Publishers Notes Archive 8:00 am Sunday 12/17 Ok, I got a request for a review from Team A Utopian Skyline, so, um, here goes. "Regarding A Utopian Skyline, I agree with what Jeff Royer said. Fly Magazine is considered by most to be the leading music publication in South Central PA, and Jeff, who is in a great band, Movies With Heroes, knows his stuff." 8:00 am Tuesday 12/12 Aight. Muse. I'll say the biggest band in the world. They got the juice. It's there. So why are some songs just not great, not GREAT! Where is the basement guy? JM and D know. 6:00 am Tuesdsy 12/12 A pretty violent day, but now after many revisions, look, shit I think that B wont run downstairs to edit or whatever. Tongue Party, which everyone remembers as the hottest mid 90s band is rumored to return. I'm looking forward to it. J I think has RR on a U vid? Maybe? Is that too much? Looking forward. But America needs a big Tongue Party. Tongue Parties guitarist is the best in the land. Looking forward to a future of Muse and truly crazy, beautiful guitar. Wembley level in the States is probably too much to ask, but, that is what I WANT. 9:00 am Saturday 12/9 Muse tix going on sale right about NOW! Thats the Wembley Stadium show in June. 75k. First one booked since reopen. Huge, massively fucking huge. Who is gonna play on it? Well, I hope that Muse thinks about the States on this one. Knows that radio can't be the be all / end all on it. So, if you were Muse, and you wanted to tour with someone in the States, who would it be? The Mars Volta? I mean, Muse is giving a 2nd slot in front of 75k people at Wembley Stadium, that's STADIUM. Sure, of course The Underwater should be on all the dates ;-) but seriously, who? Who should Muse give that crazy huge Wembley spot to for touring? Incubus? Is a Muse, Incubus, The Mars Volta tour a hot tour in the states? Leftsetz, write about this. Muse at Wembley Stadium is huge. I'm pretty sure that's a fact. I'd very much like to see that huge fact work in their favor in the US. My Chem? Somehow I don't think so. But there aren't a ton of choices. Thurston Moore is the new guitarist of Guns and Roses. Ok, that band would be cool. Rose, Fleming, Moore, The Rummager, Mascis. That band, Muse, Mudhoney, MC5, Stooges, Blue Cheer. Yes, King Crimson, ELP. I really don't know. I hear Tongue Party might be reuniting. But, Muse 75k Wembley Stadium is hot. 6:00 am Saturday 12/9 Ok, might as well recap the last couple weeks. Fresh content and all. Today, right now, we got like 15-20 sleeping in the Shady Dell. The Underwater, The Feds, The Upwelling, various ladies (none here). The Underwater, The Feds, The Upwelling just played at The Blue Star. It was solid. A great show for the Blue Star (a long time rock venue in Lancaster), at least in terms of quality. Last night (Thurs) was Betty's Bones, The Feds, The Lookies at Gullifty's. That was pretty big, pretty hot. 100+ I'd say. Gullifty's was quite happy. Betty's Bones (Top New Band of 2006) will be doing a residency at Gullifty's this December, every Thursday. I predict all those shows are gonna be hot. Next time up is Blonde Hair Blue Eyes with Betty's - That's Lake Trout plus Val Yumm (think Mary Prankster) (kinda). I might be there. Here's a little trivia about yesterdays Betty's show. The Lookies are (kinda, basically) Team Shorty. I did their website back in the day (2000?) Betty's has Thomas Cooper (getting married to Katie Connolly, congratulations), who, before being in Running From Dharma, was in Function 45, who I did the website for. So, like, I go to this show with the Feds (who live here with me at the Shady Dell this month), and I see Betty's Bones and The Lookies as well. Betty's Bones is Lauren Marshall, let's call her someone who was in an adjoining room of mine at MMCwhatever in Feb 2003, Robby Gallagher, ex The Underwater (and props to his sister, who left here a coupla hours ago) , and Thomas Cooper, ex Function 45. The Lookies are Red and Rum of Team Shorty (go back down and read all the VELVET MONKEYS RAKE BABY stuff in past years) and The Feds. It's nice to have fun without The Underwater technically being part of the show. Um, skip back to Saturday last. That was Rex's. Rex's is great. The spirit of rock is alive at Rex's. I often get too drunk there. It reminds me of the Rat in Boston, and Club Asylum in Exile on U Street in DC. The rock vibe is there. So, that was a good show, Feds, UW, of course. Dropping Daylight, who I had a hand in getting on the show, because they were hanging here, and I was like "I see you have a day off" (Breaking Benjamin show xcl), and it happened. (Dropping Daylight is fantastic by the way, moving up the rock charts with their hit "Tell Me" The X is having a radio show for em at West Shore Hardware Bar on maybe Jan 24? Anyway, the big surprise to me was this band Count Von Count. Cool Stoner Rock band. Not the best Stoner Rock band in the world, but I loved it. Damn. It's good to see rock bands that just play rock that I like. Not commercial, but good. Get drunk on Pabst, listen to stoner rock. Like Count Von Count. Sounds Good. If you cant get what you absolutely need to have to make you happy, it's good to have beer and stoner rock. Right before that was chillin in Philly. Top Notch. Before that was Day 2 in New Haven. The show was ok, there were a couple people there, I think. Dan either poured wax on me, or didn't, but he knows who did (I was sleeping). Doesn't really matter. The trailer got hit outside the venue. Before that was the bowling. I screwed up my knee I think because I didn't wear the bowling shoes. Before that, Rite Aid comes through. Before that was walking around New Haven (sexy Yale area). Bran and Jessica worked hard to get footage of me wearing stupid clothes from Urban Outfitters. Apparently "Bad Ideas" are the new "Good Ideas". Hot food market in New Haven. Sleep. Show in Hamden (New Haven suburb) at a cool venue (The Space), another good 10+ turnout. The Matts stripped down to the underwear. Lots of stress, analysis of what had happened earlier today. Before that, drinks at bar, where they got me a cool rubber band for my hair which I'm still wearing (big ups to that bar). Before that, stressful ride recapping the days events. Before that, meeting with their (then) manager McGathy (In de Goot) (I was in the car with Bert and Jessica) where he said (paraphrasing) "dance with the one who brung ya" and then terminated their relationship. 9:00 am Tuesday 11/28 About the Video Playlist above. I think I'm gonna put the new videos I do at the top of the playlist. New Content, check back often, etc. One thing to note about youtube is that they have a category called "most linked". They have time and genre subcategories. I'm thinking it might be a decent way to get exposure to appear on those youtube "charts" of sorts. most linked today means "of the videos that were uploaded in the last 24 hours, these were linked to the most" most linked this week means "of the videos that were uploaded in the last week, these were linked to the most" So, if you wanna get on that chart, you'll want to start driving people to the site immediately. It's fairly easy to get on the most linked / music / today charts - often, one link in'll do it, and most linked / music / this week, less that 10'll work. So, you know, if you like the videos - and they are of pretty good quality, it ain't 1999 anymore, and I'm using a decent dv and decent external mics - stop by often, check the video, and send a link to youtube, get em on that chart. So what else is new? Lots of people at the Shady Dell right now it appears. The Feds (from Dallas, see video playlist above) have been here for a couple weeks and will be here a couple more. Great band, great guys - playing shows in the Northeast with The Underwater. And it appears that right now the Dropping Daylight RV is in the parking lot. So, I guess there's like around 20 people sleeping here this am. Dropping Daylight btw is a great band, on Octone Records (Maroon 5). The Underwater played with them up in Albany a month or 2 ago - that was a pretty fun show, Dropping Daylight are great guys and their first single "Tell Me" is getting good airplay - top 20 on WBSX Wilkes-Barre. Keep an eye out for Bonepony's stuff - they had all their stuff stolen recently - it was it Nashville, but ya never know. They're a good band - they're playing in Annapolis tomorrow (Wed 29). Hi Jen. 7:00 am Saturday 11/3 The Blood Brothers are wearing on me 100x better than Borat is. 5:00 am Saturday 11/3 NEW BAND OF THE YEAR UPDATE Hey, first I wanna say that Pariah Piranha did (i think, i was there but in the front row) about 150-200 their first show at Murph's. It was pretty crazy. Here's the video for that. But it was definitely a way packed show at Murph's. Betty's Bones did great at Gullifty's on their cherry night - I wasn't there, I heard "packed" and 200. They were playing with Bravetheday and Blonde Hair Blue Eyes. The Masquerade seems to open for The Underwater a lot. Leo is hanging out with All-American Rejects these days, he'll be back in a while. Bucky can sing. Yeah, and I'll be feeding ya The Underwater, The Feds, The Upwelling real soon just like up there. Actually, check back every day or so, new shit added to the playlist. New "most linked" "music" "today" and "this week" check it every so often, I'll be filling the playlists for those three bands last to first, seeing how it goes, but they all kicked ass (as expected) last night. 7:00 pm Tuesday 10/10 A happy 23d birthday to Liz and Darcie. 10:00 am Thursday 10/5 I rarely see sucky, or even half sucky, bands these days. That's a good thing about hanging out with The Underwater. I've seen Dropping Daylight, The Feds, Tears of Mars, Quiet Drive, The Drama Club, off the top of my head. tons more, real recent. bands like The Feds, The Upwelling, Voodoo Blue, Hotspur, hopefully Betty's Bones, Pariah Piranha, I remember the days when I saw bands all the time, and often, they weren't extremely high quality. I'm booking Gullifty's Thursdays Oct-Dec (or thereabouts) Angling for a residency all 3 months, plus more (the feds) I have my eye on 2 in particular for real sweet residencies in Nov and Dec, but it remains to be seen how that's gonna work. Those really could be hot hot shows. Headliner power (some) to the band that has the residency. If interested myspace me myspace.com/parocks. 10:00 am Thursday 9/28 So, Gullifty's is having The Sex Pistols Experience on Thursday October 4. I need to research that a bit. It could in theory be really cool. The Feds, a rock band from Dallas, TX, are gonna be in town all November and part of December, staying at the Shady Dell or next door. They got a real tight set as it is, maybe they could do the MC5 Experience or the Blue Cheer experience, the Television experience, the Gang of Four experience, the Mudhoney experience, whatever. The Underwater, The Upwelling, Voodoo Blue, they could all do that. If not at Gullifty's, then at one of the Dell parties. It would be kinda cool. Just like play "Superfuzz Bigmuff plus..." all the way through. and then someone'll do "Entertainment!" and then "Vincebus Eruptum" And someone has to tackle "as long as I have you" Maybe Betty's Bones can tackle "Electric Warrior" on a more mellow night. Maybe on the same night #1 Record/Radio City. And if Darcie, Rebecca, Lauren(s), Caroline, Tara, Liz(? -approve that) etc etc etc can all handle the new Peaches, that'd be great. I remember "udderly fowl" from like 10 years ago or so, Artful Dodger, Jimi and Mary. They were having fun. Fun sounds like a thing to have more of. Blue Cheer is gonna be in the area, why doesn't someone like Eric/Bastard buy them for one of their shows at Dfly. I mean Blue F'n Cheer. Think between 11/3 and 11/11 maybe. You know you gotta raise a fuss. Many say they invented metal, more say they invented stoner rock. I bought a blue cheer shirt to counter adrocks mc5 shirt that he seems to change into all the time, and this was before i knew they were touring. 