Welcome, Antoine!

Introducing Antoine Wilson, Assistant Manager, Data Analyst

What’s up? I’m Antoine and I’m hyped to join The Orchard team! I’m a native of Brooklyn, NY and graduated from Cornell University in 2009. What I love most is traveling. I spent my first two years after college teaching English in South Korea, and have traveled to 13 countries over the past 5 years. I’m always looking for new cultural adventures whether abroad or right here in NY. Besides travel, in my spare time I enjoy Muay Thai, biking, good food and of course, good music. In particular, I love classic Hip-Hop, Funk, Soul, Disco, Acid Jazz, and various forms of Electronica. If I had to pick a single favorite group, it’d probably be A Tribe Called Quest.

Zach Sobiech, Gone But Not Forgotten

You may not know the name Zach Sobiech, but you absolutely should. This week, we lost Zach to a rare form of bone cancer, but not before he was able to inspire millions with his story and music.

In 2009, at age 14, Zach was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a disease with no viable treatment. Several operations and bouts of chemotherapy followed, but last year, doctors told him that the cancer had spread and that he only had a few months to live. Zach funneled the frustration and fear of that diagnosis into “Clouds,” a goodbye ode that has accumulated millions of YouTube views and a surge of support towards his story via CNN, Billboard, and a host of other media outlets.

I’ve worked with Zach’s record label, Rock the Cause, for the last two years and followed Zach’s story every step along the way — as local press turned to national press and national press turned to a record album charting on the Billboard Heatseekers and Folk Charts. The most astounding part about Zach was that while each piece was about him, it was never actually about him. Zach never let the dire complexity of his situation derail him and continued doing what he loved to raise funds to support others diagnosed with his disease.

Last week, as Zach was nearing the end of his time with us, a host of celebrities contributed to a cover version of “Clouds,” a fitting goodbye to a young man trying to find the best way to express that very sentiment. So, minimize the e-mail you’re writing, the text you just received, or whatever other ancillary task is currently holding your attention, and check out the video below. Zach may be gone, but he will not be forgotten.

Proceeds from “Clouds” go to the Zach Sobiech Osteosarcoma Fund, which you can donate to and read more about here.

Update: “Clouds” is now #1 on iTunes! Thanks for helping him get there.

Update #2: Zach Sobiech and Sammy Brown’s album, Fix Me Up, is now #3 on iTunes behind Daft Punk and The National, and ahead of The Great Gatsby Soundtrack, Vampire Weekend and Justin Timberlake!

The Balconies Inaugurate The Orchard Biscuit Factory Sessions

Fresh from the Rival Sons tour, Toronto’s The Balconies just brought their European run to a close with two packed shows at The Great Escape. The first was on Thursday (16th May) at a Canadian showcase held at Blind Tiger Club which saw the band win over a large crowd in mid-afternoon, with the second a packed sweat box Green Store Door (18th May) where the band made sure everyone was still awake at 2AM!

The Balconies have just released their new Kill Count EP in Europe, joining friends Two Hours Traffic for several dates including a showcase at the Dauw Pop Festival in Holland. Kill Count combines straight-up Rock with Pop harmonies for a highly accessible appeal. Produced by Jon Drew (Tokyo Police Club, Fucked Up), the EP has been met with critical acclaim — something the band will be looking to build on when they release their debut album later this year.

The band recently launched a PledgeMusic campaign to raise money to finish the project — and met their goal in only two weeks! The album has been recorded by well-renowned producer Arnold Lanni (Our Lady Peace, Finger Eleven, Simple Plan).

Before hitting The Great Escape, The Balconies were kind enough to swing by The Orchard’s new UK offices for what would be The Biscuit Factory Sessions’ debut performance. Here are some images from their set, taken by yours truly.

Prepare to LOL: YouTube’s Comedy Week Is Here

Comedy is arguably the top category on YouTube after Music. Most of the programming innovations are coming from Comedy channels; a lot of YouTube’s original content funding is going to Comedy channels; and a lot of viewers are heading to YouTube to LOL. In honor of this, YouTube launched its first ever Comedy Week last night at 8PM ET, and new live shows will stream each night at that time until Saturday, May 25.

Numerous promos have run the past couple of weeks, though the team responsible for YouTube at The Orchard has a favorite in the in-house video created by YouTube featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger. You can find others over at this AdWeek piece.

YouTube’s own channel is serving as the official guide to Comedy Week. They’re even showing off an interesting shift toward dedicated viewing times further down on the page. Today’s highlights include The Lonely Island, Reggie Watts, The Gregory Brothers, Ricky Gervais, Improv Everywhere, Sarah Silverman, and numerous others.

Keep an eye out for more themed events coming up throughout the year. Who knows, maybe Shakespeare Week is just around the corner!

5 Tech Inventions That Have Influenced Dance Music

As the hysteria around Daft Punk’s new album reaches fever pitch, I thought we should step out of the box and look at what has helped drive the Dance music world: Technology of course!!! Our favorite thing after music.

It’s a known fact that the whole musical landscape has changed as technology has evolved. The world of Dance music, more than most, has seen the influence of technology affect pretty much everything from the way music is made to how it’s played out. A number of glorious inventions over the years have created gadgets, software, hardware… but which one has made the biggest impact that over the course of history?

Since we’ve all got a bit of tech geek in us one way or another (if you love your iPhone you’re a tech geek), today we run down 5 of the most influential tech inventions for the Dance world.

5. Roland TB 303 
A fairly standard bass synth, nothing too out there — to the point where the 303 would have been consigned to the dumper if DJ Pierre hadn’t discovered the alien acid squelch locked deep in its circuits back in ’85. He captured the sound on tape as “Acid Tracks” and the rest, they say, is history.

4. Pioneer CDJ-1000
Want to see a vinyl obsessive cry? Remind them of the day when Pioneer perfected CD decks. In 2001, the CDJ-1000 became the club standard and wrenched DJing away from the 12”s and into the hands of anybody who could burn a CD off their computer.

3. Roland TR-808
With its eerie handclaps, tinny snares and booming bass, the 808 single-handedly sent Disco into space. When it dropped in ’81, critics moaned that its distinctive ‘boom-tish’ sounded nothing like a real drum kit — but forward-thinking bedroom producers knew that was the whole point.

2. Rosie The Mixer
Francis Grasso may get the credit as the first DJ to mix two records, but he couldn’t have done it without little Rosie. Named after inventor Alex Rosner, this one-off design enabled Frank to seamlessly blend between two tunes (or cue up a car crash).

And the winner is…

1. Technics SL-1200
These are the original and still the best turntables, with their older brothers the 1210’s. See that DJ sheepishly fiddling with an iPad and a couple of leads? He’d much rather be cutting loose behind a couple of these. A high end record deck designed for Disco yuppies in 1979, the original ones and twos were hijacked by Hip Hop, supercharged House and provided lift-off for every Dance genre since. By offering push-button precision, they let DJs chop up records on a dime — and look good doing it. Technics stopped production in 2010, but whether future DJs choose to play off laptops, phones or whatever, these babies will live on in Dance music DNA forever.

So what will be next? The new ‘toy’ that is a box of tricks that promises to be a one-stop music making device. Could it forever change the way bedroom DJs bring music to the masses or the way a superstar DJ creates the next big tune? Could the Traktor Z2, CNTRL:R or OP-1 be the ‘one?’ Technology is forever changing; blink and you might miss it.