The Rock and Roll Report is On Vacation!

If things seem a bit slow around here its just because we are taking a bit of a vacation break to catch up with the Olympics and get some sun. Things will be revving up to their usual frenetic pace soon so get ready!

Later.

Mark

Introducing Mike The Rebel Reviewer to The Rock and Roll Report

I am pretty psyched to introduce Mike from Rebel Reviewer.Com as a regular contributor to The Rock and Roll Report. Mike is a photographer and writer, well kind of a writer but one hell of a photographer….a screw it, I’ll let Mike introduce himself straight from his own cool site!

Hi. I’m an aging fuckin photographer. I’m definitely NOT a writer. I can type real fuckin fast but I don’t give a shit about dictionaries or grammar as you can probably tell. If you can’t tell, then you are an illiterate bastard and you’ll probably fit right in around here.

I shoot whatever band I can get my sorry ass in front of as long as I like the shit and WANT to be there. I don’t just go out and shoot any half assed band of losers in some stinky cockroach infested bar unless I think the world SHOULD know about them. Not that my site is viewed by THAT many people but I’m only doing my very small part to let you all know about (insert band’s name here) and how great/horrible they are. Hey… after all… it’s my fuckin site. If you want to try and get your opinion out there for people to ignore then go buy your own server space! I don’t fuck around. I check out shows and I just let ya know what I thought of it. I try to get myself in front of the band at some point just to see what they’re like with their “fans”. Sometimes, a band can be the greatest bunch of musicians in the world and I’ll tell ya they SUCK because they spit on their fans. Or I’ll tell ya the worst musicians were fucking AMAZING because they were really good people, know how to treat their fans and put on a good show. That’s what rock n roll is all about to me… the whole package deal. I’d rather go out and see GWAR blow up some venue and spew 90 gallons of fake blood all over the audience than watch some tree hugger with an acoustic guitar, sitting on a rocking chair, crying about the state of the fuckin planet. Fuck him. I want a dude or a bunch of dudes who are out of their minds. Someone who’s got an ANSWER to the fuckin problem rather than a list of unsolvable problems. Or just something so off the wall and insane that it takes you away from all your problems for a few minutes at least. Isn’t THAT what rock n roll is all about? Have some fun? Get some booze into yer gullet? Get laid? Do a fuckin back flip into the mosh pit?

So just hang up yer brain, get yer favorite drink, twist up a fatty, kick back and enjoy. I don’t give a shit if you read this crap or not. I just hope for one thing out of my site: Find your favourite band somewhere on one of these pages and just dig the pictures. If I can do that for ANYONE, then I’ve succeeded and I’m one happy fucker.

Mike
Rebel Reviewer Dot Com

Welcome to the New Rock and Roll Report!

Well as you may figured out when you logged into the site, The Rock and Roll Report has undergone a pretty dramatic change in the last week. What you see is the culmination of months of work with web designer Josh Bowers to bring the Report more inline with being an online magazine and less like a typical blog.

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Pardon the Dust! (Updated)

As you can see, things have kind of changed around here! Some things are working, some things are missing (like some images and the podcasts) but the mission remains the same, to showcase some of the best rock and roll you will hear anywhere that just so happens to be created by bands and artists that are either unsigned or are on independent record labels.

So please pardon the mess, things will be back to normal (or as normal as they can be!) soon.

Thanks for visiting!

(UPDATE!) OK so most of the pics on the site are working but you will have to be patient with the podcasts as only the latest podcast is available. Please do not adjust your set….

Mark

BackstageGallery.Com - Finally Giving Local Rock Photographers Their Due

I love rock photography and hope to be featuring some in the near future on the Rock and Roll Report but getting a hold of it is not always the easiest thing to do. You pretty much have to Google search for the stuff and deal with multiple websites where sometimes it would be nice to just go to one site and browse for a bit to help you decide what you like. Well BackstageGallery.Com is a new site that will help you do this.

