What's happening at rippleFX:
08/15/2008 The spectacular new
Lucas Oil Stadium a.k.a. "The Luke" celebrated is grand opening with an extravganza featuring a marching band, motorcross motorcycles, a monster truck, a cast of hundreds and a driving theme song called "It's Time To Play", written and produced by
rippleFX: and sung by
Jennie DeVoe. rippleFX: also scored the entertainiing video "The Work Is Done", seen during the show. ripple FX: Bill Mallers was the music supervisor and creative consultant whose duties included the coordination of many of the musical groups seen in the opening ceremonies including the
Warren Central HS Marching Band, Marnee, and
The Voices of Unity Youth Choir. The event was staged and produced by
George Sechrist and his company,
BMG Event Productions. After the show, George emailed "Thanks Bill for all your help. You guys are the greatest!"
04/01/2008 Rock super-front-man
Drew Bean, formerly of
Emerson Rose and currently with
Vibe Dial, recorded the rhythm tracks for his new project at
Cedar Rock Studios in Terre Haute, Indiana and then brought the project to
Bill for further tracking and production and
Chris' mixing expertise. Says Bill Mallers, "This is a musical leap for Drew. He has written some very interesting songs that will surprise his fans from Emerson Rose. The songs are filled with instruments and arrangements that you don't usually hear in a rock project." Other musicians contributing to the project are
Ryan Brown, Nick Mallers,
Andy Newell, Jim Kremidas,
Jay Young and
P. J. Yinger.
03/30/2008 Indiana grocery chain Marsh Supermarkets launched it's "Color" campaign and began seeing immediate positive responses. Marsh added a
page to their website to answer all of the inquiries about "where these songs came from..." and "who is that singing on your commercial....", etc. See the spots
here.
03/05/2008 Indianapolis R&B singer David Officer a.k.a. Mister O has been in the studio recently laying down tracks for his new CD project. David can be seen here jamming with the legendary Sonny Broadus on drums (Expressions Show Band, The Spinners), bassist Lester Johnson (Ebony Rhythm Funk Campaign, Protocol) and on keys, Kenny Simms (Merging Traffic, John LaPlante). This is Old School funk meets New School soul. Tasty!
02/25/2008 It is with great sadness we mention the passing of guitarist and philosopher,
Charlie Smith, February 8th, 2008. Charlie was not only a phenomenally talented musician, he was a good friend of many musicians in Indianapolis and his hometown of Anderson, IN. In addition to doing session work for rippleFX, Charlie was a member of "
The Bob and Tom Band" appearing on many CDs and live performances throughout the country. Among his many performances, Charlie was particularly proud of his appearance at
The Montreaux Jazz Festival in 1997 with
Steve Allee,
Frank Smith,
Stan Hillis and
Chris Pyle. Charlie's own band, "
The Charlie Smith Project" was a favorite at
The Jazz Kitchen.
Chris had the good fortune of being an original band member and played on Charlie's debut CD "
Absolutely," selected as "Indianapolis' Best Smooth Jazz CD" of 1999 by NUVO Magazine.
Bill also played with Charlie in the band "
Smokehouse" every week for two years at
The Slippery Noodle. Charlie was also a great conversationalist, speaking intelligently on topics ranging from music theory and composition to spirituality, physics, politics, psychology, philosophy and everything in between. He was truly a unique personality and will be missed by all who knew him. Read Charlie's obituary
here and Bob and Tom's tribute
here.
01/09/2008 The
Star Press newspaper in Muncie, IN picked its' "Top Ten Albums of 2007" recently. The winners included
Radiohead, Jay-Z, The White Stripes and Indiana's own
Cory Hill. The review said "
Funny White Room -- Some of the better pure country and rock that I heard in 2007. Hill & Co. do it all right and resist the temptation to overdo it." Read the article here. Way to go Cory!! Update: Chris will be joining with Jim Kremidas for two shows with The Cory Hill Band; Feb. 16 at Barley Island in Noblesville and Feb. 22 at Doc's Music House in Muncie.