Radios In Heaven

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Your time has already come and I don't know why
The last thing that I had heard
you were doin' just fine
It seems like just yesterday
I was laughing with you
Playing games at Grandma's house
well you taught me well, didn't you?
I hope I'm just like you

Do they have radios in heaven?
I hope they do
'Cause they're playing my song on the radio
And I'm singing it to you

You left before I had a chance to say goodbye
But that's the way life usually is
it just passes you by
But you can't hold on to regrets and you can't look back
So I'll just be thankful for the times that I had with you
I hope I'm just like you

Do they have radios in heaven?
I hope they do
'Cause they're playing my song on the radio
And I'm singing it to you
If they don't have radios in heaven
here's what I'll do
I can bring my guitar when my time is up and I'll play it for you

Tell me can you hear me now
if not, then I can try to sing real loud
What's it like up on the other side of the clouds?
I hope I'm just like you
I hope I turn out to be as good as you

Who the hell is Delilah?

There's something in the gentle strains of Hey There Delilah that's so earnest, so honest, listeners wonder: Is this Plain White T's song about a real girl?

Delilah DiCrescenzo, a 24-year-old Olympic hopeful, is fact. But the song's relationship between a New York college student and a guitar player a thousand miles away, well, that part is completely made up.

"There was never anything between us," admits Tom Higgenson, 28, lead singer for the Chicago-based quintet. "It was kind of funny — kind of sad, actually. The story of my life."

Released in 2005, Delilah has become a surprise summer hit, already spawning a profane radio-show parody. The song's popularity live got it added to the band's 2007 major-label debut album, Every Second Counts. It's currently in the top five of Billboard's Hot 100 and iTunes' Top Songs charts. The band appears on MTV's TRL today and has a recurring role in ABC Family's upcoming Greek.

A friend introduced Higgenson to his muse five years ago.

"I thought she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen," he says. "I told her, 'I have a song about you already.' Obviously, there was no song. But I thought it was smooth."

He waited a year to write the song. Now, it's inescapable.

"When I'm at the gym, it's playing; when I'm at the pool, it's playing," says DiCrescenzo, a Columbia University graduate and a steeplechase runner who's training for next year's Olympic trials. "Part of me wants to scream at the top of my lungs that it's about me. Another part of me wants to cower and say it's not."

DiCrescenzo rebuffed his advances. "I wasn't interested. I was dating somebody." But the two kept in touch by e-mail.

"Because I wasn't with Delilah, I had to imagine, 'If I was with this girl, what would I want to tell her?' " he says.

DiCrescenzo considered Higgenson's promises of a song so much playful flirting until he brought her a disc in late 2004.

"It was so beautifully written," she says. "There was pressure to live up to this ideal. I didn't know how to be polite but, you know, ditch him."

Years later, Higgenson is OK with that. "If we had lived happily ever after, then what would my next song be about?"


Oh.. So that was Delilah huh. :)

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Panic At The Disco, Plain White T's Help Launch 'Rock Band 2' At Pre-VMA Party

Panic At The Disco, Plain White T's Help Launch 'Rock Band 2' At Pre-VMA Party
Fans playing the new Harmonix game earn just as much applause as the bands.

Panic at the Disco's Brendon Urie performs at the "Rock Band 2" pre-VMA party on Saturday

Photo: Jordan Strauss/WireImage

HOLLYWOOD — It was difficult to say who drew the most applause on Saturday night at the House of Blues on Sunset Strip: Panic at the Disco's dueling pretty boys (Ryan Ross and Brendon Urie), Plain White T's apple-cheeked, aw-shucks frontman (Tom Higgenson) or the shaggy-haired dude who totally wailed on Jet's "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" (nameless, bizarrely pumped Harmonix employee). So let's just call it a three-way tie.

There was a whole lot of everything going on at the event that was dubbed "the official launch party" for MTV-owned Harmonix's much anticipated "Rock Band 2" video game, which also doubled as a pre-Video Music Awards shindig, a fundraiser for the nonprofit LIFEbeat organization, a Yankee swap meet and a celebrity bake sale (just kidding about the last two). Oh, and both Panic and PWT took the stage for short sets too.

Whether it was a near-flawless performance of Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" taking place on one of the several "Rock Band" stages set up throughout the club, or PWT playing "Hey There Delilah" on the main stage, it was greeted with tons of high-pitched screams and more than a few cell phones held aloft. Watching bemusedly from the VIP section were a host of celebs, including Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson, "From G's to Gents" host Fonzworth Bentley, Buckcherry frontman Josh Todd and, uh, James Woods.

