TuneLab Music - Everything Rock

TuneLab.com has posted yet another record month of unique visitor traffic, it’s 15th such record in just 20 months.  While TuneLab.com has always prided itself on its rapid growth, the growth rate of recent times has far exceeded the expectations and predictions of the site’s staff.  This comes despite other industry front-running sites seeing declining traffic and a decrease in interest.  The largest testament to the increase in growth rate is the last year in TuneLab.com history… June 2009’s traffic was an increase of 109.3% over June of 2008, meaning the site has more than doubled in just that 13-month period! (A graph of which is visible in the sidebar →)

Last month, TuneLab.com introduced social networking features to the website that allow users to make themselves a little more involved with the site and connect with other rock music fans much easier.  Users can now have an actual profile where they fill out information about themselves, upload a custom avatar, send private mail to each other, add friends, join groups, and more.  Just recently, a new utility was also added to the site to allow users to simply enter their Facebook or Twitter information into a field, and then invite their friends to TuneLab simply by selecting them on the respective website.  The social networking element is still fairly new, and we expect that to continue to grow at a rapid pace, especially as new features are added.

The growth has taken place without a single advertising dollar being spent, and a MySpace page and Facebook group that were created, maintained briefly, and remain stagnant since.  Our growth is unique in that it can be directly contributed to our members and the artists we cover, and there’s no better way to do it.  We hope that continues.

So where does that leave us now?  Honestly, we see no reason it won’t continue growing at this pace or faster.  As we add new features, people continue spreading the word, and our great coverage of everything rock continues, we will grow.  Plus, we’ve got something else up our sleeve…

TuneLab Music, LLC is now seeking investors for a new business venture.  We now have an opportunity to do something within rock music, but outside the realm of TuneLab.com.  Of course we can do this without investors, but with a little help, it will be that much easier.  It’s a great opportunity, and it will also help to add to the growth of TuneLab.com.  If you or someone you know may be interested in investing, please contact investtunelab.com for more details.

When I first heard that rock hero Chris Cornell was teaming up with the company of Timbaland and the Pharell Brothers on his new solo effort, I felt the same emotions running through me as you probably did. I was stunned, disappointed, enraged, bitter, humored, and intrigued all at once, gravitating more toward terrified of what was to come than anxious to explore Cornell’s new direction.

So here arrives ‘Scream’, the third installment of Chris Cornell’s solo endeavor, and eleven tracks later I don’t know what to say. W-O-W, really Chris? Who is this guy and what has he done with the real Chris Cornell?

‘Scream’ will most certainly make you do just that. I can hear it now, the echo of a sea of shrill, gut-wrenching “Why, why, why!” cries from disheartened fans worldwide, just like the brutal wails of Nancy Kerrigan following her 1994 attack. Chris Cornell shamefully careens from one third-world song to the next, painstakingly forcing his vocals into this pop-savvy alter-ego which he has adopted. Cornell further turncoats his intrinsic gift by flooding his pipes with waves of synthetic, dead-end effects, colorings, and trickery that do nothing other than make you cringe a little bit more.

As if Chris Cornell’s vocal performance wasn’t disgraceful enough alone, the cheap Casio loops and beats he sings overtop of only add to the wasteland. Cornell must have shopped the B-sides catalogues of acts such as Maroon 5, Girltalk, Ricky Martin, Akon, and even the late schizo-loco Wesley Willis, making some fine purchases that would become the begging-to-be-ridiculed ‘Scream’.

Look, I understand good and well and respect Chris Cornell’s intentions with ‘Scream’. Consider for a moment that Chris Cornell’s journey through music has been like having a hot hand at Monopoly and conquering each space on the board with houses, hotels, and, in Cornell’s case, skyscrapers. The man cemented himself a grunge legend in his Soundgarden days, took us for a whimsical, spacious ride with Audioslave, and got down on some up-tempo blues for two solo affairs. By owning so many properties (yeah, he’s even got the railroads and the pair of utilities to his name), Cornell has been able to dominate the music world for more than two decades. But as he keeps passing GO and keeps collecting his purse, and like many of us can relate, there’s always that one property that seems to elude Cornell, the nurtured for top 40 disco-pop serving as his Park Place or Boardwalk.

In some weird, twisted way, ‘Scream’ is Cornell’s own piece of personal justice; be it is steered by the desire to complete a repertoire or the desire to purchase a few more European homes. ‘Scream’ is horrific, you know it, and I know it. But in the end, Chris Cornell is unquestionably entitled to all the carte blanche he wants, whether we choose to keep listening or not.

Below is a list of upcoming rock festivals around the nation this year. If you have any additions or new information please leave a comment so it can be added.

View Festival Map

We at TuneLab Music are constantly seeking feedback from you guys as to how we can continue to deliver exactly what you want, and we greatly appreciate you guys being honest and telling us what you think. We decided to find out though… what do the artists we cover actually think of us? We’re still in the process of sending out messages asking, but here’s what we’ve gotten back so far to date:

“TuneLab Music is definitely where I go to get my dose of rock-n-roll dirt!..THEY KNOW” –Jeff Shields, Stereoside

“These guys know music! I rely on the site to keep up on the latest rock news and also decide what new albums to buy” -Jon Dray, Absence of Concern

“I visit TuneLab Music everyday because they are one the few sites on the net that posts good bands” -Dean Cramer, Kings of A&R, mgr. of 10 Years

