Publishers Notes Archive 11:00am Tuesday 12/31 Happy New Year! For those reading this when I'm writing this, I sent out a special emailer with a bunch of venues and performers on New Years Eve. here's a link. A couple of news tidbits. One is the Halestorm situation. Their bassist and guitarist have left the band. This does not mean at all that Halestorm has broken up. I've been doing Halestorm's website for close to 4 years now. There have been lineup changes in the past, there may very well be lineup changes in the future. Liz and Arejay are in the music business. Halestorm seeks lead guitarist and bassist is all, no big deal. (Editorial now) These changes are likely to drive Halestorm even farther forward, as they'll have a little bit of downtime to reconfigure their strategy going forward, retool, etc. I see it as a plus. (As an aside to this, tonight, Manian of Stereo Logic and Kyle of Julian Fist have a new band that's playing at Fisaga tonight. This could be a really really good band, I don't know. But, both JF and SL had strengths and weaknesses. Let's hope Kyle brings the hooks and the fan base, and Manian the sound and his charisma. And what's Lauren doing? - the most sought after bassist in Central PA.) ... Listening to Hot Water Music, Hey Mercedes, Liars in the last couple hours, Liars now ... The second bit of news involves The Underwater. http://theunderwater.net The best local band around here. Blah blah I've said all that before. But, yes, the best local band around here. http://theunderwater.net I could write a long article for the eternal rock archives on this band already, in part because I've been allowed personal access to them. I'm gonna get to one part. Ok, Jesse Smith was the drummer of ZAO. Bands from all across the county have been coming to his studio to record for $200 a day. You should too. Seriously. Jesse's price point is a category killer. The Underwater is THE band. THE BAND. Not since Fuel. Jesse is the drummer of The Underwater, he was the drummer for ZAO. His number is 717-764-4586. I've never gone so far out on the line for any band ever and I've been doing this for about 6 years. http://www.theunderwater.net 2:30pm Saturday 12/14 Saturday - a good night, interesting night here in Hbg., good opportunity to go to a bunch of places, see a lot of music. Early, 8:30 - Karmanova at Art Soul Rock 'n Roll at The Why're. Art on the walls of The Why're, ALL AGES, also Fredrico after (ask him about the Federal Reserve). After that - Gullifty's - New Invisible Joy at 9:30 (earlier than usual start). Good band from Pittsburgh, they played the main stage at MMC a couple years ago. Riders on the Storm (Doors tribute) is after, playing a full show. Riders always brings a good crowd. By 10p, 10:30p you could have seen 2 good bands at 2 good venues. Then, I'd recommend the Martini Bros and 3-Star at Underdog. That's guaranteed to rock. Other options: Jackyl at Shakey's, Darcie at Angie's. Sunday - Toys For Tots at Crowne Plaza. Toys For Tots has been a December tradition, as well as a Rogue Stork tradition, and a ToyBox tradition, for years. Super-long, all day show. All ages, but beer for the 21+'s. Expect Mike from Emily's ToyBox to interact with the Marines and to encourage the audience to donate to the cause (Toys for Tots). Lineup: 1p - Drives Like Fire, 2p - LOCKE, 3p - Dead Leaves, 4p - The Darcie Miner Band, 5p - Stage, 6p - Screamin' Daisys, 7p - Emily's ToyBox, 8p - Juiced, 9p - Backstreet Law. A little editorializing on the LCB, and related issues. The LCB has recently become a topic of interest due to the Halestorm situation. Please sign the online petition regarding the State Liquor Code - http://www.PetitionOnline.com/4Music1/petition.html. The Halestorm situation, although a bad one, surrounding the age of performers when there are parents in attendence, is a bit of an outlier, in that there aren't too many bands with members under 16 that play bars and clubs. The 2 primary concerns I have, and I believe I've expressed something like this before, are 1) liquor regs regarding 18, 19, 20 in clubs and the effects of those regs and 2) process of enforcement of liquor regs related to complaints. As to the first: Pennsylvania's regs make it difficult for 18,19,20 year olds to attend shows where alcohol is served. I'm not an expert on this, but it's fairly common practice in other states to have 18-20 year olds mingling with 21+ers, but not drinking, banded or stamped or whatever. The implications of this are numerous. Fewer people seeing bands, less money to clubs and bands. Harder to get nationals, as PA markets can't compete with nearby markets. (they can let 18-20's in, we can't). 18-20 year olds generally have more adventurous musical tastes, therefore PA music is a little less adventurous, at least in the bars / clubs. A wider split between the all-age scene and the bar/club scene. etc etc. Those are some reasons why those regs are bad for the scene. These regs are also bad for PA, apart from the music scene here. Pennsylvania seems to understand that it's important to keep its young people around here. Next to Florida, Pennsylvania has the oldest population in the country, and it's my understanding that PA is concerned about this. TV commercials, radio commercials, extolling the virtues of PA. Many make reference to the fact that it's cheap to live here. Super. Things that cost less are usually (I'm not saying this here, nosiree) a) better or b) worse than things that cost more. Anyway, back to the liquor regs re 18-20 year olds. Let's look at a college student from PA who leaves the state for college and comes back on breaks. That person is exposed to clubs out of state while in college, comes back for breaks, no clubs. Fun, then no fun. 3 years straight. 3 very critical years for making a decision about where to live. Pennsylvania has a greater problem there, beyond one specific liquor law. This is the jam up. With an old population, Pennsylvania seems to favor laws that old people like. Young people would prefer a different set of laws, found somewhere else. They then leave. By leaving, the population gets older, and ... jam up. Law, economics, society, culture, all interrelated, and I just sliced it that way, it could be sliced different, but I think the legal has got to matter. As an aside, Rendell might get it, as his son, Jesse, is in punk band Don't Look Down (Iguana Records). Anyway, those liquor laws / regs surrounding 18-20 year olds in clubs - bad for PA Music, bad for PA. As to the second: Violations of the liquor code are usually enforced as a result of a complaint. Ordinary citizens do not usually complain about violations of the liquor code. The people who complain are often competitors of the offending party. Basically, complaintants use the complaint as a tool to further their own business interests. The result of that enforcement mechanism is to undercut the perceived legitimacy of the law. That's not a huge thing, not as destructive as the first thing I was rambling on about, but, I don't know, it just doesn't seem right (legitmacy issue). That's it on all that for now. 6:30pm Friday 12/6 One show tonight I want to mention real quick. Underdogs w/ Psycho a Go-Go!!!, The Legion of the Incredibly Strange Superheroes, The Regency Five. Psycho a Go-Go!!! are Harrisburg's own Garage purists, The Regency Five are Lancaster Surf. The Legion of the Incredibly Strange Superheroes are from Pittsburgh, and they all dress in outlandish superheroes, and have a theramin. As per Psycho a Go-Go!!! - THIS SHOW IS A MUST FOR THOSE WHO DEEM THEMSELVES HIP. I think I'll be there. 9:00am Sunday 11/24 Ok, I just got some criticism for not updating this, valid, so, here goes. Not going to be as, um, artful as my usual - crankin it out. Millenium Music Conference showcase deadline is Saturday, November 30 - six days from the day of this writing - get your applications in pronto. That deadline is the postmark deadline, so, next Saturday is the last day you go to the post office, or the last day you submit on Sonic Bids. Here are some links to apply: http://www.musicconference.net/mmc7/show.htm http://www.musicconference.net/mmc7/showapp.htm http://www.sonicbids.com/default.asp?pID=2179 The Millenium Music Conference is always great. This year promises to be no exception. Lots of good stuff this Thanksgiving weekend that I'm gonna miss, being out of town. Day before Thanksgiving is the biggest bar night of the year. Martini Bros at Gullifty's is always great, especially the day before Thanksgiving. Sure to be a lot of people there - a big party. (Also Bros at Murph's, Friday) National acts including Sevendust at Shakey's. Deanna Bogart at ABC. Halestorm at Ye Olde Ale House has been cancelled. Go to the website http://halestormweb.com and check out the message board to read about the drama surrounding Halestorm and the LCB. General rule is that the big bands are at homebase this weekend, no matter where you are. Noteworthy show Friday. Julie Schreiber Band, Halestorm, J-Saint at the Whitaker Center. It's FREE. It's ALL AGES. And you get a FREE CD if you're a teenager. Can't beat that. Overall, tons of great stuff this weekend. Past shows: I've seen a bit in the last few weeks. Railroad Earth, Case 150, Dann O. of Hexbelt. Gullifty's Friday 22. Great show, nice big crowd, good mix of the jam band / alt.county fans, and general scenesters - always good to see the scenesters. The Underwater, Drives Like Fire - Murph's Wednesday 20. I hyped this in the emailer - IMPORTANT SHOW. Yup, (secret) industry showcase. The Underwater played their best show yet, and Drives Like Fire also rocked. Paul Conroy of Roadrunner and Rev. David J. Ciancio and Marc Meltzer of The Syndicate were on hand. Great guys. All ages show with over 100 in attendance on a Wednesday night. Great things a comin for The Underwater. To skip back 3 weeks, 49 Eggs, Drives Like Fire and The Underwater at Gullifty's. Great show. 49 Eggs brought a good crowd and has a nice sense of humor. Drives Like Fire and The Underwater are great bands. Skip to November 12 - again The Underwater, this time opening for Emily's ToyBox. Great show. Emily's still got it. Over the course of the years (I guess I probably saw them first in 1996 or 1997) I can't begin to guess how many times I've seen them. They used to play a lot at The Courtyard, before they were playing a lot all throughout the state and beyond. They have quite a lot of original material now, and played an all original set well over an hour long. You don't really need to hear a lot from me about Emily's - one of the top bands in Central PA. The Underwater is, as I've mentioned before, and in emailers, a great band, the local band most likely to get signed soon. Very exciting stuff. Make a point to see them when you can. Back to November 2 - popped out to see Crave (a good cover band) at Ye Old Ale House and Blue Voodoo (a good blues/cover band) at Scott's. It's nice to be driving again - it's likely that in the future I'll be popping in for short periods and catching bands, whereas in the past I usually went somewhere and stayed there. News: Looks like Jet Silver is getting back together, with Mik, as a 4 piece. They'll be playing about once a month. The following is from Angie Scheaffer: "Art for the People and Art Boy Products are excited to bring another all age Late Night Art~Soul~Rock and Roll Explosion to the Harrisburg area." It's at The Why're in New Cumberland on Saturday, December 14 from 6:00 to midnight. It's all ages. It's "The evening will begin with a poetry slam from hip/hop-spoken word artists Drifish and friends from Baltimore. DJ Geoffro will spin his organic techno jazz throughout the evening and subphonic groove band Karmanova performs a special lo-fi set. Percussion artist and poet Fredrico will close the evening with his engaging presence. " Last years was good. A big scene event. Here's something from John Nasser of long-time sponsor Holland Sound and Electric Records: "John Nasser and "The Old Guys On The Block" will be releasing their 2nd album in Nov of 2002. The first album was done in 1992 Ten years ago this Nov. The group consists of Phil Hinton, John Nasser, Chris Hinton, Jack Davit and Lenny Carlucci. The group grew up together on the same block as Kids and have been friends since grade school singing ever since. One original member Chris Lavelle is no longer with the group. The Website in progress for the band is www.oldguysontheblock.com The CD is being recorded at Holland Sound Studios in Scranton Pa and will be released on the Electric Records Label." 