To replicate this unique way of recording, microphones are spaced out near the originating sound much like the ears are spaced from each other. This is a simple explanation for what can be an elaborate recoding set-up; binaural recording has been around forever and is used in a variety of ways.

Check out the song “Light Years”, one of my favorite tracks off the album. It’s a slower, more stripped down Pearl Jam than you might be used to, a different avenue for the band but one that I have learned to really appreciate.

One story I heard dealt with Eddie Vedder having a stalker, and the experience lead them to obtain lower profile. I’d say they did a good job of accomplishing this, as many stopped listening to the band after albums like Vitalogy and No Code were released.

Part of this process involved two things. The first was the way the band produced, recorded, and mixed their music. With each release the band has walked farther away from the slicker, grungy-er productions of their first two albums and has developed more of a classic rock sound.

Every release also stands on it’s own as the band explored different recording methods (Binaural) or music styles.

The second involved the actual tracks that made the album. Pearl Jam recorded some great catchy rock songs throughout the years that were intentionally left off of certain albums because the band was afraid that they would receive too much radio airplay, giving them more attention then they wanted and probably murdering the impact of the song due to over-saturation.

Luckily, some of these songs were included on the B-Side compilation, Lost Dogs, for use to enjoy. Listen to the tracks “Down” and “Sad” and tell me that it has radio written all over it!

photo credit: Joe Madonna

Judas Priest, on the verge of releasing their first new album in 3 years, pre-released the title track to “Nostradamus” via the ReverbNation TuneWidget on April 21st to a throng of hungry fans. The TuneWidget was initially placed on only four websites but allowed fans to grab it and embed it on their MySpace pages and blogs, leading to over 200,000 impressions on launch day alone.

The results of this strategy were overwhelming. The track was streamed once every two seconds during the first 24-hour period. Fans who listened or received the download were directed to the Judas Priest website where they could pre-order the album, scheduled for release on June 17th.

“The Tunewidget allowed us to get an enormous viral spread that has helped us kickstart our new campaign,” said Jason Lekberg, Manager of Digital Marketing at Epic Records. “The first day numbers are impressive and the growth has continued, culminating in nearly 700k impressions, and well over 100k streams in the first week. The TuneWidget gives us an ongoing marketing channel, allowing us to continue to promote the Artist on the 500+ URLs that Priest fans have placed it on.

In addition, the TuneWidget integrates a mailing list collection tool that has drawn nearly 700 new signups without any prompts from us. We even get real-time demographic data like age, gender, and location on the fans that signup, giving us insight into the segments that are reacting to the music. The Tunewidget is a must have tool for any artists viral campaign.”

“We are ecstatic at the results that Judas Priest has realized,” said Jed Carlson, Co-Founder and COO of ReverbNation.com. “TuneWidget was designed to deliver viral promotional impact in conjunction with additional ongoing value like email collection and demographic data. Artists only get one chance to release a new single to the public, and they should capitalize on it in as many ways as possible.”

At the event, Scott Cohen from The Orchard provided a presentation containing 10 important steps to building a community.

His ten steps have been uttered from my mouth time and time again, and I love hearing them from those with higher profiles in the industry, as it tends to reinforce the things that I have been saying or blogging about.

Building a brand isn’t about logos and fancy schmancy flash on your website; it’s not about t-shirts and cover art. These things are just material manifestations of the brand.

Branding is about creating relationships with your fans people. It’s about reaching out and touching them emotionally. Once you touch them, once you have that relationship, they’ll be yours forever.

Their are many ways to do this, to touch your fans. The main way is through live performance. Seriously, I can say that any act I’ve seen in a live, intimate setting has been a fantastic experience that I’ll never forget, and has created an emotional attachment with the act that played the show.

But you can’t reach everyone that way; you’re only human and only one band. You can’t be everywhere at the same time. Except of course on the web.

Scott mentions that your website, or your concept of your website, is outdated. It’s not a place to just present an opportunity to purchase a CD. Rather, it’s the foundation for you to start building your community, a place to talk to the fans and let them talk back. And it’s this interaction that creates the emotional bond that will make your musical endeavors a success.

photo credit: gelamaka

For those of you who are not huge rock geeks, let me bring you up to speed:

Stone Temple Pilots, one of the biggest rock acts of the 90’s rock era, are back, with a new tour and album in the works.

Since their break up in 2001ish, lead singer Scott Weiland found new rock glory with ex-Guns N Roses’s rockers in Velvet Revolver, a very successful rock act since 2004.

The guitarist/bassist brother combo of Dean & Rob Deleo teamed up with Filter lead singer Robert Patrick for the one-off album, Army of Anyone.

After months of Real World-esque developments (STP reunion rumors, Weiland back in re-hab, canceled VR tour, the night Scott told fans that this was the last VR tour, the rebuttal, the kick-out party, more rebuttal), it is interesting to look at both of these bands and see who has the marketing and branding clout to trump one another.

I’m not saying that that’s what they are trying to prove, bit it’s an interesting analysis that I’m sure their management would love to consider.

Velvet Revolver got pissed at front man Weiland for his “irregular” behavior. The dude has displayed his unique characteristics for years, both on stage and off. He’s an ex-addict rock star lead singer, why is any sort of behavior new to these guys?

Weiland’s fans know this; they’re not pissed. They’re happy that their beloved Stone Temple Pilots are back together, and can’t wait to catch them on this tour.

