These are the thoughts, ideas and ramblings of Steve Beck, the founder of OnlineRock. As both a fan and a musician involved with many aspects of the industry, I will try to post when I am inspired to do so. I welcome your comments.
Todd Rundgren - A Wizard, a True Star - Posted Friday, June 19th, 2009 - 10:11AM
If you know me, you'll know that I credit Todd Rundgren with my life-long appreciation of music. I was sixteen and had been to a few concerts in my life however, the night I saw Todd with Utopia in Scranton, PA, influenced me more than any other. I was literally blown away and couldn't stop thinking about what I just saw for weeks. I wanted to see more live music, play my guitar more and get involved. Now Todd is revisiting A Wizard, A True Star, his 1973 influential and pioneering progressive rock album. Below is some information about his performance of the entire album in London.
Rock'n'roll icon, guitar genius, interactive progenitor, consummate singer/songwriter and record producer Todd Rundgren, will perform his paradigm shifting 1973 album, A Wizard, a True Star (known to the cognoscenti as AWATS) in its entirety for the first time ever in Britain on Saturday February 6th 2010 at the London HMV Hammersmith Apollo, which will be Todd's only UK performance of the seminal album which is hailed as an influential masterpiece by today's new bands, including Hot Chip.
This rare British premiere will be Rundgren's first and only UK concert since last year's Arenaalbum tour. In addition to his being a multi-talented musician and singer/songwriter and performer, Rundgren is also regarded as one of the best record producers of all time (XTC, Meat Loaf, Patti Smith Group, XTC, Grand Funk Railroad). His most recent critically acclaimed album production, 'Cause I Sez So, reunited him for the first time in 36 years with the legendary New York Dolls.
Although Rundgren's breakthrough 1972 album, Something/Anything? is considered by many to be his masterpiece, the psychedelic impact and bordering-on-disturbing innovation of the follow-up, AWATS,is arguably Rundgren's most experimental and influential album. Stand-out tracks include the International Feel, Rock & Roll Pussy, You Don't Have To Camp Around, Sometimes I Don't Know What To Feel, Zen Archer and Just Another Onionhead.
Creating a Video without having a Video - Posted Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 - 10:49AM
If you're like most artists these days, having a video seems like a great idea. You could post it on your website or MySpace page and use YouTube to help spread it around creating more visibility. The trouble is that creating a video in the past has been time consuming and sometimes costly. In addition, you'll want to make sure it leaves a good impression on the viewer. A poor quality video, both in musical performance and video quality can do more harm than good if not presented properly.
We probably all have friends with hand-held video cameras that try to capture some of our shows and rehearsals. And most likely we have a lot of still shots from tours, practices and just hanging out. That was the case with my band Needle but we still wanted to have a video that we would be happy with. As a quick way to put something together, I assembled these stills using iMovie on the Mac. You could also use Movie Maker if you're using Windows. By combining the still shots, using transitions and fades backed up with a track from our CD, we were able to create a decent video. Check it out:
Creating a One-Sheet - Posted Thursday, June 4th, 2009 - 8:39AM
Here at OnlineRock, we receive around 50 to 100 CDs every month from artists and PR firms looking to get some sort of coverage. These packages include anything from just the CD to elaborate photographs and multi-paged biographies. Some include candy, stickers and buttons but what's actually the most helpful for us is a quality one-sheet.
A one-sheet is just that, one sheet of paper (it can be a PDF as well) with just the most important facts about the band or CD. In this new Twitter world we live in, the key is being concise and clear. The most important ingredients of a one-sheet, in my opinion, are listed below.
1. Band and CD Name. 2. Short Biography 3. Three short press quotes. 4. Key Tracks (this could be the single) and indicate if any can be included on podcasts or as a free download. 5. RIYL (recommended if you like) to give readers an idea if they would enjoy this artist. 6. Small picture of CD cover and/or Band. 7. Marketing highlights such as radio promo, ads in publications and tours. 8. Contact info with names, emails, phone numbers and websites.
I'm sure there are other items that help make a release stand out but these are what's important for me. Please feel free to add your own.
