Who Is V2 and Why Did They Get a Full-Page Ad in the Sunday New York Times?
If you read the Sunday New York Times, you’ll know that it’s not uncommon for some special interest group to dish out huge dollars for some kind of full page ad in section one. These ads usually have some kind of political, social or religious message.
This week, though, there was a giant ad for a band called V2 (pronounced “V-squared) trumpeting their recent 7-award haul at the Los Angeles Music Awards.
Who?
V2 consists of twins Vittorio and Vincenzo. They’re 11 years old.
What the hell is going on here? Who’s bankrolling this?
What’s really weird about this is there seems to be this circle of this V2 band, a website called “Rock Star University” and the “LA Music Awards”. And for a “university”, it’s very weird that there are NO names mentioned of instructors, etc. The only thing I could find on the site was “anthony@rockstaruniversity” as the Admissions director. I wonder if Anthony shares a last name with Vincenzo and Vittorio. Wacky.
I was so intrigued, I did some amateur sleuthing. The LA Music Awards is a real thing, but its open submission policy and bulk quantity online voting means that it’s a fake award given out to whoever purchases the largest number of votes.
I watched all the videos on their website(lord help me) and everything is staged (poorly). The money spent on these completely unremarkable brats must have topped the millions by now, and the massive amount of copyright infringement alone would halt this “band”s career, if a career were possible. Which it is not, because these children have no actual talent.
Fascinating though… I’m going to do more digging.
No actual talent? I’d love to see the pathetic life you lead.
I’ve seen them live, and was blown away. I watched the engineer at the board, checked out the equipment, watched their timing. It was real! Engineered and produced? Absolutely, just like any pro band. Funded by their dad.
Sounds like a lower-end one-percenter isn’t thinking this all the way through.
There were also full-page ads in the San Francisco Chronicle and the LA Times. And the email addresses for admissions at Rock Star University, the kids’ agent, and the contact person for the band are all Anthony@_________. I couldn’t find a last name for the V’s or for Anthony so googling just gets you to their website, press releases they’ve written, and the fake university. I’m kind of fascinated–somebody find out more!
The interwebs are starting to stir … http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2014/12/01/hard-and-fast/
The name you are looking for is Ignatius Piazza.
Update – These guys have a special which began airing on Palladia this week. I watched it last night. It it totally ridiculous. Unbelievable so. I decided to add a little more research to the above comments. Rock Star University has an address of 3440 INDUSTRIAL DR, SANTA ROSA, CA 95403. Looking up ownership records for this property tells you that the property is owned by Next Generation, LLC. Not surprisingly, the principal of Next Generation, LLC is none other than Ignatious Piazza (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignatius_Piazza) a gun nut and (alleged) scientologist. Harland’s comment above is correct. These kids actually think they won 7 awards. Very sad.
Wow. Those poor kids. Somebody should make a movie about this guy.
@Shaking My Head – Thanks for the followup. This has been my favourite mini conspiracy theory lately. It’s so wonderfully absurd in the ineptitude.
It’s amazing that you people will expend this kind of energy on being a buzzkill. These kids have an amazing talent for their age, and you dweebs seem only interested in beating up on a pair of 11 year old twins. Un-freaking believable.
There’s no buzz to kill here. This is a fascinating example of a clueless multimillionaire trying to fool *his own children* into thinking they’re famous by creating a massive network of lies, shell websites and paid advertisements posing as news pieces. He’s even soliciting applications and money for a fake music school, which is probably illegal.
The entire thing is fraudulent and really poorly done. It drips with incompetence and deceit. If anything we feel pity for these kids, because at some point they’ll figure out the whole thing is a sham and they’ll be left wondering why they don’t get endless praise for every small achievement in life.
If this guy wants his kids to be famous musicians, he could very easily put them into an intensive music program and allow them a few years to develop, but instead he took out full-page ads in multiple national publications, created numerous fake websites and purchased undeserved (and meritless) music awards for his kids who are essentially just copying AC/DC, which I am sure is in violation of multiple copyrights.
So the view from your high horse is that we’re a bunch of bullies. Our view is that something smelled rotten and we wanted to solve the mystery, which we did.
Bullies and, well, pathetic. That means you, Blake.
Hear, hear! A new benchmark in loser.
Hadn’t looked up the V2 website in awhile. This post from June 27, 2016:
“If you attended the Quiet Riot concert on Friday or the Blue Oyster Cult concert on Saturday at Rock Star University’s HOUSE OF ROCK, then you know V Squared opened for both bands and absolutely wowed the sold out crowds at both shows.”
So Dad hired Quiet Riot and The Blue Oyster Cult to play at his fake rock university so the boys could open for them….
They are talented at playing instruments for sure. But they are not appealing to the right market. No 11 or 12 year olds are relating to AC/DC and “rock and roll.” They obviously have money but they should be thinking better about this. They could get a show on Disney or something but it would need to be more pop music.
Just sayin.