Jack Hanna Goes Wild at the Weinberg

Life is a jungle for Jack Hanna. When he’s not traveling the world for his Emmy Award-winning program “Jack Hanna’s Into the Wild,” he’s holding down duties as Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo in Ohio. Since first taking on the role in 1978, Hanna has become America’s go-to wildlife expert, and he can be seen regularly on television making rounds on talk shows, especially with his longtime friend David Letterman.

 For all his success, Hanna has also seen the grim realities that beleaguer the animal kingdom. Last year, he was called on by police in Zanesville, Ohio, where a man released several large and exotic animals from cages in his home before taking his life. With dangerous species such as lions and bears threatening to move into residential areas, the police killed 49 of the animals. While consulting police on site, Hanna and the
Columbus Zoo took the surviving animals back to their facilities.

Today, Hanna’s career has covered decades, continents and species. On March 17, he will host two performances at The Weinberg Center for the Arts, where he’ll show clips from throughout his career and introduce Frederick audiences to exotic animals.

A&E: What will you be doing when you come to the Weinberg?

Hanna: Anybody who’s three years old and up to 100 enjoys our shows. We’ve had mostly all sellouts the last three months. What we do is, we come there and sign autographs before the show. I talk to people about what they’d like to see. I do my show. We have some of my favorite clips from my shows from all over the world from the last 25 years. I show a six minute clip then I show some live animals, show another clip, live animals, another clip, live animal. That kind of thing. Some of the animals will probably be a cheetah, the world’s fastest land mammal, Siberian lynx, a sloth, flamingo, penguins, all kinds of stuff. I used to have three to four animals between each segment. We usually bring 14 to 16 animals.

A&E: Does your show have an overall message or theme?

Hanna: Basically, the theme is very simple: Touch the hearts to teach the mind. That’s my basic theme of the show. It’s a fast show by the way, there are no breaks. Hour and a half show with no breaks. It’s a fun show, but when you’ve left here you learn about the animal world and conservation and how you can help, what you can do. I tell some of my stories about what’s happened to me when I was filming around the world. All that kind of stuff.

A&E: The average person hears about conservation, but probably isn’t sure what they can do. What would you tell them?

Hanna: Typically the day to day person can go to the local zoological park. Visit them and they’ll have support organizations. For example, we have 44 projects around the world we support at the Columbus Zoo. ... They already have the people there working. They already have the computers, they already have the buildings. A lot of [the organizations] you give to, half the stuff goes to rent, half the stuff goes to salaries we already have people taking care of all this. When someone gives to our project ... 98 percent of their money goes to that animal or that project, and we talk about some of those projects through my videos. All my videos are very moving. None of them are graphic, but some will bring tears to your eyes when you hear stories about some of these animals that are rescued. That kind of thing. Then you see these people and [I ask], ‘How do you want to help this person in Africa?’ And I tell them how to do that. It’s stories about people as much as animals and people that dedicate their lives to animals is what the show’s about, as well.

A&E: How have you seen the roles of zoos change since you started?

Hanna: The role of the zoological park is going to increase, because ... last year 176 million people went to zoos in this country. The largest recreation in America was visitation to zoos and aquariums, [and that’s] including pro football, basketball, all of them. One hundred and seventy six million counted attendants. The roles of zoos are changing drastically versus 30 years ago when people didn’t even want to go to zoos. Zoos are an economic power for a community as well as one of the last hopes for some of these animals. Everybody gains from going to a zoo or an aquarium.
                               
A&E: Have zoos shifted their focus to conservation?

Hanna: Last year, the zoos in this country gave $38 million to conservation in the wild. Thirty-eight million dollars they gave to conservation in the wild. It’s amazing.

A&E: How are the animals from Zanesville doing since you took them in?

Hanna: They’re doing good. We’re getting ready to pass one of the hardest bills in the country to make sure people don’t have pet lions and tigers in their backyards.

A&E: Would the legislation impact the markets that sold the animals?

Hanna: Let’s hope it does before someone gets killed. We’re trying to have people have responsible ownership where the animals live in not poor conditions. Like what happened in Zanesville. You don’t want that to ever happen again.

A&E: Great. Well I think that should cover all my bases, Jack.