9:30 am Thursday 9/28 I'm listening to Sick Lipstick right now. This is an old album I think, I got it on my hard drive 10/9/04 I think fans of yyy's art star would like this. I mean, i'd like the yyy's more if they sounded more like this and less like they do now. more like art star. I'm very happy about the grammy thing. But you know, more like art star, sick lipstick. Craziness, newness, be leaders on that. Blow me away with inventiveness. But, you know, a label gives you $$$, you gotta have hits, apparently the ideal number is 4 now. 4 undeniable hits and a 2 year push. 8:00 am Thursday 9/28 Or it could be how many more times. Hunter goes right into Mulberry Bush. 4/27. They call me the hunter. how many more times, the hunter, mulberry bush. they're fighting, time to stew crazilee, "they call me the hunter" fighting, flipping out, then like "here we go round the mulberry bush" and they're flipping out killing everybody "looking for a way out of this terrible" and it's like a mess there. JP could afford to get that movie made. 7:30 am Thursday 9/28 If there was footage of Manson at that concert in SF in 4/69, it'd be good. Probably isn't. I have a lot of footage of people at Underwater shows. If we could get one of those people to murder a famous actress now, in 30-40 years, that's be good footage for a movie. It might not be best to encourage people to murder, to play it safe, we might just want to have a whole bunch of murderers at the show. 6:30 am Thursday 9/28 Anybody know what's wrong with the Beatles song "Taxman"? I dunno. I read somewhere, Lef probably, about how it's important for everything to be universal, and certainly Mr. Wilson and Mr. Heath are not US. Which brings me to thinking about everything. Why not a pure election EP like around Labor Day 2008? Downloads, or whatnot. Not a 4 single, 2 year extravaganza, but like a quick hit upside the head. It's not like production costs or distribution costs are really ANYTHING anymore. The top bands should get away from the labels and start charging for whatever. Hire people who can work supercheap, who can figure out how to turn whatever they want to do into $ for them. Is there a big rock band now? Underoath maybe? Muse? Provide tons of product on the website. $1 a download maybe for a song, or 3 songs. Maybe in pure wav format, or Flac, or whatever. If Matt Bellamy wants to write a song about the US elections and release it for free on the website, It'd be cool. Charge a dollar, cool. Video of it download free or a dollar. Perfect quality. Just - boom - there it is. No talking about it, it's just there. But it for a dollar. I have all the new releases pretty much, killers, jet, etc this week. I can go to the radio webpages and figure out what's coming out when and have it downloaded way before I can buy it. But like, f that. Just write a song, upload it, and start asking for a buck a song, or a quarter, who knows? Everybody should have protools or whatever, something cheap and adequate for the radio sound. Hey, here's some new music. There's so much that you can charge for if you're a big band. They want your shit "Ebay - band shit" and stuff like "pay a dollar and like like this zip file of 100 pix from this band shoot. all pix are like 3000x2000 or somesuch" It's silly, but I remember being a big Zeppelin fan, and the fact that the last 4 cassette bootlegs sucked didn't stop me from buying the 5th. If you're big enough, live dvd of every show. downloadable within 24 hours of the end of the show. you might have to walk away from the labels to be able to do that. Hire people who know how to do all that. Who can organize, structure those releases, get everything together. Personally, I try to collect Zep boots to look for the definitive version of "As Long As I Have You" I'm digging the sound of 4/27/69. But I want the best "Mulberry Bush" I can get. Or was Mulberry Bush in How Many More Times? If I was Jimmy Page, I'd want ASLAIHY as like on a soundtrack or something. Like Sunshine or Layla in one of those Good Fellas movies. Turn it up and down over like 15 minutes of the movie. Zep has awe-inspiring material the people have never heard before, oh yeah, no doubt about that. Maybe the move could be set in april 69, or 69. has there been a top-notch movie about Manson? oscar-winner, directed by stone or rodriguez? Have some beach boys, some beatles of course, but like a mostly "silent" section, where the action goes down, and it's mostly as long as i have you. Like opening the trunk at the layla coda, that kinda effect, but 15 minutes long. write the action to the song. 4:30 am Thursday 9/28 I read this Bible Verse about love at my Grandfathers service a few weeks back, it was about love and how love was important. It was kinda like this: oh you can hang out with the rock bands and fun, quality people, top of the line, world class, but without love you are nothing. Anyway, that's how I heard it. Never disagreed with it. Always thought that I would have to wait a long while, and of many of the top top quality girls that I loved, one would love me. It really is a decent long term stategy I think. I love some pretty fantastic girls. 4:00 am Thursday 9/28 I hear from Brandon that things are going good. I shouldn't be a dickhead or whatever about shit. Yeah, I mean, they've toured extensively with Underoath, played a few recently with Shinedown, played a festival in Europe with Nickelback. Paid their dues in warped tour land and red rock land. Top friends with both. Still buddies with Incubus I think. Muse (Dom) hangs out at my house. So, you know, labels, how many more "undeniable hits" have to be written? So, like, I went through this with Halestorm from April 1999 to like 2003 maybe. I know that The Underwater is gonna be massive sometime, like I know that Halestorm is. but you know all this not rock star quite yet shit isn't that great. Who do you think the underwater should hang out with now? send an email to parocks@parocks.com or my myspace.com/parocks - sorry i'm to lazy to do the code, just copy and paste whatever. I have to say that I have to give props to the underwater. I'm thinking that people like Lauren K and Caroline would likely drop by the wayside when they leave if there isn't something interesting about me that they want to get in touch with. something relevant, or whatnot. But, you know, I'd like a good life, and i've been pretty dogmatic to my friends, the underwater, ted, about my willingness to accept a fairly low quality woman 200+, institutionalized (prison + mental) and I'm still into that. But I'm also starting to think that it doesn't work that way at all. Girls with 70iqs aren't like going holy shit, that guy is so much smarter than me. I'm actually finding that i get along best and most productively with the most intelligent people that I talk to. I'd like to have excellent people here all the time. We've had Dom from Muse. 3:00 am Thursday 9/28 I hear that Caroline Rothwell (Nectar, Cosmetic) might be in town this weekend. She was probably the award winner of "top central pa rock girl 1995-2000" pretty much. Counting all those years, there was Nectar, and Caroline, Mary Prankster, and the ones that came in 1999, and there were a bunch of the young ones. 1999 was the year of Halestorm, D'arey October, and Darcie (kinda, she was more 2000). But Caroline was the best in that period (early PA Rocks, from here) I remember talking to her at the Paradox before I started PA Rocks, most likely mid 1996. My mind is telling me now that she told me then to be Nectars manager. I can't really say for sure if my mind is right about that. But I'm gonna give her some pretty ultimate "but for causation props" like, if it's 1996, before PA Rocks, and she's like telling me "be my manager" I might be thinking "well, i don't know if i'm prepared for that exactly right now" but when i saw the internet, I thought i could do that, music wise, whatever, you know. It was like her who told me "do the music thing". Probably about 10 years ago exactly. Hey, maybe we said something like "well, if in 10 years ..," Anyway, The Martini Bros are gonna be in York this Friday at Cherry Lane, and The Underwater is gonna be in York this Friday at the Waterway. Those of you who are friends of Caroline might find her there. I've been myspacing her a little, this might be a great Friday night. If there are any bands that want to play that show with The Underwater, the Waterway show, contact whoever, me or the Underwater. Right now it's just the underwater officially, which is fine with band and venue, but if theres something interesting, worthwhile, theres a place. Quietdrive on Epic might be playing 12 - 1 that area. Who knows? Should be fun. Maybe I'll be with Caroline, seeing the bros, walking over to the waterway, seeing the underwater, maybe quietdrive, maybe going back to the dell, maybe just whatever. It could be good. 8:00 am Sunday 9/24 Maine's not perfect tho. I think there must've been a popular book or something a while ago called "The day I had to wait to cross the street" A very sad tale of the time the lass lost her true love by having to wait to cross the street. So, due to the public outcry about her lost love and the existence of motor vehicles, they decided to implement extremely strict and oddly implemented crosswalk laws. They actually pay attention to crosswalk laws in Midcoast Maine. Those crosswalks in Midcoast Maine actually mean "if you see a crosswalk in the middle of knowhere, there might be someone walking right in front of your car, which is tooling along at 40 miles an hour." In the parts of the United States I know (ie, the United States) crosswalks are considered things you walk across because you don't want to get a ticket for not walking across the steet in a crosswalk. In Maine AS OPPOSED TO THE UNITED STATES (tip of the hat to Lefsetz) people walking across the crosswalk have the right of way. Lets put it this way - treat a crosswalk as seriously as a stop sign. It's weird to be just driving down the road, and have someone walking across the sidewalk swear at you. I did feel bad, and my window was open and I yelled sorry, and I meant it, but just you know verbum sap satiente - something like that, right, I mean, cmon Midcoast Maine, that's just dangerous. There's a fkton of crazy good stuff about Maine, but Maine "plenty of obvious laws are backwards here" isn't it. I'm pretty sure the idea surrounding crosswalks was "Crosswalks - making sure you don't hit someone with your car" not "Crosswalks - making the drivers job more difficult" I will say that, probably (409/62 excepted? and it's hard to argue against the merits of 409/62 - there was a book that I saw, called "best places in the world" or something, and the picture on the front cover was 409/62. Some of The Underwaters saw 409/62. Some complained about the detour from Comm to Marb but I wasn't having any of that, we went there, took a good look. I definitely was stanting there going "top floor - 4th from the left" facing the brick buildings on Marb, glowing golden in the sunset, with the Pru and the JH building, the JH reflecting the sunset. That was crazy. Beat that. For an urban setting in the US, I'm not sure you can. You probably can, but my view from 409/62 was flat out better than the Cambridge based shots that the TV people use. Anyway, we went into Marb Market. I was very big on - look that was my window, we are standing in Marb Market. Now, look at how crazy fn good this place is. I lived there. We are standing here. And Nirvana on the day Nevermind was released was one block that way, 2 blocks that way, up the hill, and back down. Good show. It's hard to explain how good that was. Anyway, Maines real good. It's hard to explain exactly going out to smoke, walking like a minute from the house to the water, sitting on the floating dock feels. It's real good. I've never had quite that experience as part of my life, but it's good. I can say, there are a bunch of great blue herons, I saw a bald eagle - never saw one before. Lots of tiny fish at low tide, 1000s in schools (is that right?) but just bunches of em. Lots of Sandpipers chasing after the fish. And tons of snails. It's interesting, you can like watch the snails move around for a while, the fish swim around, look at the sky, look the water, and the birds doing their thing, the trees, the blue sky, whatever. It's not exactly the specifics, but it's the fact that i'm actually getting relaxed by looking at that, experiencing it etc, pleased by it. Going somewhere, the backyard, a minute away, sitting on a dock, on the water (salt water, or brackish maybe?), salty air, trees, water, it's just really nice, it's odd to be able to go somewhere, just walk to a place, and you get pleased and relaxed just by being there. I can't think of any of place where I felt those specific feelings. I've been pitching to some of my favorites to go up there with me for a few days but no takers yet. Maybe I haven't put the word out enough. 6:00 am Sunday 9/24 Yeah, and this one too. I was in Maine for the last couple weeks. I live here in York PA with The Underwater. It's pretty cool. Not great, but definitely better than whatever you have going on, unless you're like NYC A&R or something like that. I mean, it's south central pa, which kinda sucks. But there isn't any band around here as good as The Underwater, anywhere close. It's pretty cool. But, Maine. Um, kicks ass. Nothing to do, but, um walk out back, sit on the dock, see bald eagles, great blue herons. No people. No evidence of people. Time from door to dock, walking - one minute, two minutes. Best place, perhaps. Quality of life score? 10. I mock those that even consider the alternatives. Sick hot. Blows it all away. Shit yeah, I want the bitches like Lauren K and Darcie to be going there, seeing it living there saying that's what I want and I'm like, yeah let's get married yeah it is perfect (there are other girls too, don't forget you). I mean, you have to remember, York, Harrisburg, etc, really sucks. You check out my spot in Maine, you know I'm right. Let me put to it you this way. I feel that this place, which you can have(ish) is so hot that I can say "look at this, see how hot it is, be here, stay here" and that's all I have to do. So, girls, send in the applications. If you're reading this, yes, you want this. A better lifestyle does not exist. I'm not so bad. If you're a Lauren K type or a Darcie type, I'll help your life, your career. If you just want to have babies, that's cool too, I'm into that. I can do some lawyer thing in Maine maybe. But all this shit is 100% accurate. Live with The Underwater, bug out to unbeatable beautiful Maine, Lawyer.\ Oh, you know Christina's World by Wyeth? It's like one of the most famous American paintings. That's pretty much what we're talking about, ok? That "neck" the Waldoboro, Thomaston neck. Awe inspiring beauty, that kinda thing. yeah, I was hanging about 10 miles from here for a couple weeks, whatever, I can do that whenever I want, whatever. you want that to be your life? no problem. 5:30 am Sunday 9/24 Oh, and this has to be said too. Sure, no doubt that almost all bands around here are, um, let's not say totally worthless, but, let's use another bit of language. I do try to help. It seems that right now we're doing pretty good, I think that if if we keep focused, we'll keep doing good. I hate that rock albums don't sell the way they used to. 90 Million seems "right" but also ridiculous in a HUGE Nickelback 3 Million world. Anyway, whatever. I love our new procedures. I hope we follow them. There's this dude in this band, a decent guy, hanging out here at the dell, if you're a midlevel club in york or a midlevel band in york, you should hook em up. tt me about that. Anyway, cool. Nice seeing Jac. TJ's a lucky one. What else. A bunch more. Tons of girls left PA and went to LA. Erica Bossler(D'arey October) Caroline Rothwell (Nectar, Cosmetic), Julia Othmer, Priscilla Ahn. If I go to LA, I might have something to do there maybe, that's cool. Those are all crazy top girls. 5:00 am Sunday 9/24 allright, so megan, robby's sister was here, saying that robby is in a band with freddy v and that's a priority. Whatever. I'm about Betty's Bones. Now when 2007 rolls around, whatever, but I mean, all this name changing and whatever, I mean, nah. Tons of great bands though. One of the good things about living with The Underwater is that we almost never have to see bad bands. Faggots like John Harris bring in garbage, and we have to deal with that shit, he loses money for venues nearly always and the everyone suffers. The Underwater is working a sound procedure, we might be able to have bands like The Feds, The Upwelling, The Drama Club in town if we keep working at it. 8:00 am Saturday 9/23 About these pictures. I definitely wanted that exact picture, or those 3. Zach played M99 - Feb 1999. I taped that as I mentioned before. He was playing the main stage, which was, I believe, the Ramada, which is now Crowne Plaza. He was 15 at M99. Halestorm played M99. They played City Island Pavillion. I met them at the Conference/Daytime part. A month or two later I started doing their website. Liz's picture has appeared in Publishers notes twice before, with Lauren K back in 2001 and with Julie back in 2002 I think. She was 15 at M99. Brandon, with his first band, Blend, was scheduled to play M99. They too, were scheduled to play City Island Pavillion. Halestorm played on Friday, Blend was scheduled for Saturday. The Saturday show was a pretty good one. Godsmack, Anthrophobia, D'arey October. (I was there, met D'arey October for the first time). I knew Brandon a bit at that time. He ran a popular fan site for Fuel, and I would encode and host realvideo - Fuel stuff, 27, Conan, that kind of stuff, and he would link to it. It was a long time ago. Anyway, he was scheduled to play with Godsmack, and pretty excited about it, but he ran into scheduling conflicts. I guess he was like 14 at the time (maybe 15?). Check this fact. He had to go to Vegas with his folks. We were good about moving Blend back and forth between Friday and Saturday, but, ultimately, he had to go to Vegas. It would've been Blend's first show. After he got back, I was crazy in love with D'arey October, listening to Fighting the Moon over and over again, sleep deprived. I encoded to ra Fighting the Moon, uploaded it to a server, sent Bran the link. Blend's first show shortly thereafter was with D'arey October in Reading. I love that story. I wanted that exact picture, so that I could tell that exact story. I'm happy I got that picture. I wanted to tell that story (probably again). 7:00 am Saturday 9/23 Betty's Bones Check below, I made some changes to the new band of the year thing. Basically, Lauren's band is not called "Stately Affairs" but "Betty's Bones" BTW you should definitely check that out. Impressed. Was able to pull of the T Rex vibe which was aimed for. Anyway, Betty's Bones is Lauren Marshall and Robby Gallagher. First show is with Bravetheday and Blonde Hair Blue Eyes (Lake Trout side project) at Gullifty's on October 13. Betty's Bones Yeah, this is good. It's weird of course because she's been more "Matt's Girlfriend" than "Rock Star" or whatever, but check it out no doubt. I will say that it's not yet 100% sign, i've seen the future, etc, but do check it out. It's cool and odd to watch someone go from civilian to rock, and succeed like that. I expect that the first show there at Gullifty's will likely be pretty huge as these things go. Between Lauren and Robby, I'd say definitely 50, and probably over 100 for them. I want to go, so, you know someone give me a ride or something. I might be doing some UW thing, so I dunno, but I do want to go to that show definitely. 5:00 am Wednesday 8/16 Congratulations to York, PA's Rosematter for signing to Lobster Records, a good, well-known indie label. The current Lobster roster includes Anchors For Arms, Days Like These, First To Leave, Lorene Drive, Mock Orange, Over It, Park, Yellowcard and now Rosematter. Good, good stuff, way to go. I got some more new(ish) live video for ya. Here ya go. A Utopian Skyline, Anthrophobia, Bo Bim, Darcie Miner, Hierosonic, Johnny Action Figure, Lake Trout, Lotus Blue, Mongoloidian Glow, Robby Roadsteamer, Rosematter, Suffrajett, Tea, The Commercials, The Underwater. 