EXCLUSIVE: VV Brown Plans To Prank Maroon 5 & Keep It Real With Owl City

Maroon 5, here’s your “call and response.” Owl City – sleep on this. VV Brown knows what she’s in for on her upcoming trek with both acts.

“I’ve heard that (the guys in Maroon 5) are pranksters,” noted Brown, who kicks off her slate of dates with the band on August 5. “Well, I’m a prankster,” she warned, half in jest.

While the fellas of M5 are chill, laid back, and relatively social – I warned VV when she stopped by “The Ralphie Radio Show” on Wednesday that Owl City’s Adam Young is the exact 180 – shy and introverted from all reports I’ve heard.

“Oh no, I can charm a lion,” she responded, dismissing my claim. “I think sometimes, people just need to be understood. I’ll try and understand him.”

I wished her the best of luck with that task.
---

Part 1: Touring, Trickers, Big Bird

Part 2: "Shark in the Water", Lost Guitar


---
“(Young) is probably sick of people kissing his butt all the time, and he just needs someone real to just tell him how it is,” continued Brown. “I always keep it real.”

The UK singer isn’t joking with that claim – all of her vocals from Traveling Like the Light are the demo versions – no retouching, no auto-tune, no thirty takes of one note. But just because she’s real, doesn’t mean she isn’t awkward, at times.

“I’m the kind of person that talks about inappropriate things at the wrong time,” admitted the artist, before offering up an example. “Just talking about poo around the dinner table… I’m very honest as well.”

If I could only be a fly inside the catering tent for this tour.

Sights From The Birthday Week...

Facebook album is here.

The Ting Tings feature "The Ralphie Radio Show" on official website!

As if I need another reason to love these people... The Ting Tings global site features the 97 BHT video of the group performing an acoustic version of "That's Not My Name."

EXCLUSIVE: The Ting Tings Talk Touring, Moaning w/ Katy Perry

Download the mp3

After The Ting Tings finished performing for 97 BHT listeners, Katie and Jules spoke with Ralphie inside the 97 BHT on-air studio about touring the states, Katy Perry, moaning with celebrities, and more...

Check out video of The Ting Tings performance here.
---
Ever wonder what musicians say to each other when they meet? The Ting Tings’ Katie White shares a little insight:

“All bands like moaning. We love to moan,” said White. “We saw Katy Perry the other day, and she moaned – and we had a good moan together.”

Perry seems to be quite the confidant to her cohorts – the songstress and Rihanna have been known to hang out. White says the two talked about “just girl stuff really,” like their hair and skin.

“She’s funny really, she makes me laugh,” said White. “If she wants to do a cartwheel on stage, she does a cartwheel on stage.”

Of course, any type of acrobatics on a stage with Katie and Jules would be near impossible, let alone dangerous, given the amount of equipment the two uses to duplicate the vast array of sounds in their music.

“No, you’d have a guitar up your ass,” Katie joked – with Jules tongue-in-cheek challenging, “I bet Katy Perry couldn’t do that.”

The Ting Tings just wrapped up an American promo tour – and will run the Europe festival scene before returning to the States in the fall in support of Pink.

“I don’t know how many U.K.’s you can get in just a California,” said the other half of the group, Jules DeMartino. “You can do a two week tour in the U.K. or even a three week tour and that’s it, you’ve covered pretty much every corner.”

White also noted that in addition to the physical aspects, the media landscape is also vastly differently in the U.S., specifically involving radio airplay.

“If you get BBC Radio 1 and 2, you’re done really,” explained White. “It really is a shame in a way as well because if they don’t like your music, it’s really hard because they’re aren’t many other stations to get played on.”

BBC Radio’s reach is vast according to White, “literally every household.” Lucky for the pop-rock duo, BBC Radio loved their music, and the rest is history.

“We’ve got a map that we carry around with us, and we circle every town or city or state we go to,” DeMartino said.

White continued, “We never know where we are but we always know where we’ve been.”