What’s VR going to do now? Will anybody care when they find a new lead singer? The band is currently auditioning anyone it seems; soon they’ll be a contest via the web in a search for a lead singer!

Will this new singer take the band in a new direction, or will this “lead singer contest” turn into a bad episode of American Idol?

I feel over the years, Slash and the boys haven’t done a good job in the “brand nourishment” department. Sure, they were a part of one of the greatest rock bands ever, but it was short lived. After Guns N Roses, everyone forgot about them. Who really ever gave two shits for Slash’s Snakepit?

They were lucky to have the star power that Weiland has. The lead vocalist is the most recognizable and accessible sound for most fans (i.e. the non musician types) and that’s what Scott brought to the table.

You knew he was going to put on a show, and he did. And you knew the baggage that came with it.

Slash and the rest of the crew never gave me any reason to care about them. They don’t have the same charisma that Weiland and his STP brethen do. I haven’t seen their struggles like I have seen Weiland’s. They are not real to me (and being a character in Guitar Hero only supports my point).

Fans want something that they can feel a part of, something special. STP fans feel that. The real fans, the ones who have listened to every album. The one’s who saw there energetic live shows, who know the glitz and the glam side and also know the more real side of the band.

Branding is about creating relationships. Stone Temple Pilots spent 10 years developing theirs through their music, videos, and yes, antics of Weiland. We’ve seen them grow up, evolve, devolve, and now reinvent themselves.

Velvet Revolver? Soon to be a Van Halen of our time, with a new lead singer. Maybe they’ll get someone with a big following like Weiland and surprise me. I just get the feeling that I’ll be listening to a new STP record instead.

Last May I had the pleasure of having my boy Al Costill rant and rave in a number of posts about our favorite rock band Pearl Jam. I have called may “Peal Jam month” for about 4 years straight, as I tend to rock out more often that month then any other. The sun is out, weather is perfect, a great month to throw back some beers and listen to some awesome music.

Since then Al has started his alternative rock blog, so for the next 4 weeks each of us will be throwing more Pearl Jam at you than you can probably handle.

Why? Many really don’t know the band. They only know what they heard on the radio, and that is a shame. When we talk about PJ, we toss around the words “greatest American rock band” of our time. Hopefully our series of posts will uncover why.

Here are some of my favorite posts from last May’s celebration:

Pearl Jam - Christmas Singles

Pearl Jam - The Lost Dogs of Lost Dogs

Pearl Jam - Yield

Pearl Jam - MTV Unplugged

Roll over to the Pearl Jam Categories of evolvor and smells live alternative to check out posts in the past, and be sure to stop back in all month long for more PJ goodyness!

Pearl Jam @ Evolvor

Pearl Jam @ smellslikealternative

If you didn’t pick up PJ’s self titled album from ‘06, then you suck. Here is the rockin opening track, “Life Wasted”.

I’m going through one of these moments right now - sacrificing one opportunity in order to make room for the next.

One has a financial reward while the other has the possibility of financial reward - a risk that could prove to be worth taking. Plus, the latter means more to me than anything else in the world. It involves working in the industry I love, making a difference in the lives of hopefully thousands of artists, and given me a real purpose on this planet. I’ve gotta give something up in order to gain. I’ve swallowed my pride before and am ready to do it again.

Never forget that in your journey towards success, the actual notion of what success is will change. You’ll be forced to define your success time and time again. The reason this happens is because many of us do not understand what we really are looking for, and many of us only find it by losing it in the first place.

Money and security our great things, but only if you have others to share it with. I learned this the hard way, and will tell you that more money only causes more problems and more debt. The more you get, the more you want - it is a never ending cycle.

If you are out their trying to define your success, do it by not including money in the equation. Define your success based on the things you want to be doing with your time, and the kinds of people you want to be spending that time with. True happiness comes from doing the things you love doing the most with the people you love spending time with the most.

Focus on these things and you’ll find that the money will probably follow you along the way.

In the meantime, I’ll be hopefully spending more time helping you out here at evolvor. Why? Because I enjoy helping artists out and the feedback I get from those who read it. You can’t put a price tag on that

photo credit: sniggy

They offer a suite of tools to promote events on websites, Facebook, Myspace and via email and SMS. Every event is given a web page with RSVPs, Comments, videos, images, map widgets, and Add-to-life tools. With ATL visitors can move events from web pages and widgets into calendars and social networks, invite friends and set reminders with ease - increasing the chance that they will remember your events and spread the word to their networks.

Spongecell offers two event widgets - a javascript calendar, and a flash list view. List management and growth is easy - grow your list by encouraging opt-in when people add to calendar or leave comments, and post a subscription widget to your website. Email and SMS messages can be targeted based on demographic information such as location and tags or based on how they interacted with previous events, e.g. only send this message to people who added an event to their calendar, invited friends or left a comment.

Artists like Shakira and Jamiroquai use the widgets on their website, and nightclub Cielo recently saw an increase of 10% in attendance the first night they used Spongecell.

I really like the looks of this tool, far more than some other similar services I’ve seen. I’ll keep ya posted on some stats after I get my hands dirty with it.

I have some interesting commentary I’ll be sharing with you soon, especially about the bands latter albums.

I’d like to get into the marketing side of these albums and maybe offer some ideas on how i would market them in today’s digital landscape.

Here’s the second single from the band’s last album Shangri-La De Da, “Hollywood Bitch”.