10:00 pm Sunday 8/13 Ok, recap some. The last couple days have been cool, rock, etc. The Underwater are on a mini tour with City Sleeps, The Feds and Glass Intrepid. They played Friday at The Loft, playing tonight in Philly, Monday in NYC, Tuesday in Boston, Wednesday in Reading, Friday in Lancaster, Saturday in DC. When these bands are playing around here, they're staying here at the dell. The last 2 nights they were staying here. Good small rock party last night. Good stuff. The Feds, particularly, are noteworthy. They played for an hour (at least) in the barn and rocked - it was more "fun" than the Loft show the night before. I might put the video up. After that, there was an excellent jam with members of The Underwater (Dan), City Sleeps (Adriel), The Feds, Glass Intrepid, and Aaron Miller of A Utopian Skyline. That's the good stuff. More of that. It's always good to have musicians over jamming, etc., in those situations. Later, Leo and Ducky of The Masquerade and Lauren Marshall of Betty's Bones stopped by, a bit late for the jamming, but good to see them. Anyway, good stuff, the good kind of rock party. Now, to be hyping the hot new bands around here!!! The Masquerade and Betty's Bones and Pariah Piranha are the 3 best new bands in the area in 2006. Let's put this in award form. Awards: Best New Band of 2006 The Masquerade, Betty's Bones, Pariah Piranha So, that's like, a tie. So, The Masquerade, Betty's Bones, Pariah Piranha are all "Best New Band of 2006" About these bands. The Masquerade is Leo, ex Halestorm, The Midnight Drive, Dan, ex The Midnight Drive, Ducky and RJ. They played their first show a coupla weeks ago at Gullifty's and kicked ass. Emocorerock. Commercial. Stately Affairs is Lauren Marshall (and others) Lauren has an excellent voice, doing Indie rock/pop. Pariah Piranha is Tara of (ex?) Bo Bim, Kristin and Andrea of Via Satellite. Tara does the singing, and it sounds like Bo Bim, but more certainly in Indie-land. Less commercial than Bob Bim. Also to be included on this list would be Robby Gallaghers new band that he's doing with Freddy V. But, I'm not sure they have a name yet, so, you know. But, anyway, Robby Gallaghers new band, if it's playing in 2006, is also "Best New Band of 2006". (OK, revisionism, Robby is in Betty's Bones) There ya go. Let's see, more stuff. A couple weeks back, The Underwater played in Boston at The Paradise Rock Club, which is an excellent venue. I went there fairly often when I lived in Boston. Saw the BCN Rumble there. (I was a fan of Zug-Zug, a Boston band at the time). Chatted with Lenny Kravitz outside The Paradise once, I think he was a judge or MC of the Rumble. Also saw Masters of Reality (with Ginger Baker) there and Rory Gallagher, and I think Johnny Winter (that might've been The Channel, though). Good place, legendary. Anyway, UW played there a coupla weeks ago. Not too many people there, as they were playing first. No big deal, huge numbers for Robby Roadsteamer though. The big upside was that Lauren K, ex PA Rocks writer, ex Stereo Logic (Manian from Condition K was the singer of Stereo Logic), was there. Lauren K is an all-time favorite and we did get to spend quite a while, like 2-3 hours or so talking, so that was really great. 10:00 am Sunday 7/2 Ok, now that was good, real real good. For so many different reasons. Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom June 30. Starland Ballroom July 1. Shinedown, Trapt, Halestorm, The Underwater. I had a big smile on my face a lot. I pretty much got back an hour or 2 ago from NJ. I have a smile now, still, thinking about it. Um, I guess the theme is, rock stars I've known a long time. Let's start with something you might not know (I didn't until a couple weeks ago). Zach Myers is one of the guitarists for Shinedown now. It was so great to see him up there rocking out, playing guitar, singing, in front of 2-3k screaming, happy fans. It looked like he was having fun, and that was great. Great. And everything is going so well with him. That's great. He has another band, called The Fairwell (I did that site for a real short period of time) They're signed now, Warner (sub?). He looked very much like a full fledged rock star up on that stage, looking great. Great great stuff. Expect to see The Fairwell around these parts when Shinedown isn't touring or in the studio. So that's Zach. You all know Zach. Vikki managed Zach (manages? - I didn't ask). Played MMC a few times, first time in 1999 (I was there, taped it, realvideo online, etc). Played Hbg venues outside of MMC a few times, Gullifty's. Well known here, well liked here. He's an honorary Central PA guy, and you all should be happy for him, rooting for him. Halestorm. On Atlantic. Been touring for about 6 months now. Doing this tour, did Sno Core before that. Been playing to between 2-5k people 6 nights a week solid. They haven't yet recorded a debut studio album, haven't yet gotten a big radio push. Not yet famous, not yet a household name. But fans? Definitely yes. She's definitely a star. Me and Matt were watching the Hampton show from up in one of the skyboxes, one giving a great vantage point on the crowd. She got it. They love her. If you know Halestorm (for some background, scroll down, read Publishers Notes, mostly 1999-2002) you know what I'm talking about. The voice and the charisma have always been there. Anyway. She's always had it, and it translates really really well to larger stages. Sure, she's definitely better, but she always had it. Smile on my face to see Halestorm do great, even without a studio record and radio and all that. It's not gonna be long at all til they're headlining venues like Hampton and Starland, and everyone is there to see them, loving them. The Underwater. Going in, I didn't know what to expect. I knew that they were gonna be playing with Shinedown, Trapt and Halestorm. When I heard that, I was psyched to see Halestorm. I wasn't really sure how they "fit" with S,T,H. When I heard Zach was in Shinedown (that info got to me from Bran, who got that from Pam Saunders), that really put a smile on my face. (An aside, Trapt is managed by Zig Zag, Shinedown and Halestorm are managed by In de Goot, and The Underwater is co-managed by both) I wasn't surprised to see The Underwater play a couple dates on the tour, the Zach thing was the surprise. Anyway, The Underwater had never played in NH before (MA, yes), never played with Shinedown or Trapt (Halestorm, yes), and they don't exactly play a Shinedown or Trapt style of Active or Mainstream rock. So, I didn't know. Well, it went very very well. They played great, which is what I expected, and the fans were digging it. Now, I think that Shinedown and Trapt got a better response (ok, I know they did), as did Halestorm (played with Shinedown there or in the area before) but the fans were definitely digging it Nice big (not massive, but big) roars, especially up in NH. Now I don't really want to sound like a broken record but I was kinda surprised at how much the fans (Shinedown fans, Trapt fans) really did dig it. (An aside - new song "Every Road" sounds undeniable to me. Take a listen.) Anyway, that's but one way to look at the last, what, 54 hours. They all did well, I was happy, smiling. Another thing that put a big smile on my face was to watch everyone interacting. Like I've said before, I've known Halestorm and Zach since 99. Since about 2002, it's been all about The Underwater. Other things have been pretty much of secondary importance. Back then, I went "all in" with The Underwater. Then, as now, I felt that they'd be a massive, massive band, among the rock legends. Back in mid 2002, there were a bunch of things on my mind. A bunch of bands. Some bands are better than others. Let me tell you about them. That kind of thing. But I pretty much said screw all that when The Underwater came along. These guys should be huge, and that's about it. Now, that wasn't necessarily a good strategy for PA Rocks, you know, to go from an approach like "lets talk about e very band, be fair, honest, detailed, smart" to "all The Underwater, all the time, plus the other bands, to the extent that those bands are relevant to The Underwater" "Jim, have you turned this into a fan site for The Underwater?" "Very perceptive" Anyway, back to the interacting. So, now Halestorm and Zach are doing great. And they're digging The Underwater. (The Matts and Bran went to Atlantic City with em - the rest back to the Dell). So, it just makes me happy. I know I've been babbling a bit on this one. It's hard to express. I like Zach, Bran is standing there, talking to him or whatnot, they're having fun, making plans, networking. It makes me smile. Everybody is talking, being friends. I don't know. It's really, really good. I can't explain, just real real good. General random impressions of the shows, and random thoughts. Both venues, Hampton and Starland are great. They both treated The Underwater really nice. Everyone treated The Underwater really nice. That was great. I enjoy things like dressing rooms, free food, free drinks. Seeing people you know and like on stage when thousands of people are going nuts at a sold out show is a real good feeling. David Bendeth is awesome. Passionate about music and nice and funny. Nick and Brian from Silvertide (MMC6) were at the Starland show. Nick played a song with Shinedown. Nick can flat out play. MMC10 was last weekend. I wasn't offically participating this year (first time ever) but I woulda stopped by to check something out probably, but I had to go up to Baldwinsville, NY at the last minute. Jealousy Curve played, and Jealousy Curve is real good, so that was good. Their sound guy, good guy, has been running sound for Halestorm on the tour, and ran sound for The Underwater at the shows as well. Had em both sounding great. I'm still interested in MMC, so I read the hbgonline.com message board fairly close to try to fill in the gaps in my knowledge. I heard reports from the house of dell. Hierosonic did good. Julian Fist drew. I hope Darcie did good. Something controversial about Fisaga. Trade Show quiet. I didn't hear anything about panelists. Going back over the years, typically I'm asleep during the day, but these days I'm more interested in industry and all that. I had a theory a couple months back that just doing my thing with The Underwater was going to put me in proximity of more industry than MMC. So, I'm curious about MMC this time around. I mean, I was a panelist a couple times. What was it like this year? Any good producers? It's hard to beat David Bendeth - one of the hottest producers around (Breaking Benjamin will have the #1 album sometime mid Augustish). I'll have some photos from these shows (Liz, Zach, Brandon photo w/ somewhat interesting old story from Feb 1999) if I ever get that film developed. 5:00am Wednesday 6/21 No ones gonna take me alive. Muse Knights of Cydonia Huge Song Huge. Play it. bittorrent theres a lot of hugeness. right now biggest jump all access alternative rock. 4:30pm Thursday 5/25 Greetings from Atlanta, where I'm hanging with The Underwater, shooting video, editing video, etc etc. They're doing pre-production at this house with a studio and an engineer. So, it's cool, the studio is here, the house is here, costs are low (or can be). The Atlanta suburbs (Duluth, GA) are interesting, sorta, 99% of everything is less than 20 years old, so it's all new strip mall after strip mall after strip mall. At any given intersection, it's like - if you take a left, go a mile - there are the full compliment of fast food restaurants, chain restaurants, strip malls with nails places, and a Publix supermarket. If you take a right, same thing down a right. Nobody has really done a heck of a lot here except work in the studio, in terms of going out and doing stuff (Not counting drinking and smoking, which is very frequent). Personally, I would've very much liked to have seen the free show with the Flaming Lips and Big Star in Centennial Park, but I knew that that wasn't gonna happen. I also would've wanted to see Pretty Girls Make Graves, or Liars and Apes, again, knew that wasn't gonna happen. And it might be cool to see Zolof in Marietta (again, not ...). Doesn't matter. Haven't been to Atlanta yet. Pretty much spent the entire time in endless new strip mall land. There are 2 shows this weekend, in Cartersville, which is NW of Atlanta (we're NE) and in Hinesville, which is near Savannah (6 hour drive according to Google). Anyway, here's a video I made of Mordy drumming Render with travel party fun clips edited in.

