band and the blog. You get a whole bundle of sharing with just one click!
It seems that I am now playing double bills every show! On January 25th, The Rungs will play a benefit for Educate the Children, a not for profit organization that provides education and skill development programs to women and children in Nepal. The benefit will be held from 4-8pm at Lot 10 in Ithaca. Immediately afterwards, I will head over to another venue, The Haunt in Ithaca, to sing with my fav band, The Sutras! What are the odds of both shows happening in the same night? Lets just hope my crazy cold goes away by then!
therungsband.com 