Hanna: It was good to talk to you. Just make sure you come out to the show. But, again, the show’s going to be fun for everybody. I’m going to sign some autographs before the show and get to talk to everybody and the show is never the same, by the way.

A&E: What is the range of the stories you cover?

Hanna: I go back to when I started. Some of these videos are 30 years old. My blooper tape is. I got a David Letterman show in 1986 where he milked a goat. It’s the funniest thing you’ve ever seen.

A&E: You and Dave have had a good relationship for a while now.

Hanna: I’m the longest-running guest on his show. Four or five times a year since 1985 so that’s almost good Lord, that’s 27 years or whatever.

A&E: Has there been an animal that has really surprised Dave?

Hanna: Not really. An ostrich had diarrhea on his show once. I’m just waiting to bring Bigfoot on there.

Photo by Rick A. Prebeg

Guns N' Roses returns to The Jungle

In his 22 years with Guns N' Roses, keyboardist Dizzy Reed often is the overlooked observer in the band's headline-grabbing history.

Since joining GNR in 1990 during sessions for what would become the albums “Use Your Illusion I” and “Use Your Illusion II,” Reed has been privy to the inner workings of a band defined both by its arena-sized hits such as “November Rain” and ”Paradise City” as well as its rotating lineup, unpredictable live shows and enigmatic frontman Axl Rose.

When Guns N' Roses arrives at The Fillmore Silver Spring on Thursday night, it will continue what Reed describes as the “annex” of their first string of shows in five years in the United States.
In step with “the greatest band I've ever been in as far as lineup,” Reed spoke with The Gazette about the long-awaited 2008 album “Chinese Democracy,” GNR's future and its upcoming induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

A&E: Why did it take five years for the band to get to the states?

DR: That's a good question. I think logistically, I don't really know. I don't have much to do with that. I think at some point I probably said to myself, “Hey man, how come we haven't played the states?” I guess the timing wasn't right as far as production or whatnot. Maybe they weren't ready, I don't know. But I got to say this: I can't think of any show where the people weren't really appreciative and happy that we were there and getting into it and getting into the songs from “Chinese Democracy,” as well as the older songs and that's a great feeling for everybody.
                             
A&E: Speaking of “Chinese Democracy,” that was the first time you received songwriting credits. How has your role in the band evolved over time?

DR: Since I came on, I think I've always added what I could creatively. I guess when “Use Your Illusions” was being recorded, all that stuff had already been written but I just added whatever I could creatively to make the songs better or, at least, in my opinion, make them better. You have to do something that adds to the song and nothing that takes away or clutters things up. There's a fine line. From the very beginning I've just been chucking ideas into the hat and some of them stick, so that's good. A lot of people think they can write songs and not everybody can. And I don't claim to be a great songwriter, but that's what I do when I'm not playing live. I work on songs and ... now everyone ... in their own right, is somewhat of an accomplished [songwriter]. Everyone's going to be adding ideas. Part of the process is sort of having the whole band sort of add to it if they can. That's what makes it a band makes it a band effort and at the end of the day, if you got a great song and Axl sings it, it's Guns N' Roses at that point to me.

A&E: Does Axl lead the charge when in the studio?

DR: For some songs, sure, but I know if we spend time and put together cool ideas and send it his way, and it's cool, he appreciates it. So some things go a little bit further, maybe. And some things don't, you know? Everyone brings things in, it just depends. At the end of the day, he's going to sing it, so it's got to flow the way he wants it to and the way he feels comfortable and the way he does put what he puts on it.

A&E: What was it like recording and working on “Chinese Democracy” compared to the 1993 covers album “The Spaghetti Incident?”?

DR: A lot of the basics for that record were actually tracked when we tracked “Use Your Illusions,” and then we added some things later and then sort of did overdubs and whatnot back in ‘93, I think, and put it out. And then shortly thereafter ... we started writing more songs and that was sort of the intro to the beginning of the intro to the writing of “Chinese Democracy.” So I don't think any other album would compare to the process that went into putting things together for “Chinese Democracy” for this band or any other band. It's funny you would mention that. That's the entire gamut right there as far as recording projects.

A&E: It just seems like “Chinese Democracy” was such a meticulous effort that took a long time.