Their “Version 1.0″ site as they like to call it is where they plan to “finally honor local freelance rock photographers’ work in one place.” According to an email I received from them:

Our founder was the recent president of Best Buy and when he went looking for great rock photo art what he found was a ton of cheap posters and a handful on online art galleries like Wolfgang’s Vault and Morrison Hotel where only a few photographers were selling their stuff for a ton of money.

So we set out to find the local guys whose photos are often still in boxes because the shooters have never gotten around to digitizing and commercializing their amazing work. We have a bunch more shooters lined up and way more images about to come online than you’ll see at the site, but we’re pretty happy with our starting point.

Now this sounds like a cool project that I will be following closely. I need some new stuff for the walls of Rock and Roll Report HQ and this sounds like a great place to start.

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

Introducing Scott Homewood to the Rock and Roll Report

I am pleased to introduce Scott Homewood to the virtual pages of The Rock and Roll Report. With years of music journalism under his belt and work published in numerous online and print publications, Scott brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Report and I can’t be more excited hosting his first rate writing and I know you will enjoy Scott’s distinctive take on what rocks his world.

We kick off Scott’s contributions here with his review of two long lost gems by British psychedelic rockers Blossom Toes, a name you probably don’t know but after reading Scott’s piece, you will probably want to get.

With Scott joining regular contributors Matheson Kamin and Michael Goldsmith (the author of the weekly series Cover Stories), I am pretty stoked to see where this is all going and now is as good a time as any to begin the process of transforming The Rock and Roll Report into more of an online magazine and less of a blog. In the coming months get ready for yet another change in look for the Report with some new features and new voices that will make a visit to the Report a great way to discover amazing rock and roll you may not be aware of, whether it was created in 2008 or 1968.

As the podcast grows and matures (well mature might not be the best word!) and we start to incorporate more videos from the bands we write about and play, the Rock and Roll Report is finally becoming the site I hoped it would be. As I like to say on Rock and Roll Report Radio, grab a cold drink, a hot squeeze and turn the volume up to 11, this rock and roll ride is just getting warmed up!

Thanks for reading and listening!

Mark Boudreau
Head Ringmaster and Handyman

Cool Site: Indie Hunt on SessionSound

Running until the end of February, the Indie Hunt on SessionSound is where fans get a chance to help discover & promote the indie music acts on the site, with the fan favourite & competition winner receiving a $1000 cash prize.

With registration on the site free, the competition is open to all indie music acts with their music profile on the site. I just discovered SessionSound and I have signed up to investigate but it seems pretty cool. I’ll let you know what I think when I have fully digested it but if you are a band they offer:

* Artist sets their own retail price, even give it away for free download
* 100% non-exclusive, your music stays your own
* DRM-free, upload & download in mp3 format then enjoy!
* Webcasts & streaming audio with Airplay Radio, create your own playlist & embed it on the web
* Artists retain 100% of their price, we just add 10% processing fee to all mp3 purchases

Later.

Mark

Introducing New Rock and Roll Report Contributor Matheson Kamin

I am excited to introduce a new contributor here at the Rock and Roll Report by the name of Matheson Kamin. I’ll let Matheson introduce himself:

With how bad commercial radio can be, I have always paid attention to the underground music scene. When my classmates where listening to Top 40 music, I listened to college radio; the music was better and the artists had more creativity.

I have also followed the local scene here in Cleveland, Ohio. Some of the bands here have been as good or better than the stuff on commercial radio, but they have never received the notoriety they deserve.
During the last decade, I represented a local internet-based record company and an internet-based music publication. After both ventures happened to fail for their owners, I joined Cleveland-based Exciting City in 2004. I have spent more than 2 years with the hard copy publication promoting both the music and art scenes here in Cleveland.

I recently joined up with The Rock-and-Roll Report because there are a lot of local and independent bands that don’t get their share of notoriety. I want to change that.

Matheson Kamin

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