I told you expect a lot of posts this week...

Okay its only been a few hours, but I need to write about this RIGHT NOW. Finally Maroon 5 has released the first single from their long awaited sophomore album It Won't Be Soon Before Long. When I say long awaited I mean it. It has been five years since the original release of Songs about Jane. The album took off slowly and it wasn't until 2004 that the band was honored with a Grammy for Best New Artist and in 2005 for Best Pop Performance Duo or Group.

I had the chance to see Maroon 5 for the first time open for Matchbox Twenty at the Pepsi Arena (now timesunion center) in Albany, NY on May 12, 2003. I had heard a few songs, but these guys absolutely blew me away. There was something about Adam's voice and the bands delivery of the songs taht just hit you right in the gut. The soul and rhythm moved you. I don't think it was a day later that I bought the album and signed up for the street team.

That Fall of 2003 I was in a public speaking class. Our first speech was a persuasive speech. We had to convince the class of something that they would enjoy that they may not have experienced before. While some people chose green tea ice cream or skinny dipping, I chose to talk about Maroon 5. I can remember it like it was yesterday. I was talking about it like they were my best friends and they were on the verge of hitting it big. Like usual I probably had a huge grin on my face and may or may not have done my little white boy dance for the class. When music moves your soul, you have the desire to share it with people. To this day I have people from that class be like "Remember when you told us how big Maroon 5 was going to be. You were totally right dude!" (maybe not exactly like that but you get the idea.

So I did some street team work handing out flyers and single CDs for Maroon 5 and Michael Tolcher(also someone to check out). Oddly enough at the time Gavin DeGraw was opening for the band. As a reward for my hard work, I was offered one backstage pass to meet the band after their show on October 30, 2003 at Paradise Rock Club in Boston. They didn't have any more tickets to the show, but I just had to hand out my singles after the show and then I could go back and meet the band. Well I was the fool and I turned down the offer to meet them, because all I wanted was to see the sold out show, I didn't really care about meeting them. That is one thing I regret to this day.

So now almost four years later they band is finally ready to release the follow up album. The album drops May 22nd stateside and based on the first single "Makes Me Wonder" gives me great confidence that this album is going to rock once again. Check out the single at Myspace.com These white boys bring the soul and the funk. Bob Marley sang "One good thing about music, when it hits you feel no pain".(Trenchtown Rock) Maroon 5 hit hard the first time around and I'm ready for a beating again.

It's weird how things come full circle. This past semester many of you know that I interned for MTV in their music and talent department. At the end of the semester we had to give a presentation to the department on an emerging artist that we thought was a good fit for MTV or one of the MTV channels. Well it took me almost the entire semester to decide on an artist to showcase. Like I said good music is worth sharing and I had a lot of good music that I wanted to share. I thought I might just be the break this band gets if the music is good enough, I just have to set it up. Well as a messageboard whore, I found a guy named Hodges. Rob Thomas was really digging the guy and after a few listens of his stuff there was no doubt that this guy had some talent. I got in contact with his manager learned that he was negotiating a record contract and that things were going well. Got some music samples and I nailed my presentation. Now don't get me wrong I was nervous as hell, but like that time freshmen yaer my nerves were lost when the music came on and I lost myself in it. I couldnt contain myself as I tried to make sure I highlighted all the stuff I wanted to and played the right songs for the right amount of time. I thought it went well and I got some really great feedback from those who were there. Rob Thomaswas working with him as well as Aaron Camin from the calling. The record deal he was working on fell through from what I can tell, but he has since signed with Epic Records. You can check out his stuff on his myspace or at this website www.hodgeslive.com

So thats the exciting music news for now. As I continue to explore the world wide web on this rainy Easter Sunday in Australia I'll be writing more comments.

Peace and Love and Easter Eggs