Heavy Rotation Records
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Heavy Rotation Records

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""Heavy On the Music" -Jim Sullivan"

http://www.berklee.edu/news/2007/02/heavyrotation.html

February 23, 2007

The plan for Berklee's seventh annual Epic Event at the Berklee Performance Center: to fit seven bands into a 90-minute show with as little downtime as possible.
The result: a seamless performance that rocked hard in many places and even accommodated, at the last minute, the addition of an eighth band, the Click Five.

The Click Five—four of the five band members are Berklee alumni—played a Cheap Trick-like pop-rocker, "Jenny," to the near-sellout crowd at the February 7 show. Six other groups played two songs each from the new Dorm Sessions Volume 4 CD on Berklee's Heavy Rotation label. In a shift from last year's concert, which was slanted toward hip-hop, this was more of a rock show—some hard, some soft, with many of the bands shifting gears between the modes, changing direction within songs.

"I felt the students did a great job promoting the show, the artists played well and respected each other, and the audience responded in kind," said Jeff Dorenfeld, associate professor of music business/management and the man at the helm of Heavy Rotation Records. His senior class—with Jessica Wolfe and Erica Duncan running the class and the show—chose the bands for the album, and, hence, the concert. The only act on the CD not to play was Aiden Eve and the Innocent. The bands, each of which was assigned a "road manager" for the gig, shared one main drum kit and bass gear. "I was happy to see most of the audience stayed 'til the end," said Dorenfeld. "I enjoyed all the bands. Backstage, they all cheered the other bands. My students, you can't imagine how much work they do to fill that house—Facebook, the web, flyers."

September Twilight, which formed back when the band members were all in middle school and won the national runner-up nod at last year's Emergenza International Battle of the Bands, began with "Inferno" and "Where the Path Divides." They showed U2 and Metallica influences—a thick and hard attack with guitar, bass, and drums topped with higher-pitched, ethereal vocals from Bill Bloom.

Thick As Thieves followed with "Bright Keys" and "Here's to Waking Up," impressing with its tempo shifts, its layered textures, and its transition from light to heavy.
Next up: Madi Diaz, with the night's softest, most singer-songwriter-ish segment, playing "Canvas" and "Goodbye Goodbye." You could hear Sheryl Crow strains in her folk-rock-blues mix.

The Teenage Symphonies got points right away for nicking their name from Brian Wilson's description of the Beach Boys album Smile as being composed of "teenage symphonies to God." Their songs, "West Coast" and "Summer," showed how much four East Coast kids love Wilson's mythical California and its sun. They were infectious, full of optimism.

The Click Five, which (logically enough) has had the Teenage Symphonies open for them, followed with the full-bore power pop of "Jenny." Singer Eric Dill expressed that quintessential male lament: "First you say you won't/Then you say you will."

Kid: Nap: Kin played "Introduction" and "(Lovely Day for a) Parade." It threw a lot into its sonic blender: grunge, thrash, crunchy chords, soft passages, shredding vocals, melodic guitar riffs.

Spiritual Rez was a smart choice to precede Big D and the Kids Table, the night's closing act. The septet played horn-driven reggae and funk-rock, with "Vex" and "Peaceful Warrior." The latter had a classic reggae theme with its rolling "We fight and we fight and we fight for freedom" chorus, but Spiritual Rez, like most everyone on the bill, mixed it up by crossing genres. For Spiritual Rez, the punchy horn lines brought the party to the politics.

Big D and the Kids Table closed the concert with three tunes; though two of their songs are featured on the "Dorm" CD, they played other favorites: "Shinin' On," "Noise Complaint," and "Strictly Rude"—the latter the title track of their CD due out March 20. The ska punk band, which just finished a tour with Dropkick Murphys, has graduated to SideOneDummy Records, the label run by Vans Warped tour promoter Kevin Lyman.

Big D formed as a 10-piece at Berklee, but has evolved to a septet. Both their inclusion on the album and their set seemed like a way of saying thanks to their alma mater. Did they feel like the headliner?

"The only way I felt like a headliner," said singer Dave McWane, "was in that I felt old. And the only reason I felt old was because everyone else talks so fast and is so excited, and I realized I have been on the road for nine years."

McWane summed up the show and the Berklee experience: "The whole approach is so great. First you got a bunch of kids surrounded with such top musicians. You could see the creativity and that being nonconventional was acceptable, either by the instrumentation or sound. People being completely open and saying to fellow band members 'What can you come up with?'" - Berklee.edu


"Making Waves"

Profiles in Success: Berklee College of Music
MAKING WAVES
http://www.apple.com/education/profiles/berklee/

Boston, MA — They’re as familiar as movie stars. Diana Krall. Paula Cole. Quincy Jones. This stellar list is but a fraction of the famous alumni of Berklee College of Music. How did they make the grade? What does it take to go from small clubs to the big-time? Today, a group of Berklee students producing records for the campus record label, Heavy Rotation Records (HRR), are finding out. Along the way, they’re getting first-hand experience in using Mac-based systems to pitch a CD, record it, mix it, manage the budget, design the packaging, write the liner notes, and more.

