Popgems is the project of Dane and Marisa Conover. Here is their new offering Acid Flowers and Fun. Dane and Marisa are close friends to World of Noise so give us a hand spreading the news of their great new song.

Listen to my interview with Dane Conover (Trees) here.

Marisa Conover was the co-host of my 1st Anniversary show. Read Marisa’s bio and listen to the show here.

Doug Lynner’s World of Noise 1st Anniversary Show Airs on October 8th, 2009 at 6pm Pacific time (US) and 9pm Pacific time (US) and October 11th, 2009 at 6am Pacific time (US) on http://www.flashbackalternatives.com, an Internet radio station based in New Jersey, USA. After the original three broadcasts on the station the show will be available for on-demand streaming right here at the show’s blog.

The show focuses on recent music influenced by ’80′s synthpop. It’s hot stuff with premiers galore, including the first new Trees (Sleep Convention) song of the century!

Though my show is normally one hour long, this special episode will be 2 hours long.

Doug Lynner’s World of Noise 1st Anniversary Show will feature my special co-host, Marisa Conover, a music business maven and important friend to my show. Here is a bit of a bio to introduce her!

Marisa Conover Bio
Although acting was her first love, Marisa Conover started writing songs when she was 13 and met her first husband, musician and composer, Steve Bonilla at age sixteen. He was a talented songwriter and piqued her interest in music even more. Married at 18, they began recording at a local Sacramento 8-track recording studio and one of their songs, “Early Riser,” rose to number 2 in their region.

Back then, you could actually get a DJ to play an unsigned song if they liked it.

At that point, never one to be shy, Marisa started to cold-call record companies. After about the fifteenth hang-up, she got lucky and they drove to LA to have a meeting with the Professional Manager at MCA Music Publishing. He told them they would be amazing jingle writers. They were young and stupid and took that compliment as an insult!

(Back then, writing commercial music was known as “selling out.”)

Marisa was not easily derailed. She built upon her husband’s dedication to the music of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. Knowing that they had a local studio and an engineer named Earle Mankey, she looked the studio up in the phone book and gave them a call. Earle answered the call.

Playing with the truth, Marisa told Earle that they were in town for several meetings at various labels and asked if they could come over to make extra cassette copies of their songs, and while they were there, tour the studio. He said sure and off they went. Dubbing Marisa and Steve’s songs gave Earle a chance to listen to them. He loved them so much that he offered to record Marisa and Steve on spec in his home studio if they ever moved down to LA. So, in the middle of the night, with their one year old daughter in tow (and no money!) they moved to LA, checked into a hotel, called Earle and said, “We’re here!!”

This led to Marisa recording background vocals for the Beach Boys, working with Steve to found The Bodys, a power pop band that opened for Missing Persons and X, among others, and a day-job at Chrysalis Records. Starting as the receptionist she used her moxey to rise to the point where she could plug acts to the label. Her first success was with Toni Basil and her Number 1 hit “Mickey.” Marisa’s best near miss with Guns ‘n Roses: Geffen outbid Chrysalis 4-1.

While Marisa built her skills in the business she continued to hone her skills as a musician. She fronted a Runaways knockoff band produced by The Runaways producer Kim Fowley, and sang the children’s chorus
with Pat Benatar on her hit “We Belong.”

Ending up as the A&R & Video Manager with Sony Music International in New York, changes in both the record industry and her personal life led to an amicable split with her husband Steve. Eventually she met, again, Dane Conover of the 80s synthpop band Trees, for whose album “Sleep Convention” she had provided background vocals a decade before. They have been married for many years now and comprise the composing and recording team known as Popgems.

Visit Mark DeCerbo’s website.

Visit the Four Eyes website.

Mark DeCerbo and Four Eyes on Jam Records.

Four Eyes on NotLame.com – search for Four Eyes.

See Mark DeCerbo, Dane Conover and Marisa Conover perform Emily (DeCerbo/Conover).

Search for Mark DeCerbo or Four Eyes on iTunes as a further source for their music.

The most interesting, little known power pop composer/performer ever! Great music plus production, songwriting and performance by Dane Conover (Trees and Popgems) and Marisa Conover (Trees and Popgems). Give this show a listen and you will be hooked!

Doug Lynner’s World of Noise special show with Mark DeCerbo airs August 13, 2009 at 6pm and 9pm Pacific time (U.S.). It repeats at 6am Pacific time on August 16, 2009