KiD A (unsigned, unpublished) -- Airplay on KCRW Los Angeles and WOXY.com (championed by KCRW's Nic Harcourt and Future Sounds' Larry Little), press write-ups in Mixmag, the Sunday Times, DJ Magazine, Music Week, Record Of The Day, and most recently in The Los Angeles Times Magazine - not bad for a 21 year-old college student in Virginia! KiD A's debut EP was produced by Dan le Sac - the track "wasnotwas" is a HITTT. Labels in both the U.S. and UK are surriously sniffin'. Check it out on KiD A's MySpace page. You're welcome ;)

PUB DEAL ALERT -- Spies tell us that Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros have locked in an extremely sweet publishing deal with Chrysalis. Shh.

SARAH SOLOVAY (unsigned, unpublished, no management) -- Go have a listen to "Gone" on Sarah Solovay's MySpace page. Big. Fat. Smash. Now, check out "Hearts Collide". Another. Big. Fat. Hit. It's also featured on the hotly-tipped 90210 soundtrack. Sarah wrote both of these songs herself (and the others she's posted on MySpace).

...and she's 15.

Most of Sarah's demos were produced by Kyle Kelso (Parachute, Tina Parol, Fefe Dobson) and there are more than a few labels already sniffing around (we've been sworn to secrecy so don't ask who). Check her out at the Bitter End in NYC on October 1.

This derby could get big. Stay tuned.

AARON ANDERSON (unsigned, unpublished) -- Southern California-based singer-songwriter Aaron Anderson has been garnering airplay on San Diego Hot AC outlet Sophie @ 103.7's "New Now Next" program. For fans of Gavin DeGraw and Jason Mraz. "Green Sun Rising" and "Where Do I Begin" are solid radio-friendly tracks.

PAUL CASEY (unsigned, unpublished) -- Irish singer-songwriter Paul Casey recently self-released a new album called Scrapbook, and it will certainly appeal to fans of Dave Matthews and David Gray. In the past, Paul has had songs played on KROQ Los Angeles' "Rodney On the ROQ" program, and has shared the stage with artists including Van Morrison, Damien Rice, and the John Butler Trio (among others). Paul will tour Europe, the UK, Ireland and Scotland in support of multi-million album-selling blues guitarist Chris Rea through April 2010.

TALENTFILTER ARTIST UPDATE -- A few of our early artist tips have recently released new material, and we're really excited to report some impressive numbers...

Five Finger Death Punch, first tipped as an unsigned, unpublished act in February 2007, has just released their second full-length titled War Is the Answer. Early reports say that the album will debut in the Top 10 and will more than likely sell 40-45,000 copies in its first week.

Ingrid Michaelson, the 450,000th TALENTfilter artist to be signed since February 2007 (wink, wink), had her latest album, Everybody, debut at No. 1 on the iTunes Album Chart. In its first week, it sold over 22,000 copies. Ingrid's album Girls And Boys, which was independently released, has sold 278,000 copies in the U.S., and the follow-up Be OK LP sold 98,000 units. We first tipped you to Ms. Michaelson in May 2007.

Other TALENTfilter artists with nice sales stories lately include A Fine Frenzy's new Bomb In A Birdcage LP (#1 iTunes Album) and Elizabeth & The Catapult's Taller Children (#1 iTunes Singer-Songwriter Album).

UPCOMING L.A. SHOWS OF NOTE:

Sep 28 -- Dynamite Walls - Viper Room
Sep 29 -- Oh Darling - Spaxeland
Sep 30 -- Randy Coleman - Roxy
Oct 1 -- Katie Costello - Hotel Cafe
Oct 3 -- Pharcyde - Key Club
Oct 3 -- Holly Conlan - Hotel Cafe
Oct 4 -- Tina Dico - Roxy
Oct 6 -- The Parson Red Heads - Spaceland
Oct 6 -- Dommin - Key Club
Oct 7 -- Jack Penate/Miike Snow - Spaceland
Oct 8 -- Ke$ha - The Echo
Oct 11 -- Medusa - The Whisky
Oct 12 -- Obi Best - Spaceland
Oct 13 -- Stacy Clark - Viper Room
Oct 15 -- The Rust - Roxy
Oct 20 -- Noah & The Whale - Roxy
Oct 24 -- Kid Sister - The Echo
Oct 27 -- VV Brown - Spaceland
Oct 29 -- Eulogies - SPaceland
Oct 30 -- Amy Millan - Spaceland
Oct 31 -- The Rakes - Roxy
Nov 3 -- Katie Miller-Heidke - Hotel Cafe

RUTH-ANNE CUNNINGHAM (unsigned) - As an unsigned artist, Dublin, Ireland's Ruth-Anne Cunningham has received heavy airplay on her hometown radio outlet 2fm. As a writer, she's co-written some big songs for artists including Jojo, Leona Lewis and Katherine McPhee (among others) and she's currently writing for Toni Braxton and Pixie Lott. She's published by Shapiro Bernstein.

