The Fire Apes’ blog

Great news! "Hey Kate!" has advanced to the Fame Games Q-Show 193, scheduled for Wednesday on 8/20/2008. We've made it to the on-air showcases... and it's a big deal because suddenly, "Hey Kate!" is being heard by a truly massive international audience!
 
To see the current Q-Show Area, go here: http://www.meermusic.com/content/charts/qresults.asp?ed=193⊂=2
 
Q-show songs have just over one week to move up to the next level.
 
If it's review average places it among the top 12 contenders it will advance to the SemiFinal Show on next Thursday.
 
Please vote for "Hey Kate!" The advancement of a song through the Fame Games ranks depends on the degree of unanimity between reviewers and the amount of popular support.
 
Make sure you LISTEN to the show!

Fame Games (http://www.meermusic.com/content/charts/fgmain.asp) is an On Air / Online Weekly International Music Competition show focused solely on the best undiscovered Indie music from around the world. This is neither a "talk show" nor an "all-music" show. It's not pop and it's not rock and it's not hip-hop or R&B - it's nothing that can easily be predicted.

It's broadcast terrestrially in the South of Spain to one of the largest expatriate, English-speaking communities in the world, and has an audience in excess of 2.5 million listeners - and growing; now faster than ever, since teaming up with ABC Radio Networks (http://www.abcradionetworks.com). With an average monthly listenership of around 350,000, it's becoming the music filter of choice for listeners and professionals worldwide and an A&R vehicle for potentially interested labels.

After having listened to this disc at least 20 times since it's release; I can simply say it gets better w/ every play. This record catches Springfield stepping outside the box and at his best in 20 years. This collection has two "Springfield Radio Ready" tracks,("Victoria's Secret" & "I'll Miss That Someday") while the majority of the tracks explore different sounds and textures he hasn't explored before.

What's different? This time he is writing w/ his longtime touring bass player; Matt Maisonette who also shares production credit with Springfield on the album.

The songs explore a more mature side of Springfield dressed in very modern landscape. The song "Oblivious" is inspired by the death of Maisonette's mother and "Saint Sahara" is a touching ode written for a young fan who's battle with cancer took her life last year. These songs have a very reflective mood and also great chorus' with rock in' guitars and big vocals. Springfield voice has worn well with time. He is still able to sing his ass off!

"Mr. PC" rocks as hard as any recent Green Day-Wheezier track and is convincing. The chorus is so catchy & Foo Futures; it has you beating on the steering wheel at the red light and singing the infectious chorus "on & on & on you go". It rocks hard & has you hitting repeat after 1 play.

"She" is one of the best pop rock songs I've heard since the 2007 release of Jason Faulkner's "I'm O.K.,You're O.K." This song hints to Beatles arrangements and undertones of Jellyfish. The songs don't sound like Springfield but they are. At 58; Springfield shows just how relevant he still is after nearly 40 years in the business.

"Victoria's Secret"; the first single; is reminiscent of the "Jessie's Girl" riff but stands on it's own with a powerful chorus that has you singing "VS" in shower after subjected to it's irresistible hook. Like most singles, this is by no means the best the set has to offer. Songs like "One Passenger" and "I'll Miss That Someday" are deep reflective songs about the journeys of love and life. Springfield doesn't seem to be angry anymore. He seems to have a sense of hope for the future. All songs are passionately driven, executed with loud guitars, big drums, bass and incredibly arranged vocals and harmonies.

There isn't a bad track in the bunch. Buy with confidence! You might find yourself revisiting 'Working Class Dog" and reminding ourselves just how great of a writer and 'ROCKER" he is. I would recommend 'Venus In Overdrive" to all Fire Ape fans or any one who likes catchy loud pop rock!

P.S. Real men listen to Rick Springfield!!!

Frank Royster/Fire Apes

Fantastic news!!!!!... It's shaping up to be a summer of rotation... and not just the run of the mill circles in the sand...

We got word from Joel, Music Director over at the Bridge 105.5 FM (WCOO- Charleston), that "Hey Kate!" is now on ROTATION!

