Cool Things My Friends Do: Create a home for music.

When I was a senior at Temple University last year (*cries*), I had the pleasure of taking photos at AEPi for the Temple News. The popular frat house on campus had a very unique basement that had been converted into a music venue. I remember it having awesome lighting, couches everywhere, tables, free refreshments (so much Street King...I still have some), and a stage. But the best part about the event was having the guy who ran the whole show come right up to us, shake our hands, and give us a warm welcome.

FRIEND #3: Dave Silver
COOL THING #3: Broad Street Music

Dave is currently a senior marketing major at Temple University, and had the brilliant idea of utilizing the basement in a creative way. Don't get me wrong, I love a good kegger at ']['U, but this was the sickest thing I'd seen. The basement became the Broad Street Music Lounge, and became home to free shows for up-and-coming and undiscovered Philly artists.

The best part about Dave, who is now Director of Operations, is that he's in this thing for the right reason: creating a home for musicians

FLOCCADELPHIA: What has been the most rewarding part of this?
DAVE: The experience of starting something from scratch and watching my dreams come alive...Being able to witness first-hand from managing my best friends' music careers that finding opportunities to perform in front of a live audience is a monumental challenge, I figured I could use my resources available to me in order to create new opportunities for those in need.

Like many 20th century young professionals, Dave realizes that dreams can be attained by networking and sharing creativity with others, especially those who have "the same dreams and goals."

Though it began in the basement of AEPi, Dave is graduating in May and is currently looking at ways to launch Broad Street Music into the Philly music scene. He is at the point now where talent have contacted him directly. Many artists have stuck with the company since its beginning.

What I admire most about Dave, beyond his determined creativity and good use of resources, is that he is passionate about bringing joy to others through music.

The long-term goal for Broad Street Music is for it to become a talent agency and music events company, eventually working its way to becoming a record label. While this is no easy feat, the fact that Dave has his sights set so high (and has come this far) is proof that it will get done.

He explains that "It is meant to be a company that is all about believing in a dream, finding the hidden opportunities, and networking your way to success."

Be sure to check out Broad Street Music's first event of 2013 next weekend!

Contact:
BroadStMusic@gmail.com
facebook.com/BroadStreetMusicLounge
Twitter: @broadstlounge
Instagram: @broadstmusic

Cool Things My Friends Do: Music > Geography

The band Possibly Apostrophe is a smooth-sounding group comprised of friends Pat Shahabian, Tim Higgins, Seth Mehle, and Jon Keller.

Though the musicians had played together previously at different times in their early careers, the group started as a cover band at State College, originally comprised of Wilson High School graduates Pat, Tim, and Seth. Jon introduced himself to the group at a party, who happened to need a bassist. Lo and behold, Jon was exactly that.

Since then, the group has graduated or is finishing up at school. All but Pat live in State College. He lives and works in Brooklyn. But geography does not keep the band or the friendship apart. They get together when they can, and are constantly in contact. That being said, keeping together can be a difficult task. The band met four times last year to perform, twice in New York and twice in Pennsylvania.

"Tim works full time for an engineering firm in PA," says Pat. "I work full time in NYC, Jon manages a restaurant, is getting married, and has his first child on the way with his fiancé and Seth is finishing up his final semesters at PSU. Needless to say, it limits how frequently the four of us can get together." 

Possibly Apostrophe has a very funky jam sound. In a world dominated by pop music and dance music (which, don't get me wrong, I love me my top 40), it's refreshing to hear a combination of different genres.

"The four of us all come from really differing musical backgrounds," Pat explains. "I've always been more of a jazz and ambient rock kid, Jon a mix of funk and dub style reggae, Tim more funk and heaver/dirtier blues, and Seth a heavier rock background...All of our influences come out in our music, which makes it stylistically interesting to classify. I prefer the term 'user friendly.'"

The early 20s is a huge time of transition, as I'm soon finding. It is, therefore, extremely encouraging to know that people like the members of Possibly Apostrophe still manages to stick together in spite of these changes.

Tim explains that the most difficult part of the process is the distance. "Though we're all separated from Pat [the other three being around State College], the drive to constantly create and share is still there...This isn't a project we would just "shelf" because we're all too busy - our music is constantly being created, reworked, scrutinized, re-arranged, etc. and I feel like we'll keep doing this for as long as we can while still being fruitful (ie still creating music we love)."

Possibly Apostrophe will eventually be releasing its most recent recordings as a free download EP.

Check them out here!

JT is back!

It's official. Justin Timberlake has got a new album coming out. The man had left the music scene for a bit to further pursue his acting career. Out of the blue on Facebook today, I saw that he has a brand new song. Not exactly "Sexyback," but pretty funky and jazzy. It's called "Suit & Tie."

What's surprising about this album is that there has been barely any PR for it. Many other artists do a big anticipation. I'd only heard that JT had a new album coming out last week, and boom, here's a new single. No Lady Gaga games. I love Mother Monster, but there was way too much hype about Born This Way, and then it failed to meet expectations. Hopefully ARTPOP won't be the same way.