Hollywood Lies on purevolume™

Rock / Indie / Alternative

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Listen, it's like this - every day, Hollywood is teeming, practically bursting at the seams with new celebutantes. Paris Hilton, Colin Farrell, Lindsay Lohan...hell, maybe you're even next. And the music scene is seemingly the same way - there's so many bands competing for your attention, you can't keep track of who's who. So maybe Hollywood Lies gets lost in the shuffle, but they're hoping that's not the case. With the silky-smooth basslines of Mikey Matthews, candy coated melodies of singer/guitarist Mathew David Barletta, and the unrelenting rhythmic powerhouse that is drummer Johnny Barbas, the music that emerges stems from pure, unadulterated love for what they do.

2008 sees the group standing behind their debut, independent release "Building An Empire". The seven-song album, produced by Casey Crescenzo, features a wide range of genres, with something for nearly everyone. The introductory single, "Southbound Train" echoes refrains of lost love, "It's The New Craze" beckons hand-claps and sing-alongs, while the indie-rock ballad "158" provides an honest look at intra-family relationships.

Hitting New England and its' surrounding areas hard between January and May, the group sees life on the road as the most effective means of promotion, anticipating a rigorous touring schedule commencing in June.

March 19

Manchester, NH and Cambridge, MA and new song in our MySpace Music Player.

Heyhey, So we've got a ton of new pictures up from our friend Amy who runs SuperFan Photography, and some more on the way from Cassandra Marino Photo as well, so if you're interested, check out our "Live Shots" album, and you can see us at Rocko's in Manchester and The Middle East in Cambridge. Both shows were a ton of fun. Friday was a Battle Of The Bands through I'm Thirsty Entertainment, and while we didn't play, we're stoked that our dudes in The Venetia Fair did. They put on an awesome show as always, and honestly, how can you say no to five kids all dressed in white from head to toe? It's hard, isn't it? Haha. Anyway, we hit up The Middle East in Cambridge for an afternoon show Saturday with Easton Legacy and And Then There Were None for a nice little hipster dance party at the venue. It was good times! The stage up there is "hella small" as people from California would say, but I for one had a blast, minus the monitors sliding all over the stage. Easton Legacy was blowin' it up...literally. Charles went through his amp, Marc's amp, and I THOUGHT he broke my amp too, the bastard, haha, but he just forgot to plug the speaker cable in. ATTWN brought the dance as always, and those guys were fantastic to watch. Really nice dudes. Charles, Jesse, Brian and I had a sweet dance circle during one of their songs, and all was well. Also, we just put "This Must Be Love" on our MySpace player, so check that out if you haven't on PureVolume. Our record is finally almost done, haha. We should have mixes back soon, and then it goes to mastering. Once we get the masters, we'll be streaming the album from either the PureVolume or MySpace (not sure which, yet) for at least a week, so we'll be sure to let you know when that is. Hope all is well with you! Best, Mathew

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January 14

More new songs and THANK YOU

This is addressed to everyone who came out to see us at the Scott Connolly Scholarship Fundraiser show in Reading, MA. From the very bottom of my heart - thank you. To play our third show ever as a band to 300+ people there was absolutely incredible. To have raised $3000 for a scholarship foundation is also amazing as well. I cannot even begin to describe how it felt to take the stage that night to a hometown crowd of all my friends and favorite bands to play with and watch. After our power outage during the second song in our set, I decided to try to keep the flow of things going and rally support for our friends who played before, and were to play after us, and to see that room packed to the back wall was surreal. Thank you to anyone who even remotely listened and gave us a chance. Thank you to anyone who stopped by our merch table to buy a shirt, grab a free demo, or even just to say hi. Thank you to everyone that stayed for our best friends Riendeau, as well as Astronomer and Always & Forever, and thank you for helping a noble cause. A big F YOU to the kids who were throwing fists in the moshpit and ruined the end of our friends set, hurt other kids, and are the bane of anyone who has ever been in a band's existence. I'd also like to extend that sentiment to the kids who destroyed elementary school children's art. That was very big of you. Anyway, thank you so much to everyone who came out, it really meant a lot to us. Please drop us a line and say hi if you saw us or just want to talk. We have two new songs going up on PureVolume right today, called "It's The New Craze" and "We Are The Virus". If you have a minute, please check those out, as well as the new shots that our friends at Return To The Pit took for us that are up on our MySpace. So if you have a moment, please check all that out and let us know what you think!

Best,
Mathew

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January 4

Long time, no talk!

