DESCRIBE YOUR GENRE: Part Tom Waits, Part Snoop Dogg.

CATEGORY ENTERED: Album Category/ EP Category

SONGS SUBMITTED: Full Album Red to Black

ALBUM SUBMITTED: Ali Holder & The RainDoggs “Red to Black”

LABEL Name OR Self-Released: Self-Released under “Carmella Studios” named after my grandmother.

PLEASE LIST THE ARTISTS FEATURED ON THIS RELEASE.
Vocals: Ali Holder
Guitar: Rob Huntley
Guitar: Stewart Cundy
Bass: Rob Porta
Lead Trumpet: Michael Prohaska
Sax: Brent Cagle
Drums: Chris Hausler
Guest Playa’s: Guitar: Mike Lawrence-Yannicelli, Guitar: Stephen Selvey, Keys: Bob Fulton

WHAT’S THE STORY BEHIND YOUR BAND NAME? WERE THERE ANY CONTENDERS? This band started off as a simple songwriting challenge. Rob Porta, our manager/bass player/producer spent his career in NYC as an Art Director. Rob has worked with the Village Voice as a video editor, art director along with producing short films and plays. He’s creative life started with music, back in 1988 he played with NYC hard core band “Beyond” for 8 months. Although a successful Art Director the one thing he never did was write and record a full album. “Red to Black” was just a songwriting challenge, so there was no band. Rob would ask friends to play on songs that he thought would fit their style. He met sax player Brent Cagle and guitarist Rob Huntley in a Tom Waits tribute band. Since the band had no singer yet they felt like a pack of lost dogs looking for their pack leader. Since “Red to Black” also has a R&B feel, adding the double GG’s in honor of Snoop Dogg made sense.

DESCRIBE YOUR LATEST RELEASE. Picture Tom Waits and Snoop Dogg in a 68 Camaro driving from New Orleans to LA, and it’s all being filmed by David Lynch.

DID YOU USE ANY UNUSUAL INSTRUMENTS OR EFFECTS? We couldn’t afford to record the drums in a studio, so they were purchased. They are recordings of a real drummer, but you have 1000′s of loops, styles and beats to choose from. We also went a little old school and used backward messages.

WERE THERE ANY ‘HAPPY ACCIDENTS’ IN THE STUDIO OR DID YOU RECORD IT AS PLANNED? The whole thing was a happy accident. We played our first show as a unit last month, it was the first time they all met each other.

DID FANS HELP FUND THIS PROJECT? We used KickStarted to raise money for the physical CD’s. Other than that we recorded everything on Logic.

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO SUBMIT TO THE 11TH IMAS? Once we finished the final mix we all thought it came out really well. We entered “Stuck in RED” in the “Rock your style” songwriting contest and come in 4th. We then started submitting the album for reviews and they are coming back positive. We’ll just keep riding the momentum.

WHO IS SITTING IN YOUR AUDIENCE?/WHAT MAKES YOUR FANS UNIQUE? There’s a wide age range in the RainDoggs. We appeal to a nice group of people. Our arrangements are standard POP, but it’s layered with interesting rhythms and horn arrangements. We have a nice balance of “Normal” and “Strange” and our audience shows that.

HAVE YOU EVER HUNG OUT WITH ONE OF YOUR MUSICAL HEROES? WHAT’S THE STORY? While working at the Village Voice (rob porta) Ozzy Osbourne was signing autographs at Tower Records. Since they were a client of ours they let me bring my 6 year son in to meet him because our rep knew he liked his music. So I have a photo of Ozzy holding my 6 year old son. Not really hanging out, but the man is the GodFather of Heavy Metal.

WHAT’S YOUR MOST MEMORABLE ACHIEVEMENT TO DATE? So far this album is the most well received creative project we ever worked on. So the jury is still out.

WHAT’S YOUR BEST/CRAZIEST TOUR STORY? There’s a lot of veterans in this band who all have stories, but this unit has yet to tour.

ARE THERE ANY SONGS YOU WISH YOU WROTE? Miss You by the Rolling Stones.

WHAT ARTISTS ARE YOU LISTENING TO THAT WOULD SURPRISE YOUR FANS? Gogol Bordello, John Zorn, JJohn Mellencamp, Brice Springsteen

WHAT IS YOUR DREAM SHOW LINEUP? We would love to open for The Heavy, Black Keys or any artist on Daptone Records.