YIKES! Two months off. Who do we think we are, school teachers? Enough of that. New "Shows Of Note" posted soon, along with a few new artists to tip you to, and some impressive numbers to gloat...err ...share with you regarding TALENTfilter artists you should've signed.

HOORAY!

ELIZABETH & THE CATAPULT GET SOME LOVE ON PEREZ HILTON'S BLOG! Very exciting to see Elizabeth & the Catapult get some lovin' from our friend Mr. Hilton. We first tipped you to the band TWENTY-EIGHT MONTHS AGO and Verve Forecast signed them eighteen months later.

ST. LOUIS RADIO SUPPORTS UNSIGNED MUSIC! Alternative KPNT St. Louis has announced this year's "PointFest" lineup - 35 bands for 35 bucks on August 23rd at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in St. Louis.

Always a supporter of local rock acts, KPNT will feature a number of unsigned groups mixed in with the higher profile bands like Staind, Chevelle, Shinedown, Atreyu, etc.

Have a listen to some of the local acts - it's all pretty standard "red state rawk", but that stuff sells ...and you know it!

Copperview -- Three Doors Down-meets-Seven Mary Three

Brookroyal -- One album away from having it together - they could use some A&R/producer direction, but there's promise here. Singer has an interesting tone to his voice.

Janus -- We've heard about this band a bunch over the past year or so - Chicago's Q101 has added one of their tracks ("Eyesore") into - worth looking into...

Shaman's Harvest -- See description of Copperview and sprinkle in a bit more Southern rock. Really radio-friendly stuff, and it's obvious they've got someone working them at Rock/Active Rock radio already (not many unsigned/unpublished acts have 'impacting at radio' written across their MySpace page).

Red Line Chemistry -- Chevelle-ish. Remember Revis? Kinda like them. If Revis listened to Tool. Managed by Red Light Management.

BANDS, BE CAREFUL AND READ THE FINE PRINT! Clear Channel-owned L.A. Alternative station KYSR (Star 98.7) is presenting a contest called "Rockstar 987", where bands upload their music videos in the hopes of winning $10,000 cash, $5K worth of instruments from Best Buy, a professional photo shoot, an opportunity to showcase at a station event, the "chance" to meet with five different record labels (Suburban Noize, Sideonedummy, Sire, Mercury, and Elektra), and of course, some promotion on the radio station and their website. Sounds pretty cool, right?

Well, before you upload that video you had to have your parents mortgage the house to pay for, read the "Rules" section. There you'll find this tasty little nugget (super-important stuff in bold):

BY SUBMITTING THE VIDEO, YOU HEREBY GRANT TO THE COMPANY A PERPETUAL, WORLDWIDE, NON-EXCLUSIVE, ROYALTY-FREE, SUB-LICENSABLE (THROUGH MULTIPLE TIERS) RIGHT AND LICENSE TO USE, PUBLISH, REPRODUCE, DISPLAY, PERFORM, ADAPT, MODIFY, DISTRIBUTE, HAVE DISTRIBUTED AND PROMOTE SUCH CONTENT AND THE CONTEST IN ANY FORM (INCLUDING ANY TITLE OF THE VIDEO AND YOUR NAME AND LIKENESS), IN ALL MEDIA NOW KNOWN OR HEREINAFTER CREATED, ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, FOR ANY PURPOSE. IN ADDITION TO GRANTING THE ABOVE LICENSE, THE GRAND PRIZE WINNER WILL NOT BE PERMITTED TO USE THE SUBMITTED VIDEO RECORDING FOR ANY COMMERCIAL USE AFTER IT HAS BEEN SUBMITTED.

Now, we're no legal eagles, but this basically states that JUST BY SUBMITTING your video, Clear Channel has the right to do whatever the hell they want with your video - forever. And if you win the contest, you won't be able to use (sell) your video.

Smell right to you?

Hey, if it does, go for it. Get all the info HERE. But keep all the above stuff in mind.

TREY LOCKERBIE (unsigned, unpublished) -- Twenty-one year-old Nashville-based singer-songwriter Trey Lockerbie has quickly built up one of the largest fanbases of any unsigned artist in Nashville. He recently self-released his debut three-song EP and has been garnering regular airplay at local radio stations including WRLT (Lightning 100) Nashville. Check out the track "Hummingbird" - total hit.

