MissFlag
Encyclopedia
missFlag is an indie
pop
-rock
band
from Jerusalem, Israel
. Originally formed in 2005, The band's music is mostly influenced by the new wave
of British music
and alternative rock
.
The band consists of Gil Assayas - Keyboards
& Lead voice, Assa Bukelman - Electric Guitar
. Shai Saadia - Bass and Assaf Kraus - Drums & backing vocals.
band Coldplay
.
In its earlier days the band consisted of five members, including the musician and songwriter Ohad Eilam (Guitar and Vocals). Later on the band continued working as a four piece band.
of 5 songs which was printed in only 1,000 copies.
The EP caught the ear of music producer and songwriter
from Los Angeles
, California
Guy Erez (Jennifer Love Hewitt
, Gypsy Kings, Adam Cohen
, Sarah Bettens
) who later produced missFlag's first studio album
.
from KCRW
, the California based public radio station. (Credited for discovering Travis
, Dido
, Coldplay
, Norah Jones
, Pete Yorn
, and David Gray
).
song. The single hit KCRW's top 20 charts, was praised in two different reviews by The Los Angeles Times, was downloaded digitally over 10,000 times and was nominated by the indie music website GarageBand
as song of the week several times. Furthermore, The Spanish/American based radio station Fame Games Radio
chose Hidden Thieves to be song of the week four times in a row, leading to a "Track of the Month" title.
and Miki Gavrielov, featuring Gavrielov himself in both the song and the video clip. Whilst the song was originally written in Hebrew, the band rewrote the lyrics in English
and renamed the it Dreams of Flying but maintained the general concept of the song. The melody was kept but the arrangement
was changed to fit missFlag's style.
Along the years, missFlag has cooperated with many artists and musicians, both in the studio and live on stage including; Jamie Muhoberac
, (from the Hebrew Wiki→) Yirmi Kaplan, Miki Gavrielov, Sharon Moldavi, Lee Biran (Libi), Ohad Eilam, Michael Greilsammer, Mai Lev, Miki Geva, Rebbe-Che and many others.
----
" is a song by Jonathan Coulton
, originally written as the ending credits theme for the PC game "Portal" by Valve Corporation
. On November 10, 2007 missFlag uploaded to YouTube
a cover version of the song, played at a rehearsal. The cover caught the ears of thousands of Portal fans, who urged the band to do a high-quality studio recording of their version. missFlag listened and recorded the song, released on March 16, 2008 as a free download from their website. The song was downloaded over 25,000 times and featured in numerous leading gaming sites.
Singles:
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
-rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
from Jerusalem, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. Originally formed in 2005, The band's music is mostly influenced by the new wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
of British music
British music
British music could refer to:* Music of the United Kingdom* English music* Irish music* Scottish music* Welsh music* Celtic music...
and alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
.
The band consists of Gil Assayas - Keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
& Lead voice, Assa Bukelman - Electric Guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
. Shai Saadia - Bass and Assaf Kraus - Drums & backing vocals.
Formation
missFlag's members have known each other years before forming the band. The group first started working together as a one time Tribute act for the British RockBritish rock
British rock describes a wide variety of forms of music made in the United Kingdom. Since around 1964, with the "British Invasion" of the United States spearheaded by The Beatles, British rock music has had a considerable impact on the development of American music and rock music across the...
band Coldplay
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...
.
In its earlier days the band consisted of five members, including the musician and songwriter Ohad Eilam (Guitar and Vocals). Later on the band continued working as a four piece band.
First EP
Shortly after the Coldplay tribute, the group started to perform, write and record their own music, which led to the creation of their first release - a self produced EPExtended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
of 5 songs which was printed in only 1,000 copies.
The EP caught the ear of music producer and songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
from Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
Guy Erez (Jennifer Love Hewitt
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Jennifer Love Hewitt is an American actress, producer, television director and former singer-songwriter. Hewitt began her acting career as a child by appearing in television commercials and the Disney Channel series Kids Incorporated...
, Gypsy Kings, Adam Cohen
Adam Cohen
Adam Cohen is an American journalist and assistant editorial page editor of The New York Times. Cohen is a lawyer and author, with a particular interest in legal issues, politics and technology...
, Sarah Bettens
Sarah Bettens
Sarah Bettens is the lead singer of the Belgian band K's Choice. Sarah and her brother Gert Bettens are the two popular faces of the band. She is known for her enigmatic, smoky voice. The band is popular in Belgium, the Netherlands and France, and had toured in the U.S...
) who later produced missFlag's first studio album
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
.
