Up until this moment in time, I always had one epic show in my memory that I thought I'd never be able to top. For a lot of reasons. But playing Ithaca's biggest regional venue with Mac Miller and Tayyib Ali last Sunday night was way over the top. Such a memorable and fulfilling experience, an estimated 1500 people packed to the back of the auditorium, all waving their hands and repping hip-hop like I've never seen before. Quite a few beloved strangers came to see my set and shouted my lyrics back at me. Powerful. HUGE shoutout to Tayyib Ali and Jon Kilmer, who me and the crew chilled with for the day, and Mac Miller for pulling a killer set after a fire alarm evacuation mid-show. Wildness. He also announced to the entire crowd that Osama died. Equally wild to hear that news from Mac Miller.

As everyone at the show remembers, we filmed a live video of "The Book Report", done by my man Jon Kilmer. He really is a pro. The crowd swung their hands from side to side and sang "You are my favorite miracle..." as you will all see in the video, which is insane, definitely the best yet, coming out this week!! Find yourself in the video!

We opened with new song "Keep Your Friends Close", and a classic DJ Grumble scratch, and as I've written on here before, seeing all of you guys powerclap with me at the end of the song evokes some kind of crazy emotion. I felt like I shared a moment with a sea of people and instantly knew that the show was going to be unlike ever before, given such a large audience. Keep your friends close.. get ready.

Also, as a bunch of new followers have asked, the "Who says" song sampling John Mayer hasn't yet been released. But, perhaps, just maybe, I'll have to do that soon for you guys.... It's called "Life is like a Music Box" prod by Son Sound

I concluded the set with another unreleased track over a really really fresh beat by DJ Grumble. The audience rocked out wildly until the last second and got a D.O. chant going after I left the stage. I applaud YOU, Ithaca, for such an amazing show. GET PUMPED FOR THE NEW SONGS COMING SOON

Much love to Kia Ro for hyping, DJ Grumble (who spun for me and then Tayyib << the first time they've met in person, Grumbs produced "Keystone State of Mind" for Tayyib and more!) Mike, Lily, Jon Pineda for rocking out, my man Teddy for managing a ridiculous amount of stuff, Andrew Fu for his sharp eye, Nat Green, Bro Owen and friends for rolling through, Tayyib Ali for a killer set and a really fresh style, Jon Kilmer for bringing his a-game, and Mac Miller and his crew for bringing the posse donald trump style.

Stay tuned for "The Book Report" video releasing within the week. And, announcements on new releases, asap. Keep em close.

Here are more pictures from the show:

-dylan owen

New video. "Postcards" live opening for Chiddy Bang at Cornell University on March 12, 2011. This was an amazing show. Huge thanks to Erin FM and Jamie Johnson for the filming/directing/editing. Song produced by Nico Marchese and Devin Arne, and features my good friend Jesse Denaro. Shoutout to DJ Grumble and Kia for their help with the live set. Much love.

http://www.dansmallspresents.com/2011/04/mac-miller-at-state/ get your tickets for D.O. & Mac Miller on Sunday, May 1st!

I've been prepping like crazy for the show with Mac Miller this Sunday at The State Theater in Ithaca NY. We're putting a couple of the new songs---like brand-new songs---in the mix for the show and I'm looking so forward to rocking them with such a large audience. Mac has been gaining incredible hype lately and on campus seems to be all over the place. It's wild and I'm very excited to be sharing that stage. In addition, Jon Kilmer (shoots for Tayyib Ali, Cam Meekins, Huey Mack, and others) is going to be filming a music/promo/performance video of "The Book Report" at the show and of course I'm really anticipating that... more info TBA. But GET PUMPED. Because Sunday, it's going down in Ithaca for real.

JOIN THE DYLAN OWEN STREET TEAM In other news, I made a Street Team, so that me and my online gang of loyal and beloved supporters can cause revolution whenever necessary. But for real, it's going to be a huge help to have an organized group of people who are down to support at any given time and hear updates first/repost my music/consult my ideas/spread this movement to their people. SO JOIN THE FB GROUP AND LET'S D.O. WORK!

