Publishers Notes Archive 11:00am Sunday 12/14 Greetings from Ede, Netherlands at the de Ruijter house. We will have been here about 24 hours. Got in around 1p on Saturday after driving all night, morning after the show in Oberswil, Switzerland. Staying here, nice place, and internet, which is why I'm writing. Played last night at Peacedog Winterfestival here in Ede. That was with ZAO. Haven't seen Jesse at all since he left The Underwater back in March. For me that was good, I liked Jesse, good to see him again. Working on around 2 hours of accidental sleep in the last 48 hours. Good stuff, I was able to update the Dewey site a bit. So, what's been up? Sleep, drugs and rock and roll. Sleeping a lot. Usually. Not now of course. Been trying to get a band pic, or band pix in daylight. Hasn't happened. So far, there hasn't been an instance of all 5 awake and outside when the sun is up. Rumor has it that our hostess wants a pic, though, so things are looking good for today. Matt and Brandon are asleep in the RV though, so I wouldn't bet on it. Short drive today - sweet to Wuppertal. Been having a lot of long drives, or travels. 2 day journey from Sweden to Switzerland then next day to the Netherlands. That's a lot of travel. We were on a bigass ferry from Rostock Germany to Sweden and back. Basically an ocean liner. 10 decks. About 6 hours each way. It was pretty cool. You could go outside, and there weren't any many people there, so there was no one outside, so if you wanted to you could stand on the huge deck with like massive ocean views. One day it was perfectly, uniformly clear and the other day it was misty rainy with uniformly grey skies. Totally cool. Movies inside the boat, video poker, slot machines, etc. Did that 2 days in a row. Been spending a lot of time on "the" autobahn, which is really just a highway in Germany. They all have names like A3 and A5 which we seem to be on a lot. They all have a lot of cops but they also have expensive gas stations. We could write a book about gas station food of Germany and surrounding areas. They have Pringles, but not Fritos or Doritoes (actually William de Ruijter tells me that they do have Doritos in the Netherlands) It seems like in the Netherlands there are more American brands, at least in the snack food arena, although in Rostock Germany there was a Pizza Hut, a McDonalds and a Burger King all within short walking distance. But, we understand the gas stations more than anything. There is a wide variety of beer in the gas stations in that there will be a Becks everywhere, in all gas stations, but local beers are the other 4 or 5 choices. I usually buy the cheapest one, and thats about 4 euros for a 6 pack, that could go as high as 5 or so. The chips in German gas stations are generally German made, except for the Pringles. Switzerland had Old El Paso Tortilla Chips. Ok, so you can get the idea. Drive 3 hours, go to a gas station, buy Paprika Chips and Local German Beer. Drive 3 hours. Play Rummy 500. Stay awake till morning at arrival, then sleep until it gets dark. Go to the venue, eat the ham and cheese and the pasta drink the beer. Rock the house (Shows going real well, band tight tight tight. Road hard) Repeat. Of course, pot all the time (where legal of course). Sometimes it is necessary on a day off (very few of those) to trip balls in Amsterdam and wander the streets to encounter the street life who try to rob you or rip you off in various different ways. But, where else can you select a hooker from a window as you walk down the street and go shopping for various forms of pot and mushrooms in various and legal stores. Tilburg and Ede are more chill versions of Amsterdam kinda. They both have coffee shops, but no in your face hookers. More quiet, sedate. We went to Tilberg first, bought a prerolled joint of something (personally I don't really care) for less then 3 euros. Walked down the street smoking it, all legal. Let's day by day here. 4 - Stusie Bar, Freiburg, Germany. A small crowd got bigger as the show progressed. We ended up going to a party with college students at Alt bar - which was the same building. The party went on until around 5 am or 6 am. Me and Matt hung out later. 5 - Stellwerk (Youth Center), Donauworth, Germany - good show, lots of kids. Some fake lesbianism in the RV apparently which I missed. Nice big backstage area. 6 - 013 Popcentrum, Tilburg, Netherlands. The venue is nice, very nice. 3 venues under one roof. Good Charlotte played the big room last night. The town kicks ass as I mentioned. The venue was so large that finding your way around without getting lost was tricky. Spent a lot of time wandering around the venue. Decent bar crowd. Sort of a metal venue it seemed. 7 - Musikbunker, Aachen was cancelled, so it was off to Amsterdam. Bentioned above, the sex and drugs capital. Focused on the drugs. There were a lot of very nice places to take pictures in the daylight there. But, I guess, daylight bad. Then, off to Sweden. Awesome ferry. Perfect place to take pictures. 10 - Halmstad University, Halmstad, Sweden. I wasn't too clear on the concept, but it was some sort of special party night - held by the sexmasters. I really wanted a t-shirt that said something like that. Lot of people. People were dressed up. Backstage was cool but a bit cramped. Couldn't smoke cigs inside. A lot of weird college rituals were taking place involving chanting and whatnot. Very interesting, and atypical show. We learned that they can kick you out for smoking pot backstage. Then, an amazingly long drive to Oberzwil with a stop over in Rostock (decent town with internet cafe - but without the kind of access I need to update web sites). I've been up, except for 2 hours or so since we got to 12 - Alti Gerbi - Oberuzwil, Switzerland. Cool place, big. Another Youth Center. The town was tiny, very pretty. I got the nice pretty waitress at the restaurant on the guest list and she ended up coming, apparently, so that was good. A similar show in vibe to the Donauworth show, but fewer kids and less fun. Humor started creeping in a lot at the end. Started promising though. Another fairly long drive (8-10 hours) to 13 - Winterfestival, Ede, Netherlands. The show was chill. Got there about a half an hour prior to sound check. 6 bands total. ZAO was headlining. Very sorta detached vibe I got from it, maybe because I was on hour 30 or so of no sleep. But, performance wise, it was one of the best that I'd seen of the tour. Dan especially was commanding that night. Waited up for the opportunity to use the computer and the internet and here we are. 8:00pm Wednesday 12/05 Greetings from Freiberg, Germany at Stusie Bar. Lets see. The Underwater is gonna be playing in about 5 hours. First European show I will have seen. Partied in Heidleberg last night. It's good. Seems like the daily procedures aren't going to be too taxing. Party all night, till about 6 am. Sleep all day till about 3 pm. Either go to the next town after the show or after waking up. It doesn't appear that there will be many long drives. The club owners are nice - free drinks, free food, free internet. Very chill. Spend most of the time at the venue. Got here around 4. I haven't been experiencing much in the way of culture shock, a decent percentage of folks speak English, and the rest can be figured out. The autobahn is pretty much like a regular highway. Trains go really fast. Cops are more aggressive, intrusive, and fewer laws restricting them. But, more stuff is legal. Drinking on the street is ok everywhere in Germany, and you can piss pretty much anywhere. Very important to be nice to cops, though. News from the States, I hear Rockstar Jeremy had a run in at Chameleon Club last night or whenever the Sevendust show was. That's a bummer. Matt says "hello to all" Rob says "Tour is going really well. I am enjoying the opportunity of playing drums with The Underwater immensely. Can´t wait to come back to the states." Aaron says "I hate salami and bratwurst" 8:00am Friday 11/21 Aight, I'm rushing around now, getting things taken care of here on the home front before I leave for a month. Going to Philly in a few mins to get my passport. Going to Europe for 3 weeks for the end of The Underwater's 2 month tour there. I'll be here this weekend, be back after Christmas. I might be able to update things from Europe, might not, might be able to send out the emailers, maybe not. Look below to get an impression of The Underwater's tour. 8:30am Friday 10/29 Let's start with The Underwater news. They're in Europe right now. Played their first show on the 24th, extra show, that was Switzerland I think. 2nd show went well, Switzerland, and I haven't heard from em yet about the 3rd show in London. They're playing a bunch of shows in London, then off to (not in order) Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Netherlands, Sweden, and maybe some other places. Pretty exciting stuff. Anyway, they'll be there for around 2 months, and they're getting back here on Dec 22. They've got shows here on Tues Dec 23 at The Chiller, Sat Dec 27 at Gullifty's, and Sun Dec 28 at Murph's. They're apparently going back to LA soon after New Year's (maybe before?), as a record label wants them there, so it looks like they're going again. They told me to line up shows in that time frame for em. If you want em on any of the off nights, contact me - parocks@parocks.com. They're in Europe. Dec 29,30 (31 is I think First Night York) and thenafter, maybe the weekend after, but I'd guess they'd be in LA then. New "rumors" regarding The Underwater. These things, I really don't know how finalized they are, but 4 big (250,000) festivals in South Africa in April, BBC Radio broadcast of a London show, Sony, EMI Europe coming to a London show. Here's a transition. On October 3, 2003, Sceva and Hierosonic played at Gullifty's. I enjoyed it. That was supposed to be a Silvertide show (they're doing well - Godsmack tour), but they canceled, and it was Sceva and Hierosonic. Both Sceva and Hierosonic have great creds. Sceva opened for Disturbed and Chevelle, and Dan is down with POTW. Leo was in Halestorm, Mad Revere. Hierosonic played Lollapalooza on the West Coast (Seattle I think). But, there weren't a lot of people there, as their audience is mostly U21, and Gullifty's is 21+. They're on the borderline. The thing (one of the things) about PA which sucks is the drinking laws. In Delaware / Dewey, it's pretty much all ages, and drinking is irrelevant. There are complexities about licences - Bottle and Cork isn't a restaurant, so, etc etc, Rudder is a restaurant, so there can be all ages there. Baycenter always has all ages, yet there's drinking there. It's generally a management decision whether they want to have the extra staff involved. In PA, there are a ton of rules which prevent that kinda stuff. Probably a lot of states are talking about the brain drain, but Pennsylvania has apparently the 2nd oldest population. Anyway, Matt didn't like all that screaming. But, it wasn't gutteral, like Spinebelt. This was the more new, modern type of screaming, like you might see on the MTV or hear on the radio. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Sceva isn't that close to Thursday, or any of the bands that will likely replace the active rock staples of today. I'm pretty sure Boywunder is harder. No singing at all, just screaming. That's harder (they're touring for a month, get back 11/22 or 11/23). Anyway, good show, quality music, then off to Revere house, where I chill with Sceva, and I meet Tara. Liking Tara from the get go. Saw her, wow, you have the dirtiest hair I've ever seen on a girl. That is so cool. You can't really spray on dirt. So I'm like, what the fuck. Hey. So she tells me she's in this band The Blahs, and I know them, because Robbie's the drummer, and he sends out the emails, and that's ex Mad Revere, excellent band, great guys all, making waves before they broke up earlier this year. So, I've loving Tara, and really haven't heard her stuff, and we went to the car and listened to it and I was loving it. I usually do filter that through the lenses of commercial appeal and marketability, and I did in this case as well. At this moment, I'm feeling a lot stronger about Tara's prospects, based on that girl whos dad was in Foreigner, I think Mick Jones. That girl looked pretty real. If that girl hits and sticks, Tara's future could be wide open. Anyway, so I'm hanging there, eating her hair, chillin, whatever. Hear her stuff, like her stuff. Then so see her play 2 days later at Monroe, with Sceva, Dead 50s, Slow Andy, More Fire. Knocked me out. The PA was truly awful. Could'nt really hear her sing, but I moved to right in front of the speaker, and I got a pretty good tape of it. A pretty fierce show. Very Rock. Best to my ears in the White Stripes formulation.. Anyway, I meet Tara, see The Blahs and report off very good on them. The Blahs were lined up for Nov 1 with Rotoglow, around the same time The Underwater was talking about their drummer issue. Jim left before LA, Hotwire's drummer (who I hear is cool) played the LA shows, a great drummer from a Christian Hardcore band came down to York re the Europe gig and didn't like it, Jared hasn't bit yet (what I tell people about Jared is that you can't blame him for being a little gunshy - D'arey, years and years ago, had Geffen on the tip, and then the Geffen guy got fired. Frank did a great job with them, he tells me that their first tour was almost magically smooth up and down the east coast, but shortly thereafter, D'arey quit. (Hey, D'arey, we want you back, whenever you want.) Next to The Underwater, D'arey's the one band, since 1996, that should make it. I couldn't help them as much as I can help the Underwater now. I wanted to play with Mary Prankster all the time at Gullifty's. Back in 1999, 2000 Mary was playing at Gullifty's all the time. Oh, they're from Reading, they won't draw, yeah fine. Fuck you. Jeff D was great about Darey. He was over at my house listening to the CD - probably before Teenage Glam. Put em into Fiddlestyx, you've seen those pix, footage.) Anyway, all this happens, it was neat. Tara's over here, Robbie's practicing with The Underwater. I'm hearing Tara sing, play my PRS guitar at my house. I'm loving it. Robbie's auditioning for something that's likely the best thing of his life so far. (These things didn't happen simultaneously - Tara was here the day before Robbie came over. I think Robbie was over on a Friday and Tara was here on a Thursday.) It's neat. Robbie was in my room at MMC7 apparently I kicked him out with a "you're not in The Underwater" It's really nice. Matt and Lauren met there too. So, we have The Underwater, in Europe for 2 months, no drummer, me hanging with Tara. That was kinda fun. Typing here on the AOL IM What's Robbies number, Tara? Anyway, Robbies the drummer for The Underwater in Europe. Tara isn't happy. I feel bad about that. She has talent, and, no matter what form her band is at, she's a perfect fit with Mary Prankster. Yeah, I've fond of Tara. Female Kurt Cobain., playing Jack White of the White Stripes, maybe. So, when do I go to Europe? After Thankgiving. Thankgiving is my holiday. I'm Alden. It's mine. This country is mine. I'm a pilgrim. And I love Jesus. I got it under control. Print money. Shove it to the Money Lenders. I'm a Pilgrim. It's MY COUNTRY. I think I go to Europe in Dec. Gotta do Dewey, and Bridges later. 