The Rebel Reviewer Checks Out Sin Dealer Live and Tries to Stay out of the Drowning Pool

They say to pick your battles. They say, just let it go. They say cut some slack cuz you don’t know the rest of the story. You don’t know what’s really going on behind the scenes. And then you see this. Saturday night, I was treated to a great time with some new good friends. In fact they took me out to a bar to see a band I never even heard of til they brought up the name. Sure I heard the tune “Bodies” but it didn’t register as it really sounded like a metal version of “Whoomp There It Is!”. Sure it’s hooky and it’ll get pretty well anyone jumping around but I couldn’t loosen my attitude strings and get into the whole package after a few things I heard that night.

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The Rebel Reviewer Checks Out Basia Lyjak

Last time I saw Basia Lyjak perform was back in November 2007 opening for the “Support the Troops” benefit concert. I was immediately impressed by her unique and beautiful voice. Her band was tight and experienced. What impressed me most was her fan appreciation. Even this early in the game, she had a crowd of supporters that the rest of the acts that night wished they had. As soon as she left the stage she came around front and walked through the crowd thanking people, including myself, for being there. It wasn’t a robotic, I gotta do this type act. It was for real. It was an eye contact thing. She said thank you to you, not at you, and she meant it.

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Prominent Southern Cal Rock Club FM Station Reopens

FM Station, a rock club that held prominence until it closed in 1995, has reopened with a mission to give a happening home to rock bands The club reopened its doors on July 14th at it’s original location on the corner of Lankershim & Victory in North Hollywood, CA. The club is booking both national and local rock bands. For upcoming shows and booking, go to www.myspace.com/fmstationrocks or call the HOTLINE at (805) 526-1852.

Rock and Roll Report Blitz! Airbourne

I feel like I have to make a caveat before this blitz to avoid anybody pointing fingers and yelling sellout at me. Airbourne is on Roadrunner Records which is one of the preeminent hard rock/heavy metal independent record labels in the world. The thing is, they are not technically independent as they are now owned by the Warners Music Group. Now I have always said that I don’t discriminate based on mode of distribution and I still put all my time and focus on unsigned and smaller indie labels but this band is too good to ignore. And on top of that I don’t hear these guys on commercial rock radio anyways! That being said…..

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The Sea Want to Play At Your House Party (in the UK)

Now this is cool! The Sea, a great UK band who I played on Podcast #14 has added a cool twist to the usual summer tour idea. In preparation for their new CD they want to put together a special little UK tour for their fans.

What they want to to is play at your house, garden, party or whatever! That’s right, before they embark on a larger tour in the fall they want to play at your place! They are looking to play the dates in August and September. According to their email to me they want you to do the following:

1, Let us know if you are up for it.
2, Lets fix a date
3, Tell your friends and lets party!

You can contact them at their MySpace page at www. myspace. com/theseasounds

Later.

Mark

Odds and Sods: Rock Out at Denny’s, Ernie Ball’s Battle of the Bands at Warped ‘08, 1st Annual Sunset Strip Music Festival and Sixx A.M.’s Playboy Debut

This edition of “Odds and Sods” covers everything from greasy fast food, a great Battle of the Bands competition that involves both fans and unsigned bands, rocking out on the Sunset Strip and porn music videos. What a great way to start the weekend!

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Odds and Sods: Dylan at Newport in 1965, Hard Rock Cafe’s Memorabilia Site, Top ’80s Metal Moments and More…

I haven’t done a classic Odds and Sods post in awhile so I have a bunch of cool things for you to check out.

The first is video of Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 when he goes electric. He’s performing “Maggies Farm” in this historic video that is one of the most significant events in rock histroy. Regardless of whether you like Dylan or not you should watch this just to get a sense of what the man is about.

Regardless of what you think about the Hard Rock chain of restaurants and hotels/casinos, the company does own an incredible selection of rock and roll memorabilia but it would cost you a fortune to travel to every location to see it. Luckily they have put together a very cool website where you can check this stuff out from the comfort of your own home. Called the slightly unimaginative Hard Rock Memorabilia Site and located at http://memorabilia.hardrock.com/ you can check out their incredible collection. Unfortunately, you have to install the new Microsoft web software Silverlight to view the site so it’s your call whether you want to go that far or not. Still, a pretty impressive website for the rock hsitory buff.

Steele In Music has a very cool collection of video highlights of some great 80’s Metal Moments in their Sweet 16: Best 80’s Hair Metal Bands that I really enjoyed watching. Featuring everybody from Van Halen and Motley Crue at the US Festival to stunning video of the late, great Randy Rhoads, If you liked hair bands and 80’s metal you will be astounded at some of this stuff. Videos 16 to 9 can be found at http://steeleinmusic.uber.com/metalhair1 and videos 8 to 1 can be found at http://steeleinmusic.uber.com/metalhair2. Very cool stuff.

