Check out the Article You had us at Hello by Amy Howard (here's a lil snippet of it):
Kline rushed the stage with Kurvink, Profeta and Head barreling behind.
"Them baggy sweat pants and the Reeboks with the straps," sang Kline.
The audience shrieked along with the T-Pain song reference. Kline introduced Head to the audience, warning them that they hadn't practiced yet.
11/14: Hellogoodbye
Kellie Hwang
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 14, 2007 02:52 PM
The MySpace Tour stops in Tempe, bringing along Hellogoodbye and Say Anything for an upbeat musical treat.
Hellogoodbye, a band that derives its name from the popular Beatles song, hails from Huntington Beach, Calif., and is signed to pop punk label Drive-Thru Records. Its first full-length album, Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!, came out in 2006 and hit No. 13 on the Billboard top 200 albums chart. The power pop band is known for its cover songs, from Blink 182 tracks to Enrique Iglesias's Escape.
Indie rock band Say Anything came out in 2001 but didn't really hit the scene until its 2004 release . . . Is a Real Boy. Its new album, In Defense of the Game, came out in late October producing the single Baby Girl, I'm a Blur. For Sale EP, which came out in 2003, was recorded with Hellogoodbye singer Forrest Kline, making this tour a perfect match.
azcentral.com
MySpace Music Tour heads out
October 17, 2007 07:10 PM
By Kym Kilgore
LiveDaily Contributor
The first ever MySpace [ tickets ] Music Tour, co-headlined by alt-rockers Say Anything [ tickets ] and synth-pop outfit Hellogoodbye [ tickets ], kicked off last night (10/16) in Seattle and is scheduled to criss-cross the US into late November.
The trek, which continues tonight (10/17) in Portland, OR, also features electro-pop act Young Love and Japanese new-wave rock band Polysics. Since last check, dates have been added in Moon Township, PA, and Agoura Hills, CA. Details are listed below.
All four groups on the bill built a following through MySpace before finding success at radio, MTV or with a major label, according to the tour's MySpace page.
"It speaks to the power of Internet and how we discover music today," MySpace co-founder Tom Anderson said in a posting. "Things have really changed in the last four or five years; it's pretty easy to find great new bands, even if the guy at your local radio station is too lame to give them any spins."
Say Anything is supporting its sophomore set, "In Defense of the Genre," which is scheduled to drop next Tuesday (10/23). Four tracks from the two-disc album, including lead single "Baby Girl, I'm a Blur," are streaming at the band's MySpace page, which has logged more than 7 million profile views and upwards of 17 million plays, according to a press release.
Hellogoodbye continues to push its 2006 debut, "Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!," which includes songs from demos and previously released EPs. Singer Forrest Kline said the band can hardly believe how far it's come from playing the occasional live show in its hometown of Huntington Beach, CA.
"It's completely beyond anything we could comprehend," Kline told LiveDaily during a recent interview. "Two years ago, it was beyond anything we would have thought. We would just play shows at the local venue like once a month. That was the big time, beyond what was expected."
When the US tour wraps in Las Vegas Nov. 23, Say Anything and Hellogoodbye will cross the Pond for a run of UK shows.
LiveDaily
Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! - HelloGoodbye
If you don't get it from the title, this is not serious music.
October 17, 2007
By Emma Nicholson
Sheer Music
Rating: *****
Okay, so there are no zombies, aliens, vampires or dinosaurs as far as I can tell, but that doesn't mean this album is weird free.
According to the CD sleeve, all the songs were written by frontman Forrest Kline and his dog, which may be the reason some of the lyrics are a bit bizarre. They even use the word "rad". Seriously.
This debut release by American group HelloGoodbye is a bubble-gummy offering of feel-good synth-pop. You'd recognise their first release Here (in Your Arms) from a lot of radio play because it's the kind of catchy little ditty people scream "this is my song" to on dancefloors
.
What's good about it is that the tracks don't all sound the same with a mix of tempos and production for each.
But that doesn't mean you should take this album for more than it is - silly fun-loving music that will go down well with the teenage generation.
Which means, of course, that most of the tinselly tracks deal with puppy love and Kline himself even described the album as "the soundtrack to being my girlfriend".
Okay, so if that's your aim in life then pick up a copy, but otherwise reserve it for lifting the mood after being bounced from clubs or playing spin the bottle.
Tonight
____________________________________________________________
(this next one is forever long but worth it)
MySpace onstage Web site kicks off its live tour here tonight
Find the band you like, buy its album and go to its show. All on one Web site.