12:30am Monday 9/29 I wrote the below right after getting back from the Dewey Beach Music Conference and Festival (Good Time, Good Show). For a couple days after these conference I'm traditionally a little looped. Days without food. Right now, I've had 3 hours sleep since Friday afternoon. Not drunk. I usually get chilled by Wednesday or Thursday after. A pretty interesting read, I wrote it as a response to a message board post criticizing my lack of attention to the list of PA Bands. There's a lot of insight there into the history of PA Rocks and whatnot, but it does ramble, and is extremely long, and doesn't discuss much of anything besides my rationale for some of the stuff I do. Some will care others won't, but forewarded forearmed, you might want to skip. Why I haven't updated the band page. On a related note, the focus of PA Rocks has been changing (aside from the fact that I haven't been updating links pages much). It's less of a directory, less of something to persuade people who like covers to like originals, more of an A&R resource. When I started PA Rocks (first version December 1996), there weren't a skillion other websites dealing with music in South Central PA. There was Barfly, the Mode. Barfly, I believe, was only Lancaster at the time, good schedule page, good content, the Mode Harrisburg with a decent schedule page. Also, Rockpage (Western PA) was up, and had a band links page with a lot of PA Bands, but also a lot of bands, if memory serves, from Europe, I think metal bands maybe. That list was probably the best list before PA Rocks. I thought, hey wouldn't it be nice to have one stop shopping for web information about bands in South Central PA. I put up the schedule, and the links pages bands, clubs, other. Also a editorial section (the precursor to the main page, which is what PA Rocks is really about right now). I worked extremely hard putting together those lists - in terms of south central pa band list, I followed every link, and was constantly looking for new band websites. I thought hard about whether a band would be considered "South Central PA" or not. Badwrench (now Stept On) used to play Wanda's a lot, popular band there, but they technically were not from "South Central PA" so their link went with The Clarks, Brownie Mary, Jimmie's Chicken Shack, etc., under selected other bands that you should know about because they play in South Central PA sometimes and they're good. I was really good about keeping the band list current and complete. I was proud of it, it was a good list. The schedule was also good. I'd try to find every show. Checked every source of info I could find. Also, within the context of the schedule, each band name and venue name was linked to their website, when they had one - and this was early, so not that many bands had websites. Even now, you don't see that that often on websites with schedules, and I tried to cover a pretty big area. So, we're sometime in 1996/97/98 right now. What's happening with the site on the ground? I'm proud of it, I know it's good, I talk it up, people give me positive feedback on the street about it, it's going well, etc etc. It's not making me banging money or anything but I felt it was coming along, according to the strategic vision I had for the role of PA Rocks in the local music scene. What happened next? People starting taking my band list and putting it up on their site. Sometimes they'd add the obscure, gigless band that their friend is in. "Look at this PA Rocks site man, they don't got the website on it." "WTF - that asshole" "and, look, they got Johnny's band on it." "they suck" "wtf" "we've played 3 gigs already and he doesn't have our website on it." "he must be out to get you" "yeah" "or he's stupid" "yeah - hey, you did our website - it's awesome, it's got all those cool graphics moving around, it's got the fire and the monkey clapping, and the eyeballs - you really show how cool we really are - you could do a list better than him" "yeah, I could put you on the list, that would be a great list then" "do it man, definitely put a nice big link to your site on the band site - you are gonna kick PA Rocks ass." Ok, that's a parody. Honestly, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. They really aren't just stupid and clueless. At least one of the earliest ones, definitely, was animated by some type of weird personal hostility to me. I don't know if I ever met him, but, I don't know, man, it was just too much. Maybe he was just pure evil. Anyway, we're gonna use The Wayback Machine here. Ok, Nik Seitz, anyone? (paging Ed Pennypacker). http://web.archive.org/web/*sa_/http://parocks.com - let's start with parocks.com - wayback http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://ncsweb.com - here's the wayback machine on ncsweb.com http://web.archive.org/web/19981207065107/http://www.ncsweb.com/ - here's a link to ncsweb.com on December 7 1998 - ncsweb.com before http://web.archive.org/web/19990125101518/http://www.ncsweb.com/ - here's a link to ncsweb.com on January 25 1999 - ncsweb.com to soundeffect http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://soundeffect.org - here's the wayback machine on soundeffect.org http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:Xq1yPsJDv9EJ:www.soundeffect.org/+&hl=en&ie=UTF-8 - here's the google cache on soundeffect.org http://www.soundeffect.org/magazine/index.php - soundeffect.org current main page http://www.soundeffect.org/magazine/modules.php?op=modload&name=Stats&file=index - soundeffect.org current stats http://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/whois/results.jhtml;jsessionid=ESNAVKAFIVJVGCWLEALCFFA?_requestid=85721 - whois lookup on soundeffect.org http://web.archive.org/web/19980215230346/http://www.parocks.com/ - PA Rocks, wayback, February 15, 1998 You figure it out. I'll say that there's better evidence than this. I have it but I'll keep it in my pocket. And, I'll say that wayback doesn't have my first 7 or so months as parocks.com or when it was an aol.com page (the old PA Rocks aol page - partial - http://members.aol.com/JOLIII/PARocks.html ) - so, we don't know for sure from this when they got up and running. Also, it was ncsweb.com/soundeffect (or something like that) for a while before going to ncsweb.com Anyway, I think this was the first one to take my band list - i think he took my club list too. I think he kept the same order of the bands or clubs. I had em in a wacky order, and he kept it that way. Not gonna take the time to change the order, put em alpabetical - oookkkk. (I think it was clubs - there were very few venue sites in south central back in the day, so I just put em in my order of perference kinda.) Anyway, back to the band list. Here's another of the list stealers. wayback for pamusic.com http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://pamusic.com I really don't recall what their deal was. This was really a low traffic site, I'm not sure anyone but him, me, and his friends band knew about this one. They didn't even change my font. it looked exactly like my page, it was funny. But, I think he was number 2. Nik was 1, by 2, well, the handwriting was on the wall. Anyway, that's just the 90's - but I'll tell ya, most of my updates were so many many years ago. Back to timeline. I'm pretty sure it was those 2 who took my first list, the one that was just southcentral. I said, woah, now what do i do. I said, eh, bigger lists? more territory? Then it was parocks.com/north (that's still live, actually). those got taken as well, a few times, I don't remember who did that off the top of my head. Anyway, my lists are being taken - every time I do a new one, it gets taken. Ok, what's next. This is where I take the lists statewide - that was the last top to bottom redesign. This was sometime in 1999. Everyone loved the band list. Lots of business opportunities there. A huge list, take it, add one band, "look at my list - I'm better than parocks - i should do your website, not parocks" Not only is updating my band list not necessarily going to help that much, it's actually gonna hurt me, because all those people are gonna think stealing from my website is the first step in way to take my clients. Hey, obviously I knew it was coming, I rolled out each section a-e, whatever, one at a time, trumpeting each. These were lists that nobody had ever seen before, I trying to prevent the stealing by telling everybody that they're coming, so that when the copycats came the people would know that they were looking at my list on someone elses site. Nobody that I can recall said anything to me about it, and i don't talk about it a lot on the site here. Anyway, I was really pissed Unsung Hero took it. They shoulda known better. They already had a similar list, that they were building from scratch, and it was pretty cool, not amazing, but pretty cool. Then, all of a sudden there are 2 band lists, theirs and mine. Hey, way to make friends. Ok, so I didn't like Fist much. But, cmon. You were taken seriously and got love, lots of it. You didn't need to take my list. Anyway, around then I made a new policy, as I recall, i think i kept the list current, by adding band urls people sent me, but I stopped looking for new stuff, I stopped trying to make the list great. After I while I just stopped updating it entirely. That's where we are now. It stopped being about the band list years ago. I guess I have to update it, I said I would. That won't really take much more than 40-80 hours. Just checking the links, changing the urls there, adding the people who want to be added. Whatever. Maybe I'll take the list down entirely right after that. One second. Maybe print screen to Print -> acrobatPDFwriter. "see, I did update it, bye for now" Maybe I'll make it password protected. Maybe I'll keep that list up there - the "adequate" list - take off the part about sending the url in, and let that stand for public and keep a good one, the real one, password protected. Maybe that won't be complete. Maybe just a fairly detailed list of all the good bands. Pay attention to em, update the description of the band when new stuff happens. Maybe just, like if I see em at a show, boom, add the quick one liner. Gullifty's - 250 - w/ etc, etc. I need to make it into something that the people I want to see the site will like and use. I really don't want everybody to see the site. CPMs are still low. When banner impressions start making real good money again, I'll put stuff up that'll get mere hits. (Bill's corner - anybody remember Bill from the message board - "ooh, so who is Bill anyway - do ya know?". ) CPMs are getting back up again, though. Maybe that's what I'll do. That long list is pretty pointless anyway. I knew it when I did it, but it was the only thing to do, at that time, had to cover the entire state. I mean, it's basically just for finding a band's web site, right? Most people aren't gonna look at 1000 band links. They probably know who they're looking for. The know the band, and they want the URL. Well, back in the day, most website urls were like - www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/1234/index.htm or something like that. Real hard to remember. Nowadays, it's often bandname.com. Not always, but worth typing in instead of going to my site, clicking on bands, then the letters, all while waiting for those pages to load. Also you have to include the Google factor. Google is a great search engine. If the band you're looking for wanted to be found on Google, they could be found easily on Google. This wasn't always the case. The other search engines, pre Google were way more hit and miss. They also weren't complete, lacking valuable information. Google might not have everything, but it has most. Most except Google aren't good with quotes. This makes no sense. If I want to read every web page that has "Bleed Me Blue" on it, i should be able to, easily. All of us in the music business need that information. If a web site doesn't have "Bleed Me Blue" on it, it really isn't a good website. When you type in "Bleed Me Blue" you don't want results like "yaledailynews.com - Club teams also bleed Bulldog blue" (#1 msn.com) "bleed Bulldog blue"? It's Me, not Bulldog. You want Me. The people who look at my website are smart, they do get "Bleed Me Blue" - Google, and Yahoo I think still, and not "bleed Bulldog blue." On msn.com - "Bleed Me Blue by Underwater CD at Amazon.com" - #6. Good, but it really should be #1, now, really. If things work the way any reasonable person would expect them to, it's supposed to be #1. You want "Bleed Me Blue", you should be able to get it easily. Ok, back to text - a list of 1000 bands in PA is basically pointless. It's not really a convenient number for browsing - too many - and it really isn't necessary, as guessing plus Google will get you the info you need. A shorter list, browseable, with worthwhile bands and short snippits of good, relevant factual information. Sorta like demodiaries and kingsofar but just PA, and probably emphasizing southcentral because I know that more. Also, probably not as accurate descriptions of the bands - they're seemingly pretty good at that. That's enough for now, I'm getting tired, still wound up from Dewey - which I'll talk about in exceptionally great length later. I have enough material for a small book, with all my digressions and elaborations on everything that was experienced there. Might not do it though, i'll need to keep the motivation. 