Yesterday was James Maslow’s 25th birthday, and he decided to celebrate by giving a gift to all of his fans! James announced he is performing at Stream Con in NYC this October! James has been busy working on solo music since his run to the finals of “Dancing With The Stars” last year, and this will be one of his first solo performances. We can’t WAIT to hear what he has in store, because he was always one of our favorites from Big Time Rush. We can only hope that he’ll continue to dance, because on both BTR and DTWS, he totally crushed it. The Vine below pretty much sums up our excitement about James’ announcement.
Visit the Stream Con website for more info on James’ performance, which will be on Saturday, October 31st. He will be doing a meet and greet as well, so stay tuned for more info!
Stream Con
October 30-November 1st
Javits Center – New York, NY Buy Tickets
One of the best things about Summer is the outdoor fairs and carnivals that pop up all over the country. And what’s a carnival without some great music? Here are some of our favorite carnival-themed videos!
1. Jordan Knight – “Give It To You” Our formative years consisted of calling into TRL constantly to vote for this video. Looking back, we totally made the right decision because this is THE only ‘carnival’ video that matters.
2. Big Time Rush – “Boyfriend”
Learn from James Diamond. If your bae can’t make it to the carnival, you can always find a nice plant to go on rides with you.
3. Mariah Carey – “Fantasy” This video is definitely a sweet, sweet fantasy, baby!
4. The Vamps – “Last Night” We love The Vamps idea for this video: let’s use our entire budget and build ourselves a carnival for the video shoot! We’d totally do the same.
5. NKOTB – “Please Don’t Go Girl”
With Wahlburgers opening in Coney Island soon, we can only hope the band stops by to re-enact scenes from this video. Can we ride the Wonder Wheel with Joey?
Heffron Drive, AKA Kendall Schmidt from Big Time Rush and his friend Dustin Belt, are set to release a special acoustic version of their debut album “Happy Mistakes” on April 28th! The album features hits like “Parallel” and “Art Of Moving On.”
The duo are also playing an album release show at The Mint on April 30th to celebrate. Get your tickets before they’re gone and party with Kendall and Dustin.
Heffron Drive Acoustic Album Release Show
The Mint
April 30th, 3015
Tickets: $25 Buy Tickets
Watch Heffron Drive perform “Parallel” live at the NJ State Fair last year.
Be sure to pick up a copy of “Happy Mistakes” on iTunes now!
‘Tis the season for boys in matching chunky turtlenecks and festive headwear! If you’re searching for the perfect Holiday music to add to your playlist (or any playlist), you can’t go wrong with some classic boyband songs.
1. 98 Degrees – “This Gift” Is it okay if we say this is our favorite 98 Degrees album? (Sorry, “Microphone.”)
2. *NSYNC – “Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays” The most iconic Christmas music video of all time.
3. NKOTB – “Funky Funky Xmas”
They performed this on the Arsenio Hall Show in 1990, and Jordan decided his Christmas gift to you would be to take his shirt off mid-performance.
4. Big Time Rush – “Beautiful Christmas” Confession: we will listen to this song year round if it shuffles on our BTR playlist.
5. Backstreet Boys – “It’s Christmas Time Again” BSB somehow managed to avoid releasing a full Christmas album (although we would love that guys, get on it). They did release this single in in 2012.
We always try to add some new Christmas music to our playlists every year, to go along with the essentials. (That list would include *NSYNC’s “Home For Christmas,” Hilary Duff’s “Santa Clause Lane,” and “Music From The O.C. Mix 3: Have A Very Merry Chrismukkah.”) So we were thrilled to hear that one of our favorite boyband members was releasing a Holiday single!
Kendall Schmidt, from Big Time Rush and Heffron Drive, just released “Blame It On the Mistletoe.” The track will definitely get you in the Holiday spirit. Listen below and pickup a copy on iTunes now!
And if you’re feeling nostalgic for BTR, watch their performance of “Beautiful Christmas” from the National Tree Lighting, complete with matching tuxedos. (#boybandsforever)
Happy Halloween, Fangirls! This week, we’ve been listening to pretty much only Country music but we decided to get into the spirit of Halloween and bring you our favorite Halloween themed music videos.
1. Backstreet Boys – “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)”
BSB really went all out and set the standard for Halloween themed music videos. Jekyl & Hyde, a Mummy, a werewolf, the Phantom Of The Opera, and Dracula come together for a choreographed dance filled costume ball of epic proportions. Why are they in costume? Nobody knows. And full disclosure, we still know these dance moves and definitely danced along at the BSB tours.
2. Big Time Rush – “Big Night” The BTR Halloween episode is pretty amazing – we love Kendall as a werewolf, and James the vampire vs the vampire slayer. Throwback to the BSB video?
3. Kristian Bush – “Trailer Hitch”
Zombies have taken over this country star’s new video and the only way to stop them is by the soothing sound of his guitar!
4. 5SOS – “Don’t Stop” Doesn’t everyone want to dress up as their favorite super hero on Halloween? Well, Aussie pop punkers 5SOS just gave you five brand new favorite super heroes.
5. Patent Pending – “Dance Til We Die”
When we said that the Long Islanders in Patent Pending went all out for videos, we weren’t exaggerating. The bands video for “Dance Til We Die” is perfect for any Halloween bash. Gore and zombies take over as the band sings “and the dancing dead are taking over, never gonna make it out!”