Joel told us that "...based on seeing The Fire Apes live, and the audience reaction to 'Hey Kate', I added it to our 'homegrown rotation'."

Check out the Bridge 105.5FM at www.1055thebridge.com or myspace.com/thebridgeat1055... and tell 'em to play "Hey Kate!"

Rock On Joel!

We're also told that "Hey Kate", "Only You Could Make Me Happy", and "It's Over" are currently getting played on 97.7 FM (KAFA) , the cadet run radio station at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado.

In addition, Jim Kelly, Music Director at The Mix 101.5 FM (WRAL) in Raleigh, has added two of our earlier releases, "Let Me Know" and "Isabel (The Razor's Edge)" to rotation.

More and more stations are adding us to their rotations and helping to spread the word about The Fire Apes... and it's all thanks to you... We have some of the greatest fans ever!

Thank you so much!!!

Think summer, shorts, beach, skateboards... very danceable, jumpable and buyable!

So far, Summer '08 has been great.....

"Hey Kate!" has been moving up the charts on myTracks.com, a music service that features new and up and coming artists.

It reached #2 on the Top 10 downloads for June, only being outdone by Kate Voegele!... and it remains in the Top 10 Songs of the Month charts.

myTracks.com is a unique online music download service dedicated to giving music fans a new MTV-esque media channel and online community to discover and connect with the best new artists of today. Think of it as "MP3" TV, minus the TV.

They've helped launch a number of major artists... including The Fray, Jack Johnson, OAR, Dispatch, String Cheese Incident, and CREED.

We need your help to get to the top of their charts... just click here to visit us on myTracks.com and play our music... tell a friend or even sign up for their service and get a free download!

A rocking cover of The Beatles - "Can't Buy Me Love"

Recorded live on May 24, 2008 at Wet Willies, Charleston, SC during the Spoleto Festival.

BY KEITH RYAN CARTWRIGHT

Special to The Post and Courier

John Seymour wasn't even 10 years old. And there he sat on the floor of his older brother's bedroom floor, starring with amazement at the album cover while the vinyl looped around the record player. The Beatles classic "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" filled the room with one song after another, including the hidden track not-so-secretly placed on the run-out groove at the end of side two.

Although the album had been released years earlier — 1967, to be exact — and the band had long since gone their own ways, the songs and the imagery were all new to Seymour and little did he know, but the Charleston native was experiencing a life-changing moment.

"I remember putting it on and just thinking it was the greatest thing," said Seymour, who had no idea that, years later, he would form his own band, The Fire Apes.

"I just listened to it over and over and over. It was just amazing."

None of his friends were as fascinated by music, much less a collection of albums released decades earlier.

Seymour could never really describe what it was like discovering The Beatles that afternoon. That is, until he was 11 years old when he rediscovered the album jacket.

He sat there alone, sans the record playing in the background, once again staring at its gatefold sleeve.

"I was so excited by just the image of the jacket, because I remembered what it felt like to listen to it," recalled Seymour. "I've never been the same since."

It is no surprise that a teenage Seymour began writing songs that aren't necessarily heard anywhere on today's musical landscape. Instead, it's clearly more of a transgenerational sound heavily influenced by likes of The Beatles, The Doors and other melodic artists from yesteryear, such as The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys.

He eventually went through a self-described Pretenders phase. However, the obsessive singer/songwriter is as influenced by literature — if not more so — than he is by those very same records he discovered as a young impressionable boy.

"Generally speaking I do write metaphorically," Seymour explained, "and I don't expect anybody to get everything. Usually if it sounds like a love song I'm talking about something else, but not always."

Seymour not only understands that different people are going to feel different ways about his songs, but he also champions the notion of listeners developing their own interpretations of the material contained on the two albums and one EP that The Fire Apes have released.

That is, after all, where emotions — like the ones he felt listening to "Sgt. Pepper's" — come from.

When Seymour first formed The Fire Apes it was less about wanting to be in a band and more about fulfilling a growing demand to perform live.

