A Song for Chi

"A Song for Chi," a tribute to Chi Cheng, bass player for the Deftones, was recently released. Cheng was seriously injured in a car accident nearly a year ago and remains in a semi-concious state. Korn's Fieldy organized the instrumental song which features members from heavy hitting bands such as Metallica, Korn, Hatebreed, Slipknot, Killswitch Engage, Sevendust and Machine Head.

The video is can be viewed below and the song is available to download for free at this site. Fans are encouraged to donate to a fund for Chi.

From The Vault - "Mia" by Chevelle

Every now and again, I like to dip back into the catalog of an artist right before they drop a new album. I believe it renews an excitement within me that I initially had for an artist. In this instance, I happened to go back to the album "Point #1" by Chevelle, primarily to listen to a song called "Mia." The song is so raw and driving; it's distinctly different from their more recent releases, but that's the magic of it, at least to me. Check it out...

The Expansion of Bandcamp

I've mentioned Bandcamp before. If you're not a member now, we just got news that might push you over the edge to tune in.

Bandcamp provides a free-to-use service for musicians wanting to digitally distribute their albums. You can give them away, or charge for them. Artists keep 100% royalties/rights. Fighting Zero is out there. You should be, too ;).

But, what's new on the list of features?
- Bonus digital content inclusion. You can now upload digital booklets, high-res photos, videos, etc. to be included in your package. When a user downloads your full album, they get all of the extra content. Nice!

- RSS feeds have been added so fans can stay on top of when you upload new material.

- Reporting to Neilsen Soundscan. This one is a big one. Most digital outlets don't report sales to the almighty Soundscan. Well, Bandcamp now does. That's a big one. Numbers talk when trying to land label deals.

Kiss Caters to Fan Demands

Kiss just announced dates for their "Alive 35" tour - the "first ever fan-routed tour." The band used the power of the internet and their fan base by running a four month long promotion on www.eventful.com. Eventful is used by fans to “demand” an artist appear in their area. Kiss gave fans the power to “demand” a tour stop in their favorite place and picked 40 dates based on the most popular cities. Throughout the promotion, Kiss promised to play “from stadiums to cornfields.” Obviously there aren’t any cornfields on the list, but the dates are as follows and feature supporting band Buckcherry:

September 25 - 26 Detroit, MI Cobo Arena
September 28 Cleveland, OH Quicken Loans Arena
September 29 London, ON The John Labatt Centre
October 1 Montreal, QC Bell Centre
October 2 Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre
October 3 Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun Arena
October 5 Boston, MA TD Garden
October 9 Uniondale, NY Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
October 10 New York, NY Madison Square Garden Arena
October 12 Philadelphia, PA The Wachovia Center
October 13 Washington, DC Verizon Center
October 16 Hampton, VA Hampton Coliseum
October 17 Greenville, SC Bi-Lo Center
October 19 Pensacola, FL Pensacola Civic Center
October 21 Tampa, FL St. Pete Times Forum
October 22 Sunrise, FL BankAtlantic Center
October 24 Birmingham, AL BJCC Arena
October 26 Atlanta, GA Philips Arena
October 28 Nashville, TN Sommet Center
October 29 North Little Rock, AR Verizon Arena
October 31 New Orleans, LA Voodoo Experience
November 6 Chicago, IL United Center
November 7 Minneapolis, MN Target Center
November 9 Winnipeg, MB MTS Centre
November 10 Saskatoon, SK Credit Union Centre
November 12 Calgary, AB Pengrowth Saddledome
November 14 Vancouver, BC General Motors Place
November 15 Seattle, WA KeyArena At Seattle Center
November 17 Portland, OR Rose Garden Arena
November 20 Sacramento, CA ARCO Arena
November 21 Oakland, CA Oracle Arena
November 24 Anaheim, CA Honda Center
November 25 Los Angeles, CA Staples Center
November 27 San Diego, CA San Diego Sports Arena
November 28 Las Vegas, NV TBA
December 1 Glendale, AZ Jobing.com Arena
December 2 El Paso, TX University Of Texas
December 4 Austin, TX Frank Erwin Center
December 5 Houston, TX Toyota Center
December 6 Dallas, TX American Airlines Center

Breaking Benjamin Release Video, Track Listing

Breaking Benjamin released the first version of their music video for single "I Will Not Bow" on Friday. The video includes the shots of the band and clips from the movie "Surrogates," starring Bruce Willis.



The tracklist for their fourth album, "Dear Agony," has also been posted on Amazon.com and is available for preorder. The album is scheduled to be released September 29 and the tracklisting is:

1. Fade Away
2. I Will Not Bow
3. Crawl
4. Dear Agony
5. Lights Out
6. What Lies Beneath
7. Without You
8. Give Me A Sign
9. Hopeless
10. Into The Nothing
11. Anthem Of The Angels

Michael Jackson's death ruled as a Homicide

Lethal doses of propofol were found in Jackson's system, along with two other sedatives. It is likely that homicide charges will be brought against the doctor who administered the drugs to MJ. His name is Dr. Conrad Murray, and is the target of the manslaughter investigation.

