It's here!!! Check out the hottest musical acts of the summer as they tell you how they Do Something! We caught up with Danity Kane, Gavin DeGraw, Sara Bareilles, Jesse McCartney, Ferras, Push Play, and Donnie Klang at Zootopia. Check it out below.

via CGG

CGG is all about rocking an earth friendly bag for your groceries, your school stuff, whatever. And so are celebs. At Zootopia, Donnie Klang, Ferras, and GavinDeGraw each had one- and made OK! Magazine! Check out the full story or get your own bag.

Derek Ries, Nick DeTurris, CJ Baran, and Steve Scarola. CGG

We’ve been seriously crushing Push Play ever since they visited our New York offices. Even then they had screaming fans waiting outside.

The five boys proved to be the ladykillers of ZVillage. The crowd was swarming with girls covered in homemade Push Play bandanas, T-Shirts, and even painted jeans. The boys were dodging girls all day who were screaming their names and crying tears of joy.

One Do Something exec slapped stickers on all the boys, we think just to have an excuse to get near them. Why do we love them? These young boys are some of the most energetic, passionate rockstars we’ve ever met. They’ve got serious talent in music but also serious heart in all of the charity work they do. We can’t wait to see what they do as their fanbase continues to grow. We heart you Push Play!

CGG: Did you expect this kind of reaction today?

Derek:Well not being on a major record label I couldn’t imagine this. It’s crazy that we even got on this show, it’s unreal.

Steve: This is really like a dream come true.

Derek: DIY- Do it yourself!

CGG: So what causes have you been working with?

Steve: Actually I’ve been working with Habitat For Humanity, so I’m going to be talking about what I did in New Orleans, and what you can do to volunteer in your area. I’m really excited about it- I wish I knew about it in high school, and I’m leaving it very soon, so… very cool.

Derek: And I’m going to talk about how just being in a band can do so many things, like let alone, we raise 90 grand just playing high school shows and throwing all the proceeds towards it, it’s insane. Like think about what any band could do if they raised 90 grand.

Push Play rocks the crowds. CGG

CGG: How did you raise 90 grand when you’re not on a major record label?

Steve: We just… all our fans came, we promoted on MySpace, advertisements, and just threw all the proceeds and charities.

Derek: We’re not even on a major record label, and we raised this money basically just by having charities come to us, and getting involved in some as well, and just donating all the ticket sales to various charities.

Steve: We even do out of state charities, if the charity is willing to pay for our airfare we’re more than happy to play. It’s an awesome experience- you get to travel the country and just do the right thing.

Derek: And already we’ve raised about 90,000 dollars for charities. 90,000 dollars!

ALL: 90,000 dollars!

CGG: Who are you most excited to see at Zootopia?

Derek: well we actually just saw Metro Station, I’m a big fan of theirs. They were unbelievable. But I’m also excited to see Jonas Brothers. They’ll be great up there. Very excited, we cannot wait.

Nick: The band I’m most excited to see has got to be Simple Plan, we just met them over there by the Z Village concert stage, and they’re playing in the arena soon. I’ve been fans of them ever since I was very young, and I can’t wait to see them.

CGG: You guys have gotten so far, so quickly… on your own! What is some advice to people who want to be rock stars?

CJ: The best advice that we can give to any kids who want to be rock stars is just to follow your dream, first off. That’s the first and most important thing. Second thing would be get some friends, make some music, and then make a MySpace, ok? Because that’s going to help you boost like crazy. Sit there and street promote, hand out pictures of yourself, papers, it doesn’t matter. Just tell everyone you know about you and eventually it’ll come.

CJ stands tall. CGG

Nick: My biggest advice for people who want to follow in our footsteps is definitely, definitely, I mean, we give back a lot, and people have given back to us. I mean, being able to play here was such a great gift to us. It’s unbelievable. I can’t believe how many people are here and it’s going to be crazy. I can’t wait to go on. So I say give back and people will give back to you.

Jared Hartmann, Sameer Bhattacharya, Lacey Mosley, James Culpepper and Pat Seals CGG

Heavy Rockers FlyLeaf lit up the stage outside at ZVillage. Singer Lacey had been saving her voice for the show and man was it worth it.

Bassist Pat Seals was flying all over the stage the entire time. We spoke with Pat before the show to find out where the band puts their energy when they’re not performing.

CGG: How does it feel to be at Zootopia?

It’s a chance to be where we’re not known, where people really aren’t used to rock music and that’s pretty cool, and also we like to think we stand for something.

CGG: What do you stand for?

I don’t know, our faith really drives our band, and hopefully as a result of that it will drive us to do good works. I’m not giving the illusion, we’re not good people but we’re aiming for that. We recently went to Rwanda with an organization called World Vision, and that really had an effect on all of us. It kind of brought to my attention that there are people in the world in need, and in America we have this illusion that the whole universe revolves around us, and that really broke that wide open for me. It’s easy to say that yeah there are other people in the world that need to be cared for, but until you really actually put your eyes on it, it’s hard to get your heart around it.