DR: From a production standpoint, a lot went into it. There's orchestration, there's incredible programming and cool keyboard parts and lots of amazing guitar solos, whereas “Spaghetti Incident?” was pretty much a barebones band. It's funny, a lot of people forget about that record but I always thought it was pretty cool.

A&E: I heard you guys are working on new material.

DR: I keep hearing that, so I'm going to go along with that and say, “Yeah.”

A&E: Is that news to you?

DR: No, no. There's been talk. I know that [guitarist] DJ [Ashba] and Axl have been kicking back and forth some stuff and we talked about it a little bit, but I've heard that there's plans... to sit down at some point in time ...and start working some stuff up. So if that happens, great. I don't want to jinx it though.

A&E: The band is set to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. Do you feel like it has anything else left to prove?

DR: Myself, personally, I'm always going to feel like I have something to prove. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame certainly isn't the end of the line. I think it's a great thing. It's really cool for all the people who have supported the band over the years. And I try not to think about it because I don't want to get too freaked out, but just focus on the shows coming up. And when that day comes and gets closer, then I'll start thinking about it a little more.

Photos by Katarina Benzova

Soul Singer Bettye LaVette Delivers Soul and Grit

Bettye LaVette is ingrained in the classics of soul music.

In 1962, at the age of 16, the young singer kicked off a promising career with her first single, “My Man He’s a Lovin’ Man.”

She was in good company. While making her way in Detroit, she lived across the street from Smokey Robinson, chummed it up with Otis Redding and loaned clothes to Aretha Franklin.

So, how was it working with these icons, she’s asked. What was it like, knowing the people before they became the faces of rhythm and blues?

For LaVette, now 66, they were just people.


“How did your 9th-grade classmates make you?” she shoots right back.

For LaVette, her overlap with such legends exists only because they also are musicians. The difference between LaVette and her contemporaries is obvious even on stage. Her show is not rife with over-the-top sensationalism. Often dressed in a simple black dress and backed by her band, LaVette allows her voice to be the centerpiece, the grit galvanized by the emotion she brings.

And in her demeanor, LaVette laughs often, speaks frankly and tells it like it is.

LaVette’s career did not follow the trajectory of those around her. After her initial takeoff, the album that was set to be her full-length debut was inexplicably canceled by Atlantic in the early ’70s. It was only in 1982, that she debuted in her own right with “Tell Me a Lie” on Motown.
                             
Aside from a few recordings under Motor City Soul Records, LaVette’s career floundered, and she found herself performing regularly in Detroit.

But things changed for LaVette in the turn of the millennium. First, her original album was resurrected and released as “Souvenirs” in France under the Art & Soul label. In 2002, LaVette was invited to play at the birthday party of John Goddard, owner of Mill Valley Records. The party created inroads for LaVette and she inevitably wound up releasing the album “A Woman Like Me” in 2003 with Blue Express Records, before signing with ANTI- Records.

Since then, LaVette’s career has soared, reaching bigger and better heights as a recently unearthed gem from a classic era. Personal highlights include performing for the inaugural celebration of President Barack Obama, whom she says is as old as her career. The performance meant more to her than just a confirmation that she had arrived.

“It was wonderful,” LaVette says. “It was more for me than anybody else. I was the only person there besides Pete Seeger.”

Since 2000, Lavette has released several CDs, including “I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise” in 2005 and “The Scene of the Crime” in 2007; won awards; shared the stage with former Beatles and toured with former Zeppelins. A book about LaVette is also set to be published in the fall.

Working from others’ material, LaVette identifies her work as interpreting. Each piece is carefully worked through and given her own flavor.
                             
Her last album, “Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook,” was released in 2010. Her newest, she says, will take on more modern sounds.

While adapting material, LaVette occasionally changes words if they don’t make sense to her. Feeling responsible for presenting these songs to her adult audience, she says there are no untouchables. Not even Led Zeppelin, whose “All My Love” received the LaVette treatment.

“I was fortunate enough to go on a short tour with Robert Plant last year and he said, ‘You changed the lyrics,’ and I said, ‘You have to make sense to adults who maybe weren’t high’,” she recalls with a laugh. “And he didn’t kick me off the tour.”

During the latter half of her career, while going from gig-to-gig in Detroit, the idea of quitting ran through her mind about “two hours every day.”