And it won’t be too hard to figure out where The Ting Tings are going. First Europe – then the States with Pink – and then to Berlin – where Katie and Jules will write, record, and throw house parties in search of new tunes for the band’s second LP.

EXCLUSIVE: The Ting Tings Live In Studio

Thanks to Rodano's in Public Square, Wilkes-Barre for providing free food!

Powered by Rodano's, Columbia Records & 97 BHT!

Thank You.

This will be quick. I'll be inundating you with posts soon... "The Ting Tings live", "Bam Margera shows up to 97 BHT Summer Jam", "I ignore The Veronicas", "Gossip Girl's Taylor Momsen talks new album", "Jada Serenades Me for my Birthday" - and many more stories.

But first, thank you. 24 isn't usually a birthday heavily celebrated, but because of you, and a few national recording acts, this by far has been one of the, if not, the best birthday.

I'm headed to cap off the weekend, Yankees game followed by a meet and greet with Mariano Rivera. Enjoy your Sunday, talk soon.

Ralphie

THE TING TINGS IN STUDIO!!!

So excited about this!!!

Join The Ting Tings live in the 97 BHT studios with Ralphie on Friday, June 5 for food, fun, and a special acoustic performance!

Keep it locked right here for the 411 on how to win your way in!

Powered by Columbia Records & 97 BHT!

The Ting Tings Create Dope Facebook App

I always ignore Facebook apps, but this is hot:

Of course, love the song as well - right on par with the rest of that LP.

RALPHIE REPORT: AAR/NBC Drops The Ball Early...

The front man of The All-American Rejects might have a dirty little secret regarding his throat. Ailments hampered Tyson Ritter a couple of years ago while AAR toured. Bassist Nick Wheeler decided to all-but-skirt the issue last week, when I asked him about it on The Ralphie Radio Show.

“(Tyson’s) doing good,” replied Wheeler, before quickly segueing to another topic. “We’ve got a big week ahead of us – new record’s coming out finally.”

It isn’t known when Ritter began experiencing issues with his vocal chords. But, the condition became public in July 2006. The pop-rock stars cancelled the remaining four dates on their Canadian tour. The following fall, the group played the U.S. – but Ritter did not make the media rounds - reportedly not speaking all day, perform the show, and then not talking for the remainder of the evening.

The Rejects released “When The World Comes Down” on Tuesday. The new album brings a number of press obligations. But without a clear answer from AAR’s bassist, it’s unknown whether Ritter is in the clear himself.

Wheeler seemed equally taken aback later in our conversation. Only this time, he entertained the thought of what the Rejects career would look like if their current record label, Interscope, had released their first, self-titled LP. Wheeler first paused for two seconds, before tearing into a mini-diatribe about the current conditions in which bands sign to labels.

“Yunno, I’d like to think that music speaks for itself. Granted, you need people to help you get it out there. From the beginning, we’ve gotten in a van and gone out and played shows. We were around before MySpace and YouTube.”

Certainly the aforementioned networks have unequivocally fostered viral marketing plans and short-term success – but only time will tell if anyone from this new era of music can sustain that.

But with The Rejects predating this new phenomenon, I suppose that’s something the Oklahoma-based band won’t have to worry about.

NBC DROPS THE BALL EARLY

This has nothing to do with Jay Leno’s earlier timeslot, and everything to do with the New Years Eve special on the Peacock Network.

But how much of the show will be live, as opposed to “live”? According to my source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, NBC already pre-taped at least one musical performance. Expect to see The Ting Tings play 1-3 songs, including the iPod commercial-featured “Shut Up and Let Me Go.”

The event occurred in Rockefeller Center, and needed multiple takes. NBC even equipped the audience with hats and noisemakers, as if the ball was dropping.

Problem is, this all went down last Sunday night.
---

Listen to Ralphie Aversa weekdays from 5-10p on 97 BHT.

my favorite vma performances...

paramore - hayley packs a big voice in that emo-sized body.

t.i. f. rihanna - she sounded way better here than in her first performance. and sampling the numa numa song... genius.

love the ting tings...

lil wayne brings new life to "all summer long"...

kanye killed it.