9:00am Friday 11/1 Let's see, just saw Julie Schreiber Band at Eclipse. Good Show. It was X night at Hardware downstairs, UUU was playing. Good Show as well. Saw most of Julie, some of UUU. Had a good talk with a Julie bud (w/ Hatebreed hoodie on) about Hatebreed and ZAO, and similar bands. Claudine was there, saw some of Julie, I was pleased. Talked to Jen, recommended that she go see The Underwater (11p) and Drives Like Fire (12m) at Gullifty's tomorrow (today / Friday). It was halloween last night, so there were costumes - one excellent girl at Hardware was wearing Victoria's Secret Angels attire, I was pleased. Tuesday, Hardware with Halestorm and Negative Space. Tuesday was the night that the weather was so bad, sleet accumulation where I was. Nice turnout and good shows from Halestorm and Negative Space. For those who haven't seen Halestorm recently, we're talking about 4 teenagers with chunky active rock riffs. A tight band. Recently, I've seen Negative Space playing mostly covers. Tuesday, it was all original. They have very strong originals. There adding a strong dose of emo to the pop/punk mix. More Jimmy Eat Worldish now. Solid, radio-friendly. Label showcase at CBGB's December 11. Lots of major label A&R to be in attendence. Bus trip. One thing that I find sort of curious is that there aren't a lot of people in bands showing up for the Tuesday original night. I know that there are a lot of bands (by the way, the "old" message board is up again). Not a lot going on other than Hardware in Harrisburg on Tuesday. Yes, blues. Claudine is always there. Why are you not there, talking up your band to Claudine? Networking with other bands, who are also personally handing your CD to Claudine, to ask for airplay, etc. People are there, but they're either ordinary citizens, or music people like myself - not bands (except I heard Weapons for Peace was there for the Stage show). C'mon. Mark does the booking for that night by the way. Saturday - huge day. 20 Minute Fest and Jerry at Gullifty's. 20 Minute Fest, first. In short - great bands, young teenagers, inadequate PA. GREAT bands. GREAT. I taped 17 bands 17 seventeen. I got there late, and missed a band or 2 I wanted to see (The Gunshy of note). Got there about 2:30. Tony Bavaria of The Commercials was there near the door area when I got there. I was pleased, as I wanted to talk to him. I paid my $ and got my (GREAT) compilation - Out Here Alone Volume 1. It was the release party as well as a show. Anyway, the show. I'm not going to go into all the bands here. Again, I have 17 on video. The bands were, on average, better, much better, than anything you're likely to see in Harrisburg. I did some research on them when I decided to go see the show the night before, and rolled out some of their resumes in my emailer, and below. CMJ. SXSW. Warped Tour. National Tours. European Tours. The scene is right here. 15 year olds listen to better music than over 21 year olds do (in Harrisburg). And 15 is the average age there. Lots of 13, 14, 15, 16. The PA / sound was not good. Not good at all. But that's ok. OK. Not a problem. The theory about what is RAWK or ROCK or whatever, is 11. All amps go to 11. PA goes to 11. Only the vocals go through the PA. The PA aint quite as loud as the stacks. So, you just don't hear the vocals. When you do, it's way distorted. RAWK. And yeah, it's ok. And it can be good, if there's a huge PA and a judicious soundman. In this case, the PA was not up to the task. So, all of the audio on my video sucks (the instrumentation is clean). It's representative of what's going on. Sometimes you couldn't hear the vocals at all. I want to remind you again that these were GREAT bands. So, I'm a little disappointed. Great bands, played a great set, but the vocals sounded bad, or were inaudible, or a combination of both. These bands play the rock of today, and should be playing rooms like Gullifty's. If they want to do that, I think that can happen. I'll talk a little bit about the bands, here now. Nightmare Scenario. I saw them, and hyped them pretty hard here. Webmusicvideo.com gave Last Words prime placement. I saw them twice, about a year ago at Fiddlestyx, opening for 44 Mag, and about 9 months ago (again at Fiddlestyx) with M-16 and Suisonic. Hey, Marshalls cranked to 11 can defeat any (not really) PA. But, the first time they played, the guitarists turned it down enough. Anyway, this time, I got to see Nightmare Scenario in their element. Nice. Yeah, very nice. Nathan had the most control of the audience of any performer at the show. Before 717Thursday he worked the crowd like a seasoned professional, asking the front rows what their shitty jobs were - and giving a thumbs up or down "this songs not for you". Then the mosh took place instantaneously - on one hand, some people were singing into the mic Nathan was holding out into the crowd, and on the other there was the windmilling. Nightmare Scenario is hot. I have good taste. I'd love to get NS into Gullifty's, but they're likely too hot. They could've opened for Blindside, perhaps. There are about 10 bands that I saw that would be great for Gullifty's (or any club that wants good original music). For a long time, the "punk" scene wasn't similar at all to what was going on on MTV2, MTV, radio. Now it is. Jimmy Eat World, etc. the year punk broke through (again) Do you think I'd rather go see great bands with a bunch of 15 year olds? No, but I will. Anyway. The Commercials (of course). Tony Bavaria is THE MAN. For Harrisburg. Frank Phobia is THE MAN in Reading. I need to get my ass over to Sound Waves sometime soon. (that's Frank's place in Reading). The Others. DC band J Robbins. Great Band, usually couldn't hear the vocals at all. Female fronted. D'arey ish. Like to have them at Gulliftys after they play an all ager around here Ok, after 20 minutes, to Jerry Joseph and the Jackmormons. I'm a Jerry fan, but not the biggest Jerry fan. I only say that because almost anybody who is anybody was there. I am a big fan. Got great footage of Jerry. I was way worn out, and not getting drunk. The show was great. Lots of people there. High % of band members. High % of people that I knew. Jerry was mellow early, Hexbelt was mellow. Jerry got fiery late. Go see Jerry next time at Gullifty's. It's like a bonding thing - seriously. 3:00pm Friday 10/25 Plenty of great music over the next couple of weeks. Tonight a tough choice between The Jellybricks, IKE (w/ John Faye, ex John Faye Power Trip, Caulfields), and Larry's ex bandmates (I think, I know I'm close) The Pretty Demons at Gullifty's and Halestorm, Dead Leaves, Spinebelt, SDI, Weapons For Peace at Shakeys. On Saturday, Jerry Joseph and the Jackmormons (ex Pretty Women) are passing through on tour from Portland, OR. That's always a rockin, exciting show, and Hexbelt as support will only make it better. For the ALL AGERS, and fans of indie/punk/emo/hardcore there's 20 Minute Fest IV - Monroe Township Building, Mechanicsburg. $8 with costume, $12 without. Starts at 11am on Saturday 10/26. You get a free CD - Out Here Alone Volume 1 (a compilation of central Pa punk/emo/hardcore, and Indie Rock) - it's the CD release party. 24 bands. Ahem, 24 Bands. Twenty-Four. Here they are. Digger - Junction 18 - This Day Forward - Unsung Zeros - Bayside - The Commercials - Nightmare Scenario - Last Tuesday - Movies With Heroes - Six South - One Perfect Crime - Via Satellite (formerly death by nostalgia) - Thinking Machines - Espenshade - Sptsnz - Zolof The Rock and Roll Destroyer - The Driver - Stratford - The Gunshy - Derringer - Best Kept Lie - Farwell Hope - The Others - Pollyester. Good bands, too. Some random thoughts about these bands. Diggers next show after this one is CMJ next Thursday at CBGB's w/Atom and his Package and Mustard Plug then they're off to Europe. The Commercials (a good band, I've seen em at MMC) played Furnace Fest in Birmingham, AL a couple months ago (as did This Day Forward). I've seen Nightmare Scenario a couple times, and find them a very exciting band. Six South played SXSW a few months ago. The Gunshy just got off a national tour. Many of the bands tour nationally. I'm not going to go on and on. I think you get the idea. Then, the next day, Sunday, The Lost Dogs are playing at The Skoolhouse. I got a nifty promo CD about this show, and it sounds really good. This CD had a nice insert / cover with detailed info about the band and specifics about the show. It seems like theres a theme seeming to develop here. This is alt-country and roots music, really good. Without me going into great detail here, here are links The Skoolhouse http://crossselections.com/ and The Lost Dogs http://www.thelostdogs.org/. Anyway, back to the theme. Back a little less than a year ago, I got a promo CD for the Case 150, Slo-Mo show, listened to it, loved it saw the show, loved the show, especially loved Slo-Mo. That was the first instance I'd seen of a special CD promoting a specific show. Slo-Mo and Case 150 would be considered Americana, alt-country, roots, etc. More recently, Case 150 played at Appalachian Brewing on a Tuesday with Trailer Bride, another alt-country act (porch?) That was another great show, another special show, well attended, a success, an opportunity to see a band that we wouldn't ordinarily get to see. (No special CD this time, but I got the idea the first time). Now, The Lost Dogs are playing a special show (roots, alt-country) and I get a date specific CD. Is it just me, or is there a theme there? It's a good thing, of course, but I'm clearly wondering about the thought process. Is Case 150 (Ed?) involved with this show? Shayne? Is it accepted practice in the alt-country community for shows to be promoted in this manner? Did someone pick up on the fact that I mentioned the special CD the last time I got one? I'm sure I could find out these answers with a phone call or 2, but, eh, maybe later. Anyway, the CD "Lost Dogs - Fall Tour 2002 Promo CD" is a really good one, not surprising, as they're a national act - see the above link. Next is Tuesday 10/29, Halestorm and Negative Space at Coyote's Hardware Bar. This is Halestorm's debut at The Hardware Bar. I've mentioned before how great it is that we have something to do, consistantly, on a Tuesday, and this would be a great night at Hardware. Then, Wednesday 10/30, The Martini Bros at The Chameleon. Another great show. With Crop Circle - Surfabilly from Kutztown. And then, Thursday 10/31, Julie Schreiber Band at Eclipse. This is the Julie Schreiber Band's debut at Eclipse, and should be a great show. Then, Friday 11/1, The Underwater (11p) and Drives Like Fire (12m) as well as 49 Eggs (10p). A lot of buzz surrounding The Underwater. I've heard some of the new stuff - First Shot and To Find You - and it's incredible. A signable band. Their second show w/ Jesse and the first with Aaron back. Drives Like Fire has been making some great strides recently. Less than 6 months ago, I saw them for the first time, as Watertight, opening for Stept On at Fiddlestyx. I was impressed then, and am even more impressed now. They're playing the Grape Street Pub (a good Philly room) a week after (11/7). A very polished modern/active rock sound. Looking forward to seeing these 2 bands back to back. This is a show to see. Or maybe go to NY for CMJ Marathon sometime between Wednesday and Saturday? I could go on and on about all the great bands that are playing there on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. http://www.cmj.com/marathon/schedule.php?view=bandlist I won't though, at least not now. Suffice it to say that there are plenty of PA acts there, MMC vets, DBMC vets. Check the link. 3:30am Saturday 10/12 (Deleted - long rambling essay on "hype" to follow). 9:30am Saturday 10/5 Mar Bros gotta get with the program. Tons of national acts playing your style. Rough it up, don't smooth it down. Deuce, You Know I'm Right. Right now, it's The Pattern from SF. I handed you this CD about a month ago. The Martinis were garage rock. Be so again. 