“TuneLab Music is without a doubt the one place to find all that you need to know when it comes to music. Not just informative but also always an intelligent, well thought out, outlook on all new releases. Not like some other sites where they base their opinion on whether they personally like the band. TuneLab takes the time to listen to the song, the structure, the melody and the message and then form an opinion. So in other words they don’t suck, they’re the shit!!!!” -Rich Luzzi, Rev Theory

“Never in this new age of slackers-Gen Y, versus the advocates of work-Baby Boomers, have I witnessed a team so enthused about not just music, but unsigned/indie rock.  It is not easy for musicians to climb the ladder that currently separates the local, garage band from the internationally renown band.  And help (especially good help) is never an easy thing to find.  TuneLabMusic offers amazing support to bands and management that needs to get exposure.  They have a great team with a lot of resources.  The fan base is genuine. There are no smoke and mirrors, just truth.  The support we have recieved from both the site, and the fans that have found us through the site, has been overwhelming. Thanks for everything TuneLabMusic!  And keep up the GREAT work!” -Disa Cameron, Higher Ground Productions, mgr. of Burning Borders

“Burning Borders owes a huge thank-you to Nick Moscatello of TuneLabMusic.  It’s refreshing to finally see someone who isn’t afraid to tell it like it is.  Nick reviewed our first album, “Truth & Logic”, very accurately.  The feedback, whether positive or negative, was great.  Burning Borders is utilizing a lot of the constructive ideas.  We are convinced that Nick has set himself apart as a very respected writer, because of his extensive knowledge of music, and the homework does on a band before reviewing them.  Nick is the first in line for reviewing our second album, which we are recording as we speak.” -Burning Borders

“TuneLab Music is a great website! They have everything you need to feed your music appetite with news, interviews, and album reviews!” -Parallel The Sky

“TuneLab Music is an invaluable resource for finding out what is happening in the world of rock. Great reviews, sweet tour info, and crucial rock news makes this website a must for music lovers!!” -Tetanus

“TuneLab melts my face” -Society Red

“The guys behind TuneLab Music are relentless in there support of the music and have been there in our corner since the very beginning! Much love & appreciation goes out to you guys! YOU GUYS FUCKING ROCK!!!!! \m/\m/\m/ Triple horn salute!” -Jimmy Norton, Something to Burn

“We will say for sure that TuneLab Music is the #1 spot all music news on every level. TuneLab is the ONLY music source that ACTUALLY pays attention to what is going on in the music world and not what they are paid to pay attention to. Whenever we have anything announce they are the first to have it out to the public before anyone else and we love that about them. TuneLab is honest and the shit!” -The Amend

“The guys at TuneLab Music seriously know music! Proud to be a part of it!” -Price, Number One Contender

“TuneLab Music is an amazing resource for rock news. I found it and became a fan long before they reviewed my band’s album (Fixer) with a shitty 6.5 ha! However, we still love the review and the news, the masterminds behind it all (since we met them) AND now we’re also one of the bands ROKKIN’ the Horns Up, Tops Down Tour nationwide. Fixer has always been an underdog band, a band that people didn’t get right away, hence people don’t throw away right away. We have depth in our music and try to take it to many different places. We’re here to stick it out, make great music and ROKK you with our live show. It seems to me that Tunelab has a knack for finding those kinds of bands. I still check out the news daily guys so keep it coming. I would like to see some live reviews as well as after party shenanigans from the Horns Up, Tops Down tours and others. From what I recall there were some pretty funny tour bus/parking lot scenes with Nick, Jay, Stereoside, Fixer, and others and plenty to talk about….hehehe…evil grin. Cheers.” -Evan R. Saffer, Fixer

Nick recently was invited out to Fixer’s show on the 6th of December at The Dive in Goose Creek, SC and was asked to review the show. Struck by the spirit of the season, he decided to write his review in poem form:

‘Twas 19 nights before Christmas and a rock band was in town
It was New York’s own Fixer ready to bring the roof down
They’ve been out on the road-days, weeks, months and more
And you know what- they’d probably skip Christmas to tour

The sound was checked so with some hours to kill
We trekked off to their villa donated by Bill
The lock was rusted, the toilet busted
The lights shut off-pitch black
All was fixed until a bug from the ceiling hit my back

While Tommy got pretty and J made his hair flat
I took refuge in Evan’s room for a scholarly music chat
Evan on the Deftones, “I’m so-so about ‘White Pony’”
But then again, that’s from a guy, who really likes Moby (HA!)

We got offered some hydro, but quickly declined
Already enjoying this early night vibe
Evan gave story time and what tale did he pick?
The one of the merch table, where out came his d!#@

The time had come to return to the venue
A thick dose of rock ‘n roll the main course on the menu
All four Fixer gents lookin’ dapper indeed
Until King Rev took his socks off and declared all his needs
“Now Evan! Now J!
Now Tommy! Now Nick!
I need beer! I need dry socks!
And I need them both quick!
Then I’ll do the set-list!
Then I’ll own everyone in pool!
And I’ll tell you this right now
I won’t end up tonight’s drunken fool!

One band, two bands, three bands done
The stage was now set for Fixer and fun
They punched in gunnin’, Rev startin’ the show
Four hat slams, “Head In My Hands”…GO!

