Michael Lawson – 2^nd Opinion Technology

Self-employed super geek by day (http://www.2ndot.com)  and videographer for the locally famous by night, as well as blogger, editor and publisher for Local Band Review.

On a whim Michael and co-founder Greg Flint created the business plan for Local Band Review on a bar napkin with the mission statement of ”Get into shows free and work for beer”, but this was just the beginning.  Local Band Review has grown to be one of the biggest independent music centric blogs in Connecticut with weekly articles, first rate band videos and excellent photography.

Michael started his video career in high school filming sporting events on reel to reel videotape with about 125lbs of video gear. After breaking several cameras, Michael then decided to expand his skills by breaking computers for a living. He has been successfully self-employed as a high level technical consultant, programmer and network design guru since 1994. Michael is also a collector of all kinds of technology and musical devices and will eventually end up on an episode of Hoarders.

Never losing his love for music or video and sadly missing the real MTV Michael decided to start stalking and filming local musicians in 2009. The Local Band Review YouTube channel continues to grow and is heavily used by the bands, promoters and venues to spotlight Connecticut’s local music scene.  Later in 2009 Michael started the Local Band Review Fan Page which continues to gain fans on a daily basis, and is one of the most active local fan pages relating to music on Facebook.

In the summer of 2011 it was evident that Local Band Review needed to finally get its act together and create the Local Band Review website.  With the help of all the people listed on this page, it has been an unqualified success. Still not satisfied and always looking for new ways to promote music Michael then started a video streaming channel on UStream which features longer format shows with interviews and live performances with such shows as Scene Queen lsg and  Forgotten Footage.

So how’s the getting into shows free and beer gig going? Well if you consider the amount of work to get those benefits not too well in monetary terms, but wouldn’t give it up for the world. Thanks for all the support from the bands, musicians, venues, contributors and finally our fans and viewers, without you this wouldn’t of been possible.

Mike’s Stuff on LBR: http://www.localbandreview.com/author/Michael/

SUPPORTING LIVE LOCAL MUSIC!

Lisa Sanchez Gonzalez – lsg Original

Lover of music and the visual arts, Lisa Sanchez Gonzalez is the insanity behind lsg original photography. lsg specializes in artist and performer photography. She’s had the honor of photographing national bands such as Weezer, Snoop Dogg, A Simple Plan, Paramore, Whitesnake, Wye Oak, and The Antlers along with countless local bands and performers.

Hailing from Hartford, CT, Lisa is a life- long music connoisseur. Growing up, her mother exposed her to everything from The Stones to Simon and Garfunkel to Earth, Wind, and Fire to Loretta Lynn…and everything in between. No genre was left unexplored in her vinyl collection. She saw her first concert at 14…Rod Stewart at the (then called) Hartford Civic Center. Thirty years later, it’s still her favorite pastime.

Lisa has two kids (grown!) and a day job. Her loves of music and photography have melded into a second career. And her love of CT keeps her promoting and pushing for local artists and performers. Lisa spends the greater part of her free time seeing and shooting live bands, performers, and artists and art work…and purchasing vinyl!

Scene Queen lsg on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Scenequeenlsg

lsg Original Photography on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lsgoriginal

Lisa on LBR: http://www.localbandreview.com/author/lsg/

OCCUPY A VENUE!

Anne Castellano is a New London songwriter and musician who has played in several bands over the years (the Uninformed, the Skin Walkers, and the Cavities). She has been performing as a solo artist since 2007 but is currently rehearsing with her new band  Anne Castellano and the Smoke.

In 2010 she released a full-length self-produced CD entitled “What’s Been Going On” on the New London-based Cosmodemonic Telegraph label. She is a 30-year veteran of college radio, and is currently doing the Deranged Radio Show on alternate Tuesday evenings from 6-9pm at WCNI 90.9 FM in New London.

She grew up in New Fairfield, CT in a musical family, with a father who played guitar and listened to country artists such as Hank Williams and Patsy Cline, and a mother who loved Elvis Presley. Involvement in band and chorus in high school led to membership in the UCONN Marching Band and a two-week tour of Europe performing with the band in the early 1980s.

Anne moved to New London in 1987 because of the vibrant local music scene there. In 2005 she began putting together a concert calendar to get the word out about all the local band shows that were taking place in the area. She enjoys books, animals, hiking, and the beach, and sees as much live original music as her “day job” schedule permits.

Subscribe to Anne’s Weekly Concert updates via email by contacting her at morbidprincessmusic@yahoo.com

Listen to her music at http://www.reverbnation.com/annecastellano

Anne on LBR: http://www.localbandreview.com/author/anne-c/

Aim D’Amaro – Lucky Souls Productions

By the time she was 12, Amy D’Amaro knew that she wanted a career that would keep her surrounded by music. At 16, she became an intern at WPLR radio in New Haven, CT where she would stay for 5 yrs learning all aspects of music programming at a commercial radio station. In the time that she was at WPLR, she also became friends with many musicians on the local scene & spent much of her time taking in music at venues all over New Haven County.

In 1993, Amy left the radio station to raise her son, but her love of music & the local scene never faded. In 2003 she began what would become a very successful dog walking & pet sitting service, but still spent much of her time checking out the local music scene in both New Haven & Fairfield Counties. In 2009 she began Lucky Souls Productions to help out the local musicians she knew by promoting their music through live video footage. In 2011, Lucky Souls grew & began booking musicians in some of the local venues. When not busy walking dogs or editing videos, Amy still spends much of her time out with friends, supporting the local music scene & venues & attending music festivals.

