Pics from studio

Tonight is a cool night. We are at the old power station in NYC. Doing recording for possible hit play release. Anton fig from letterman here on drums. Another fun night in the rock n roll world.
Peace
Dave.Hitplay

benefit concert this saturday eveing

Elisa Girlando and her band Out of Truth will perform a benefit concert Saturday at 7 p.m. at Eastern Christian High School, 50 Oakwood Ave. in North Haledon. All proceeds will be donated toward the ECHS mission project of purchasing solar panels for the St. Stephens School in Uganda and also providing clean water for a local hospital and surrounding village. General admission tickets are $20, with premiere admission, which provides limited reserve section seating and an admission to a Meet and Greet with the band, at $35 a ticket. Call the high school at 973-427-0900.

Elisa Girlando new video ROCKS!

tell mama video passes 10,000 views today

Our acoustic live version of ELisa Girlando performing "tell mama" just passed the 10,000 view mark today. We are glad to see that people can appreciate the live vocal performance. The video was filmed at Dykstra park in Sparta NJ this summer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6EqQ6T25KM

Official Press Release Introducing Lifepath entertainment

New Children's Music Division, Lifepathentertainment, Just Launched by RED/Sony Music Affiliate, Hitplay Records

Jets win crowd goes crazy

Defense as good as I've seen em and yes there is more to life than
music.

Releasing New Children's Music

Hitplay records is launching a new children's music division ; Lifepathentertainment.

 Lifepath will initially be devoted to releasing quality children's music. The first release "Americana vol 1" contains 16 classic children's songs such as: BINGO.itsy bitsy spider, old grey mare, etc. An additional bonus track written by Phil Garland is also included on the CD.

There are several things that separate Lifepath from other children's music. First and foremost is the quality of the music. "We noticed from a musical perspective that most children's music available was  hastily arranged, poorly recorded, and generally pretty terrible" states Hitplay CEO Phil Garland. "Additionally, it can be quite trying for a parent to listen to this over and over and over"! "So I came up with the idea of putting quality first", states Phil. "Great players, real instruments, serious vocalists (like ELisa Girlando) with quality packaging,combine to make a cd children will love and parents will enjoy. Its like a record should be!"

Of course having the resources of RED music behind the CD gives it a shot at being sold in some of the largest outlets in the country. So that allows lifepath to focus on the extra quality.

As if having quality music with major distribution is not enough, lifepath has developed an online activity book to accompany the CD. "We thought it would be a great added value if we had lyrics, coloring pages, mazes, and puzzles available for children on line" states Dave Bollard. Parents can sign onto the lifepath page and their children can safely surf the site and download whatever activity pages they want. "Additionally we will offer free mp3's and special offers on new products once the site develops" states Bollard.

COME OVER TO THE LIFEPATH WEB PAGE NOW AND GIVE US YOUR FEEDBACK ON THE SITE. Sign on and run through the pages and we are sure you'll agree that this is an excellent concept for brining music to children.

Classic songs, professional production, online activity book, and major distribution are the cornerstones of lifepathentertainment. We hope you enjoy.

http://www.lifepathentertainment.com/

dave.hitplay

Live in the rehearsal studio

we spent more time talking than playing tonight, but sometimes that happens. a lot of fun stuff about playing live recording new songs weddings etc. all good fun. I think this weekend its time for a serious post or two.

dave

Test photo for mobile upload

We are testing our mobile blogging now. Rehersal tonight with elisa n the band.

Click on Link Free mp3 downloads

e

Free Elisa Girlando downloads Sept

We are very pleased to offer free MP3 downloads of two Elisa Girlando songs for the month of September. The songs "another songbird" and Scheming" will be available to fans through the reverbnation/elisagirlando site. In order to get the free downloads fans will have to register their email account with Elisa. This will be used for elisa promotions only including future exclusives and will not be sold to any third party type folks. If interested click on the link above.

Maxwells thoughts part 2

Best solo bob's smoking keys solo on tell mama. Brian solid in pocket
all night. Barry as ussual not missing a note. Candy couldn't hear her
parts but vocals perfect. Fifth beetle Eric on sound maxwells sound
man gave Eric big cudos. Finally crowd into it thanks to all

Dave Bollard
Http://hitplayllc.blogspot.com
Http://Twitter.com/dbollard

Maxwells show

Despite our set being moved up a half hour we rammed through one of
the best shows of our careers. Band was solid drums had a j bohnam
drive. Phil was possed and elisa was terrific. Feedback from this one
should be legendary.

Dave Bollard
Http://hitplayllc.blogspot.com
Http://Twitter.com/dbollard

Some new Live video

Live clips of Elisa Girlando have been starting to surface all over the place so I made a link of them on youtube for you to check out. Also here's one from DYkstra park friday evening audience about 400 people. Its not the usual song for Elisa so I thought you might find it interesting. Leave me a comment what do you think?

Dave.hitplay

video widgit for Elisa Girlando

we've added a live video from the NYC showcase for you to see. It's the song "rise up".

dave.hitplay

A review of The Living ROom, NYC!

Oh yeah I was gonna tell you about the RED/SONY music showcase we had for Elisa Girlando at the Livingroom in NYC wasn't eye.

Well I took the day off from work to be well rested (cause I new if I made any mistakes playing Phil would kill me), so no mistakes here. We left for the city at 2:30 pm cause the traffic into the city can be at best unpredictable and at worst a nightmare. More on traffic later.

Getting to the club was uneventful (how we like it), so was setting up through our sound check. Getting to the club reasonably early lets you get the vibe for the place going. I was feeling very confident.