As for the music, well, "Rock Band 2" looks pretty awesome. And the bands were pretty good too. Higgenson and the T's played just four songs — the first single ("Natural Disaster") and the title track from their upcoming album Big Bad World, plus "Delilah" and "Our Time Now" — barely breaking a sweat but still delivering poppy, shiny anthems on a minor scale. As they exited, they blew kisses to the crowd and promised a much lengthier set when they return to Los Angeles on the "Rock Band" Live Tour (synergy!).

Panic were the "headliners" of the night, so they got to play seven songs, including "That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed)," "Nine in the Afternoon" and a pair of older tunes that were given a husky, guitar-heavy makeover, "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" and "But It's Better If You Do." And while it was just a 30-minute set, you couldn't help but notice that somewhere along the way, Panic had morphed into a pretty good band, channeling — at moments — the shaggy, countryside psychedelia of the Band's Music From Big Pink and the sun-stained studio pop of the Beatles (their "Northern Downpour" sounds like an Abbey Road outtake).

And while the actual rock bands wrapped by midnight, the virtual versions wailed on deep into the night (or at least 1 a.m.). Inspired by what they saw onstage, kids in braces rocked out alongside gray-haired guys in suits, and women in high heels dueted on "Runnin' With the Devil." After all, this was only a concert in the loosest sense of the term, and there were plastic guitars to grasp and rock dreams to fulfill. The bands were almost an afterthought, really.

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Akon Calls His Mom, Plain White T's Call Delilah To Celebrate Grammy Nominations

Akon Calls His Mom, Plain White T's Call Delilah To Celebrate Grammy Nominations
'It's astounding and amazing and surreal,' first-time nominee Feist says of the experience.


There's the old saying about it being an honor just to be nominated. That saying no doubt holds true for the artists, composers and songwriters who landed nominations for the 50th annual Grammy Awards, but they'd also like to win.

"I had a couple of nominations last year, and I didn't win," laughed Ne-Yo, who picked up four Grammy nods on Thursday morning (December 6), including Best R&B Song for "Hate That I Love You" (featuring Rihanna) and Best R&B Vocal Performance for "Because of You." "And to get this many nominations this year, it's an honor for somebody to give you the recognition, of course, but it'd also be an honor if I win."

"Being recognized for doing something you truly love is an amazing thing, whether you win or lose," added Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, up for two Grammys, including Best Pop Vocal Album. "I still really want to win though!"

If Ne-Yo does take home a golden gramophone or two on February 10, he said he plans to celebrate "with a lot of alcohol and a lot of friends and family."

And he wasn't the only artist planning to keep it within the fam. Akon, who received four Grammy nominations of his own, had a similar idea. "I'm calling my mom," he smiled. "She's probably going to scream, 'cause she's always said, 'You know what, you're gonna win.' "

Of course, both of those guys are certified hitmakers — and practically old pros at the Grammy game. For a host of other acts, recognized by the Recording Academy is a completely new experience — and a complete surprise.

"I grew up watching the Grammys every year and always dreamed that some day I would be there," said Tom Higgenson, frontman of Plain White T's — who scored a pair of nods, including Song of the Year, for their massive hit "Hey There Delilah." "It's funny, but before I even started writing 'Hey There Delilah,' I joked with Delilah that the song I wrote for her would be the song that made the band successful and that she'd be my date for the Grammys. Looks like I'll have to give her a call."

"I don't know how we got here, but I ain't complainin'!" exclaimed Hayley Williams, fiery frontwoman of Best New Artist nominees Paramore. "2007 hasn't stopped getting better since it started."

And that enthusiasm wasn't just limited to wet-behind-the-ears newcomers. Take, for example, the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, who seemed positively giddy when he spoke about his band's five nominations — including one for Album of the Year.

"That's pretty huge. We never expected to get something like that," Grohl said. "You're always surprised when you're nominated at the Grammys, because this is the real deal, this is voted on by our peers, by people who really love and understand music. But Album of the Year ... man, I don't know. Maybe Rock Album, or maybe Rock Song, but ... not Album of the Year. Man."

Or Nelly Furtado, who got all prom queen when discussing her nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance.

"The Grammy Awards are like the senior prom of the music business, only they happen every single year," she told MTV News. "Who wouldn't want to be invited to the prom? I was prom queen in high school, so I am thrilled and honored. "

And then there are those who decided to play it cool, despite probably having no idea they'd ever end 2007 with an armload of Grammy noms. Take, for example, Canadian chanteuse Feist, whose breakout hit "1234" earned her four nods — as many as Bruce Springsteen and Rihanna — including Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and a spot in the Best New Artist category. For her, it was just another day in the wilds of the Great White North, which meant shoveling snow and baking and a whole lot of gratitude.

"This news has hit me like the blizzard I'm in the middle of, up in the Canadian woods," she wrote in a statement to MTV News. "I haven't quite absorbed it yet, so I'm going to go shovel the walk and make an apple cobbler now. [It's] astounding and amazing and surreal. Thank you."