Trey is in Los Angeles taking meetings with labels and publishers, and will perform at Room 5 on Saturday night, July 25, at 11PM. Expect a bevvy of A&R/pubco scouts in attendance. For more info, contact us here at TALENTfilter.

MORE SIGNING UPDATES -- Juliana Joya signs to Matt Serletic’s Emblem Music Group, which is now a j/v with Waner Bros… Sixteen year-old Sky Ferreira signs a worldwide deal with EMI… Funeral Party signs with RCA… Los Angeles-based band Capra signs with Hollywood Records…

Got any signing news to report? Let us know at TALENTfilter@gmail.com

ANOTHER TALENTFILTER ARTIST SIGNS ON THE DOTTED LINE! Greenlandic singer-songwriter Simon Lynge, first tipped to you on TALENTfilter over two years ago, has signed with Lo-Max Records, for the world ex-U.S. According to a blog posting on his MySpace page, it's a three-album deal. Simon's album titled A Beautiful Way To Drown will be released in the UK in September and in all of Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Japan soon thereafter. Congrats to Simon - he's really one of the most talented artists we've had the pleasure of seeing live more than once.

TALENTfilter ARTIST NEON HITCH SIGNS WITH EMI! Congrats to Neon Hitch, first tipped to you in August 2008 - she has just done a pub deal with EMI Music Publishing. Nice one!

UPCOMING L.A. SHOWS OF NOTE

Jul 22 -- Enter Shikari - Key Club
Jul 23 -- Edward Sharpe/Mag. Zeroes - Hammer Museum
Jul 23 -- Rachel Goodrich - Hotel Cafe
Jul 24 -- The Jakes - House Of Blues (Anaheim)
Jul 24 -- De La Soul - Key Club
Jul 25 -- Trey Lockerbie - Room 5
Jul 28 -- Obi Best -- Bootleg theater
Aug 1 -- Michelle Featherstone - Hotel Cafe
Aug 5 -- Roll The Tanks - Silverlake Lounge
Aug 6 -- Meiko - Pershing Square
Aug 22 -- Harvey Danger (?!) - Largo
Aug 28 -- Decca Tree - Viper Room

HOLY SHIT IT'S BEEN A MONTH! OK, we're back. Summertime is fun time, kids. And since we're not (yet) on your payroll, we've been out enjoying the sun. Stay tuned for some new posts over the next few. Yeah!!

BROOKLYN'S AMAZING BABY SIGNS WITH SHANGRI-LA -- According to HITS, Brooklyn-based band Amazing Baby (first mentioned on TALENTfilter in January) has officially signed with Shangri-La Records - way to go, fellas - congrats!

MUSIC FOR ANIMALS (unsigned, unpublished) -- San Francisco's Music For Animals is one of the local acts performing on the Soundcheck Local Band Stage at this weekend's "Live 105 BFD 2009" concert. If you're not in the Bay Area, but will be in L.A. over the next couple of weeks, you can catch them Jun 18 at 3 Of Clubs and June 22 at Spaceland. Expect all your label/publisher friends to be there too.

BEAR HANDS (unsigned, unpublished) -- Brooklyn's Bear Hands is a group that's been around since 2006-ish (we were first schooled on them by our friends at Oh My Rockness in '07)... Their sound? Hmm... Cold War Kids playing Pavement covers. With a couple of guys from Hockey jamming alongside them. For the masses? Not so much. Do we think they could sell 50,000 albums? Maybz. Are we personal fans? Fer sure. The band is gonna tour the UK for a couple weeks in June and then open for Passion Pit in NYC June 19. Our money is on the band being scooped up by a label before then.

THREE RADIO STATIONS DROP 'NEW MUSIC' THIS WEEK -- Lousy news for new music fans (and the music industry in general) - Eighteen-year Alternative-formatted KWOD Sacramento has flipped to an 'all '90s' format. After 13 years as an Alt-outlet, WMFS Memphis pulled the plug and has begun simulcasting ESPN Radio. Alternative WSWD Cincinnati cleared out the Alt-Rock so that station owner Bonneville can switch Country WYGY over to the stronger WSWD signal. What did they put in the Country station's place? An '80s-based AC station - "Rewind 94.9, Feel-Good Favorites From the '80s and More."