"When I released the first album it was just a lot of ideas," Seymour said. "I had so many songs I wanted to record and I still do, but I was more interested in writing than playing and touring."

In fact, he rarely even performed after releasing the first album, and only began regularly playing out when his second release proved to be equally well received.

Even then, for all intents and purposes, he disbanded the group and only contacted two of the previous members — Hugh Knight III and Julian Volpe — a couple of years later, after receiving several requests from record companies.

That led to the release of 2007's self-titled EP produced by Eric Bass, which has since done well in England, Spain and Germany.

The single "Hey Kate" was selected from tens of thousands of submissions in an online songwriting contest, and as a result The Fire Apes — Seymour seems to be making a concerted effort to think of the project as a band as opposed to some sort of solo endeavor — might record in Sacramento, Calif., as well as in Greenville, with famed producer Noel Golden (Matchbox Twenty and Edwin McCain).

The band has a deal with MTV Networks, placed a song on the hit TV series "The Hills" and is involved in the soundtrack for a couple of upcoming movies.

"Yeah, it could help (your career) if you're in a big city because it can happen so quickly," Seymour said, "but, on the other hand, we're really happy here (in Charleston).

"We would certainly love to play for any audience and have them be moved by it — no matter how big or small the audience, and we've done both. There's no real rush."

http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/apr/10/charlestons_fire_apes_getting_hotter36644/

We just got an email from Dan Herman, host of RadioCrystal Blue, and he let us know that we've made it as a FINALIST in the 2008 Airplay Vote. There was some heavy voting, and we received the most votes in our bracket in the first 4 weeks of the competition. Now we'll start again from 0, and once again our fans will have 4 weeks to vote for us!!!!

You can vote once a day in each bracket for your favorites. Voting lasts for the next 4 weeks and you can vote once a day, every day, for up to 20 artists per day.

Click here to vote: http://pub36.bravenet.com/vote/vote.php?usernum=3071115404.

Exclusively on the Internet and now in its 8th year, Dan Herman's Radio Crystal Blue is a free form internet radio show that presents an outstanding collection of indie, underground, and nationally touring acts from most genres and many locales. Radio Crystal Blue, http://www.live365.com/stations/142950, is aired LIVE on Live365 Sundays 7pm till about 1am EST from NYC.

Radio Crystal Blue is rebroadcast on Moozikoo Radio, http://www.moozikooradio.com, Tuesdays at 6pm ET and Fridays noon ET.

THANK YOU FOR VOTING FOR THE FIRE APES!!!!!!!

We’ve got a new member... and there’s an article about it in this week’s Charleston City Paper:

"It’s been a little over two years since local singer/guitarist John Seymour reassembled his guitar-pop band The Fire Apes. Six years had passed since the band’s official split-up. The lineup included drummer Tom Hamer and bassist Julian Volpe. Keyboardist Hugh Knight came on board last year.

In recent months, Seymour tinkered with the lineup a bit more. This week, official word came in that the current Apes features Hamer, Volpe, Knight ... and longtime scenester Frank Royster on additional guitar. Royster is known best among local rock fans for his busy work with heavy-duty bar band The Hed Shop Boys and his more melodic and Beatles-esque solo work.

The reinforced lineup make their debut at the Map Room on Sat. March 29 with The Guilt Trips opening. Visit www.thefireapes.com and www.themaproom.net for more. —TBL"

 

http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid:42296

We just got the news from Max over at 96 Wave... and he's placed our second release, "It's Over", into rotation on 96Wave.com!!!!

Log in and check out 96 Wave Online by visiting: http://www.96wave.com.

"It's Over" now joins "Hey Kate!" in rotation... and it's made it the "Top 6 E-Requests". Every weekday at noon eastern, Max counts down the top 6 requests via e-mail from the previous day.

Help us stay on rotation..... e-request "Hey Kate!" or "It's Over"by sending an email to mywave@96wave.com and placing "Please play The Fire Apes - (song name)" in the subject line. Thanks!!!!