8:30am Saturday 10/5 Something from Dewey Beach here - D'arey October is getting $ offered their way by MTV and Nick. Nick wants 1st album (good taste). IMHO a classic. Didn't hear / remember all the details. D'arey needs convinced still. McDonalds near Temple. She's very very strong. Very strong. Jared and Steve are long seasoned pros. New D'arey with the right songs could do 4 or 5 million. Fighting was a million seller (but the timing was off) - and it still might sell a million. I'm jumping on PGMG. Darey has that, and more (not to diminish my love for PGMG). Darey has that type of star power. So do Liz Hale and Julie Schreiber, etc, etc, but in different genres, and Darey's is the hot one, no doubt. Darey could be the next Cobain. Oh, and The Underwater will be signed in under a year to a major. They could do 5 to 20 million. They could be the next Nirvana. They're in the Thursday camp, more or less. I'll take bets on The Underwater getting signed. The strongest act I've seen (that isn't already signed to a major, on tour, etc). Anyway, to Frank and Matt. I'm SO down with that. I want to work on that team, if that opportunity presents itself. I'd love to get my ass out of here, and more into the NYC music community. See Darey - Darey goes with Mary like a hand in a glove, and Gulliftys asks for Darey, yet, no love. 7:00am Saturday 10/5 I do this because I love music. You can ask Jammin Jeff Kaufman. Back in 82-85 era there was rock quiz (104 Rocks - when the rock station had the big signal), where you won some dumb book or magazine script. I used to win that contest as much as I could - multiple times a week. I was probably a freshman or sophomore in high school. They changed the rules after I kept winning and winning. After they changed the rules I kept winning and winning but I (uncoolly) gave the names and addresses of girls I liked to get the prize. Theres probably 20 year old footage of me on the radio in a feminine falsetto pretending to be Liz or Tammy. Skip ahead. Listening to Pretty Girls Make Graves and Von Bondies. Do you remember when you could have put it away? ... Do you remember what the music meant? ... And there was that one definitive moment. That song speaks to me. I've told you before, long ago (check the publishers notes below), about the destructions of Soundgarden, Helmet, Mudhoney, etc. From RAH Rock, to self loathing, all in 2 years - 92 to 94. Outshined to Black Hole Sun. From "killing hurts has to be done" to "too fat". So transparent as to be a joke. A full on betrayal as I saw it - but eh, live could get worse (and boy did it). But, right now, it's coming on. Good stuff. Tons of Dave Grohl. (And it's entirely possible that I drank the first official draft at the Black Cat - with my brother - and I learned the evils or sarcasm at the same time when I said that the skunk was a nifty quirk that all would love) I lived at the corner or 14th and R at the time. Later, it turned out that I wasn't cool because I wore khakis and buttoned down shirts, and I was too old (even then) - and everything else. And, truthfully, I wasn't cool. I'm still not cool. Definitely more cool than most (if not all) relevant local PAers, but eh, whatever. Anyway, I think I can do a good job for the industry right now. This is the part I know. I KNOW THIS PART. Also Von Bondies. Japan. Japan vs. Speakers. Beats Hives vs. Vines on MTV. Mudhoney. Back where they belong. SubPop. Rock. Let's give them a hit, please. The Mudhoney show at the Channel in 9/91 (that was my birthday 9/13/91) exceeded (for me) the Nirvana, Bullet LaVolta, Smashing Pumpkins, Cliffs of Dooneen show at the Axis a couple of weeks later. Gotta remember to do Dewey Beach recap. I know I have thousands of words on that. The point: it's coming around again. 8:00am Sunday 9/29 - Report from Dewey Beach. Rock Solid. Halestorm kicked the asses and took the names. Holy shit level fan response. My A&R person is still hung up on "songs". Maybe in 1990 or 1991 or maybe 1992 - Warrant and Winger might've looked promising. Nirvana cleaned house. House cleaning coming soon. My A&R guy says Pretty Girls Make Graves is saying SCREW to the majors. DO YOU REMEMBER. 4:00am Saturday 9/14 - Let's start with The Underwater - they're mentioned below within the context of webmasters on tour. Anyway, since then, they got signed to Tribunal Records, Jesse Smith from ZAO became their new drummer, and they got their first (?) gig with the new drummer at Gullifty's opening for the Martini Bros. on September 21. See this show. I'm 100% behind this band (so far - never heard em play). This song, In The Aqua is very very strong. I can, and have on separate occasions, listened to it over and over. I'm doing so right now. This is Right Stuff out of Central PA. Related - I was just talking to Drives Like Fire. Last year for MMC, their submission materials were pretty bad (as Watertight). Since then they've gotten pretty good. Yeah, good, close to great. That wasn't a long time ago. Watertight (now Drives Like Fire) was one of the bands that I helped out of the neg pile. I knew back then they were getting slots with Dead Leaves, etc. Anyway, they got in. I saw em after that, they were solid, after that, nice album, seriously. They have the modern sound down really good. Most of the locals haven't nailed the modern sound. The post-hardcore which is creeping in to everything. I love the post-hardcore, don't get me wrong, but there's a mush point, where I don't like it anymore, anyway... I'm not going to go out on a limb on these guys the way I would for The Underwater, but do take a listen. There's label buzz, and there should be (my God, CD's cost less than $2 to make, why do they cost over $5 in stores except for your sheer brilliance in finding new artists), but due diligence or whatnot. Talked to Paul Topete of Poker Face a couple days ago - his birthday is 9/11 he said he had a better birthday this year as last. I'm a Paul fan. Best guess is that some of his facts are wrong, but when I mention Team Bilderberg, he knows all about it. It's interesting. He certainly wins the award for the use of Lamestream and Kazarian in the same sentence. He's probably right about most of what he's saying, eh, I don't really want to go into it, but whatever, gotta throw mega props out to Paul from Poker Face. Dewey Beach Music Conference and Festival. What I'm finding is that very few people know what these "Music Conferences" are. They're in a band, they apply to play them, they either get in or don't get in (some of whom bitch about it) and then say, whatever. Well these music conferences really aren't all about you getting a gig, they're about who you can meet and talk to. In the Dewey Music Conference, there are (basically) 3 groups of people you can talk to - Producers, A&R people, and Managers. Take a look at the website, see who these people are. They're top level people. They will be there at the Dewey Beach Music Conference to talk to you about your band. Bring a CD. Have them listen to your CD during the Demo Listening session. Or be mentored. Talk to a Nationally known Producer, Manager, A&R person about your band. Do this, take your band to the next level, or at least try this. I will say that with the Millenium Music Conference, there is a bit of consternation about the willingness of the local bands to participate in the conference. At least regarding the MMC, I know that there are tons and tons of almost fully clueless bands that still get gigs at MMC and still don't realize that most of the point of the whole thing is that there are many, many important music people right there during the day that you can talk to about your band. That's the point. Um, get with the program. If you aren't strong with reading, have someone read the full website for the Dewey Beach Music Conference and Festival to you, same's true with MMC. I did the MMC 1 website, and still people don't realize that there are music people who could help you during the day. Anyway. Dewey Beach Music Conference and Festival. Sept 27-29. It's like $30 max per person, and there are a whole bunch of VIP music professionals there. Um, now to the last weeks of partying. The Gullfity's show with Dead Leaves, Spinebelt, Stept On. Jen Shade said the turnout was repectable. I was happy that she and the crew was there. It was a good show. I had a good time. I figure I should give the shout outs - well - Jen Shade, Clarissa from the X (Off Duty - Clarissa is a Spinebelter) Sal Saunders, Pam Saunders. Pam is tied to Dead Leaves through Susan. John Fritchey was in the house. Creamsicle was in the house. Columbo was in the house. Dave Craig was in the house. Jeff and wife was in the house. I'm sorry if I'm missing anyone. I almost had something like fun at that show. There weren't a heck of a lot of people beyond that though. Hmmm, I saw Negative Space at Dragonfly the next weekend. They're a full on rock band. Sure, I like em. There were way over 100 at the end (1 am-ish) lovin the NS experience. That's a good room. All good. Don't want to give yet another NS review - they're good but you know that. The room is a good one. Negative Space is playing next door at the Hardware Bar on TUESDAY.\ 3 Tuesdays. At least one with Rotoglow. At least one up against Case 150 and National Recording Artists Trailer Bride (Sept 24). I'm getting tired of typing right now, but, check out Trailer Bride and Case 150 at ABC on 9/24. They're alt.country. Trailer Bride is a national act, and good. This is the exact thing that we should be supporting. Yup, it should be Trailer Bride at ABC on 9/24. I like Rotoglow, no doubt, but, this is a touring act (Trailer Bride) My guess is that you'll be able to go from ABC to Ok - Shame at Doc Holliday's. Great guys. Looking forward to seeing them at the Dewey Beach Music Conference. They played long for me, rock. Dateline January 1998: me and Michelle Miller go to see at the Blue Star in Lancaster - Negative Space and Shame. We miss Shame, see Negative Space. 4 and a half years ago plus. I'm sorry this wasn't great writing. 10:00am Friday 8/23 - Tonight: A good show worth noting at Gullifty's - Dead Leaves (10p), Spinebelt (11p), Stept On (12m). Usually, I like to talk about bands that are you might not know about. You should already know about these bands, and this show, but in case you don't, I'll fill you in. Dead Leaves (from Cressona/Pottsville/Schuylkill County) and Spinebelt (from Hershey) are 2 of Central PA's top all-original hard rock / heavy bands. Probably the top 2 in those categories - all-originals + hard rock / heavy (not more popular and heavier I'd say, there could be some quibbling about what constitutes hard rock / heavy) + Central PA (Let's say South Central + Schulykill County, although more areas could be encompassed). Ok, you probably knew that already. Although they are the most popular in those categories, they don't necessarily get a lot of opportunities to play (I'm talking about Harrisburg Metro here, mostly). They have both played in the Hbg area in the last few months, so the situation isn't quite as dire as it was a while back, where it was seemingly impossible for original hard rock bands to get gigs in Hbg., but the marketplace still hasn't fully valued bands such as Dead Leaves and Spinebelt, who are at the top of that particular heap. Tonight's show is a good opportunity for fans of hard rock / heavy music to come out see local leaders, with an eye to getting Dead Leaves / Spinebelt / hard rock/heavy music into some sort of rotation at Gullifty's. I think it can be done. Gut feeling is that Matt is open to that idea. Not a tight rotation, necessarily, but one where Dead Leaves, Spinebelt and hard rock / heavy band x can play every 8-12 weeks maybe. If those DL/Spine/+ shows do well, it might go to DL/+/+ and Spine/+/+ - this is just me talking off the top of my head. (Hint: if you're in a hard rock / heavy band - you might be able to see how this could help you - you could be the +, perhaps you should attend this show). Anyway, just for Dead Leaves and Spinebelt, and the possibility that a good turnout could get these bands into rotation, you should be here. But there's more. Stept On. I will say now as I've told people before (maybe wrote here before) that Stept On is the one band that should be playing here in South Central PA more often. (Wolfpac was a first or second back in