This is what MySpace is moving toward. The community networking site has established itself as the place to find new music and connect to idols. But lately, it has expanded offline by founding a record label. And, tonight it kicks off its first music tour in Seattle with some of its most clicked-on bands.
“MySpace is able to promote us very well, because it is the mecca of all things social on the Internet,” said Alex Kent, bassist of the co-headlining band Say Anything. The Los Angeles punk-pop band has more than 7 million views and more than 200,000 self-appointed “friends” on its MySpace site. The co-headliner, the Long Beach indie rock band hellogoodbye, has more than 18 million views and more than 600,000 friends.
“MySpace is definitely known for music, and we love the opportunity to bring our users the sort of online experience offline,” said Kelley Electa, executive director of promotions and events at MySpace. And Seattle is a “cool market,” to start the tour with, said Electa, because the city is so well plugged into music and technology.
Music-industry folks say that the MySpace Music Tour fits well with the current trend of lifestyle brands, like Vans shoes or Starbucks coffee. These companies aren’t just marketing shoes and coffee, they’re marketing lifestyles - which then require shoes and coffee.
“You can look at it as just another tour sponsor, trying to extend the brand that they represent,” said Jonathan Cohen, senior editor of Billboard, a music magazine that charts album sales, airplay, downloads and box-office grosses.
Indeed, MySpace isn’t looking to make a lot of money selling concert tickets. Electa said “It’s a branding effort … It’s a great fan experience, inside and outside of MySpace.”
There are more than 110 million monthly active users around the world. And three times as many people visit MySpace than any other social network.
Which makes sense why hair-products company VO5 picked this tour to help launch its new “Extreme Style” brand, aimed at a younger demographic. In addition to computer kiosks where fans can check their MySpace sites, VO5 will be setting up hair touch-up stations at the show.
“It’s a great fit,” said Electa.
You may not have heard about these bands, but these co-headliners are big among teens. hellogoodbye’s last album “Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!” rose to No. 1 on the Billboard Top Independent Albums. And, Say Anything’s last album charted as well - ” … Is A Real Boy” peaked at No. 8 on Billboard Top Heatseakers.
So “the tour is not a big risk, said Cohen of Billboard. These bands “are very popular on MySpace and, yes, the MySpace audience chose them, but the fact is they could go out and sell out these venues without MySpace’s support.”
In addition to the tour, MySpace started its own label which signed on tour opener Polysics. Right now the label represents six bands, says MySpace senior director of A&R Jon Pikus. The bands were selected on the strength of their online buzz, plus traditional factors such performance chops, songwriting and charisma.
More so than the tour, the industry was expecting a lot from the MySpace record label, said Cohen. Initially there were many artists who attributed their discovery due to their MySpace sites. But their popularity fell flat in terms of selling albums. So this called into question the hitmaking power of MySpace, which hoped to utilize its site to find up-and-coming artists, said Cohen.
Still, the bands on the label say MySpace offers them great online exposure and other benefits. Singer Aja Volkman liked MySpace’s hands-off approach to creativity. Her band, Nico Vega, created a lot of buzz at the past South By Southwest music conference, but they picked MySpace Records over other prospects.
“They’re brand new, so their passion is really high and I also think they’re also sort of where the people are,” said Volkman. “With some labels, you can sign and you don’t know how they are going to introduce you to people. But with these people, all they have to do is open the door.”
And for a band like Polysics, a Japanese new wave band opening on the MySpace Music Tour, MySpace Records made sense in widening their reach to American audiences.
“Through the Internet they have a much bigger audience space, we feel we can connect to a lot more people than through the previous label,” said Hiroyuki Hayashi, Polysics vocalist and guitarist.
As for the future, the label hopes to expand to a dozen artists, including urban and hip-hop acts. The site itself is also breaking way for filmmakers, fashionistas, comedians, models, actors and photographers, said Pikus.
And another tour is planned for spring, as an evergreen program, said Electa. They are hoping to fill the lineup with emerging artists like a band who has over 100 thousand friends on its MySpace site.
“It’s crazy how a little Web site can start from nothing and become something so incredibly widely known,” said Forrest Kline, lead singer of hellogoodbye. “I don’t know if they’re trying to promote themselves more or something, but everybody knows about MySpace.”