8:30pm Thursday 5/11
So, it appears that Fuel is offering Chris Daughtry (American Idol) the lead singer spot. I think that's a good fit, win win kind of thing. Chris is a good singer who now has fans. Fuel is an established band with credibility. I'd worry a bit about going into the rock space from American Idol without a band, without credibility as a songwriter. It may not be true anymore (I think, it is, it certainly was) but it used to be that rock bands weren't seen as packaged acts, where songs were given to them, produced, etc. Top 40, not so much. Kelly Clarkson is Top 40, competing with Britney, etc. No one really expects Britney to do anything except sing and dance and look pretty. Same with Kelly Clarkson. People think that bands like U2, Green Day, Fuel, do write their own songs. They usually do. Chris might or might not be a great songwriter, but American Idol is a signing contest. People would think, if Chris won, was signed, and was a rock act, that he wasn't writing his own songs, and that he should be, and was therefore less authentically rock, more fake. That wouldn't be helpful. Now Kat, or Taylor, they'll be on Top 40, or AC, or something, where authenticity isn't really a factor. Personally, I'd prefer that a "rocker" doesn't ever win AI. I kinda like the idea of spins on radio going to bands who existed, etc. etc., write their own songs, instead of a contest winner. Authenticity and all. Now Chris joining Fuel would be great. They have the authenticity, Carl writes the songs typically, and need a new singer, and Chris is famous and a good singer. Win win.