the day, but now they're playing around here a lot.) Stept On is a extremely well-known and well-liked band to some (or many) of you - mostly those of you from the West of South Central PA, the North of South Central PA, and the North-East of Central PA. Tomorrow night (8-24) they're playing the Crowbar in State College - headlining, playing 3 sets - for the umpteenth time. Packin em in. Check out DCN - there are 21 FULL STEPT ON SHOWS IN REAL VIDEO ON DCN from the Crowbar. South Central PA knows Stept On, too, they were Badwrench - packin em in at Wanda's in 1997 and 1998. They were a Krepich band at the time, played the main room - the Courtyard - for Millenium 98 in February 98. Then they were Wrench, then Stept On. But, pretty much after they changed their name from Badwrench to Wrench - sometime between Feb 98 and Aug 99 - they didn't get many gigs in South Central. I don't really know the actual solid facts on this, but I've heard that Stept On hasn't played South Central in over a year - I could be wrong on that fact. Suffice it to say, they don't play much in South Central, but they do great all around South Central. So, what do they play. Well, a mix of covers and originals - they're a 3 set band. Their originals are solid active rock, and good. Their CD "Lonely" was recorded at Saturation Acres and sounds great - hits aplenty. Their covers - well, this is/was a small sticking point, some might say. They made a point of going with the hardest of the covers, which is problematic in South Central (see above, re Dead Leaves, Spinebelt and hard/heavy). However, they are paying attention to recent trends, and although I seriously doubt you'll hear a 80's fun medley with Dexy's Tutone etc, you might hear current Active Rock to a greater extent, and perhaps a lesser focus on Pantera. Right at this very moment, this is a band that could be signed on the basis of their originals, please fans who like hard rock / heavy originals and please club owners who want a band that can please fans who want to hear a good band who can play songs on the radio (105.7 The X in the present case). This is a very easy band to work with from a financial standpoint, and if you have a large enough room in South Central, you should book them pronto. The goal with this show here at Gullifty's is to get Stept On in a nice schedule as well - they're a 3 set band, and I think that they should be playing Gullifty's - 3 sets, no opener, unless they want to have one. Stept On fans should show up for this. I got an email from someone a few weeks ago, saying that I should hyper promote this Stept On show, because it was the first time they've played in South Central PA in a while, etc etc. I decided not to do that. I wouldn't be surprised if I could've called tonight a PA Rocks Night - I've done them at Gullifty's since 1999. But, I wanted to make sure that the bands got all the credit for the turnout. I've run into the yes, but syndrome before. Hey, how about having band x back again, they did great! Yes, but you promoted the heck out of that show, and the success was due to that promotion, not due to the actual drawing power of the bands themselves. The yes, but factor happens in all cases when there's a benefit, or any magazine or website jumps up and down about a particular show (hint: watch out for that if you're in a band that should be able to get gigs at a venue, and every time you play there it's a benefit, or a whatever night and it does ok, but you have to wait for the next time that people have to jump up and down about you playing there. You don't have to do that. You're popular - if you are popular). In this case, it's simply these 3 bands, and if it's a success, it's due to the fact that these 3 bands draw this many people on August 23, 2002. Ok, enough on this show. Fans of these bands, fans of hard rock / heavy music, show up for this one. Webmasters on Tour - Matt Arbogast and Brandon Deroche: Matt and Brandon were both in their teens in the 90's, and both did websites / fan sites for local bands. Matt did the website for Cole. That site was up when I started PA Rocks in December 1996. I used that site as a model for PA Rocks at least in the designing. I liked how the logo was presented also as the background, Matt did it first for Cole. I pretty much copied the concept back in 1996 for the first version of PA Rocks. Matt Arbogast was in the house for the earliest RealVideo taping on PA Rocks / Web Music Video - 5/16/97 - Cherry Twister and The Polins. Since then Cole broke up, Tony Ryder (Cole) is in Wayne Supergenius (good band), Matt was in Dilton (good band) went to Millersville U, worked in Radio there, and now he's in The Gunshy (pretty much the frontman). Last time I was in Philly, I pointed out to the guy at the Khyber that he had The Gunshy booked there, and I thought that was cool, did a couple of Matt Arbogast seconds. I also showed him the PA Musician with the other Gunshy in it, and told him they were two different bands. Now The Gunshy is on tour. They're playing the Knitting Factory in Los Angeles on September 28, amongst other dates. The Gunshy Brandon did a fan site for Fuel in 1998?+. That was around the time that RealVideo was becoming a popular thing and all that. I taped a bunch of Fuel appearances from tv shows like Conan etc. and RealVideo'ed em. Put em on my server, didn't link to em - but gave Brandon a link that he could use to give fans access to Fuel material. I like the guys from Fuel, but I didn't think I should directly put Conan stuff up, etc. etc.. Then he was in a band called Blend. They were scheduled to play at Millenium 99 and they were slotted to open for Godsmack, Anthrophobia and D'arey October. I spent a lot of time in January, February 1999 trying to fix Brandon's "I have to go to Las Vegas with my parents, I think, but I'm not sure" problem. As it turned out, he went to Las Vegas with his parents, but I did spend a decent amount of time talking to JH and Vikki about the Blend dilemna. Anyway, Blend seemed to disappear, as did Brandon, until recently, when he tells me he's back from a great tour. I'm not sure how old he is now, but, almost certainly, less than 20, anyway, the band that he's in, The Underwater just got off tour with Zao - here's a representative date - 07.28.02 The Scene San Diego, CA - Zao, Underoath, Unearth, Dead Poetic, The Underwater. I know a bit about Zao, I had about 10 of their MP3's on my hard drive when he emailed me. They're hardcore. Wanted to know a bit about more about The Underwater. Not hardcore, but ex-boywonder, which might explain why they're on that tour. Anyway, as it happens to turn out, this band, The Underwater, is one amazing band. Seriously. This is one that's going to be touring a bunch, but they're as contemporary active rock radio friendly as any band locally. Nixon, Claudine, heads up. Vikki Walls likes it. I burnt their song onto a CD and brought it to Vikki's house, and we listened to it, and she liked it. I don't think that she was just humoring me. And I really like it. Ok, this band is called The Underwater. I'm gonna try to get em some local gigs. You all should try too. They're all young, attractive, and they have the right stuff. Go to their site and listen to "In The Aqua". Pennsylvania Bands doing well: I've noticed a lot of PA Bands doing well these days, haven't been really keeping at it but here's some PA acts and the airplay their getting. None are at Fuel level quite yet, but we can hope. There's a lot of talent here. This isn't comprehensive at all, but a snapshot of airplay right now, Friday Aug 23. I may have missed a few, and I'm neglecting MMC vets as well (Good Charlotte on their way up) I'm using R&R for this one - airplay ending 8/17 WZZ0 - 14 spins Breaking Benjamin 10 Badlees 5 Familiar 48 WQXA - 17 spins Sinch 14 Badlees 13 Breaking Benjamin WMMR - 17 spins Marah WYSP - 12 spins Breaking Benjamin 12 Sinch WXDX - 24 spins Clarks 12 Juliana Theory WRFY - 17 spins Badlees 13 Clarks WBSX - 25 spins Breaking Benjamin 9 Sinch Eclipse/Hardware vs. Dragonfly: A couple times in the last month I went and saw the Battle of The Titans on North Second Street in Harrisburg. First time I went and saw Clove and 40 Lb Head at Dragonfly vs Juiced at Hardware Bar. That was August 2 after Funny Money et al at First Friday. It was the first night of live music downstairs at Dragonfly (I understand), and I spent most of my time there, as I had experienced Hardware before. First thing I noticed was BIG ROOM. Not quite Metron sized, but... National Acts could play there. It's probably bigger (just downstairs) than Shakey's. Sound was questionable due to hard reflective surfaces. The sound board is(was) in a bad place. Causing trouble, that didn't cause harm, but heads up. The lighting - which I understood was in house - was very good, perhaps the best in town. The room wasn't designed to give the best live rock experience, but, as it turns out, it can give a pretty good one. It's a room that you can give an authentic rock show in. Hardware bar. It's always packed. I guess people love it. But it can't give a good rock show. The house lights are on, it's always packed. Eh. But it's always packed. The background isn't rock. Who knows. If there's tons of people there all the time, they must love it, yes? As an aside, Eclipse on Thursdays was always great, I really liked that. As a music fan, you could rely on quality music on Thursdays from the Eclipse. Usually orginal, sometimes not, but eh. John booked some great bands for the summer and they were cancelled, and that sucked. You never knew what was scheduled for the summer on Thursday, all booked (same is true for Free Spirit end of summer) and it was all cancelled. Eh, whatever. Bright note!!! - Eclipse Thursdays second floor is coming back, so music fans who want to see great bands on Thursday can rejoice. Ok - I was at Dragon early on, and it has a very large capacity, you can have over 100 there seeing a rock show as it's mean to be seen and the other hundreds in the venue don't even have to pay attention. 40 Lb Head and Clove were good and had good crowds especially early. There were a lot of people there, but it wasn't crowded. I happen to like that. Dragonfly is a bigger club than Eclipse/Hardware. 300 people in Dragonfly will not create the same amount of "rockingness" that 300 in Hardware will. Apparently in Harrisburg, it's not a question of sheer numbers of people, it's the packed in feeling that is so pleasing. I, being a libertarian/conservative, who has heard the term sheeple so often, find this trend quite distressing. Ok, straight out - at 1:30 am, Juiced had far more people in Hardware than Clove had in Dragonfly. Since we all know about Hardware's capacity issues, Juiced was was over that night, way over. When I heard that they got Hardware with 355, I thought it was a bad night (although capacity is 90 apparently). Juiced seemed over that. Eh. Hardware really isn't a good room to see bands, actually. Eclipse 2nd floor is a good room to see bands. Dragonfly downstairs is a VERY BIG ROOM and a potential powerhouse in the future. What else is there to say? I don't talk to Ron Kam or Judd Good on the phone, I don't really know what's going on, I probably should. I talk to JH, and read the papers, and talk to people, but there's clearly a problem on 2nd Street that would certainly not be remedied by more publicity directed toward it. 4:00am Tuesday 7/23 - Jerry Joseph in the house at Gullifty's tonight 7/23. http://www.jerryjoseph.com - Ex. - Little Women, just jammed with Widespread Panic. Check it out. 2:00am Tuesday 7/23 - First - check out this link: http://www.villagevoice.com/siren - the website for the Village Voice 2nd Annual Siren Music Festival. That was awesome. I could go on and on, and I might, but, by about halfway through the event, it was at capacity, people were watching the bands through fences. Check out the link above. We need those bands here in Central PA. Pretty Girls Make Graves I think might've played at Monroe Township in Mechanicsburg. Von Bondies knocked me out. Buds of The White Stripes (Jack produced). Male Guitarist lead singer, male drummer, female bass, female guitar. They're really the ones channeling the MC5. Their live set was ferocious. Bob Log III - one man band - motorcycle helmet - telephone as microphone - ferocious slide guitar. Blues. A bill at Gullifty's - Slo-Mo, Bob Log III, Bon Fuhrer. The Harrisburg metro area might get tourism dollars from that. Rye Coalition. ROCK. Think Andrew WK, think AC/DC. Some of you would like it without getting the humor. That's cool. Pretty Girls Make Graves. This is probably the band that got me to Siren. I was probably doing a pollstar chase, seeing where bands go around the country, and PGMG having jumped to my attention due to either Running From Dharma or The Commercials (hmmm, same names seem to crop up again and again, huh?) I watched them go to this Siren thingy. Checked it out, above, holy... above link. I don't drive. Friday Night 7/19 I go to Gullifty's with Team Deitrick, those who brought you the River Rock Fest I - not too big not too small, just right, some 500-600 - no glitches. Smooth as Silk. No Woodstock and no pretentions of Woodstock. BTW, I didn't go to either "Woodstock" but Wila did at least 1,500, apparently they moved the stage down by the road so that they could fit more people in. No advertising for Wila that I know of. Habit and custom. Not a surprise to me at all. Anyway, we see No Show Ponies, they do a strong, professional set, (supaprops to Shannon and Melanie) and we go check out Nick's 1014 (after seeing West Shore Doc's is locked at 1a) - solid attractive cool, not perfect by any means, then got back to my place where I guess we agreed to go to Siren. Sweet. 