MJ died on June 25, 2009 due to the overdosing by his physician.

Apple's "Snow Leopard" OS - Avail. Aug 28th

Woo hoo! Apple peeps everywhere should be stoked that the Snow Leopard upgrade for their systems running Mac OS X Leopard. It will set you back a whopping $29 (if you bought your Mac on or after June 8th, you only pay $9.95). You can pre-order now by going here. What does this mean for Joe User? Well, (to keep it simple), the OS has been streamlined, enhancements to current processes were made, and it utilizes the horsepower of the CPU cores in your machine better. You should see enhancements in speed and snappiness, there Dexter.

Digidesign Pro Tools Users: As with all Mac OS updates: Don't upgrade yet. Digidesign (Avid Technologies) has the uncanny ability of not supporting new Mac operating systems for a while. Patience is a virtue. Now, while Digidesign hasn't formally said anything about supporting the new Mac OS flavor, I can't imagine an announcement from them is too far off...

Stay tuned, cadets.

(image from Apple, Inc. http://www.apple.com)

"Megan Wants a Millionaire" - CANCELLED?

We've all grown to love/hate the reality shows on VH1. Brett Michaels, Daisy, Sharon Osbourne, and of course, Megan, the unruly gold-digger. She wanted a millionaire, but now it looks like the show will have to wait.

It got cancelled because one of the contestants, Ryan Jenkins (pictured top), allegedly murdered his ex-wife/model, Jasmine Fiore (pictured bottom). Her body was found in a suitcase, inside of a dumpster in Buena Park, CA.

Ryan Jenkins has fled the country to possibly Canada. The man-hunt is on.

Wow. Megan found a Murderer.

** UPDATE - 8/23/2008 - Canadian authorities have found the body of Ryan Jenkins with an apparent fatal/self-inflicted wound. They are ruling it as a suicide. **

Chevelle - "Sci-Fi Crimes" - Aug. 31, 2009

The new album from our favorites, Chevelle, will be hitting shelves on August 31st, 2009. Titled "Sci-Fi Crimes," this album will be no slouch compared to it's predecessors. ...But that's just guaging by the current single on terrestrial, internet, and satellite radio called, "Jars."


Pre-orders of the album are being taken now from Skyroo and iTunes.
Click here to Pre-order the album "Sci-Fi Crimes."

Keep up to date by visiting the band's website: http://www.chevelleinc.com/

MySpace Acquiring iLike

Big news today in the music social networking world: MySpace has announced they will be acquiring iLike. iLike boasts over 55 million users and allows for sharing of favorite artists, concert updates, and artist profile pages.

According to the Associated Press, MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta said in a statement that the acquisition "advances our relentless pursuit of innovation and the need to create new distributed social experiences in music and beyond."

It will be interesting to see how MySpace changes and adapts the iLike music application within Facebook, one of its biggest rivals. Facebook dominated the social networking scene in July, defeating both MySpace and Twitter.

Groovemaker - IK Multimedia

(picture courtesy of Groovemaker/IK Multimedia)

Dude. This is insane. If you have an iPhone, go get IK Multimedia's new app, called Groovemaker. You can mix House, Club, Hip Hop, Techno, Trance, etc. Set up the beats, then sequence it. Is that not enough? Just export your tune over WiFi.

IK Multimedia also creates some awesome DAW plugins and samplers.

More info: http://www.ikmultimedia.com/ or http://www.groovemaker.com/

Get it.

Creed Is Entitled to Overcome

After a shocking reunion earlier this year and a summer tour in full swing, many rock music fans wanted to hate the 'new' Creed. Immediately after the announcement of their new album (due for release in October), fans were in an uproar and were sure Creed's new music was set up for failure. It seemed as though Scott Stapp's image had been ruined and the remaining members of Creed had formed Alter Bridge - a band with quality and respectable musicianship and an amazing live show but with far less financial success.

But it appears that Creed has - just like Stapp croons about in the new single - overcome the haters. A high quality stream of their new single, "Overcome" hit the world wide web today and surprisingly enough, it is receiving rave reviews and tons of buzz from music fans across the globe.

Click here to check out "Overcome"

Introducing, Katie!

Please join me in welcoming a new writer, Katie Goodling!

Hailing from Central PA, Katie is a Mass Comm major with a focus in Journalism. She is a freelance writer for http://www.dailyitem.com/, former writer for Shinbone Magazine, and has interviewed rock staples such as Framing Hanley and Breaking Benjamin.

As an avid music fan and entertainment journalist/PR, she pays close attention to local-area bands and attends at least two concerts a month.

You'll be hearing from Katie a bunch out here and she's a great asset to the Anti Rust Records family!

Welcome aboard, Katie!

Cool Freebie of the Day - Skullcandy

I've talked about them before. They have great products in some killer color/pattern combinations. The Asym headphones (pictured below) are just plain awesome. Mine are red/black.



