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An Exclusive with Quiet Fire Media

Edward Easton — ultimate founder of Columbia Records — did not establish the foundations of his extensive success through jean jackets and an inability to say no to people. It was a careful ear and his unprecedented ambition to support what he believed in. Cash and Dylan did alright, eh? Easton’s success aside, his ability to harness talent immensely translated his belief in a particular artist to their seemingly boundless success. Take this time to familiarize yourself with Quiet Fire Media — a media platform born in the local and Baltimore areas owned and operated by Head North’s Brent Martone & Ben Leiber, Baltimore’s Rachel Cooper, and Emily Tantuccio. The backbone behind QFM’s mission involves a focus to work with artists in an effort to trampoline them towards a higher platform and, in its short tenure, the group has already done such, from Connecticut’s A Will Away of Triple Crown Records, Baltimore-based singer/songwriter WATERMEDOWN of Equal Vision Records[...]

Farm Rock feat. Well Kept Things

Popular opinion has confirmed that all cool and hippest creative efforts are born out of a city setting as all talented, accomplished individuals are garrison to that particular community. Viciously false — come on, you’re better than that and have every capability to deny any such abstraction. Allow for me to introduce you to semi-fresh indie/punk outfit, Well Kept Things, composed of members who have cultivated themselves straight down the 219 in the Springville/Delevan area(s). I was fortunate enough to make a trip to the area this past week to sit down and chat with two of the band’s founding members, Cullen Dedrick and Charlie Rumfola. While there, I was given a tour of Rumfola’s full-functioning crop farm, where I got a lick at this year’s carrot batch, as well as a first person glance at Dedrick’s goat colony, including a goat playground (I’m not joking). The experience was genuinely[...]

Dance With the Girl You Brought to the Party

Virginia Beach’s Turnover, whom just gigged Waiting Room roughly a week and a half ago with a tour package including The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die, Pianos Become The Teeth, and Take One Car, constructed their native identity on a platform of pop punk — originally releasing a self titled EP subsequently followed by the band’s first full length record, Magnolia via Run For Cover records. Over the last handful of years, the band has been able to transfigure their once pop punk connotation, inducing circle pits and please-don’t-step-on-my-tuner stage dives into one of indie, which still undoubtedly involves the listener/audience with plenty of room for a head nods with their 2015 full length record, Peripheral Vision. Peripheral Vision,  a record that intrigues me to the thought of launching myself down a flight of stairs, only to gather myself optimistically to climb the[...]

We Salute You, Jay Zubricky

In my dog days of boyhood, I shared the warmth of the summer months with pure bread Polish grandparents who proudly prepared authentic dinners on a daily basis. Unfortunately, I despise Polish cuisine, therefor stubbornly maintaining a diet of strictly saltine crackers. Routinely I would make innumerable trips to a kitchen cabinet, which above hung a sign that I childishly absorbed as humorous only later to realize that, when stripped of it’s hilarity, presents a notion of sincere truth. I’m paraphrasing here, but I believe it squawked something to the matter of, “Behind Every Man Stands a Woman Kicking Him in the Ass” — subsequently leading to a giggle, a nibble, a giggle, a nibble… Now, in my early twenties, I reflect upon this sign with a realization that no matter how distinctly-talented any particular individual may internally believe themselves to be, there exists an essential, completely necessary call for guidance. For leadership independent[...]

I’m Broke, I Hate You, I Quit

Other than being randomly selected to win year-round access to a zoo at your own desire, I can not imagine anything more exciting and overly-optimistic than day one with your new band. You’re going to take over the world and you know it. Banality aside, the band is undoubtedly your oyster to which you have every opportunity to create and brand. Hell, you can even pet it if you really want to. But creative obstacles linger, eager to snatch your prize. Yes, our area has been spoiled with unparalleled national acts including the Goo Goo Dolls & Every Time I Die, groups whose impact is not only absorbed right here at home but also on an immense international level. But what about those armfuls of bands who had every opportunity to do the same but rather opted out based on the inevitable sense of vexation that comes with being in a band — the erosion of personal funds,[...]