Monday Night Music Preview

Kicking off the Monday evening entertainment at the Viper Room at 8pm is Andrew Paul Woodworth, who also played at the second MUSEXPO in 2006. The Los Angeles resident caught the attention of the discerning ears at Rodeostar Records in Germany during that year's conference and was promptly signed to the label. His first full-length, Eddy Ate Dynamite, was produced by Evan Frankfort (Wallflowers, Jayhawks, Rancid) and features the song that first catapulted Andrew to attention: a slowed-down, acoustic take of the Beastie Boys' "Fight For Your Right to Party"!

Leading off at the Whisky at 8:30 is Canadian singer/songwriter Derek Miller, who has been making quite a name for himself on the Canadian and international music scenes for the past decade. By the age of 25 in 1999 he'd won a Canadian Aboriginal Music Award and toured with icon Buffy Saint-Marie, who said, "Derek is like Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Kris Kristofferson - but better - he's got a Mohawk heart." In 2007 the guitar slinger recorded his most recent album, The Dirty Looks, which received the award for Best Rock CD at both the 2007 Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards and the Aboriginal People's Choice Music Awards. He also won a Juno Award for Aboriginal Recording of the Year.

At the Viper Room at 9pm is Gin Wigmore, a precocious singer/songwriter from the southern hemisphere, having been born in New Zealand but also spending significant time in Argentina and Australia. It was while in Buenos Aires that 16-year-old Gin learned of the passing of her father due to cancer. She responded by writing a song, "Hallelujah," to articulate her pain. Two years later, the song won the 2005 International Songwriting Contest, making Gin the youngest winner ever - and the first to be unsigned. In August 2008 Gin was signed by Motown President Sylvia Rhone and undertook her first promo tour, mesmerizing media and music industry audiences in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York before sharing the stage with John Mellencamp and Sheryl Crow during their December tour.

In recent years the music scene in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada has been producing some exciting new artists, but few with as much potential as Floor Thirteen, who take the Whisky stage at 9:30. Floor Thirteen really started to take off after vocalist Jeremy Koz joined the band in 2003. He has quite a set of pipes: he reached the Top 20 during the 2006 "Canadian Idol" competition and landed in the Top 30 (out of thousands of aspirants) on the "Rock Star: INXS" program later that year. Not that the rest of the guys in the band are slouches; their hard-rockin' sound has drawn comparisons to such luminaries as AC/DC and Led Zeppelin, along with newcomers like Wolfmother and Jet.

Back at the Viper at 10pm for Sorgente, six guys from Munich, Germany whose music is an amazing amalgam of '90s Lenny Kravitz and '80s Prince melded with the soulful sounds of the '60s-era Isley Brothers. The result, a funky stew incorporating all those disparate elements plus more, is quite unlike anything else that's emerged from Bavaria thus far this century. Their most recent album, Let Me In, is an erotically charged concept piece about excess, destruction and the calm that comes after the storm. I ran into the likeable lads at the Cat Club after last night's showcases and just finished listening to their six-song promo EP--great stuff! PS: Be sure to wish lead guitarist Mr. Jacobsen a happy birthday tonight!

Closing out Monday’s entertainment at the Whisky at 10:30 is Denmark’s The Blue Van, who took their name from Danish slang for the ambulance that transports patients to mental institutions. They recorded their debut full-length, The Art of Rolling, in Hamburg, opting to record live in the studio and only adding in vocals later, in order to capitalize on the band's live strengths. The album landed them an American deal with TVT Records and the group started splitting time between Denmark and the Bed/Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn while recording their second album, Dear Independence. Now with indie Iceberg Records, The Blue Van returned to Hamburg to record their third album, Man Up, which has already spawned a hit with the song "Silly Boy."

Wrapping things up at the Viper Room at 11pm is Sweden’s Addeboy vs. Cliff featuring Adam Tensta. Tensta, Sweden’s hottest hip-hop artist of 2008, is putting the final touches on an international version of his debut, the award-winning album It’s a Tensta Thing. Addeboy Vs. Cliff played key roles in producing Tensta’s album with their unique hybrid of electronica, urban, rock and pop. Together they have received numerous nominations and awards, including a Grammis (the Swedish equivalent to a Grammy) for It’s a Tensta Thing as the best Dance/Hip-Hop/Soul album of 2008. Addeboy Vs. Cliff has gone on to earn comparisons to such luminaries as Daft Punk, Justice and the Chemical Brothers, inspiring a mad rush for their beats.