Cathy Pellow of Sargent House

Q&A: Sargent House’s Cathy Pellow on redefining the management-label relationship

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Named after the historic home where its offices reside, Sargent House isn’t your ordinary music company. It’s a management company but also a record label — and houses a PR company (US/Them Group), a video-production site (Terroreyes TV), and, now, a licensing and music-supervision division (1656 Music).

Situated between Hollywood and downtown Los Angeles, Sargent House is all of these things, and its owner and founder, Cathy Pellow, isn’t your ordinary businessperson either. From her beginnings as a 20-year-old representing fashion photographers in New York, to her role as a film producer and talent-boutique owner, to creating a music-television show and commissioning videos for Island and Atlantic Records, Pellow holds an unusual pedigree for an indie-label head.

Earl Maneein of Resolution15

Riff school: Learn to play metal on a seven-string violin

Resolution15: SvahaResolution15: Svaha (1/15/13)

Resolution15 plays metal — thrashing, chugging metal. The band’s riffs aren’t performed on guitar, however, but rather on Earl Maneein’s seven-string violin.

Now, in partnership with Guitar World, Maneein is giving a lesson on how to bring out the power of a relatively untapped instrument. Through the band’s track “Mr. Dark,” he discusses speed, string crossings, muscle memory, and more. Watch it below.

WTF? Friday: Babymetal’s sinister J-pop

Babymetal: HeadbangyaBabymetal: Headbangya EP (Toy’s Factory, 7/4/12)

It’s Friday. It’s been a long week. ALARM is here for you.

Formed as an offshoot of Japanese idol group Sakura Gakuin, Babymetal makes J-pop “dance metal” with teenage girls chanting bubblegum-style vocals over speed riffs and classical melodies. The video for “Headbangya” is no less insane, and though it came out last summer, we felt the need to share.

Grab your neck brace. You’re welcome.

Reggie and the Full Effect

Kickstart this: Reggie and the Full Effect’s No Country for Old Musicians

An infectious, goofy, and under-appreciated “side project,” Reggie and the Full Effect is the solo effort of multi-instrumentalist James Dewees, best known for his roles in The Get-Up Kids, Coalesce, My Chemical Romance, and more. You might know Reg from such classics as “Girl, Why’d You Run Away?”, “Dwarf Invasion,” and “FOOD,” but now you can know ’im in a more intimate way — by donating to his Kickstarter campaign for a new album.

Buke & Gase

Q&A: Buke & Gase on homemade instruments, unconventionality, and doing it all live

Buke & Gase: General DomeBuke & Gase: General Dome (Brassland, 1/29/13)

“Hiccup”

Buke & Gase: “Hiccup”

In late January, the idiosyncratic girl/guy duo Buke & Gase, comprised of Arone Dyer on baritone ukulele and Aron Sanchez on guitar-bass, released its second full-length, General Dome. The album solidifies the pair’s knack for producing distorted, askew prog-folk via instrumental inventions and experimentations. Sanchez took a moment from his busy schedule to talk to us about the band’s move from Brooklyn to upstate New York, what influenced the band’s sophomore LP, and what self-created instruments offer that conventional ones don’t.

Ghost BC

Ave Papa Emeritus II: Vote for the Ghost BC front-man for Pope, stream a new track

Ghost BC - InfestissumamGhost BC: Infestissumam (Loma Vista, 4/9/13)

The Pope has quit, and the position needs to be filled. It seems only right to elect the most devout man in rock, Papa Emeritus II, front-man for Swedish occult-metal band Ghost BC.

The band, made up of Emeritus and five Nameless Ghouls, posted the awesome poster below as well as a new track, “Year Zero,” available for streaming for the cost of a vote in Papa’s favor. Go listen to it; it evokes “Ave Satani” of The Omen and sets the whole thing to Ghost’s graveyard-heavy sound.