After our sound check we had about 1 hour to start getting ready.So folks started to pop in. That's always a good sign. During the check ELisa was hitting the songs perfect so our collective confidence was growing. I cant say enough to bands out there that you need to rehearse and rehearse so when the real thing comes you're not thinking and just grooven. Doing the dress rehearsal at the sound stage was a pain, but man did it pay dividends Thursday night at the Living room NYC.

I know record folks like these early (7pm) weeknight shows cause they get done with work, have something to eat, see the show and go home. But man they are a pain if you and your fans live in Jersey!

I new we had one chance to make a first impression and I wanted to make sure we had a large turnout, so I called in some BIG favors and got a bus to take people to the show!The bus trip is becoming legendary. Apparently a lot of these people don't get out much. Add to that no food, a lot of alcohol, and a few old time partying type instigators.Combine this with a ton of traffic and you have a "cougars gone wild" party bus with total mayhem and a side order of "girls gone wild".

We were into our set when the bus arrived but we all could feel the presence of the people staggering in. It was an energy boost like the Calvary arriving. We did not need it but boy it sure sealed the deal.

The band played flawlessly, Elisa Girlando sang like a star and the people in the audience new they had something special. After the show I talked briefly with Alan Becker VP at RED. He seemed blown away. Told me how good it was and how large the crowd was. He went out on a line to set this up and I think he was feeling pretty good about the results. We will meet with SONY/RED in the coming weeks to refine our game plan and I will keep you all posted.

Problems we did have a few:

1. Amanda Carl who co-wrote the original songs was not allowed into the show because she was under age! (bogus)

2. Doorman was a bit of an ASS harassing people a little; very unnecessary!

3. A bus member vomited on Bob the President of RED!!! I think it was either a near miss or a shoe slopper but that is gonna cost me some shoe polish next time I see him!

4. Elisa's mom ,Donna, was on the infamous bus and was upset at the carrying on and that the bus was 10-15 minutes late. She never was late for a show before and that upset her very much

5. We had to stop playing even though it was a sellout and people were going crazy cause another group was due on at 8pm. Club could have let us go on with the crowd we brought them.

recap. We sold the place out, played as good as we could took them all to school about how good players can be supporting a singer and had a real powerhouse vocalist who stole the show. The following quote from Andy Gesner of HIP video promotion sums it all up:

"Speaking of performances, I wanted to congratulate and applaud you on the outstanding performance you had last night in New York City. Realizing that Elisa is still a very young artist, I was concerned that the packed room and all the pressure might be visible. Boy, was I wrong! Her confidence and incredible voice stole the show, and the overall presentation was magnificent. The musicianship was stellar, and there was a palpable sense of love and positive energy just washing over the room. Now more than ever, I’m thrilled that you will be a part of our big event in just two weeks(maxwells show Hoboken NJ)!"

dave.hitplay

Ready For the Living Room NYC

We spent most of the past week getting ready for the Elisa Girlando showcase this Thursday August 6'th at the lvingroom nyc. The show will be well attended by SONY/RED music folks and will start promptly at 7pm.

Much of the work we did was getting the band ready for the show, coordinating the show with the Livingroom and RED music, and energizing the Elisa fan base for the show. I think we are ready on all levels.

The band set is very solid and it showcases Elisa's amazing voice and talents with her on Piano and straight vocal. We go from modern pop to ballads to blues rock and ELisa handles it all. Out of Truth is sounding great and although we had a small health scare everyone should be there. A founding member did go down but was released from the hospital in time for the dress rehearsal. You think Phil was nervous in the past you should have seen him when he heard Bob was in the hospital. Think Xanax BIG DOSES!!HAHA  Well it all worked out and everyone is ready to go.

Alan Becker over at RED is acting as ELisa's A&R man and was instrumental in getting the show together and getting the RED team fired up for the show. Its amazing how things can come together quickly and easily with the right people behind you. Thanks again Alan. 

Alan assured us and the club a strong RED turnout and asked me if we could bring some people over to the city to support the show. I guaranteed him a strong Elisa turnout. Because this was my first guarantee I have been working non-stop to make sure we have a great turnout for the show. I have a few tricks up my sleeve which I will tell you about if they work next week. Needless to say the fan base will be there in force.

We also had to coordinate with the club getting in and unloaded and getting a sound check and having our own sound man work with the living room sound people. Cu dos to Candy for making all that happen.

Well the band is ready, Elisa is ready, the club is ready, and RED is coming so here we go everybody...........

dave.hitplay

here is a sneak peek at rehersal this will only be here for a few days so check it out then its gone forever!!

I forgot to tell you "another songbird" held number one pop slot on singingfool this weekend and was up to number five on the California Music Channel this week!

In The RED; music that is

This past week we spent some time in the city working on the Elisa Girlando project.

Our first meeting was a lunch meeting with Tom Carrabba of SONY. He has been a fan of ELisa's and was instrumental in bringing hitplay and RED music together. He offers us guidance and other sagely advice and Phil and I appreciate his time and effort. Most of the meeting revolved around working with RED and the things we hope to accomplish with the livingroom show.

After lunch we caught a quick cab ride down to RED music for our strategic planning meeting. We met with ALan Becker and two of his staff Billie jean and Brandy. They work the RED Internet marketing department and a lot of our meeting was devoted to promoting ELisa Girlando over the Internet and how RED can assist us with this. The other half of the meeting revolved around promoting the livingroom gig and getting folks to the show. I found this to be a very comfortable group and the ideas they have are going to be very helpful to the cause. Everyone was psyched when I told them about the FUSE on demand add for September!

Phil and I then hopped down to the livingroom to get a feel for the room before heading home.

We had a long day but it really was a lot of FUN.

This week more video adds to report???

peace, 

dave.hitplay

Another Songbird Music Video

"Another Songbird" can be seen by millions of viewers!