3,4,5 am, and Teams Deitrick / PA Rocks are on the road to Coney Island. A fairly uneventful trip gets us a parking space between the 2 stages on Surf around 10 am. Team D makes a smart move and goes with the water as the beverage of choice. Team PA Rocks does not. 3 hours of partying for Team PA Rocks and Bob Log III goes on. (Musical Descriptions above). Then Heat Stroke / Exhaustion, and me sleeping on the Coney Island boardwalk for an hour or 2. Eh. I got great video of the 4 bands I mentioned. Wobbled around for about an hour after, and when I get my 2nd wind Team Deitrick wants to go. No complaints. Before the show I got to talk to Mooney Suzuki and see soundchecks of Sleater Kinney and more, so, set. Worthwhile,check the above link. 6:00am Saturday 7/13 - Today - battle of the "Woodstocks" - Wilapalooza 8 and Summer Rockfest. Here are the URL's lineups avail - http://www.wilapalooza.com/ - http://www.summerrockfest.com/ I was at Wila last year, and that's one cool, sick party. No press, Wila 8. 8. Summer Rockfest. The lineup, solid press. I'll be curious to see how it all turns out. Custom and habit vs. press (lineups aside). I wanted to make sure I talked about the Brave The Day, The Why're, No Show Ponies week there back about a month ago. I haveta give props to Running From Dharma and The Commercials for no other reasons except that I'm on their email list and they play The Why're, so I was familiarized with the new Why're by that. Running From Dharma and The Commercials are really good local bands - The Commercials are playing a fest in Birmingham, AL - Furnace Fest http://www.furnacefest.com - with a ton of great bands. Anyway, I got brought into the Why're circle pretty much through my interest in local indie/emo/core/punk - saw Elliott (from Louisville, KY) at the Why're on 6/1 - check out http://webmusicvideo/bands/elliott for RealVideo of that show, prior to that Running From Dharma a few weeks before - http://webmusicvideo/bands/runningfromdharma (also check out footage of RANA - http://webmusicvideo/bands/rana - the day after Elliott, June 2). Also, I want to note a good show at Monroe Township July 26 with RFC and The Commercials, as well as other bands like My Chemical Romance, Element 101 and River City High. Anyway, went to The Why're - a very good venue for all age shows in New Cumberland - on 6/1 saw Elliott, after talked to Dusty, the current (now former) owner/booker - I gave him major props for bringing in Elliott and the Liar's Academy one night and Rana the next, and then was off to Gullifty's to see No Show Ponies. Good show as always. Then went partying in Midtown Hbg with the good ol Browns and all the Ponies. No Show Ponies partied with. Partied with No Show Ponies. Press. Press. Press. Fun, yes, but not all perfect. Next day, back to Why're and Rana, and after mostly talked to the new (current) owner/booker Josh Freeman. Becky Miller of Brave The Day was there, and at that time, I was mostly curious about what she was up to. We talked a little at that time, and she almost promoted herself and the contest that she was about to win. Josh filled me in a little more about the specifics, but really, not enough for me to do anything with it. (Josh, by the way, seems like a good guy, and I'm totally down with an all age venue in Hbg, as Josh knows) I did get to learn from talking to Becky that night at The Why're that she works as a bartender at Violet's at Walnut - a bar on Walnut Street in Hbg and also a live music venue moving toward awareness. 2 days later, on Tuesday, me and Jeff D. of Fiddlestyx went to Violets, talked to Becky, heard about the contest, and the semi-finalist stage that had been reached. Went home, wrote about it (see below), then went and saw the show that Pantene caught. http://webmusicvideo/bands/clubber - check that out - first Brave The Day plays "The Search" - the song that gottm there, then Becky announces that they're goin to NYC. Good Stuff. Then, more partying. Don't want to go into that much. Anyway, the point of all those paragraphs isn't to say the actual stuff that happened as much as it is about the convoluted process it takes to get from an interest in one type of band and learning about something good happening to another entirely different type of band. Anyway - Brave The Day is playing in Central Park on July 18, with the other finalists, opening for Michelle Branch and M2M. Huge prizes for the winner. http://www.pro-voice.com/english.php Since the topic of contests is up, PA is represented in the Rolling Rock Town Fair Contest. Stept On, Poptart Monkeys, The Seahollies, Little Joe Pinto. Virgin Records will be picking from the 22 semi-finalists of which the above are 4 - 2 will play the Town Fair stage. Go PA. http://rollingrock.com/townfair/index.html. Great prizes for the winner. (not sure as of press time whether the final 2 bands have been picked yet) 5:30am Sunday 6/16 - Listening to The Pattern right now. Saw The Pattern in Philly last night at La Tazza. What La Tazza does (or at least on Friday) is have the ground level for the drinkers and the basement for the bands. To me, that setup worked excellent. Gullifty's could do that. Anyway, The Pattern was the revelation of the year. For me, last year it was Rock City Crime Wave at the Skinny in Portland, ME. This year it was The Pattern. Before I went to La Tazza (well actually, I showed up too early at La Tazza, it wasn't open) I went to Khyber (a legendary club - you know it) which is right around the corner. For an awesome rock club, they had a distressingly large selection of good beers on tap. They were hyping Troegs (that's right, our Troegs, the very same Troegs that I'm drinking right now) and they had the obscure double bocks on special, so rock to Khyber. Anyway, one of the guys there was chillin, waiting for the garage night to start, and he was all blase-like - "I saw the Stripes, The Strokes, Hives, Moooney" etc. I'm of course impressed, but displeased, because, my, and your collective might should be able to get those bands (or at least one, once) in here (South Central PA). Made me think that we suck here (God forbid). Anyway, nice to see something from Central PA (Troegs) is cool. Ok, after that, to La Tazza. The Heartache Disease, The Pattern, and Mooney Suzuki were scheduled to perform. The Pattern and Mooney Suzuki are on tour with The Hives. So, I get to La Tazza I get a pass that gets me a ticket (sorta) to The Hives (after Trishy posted that Spaceboy was done). I chill, go back to Khyber, talk to the keyboardist from Ty Cobb, go back to La Tazza, chill, and after The Heartache Disease (good band, good guys) I go downstairs and see The Pattern. OMG. Active Rock is actually sluggish rock these days. No guitars (well, some, but just for texture). The Pattern is Active Rock. But, it's Alternative or Modern Rock. Eh, look at the charts, see what the minor differences are. Whatever. So, I go downstairs and see The Pattern. Awesome. Awesome. I wrote a little bit before about emo v garage. I thought that garage didn't have much of a farm team. I still can't say, but definitely the Pattern is a top garage band. I don't know what to say, again, but they could easily be the next Hives, Stripes, Strokes, etc. (BTW, The Vines are derivative of the Stone Temple Pilots, although they are a good band, they don't really belong in that category). It's possible that The Pattern are better than some of the bands that I mentioned. One thing that's interesting is that so much of contemporary music is so very bad. Anything that is different from it sounds so much better. Well, that's a divergence. Back to what I'd like to call Sean Agnew, R5 Productions night. The Pattern. The Pattern - from Oakland, CA, on Lookout Records - could, as much as any of the new garage bands, have a hit single to breakthrough to Active Rock (ie next Nirvana) I would've placed my bets on emocore/posthardcore/melodichardcore and still might, but The Pattern is so very, very strong. Anyway, The Pattern was awesome. After The Pattern at La Tazza was supposed to be Mooney Suzuki. That didn't happen. Apparently they wanted to play at the First Unitarian Church with John Leo. Cool. I didn't fully make that scene, but I assume that it was first rate, and, in a substantial way, it was even cooler that way. I met for the first time and talked to Sean Agnew of R5 Productions. Extremely impressed. He's 24, looks like the lead singer of Thursday. I don't want to go on and on about Sean right now, but, you know, you go to La Tazza, you get into The Church, or Transit, I'm not sure if The Church got you into Transit, but, almost definitely Tazza got you Church and Transit. That's Rock. Anyway. Transit. That's where The Hives were playing on Friday night. 1500 capacity - ALL AGES - SOLD OUT. I left Harrisburg on Amtrak at around 3p. Got in at 5, etc etc (above) figured I'd figure out how to get into the Hives show at La Tazza. Lo and behold, all La Tazzas got into The Hives show. That's Sean ROCK R5. I got back here, after I'd left, saw my phillygrooves post from Trishy, basically saying, heads up re the Hives, but not giving the best info, which was - get down with Sean and La Tazza. Anyway, I got there to Transit, which was really cool, awesomely huge, but yet small, with all the side rooms on the drinking floors. I talked to a bunch of cool people there, some in Philly bands, some not, then The Hives went on. Huge. 1500 all ages - over 21 and under 21. You all know about The Hives, so I don't need to tell you about what kinda music, etc. But, 1500. Awesome. Hate To Say I Told You So is at 16 in Alternative. Main Offender hasn't been released to radio. I'm gonna ask a couple of questions. I'm a lawyer, not practicing, but, you shouldn't ask if you don't know the answer, etc. Here is - Hoobastank is at 4 in Alternative - it could go higher - that's their 2nd single. The first was also strong. Would they have done 1500 at The Transit? Answer, probably no fing way - but I don't know. I have to hand all this back to Sean Agnew R5 Productions. Oh, The Hives had 1500 Philleans eating out of the palm of their hand. It was sick. How about Puddle of Mudd? Would people go see Puddle of Mudd? (Was looking at All Access again.) I'll get back to you with the weekend before stories and other. 