5) Mute Math “Armistice” -I had never listened to Mute Math before recieving this album in the mail, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was, it is a very laid back album that has urgency in all the right places, I suggest everyone pick it up.  By no means is it an insult that its number 5 on my list.

4) Two Tongues “Self Titled” – I really enjoyed this album partly because i’m a huge fan of Say Anything and Saves The Day, and when you put them together you get something very special.  Tongues takes all the great parts of Saves The Day and Say Anything and puts it into one project, the only issue I had with this is that the songs can get repetitive at times. Definately pick this up as its worth the $9.99 at Best Buy.

3) New Found Glory “Not Without A Fight” – What can I say about NFG that hasn’t been said, they always seem to surprise me.  I loved the NFG from 2000-2003 era but could not get into their latter albums.  I heard rumors that they were trying to make a move to old school NFG with this album and they definately accomplished that and truly put out a fun album.

2) Set Your Goals “This Will Be The Death Of Us” – WOW, thats all I have to say regarding SYG, they kicked all fans of pop-punk in the face with Death Of Us.  Death Of Us is a album that NFG should have wrote  3 years ago but didn’t, and i’m glad because SYG came in and made all fans of this genre take notice.  This was actually a top contender for the number 1 spot but was beat out by a hair, thats not saying that by the end of the year list comes out that it won’t be number 1, you never know.

1) Manchester Orchestra “Mean Everything To Nothing” – Manchester brought their “A” game with this album and topped their debut easily with Mean Everything, this was one of my most anticipated albums of the year and I was not let down at all.  The replay value of this album is great and it left me wanting more.

Here are some bands that didn’t make the list but definately have potential to make the end of the year top 10

-Silversun Pickups “Swoon”

-Taking Back Sunday “New Again”

-RX Bandits “Mandala” (Most likely will end up in my final top 10)

-Portugal The Man “The Satanic Satanist” (Could also be another top 10 contender)

For years the music business has been in the dumps. Since the beginning of the decade, consumers have stopped purchasing CD’s in favor of much more convenient methods like downloading single tracks from iTunes and stealing their album of choice from the Pirate Bay.

Most of the “old” hats in the music industry have tried to put a stop to these practices, and have failed miserably in doing so. The simple fact of the matter is that technology has affected many industries, and if you’re not going to change with the times, then you simply will be put out of business.

This is the problem with most of the music industry vets. Their business model consisted of selling the CD – a cheaply manufactured plastic disc loaded with content with a fairly nice mark-up. The profits were killer when selling a boatload of ‘em – i.e. a CD had to sell a certain volume in order to cover a number of costs:

• the production of the actual music
• the manufacturing costs of the CD and packaging
• the distribution of the product
• the most costly of them all, the marketing and advertising costs

The beautiful thing about operating a record label in the past was that you had a lot of power in the industry that was very hard for just anyone to obtain. If you ran a successful label, you had to have each part the operation covered in order to promote and distribute enough CD’s to cover the costs.

You had to have the distribution network down – i.e. at the very least have access to the mom-and-pop indie stores and if you had enough clout, distribution to the big box retailers. A successful label also had access to top-name producers and studios that would ensure the label that the music would be worth investing money into.

Even more importantly, you had to have access to all the press outlets that people consumed to get reviews and ad rates that would be used to sell the product. And of course, as part of promoting the album, they had to have the connections at radio in order to get this music played on the airwaves (which coincidentally used to be the main source for hearing music.)

For the past few years, the music industry has been crying like little school girls because they’re beloved CD sales have been plummeting. Instead of embracing new technology like the consumer has, they’ve spent their time and money trying to put a stop to it.

The NY Times recently posted this image timeline of music sales in various mediums over time. It’s quite an interesting look at how HUGE CD sales were – and is also an indication of how much money the major labels were raking in during the CD’s peak in the 90’s.

No wonder they’re pissed.

The problem is, their business model is dead. All of the things they once had that made their business work is no longer in their control – EVERY aspect of their business has changed, all except the part that’s supposed to make them money (their actual business model).

Distribution? This was the first part of the problem that, if the labels were smart, they would have done something about as soon as Napster creeped it’s head into the picture years ago. They lost the power of distribution that once proved to be their most powerful asset. Now anyone could share and distribute the same music that consumers would purchase from a CD for FREE over the ‘Net. Why the hell didn’t someone wake up and see they’d be doomed if they kept on going ?

Then came the lowering costs of production. Does a band really need to have Rick Rubin to make a great album, in a thousand dollar an hour studio? No. Now many can do it on their f’ing Macs, or if they need some production can find it and a decent price.

Still, the labels held on, and sued the pants off their consumers in the hopes of scaring them back into buying their artists CD’s. In an effort to keep whatever sales they had left, they continued to produce acts that they knew would sell to the only audience they had left – the non-technically savvy (i.e. country folk and inner-city types, who didn’t have the money for an iPod or who weren’t educated to file share).

In recent years, their beloved radio stations begun sharing attention with another thorn in their side – social networks like MySpace, Imeem, and Last.fm. For the first time EVER, the radio wasn’t the only place to hear new music for free, and also for the first time EVER, the labels didn’t have control over what the masses chose to listen to.

