Fifteen Minutes of Fame: An Independent Artist Music Review Blog

Originally Published November 27th, 2024 About the Artist So, today is Wednesday, November 27th. It is the day before Thanksgiving. It happens to be the day before my 43rd birthday. I feel compelled to do a “Thanksgiving” themed review. Before proceeding, I want to put this disclaimer out here that I celebrate Thanksgiving as the holiday that it is today; families taking time from their busy lives to come together and be one. I do not celebrate or condone what it is derived from; the hostile takeover of the Indigenous who originally inhabited the land I call home.  I am thankful for my family; my wife, my children, my dogs. I am thankful for a job I love, a home I feel at home in, and that I get to do Fifteen Minutes of Fame. November has given me two great opportunities now to reflect on Fifteen Minutes of Fame. Earlier this month, I had the privilege of  reviewing  an album by  Seoul Metro , who I had heard from before I started writing reviews. Today, it is my pri...

Originally Published on November 25th, 2024 About the Artist One of the visions I have for Fifteen Minutes of Fame is the limitless possibilities there are for artists from all walks of life to come together. Maybe they collaborate on a song. Maybe they support one another for a show or even a tour. Even a thing as simple as discovering one another and gaining fans and friendship can propel art, inspire fellowship, and motivate musicians to keep doing what they’re doing. The right community can be a blanket of support.  The best thing about collaborating is the shared creation of something that musicians can be proud to be a part of. For instance, the collaboration between Sherry Aviles and Christina Thomas Taylor in 2016, who formed the group  North Woods . “North Woods is a collaboration between two individual singer-songwriters who brought their different styles together to create a unique sound all their own.” (Spotify bio) Aviles and Taylor, both from the Boston area, for...

Originally published on November 20th, 2024 About the Artist I can remember my senior year in high school, 25 years ago (shut up), my Grammar/Literature teacher explaining the importance of starting and ending a story. We had an assignment where we had to write a story with a first sentence that grabbed the attention of our readers. We then had to read the story aloud in class. I didnt take school as seriously then as I would once I got into college. If I had, my story would have started something like this:  “I got kicked out of church, so now I do this.” That is an attention grabbing opening line. Unfortunately, I did not write this. Fortunately, the artist I will be discussing today did. Now that  Citizen Audrey  has our attention, let the story begin: Citizen Audrey is from New Zealand. She has accomplished a great deal. She’s gone viral. In addition to music, she is an actor, voice over actor, a writer, and director. She’s been featured and won awards in both music a...

Originally Published November 19th About the Artist What is the best thing about indie music? I know if I ask that question to twenty people, I could probably get twenty answers. I would almost bet money that the twenty answers would all come back to the answer that is in the question: Independence. Creative freedom! Since starting Fifteen Minutes of Fame, I have listened to so many artists; not one group sounding like another. I love that more than anything else. For instance, today I am listening to an alt pop duo,   Towse . Same genre as my last review. Except Towse, the alt pop duo, classify themselves as folk pop and they feature (pause for dramatic effect) an IRISH FIDDLE. The fusion of these two genres is something so spectacular and I never knew it was missing in my life. But now that I’ve heard it, I don’t know what I would do without it. Seriously.  Towse are based in London, but it doesn’t sound like they spend a lot of time there. They (Grace Fellows and Corwin Zek...

Originally Published on November 18th, 2024 About the Artist In 2011, I was still enlisted and serving in the United States Army. That summer, my unit had the opportunity to travel to our neighbors in the north as we spent a month in Canada working with the Canadian Army and exchanging methods on how we did the particular jobs we did in the military. It was an incredible trip as we got to learn about each other’s cultures, we got to visit cities in Canada, and for me, it was the first time ever leaving the States. It was an incredible feeling to know my feet were standing on Earth belonging to a different part of the world.  In America (possibly in other parts of the world) there is a stereotype that goes with Canada as being a culture of nice people. My experience was that this was a fitting observation as everybody I had the chance to meet was absolutely great. Another thing I got to experience while there was, in our trips to cities over the weekend, there is a fantastic and div...

