Rochelle Diamante’s New Single Causing A Lot Of “Buzz”

Teen singer/instrumentalist Rochelle Diamante is quickly making quite the name for herself.  The seventeen-year old Seattle, WA native now lives in Los Angeles, where she is a straight-A students and captain of her high school dance team.  Diamond is also an instrumentalist.  She plays ukulele, piano and guitar.  Since joining YouTube last year, the young artist has earned herself nearly ten million views in under a year.  Over the course of that time, she also recorded a number of songs with a variety of producers including:  David Ryan Harris (John Mayer), Blake English (Kelly Rowland, Brandy) and Mike Mac (Beluga Heights).  She already has over twenty songs completed with plenty more still in the works.

Diamante has quite the resume already about her.  It includes singing credits with Richard Marx, serving as a model for a recent fashion video produced by Michelle Phan and Vivienne Tam and even being the focus of a short story written by award winning playwright Josefina Lopez (Real Women have Curves).  Now she can add music video star to her resume as she has released not only a new single but the video for her single as well.  The single is titled, ‘Queen Bee.’  And the video tries to harness the somewhat old school swing style sound mixed with her pop styling.  The video sees the young starlet dancing through her house in a dream sequence, surrounded by a number of young men as she sings, “I’m a queen bee/You can call me honey/But I just might sting…You gotta be sweet if you want my honey/Gotta beware if you want my heart.”  Anyone who is a fan of Beyonce or J-Lo will like Miss Diamante’s sound in this song.  Audiences can check out her video now on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkb_zTQI9dM.   After checking out her new video, fans can follow her on her official Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/IamRochelle. 

To keep up with the latest entertainment news and reviews, go online to http://www.facebook.com/philspicks and “Like” it or its companion page, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Reel-Reviews/381028148587141. Fans can always keep up with the latest entertainment news and reviews in the Phil’s Picks blog at http://philspicks.wordpress.com.

Treasure Chest Entertainment Introduces New Pop Trio To The World

Destiny’s Child, TLC, and the Spice Girls are just a few of the female fronted pop acts that have given young female audiences someone to look up to for many years.  Now a new up and coming act is giving young women everywhere someone to look up to yet again.  The up-and-coming teen pop act, Girl Squad was recently signed to Warner Bros. subsidiary, Treasure Chest Entertainment. 

The group’s three members—Millie, Maddie, and Lexis—all come from different parts of the country.  Millie hails from Alabama.  She has grown up a fan of pop star Christina Aguilera (The Voice), Niki Minaj (American Idol), and John Mayer just to name a few.  She is a very talented individual.  She is a dancer and cheerleader and even participates in musical theater.

Maddie comes from San Diego, California.  She moved to L.A. with her family in 2010.  Maddie had the honor of performing our nation’s National Anthem at a Phoenix Suns game at the age of nine, and earned her first acting gig in a stage production of How The Grinch Stole Christmas.  She says that her biggest influences are:  Justin Bieber, Beyonce, and Lady Gaga.

Lexis comes from perhaps the farthest away.  She comes from far off Anchorage, Alaska.  Thanks to her performance of hits from the likes of Rihanna , Katy Perry, and Beyonce, Lexi has become a YouTube sensation in her own right.  She won her very first vocal competition at the age of ten with her take on Whitney Houston’s classic, ‘I Have Nothing.’  While she enjoyed life in Anchorage, she says that moving to L.A. was the only way she could pursue a real chance at her dream of signing professionally.  “Although Anchorage is slower than other places, life was really good there. But in order for me to fulfill my dream, I nearly begged my Mom to move us to Los Angeles so I could seize an opportunity like Girl Squad”, she said.

The girls’ first single, ‘Oh Well’ is out now.  Fans can check out the video for the song now online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a85L7tEG-8g.  There are even expectations for a new single on the way as well as a new show centered on the girls.  To get the latest on Girl Squad, fans can go online to http://www.facebook.com/GIRLSQUADWORLD and http://twitter.com/#!/GirlSquad1.

To keep up with the latest entertainment news and reviews, go online to http://www.facebook.com/philspicks and “Like” it or its companion page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Reel-Reviews/381028148587141.  Fans can always keep up with the latest entertainment news and reviews in the Phil’s Picks blog at http://philspicks.wordpress.com.

The Dunwells debut a great start for music in 2012

2011 was quite the year for the music industry.  Lady Gaga and international superstar Adele were everywhere after their new releases.  And fans were shocked by the death of up-and-comer Amy Winehouse.  Fans of music in every genre saw new records come out.  But now with the old year heading out, it’s time to start looking to the new year, and in turn, new music.  One of the bands that everyone might hear from in 2012 is a U.K. based band of brothers called The Dunwells.  This band’s debut cd, “Blind Sighted Faith”, is due out in February.  Now, while digital downloading is all the rage right now, the only reason to download The Dunwell’s debut release is if it can’t be found in stores.  Otherwise, it’s yet another piece of evidence in the fight for keeping the physical object versus downloading.

“Blind Sighted Faith” is already looking to be one of the best pop albums of 2012.  The irony of the album (and the band) is that this band of brothers actually headed up 2012′s International Folk Alliance Conference.  This year’s conference was held February 21 – 26th in memphis, TN.  One listen through the album makes one wonder how they could have been tapped for a folk music conference.  The whole album is a solid mix of John Mayer and Marc Broussard.  There’s even a hint of Don Henley and his Eagles bandmates in ‘Elizabeth’. 

‘Elizabeth’ is a great ballad.  But it’s not the only high point to “Blind Sighted Faith.”  That goes back to the argument for buying the physical object over downloading.  The album’s opener/lead single ”I Could be King” is a positive song in which frontman Joe Dunwell sings about his hopes and dreams.  The music perfectly fits the lyrical content.  The band slows things down just a bit after that, with a relationship based song in the album’s title track.  There’s an equally impressive acoustic version of this song that’s available to view on Youtube, by the way.  Then again, most of the songs on the album can be viewed via Youtube, if you want a hint of the album.  Still not enough?  Well how about ‘Hand That Feeds’.  This song has a great retro 1960′s feel, brought into the modern era.  There’s no argument that this song is one of the album’s highlights, if not THE highlight of the whole album. 

“Blind Sighted Faith” doesn’t let up after the album’s first trio of songs.  Again, there’s also the Eagles-esque ‘Elizabeth’, and a nice bluesy Marc Broussard-esque piece in “Follow The Road”.  The great songs keep coming right to the surprise album closer, ‘Oh Lord’.  The surprise of this song is that it starts off soft, but then breaks into a solid blues/rock style song.  It’s the longest track on the album.  But it’s such a surprisingly impressive song that the run time doesn’t matter.

Whether for ‘Oh Lord’, ‘Elizabeth’, ‘Hand That Feeds’, or any other song on this album, “Blind Sighted Faith” is a great start for music fans in 2012.  And being that it’s the band’s debut release, those fans who have some blind sighted faith in The Dunwells will be pleasantly rewarded with a solid, enjoyable album.