BAND FINDS INTERNET FAME DELICIOUS.Byline: Fred Shuster Music Writer Pasadena's Red Delicious Noun 1. Red Delicious - a sweet eating apple with bright red skin; most widely grown apple worldwide Delicious - variety of sweet eating apples has ridden the Internet to world exposure. However, in doing so the trio fears it might have downloaded a bit of a backlash. The group, which spent several months at the top of MP3.com's charts last year and two weeks ago won the best unsigned band An unsigned band is a rock band that has not been signed to a record label. Bands that release their own material on self-published CDs can also be considered unsigned bands. Often unsigned bands primarily exist to perform at concerts. online trophy at the third annual Yahoo! Internet Life Yahoo! Internet Life was a monthly magazine published by Ziff-Davis, which licensed the name from Yahoo!, a well known search engine website. It was created and launched by Barry Golson, the former executive editor of Playboy and TV guide. Online Music Awards at New York's Studio 54, is beginning to think its fame on the World Wide Web could hurt it in the music industry's corridors of power. ``The major labels could look at us and think we're consorting with the enemy,'' says Red Delicious singer Sara Wallace. ``But, on the other hand, we wouldn't have gotten this far without the Internet. We'd be sitting here waiting for something to happen.'' Word is certainly out on Red Delicious, whose melodic sound blends alt-rock with hip-hop and electronic elements. The trio, which also includes keyboardist Rob King and guitarist Steve Baca, packed the House of Blues House of Blues (HOB) is a chain of music halls and restaurants founded in 1992 by Hard Rock Cafe founder Isaac Tigrett and his friend and investor Dan Aykroyd. It is a home for live music and southern-inspired cuisine, whose clubs celebrate African-American culture, specifically and the Viper Room Coordinates: The Viper Room is a nightclub located along the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California. It was opened in 1993 and was partly owned by actor Johnny Depp until 2004. last winter. The group is currently working out dates for later this summer. Last summer, as a result of winning an MP3.com contest, the 20-something trio played its first-ever show, opening for Tom Petty at the 16,000-seat Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre or Verizon Wireless Music Center may refer to:
``We were kind of at the forefront of the Internet when it really blew up last year,'' King says. The band has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times and on ``CBS News CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. Its current president is Sean McManus who is also head of CBS Sports. Current productions Current television shows
Meanwhile, Internet revenues bring in about $1,200 a month for the band, whose members have used the money to promote and manufacture their first album, ``Emotional Blur'' (available only at www.mp3.com/reddelicious), buy musical equipment and travel to New York, where they picked up the Yahoo! award. The idea to seek fans online started as a lark when King decided to place three Red Delicious songs on MP3.com early last year and promptly forgot about it. MP3.com soon became the largest repository of free music on the Web. ``We had a few downloads but I figured nobody would hear us at all,'' he said. ``Then, someone at MP3.com must've liked us because within a week we were a featured band, which meant we had the site's front page with a picture and an article that linked to our music.'' Just as that was taking place, the Internet music revolution exploded in the media and Red Delicious' downloads went from a handful to 1,200 a day along with about 100 e-mails daily. The trio found itself in MP3.com's Top 10. ``Everyone knows who we are in the industry by now,'' King said. ``After we won the Yahoo! award, that sealed the deal about being an Internet band The term virtual band is also used for animated musical groups An Internet band (also sometimes called a virtual band) is a musical group whose members collaborate online through broadband by utilizing a content management system and local digital audio . There's almost a backlash because of the press we've had. We might have been overexposed o·ver·ex·pose tr.v. o·ver·ex·posed, o·ver·ex·pos·ing, o·ver·ex·pos·es 1. To expose too long or too much: Don't overexpose the children to television. 2. as an Internet band when in reality we never intended to be that. It was a fluke fluke, parasitic flatworm of the trematoda class, related to the tapeworm. Instead of the cilia, external sense organs, and epidermis of the free-living flatworms, adult flukes have sucking disks with which they cling to their hosts and an external cuticle that that we took off online.'' King says Red Delicious was close to signing with a major label last year, but the deal fell through as a result of a corporate merger. ``There was a backlash,'' Baca says. ``The record companies were saying they didn't want to take a chance on the first superstar Internet band.'' But Tim Devine, senior vice president of a&r (artists and repertoire) at Columbia Records For the Columbia Records label which was a unit of EMI, see . For the Columbia Records label in Japan, see . Columbia Records is the oldest surviving brand name in recorded sound, dating back to 1888, and was the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as , says a band's popularity on the Internet could be one of the elements to attract a major label. ``If they're getting plenty of downloads and have widespread name recognition, that takes care of part of our job in breaking an act,'' he said. Baca, who grew up in Arleta, says that even without major label support and while the band members work day jobs, they haven't had to shell out for band support or upkeep of their own Web site, www.red-delicious.com. ``It takes a lot of money to keep a band running,'' he explains. ``Any band has to work a day gig, plus pay for rehearsal space, gear and promotion in order to keep going. It costs tons of money. We're able to support the band and nobody has to pay for anything.'' Formed in spring 1998, the trio came together when the production team of King and Baca (billed as King and Little Steven) met Wallace at a session. Baca had been a member of Vanity Kills, which released an album on Hollywood Records Hollywood Records is a record label owned by Disney. It mainly focuses on pop music. The label was started in 1989 and initially distributed by Elektra Records in the US and Canada until 1995 when distribution switched to PolyGram (which became Universal Music Group in 1998. in 1991 while King spent several years producing and engineering various bands. Wallace had performed locally for two years with her band Starblind. ``There was something about Sara's voice,'' King says. ``We knew we could do something together. We want to make timeless music, like Sarah McLachlan.'' While Red Delicious waits to sign with a label, there are plenty of places to hear their very appealing music. Along with MP3.com and the Red Delicious site, the trio's music can be downloaded at more than a dozen locations on the Web, including www.billboard.com, www.napster.com, www.rollingstone.com, www.hob.com and www.farmclub.com. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: The members of Red Delicious - Steve Baca, left, Sara Wallace and Rob King - sometimes feel like outcasts The Outcasts are a fictional criminal organization from the Digital Anvil/Microsoft game Freelancer. Based on the planet Malta, the Outcasts are the descendants of colonists from the sleeper ship Hispania. because of their Web success: ``The major labels could look at us and think we're consorting with the enemy,'' says Wallace. |
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