7:00am Wednesday 6/5 - Huge fast breaking happenings for Becky (Rebecca) Miller and bravetheday. Becky submitted her music to Pantine - Pantene Pro-Voice link. Out of 1000+ folks who entered this competition, she's in the final 10. Camera crews are coming out today (Wednesday) to follow Becky around for about 2 days, to get a feel for what kind of person she is. She works at Violets on Walnut in Hbg, if you want to put a good word in. Thursday at 7ish might be the best time to go to Violets on Walnut - as there may or may not be a bravetheday show there at that time. My position on Becky Miller and bravetheday is clear. So far, I've never done their website, or done anything really concrete for Becky, and I will say that that fact is a disturbing one to me, as, since the 5/01 in Hbg, I was floored, mostly, but not solely, by Becky. It was disturbing to hear that they went on hiatus shortly following their amazing show at the Harrisburg Arts Fest on 5/26/01. I ran into Becky at the GMan Downtown, it was good to see her and hear that she was ok. Very recently, I hear of this very good thing (Pantene) today, after running into Becky again at The Why're. Becky has star quality. I've been doing this PA Rocks thing for 5 and a half years, I have video of hundreds of bands, have multiple shoots on many of em. I saw Clubber once in Sept of 99. Brave the Day once in May 01. Clubber in 99 didn't knock me out, Brave the Day in 01 did, big time, and I wasn't expecting it. Ok, back to the facts again - unconfirmed show - bravetheday 7pm on Thursday at Violets. Camera crew is following Becky around for at least a day. Show is still unconfirmed. Win or lose, I'll be there for Becky, as I'm excited that she's back in the game. Well, I just talked to her today, and am just looking at the Clubber footage. Hindsight is 20/20 I guess. I guess I regret not paying attention for that year and a half. I would hate to miss greatness like Beckys. 7:00am Tuesday 6/4 - The Badlees new CD "Renew" is released today. It's a very good CD, radio-friendly, accessible, a natural for Triple A, fits well with Rock, Hot AC, CHR/Pop. Sounds more like Up There Down Here than Amazing Grace. The Badlees have 2 nationally released CDs - "River Songs" and "Up There Down Here" - neither one of which was primarily recorded for the label which released the CD. "River Songs" was independently recorded, and released, with minor modifications, by A&M / Polygram. "Up There Down Here" was recorded for A&M / Polygram and released by Ark 21. This CD "Renew" is as good as the prior 2, and has a contemporary sound. I see no reason why this CD couldn't be picked up by a major label and released. If a major is seeking to promote a CD which could easily fit alongside John Mayer, Jack Johnson, etc., this CD is right there for them to take a listen to. Besides the CD itself, I'm very impressed by the promotion surrounding the CD release. Over the next 4 days - Tuesday 6/4, Wednesday 6/5, Thursday 6/6 and Friday 6/7 - you will have the opportunity to hear the Badlees live on your local PA radio station. No fewer than eight acoustic performances / interviews will be aired live on seven radio stations over those four days. A great CD release party will take place at Gullifty's on Saturday, June 8 with The Jellybricks and Julian Fist. They rolled out a top to bottom redesign of their website less than a week ago. They have a huge show in New York City on June 22, at the Grand Ballroom (Hammerstein Ballroom - capacity 1,300) which will likely be a sellout as most tix are sold. That show is going to be filmed for a DVD release and will be aired this summer on the WB and Fox in the Mid-Atlantic region. You can enter to win tickets to the show on the 22nd on the Philly WB 17 website And, if you already know that you want "Renew" - the best time to get it is today, early, as they signed a few copies and placed them in record stores throughout PA - the signed copies are likely to be gone today. Again, it's really good to see that type of promotion go into a CD release. The Badlees have always been smart and professional and its good to see them put those skills into a CD release. The last CD release, based on my (admittedly fuzzy) recollection, didn't seem quite as focused, organized, etc. Of course the conditions last time were far different, and this time around The Badlees are completely calling the shots. Bands - take note - this is a good model of how to do a CD Release. On a somewhat related note, saw Badlees buddies Bonepony two Sundays ago (5/26) in Nashville. Great show, great band. Talked to the guys about their band and about The Badlees. Hopefully they can play some dates together this summer, and if they do, those would definitely be shows to see. 8:00am Wednesday 5/22 - Ok Jeff at Fiddlestyx has a lot of good shows coming up. 5/29 Headstrong and Poptart Monkeys - 5/30 Poptart Monkeys, Stept On, Dead Leaves - 6/14 Familiar 48, David Lynn Band - 6/15 Dry Kill Logic, Step Kings - 6/22 Halestorm, Stept On, Dead Leaves, Ridin Helen, Spinebelt, Bon Fuhrer, .44 Mag. Support those shows, he cares, etc. etc. Free Spirit Rec Center is a good deal, esp if you can camp - I've been there. It's beautiful. Bring a case of beer or 2 and catch the bands. Halestorm and the Martini Bros are playing there. Make it a night. Camping right there - easy and beautiful. Gullifty's strong - look at The Clarks and Familiar 48 on June 15 - other great stuff before that, LCS, etc. Ok, saw Juiced last Friday at the Hardware Bar. Just talked to Jeff from Fiddlestyx, and he was close to wildly enthused about the venue, PTM was there, that was Tuesday. He talked to JimO from Harrisburg Online (btw GREAT show in July - Team Frank makes the difference) and of course JimO is gonna try to hork the client, even if it's an hour away from Harrisburg (Jim, if you want, I can tell you about a whole bunch of Harrisburg clubs/bars with live music that need some press who I haven't talked to) - what - such is life Anyway, based on what I personally know, experienced at the Hardware Bar last Friday, let Juiced be Juiced. Without going into details, I will say that Carrie, Beth, et al, remain talented people, but much of Carrie's talent and appeal derives from her ability to do the hard, male active rock songs at least as good as the original band. If, for whatever reason, she is no longer performing to her strengths, the band is not quite as strong. I know Carrie, and know that she's a very bright person, and would hope that she would perform a strong set for those who have in the past been a supporter. Keep an eye out for the Dewey Beach Conference and Festival. You'll likely see more here soon about it. The website will be deweybeachfest.com - not quite done yet. We'd like the core MMCers to apply to showcase - $20 application fee. Showcasing bands will get access to attend for free. This might be a great opportunity for those core MMC bands to really get to sit down and talk to the national names that Vikki will be bringing in. The 2 main venues are the Rusty Rudder and the Bottle and Cork. At this point, the MMC is the more established conference, but this is a great way for the MMC favored in PA to get a great spot in the beach in Delaware. 1:00pm Friday 5/17 - Tammi Taylor is doing another Jointstock Benefit - parocks.com/jointstock - it's a Battle of the Bands - it's at the Great Balloon Fest in Lancaster at the Penn Dutch / Lancaster Host Resort - there will be a lot of people there, and there will be a lot of great prizes for the bands who win. All genres are encouraged to apply - check it out. The application deadline has been extended beyond the date on the site. Other good shows on the horizon include the River Rock Fest at Fiddlestyx on June 22. Bands appearing: Halestorm, Stept On, Dead Leaves, Spinebelt, Ridin Helen, Bon Fuhrer, .44 Mag Metal. You can get tix from the bands at their shows or at the club. Check out the tix, pretty cool, huh? Free Spirit Rec Center has live music every Saturday (also some Fridays) starting Memorial Day weekend. All age. Bands playing the first half of the summer include Halestorm, Martini Bros, Big Tubba Mista, Steve Whiteman and Funny Money, Spider Rico and a whole lot more. Not only rock, but also country, bluegrass, blues. Huge stage, again - all ages. Another good few weeks at Gullifty's, Lisa Christ Superstar, Steve Reso, The Badlees, The Clarks, Familiar 48, Dead 50s, Julie Schreiber Band and a whole lot more. Also, Syn d Cats reunion at the Midtown on May 26 for a benefit and Thirteen Over Eight Anthrophobia with Vanilla Ice at The Silo. Lots more - check out THIS WEEK'S EMAILER, for lots of show dates, and sign up for the email list (upper left of this page) to get that emailer every Thursday or Friday. (It's going out right now - 8am Friday). I do want to mention a very special private show in Nashville, TN on Sunday, May 26 with Bonepony. Some of you might remember seeing Bonepony at the Ye Olde Ale House back July 13, 2000 with Pete, Jeff and Ron. Well, they're playing my brother's wedding reception that day. Yay! What's been going on - Most recently saw Stept On and Watertight at Fiddlestyx. Stept On always has a great crowd there to see em and last Friday was no exception. Couple guys were there from the Palmyra area. Stept On is one of very few bands that I can think of that haven't been getting gigs in South Central PA, but who would almost certainly draw enough people to make it worthwhile for the club owner. They would probably take the right opening slot and would bring at least 50-100 people down here. They do great business from Johnstown, Altoona, State College, Milton, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre. They're playing Michigan, Ohio, NJ. Multiple industry showcases. Stept On used to be Wrench, and before that, Badwrench. They're kicking butt all over the place except H/L/Y and they have good attitudes. Book em. Watertight opened - I was very pleasantly surprised - I hadn't seen em before. They have a very contemporary active rock sound, well executed. Before that Poptart Monkeys at Eclipse. Nice big crowd there - lots of dancing - people enjoying themselves - that's good to see. Got "Just Like Me" their most recent release - very good CD, sounds great. (Thanks James). Before that Running From Dharma and Empty Promises at The Why're. That's the kind of stuff I want to hear more of. Occasionally (not at all frequently, but occasionally), Running From Dharma plays Gullifty's (over 21 shows), but usually they play all age venues - fire halls, skate parks, township buildings, coffeehouses. I prefer to go to bars and clubs, and usually don't get the opportunity to see bands like Running From Dharma, Empty Promises, and I should also add The Commercials and The Nightmare Scenario. I'm sure there are plenty of other local bands that I just haven't seen that could be mentioned in the same breath as those bands. Rambling rant here - Just yesterday (Thursday, May 16) MTV2 had the premiere of Thursday's "Cross out the Eyes" They played it pretty much on the hour every hour. "Understanding (in a Car Crash)" was played a lot by MTV2. 105.7 The X was giving Understanding about 7 spins a week for about a month or so. Thursday's music is not inaccessible to a mainstream audience, and does not appeal solely to Under 21's. The bands mentioned above that play all age venues are not necessarily as good as Thursday, but their music is roughly comparable to them stylistically - melodic hardcore, posthardcore, emocore, screamo, etc. So, if Thursday can be played on MTV2 and The X, why can't bands that sound roughly comparable to them play bars and clubs. The age of the bands themselves is usually not an issue - the band members are almost always over 18 and often, if not usually over 21. It could be argued that if a fixed dollar amount - say $500 - is to be spent on a band in a given market, it is better spent by a venue that can maximize the total number of bodies who want to see the band. Let's say 100 people want to see a $500 band, and 50 are under 21. Only 50 could see the band at the bar, and 100 could see the band at the all age venue. So, there is some validity to that viewpoint, especially within the context of a band that's passing through on tour. However, that logic doesn't apply to all bands of that genre. Let's say Running From Dharma plays 2 shows a month, every month, in Cumberland County, and has been doing so for quite some time. They've built up a sizable fan base, one can assume; however, not all of their fans will see every one of their shows. Some of their fans are likely 21 or older, and would prefer to see them in a bar or club context (such as myself). Let's say they have 500 fans - 400 under 21, 100 21 or older. One might think, based on this, that they should play 4 (or 5) all age shows to every 1 21+ show. Certain assumptions are being made here - that every fan sees the same number of shows, and that over 21's would see the show in the bar, but, basically, I think it makes sense. Put differently, a band, popular primarily among u21's, but popular nonetheless, should be treated at least as well as a band whose fan base is far smaller, but composed exclusively of 21 and olders. Anyway, back to The Why're show I saw - good bands, Running From Dharma, Empty Promises. Looking over their schedule, lots of good bands, really good bands. On the downside, I thought the lights, sound and staging were not to my taste - I happen to prefer clubs with lights, an in house sound system, and a stage - it's really difficult to video with almost no light. The lack of a stage wasn't really a problem, as my tripod can get about 6'6" to 6'8" and there are some good angles there. Anyway, that's an aside, as the primary concern is the really good bands. One show really worth noting is the Elliott, Christiansen, Liar's Academy, Running From Dharma show on Saturday, June 1. Tix $10, and I think they're expecting a sell-out as tickets are limited to 175. Look into those bands if you haven't heard of them already - high, high quality. Just a thought - would it be feasible (and it may very well not be) for a band or bands to play 2 shows the same day in the same market, especially if the 2 venues were close to each other? That may very well be an extremely wacky thought, and I can understand potential downsides to it. Lets say the same promoter does both shows, so as not to worry about the competition factor. Would that make economic sense at all? Let's say it's the Why're show June 1. That show starts at 5:30, it's over by 9:30 tickets are $10, and the capacity is 175. Gullifty's could start at 10 and the show would be over by 2. Gullifty's is about a 5-10 minute drive from The Why're. Would something like that work economically? The guy producing the show could say to the band / the booking agent either 1) I'll give you X to play 1 show on 1 night or 2) I'll give you X+Y to play 2 shows on 1 night. I know that's generally not how it's done, and that's a real barrier. The amount of work the band has to do is 2S, but the amount of $ they get is less than 2X, so they're playing the second show at a discount. However, there is no opportunity cost, as the band would not otherwise get the second show, most likely, so the Y (less than X) is $ they wouldn't otherwise get. So, that's a partial economic analysis from the band's point of view. From the promoters point of view, I guess it would work out to whether one show or two shows would be more profitable. That would get to a fairly complex analysis. Enough already. That's the end of the rambling essay. Before that - Rotoglow at Eclipse - great time, great band. High % of people I knew. A technical problem arose during the set, and Rotoglow worked their way through it - changed the complexion of the music entirely - to sort of an unplugged / acoustic feel, which is not something a fan is likely to see very often, so it kinda was a treat. It's good to be able to see quality live original music on a Thursday - so far, there's been good consistant quality live original music on Thursday at the Eclipse - keep up the good work. Before that, Candid Daydream, Bully, Jennifer Marie at Armory High Great bands, great club, packed for local original music. 10:00am Tuesday 4/23 - Spring is a good season for live music in the clubs and bars. Some notes on what I've seen over the last month or so. Saw Silvertide and Jukebox Junkies at Gullifty's on Saturday. Good show. Silvertide's a signed band (J Records) from Philly. I'm of the opinion that they - especially the lead singer and lead guitarist - have the "rock star" thing (c. 70's, 80's) down cold. The lead singer is quite similar to Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes and the lead guitarist is quite similar to Slash of Guns and Roses. They got the sound and the moves down. They're also rather young. I think Clive's got a winner here. You can catch them at The Silo on May 10 (more about that later). Not necessarily everyone agrees with this assessment of Silvertide however, and that, I think, is a good thing. Shannon and Melanie were in the house on Saturday, they also were in the house on Friday, and they tell me that the No Show Ponies, God The Band, and Stephen Reso show was a good one. Word is getting around about the God The Band show - Jeff D (Fiddlestyx) has heard good word from Mike D (ex pre See You Auntie, Carlisle Car Show, Wolfpac 5/5/01) about that show, so my guess is that it was worth seeing. Both Silvertide and God the Band played MMC earlier this year. The Sauders's and the Sohmer's were in the house as was the ex drummer of Throttle 5. The ladies enjoyed Silvertide. Ryan reminded me of the Syn d Cats reunion show which is to take place 5/26 at the Midtown Tavern. It's a benefit. Shea Quinn would have told me about the Sharks reunion show at Shakey's on 4/27. Psycho A-Go-Go!!!'s Alvis was in the house rooting on The Jukebox Junkies (who played after Silvertide). Alvis is also a solid scene guy - at MMC Rusty Nail show he was luvin Lisa Christ Superstar, and they're playing a bill together at Gullifty's 5/24. Should be a great show. PAGG has the garage thing nailed down - they might even be Sonics snobs - and that's a comer right now, with Strokes, White Stripes, The Hives and next I might think is Mooney Suzuki. Lisa is just amazing - energetic guitar rock - would like to see Lisa around here as much as possible. 1st time I saw the Jukebox Junkies. I was prepared for something in the ballpark of the Dead 50's (if you're on their email list, I'm not sure that the Rusty Nail is closing down, although I have heard that it's been sold - I don't have all the facts there or anything, but, at least for me, that a ?), and I think that's where they're at - somewhere in between D5 and PAGG. They sounded good, and had a good, relaxed interplay with their fans. Saw the Julie Schreiber Band at the Rusty Nail a couple weeks back - nice turnout - 120-150 - 3 full sets. If you haven't seen Julie in a while, you'll be seeing a far different show these days. The originals sound great with the full 4 piece band (about 10 spread over 3 sets) and their covers range from contemporary Brit-pop - Travis, Coldplay, Remy Zero, to early 80's classic rock - Rush, Van Halen, to 60's psychedelic-blues - Jefferson Airplane, Cream, with plenty of Zeppelin. Scene makers were in the house - the ex bassist for Katie Did..., Drew, was there, checking it out, having fun. 2 quite nice shows at Fiddlestyx - March 28 and April 4 - both Thursdays, both Bucknell nights, both with buses running from the campus to the club, both 200-300 paid. March 28 was Fighting Gravity - great band from Richmond, VA - they've played Gullifty's and the Eclipse in the past year or so, most recently at the Eclipse. Good guys - I saw Fighting Gravity for the first time 2 or 3 years back in Nashville at 12th and Porter, and back then we got talking about a band To The Moon Alice who was based in Charlottesville, Va at the time. TTMA was signed to A&M and were dropped as a result of the Universal purchase that effected a lot of bands (see Badlees, whose new album - "Renew" will be released shortly - a CD release party will be taking place 6/8 at Gullifty's). We were talking about how much we all loved Leslie Mills, the lead singer of TTMA (before that - The Great Circle). The Great Circle played at Gullifty's back some 5 years ago now, as did To The Moon Alice about 4 years ago, TTMA played the Chameleon with Burning Bus, and TTMA was slotted for the MMC, but that ended up not happening. Anyway, for about 2 or 3 years it appeared that TTMA and Leslie disappeared (they certainly disappeared from internet land). Recently I've found that she's doing quite well in the music business - she's a writer for MPL Communications (Paul McCartney) , signed to Atlantic Records with her debut album slated for release this summer, and nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Original Song "On My Own" as featured in CBS's long-running daytime drama "Guiding Light" TTMA/GC would be most accurately described as a jam band, and it was quite surprising to me to see that she has left that genre so completely, but, its cool, because she is a 100% utter delight, just perfect. I'm not an autograph guy, but back in the day she gave me her autograph, she said it was the first one she ever signed, and I'm pleased to have it on my Great Circle tape. So happy to see she's doing really well, as should the Gullifty's people who asked me about her about 2-3 years ago. Hope she wins on May 17 and her album is a big hit. It's neat how that works sometimes. See a band 5 years ago at Gullifty's. See another band in Nashville 2 or 3 years ago, talk about the first band. See the Nashville band at Gullifty's and Eclipse and Fiddlestyx, talk about the first band (among other things - Dave Peterson, the bass player for Fighting Gravity, is a great guy - we talked about the biz for a while at Eclipse and Fiddlestyx). It's like a small world or something. April 4 was Sho 'Nuff - another great show. Sho 'Nuff has played Fiddlestyx and Gullifty's on numerous occasions, I think they've gotten a bit more active rocky over the last year or so, but they still have the funk in place. We spent a bit of time talking about MMC. Around last Nov-Feb, they were having mgt issues surrounding MMC deadline. I talked to them about MMC when I saw them at Gullifty's last December (December?). Tried to get them in during the "last minute slot-filling fiasco of 2-13/14" but that didn't happen. An aside to that - Frank Phobia does in fact rule, although not god, as per another publication. He was able to solve half the last minute problems with basically one long phone call, and it all worked out well for everybody. Hiester's is stopping bands - last show is 5/3 with Mary Prankster, The Afterglows, Dead 50's, Big Green Limousine and Latch Key. Bummer, but not a huge deal as Frank's new venue, Wooden Waves Skate Park, is due to open in June. An extra note on MMC - I think you can get a good idea of what the conference was about by reading the March UH especially LizBiz and Jen's columns. They, I think, were focused on the partying, as was I. The biggest partying upgrade yet for MMC. 4th Floor - Saturday Night - 3-4 am - hundreds of people in the hall - plus people in the rooms. No troubles. Advise to bands - that's where you want to be. Martini Bros St Patrick's Eve - huge show, great turnout - lots of scene people there. Best turnout for the Bros (300+?) that I've seen in a while - Tor's band 3-Star did great as an opener. Their new stuff sounds great. I think it has more of a raw garagey edge than Trans-Mission. The Bros. shows are always great fun due to the scene people who are always out in force. That tends to bring enjoyment to me, as I usually know a decent percentage of people there. This show was over a month ago, so I can't quite do a full shout out or whatnot. Team Saunders was in the house, and mad props to Team Saunders. Thats about it for now. 7:30am Sunday 3/3 - First - Slo-Mo and Case 150 at Gullifty's - March 9 - Case 150 - Ed Yaz - properly hyped the show last time, and it was all what was promised and more. Check it out RealVideo right here - Slo Mo video from the last show at Gullifty's - totally excellent if I do say so myself. Read below about Slo-Mo, Tom Rothrock, Beck, Moby, etc, etc. It's just a full strong show. Check the video above or the hype below. Other great stuff that night - that's a great night to go out - Badlees and Eighteenth Hour at Shakey's - will be strong. Fiddlestyx - Revolution - Step Kings - it was supposed to be Flying Tigers (Atlantic, "Maybe" going for adds March 4-5), but a radio station took them away from Jeff. The Step Kings are strong. They just played Tink's with Ill Nino and Switched - there's some melodic hardcore, post-hardcore there, but some rap-core and nu-metal as well. Their last album, Let's Get It On, appeared on Roadrunner Records. So - March 9 - a good night to see rock - I'm sure I'm missing some excellent bands as well. I'll be seeing Slo-Mo. Millenium recap - best ever. No flaws. Rumor has it that Pinfield had such a good time he stayed an extra day - till Monday. 