The grooves and the throbs, made the kids turn and look
And by “Mixing With My Blood”, the whole crowd was hooked
A hottie raised her horns and screamed “WOO!” ’til it hurt
Sadly, her boobs remained in her shirt

“Dirty Girl”-How invigorating! How addictive too!
That “HEY! HEY!” chant, man that shit’s like glue
Evan’s mic cut out, so he gave 15 seconds of awkward dance
Good thing he wore his best Ashlee Simpson pants
What’s that? Is that Alice in Chains I hear?
No, no, no, it’s “Hillbilly Heroin” my dear
So moving, so gripping, so radiant, so free
There’s no way it didn’t at least wet one panty

J’s catchy lil bass line hops into “Home Again”
Like a fuse burning down on a bomb that will never end
Then Fixer offered a holiday treat
Two brand new tunes that sounded super duper neat

“Dove” is as billed, a smooth and gentle graceful ride
Whimsical and magical, but with some muscle down inside
“Corpse Estate” is a spooky, gritty pistol, and boy it would have been fit
To blast from a boombox owned by Tales From the Crypt

Suddenly, the lights dim, the crowd’s roar dies down
As Tommy starts “Tuxedo” with sultry, soothing sounds
The harmony, the urgency, the honesty all dashing
But a prog-rock surge and all-out jam turn it dazzling

“Tell No One”-the single, the ender
With the notorious “UH OH! UH OH! UH OH!” you’ll always remember
And just as it began, with four big counts and a final “HELL YEAH!” cry
Fixer waved to them all, and knew they all had good nights.

Compliments, Complaints, Ideas, Thoughts, Qualms, Suggestions, Questions, Reflections, and More…

Part 1

- I’m absolutely blown away at the number of bands that regularly visit and regularly comment here at TuneLab Music.  It’s nice to know that there’s still artists out there who still value their biggest critics-no, not us critics, their FANS.

- How in the hell has State of Shock’s song “Money Honey” not exploded here in the U.S. the way it continues to do in Canada?  Same could be said about Hedley’s song “On My Own” from a couple years ago.  Is crossing the border really worth it for bands anymore, specifically those who have already established themselves as a mainstream success in Canada?  Are U.S. radio stations simply too timid of spinning their tracks?  It makes me worry about the future of The Veer Union.  Oh, and I almost forgot, where are Theory of a Deadman and Nickelback from again?…

- Too many people give Hinder a bad rap.  Yeah, they’re outlandish, they’re over the top, they’re stars and they know it.  So what.  Isn’t that what got bands like Guns ‘n Roses and Motley Crue to the top in the first place?  And lookie here, Motley Crue and GNR are both still relevant today, and still releasing new material.  Besides, the Hinder guys are extremely nice in person, so before you call them pretentious assholes, shake their hands first…

- Island Records was smart for letting Burn Halo go.  As bad as that makes me sound, look at it this way.  James Hart’s last band 18 Visions spent a couple album cycles backed by another major label, Epic Records.  Even as over-produced, slicked up, and ready enough for mainstream the band’s 2006, and final album was, it never got 18V anything better than about 20 on the rock charts.  Fingers can’t be pointed at the label folks, because the band got plenty of great tours (including a direct support slot to the band I just got done talking about) and a solid push to media outlets.  Obviously, it wasn’t meant to be, so what makes one think the voice of 18 Visions backed by a new southern rock sounding band will be able to move a good chunk of product?…

- Speaking of Island Records, Saliva’s latest single “Family Reunion” is pathetic.  All the band did was fuse together “Ladies and Gentleman”, “Broken Sunday”, and a pile of dogshit to wind up with “Family Reunion”.  But I gotta hand it to Saliva, because sure enough, “Family Reunion” will probably wind up in the number one slot on active rock charts and stay there for a good long while too.  All the band did was fuse together the old adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and a pile of dogshit to wind up with a continued formula for success…

- I listened to a good sound quality version of the new Ra CD, and you know what?  I still think it’s shamefully sub-par…

- Recently I went to a local show in the Washington D.C. area.  State Theater was the name of the venue.  By the time the headliner, a band by the name of Bob took the stage, the crowd was no smaller than 500 people, all of whom were bursting with energy, jumping around, screaming every lyric to every song right back to the band.  This show was 15 bucks a head for admission.  I was absolutely blown away.  What does local show for me usually look like?-maybe 75 people, most of whom won’t even leave the house unless the show is free of charge.  So what does your local show look like?  Hopefully your town is a Washington D.C….

- The same applies to national acts as well.  Sevendust came here not long ago and what was the attendance count?  Maybe 400.  In a venue with a max-cap of 800.  With an opening band Souls Harbor that has probably the second highest draw on any given night in my town.  For less than 15 bucks in advance.  Unbelievable.  And, not surprisingly, my town seems to always be “left off” the touring schedules of so many bands.  Wonder why that is…

- The other day I screened several ACTIVE rock stations across the country from 5 pm to 6 pm.  Assuming this is the time of day where most people spend time in their cars stuck in rush hour traffic listening to the radio, I expected to see a good portion of the time devoted to the up and coming artists in the field.  Wanna know what I heard?- Pearl Jam, AC/DC, Nickelback, Pearl Jam, Audioslave, Metallica, Disturbed (old), Creed, Shinedown (old), Nirvana, Seether.  Not once did I hear anything by bands like Jet Black Stare, or 10 Years, or Rev Theory, or hell, even Sevendust.  Didn’t hear any Taproot.  Didn’t hear any Alter Bridge.  Didn’t hear any Nonpoint.  It just makes me wonder-everyone in the world embraces new change on every level EXCEPT when it comes to new music.  We have oldies, classic rock, and 90’s alt-rock stations for a reason, so why don’t ACTIVE rock stations simply do one thing?-their job and play ACTIVE rock…

