PleaseRock

Good news, gang: Kid Rock has asked the Yacht Rock Revue to sail with him on the Chillin’ the Most Cruise from Tampa to Grand Cayman from April 29 – May 3 2010.  The bad news is that unless you already have a ticket, you can’t join us – it’s sold out.

In celebration of St. Patrick’s season, the Yacht Rock Revue turns the Whiskey Blue into the Whiskey Smooth on Wednesday, March 17. Come celebrate on the official St. Patrick’s Day in style at the W Atlanta Buckhead.  TICKETS.

Big ups to Mara Davis and 92.9 DaveFM for all the Yacht Rock love.  We’ll be venturing outside our usual ‘hoods to hit Meehan’s for their big outdoor festival – Sham Rock and Roll – on Saturday, joining our friends the REMakes (early REM tribute) on stage.

Recapping, we kicked the season off with 5,000 of our closest friends this past weekend at the Sham(Yacht)Rock Festival at the Park Tavern with our new buddies A Social Mess.  Metromix took and Mixtape Atlanta some glamour shots as well.

Audio Archivist Mark Bencoo and Web-ist ?Mark have teamed up to bring you a plethora of new sound clips on PleaseRock.  Put your ears on some musical highlights from the first Please PleaseRock Me show, new live cuts from Constantly Awesome, and fresh XTC-isms from Nigels With Attitude (who just announced a new show at the Earl on April 14.)  Perhaps most impressive, if we do say so ourselves, are the face-melting live recordings from our Led Zeppelin vs. the Who show.

The spring festival season begins this week with the Yacht Rock Revue at Andrews Upstairs on Friday night for Every Night Fever.  You’ll taste the yachty flavors you’ve come to expect – Hall & Oates, Michael Mcdonald, etc. – with a special dose of Bee Gees hits to sweeten the mix.  (TICKETS)

Yacht Rock Revue is joined by Please PleaseRock Me (our salute to the Beatles, if you haven’t heard) for a late afternoon / early evening jaunt at Park Tavern’s Shamrock Festival on Saturday.  (TICKETS)

In the coming weeks we’ve got a festival appearance at Meehan’s in Sandy Springs, a high-class St. Patrick’s Day at Whiskey Blue in Buckhead atop the W Hotel, the Pamoja Penda Arts and Music Festival, and more events to be announced soon.

This week our picture randomly appeared in a blog on LA Weekly declaring Prep Rock to be the new Yacht Rock.  Vampire Weekend wishes.

Meanwhile, here’s a look at the week in PleaseRock (and an oldie in honor of the Tim & Eric Awesome Show season premiere last night.)

The inaugural Please PleaseRock Me show was a blast last week.  More than 200 Beatles nerds joined us to celebrate the best pop songs of all time.  Our request box was overflowing with ideas for our next show on Wednesday, March 31 at Smith’s Olde Bar.  (Buy Advance Tickets.)

We posted the set list from the first show on the PPRM page.  Feel free to drop us a line to make your Beatles suggestions for next month, either on the PPRM page or on the Facebook.

Meanwhile, 3 Dog Stevens decided to wish PPRM a happy zero-th birthday with this video.  Feel free to pass it on to the what’s-her-faces in your life.

Here are some more pictures from the show at Smith’s, and some random YRR photos from this week.  Special thanks to our friends at Mixtape Atlanta for taking such rad shots!!!

Please PleaseRock Me, our new Beatles-focused alias, debuts this Wednesday (2.17) at Smith’s Olde Bar in Atlanta.  (ADVANCE TICKETS.)  Doors open at 8 pm and the show begins promptly at 9 pm.

It’s going to be a glorious hodge-podge of Beatles music, cover versions, Beatles solo work, and anything else we’re able to convince ourselves is directly musically related to the Beatles. The general approach will be PleaseRock wall of sound – lots of vocals, guitars, keyboards, percussion, and a horn section.  We’ll include Beatles energy and even a bit of a history lesson.  Here’s an article on the show in Atlanta Music Guide.

We’ve got a Facebook Fan Page for the group where we’ll be taking requests for our next show. We’ll be doing a monthly series of Wednesday nights at Smith’s. which has a wonderful stage, great lights, excellent sound, and no smoking!

In other PleaseRock news, legendary Atlanta DJ (and old-school hip-hoppist) Frank Ski came to hang with Yacht Rock at the 10 High last Thursday.

Yeah Boyyyyyyy!

The Yacht Rock Revue traveled to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico last week for a private gig at the One and Only Palmilla Resort.  Early in the week Bencoo sat in at Cabo Wabo (Sammy Hagar’s club) with the Dudes from the ‘8os – guys from Billy Joel, Starship, Wet Willy, Sheryl Crow, Survivor, and (of course) .38 Special.

Then the rest of us arrived, ate some tacos, drank a bottle of tequila and a case of beer, and lost a man on a beer run.  The man in question wandered down a highway, explored a hospital and taco stand, e-mailed for help from an internet cafe, and passed out on a bus.  Back in the main group, 3 ginormous margaritas resulted in another man down – passed out at the dinner table. We proceeded to Cabo Wabo, drank more tequila, and cage danced.  After some “negotiations” on the street, we proceeded home where one of us confused his suitcase with the bathroom.  Rock band cliches:  ACHIEVED.  Oh, and we played a fun gig the next night after lounging on the beach all day.