“I would have been stupid to just go along and keep laughing,” LaVette says. “There were absolutely hard days and those were the days when my cousin ... in Detroit would say, ‘Have another drink, hit this joint, you’ll be okay in a few minutes.’ And then somebody would call and I would be thrilled for 72 hours.”

Now, with a career as loud as her voice, LaVette may just have the last laugh.

Photo by Carol Friedman

Something to Dance About: Steve Aoki and Datsik at The Fillmore Silver Spring

Electronic music producer Steve Aoki may be in the midst of an identity crisis. From festivals in Madrid to clubs in Atlanta, Aoki is a lasting presence on the dance scene, but the man, if anything, is a rockstar.

From behind a heap of jet black hair, Aoki yells, crowd-surfs and pilots inflatable rafts across audiences during his electro house sets, pausing only long enough to steer the show’s momentum from behind his setup.

On Saturday, Aoki will shake up The Fillmore Silver Spring alongside wobble-friendly dubstep producer Datsik for The Deadmeat Tour.

It’s not just Aoki’s high-energy onstage antics that have established him as a DJ with a rock attitude. Hardcore and punk samples like the recently-reformed Refused’s “New Noise” are common over unrelenting waves of bass and synth.

Before his endeavors in electronic music, Aoki was a hardcore musician, regularly hosting and promoting parties while attending the University of California, Santa Barbara.

 Aoki became fixated with electro when it rose to prevalence in the mid-2000s. Established under artists like Justice and MSTRKRFT, Aoki says the philosophy behind the music was reminiscent of hardcore’s evolution in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“[Electro] was like the punk baby of electronic music,” Aoki says. “The ideology was very much ‘We are sovereign, we are not part of this world. We are our own world.’ It was very anarchistic. The ideology seemed to be that way. It didn’t have to say we are anarchistic, it just felt that way in that approach. ... I automatically wanted to define myself with the electro with the electro artist.”

Aoki started out as an electro purist, but his first full-length release, “Wonderland,” released in January, demonstrates a genre-hopping producer who figured out the right recipe for dance floor anthems after cutting his teeth in clubs across the country. Aoki worked on the album for years, but says he was finally committed to completing it in earnest in 2011.

“The album itself chronicles that period of time from ‘08 to 2011 of all the different sounds that influenced me as an artist. It’s diverse,” he says. “There’s some punk background in it, there are progressive songs that I never actually released until this point, there’s obviously dubstep. There’s all these different sounds that are important to me as a DJ.”

Aoki’s curiosity with other genres not only is evident in sound, but by the number of guest appearances on the album. All 13 tracks feature industry names such as Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and Kid Cudi to fellow producers LMFAO. Perhaps the biggest crossover on the album is a track featuring Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo called “Earthquakey People.”
                            
On an album with eternally-caffeinated artists like Lil Jon, it’s hard to imagine how Cuomo’s cool vocal delivery would comfortably translate to a dance track, but giving Weezer an electro facelift is nothing new for Aoki. The two touched base after Cuomo said the producer’s interpretation of “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To” was his favorite Weezer remix.

“I was a big fan of Rivers Cuomo since ‘The Blue Album’ [the 1994 album ‘Weezer’], so getting that kind of notice was a big deal and I think that was the door opening for him to work with me,” Aoki says.

Aoki not only has a knack for tracks, but for business, as well. Under his label Dim Mak Records, he has helped launch the careers of artists including Bloc Party since starting the company in 1996. Aoki says he signs acts that are committed to developing a distinct sound. Among the initiated are psytrance-rockers Infected Mushroom and art pop act Fischerspooner.

One of the latest to join the label is Datsik. The two toured together during the Identity Festival in late summer 2011, a roaming festival reminiscent of the model established by the Vans Warped Tour. Aoki says his decision to sign Datsik not only was to help him release his first album this year, but because they worked well together.

 “Relationships mean a lot to me. When I meet someone and they’re doing something unique and I work really well with them, it makes sense.

This is our first dubstep artist on the label and he wants to do something outside of the dubstep community and we want to do something in the dubstep community,” Aoki says.

When it came to releasing his own album, Aoki says several electronic dance artists have abandoned the trend. Top producers such as Avicii and Afrojack have yet to release albums, but still enjoy worldwide success.