- Recently, one of my favorite bands, City Sleeps, fired their lead singer and founding member Elliott Sharp.  If you ever caught a City Sleeps show from, say 2006-on, then it shouldn’t come as a shock that Adriel, Steve and John canned him.  To be as ossified as Elliott was on stage during a performance was not only unprofessional but unacceptable as well.  He even had the nerve to call me a few days after I drove to Atlanta to watch him stumble and fumble around on stage and tell me “naw, I wasn’t fucked up man, it’s all just an image thing”.  Right, and I was born yesterday.  And their bass player Brady left after their UK tour in 2007 because he didn’t quite go along with it being “just an image thing”.  Ok, buddy, whatever you say.  He single handedly ruined the same band he helped create, bastardized the same songs he helped write, and cost himself the respect of one of his biggest fans and most supportive critics…

- I want to move to Australia and start a band.  They get it down there…

- Labels should axe every single current member of their respective marketing/sales strategy teams, because they don’t get it up there.  CD sales are only going to continue to decline, but instead of trying to sell the artist, label people are still trying desperately to find the next method of trying to make a quick buck off CD sales.  Bad, bad, bad.  And if a label marketing/sales dude/gal happens to read this and thinks I don’t know what I’m talking about, I can name a number of examples off the top of my head where a label’s efforts at selling the ARTIST instead of the CD proved bountiful for both parties.  Shinedown, Flyleaf, 10 Years, Rev Theory, Red, Five Finger Death Punch, shall I continue?…

- Bands That Never Made It: April Sixth.  They recorded an album called ‘In Memory’ with Howard Benson back in 2004/2005 that Columbia Records was supposed to release.  Instead, Columbia shelved the record and dropped the band.  Did they not even listen to the album?  “Dear Angel” would have done some damage on top 40.  If anything, they could have potentially been the newest bigwig in the Christian rock market.  Luckily, you can still purchase ‘In Memory’ directly from the band, and if you haven’t gotten a chance to check out this album, do so…

- I like bands that post daily tour blogs recapping the previous night’s happenings.  When I was younger, there was no bigger thrill for me than getting online the day after a show and reading the band’s thoughts on the whole affair.  Bands, you might not think a few sentences about your show in Whoknowswhere, Saskatchewan means anything to you, but it might be one of the best links you have to your younger, up-and-coming fanbase…

- What part(s) of the country do you think will become the next Seattle, or Jacksonville, or Tennessee?  My 3 picks: Dallas, TX, Atlanta, GA, Philadelphia, PA…

- Have you noticed how evident it is that genres of rock recycle themselves?  I really started picking up on it around 2002 when bands like The Vines, The Hives and Jet made a splash with that garage, Liverpool-inspired rockabilly stuff.  A few years later, all three have become pretty much irrelevant and “party rock” bands styled after the likes of Kiss, AC/DC, Aerosmith, and old school Bon Jovi  like Hinder, Buckcherry, Airbourne, and Saving Abel have taken over.  Just think, the era of rock that’s waiting for this pseudo-hair metal revival to go away is grunge.  Knowing that’s right around the corner gets me kind of excited.  I wonder what bands will be the beasts in the return of flannel…

- How many more new projects are going to spring up from the Dark New Day camp before they finally come out and say that they just don’t want to do Dark New Day anymore?…

- The fact that Lil Wayne got famous for a song like “Lollipop” is repulsive.  The fact that Framing Hanley is only now earning a majority of their long overdue success because of their cover of “Lollipop” is even more repulsive…

- I’m glad to see Hoobastank back on their feet again.  It’s too bad ‘Every Man For Himself’ tanked, because it was actually really enjoyable.  Then again, is 200,000 albums sold too high for the album to be considered a flop?  Better yet, did 200,000 people even listen to that album?…

- I’ve watched that band Hollywood Undead steadily climb up the rock charts with their song “Undead”.  I have the explicit version of the song, and it’s racy enough to make even Jahred from (hed) p.e. blush.  I have yet to hear “Undead” on the radio, but I’m really curious as to what the edited version of the song sounds like.  That must have been the best FCC arts and crafts project in years…

- I don’t own an iPod.  And in fact, I’m actually kind of opposed to owning one.  My reason?-the iPod is an inconsistent form of media.  I could go out tomorrow and buy a 4 million GB iPod for 8,000 bucks, only to wake up the next day and see people pitching tents in front of Best Buy waiting to get their hands on the new 59 million GB iPod laser retina scan no-need-to-touch screen for 999 dollars.  It’s simply ludicrous, and instead of consumers spending that money on CD’s to go in their CD player, they’re hoarding every dollar and cent they get so they can be prepared for when the next “generation” of iPod’s hits the streets.  I’ve kept every CD player I’ve ever owned, portable, mini system, even boombox.  And low and behold, 90 percent of them still work just as well as the day I bought it.  I’ve even got a Magnavox boombox from 1993 that requires a butter knife to pry open the CD and cassette decks to load.  Regardless of this shortcoming, the boombox still plays back audio with the same sound quality as it did in 1993.  Sure, my newer devices produce a better sound, but it’s consistency which I am referring to here.  What sounds more appealing to you?-50 new CD’s for your car/home/portable system or a new, wallet busting iPod that can simply hold more stuff that you can no longer afford to acquire?…

- The definition of a musician can be condensed down to two words: Dave and Grohl…