So, weve had a lot happen since I checked in last. I havent written a whole lot. Ive been enjoying my break, stepping away from the computer a bit and whatnot. Okay, so where to begin? Im a bit scatter-brained, I apologize. We had our first show in Tewksbury on the 28th! What a blast that was. A bunch of our friends came out, including Sully, who is starting up his own website/company called The Time Of Music. He was kind enough to come and hang, and well definitely be doing more with him in the future, so be on the lookout for updates about The Time Of Music and Hollywood Lies. Also, the Tewksbury Advocate also came out and took some pictures, and wrote a little about us. You can read it at: http://www.wickedlocal.com/tewksbury/homepage/x1059347235. Nothing you havent seen. They basically just paraphrased our website, haha. Awesome. Next, we finished tracking our record. Waitwhat? Haha. Its funny for that to really start to sink in with me. Weve been working on this record since February or March of last year (sidenote: HAPPY NEW YEAR!), and were finally done! As a little celebration, I suppose, weve put up a new song on our PureVolume page. Yes, we have one of those, haha. The song is called, This Must Be Love, and itll be available to listen to alongside the other two songs we have up there for all of next week, where well be a PurePick on the front page. And the week after that, well be the main feature on PureVolume, and well be streaming the entire album! It wont be mastered, but to be honest, we really cant wait to have people hear it and let us know what they think. Were really proud of where weve come from, and hopefully you guys can help us choose which song should be our next single, and which song we should possibly shoot a second music video for. Anyway, well see whats up once those get online. Ive been doing interviews all day today, which is insane, because people actually want to hear what we have to say and want to know what were all about. We should have interviews with The It Sound, RiotZine, Beat The Scene, For The Sound, and You Sing I Write up soon, as well as reviews from For The Sound and PunkTastic. Hopefully well get some of those up as soon, as well as some full album reviews once we have the stream up. Last but not least, I will have our first ever merch on Monday. So once I wrap and tag those, Ill have them ready to ship out for online orders. And provided we dont get a huge influx of orders online, Ill write little notes to everyone who orders a piece of merch from us, and maybe include a sampler. Well also be doing a pre-sale for the album soon. Our online store will launch mid-next week, and well have banners and buddy icons and other fun things for you to check out on our MySpace, alongside the album art. This project is something that were really proud of, and cant wait to put it out there for people to love, hate, criticize, admirewhatever they may. Thank you for sticking with us.

Best,
Mathew

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November 1

:)

I am in a good mood as of late. Bit of a sore back, but all in all, things are going really well. We'll have the final mixes of the two songs that are going to go up online by Saturday, and we'll be ready to finally launch everything on November 1st. I'm super excited and super nervous to have music up for the world to see. This band has been more than I could have hoped for so far because I've just had so much fun writing and recording this album. It's had its' share of pitfalls and mishaps but I am definitely very proud of what we've created and I feel like I've learned a lot about myself as a person and a musician from it. Conversely, I'm scared about having everyone hear them. Music is something that I think is intensely personal to everyone, and these songs are a direct reflection of who I am and where I'm at in my life right now. But nobody is going to like every band that comes out, and I realize that there are going to be people who don't like our music, or what we have to say, and are going to have negative things to say about it, be it a family member, friend, someone who listens to the music, or a reviewer - which is totally fine because everybody has their own taste, and they're entitled to their own opinion. But it doesn't take away the fact that it does sting a bit when someone thinks that whatyou're doing is bad. Especially when you put your heart and soul in to it. It's as if someone is saying, "Thanks for hanging out with me, but I just don't like who you are, the way you dress, and what you're all about, so I'll pass on being your friend." But nobody can stop that, and I don't expect everyone to like the music because it's natural - people have different tastes. In any event, I'm really amped about playing out and having a good time. The stage is where I feel most comfortable and at home. It's an amazing experience getting to share your feelings and emotions with people and express yourself with something that is very important to you. We should have regional dates listed for January soon, and after that, we'll have summer tour dates to post, which will run through the remainder of the year. We'll be a full-time touring band come June, and I could not be more excited about travelling the country with some of my best friends, and having the privilege of doing that which I love every single night. There's also the possibility of a guest vocalist on the album, and if that comes to fruition, it'll be posted here. I'd rather not saying anything until it's said and done, so I'm hanging on with baited breath until then (thank you Matt Pryor for that cliche, haha). I hope whomever is reading this is having a fantastic day. Life is beautiful, and too short to be filled with anger. I've started to realize this and make the best of every situation, and I hope you're all trying to do the same. Live, love, laugh, repeat.

Best,
Mathew

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Comments

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Music is My Boyfriend

I liiiiiiiiiiiiiike you guys

posted May 08

Danielle

i think that you guys are really good and like keep
coming with the music!!

posted May 05

rockishness_jessie(always rockin'!)

okay heres what i think of you bostonians... good
beat... really good but the voice needs work ur turning
out like Hello Goodbye.... blaah..... amyway good luck
in Boston... i see your having a concert there..... i
myself live 30 minutes away from boston....

posted Feb 21