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Maroon 5

Capturing their first of two Grammys as Best New Artist of 2005, and going on to sell more than ten million albums worldwide, Maroon 5 won plaudits with the hybrid rock/R&B sound they introduced on their debut album Songs About Jane. On May 22nd 2007, after four years and live shows alongside the likes of The Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder, the quintet released their much-anticipated second album, It Won’t Be Soon Before Long (A&M/Octone Records) to rave reviews. Listeners can expect this sophomore outing to be “sexier,” “stronger” and even “lyrically darker” than Jane, according to vocalist/guitarist Adam Levine, who affirms that “it’s rooted in what we’ve always been, which is different.” The album, recorded in their home town of Los Angeles, was guided by producers Mike Elizondo (Fiona Apple, Eminem), Mark “Spike” Stent (Gwen Stefani, Bjork, Keane, Marilyn Manson), Mark Endert (Madonna, Fiona Apple) and Eric Valentine (Queens of the Stone Age, Nickel Creek). It also reflects the contributions of new drummer Matt Flynn, whose harder beats complement the evolved sound of Levine, guitarist James Valentine, bassist Mickey Madden and keyboardist Jesse Carmichael. “We’re all really happy with the finished product,” says Levine, crediting the label for welcoming new sounds and textures. “With Jane you could pick out our influences pretty easily, but now it sounds more like Maroon 5,” says Levine. “We’re becoming our own band, and I think this album will help change perceptions of who we really are.” From first single, “Makes Me Wonder,” it is clear that Maroon 5 has once again captured all of the elements that create a universally popular pop rock song. The song segues from a bass heavy intro to an infectiously catchy melody that soon belies the sentiment, “Give me something to believe in because I don’t believe in you anymore.” Beneath the surface, it also incorporates what Adam Levine calls “an increasing dissatisfaction with the direction of the world” and its leaders, imparting a new layer of meaning to an otherwise upbeat breakup song. “If I Never See Your Face” offers brash honesty in the wake of a fling, its spare guitar over a steady beat tipping its hat to Quincy Jones. A burst of electronica opens “Wake Up Call,” whose hip-hop sensibility guides a dark story exploring the depths of betrayal and rage. It Won’t Be Soon Before Long mines its share of hopefulness as well. In the hyperkinetic rock meets hip-hop of “A Little of Your Time” (which Levine calls “the most unique track on this album, with some of the best lyrics we’ve ever written”), a relationship must overcome the challenge of distrust and miscommunication to persevere, and the bass-pulsing “Won’t Go Home Without You” asks plaintively for “one more chance to make it right.” High school mates in West L.A., Levine, Carmichael and Madden, first achieved recognition under the moniker Kara’s Flowers. Although the world seemed to open oyster-like for them – recording their first album with legendary producer Rob Cavallo (Green Day, Goo Goo Dolls) – their debut, The Fourth World, proved a commercial disappointment. Kara’s Flowers was given a release from the label, and its members mulled their collective future. College became the intermediate answer, and while Madden stayed in Los Angeles to study at UCLA, Levine and Carmichael headed east to State University of New York. The SUNY dorms yielded an epiphany. “The halls were blasting gospel music and people were listening to stuff we’d never actually listened to, like Biggie Smalls, Missy Elliot and Jay-Z,” recalls Levine. “The Aaliyah record had come out around then, and we were just blown away.” Until then, his songwriting influences had been The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel and other artists he’d grown up with. But now his musical landscape had experienced a tectonic shift. Levine began to actively listen to Stevie Wonder and embraced a new singing style. Carmichael started playing keyboards. And the future suddenly looked bright again, in a very different light. When the duo hooked back up with Madden in L.A., they were reinvigorated by adding an R&B, groove-based tint to their explosive rock & roll. With the new musical frame of mind came a new name, Maroon 5, and a fifth member, guitarist James Valentine. “James came along right as we were deciding on the name,” says Levine. “We clearly weren’t Kara’s Flowers anymore, with the addition of James and an entirely new approach to music.” Fortified with a new attitude, a new sound and a new name, Maroon 5 quickly attracted attention from labels. Octone Records, then a new indie label based in New York, signed the group, and in 2001 Maroon 5 entered the studio with producer Matt Wallace (The Replacements, Faith No More). Melding their rock roots with their newfound love of R&B, the result was Songs About Jane. Released in June 2002, it featured pop rhythms and classic soul melodies co-habiting with searing guitars and a powerful rock undercurrent. On top of it all, Levine’s expressive voice belted out tale after tale of an ex-girlfriend. The album yielded a four chart-topping singles. One of them, “This Love,” earned Maroon 5 a Best New Artist Moon Man at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards; went #1 at Top 40, VH1 and MTV simultaneously; and became the first song certified as a platinum download. The other, “She Will Be Loved,” scored a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal. The other two singles from Jane, “Harder to Breathe” and “Sunday Morning,” reached the Billboard Top 20 and Top 40 respectively. The band also snagged a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, which it went on to win. Between singles, Maroon 5 held serve for ten weeks in 2004, dominating the Modern Adult Contemporary, Hot AC and Adult Top 40 charts. To date Jane, has been certified quadruple platinum in the U.S. and has reached gold or platinum status in over 35 countries. Maroon 5 toured alongside scores of artists, from The Rolling Stones to Stevie Wonder (at the close of Live 8 in Philadelphia). They performed on virtually every TV show that features musical guests, including “Saturday Night Live,” “The Late Show with David Letterman,” “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” “The Today Show” and many others. Following up with Acoustic (2004), a collection of unplugged songs, and Live – Friday, the 13th (2005), Maroon 5 earned a second Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for the 2006 live recording of their international hit single “This Love.” Also known for their commitment to the environment, Maroon 5 was honored at the 2006 Environmental Media Awards and recently pledged their time and energy toward Global Cool, a newly launched initiative to fight global warming by motivating a billion people worldwide to reduce their personal energy use. For more information, please visit www.maroon5.com.