8:00am Tuesday 9/16 Let's see, I think I'll mention some new CD's. Thursday's New CD, War All The Time is coming out today - Tuesday, September 16. Back around last January, when MTV started playing Understanding (in a car crash), it looked like everything was gonna be different in the world of rock real soon like. Well, that kinda stuff has certainly grown in power, influence, popularity, but has yet to fully take over. There has yet to be a Nirvana-like moment, where the odd facial-hair numetal bands get kicked to the curb. Back then, last January, I would've predicted this month - September 2003 - as the pivotal month, and Thursday as a possible breakthrough band. (I might have, I don't recall) This prediction would've been based primarily on parallels to September 2001, when Nevermind was released. Then, as now, a Bush was in office, a war in Iraq, mediocre economy, music scene overall pretty much sucking. 1991 and 2003 aren't entirely the same, in large part because Nirvana came a bit more of a shock than Thursday is coming now. Record Co's did catch on, and there are bands that sound somewhat like Thursday getting signed, played on MTV2, and on the radio. So, it may be that there's a gradual transition to that kinda style, instead of a radical one. I mean, the mainstream media might get tired of talking about J. Lo or Britney Spears, and want to say "hey, the kids like HARDCORE - look at their clothes, and all that chaotic screaming" Like "wow, this is grunge, and this is a flannel shirt". I'm not saying that's likely to happen, just that it might require a band that sounds more like Converge and less like Thursday for that jolt factor. But, my guess is that the record cos are smart and are in the process of snapping up hardcore bands in the eventuality that takes place. Anyway, the Thursday CD comes out today, and I'm gonna buy it. Fuel's new CD, Natural Selection, comes out in one week - Tuesday, September 23. I shouldn't have to tell Pennsylvanians about Fuel. A huge band, from good ol Mechanicsburg, PA. Also on September 23, Fuel will release special, expanded editions of Sunburn and Something Like Human each featuring new album art and previously hard to find bonus tracks. Fuel is also doing 5 in-stores, 3 in PA. Oh, I might as well just cut and paste from the Fuel e-mailer. "FUEL INSTORE PERFORMANCE & APPEARANCES! Come out and see Fuel at an intimate, special in-store concert at each of these 5 Best Buy locations! You'll get to MEET THE BAND, get your CD signed and, if you purchase your Natural Selection CD at the in-store, you'll also get an exclusive bonus Fuel CD with an unreleased Fuel track only available during these 5 in-stores! Tue 9/23 - Best Buy Harrisburg - Wed 9/24 - Best Buy Philadelphia - Thu 9/25 - Best Buy Pittsburgh. I would assume that we're talking a mob scene here. On to things you probably didn't already know. Leslie Mills' debut CD, Different For Girls, comes out in 2 weeks - Tuesday, September 30. Some of you here in Central PA might remember Leslie from the band / bands she was in back about 4-5 years ago - To The Moon Alice / The Great Circle. They were signed to DV8/A&M as The Great Circle, released a demo cassette, then changed their name to To The Moon Alice, and released an EP CD, 3 Feet To Infinity (John Popper of Blues Traveler played on it). In 1999 came the Seagram's/Universal merger that effected The Badlees, as well as a lot of other bands, including To The Moon Alice, and they were dropped. I saw TTMA / GC play Gullifty's 2 or 3 times, and The Chameleon, and some of you might've been there and know what I'm talking about. (Matt Eisenhower?) Anyway, I thought TTMA was great, I especially thought Leslie was fantastic. I'm really happy that she got signed again, by a great label, Atlantic, and that she has a new album coming out. I hope it does great. Benefits. A couple benefits this weekend (Sept 20 - 21). Tammi Taylor, Celebration of Life Foundation, is putting on a benefit for Nancy Romano on Sunday, Sept 21 at Crestview Manor Civic Association Park in Hummelstown, PA. Among the bands performing are Krypton City Blues Revue, Quagmire Swim Team, Phoenix Rising, Voxology, and High Street Trio. Tammi's benefits are always for worthwhile causes and well run and professional. On Saturday, Sept 20, there's a benefit for Johnny Vucetic at Coleman's Park in Lebanon. Among the bands: Green To Think, Capitol Air, Negative Space, Betsy Spivak, Michael K Band, The Rigbees. 5:00am Saturday 9/13 Aight, gonna do some talking. themes: Good Bands at Gullifty's I haven't talked about a lot: The Drive Home: Emo. From Messiah. Aaron from The Underwater brought em in to open for em on Sept 6. I'd seen em before, apparently, a while ago, as I KNEW the songs when they played em. Twins in the band. They're 21, 22, something like that. I didn't realize that I'd heard them before, so I felt a lot better when I was told that I likely had, as I a was singing along to songs that I thought I'd never heard before. Easily possible, though, with music this, let's say hooky. drivehomerock.com is their website. They drew pretty well, too. Bridges in a Bottle. Sorta Jammy. They play with the Carlsonics (SXSW, from DC) at Beachland in Cleveland. I'm impressed. They're a good draw at Gullifty's, in part because of the Cedar Cliff connection. I need to really really hear them again to determine their greatness. Brandon from The Underwater says they're good. That might mean they're great. Next time I listen to em I'll pay close, close attention. Last time I saw em they were the headliner, and there were a headliner amount of people there. Not amazing, but good headliner. bridgesinabottle.com Music Business: People want drummers apparently, The Underwater no longer has Jim Bedorf as drummer (see below). An excellent drummer, Jim should end up with a great band. The Underwater is doing stuff like, going to LA for a few weeks, going to Europe for a month or so. Not sure Jim is quite ready for the way that action goes down. But, a great drummer, and will definitely be able to get your band up and ready to the next level. Sceva gots Leo and Dan (see below). Look for great things from them now. Other: Dewey Beach Music Conference and Festival. deweybeachfest.com Looking good. The Underwater will be in LA then. If they were left on the schedule, it's possible that they could'a flown back for the likes of Matt Pinfield, McNally, Jordan, etc But, Lauren Marshall cancelled, so that makes it less likely that they'll want to come back for the event, so, anyway. My peeps are gonna be in LA then, but, cmon, look at it. Music quality wise, it has the potential to rival any MMC. The Witnesses. AND Jonny Lives. Not Bad. Plus our faves. Rotoglow Rudder Saturday night. Grandfabric. Their new CD is a masterpiece. Niki Barr. Julia Othmer. Virginia. Another Lincoln. I could type and type. Silvertide AND Halestorm. Classic Rock. I think I'm in Marina Suites, and I WILL NOT RUN OUT OF BEER. To be honest, I think the party is gonna be mostly at Sand Palace, which is cool. Print this page out for a free beer in my room. I will say right now, that me, as an indie/emo/core/punk guy - I'm hoping you check out Northbeach on Friday. As of this writing, that's where Grandfabric is scheduled to play. You also get Days of This, The Lovekill, Douglas Leader. Skyline Drive Synthetic 16. 9:00am Sunday 9/7 Alright, start with what's the most relevant. The Underwater's going to LA for about a month in 2 days. I don't know yet what time on Tuesday they're going. I'll know when I find out when I wake up later. Jim isn't the drummer anymore. The new drummer is from Hotwire (Atlantic). Hotwire (Atlantic) played on Ozzfest. Apparently he quit Hotwire and Atlantic hooked him up with The Underwater. Therefore, you can figure that Atlantic is "on the tip". Theres a private show for Atlantic on the 23d in LA. Also a show for Interscope on the 30th at the Viper Room. Getting signed is a major commitment. I've only known these guys for a year or so, but I'm amazingly confident that, personally, they're 100% solid. Labels should feel confident that they aren't at all sketchy. I've hung with them a lot. If there's a problem, it's me. I'm not exactly shocked by their maturity, but, they are young, and they do like to party a little, but, as people, I'm very impressed. We want them to be rockstars. The Underwater is solid, totally chill, totally dedicated. They want it, and, IMHO, they should get it. 7:00pm Sunday 8/17 Here's some quick stuff. Really good news on the LZZY / Halestorm front. 1) LZZY / Halestorm is back to Halestorm. Good move I think. And the really good news. 2) Halestorm signs with Larry Mazer, Entertainment Services Unlimited. Paul Conroy is also a manager with Entertainment Services Unlimited. The pieces seem to be falling together. Jason Jordan / Hollywood Records on the tip? The Underwater's European Tour in October / November is looking good. Starts in the UK on October 29 and concludes in Germany on November 29. Here are some dates: UK shows include Cherry Jam http://www.cherryjam.net/ in Notting Hill, London on October 30. German shows include festivals in Karlsruhe on 11/14; Stuttgart on 11/15; and shows at Hafenklang http://www.hafenklang.de/ in Hamburg 11/19 (The Blood Brothers and Pretty Girls Make Graves played there August 11); Projekt 7 http://www.projekt7-magdeburg.de/ in Magdeburg 11/20; Phönix http://www.phoenixmoormerland.de.vu/ in Moormerland 11/21; Clubhaus der Jugend in Saalfeld 11/22; Cafe Sachs http://www.cafe-sachs.de/ in Bochum 11/23; The Cave http://www.the-cave.de/ in Frankfurt 11/24; Akku Haus in Deggendorf, 11/26; K2 in Heidenheim, 11/27; Club Schilli http://www.clubschilli.de/ in Ulm 11/28. Recap: Hardware Bar on Tuesday 8/12. Herbie and Agents of the Sun. Pretty good. I got there too late to catch Angents of the Sun, but was able to talk about the old days partying at MMC with Live Alien Broadcast. Herbie is a good jam/funk type band. Always enjoyable. The Cell Block in Williamsport on Wednesday 8/13. Best band in PA contest finals. $15,000 in prizes including a spot at the 2004 Rolling Rock town fair. The Martini Bros didn't win, Backstreet Law did. I'm a Martini Bros partisan, so I'm disappointed that the Bros didn't win. Apparently 2 votes separated the 2 bands - that's close. Coulda gone either way. Backstreet Law had their people there. They knew the songs by heart, it seemed. Backstreet Law is from Wellsboro - about a half hour / hour north of Williamsport on 15, they seemed to want to resist the idea that they had a home field advantage of sorts. I tend to believe them when they say their people came from other places than just Williamsport / Wellsboro. I do know they have popularity here in Hbg. Either way, fan response wasn't apparently a huge component of the scoring, and homefield advantage does have an effect in all cases, it's something everyone knows about going in. The Bros were able to get the folks that were there into it, and there were a lot of "regular" fans there grooving to the Bros., but did not bring a large number of fans from the Hbg/Lanc/York area where they're strongest. The sets were about equal, and I'd say that the difference could be seen in the Backstreet crew that was in the house. Manic also played a good set, good guys from Philly, who used to be called Swoon. Gullifty's on Saturday 8/16. Well, The Moaners were supposed to be there. They weren't. Let's not go into that. Anyway, we really do want to see The Moaners. The Moaners are a 2 piece, guitar/vocal and drums from North Carolina. A side project of Melissa Swingle (guitar/vocal) from Bloodshot Records' Trailer Bride and Laura King (drummer) from Grand National. Grand National is a NC trio which also features Ed fROMOHIO Crawford ex-fIREHOSE, Whiskeytown and Jenni Snyder ex-Whiskeytown. Yup. would've liked to see them. But SodaJerk and God Bless Our Mobile Home were there, both good. SodaJerk is quality alt.country from Pittsburgh, they played the last MMC, and are playing Dewey. God Bless our Mobile Home is raw early rocking country / rockabilly. They're from York, and play mostly in York, and mostly at Murph's. They've been around for years, yet this was the first time I've seen em. They've been around as long as PA Rocks, and yet this was only the 2nd time they've played Gullifty's in all those years. They're a natural fit with The Martini Bros. Keep the rockabilly of the Bros, add more country, and you've got God Bless Our Mobile Home. Good at working the crowd, very entertaining, should definitely be playing shows with the Bros. 11:00am Tuesday 8/12 STUFF COMING UP / GOOD STUFF. - On Wednesday 8/13, The Martini Bros are up against Backstreet Law and Manic at the best band finals at the Cell Block in Williamsport. Killer prizes, $5k cash, $3.5k music equipment, studio time, radio play on 5 stations, photo shoot, spot on next years RR Town Fair. Go get the judges liquored up and root The Martini Bros on to victory. Also on Wednesday 8/13, The Underwater (The Best Band TM) starts their tour with Dead Poetic, playing 4 shows in Florida, Tennessee, Ohio, and finishing up here on 