The reason I'm writing this though, is because I was talking about Chris joining Fuel about 2 months ago. (Not here) At The X's (Brett ex-Fuel), Condition K, Lotus Blue show a couple months back, I was talking to AJ and Jackie of RedRoom about this very topic - who should be the new Fuel singer? I said "Chris Daughtry" or "that guy on American Idol who sung Hemmorage and people are talking about it". They responded with Manian of Condition K. Now, I agree that Manian would be a good choice, and good karma, taking someone from the Harrisburg area when you're a Harrisburg area band, but Chris D definitely would be great.

Off, soon, to York and Atlanta. Y'all should go see The Underwater at Dfly tomorrow (Friday) and Bo Bim at District tonight (Thursday), last few days in Hbg.



6:30am Friday 4/7
Ok, let's see, The Underwater is artist of the week on XM radio XMU Radio Unsigned for the week of April 6, 2006.

Oh, I've started doing some video again. Encoded some new stuff, uploaded some stuff that's been on my computer for a while, made pages for stuff that's been online without a page, like that. We'll call it NEW, because, why not? Here's the NEW video. A Utopian Skyline, Blindside, Bo Bim, Brave the Day, Farewell Hope, Jah Works, Junior, Out Of Line, Spinebelt, Underoath, The Underwater, The Witnesses. I might be putting more "NEW" video up. Many of you know that I pretty much stopped putting a lot of video online around 2001, but I didn't stop taping, and haven't stopped taping at all (I don't see as many shows as I used to, but I usually tape. Anyway, expect more NEW video from 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 to be appearing here sometime.

What else? How about looking at my email? Just gonna copy and paste pretty much.

The Seldon Plan had good new reviews of Making Circles from On Tap Magazine and The Chickenfish Speaks.

Upcoming R5 Philly shows include a free show with The Walkmen.

April Skies at World Cafe Live.

Tim Kaye Live at The Talking Head - Saturday April 8!

LYNNEE BREEDLOVE'S ONE FREAK SHOW makes it Philly debut Saturday at Tritone!

Lead Foot - The Alpine in Lewisberry on Friday night April 7th, Saturday night April 8th, The Coal Hole in Shamokin.

Robby Roadsteamer - playing the next two nights with Nick at the Comedy Studio in Harvard Square in the Hong Kong restaurant.... This is April 7th and April 8th... WE WILL BE HAVING A HUGE SHOW at the Middle East downstairs friday night June 9th.

Lake Trout - 2 Big Shows coming up this weekend! Towson, MD The Recher Theatre With The Oranges Band & Two if By Sea New York City Bowery Ballroom With The Harlem Shakes, Army of Me, and Shelby.