We finally have the name of Heffron Drive‘s debut album – “Happy Mistakes!” The album will be released later this fall on Tolbooth Records. The guys (Kendall Schmidt of Big Time Rush and guitarist Dustin Belt) are also going on tour later this summer in support of the album. Check out the first round of dates below!
Heffron Drive Happy Mistakes Tour Dates
August 30th – Variety Playhouse – Atlanta, GA – Buy Tickets
September 1st – iPlay America – Freehold, NJ – Buy Tickets
September 3rd – Irving Plaza – New York, NY – Buy Tickets
September 4th – 9:30 Club – Washington, D.C. – Buy Tickets
September 5th – Paradise Rock Club – Boston, MA – Buy Tickets
September 6th – Madison Theatre – Rockville Centre, NY – Buy Tickets
September 7th – TLA – Philadelphia, PA – Buy Tickets September 27th – Desert Breeze Park – Las Vegas, NV
Tickets go on sale this Friday, August 1st. Check with the venue and the Heffron Drive Facebook for pre-sale info! There will also be VIP packages available, which include access to a sound check party with a Q&A session, and a photo with the band. Stay tuned for more tour dates!
In case you were out watching fireworks in person and not on TV, you might have missed Heffron Drive’s performance at A Capitol Fourth, from Washington DC. Bandmates Kendall Schmidt and Dustin Belt performed their new single “Parallel” with The National Symphony Orchestra, in a special orchestral arrangement. Watch their performance below!
We love the full sound of this arrangement of the song. Love it too? You can download the orchestral version of “Parallel” on iTunes now!
Heffron Drive will be playing with AJR at the KRZ Summer Mingle in Scranton, PA this Sunday, July 13th! Get tickets & more info here.
Hosted by Big Time Rush member, Carlos PenaVega, Webheads is a new kind of gameshow that tests your knowledge of Internet trivia and viral videos!
We always thought Logan would be the game show host (Breakout Dreams anyone?) but we’re glad that now Carlos is will be appearing on our TVs every week! An adorable ball of energy, Carlos is perfect for a game show host! We caught him hosting an Apple in-store event last summer for GoDance, and he seemed just as home as he does on stage.
Carlos also revealed to Ryan Seacrest today that Big Time Rush is meeting in a few weeks to possibly plan a fall tour … needless to say we need to make this happen! The band has been spending this year working on their own projects: Kendall Schmidt released a single, “Parallel,” and is touring with band Heffron Drive; James Maslow won hearts across America as a contestant on “Dancing With the Stars,” and Logan Henderson has…wait has anyone heard from Logan?!
Watch the show preview below and don’t forget to tune in tonight at 6PM on Nickelodeon! Carlos will be live-tweeting the premieres on both the East & West Coasts, so get your questions ready! Follow Carlos on Twitter to join in!
Be sure to follow Secret Fangirls on Twitter for the latest on your favorite stars!
As we’ve written before, there seems to be a lot of confusion in the media as to who is a boy band and who’s not. We prefer to use boy band in the original sense of the word, like the originals New Edition and New Kids on the Block. You can even consult the dictionary: a boy band is a group of young men who sing in harmonies and DANCE! Here are some of our favorites!
1. Big Time Rush – “Boyfriend”
Big Time Rush doesn’t get enough credit for bringing boy bands back into fashion. Before their show premiered in2009 we had all been living in a sad boy band less world for years. True BSB have been going strong for over 20 years, but we hadn’t seen any NEW boy bands since the golden era in the early 2000s, when a new band seemed to emerge every week. BTR has the moves, looks and harmonies of a classic boy band. Now that they are in the “I’m just going into space / I’m just going to record this solo project, probably no one will hear it” phase of their band, we are hoping that they reunite for at least one more tour. They keep saying it ain’t over! We love their mashup of Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend,” with their song of the same name. Complete with a hat dance!
2. Titanium – “Unarmed”
AKA New Zealand’s first boy band! The deprived nation held a rigorous competition, which included a boy band boot camp, to find the 6 members of the band. They’ve even written songs with BTR members Kendall Schmidt and Logan Henderson. There were rumors of a joint Big Time Rush & Titanium tour for a while, and we’d just like to put in a formal request to make that happen.
3. Midnight Red – “Hell Yeah”
They call themselves America’s boy band, and with good reason. They have harmonies that melt you, and have done solid covers like “Diamonds” by Rihanna and even NKOTB’s “Step by Step!” They got the ultimate boy band seal of approval when NKOTBSB recruited them to open for their tour, making Midnight Red officially a part of the boy band posse. And we’re sure they wouldn’t back down to a dance off with BSB! (Can we have this? Thanks!)
4. Phase V – “Not a Bad Thing”
One of the newest boy bands on the block, is the self described Urban-Pop boy band. They’ve posted covers of “Not a Band Thing” by Justin Timberlake, which we’ve always said was meant for a 5 part harmony, and “Drop It” by Trevor Jackson. We hear they’re working on an *NSYNC cover as we speak and we can’t wait! We love that these guys dance and stay true to the boy band genre and are looking forward to hearing more from them!
5. To Be One – “Please Don’t Go Girl”
The Jordan Knight approved boy band sampled NKOTB’s hit “Please Don’t Go Girl” in their original song of the same name. Jordan said it best when he told MTV “finally a boy band that dances! And the hook is darn good too!”
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