In a time where rock radio is becoming just as cluttered with sound-a-like acts as today’s “pop/punk” scene (Boys Like Girls/All Time Low/etc…) we have the Hinder/Daughtry/Nickelback’s all over radio right now. Even a new band like Saving Abel who prides themselves on the fact that they sound like everyone else finds their debut single “Addicted” sitting at #2 on today’s active rock chart. “You know when you hear a song on the radio and you don’t know who it is, but you love it and feel like you’ve heard it before? That’s our band! The first time someone hears us, they go, ‘I know that band!’ Then someone explains, ‘no, it’s a brand-new song and band.’ –you HAVE heard us before,” states lead singer Jared Weeks – last.fm

The truth is, there’s radio success in the formula these acts use. Recently, St. Louis rock band Cavo has released some tracks that could contend for airplay on rock stations across the country. Since signing to Bullet 339 Records these rockers revved up the aggression for the new single “Champagne” which is receiving spins at St. Louis’s 105.7 The Point and Nashville’s “The Buzz”. Another act to watch out for this summer is the recent Universal signing
State of Shock who’s cheesy, but catchy-as-hell single “Money Honey” which already found itself in the top 10 of three Canadian formats. This one has crossover potential.

The past few years we have only seen a few Christian artists who have been able to see significant mainstream success. Switchfoot, Mat Kearney, and Flyleaf are some of the most notable. One band signed to Flicker/Sony who has the chance to make such an impact is Fireflight. Following in the footsteps of
successful female fronted rock act Flyleaf, Fireflight has their own big hit ready to dominate mainstream stations. “Unbreakable” has already been #1 at christian rock and spent a few weeks in the top 5 of the Christian pop chart. It’s just hard for me to see how any station that’s been spinning Flyleaf’s “All around Me” could pass up this one.

Singer/songwriter Justin Nozuka just signed to Glassnote & his video for “After Tonight” has been added to VH1’s You Oughta Know feature and is in heavy rotation on MTVU. He may be no John Mayer or Jack Johnson, but he seems to be receiving plenty of attention as of late. Check out “After Tonight”

Soundcheck was written by Dallas who currently attends San Francisco State University and works on the Live 105 (KITS) Action Team.

Doing Time: A Brooklyn man could be facing 5 years in prison for pirating/stealing movies, music and video games. Along with a prison sentence he could be fined $250,000 according to the Justice Dept.

Top Of The Heap: 3 Doors Down will take the No. 1 spot on Wednesday with projected sales of 150,000 of their new album. 3 Doors Down offers another solid album and stuck to what they do best – big verses and big choruses. You will be hearing ‘Your Arms Feel Like Home‘ in a town near you…

Sexism or Idealism? Alanis Morisseette went on record calling the music biz sexist by saying that male executives are terrified of allowing women to take full control of their careers.

“It’s scary for them, especially if there’s money involved. I’m a liability to them – I’m a woman, I’m empowered, I’m an artist. I’ve had executives who can’t come to my shows they’re so scared of me. I’ve been a thorn in many people’s sides just by existing”.

I think that statement would have been more accurate a decade ago, before the internet. Over the last year we have seen many female artists/entertainers take full control of their careers, some succeeded and many went down the toilet. Regardless, I like Alanis and enjoy listening to her music, she should just stop obsessing over feminism.

Rock Band Resurrecting Rock: Motley Crue’s new track, “Saints of Los Angeles”, sold 5 times as much as downloadable content via Rock Band than it did on traditional music services like iTunes or Amazon.” According to the band the Xbox 360 version of Rock Band alone sold 47000 copies of the track”.

First Review Of Coldplay Album: “The attention to detail is incredible. You can imagine CHRIS MARTIN, GUY BERRYMAN, JONNY BUCKLAND and WILL CHAMPION obsessing over every note and word in this, their fourth album. They haven’t gone off the rails with drugs and booze, churning out rubbish, like many a band before them. This latest album — much of which was recorded in churches in Spain and and Latin America — is full of religious references. It’s as heavy-going as the Bible but as ultimately as rewarding if that’s your bag”. Read full review here.

New Songs: The new the track titled ‘Sittin’ At the Bar‘ by Rehab is starting to get some buzz. Rehab hails from Atlanta and will definitely appeal to fans who have Everlast and Beck in their record collection.

And don’t forget to listen to ‘Angels On The Moon‘ by Thriving Ivory. This could be the summer song and will find its place on TV and multiple radio formats.

A new track called ‘Its Not Over‘ by Carolina Liar is finding its way on alternative radio. The track has a nineties vibe and I wouldn’t doubt that band is influenced by Soul Asylum.

