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Post by Cindy on Mar 13, 2008 7:10:00 GMT -5
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lhfan4life
Welcoming Committee Member 
waiting for a Marty moment to call my own!
Posts: 658
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Post by lhfan4life on Mar 13, 2008 7:17:49 GMT -5
Thanks Cindy, it was a great read!!
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Post by cfbj01 on Mar 13, 2008 8:27:03 GMT -5
Thanks Cindy!
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Post by Kari on Mar 13, 2008 9:35:32 GMT -5
Marty Casey still a 'Rock Star,' still Lovehammering away
March 13, 2008 - Chicago Sun Times, Chicago Music
BY THOMAS CONNER Online Features Editor
Someone just told Marty Casey to be quiet.
That doesn’t happen a lot to this Chicago rock singer, but he’s talking to us on Wednesday amid the on-location shoot of the upcoming film “Baby on Board” in Evanston. He’s got a friend on the crew who’s letting him see the movie biz for a day.
» Click to enlarge image Marty Casey (second from left) and the Lovehammers play another sold-out local show Friday night at the House of Blues.
HAMMERFEST
Featuring the Lovehammers
with American Taxi and Tonight The Prom
7 p.m. Friday
House of Blues, 329 N. Dearborn
$20 in advance, $23 on Friday
Call (312) 559-1212
Casey was runner-up on the 2005-06 reality show “Rock Star: INXS.” A former Elvis impersonator won the “prize” of replacing the band’s dead lead singer, but Casey clearly won the hearts of the show’s fans.
So has he ever considered acting?
“Not at all,” he says, chuckling as he looks around at the movie hubbub. “I’ve done some hosting of video awards and stuff and liked it, but that’s because you don’t have to act. You just be your own personality and let it shine. It’s easy being yourself.”
Which is exactly what he did for three months of taping the INXS reality show. “It’s the same thing. You just be yourself, only you turn it up to 10.”
More than two years later, though, what has the exposure on the show given Casey and his band, Chicago rockers the Lovehammers?
The cynical answer is: not much. The Lovehammers headline local festivals, New Year’s Eve gigs and other regional-level fare, and their next album will be on an indie label, not Epic Records, which released “Marty Casey & the Lovehammers” after the show wrapped.
But the other side is this: Those gigs sell out. Regularly. To the rafters. The CD still sells, and all over the world. He and his band get to make another one and get to keep working as a rock band, which beats your day job. And you likely have read thus far into this story because, whether or not you watched the show, you know Casey’s name.
“Being on the show accomplished exactly what I hoped it would,” Casey says. “We had 8 to 10 million viewers a week. ... I was discussing this with a friend the other day. If I played for 500 people a night, I’d have to play continuously for something like 86 years to get in front of the amount of people who saw me on one show. I don’t even see Bono on prime-time TV three nights a week.”
That exposure has kept sales of CDs and tickets steady ever since, Casey says. The fans — yes, they’re called Hammerheads — are many. And the show is still syndicating around the world. It recently aired in Israel and Japan, and immediately afterward — the CD was on shelves there.
“So, no, we’re not rocking a lot of stadiums, but when we show up for a gig in, like, Boise, Idaho, there’s a couple hundred fans there to see us. And that wouldn’t happen without the show.”
Casey says he doesn’t keep in regular contact with INXS or the selected new singer, J.D. Fortune (who’s allegedly working on a solo album, though he remains a face on the band’s Web site). He does, however, stay in touch with his fellow contestants, his “war buddies.”
Expect to hear a lot of new music at Friday’s sold-out Hammerfest, he says. And free drinks after the show.
That’s when he gets shushed. “Ooh, Heather Graham just walked on.”
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Post by lv2bhamrd on Mar 13, 2008 9:37:15 GMT -5
Lots of new music at the show Friday   C'mon Baby, C'mon yeah  I want to hear that whole song soooo bad! |
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