PleaseRock

PleaseRock Nation spreads its wings this month with some new shows sure to smooth your mind!

First up is our latest incarnation: Main Street Exiles.  This gritty tribute to the Rolling Stones captures the rock and roll f**kitude of the Stones without trying to imitate Mick and Keith verbatim.  MSE kicks off a month-long residency at the 10 High Club on Wednesdays starting September 1.  Doors at 9p, $5.

We’re stoked to announce an unprecedented double dip of classic albums on Wednesday, September 29: The Dark Side of the Moon AND Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.  Both albums will be performed LIVE IN THEIR ENTIRETY by Please PleaseRock Me (the Beatle-centric alter-ego of Yacht Rock Revue.)  More on this later – we may even show a movie.  TICKETS.

Yacht Rock Schooner performs at the Atlanta Kickoff Street Fest in Midtown on Friday, September 3: Advance TICKETS are $5 off with the promo code “yrs”.

And whilst the Schooner is kicking things off at the Street Fest and 10 High this week, the Revue sets sail with our friends from Zack Brown Band for the Sailing Southern Ground Cruise.  We’ll have a full report next week – Ahoy!

PleaseRock embraces the chaos as summer ends and we rev up to change identities 15 times a month for the rest of 2010.  That’s more often than most of you change your underwear.  We heard.  Anyways:

The Greater Vavoom warms up for Juliette Lewis Tuesday, August 24 at Smith’s Olde Bar.  Cox and Lewis will have a “Who Can Act More Psychotic” competition live on stage!  TICKETS.

Please PleaseRock Me plays our monthly show at Smith’s Olde Bar on Wednesday, August 25.  We’re completing the Pepper, knocking the dust off Ringo’s solo career, and even referencing Sonic Youth in a Beatles show.  We’ve got some big plans in the works for PPRM, so get a preview of the Fabness to come:  TICKETS.

Thriller night at Park Tavern was SOLD OUT on Friday night – it actually sold out on Thursday!  The crowd was amazing, and so was the band – just ask our Facebook page.  We’ve got big plans for the next Thriller show, so stay tuned.

These Park Tavern shows seem to be getting a bit popular, so you might be wise to get your tickets in advance for the next show:  The Yacht Rock Revue, with Please PleaseRock Me opening on Friday, September 17.  TICKETS.

The Nigels With Attitude – the world’s most overqualified tribute to XTC – returns with a pair of shows at Eddie’s Attic on Sunday, September 12 (7pm and 9:30pm.)  Nicholas Niespodziani and Tim Smith will open the shows in a songwriters duel of original (?) music.  TICKETS.

The Yacht Rock Schooner takes the helm at the 10 High for basement smooth over the next couple of weeks as YRR takes one night off for education (report coming) and another night off to go sailing.

The newest addition to the family – Main Street Exiles, a gritty tribute to the Rolling Stones – will descend into the 10 High on Wednesdays for the month of September, recreating the atmosphere in the basement of Keith Richards’ French mansion where most of Exile on Main Street was recorded.  Only $5, get your rocks off!  Details coming…

And of course, amidst all of this we’ll be setting sail with our friends in the Zack Brown Band for the Sailing Southern Ground Cruise over Labor Day weekend.  We’ll have more than our toes in the water on this one, and we’ll come back with a full report…

Attention all Buckheads (not to be confused with Dead Heads):  The Yacht Rock Revue returns to Andrews Upstairs, er, 8 Traxx Disco on Friday night in a rare B-head appearance!  It’s an early show, with doors at 9pm and music VERY shortly thereafter.  TICKETS.

Last week’s Please PleaseRock Me show at Smith’s was good times – thanks to everyone who drew up requests.  The best are posted below, we’ll be sure to hit several of them at our next show at Smith’s Olde Bar on August 25 (TICKETS.)  Stay tuned next week for a big, full-album performance announcement.  Did I say album?  Oops, meant albumS…

What a weekend!  Welcome to all of the new members of the Nation of Smooth who were introduced to us at the Peachtree Road Race and Atlanta Braves game on July 4!

You’ve probably noticed by now that while Yacht Rock Revue is our most popular band, we do lots of different stuff ranging from Led Zeppelin to the Beatles to Michael Jackson’s Thriller album in its entirety.

Our Independence Day started at 6am loading into the Peachtree Road Race.  As the runners filed in, we helped cool them down with the breezy sounds of late ’70s light rock.  There were even some captains running the race, including the officially sponsored Team Yacht Rock!

After we finished the Peachtree at 11am, we headed straight over to Turner Field to sound check the Star Spangled Banner, joined by Kevin and Ganesh from the Yacht Rock Schooner.  We coordinated our timing with the pilot control team so the jets (hopefully) would pass over at exactly the right time (YouTube vid of National Anthem sound check.).  After a quick sound check on the rolling stage in the tunnel behind the outfield with our Chief Engineer Hans, we headed up to our box.