Blender Mag Looking Grim: Instead of analyzing Britney’s fate, you would think Blender would analyze their own. How will it end? Blender’s ad pages are down 25%, and and each issue is less than 100 pages. “When the Reaper passes by The Blender Theater, it sees more authors speaking than bands playing. They’re betting the house on stripped down girls on Maxim.com instead. Kent Brownridge is going to have some ‘splainin’ to do to the fat cats who backed him on this one.” (TDS via Magazine Death Pool)

These magazine don’t take chances. They don’t take music reviews seriously. Just recently Blender gave the Black Crowes record a mediocre review without even listening to it. They have no vision and no passion. When passion is thrown to the curb then success becomes impossible. Ever watch the movie ‘Final Destination’ where death finds you? Well, in this case, these mags are finding death. How does putting Tila Tequila on your cover position a mag for success? If you want nude photos of Tila, go to the internet. Anyone who wants to get in business with Tila is looking for instantaneous gratification only to be waiting for an immediate KNOCKOUT!

The music mags don’t focus on new music anymore and don’t even attempt to find an artist that they like and promote the hell of out them. They certainly can’t build a business using the same content that can be found on Perez and MTV. It all points towards the ‘creative drought’….

A new study says most of U.S. Still Buying CDs:

Americans are still buying CD’s and traditional media outlets like radio, TV, and movies still hold the keys to the music kingdom. Don’t be suprised by this and don’t call it a bunch of bull. If you want the web to hold more influence, it has to be cleaned up and it must be organized. Right now, it’s to dark and chaotic with illegal downloading running rampant, with no respect to copyrights.

“86% of music buyers said they rely on radio, TV or movies to find out about music, while 64% consult family, friends and co-workers, and 51% said online information had no impact whatsoever on their music purchases.

“Seventy-four percent of those surveyed said their most recent music purchase was done at a retail location, compared with 22% who had purchased a CD or download online.”

“With regard to finding out about new music, 68% said the Internet helped them find out more information about an artist they were already aware of, while 57% said they used online resources (e.g. artist/label sites, streaming samples, Web radio, e-mail promotions) to introduce them to new artists.”

For a more in depth insight of the study, go to Digital Media Wire or Coolfer.

Top Current Albums

Death Cab For cutie – Narrow Stairs – (TW) 143,586
Duffy – Steal Thin – (TW) 73,000
Taylor Swift – Just Me – (TW) 36,000
10 Years – Division – (TW) 29,672
Daughtry – (TW) 15,000
Def Leppard – Songs From The Sparkle – (TW) 11,258 – Total 86,000

Top Digital Tracks:

Riahanna – Take A Bow – (TW) 195,655 (Total) 462,351
Leona Lewis – Bleeding Love – (TW) 140,495 (Total) 2,071,654

Top Digital Albums:

Leona Lewis – Spirit – (TW) 4,589 (Total) 89,319

Leona Lewis sold 2 million digital singles but only sold 89,000 digital albums. Big difference. There isn’t an artist currently that sold 500,000 digital albums. Consumers need to believe in the album again and that can only come from the artist themselves…

Top Music DVD’s:

Led Zeppelin DVD – (Total) 1,134,591
Eagles – Farewell Tour DVD (Total) 1,351,884
Celine Dione – Live in Las Vegas DVD (Total)291,206

The Next Idol: David Cook wins ‘American Idol’ by 12 million votes. A record of 97.5 million audience casted votes by phone and text. Last year’s total vote count was 74 million.

Song of The Year: Hinder’s “Lips of an Angel” won ‘Song of the Year’ as it generated the most airplay of any tune on BMI’s most-performed pop song list during the designated award period. The song was co-written and recorded by producer/songwriter Brian Howes and Hinder. The track climbed to the no. 1 slot of Billboard’s Pop 100, Hot Digital Songs and Top 40 Mainstream charts, achieving broad crossover success. Want to be known? write a great song…

If you have trouble writing a great song, find a songwriter that will bring in a new dynamic. A song must have a verse, pre-chorus, chorus, and bridge – and the song must build throughout never dropping out, just like a good movie. Even if you don’t like Lips of Angel, it has all the components of a great song. We want to hear the perfect song – email tips@kingsofar.com

New Music: 20 year year old Alex Goot writes, records, and produces his own material. It’s piano driven pop. Listen to the track Scared and Doctors Orders. He definitely caters to the emo fans. Is emo still a valid name? can we move past this yet? I can’t wait until we never have to use the word EMO again…