“Albums define bands. To define Kings of Leon, they would need to release an album with a few of those songs in there... With Avicii, he just needs to write the next levels and then it’ll redefine his sound again, just from one song. But for me, I come from the rock world so albums are really important to my personal accomplishments.”

With “Wonderland” under his belt, Aoki plans to continue doing what he does best: using electro and house music as the main ingredients for what has become a melting pot of electronic influences.

“I just finished [a song] with [producers] Knife Party,” Aoki says. “That won’t be coming out until later this year, but that’s another new bridge. I’m all about like advancing music by testing out and evolving the sound outside of its form.”

Photo by Dove Shore

More than five cents: Adam Carolla at The Fillmore Silver Spring

Catch Adam Carolla if you can. For a diehard sports fan who spends months out of the year traveling to do standup, it makes sense the always outspoken podcast host also is a vintage racecar driver. When he’s not recording “The Adam Carolla Show” in its Glendale, Calif., studio, Carolla spends his time fixing up old Datsuns, including one owned by the late Paul Newman’s racing partner, for competition.

“The Adam Carolla Show” has taken the man most known for co-hosting “Loveline” and “The Man Show” to new heights — even entering the Guinness Book of World Records as the most downloaded podcast in May 2011. Free of FCC regulations, Carolla improvises through his 90-minute shows, dishing on everything from news to the trials and tribulations of fatherhood. Whether it is about a cast member of “The Jersey Shore” or hotel remote controllers, Carolla has something to say.

The off-the-cuff, unrestrained nature of the show seems like the verbal equivalent of his need to go more than 100 miles per hour on straightaways on tracks such as Laguna Seca.

“I have fun doing it,” Carolla says.”But there’s no cops on the racetrack, which makes it a lot easier.”

While figuring out how to best demount a tire in his shop, Carolla spoke with The Gazette about his two upcoming sets at The Fillmore Silver Spring on Saturday and his future plans for standup.

A&E: As you know this is for the Fillmore show coming up, it’s a new venue in the area.

AC: Yeah, I didn’t know it was new, though.

A&E: It opened up in September. It’s nice. It has the whole red-room look and chandeliers.

AC: That’s good because it’s in my rider [that] I don’t play rooms without ornate lighting.

A&E: I’m sure that’s important when doing standup.

AC: It can’t be done. Listen, I don’t care if you’re Lenny Bruce or Chris Rock, you can’t be funny without super ornate lighting.

A&E: What’s the secret behind ornate lighting?

AC: I’d tell you, but I’d be breaking a certain code amongst comedians.

A&E: When did you get into standup?

AC: I guess I got into it a couple years ago and it sort of seemed like a good way to make money. And honestly at the beginning, I did it more to support the podcast and myself than I did it it was more out of necessity than out of love. There’s more than one answer. One, it’s not like really working. Going to a place, having people applaud and laugh and signing a few autographs after work, it didn’t feel like work to me. The travel part’s a little pain in the [expletive], but you actually get used to that so in an economy when people are looking to find jobs, having this one job of doing standup, it’s hard to complain about. But like I said initially, it was more just to subsidize the podcast, which wasn’t really pulling its own weight or paying for itself. Now the podcast has turned into its business and is doing nicely so the standup will probably be reevaluated a little bit in 2012. There’s that thing of, ‘Hey it’s nice to come out.’ I can go to Burbank Airport out there, hop on a plane and be in Seattle in two hours, sell out the Moore Theatre with 1,900 seats and be back home the next morning with a bunch of cash in my pocket. That’s an easy one. Going to Adison, Texas, and playing a strip mall and doing six shows in the three days, that’s a pain in the [expletive]. I think what we’ll probably do in 2012 is kind of pick and choose the events and the venues and the towns that seem like they fit in nicely with the schedule and basically do what you do when you don’t need to do it.

A&E: For a lot of people, it takes years to develop a style. Does that mean when you started doing standup you just jumped in without knowing how to do it?

AC: Well, yes and no. A couple things that I had going for me.

A&E: You’re no stranger to speaking in public, but standup is sort of its own beast.