Speaking of 80’s hair metal bands, a gaggle of them will be performing at this year’s Rocklahoma 2008. A reunited Triumph joins bands like Cinderella, LA Guns, Enuff Z Nuff, Tesla, Night Ranger, Kingdom Come, Warrant, Lynch Mob and more. Man I think I would like to go just to see what the 80s metal babes look like 20 years on!

Finally, Rolling Stone Magazine has an interesting piece on how Walmart wants to pressur the major record labels in allowing them to sell CDs for less than 10 bucks. The piece is called Walmart Wants $10 CDs and describes how the American retail behemoth is treating the major record labels much like it does the rest of its suppliers by demanding price concessions from them to to the fact that they move so much product in their stores. Check out this breakdown of where the money goes on a $15.99 major label CD:

$0.17 Musicians’ unions
$0.80 Packaging/manufacturing
$0.82 Publishing royalties
$0.80 Retail profit
$0.90 Distribution
$1.60 Artists’ royalties
$1.70 Label profit
$2.40 Marketing/promotion
$2.91 Label overhead
$3.89 Retail overhead

An interesting read.

Well that’s it for this edition of Odds and Sods! Talk to you all later.

Mark

Playboy Enterprises Announces Rock The Rabbit 2008

(Editor’s note) I have always been a fan of Playboy. Ya sure the girls are hot and all but more than that I am a big admirer of Hef’s business of hedonism. The way he has structured his work and social environments to reflect his values (you can argue with THAT all you want!) has continued to fascinate me. So when I saw this press release announcing the 2008 schedule for Rock the Rabbit I thought it would be cool to post here as they have supported some pretty cook bands in the past.

(Press Release) For the second year in a row, Playboy’s Rock the Rabbit initiative will fuse rock, hip-hop, art and fashion in conjunction with Playboy magazine’s annual March music issue (on newsstands February 12, 2008). Rock the Rabbit 2008 includes an impressive line-up of legendary artists, including Duran Duran and Iggy Pop, as well as other cutting-edge musicians across a variety of genres, both established and buzz-worthy up-and-comers.

As part of this year’s program, Rock the Rabbit artists will put their twist on the iconic Playboy Rabbit Head logo by creating limited edition t-shirt designs. Original prototypes of all t-shirt designs will be auctioned off, with proceeds benefitting Rock the Vote (www.rockthevote.org). A special collection of Rock the Rabbit t-shirts will be available nationwide at select Bloomingdale’s locations and online at ShopTheBunny.com.

Additionally, legendary photographer Mick Rock photographed select Rock the Rabbit artists for the fashion pages of Playboy’s March music issue, and RockTheRabbit.com will feature a complete gallery of this year’s t-shirt collection alongside profiles and Q & A’s with the artists.

Playboy Rock the Rabbit 2008 Artists:
* Iggy Pop
* Duran Duran
* Daft Punk
* The Shins
* T.I.
* Gogol Bordello
* Hot Chip
* Ghostland Observatory
* Jamie T
* Tokyo Police Club
* The Pipettes
* New Young Pony Club
* Margot & The Nuclear So And So’s
* Little Ones
* OFFICE
* The Oohlas
* The Heavy
* Working For A Nuclear Free City
* The Beasts of Eden
* DJ Dimitri from Paris

Last year’s inaugural group of Rock the Rabbit artists included The Flaming Lips, The Thievery Corporation, Kasabian, Metric, Whitestarr, Rhymefest, Lil’ Jon, Soulwax, Dean & Britta, stellastarr*, Illinois, The Bronx and more. The campaign hosted some of 2007’s hottest parties, including: a launch party at The Palms Casino Resort featuring performances by Rhymefest and Whitestarr; a late night party at SXSW in Austin, Texas, featuring Illinois and Monsters are Waiting; and a spring break beach bonanza in Cabo San Lucas featuring a performance by Your Vegas.

Stay tuned for more info on Rock the Rabbit 2008 events, including the Late Night Party in Austin, Texas, on Thursday, March 13, 2008.

Check out RocktheRabbit.com for info on Rock the Rabbit 2008.

Pop Montreal is Coming October 3 - 7, 2007!

I would be extremely negligent if I didn’t mention that our very own Pop Montreal is coming October 3-7, 2007. Featuring bands too numerous to mention plus seminars as part of the Pop Conference and a Film and Art festival, check out the website for all the details and by all means let me know if you will be in town. I still haven’t made my plans but I will be out and about for sure.

Later.

Mark

Fun Fun Fest

As if Austin doesn’t have enough cool festivals with South by Southwest and the Austin City Limits Festival they now have the Fun Fun Fest.

Set to take place November 3rd and 4th, 2007, Fun Fun Fest will feature 75 bands on 3 stages which will once again tax the stamina of even the toughest rock and roll fan. The list of bands is too big for me to post so just check out their website at http://www.funfunfunfest.com/ and see for yourself.

If you play your cards right you might just pass out at the end of Fun Fun Fest and wake up in time for SxSW!

Later.

Mark

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