Most artists would probably agree that bringing out a CD can be a daunting process. But ask Berklee Music Business/Management major Alexander Sartakov what he thinks of the program, and you’ll get a very different response. “Along with all of the responsibility actually came a lot a fun,” says Sartakov. A recent graduate of Berklee, Sartakov was involved with the packaging of Shekinah 13 Artists, HRR’s compilation of female vocalists that was released in association with Epic Records Group, a division of Sony Music. Sartakov also helped create the PowerPoint presentations used to pitch the project to Epic.

Heavy Rotation Records is one of the learning tools in Berklee’s Music Business/Management major. During this two-semester class, students traditionally seek out local bands, record them, create CDs, and pitch them to radio stations and music stores. But a few years ago, Music Business/Management Associate Professor Jeff Dorenfeld had a “bigger” idea.

“I wanted to see if we could get involved with a major record label that could actually fund us and do all of the distribution, and would also send executives to come to class and teach us about the process,” recalls Dorenfeld. “So, we wrote up a business plan describing why we felt a record label would be interested in doing this, and why they should work in conjunction with our class to develop, record, and release a CD.”

When Dorenfeld was happy with the plan, he invited a group of Epic’s executives to Berklee to talk logistics. ..Says Dorenfeld: “My students compiled all of the background information, researching various websites to find out about different artists and the kinds of publicity and sales they’d generated. There was a lot of detail, including charts, graphs, and maps showing which potential artist was from what area. I basically sat back and let the students do everything.”

Inspired by these efforts, Epic Records presented the college with an endowment of $100,000..." - apple.com


""Apollo Sunshine Releases New Self-Titled Album...""

Apollo Sunshine [was] named one of "THE bands to watch" in 2004 by Alternative Press magazine.

Apollo Sunshine's new self-titled album, out Sept. 13, 2005, is a joint release by spinART records and Berklee College of Music's student run label Heavy Rotation Records. - Stage Pass News


"Rock 'n' Roll; So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Executive?"

"...the concert, the new CD, the temperamental artist -- is on the syllabus of MB-490/491, a yearlong senior practicum for music-business majors at the Berklee College of Music. Course name: ''Heavy Rotation Records.''
''Dealing with the artist, getting yelled at by the stage manager?'' Professor Dorenfeld said later. ''Getting yelled at -- that's a learning experience.''
The class assignment was to produce and market a CD. And in the end, there was little to distinguish the concert the class put on from a ''real'' show put on by a ''real'' record label. As the crowd filed out, clutching their copies of ''Dorm Sessions Volume 3,'' few were aware that they had been part of an academic exercise." - The New York Times


Discography

RECORD RELEASES INCLUDE:

Dorm Sessions : Volume 4 (2007) - Compilation CD

Dorm Sessions : Volume 3 (2006) - Compilation CD

Apollo Sunshine : w/ SpinArt (2005)

Dorm Sessions : Volume 2 (2004) - Compilation CD

Dorm Sessions : Volume 1 (2003) - Compilation CD

Shekinah (2002) - All-Female Compilation CD

***our album, Dorm Sessions Volume 4, is currently being played on college, internet, and standard radio stations in the Northeast and across the US.***

Photos

Bio

"They're as familiar as movie stars. Diana Krall. Paula Cole. Quincy Jones. This stellar list is but a fraction of the famous alumni of Berklee College of Music. How did they make the grade? What does it take to go from small clubs to the big-time? Today, a group of Berklee students producing records for the campus record label, Heavy Rotation Records (HRR), are finding out."
-apple.com

Heavy Rotation Records (HRR) is an established student-run record label at the Berklee College of Music, operated for musicians and by musicians, expanding careers and offering opportunities in all aspects of the music industry and developed specifically for students to receive experience in running a record company.With the guidance of faculty advisor Jeff Dorenfeld - former manager of the multiplatinum band Boston - students oversee all aspects of the label's management, creating and implementing plans for A&R, marketing, touring, graphic design, web development, and accounting. Heavy Rotation Records alumni have gone on to work at Interscope, Capitol, DreamWorks, BMG, and Universal record companies as well as in publishing and tour management. Currently, the label is featured on Apple's Mac on Campus and Microsoft's Mactopia websites. Heavy Rotation has a distribution deal with Rounder Records. As of 2006, Heavy Rotation Records is sponsored by SanDisk.