4th floor late night was very strong. PA Rocks kicked in a 12 pack to the howling masses, and was proud to do so. In my humble opinion, this was the first one of these to go off without any structural glitch, one that effected everyone. However, there were situations here and there which effected individuals adversely. For instance - Rotoglow needs a guitar back. DiNizio needed a guitar to perform and after all was said and done, Rotoglows guitar wasn't returned. I heard some stuff about it, about times, and the guitar case leaning against something, etc., suffice it to say that it has sentimental value. So it's a reward + no questions asked situation. And it's www.rotoglow.com if you're ready to help. I hope someone is ready to step up there. Thanks. Radio. I was at the Rotoglow, Live Alien Broadcast, Julian Fist show at Gullifty's last night (3/2) Someone from LAB (great band) said, in the microphone, from the stage, that 105.7 the X was the "only" radio station helping local bands. Generally, I don't jump onstage and cause a ruckus. Last Nite was no exception. Anyway, let's take a look at 93.7 Wilkes-Barre, 105.7's sister station (both Citadel). 93.7X for the last 2? 3? 4? months gave Breaking Benjamin 20-30 spins a week. Someone at MMC (Pinfield?) said that that kind of airplay will result in a signing sight unseen. Well, Breaking Benjamin just signed with Hollywood Records (rumor has it). I can say from personal experience that another record label was interested as well. (I won't say who, but a VP Director A&R Research sent me an email asking about them). If you ask me, I'd say that 93.7 did a good deal to get Breaking Benjamin signed. (Of course, it helps that Lifer's bassist went over to Breaking Benjamin) No matter what, last time I checked Polyamoromous was getting 38 spins or so a week on 93.7. Julian Fist's Fly Away got 1 a night - overnight - for a total of 7 (that's only based on reporting - fmqb, though) That doesn't mean that the South Central PA X isn't doing the right thing - I think they are - Nixon and Claudine will end up looking like geniuses with better jobs for their bold Thursday Understanding call. (See a recent All Access e-mailer - Thursday, White Stripes, Taking Back Sunday - all strong bands) - but I think it's just too much to say that 105.7 is the only radio station that cares about local music. 6:30am Tuesday 2/19 - The MMC was great this year!!! Best ever!!! I'll go into more detail in a later message here. Want to clarify something to a couple folks out there (folks that I'm working with right now, in a very novel way) - I have no intention of doing anything inappropriate with content I have in my hands (never have, never will - and if you don't like something specific regarding that content - just email and no problem). I didn't get some of that beautifully coded stuff, but, boy, whew. Also, not really much different from what I've been doing before. I just like to kick stuff around in my head, test it out, as you know, I can't really predict how an idea is going to feel until after ... Well, you know ... Anyway, extraordinarily impressed by that web site method you're using to communicate. Rock on!!! 6:30am Saturday 2/9 - Second MMC Thoughts - want to remind you all that the show to see is Friday Night at Rusty Nail, especially Rock City Crimewave at 12 Midnight. Garage ROCK - MC5, Stooges - but early Mudhoney to my ears. Oh, and for the label people, EEE Adams, the lead singer of Rock City Crimewave is the Great x10+ Grandson of John Quincy Adams and John Adams. That beats the Elite modeling agency, IMHO. He's also a key poster artist in the great city of Boston, signed to Curve Of The Earth Records - Half Cocked, Powerman 5000, etc etc. I saw them live and I f-n loved it. Period. Part of New Garage night. Every band there is rock solid. Jet Silver is getting solid label interest (Warped Tour vets) Lisa Christ Superstar has The Stooges hard rock energy, and Team Rock-It (Firetone Records) are definitely not unfamiliar with Strokey WStripey land. 5:30am Saturday 2/9 - First MMC Thoughts - I helped put together the Rusty Nail Friday show as much as anything I did as Showcase Committee. To me, that's the show that hangs together as good as any - it's New Garage - and New Garage, with The Strokes, with the White Stripes, is where it's at. Another band to see is The Eventide. Ex-Hatebreed. But they're (whatever)-core emo-core, post-hardcore. The Eventide's "It's Always Round" matches up favorably with Rival Schools "Used For Glue" and Thursday's "Car Crash" The next big thing (whenever it happens) will likely be found in (?)-core. That night at Shakey's, filled with exceptional bands as it is, is not a (?)-core show. Personally, I think The Eventide should get Saturday Hilton, because that's the night that the label people are showing up to see Silvertide, among other bands, and I know that label people are showing up to see The Eventide. Saturday's theme at the Hilton is label people, and The Eventide IMHO should get moved there. JH hates moving bands, though. MTV2 - YEAH! Anyway, everyone loves ?-core right now - even the ladies. They like The Eventide. MTV2 is doing some good things re this. I watch MTV2, and look at a lot of charts for radio, and what bothers me is the often clear distinction between what the Active Rock, Rock, and especially Alternative formats are playing and what MTV2 is playing. After hearing a Program Director fight over electricity money in the last week, I can't exactly nail down the cause of the problem, but I start with some charts, I guess. Well, I just looked at the 7-days, except for Fu Manchu - a band that at least was considered "stoner rock" it was pretty much all the same garbage up and down the Active Rock, Rock, and Alternative line (Strokes excepted). There are very little distinctions between the formats, and many of the acts have more than one song on the top 30. This is music that I call sludge, or sewage. To use in a couple sentences - "Sure, whatever, the music you play is sewage, utter sewage, I don't care, just tell me what you want me to do later. If there is an opportunity for me to hear you fight with someone about a few hundred bucks, please make sure I'm there." 5:30pm Thursday 1/10 - More awards: Man of the Year - Rich Ruoff - best club (Chameleon), and fought the government. Club of the Year - Chameleon Club - 1st year for these "awards", but they probably would have won them every year. Fight the government awards 1) Rich Ruoff - Chameleon Club 2) Paul Topete - Poker Face Comments: There were some nervous moments here in Harrisburg land when we heard that Rich's Chameleon Club was under siege by the blah blah storm troopers blah blah. I personally would have preferred that the locals would've left Rich alone. It's not news right now. Anyway, the brain drain that people used to talk about was caused by things like the raids on the coolest club anywhere near Harrisburg, York, or Reading (hmm Heisters?). Paul's been a long time truth/freedom guy. He's one of the few that will vocally tie the Constitution of the United States to the history of our country. Poker Face for more. He won't pass the Free Republic test for ___ (Jim Rob won't allow anything near that) But, Rothschild - look it up. Google search Rothschild + (anything bad). Rothschild + Illuminati. Rothschild + Bilderberg. Rothschild + Napoleon. I hope that the fact that this Warlord Rothschild might or might not be Jewish won't label me for the umpteeth time an Anti-Semite. Thank you and have a nice day. 5:00pm Thursday 1/10 - Utility player of the year: Frank Phobia (Fields) - I've been talking to Frank a lot recently, and I've been enjoying it a lot. It seems that he knows everything. Blows me away, and I know at least, these days, a bit. Frank rules. Producer, yes, band tour booking, yes, hot scene in Heister's, yes. Anthrophobia national rock stars, yes. My readers are in the biz. Here's my suggestion to readers in the biz. 1st - line up a sweet show for Anthro to do. 2nd - ask for a Hiester's gig. Go to Frank with the details - phobiamail1@cs.com. I hear stories and it just amazes me. There's that "coolness" factor of course. 2:30pm Tuesday 1/1 - More awards: LOCAL HALL OF FAME - #1 Jay Spiegel - I mentioned this before - but John Harris has yet to learn this. I have Velvet Monkeys Rake in my hand right now. On it is Jay Spiegel, DON FLEMING, THURSTON MOORE, J MASCIS, and more. Moore, Fleming, and Mascis - it's like Page, Beck, and Clapton and the Yardbirds. Not just that, but that's enough. Ok. I don't want to have to tell you who those people are. But Smithereens level - my god yes. Holy Grail of the east coast here. This local guy (Jay Spiegel) should be getting "I'M NOT WORTHY" more than Alice Cooper or whoever. The problem is, when you're so fucking cool, and no one both is cool and gives you everything (which you deserve) you're pretty much fucked. Hey, Jay, I'm a lawyer, met plenty of politicians, (Clintons, Daschele, Gores) you can call me, I'll fight for you. I hear he's still in O.J. Clinton. 6:00am Tuesday 12/25 - More awards: Band of the year - Juiced. Doesn't mean they're the best band in PA at this time. What is does mean is they've taken the Midstate by storm over the last year. Maybe year and one month. Partial Post had been around for countless years. Carrie and then Beth come in. Boom. Music Conference of the Year - Millenium Music Conference. (2nd place Philadelphia Music Conference) I'm biased - but the core team - John and Vikki - has been in place since the beginning, and since they can make a top-notch, well-organized conference happen in Harrisburg, PA - they have to win. Of course, that core team could take that show on the road, and there would be very little downside to that, and much upside. Underrated musician of the year - Steve Ward. Steve Ward's Opening Night is an amazing album, and the hook in California is one that any A&R guy that's looking for a hit should listen to. "Seems California is your hiding place" Hook of the year - see above - California Scene guy of the year - a) Jeff Deitrick - Fiddlestyx - The Revolution Club Milton, unfortunately, does not have a lot of people. Jeff tried very hard to have good bands, a good room, a good stage, good lights, etc. There are a lot of bands that will appreciate what Jeff D. did for them and the cause of rock. If you have $350 and want to rent a room that's better (physically) than any other in most places, call Jeff. b) John Fritchey - Plays with Steve Ward, Wayne Supergenius, The Polins, more. Is out there, like I am, making the scene, but not all nasty like (like I am). He deserves that award for not punching me in the face ever, as well on playing on many of the best albums of the year. Studio of the year - Saturation Acres - If there's going to be such a thing as a Central PA Sound, it's likely to come from Saturation Acres. Saturation Acres is, more or less, the Badlees, and they back a lot of solo acts, who record with them (I guess that doesn't bother them, they get paid some, etc.). Those albums sound great, every one. Sometimes the singer isn't that good, but basically, it's The Badlees, so it sounds awesome. Darcie Miner's first CD - Down To Earth was recorded in that basic manner. She's signed now to Beyond/Universal and is recording her 2nd CD at Saturation Acres. Show of the year (outside PA) - Rock City Crimewave - 7/1/01 - The Skinny, Portland, ME The best - I was up for like 40-44 hours straight when I saw em. Didn't know what to expect. The first 2 bands that bill didn't do too much for me. THIS IS WHAT WE NEED DOWN HERE. RCCW is from Boston, they're playing MMC in February - come and see em. I'll be talking about them more right here on this page. Ferocious. You like early Mudhoney? The jarring, garagey stuff. Heavy nu garage. Where are they? band - Brave the Day - Did they break up? They were called Clubber. Then they were called Brave the Day. Becky Miller is amazing. I'm listening to one of the skillions of boots I have right now - this one is of Brave the Day at the Harrisburg May Fair (or whatever it's called) it sounds and looks great. They're a band (especially Becky Miller) that needs more exposure around here. Enough awards for this moment.

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