UPCOMING L.A. AREA SHOWS OF NOTE:

May 27 -- Michael Miller - Crane's
May 30 -- Samantha Crain - Spaceland
Jun 1 -- Oliver Future - The Echo
Jun 1 -- Castledoor - Spaceland
Jun 3 -- Carina Round (9p), Butterfly Boucher (10p), Meiko (11p) - Hotel Cafe
Jun 4 -- The Parson Red Heads - Spaceland
Jun 10 -- Susie Suh - Hotel Cafe
Jun 16 -- Miike Snow - Spaceland
Jun 17 -- Loquat - Viper Room
Jun 19 -- The Blood Arm - The Echo
Jun 19 -- Emily Wells - Hotel Cafe
Jul 1 -- The Tender Box - Viper Room

MICHAEL MILLER (unsigned, unpublished) -- Los Angeles singer-songwriter Michael Miller is gearing up to independently release his new album titled, I Made You Up, and we got an advance copy - it's fuckin' fantastic. It's deep. It's rich. It's the best 'Sunday morning coffee-and-newspaper' album we've heard in a few years. He's got some songs posted on his MySpace page - check 'em out. Michael is playing with a full band at Crane's in Hollywood on May 27. Go see him. We'll be there too. Michael doesn't have management either, so if you're a label or publisher, and you'd like some MP3's sent to you, we'd be happy to hook it up - E-mail us and we'll get some your way.

UPCOMING L.A. SHOWS OF NOTE:

May 8 -- Bob Schneider - Key Club
May 8 -- Aushua - Spaceland
May 13 -- Castaneda - Dakota Lounge (fmrly. Temple Bar)
May 14 -- Hensley - Hotel Cafe
May 20 -- Fitz & The Tantrums - Viper Room
May 21 -- Dynamite Walls - Viper Room
May 22 -- Ragsy - Hotel Cafe
May 27 -- Carina Round - Hotel Cafe

PAN AMERICA (unsigned, unpublished) -- We first featured Los Angeles band Pan America in February of 2007. After some time apart and some lineup changes, the band is back with some FANTASTIC new songs. The five-piece certainly sits at Jimmy Eat World's table in the high school cafeteria, but there's something a bit more mature about their songwriting/song structure. This stuff is REALLY radio-ready, folks. Time to address this band. Seriously. E-mail talentfilter@gmail.com if you'd like more info.

THE TEMPER TRAP TO GLASSNOTE -- A little birdie tells us that the label derby for Melbourne, Australia buzz band The Temper Trap has gone to Daniel Glass' Glassnote Records. Quite the coup for Daniel and his crew, as virtually every major label (and a handful of other indies) had a deal on the table. Rumor has it the band is licensing their record to Glassnote and chose not to enter into a 360 partnership.

SAN FRAN ALT-OUTLET ANNOUNCES LOCAL BAND STAGE AT SUMMER FESTIVAL -- Alternative KITS (Live 105) San Francisco will host their annual "BFD" concert at the Shoreline Amphitheatre on June 6 - the concert features 35 acts on four seperate stages.

Their 'Soundcheck Local Band Stage' will showcase nine acts - MC Lars, alt-popsters Music For Animals (unsigned - our favorite of the bunch!), Wallpaper (signed to Eenie Meenie), Odawas (signed to jajaguwar), Dizzy Balloon (unsigned - "The Beatles on Wellbutrin" - Kevin Bronson, buzzbands.la), The Catholic Comb (signed to Bright Antenna), Ambience (unsigned, for fans of the mellower side of Dredg), Solid State Logic (unsigned 'Red State Rock' ala Breaking Benjamin) and Fighting The Villain (female-fronted rock ala Paramore, signed to indie PopSmear and in desperate need of a stylist).

Live 105 MD Aaron Axelsen and the rest of the programming staff there always do a great job of curating this stage - definitely worth looking into this year's acts!!

NEW SIGNING UPDATE -- Orlando R&B artist Kevin Cossom signs to Jive ...also recently signed to Jive is UK popster Daisy Dares You ...Another British singer, Erik Hassle, has decided to sign to Island ...in METAL signing news, Wilmington rawkers He Is Legend has signed with Tragic Hero Records ...Detroit's We Came As Romans signs to Equal Vision ...City Of Ships has signed with Translation Loss Records

VERONICA LEIGH (unsigned, unpublished) -- Originally from California, 24 year-old Veronica Leigh has been cutting her teeth on the Nashville circuit for a little while now ...She might be the first Country artist we've written about here, but our reasoning is - we have a strong feeling this girl will cross over into other formats as time goes by and as she continues to develop.

She's got one of the best voices we've heard in quite some time, she writes basic yet timeless, hooky country songs, and she's (obvz) got FANTASTIC style - as one tipster described her - "a Countryfied Katy Perry"...

Veronica has been approached by a few labels, but she's continuing to take meetings ...Hit us up directly for more information - or contact her directly and make like you discovered her on your own like you always do ;)