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Dec 12, 06:35 PM

All Things Fun... a new blog by jesse

Hello Everyone... we're all back in the States now... Great to be here... And great to be almost completely done with the recording of our album... Now it's time for final finishing touches and the mixing process. I stayed on LA time this whole last trip to Switzerland... Very interesting to have been eating lunch at 1am and dinner at 6am... Now we're in Dallas playing a private party tonight, and then heading our separate ways tomorrow. Definitely feels like the holiday season these days... Hope you're feeling it too...

Just picked up a copy of the Beatles remastered Abbey Road album... one of the best albums of all time... And after the short documentary that came on the CD it redirected me to www.thebeatles.com and I thought... oh my god... my whole life, the whole time the Beatles have been my favorite band, and I've never been to their website?!?! :) So fun to see old videos of their crazy ride through the 7 years that they released albums... can you believe that? 1963: Please Please Me, their first album... to 1970: Let It Be, their last official album... I think they did more, and had more of an impact than any other band in the history of time... thoughts?

Anyway... I just wanted to pass on this great little video (thanks John) that shows how important the concept of Fun is to the idea of things changing for the better... nice food for thought... how else can we use the concept of Fun to entice people to get involved with things that are good for them/good for all of us...

Watch the video here...

Much Aloha jrc
Dec 07, 10:15 AM

Singin' In The Rain and Savin' the World... a new blog by jesse

Hello Everyone… good afternoon from Vevey, Switzerland… such a beautiful place here… looking out onto Lake Geneva and the Alps… a great place for recording music.

We are almost finished with the album… putting the last guitar and keyboard touches on the record.

Very excited for you to hear it…

It’s raining here right now… and I’m listening to Gene Kelly “Singin’ in the Rain” so great… have you seen it? Watch it here...

Just read that he had a fever of 103 and was sick as a dog when he filmed that scene… what a pro.

OK… so that’s that… and that’s beautiful… but there’s another video that I wanted to share with you that’s much more important… it’s about the situation we’re facing on this planet as our world population, and the pollution we are creating, both continue to grow exponentially.