I also will be performing this Friday night at Cornell University as the special guest artist of an acapella group here known as Cayuga's Waiters. The venue holds about 2,000 people and is (as of tonight) sold out.

Before "The Book Report" video drops (in a couple weeks), I'm releasing a performance video of "Postcards" live with Chiddy Bang at Cornell. Huge props to Erin Ferro-Murray for shooting and cutting. Looking truly forward to dropping this.

Much love always,
Dylan

p.s. This Sunday, May 1st, 9pm, this Sunday night, The State Theater in Ithaca NY with Mac Miller. be there.
p.p.s. New songs are strongly in the works. Keep Your eyes peeled for announcements.

Finally, after six months of edits and cuts and sweat and blood, I present you with Old Armor: the official music video. My debut one at that. Directed by Justin Scutieri*, soon-to-be Syracuse U film graduate. Check out more of his videos here: Justin Scutieri is the man Filmed in Goshen, NY and around a few other parts of Orange County NY in August 2010. Thank you so much to Justin, all the people who helped with and appeared in this video, and all my friends growing up who established the foundation of who I am today. Shoutout to the 845 and every small-town traveler. I hope this evokes some emotion in ya.

Get a copy of "Senioritis" (my debut full-length album) now on iTunes or in Hardcopy through my merch page http://dylanowenmusic.com/merch.html

And thanks for watching. Show a friend, or two, or three...

With love,
D.O.

*If you're interested in Justin doing a video of yours, shoot him an email at vcjustin@aol.com*

Cornell, it's going down, part two.

I just got booked with Mac Miller at Cornell University for an outdoor May 1st concert!!! And... what's even better, is this time the show is OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!

Everybody's been talking about the Pittsburgh star in anticipation of his new mixtape "Best Day Ever" which dropped earlier this month and has already garnered him a ton of new attention (and over 2 million views on the new tape's first video leak, "Donald Trump"). Mac was nominated one of XXL's 2011 Top Freshman (an honor given to J.Cole, Asher Roth, Wiz Khalifa, and many more promising acts in past years). While blowing up on the college scene, Mac'll be touring with Wiz Khalifa this Spring and is awesomely making his way up to Cornell to rock with us.

Looks like me, Kia Ro, and DJ GRUMBLE will be hitting the stage together once again to end this school year with a bang!

Tickets will be available the week of March 28th, and I'll be posting up links for you to grab them on facebook/twitter/my blog/all over. They're going to be gone real quickly, so be on the lookout!! Join the facebook event http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=185808898129025 to stay posted on your own. The show, an outdoor concert bash, opens at 3pm and performances start at 4pm. It will be held on Sunday, May 1st at Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity (ZBT) on Cornell's West Campus, located at 1 Edgecliff Place, Ithaca NY.

Huge shoutout to my dudes over at Crisp Collection and Hulkshare.com for all their help with booking and throwing the show, and huge shoutout to ZBT at Cornell for their help hosting the show and Jon Pineda who will also be opening!

I really, really hope to see you there. I'll be doing tons of new material and rocking OUT OUTDOORS on a sunny sunday with Mac Miller. What more could you want peeps?

THIS GON BE THE BEST DAY EVER

do work,
dylan

Upcoming shows:
-8pm Saturday, March 26th @ SUNY Oswego in Oswego NY (Relay for Life all-night event)
-9pm Wednesday, April 6th @ The Nine's in Ithaca NY (Headlining)
-10pm Thursday, April 21st @ The Nine's in Ithaca NY
-3pm-7pm Sunday, May 1st @ Cornell University with MAC MILLER (outdoor show, details in post above)

Saturday's show with Chiddy Bang rocked! to say the least. Performing in front of a sold out Cornell audience was wild --- a thrill and simultaneously a lot of pressure, yet the sick reception we got made all the work that went into this show so worth it. Seeing all my Cornell peeps holding the new D.O. posters and a ton of new peeps rocking out was quite inspiring. The show even got a nice full-page feature in Cornell's Daily Sun student newspaper, huge props to them!

