Jay Legaspi Releases First Music Video

 

Jay Legaspi's "Picture Perfect" music video launch

 

Press release

October 11th, 2010

Today is the official release of the trailer for Jay Legaspi’s first music video, Picture Perfect on www.youtube.com/jaylegaspi.  A direct link to the preview can be found here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arpYvNIAnF0.

The full music video will be released on Monday, October 25th, also on Jay’s youtube channel.

The first single and the title track of the album, Picture Perfect was shot and produced by JR Pena, Angelica Bonus, and Justin Mendoza, better known as The M3 Crew.  The treatment for the video was written by Jay Legaspi and Amanda Yu.

Those in NYC will have a chance to see it early and on the big screen during at “The Dual Launch” event on Saturday, October 23rd.  The event is at The Gershwin Hotel in New York City (7 East 27th St., between 5th Ave & Park Ave).  Doors open at 6:30 and the premiere will be preceded by a special performance by Jay and his band.  Clothing line Manila Gorilla will also be there to highlight select styles from their upcoming clothing lines.

Updates and more information will be posted on www.jaylegaspi.com in the following days.

A facebook event for The Dual Launch can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=164060643607410

Picture Perfect, Jay’s debut full-length album, is available for mail order at http://www.jaylegaspi.com and digitally on iTunes.

Far East Movement Signs With Cherrytree/Interscope

One of our favorite APA hip hop groups, Far East Movement, announced yesterday that they have officially signed with Cherrytree/Interscope records, home to such giant acts as Sting, Lady Gaga, and Feist.  This marks FEM’s foray into the tricky world of major label record deals.  Say what you will about major labels, but I think this is a huge accomplishment and marks what I hope is a continuing trend of more APA musicians being put into the spotlight.

Congrats to FEM and their management team! I hope that Cherrytree and Interscope treat them with the respect and, ahem, resources they deserve.

-e

Prometheus Brown – “Michelle Malkin”

Blue Scholars has been known to lay down some funky goodness in the past.  But here we find Prometheus Brown taking things to a political level with his “ode” to Michelle Malkin.  Now, we’re not a political blog and we’re certainly not interested in getting into that sort of conversation… But this song is kind of awesome, if for no other reason than the Sade sample is pretty sick.

Free download available from the Blue Scholars website.

-e

http://02cd02a.netsolhost.com/blog/2010/02/new-music-a-sade-redux-by-prometheus-brown-titled-michelle-malkin/

John Balicanta releases new EP on iTunes

John Balicanta

New York – For anyone who has ever sweated, cried, laughed and/or screamed at a Lola Ray concert, you’ll be happy to know that the former band’s intrepid frontman John Balicanta has spun himself into a whole other universe entirely. And in this new universe, it is not dark and cold, but warm, vibrant, and hella cool.

Balicanta, a Filipino-American artist based in Los Angeles, announced on February 1 that he released a new all-instrumental EP on iTunes, a musical score that he has just composed for playwrite Jonathan Goldberg’s new play “Luck of the Ibis”, for which the EP is named.

While Lola Ray is on an indefinite hiatus (yes, as a hardcore Lola Ray fan, my heart can only deal with saying “hiatus” for the time being), Balicanta seems to be leaping and bounding over all sorts of things to bring to life new creations that are simply…in one word…stunning.

“Luck of the Ibis” is a 3-track EP that outlines Balicanta’s first attempt at producing an original musical score. But for a first attempt, this EP is a sumptuous feast for the ears. Deeply rich in depth and magnitude, the music shows how Balicanta adeptly steps outside the realm of shredding guitars, lyrical angst, and that rock god persona to achieve a higher plane of epic countenance.

I have been saying to myself that work such as this belongs not just to the theater stage, but on the big silver screen of movies. Hollywood, are you listening to this!?!?

This EP gives us just a small inkling of what Balicanta is capable of as his ability and songwriting/music-writing process matures. I daresay, Lola Ray fans the world around, our beloved John is alive and kicking. And here is the proof.

To purchase the $2.97 EP please visit iTunes.

To preview a track, Underwater Dance, from the EP please visit Balicanta’s myspace page.

Review by Feliza Mirasol

Performer Audition and Booth Registration for APA Heritage Fest

Alfa performs at the APA Heritage Festival

As many of you know, I have the privilege of handling performance programming for the CAPA Heritage Festival this year.  We recently sent out our open call for performer auditions and booth registration.  See below for details!

Dear Friends,

We are happy to announce open booth & performance registrations for the 31st Asian/Pacific American Heritage Festival.

We are hosting the day-long celebration in Union Square on Sunday, May 2rd, 2010, from 12pm to 6pm. (Tell your friends!)

We are currently seeking submissions for:

1. Dance performances & musical performers.
2. Booths for community groups & businesses to present at the festival

Our event has a history of media coverage including the NY Times, Newsday, Village Voice, TimeOut magazine, NY1 News, and many ethnic papers.

To submit registration for booths or auditions for performances, please visit our registration site.

Please send any questions to performances@capaonline.org or director@capaonline.org, respectively.

Deadlines:
Performances Submissions: Friday, February 15, 2010
Early Bird Booth Rates:  Monday, March 1, 2010

Lastly, we are a 100% volunteer-based community event and are always looking for new teammates, especially valuable are those with technical skills (ie. sound systems, online media, etc).

Thank you,
Eugene Song
Director of Entertainment

Stephen Chen
Booths Coordinator

Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans
www.capaonline.org