You’re probably aware of this situation on some level… and the real question is, how can each of us contribute to solving this serious problem? I think the answer, beyond making conscious choices in our daily lives about little things like individual conservation, is to get involved with the debate that is taking place on the political and legislative level.

Here’s a video about why we can’t just sit back and accept the proposed solution of “Cap and Trade” that is being presented to us as a means to reduce Carbon Emissions and stop the growing problem of “Global Warming”.

The video was made by a woman named Annie Leonard (who made a great video a while ago called “the Story of Stuff") her explanations are simple direct and clear, and the animations are engaging and make the concepts she’s talking about even easier to understand…

I think it’s really important that as many people as possible see this video…

I hope it connects with you on some level…

Watch it here

At the end of the video she proposes 4 things that will have a practical and profound effect on the situation we’re facing…

1. solid caps
2. strong laws
3. citizen action
4. carbon fees to pay off ecological debt

And that 3rd one is where we come in… Citizen Action… first we need to get passionate about the issue… and then we need to gently and lovingly spread the awareness of the problem to other people. And very soon, there will be a time to voice our opinion to our leaders… because they really do listen to the people when the outcry is overwhelming.

Don’t be afraid that you don’t have the right to have an opinion about something on this large of scale… in our hearts we know what is right for the planet and the future of the human race… we have a big transition ahead of us… from a state of mindless consumption and a false sense of invincibility to a conscious state of balance and sustainable co-habitation of this planet with all the other people, animals, and plants that we share it with. I’m very excited about this transition and I think we can make it as fun and inspiring as we want it to be.

With love,
jrc
Dec 01, 06:45 PM

Happy December... a new blog by Jesse

Happy December 1st Everyone!!! (except for everyone over here on this side of the planet... where it is already December 2nd... and in those cases... Happy December 2nd Everyone!!!)
Well... here we are... Another day of getting one day closer to finishing the record for us... things are slowly happening... in a very nice way... Hope everything is going well for you right now. Here's some good words from the website Daily Om

December 1, 2009
Everything You Do Matters
The Ripple Effect

In a world of six billion people, it’s easy to believe that the only way to initiate profound transformation is to take extreme action. Each of us, however, carries within us the capacity to change the world in small ways for better or worse. Everything we do and think affects the people in our lives, and their reactions in turn affect others. As the effect of a seemingly insignificant word passes from person to person, its impact grows and can become a source of great joy, inspiration, anxiety, or pain. Your thoughts and actions are like stones dropped into still waters, causing ripples to spread and expand as they move outward. The impact you have on the world is greater than you could ever imagine, and the choices you make can have far-reaching consequences. You can use the ripple effect to make a positive difference and spread waves of kindness that will wash over the world.

Should the opportunity arise, the recipient of a good deed will likely feel compelled to do a good deed for someone else. Someone feeling the effects of negative energy will be more likely to pass on that negative energy. One act of charity, one thoughtful deed, or even one positive thought can pass from individual to individual, snowballing until it becomes a group movement or the ray of hope that saves someone’s life. Every transformation, just like every ripple, has a point of origin. You must believe in your ability to be that point of origin if you want to use the ripples you create to spread goodness. Consider the effect of your thoughts and actions, and try to act graciously as much as possible.

A smile directed at a stranger, a compliment given to a friend, an attitude of laughter, or a thoughtful gesture can send ripples that spread among your loved ones and associates, out into your community, and finally throughout the world. You have the power to touch the lives of everyone you come into contact with and everyone those people come into contact with. The momentum of your influence will grow as your ripples moves onward and outward. One of those ripples could become a tidal wave of positivity.

-jrc
Nov 25, 10:34 AM

The Talking Piano by Jesse

Hey everyone… thanks for a great tour… we had a blast… such great energy from all y’all that came out to the shows…

and thanks to everyone who helped put the shows on at each college…

Now it’s time for all of us to give thanks with our families… and then get over to Switzerland to finish the album.

