The first opening act was Between the Oak and Ash, a folk-indie duo from New York. Next up was Landon Pigg, most recognized for his role in �Whip It� as Ellen Page�s love interest, and for his song �Falling In Love at a Coffee Shop,� which is featured in an AT&T commercial. Both acts were enjoyable and well-received by the audience.

But at 10 p.m., the real performance began. �Hello Boston!� Sudol called out excitedly from the stage. She went on to lament how long it had been since A Fine Frenzy had last visited.

Indeed, the last time the band was in town was back in March 2008. Quite a few things have changed since then. For starters, the band released their second full-length album, �Bomb in a Birdcage� back in September. The CD introduced the new, more upbeat version of Sudol (although never fear, there are still plenty of melancholy songs too). There were some changes to her live performance as well. Two new band members have been added. On the last tour, Sudol stayed seated at a piano for the majority of the set. But this time, she switched to a keyboard, allowing her to move around more and show off her dance moves.

One thing that hasn�t changed, however, is Sudol�s genuine gratitude towards her fans. No matter how emotional the lyrics, and now matter how torn up she appeared while singing, she�d break into an adorable giddy grin during the last few strains of each song. As the audience roared with cheers and applause after each number, she�d laugh and thank everyone in an awed voice, as if she couldn�t believe so many people liked her music. At the end of her set, she spent a few minutes elaborating on how much each and every fan meant to her and the rest of the band. Sudol is so sincere and appreciative; it makes it extra satisfying to see her succeed.

As if being sweet and cute weren�t enough, Sudol also has one of the most powerful singing voices of her generation. She sounds great on CD, but if that�s all you�ve heard, be prepared to be blown away. At live shows, she really lets loose. It�s enough to give fans goose bumps. One minute, she�ll be singing so soft it�s almost a whisper, and next she�ll be belting out the words. Think Fiona Apple, but less crazy. (No offense Fiona, we still love you).

The set included tracks from both �Bomb in a Birdcage� and A Fine Frenzy�s debut album, �One Cell In The Sea.� They also played a few b-sides: �Silent War,� �Coming Around� and �From Whence You Came.�

Ironically, one of the highlights of the show was when A Fine Frenzy played someone else�s song. �There are brunettes. There are girls with lovely raven hair,� Sudol began to introduce the track in a dreamy voice. �There are people with purple hair, and blue hair, and orange hair. There are people with red hair,� she said, lifting her own bright red locks. �But I have to say, I really, really, really love a little bit of Blondie.�

And with that, she launched into a rambunctious cover of �Heart of Glass� by, uh, Blondie (if you really need it spelled out for you). This is where Sudol really hit her stride. She skipped around the stage, shaking her hips and clapping her hands. She�d let out periodic cries of �woo!� before rocking out more. As the audience sang along, the band members exchanged grins. They may have played this cover on every date of the tour so far, but it was clear they were still having a blast up on stage.

Every song played during A Fine Frenzy�s set was absolutely phenomenal. All the back-up band members are extremely talented, and Sudol has pipes rivaled by few others. But the most refreshing aspect was simply how much Sudol seemed to be enjoying herself. Sure, she writes gorgeous songs about heartbreak, but it�s nice to see she can still have a good time.

Here�s hoping A Fine Frenzy returns to Boston sooner than last time.

But this indie band won’t be categorized.

Springing out of Abilene, Texas and now residing in Austin, the band is promoting their new album 20,000 Ghosts by embarking on a 31-date national tour. Blast caught up with them while they were playing in Boston, and they talked about everything from what itis like to record their first full album to their biggest influence, Miley Cyrus.

In a lot of ways, The Rocketboys are just like every other indie band you’ve seen — they’re long-haired, scruffy-faced boys wearing pearl snaps and skinny jeans. But as the six of us chatted in the back of their tour van, which didn’t take very well to the cobblestone streets of Boston, it became clear that the Rocketboys are not just another indie band.

“Anyone can make an artist myspace,” said lead singer Brandon Kinder, “and get their music out to different people. But I think there’s a certain level where it’s a little bit more than just a fun thing you’re doing.”

The Rocketboys are trying to get ahead of the game by being what few indie bands are with their music — responsible.

“We’re trying to separate ourselves by pursuing music professionally without the support of a record label,” said Daniel Wheeler, guitarist. “We have an extensive tour schedule. We have a publicist. We’re trying to surround ourselves with a team that a record label would provide to a band, but weire trying to do it ourselves, because we like having control of the business of our band.”

Add professionalism to a band that sounds as good live as on a record, and itis a surprise that these guys havenit been signed yet. Their show later that evening backed up bassist Josh Campbellis assertion that sounding good live is something else that sets The Rocketboys apart.

“It’s pretty easy now to like, get garageband and lay down a song, and autotune it,” Campbell said. “We take a lot of pride in our live shows, and making (them) as good as they can be, because I think thatis where some bands are lacking.”

The expansive sound of The Rocketboys’ music is enhanced by their deeply personal lyrics, like these from Heartbeat:

“I would sell you out in a heartbeat/Cause you can defend yourself.”

But songwriting is the one thing that The Rocketboys don’t hold to an exact formula. Band members propose ideas to one another and piece together songs, aiming for catchy melodies with hooks.

“But we definitely try to take bits and pieces of bands that we like and we just put together things that we think sound good,” said keyboard player Justin Wiseman. “And inevitably it borrows a little bit from other people, but our idea is just creating beautiful music.”

According to Brandon Kinder, though, the order of production usually stays the same.

Typically, it’s always music first. Ask questions later.

Though they’ve been playing together since college, 20,000 Ghosts is The Rocketboys first full album. “It was like what we’d done in the past, but amplified, said guitarist Daniel Wheeler. They said the recording sessions, which often lasted up to 10 hours, were exhausting, but in the end, they came out with a product that they could be proud of.

“We’re just trying to create something timeless that people can enjoy,” said Kinder.

The band, who has played with now-popular bands like Grizzly Bear and Eisley, said they really look up to artists like Andrew Byrd, My Morning Jacket and Miley Cyrus?

“She’s pretty much our main influence,” said Kinder with a wry smile.

The next stop for the band after Boston was New York City’s CMJ Music Festival.

“We’re very excited,” said Kinder. “It was kind of a close call. We were kind of accepted at the last minute. We were kind of planning our tour around potentially playing it, which may or may not be the best way to plan a tour”

But like Kinder said, they got accepted and went on to play in one of the nation’s biggest cities for up-and-coming musicians. The Rocketboys’ formula seems to be working so far, and if they continue producing quality music like the stuff on 20,000 Ghosts, we’ll be hearing from them for years to come.

Visit The Rocketboys’ website at myspace.com/rocketboys, and look for their album “20,000 Ghosts” on iTunes.

Panel, a new iPhone app, founded by Darius Fong, is aiming to bring back the record store experience of yesteryear, when music industry professionals and music buffs were present at your point of purchase to give you insight on what you might like or look forward to for the next addition to your record collection.

Panel is different than other music applications or online players. While many online music sites can match a playlist to your liking very well, like the engine at Last.fm, nothing is strictly personal, like press releases or ads. It’s by music lovers, for music lovers. Each Panelist can explain their choice and their influences to help users find out more about the album.

The Panel App streams two full albums each week in various categories, including rock, pop, indie, jazz and more. Curators of the Panel App will be featured panelists that are composers, radio DJs, record storeowners, producers, musicians, and others with a musical background, every month to feature music that they love.

The iPhone application will also feature interviews with the Panelists, album descriptions, and a one-touch process will be made available to users in order to purchase albums they like. In addition, these users may then comment on selections and invite friends to join, listen, and create a fan-supported community.

To find out more, go to WearePANEL.com for images of panelists and photo journals of each week’s content, interviews, “Panel Blog”, videos, podcasts, and links from featured albums to iTunes and Amazon.

Google is partnering with iLike and Lala for a new music service. Both of these sites allow users to stream samples of any song in their catalogs, while Lala allows users to stream whole songs once, on-demand before requiring a small fee. The sites also allow users to embed the stream in a site. Because both sites have signed deals will all four major record labels, the vast majority of music will be available.

Google has long had a music search built into results, despite never having advertised it much, useable with a simple “music:” operator. Results included a listing of songs and albums that matched the query, with links to music sellers to purchase the songs. While this is strictly conjecture, we’re predicting that Google will start incorporating song streams directly into the search results.

While the music labels are usually seemingly adverse to any incorporation of new technology, they’ll likely be happy with all the extra eyes being directed to sites where users might purchase music legally. The offical announcement is scheduled for October 28, so we’ll let you know if anything changes.

When Activision first unveiled Band Hero, I nearly punched my hand through a wall, thinking the setlist would be brimming full of Jonas Brothers, Britney Spears, and Miley Cyrus, but now that I’ve seen the final track list, and played the game, I’m, dare I say it, excited for this game? Yes, I am.

• 3 Doors Down – “When I’m Gone”
• The Airborne Toxic Event – “Gasoline”
• The All American Rejects – “Dirty Little Secret”
• Alphabeat – “Fascination”
• Aly and AJ – “Like Whoa”
• Angels & Airwaves – “The Adventure”
• Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals – “Steal My Kisses”
• Big Country – “In a Big Country”
• The Bravery – “Believe”
• Carl Douglas – “Kung Fu Fighting”
• Cheap Trick – “I Want You To Want Me (live)”
• Cold War Kids – “Hang Me Up To Dry”
• Corinne Bailey Rae – “Put Your Records On”
• Counting Crows – “Angels of the Silences”
• Culture Club – “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me”
• Dashboard Confessional – “Hands Down”
• David Bowie – “Let’s Dance”
• Devo – “Whip It”
• Don McLean – “American Pie”
• Duffy – “Warwick Avenue”
• Duran Duran – “Rio”
• Evanescence – “Bring Me To Life”
• Everclear – “Santa Monica (Watch The World Die)”
• Fall Out Boy – “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down”
• Filter – “Take A Picture”
• Finger Eleven – “Paralyzer”
• The Go-Go’s – “Our Lips Are Sealed”
• Hilary Duff – “So Yesterday”
• Hinder – “Lips Of An Angel”
• Jackson 5 – “ABC”
• Janet Jackson – “Black Cat”
• Jesse McCartney – “Beautiful Soul”
• Joan Jett – “Bad Reputation”
• Joss Stone – “You Had Me”
• Katrina and The Waves – “Walking On Sunshine”
• The Kooks – “Naive”
• KT Tunstall – “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree”
• The Last Goodnight – “Pictures Of You”
• Lily Allen – “Take What You Take”
• Maroon 5 – “She Will Be Loved”
• Marvin Gaye – “I Heard It Through The Grapevine”
• Mighty Mighty Bosstones – “The Impression That I Get”
• Nelly Furtado – “Turn Off The Light”
• N.E.R.D. – “Rockstar”
• No Doubt – “Just A Girl”
• No Doubt – “Don’t Speak”
• OK Go – “A Million Ways”
• Papa Roach – “Lifeline”
• Parachute – “Back Again”
• Pat Benatar – “Love Is A Battlefield”
• Poison – “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”
• Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue – “Kids”
• The Rolling Stones – “Honky Tonk Women”
• Roy Orbison – “Oh Pretty Woman”
• Santigold – “L.E.S. Artistes”
• Snow Patrol – “Take Back the City”
• Spice Girls – “Wannabe”
• Styx – “Mr. Roboto”
• Taylor Swift – “Love Story”
• Taylor Swift – “Picture To Burn”
• Taylor Swift – “You Belong With Me”
• Tonic – “If You Could Only See”
• The Turtles – “Happy Together”
• Village People – “YMCA”
• Yellowcard – “Ocean Avenue”

• The All-American Rejects – “Believe”
• Avril Lavigne – “Girlfriend”
• Black Eyed Peas – “Let’s Get It Started”
• Blink-182 – “First Date”
• Boys Like Girls – “The Great Escape”
• Duran Duran – “Hungry Like The Wolf”
• Eagles of Death Metal – “Wannabe In L.A.”
• Evanescence – “Call Me When You’re Sober”
• Fall Out Boy – “Thnks Fr Th Mmrs”
• Foo Fighters – “Monkey Wrench”
• Kaiser Chiefs – “I Predict A Riot”
• The Killers – “Spaceman”
• Kings of Leon – “Manhattan”
• KT Tunstall – “Suddenly I See”
• Lacuna Coil – “Our Truth”
• No Doubt – “Excuse Me Mr.”
• Pink – “So What”
• The Presidents of the United States of America – “Lump”
• The Pretenders – “Boots of Chinese Plastic”
• Queen – “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”
• Queens of the Stone Age – “No One Knows”
• The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus – “You Better Pray”
• The Rolling Stones – “Under My Thumb (live)”
• Spin Doctors – “Two Princes”
• Sublime – “All You Need”
• Sum 41 – “In Too Deep”
• Ugly Kid Joe – “Everything About You”
• Vampire Weekend – “A-Punk”
• The Vines – “Get Free”
• Weezer – “Troublemaker”

Source: Joystiq, and they have more juicy details. Hop on over there to enjoy.

Well, today Activision named every song in the latest Tony Hawk entry, RIDE. The list is 50 songs deep and hit on just about every genre, something Tony Hawk soundtracks have always done.

The soundtrack includes selections from Green Day, Chevelle, MGMT, Modest Mouse, NOFX and many more. But you can read, check out the full list below.

Tony Hawk: RIDE hits November 17 for $119, and that’s with the skateboard peripheral.

• Adam Tensta – “My Cool”
• Band of Skulls – “Patterns”
• Beatsteaks – “Run Run”
• Beck – “Gamma Ray”
• Bill Withers – “Lovely Day”
• The Black Keys – “I Got Mine”
• The Bronx – “Minutes in Night”
• Chevelle – “Jars”
• Children Collide – “Social Currency”
• Coconut Records – “West Coast”
• The Commodores – “Machine Gun”
• Darker My Love – “Two Ways Out”
• Dead End Road – “Sin City”
• Disbelievers – “Bad Storm”
• The Duke Spirit – “Into The Fold”
• The Faint – “The Geeks Were Right”
• The Fold – “Neverender”
• Gray Matter – “Fill A Void”
• Green Day – “Murder City”
• Half Astro – “Cellular”
• Helen Earth Band – “Shake N Cut”
• Kenny Rogers & First Edition – “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)”
• Kram – “Blitzkreig Bop”
• KRS-One w/ Buckshot – “Robot “
• Living With Lions – “She’s A Hack”
• The Meters – “Cissy Strut“
• MGMT – “Electric Feel”
• Modey Lemon – “Become A Monk”
• Modest Mouse  – “Satellite Skin”
• Morning After Girls – “Death Processions”
• Murs feat. will.i.am – “Lookin’ Fly”
• Nico Vega – “Burn Burn”
• Nitzer Ebb – “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”
• NOFX – “Just the Flu”
• Norma Jean – “Robots 3 Humans 0”
• Patchwork – “Ping Pong”
• The Pinkertones – “Electrobumbao”
• Queens of Stone Age – “The Lost Art of Keeping A Secret”
• The Raconteurs  – “Consoler of the Lonely”
• The Replacements –“Takin’ A Ride”
• Revolution Mother – “Night Ride”
• Rose Hill Drive – “Showdown”
• Russian Circles – “Death Rides A Horse”
• Santigold – “L.E.S. Artistes”
• Shiny Toy Guns – “Ricochet”
• Spinnerette – “All Babes Are Wolves”
• The Stooges – “I Got A Right”
• Superchunk – “Punch Me Harder”
• The Temper Trap – “Hearts”
• This Drama – “She Had A Knife”
• TSOL  – “Dance With Me”
• Turbotito – “Losing Their Head”
• TV On The Radio – “Dancing Choose”
• We Are Scientists – “After Hours”
• Willowz – “Ulcer Soul”
• Wolfmother – “Joker & The Thief”
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs – “Zero“

The friends, who met as high school students in Montreal, essentially began cold-calling musicians they admired and asking them to participate by creating designs for T-shirts, the proceeds of which would go to a charity of their choice.

“It was really that kind of DIY approach,” Cohen said. “We knew nobody.”

“The key was getting that first band to sign on,” Stotland added.

That initial “yes” came from Devendra Banhart, and many others soon followed.

“I didn’t think we would actually (get the project off the ground), but if he’s willing to do it, there’s no reason why we can’t,” Cohen remembers thinking after getting an enthusiastic note “in all caps” from Banhart in response to their request.

Soon, they found that word of mouth about their project was spreading like wildfire among the insular indie rock world. Some artists they contacted had been working independently on illustrations; others, including The National, already had T-shirt designs prepped and ready to go.

But they heard some “no”s along the way, too.

“Most of them have a reason that’s justifiable,” Cohen explained. “Some said they don’t have artistic inclination.”

Thus far, the Yellow Bird Project has raised money for organizations like Art for Change, AIDS Society of Canada, Safe Space, and Free Arts for Abused Children.

Cohen and Stotland recently expanded their venture from clothing to create a children’s activity book dubbed the “Indie Rock Coloring Book.” Parents looking to up their “cool” quotient will be glad to hear that the finished product includes music-inspired illustrations and activities from indie darlings like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bon Iver and Rilo Kiley. (Cohen and Stotland like to quote The National’s Matt Berninger, who once said “I’ve decided to have kids just so I’ll have somebody to give this book to.”)

While the Yellow Bird Project is currently just a side project for both Cohen and Stotland, they each hope to turn music-related charity work (or is it the other way around?) into a full-time career. Stotland, who has a background in computer science, still lives in Montreal and does freelance computer programming; Cohen studied philosophy in college and now resides in London, where he works for a marketing agency.

The two 25-year-olds are still two unassuming music fans who can’t hide their excitement about working with artists they enjoy and admire.

“We just really like music,” Stotland said. “This project just sort of fell into our laps.”

They celebrated the book’s September release with launch parties in New York City, Montreal and at the Outside Lands festival in San Francisco.

“It’s basically our favorite bands (who participate),” Cohen said. “To have people who want to be a part of that … It’s quite cool where this has taken us.”

The Indie Rock Coloring Book is available at various online and retail locations, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble and at www.yellowbirdproject.com.

The Control Voltage Output Modification adds five 1/4′” analog Control Voltage outputs to the right side panel of the Little Phatty. This limits the possible applications only by the imagination of the user.

“Use MIDI Clock Sync to synchronize the Little Phatty’s arpeggiator to a drum track, and the Pitch CV output becomes an incredible production tool.” said Chris Stack, Moog Music Marketing Manager. “You can route it to a wide variety of Moogerfooger parameters to create a universe of tempo-synced analog effects, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

The Control Voltage Output Modification is available from Moog for $199.99 as a factory upgrade.

The event will open at 10 a.m. at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco, Calif., at the Moscone Center, the same site of Macworld Expo and Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC).

Since 2005, Apple has used these events, usually near September, to introduce massive changes to its music business. Last year Apple introduced new iPods and iTunes 8 at a similar event.

“It’s only rock and roll, but we like it,” Apple says in an email inviting people to the event, Macworld reported. Apple gave no details about the event or what could be announced.

Maybe its a tablet device?

“Adam ‘DJ AM’ Goldstein was found deceased this afternoon in his New York City apartment,” said Jenni Weinman, Goldstein’s publicist, in a statement. “The circumstances surrounding his death are unclear. Out of respect for his family and loved ones, please respect their privacy at this time.”

TMZ reported that the famed DJ’s body was found at 5:20 p.m. The gossip site that also broke Michael Jackson’s death also claimed prescription medication bottles had been found near his body.

The death of DJ AM comes about a year after he and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker survived a plane crash in South Carolina that killed four other people.

Blast ran into DJ AM and Barker in Hollywood in June during the E3 convention. They opened an amazing, celebrity-stacked show with Jay-Z and Eminem.

The apparent overdose with speculations about suicide is troubling. DJ AM survived a plane crash, which led to doctors finding a potentially fatal blood clot.

