About
FamiliarizeYourself believes in supporting Chicago’s local music scene. Familiarizeyourself.com was started in June 2009 by Ashley Brown, an avid music fan who wanted to express her passion through creative writing. Familiarize Yourself quickly expanded; within one month four passionate music lovers, all of whom had no previous experience in music journalism, joined Brown’s team.
Since then, It has become a music project that has brought together industry professionals through informational interviews, and reviews of artists working their way up the musical food chain. The Familiarize Yourself crew writes because we are overly passionate about listening to new music. We are not critiquing or judging the creativity of the artists; we are explaining our addiction and how each musician helps bring us one step closer to that euphoric state.
THE STAFF
AB / Publisher
While finishing up her final year at Columbia College Chicago with an Arts, Entertainment, & Media Management degree, Ashley specializes in special event management, and the sweet-talking world of marketing and PR. As an overachiever and she is never satisfied with “good enough” – and is not afraid to work her ass off to reach some major goals.
Feel free to send over tips, albums, or good conversation to ashley@familiarizeyourself.com
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James Gooden / Editor
When James was just thirteen she joined feminist rock organization, Rebel Grrls. The toughest and coolest women she’s met taught her survival bass skills and how to kick ass in a male dominated music industry. She’s been rolling up her jeans and kicking shins since.
James is a junior at Columbia College Chicago studying arts, entertainment and media management with a concentration in live performance. She’s the founder and organizer for popular new music series on campus, Loophole.
She’s a firm believer that cool kids belong together, that music is best enjoyed live and that no one in the music industry ever sleeps; ever.
*****
I just love music. I want it constantly. I wanted it Yesterday and I want it Today and I’ll probably want it worse Tomorrow….
- hunter s. thompson
send love, hate and more to james@familiarizeyourself.com
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Aside from live music, events, and school Gali enjoys cooking, craft work (jewelry, scrapbooking, etc), and playing the piano.
Comments, questions, suggestions, and puns welcome! Contact: gali@familiarizeyourself.com
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Dan Case / Staff Writer
Growing up in a household that listened to little beyond Top 40 radio and Jimmy Buffett records, Dan wasn’t really exposed to a ton of music growing up until he discovered Napster in grade school. Yeah, it wasn’t exactly the “I found my dad’s copy of Revolver in the attic and it changed my life” kind of story, but nonetheless it was where his passion started. In middle school, Dan found out about this thing called punk rock and his life has been changed ever since. His love of music has lead him to heading street teams in high school, moving to Chicago for college, going on the road with a couple bands as their tour manager/merch guy, interning doing radio promotion for some huge metal bands, and amassing a record collection that would impress very few music critics. In addition to Familiarize Yourself, Dan also writes for the National Underground. Currently, Dan is awaiting his graduation from Columbia College Chicago with a degree in Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management.
please send records, praise, and job offers to Dan@familiarizeyourself.com
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Landry Miller / Graphic Design
Logo creation and some graphic design created by Landry.
Contact him for work, inquiries, or love at landry.miller@loop.colum.edu
Contributors:
Devan Perine – devan@familiarizeyourself.com
Nikki Leonhardt – nicole.leonhardt@loop.colum.edu
