Speaking of new RPM! I’ve got an Israeli superstar band on my hands here!
Infected Mushroom have been around for like 13 years and 7 albums, and their sound has been constantly evolving. They first became known as THE pioneers of the genre of “psytrance”, a style Wikipedia deftly describes as “hypnotic arrangements of synthetic rhythms and mesmerizing melodies created by high tempo riffs” (thanks, wiki!) . Lately, they’ve been leaning toward more industrial or even somewhat metal sounds, incorporating things like driving guitars and guest vocalist spots from Perry Ferrell and Jonathan Davis. The newest album has been drawing comparisons to bands like KMFDM and other Metropolis Records artists, as well as drum’n’bass like Pendulum, but with psychedelic and Middle Eastern elements all its own.
I started out quite a few weeks ago with the band’s lead single, “Smashing the Opponent”
which hit #3 most added and then smashed (…sorry) onto #26 at the RPM Top 40.
Listen to the single: 
Now, though, the campaign for the full-length is in full swing. Legend of the Black Shawarma, in a funny twist of symmetry, has already ALSO hit #3 most added and #26 on the RPM chart. Yay! But like I said, these guys are superstars if you ask the right people, and a well-established name at college radio. We should at least be able to crack into the top 20! So that’s what we’re going for this week.
INFECTED MUSHROOM
LEGEND OF THE BLACK SHAWARMA
Perfecto
Listen: 
By the way, I was curious (and clueless, from a suburb in Ohio) so I looked up what a “Shawarma” could possibly be. Turns out it’s a Middle Eastern pita sandwich thing, and now that I’m aware of it I keep seeing it on signs of falafel places around town. Makes sense, these guys being Israeli and all. The More You Know!
ALSO, guess what!! New update as of 10/5/2009:
The other day I got to take what felt like an exciting new step in my career: I accompanied a band in to their interview at Sirius Satellite Radio! It was a pretty big deal. That place is real fancy, it’s got as much security as (I imagine) the Pentagon does but with much cooler music playing from TVs on the wall. And a dream DJ booth!
All the Sirius employees I met were SUPER nice too. I officially love it there!
Of course the band was Infected Mushroom. The guys from the band (Erez and Duvdev, left to right) were really sweet too! They talked about lots of stuff like living, making music, and partying in Israel (where they’re from) vs LA (where they live now); their genre-bending style and the evolution of the band; the “Riders on a Storm” mashup we recently sent out; and their truly remarkable live show. It was really cool learning about Israel from real Israelis’ points of view, rather than the media or my Jewish friends who have just gone on brief visits through Birthright (which is a very cool thing, but certainly not the same as living there!)…anyway pretty soon you’ll be able to see footage I took from part of the interview over at the LIFT/PRO MOTION blog!
We tried to go out for pizza afterward, but it was like 11am and we couldn’t find a pizza place open. (I know right, I got up early enough to be DONE with something by 11am?! Whaaa)…so I ended up wandering in Times Square looking for a wireless hotspot and ended up getting displaced from the seat I finally found by a fire-eating contortionist. Just a regular day in Times Square I guess.
Anyway, as you know from the post below, these guys have been KILLING it on the RPM charts at college radio. We did hit that top 20 forever ago, in fact after hitting #20 we then blasted on to #12 for two weeks in a row! So now, obviously, the goal is TOP TEN AT RPM!!! Let’s do this, you guys. We can totally do this!! I would LOVE for this to be my first Top 10 record. And so would these guys, just look at their smiling faces (with Geronimo from Sirius)!
YAY!!!
the band mom loves you 
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