When we finished our first round of recordings with Elisa Girlando we backed off and gave our ears and minds a little time to decompress. Then when we went back through the songs one song jumped out at all of us "another songbird". We were concerned about leading with a ballad, but the vocal was so good we felt we had to go with it.

About that time we were approached to make a video. After discussions we felt the visuals from another songbird with Elisa would make for a great video. We went with the performance and went with "another songbird" as the video. We were more than pleased with the results.

We then had this tremendous video with this tremendous vocal and we decided to push the video ahead of our RED release; get a little pre-show buzz going if possible.

After interviewing several people I came across an old friend Andy Gesner who runs HIP video promotion. I felt very comfortable that Andy and his team would give us a great effort in getting the video out to the tertiary, secondary, and if we got lucky primary video markets. Phil and I discussed and Phil gave me the go-ahead to hire Andy.

The results from our first two weeks with another songbird is VERY Positive. We received adds throughout the county with some very big adds including:

1) FUse On Demand: 18,000,000 households add for September

2) Powerplay Music TV: 17.8 million viewers

3) Sidewalks: 3.5 million viewers

4) Street Timez 190,000 viewers

5) VME media 5,000,000 viewers

6) Screenplay 25,000 retailers nationwide

7) multiple Internet sites including :billboard/tvguide/allmusic video, 9:30 club, singinfool and many others!!!

We have a great song, we have a great vocal, we have an awesome video and programmers are seeing it. Wait until they see Elsia live it will blow their collective socks off.

Live SHows:

1. Point Pleasant Thur July 30'th Jenkins on the boardwalk-huge

2. The Living Room: Our RED music showcase all should come to this one! Thur 8/6 @ 7PM sharp!!!

3. Sparta Dykstra Park acoustic set Elisa alone Fri 8/14

4. Maxwell's Hoboken NJ Fri 8/21

5. Krough's Open Mike every Thursday we are not performing 10pm

Kicking into High Gear

peace,

dave.hitplay

ps check out Elisa on Twitter : elisagirlando

Microblog

A lot to report on the another songbird video tomorrow

Dave Bollard
Http://hitplayllc.blogspot.com

Whats the word this week at Hitplay

As soon as Elisa Girlando finished her third song at Kroughs open mike last Thursday she was approached by the talent agent wanting her to play the club. By the end of the first 30 seconds she had the place under her spell. Codos to Dave Bollard for his jembe support.

SONY/RED showcase is Thursday august 6'th 7pm sharp at the livingroom. Nice story on Elisa in the living room artist page

Elisa will be performing on her own without the famed "out of truth" august 14'th in Sparta NJ at Dykstra park 7:15 sharp

Elisa and out of truth are slated to open the HIP video promo night at Maxwells Friday august 21st, should be a rocking night don't forget your earplugs!

Hitplay is debating whether to place one additional song on the rise-up CD for hard release. The song "again and again" is so powerful that hitplay president Phil Garland is seriously thinking of making the addition.

peace

dave.hitplay

killing em at Kroughs

Just finished an open mike show at Kroughs in Sparta NJ. Went down to the club to meet Elisa Girlando and her pals so she could work on some piano vocal things. Also meeting Mike who was working with HIP video promotion. They wanted CD's to give to PD's so Elisa signed 60 of them for the team.

Anyway I'm listening to one after another come and go and I start to realize Elisa is going to slay this crowd. Then I think I should have some fun and go up there with her, so I drive home pick up my Jembe and get back in time to play the spot.

30 seconds into this thing the mood at the club changes people go from indifference to awe. I mean awe. Elisa killed this place people were screaming. When she was done the booking agent came up and said she needs to play there asap. I've been playing for years and very few times in life do yo get that feeling where you are certain you are destined to be a winner. With Elisa tonight I had no doubt. She will be a major talent within the next two -three years. What a great feeling that is.

peace,

dave.hitplay

Summer Heating up at HitPlay

We have a lot of stuff happening this month at HitPlay.

First up the Elisa Girlando "another songbird" video campaign is kicking off! Kudos to Andy Gesner and HIP video for being so passionate about the project. With that enthusiasm it cant miss. The video is going for adds across the country starting tomorrow!

Next up the band is rehearsing for our live support of Elisa. We have three shows lined up:

1. Friday July 10th 7pm at Dykstra Park Sparta NJ with Daniella Cotton

2. Tuesday August 4'th 7pm at The Living Room NYC. This is our SONY/RED showcase-very important

3. Friday August 21'st Maxwells Hoboken NJ. This show is a showcase for HIP Video with some live clips being shot and interviews etc. 10pm.

More to come,

dave.hitplay

Can you digg elisa/ RIP Micheal Jackson

Elisa Girlando video "another songbird" was added to the digg site today. Go over and give us you diggs!

On a serious note thinking about Micheal Jackson this week. What a tragic life. Such a talent but like a lot of talented people they seem to surround themselves with folks that are not always interested in their best interest. What doctor would inject narcotics into a patient multiple times a day? What would be the purpose? What kind of pain did Micheal suffer from that he needed that? Sounds like people keeping him in a drug induced fog so they can all keep sucking off his assets. That's my opinion, what do you think?

peace,

dave.hitplay

Elisa Girlando CD "Rise Up" out now

The debut CD by Elisa Girlando entitled "rise up" is now available for digital download on itunes! The long awaited premier features 10 full length songs. The songs include the single "another songbird".

Another Songbird made a stir on reverb nation rising into the top ten this spring, and the video is set for national release this week. Being promoted by HIP video promotion, look for the video nationwide. Props to the HIP blog for the shout out.

Elisa will be ready to start performing with the popular "out of truth" band this summer. Elisa will also be performing with a paired down band enabling her to perform more intimate venues as well.

Elisa is also launching her new web page www.elisagirlando.com. Come over and check it out.

dave.hitplay

meetings tomorrow

Have two meetings in Manhattan tomorrow for hitplay records.