8/23 at the Monroe Township Facilities Building. They'll be doing a lot of touring from now on (new van), so catch em while you can here. In addition to the Monroe Township show, they'll be playing Gullifty's on 9/6 with Eve to Adam. Boywunder starts their tour 8/16 in Ohio and will be playing Milwaukee, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh. Prior to that they're playing Monroe Township with Stretch Arm Strong and more on 8/15 and when they get back they're playing The Why're 8/26 with The Commercials, Glasseater (Victory Records CD release date) and more. Harrisburg's Hierosonic will be playing Lollapalooza on the 2nd Stage in Seattle (Auburn), Washington at 1:15 pm on 8/23 with The Mooney Suzuki, Kings of Leon, 30 Seconds to Mars and more, due to winning a contest on streetfight.net (I voted for them). Congratulations Hierosonic! Tammi Taylor's Celebration of Life Foundation is having a benefit for Nancy Romano on 9/21 at Crestview Manor Civic Association Park in Hummelstown with Tammi's new band Phoenix Rising, Voxology, Krypton City Blues Revue, Quagmire Swim Team, and more. More details can be found at parocks.com/celebrationoflife sometime later. Gullifty's has good bands like Lake Trout, Quagmire Swim Team, SodaJerk, God Bless Our Mobile Home, Bridges and a Bottle, Carbondale, The Underwater, Eve to Adam in the next month. Do support Gullifty's. I'm sure I'm missing a bunch of stuff. DEWEY - The Dewey Beach Music Conference and Festival is right around the corner (September 25-28) and it's shaping up all good. Matt Pinfield - confirmed. MTV Advance Warning in the house - maybe? looks good. Won't be too long until you can see the schedule, and race to the phone or the internet to book your hotel rooms and if you're in a band or in the biz, to register to attend the conference to learn from all the big shots. Good good stuff. Although more than half of the bands were unfortunately rejected (many, many good ones) many of your local favorites will appear at Dewey. For fans of local music in South Central PA, DBMCF weekend is likely the 2nd best weekend for you, next to MMC. Some would argue it's the best, for certain fan/scenesters, and there might be some merit to that argument, but I don't think I want to go to great detail explaining it clearly. Let's just say that both MMC and DBMCF would fully satisfy certain (many) local scenesters, although there are other local scenesters who would be less satisfied, as their fav acts aren't getting in. Anyway, the list as it stands now isn't ready to be released I don't think, so I won't go into too many specifics. One thing I like about being involved with these conferences is hearing new bands, bands I likely wouldn't ordinarily hear. One such band, who has been picked and has confirmed, is Grandfabric, from Philadelphia. I listened to a medium sized bunch of CD's, at some length, and this one pretty much blew me away. Grandfabric "Orphan Age". You can download a few MP3s, some of which appear on this CD, some of which do not, on their website grandfabric.com. I don't have the encyclopedic knowledge of the rock music that I'd like to have, as I know that there's gotta be something that sounds pretty much like this. I haven't heard it, though. Big Star, Sgt. Peppers/late Beatles, Radiohead. This is an artful album and a beautiful album. Smart and complicated. And sad, poignant. Not on a label, and it very much should be, but not a record a major label would expect to sell 3 million copies of. A record an indie label should release, and it should be played a lot on college radio. Listen to this gem, and tell me what you think. I really want to hear from others on this one. I've tried to do research on this band, who were called "Grand Fabric" as well as Grandfabric and grandfabric, and I haven't found a lot. They've played the Khyber, other rooms in Philly, gotten written up by Andrew Ervin of the Philadelphia City Paper. Is this as amazing an album as I think it is, or am I out in left field here. This is a deeply effecting, 10 star record, as I see it. I'm very much looking forward to seeing them and a slew of other great acts at DBMCF. RECAP - whew I gotta keep on this. 7/12 - Wila, real good performances top to bottom. Good crowd, I'd say 1,000 - 1,500 - it seemed like there were that many cars in the parking area. People wise, an interesting mix of the bands/regulars from down here in Harrisburg, and everyone from 18-50 within 20 miles of Wila, PA. Notable performances: Rotoglow, The Martini Bros, perhaps in part due to the time slots - the 2 (3) slots right after sunset are the key ones at Wila. 7/18 - 20 Minute Fest at Conestoga Valley. Fluorescent lights, big room, people working out on stairmasters, teenagers, hardcore to pop-punk. Nice, not amazing, turnout for quality acts including national acts Elliott, River City High. I practiced my long driving by driving back and forth to the Lancaster area twice that day. Notable: Boywunder, The Mint, Even in Blackouts. (I missed The Commercials, Elliott due to previous committment). 7/19 - Busy day. Drove to NYC Coney Island for Village Voice's Siren Music Festival. Great bands, but too too crowded. Last year I was able to get back and forth between the 2 stages and tape the first 4 bands. This year, no such luck. Way way too crowded. It started at 1 for The Pattern, and even at that point, it was as crowded as I recall it being last year around 4 or 5. All bands kicked ass from what I could tell - I was close enough to hear The Pattern, The Witnesses (Yay Witnesses!), The Kills (Hey, Fuck The People - I like The Kills - might go to Philly or Balto to go see them again - their drum machine got "unplugged" during Fuck The People - about half the way through, making me displeased), and Oneida. By !!! and Sahara Hotnights - you really couldn't see, hear, and not be crushed like a sardine. For a while, I chose the sorta hear, not really see, not get crushed option, by staying in the amusement park next to the speakers by the main stage. After that I chose the can't really see, can't really hear, not get crushed option by being in the back. Ran into Oakley of The Witnesses in the crowd / on the street when walking between the 2 stages, that was good. Another good thing is that it's legal to get cups of beer and walk around with them. 16oz - $3 not bad. Anyway, I planned on sticking around, catching some Hot Hot Heat, but the show was running a little late and it was time to rush to Lancaster. 7/19 - The Underwater, The Mint, No Refill at Chameleon Club. Killer show by The Underwater (The Best Band TM) headlining upstairs, hitting on all cylinders. Awesome turnout for the show. Upstairs, where I was, some 100+, and downstairs was packed. Overall, some 300-600. Home Run show for The Underwater. Good to see an original band from around here drawing huge numbers like that. Good to see Lauren in the house for this show, the Boywunder show the night before. Nice chill afterparty until drama which had nothing to do with me. 7/26 - Gullifty's for The Jellybricks, Stephen Reso Band, Wayne Supergenius. Quality Power-pop-rock-alt.country from these scenesters. John Fritchey had a busy day today, playing with all 3 bands. He usually doesn't play with the Bricks, so that was a special occasion. I hadn't seen the Bricks for a while, good to see them again, they still got it, keep an eye out for a new CD from them in the near future. Steve and Wayne, excellent as always. 7/30 - Dragonfly for Don't Look Down, The Commercials, Over It, Bottom Line The Commercials went first, drew best (leaving out the Governor factor). They sounded really good, updated their pop-punk sound to reflect current trends. They played 3 dates on the Warped Tour in the next coupla weeks. Bottom Line and Over It played next, they both sounded quite good, befitting bands that also were playing the Warped Tour. However, many of the folks that were there for The Commercials had left. Don't Look Down was last. Their bass player, Jesse Rendell, is the Governor's son, and the Governor was in the house, as were other people wearing suits, looking like security, and other people who did not look like the type of people who go to firehalls a lot. They, as, did the other bands, put on good set (befitting ...). I had heard a previous effort of Don't Look Down, and it seems that they, like The Commercials, are deviating from the straight pop-punk sounds they used to do. Apparently, to paraphrase something Jesse said onstage, it isn't cool anymore. None of the bands played straight pop-punk that night. For the sake of expediency, let's just say that they're all adding emocore to the mix. That might not be right, and it almost certainly is not complete, but, eh. Koji was in the house. Koji, 16, is one to watch, very informed about the local all age scene, at this point, he'd be called a veteran, has been learning from Tony Commercial, good performer. Jeremy (Claudine's husband, MMC, Dewey) was in the house, as was JH, the Governor, but not too many else I knew. Talking about the show later with Todd Shaeffer of The Why're, Koji and Tony Commercial, the consensus was that The Commercials should've gone last, as they drew best, and their people all left after. That's fairly typical within the scene. Note this for future reference. 8/2 - Gullifty's for Condition K, Capitol Air, World's End I showed up during Capitol Air. Had I known that World's End was ex See You Auntie, I would've gotten there sooner and caught their set. Hey, I did research on em, was able to determine that they were considered, at least by some, a System of a Down tribute act, which isn't entirely accurate. Capitol Air's set was good, as always. The last time I saw em (I think) was at the Blue Star in Lancaster. Matt Miller of Nowhere Quick was playing bass for them at that show. This time he was not, but he was in the house, as were members of The Underwater and Juiced. Condition K was the headliner, and a potential heavy hitter. Great resume with ex Stereo Logic, 3-Star, Julian Fist. Manian has a great, powerful voice, oft compared these days to Brett of Fuel. A good contemporary sound fitting nicely on active rock / alternative radio. All the parts I think are there. They're a new band, still, and I guess they'll be at least newish for a few more months. I think I'll be watching them fairly closely. I want to hear a hit song from them. I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear one. I'm spoiled by The Underwater (The Best Band TM) - every song is a potential hit song, except the songs which are intentionally not hit songs. 8/3 - The Why're for The Underwater, The Suburban Sound, Torn From Red, more. Dead Poetic was initially on this bill, but cancelled a couple of weeks prior. The Underwater was headlining, played a good set. I thought it was really good, but I was told otherwise. Nice crowd, 100+. The first band I saw was Torn From Red, good, let's say, emocore. It was very hot in there, and I was outside most of the time. The band between Torn From Red and The Underwater was The Suburban Sound, and they knocked me out. I really like it when I go to a show, knowing little about a band, and get knocked out like that, real pleasantly surprised. Start with The Pattern - a garage, indie rock sound with the high ooooh ooooooooooh. Put in angular post-punk guitars. Put in horns. Lead singer, guitars have the indie rock look - think Cato Salsa maybe, shaggy hair, beard. And the lead singer is nuts. Rolling, squirming on the floor, climbing up the walls, crawling over the ceiling. Grabbing people, screaming in their face. Now, I'm sure you've seen all of those things individually, 1) rolling, squirming on floor (Silvertide 8/9 Gullifty's) 2) Screaming in face (Sceva, et al) 3) Ceiling, rafters (less common, but I remember Burning Bus doing that). But, this guy was doing one of those things all the time. Anyway, good good stuff. More of that. I definitely want to see The Suburban Sound again soon. Had a good talk with Why're Todd after the show. Apparently, they've got live music pretty much everyday of the week, and good stuff too. 8/5 - Hardware Bar for The Underwater, The Jellybricks Another great show for The Underwater (The Best Band TM) and The Jellybricks. 