Website: http://luckysoulsproductions.com/

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/luckysoulsproductions

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/LuckySoulsProduction

Aim on LBR: http://www.localbandreview.com/author/aim315/

David Golden – Radio Golden

David’s urge to do radio started as a kid in New York listening to Mets broadcasts with Bob Murphy, and the big music stations that once dominated the airwaves of the metropolis. Not long after moving to Connecticut, David found WPKN and started living the dream on the area’s premiere freeform radio station. Over the years, David has produced many live music programs, including the Sunday Brunch Concert and Radio Vibes, and interviewed a lot of musicians. He brings his passion for live, local music to Local Band Review with the Radio Golden podcast. David can also be seen occasionally playing piano, accordion & melodica with Cinnamon Sky.

Website: http://radiogolden.com

Facebook: http://facebook.com/radiogolden

LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidgolden99

Send me your sounds

Lee-Ann Lovelace has been a professional singer and songwriter since late 2004. As soon as she joined her first band, she hit the ground running and has become known as one of the busiest and most in-demand singers/collaborators in Connecticut. Though you can feel the soul and power of her voice on recordings of a wide variety of genres, there is nothing like experiencing the energy and soul she gives when you are in the same room. She has performed throughout New England and on local CT radio with a multitude of bands and musicians, and she has extensive studio experience. She sang with local bands Veloray, FBI (Funk Brokers, Inc), Plastica, The No Cheez Orchestra and the Rubber City Blues Band, almost all of which won local awards such as The Hartford Advocate’s Grand Band Slam for listeners choice. Lee-Ann regularly performs with her CT-based, blues-rock band Bad Rooster, and also various hard-hitting musicians like George Lesiw, Philip Beach, Jim McKeeman and Paul Gabriel for fill-in gigs for a very busy schedule. She has opened for Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, Orleans, and for Rock and Roll Hall-of-Famer Ronnie Spector

Lee-Ann on LBR: http://www.localbandreview.com/category/video/wednesday-jams/

After David C. Lovelace got learning how to walk out of the way, he got to work learning how to play music on a tantalizingly colorful Lowrey organ. From 1974 on, little Dave played radio hits by ear, employing the organ’s “Magic Genie” auto-chords and bossa nova drumbeats. He eventually graduated to his first keyboard in the synth-tastic mid-’80s, and it was only a matter of time until the one keyboard multiplied into a massive pile of digital and analog cacaphony. And when Dave strapped on his first keytar, it may as well have been a straightjacket. Dave has been terrifying family, friends, animal life, and (mostly) his neighbors ever since in a wide variety of bands & independent projects over the years. Much of his music found a global audience through online media including YouTube, including a “1980s Keyboard Solo Medley” which will go down in history as “one of those internet things.” All of Dave’s music, art & animation can otherwise be found online at www.umop.com

Dave on LBR: http://www.localbandreview.com/category/video/wednesday-jams/

Sue Mucera Houde aka Pretty Rockin Mama – Professional makeup artist(and admitted makeup junkie), licensed Esthetician, part-time rockstar & full-time rockin-mama! Trying to find balance & beauty in my world of raising two boys, one husband while figuring out where I fit into all this madness. Sometimes witty & always brutally honest!   You can read Sue’s blog at  http://prettyrockinmama.blogspot.com/

Sue on LBR: http://www.localbandreview.com/author/sueh/

Lady 3 is an east coast native that moved to L.A. in 2003 to pursue a music marketing career. She was never really into the east coast scene, but fell absolutely in love wiith the west coast scene! She spent most of her time in LA street teaming for her numerous musician friends until she got her chance to start booking shows on her own. She has booked metal to pop and everything in between at well known and not so well known venues. If she could she would live, breathe, and sleep the Sunset Strip! Fav venue : whiskyagogo. Fav local Band: Warner Drive. Fav music: hard rock, metal, hard core, nu metal, alternative. what makes a great band? Relatable lyrics, great images in marketing material, amazingly energetic live show. You can reach Lady3 at lady3@localbandreview.com

Lady3 on LBR: http://www.localbandreview.com/author/lady-3/

Sean Morse - Live Bands Touring

Sean got his start in the Entertainment Business in the summer of 1999 where he served as an Intern at Clear Channel’s KC101 FM and WELI 960 AM in Hamden-New Haven. He left the station to attend Florida State University. Sean returned to Connecticut and in 2003 landed a job at Toad’s Place where he became a key employee. Soon later he would end up working for the world’s largest entertainment company Live Nation Inc. for many years. This position led him to a key industry role as Client Services Rep. at Tickets.com where he worked with various venues around the nation including Mass Concerts (The Webster & The Palladium) Hartman Arena in Kansas, The Wellmont Theater in New Jersey and many others. Sean’s work helped Tickets.com land the prestigious 2009 CIO 100 Technology Award.

In 2007 Sean decided to create Livebandstouring.com as a side project to his regular industry job which offers a youtube channel, event consulting, venue contact info and a variety of other services for bands and other industry professionals.

In 2012 Sean released a book which was converted into a 2 CD Box Set Booklet called Peace, Poetry, and Music which offers original poems, original songs on 1 CD and a bonus CD with cover songs. Sean spends most of his free time doing Yoga, working out at the gym, and enjoying the company of friends and family at local music venues and festivals.

LBT Website – http://www.livebandstouring.com

LBT Youtube- http://www.youtube.com/livebandstouring

LBT Facebook- http://www.facebook.com/livebandstouring

Sean’s Original Music- http://www.seanmorsemusic.com