Then bands like Radiohead and NIN took the web by storm, introducing new business models for selling a new release. Indie bands no one has ever heard before are enjoying successes that in years prior would have been very hard to achieve, all because they’ve been able to do things on their own, without the need for a label. And on their own terms.

Finally, the last piece of the old record label model has fallen apart – the marketing and advertising of music. In the past, marketing a band was all about print ads, media placements, peer reviews from big names and big-budget music videos.

Now, marketing is about INTERACTION – direct interaction with consumers and fans. It’s not about creating a fake image, but more about creating an experience with people, developing an emotional relationship with them. And the tools to do so are freely available with things like Facebook and Twitter and other web applications.

It used to be that a band could just create an amazing album, and the labels could buy their success by shoving it down our throats wherever our attention happened to be. Now, it’s not just about creating the album, but more about creating the EXPERIENCE, and that’s not something you can’t pay for. It has to come from the musician or band directly. Those that can use the tools available to interact with their fans will succeed; bands that think their music will speak for itself will not.

All of this has led to the creation of Label 2.0, a new kind of record label with a new set of rules. You see, I’m a businessman – and investing in a band or musician simply based on their talents is not enough to warrant an investment. It’s not a smart business decision to think that the music in itself will be enough to attract a following that will reap profits at the end of the day.

Instead, investors need to see that you can create and interact with a dedicated group of fans before taking a financial interest in a band or musician – it’s the combination of music and experience that ultimately will make a sound business investment work.

Label 2.0 aims to help these musicians learn how to create this experience using the plethora of tools and resources available, mostly for free, online. Just having a MySpace or Twitter account set up isn’t going to get people to fall in love with you and your music; rather, it’ s HOW you use all of these communication and interaction tools that will decide if you have what it takes to succeed.

My partner Greg and I have spent years using these tools to develop relationships between brands and bands alike, and we’ve created an interactive learning environment for you to do the same. Musicians who are serious about making a career for themselves and building a real business plan will be able to learn how to do so from us.

And, just like a traditional record label would do, we’ll be able to see who not only who has the talent and ability to create great music, but also use the resources and tools available at their disposal to create a great experience, and to use that experience to interact and build a rabid and dedicated fan following.

If you think you’re ready to take your career in music seriously, we suggest giving Label 2.0 a shot. Or, you can wait in line with all the other bands who think someone is going to throw them millions of dollars and a lavish rock star lifestyle just because they can play a guitar.

Sorry folks, but those days are long gone.

Some have wondered if these funky white boys, University of Colorado at Boulder summa cum laude graduates beatmaster Nathaniel Mott and MC Sean Foreman, are for real. Or is it all just a parody?

However you want to categorize their music, manager Michael Kaminksy explains that 3OH!3 is exactly the act he was looking for.

“I was surrounded by all these bands that wanted to be rock stars but were so safe and didn’t actually have that attitude,” Kaminsky told Pollstar. “And I was looking for a band that was going to be the next Kid Rock – someone who … was a badass and kind of the bad boys of rock music.

“I was looking for that band that had some edge or some excitement to it.”

After a friend recommended he check out 3OH!3, Kaminsky looked up one of the band’s YouTube performance clips and then flew out to meet the guys.

He describes Mott and Foreman as “the nicest, most down-to-earth, most intelligent people I think I’ve ever met in music.

They quickly decided to work together and, in 2007, 3OH!3, named after their hometown of Boulder’s 303 area code, put out an independently released, self-titled debut album.

“Boulder is kind of known as a hippie mecca, for jam bands and stuff like that,” Foreman told Pollstar. “But it also gets a lot of diversity as far as music goes. … It’s a college town so it gets a lot of music coming through it.

“For us, that helped shape our musical careers when we were young. … I got to see such a wide range of independent artists, different underground acts.”
Mott and Foreman met in physics class at the UCB in 2003. As Mott told Pollstar, “I turned around and Sean was there. … He may or may not have purposely worn a band T-shirt he knew I would like.”

The duo bonded over their love of underground hip hop – Mott was deejaying for a radio show and Foreman was MC-ing in the local hip hop scene – and started making music together.

3OH!3 began playing shows in Boulder and Denver, building a buzz locally with the help of MySpace. In April 2007 the guys hooked up with their agent, The Agency Group’s Gabriel Apodaca.

“The first time I saw them the band basically said, ‘Hey, we have a show at some high school if you want to come down.’ … It was actually a prom where they couldn’t cuss,” Apodaca told pollstar.

“It was really funny because they asked me to help them with the contract and it was in the clause that they couldn’t cuss or they couldn’t use any drinking or any [drug/sexual] references. So they changed all their lyrics from bad words to Star Wars references.”

Once their team was in place, 3OH!3 opened for artists like The Faint, Snoop Doggand Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Last July the duo released their sophomore album,Want, on Photo Finish Records and headed out on their first major trek, 2008’s Warped Tour.