We walked out on the field to sing the anthem and the scene was as American as you can get: July 4th baseball game with the stars and stripes covering the entire outfield:

Unfortunately, the Braves lost to the Marlins 3-2.  Then they rolled our stage out between the mound and home plate and we jumped into the smooth.  It took the audience a few songs to understand what we were up to, but when they figured it out they were right there with us the rest of the way.

People were getting so smooth the Braves asked us to play an extra 20 minutes.  We even ran the bases during Huey Lewis and the News!  Fan videos: Huey / Wings, Reminiscing, Don’t You Forget About Me.

The Braves were the light-rocking-est hosts – they gave us an official Yacht Rock Braves jersey.  The crowd was the largest gathering of the Nation of Smooth yet. And to top off the weekend, I went to a local gastropub on Monday and heard the bartender speaking to a patron a few seats down about a drink named after a local band: the Yacht Rocktail (picture below.)

Here are some of our favorite pictures so far, more to come later this week:

Hey students of smooth: if you have any Reagan Rock Prom video post it on YouTube as a response to our video by the high school AV department.  If we deem it worthy, we’ll hook you up with some free Yacht Rock passes!

Please PleaseRock Me opened for Summer Jams of the ’70s, and now we’re back for a full show of Beatles love on Wednesday, June 30 at Smith’s Olde Bar.  We’ve got some new versions, and we’re even gonna throw in some yachtiness for you: TICKETS.

The Yacht Rock Revue has a busy weekend – on Friday night we’ve got a patriotic night with 2 sets of Yacht Rock at the Park Tavern.  Kick off your holiday weekend right with our Summer Sunset Series.  No opener, early YRR show at 8p! TICKETS.

On Sunday morning we’re playing early morning light rock for the runners in Piedmont Park following the Peachtree Road Race.  Come on down for the earliest public smoothing ever.

Most importantly, on Sunday evening we’ll be performing on the baseball diamond at Turner Field after the Braves game, before the fireworks!  It will be like the Beatles at Shea stadium, with only slightly less screaming.

PleaseRock Incentive to show your Yachty Spirit:  If you wear yachty gear (captain’s hats are easiest) to the game, catch up with one of our volunteers after the fireworks.  Give them your name on a business card or other piece of paper and we’ll hook you up on the guest list plus one for our next show at the Park Tavern on July 16!

Saturday (Friday / Sunday) in the Park, I think it was the 4th of July…

The PleaseRock iPhone App is now available for download in the iTunes App Store!  Developed by ShuffleCloud, this Beta version of our app will allow you to keep up with the Yacht Rock Revue on your Apple celly: performance dates, photos, blogs, merchandise, etc.  Check it out and let us know how to improve it for the next version.

The Reagan Rock Prom photos from Mixtape Atlanta are in.  We’ve posted some of our favorites below, yours are sure to be there ready for you to download. Thanks again for your donations to the Songs for Kids Foundation when posing for these portraits.

We’ve also posted some more photos we’ve found around Facebook.  We had crowns for the King and Queen that we forgot to use due to our brains being fried by the heat.  Looks like we might have to hold another prom next year?  Thanks for the memories, PleaseRock High!

The Yacht Rock Revue would like to extend a (rare) sincere thanks to all of our fans for an amazingly smooth weekend at the Variety Playhouse.  Your commitment to the Nation of Smooth – in terms of dress, attitude, and spirit – makes our job so much fun.  On behalf of the band, “You’re welcome!”

We want to see your pictures and video links: on our Facebook page or send to Booking@PleaseRock.com.

It all began on Friday morning with a 7 am appearance on the Regular Guys after playing our usual basement gig at 10 High the night before.  If you missed it you can listen and (kinda) watch it here.

We spent the rest of the day sound checking and setting the stage for Please PleaseRock Me and Summer Jams.  The Beatles set was awesome fun – we were impressed by the Nation of Smooth’s openness to music from the ’60s.  The next show is June 30 at Smith’s, friend PPRM on Facebook to keep up with our Liverpudlian alter-ego.

Summer Jams highlights included the lovely Miss Alyssa channeling Lind Ronstadt, Daniel Songer jamming out to the Bee Gees, making it rain during Rich Girl, and the first-song thievery from our pool full of beach balls. Photos from Mixtape Atlanta are already up – thanks to everyone who donated to the Songs For Kids Foundation!

On Saturday afternoon we decorated for Reagan Rock Prom.  Big ups to our prom committee for their help.  At some point the Variety Playhouse air conditioning stopped working, and we all paid for it the rest of the night.  We hope the free water we negotiated from Variety provided some relief, and we’re sorry for the discomfort that heat and polyester suits and sequined dresses caused!  Even with the hairspray dripping in our eyes, it was without a doubt the most beautiful crowd we’ve ever seen.

Everyone Reagan-rocked out in spite of the heat, especially our stellar cast playing the principal, nerd, jock, cheerleader, etc…   your acting saved the world.  We opened with the Top Gun theme accompanied by the Nation of Smooth flag.  Spandau Ballet featured arms-length dancing, Steppin’ Out featured multiple bell sets, and our main man Kevin Spencer (from the Yacht Rock Schooner) joined us as himself and as Ronald Reagan for some side-stepping good times.

We crowned 2 Kings and 2 Queens of the Prom, but not before we Rick Rolled all of the contestants.  We marched to Holding Out for a Hero (with the always-maginificent Vanessa) and ran laps around the stage during Huey Lewis leaving pools of sweat in our wake.

By the time we encored with Total Eclipse of the Heart, we’d all lost 15 pounds.  Your trainers can thank us later.

Here are the best pictures we’ve found so far – send us yours and we’ll post them in our second round-up later this week.  We’re also editing some video from the Prom for you enjoyment, and we’ll let you know when the Mixtape Prom pictures are posted.

There are plenty of tickets still available for both the Summer Jams of the ’70s / Please PleaseRock Me and Reagan Rock Prom shows.  Come one, come all to the Variety Playhouse this weekend!

We had great fun with the Regular Guys on Rock 100.5 this morning.  If you missed it, oops – you could have won tickets.

Atlanta Music Guide made us one of their Weekend Picks.  Pinnacle says we’re “What to Do in Atlanta.”  And Nathan Angelo doesn’t usually dig cover bands, but he thinks we’re A-OK.  Thanks for the good words Nathan!

Doors are at 7:30pm both nights if you don’t have tickets yet.  Come early tonight if you dig the Beatles and tomorrow night if you love DJ Quasi Mandisco.  Ay oop!

We’re as excited as we can get without tipping the boat over for Summer Jams of the ’70s on Friday (TICKETS) and Reagan Rock Prom on Saturday (TICKETS) at the Variety Playhouse.  (But only a 6 out of 10, of course.)

Spoiler Alert: We’ve got it all covered: from cocktail umbrellas to dancers, from red carpets to jocks and nerds, from keytars to prom photos, from corsages to contests. Oh – and we learned a ton of new smooth hits!  Read on…

People are talking about it.  Get an in-depth at our angsty side (can that be smooth?) in a feature on the Yacht Rock Revue in the new issue of Creative Loafing that hits newsstands today.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution got into the act, calling our 2-nighter at Variety one of 3 fun things to do this weekend.

Friday morning we’ll be up bright and early to play live on the radio and rap with the Regular Guys on Rock 100.5.  Larry Wachs loves him some Yacht Rock – we’re on-air at 7am with 2 brand new (for us) songs.

Our pals from Mixtape Atlanta say it will be the time of your life.  They’ll be running a photo booth both nights, and our friends from the Songs for Kids Foundation will be providing boutonnieres and corsages at the prom. A limited number of flowers will be for sale at the event, call the Candler Park Flower Market (404.522.0005) to order yours in advance and we’ll have it there for you to pick up!  (All proceeds from pictures and flowers will go to benefit the Songs for Kids Foundation.)

Don’t forget our Beatles act – Please PleaseRock Me – opens the Friday night show with an early set at 8:30pm.  And DJ Quasi Mandisco (the Batman to Romeo Cologne’s Robin) warms things up on Saturday.

You already know the King and Queen of the Prom when free Yacht Rock for the rest of 2010 and 50 passes to see us at Park Tavern on July 2 – but if you don’t have your outfit yet, get it at Stefan’s Vintage Clothing in L5P.

Rashun digs it.  So will you.  Thank me.

We were on the panhandle this weekend for some great times and good sun. Thanks to all of our new friends at Spinnaker Beach Club for your gracious reception of the smooth.

After an insane month of travel, we’re psyched to be home and preparing for our big 2-night run at Variety Playhouse! We’re ordering prom decorations, planning outfits (get yours at Stefan’s), acquiring keytars and electronic drums, and rehearsing… which is unprecedented because we never rehearse!

TICKETS – ’70s Summer Jams / Beatles | TICKETS – Reagan Rock Prom

Every prom-goer needs a corsage or boutonniere: Get yours from Candler Park Flower Market.  Call them (404.522.0005) and tell them it’s for the Reagan Rock Prom, and we’ll have yours reserved and ready for you at the show.  A limited number will also be available for purchase on the night of the show, with all proceeds going to the Songs For Kids Foundation.  Mixtape Atlanta is getting in on the fun with some serious street theater prep for the Prom.

Atlanta Music Guide gave us some early press love on 2 smooth nights.  We’ll also be performing live on the radio on Friday morning (June 11) and chatting it up with Rock 100’s Regular Guys.  Tune in to their morning show all week to win free tickets to the shows!

Don’t forget to come early on June 11 to catch Please PleaseRock Me – Yacht Rock Revue’s take on the music of the Beatles.  And get all gussied up on June 12, because the winners of the Prom King and Queen Contest get free passes to Yacht Rock for the rest of 2010 and 50 free passes to see Yacht Rock at the Park Tavern on July 2!