The EM Poll

Band on the Web

Apr 1, 2003 12:00 PM, By Geary Yelton

           

GrooveLily is not your average rock 'n' roll power trio. Two out of three members have graduate degrees in music; the third graduated from Princeton with honors. Individually, they've performed with such varied artists as Cindy Lauper, Joe Jackson, John Patitucci, Clarence Clemons, and Ben Harper. Together since 1994, GrooveLily has built a loyal following and tours extensively, primarily on the East Coast. Their diverse music spans styles from power-pop rock to jazzy ballads and acoustic folk.

Like their music, GrooveLily's Web site is a group effort. Despite their busy performance schedule, the three band members take full responsibility for their jam-packed site. Valerie Vigoda (electric violin, vocals, songwriting) and Brendan Milburn (keyboards, vocals, songwriting) originally designed the site, with subsequent design and maintenance by Gene Lewin (drums). Lewin actively updates the site, changing it at least three times a week and sometimes daily.

When you log on to www.groovelily.com, Milburn's well-executed Flash intro does just what it should: plays briefly and moves on to the home page. From there, it's easy to navigate to pages devoted to GrooveLily's music, schedule, reviews, bios, photo gallery, journal entries, discussion boards, and news updates. The sheer volume of favorable reviews is impressive. Journalists (and fans) can conveniently download online PDF press kits and high-res JPEGs of the band. You can order CDs, T-shirts, and hats from the merchandise page. Truly enthusiastic fans, called Petal Pushers, provide local promotion and man the merchandise table; in exchange, they're rewarded with free admissions, backstage passes, and exclusive downloads on their own Web pages.

Three of GrooveLily's five CDs are out of print, but you can hear every out-of-print song in its entirety on their site. Selections from their two most recent albums and from Vigoda's 1994 solo debut are also online, along with lyrics to every song on every album. Their most recent CD, Just the Three of Us, is a live concert recording, and their next studio album is tentatively titled Are We There Yet?