“The first day they played, they had 300 people on their stage. By the end of Warped Tour, on the last date in L.A., there were probably 6,000 to 7,000 people by their stage,” Kaminsky said. “We worked the summer really, really hard to make sure that it was built on a show and on a presence, with music fans who all went back and told their friends, ‘Listen, if there’s a band to check out on Warped tour, it’s 3OH!3.’”

Although 3OH!3’s shows began with Mott and Foreman playing to backing tracks, during Warped tour members of other bands jumped in on bass or drums with them and some days Katy Perry and her band joined the guys on stage.

Current 3OH!3 tours now include a bassist and drummer along with a rotating guitar spot.

After wrapping up this year’s Warped Tour in late August, 3OH!3 is set to play the U.K.’s Reading and Leeds fests followed by shows in Australia and New Zealand. A European tour is in the works, as well as headlining dates in early 2010.

Oh, and for the record, Mott says 3OH!3 is definitely not a parody. Not that many have the guts to actually ask the guys.

“The vast majority of those questions that we get are from journalists who are asking if we get those questions,” Mott said. “No one really asks us if our music is a parody. It’s always like, ‘Do you guys get asked that?’ I mean, I think that most people are hip to it, they understand it. We are dead serious about our music.”

Article by Sarah Marie Pittman (POLLSTAR)

I had the opportunity to exchange emails with a indie music insider who has a lot of pull within the industry and he gave me some useful information for small bands wanting to have a successful career in music as long as I don’t post his name, which we will not do.  You can check that info out below:

1) Do not hire a manager: Hiring a manager is for bands who don’t have the time to handle things themselves, and if your a smaller band just starting out you don’t need one anyway.  Manager’s are for bands that are on the road full time and is already having success, if your a small band scraping by on tour you don’t need an extra 15% to 20% being taken out of your band funds.

2) Put music out constantly: Most smaller bands see their favorite bands putting albums out every 2-4 years and they feel they need to do the same to generate demand, that is the wrong way of thinking.  If your are a small band you need to be recording and playing music as much as possible because you don’t have demand in most cases.  Their is a lot of established bands that would love to put 2 albums out a year but due to record label obligations they are not allowed to.

3) Play live music: when I say play live music I mean play as much as you can wherever you can, if you have to play in your garage with 5 people watching do that.  Book your band a regional tour, a national tour whatever you can afford, its not hard to call up an all ages club and ask to play.  A great way to book a tour is contact a local band in the town you are looking to play and book a show with that band, chances are they have a contact at a venue.  I have seen firsthand the power of Facebook and Myspace in terms of booking shows, its not hard.

4) Market yourself: What I mean is get one of those friend request programs off the internet and add as many friends on myspace as possible, by doing that your going to see your plays go up on your page therefore generating new fans.  I would also contact a myspace designer and have them build you a great page, you don’t need to have a standard website anymore, all you need is a myspace page that screams professional.  Take advantage of twitter, by following as many people as you can your able to announce when you have a new song out or that your going to be touring and need a place to play or sleep.

5) Don’t sign to a record label: Why let a record label take a big piece of the pie called your music.  If your a smaller band to midsize band you can do everything yourself.  You now have the power to put your own music on itunes, amazon, napster and other digital retailers.  Look at bands like Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead and so forth, they are doing everything without a label.  Their may be a time when it might be beneficial for you to have a record label behind you but that time isn’t when your only playing regional shows and recording on garageband still.

There you have it, just to reiterate this is someone who has been involved in the indie music scene for the past 15 years and has been very successful

Making Music For Fame Not Fans

By: Josh Lansing

I decided to add some spice to the site by creating a weekly column called State Of Music where I can publish my thoughts on the current music scene.  I decided this week we can tackle the bands that in my opinion put a tarnish on the scene such as Jeffree Star, Millionaires, Brokencyde etc..

I attended Warped tour this year and was shocked of the amount of bands playing that probably had no business being their in the first place.  Warped tour has always been friendly to all genres of music but I was shocked to see 3 women (Millionaires) on stage singing about date rape, drugs and drinking as much as they were.  Now don’t get me wrong i’m not a prude by any means and enjoy partying just as much but what really got me was the fact that they were horrible at singing and put on a horrid show.

The most prevelant thing i’m seeing in music right now is bands (if you can even call them that) getting in this business to get famous and make money.  Now before you crucify me I believe that everyone has the right to make money and lots of it, but I don’t understand why some of these bands don’t care about their fans.  I overheard a kid who was probably 13 years old at Warped Tour talking to his friend on how his favorite band Brokencyde blew him off for an autograph, seeing as its his favorite band I would have blew him off also, small joke, hehe.

Something that shocked me recently was when I watched a video of a fan throwing water at Jeffree Star only for Star to turn around and taze the kid 3 times.  Now I don’t condone someone inciting a fight by throwing water at someone but don’t you think tazing someone is a little much?

In ending this article I think everyone has the right to make music whether your horrible at it or not but please at least put your heart and soul into it.

If you want to check out some hardworking bands check these out below to just name a few

RX Bandits – Thrice – Say Anything- Saosin – Anti Flag