AC: It is. But the good news is there’s many different types of standup now. There used to just be for a 90-minute show, [it] would take guys 10 years to put together 90 minutes worth of material, to hone 90 minutes worth of material. My agent handles Jon Stewart and people like that, and when I told him I wanted to start doing these 90-minute standup shows, he said… my agent was saying, “You just can’t walk out on stage and do 90 minutes, it takes years to develop that.” And I, thankfully, had had the experience of doing many college dates with Dr. Drew [of “Loveline”] back in the day, and doing lots of time in front of lots of people on stage — and at least I had that. And my standup is a little bit different in that I go up there and do sort of a PowerPoint presentation of complaining. I do a lot of improv and I do a lot of mixing and matching and some storytelling and that kind of stuff.

A&E: How do you prepare for your standup versus what you do with the podcast?

AC: It used to be much more cut and dried, and I know that maybe because of the Internet or Janeane Garofalo or both, there’s alternatives. For me, I would not even — wouldn’t even call [it standup]. What you’re getting is an evening with Adam Carolla. It’s not so much a 90-minute standup show. It’s some storytelling some motivational speaking, some improv, some jokes, some standup, some visual. I guess a sort of a one-man play, one-man show, but again, more of an evening with me rather than 90 minutes of me.

A&E: The life and times.

AC: Sure, right. I come up there with my stovepipe hat and talk about what it was like to free the slaves.

Photo courtesy ACE Broadcasting

It's All Fun and Games at MAGFest

 With his penchant for rapid-fire pop culture references, women and a gutter-level sense of humor, video game icon Duke Nukem has never missed the chance to enjoy himself while thwarting the alien apocalypse.

While pursuing a good time, Jon St. John, the man behind The Duke’s golden voice since the release of “Duke Nukem 3D” in 1996, resembles the character whose franchise launched his voice acting career. In the two years he has visited the video game and music festival MAGFest, St. John has become notorious for stalking hotel hallways in search of festivities. His record at last year’s event at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center was 32 room parties in two nights.

This year, MAGFest X will move to the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center from Jan. 5-8. With last year’s score so high, St. John also says he may need to channel his party-searching energies elsewhere.

Jon St. John is the voice of Duke Nukem.

“I’m not sure how strict their rules are going to be,” St. John says. “I had an entourage of 40, 50 people with me for a good portion of the night, so when you invade somebody’s hotel room who are making noise and drinking, it could be disconcerting to neighbors.”

A broadcaster for 30 years, St. John now works out of his home studio in San Diego doing voice work. Although he has participated in recent and upcoming titles such as Recoil Games’ “Rochard” and Valve Corporation’s “DOTA 2,” he says video games are only a small portion of his efforts. He also covers commercials and character voices for theme parks, among other projects.

At MAGFest, St. John will present as a panelist, most likely fielding questions about how to enter the voice acting industry.
The key, he says, is to audition all the time, since many game producers or directors already have a voice in mind when hiring actors.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re a better actor, it doesn’t matter if you have a higher or lower voice, when they hear the voice that fits, it’s like a crap shoot. So my job is auditioning constantly,” St. John says.

Other guests at MAGFest include Ellen McLain, who voiced GLaDOS in the popular “Portal” series, and Grant Kirkhope, composer of games such as “Banjo-Kazooie” and the upcoming “Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.”

The festival also boasts a Local Area Network party room where players can join in games through their own computers, a tabletop game room, two music stages, a museum and a marketplace. Additional activities include a charity auction, videogame improv, MAGFest art hunt and art competition.


But at the core of the festival are the games, which Promotions and Public Relations Director Nick Marinelli says cover some 40 years.

“We have consoles that go all the way back to Atari 2600 [and] a little earlier,” Marinelli says. “It goes all the way up to the PS3. Same with the arcade. We’re going to have at least 150 cabinets all on free play and they go from ‘Pong’ all the way to modern music games.”

The Minibosses fuse video game music with progressive rock.

The first MAGFest, held in Roanoke, Va., in 2002, was created by Joseph Yamine, who now teaches writing and film at Ferrum College.

“[Yamine] wanted a place to play games and see some video game bands play,” Marinelli says. “It went pretty well, so I’m told, but it only had 250 people or something and after that finished he didn’t want to do it anymore so Brendan Becker — also called Mr. MAGFest — he purchased it off him … and Brendan started to build it up and brought more staff on.”
Over the years, MAGFest, now owned by the board of directors, has continued to grow, and after reaching the 3,000 person cap at last year’s event, Marinelli says a move was necessary. This year’s numbers have already surpassed its predecessor.