100+ which is great for a Tuesday in August. JH in the house. New faces, new fans, which is good to see. Great show, don't have much to add. 8/9 - Gullifty's for The Martini Bros, Silvertide This was a good one. August isn't the best month for clubs, and this was a great turnout - I'd say 150-200. Silvertide, who played the Hilton for MMC back in 2002 less than a week before signing with Clive Davis' J Records, opened, and won the crowd over. They hadn't been to Gullifty's in a while, so it's hard to say whether it was their crowd, or whether they won the Martini's crowd over, but they did have that crowd loving Silvertide. Sorta a Black Crowesy kinda thing, young (18-22), getting spins on Classic Rock stations, first full length on J Records coming out in January (I think) - getting mixed now. Liz, Arejay, Roger Hale in the house. (David Ivory worked/works with them and Silvertide) Martini Bros were on fire that night. I think they played around 2 hours without a break. Full long set, then 3 or 4 song encore, they got done around 10 of 2. Tons of fans, all loving it. Good stuff. I'm probably missing a show or 2, oh well. 6:30am Thursday 7/12 Ok, what's going on. Let's start with The Underwater. They have an "important" show at the Chameleon Club this Saturday. I was talking about "important" shows and The Underwater a while back. They played an "important" show at Murph's last November or December I think. I of course went there, chilled, and got to meet The Rev. David J. Ciancio (Syndicate, Thursday) Paul Conroy (Roadrunner, Every Time I Die), Marc Meltzer (Syndicate). Well, this is another important show. At the Chameleon, this Saturday. They start between 8:30 and 9:00. The Mint and No Refill are opening. If I were in a band, I'd go to this show and hand out cds, if that was my style. You'll certainly hit a few targets. I've been saying all along (well, since last August) that The Underwater is gonna be huge, everything does seem to be moving along nicely. Lifeforce Records, http://lifeforcerecords.com/ The Underwater's European label, is releasing "Bleed Me Blue" on Monday, July 28. It looks like they're gonna be pushing it pretty hard. The Lifeforce website has the European tour in November, which is accurate as of right now. Rumors have a video coming as well. Rumors have the video definitely airing on MTV Europe. These rumors seem pretty realistic. So, if you shoot film, give The Underwater a call. The Underwater is definitely interested in having people who shoot film shoot some film. Go to the Chameleon on Saturday early, talk to The Underwater, and shoot some film. How about Wylam? I'll be there but ... I'll be racing back from NYC. Those who read this know that I had a great time at Siren http://www.villagevoice.com/siren/ last year, and The Underwater is playing on the same day. Well, my plan is to get there early, like I did last year. Certainly I want to see The Pattern (1p) and The Witnesses (1:30p), as those are the bands that I've met before. Show the love. I'm still a little unhappy that the Witnesses cancelled the Gullifty's show. I hope they'll be back. Top to bottom, it's a good show (actually a great show) It's a free show. And the bands will be more famous in a year or 2 than they are now. The coolest indie rock show of the year, arguably, within the context of what I actually do, definitely. Bumpershoot, Tomorrow's Parties, the Carlings, but, seriously, I was there last year, it really is good good stuff. So, I'll have to leave sometime around the beginning of Hot Hot Heat. Anyway, here's the schedule. Remember, this is a FREE SHOW, ALL AGES. (you have to go to The Underwater show though). 1:00 The Pattern, 1:30 The Witnesses, 2:00 The Kills, 2:30 Oneida, 3:00 !!! (fuck fuck fuck or any 3 noises, usu chk chk chk), 3:30 The Dirtbombs, 4:00 Sahara Hotnights, 4:30 Northern State, 5:00 Hot Hot Heat, 5:30 Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, 6:00 The Datsuns, 6:30 Radio 4, 7:30 Modest Mouse, 8:00 Idlewild. There are 2 stages there. It's right on the boardwalk in Coney Island. It's sick, and cool, I passed out on the boardwalk last year. Go to it. Print this page out, and hand it to me at Siren (I'll be up front taping during the pattern and the witnesses, and maybe toward the back a little later) and I'll give you at least 5000 banner impressions. Enough said there. Go to this. Oh, and again, the Village Voice does an AMAZING job booking this show. The day before, might help, might hurt with the sleeping pattern. Another Team 1414 - Dale is playing at 20 Minute Fest in Lancaster. His band, Boywunder, is playing last, or at least toward the end. Tons of really good bands. Elliott, River City High, Koufax, The Commercials, a whole lot more. Eyeing to see that, not sure yet, but likely. Lancaster ain't as far as NYC for some of you folks. Tonight, I don't know, maybe 1414, or work, a lot depends on if there's any new Dewey stuff, new poster's made. By the way, I happen to think that I got a kick ass formula for what I call "hatch-style" "letterpress-style" posters. You can give me cash to make posters like that. Check out http://www.deweybeachlife.com/pastconcerts.htm Recap. Recently, Lauren Marshall did really well at KClinger's in Etters. Lauren is Team 1414. Lauren should be contacted to play either 1 set or 3. Acoustic Female Singer Songwriter. She's good. Should have more gigs. I'll give her a free website, hype her if she wants that. Sorta reminds me a little of Mary Prankster. Good. Matt's girlfriend. Dave Venet was there too. Always good to see Dave Venet. Former Syn d Cats singer. Great singer. Sherri Mullen was there, playing at the open mic night. She was leaving when I was getting in. Recap - oh, team 1414, work, Wila is probably the most notable. I guess I wasn't in the right mood for Wila, didn't go nuts, or really get into it heavily. Oh well. It was rocking nonetheless. The bands played great and there were a shitload of people there, especially after dark. I wasn't there last year, but I was the year before. I noticed this year that the parking lot was packed when I got there, fairly late, but definitely day. Something like 500 cars in the parking lot. But, there's really no one up front at that time. The people are there, though. I spent most of my time chillin with Pam, Sal etc, that crew (btw, Wayne Supergenius is playing a lot at Gullifty's this month - this is a good thing, they're a band that should get indie distribution, due mainly to the sheer quality of the songwriting. Not saying that rock stardom is coming, but, there are people in the world that like that, and they do that well. I hope they can find the right label. I'll likely elaborate on that another time - WSG is playing at Gulliftys on Friday June 18 and Saturday July 26 - if you like early Eagles, you'll LOVE WSG). Anyway, I saw a bunch of bands, taped a bunch of bands like I always so. The Martini Bros, Rotoglow were highlights, of what I saw, but, I'll tell you, I really wasn't in the right mood. It's a sorta weird scene for me, because there are like 1,000-2,000 people there, and I know a good number, but only the bands really. All the bands from Hbg are there, and so are all people from 8-80 who live within 20 miles of Wila, PA. Most of the regular people do not know who it is that they are listening to when they are playing. At night, let me assure you, they are loving it. The Martini Bros were playing to some 500 or so packed in around the stage. I'm not sure they know now that they saw the Martini Bros., or Adrian Blitzer or Dead 50's or Rotoglow. There's no doubt that the bands enjoyed playing in front of the large crowds, and no doubt that the people were having fun. The Wilapalooza people did a great job, as usual. It's the biggie. Pearl Jam was that night, too, but I doubt it really impacted the numbers, but people like JH went to Pearl Jam instead of Wila. I could go on here, not sure I want to. I brought a couple of those disposable cameras, I might do something with those pix, depending. Specific shout out to Mik, Tony, Con, Juke Over guy, I'm sure there are like 40 more people I should, but eh. Junior Senior just came on MTV2, what do you all think? I'd say, add dance to yer rock. Electroclash, or whatnot. My fictional allgirl band might have the electroclash elements, as well as the garage, the hardcore, the emo. Do girls just play so badly with each other, that they can't get their shit together. Look at Ev. that was huge in top 40. Total damsel in distress song. Easy to pick. TATU was awesome mostly for the demos revealed by its existence. SHOCKER! Middle age guys like teenage lesbians. That's market research. They were like 1 (actually they were 1) in that demo, and all the other demos didn't seem to care (10 or less). I'm like trying to identify an overabundance of quality female musicians. I've been trying to get them to like each other for years. It's easy, but almost impossibly hard. Hot girls that aren't at this point selling millions, get em all together, make the right record. I've been thinking about that for a while, but it's really hard to convice them that whatever it is that they're thinking about right now isn't just the best thing for them. Even if it's like 4 years later, or whatnot. Generally, most of the hot singer girls in an area will fail to be huge rock stars. That's like a math thing. Even if the hot singer girls can sing better than, and look better than, let's say Avirl. So, what's the problem then? I'm not in the biz, really, maybe they have to go fucking crazy smoking up every cock they see in order to succeed. I don't know. Maybe, they just have to like work together. I'm pretty lazy, I'll admit, but I would like to see someone corral those top notch quality girls, stop em from whatever it is that they're doing (so far they're all non starters, by and large) - deleted -do maybe, female dance melodic emocore. Sexy violent dance melodic hardcore. I mean, I love The Donnas and all, and Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But 4 Karens twice as much. And, of course, the songs HAVE to be there. I might have a "gift" for really depraved things that girls can sing to me in nice sweet harmonies. If anyone has been following what I've been doing for a while, none of this should come as any sort of surprise. 11:30am Saturday 7/12 Ok, there are some who think there should be more frequent, and lengthier updates. Well, here's one. Paul Autry has been doing a good job writing and taking pix for his Spotlight page - http://parocks.com/spotlight. I don't always agree with Paul, but he's out there working, seeing bands that aren't necessarily the usual suspects. Occasionally he does find something. He was aware of Halestorm early, tipped me off to a band called Lava Baby who ended up getting signed, and now is enthused about Priscilla http://priscillarocks.com. I read what Paul had to say, looked at his pix, looked at her website. Then, went to see her in Reading at Bixler's Lodge. Very good performer, in the female singer-songwriter vein. She gets a 9 or 10 out of 10 in most categories. Great voice, great looking, 10s there. I'm not sure if there are hit singles there currently. Songs tend to be a bit slow and long for my tastes. That's not really a problem. She's definitely worth checking out, and following her progress. Deadline for the Dewey Beach Music Conference and Festival - http://www.deweybeachfest.com - is right around the corner. Tuesday, July 15. It's only $20 to apply to Showcase. Last year's conference & festival was really good, and this year's looks like it's gonna be a good one as well. It's a day longer this year than last year, golf tournament and bands on Thursday. Heads up about hotels, book your room or rooms soon - some hotels are already sold out, selling out faster this year than last. Anyway, here's a direct link to the Apply to Showcase page - http://deweybeachfest.com/2003/showcase.htm More about Dewey. I've been doing quite a lot of Dewey-related work the last few months - posters, logos, pages within the DeweyBeachLife website http://deweybeachlife.com. I gotta tell ya, there really is a lot of stuff happening there all the time. On some days, such as July 3d, you could see national acts in 2 different venues (Saliva in Baycenter, SR-71 in Bottle and Cork), and a top $ cover band in a 3d (Love Seed Mama Jump in Rusty Rudder), all within a less than 10 block walk. Dewey Beach is not a large place, yet there's a slew of quality there. One extremely notable feature of a venue like Baycenter (part of the Ruddertowne complex) is that it's both ALL AGES and serves alcohol to those 21 and over. That's similar to the Chameleon, except in the case of the Baycenter, the U21's and the 21+'s do not need to be separated. A nifty idea which might help explain the great turnouts at the Baycenter. So, in case you're wondering, "what does this have to do with PA, Dewey Beach is in DE" I'd say, hey, for those of you who are 21, but want to drink a beer and hang out with someone who's 20, and see a show, well, you have to leave PA, because you can't do that here. Might as well go to Dewey. For those who want to make a trip/vacation of it, I'd recommend the weekend of July 25. From Thursday, July 24 to Monday, July 28, there are national acts everyday (only the Baycenter shows are all ages though). July 24, Dickey Betts at Cork, July 25, Big Head Todd & the Monsters at Cork, July 26, Cold at Baycenter, July 27, Trapt, Smile Empty Soul at Baycenter, July 28, Reel Big Fish at Baycenter. Not bad for all agers. Wilapalooza 9 on Saturday July 12 - http://www.wilapalooza.com/. For the general Harrisburg area, traditionally, the summer biggie. This year looks like another good one. 17 bands scheduled - from noon till like 2am. About 15-30 minutes north of Hbg, in Wila, PA, off of 11/15. Camping. BYOB. It's good to get there early, because of all the great bands from top to bottom, but the party really starts to get rocking around sundown. There are usu a lot of people there. Here's the bands, I've seen 15 of 17 of them, and the quality is high, here. Adrian Blitzer, Clarence Backwater Revolver, Darcie Miner Band, Dead 50s, Dingleberry Shortcake, Drives Like Fire, The Jellybricks, Jukebox Overdrive, Julie Schreiber Band, Last Call, Martini Bros., Nowhere Quick, Rotoglow, Spinebelt, Stephen Reso Band, Thread and Wayne Supergenius. 4:30am Thursday 7/3 aight, lets see here.things. The Underwater July 19 Chameleon Club. Yeah, I would've VERY much preferred that they don't do this show against the only show that I don't have anything to do with and I have to drive 2 or 3 hours to see, and that's Siren / Village Voice in NYC. I'm going to NYC. I'll definitely be able to see and tape The Witnesses, who I love. Here's the link to the Siren Festival. Village Voice Siren Fest Target like a laser. Uhhh. Ok, how about Condition K. Yeah, good, not "sign them now" but good. It's nice. I know these people. I've helped some of them out. I've pissed some of them off. But it's nice, it's like a "supergroup" of sorts. I see Darcie fronting Condition K. I know Darcie was writing with Torr, and Darcie was writing with Manian. Now Torr and Manian are in the same band. eh. It's very important to have hit songs. Very to have Hit. It's funny. This movement, the Condition K / Darcie thing, I love it, coalition of forces. I, personally, would much like to watch the progress of that band. Manian is a great singer. Oh, well, later. The actual action going on under your noses is likely the Dale, Dan, Leo combo. They need a GREAT lead singer. I haven't yet heard the full Dale (Boywunder) , Dan, Leo jams, but I heard the Dale Dan jams and they're just, ummmm, quite right (ummmm, what better context could I hear them you Converge girlfriend you) . Leo (ex-Halestorm) I've known for years, very capable of doing it quite right. (I will say as an honest person that they jumped way up in 1999 when Leo joined) This one is likely to skip all (most of) the local gigs, and just tour and get signed. There are bigwigs here actually, and they don't pay close attention to the comings and goings. It's interesting. Team 1414. Just Jinger. Pronounced Just Ginger. AMAZING BAND. SEE THEM. THEY'LL LIKELY COME TO GULLIFTY'S AGAIN. I consider myself a bit of a professional. You have to see them. I want them in September at Gulliftys with The Underwater and Rotoglow. Just Jinger is possibly gonna be huge (but "South Africa" doesn't sound good). They have the songs, the command of everything. Eh, best I've seen in a long time. I don't see the radio hit, real real close, but whatever. Hey, I'm pretty sure if you want to tell this Stairway to Heaven capable band to write a "Sugar, Sugar" hit, they'd at least give you a listen. That band is strong. Just Jinger. Maybe like Matchbox 20, but cool. I can anticipate a future time, maybe in Torrs studio, when Rotoglow, Just Jinger, The Underwater, Condition K, Wayne Supergenius are jamming all night, maybe its at Sal and Pams. What's next? Dewey Beach summer kicks ass. If you like bands that you hear on the radio, and you live in PA, you can go to Dewey Beach and see em. Active Rock fans who are under 21 can see Cold on one night and Trapt the next. An aside, Alex rules, I've been getting along pretty well with him as an employer, but, do google search on like, maybe, | reparations pires | or | mcdonalds coffee pires | or etc. It reminds me of the day when I wasn't the risk averse lawyer, but the politically active law student. - whatever, watch out if you're like all blase and shit about the damage they can do to you. Oh, and meaning of life? - reproduction. meaning of life, uh life? Real easy. Pin the label on the bad guy? Rothschild. The price of gold is currently fixed in London at his house. Here's one I really like Gore-Schiff, Kuhn-Loeb, Lenin. I'm against divorce, but it least it makes me think that either the Kennedys or the Cuomos are decent people, who don't want to, ok, here it is, ENSLAVE us. I'm sorry I forgot some other good bands. But, seriously, Team 1414 is contro .... "owns rock" I'm 100% down with Team 1414, The Underwater. I do believe that they own rock. I will admit that it's getting difficult to just chill and make assessment. I love it that the pros know that they're gonna win. Their life will end up better than mine, by huge measures, but it's cool, as I've been down with Brandon since the olden time Godsmack days. Anyway, theres some writing. 8:00am Sunday 6/8 Aight - a contest maybe. A flyer contest. Flyers rule. Anyway, send me 2 jpgs, one of the flyer and one of the implementation of it, where it was. If you win, you win a prize of some sort, maybe a bunch of free banners. Flyers make people who are undecided what to do go to rock shows. Web sites help people who aren't sure which rock show to go to make up their mind. 2 good bands, bands that i didn't expect anything from (I had no idea) - Dark Water Transit, Astra. Both knocked me on my ass. Dark Water Transit, Astra. Dark Water Transit is from the general Baltimore area, opened for The Underwater, Capitol Air. All instrumental. 2 guitars, one drum. Hardcore feel, post=punk feel. Nice. I can't describe it all that well. Just real real good. Astra at Underdog a few hours ago. They're from Lewistown. I only caught the last 10 mins of their show, but they have it. Maybe it was that i was so happy to see quality at Underdog (Underdog does have quality), or not. Anyway, they're all 18 apparently, and they gots the goods. Labels? This is one for labels to check out. Unless they were blowing smoke up my ass. Post-punk, but nice and solid. Nice nice nice. Oh, The Why're was killer last night as always. The "underground" is larger than the overground. Maybe I'm lucky, but every time I go to the Why're there's at least 150 there. 8:00am Friday 5/30 Let's see, bunch of good stuff a comin. Let's start with The Underwater. Tonight, Friday, at The Blue Star in Lancaster with Capitol Air. Tomorrow, Saturday at The Chameleon (7pm) with Seether, Smile Empty Soul, then up to Harrisburg, Remy's, for a later show. You'll likely see me at most of those shows. John Eddie, Ben Arnold, Wayne Supergenius at Gullifty's today, Friday. Drives Like Fire, AJ & Altercana, Giver at Underdog tonight, Friday. Julie Schreiber at Scott's tomorrow, Saturday. Martini Bros, Jet Silver, 3 Star at Murph's tonight, Friday. The Commercials tonight, Friday CD release party at Monroe Township Facilities Building (all age) with Strike Anywhere (from Richmond, Jade Tree, touring Japan/Australia in July/August) and more. That show should be really big. Want to mention that The Commercials are touring the east - OH, TN, FL - in June. Running From Dharma and Sadaharu (check them out - cool angular hardcore / mathcore / screaming with repeating riffs that change often within the song - I like this, never seen em live yet tho) (here's a link to a song "lifestyle tips for the dead (or even a broken watch is right twice a day)") are currently on tour together, now in FL after playing OH, TN, AL, on to GA, NC, MD and back to PA. More on (Here's a link to a song "lifestyle tips for the dead (or even a broken watch is right twice a day)") I'm not sure yet if they fall under the "should get more" category or the "stuff I like" category, but do check em out. (let me see what I think about Converge right now). Q and not U (Dischord, produced by Ian MacKaye of Fugazi) is at The Why're (all age) tomorrow, Saturday. The all age scene remains good in Hbg. Wanna mention that The Witnesses are coming back to Gullifty's on June 28. Check that out. The Witnesses are supercool, and we're pleased to have them back again, they kicked ass at MMC at the Hilton and Gullifty's in March. They're playing the Village Voice Siren Music Festival at Coney Island this year (7/19). I went to that show last year - see publishers notes at the bottom. To recap, it was awesome, a very good way to see bands before they get huge. The Donnas, Yeah Yeah Yeah's played last year, and they're substantially bigger now than they were. It's real nice to see The Witnesses playing it. Also, The Pattern, who I saw (pub notes). I plan on going again this year, making sure I'm not all drunk and passing out on the boardwalk, getting heat stroke and leaving before its over. Tons of great bands, Village Voice has great musical taste. I'll be telling you more about this one, maybe putting up my great video of Pretty Girls Make Graves, Von Bondies, Rye Coalition, Bob Log III. (Find a pic of me on the Village Voice site and win a prize). I'm not trying to hide my enthusiasm for Siren. Hmmmm, how about a recap. I see most Underwater shows. So, let's see, The Underwater played at Hardware on Tuesday 13 a couple weeks back. Nice turnout. At least a hundred, I'd say. Herbie (a good jam band, who I'd seen at Gullifty's a while before that) opened and drew a good crowd themselves. Good band. The Underwater played well, sound was ... ahem ... Let Cory do his job, I'd say. Thursday 15 after that was Senses Fail, Johnny Action Figure, The Underwater at Sound Waves. Really really good club. Senses Fail is a good band, they were in the Billboard top 200 at the time (they may still be), I think their video will be on MTV2 soon - interesting, similar to Thursday, from the same scene (NJ), but more of the pop-punk, but with the hardcore screaming. Lead singer is a maniac on stage, nice to see. Good good stuff. Good guys as well. Nice to see TJ talking up the Seton Hall radio thing (TJ might be a PA Rocks writer soon, depending on what he wants to do). The Underwaters set was good, Matt broke his Les Paul, which made him justifiably unhappy, but the set was good nonetheless. It's a good place to video, the sound is strong, and the lighting reminds of MMC Hilton, as it's got huge ceilings. Nice lighting for video. Next was Friday 16 Murphs with The Underwater, Rotoglow, Dead 50s. There were elements of delightful fun there. Also not so delightful moments. Lots of people were in the house. Underwater, kicked ass as always, Rotoglow kicked ass as always, Dead 50s kicked ass as always, although I left for personal reasons shortly after they started, and had a nice chill at 1414. Next day 17 was Gullifty's with Rotoglow, Klear, Eve to Adam. Klear was good. Rotoglow kicked ass as always. Excellent afterparty at Torrs with Pam and Sal, Rotoglow, Indian! (good to see Indian in town non MMC!) Pam and Sals peeps and some other peeps. Nice nice nice. I liked that very nice very chill. There was a great Rotoglow jam - which is a bit of a tradition by now - with Sal and Torr and others, and the drinking and chilling and whatnot. Nice nice nice. Sunday, Shelfest at Whitaker Center, chill, I got there too late for Halestorm, but did see Spinebelt, and they're better than they were just a couple months ago, more chaotic, yet with the harmonies, strong. Liked the No Refill contributions. Skip to next weekend Friday 23 - Martini Bros and Jet Silver at Gullifty's. Nice. Deuce played a few songs with Jet Silver, for the second time, since Jet Silver opened for 999 in Philly. Martinis kicked ass as always, playing new stuff I hadn't heard them play. Then, back to Pam and Sals, with Joel Jet Silver, Dead Leaves representin, Throttle 5 representin, listening to the heroes of altcountry and 1979, nice and chill. Ok, up to date I think. 6:00am Thursday 5/15 Some shows this weekend. Tonight (Thursday) has Senses Fail and The Underwater and more at Sound Waves in Reading. Senses Fail's a good band, on Drive-Thru, they sorta sound like a poppier Thursday. The Underwater, of course, GREAT BAND, and I've heard lots of great things about Frank Phobia's club Sound Waves, and am much looking forward to finally checking it out. At Gullifty's it's Darcie's first Open Mike since her impressive appearances on MTV and CBS. Super show/shows at Murph's on Friday. The Underwater, Rotoglow, Dead 50's. Twice. Get there early, as it'll likely be packed for the early show. Think 6, 7, 8 - that time frame. The early show is an all ages show - a rarity for York (actually there's a new all ages / under 21 venue opening in York at the York City Ice Arena, Sceva's playing there next Friday the 23d). Also, Mary Prankster at Underdog. Last time Mary was in town, she was up against The Witnesses, The Underwater at Gullifty's. The Murph's show is a great one, but it's in York, so that's cool. Saturday, Rotoglow plays their 2d (or 3d) show in 2 days in South Central PA - so you best be attending one of those 2 shows, if not both. Rotoglow is kinda a "band's band" - all bands like them, and they're widely seen as the best live act that plays around here on a regular basis (although they're from Virginia, for the most part). They have a rare command, mastery of their live performance. The mastery goes beyond an absence of mistakes, but goes to crafting the set, the songs, the vibe to the vibe of the venue. I'm not sure I'm putting that right, but, you gotta see em. Also on the bill that night are Klear and Eve To Adam. If I'm not mistaken, this is the 2nd area appearance for both Klear and Eve To Adam. Both bands played MMC this year, Klear at the Hilton on X night and Eve To Adam at Gullifty's, and both are coming from a long way, Klear from Niagra Falls, NY, and Eve to Adam from NYC. This is a good show to see, as Rotoglow is quaranteed quality, and Klear and Eve to Adam are both good, and might be the first time many have seen em (would be the first time for me). Good after as well - happy "15th" "anniversary" to Pam and Sal. Sunday the 18th is a good opportunity to see the latest version of Halestorm - an all ages show at the Whitaker Center with Spinebelt and more. And Monday, the Martini Bros at the Bartender's Ball at the Chameleon. Whew, that's a lot, no way I can see all that. 6:00am Saturday 5/10 We're caught in the rain, we're lost in the storm, I've waited for so long. You're burning my heart, by holding me close, and I've been branded. 6:00pm Thursday 5/8 Quick here. Darcie is going to be on MTV tonight (Thursday 5/8) at 8 - "Advance Warning", not later in the month. Jerry Joseph and the Jackmormons tonight at Gullifty's with Hexbelt. Jerry's shows are always great (Jerry is playing Bonnaroo this year). Watch Yeah Yeah Yeah's on TV on Friday if you're not going out - 120 Minutes (MTV2) is moving to Fridays midnight and changing its name to Subterranean. YYY's the guest. They're also on Conan at the same time. The Underwater + Rotoglow + Murph's + Friday 5/16 + early ALL AGES show = excellent rock show, be there. 9:30pm Wednesday 4/30 Let's see. Let's start with Dewey PopFest. I have someone's watch, toothbrush, toothpaste. email parocks@parocks.com, and let's see if we can get that back to you. Pretty sick partying, and good bands, good performances. I think I prefer the totally sick partying of MMC, where there's a focused area (4th Floor). At Dewey, everything is dispersed. Of course, Dewey, because it has so many hotels, has the potential of being better. A focused area and a dispersed area are possible. Not everyone likes the madness of MMC 4th (including the Hilton). Also, I should mention that certain elements of the Dewey partying were unrivaled, unmatched by MMC, as effects me. Not going into details. About bands. Let's see. The Underwater had a great set, Rotoglow had a great set, Green To Think, ditto, Another Lincoln, ditto. Everyone was good. The Underwater might have the major hit single that they're looking for. A lot of the MMC scene - the Harrisburg scene - the Central PA scene was in Dewey for PopFest, so that's good - a lot of familiars. I did a bunch of taping mostly on Friday, some Saturday, I know Rotoglow was happy with how it turned out, the sound by Madcap was very good, everyone happy there. Weather wasn't great either day, especially bad Friday. Personally, I like rain, and cold and wind, especially if it isn't February style bad, so I have no complaints. Might've hurt turnout, especially on Friday. The Midtown, Catch 22, Wakefield show (which wasn't offically part of PopFest) turned out quite well, everyone happy, and that was Friday. Saturday night, around 9, 10, 11 (i think that's about when it was) was the high point - it's all blurry though - a lot of walking back and forth between my room and the rudder, different very cool people. Saw some very cool people I hadn't seen in a little while, met and hung out with new very cool people. Jonny Lives cool, The Crayons, The Suggestions, cool and cool. All good bands cool people. One of the good things about these Fests / Conferences / events where a lot of bands from all over play and party together is that gig swapping opportunities abound. The Underwater is opening for Brickfoot at the Hard Rock Cafe in Baltimore this Friday (5/2) based on PopFest partying. Other gig swapping is in the works based on PopFest partying. OK. On the Darcie Star Search thing, she didn't win. Not a diva enough, I guess, people are conditioned for that whole diva thing, I guess. Darcie is a female singer-songwriter. It was a tie, and tie goes to the one that the "people" liked. Darcie got 19/20 of the panelist votes. That 1 minute period was a nice happy part for me, as someone who likes Darcie. Here are some quotes from the judges, and Arsenio. "Wow you got the goods. You can play an instrument and you GOT THE VOICE. 5 stars." - Billy Gilman "Took a great song made it your own you are a MAJOR STAR your no doubt about it. 5 stars." - Ben Stein (Hand gesture - happens to be the one I do) "That's all I need to show you. You wield the awesome power of rock. 5 stars. Yeah." - Ahmet Zappa "You play guitar much better than the band." - Arsenio Hall The capitalization thing is mine, but if you listen, that's where the inflection is. If I was Darcie, I wouldn't worry too much about not winning. Darcie could be Kelly Clarkson, if she wanted to be that, but she isn't now, and I'm pretty sure that she impressed the VIPs, which was the point. I went out after I wrote the above, I'm back, here's more on Darcie overall. You have to give Ricky credit. Jim from MTV2 was talking about him, in re Marty Shottenheimer(sp) - he thought it nifty that he was chillin from someone from Hits mag, or something along those lines, it's all good. Hey, I like the idea that it's a small world. Darcie is pretty, and can sing pretty good. She easily could be Lavigne. But, so could Liz Hale, and it looks like Lauren might want to step up. It's likely that Lauren is extraordinarily talented as well as being extraordinarily beautiful, like, rare type. Anyway, back to the female rock PA breakthrough, I'm confident that these late teenage girls are capable of providing the rock the way we like. I'm generally "concerned" on the overall that they aren't doing things exactly the way I'd like. These specific girls I've been working with for years, not ultraclosely, but a bit. Look at Evanescence. Get Darcie, Liz, Lauren in a band. I've been saying that for a while. Way before Evanescence. The Underwater, and The Bennies, can help write the songs. Think the YYY's, but x3. All 3 doin it. F yeah. Go to publishers notes, see what I had to say about Karen O of the YYY's about a year ago. Someday, people might see that I have the right idea. Darcie won, but she did not win that specific show, I'm going to Gullifty's today to she if she still has that pretty curly hair. She might still be in LA though, so maybe Gullifty's Open Mic is off, who knows. Based on her performance, i'd expect industry to say "stay here right now". Want to mention the website of The Rusty Nail in the Philly Burbs, and give a link - http://www.thenail1.com - if you give me a call, and you're not a total dickwad (not so fast Jerks(sp) Prom(sp)) you'll likely get some special attention. Oh, I want to talk about the national scene. YYY's and White Stripes. Exciting. One might be the next Nirvana. Let's talk about the White Stripes first. Seven Nation Army is more of an Active Rock "friendly" song than "Fell In Love With A Girl" It's much heavier. Active Rock formats are so f-ing narrow. Eh. Whatever. If you blame MTV for why music sucks, you're wrong. Blame radio formats. The White Stripes new single Seven Nation Army is an Explosive song. The White Stripes on Conan last Friday was a magical, Hendrix-type moment. One that said, music can be important. Now, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah's. It's nice to be cool. I've been talking about Karen O for a while (see below, in Publishers Notes). I'm not some sort of difficulty maker guy, but I'll say it again, Art Star baby. Anyway, Date With The Night. Hmmm, winning on the MTV2. Spitting the gob at the end. Double Mics, from the sides Hmm, hmm, hmm. Watch the video. I'm a fan, no doubt. Next Nirvana, why not? It's clearly breakthrough, but, since I've been watching them for a while, it doesn't come across as "wow" to me. It should to you. If you want me to give you an all girl emocoreindierock band? darcielizlaurenjulie? Yada. Claudine, both White Stripes and Yeah Yeah Yeah's should be played by you. They're both "Active" and "Rock". Whatever, it's all good. 7:30pm Wednesday 4/30 Darcie Miner is going to be on Star Search on CBS tonight (Wednesday 4/30) at 8 pm. Here's a link to vote for her during the show. http://www.cbs.com/star/. Approximate scoring time 8:50 to 8:54. Go Darcie. 5:00am Thursday 4/17 Well, here's some local music news: Darcie Miner just got back from NYC where she taped a show for MTV. Airdate on MTV, at this point (it's been changed from the press release), is May 11, 2003. Congrats Darcie. Here's the original press release (or part of it). Here's the official press release! ************************************************************ NY, NY... On April 28th, 2003 @ 8pm EST, Darcie Miner of Harrisburg, PA's Darcie Miner Band will appear as a co-host & will perform on MTV's newest addition to their prime time lineup, "Advance Warning." "Advance Warning," which debuted on MTV & MTV2 in March, 2003, is dedicated to bringing mostly unsigned, new artists as well as some artists that've just completed record deals to the forefront of the music industry's & public's attention at an even earlier stage of their careers than ever before in MTV's history. Darcie is the very first artist in the brief history of the show to be selected to co-host an entire segment & is also the first artist who'll perform 'live' on the show. Please note that the show on 4/28/03 in which Darcie appears will rerun several times in prime time on MTV (between 2p-8p, EST) over a period of two weeks after the initial airing & will then be shown on MTV2 several more times after it's run on MTV. Moreover, a song from Darcie's new album will be selected to be on an MTV compilation CD entitled "Advance Warning" that will be available for sale via MTV.com. Shows. Go See The Underwater at Gullifty's on Friday April 18 with The Jellybricks and Brickfoot. Go See The Martini Bros at Underdog on Saturday April 19 with The Commercials. I'd probably see those shows, but I'll be out of town. Go to PopFest http://www.deweybeachfest.com/popfest in Dewey Beach, DE next weekend (April 25-26), if you're in the mood for a road trip. 53 bands, plenty from PA, and plenty from all over the country. High Quality. Looks like I'll be there. Wanted / Available. Julie Schreiber Band, Halestorm, Mad Revere, Weapons For Peace. My thinking on this whole band members wanted / available thing is that you all should be out there seeing other bands, getting friendly with them, and should be able to fill your slots quickly, or get a slot quickly. To me, it seems that you all aren't getting out there enough. The 4 bands listed above have some transition issues, without going into specific details. Check out Paul Autry's Spotlight page on this site - http://www.parocks.com/spotlight. 7 new articles, most about MMC7 bands, and a bunch of new pictures just went up. There are 50 articles there now. Go ahead and link to the article about your band. Happy Easter. 9:30am Wednesday 3/26 Lots of locals opening for nationals right around now. Sceva, The Bennies, The Underwater, Spinebelt, just to name a few. Let's start with Sceva. This is direct from a press release / email I got recently. Central PA local music favorite, SCEVA, has been tapped to open the “Music as a Weapon Tour 2” stop at the Tweeter Center in Camden, NJ, on March 28th 2003. SCEVA guitarist and backup vocalist Aaron Miller received the call from David Draiman, lead singer of heavy metal band Disturbed, who will be headlining the sold out show at the 7000-seat facility. The Harrisburg based band was hand-chosen by Draiman and fellow Disturbed bandmates from among more than 500 entrants in the Music as a Weapon Tour 2 Contest. This contest was created to provide an unsigned band with the opportunity to play in front of a large audience. Drummer Jason Lech entered the band into the contest in response to an announcement on local radio station WQXA, 105.7 the X. In addition to Miller and Lech, SCEVA is made up of vocalist Jon Hall, guitarist Don Egan and bassist Mike Flury. Also playing in the Music as a Weapon Tour 2 will be Taproot, Chevelle and Unloco. The Bennies just played 3 shows opening for Frank Black and the Catholics (ex-Pixies frontman) at Little Brother's in Columbus, Rosebud in Pittsburgh, and Bogart's in Cincinnati last weekend. This Friday, they're playing Gullifty's, with Douglas Leader and Harbor Gentleman. This Thursday, The Underwater are playing The Chameleon Club, opening for Oleander and Revis, and Spinebelt is playing The Silo, opening for Dope. 4:00am Thursday 3/13 There have been some great bands here - The Underwater, D'arey October. Quite signable bands. There have also been some bands who spoke directly to me. Indie bands. Velcro Mary. The Bennies. With Velcro Mary, it was "the worst is yet to come". With The Bennies, it's "I'D LIKE TO KNOW WHEN THE BOTTOM DROPPED OUT. IS IT TRUE THAT YOU LET THE GOOD LIFE PASS YOU BY?" I don't want to diminish the lyrical accomplishments of either act. Both Velcro Mary and The Bennies have it. That's a great indie double bill. Jason, if you ever come back from NC, you want to play with The Bennies. Anyway, The Bennies are playing at Gullifty's on March 28, with buddies of theirs from New York, Douglas Leader. More on The Bennies. They opened for Frank Black and the Catholics 10-15 dates on an East Coast tour, playing venues like 9:30 Club, Avalon in Boston. The Bennies are from Dillsburg, and 2 of em graduated from Trinity High School in Camp Hill. These are facts. Fossil Record should have national distribution. Period. Indie, through Lumberjack, or something, but it's really really good stuff. Gonna see if I can get em a shitload of more dates. Now's a good time to go to Gullifty's. The last couple weeks were less than stellar, but the next 3 weeks are superstrong. 4 bands on this Friday. ROTOGLOW. Yeah. Go go gogogo Rotoglow. Rotoglow is just so commanding. I almost have enough material to write a book about them. Listen to Stengers 420 tape. It's hard to describe how good they are. Stengers 420 tape brought out an entire new dimension to Rotoglow. They're definitely not going to be whores. A front runner for MMC 8 disc 1 spot 1. They're not "mine" though. So you don't see the endless hype. It's all good. Everyone loves them. Rotoglow is also playing on m29 opening for Dead 50s cd release party. Other bands on the March 14 show are 3 Star, Parallax Project, Condition K. That's 4 bands. All very good bands. 3 Star is Torr's band, from Eureka Bone. A great band. Parallax Project is Gilbin's band from Cherry Twister. They've been playing the popfests, IPO, etc., from Lancaster, but, they're playing this because this is a special show. Condition K is Manian from Stereo Logic and Kyle from Julian Fist. I don't know enough to say they're great, but if they bring the hooks of Julian Fist and the sound of Stereo Logic, plus Manians charisma and voice, they're a winner. My plan is to be there. Of course Lauren might be unhappy about something, so all bets would be off. Next day 3/15 Martini Bros and Jet Silver at Gullifty's. Nice. I'm looking forward to that. That's a guaranteed party. The Bros have new material, and you might not have seen Jet Silver since they've been back in action. Perhaps one of them will play the MC5's Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa. 3/21 at Gullifty's Mad Revere, The Underwater, The Witnesses. Well, let's talk about The Underwater right away. Jesse is no longer the drummer. Advice, that I might give in much greater detail later, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors are not your friend. Heroin good, prozac, bad. Alcohol good, Zoloft, bad. Jesse left after less than 2 months on Prozac. FUCK YOU ELI LILLY. I hear D'arey's coming back, though. Anyway, The Underwater WILL DEFINITELY be back at double strength for the Chameleon show. Word from the Underwater camp is, shockingly enough, don't worry about shows that aren't THE SHOW, which is in April at the Chameleon. They will be it at that time, but they don't want to cancel other shows. The Underwater show "to see" is the Chameleon show. You'll hear about it here of course. I'm looking forward to to BIG UNDERWATER SHOW AT THE CHAMELEON. Mad Revere. Great band, great guys, excellent afterparties. Wear clean socks. Playing at 10 at Gullifty's on The Witnesses night. Opposite at Underdog is Mary Prankster from about 10:30 to close and opener. 9:30 - 10:15. This opener is part my responsibility. Who should that be? I want Mary Prankster and The Witnesses to be hanging out, having a good time. Mad Revere is a likely solid place. My place is ok. Who you think? This is actually important to me. And, now The Witnesses. The Witnesses got the midnight slot on Saturday at The Hilton at MMC, and blew us all away. They will be on their way back from SXSW in Austin. They were snowed in at the Hilton for 2 extra days, missed important stuff, all MMC will be in attendance. Like Silvertide last year, The Witnesses are the band to be shown the love. I really, really, really want them to come to the afterparty, and I promise - no Sambuca. And you and Mary Prankster will get along well. Mary is playing at Underdog that night 3/21. I'll be there early, telling Mary that she should go to the afterparty with The Witnesses. Still trying to find the Mary opener. Next day (3/22) is the Badlees. Pete rocks. Red Bull. That Red Bull came in handy. I want to go to The Badlees show and say hey to Pete. I've known Pete for years, as many of you have, but I had a great time with Pete at MMC. I really shouldn't have to tell you about The Badlees. I've been impressed by the recent promotions and such, though. Anyway, Pete is cool, definitely. Of course, all above modified by what Lauren wants. 3:00pm Friday 3/7 PA ROCKS NIGHT TONIGHT!!! - The 1st one in like, close to 2 years. Underdog Friday 3/7 with The Underwater, Sceva, Thirteen Over Eight, Mad Revere. It's a last minute show, pretty much, Thirteen Over Eight and Mad Revere were added just yesterday, The Underwater and Sceva on Monday. These are all super hot bands. Check them out. $3 cover. Not bad. 21+. I'll have to go up there and do the mic thing. This is definitely a show you want to see. If you like the power-pop, alt-country thing, Firehouse is strong with Case 150 and The Stapletons. But, seriously, 4 top bands for 3 bucks. The Underwater, Sceva, Thirteen Over Eight, Mad Revere. Good afterparty too, I think. 8:30pm Wednesday 3/5 I should start typing this shit again. MMC Thursday. Clusterfuck, run around, Teresa wants her badge, or she'd be fucked blah blah blah, Jeff D - who everyone likes was with. So, the Hilton and the Laminates. Then to Violets - wonderful place, saw Ed Pennypacker, always good to see Ed, he ended up hanging a lot with The Witnesses on snow Sunday - doing extreme snow sports or whatnot. Very cool. So, nice and chill at Violets for Woodwork, good band. Then to Firehouse for Junior. Kyle cancelled, so long delay. A lot of Team John MMCers were in the house for that, so that was cool. Junior played well, from Austrialia, on XPN. Off to Dragonfly. Way too long with the DJ Bullshit - it really was killing me. Song after horrid song of wretched bullshit - songs that I would turn off the radio. Eventually I went over and begged the DJ to let Jah Works play. Strong set from a great band. Chris Keith was there, Nicole, Stenger were there. They got to see Fighting Gravity. Jeff D. met Nicole, I wasn't there, but generally I'd say that was all good. I went home and encoded the Junior clip and the Jah Works clip. (I usually do that to the MMC site, the "yup, look it's happening" stuff. Underdog I hear was good, a lot of personal favorites of the other papers or music sites, so they could all bond. That couldn't have worked out any better. Some thought that Cyphillis should've been upgraded, I couldn't disagree, but what can ya do sometimes. That's enough Thursday recap. 6:30am Thursday 2/27 Ok, We all love Karen O., no doubt. ART STAR. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. What about all-girl country-core, or rnb-core. We love Andrea Z. All-girl Emo core. I've been trying, but, like Democrats, it's like herding cats. I should have 4 front persons in one band doing truly new stuff. Need a hot girl drummer that can go roooooooooaaaaaaaaahhhhh. Or just a hot girl drummer. Matt can write anything in no time. Yeah, yeah, yeah's plus 1. Just a project. Use all the headliners from the area. I've been talking about this one for a while. We could do a big bunch of this at an afterparty. Jesse is very approachable. Talk to Jesse. That's Jesse from The Underwater, Jesse from ZAO. 5:30am Thursday 2/27 Ok, great MMC - best ever. Full recap later, some other day. Look at M 21 and M 28. M 21 I like. The Witnesses. Coming back from SXSW. They knocked us all out on the main stage Saturday MMC. The Underwater (yes) and Mad Revere opening. Vs Mary Prankster at Underdog. Hopefully a good opener like Jenn London. Anticipating a great afterparty. That's becoming so important these days. M 28 The Bennies Gullifty's - nice - Fossil Record is a go to CD for me. Steve Albini, Frank Black. Nice. Still TBA on the openers. Gullifty's March is sweet up and down the line Rotoglow twice 14, 29. 10:00am Sunday 2/2 Ok, before MMC preview part 1, I'd like to tell you all about the internet. 1 - don't believe everything you read on a message board. If PA Rocks is the sender, it doesn't necessarily mean that I'm the sender. The same thing is true with email. If something comes from @parocks.com, it's not necessarily from me or someone I gave a @parocks.com email address to. It's like shooting someone with a gun. You can buy a gun, walk up to a person, and shoot them in the head. That's easy, and illegal. Same things true with getting software, putting in someone elses email address and sending. Easy, and illegal. That happened to me less than 24 hours ago, that's why I mentioned it. It's kinda funny, but I don't want to care about it. Now to MMC preview part 1. Well, Matt from Tribunal Records will be in town to see The Underwater. I'm happy. My MMC booth will be a PA Rocks / Tribunal Records booth. Actually, it will be a Tribunal Records booth. Last year, and the year before, Shannon and Melanie did a great job with the booth, I had pretty much nothing to do with it. This year, they aren't doing the booth, so I figured why bother. I'm usually asleep at 1pm anyway. Shannon and Melanie should have lams, so you might see them at the conference, but if not I think they'll be at nighttime venues. Anyway, Tribunal Records will have my booth, and they will be selling "Bleed Me Blue" the new CD by The Underwater. Get it. Matt from Tribunal Records will also be on the Indie Label panel, so you can talk to him there, and he also might me a mentor, giving you personal advice. Not to distract from the "all The Underwater, all the time" philosophy, but there are plenty of great speakers / mentors at MMC this year. Rick Goetz - Elektra is on the confirmed panelist list, he was at Dewey, and he's a great guy, and we saw some great bands there. I'm looking forward to seeing him and steering him to The Underwater. (The Underwater had 2 shows scheduled at Dewey, and their old bass player bailed? at the last minute, and I was like, "I didn't hear", I was in Dewey and didn't give a cell number, so I was like, sorry Rick, they're really good. Apparently, I hear later, Rick is a good bud of Paul Conroy, who came in to York from NYC to see The Underwater, and we had a good ol time at Murph's, along with The Rev and Mike of The Syndicate.) More Dewey I guess here. Along with the constant Rotoglow party ... The Rotoglow party is constant. Party with Rotoglow. I want to mention Kristen Kwolek (formerly of Tin Pan Alley) she's a very pretty girl, good singer, and excellent shopper. I stayed at Dewey an extra day, and I was too drunk to drive and Dewey Beach was out of cigs and she went to an extra store to get me cigs. Hurray for Kristen. She has the qualities that mass numbers of people in places like Hardware bar would appreciate and want to see again. I recommend Hardware Bar getting her in on a regular basis. Another band that caught my attention at Dewey was Sully. I spent a certain amount of time talking to their manager, Lisa, who is very cool. Sully is from Canada, and couldn't do MMC this year because they're doing CBC's Great Canadian Music Dream - which was described to me by Lisa as like Canada's American Idol, but this one seems actually cool. The comparison, I guess, is that they're both national TV. Here, the band does their own thing. Let's all hope Sully wins. It's a voting thing, and you can vote for Sully - http://cbc.ca/musicdream/vote.html Oh, before Sully was Niki Barr. John Train from PA Musician was right when he said that Niki Barr could be a next thing. Niki played MMC before, her spot wasn't the choicest, but sometimes that happens, certainly those who scan the pics in took notice, and were ready. Smokin hot, about Darcie age, yet her stage patter never referred to how exciting it was to be drunk. Super good. A memorable moment of the Dewey Beach Music Conference was when I dragged her, pretty much, oh she was all warm and sweaty, over to Rick (see above). Was anti-climactic, as they'd already met. Would've see her at Whitaker on NYE, except I started 18 hours early, and I didn't want to risk another Brave the Day headwound. Short recap of Dewey - late summer, tons of stuff is free, it's a growing conference. Oh, I should make sure that VIKKI WALLS gets the lions share of credit for it, along with Alex. MMC - So, is there anyone here that just wants to see good bands? Anyone anywhere? John and Vikki are pretty much in charge of picking the bands, but I had more call this year, so I want to see those bands, bands that I put in rooms to fit with other bands, bands that I haven't seen before. I talked to a local music person like myself about what they wanted to do, and they wanted to "show love." I'm in favor of showing love. I see so many show by so many bands, over and over again. The person wanted to "show love" to Emily's ToyBox. Well, they're at 7. Hey, Road Rage sounds like Active Rock. People who like to listen to the X might like that song. I'm the Bomb sounds like mall punk, which The X does not play. Anyway. Ok, "my" shows. Violets on Saturday. 6 bands from New York City. Violets isn't a big club, or a hugely popular club. Eh. It's got a cool jukebox. Anyway, it's big enough for 6 GREAT bands from NYC. Resume-wise, they've all got it, CMJ, SXSW, contests, competitions. PURE QUALITY, with the NYC cool that's hip now. I'll tell you, when I heard stuff I liked, and J and V didn't so much I said - "my box" - which was stuff I wanted to look at longer. My box went to 3 places, one was Saturday Violets. Another was The Why're on Friday. INDIE. Gist is opening for The Underwater on 2/7 Friday Gulliftys. Morals Galore. Miranda Sound (moved to Saturday) The Beans. The Bennies. I'm listening to the Bennies right now. The Bennies are from Dillsburg. Steve Albini engineered their most recent album "Fossil Record" They just got off a lengthy tour with Frank Black and The Catholics. See em, or not. I haven't talked to them about playing Gullifty's, but they should, so, um, maybe, expect to see them at Gullifty's with a cool band like The Underwater. The other night that I crafted was Whitaker Friday. That's a super strong show. Unfortunately, The Others couldn't play their 7p slot, because I was looking forward to dragging people from the Hilton (1 block away) to see them. (They're on the pop-punk / mall punk (high quality btw) night at the Whitaker on Sat) So, now, apart from Jukebox Hero, quality from CD, but I haven't seen live. This bill is the future of active rock. young bands, hence the all-age venue. I've seen and enjoyed via satellite, mad revere, The Underwater (of course) - Thirteen Over Eight (ok, I haven't seen em, but Jared was in D'arey October, and I was down 100% with D'arey October - I still believe I should've done more, else they'd still be together. "Fighting The Moon" is still an album you should listen to, now. Raw girl is hot now, and D'arey was a raw girl on Fighting. Nickelodeon wanted "Can You" as a theme song for a game show, not sure how that turned out. I have nice video footage of D'arey talking about burning her place of employment "down to the ground". Avril? - Eh? D'arey was real punk. Get that album, they're long broken up, but Fighting the Moon still has it) Ok, Thirteen Over Eight, great band, they have label interest as well as The Underwater. Sceva, some have said that, next to The Underwater, they might be the next ones to go. I'm a fan of melodic hardcore, emocore, whatnot, I like to see the action. Sceva is good. Ok, those are just the MMC shows that I at least feel I had something to do with the picking of the bands, or whatnot. Are there other great bands? OH YEAH. Let's look at Friday, and Underdog and Hilton. Friday at the Hilton is The X night. Emily's Toybox, Negative Space, the local heavy hitters, Mercury, and Klear. The Badlees just got moved in. But heavy rock? Yes! Gargantua Soul and Spinebelt. Those are great bands, and would have made a great addititon to, or a bad subtraction from the Underdog bill. Anthrophobia is on that bill, and we all must give props to Frank Phobia, and everything that he's doing, right now. Um, E-Town Concrete appears to have an open slot on that Friday. Move blah to blah, put E-Town Concrete in there. Would've been better to have Anthro, Spine, E-Town, Gargant, and maybe Eastcide, but, eh, I'm not in charge. Eh, that's a bill that didn't go perfect because bands got upgraded to what's considered the best stage. You can't feel too bad about that. What about Scott's on Friday? That's a nice bill. Virginia I met last year, I hope she stays on the 4th floor again, Amber deLaurentis won some huge 35k price, Sarah Fimm has some 200k mp3.com downloads, and you all love Julie Schreiber. That's pure quality. What about the John and Vikki stuff. Vikki has talent for picking this stuff. See the American Music Awards a couple weeks back? Moe Loughrin was singing her song, which was on the MMC comp, live on network TV, prime-time. We all fight, but, look, there, she was very right. Vikki knows power-pop, brit-pop, punk-pop, all things pop cept, maybe, britney spears or whatnot. She's good. A lot of the venues have her mark power-pop, pop, etc. It is quality. Aside from that, she's got exceptional persuasive skills. JH is in charge of the conference. None of these things get done without JH's approval.

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