Originally Published November 12th, 2024 About the Artist There is a community of people who speak a language all their own. It’s a secret language the rest of the world struggle to understand and relate to but to this particular community, that language is as important as any other. It’s the language of  The Office  fandom. Some might already be rolling their eyes and that’s ok (it’s not ok) as long as the sanctity of the language is respected. Yes, the language is exclusively tied to referencing direct quotes from the first seven seasons (and the series finale) but it is still special nonetheless. Without it, nobody would know who started the fire. Nobody would know what, in fact, she said. Nobody would know what to not do if an idiot would do that particular thing. So, when I found out this next artist was from Scranton, Pennsylvania, I had just one question for them. And by question, I mean fact: Bears, Beets, Battlestar Galactica. To my utter glee,  Sweetnest  r...

Originally Published, November 11th, 2024 About the Artist Before I started the Fifteen Minutes of Fame Blog, I had been trying to do different things to discover and elevate independent artists, while hoping to cultivate a community of musicians. At this time last year, I went onto Threads and I came up with the idea of liking, following, and creating a playlist on Spotify for independent artists. Then, this spring, I did my first “Fifteen Minutes of Fame Challenge,” where I would select a musician from a group of artists who submitted their music. Unfortunately, these ideas didn’t really stick but the silver linings of it all was I got exposed to a number of different independent artists. One of those artists is  Seoul Metro , who had submitted their song  Just Love . I remember how much the production value stuck out to me and it just sounded like the perfect pop rock song that would fit right in with so much of the mainstream music that is out there today. I remember think...

Originally Published November 6th, 2024 About the Artist “I remember writing it and the relief I felt when I wrote those words, ‘take everything.’”  In the history of songwriting, it can’t be summed up better than this. I’ve heard countless songs in my life. Notes, lyrics, melodies, and progressions spanning back literal centuries. It’s all derivative. Some argue that music is derived within itself and there’s no originality to it anymore. If only that were true. I, for one, don’t believe that because I know the relief that  Stonehocker  is referencing. The feeling of taking what is inside of us and letting it out. There are more than 8 billion people on this planet. Yet not one of us has a matching fingerprint. Say for identical twins, our DNA is completely different from one person to the next. So, suffice it to say, we experience differently. Sure, there may be similarities, commonalities, and unity. But the subtle differences substantiate the originality that we exper...

Originally Published on November 4th, 2024 About the Artist One of the most rewarding aspects of Fifteen Minutes of Fame has been the opportunity to meet like-minded individuals like myself: independent artists who have made a commitment to creating a platform for other independent artists to earn exposure for the hard work they put into their music. Queue  Marc Schuster Based outside of Philadelphia, Marc is “an artist and educator.” (Spotify bio) In addition to his solo work, he is the bass player for  Scoopski .  Then there’s this: Marc hosts a radio show on AMS Radio, where he showcases independent musicians. It’s called  #tweetcore . He also re-airs this as a podcast. Marc writes a blog called  Abominations  that feature interviews with independent artists, music reviews, and more. Marc is a published author. He most recently published a children’s book called  Frankie Lumlit's Janky Drum Kit . He is an artist. He has even written and produced a s...

Originally Published October 31st, 2024 What Happened in October? The real question is “What didn’t happen in October?” I am beside myself that Fifteen Minutes of Fame is completing its fourth month. I would like to wish all of the FMOF community and any readers today a very Happy Halloween as we all are gearing up to scramble over to  Mariah Carey's  Instagram page to see how she plans to roll out her Holiday festivities this year! October has been the best month yet for Fifteen Minutes of Fame. We had an amazing campaign with so many wonderful submissions for reviews. Overall, the posts that launched the October campaign received more than 20,000 views (!!!!!!) and we had more artists submitting for reviews than ever! Additionally, Fifteen Minutes of Fame rolled out the Fifteen Minutes of Fame Blind Reactions campaign on Spotify and this campaign received more than 10,000 views with hundreds of submissions as well! In October, Fifteen Minutes of Fame published 10 new reviews...