While the festival has enjoyed rising popularity, Marinelli says the event has “stuck to its guns” in spirit. Whereas many gaming conventions are flooded with studios promoting their upcoming titles, MAGFest features current games and guests with little advertisement.

“[Most gaming conventions are] all about … broadcasting, marketing everywhere, telling you about all the new games that are coming out… just trying to get you to buy things,” Marinelli says. “MAGFest is different because it’s all about celebrating gaming in general … and coming together as a gaming community and hanging out with each other.”

Video game tribute bands also will pack the stages, with acts including Austin, Texas, shredders Descendants of Erdrick, jazz fusion aficionados The OneUps and DJ Cutman.
                             
Topping off the list is Nobuo Uematsu, a composer for the “Final Fantasy” video game series. Uematsu has been scoring games since the mid-1980s, but will bring his new rock band, Earthbound Papas, to MAGFest. The band’s first album “Octave Theory,” which gave a fresh rock approach to Uematsu’s past symphonic works, debuted in March.

“He’s like the John Williams of video game music,” Jace Bartet, guitarist of the fellow MAGFest band Bit Brigade says, “So for him to be able to appear in person, onstage, it kind of elevates the event from somewhere in this weird zone slightly above what it’s been in the past, which is a fan get-together, to ... [having] something intriguing for maybe a more casual video game music fan.”

Bit Brigade, which hails from Athens, Ga., first brought its multimedia style to MAGFest last year. The group performs in front of a screen displaying images from games such as “Ninja Gaiden” or “Megaman II.” Playing these games is Noah McCarthy, who quietly sits cross-legged in front of a small television at center stage. What makes the performance unique is that the musicians of Bit Brigade re-create the music of each level and cut scene.

“We don’t have a set list that we can cut from,” Bartet says. “We can’t skip through the game. It’s what we do. We play the game and it’s a defined period of time. The game starts and the game ends and in between that time, it’s going to be 40 to 45 minutes.”

Although the group went on tour this summer to cities such as Baltimore, Flint, Mich., and Chicago, Bartet says the enthusiasm of MAGFest attendees is hard to match.

“When you go to MAGFest, it feels like you’re at Woodstock ’99 or something,” he says.

For Bartet, MAGFest is an event with ample replay value.

“Every year there’s MAGFest and then you go home and you experience very heavy post-MAGFest depression,” Bartet says. “You’re back in the regular world and things feel just a little bit dimmer.”

Photos courtesy MAGFest; Jon St. John.

Blizzard of Beats: Winter Classic Tour storms the Fillmore

Justin Blau is a college student and electronic music producer.

Weekdays, Justin Blau, 20, is a finance major at Washington University in St. Louis. Fresh off a summer internship with Credit Suisse, he plans to graduate in 18 months by taking on a course load ranging from business to poetry classes.

But on weekends, Blau is 3LAU, an up-and-coming house DJ who during the last seven months has found his way off campus and onto stages in cities from Philadelphia to Los Angeles.
“I was getting ready to apply for internships this summer,” Blau says. “Now I’m getting ready to think about who I’m touring with.”

On Saturday, Blau will come to the Fillmore Silver Spring as part of The Winter Classic Tour. He shares the bill with producer Paper Diamond and live electronic trio Savoy.

A musician for most of his life, Blau first became interested in electronic music while visiting Sweden in the summer of 2010.

“It was my first exposure to real dance music and Euro dance music,” he says. “And [I thought] ‘Oh my god, this is amazing.’”

Blau returned to school in the fall, experimenting whenever he could with mashing together bits of pop songs from singers like Katy Perry over driving, synth-laden beats. With his first track “Children E.T.” that February, a friend recommended he post or submit them to college blogs. Blau cites the blogs as a major driver of his music, his Facebook page growing from 100 “Likes” seven months ago to more than 21,000 currently.

Still, it would be during the three weeks prior to his summer internship that Blau began working in earnest on the material that would result in his free-to-download album “Dance Floor Filth.”