- Bands That Never Made It: Innercorse.  Most people outside of Detroit probably never got the chance to hear about Innercorse before the band dissolved.  Innercorse generated a huge buzz quickly as the rapcore genre hit its stride in the late 90’s, becoming a coveted prize in a label bidding war.  Maverick Records eventually won, signing the band, whose members were only in their late teens, to a massive deal.  Innercorse began working on an album called ‘Your Element’ with legendary producer Dave Jerden.  Although slated for an August 22, 2000 release, ‘Your Element’ never made it to stores, as dissension between the band and Jerden, as well as within the group itself led to Maverick Records canning Innercorse and the album for good.  It’s too bad Innercorse never made it, because they would have brought a raw energy back into the mix ala Snot, after the latter dropped out due to the tragic death of Lynn Strait.  Innercorse did however release an eponymous independent album in 1999, which you can find used for a great price on Amazon…

- Why did the guitarist leave some picks on the dashboard of his car?  So he would be able to lawfully park in the handicapped space…

- I really find it shocking that more and more bands are relying on the work of guys like Josh Freese and Robin Diaz to do their drum tracks in the studio over their own drummers.  I bet if you go through the liner notes of about 2/3 of your rock albums from about 2005-now, you’ll find in the credits that someone other than the band’s drummer played on the record.  I just don’t know how guys can sit in the studio (after earning the honor of getting there in the first place) and then handing over your sticks to someone else, who you will then watch perform your intended parts on your band’s record from behind the glass.  As a drummer myself, I don’t know how I would feel about that.  Unless of course there was a nice purse involved for my cooperation, then I might have to re-consider…
- Shinedown was on Jay Leno about 2 months ago performing “Second Chance”.  To my horror, I realized that Brent Smith, vocal wizard Brent Smith, was lip syncing.  It wasn’t like you had to think about it for a second-it was clearly Smith miming his way through the pre-recorded track.  I think the only thing that was live throughout that whole performance was Barry Kerch’s drums and maybe Eric Bass’ backing vocals (maybe, and dammit I hope so).  It didn’t make me mad, it made me disappointed.  I remember a Shinedown show from August of 2007, and Brent’s voice was so blown out that he could barely even speak.  Yet he got up on that stage and used every ounce of energy he had to belt out every note he could.  It gave me the chills.  To go from that moment to watching Smith Ashlee Simpson his way through a television performance a year later was simply disappointing…

- When is emo going to go away?  I mean really, when will it stop?  Will it stop?  Please someone say yes.  But seriously, if your band is still dressing up in pants so tight you couldn’t even paint them on and skipping gym class to pour your heart and soul into writing your songs (which, at best, would be about the same as Mayday Parade e-sides), then you might want to re-evaluate.  Alot of things…

- I spend a healthy amount of my music listening time listening to Christian rock bands.  No, I’m not a spiritual-junkie or a Kool-Aid drinker by any means.  Reason is because Christian rock bands play with a sense of freedom that other rock bands don’t grasp.  While your typical mainstream rock band is worried about writing within a set of parameters, trying to see eye-to-eye with a producer, trying to satiate the record label, trying to craft “the single”, the Christian rock band is letting the creative juices flow, letting their faith, souls, and minds do the work and letting the business take care of itself.  This also goes for Christian rock bands on major labels as well (like INO, a subsidiary of Columbia for example).  If you haven’t before, give a listen to bands such as Pillar, Kutless, Disciple, DecembeRadio, and High Flight Society.  I guarantee you will be impressed by what you hear, whether you’re in church every Sunday or you can’t even so much as spell religion…

- If you’re anal about getting the best sound possible from a pair of headphones, I personally recommend you get a set of Koss UR-40 headphones.  I’ve been using mine since 2003 and I haven’t found another pair of headphones that comes close to the clarity and quality of sound you get from the UR-40’s.  They retail for about 30 bucks and you can find them on eBay and Amazon.  Trust me, it’s worth every penny.  And hey, if you’re not satisfied, I’ll buy them off you…

- The band Number One Contender inspired this idea I have for a revenue-raking tour possibility.  At their CD release shows, the band charges 10 bucks admission.  This covers your entrance to the show and automatically earns you a copy of their new album.  How smart is that?  Think, if bands decided to charge a few bucks more at the door each night but would promise a copy of an album/a shirt/a piece of merchandise with a ticket purchase, you’d double your attendance numbers.  Know why?-people love free shit.  They don’t care what it is half the time, but because it’s “free”, it’s gold.  Hell, it’s cooler to them to receive a band’s album than getting pizza at school was, and that says A LOT.  This strategy has been working at sporting events for years, so who would actually expect this to fail in regards to concerts?…

I’ll leave you with that mouthful of thoughts to chew on.  I look forward to hearing everyone’s responses…

On May 17-18, 2008 is the Rock on the Range festival in Columbus, Ohio. The show is almost sold out with only general admission stadium seats left (no field access). So if you don’t have tickets yet, you may want to get them now! Tickets are $99 plus service charges. The show features Stone Temple Pilots, Disturbed, Staind, Killswitch Engage, Serj Tankian, Shinedown, Finger Eleven, Filter, 10 Years, Red, Theory of a Deadman, Ashes Divide, Drive A, Airbourne, Kid Rock, 3 Doors Down, Seether, Papa Roach, Flyleaf, Alter Bridge, Sevendust, Default, Five Finger Death Punch, Black Tide, Drowning Pool, Bobaflex, and Rev Theory.

