A New Circus Comes To Town: The creators of Warped Tour, Kevin Lyman, John Reese and CAA’s Darryl Eaton have announced plans for a new hard rock festival named ‘Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival’. Kevin Lyman added: “It was very important to us to create an atmosphere that allows career advancement for new artists, and this partnership ensures artist development opportunities for a multitude of new artists for a reasonable price for fans”.

Fox News’ Roger Friedman discusses the current state of the CD and Radio: ‘The end of the physical CD is just moments away. Last week, according to hitsdailydouble.com, CD sales totaled just over 400,000 copies for the top 10. The best-selling CD was the soundtrack to “Juno,” with 65,000 copies. Alicia Keys was second, with 59,000. The lowest-selling CD on the top 50 was Kanye West’s “Graduation,” with about 12,000.’

Radio programmers think they know what they’re doing, but they’ve simply forced listeners away. I’ve spent a lot of time in the car this month. Stations I’ve listened to in both New York and Los Angeles have been horrendous. The funny thing is, I’ve left the car in the evening, returned the next afternoon and heard the exact same songs. I’ve come to guess that programmers think listeners are just stupid.

I won’t tell you which stations did this, but it was embarrassing. Each time, I simply turned either to Sirius or to the in-dash CD player. I doubt I’m alone. ( Fox News)

The Future of Rock Radio: Idolator has posted a column entitled
‘Is Rock Radio Slowly Going Post-Modern?‘ that discusses the recent state of alt-rock radio stations flipping formats and what it might mean for the future of the Alternative and Active Rock formats.

New Music, Artist Updates and Recommended Listening:

A Verse Unsung will be performing SXSW and the dates can be found on their myspace. If you are a fan of Rise Against and Bad Religion then check these guys out.

Check out the track Hollow Pointe Escape by New Jersey post punk rockers Missiles And Markers.

Crash Parallel who draws comparisons to artists such as Coldplay, The Fray, David Gray and Counting Crows have signed to Sony/BMG. The frontman Tim Edwards has a damn good voice, check out the track ‘World We Know‘.