Butch Walker

So today Butch Walker released his new album, I Liked It Better When You Had No Heart. I gave it a listen, and I am quite impressed. With catchy melodies and creative lyrics, this album stands proudly with the rest. Not to say that it sounds the same. Butch seems to have strayed further away from the kinda-rough-but-still-pretty sound of Rise and Fall (think "Bethamphetamine"), but still manages to keep all the slow songs entertaining and beautiful. Plus, the acoustic version of "Don't Move" (one of my favorite songs) at the end is amazing.

Buy on Amazon

Butch Walker was born and raised right next door in Cartersville, GA. After playing guitar for the hair metal band SouthGang, Butch started a band called Marvelous 3 (Hey! Album is one of the greatest albums of all time). Since then he went solo, spending part of his time making music, and part producing it for artists like Avril Levigne and Katy Perry. His last album, Sycamore Meadows, is about his return to Atlanta after years on the west coast. Butch may not be part of the genre of music I usually listen to, but he is so musically talented that everyone can like him.

http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:fzfpxqrgldae~T1

Bad News

Late last month, concert companies Ticketmaster and Live Nation merged, after approval from the US Anti-Trust. Both companies made venues sign contracts for exclusive access to ticket sales from over 100 venues in the US. The new company (keeping the name Live Nation) claims this will allow them to lower ticket prices. However, both companies have been accused of inflating their service fees in the past (a Coldplay ticket on Live Nation priced at $35 had over $20 extra in service fees this past summer).

"They've just received the biggest disincentive not to reduce ticket prices ever."
-David Viecelli (Agent for indie bands such as Vampire Weekend and Arcade Fire)

"A bad idea for fans of live music."
-Tony Margherita (Manager for Wilco)

"Pretty much everybody agrees that ticket prices with service charges are too high - and I don't see anything in the Justice Department remedies that will change that one bit."
-John Scher (Manager for Simon and Garfunkel)

Knopper, Steve. "Live Nation and Ticketmaster Merge, Creating Music-Industry Superpower." Rolling Stone. 18 Feb 2010: 14-15.

Yes, I read Rolling Stone. Yes, their magazine is full of political bias. However, a year subscription was $2, so I might as well.

Further reading:

More from RS

More about exclusive venue contracts

More about exclusive artist contracts

Welcome

I am a student at Berry College, a music geek, an instrument effects pedal builder, and the owner of RabidAudio, an indie record label based in Atlanta, GA.

This blog will (for the most part) include posts related to such things.

As for RabidAudio, the site is under construction (there was an old site, but I am so bad at web design that I'm not going to even share the link). At present, there is one artist I am working with. IncontipleXion, a comedic metalcore group (with whom I have in the past played bass for during live shows).

Here are some artists I know personally:

Tetrarch - Classic Metal meets Bullet For My Valentine. Will be opening April 30 at the Masquerade (my favorite place in Atlanta) for Sonata Artica. Definitely check them out.

IncontipleXion -Pronounced [n-kon-tuh-pleyk-shuhn]. The only song I have produced for them is this one. I don't get to do much recording nowadays, thanks to school. This summer, however, we plan to put together a full album for IncontipleXion and start a local tour.

David Bergen - Local rocker and former guitarist for The Psychedelic Pink Socks.

Eric Morphis - Unique rapper and close friend. Edited and Produced music video for single, "Rockman".

Ross Woodruff- Acoustic rocker in Nashville.

Tetrarch preforming a cover of Master of Puppets