All that for just over $100!!! Think about it. Count up the number of bands you would want to see. Divide 100 by that number of bands. For me it’s about $4 per band. Some may be more, some less, but it’s probably worth it for about everybody. So what if you think you can’t afford it? Not to fear, taxpayers! It just so happens that Uncle Sam will be delivering a check to your mailbox (or direct deposit to your bank account) in the amount of up to $600 per individual, $1200 per married couple, and $300 for each child. When is that check coming? Conveniently, in May. Of course it would be more convenient now, but you get my picture. If you can tighten up the budget for this month, you’ll be getting more cash right about the time of the show. Just in time to stimulate that economy in Columbus.

So if you still can’t go, we’re going to try and help you out. We obviously can’t just go buying tickets for everybody, but we’re assessing just how we can help out by making the tickets cheaper for you, sponsoring free tickets, or randomly giving them away. We’ll figure that out. If you can afford the tickets now, get them before they sell out.

But we wanna know… who’s going? We’re going and we want to meet as many people as possible. We’re also offering carpools and whatnot. In the comments, if you’re going, we want to know. If you’re thinking of going, we want to know. If you need a ride, post that. If you have some extra seats and can offer a ride, post that. We’ll update this post as necessary. See you there!

Here’s who’s going and whether or not they can offer a ride. Those who need rides will be underlined.

Chris (Knoxville, TN) has one seat available.
Jay (Washington, DC) is giving Nick a ride, but still has two very uncomfortable seats in the extended cab of a pickup if you want to torture yourself.
Nick (Charleston, SC) is flying to Baltimore and getting picked up by Jay.
jackbauer24 (Phoenix, AZ) is flying into Columbus
geordy (Knoxville, TN) is driving up.

Let’s face it: terrestrial radio is going away. When exactly is anybody’s guess, but it certainly seems inevitable. Listening to radio on my commute to and from work, and while traveling to visit family, I’ve grown to despise the radio almost. I always heard the “radio sucks” comments and thought them myself, but I’ve always wondered what the specific reasons were.

Over the last few weeks I’ve jotted down several notes to myself as potential starting points for an article on the matter, and finally on a six-hour drive from Virginia to New York, I decided on the first subject to write about: repetitiveness. Not just repetitiveness of Linkin Park and Three Days Grace over and over (which is annoying too), but old songs from the 90s. I always thought Nirvana, Green Day, and Bush were horribly overplayed in my area (DC area), and always attributed it to just being my area. This last trip up the East Coast revealed that it wasn’t just Maryland and Virginia, it was much larger. How much larger would turn out to be a surprise.

This “study” is hardly scientific, but I feel it gets pretty close. First, I picked 10 cities across the US, and if I didn’t already know the big rock radio station there, I just Googled “city name new rock radio station”. The list I came up with was WWDC - Washington, DC; WXRK - New York, NY; KROQ - Los Angeles, CA; KDGE - Dallas, TX; WZZN - Chicago, IL; KBPI - Denver, CO; WYSP - Philadelphia, PA; KISW - Seattle, WA; WPLA - Jacksonville, FL; and WXZZ - Nashville, TN. After assembling this list of stations, I then took each station’s top 100 most played songs for the week of December 28th to January 3rd and compiled them into one long document, separated by station. In total, I had a list of 1,000 songs.

When I started going through the list, I was almost in shock, and I mean that honestly. I knew it was bad, but seeing my pen markings all over the pages gave a visual indicator of just how bad it really was. I started out by going through all 1,000 songs and circling each one that was more than five years old. For those I was unsure of or was close to five years, I looked it up online to make sure. The results? Well over HALF of the top-100 most-played songs from the last week were over five years old. On average, newer songs filled the top 25-35 spots, with the older songs dominating the higher numbers with new songs scattered about. A lot of those songs were over 10 years old, with of course several older than that.

What I also noticed going through and circling songs was certain names repeating over and over and over again. The number one most played artist? Nirvana. I knew Nirvana would be the most played of the older artists, but they won out overall as well. (Keep in mind that when I say “most played”, I mean number of songs in the stations’ top 100. For example, Linkin Park may only have two songs in rotation on a station, but those two songs are probably played 3:1 over any Nirvana tracks.) Nirvana accounted for 4.2% of the 100 most-played tracks. Interestingly, I was able to make a list of just 10 bands that accounted for over 25% of the list! These 10 bands (in order of most appearances) are Nirvana, Green Day, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Sublime, The Offspring, Bush, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden. (For those in the list that did have music that came out in the past five years, those songs were not counted.)

Another interesting (or disturbing) thing I noticed was the number of oddball songs that made it as most-played.  Artists like the Violent Femmes, Harvey Danger, and The Verve.  It’s okay to play these one-hit-wonders every few months or something, but one of the 100 most-played?  For shame.  The Gorillaz and The Beastie Boys also ranked high, and are they even really rock?  Amy Winehouse?  I digress…

So what happened? Did radio get stuck in the 90s? Are they catering specifically to people in my age group that listened to these bands in high school and/or college? Or is it that the program managers are that age and can’t seem to realize that not everybody wants to hear these bands that often? Whatever it is, it’s a trend that certainly is leading to the demise of radio and ultimately the ability for new rock artists to make anything resembling a living. With over 50% of the most-played music on rock radio being older, and half of that being just 10 bands, where is the room for all the new artists? And when I say new artists, I mean the ones that are lucky enough to have a record deal already. That’s not even counting the thousands, if not tens of thousands, of rock bands that have yet to be signed. I could keep going on and on with this, because with the less than half that make up actual “new” or “modern” rock, you have competition amongst sub-genres like emo, metal, hard rock, melodic rock, hardcore, etc.