First we are working on developing our network for promoting hitplay artists. We have two areas to focus on tomorrow.

We are meeting with "themusebox" president Nadine Gelineau to discuss marketing hitplay and specifically Elisa Girlando. Her company has many resources which we feel may work well for us here. We shall see.

We are also meeting with the music house "face the music" for lunch ( ilovelunch). They have a person for us to meet who places bands with advertising agencies for tv commercials. Bringing recording acts to television could be a great way to promote the band and have the band promote the products it works both ways.

Well that's what we are up to let you know how we make out.

peace,

dave.hitplay

21,000 Hits

Hi Folks, Dave from HitPlay here happy to inform you that Elisa Girlando surpassed 21,000 myspace hits today. All this before we have released her debut CD "rise up". We are also moving closer to picking a promotion company to co-promote the Elisa Girlando video "another songbird". HIP video promotion. Life is funny, turns out their president Andy Gessner is a fellow I've known for close to 25 years. He played with the band Spiral Jetty back in the day. Many a show I played with that band.

Things are getting hectic; and that's good.

peace, 

dave.hitplay

HIP video promotion looks good

Spent the day interviewing and talking with potential promotion companies for the Elisa Girlando CD. I think I'm liking HIP video promotion and the musebox. Will be meeting with them in the future to begin a marketing plan to work in conjunction with the SONY RED team.

Spent the evening rehearsing for Elisa's upcoming NYC debut. We are awaiting the date but it should be happening in June. The band is cooking and Elisa sounds terrific so don't miss that show!

Tiger Bill just sent me a slew of video snippets from the Boodles gig and they look great Ill try to get them onto the blog soon.

peace,

dave.hitplay

That Loving Feeling

What makes a band a special thing? Why are some groups of very talented players uninspiring and the next group so much more to behold? That is the magic and mystery of music is it not?

I've had the privilege over many years of playing in many bands. Some with great players who underachieved. Some with average players that made great music and inspired fans to love them.

I've been thinking a lot about this during the past week. Playing with "Out Of Truth" has been a great honor. A rare mix of great players who when they get together make awesome music "the magic factor". But what keeps a group together is respect and a feeling of familia. Like the crazy family that if you say anything bad they all gang up on you: that's how a band needs to be respect for each other and the music.

Tonight I'm going to bed loving the music and respecting the players and unable to wait to play the music for the people. That is a comforting place to be.

peace,

dave.hitplay

Another Great Show

Well it was quite a night at the  Mohawk house. After some serious technical sound problems delayed the start of the show by over an hour thing s settled in nicely. Props to Screaming Colour for opening the show and cutting their set short to get Elisa on stage by 10pm.

What followed was a 2 hour master concert by Elisa and Out Of Truth. The show rocked and as we left around 2AM I could feel the great vibe still lingering in the air. 

Next week we pick a publisher for Elisa and HitPlay records.

dave.hitplay

Man this is a lot of work

A GamePlan for the Elisa Girlando Project :updated MAY 09

 

1)   CD : completed and mastered.

a.    Tittle? Y/N “rise-up”          actoion:

b.    Graphics: new photo? Y/N action:

c.     Art work: disc makers? Or private artist?

d.    Liner Notes: Elisa with edit by Phil

e.     First run 1000 copies for promotion 1000 for sale?

2)   Live:

a.    NYC: Have RED/SONY book city showcase have in house marketing staff work the party

b.    Tour: Currently looking at 12-14 dates Conn/NY/NJ/Pa/Del

                                                     i.     Continue to work with agency to get this coordinated

 

3)   Promotion:

a.    HitPlay PR: finish RED release send to PR web

b.    Do monthly PR web release

c.     NJ Girl does good interest article: get to all NJ papers this week

d.    Coordinate promo release on E-Girl with RED (next meeting)

e.     Radio: 8 week initial campaign for industry awareness. Need RED input here

                                                     i.     College

                                                       ii.     AAA

                                                         iii.     Adult AC

4)   Internet:

a.    What will RED be doing need to hammer down next meeting with contact people and responsibilities

b.    Blogs/websites/socialmedia/streetteams/design what cant get from RED need to purchase

c.     How can Hitplay Mike coordinate this with RED

 

5)   Publisist: what is the best timing before during or after CD release.

a.    If before need recommendations from RED and start the process now

6) Alternative Branding: per RED we cant do this

 

 

 

CD COMPLETE !

The debut Elisa Girlando CD is finished and will be delivered to RED music tomorrow. The CD contains 10 tracks. We anticipate a digital release in approximately four weeks and a hard copy release four weeks after that. Now comes the real work marketing and playing live. Should be Fun!

DAVE.HITPLAY

New! - "Another Songbird" Music Video

A Strategy Develops

After our 2 hour meeting with the president and vice-president of RED music our Elisa Girlando CD release strategy is starting to develop. 

First we are going to go with the song "another songbird" as the single. The new video is up on the net and I would ask you all to check it out. The video came out great, it is "art". Most times we would not lead a new act out into the market with a ballad but the song and performance are so special we have to take the chance.

Next we are going to team up with the RED Internet team and really boost E-Girls web presence and style. Watch the sites over the next month we should see quite a lot coming from our RED partners.

The goal is to begin having Elisa play regionally with a strong Internet presence in an attempt to build on the buzz surrounding Elisa. Once that occurs we will have ammunition to go after larger venues and radio.

Our meeting was very positive and business like as the RED team really is looking for ways to break E-Girl to the world. It should be a fun ride.

peace,

dave.hitplay

Phil dont hit the soundman or the daniella cotton story

We were asked to play with Daniella Cotton today for a summertime concert. We played with her last summer and the mix of her rocking with Elisa's bluesy vocals was pretty good. So why are we hesitating??

Well the show last year was one of our worst, and not because of anything we did. The sound company was a bunch of knuckleheads who treated us like a lame opening act rather than the powerhouse band that "out of truth" is and the great vocalist that Elisa Girlando is. We are peace loving people here at hitplay but I thought Phil was gonna deck somebody. So when we were asked today I hesitate to say yes because if things go the way they did last year.... We will all need bail money for this show:)!

Any rate on a good note we are scheduled to go into RED next week and meet about the E-Girl release so this show is really taking a back seat in my mind.

peace,

dave.hitplay

A tremendous show another milestone

This past weekend we had the debut performance of Hitplay recording artist "Elsia Girlando and Out Of Truth". The show took place at Bodles Opera House in Chester, New York. We choose this venue for their love of music. We also wanted to see how the band and E-Girl would mesh, away from the NYC crowds.

Well we couln't have been happier. E-Girl sang her heart out, the band played their guts out, and the near capacity audience was BLOWN AWAY!!!! What a night!

After a discussion with CEO Phil Garland, who performed with an intensity I have never seen before, we all feel the band is capable of playing with anyone anywhere in the world. Elisa's vocals where spot on perfect, and the banter between songs was both relaxed and intirguing. The show is ready to go my friends so dont miss it.

Also today I was notified by Mike Lewis, director of internet marketing at HitPlay, that E-Girl's myspace page surpassed 19,000 hits tonight.

Another great week here at HitPlay.

peace, 

dave.hitplay

My MySpace Hell or how 4 months work disappeared in an instant

Well hitplay fans, we can't have a great week all the time now can we. This week started out very hellish! I was getting ready for E-Girl to hit 19,000 myspace hits this week in conjunction with her top ten listing on the reverb nation charts. Then it happened.

I logged onto the myspace page and it was GONE! Gone I said. No 19,000 hits no 3500 email fans no 11,000 listens to E-Girl songs. Gone all gone. Just a note saying the page has been deleted! We spent the next three days trying to figure out what the --- happened and were getting nowhere fast.It got so bad we were making plans to just start a new page, after four months work!

And by the way you cant get any info from myspace if you need it, nadda nothing.

Then just as mysteriously it was back. Like a lost child showing up at the doorway it reappeared. I aged a few years and got a cold from the stress, but its back home safe and sound. I am well a little wiser. 

 My take home point, nothing is a sure thing and the Internet can be a very mysterious place.

Don't forget boodles this Saturday night.

peace, 

dave.hitplay

Elisa Girlando breaks first top ten chart!

Elisa Girlando (aka E-Girl) has just broken her first top ten chart! We just came in at number nine on the reverb nation blues chart, on the strength of our upcoming single "another songbird". You can listen to the song on the reverb nation site. Our first milestone before we even get the song over to RED music. I hear a buzz, do you?

Elisa also top 18,000 hits on myspace this week and is rapidly moving towards 19,000 hits. Our strategy at hitplay seems to be working. Find great songs, mix them with great musicians (out of truth band), and let Elisa finish them off and we would have that "retro-fresh" sound, the "HitPlay Sound". Slowly start to spread the word and let it build.

Don't miss Elisa and out of truth at boodles opera house Sat March 28'th at 9pm

Its fun to be here at hitplay 

peace,

dave.hitplay

The Blues or not the Blues? That IS the question.

We had an interesting conversation today at hitplay. We posed a question vital to the success of the E-Girl CD. On the surface easy to answer but when we really thought about it it became much more difficult. 

And what is the question you are asking?

How should we characterize Elisa Girlando's music. Is she blues, contemporary blues, aor, pop, RnB? 

On the surface we felt that E-Girl was definite contemporary blues. But what about the single "another songbird". That's not blues that's definitely pop, and so the dilema. If we push blues the audience may be smaller, but it would be easier to climb up the charts. This is evident by our reverb nation chart climb with minimal promotion (currently number 20 on the blues chart). But there are more pop fans and although it is harder to get noticed when you do the rewards can be greater.

So we are going to sleep trying to decide what we will ultimately do with the Elisa Girlando CD. Although we thought we had it all down we go and start thinking again, and that can usually means trouble my friends.

Listen to the songs and tell us what you think.

dave.hitplay

Elisa Girlando playing Boodles Opera House Chester,NY

We had a great weekend in the studio. Completed the drum tracks for 7 songs on the Jon George project. The songs are great catchy tunes and I cant wait until you get to hear some of it. Perhaps when they get further along Wayne George and Phil Garland will let me put a tune or two on-line???

We also recorded a new track for Elisa Girlando, and man is it good. We all felt very strong on this tune as a possible single for the new CD so much so we had to get in and record it immediately. I am here to tell you it will be a monster- remember you heard it hear first.

If you cant wait to hear the new tune "scheming", click over to E-Girls reverb nation page and check out "songbird". The song is rising up through the blues charts before the release and is now as of today number 20 on the reverb nation charts. Wow number twenty before we release it on SONY/RED music. Do you hear a buzz?? I do.

We are ready to start playing live and the first show will be at boodles opera house in Chester, NY. If you want to see a great artist backed by an awesome band them come to this show you will love it!

peace,

dave.hitplay

A Drummin Kinda Weekend

Hey there hitplay fans. This is gonna be a fun weekend for our hero (that's me). I get to go to the studio and play drums all weekend long. Boy this hitplay lifestyle is really tough on a boy!

First up is a new song for ELisa Girlando. The hitplay studios and E-Girl teamed up with talented songwriters Max Huber and Jav (his central American sidekick) to write an awesome song.Max, Elisa, and Jav are a great songwritting team and we cant wait for more. We at hitplay feel so strong about the song that we want it on the finished CD. SOOOOOOO its back t the studio I go. When you get that special feeling with a song you gotta run with it.

