Taking a break from his band The Sw!ms -- who last year released the studio album "Itemlord" and were featured in a Daytrotter Session -- Brian Langan stopped by the Weekender office to perform songs from a local Dan Aykroyd-inspired compilation, demo versions of new songs and a Sw!ms tune.

Brian Langan - 'Mr. Thickdick vs. Mr. Urinalcake’

Brian Langan - 'Repmutation’

Brian Langan - 'Look Who's Cackling Now’

Brian Langan - 'Where Do You Get Off’

Brian Langan - 'Descend Into My Cape’

Weekender related content: Sessions photo gallery

The Clarks Summit/Scranton quintet known as Awkward Silence spent a great deal of time honing their sound and developing their fan base throughout their high school careers.

Their biggest break (pun kind of intended) in their relatively short career came last year as the release of their 10-song album "Break," released through Radial Noise Records, practically coincided with a performance on the KIA Kevin Says stage when the Vans Warped Tour hit Montage Mountain on July 15.

Since then, the band members have headed off to college - Temple, Rochester, Scranton and Oberlin - but played a Halloween show at Wilkes University and a January performance at The Vintage Theater in Scranton. We caught them on their winter break for a five-song Sessions performance with cuts from the 2009 release.

Awkward Silence - 'The Undertow’

Awkward Silence - 'Settled In’

Awkward Silence - 'Skeletons and Bones’

Awkward Silence - 'Plan'

Awkward Silence - 'Break’

Awkward Silence related links: Facebook, MySpace, Pure Volume, Radial Noise Records

Weekender related content: Sessions photo gallery, 2009 Warped Tour appearance, album release

Mike Mizwinski -- aka Mike Miz -- has made a name for himself in Northeastern Pa., the York/Harrisburg area and beyond thanks to his virtuosic guitar chops and growing abilities as a singer and songwriter.

Whether with his band Miz, which recently opened for the Derek Trucks Band at the Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg, or performing solo, the musician has gained a reputation for stunning live shows. Upcoming performances include World Cafe Live in Philadelphia, The Chameleon Club in Lancaster and a Jan. 10 show at the River Street Jazz Cafe, where his band will open for Scrapomatic, which features members of Trucks' group.

This month, Miz stopped by the Weekender offices to perform a five-song solo acoustic Weekender Session, including the brand new song “Heels of the Day.”

Mike Miz – ‘Wink’

Mike Miz – ‘Katie’s Song’

Mike Miz – ‘Was A Time’

Mike Miz – ‘Staring at the Sun’

Mike Miz – ‘Heels of the Day’

Mike Miz related links: Facebook, MySpace

Weekender related content: REVIEW: Guitar summit in Stroudsburg, Photo gallery with Derek Trucks, Sessions photo gallery

Underground Saints performed songs from their upcoming album "Broken Machines" in the November Session. The band, which features John Smith (vocals, guitar), Pat Flynn (guitar, vocals), Mark Kiesinger (bass) and A.J. Jump (drums), is working with producers Aaron Fink (Breaking Benjamin), Bret Alexander (The Badlees) and Justin King.

The band, which plays shows in Northeastern Pa. as well as venues like Arlene's Grocery and National Underground in New York City, features former members of Bent Blue, Mere Mortals and The Five Percent.

 

 

Underground Saints related links: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter

Weekender related content: Photo gallery

 

 This week, theweekender.com will debut the Weekender Sessions, a monthly series of video and audio recordings from performances in the newspaper’s Wilkes-Barre office. The series was designed to present original artists of various genres in a stripped-down atmosphere with high-quality, multi-camera video and professionally recorded audio. The series will primarily feature local performers.

The first Session, a performance by area band Underground Saints, was filmed Nov. 18 and will be available to view online later this week.

After the successful re-launch of theweekender.com last October, Weekender Editor Michael Lello and Times Leader Online Editor Chris Hughes developed the series over the course of several months. It is the first Web-based music project of its kind in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The Times Leader and Weekender are owned by the Wilkes-Barre Publishing Co.

The Weekender Sessions is the latest in several recent online projects undertaken by the paper, including a series of backstage interview and performance video clips from the Warped Tour, Mayhem Festival and CrueFest II in the summer of 2009, all at Toyota Pavilion at Montage Mountain. Some of the content was rebroadcast by blabbermouth.com, the leading heavy metal news Web site, and viewed thousands of times by fans of bands such as Slayer, Theory of a Deadman, 3OH!3, Bad Religion and more.

Meanwhile, the Weekender has increased its reach on social networking sites like Facebook.com, where the paper has nearly 4,000 fans, Twitter.com and MySpace.com.

“It was then that we realized how strong our presence on the Web was,” said Hughes. “The next logical step for us was to use that strength to promote local, original music in a way others haven’t yet.”

Hughes and the company’s online team videotape the Sessions, and Michael Hauser records and mixes the audio.

The Weekender uses sites like Facebook and Twitter to promote the series and plans to run online contests in which winners will be able to attend future Weekender Sessions performances.

“It was an incredible experience to see our office transformed into a live recording studio,” Lello said. “We’re really looking forward to people seeing the first Session, and we were very happy Underground Saints trusted us enough with their music to do this. It’s also a great opportunity for bands to promote themselves in a new and interesting way.”

The paper has a history of hosting music events, such as the ongoing Weekender/Mountaingrown Original Music Series, which is held monthly at The Woodlands in Plains Twp. and broadcast live on 102.3 FM The Mountain, the Music First stage during the summer concert season at Toyota Pavilion, and Fixture, a live monthly series that ran for more than a year at venues in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre.

Underground Saints — John Smith (vocals, guitar), Pat Flynn (guitar, vocals), Mark Kiesinger (bass) and A.J. Jump (drums) — formed more than two years ago. Smith, Flynn and Kiesinger are former members of defunct local band Bent Blue, and Flynn and Kiesinger were members of Mere Mortals, another popular area band that no longer performs. Undergrounds Saints are working on their debut album with producers Bret Alexander of The Badlees, Aaron Fink of Breaking Benjamin and Justin King. It is scheduled for an early 2010 release.

The Weekender has booked several artists for future Sessions. The paper will release the name of each new act during the month that the act’s Session will be posted.

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The Weekender Sessions, theweekender.com/blogs/sessions