If you don't have the extra dough to shell out for a new set of cans, fret not. You can still grab a sweet, free wallpaper from them. They have a ton.
Check them out here.

Waves Artists' Presets Page

I love Waves Plugins... tracking, mixing, and mastering with their plugs make studio work a snap, expressive, and audibly great.

Check out some artist presets.

Waves Artists Presets Page

Shared via AddThis

Les Paul - The Passing of a Legend

(Image: From http://www.gibson.com)

Les Paul: guitarist, innovator, and inspiration to us all, sadly passed away today. Rest in Peace.
For more information on his legacy, please visit: http://www.gibson.com/

"I Will Not Bow" - Breaking Benjamin

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to hear the single first-hand (and I can't give up my secrets on how I did).

It definitely slams.

The new single from Breaking Benjamin is supposed to hit airwaves on August 17th.

For more info: http://www.myspace.com/breakingbenjamin

My Best Friend

.73mm Dunlop Tortex guitar picks.

It takes a lot for me to shred these. I know some guys play heavier guages, up to 2mm (which I think is just crazy and uncalled for, but to each their own...). These just seem to be right. In my 25 years of playing guitar, I've gone through almost every guitar pick imaginable. I've played with quarters, popcicle sticks, and even a custom polished glass pick.

The .73mm Dunlop Tortex is what I kept coming back to.

What's your go-to guitar pick?

Killer Music Sharing Sites

There are a host of awesome music sharing sites out there, which help ultimately push you, your band, or your label further.

Here are two that have it down pat and I think you should check them out.

Soundcloud - http://www.soundcloud.com
Not only can you upload your music and then share your tunes with everyone in your network, but you can also receive. The beauty part is it makes music submission incredibly easy. It's one big happy, musical, social-networking family.

Bandcamp - http://www.bandcamp.com
With zippy download speeds, you can offer your listeners a place to buy your music for a set price, buy for a user-set price, or download for free. Not only do you have multiple options for selling your music, but you also enable the user to pick which format they'd prefer. Mp3, to high-quality WAV can be had. Options are key!

Think you have a cool music site? We want to hear about it.
Email us: admin@antirustrecords.com or post your comments.

Evolv

Evolv is a modern rock group from Philadelphia, PA. Killer songs, great guys, and catchy tunes. Check out their video/tune, "Fate."




For more information, hit up their myspace: http://www.myspace.com/evolv

We want to hear from you.
Have a band that you think rules? Email us: submissions@antirustrecords.com

Netbooks, Mobile Recording, and Cost Savings

It's insane. Technology is getting smaller everyday, which is incredible for mobile musicians everywhere. Grab a laptop, a USB interface, and your instrument. Out the door you go, with nothing more than your 1 bag. Nice.

I thought that I'd share my setup with you.

Netbook

Recently, I picked up an Acer Aspire One AOA150 Netbook in seashell white. With an 8.9" widescreen, 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, 3 USB ports, and Headphone/VGA outs, this little thing rips. It's footprint is about the size of a small book.

Interface

I chose to snag an M-Audio Black Box. It's a guitar amp modeler, USB interface which is compatible with ProTool M-Powered, and has a host of ins and outs, including 1/4" guitar-in, and XLR in. No phantom power. It was an old model, but brand new. I instantly upgraded the firmware on it, as per http://www.m-audio.com/. This gave me a ton more amp models, FX, etc.

Software

ProTools (Digidesign, Avid Technologies) is the standard everywhere. Studios large and small are using it. I'll admit; for the longest time, I was using Sonar 4/7 Producer Editions. I still use it. But, to keep up with other studios, and to have distance sessions possible, ProTools was the answer. Since my interface supports M-Powered, I grabbed a copy of that flavor of ProTools. The slick part is that I can work with people who have other flavors of ProTools such as LE and HD. They can open my session files, and vice versa. Slick business! See more: http://www.digidesign.com

Headphones

I opted for the Skullcandy in-ear "Ink'd" earbuds. Dude. For between $10-$15, you can't go wrong. With the frequency response that they give me, I'd say they'd rival my Shure E2s (I have two pairs and love them, btw.)

Do It

I installed the necessary drivers for my Black Box on the netbook, then installed ProTools. Bingo. Mobile rig. I can record guitars, vocals, work with drum loops, and even record various instruments using the mic input on the interface. It sets up in 2 minutes, and there's hardly any cords. The headphones give me and everyone else around me some privacy, and there's minimal sound leaks into a microphone. Keep in mind, this isn't for recording a full-length album, but more or less to have a way to roughly track some ideas, and then have a usable file format which can translate into your main studio, or others' for that matter. It keeps you motivated and that's what matters.

Now, tell us about your mobile rigs! We're all ears. ;)

"Change My Mind" - Fighting Zero

We think they will.
Self-produced, and all snot. Check out their video for their single off of "Beautiful War: Part 1" which you can download from http://fightingzero.bandcamp.com/.

Enjoy.