Pat Seals mid-headbang. CGG

CGG: So how can the average person help out there?

I guess not everybody can get on a plane or a boat or whatever and go over there, and a lot of times that’s not what they need, you know. World Vision is set up so that the local people are fixing their own community and all they need is funds pretty much, and hopefully they won’t need it after 15 years but a way you could help is get on WorldVision.org. There are several ways, you can sponsor a child, or a family or a certain community, and they receive your funds and figure out who needs what and try to use it to the best of their ability.

CGG: How did you get involved with World Vision?

Our singer, I think she had received help from World Vision when she was younger.
She’s from the Dallas area, and so that kind of gave her a little impression, and when she got older and into the position where she could help someone else, she remembered World Vision and that’s how we all got linked into it. When I first started in I was like ‘a non-profit, Sally Struthers, big deal” but when I really saw what they do and met the people connected to it, it really had an effect on me so. And they’re straight shooters. They don’t just put a band-aid on a heart attack, in my opinion. And I think they really teach people how to become self-sufficient so it’s not another welfare-type program.

The boys Do Something! CGG

David Desrosiers, Sébastien Lefebvre, Chuck Corneau, Pierre Bouvier, and Jeff Stinco. CGG

We've always been a fan of Simple Plan. These five punk rockers from Quebec have songs that track the segments of life from breakups to makeups and everything in between. And when we sat down with them back stage to talk about their Simple Plan Foundation, we were blown away by how much they want to give back to the fans that mean everything to them.

CGG: So tell us about your foundation.

Jeff: We started a foundation a few years ago, actually two years ago, called the Simple Plan Foundation, and it came from getting a lot e-mails, a lot of mail from our fans who were in pretty desperate situations, they just didn’t know where to go, who to talk to, and truthfully as a band you don’t really know what to do with those letters. You’re like well how can I help? There are so many people in need, so many people that have issues. And so we decided, let’s focus on issues with teenagers that have problems, problems with addiction, problems with health, problems with their families, and they don’t necessarily know who to talk to.

And we decided, let’s gather money, let’s call rich friends, I mean obviously we use a lot of companies, we deal with a lot of companies that can actually help out with our foundation and that’s exactly what we did. And we contribute also by using the camera time that we have. We talk about the issues we care about. And this year we’re doing a benefit, this lunch kind of thing to gather more, and we’re going to give some away in July. And right now it’s a national foundation, we’re concentrating mostly on Canada, and it’s very teenage oriented. Hopefully we can take it elsewhere down the line, it’s something that we’re very eager to do, and in the future who knows, this foundation may be international. That’s the plan. So it’s kind of our way to respond.

Jeff Stinco CGG

Pierre:We’re trying to raise some money for the foundation, basically helping out kids that are in need, that are in... we call them delinquent centers, to help people in need and young kids that are sick. Our three main goals are to take care of kids that have drug problems or problems at home… troubled youth. And sick kids especially with cancer, and trying to help out and raise some money and help out schools that want to have more in their musical program because I think music is really important.

CGG: What made you start the foundation? Did you just wake up one day and have the idea?

Chuck: I think it was just the idea of trying to do something more. A lot of kids told us that our songs were really helpful and meant something to them, and it’s like trying to take it to the next level, the next step, and try to have a real action and be involved. I think at some point as you get older and you have success you realize that you have some kind of power, you can make a difference, but also you want your life has a purpose and you want something deeper, and you try to go a step beyond. I think that for us it was the right way and it was cool for us to have complete control over the whole operation and to control who was going to get the money and basically to be involved. That was the whole idea.

Chuck Corneau CGG

Sébastien: It’s actually really hard to put together, it took us a long time because we’re always traveling, but now we have some people at home who are involved and trying to make it very structured, and they all do it for free so there’s no overhead.
Where any of you in these situations that you’re trying to help?
Jeff: You know, our families have been, without naming anybody, but some of our family members had to deal with some pretty serious problems that had to do with drugs or were related to delinquency. And health is something that, you know cancer seems to touch people from all ages, and it touches us. Pierre’s brother had to deal with cancer.

Pierre: My brother’s 31 and he had a 2 year battle with lymphoma cancer and pretty much had a 50 % chance of making it and now he’s ok. It’s great.
It’s a big deal for us.

Jeff: It had everything to do with people investing in research, and just making sure that the hospitals are prepared to receive those kinds of patients and we want to help and push further. And right now we’re trying to bring the money back to the families of those people who have to deal with really hard moments in life, you know when you have someone that’s dealing with cancer at a young age it’s very costing on a family. And with this foundation I’m sure we’re going to be able to help out a little bit.

