It’s been a while since we had any news about the album so a lot of you have probably been wondering what’s up. Basically, we’ve been done with tracking for a couple of weeks now and we’re just trying to get it mixed. There have been some conflicts, both with scheduling and finances. We’re at the point of looking under couch cushions for loose change, but that’s because making an amazing rock album is not cheap! Trust me, when you hear it, you will understand why. This album is going to rock your socks off and the wait will be well worth it.

The mixing is scheduled to begin on April 6th with Pete Thornton (no, not the guy from MacGyver). He’s worked with the likes of Paramore, Between the Trees, Shinedown, etc. so we’re extremely excited to be working with him. He’s already mixed “Gravitate” which can be found on the Rock Pink Myspace and it sounds badass. So anyways, that’s where we’re at right now. Hopefully we’ll have more updates soon! (In case you were wondering, no, that picture is not related to the album artwork. I just made it and thought it was cute…)

In case this blog wasn’t Web 2.0 enough for you, we’ve got our very own Twitter account too! If you have no idea what Twitter is, I’ll post a very informative yet simple video at the end of this post. Basically it’s a feed of very short, concise updates that we can use to post news, pictures, randomness, whatever. If you’ve already got a Twitter account, look us up! Our user name is @megaphoneMusic or just head to twitter.com/megaphoneMusic.

Click through to see the Twitter in Plain English video. Read »

If you follow me on Twitter (and why wouldn’t you?), then you may have seen this photo I posted. You can click on it to enlarge it. You’re probably asking yourself, “What in the hell is that?” Read »

For those you you who don’t know, long before Universal’s City Walk had “Rising Star Karaoke” there was the original “Rockstar Karaoke” at Voyage on Sunday nights in Downtown Orlando.  The idea is that anyone can get up on stage with a kick ass rock band, and be the front man (or woman) for a song.  It’s an absolute blast, as I can personally attest to, and a hell of a lot cooler than sitting in your living room playing rock band on your x-box. Read »

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone that made it to Back Booth last Saturday night Jan. 31st. Wow! If you were there you know what I’m talking about. It was a packed house and we had a great show. But the energy we got from you in the room that night was unreal. It was electric. I mean you guys were so loud and so into it. After being away from doing live shows for 4 months I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I seriously didn’t expect the response we got. So thank you. I ran into so many old friends and made a whole lot of new ones too. I don’t mean to go on and on but we really had a great time that night and we owe it all to you.  

We debuted a brand new song at that show “my favorite new disaster” to an overwhelmingly positive response. Read »

Definitely not 2B. When it comes to drum sticks, I’m relatively picky. There’s a wide range of stick sizes (yes, 2B is one) and choosing the right ones can be tough. When I first started playing, I used 5A sticks, which are pretty light. On the plus side, you gain some speed because there isn’t much weight holding you back. On the negative side, if you’re like me and you enjoy beating the ever-loving crap out of your drums, you’ll end up going through sticks like they’re tissues.

Eventually I made the switch to 5B sticks. They’re quite a bit heavier and thicker than 5A’s so they won’t break as often. Of course, it suddenly felt like I was swinging around a couple of tree branches and I couldn’t pull off some quick fills like I used to. What to do? Read »

As many of you know, I was once Cori Yarckin’s drummer. Playing in that band was an amazing experience and those guys (and gal) became some of my best friends.

Now Cori has decided to pack it up and head out to Los Angeles so she’s having one last show here in Orlando…and it happens to be the BackBooth show that we’re on too! To bring things full circle, they asked Louis, their old bass player, and me if we’d play a song or two with them at the show. I don’t really know any of the details, but you can bet that the crater left by the rock explosion will be immense and the shockwaves felt for miles. This will be a hell of a show so don’t miss it!

I thought this was pretty cool, and i had to post it.  Our good friend and lighting director Mark Tringali programmed the Christmas lights on his house to the music he had pumping out of the speakers set up in the front yard.  One of the tunes that he used was megaphone’s “The Perfect Gift” (which is still available on iTunes and would be a great addition to your holiday playlist next year!).  Here’s the video.
A Tringali Christmas

This year has been pretty sweet for us in megaphone. We won the Rock Pink battle of the bands, we got to play the main stage at FMF for the second year in a row (3rd time total), we were voted Best Rock/Pop act by the readers of Orlando Weekly again (second year in a row) and we had some awesome shows in Gainesville, Melbourne, Ocala…oh and opening for Ace Frehley at House of Blues! Overall, an awesome year….except for the album not getting done. But there’s good news! The sessions have been booked for January to FINISH TRACKING and mixing will (hopefully) be scheduled for February! It’s nice to have some solid dates to look forward to.

Anyways, this is just my own reflection on a great year. Hopefully all of you had a good one too. Look for a lot of big megaphone news in 2009! Take care.

So we’ve been talking about our new record for the better part of the last year and a half.  It was supposed to be released last spring, er… wait… maybe summer…well definitely by the fall.  I think I may have told a few of you that it will come out by the end of the year if it kills me!  Well, here we are, with the new year almost upon us, and still no record.  At this point I feel like we owe you all an explanation, and I figured what better place to explain than on our new blog page, in my very first blog! Read »