To Infinity
In early 2007, the group finished writing a lot of new material, from which 10 songs were chosen for the purpose of recording their debut studio album. "To Infinity" was produced by L.A. based producer Guy Erez and came to light later that year. The Album was a mile stone for the band in the crowded US market. Later that year, the group released a single from the album, called "Hidden Thieves" a rock ballad that caught the ear of the renowned radio D.J. and "taste-maker" Nic HarcourtNic Harcourt
Nic Harcourt was, most recently, the Music Director for Santa Monica, California-based radio station KCRW. Before joining KCRW, Harcourt worked for eight years as a news director and music director at radio station WDST in Woodstock, New York...
from KCRW
KCRW
KCRW is a public radio station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, carrying a mix of National Public Radio news, talk radio and freeform music format. The general manager of KCRW is Jennifer Ferro...
, the California based public radio station. (Credited for discovering Travis
Travis (band)
Travis are a post-Britpop band from Glasgow, Scotland, comprising Fran Healy , Dougie Payne , Andy Dunlop and Neil Primrose...
, Dido
Dido (singer)
Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong , known as Dido, is an English singer-songwriter.Dido shot to worldwide success with her debut album, No Angel...
, Coldplay
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...
, Norah Jones
Norah Jones
Norah Jones is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actress.In 2002, she launched her solo music career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album Come Away With Me, which was certified a diamond album in 2002, selling over 20 million copies...
, Pete Yorn
Pete Yorn
Peter Joseph Yorn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist who first gained international recognition after his debut record, Musicforthemorningafter, was released to critical acclaim in 2001.-Early history:Yorn's father is a dentist and his mother is a former concert pianist who worked as a...
, and David Gray
David Gray (musician)
David Gray is an English singer-songwriter. He released his first studio album in 1993 and received worldwide attention after the release of White Ladder six years later...
).
Hidden Thieves
Hidden Thieves is probably the group's flagFlag
A flag is a piece of fabric with a distinctive design that is usually rectangular and used as a symbol, as a signaling device, or decoration. The term flag is also used to refer to the graphic design employed by a flag, or to its depiction in another medium.The first flags were used to assist...
song. The single hit KCRW's top 20 charts, was praised in two different reviews by The Los Angeles Times, was downloaded digitally over 10,000 times and was nominated by the indie music website GarageBand
GarageBand
GarageBand is a software application for Mac OS X and iOS that allows users to create music or podcasts. It is developed by Apple Inc. as a part of the iLife software package on Mac OS X.-Audio recording:...
as song of the week several times. Furthermore, The Spanish/American based radio station Fame Games Radio
Fame Games Radio
Fame Games Radio is a music discovery radio program produced by Meer Music International for Envision Radio Network in association with Dial Global Radio Network, since February 2010...
chose Hidden Thieves to be song of the week four times in a row, leading to a "Track of the Month" title.
Dreams of Flying
In 2009, the group covered the Israeli classic "Uf Gozal" by Arik EinsteinArik Einstein
Arik Einstein is an Israeli singer-songwriter.Einstein was a vocalist for Batzal Yarok , Shleeshiyat Gesher Hayarkon and Hahalonot Hagvohim . His collaboration with Shalom Hanoch and the Churchills planted the seeds for the first Israeli rock albums...
and Miki Gavrielov, featuring Gavrielov himself in both the song and the video clip. Whilst the song was originally written in Hebrew, the band rewrote the lyrics in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and renamed the it Dreams of Flying but maintained the general concept of the song. The melody was kept but the arrangement
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
was changed to fit missFlag's style.
Along the years, missFlag has cooperated with many artists and musicians, both in the studio and live on stage including; Jamie Muhoberac
Jamie Muhoberac
Jamie Muhoberac is a session keyboardist with numerous credits, including The All-American Rejects, Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones , Backstreet Boys, Aly & AJ, Bob Dylan, Goo Goo Dolls, Chris Cornell , My Chemical Romance, Paradise Lost, Girlfriend, Carmen Rizzo and Pet Shop Boys...
, (from the Hebrew Wiki→) Yirmi Kaplan, Miki Gavrielov, Sharon Moldavi, Lee Biran (Libi), Ohad Eilam, Michael Greilsammer, Mai Lev, Miki Geva, Rebbe-Che and many others.
----
Still Alive - Portal song
"Still AliveStill Alive
Still Alive may refer to:* Still Alive , the closing credits song from the Portal video game* Still Alive – the Remixes, the theme song from the video game Mirror's Edge...