Have you seen the actual results yet?

Pierre: Well it’s still a very new foundation, but this year we’ve raised close to $200,000, so we’re going to be spreading that money out to different causes and charities and things that we care about, and we’ll be doing that in August, so we should be seeing results next year for the first time. The foundation started about a year ago
and it’s going to be nice to be able to actually give back and to finally do something about it and do more than just raise money, but to actually see the impact.

David: And hopefully when people see the results and see what it does maybe it will push them to make more donations and help out.

Donnie poses before the show. CGG

Love Doctor Donnie Klang is the only artist from Making the Band to be offered a solo contract with Bad Boy records. He’s about to go on tour with his cohorts Danity Kane and Day26, so it was fitting that he came to Zootopia to introduce the lovely DK ladies.

We caught up with him backstage to find out what Donnie is fighting for.

So what kind of causes have you been involved in?
I mean basically just from when I was younger, in high school was I always involved in health programs like cancer walks, raising money, and lupus walks, my mom has lupus so I’m adamant about that kind of stuff and we had cancer in the family. So just anything that’s for a good cause, especially the one like lupus, because that hits right at home.

This whole fame thing kind of took off in the past year so it’s been crazy like being in the studio and we’re going on tour soon, rehearsing, so like I just used to do the walks and now I’m just starting to get involved, getting out of the studio, we’re able to do stuff.

Would you like to raise awareness about lupus?
Absolutely, I feel like it’s one disease that is under the track. You hear a lot about cancer, you know there’s cancer walks and AIDS benefits, but Lupus is a little more rare.

How would you raise awareness among young people?
To get a cause out there, we have the TV show Making the Band and we’re filming another season, and just to hear about that now like I can mention it on the show, mention if I do a stage stuff, hosting, mention it, if I do hosting if we do a performance, we’re about to go on tour, so there’s a bunch of ways to get it out.

Donnie shows off his ecobag. CGG

Shannon, Aundrea, Dawn, Aubrey, and D.Woods. CGG

Show stoppers Danity Kane took ZVillage by storm in their gorgeous getups as they batted their long lashes and signed autographs for their fans. The Diddy creation later stormed onto Zootopia, singing and dancing to hit after hit.

We thought the temperature in the stadium had gone up about 20 degrees as the dashing divas came out. There was fire. Enough said.

CGG was thrilled to catch up with the girls to find out where they put their energy when they’re not performing stadium tours.

CGG: What are each of you passionate about?
Shannon: Something I’m starting to get involved in is equestrian therapy, you know where they have disabled children or mentally challenged children and they use horses as a therapeutic way of reaching them.

Aundrea: Actually my mom worked with disabled kids, like children with Autism, so I’m definitely involved in that.

Dawn: I actually have a charity that I’m building in New Orleans, Louisiana, it’s called Dream Big Cares, and it’s dealing with housing for people that have experienced natural disasters, and we’re coinciding with Survival Foundation, which is Destiny’s Child’s foundation, and they’re based in Houston and we’ll be based in New Orleans, LA, so it’s called Dream Big Cares and I’m really excited about it.

Aubrey: I have my own charity called FAN, it stands for Fight AIDS Now, and it targets AIDS education internationally and nationally. Now we’re coming over in about a month. And I work with another charity called responsibilityonline, which goes into the dumps in Tijuana and rebuilds educational facilities for the kids.

D.Woods: Hi, I have an organization called Project Girls Club, and we’re all about inspiring young girls to go after their dreams and for self-esteem and giving them options like professional career options, education options. Right now we’re working with a group home for at-risk females ages about 15-20, and we get them into on school and scholarships and whatever they’re passionate about, so we’re working in conjunction with them.

D.Woods on stage. CGG

What advice do you have for kids to get involved in their communities?
Dawn: Basically anything helps, any little bit, you don’t have to start big. Whether it’s in your community or your home, it’s always good to just start caring about something. People always think that you have to go big, and that’s not necessarily the case. One small act can make a big change. So just get out there and support something, stand for something. Because if you don’t then you’ll fall for anything. That’s the thing, we all have very different beliefs and things that we tap into, but we all have our little bit that we put in and that starts somewhere. So just get out there and help.

CGG

With the release of Ferras’ hot new latest single, “Liberation Day,” we just can’t stop listening to this guy. He made waves with “Hollywood’s not America,” and is popping up as the favorite new act of the summer everywhere.

We had the chance to speak with the 25-year-old singer/songwriter after he worked the young crowds at Save the Music last week. And meeting him in person, we discovered that he was every bit the poised young man on the road to superstardom we had imagined. He even took some time out of his schedule to spray-paint some ecobags with us and record a rant/rave at our booths in ZVillage.

