4 Years Ago (2017)

I was reading a paper that Steve Albini wrote back in the early nineties called “The Problem With Music” and was inspired to write.

While change is a constant in life, the recording business and the contracts they use haven’t changed much.

8 Years Ago (2013)

The debacle that was the Stone Music Festival was still getting some news.

Basically you had amateurs involved in organizing a festival and the blowback was huge.

I shared my enthusiasm for “BULLY” – Shinedown, “BLACK” – Trivium, “BECOME” – Mutiny Within, “BE STILL and KNOW” – Machine Head and “BELIEVE IN ME” – Corroded.

If these five songs appeared on one side of a LP, the album for me would be called a classic. 

I watched Black Sabbath live and posted my review here.

Then I was questioning if Sabbath was still relevant.

Black Sabbath was the early 70’s.

Towards the end of that era, the band was bleeding and Ozzy was fired. The beginning of the 80’s, saw Black Sabbath in the “Heaven and Hell” period, with Ronnie James Dio on vocals. After that, you can say the band didn’t really set the world of fire, however I do have a soft spot for the “Eternal Idol” and “Headless Cross” albums with Tony Martin on vocals.

The “Dehumanizer” album in 1992 with Dio was an attempt to make both Dio and Sabbath relevant in the 90’s, however it didn’t really hit the mark.

Black Sabbath of the 70’s questioned authority, challenged institutions and preyed on people’s fears of heaven and hell. The 2013 Sabbath didn’t do that lyrically, it was just the same old run of the mill cliches.

It looked like my playlist shuffle was stuck in the song titles that begin with B.

So I posted my appreciation of “Breakin Free” – Tesla, “Be Somebody” – Thousand Foot Krutch, “Beautiful” – Since October, “Back Again” – Daughtry, “Believer” – Three Doors Down, “Black Rose” – Trapt and “Beautiful Mourning” – Machine Head.

I thought I would do a follow-up to how One Less Reason treat their fans. Which was still shit.

Comments taken from their Facebook page at the time had a lot of things like “Ordered your CD from your website a while ago and still have yet to receive it, what does it take to get your cd? several attempts to contact you and no response yet.”

And I still hadn’t received my CDs as well.

“What About Now” from Bon Jovi went from number 1 to 76 in six weeks, so I thought I’ll write about it.

Finally Jovi also released dates for a December 2014 tour of Australia.

And they did so many pre sales deals with different organizations, with tickets ranging in prices from $200 to $2000 and of course if you paid the premium membership for their own backstage fan club you had access to the first presale.

Regardless of the deals and the band scalping their own tickets, the tour was still a massive event with Sambora or not.