So what is the answer? I honestly don’t know. One thing is certain though, and that is that rock radio needs a major overhaul just to start with. The first step needs to be sweeping out some of the dust. I love(d) Nirvana and the like, and enjoy hearing them from time to time, but it just gets old. With satellite radio, iPods, and the like moving in on radio’s turf at full-speed, there may be nothing to save it at this point. Next time you hear an older song on the radio, consider calling up and saying something about it. Or send your station an email asking them to rethink the balance of old and new.

We have put in an interview request with the programming manager of one of the above-mentioned stations, so if he agrees to talk about it, we’ll get his perspective. Leave your thoughts and ideas in the comments. If you have a favorite or friendly DJ in your local area, call them up, ask them to read this, and then let us know their response and what they think.

Another year has gone by and it was another successful one here at the site. I’ve gone back and looked at all of our visitor data for the year and compiled them. Here’s a quick run down of some of the numbers.

• We averaged 75,052 unique visitors per month.
• The largest number of unique visitors in one day was September 24th, when we streamed the Hurt album (the alleged Meg White sex tape story was that day too, but I’d like to think it was the album stream).
• Almost half (47.74%) of our unique visitors for the year were referred by outside sources (websites & search engines).
  • And about half of those visited multiple times after the first visit.
• Most of our visitors (5.82%) visit the site between noon and 1pm eastern time. It’s only a slight most, obviously.
• Most of our visitors visit the site on a Tuesday (16.11%).
• 79.05% of visitors to the site are from the United States. Canada is second, followed by the United Kingdom and Germany.
  • During 2007, TuneLab Music had visitors from 170 different countries.
• 80.04% of our visitors have Cable/DSL, 10.52% with Corporate/T1 connections, and 6.93% had dial-up (2.51% unknown).
• 57.88% of visitors are using Internet Explorer, with 35.69% using Mozilla/Firefox.
  • Only 0.64% used mobile browsers.
• Over HALF of Internet Explorer users were using an old version (c’mon, if you must use IE, at least upgrade it to current).
• 92% of our visitors use Microsoft Windows (including one visitor using Windows 3.1), 6.76% have Apples, and 0.19% use Linux.
• We had 1,594 visits from the Apple iPhone, 692 visits from Playstation 3, 323 visits from Blackberrys, 241 visits from Playstation Portable, and 170 visits from Nintendo Wii.
• Of our referrers, 76.01% were other websites, 23.87% from search engines, and 0.12% were from email.
  • Of search engines, Google accounted for 80.58% of those referrers, with Yahoo at 16.76%, AOL at 1.08%, MSN at 1.1%, and 0.22% from AltaVista.
  • The most popular keywords searched to find TuneLabMusic.com were review, hinder, tunelab, music, new, album, sevendust, alpha, interview, lyrics, and blue.
• The most popular website referrers were antimusic.com, myspace.com, absolutepunk.net, fark.com, roadrunnerrecords.com, and wikipedia.org.
• The average visitor in 2007 stayed on the website approximately 2.5 minutes (if you’ve read this far, you probably exceeded that already).
• 54.02% of visitors only viewed one page, while 43.92% viewed between 2-5 pages.

So that’s it for 2007. Graphing out the data for ‘06 compared to ’07 revealed interesting results though. The lines followed almost the exact same path, except 2007 stayed an average of 15,000 visitors above ‘06 numbers. The trend for both years show a decline in visitors from March to April, with a 3-5% jump in May, a 3-5% drop into June, and then a 25% increase from June to October, with a 12% drop leading into November and December. The November and December slumps I’m sure are due to holidays, as I find myself visiting less as well. They go back up over the winter through March, and then April brings the average back down (beginning of spring? finals? rain?). The numbers jump up in May but then take a sharp decline at the beginning of summer (June) as everybody moves outdoors, but then sharply rise over the summer as folks seemingly get sick of going outside, or just get bored.

Our goal for 2008 (only dealing with visitor numbers, we have many more goals) is to break the 100,000 mark for average unique visitors/month. I know it seems lofty, but it is achievable. With our new, search-engine friendly site design, our core readers/contributors telling their friends (*ahem*, that’s where you come in), our continuation of key content like album streams, featured bands, etc., and the all-new features we’ll be rolling out this year, we feel we can beat the 100K mark.

Every week there is an article posted listing the previous week’s album sales. And every week, with the exception of a few, sales have been down. Billboard announced the best selling album and the highest grossing concert of 2007 on Friday, and guess what… those numbers are down as well! In 2006 according to Nielsen SoundScan 588.2 million albums were sold, that was down 4.9% from 2005. But digital track sales increased 65% from 2005 with 582 million songs sold and almost 33 million digital albums were sold. As of late October album sales for 2007 were down 14% with about 363 million sold. And once again digital sales are on the rise as are digital retailers with Amazon.com getting into the game this year.

With the majority of people choosing digital over hard copies many of the big retail chains such as Wal-Mart and Target are looking at reducing not only the space they give for CDs, but also releases from lesser known bands. Unfortunately it looks as if the CD is on its way out, and I hate it. Going to the record store and buying a CD has a personal touch to it. You get to drive around town trying to find that one CD and when you find it, you have the lyric booklet where you can read the bands Thank You’s and lyrics and a physical copy of the music to enjoy.

With digital singles and albums, there is nothing personal about it. You point and click and in a few minutes you have the album or song. Yes, it is convenient, especially for me because there is only one place to buy CDs where I live, with the exception of WalMart and I’m not fond of that place either. I f I can’t find the album I’m looking for here, I usually end up going to another town where most of the time I can find it.