This week we’re bearing down on lots of Beatles tunes for the debut of Please PleaseRock Me next week.  We’re at Smith’s Olde Bar (TICKETS) on Wednesday, February 17.  It’s a nice early weeknight show – doors at 8 and music at 9.  We’re doing big hits and deep cuts, famous Beatles covers and our own versions, solo Beatles material and bands they played with.  More on that later.  For now, behold the glory of Cabo…

Late in 2009, Dart Industries – owners of Tupperware Corporation – found Dick Johnny, Feet Olson, Stuart Bencuya, and Bart Cobb. These are our aliases when we perform as the popular PleaseRock band the Tupperware Party. The corporate giant sent the above-named party a cease and desist letter rightly claiming the band name “The Tupperware Party” infringed on their trademark.

We thought it was a joke. Our lawyers assured us it was not. We settled out of court, and as a result our un-wedding band has a new name as of February 1: Constantly Awesome. Per the terms of our settlement, we’ll gradually be adjusting our naming conventions across the webz.

In non-legal news, the Yacht Rock Revue returns to Andrews Upstairs this Friday night. You are advised to get your tickets in advance, as the last Andrews show sold-out before doors opened. The Yacht Rock Revue travels to Cabo earlier in the week for a private event (we’ll blog you all about it), so the Schooner will be holding down the 10 High residency this week.

The weather threw a wrench in some of PleaseRock’s plans last week: Snow on Mount Eagle prevented the Yacht Rock Revue from making it to our gig in Nashville at the Mercy Lounge on Friday night. We’ve rescheduled there for March 19.

And despite the inclement conditions preventing both other acts on the original bill from making the show, NespoJohnny persevered to have a good time with the original-music-loving crowd at Eddie’s Attic on Saturday night. Pictures coming, and another show will be in the works soon.

We’ll have details on the lawsuit that is causing the Tupperware Party to change its name to Constantly Awesome and our new Beatles project Please PleaseRock Me very soon.  But first let’s tie up some loose ends:

Y O U donated the pseudo-hit Firefly to Paste Magazine’s Songs for Haiti effort.  Donate and get the Y O U track for free, and get tracks from Ludacris, Of Montreal, Andrew Bird, and more than 200 other artists as well.

NespoJohnny plays Eddie’s Attic this Saturday night, joined by Y O U alum Peter Olson for a few tunes.  Use the secret code word “PleaseRock” to get $3 off your tickets when ordering on the phone (404.377.4976) or purchasing at the door.  Doors at 6:30, NespoJohnny at 8.  Expect ukelele, banjo, piano, lots of guitars, new songs, Y O U oldies, and general excellence.

More PhilanthroSmooth:  the Yacht Rock Revue raised more than $850 to donate to the Red Cross earthquake relief efforts in Haiti on January 14 and 15.  The Yacht Rock Holiday Special raised more than $1,100 for the Atlanta Community Food Bank.

You’re Welcome to all of the beautiful people who made our acquaintance on Rock Boat X. You should be our social media friend on Facebook and Twitter.  Even though the Gulf attempted to put a weather damper on the ship, the smooth could not be stopped.  Thanks to all of our new friends, musicians, and fans who made our first mass-sailing so much fun.

Highlights? They start at the end, when we performed “Total Eclipse of the Heart” (video) to a packed and rocking atrium during the final jam on Sunday night.  Hanging with old buddies from groups like Marc Broussard, Evan McHugh, Michael Tolcher, and Blackberry Smoke was great fun.  Having Brandon Still rejoin the Revue for a few shows was a treat for sure.  And attempting to perform the Thriller album to a hungover crowd on a sea-tossed ship at one in the afternoon was definitely our biggest challenge.

All in all, a great success with copious amounts of fun had by all.  And a special thanks to the good people of Sixthman for putting on such a smooth cruise.

Need a last-minute stocking stuffer on the cheap?  The Yacht Rock Revue Christmas Single is now available on iTunes for $.99! We smoothed out Mele Kalikimaka in the style of the Little River Band’s Reminiscing and  Christmas Vacation in the style of Toto’s Rosanna. Get smooth this holiday!

You’re Welcome to everyone who was witness to the SOLD-OUT Yacht Rock Holiday Special at Variety Playhouse on Friday! Our good buddy Perry Julien’s gorgeous photographs made the Creative Loafing.  Thanks to everyone who donated food and money to the Atlanta Community Food Bank as well – your Yachty Holiday Portraits are available from Mixtape Atlanta.

Thanks to all of our guests – the men of Starbuck, Peter Stroud (Sheryl Crow, Don Henley), Clay Cook (Zac Brown, Marshall Tucker), Rob Henson as Santa Claus (Corey Smith), Kevin Leahy, Miss Alyssa, and all of the Yacht Rock Schooner sailors.

The Yacht Rock Holiday Special is Friday, December 18 in the heart of Little Five Points at the Variety Playhouse – TICKETS. More details are on the Facebook Invite. 

Be sure to bring two cans of food for the Atlanta Community Food Bank so you can get your Yachty Holiday Portrait taken!

We’ll be performing live and waxing holiday poetic on the FM radio on Friday during YR Holiday Special Host Mara Davis’ Radio Free Lunch on 92.9 DaveFM between noon and 1pm.

The Holiday Special has received journalistic love from Atlanta Music Guide (long funny interview), and the AJC twice – of course one of the articles is about bad Christmas sweaters.

Everybody knows there’s not a better time of year – special guests, thousands of Grizwoldian Christmas lights, keytars, sandal rock, Santa vs. John Oates, yachty holiday classics, gigantic palm trees, lit-up alligators, lots of smooth non-holiday hits, and guaranteed snowfall in Atlanta.

After that it’s on to 2010 – a new website, some new bands, and a renewed interest in music history.