To test his efforts, Blau would frequent the social DJ website Turntable.Fm. The site allows users to upload and play songs to others in the same chat room. What was once Blau’s testing grounds also became a major networking opportunity as it was through Turntable that he familiarized himself with other producers and even landed a sponsorship with Sol Republic Headphones.
                           
“I would say Turntable has been, next to all the blogs, the other biggest help that I’ve had all the way, and the community is pretty close-knit and the regulars know who each other are. I’m on there quite often debuting new stuff and asking for feedback,” Blau says.

One of the connections Blau made through Turntable.fm hooked him up with singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson. Blau will remix her song “Ghost” from her upcoming January release “Human Again.” He considers his work with Michelson indicative of his efforts to focus on producing original material. Two more original tracks are in the works.

“This mash up thing was always kind of a gate. and it was the easiest way for me to get any form of notoriety,” Blau says. “That was always the plan. It was never in the cards that I remain a mash up artist because at the end of the day, I like making music.”

The life of a jet-setting DJ may not seem compatible with that of a college student, but Blau says his professors understand his extracurricular activity. In fact, one of his classes next year, “Economics of Entertainment,” will put a scholarly perspective on his burgeoning career.

“[My professor] agreed that I could do some form of combined research on my career as a DJ and more industry-specific work and research and kind of combine it all into a research project,” he says.

Blau will share the stage with the electronic trio Savoy. The group is known for its high-energy live show, which features two DJs and a live drummer.

Alex Botwin performs under the name Paper Diamond.

The lineup is rounded out by artist Paper Diamond, whose real name is Alex Botwin. Botwin is a more seasoned road warrior than Blau and the gear he takes along when he travels has only become lighter as Botwin controls his shows via an iPad. Running through a series of programs including TouchOSC, Botwin uses the Apple device because he can dissect each song during his performance from a drum beat to individual effects. This allows him to craft unique sets based on the crowd’s reactions instead of spending time beforehand rearranging his shows.

“Its legitimately like ‘OK, I’m going to pick the first song, see what the people are vibing on that night,’”  Botwin says. “And then it’s like a choose-your-own-adventure book or something. I just go from there. It makes it enjoyable for me because I don’t do the same thing every night.”

Botwin’s Paper Diamond project debuted in a string of New Year’s Eve shows featuring acts like Bassnectar. Shortly after, Botwin released his first EP “Levitate” through the Pretty Lights Music Label and his record label, Elm&Oak. Under its banner name, which stands for Exclusive Limited Merchandise and One of A Kind, the company acts as a record label, boutique and design firm. Botwin runs the company with partner Berk Gibbs.

Botwin began producing independently in 2010 under the name Alex B. after parting ways with his live electronic band Pnuma, which also toured under the name Pnuma Trio. Botwin says the split was amicable, citing the desire to find a new artistic venture and sound as the reason for leaving.

“Honestly, the change has been the best. Everyone is super happy and musically doing what they want to do,” Botwin says. “We’re not closed off to playing more shows [as Pnuma].”

As Alex B., Botwin released the down tempo album “Moments” in April 2010. With his independent release out of the way, Botwin once again decided it was time to rebrand himself, this time as Paper Diamond.
                           
Originally, he says he wanted to change his name so people would be more willing to accept his move into a
style that touches on more up-tempo sounds with elements of electro, hip-hop and dubstep.

“I think that people come to realize that at my shows, they’ll get a nice barrage of things,” he says.

Botwin debuted his first Paper Diamond release, the 8-track “Levitate” EP, in January. The follow up will be another 8-track EP titled “Paragon,” which, he says, is almost complete. The album’s name is a play on both the word for the perfect diamond as well as paragon’s standard definition as a model of excellence.
“Even though I’ve been able to make hundreds of songs over the past period, these are the favorites that I’m feeling right now, so it’s my personal favorite and my best of the best,” Botwin says of the upcoming release.

The album will also be free-for-download, which Botwin says is what the Paper Diamond project, down to its name, is about: getting the music out there.

“If you have a piece of paper and you’re folding it into a diamond, whether it’s simple or complex, it’s your form of self-expression and it’s your art,” Botwin says. “So for me, making music is like taking nothing and turning it into something, and whether that be simple or complex, it’s my form of self-expression.”

Photos courtesy Paper Diamond; Just Blau