Convenience is all people care about anymore and CDs have become an inconvenience. My only grip about CD’s is that annoying sticker on the top of the jewel case with the artist and album name. Get rid of that and I’ll be happy… just don’t get rid of the CD!

Album sales aren’t the only thing on the decline. Tour revenue also suffered this year. The Police have the rights to the top grossing tour for 2007 which brought in $212 million plus. The Rolling Stones held the title in 2006 which brought in $437 million in revenue. A $2.6 billion difference. Concert attendance was also down 19.2%. With many labels going after these “360” deals where they get a cut of the artists tour and merch income, this just another way the artists will get screwed.

Scott Weiland has had a handful of drug and DUI arrests since he was allegedly introduced to heroin in 1994 while STP was on tour with the Butthole Surfers, the latest going down last month. Although his introduction to the drug happened in ’94, it seemed to take its full effect in 1999 with the release of ‘No. 4’ and most visibly in the video for “Sour Girl”… remember the dancing teletubbies? Maybe it was noticeable before this, but it’s really when I first really noticed.

I’m not trying to judge him or anything, what he chooses to do is his thing and none of mine, or anyone else’s business. However, I can’t help but think Weiland could take a few notes from Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue fame. This guy is one of the rockers who defined excess. He was declared dead after an overdose in 1987, but was revived after a couple of adrenaline injections. Almost exactly one year later he overdosed again while on tour in London. His heroin addiction continued throughout the 1980’s before he and his Motley band-mates entered rehab in 1989 and publicly announcing his sobriety in 2004.

If Nikki Sixx can overcome his addictions and turn his life around, why can’t Weiland?

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is at it again. In yet another lawsuit filed by the group against a couple in Arizona, they have now declared that copying a CD that you legally purchase to your computer for use on your iPod, etc. is piracy. While retarded as hell, they do bring up a good point. They claim that ripping the CD is “virtual” copyright infringement since one person ripping the CD can lead to millions of copies shared on various peer-to-peer services.

However… in a 2005 lawsuit the RIAA stated that it “is perfectly lawful to take a CD that you’ve purchased, upload it to your computer, [and] put it onto your iPod.”

I’m sorry, but if I pay 15 bucks for a CD, with the exception of ripping it and putting it on peer-to-peer sites, I’m going to do whatever I want with it.

I wonder how much of the money that they get from these lawsuits actually goes to the bands which had their songs illegally downloaded. My guess… very little… if any at all.

Is it just me or is music and radio, especially radio, not what it used to be? In the mid/late 90’s I actually enjoyed listening to the radio. Bands like Eve 6 (I listened to “Inside Out” almost non-stop for 2 weeks), Semisonic, Creed, Everclear, The Wallflowers, Days of the New, Live, Bush, Smashing Pumpkins, Fastball, Tonic, Matchbox 20, Sponge, Vertical Horizon, Better Than Ezra and a long long list of other great bands were just getting started. It just seems like everything was more enjoyable then… when you could turn on MTV and actually hear music…rock music. Even through 2000-2003 there were a lot of great bands, which most people have never heard of, getting started… Socialburn, Stage, Greenwheel, Familiar 48, July for Kings, Mad at Gravity, Unwritten Law, Boxing Day and many more. ..

A few of the bands from that time are still around in one form or another, but it just doesn’t seem like the music has the same feeling to it. Maybe I’m just getting older and hearing it differently.

Radio today plays the same mainstream acts over and over and their idea of variety is mixing in music from the 70’s and 80’s. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with music from that time, but if I wanted to hear music that is 25+ years old I’d tune into the Classic Rock station. Why not play new up-and-coming bands? Bands like Deepfield, Stereoside, and Framing Hanley who don’t really have the push of a big named record label, but have great albums. Even Fuel who was huge a few years ago is not getting the airplay they once received despite having a great new album, ‘Angels and Devils’.

Good music is still being made, but labels are too involved in trying to figure out how to get people to buy CDs again and rock radio is too busy playing stuff by bands that haven’t released anything new in who knows how long to take notice. Example, 102.9 The Buzz, the new rock station in Nashville. Since 10am this morning they have played a total of 6 songs from bands that have released albums this year, or will release albums in 2008. Twenty-six songs played and only 6 of them from new artists… why? You visit their home page and you don’t see the logos of Three Days Grace, Seether, Sixx A.M. or Finger Eleven, all of which have singles in the top 10. You see Metallica, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and Guns N’ Roses. Like I said before nothing wrong with those bands, I am a fan of them all… but what is wrong with playing new music?

As you can see, we’ve now started a blog here on TuneLab Music. There’s a lot of things we’ll be using it for, but it will mainly be short editorials and a sub-section of reviews. It will also be utilized to provide updates on the site itself and serve as a mini-forum of sorts to hear your ideas on site features and things you would like to see.

As far as editorials, some of you may have noticed little things here and there where I or somebody else from the staff said we were working on an editorial, and much time has passed. The reason for that is we want our actual editorials, reviews, and news to be of a professional journalistic nature. Because all of us do this in our ’spare’ time, we never seem to have the time to get full write-ups done and edited. The blog will allow us to write more freely, and still cover the main points of what the full op-ed would be. Reviews will mostly be short anecdotes of albums we’re listening to, new artists we find that we think readers would be interested in, and quick reviews of live shows.

Eventually we will also be looking to open this up to more and more users, and maybe add more sections to it depending on how readers respond to it.