CGG: What drew you to music?
F: I just love being in front of so many people, it’s a rush being on stage. You know, you can live life and have so many exciting things happen to you but when there is a crowd of people screaming your name, it’s unlike anything else. And just the ability to go out and touch people and inspire people, I think that’s probably the main reason why I do what I do.
CGG: Why do you love to work with kids?
F: I love to work with kids, like, we just did VH1 Save the Music, which was amazing, sort of knowing that you’re inspiring little lives to go on and do something big. I mean I remember one of the first things that happened to me when I was younger in my music class at school, there were these people who came and they played like every instrument on the planet. And I just remember being there and I was like five years old bawling. My teacher would come over and she would be like ‘aw you’re so cute, you’re crying’ but it was one of the first times I realized that music has such a power to strike something within us, to move us. And seeing little kids when you’re playing with their eyes all big and staring at you, you know that in some way you’re affecting their life, and so that’s a really awesome thing.
What organizations do you work with?
There’s two things, of course the VH1 Save the Music Foundation which donates tons and tons of money and instruments to bringing and preserving music programs and schools throughout the United States.
And also Housing Works which is an organization that donates money and all of their proceeds and everything go to helping out homeless families living with HIV and AIDS. So that’s another thing that I’m extremely passionate about because we need a cure. It’s there somewhere.
As your career continues to grow, will your charity work grow as well?
I continue to grow and evolve, and if I become somebody that really has a voice, I plan to use it to help as many people as I can. I mean that’s why we’re all here really, in the end.

L to R Blake, Trace, Mason and Anthony. CGG

CGG doesn’t just cover stars who are out there making rounds in philanthropy. We also love to cover new bands who are looking for a cause.

Metro Station, a hot new Hollywood pop/rock band features two leads on vocals and guitar who met on the set of Hannah Montana. Trace Cyrus is older brother to Miley, and Mason Musson is older sib to Mitchel. The band also features Blake Healy on keyboards and Anthony Improgo on percussion.

We loved catching up with these young guys, who were already shocked at their Zootopia fanbase. The way these guys are rolling, surely they won’t be surprised for long at their large flocks of fans.

CGG: So how does it feel to be at Zootopia?
Trace: Yeah, this is our first big radio show to do so it’s an awesome experience. We played at one, and we definitely didn’t expect anyone to be here at like one o’clock so to step out there and see all those kids cheering for us, it was awesome.

CGG: I’ve been hearing girls screaming for you all day long.
Trace: It’s weird because it’s just now starting to happen that people are recognizing us and knowing who we are. It’s a great feeling though. It’s awesome.

Trace and Mason rock out as sister looks on. CGG

CGG: So what kinds of causes would you like to get involved in?
Blake:When I was in college I used to actually tutor math to disabled students, which was really actually fulfilling and something to do outside of studying and it was actually a great experience because I met a lot of people I never would have met and hopefully helped a few people. I think part of it is that some of these people don’t even get to go out and meet everyone else on campus and stuff, so it helped more than just teaching them math, it helped them make friends and everything like that.

Trace: It’d definitely be cool to. I mean to be able to have a band that could help kids do music, that’d be awesome. If all of us could help a band or a group of kids who are less fortunate with instruments and stuff that’d be sick.

Mason: I’d like to help with child obesity, and just really focus with that. I think kids can really work at that. You can help people out, I believe, so that’s what I would do along with helping people out at schools, everything. Everything’s really important.

Anthony: If I could give drum lessons I would give that service to charity or something, like free drum lessons.

The delightful Katy poses backstage. CGG

Katy Perry is a bombshell. She reminds us of a classy 50s pinup model, and she has a golden voice to boot. Although her style is classic, her mind is anything but vintage. CGG met up with the forward-thinking young singer backstage at Zootopia to find out what causes she sees in her future.

She was at Zootopia to introduce one of her favorite artists of the summer (and one of ours too!) Ferras, as well as to premiere the music video for her single “I Kissed a Girl.” Check it out as it premieres today on MySpace.

What kinds of causes would you like to get involved with?
I want to get involved in helping the homeless, helping people, making sure they’re fed and clothed. I think that’s a big job to do, all over the world most definitely. All kinds of different things. I don’t yet have a specific subject that I have yet to pour my heart and soul into, but I am dying to find it.

What causes do you see yourself doing in a year?
I don’t know, for me, I want to help girls out in all kinds of different capacities, young girls, making sure they feel respected and have self-control, and let them know I don’t care where you come from, who you are, who your parents are, how much money you make, but you deserve a wonderful life and you only get one. And I’m a young girl and I think a lot of young girls definitely like my music and I’m so happy about that.

Katy with some of her young fans. CGG

Who are your female role models?
I have a few. I love Gwen Stefani, she’s amazing. I’m a big fan of the rocker chicks from the past, the Pat Benetars, the Joan Jetts, the Cyndi Laupers, you know those women were colorful and ever-changing and bold and fierce.