Next up is a great project and a possible future release at hitplay. The Jon George project. This is a tremendous project and I'm honored that Wayne George asked me to be a part of it. Once this gets a little further along I'll have more to say about it.

Well I need my beauty rest cause I'll be drumming all weekend long.

peace,

dave.hitplay

Candace Giaquinto joins Out Of Truth band

We are pleased to announce the addition of Candace Giaquinto to the "Out Of Truth" band. Candace is in rehearsal with the band and will be playing percussion, some bass, some harp, and backing vocals. The band will be supporting Elisa Girlando with her up coming CD release on HitPlay records.

Candyce Giaquinto’s powerful and distinctive vocals reflect a unique blend of influences ranging from R&B, soul and blues, to jazz and rock. But whatever the style, one of her greatest talents lies in her ability to always deliver a genuine and emphatic performance.

In addition to her vocal prowess, Candyce also plays flute, bass, harmonica, mandolin and percussion. She is an accomplished writer as well and one of the primary writers on the most recent album by The Suits, as she was for her former bands, Bliss and The Adults. Working out of her home studio, she has also written and produced several soundtracks.

Candyce's compositions are as diverse as her vocal talents and reflect a variety of styles from austere and moody to searing Latin, jazz and Afro-Cuban inspired pieces. Lyrically, she will take you on an emotional journey, often told through the eyes of one of her vivid characters.

Throughout her musical career Candyce has performed in numerous venues where she has shared the stage with Black Sabbath, Colin Quinn, Room Full of Blues, Papa John Creach and Kathleen Turner. She has also entertained many foreign dignitaries including the Prime Minister of Italy.

In the summer of 2004, Candyce traveled to China as the featured vocalist and percussionist in an R&B / jazz / reggae band, touring seven cities including Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

In addition to her live performances, Candyce has spent a great deal of time in the studio recording her own compositions, jingles, corporate tracks and has recorded work for “Sex and the City” and “The Sopranos”.

Wherever and whatever the performance, Candyce’s expressive renderings are sure to leave a lasting impression.

You can see Candace live with Elisa Girlando and the Out of Truth band throughout 2009. Its shaping up to be an awesome year isn't it!

Elisa Girlando Hits 17,000 myspace visits

We've all been very busy here at hitplay this week. On the Web Elisa Girlando hit 17,000 visits to her myspace page. Kudos to hitplay Internet marketing genius Mike Lewis for helping to get the word out for E-Girl. It seems once we started placing the videos up the web started to light up for us at hitplay!

Speaking of video we have been getting a great response to all the videos we have for e-girl. My personal favorites are the a capella version of "another songbird" and the new video for "tell mama". Be sure to check out hitplays own Phil Garland on violin, dig those shades.

We will be taking the music over to RED next week to develop our release game plan. Currently Tom Carabba over at SONY has the music and we are awaiting a conference with him before we move over to our RED partners. If you think this is hard work- your right. If you think its fun-your really right.

Looks like we will be doing an additional video next week. More to come.

peace,
dave.hitplay

New Video from Elisa Girlando and Out of Truth Band

Welcome Amanda Carl

HitPlay records is proud to announce songwriter and recording artist Amanda Carl has joined our team. Amanda has co-written several of the songs on the upcoming Elisa Girlando CD. The songs, co-written with Phil Garland, include the first single on the CD "songbird", as well as  "rise up" and a little bit".

Additionally, Amanda produced the live "in the studio" video for Elisa Girlando, and performed background vocals on "a little bit". 

Amanda has also been seen around the studio and that raises the possibility of a studio album. Finally, Amanda can be read on the hitplay blog from time to time.

HitPlay is about the "artists" and we feel we have a great one with Amanda; so stay tuned....

dave.hitplay

Decisions decisions

The CD is mastered and we have it in our little fingers. Man does it sound good. 

Now we are faced with very BIG and very IMPORTANT decisions here at HitPlay.

First: Do we go with our gut and release "songbird" the ballad as the first single. When you get a vocal performance like we have on this with the power of a great song it just seems to be a tremendous way to introduce Elisa Girlando to all of you.

Second: Do we bring RED all the songs we have complete for digital upload or do we just bring a couple of the singles to go digital.Digital uploads plug the songs into the SONY/BMG/RED universe. We would only wait because we have one more song to record that we feel could also be an extremely strong single and want RED to have the entire package before we give it to them.

Third: Now that we have most of the music complete do we start placing the songs online for you all to hear  through the hitplay core platform we have spent the last three months developing, before RED releases them? My feeling is lets get the tunes out to the public.

Fortunately we at HitpLay have some pretty good music brains working through these questions this week (myself excluded). Tom Carraba at SONY/BMG has an advanced copy of the CD and we are looking to ask his opinion on these questions as well. Tom was instrumental in introducing us to Allan and Bob at RED music so all parties involved value his thoughts and opinions.

These are important questions and it gets to the meat of the blog; this is the stuff success or failure is made from.

More to come,

dave.hitplay

Elisa Girlando - "Another Song Bird"

my tiger bill odyssey

I love to see great players hell you might just learn something so when I heard world famous drummer tiger bill was playing in PA this weekend well I just had to go. Well it didn't turn out exactly as I planned.

First the club was like 65-70 miles from my house and I was driving back roads out of the deliverance movie I could hear the banjos in the distance. Finally we arrive and after three songs we had to leave. It appears that the law in PA doesn't allow everyone into restaurant/clubs if they have smoking so we had to leave.

Three lousy songs no world famous tiger bill drum solos no thinking man I have to pick up a different instrument cause this guy is "sick", nothing just more back roads and highway.