2010 is gonna be a good year…

But that is then… and this is now…

and tonight I saw something on the ever enjoyable and educational superforest.org that made me soooooo excited…

Here is a video of an austrian composer who took an audio recording of a child’s voice and then broke the sound down into its tiniest pitch variations (he described this process of breaking down sound waves as being similar to breaking down an image into individual pixels) and then had a machine player piano play those notes in a way that made the exact sound of this child’s voice come out of the piano strings… you have to see it to believe it… it’s amazing… got me thinking about how much can be communicated by a musical instrument…

wow…

click here to watch the video...

happy thanksgiving…

much aloha. jrc
Nov 02, 08:14 AM

on the road again... by jesse

Yo!!!!!! hello everyone... from nashville... college tour starts today... excited...

here's a video i just saw on a website called I Want To Hold Your Hand...

the text underneath the video reads:

"Brazilian duo Cecilia Siqueira and Fernando Lima of Duo Siqueira Lima performs Tico Tico no Fuba with one guitar."

it's soooooooo beautiful and inspirational and fun... this is where I see our band going in the future... ;)

ciao bonitas!!!

jrc
Watch the video here...
Oct 30, 01:43 PM

Kate Earl and Fitz & The Tantrums Added to More Shows

The upcoming Back to School Tour with Maroon 5 kicks off on Monday in Murray, KY at Murray State University! Please see below for line-changes. If you haven't gotten your tickets already, what are you waiting for? Click here for links to every show!

Also- don't forget, starting Monday, 11/2 you'll be able to go to twitvid.com/maroon5 and submit your video singing along to one of Maroon's songs to win $15,000! YOU NEED TO ENTER THIS!!

Nov. 2nd - Murray, KY Regional Events Center - Murray State University w/ Kate Earl

Nov. 3rd - Louisville, KY Knights Hall - Bellarmine University w/ Kate Earl

Nov. 6th - Rochester, NY Gordon Fieldhouse - Rochester Institute of Technology w/ Kate Earl

Nov. 8th - Ithaca, NY Barton Hall - Cornell University w/ Fitz & The Tantrums

Nov. 10th - Blacksburg, VA Burruss Auditorium - Virginia Tech w/ Fitz & The Tantrums

Nov. 12th - Fairfield, CT - William Pitt Center - Sacred Heart University w/ Fitz & The Tantrums

Nov. 14th - Lewisburg, PA Sojka Pavillion - Bucknell University w/ Fitz & The Tantrums

Nov. 16th - Newark, DE - Bob Carpenter Center Univ. of Delware w/ Fitz & The Tantrums

Nov. 18th - Peoria, IL Peoria Civic Center - Bradley University w/ Fitz & The Tantrums

Nov. 21st - San Angelo, TX Junell Center/Stephens Arena - Angelo State University w/ Fitz & The Tantrums

Nov. 22nd - Wichita, KS Charles Koch Arena - Wichita State Univ. w/ Fitz & The Tantrums
Oct 23, 01:28 PM

EXCLUSIVE Rolling Stone In-Studio Feature and Video with Maroon!

Maroon 5 Hit the Studio in Switzerland: Exclusive Video

RollingStone.com has an exclusive in-studio video with Maroon 5 while they've been recording their new studio in Switzerland. CLICK HERE to read the article and check out the video!
Oct 21, 08:14 PM

Auto-Tune The Universe by Jesse

Yoooooooooooo!!!!! happy daytime/nighttime everyone... I'm just sitting here having my mind blown by the genius of this video... please check it out and smile and laugh and cry and get excited and have a good time...

HoPe EveRyoNe iS haVinG fuN!!!

LOVE, JRC

Check it out here...
Oct 20, 02:32 PM

Watch Adam Levine Interview Swedish Music Video Director Jonas Akerlund

Adam Levine sat down with music video director Jonas Akerlund in NYC recently to discuss their passion for creating art and more. Go here to check it out!
Oct 07, 01:29 PM

Slashed Prices in the Maroon 5 Store! Go Now!

Head over to the Maroon 5 store to snatch up some merch with recently reduced prices! Shirts, accessories, posters and more!

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