We are liking the track Sunset from the Sweden act known as The Animation. “Imagine a blend between Keane, just a bit of Radiohead going into the same sentiment as The Verve and with a small portion of the modern vibe, The Killers.” For more information email BCMcLane@aol.com

KOARs favorite and buzz act The Downtown Fiction is the only unsigned act in the top 50 on iTunes, in fact, as of today they are now ranked #32 selling album on iTunes. More importantly, The Downtown Fiction seems to have resonated with an audience – with zero marketing dollars. For more information email Greg Federspiel.

Also, Making April another unsigned artist released their album yesterday and grabbed the #33 position on iTunes.

“Sometime in the last 10 or 20 years, rock drumming has changed. Many drummers will now don headphones in the studio (and sometimes even for live performances) and synchronize their playing to an electronic metronome – the click track. This allows for easier digital editing of the recording. Since all of the measures are of equal duration, it is easy to move measures or phrases around without worry that the timing may be off. The click track has a down side – some say that songs recorded against a click track sound sterile, that the missing tempo deviations added life to a song.” (Music Machinery via The Daily Swarm)

According to this data:

Troublemaker by Weezer – No click track
American Idiot by Green Day – click track
Enter Sandman by Metallica – No click track, tempo deviation in song
Never Again by Nickelback – No surprise there, Nickelback uses a click track.
Fire Fly by Breaking Benjamin – It is clear that they use a click track too, but what is interesting here is that you can see the bridge, the hump that starts at about 130 seconds into the song.
Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin – Tempo deviation, John Bonham never used a click track.

We reached out to David Bendeth who produced Fire Fly by Breaking Benjamin. His comments:

“Just because you see a drummer with headphones on does not mean he is playing to a click, it just means he is trying to. Click tracks don’t speed up or slow down – drummers do. This test should be retaken with more accurate data”

Michigan rock act Pistol Day Parade independently released their debut full-length in January which was produced by Mike Brown (Breaking Benjamin/Papa Roach/Velvet Revolver/Three Days Grace. For fans of 3 Doors Down and Velvet Revolver. Check out the track Better.

“Neil Young has gone on the record in support of music publishing powerhouse Warner Bros. Reprise’s policy deleting and muting its artists’ videos on YouTube, after negotiations between Google and Warner broke down.”

Young’s music was removed from YouTube along with a countless of other artists.

“According to Young, the underlying reason for this is that no strong industry standard exists for paying artists and copyright holders exists for online videos. Everything has to be renegotiated each time,and when these negotiations fail, it hurts fans and artists in addition to the companies doing the negotiating.” (Wired)

“YouTube has a responsibility to respect the artists it facilitates and resist punishing them to make a business point,” wrote Young. “It is time for industry-wide standards of artist compensation on the web.”