Oh man, Jul 1st! Summer is here. And our English friends are bearing the brunt of our heat. 95 degrees in London today? That’s CRAZY! Now the “tube” (subway) riders there will share our joy of standing on a hot summer’s day platform waiting for a train to pull in. In Times Square here in NYC, it’s like waking into HELL!
Just last night I was waxing poetic about how great rock music is doing right now. Breaking Benjamin, after a 4 year hiatus, scored the NUMBER ONE SLOT on the Billboard Top 200 Album charts, debuting their new Dark Before Dawn cd with 150,000 copies sold in the first week! New music from Disturbed, Shinedown, Lamb Of God, Pop Evil, among many more, are getting love at radio like mad. So why are so many artists still unhappy? There are a few factions within our ranks of influential programmers who, when they don’t play a song, hurt these artists. Sometimes, it is very unfair and random. I’ve heard of songs being ripped off the airways of some stations just as they are about to become number one singles. It just is very exasperating for us passionate music lovers who want everyone who puts out good music to have their day in the spotlight. I’m just saying. Spotify had done their report stating rock music is strong. We are seeing it with the info I’ve shared in the past. I just can’t wrap my mind around some people who just won’t give certain bands the airplay they deserve. And so the first news report from Seether shows the frustration on the parts of bands. (See next story.) But the bottom line here for you, the fans, is: if you love a band, buy their album. Jacoby Shaddix from Papa Roach said it recently. When you buy an album, you support rock music. You support the band that you love and thus, you support the future of rock as we know it. And yes, rock now comes in many different forms now, and we should be open minded and not be so quick to judge. And rock is cyclical. Over my career, I have seen many ups and downs for harder rock vs alternative. And so has alternative rock seen it’s morphing back and forth. My feeling has always been, if it’s good, play it. That’s my rant for today. Thank you!
Pulse of Radio reports Seether frontman Shaun Morgan has said in a new interview with Sticks And Stones he is disappointed with the current state of rock radio in the U.S., claiming that guitar-based bands are finding it increasingly difficult to get airplay as more stations switch from rock to alternative formats.
Morgan explained, “Alternative radio stations just don’t want to play songs with guitarists. They play ’90s alternative bands like Alice In Chains and Nirvana, but they don’t play new bands with guitar. They’re, like, ‘That’s not alternative anymore’ . . . If we’re lucky enough to get played on radio, we’ll get played right after a Lorde song, which is fine. I like Lorde, but I don’t think she’s a godd**n rock artist. She’s not alternative; I think she’s more pop.”
Morgan continued: “I think there is a weird sort of gray area about what is rock music and what is alternative music. It’s sort of annoying. It seems like alternative stations think they’re ‘the cool kids of the radio world.’ They can make and break careers, man . . . We used to be one of the five or ten bands they’d play all the time; no questions asked. If we put out a single, they’d play it because we’d done so much for them. But now they’ve switched to ‘alternative,’ and we don’t get played at all.”
The singer and guitarist added, “We went for 10 years playing every single radio station, playing all their events and birthday bashes or whatever the hell you call them, and then they turn around and say, ‘We don’t play you guys anymore because we’re alternative. We don’t play rock bands now.’ It’s, like, ‘Get your head out of your f**king arse, dude.’ It’s bulls**t.” (OK, I put it a little more mildy in my rant, but you get the picture. People are frustrated! Do you blame them?)
Meanwhile, Seether has released an interactive music video for “Nobody Praying For Me.” The clip consists of five separate videos telling a story from different perspectives, ultimately showing there’s more than one side to a story. Shaun Morgan stated, “Our goal in creating this video is for people to educate themselves and make an informed decision on their own, rather than being told by any media outlet saying, this is what you should be thinking, this is what is right.” Watch it now!
Bullet For My Valentine is doing a Twitter Q&A tomorrow! (Thu Jul 2). See details on Bullet’s Facebook page.
Meanwhile, the next hardDriveRadio APP chat is hopefully happening live from the Warped Tour stop on Saturday, Jul 11th from Jones Beach! Who’s the band? We’ll reveal soon!
So Apple Music debuted yesterday. They are giving it to you for 3 months for free. Here are the 5 songs they played upon launch:
Spring King “City”
Beck “Dreams” (I like Beck)
Jamie XX “Gosh”
Skepta “Shutdown”
AC/DC “For Those About To Rock”
Did you listen to it? I know many friends who wanted to, but they couldn’t download it onto their computers. I haven’t checked my phone or my MacBook to see if it’s there. Will have to check it out next week while I’m on vacation.
Well, any moment now we will be announcing our first hardDrive Live Tour for 2015! Very exciting. We are waiting for all the dates to be confirmed as well as the line up, but trust me, guitar aficionados, you won’t be disappointed!
Two goddesses celebrating life today: Deborah Harry of Blondie is, gulp, 70! Pamela Anderson is 48.