FINISH THIS SENTENCE: THE MUSIC INDUSTRY IS… Not what it used to be, it’s time to borrow Apple’s “Think Different” approach.

WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN THE WORKS FOR THE UPCOMING YEAR? Because the music industry is changing, our plan is to collaborate with various singers with songwriting, touring and recording.

HOW CAN FANS FOLLOW YOU? WHERE IS YOUR MUSIC AVAILABLE? Online is the new Record Store. iTunes, Amazon and so on. You can also listen and follow us on http://raindoggs.com

9th IMA Judge Tom Waits has taken his talents to the big screen. He’s currently starring as Mr. Nick in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, alongside Christopher Plummer and the late Heath Ledger.

Here’s the 411 on the film:

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a fantastical morality tale, set in the present day. It tells the story of Dr. Parnassus and his extraordinary ‘Imaginarium,’ a traveling show where members of the audience get an irresistible opportunity to choose between light and joy or darkness and gloom. Blessed with the extraordinary gift of guiding the imaginations of others, Dr. Parnassus is cursed with a dark secret. Long ago, he made a bet with the devil, Mr. Nick, in which he won immortality. Many centuries later, on meeting his one true love, Dr. Parnassus made another deal with the devil, trading his immortality for youth, on condition that when his first-born reached its 16th birthday he or she would become the property of Mr. Nick. Valentina is now rapidly approaching this ‘coming of age’ milestone and Dr. Parnassus is desperate to protect her from her impending fate. Mr. Nick arrives to collect but, always keen to make a bet, renegotiates the wager. Now, the winner of Valentina will be determined by whoever seduces the first five souls. Enlisting a series of wild, comical and compelling characters in his journey, Dr. Parnassus promises his daughter’s hand in marriage to the man that helps him win. In this captivating, explosive and wonderfully imaginative race against time, Dr. Parnassus must fight to save his daughter in a never-ending landscape of surreal obstacles – and undo the mistakes of his past once and for all…

Anti-Records will release Glitter and Doom Live, a two-disc collection of the best of the best tracks from Tom Waits’ sold out, highly acclaimed, “Glitter and Doom” tour on November 24th. The 17 tracks were recorded during Waits’ sold-tour through the US and Europe during the summer of 2008. Included are versions of “Get Behind the Mule” and a reinvention of “Singapore,” both of which are available for preview now at the newly launched www.TomWaits.com, along with eight other tracks.

The CD and LP editions include a bonus 35 minute disc, “Tom Tales,” which compiles between-song banter from various tour stops into a continuous monologue, and chronicles for the first time one of fans’ favorite parts of a Waits’ performance.

Disc One is designed to sound like one evening’s performance, even though the tracks are selected from 10 cities, including Paris, Birmingham, Tulsa, Milan, Atlanta and Dublin.

Disc Two, called “Tom Tales,” includes the comic bromides, strange musings, and unusual facts that Tom traditionally shares with his audience during the piano set. Waits’ topics range from the ritual of insects to the last dying breath of Henry Ford.

The first disc covers all eras of Waits’ eclectic catalog as he shifts seamlessly from an array of characters: carnival barker, preacher, country singer, soul balladeer; cabaret singer and storyteller. Backed by a versatile 5 piece band, Waits departs from the songs’ original incarnations. The songs’ instrumentation and rhythms are rearranged and re-imagined into a stew of swampy tribal rhythms, ominous hymns, gypsy flavored ballads, searing rhythmic R&B and Blues boogies. The songs, as expected, are about hanged men, woebegone sailors, sword swallowers, fugitives, shamans, ghosts, dance instructors and prison guards.

Pre-orders are being taken at tinyurl.com/glitteranddoom.

Track List:
01. Lucinda / Ain’t Goin Down
02. Singapore
03. Get Behind The Mule
04. Fannin Street
05. Dirt In The Ground
06. Such A Scream
07. Live Circus
08. Goin’ Out West
09. Falling Down
10. The Part You Throw Away
11. Trampled Rose
12. Metropolitan Glide
13. I’ll Shoot The Moon
14. Green Grass
15. Make It Rain
16. Story
17. Lucky Day

Here’s a sneak peak: