Announcing The Rock ‘n Renew Music Group

Jonny Lives! has been busy! With the release of the new album “Revolution For Free” we are excited to be back on the road this Winter, and look forward to touring the U.K and U.s in early 2012. We are also really excited to announce our signing with the newly formed Rock ‘n Renew Records, part of The Rock ‘n Renew Music Group.

Spin Magazine’s Artist Of The Day- Jonny Lives! own Jonny Dubowsky interviews in Philly

Who?Jonny Dubowsky is a downtown NYC garage rocker with a sensitive side. Playing gigs at CBGB and the Bitter End since the age of 13, he’s clearly a man with music in his blood — blood he’s willing to spill onstage every night with his latest band, Jonny Lives! Along with guitarist Christian Langdon, bassist Tommy USA, and drummer Jon Weber, Dubowsky breathes new life into a genre tired of the stale, cliched rock put out by those desperate to be hailed as the next incarnation of Iggy.

What’s The Deal? Combining raunchy guitars with catchy pop hooks, the band’s debut album, Get Steady, plays like a soundtrack for the city. It’s full of high-tension, electric exhilaration; all-night party songs offset with the occasional moment of acoustic tranquility. Dubowsky’s strength as a songwriter lies in his ability to translate moments and feelings into melodies and lyrics. The title track is as room-spinningly rocking as Dubowksy must have been the night he scrawled the song’s lyrics under a table in the East Village bar Niagara.

Fun Fact:Dubowsky wrote most of the tracks on Get Steady in his sleep. Since he was a kid growing up in New Jersey, Dubowsky has heard songs in his dreams, but could never recall the tunes when he woke up. He solved the problem by purchasing a small micro-cassette recorder for his bedside. With the recorder in voice activation mode overnight, Dubowsky was able to capture his subconscious songwriting in the vocal equivalent of sleepwalking, many times waking up the next morning completely unaware of the fact that he’d recorded anything at all. ANTHONY D’AMATO

Jonny D in Fast Company Magazine and on N.P.R’s Talk Of The Nation

Jonny Dubowsky, 29, has exploited corporate partnerships to get exposure for his indie band, Jonny Lives! The band debuted its single, “Get Steady,” on an EA video game, teamed up with Nokia to film a music video with one of its cameras, and then launched the video at 900 American Eagle stores.

“Our song ‘Get Steady’ was chosen out of the blue to be on EA’s MVP Baseball 2004, which wound up selling 3.5 million copies. EA paid us $30,000 dollars; I used that money to fund a tour in England. Two years later, we can still feel the exposure. When we released our debut album, people said, ‘We know “Get Steady” from the game.’

I have a manager now whose only job is to do corporate sponsorships. He made the deal with Nokia, in which we used its digital video camera to make the ‘Get Steady’ video. I’m really fascinated with technology and the way it’s shifting how we experience music as a culture, so it was a no-brainer. It was really cool because the company understood our indie-rock sensibility. Plus, when you work with a corporate sponsor, it falls outside your deal with a record label. That makes it a great revenue stream.

Later that same year, Jonny Dubowsky of Jonny Lives! and Rock ‘n Renew appeared on N.P.R’s “Talk Of The Nation” with Andy Carvin to discuss the outcome of the article with EA Sports Worldwide Executive of Music and Marketing, Steve Schnur and Cora Daniels, author, Fast Company magazine series “The New Music Moguls”; author, Ghettonation: A Journey Into the Land of Bling and Home of the Shameless

You can listen to the N.P.R “Talk of The Nation” episode here:

The New Album Is Coming!

Here’s a sneak peak at the rough stages of the album artwork. This is the front cover which is composed of two photographs that I shot. What do you think so far?

Free Download- 350 Times

As many of you know, I am the founder and director of Rock ‘n Renew. When Rock ‘n Renew first began working with 350.org, I was inspired to write a song called “350 Times” (click to download for free!) to help energize the movement. I’ve passed along the message to all the Rock ‘n Renew artists including Debbie Harry, and Brian from Weezer, Everclear, The Kaiser Chiefs, The Fountains of Wayne, and many other amazing bands, that today, on 10/10/10 we should crank up our stereos as we get our work parties working! We hope that bands from around the world are also inspired to write protest songs, and garden-growing songs, and songs that continue to keep the efforts of these work parties fresh in everyone’s minds. Bands that are interested in sharing their 350 inspired songs can email them to jonny@rocknrenew.com or send them to 350.org. We will feature these tunes alongside all the Rock ‘n Renew bands this Winter at www.rocknrenew.com to keep the soundtrack rolling through till the Spring.

My band Jonny Lives! has taken the song “350 Times” into the studio and put some Rock ‘n Roll behind it. This is the version which will appear on our upcoming record “Revolution For Free” which will be out in early December on Long Live Crime/Sony Records. The song will be available as a free download on our website www.jonnylives.com and on www.rocknrenew.com on Sunday 10/10/10. We hope it helps to get your work-parties cranking with the amp turned up to 11. We’ll be in NYC working on our community garden program with 40 schools at El Jardin De Paraiso, rocking out with the rest of the 350 team around the world!

As the amazing Bob Dylan said

“Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.”

Jonny Lives! on Access Hollywood

Jonny Lives! on Late Night With Conan O’Brien

“Get Steady”

Jonny Lives! performing “Get Steady” on Late Night With Conan O’Brien