Our set consisted of a mix between current and new songs, the last of which was previously unperformed and is DEFINITELY unreleased. Figured it'd be interesting to post what we performed:
1. Intro over DJ Grumble beat
2. How to stay young
3. Postcards
4. Life is like a Music Box (unreleased)
5. Gone to Dubai
6. Old Armor
7. Garden of the Gods
8. Keep Your Friends Close (unreleased; will be on next new project)

I shook hands with Chiddy and Xaphoon, had a quick word with their tour manager, and watched their tight set from backstage with Kia, Dj Grumbs, Chiddy's posse, and Chance Fisher who rocked his set right before mine. A group of Cornell hip-hop thugs/producers/rappers/DJs and Chiddy Bang's entourage. It was a cool aesthetic. In quick reflection, I remember my (hands-down) favorite moment of the show:
As "Keep Your Friends Close" approached it's final buildup (just piano and drums and vocals), me and kia each grabbed our micstands and set them up in the front of the stage. We clapped over our heads jumping-jack style as I recited the relentlessly emotional lyrics to the chorus over and over, and the entire crowd joined in enthusiastically. To have my emotion reciprocated by such a large audience --- bam. mad powerful. Let's leave it at that.

Thank you SO much to everyone who helped out with this show --- from Flynny to Earmuffs to Grumbs to Tara & Julia to all of y'all who made this experience as amazing as it was.

As DJ Grumble once said, "to the top!"
-dyl

get pumped. speculate. See it Saturday.
D.O.

I've got a huge announcement to make. In a lot of ways, one bigger than ever before.

I'm performing with Chiddy Bang on March 12th, 2011, next Saturday night. Here, at Cornell University. I am beyond pumped and so is the school/all my people. Photo streamlined from Crisp Collection Blog:

I'll be doing a full set with a ton of new and bumping material, and I'm quite excited to share the stage with the duo who rocked the hit "Opposite of Adults on Youtube" and many, many others, in addition to accomplishing feats such as collaborating with Train, touring Europe, and conquering the college scene in the US.

Cornell University, let's do this thang. The beloved Kia Rogers will be hyping and the underground star DJ Grumble (has produced for Mac Lethal, Tayyib Ali, Diabolic, and more) will be scratching the 1s and 2s!! Are you ready to really put your game face on and join the CRAZIEST party yet? Are you ready to really sing a long and throw your hands up in snowy little Ithaca? If not, then get ready. Because it's really going down.

Here are the low-down-and-dirty Cornell details:
-The show is Saturday, March 12th, starts right at 8pm
-It will be held at Noyes Gymnasium/Auditorium on Cornell's West Campus
-Tickets are FREE (how much better could this get?). However, much to the disappointment of a ton of people, are only available for Cornell students
-Bring all your friends.
-You have to be as wild as possible, including singing along, dancing excessively, vibing and nodding your head, and connecting with the sea of crowd strangers to scream your faces off together.
-SPREAD SPREAD SPREAD THE WORD around campus about Chiddy Bang and Dylan Owen. Tickets will be released in the next few days through Willard Straight Hall on a first come/first serve basis! Join the FB event to get a message when they're available: Chiddy Bang and Dylan Owen at Cornell!! Let's get the best of Cornell in the building!

HUGE shoutout to WCPC and Peter Van Do, you guys rock. Just ask Grumble how excited I am.

I better see your pretty face there.
D.O. WORK

Figured I'd break it down for ya, as it's a busy next few weeks.

Upcoming performance schedule:
-3/4, Marti Gras Party @ The Haunt, Ithaca NY (10pm)
-3/5, SUNY Cortland with A-GAME @ The Dark Horse Tavern, Cortland NY (10pm start)
-3/12, Cornell University with TBA!!! @ Noyes Gym, Ithaca NY (8pm)
-3/26, SUNY Oswego Relay for Life @ Oswego NY (10pm)
-4/21, Show at The Nines at Cornell @ Collegetown, Ithaca NY (10pm)

I hope to see you there, d.o.'in work.
-dylan owen