" is a song by Jonathan Coulton
Jonathan Coulton
Jonathan Coulton is an American singer-songwriter, known for his songs about geek culture and his use of the Internet to draw fans...
, originally written as the ending credits theme for the PC game "Portal" by Valve Corporation
Valve Corporation
Valve Corporation is an American video game development and digital distribution company based in Bellevue, Washington, United States...
. On November 10, 2007 missFlag uploaded to YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
a cover version of the song, played at a rehearsal. The cover caught the ears of thousands of Portal fans, who urged the band to do a high-quality studio recording of their version. missFlag listened and recorded the song, released on March 16, 2008 as a free download from their website. The song was downloaded over 25,000 times and featured in numerous leading gaming sites.
TV, Awards, Tours and Radio Features
- On September 17, 2007 missFlag played a live session in Harcourt's morning edition Morning Becomes EclecticMorning Becomes EclecticMorning Becomes Eclectic is a three-hour adult album alternative radio program first aired in 1977 and broadcast live every weekday from KCRW in Santa Monica, California. The show's name is a play on the Eugene O'Neill trilogy of plays, Mourning Becomes Electra.The show is hosted by Jason Bentley,...
, and drew the attention of several major labels, including Universal RecordsUniversal RecordsUniversal Records was a record label owned by Universal Music Group, and it is now owned by Manny Patino and Michael Jackson, and operated as part of the Universal Motown Republic Group.-History:...
who invited the band to LA for a showcaseAuditionAn audition is a sample performance by an actor, singer, musician, dancer or other performing artist.Audition may also refer to:* The sense of hearing* Adobe Audition, audio editing software...
later that year. - That same month, missFlag was also invited to play in Hollywood's prestige film festival "AFI" (American Film InstituteAmerican Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
). - In December 2007, missFlag's song "Fortune" was selected as KCRW's Top Tune.
- On March 10, 2007 the group performed with the BritishUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-Israeli band BlackfieldBlackfieldBlackfield is a collaboratory musical group between Porcupine Tree founder and lead singer Steven Wilson and Israeli rock singer Aviv Geffen.-Formation, self-titled debut :...
(Steven WilsonSteven WilsonSteven John Wilson is an English musician, best known as the founder, lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of progressive rock band Porcupine Tree...
, Aviv GeffenAviv GeffenAviv Geffen is an Israeli rock musician, singer, songwriter, producer, keyboardist and guitarist. He is the son of writer and poet Yehonatan Geffen and Nurit Makover, brother of actress Shira Geffen, and an alumnus of Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music.Geffen was and is extremely popular...
) at the Knitting FactoryKnitting FactoryThe Knitting Factory is a music venue and concert house with locations in Brooklyn, Boise, Reno, and Spokane. The club originally specialized in jazz and experimental music and has expanded to showcasing all genres of music, performing arts and comedy....
, in Hollywood, California. - Since 2006, the band has toured the USA four times, from East CoastEast Coast of the United StatesThe East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
to West CoastWest Coast of the United StatesWest Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
, covering over 20 states. - The Austin American-StatesmanAustin American-StatesmanThe Austin American-Statesman is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of Texas. It is an award-winning publication owned by Cox Enterprises. The Newspaper places focus on issues affecting Austin and the Central Texas region....
newspaper has picked missFlag's show at "Antone's" in Austin, Texas as the Best Bet for March, 2007. - ABC Radio Networks "Fame Games" featured missFlag in "Red Carpet" - The Global Breakthru Chart #15 (May 16, 2009).
- The band has been selected as one of the top 5 nominees for 8 awards, including: Best Overall Artist, Best Group (Rock), Most Popular band, Best Overall vocal, in ABC Radio Networks Fame Games Effigy Awards.
- In 2008, their single "Hidden Thieves" was nominated in the Alternative category at the Hollywood Music Awards.
- In June 2005, their song "Run" made it to the top 5 in the 'rock' category at the VH1VH1VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
"Song of the Year songwriting contest". - JLTV (Jewish Life TelevisionJewish Life TelevisionJewish Life Television is the world’s only 24-hour, full-time TV network delivering Jewish-themed programming. Launched in 2007, JLTV offers news, sports, lifestyle and entertainment programming including films, documentaries, music, reviews, interviews and special events...
) nationwide US TV channel did a feature on the band.
Discography
- #First EP - Released in 1.1.2006.
- #To Infinity - Released 2007.
Singles:
- Hidden Thieves - Released in 20.4.2007
- You're Not Easy To Love - Released in 18.6.2008
- Dreams of Flying - Released in 2009.