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Plain White T's Breaking News

Either the Plain White T's just had a fight before this interview, or the Chicago pop-punks like to joke around as much as their forefathers in Green Day and Blink-182.

"We actually quit the band just now," guitarist Tim Higgenson deadpanned, pointing to fellow guitarist Dave Tirio.

Given, however, that the band is flying sky-high at the moment — with its Hey There Delilah EP hitting stores Tuesday and the Warped Tour on its summer schedule — we're going to assume Higgenson was making a joke about the revolving lineup in the group's early days.

That's ancient history nowadays, as Tirio and Higgenson have solidified a lineup that meshes (and also includes guitarist Tim Lopez, bassist Mike Retondo and drummer De'Mar Hamilton).

"It's all right, we don't really talk or anything, we just play music," Lopez deadpanned again, this time correcting himself. "No, it's great. We love each other a little too much. We're a little too touchy-feely sometimes."

The Plain White T's — named because so many of Higgenson's favorite albums feature the artists wearing plain white T-shirts in their photographs — formed in Chicago in 1997 but didn't get serious until 1999, after Higgenson survived a serious car accident. "I was driving my friend back to college in the band van," the singer recalled. "I don't remember anything, but I guess someone cut me off, so I swerved, ended up flipping over the van, and I guess I was thrown out of the van into the grass median and the van kept rolling."

Higgenson woke up the next day in the hospital but had miraculously broken only a few vertebrae. Still, he was in a back brace for three months and had to learn to walk again.


Plain White T's Photos
"It was one of those life-changing things," he said. "And that was when I started writing songs that meant a little more to me. Instead of writing songs just to write songs, I was writing songs that were a little more personal and actually meant something to me. And I think that was a turning point for the band, as far as the way the songs went. And when I got more personal with the songs, they probably meant more to the people too."

Since then, the band has slowly climbed from unsigned local favorites to nationwide indie darlings and one of Fearless Records' premiere acts (alongside Sugarcult and Rock Kills Kid). Through relentless touring and online networking (Plain White T's have nearly 3 million plays on MySpace), the band has built such a devoted fanbase that when a tour van was broken into a few a years ago, fans came to the rescue.

"We borrowed another band's equipment to play a show and we put out a little donation thing by our merchandise and we raised $100 just that night," Higgenson said. "So we set up a little P.O. box and we ended up getting a ton of cool cards and kids were drawing pictures of us. And this one girl sent us $20 that was her allowance for the month."

"Cheap parents, but generous kid," Lopez joked.

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"The cool thing was we got to go through them all and write thank-you notes to everybody," Tirio added. "So now when we see those kids at shows they come up and say, 'Oh, I sent you this when that happened.' It just brought everyone together."

Since then, the T's have been working with producer Johnny K (Disturbed, Simple Plan) on the follow-up to 2005's All That We Needed, due in September. They're releasing Hey There Delilah to tide fans over.

Plain White T's will take a break from recording this summer for half of the Warped Tour, their first time on the road with an actual tour bus.

"It gets hard in a van because you've got no place to cool off," Higgenson said.

"You're trekking your equipment across muddy fairgrounds, you don't get to sleep," Tirio said. "But they have showers, and food, so that gets you through it."

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Sara Bareilles with Plain White T's

Sara Bareilles	Plain White T's

Sara Bareilles, Plain White T's to perform Saturday at STAR Spring Concert – free!

The 2009 STAR Spring Concert, Saturday, May 9, will feature musical artists Sara Bareilles and the Plain White T's. The concert is free; tickets are not required. Concert goers will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis.

Concert schedule:

• Sara Bareilles will perform at 7:30 p.m. in the Binz Refectory Parking Lot W on south campus. IDs will not be checked for this show.

• The Plain White T's show starts at 10 p.m. in Coughlan Field House. Students must show their UST student ID to enter the field house. One guest will be allowed per student ID (limited to the first 200 non-UST guests). Guests must bring a valid state ID.

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Before Day - Presents Enjoy the Show

Before Day Presents Enjoy the Show is a CD of contrasts, with opposing forces struggling to balance out the end result, but the more you listen, the more it becomes clear that the right side is winning.

The vocal styling on songs like "Smile" is too monotone, and the lyrics do not feel very inventive, but this is the exception to the rule. "Dream a Little" is a cute, bouncy and happy tune in the style of artists like Jason Mraz, with good storytelling; it also features a kazoo solo, which can only put a smile on your face.

There is also some good banjo picking on "Freer than Ever Before" – most of the songs maintain their roots without becoming too overly steeped in musical devices. My favorite was called "Melody," a pretty love song that sounds a little bit like the Plain White T's megahit, "Hey There Delilah."

This CD is diverse, changing it up when you least expect it, and the result is just fine with me.


From JC
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