Zolof the rock & roll destroyer - 4/7/2006 Bucks County Community College Newtown, PA 7PM!!! w/ Mercedes Lane 5/2/2006 Mr. Smalls Funhouse Millvale (Pittsburgh), Pa w/ Motion City Soundtrack & Straylight Run 5/7/2006 Manor American Legion Manor, PA w/ River City High Plus a national tour

Talking Head - FRI APR 7 MUNICIPAL WASTE, BARONESS, WITCHHUNT, I OBJECT SAT APR 8 POLYESTER, TIM KAYE, GLASS FAMILY, BAD MEDICINE AT THE CAMPFIRE SUN APR 9 BLOWFLY, DESPOT, MINLUS & McCRACKEN, THE UBANGIS, THE SAVAGINAS WED APR 12 NEPTUNE, LEPRECHAUN CATERING, LEXIE MOUNTAIN BOYS THU APR 13 THRUSHES, DIALS, WAY-OUTS, BUNNYGRUNT FRI APR 14 JACKSING AND GUESTS SAT APR 15 LANDSPEEDRECORD, UP THE EMPIRE, AVEC, FORGET CASSETTES SUN APR 16 THEE LEXINGTON ARROWS, LAST VEGAS, SUFFRAJETT

Forgive Durden - We will be shooting a video for the song 'Beware the Jubjub Bird and Shun the Frumious Bandersnatch' from April 14th through 16th in Annapolis, Maryland, right before we head to the UK with our friends in Panic! At the Disco! We're looking for bar full of extras to come help us out and have some fun with us. Please read the details below and get in touch! - Forgive Durden If you'd like to be in the video, feel that you meet the above description and meet the timing needs, please email durdenvideo@onesmallinstrument.com with your name and a picture (or link to your myspace pictures).

Voxology - We'll be at Sidney in East Berlin this weekend, Saturday, April 8th from 7 - 10 p.m.

Trustkill - We are truly excited to announce the very first TRUSTKILL TAKEOVER TOUR kicking off this May. The tour will feature Welsh superstars Bullet For My Valentine, with special guests Walls Of Jericho and Roses Are Red. The tour starts May 12 and runs through May 28 and is presented by Revolver Magazine, Ordinary Clothing, Music Choice, AOL Music, and Hot Topic.

Crystal Roxx - This week's shows Thursday - April 6th - THE BORGATA Friday - April 7th - MURPHY'S 3RD RAIL Saturday - April 8th - CLUB 1402

Karmellas Game - 4/8 - Music for Unity (Frederick, MD) 4/13 - House Show (College Park) 4/17 - Warehouse Next Door (DC) 4/22 - Three Rivers Festival (Columbia, SC) 4/29 - Binghamton University w/ Motion City Soundtrack, Straylight Run, and hellogoodbye

The Central PA Friends of Jazz - have announced their 26th Annual Central PA Commerce Bank Jazz Festival artists schedule...go to http://www.steverudolph.com/fojfest06.htm for complete information and order tickets at 717-540-1010.

newpastlife - April 7 Special Appearance @ Decades Sports Bar Swoyersville PA April 8 Heil's Place Scranton PA

Island Records - ...like a free fan tour from Hoobastank, and a free 7” Vinyl single with the Thursday album pre-order. There's also a brand new Damone video and PSA that you’ll definitely wanna pass around to all the other space ships in the galaxy that are starving for the rock!

Mean Fiddler - the Carling Weekend: Reading and Leeds Festivals went on sale yesterday. Franz Ferdinand, Muse and Pearl Jam were were announced as Main Stage headliners, all presiding over the best festival line-up of the summer. Weekend tickets for the events - set to take place simultaneously over the August Bank Holiday Weekend - sold out within a record-breaking hour of going on sale. However, a strictly limited number of day tickets for both events and a handful of coach and ticket packages for Leeds remain available at time of going to press. (you can also get em on ebay - Jim)

The Misteriosos - SAT. APRIL 8 @ ASBURY LANES http://www.myspace.com/asburylanes The Misteriosos (10pm) http://www.myspace.com/themisteriosos Thee Exciters (11pm) http://www.myspace.com/theeexciters Akron Family (12am) http://www.myspace.com/akak 209 4th Ave., Asbury Park NJ 10pm sharp TUES. APRIL 11 @ THE KHYBER http://www.thekhyber.com The Misteriosos (8:30pm) http://www.myspace.com/themisteriosos Himalaya (9:30pm) http://www.myspace.com/himalayamusic SOLEDAD BROTHERS (11pm) http://www.soledadbrothers.com 56 South 2nd St., Philadelphia PA 8:30pm sharp

Recher Theatre - shows include Fri. 7 LAKE TROUT w/ The Oranges Band - Two If By Sea Tue. 18 THE STARTING LINE w/ Gatsby's American Dream - River City Rebels - Cartel - Like Lions MAY Tue. 9 UNDEROATH w/ As Cities Burn - Spitfire $15 Adv. / $17 Dos 7pm Doors Fri. 12 FOOLS & HORSES w/ The Cheaters

Agents of the Sun - AGENTS OF THE SUN WILL BE PLAYING THIS YEAR'S WHFSTIVAL!!! - 105.7 WHFS PRESENTS THE WHFSTIVAL MERRIWEATHER POST PAVILION MAY 27,28 OTHER BANDS INCLUDE... The Strokes, Yellowcard, Coheed and Cambria, The Counting Crows, Joan Jett, Goldmind Squad, Panic@The Disco, Jimmies Chicken Shack, Cute is what we Aim for, Matisyahu, and many more.....

Relapse Records - FACEDOWNINSHIT’s ‘N.P.O.N.’ IN STORES NOW!

Paul Oakenfold - PAUL OAKENFOLD @ Emerald City Nightclub : Philly : THIS FRIDAY!!!

Fueled by Ramen - a new song from Punchline, tons of new tour dates and a pretty rad contest.

Mother Mallard - Mother Mallard from Philadelphia here. Were trying to finish up booking a short tour in late June and we need a place in centralish pa to play on Thursday June 22nd, some bands have sent me to you with good reviews, i hope you can help us out, as i see you have many venues you are working with currently. check out our tunes danka andrwe www.myspace.com/mothermallard www.wynnerecords.com

Bigg Romeo - Saturday April 8, 2006 8:00 pm - 1:00 am Band Beef & Beer Music by Bigg Romeo Gilbertsville Fire Hall (Must be 21 to attend)

I get a lot of email, the above is less than 3 days worth.

11:30am Saturday 3/25
More last night of the free drinks that I like from the industry people. Team McGathy and Atlantic were in the house. I can't be sure, but I'm guessing that, since they were hanging with The Underwater last night, they'll be at the show tonight at Gullifty's. I see a goodly number of UW shows as you know, and it's been quite a while since I've seen one without some industry people representin. Saw Sugarcoat last night at Gullifty's, AJ and Jackie of RedRoom were there as well (props), NOMA, Ray of Holis (props) and back to the Crowne, Team Jen Shade (props). Thinking it's gonna be huge tonight. The Underwater obviously draws great, Hierosonic does as well.