Now I guess I was in a hurry to get home cause I got pulled over going a little over the speed limit. Now we at hitplay are law abiding folk but sometimes these speed limits seem like they were for cars built in the 1950's not today. At any rate I beat the rap because of my (I'm going to give you a trade secret here, one that keeps me out of tickets for 20 years) monopoly get out of jail free card the police love them.

Any way we have a lot of music to bring you and it really starts next week so I thought I'd just ramble a bit tonight. If you get a chance check out tiger bill he is the last of that buddy rich joe morello type monster drummer left.

peace 

dave.hitplay

we are who we are,and who we are is hitplay and thats cool

We at hitplay love music. We are in a position to take the music we love and bring to the world via or relationship with RED music and their relationship with SONY/BMG. Not a bad place to be here at hitplay.

But whats the point? why would major label people (who we love) give us the opportunity to develop artisit's like ELisa Girlando? Well thats the interesting thing.

I think I know why, do you?

The answer came to me while I was perusing a billboard magazine the other day.

While looking at that magazine I had an epiphany. Yes I said an epiphany. I noticed that many of the top selling albums where from bands that I listened to years ago (pink floyd, led zepplin etc) SSooo why does our deal relate to "the dark side of the moon" record??

Well great artists and great bands often need time to develop Page needed the Yardbirds and Pink Floyd needed many records (and many bong hits) to get to dark side of the moon. Its like a major leaguer: you don't hit 320 with 45 home runs out of high school. Even with a daily dose of testosterone, it takes time to develop.

And that's why HitPlay is SO important to the big label. We will give artist's with great talent like Elisa Girlando the ability to develop. There will be no pressure that if we don't sell 850,000 units of the upcoming CD that we will be forced by corporate ($$$) pressure to try a different act. No we know Elisa is a star and we know we need to develop her audience and her career. That's the importance of hitplay to the mother label. Without us they continue to drift from act to act until they find one that hits or move on.

We are making careers here and that's why RED and ultimately SONY wants?needs? us to succeed. As our artists grow the revenue stream to the mother label grows while we use our money time and effort to develop the acts we love and know will succeed.

And that's my opinion, tell me what you think.

Dave.HitPlay

Elisa Girlando - At Last A capella

Elisa Girlando in the Studio

Ted Jensen To Master Elisa Girlando CD

Tomorrow is a major day at HitPlay. World famous mastering engineer Ted Jensen chief mastering engineer at Sterling sound NYC will be mastering the Elisa Girlando CD. His credits include: Kid Rock,Fallout Boy, Bjork,Lifehouse,Dishwalla,Ian Hunter,Mighty Mighty Bosstones, GooGoDolls, Thw Wallflowers,Collective Soul, Hole, David Byrne, B52's,Replacements, Moby, Slipknot, Staind, Pantera, Korn, David Sanchez, James Taylor, Billy Joel, Annie Lennox, Dave Mathews and literally thousands More!!! He is the senior mastering engineer at Sterling and we are honored he will put the final touches on the E-Girl CD.

Once the CD is complete we will be bringing it to RED music for their finally review and then come up with a release game plan.

peace,

dave.hitplay 

Another Good Day At HitPlay

We had another great day at HitPlay today. First, Phil landed legendary sterling sound mastering engineer Ted Jensen. He will be mastering Elisa Girlando's album. Ted has a resume that reads like a roll call for the rock n roll hall of fame, and we at hitplay are psyched to get his finishing touches on the CD.

We also were able to get our first video uploaded too YouTube today. The nonperformance video features scenes taken during the fall recording sessions set to the song "you cant change". Go to the link and check it out. Its the first in a series of videos we hope to release over the next two weeks.

As always: more to come

peace,

dave.hitplay

noodling along until.......

my uncle George passed away this week and it got me thinking and that's usually trouble (and yes i know it has nothing to do with music),so here it goes..

we all "noodle" along in life not thinking of all the troubles around us: poverty; disease; anger; rage. Then suddenly it comes up and bites us. When bad things happen they shock us back to a dark reality and then if we survive we move on and slowly forget until this next time.

that is the model of most of our lives, and so i say don't sweet the small stuff its not worth it. somebody said something that annoyed you; you didn't get a promotion; you cant go away to Disney world this year; someone is doing better than you; it all doesn't matter because there are troubles on every horizon. enjoy the time you have trouble free, enjoy your family, your friends,your work, your life: those are the things that matter and when trouble strikes, know you didn't waste anytime on something that didn't really matter.

that's the preaching for today tomorrow we are back to work with Elisa Girlando, out of truth and hitplay records with more news about something that matters : great music :)

peace,

dave.hitplay

the goal is to keep the goal the goal

My goals are simple:

1.work as hard as i can to make "out of truth" the best band it can be. Then support ELisa Girlando so she can shine live. If that happens E-Girl has a great career and out of truth supports her for years to come. and i may get to play with her through those years!
2. work as hard as i can to make hitplay records a real success. when that happens we can continue to put out music we love and make a living doing it. love what your doing and get paid for it how good is that?

Whenever the garbage gets in the way I look to these simple goals and see if anything is worth mucking it up and if not I mentally and physically move on.

Its a good idea in life to have a goal or three and recognize when stuff that has no bearing on your goals is getting in the way. when you recognize it put it down and get back to the goal.

That's what I think what do you think?

dave.hitplay

some news

Elisa Girlando CD is complete and is getting mastered this next week.

Elisa Girlando just passed 13,350 my space hits today

Out of Truth is rehearsing for first live show of the year supporting Elisa Girlando

should be able to get new YouTube video up next week

peace,

dave.hitplay

ETTA JAMES AMERICAN DIVA

Unless you've been living under a rock this week you've heard about the rantings of ETTA JAMES. She seems pissed off. Mad at beyonce mad a Obama mad at the world. 

Why would she feel this way?

People have attitude for various reasons: they're pissed because they perceive they've been wronged; there are the talentless and they use attitude like a Southerner uses a 12 gauge or a neurologist uses a Ferrari(read compensate for small schwanzstucker)definitely not ETTA. But why Etta James? and whats the Obama thing? Could she be the only African American in America not happy he is President? I don't get it.

Well my guess is Beyonce is hot, hotter than Etta ever was physically and she is pissey that she gets more attention and Etta isn't feeling the love. Also perhaps Etta wants people to check her out online and is using this for attention.

Well Etta we at HitPlay love you. We love the voice, the weight gain, the weight loss, the bad attitude: we love it all so when Elisa Girlando sings your tunes don't be copping BAD attitude with us because for hitplay we play em with LOVE.

PS. what do you think of the new photo??

dave.hitplay

The Peanut Gallery

Hey all, Its a new voice on the blog! I'm Amanda Carl, longtime pal of the Hitplay crew and songwriter for Elisa Girlando. I've co- written with Phil Garland on four of the songs for the 2009 release so far, and they all sound great! I'm so excited for this endeavor, and am so proud of the Hitplay crew.
I've been working with Phil for over five years now, since he produced my independantly released album "On What You Love". so that leaves me at the ripe ol' age of twenty. I'm very wide-eyed during this experience of helping launch the new label, and I feel very privelaged to be doing so, with so many talented people.
Anyway, that was just a little preface, here's some good stuff.

I've been working on a small video of Elisa in the studio for promotional purposes, and its coming out really well. It is of us in the studio recording "Rise Up" its really lighthearted and fun, and I think it really shows Elisa's adorable and funny personality. I just recieved some footage that Dave (creator of this blog) recorded during the session with all the brass players for "You Can't Change"! I think its gonna turn out really great. So that's what I'm doing right now, besides trying to come up with some new song ideas to "keep producing material" in the words of Phil the great.

Thanks Dave for lettin' me on the blog, and I'll keep updating as new things keep popping into my head!
-Amanda

who is Zander Bleck?

Phil was approached by the ad agency in NYC to see if HitPlay was interested in the possibility of releasing the Zander Bleck CD. He is a very talented young man, and the NYC ad agency can be seen throughout his web presence. May be a great find. He'll do great with or without HitPlay.

 

Phil is still working the mixes to get ready for the release of Elisa Girlando CD, I'm pushing for mastering this week.

 Amanda Carl is working with HitPlay now. She is "wicked talented" and a release may be in the cards  with Amanda as well. For now if she comes onto the blog enjoy the show.

dave.hitplay

10 things I like about our RED music deal

1. RED has great reputation

2. Long term deal allows time to develop our acts

3. Has the support of management at SONY

4. We own the content

5. Great resources at our fingertips

6. Going to NYC for meetings

7. Having a SONY affiliated label

8. People want to get involved

9. We call the shots

10. We can take our time and develop a career for Elisa Girlando 

The making of Hit Play Records: good meeting no meeting

The making of Hit Play Records: good meeting no meeting

good meeting no meeting

Today we had an excellent phone meeting with some of our SONY friends to review our plan for Elisa Girlando. This was very positive conversation were we learned how positive they view E-Girls vocals and their hopes to develop her.

We were scheduled for a meeting with a booking agency but that had to be cancelled due to illness.

CD is being readied for mastering once that's done we will sit down with RED and develop a comprehensive marketing promotional plan. We feel its premature to do much of this without the CD done as the RED folk need to see the entire package to get it. Once seen they will be even more excited to get the word out.

more to come,

dave.hitplay

a special night

Played a memorial concert last night for Dr Roland Johnson. Dr Johnson was a very very bright guy, old school doctor, who passed away prematurely. I was honored to play for this event. Roland loved music and was seen at many an Out Of Truth concert in the past.

Played this show with the band Silver Train. Straight blues rock ensemble with decent players.Its not Elisa Girlando but they are a good group. We had a great night. 

It important to play with different musicians. You'll appreciate the great ones when you come in contact with them, you'll learn new styles and material, you'll keep your chops up.

We'll be working the Internet next week at hitplay as the songs go to mastering.

dave.hitplay 

today at hitplay

Today at hitplay we worked on the music. The songs for ELisa Girlando's first album are complete and ready to be mastered. Phil spent the day working on final mixes and arranging the order of the songs on the CD so the music flows. We have a CD that we believe will be very special and the songs will be coming to the Internet soon.

hope to bring the music to RED by mid February then we'll pick a release date.

I arranged a meeting with our booking agency. Bringing Elisa Girlando out live is very important. She has a powerful live voice and the band Out Of Truth is killer. So we want to discuss the venues and shows that will be available to a new artist to maximize the impact of each live appearance.

Our feeling is to have the agent to the hitplay studios. Play the videos and the music then discuss the best venues and start the booking process. I think this will get the agent pumped up once he hears the material.

Ill keep you posted

dave.hitplay

on being a musician or something

I run into a lot of "musicians" now. Some are good, some well they suck. But they enjoy what they do. Music is amazing it makes us happy: happy to listen;happy to watch; and happy to play; it hits us "primeval". 

When I was not playing and just doing medicine I felt empty     (half full) not in balance. The music fills the artsy side of my pee brain.

If music is so good and makes so many people so happy, why are so many assholes in the music industry?? What attracts lowlifes to music? I've met my fill over the years tell me what you think.

If you want to play music or do music for a living then do it, do it all do not pigeon hole yourself don't play one thing or with one group play around be a "musical swinger" that's how people will see you and who knows you might learn something from a different style of musician.

I play with some of the best musicians in the world-no joke ELisa Girlando and out of truth, but if I'm available I'll play with anyone because it makes me better.

and that's what I think today!!!

peace,

dave.hitplay