The Campaign, a four piece act from Texas recently released a 4 song EP. “We try to be showmen,” said the 22-year-old Crews, a Harlingen native and ex-Austin scenester. “We have three goals: We want to sound as good as we can, we want to act as ridiculous as we can, and we want the audience to leave feeling happy.” “We can all sing,” Crews said. “[Wood] is the lead, definitely, but the three-part harmonies are a centerpiece of our sound. As far as we’re concerned, harmonies are what separate the men from the boys in any band that cares about good music.” Fans of the Fray and Counting Crows may find some gems in The Campaign. Our favorites are The Easy Way and Catch My Life.

Lala, a digital music service, has a new approach to selling music. Consumers will a pay a dime to stream a song, then if you decide buy the song, it will cost .79 cents ( or 89 cents if you never paid dime to stream the song).

Lala is forgoing advertising entirely and is attempting to make money by selling music only. The CEO of Lala criticizes Myspace and Imeem and other sites that force advertising on users which offers a poor listening experience.

To illustrate, advertising based sites want to give away music in return for ‘eyeballs’, yet the music business continues to shrink and the advertising market is growing larger. These ad supported sites are not financial winners, so it’s just a matter of time when this model collapses and companies stop spending money on advertising. I seriously wonder how these ad supported sites (Myspace) will evolve in the future.

No one really knows if Lala’s new approach will connect to consumers. For instance, why pay 10 cents for a stream when one can pony up $10-15 a month for Rhapsody that allows users to stream and unlimited amount of music? Also, how do artists get paid, do they at least make a penny?

Also, I’m not sure if the regular consumer will grasp the concept of paying for a stream. It seems iTunes and Amazon’s ‘stream, click and buy approach’ is the most conventional. At least Lala threw away the ad supported model. As Business Week says, Lala is trying an approach that’s all about selling music. Not iPods, and not ads. Just music.

Can Lime Wire Reinvent Itself As A Legitimate Music Service? Lime Wire best known for file sharing and music pirates has opened a store that offers two million+ songs for 99 cents. “We’d love to work with the entire music industry,” said Lime Wire CEO George Searle. “I think there are some people in the majors who see the potential of Lime Wire.”

We have iTunes, eMusic, MSN Music, Music Match, Amazon, Music Now, Napster, Rhapsody, etc., and music label EMI is planning to setup their own digital music store. How many digital stores do we need selling music?

Some of the most added songs this week to rock radio are Hoobastank “My Turn”, Five Finger Death Punch “Stranger Than Fiction”, Rise Against “Re-Education (Through Labor)”, Smashing Pumpkins “G.L.O.W.”, Tantric “Fall Down”, Slipknot “Dead Memories”, All That Remains “Two Weeks”, Mudvayne “Do What You Do” and Nickelback “Gotta Be Somebody. Will these artists rejuvenate rock radio?

Recommended Show: A Company of Thieves tonight at Mercury Lounge (NYC).

New Video Stream: Check out the new video from Alterbridge for the song
‘Watch Over You‘ that splices in Celebrity Rehab footage. Will this breathe new life into the record? It could with the recent sales spike, the single jumped from 107 to 1,315.

New Music: what is the Long Island music scene producing these days? If you like Blink 182 and New Found Glory, then try Friday Nights In Elwood.

Recommended Listening: Shh I’ve Got A Secret by Oh, Hush! When did disco make a comeback? Oh, Hush! who hails from Scranton, PA defines themselves as Rock/Pop/Disco House. Oh, Hush! certainly won’t resurrect disco, but that doesn’t mean it’s a first bad effort. The band just released the ‘Yellow Album.

Cali act Under the Influence Giants tried to bring disco back with
In The Clouds, but the Kings of Disco were the Bee Gees. You need to write something a little better than Tragedy which is the ultimate groove song. If you can accomplish that, we certainly want to hear from you – tips@kingsofar.com.

Eminem Needs A Novelty Hit: Eminem is plotting for a big return with a new album expected to be released by years end. Some wonder if Eminem will recapture the glory days when massive record sales, critical acclaim and priceless street cred converged to make him one of the world’s most recognizable celebrities. Behind the scenes, say some close associates, he’d begun questioning his own ability to “hear a hit.” “The lesson of Kid Rock is that nobody is more than one great song away from a resurgence,” Ross said.

Eminem is certainly one of those artists that can expect solid sales on iTunes but I would be doubtful that he will resurrect himself as the album artist. Eminem has always wrote novelty songs that lasted only for a season, in fact, do you hear Eminem songs spun on the radio today? Of course not. If Eminem is surely seeking a comeback, he needs to write that big novelty hit.

Fighting Noise with Noise: Do we need thousands of sites streaming music? Well add one more to the list. Facebook is looking at the possibility of entering the digital-music business according to the Post. Facebook is talking with song-streaming services including Rhapsody.com, iMeem.com, iLike.com, and Lala.com.

New Streams:

My Turn by Hoobastank
Ricocet by Shiny Toy Guns
Why Can’t You See by Saosin

A Highway To Success: AC/DC who has sold more albums than the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin refuses to sell its music online. “It’s like an artist who does a painting,” Angus said. “If he thinks it’s a great piece of work, he protects it. It’s the same thing: this is our work.” The band has said it does not want to break up its albums to sell individual songs as iTunes usually requires. “They have a purist approach,” said Steve Barnett, the chairman of Columbia Records and former AC/DC manager. “Their instinct was always to do the right thing for fans, think long term and not be influenced by financial rewards.”

Touring Takes a Downturn? Rolling Stone Mag published an article titled ‘Tour Biz Strong in a Weak Economy‘ and they point to blockbuster tours from Tom Petty to the Police. Dave Matthews Band, Coldplay, the Police and Rush did their usual solid business. And the Jonas Brothers sold out amphitheaters everywhere, averaging almost 18,000 people a show and grossing more than $11 million. Acts that appeal to a less affluent audience like NIN and Maroon 5 were hit with a few sellouts. Warped Tour founder, Kevin Lyman, “People were holding their money tighter to their vests this summer.” In response, many amphitheater tours, including Stevie Wonder’s, Motley Crue’s and Maroon 5/Counting Crows’, reduced lawn prices drastically to fill the venues.

Rising To The Top: Punk band Rise Against sold an impressive 64,701 copies this week of their new album titled ‘Appeal To Reason‘. Check out the Rolling Stone review of the album and listen to the track Savior.

Metallica’s ‘Death Magnetic‘ has been certified platinum only after 4 weeks and sold 65,741 this week. Kid Rock’s ‘Rock N Roll Jesus‘ is double platinum and remains in the top 10. Ironically, after 12 weeks on the charts Miley Cyrus ‘Breakout‘ hasn’t reached a million in sales, which means 11 year olds are fickle and the hype is over.

New Music: Paige Williams hailing from Los Angeles has been nominated for Best Rock Artist and Pop single for the 2008 LA Music Awards, listen to the track Wasting Away.

Signings: The Dallas outfit Rescue Signals has signed with New York based label Rock Ridge Music and Florida rock band Crooked X have signed with Capitol Records