I wanna talk about Arctic Monkeys, a good new band that you've probably heard something about. Sorta like The Strokes with British accents, but with a twist. You can download about 20 demos at their fan site here. Their story is an interesting one. Apparently, they played local gigs around their hometown (Sheffield?), handing out demo CDs. Fans liked the demos, encoded em into MP3s, and used "the internet" to distribute their music. (I've read a decent number of articles on em, and things aren't clear exactly how this was done - P2P?, Myspace?) By mid last year, with no official record out or anything, just the free demos, and the mp3s floating around, they got big enough to be playing Reading, and apparently everyone knew their songs. 2 #1 singles in Britain, then the biggest 1 week total for a debut in British history (360K - Platinum in Britain is 300K). Basically, this new band went Platinum in one week. NME loves em (5th best British album of all-time - well, maybe not, typical NME overkill). In the US this month has seen SNL, SXSW, CD release (entered at #24 - highest indy "guitar" debut all-time), sold out US tour - Ebay has tix for NY, Philly, DC shows - one pair of tix for tonights NYC show just sold on Ebay for $454 - check it out. Anyway, they're doing fantastic in Britain, and they're certainly generating some excitement in the US. What I'm finding most interesting is a common reaction by the US press to all of this, related to the idea of hype. Many in the US press believe that Arctic Monkeys are way over hyped, that there's been all this Arctic Monkeys hype, etc. I dunno about that. So, the first articles they write about them have hype somewhere in the first paragraph, or the headline. How can this be, exactly? Yes, in an different country, Arctic Monkeys get a lot of press, they sell a lot of records. The press agrees with the people, who made their debut CD platinum in a week. Talking about that is just reportage, not hype. And, most importantly, most Americans don't read NME. So whatever praise of Arctic Monkeys, whatever reportage on Arctic Monkeys, whatever hype, that takes place in Britain simply does not apply here in the United States. The way it should work is this way. 1) band gets a lot of hype in the US - such as - video played a million times on MTV, song on top 40 radio, rock radio a million times, pic on cover of Rolling Stone, Spin, etc etc, then 2) band gets called overhyped. It's not good that the press is skipping step 1 and going to step 2. Step 1 seems to be the thing that sells a lot of records - step 2, which has taken the form of band not as good as hype, seems awfully close to criticism, criticism based on something that hasn't actually happened (hype in the US). I'll say that I do like Arctic Monkeys, not necessarily because they're so fantastically great, but because almost everything else that is popular in the US is real shite. The press is singling out for unwarranted criticism the one band who is currently popular, interesting rock. There are currently only 6 new or newish rock bands in the Billboard top 50. Nickelback (redrock), Fallout Boy, Hawthorne Heights, Panic at the Disco, All American Rejects (quality all age scene stuff that I like, but not really all that facinating - as these records fall off the charts, they'll be replaced with similar stuff), and Arctic Monkeys. Although AM definitely fits in the broad category (hipster? nugarage? discopunk? dancerock? nunewwave? I dunno) that was started by Strokes and White Stripes and includes The Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, they are the only one of that genre currently in the top 50, they're clearly distinguishable from those bands, and that genre is more interesting anyway. So why are they doing this - slagging the Arctic Monkeys? Not sure. There really is so much crap out there. I mean, how much rap and r&b do you need? There's a lot of it all over the place. Some might be good, some not so good, but there's certainly plenty. And what about "High School Musical"? That's number 1 currently. And of course you have Kidz Bop Kids. Apparently that's children singing current hits. 7 gold albums since 2002. And American Idol. Kelly Clarkson is at 5 plat. Carrie Underwood is at 2 plat. Talk about hype. The whole show is one long ad for future albums from current performers and present albums from past performers. And Fox News, which I watch, has last weeks loser every Tuesday morning on Fox and Friends. Hype for a show which is a long primetime commercial. It's distressing. In many respects, things are as bad musically as they've ever been. The popularity of the all age bands is a good thing (I like that sound) but only 6 rock bands in the top 50? Worst ever. Look at 10 years ago - the top 50 had Oasis, Presidents of the USA, Bush, Hootie, Kiss, Smashing Pumpkins, Everclear, Sepultura, Gin Blossoms, 7 Mary 3, RHCP, Collective Soul, Spacehog, Blues Traveler, No Doubt. That's 15, a good number. And much of what is popular today is shit. The RIAA is concerned about downloading and all that. Well, in Britain, the Arctic Monkeys just had the biggest one week sales for a debut ever. That's sales. Sales. Biggest ever. Just this year. So, our response is "overhyped" Give Arctic Monkeys 2 or 3 hours of network prime time every week for 3 months. They'll sell records. Sales. Biggest ever. But, instead, we get "least shitty karaoke singer" And I watch that show now. I mean, it's hard to argue the relevance of 5 plat. Biggest current top 100 next to Mariah. Their "plan", assuming some coodination, try to sell the shittiest music possible, complain about downloading, and dis anything interesting. Bad plan. It hasn't been working. Try something else. Let's start talking more about bands like Arctic Monkeys, and less about shit. What did Oasis say about Arctic Monkeys? News story on E! What did Morrisey say about Arctic Monkeys? News story on Entertainment Tonight. Aight, enough.

6:00am Tuesday 3/21
The show itself, at The Loft (Bahama Mama Beach Club) in York was excellent. The Underwater was in top form.

You're gonna want to see The Underwater at Gullifty's this Saturday, March 25. With Hierosonic (a good band from these parts mentioned here before) and Robby Roadsteamer. Robby Roadsteamer, from Boston, is hilarious and getting huge. He played MMC a couple years back. Got kicked off the trade show stage because people were watching him instead of going into the rooms and watching the panels. I first ran across Robby in his first band, the Sweatpant Boners, at the Middle East in Boston, and again when he played with The Underwater in Lowell. After that came MMC, a few Warped Tour dates, and now a record deal with Mass Appeal Records (Universal Distro). Recently (December 2005), he stopped by Blue Jay Studio in Mass where The Underwater was recording with Warren Riker and hung out. The music video for "I PUT A BABY IN YOU" has been featured on VH1's best week ever, and many websites, and he was #1 on ITunes for a while. Check out his myspace and his website, there's a lot of video there. Truly hilarious stuff.

Anything else? Hmmm. City Sleeps is real good. "Not An Angel" is a fantastic, moving, song. It might be the 2nd single. Prototype, another good song, definitely radio-friendly, is the first single. Their new CD should be out on Maverick in a couple months (early summer). Hope they do good. Good guys.

Here's a good local thing starting April. Wednesdays at Gullifty's are gonna be All Ages (or 18+) / 21+ to drink. It's starting April 5 with A Utopian Skyline. Check Gullifty's website for the bands or Gig Swap, as the headliner bands will in many cases be looking there to find openers, and posting their dates there.

This Gig Swap thing is a new section of my message board I set up to help headliners find openers for their shows, and for those headliners to get something in return for the opening slots they give. I have some 16k+ myspace friends (Check out my Myspace, be my friend, etc), I'd say more than half are bands, and a goodly number are asking me to do something to help them get shows. Well, the Gig Swap thing is what I came up with. Basically, I'm pretty comfortable with my usual suspects (bands I already know and like) as headliners on shows I book and I do want to see what I can do to help them get extra shows out of town. Gig Swap can work for that. It really is meant to work for everybody though.

The Commercials have changed their name to Amarie Coma Jeff Judy (x The Drive Home) is the newish singer, and there are also x Breaking Pangaea in the new lineup.

Oh what else? (Checking my myspace schedule page for ideas) Bo Bim is always busy, playing New York, Philly, DC and around here in the next month. Darcie has college shows in New York, Philly, a show in Nashville, and local shows. Ghost in the System is finishing up their CD. It should be out mid-May or thereabouts. Halestorm (Atlantic) just got off the Sno-core tour, I believe they're either in Fla recording or will be soon or just got done, they're touring with Trapt and Shinedown for a while in April, May. Last Tuesday's in Germany in May. Martini Bros are playing Harrisburg and York a lot.

6:00am Wednesday 2/22
Things I like - free drinks from music industry people. People like Drake Sutton-Shearer, manager of Trapt, and the good folks from Epic Records, all of whom came down recently from NYC to Baltimore to see The Underwater play at Fletchers, and, as it happened, buy me free drinks. Good stuff.

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