Surprisingly two indie bands are expected to land in the top 10 Billboard Album Charts. Passion Pit and The Gaslight Anthem are expected to sell nearly 30,000 copies of their new albums. These hardworking indie bands won’t get the #1 spot though, in fact, the top slot will either go to Nas or Zac Brown Band.

News Update: ARIA has just released their new album We Are All Prisoners digitally on Itunes and Amazon among others. The band was featured on Purevolume’s homepage and is streaming the album both on purevolume as well as facebook. The band is playing a hometown CD release party in St Catharines Ontario, which has already sold out in pre-sale. The band will embark a 2 month tour of Ontario, Quebec and the eastern United States from October to November. Check out the video for the song Purgatory.

Contact: contactariaband@gmail.com

Buzz Track: Burn A Little More

Lauren Winans is currently finishing up her second record and her first offering Burn A Little More falls between Kelly Clarkson and Demi Lovato. She began a career in modeling eventually finding herself in Los Angeles and Nashville working with songwriters and producers.

Contact: Jonathan Brown

Now that Mariah Carey has officially joined American Idol has left the suites wondering if she can resurrect the TV show that has faced competition from other talent shows along with the publics waning interest. They are counting on her resume which include a five-time Grammy Award-winning global superstar with more than 200 million records sold worldwide and more No. 1 songs than any solo artist in history, her 18 Billboard No. 1 singles (17 of which Carey wrote) rival all but The Beatles. She has the resume but does she have the personality? That remains to be seen. Regardless, the team behind the show are banking on Carey. In fact, its rumored that her paycheck exceeds 17 million, the most ever paid to a judge, surpassing Jennifer Lopez. Carey who is also managed by the American Idol judge Randy Jackson will release her new single Triumphant in August.

Buzz Track: My Everything

Check out and listen to the track My Everything a couple of times and you will be hooked. This was written by the Charlotte based band Side by Side who will self release a new album co-produced by the band and Patrick Boyd (Slow Runner, The Paper Tongues). In addition to scoring song placements on MTV and ABC, Billboard magazine named Side by Side one of the six best unsigned bands in the nation. Also, they tour relentlessly which places them on our ‘band to watch’.

Contact: jpepe@me.com