The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

Student-run label showcases artists

By Anna Marden, News correspondent

When Shea Rose took the stage Wednesday Night, at the Berklee Performance Center on Massachusetts Avenue, she looked like a bona fide rock star:’ tight leather pants, boots, an afro and a rhinestone bikini top under a leather jacket. Her band looked equally as edgy ‘- her lead guitarist, for instance, in skin-tight, red pleather pants.

Rose, a senior at the Berklee College of Music, energized the audience with her enthusiasm, showcasing her multiple talents as a musician. Her style is eclectic, encompassing elements of rock, rap, R&B, funk and folk. Her stage presence was as unpredictable as her musical genre.

At one point, Rose’ called into the audience, ‘Does anyone out there want some chocolate fever?’ One onlooker near the back ran towards the stage and jumped up to join her. He proceeded to sing a surprise duet with Rose, during which the two vocalists danced provocatively close to each other for an engaging spectacle.

Switching gears, Rose wrapped up her extra-long set with a slower song, playing acoustic guitar to her own vocals and contributions from a couple of back up singers.
But Rose was just one of nine performances at last week’s show, hosted by Heavy Rotation Records(HRR), a student-run record label out of the Berklee College of Music.

The eclectic line up played in honor of the label’s latest release, Dorm Sessions Volume 6, a compilation that features the nine Berklee-based acts at HRR’s ninth annual Epic Event.

The artists performed to a packed auditorium of nearly 1,200 people, doling out everything from pop, rock, folk, R&B, funk and hip-hop.

The eight acts that joined Rose were Nini & Ben, Rebecca Muir, Model Cars, SuperVolcano, White Shoe Brown Shoe, Nathan Reich, SEX! and Re-Up.

Model Cars opened up the show with their song ‘Don’t Go Run Away,’ performed as an eight-person ensemble that included violins and cello. Their sound was an interesting fusion of rock and lounge pop, folding in orchestral elements.

Re-Up closed the show with an upbeat set that blended jazz with hip-hop. The band had the whole crowd standing or dancing in the aisles as Cliff Kuhn-Lloyd rapped clever lyrics in a deep, raspy voice. His large band included a live DJ and brass instruments.

Between each act, another DJ – Isom Innis – took the stage with his MacBook, churning out a playlist of electronic jams.

Senior English major Carly Pifer went to the show and said she particularly enjoyed White Shoe Brown Shoe and SEX!’

Everyone who attended the show received a copy of the Dorm Sessions Volume 6 CD and free tickets to the grand opening of the Boston’s new House of Blues, where some of the bands from Wednesday’s show will perform again Feb. 17.

‘The House of Blues is a huge nationwide venue,’ said Brian Schopfel, a director of HRR. ‘It’s kind of sweet that we get to open it up.’

Pifer, a friend of Schopfel, said she will attend the event at the House of Blues.

Schopfel is one of three students at the helm of the label, which is run through a class at the university, Schopfel said. Each semester, the label rotates directors by choosing second-semester Heavy Rotation students for the job.

The CD has been in the works since late May 2008, Schopfel said.

The class worked together to weed through more than 400 submissions from Berklee bands that wished to be included on the compilation. Once a group of students from the class had selected some of the better submissions, the rest of the class voted for their favorites online using SurveyMonkey.com, Schopfel said.

The requirement for being selected is having at least one Berklee student in the band, Shopfel said. This year, Berklee had a monopoly:’ All the musicians were either current students or alumnae.

Pifer said she was surprised how smoothly the event ran.

‘I thought it was wildly entertaining,’ she said. ‘All the bands had amazing stage presence.’

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