Marian Liu: 206-464-3825 or mliu@seattletimes.com
Sticker Shock Music
Late Night Music This Week (Rogue Wave, Cold War Kids, The Editors, the Man-ilow)
September 17th, 2007 - by Dave
"Hellogoodbye drops a load of gooey synth-pop on Carson Daly Tuesday"
UGBC concert falls into place
Published in the Thursday, September 13, 2007 Edition of By Pat Irish Managing Editor PrintEmail DoubleClick Any Word Page 1 of 1
Media Credit: Publicity Photo
Hellogoodbye will headline UGBC's fall concert on Sept. 20 in Conte Forum. This will be the first Fall concert in four years, although past UGBC administrations have promised one.
For some, the Undergraduate Government of Boston College fall concert has become nothing short of a myth - much like the "Million-Dollar Staircase" supposedly being heated. Some valiantly defend its existence. Others brush it off as wishful thinking. But now, the UGBC has made one wish come true.
On Tuesday, the UGBC announced to The Heights that it will host "UGBC Presents Fall Concert 2007" on Sept. 20. Hellogoodbye will headline the event and We The Living will open.
"It's something that Jen and I, along with our program directors Erica Reisenwitz [A&S '08] and Alex Gerrish [CSOM '09] have been in constant contact with and working on since May," said Dan Sievers, vice president of the UGBC and A&S '08. "It's something that took an incredible amount of work and coordination over the summer. Finally, something hit."
Hellogoodbye, with the help of its 2006 album, Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!, has earned quite a reputation for itself. The band possesses a very synthesized sound mixed with a strong pop presence, and arguably a dab of emo - something for everyone. Its single, "Here in Your Arms," climbed the charts in both the United States and the U.K.
Kicking off the show, We The Living is a band from Madison, Wisc., that formed in the fall of 2006. Fresh off the release of its new LP, Heights of the Heavens, this up-and-coming band offers soaring melodies with rock chord progressions.
The announcement of the concert ends a four-year track record of empty promises and disappointment. The fall concert always appeared on the agendas of UGBC candidates during elections, but not since O.A.R., the Roots, and Virginia Coalition came to Conte Forum on Nov. 12, 2003, has any of these promises come to fruition.
Tickets for the event go on sale this Thursday and Friday at the Robsham box office during its regular business hours, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Ticket sales will continue next week, Monday through Wednesday, from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. On Thursday, the day of the show, any remaining tickets will be sold from 9 a.m. until showtime. Two tickets will be sold per BC ID at $20 apiece.
"I just hope to have a great show and that a lot of people go and look into the bands," said Jen Castillo, president of the UGBC and A&S '08. "I want people to say, 'Wow, UGBC pulled this off.' Not only that, but also, 'UGBC can and should be able to pull this off.' It should be an expectation every year."
Link
So, I decided I am Niyaz Pirani's #1 fan so I found another article he did back in November 2006 that I want to share. Enjoy. Ding.
Hellogoodbye's pop-punk party on Sunset
The great Tupac Shakur once said: “Ain’t nothin’ like a gangsta party.” Wrong ‘Pac. It’s too bad you’re missing out on Hellogoodbye shows; they’re pop-punk parties of epic proportions.
I haven’t missed out, though. Friday night’s Sunset House of Blues romp was my fourth run-in with the Huntington Beach band this year – and the best one at that.
With its pop-rock-meets-Daft Punk-via-Cher sensibility, Hellogoodbye has gone from local gigs at Chain Reaction and the Alley to nationwide headlining jaunts.
Among a sea of balloons, singer Forrest Kline and Co. led the House through a set touching on early fan faves ("Dear Jamie," "Shimmy Shimmy Quarter Turn") with plenty of new stuff ("All Time Lows," "All of Your Love") thrown in to satiate new listeners.
The band has rid itself of the slapstick crutch it used to perform with – dancing beer bottles, cardboard cutouts of Paris Hilton and Darth Vader – and seems to have finally built up enough confidence to let the music speak for itself.
As a victim of a previous Reggie and the Full Effect performance, I chose to forego the openers’ spastic, freak-out indie rock for a slice of chocolate cake in the upstairs restaurant. But, prior to that snack, Cute Is What We Aim For tore it up for the duration of its too-short half-hour show. Mouthpiece Shaant Hacikyan, possibly pop-punk's most intelligent lyricist behind Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz, kept to the heavier material from the band’s debut, A Same Old Blood Rush With a New Touch.
Fans waiting for Hellogoodbye’s return at the Mouse House Sunday certainly have a great show in store. And if Cute leaves a good impression, know that the Buffalo quartet is headlining a gig at the Alley in Fullerton on Wednesday.
... Niyaz
I like the dancing bears and cardboard cut outs but shhh don't tell Niyaz! lol!
In an article by NIYAZ PIRANI in the OCRegister, Orange County's news source they dive into the revival of pop-punk, indie rock music. This article is from March 2006 BUT somehow it was in recent Yahoo! news, so I thought I would share anyways. Here is a link to the full article.
Here is the section that they wrote about hellogoodbye (remember this was back in 2006):
Hellogoodbye
If outside forces had their way, Hellogoodbye might never have recorded its debut.
"The game plan was to go to the studio like a year ago or more and (the label) was like, 'Go on this tour and you can record after that' then we'd get back and it would be like, 'You've gotta go on this tour and you can record after that,'" lead singer and guitarist Forrest Kline said with a hint of frustration in his voice. "It would have been nice not to have had such a long wait for this CD, but it obviously worked out."
When he finally found the time to sit down and work on the electronically tinged power-pop debut, also picked for Alternative Press' list, fate threw another roadblock in his way. On a visit to New York, the front man's laptop - which contained the demos for the album - was stolen.
It hasn't been all bad luck for the Huntington Beach quartet. Rounded out by Jesse Kurvink (keyboards), Marcus Cole (bass) and Chris Profeta (drums), Hellogoodbye was signed to Drive-Thru Records after gaining a following through MP3.com and shows at birthday parties, Anaheim's Chain Reaction and the Hub in Fullerton.
The band's only release, a 2004 self-titled EP, was originally an experiment on Kline's computer. From there, Hellogoodbye won MTV2's Dew Circuit Breakout (a showcase competition for new bands) and accidentally ended up on MTV's "The Real World" when the Austin, Texas, cast had to film a documentary on South by Southwest, an annual event that features bands from all genres.
Recently, the band debuted its first video for "Shimmy Shimmy Quarter Turn" on TRL. Now, it's on the opening slot on this tour, but Kline, looking optimistically into the future, is reluctant to label the recent explosion in pop-punk popularity as just another obsession in the music scene.
"I try not to think of it as a trend or anything," he said. "I just try to make music."
New Article:
A Friendly Hello
Andrew Murfett
July 20, 2007
Forrest Kline is not short of friends. He has 652,288 of them, according to his band's MySpace page.
The 23-year-old frontman of Californian power-pop act Hellogoodbye says the number is a touch unrealistic.
"Most of those people on MySpace are not my friends," he laughs. "Most of them are probably like internet robots or porn pages."
Kline and his bandmates arrive in Melbourne this week for their first Australian headlining tour. It follows a brief jaunt last year playing support to the All-American Rejects.
The band started in Kline's bedroom in 2001. The bespectacled singer was messing about writing synthesised punk-pop songs on his computer.
Attending Huntington Beach High School, he and buddy Jesse Kurvink aspired to make music simply for their friends.
Kline says: "I'd gotten a guitar when I was in the sixth grade and was always in little bands through high school. But it got more and more serious as I got older. We never sent the songs to record companies or anything; we just put them on the internet."
The band's name (taken from the Beatles song Hello, Goodbye) raised eyebrows and helped it get on the bill for numerous local support slots. Soon, they were in a perpetual motion of touring.
"The first tour we did, we were pretty much stupid kids who didn't know what they were doing," Kline admits.
"Most of the bands that played with us were rolling their eyes at us. But I liked playing support. There's less pressure. If the crowd shows the slightest clue of enjoyment, you're stoked. You'll come off and say, 'They bopped their heads! That was awesome!' "
Line-up issues (they shed four drummers and three bass players) and a crippling tour schedule meant the band struggled to put time aside to record an album.
After signing with Drive-Thru, they finally blacked out a couple of months and headed to Los Angeles. In two sessions split over six weeks, they recorded and tracked what would become their debut, Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! The electro-pop sound (think Jimmy Eat World meets XTC) found a niche in the US power-pop scene.
In between, the band had been featured on the MTV program Real World: Austin. The show saw them followed around South by Southwest by a team of MTV-picked contestants aiming to market the band to the US music industry. The ensuing exposure helped land the band heavy airplay on MTV and a top 10 US single, Here (In Your Arms).
Still, Kline is eager to downplay the series' impact on the band's popularity.
"Look, it's hard to quantify what it meant for us," he says, wearily. "It definitely exposed us to a group of people that would not know who we are at all. I'd like to think that doing so much touring and playing with so many different bands has helped just as much."