DJ AM’s Twitter account has a final entry dated August 25 that reads “New york, new york. Big city of dreams, but everything in new york aint always what it seems,” quoting a 1983 Grandmaster Flash song.

This comes as a surprise to many of us, especially considering that Apple rejected (or is “indefinitely studying”—Google’s voice applications, presumably because they pose a threat to their bottom lines. Despite that Spotify poses an obvious threat to Apple’s music selling dominance in iTunes, they seem to have done the noble thing, and approved Spotify.

Users can now stream entire multi-million song catalogue to their phones over data networks, or sync songs to the iPhone’s hard drive via wi-fi. You read that right: you make a playlist, and the Spotify app will sync those songs to your iPhone so you can listen to them even when you lack an internet connection. While the application is free, it will require its users to have a Premium Spofity account which costs £10 a month. This also entitles the user to ad free listening on the desktop player as well.

Spotify has proven very successful in its European markets. While Spotify is still in talks with US record labels to bring it to the US, this further success could be the final push we need to change the game here. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.

Blast: How do you think playing conventions has changed things for the band, do the people attending already know who you are?

MH: I think definitely the size of the convention will have some sort of bearing to that end. TwiTour is a little smaller and they do smaller conventions, and so not many people there had heard of us but I think we gained quite a few new fans, whereas TwiCon was pretty huge and we had quite a few people there who already knew who we were. I think we gained a handful of new fans there, too, though.

Blast: How did your songwriting change after Breaking Dawn came out and there wasn’t that mystery left anymore?

MH: When I read the first three, I didn’t have this notion of writing songs. But it’s funny, as I was reading Breaking Dawn, every scene or every chapter I would read I’d think “oh, that’d be a cool song, ” so yea, it was a lot different reading Breaking Dawn. The mystery was kind of gone, but she tied it up pretty nicely I guess in the end so it was fun to read.

Blast: So you have two CDs at this point: Twilight Hour and Endless Day?

MH: Yea. Twilight Hour is just me and an acoustic guitar and I actually recorded it myself in my walk-in closet in my bedroom. So yea, it’s pretty raw and rough and unpolished, but it turned out to be pretty good for what it really is. And then we got a record deal about a year after I recorded that one, and we polished up a lot of the songs from Twilight Hour and added a new song as well.

Blast: Was it after the record deal that you gained Brent and the rest of the band?

MH: Brent is my friend and guitar player in the band. He actually joined back in 2008, pretty early on. People started approaching me about playing shows and I kind of needed a little extra something to play live shows, and it turned out that Brent was really good at guitar and we got together and just kind of did the acoustic, coffee house, you know small club type thing for about 8 or 9 months. It was just he and I for a long time, actually.

Blast: Are you still playing coffee houses, or mostly “Twilight” related gigs?

MH: Oh yea, we still play a lot of local gigs around here in Atlanta. We do acoustic shows but now it’s more with the full band. So we do both, we do full band shows at clubs with the electric guitars and drums but we still do the acoustic stuff, too.

Blast: And are you still writing now?

MH: I’ve been writing songs since long before Twilight came out; it’s kind of hard to turn that off. Melodies are always popping into my head and whenever I sit down with my guitar, inspiration starts hitting, so yea, we’re always writing.

Blast: Do you have anything public planned with the release of “New Moon” in November, since everyone isn’t quite at the convention level yet?

MH: Sure, yea, there are a lot of casual Twilight fans out there, and we’re trying to reach them as well. We are playing a huge film release party in Salt Lake City for the twilight moms, actually. They’ve invited us to come up and play that and they’re expecting to have you know, three or four thousand people there. It’s kind of a more casual event than something like TwiCon. So yea, we’re definitely trying to reach out to those casual fans too. Our music is a little bit like that in itself. We’re not like, really overtly Twilight with our references – well, except for one song we have called “Jacob Black,” that’s pretty blatant. We try to keep the references to : ”Twilight” pretty subtle and we did that on purpose because we didn’t want to alienate casual Twilight fans or casual music listeners even.

Blast: Do you think as a band you’ll eventually move beyond from “Twilight” inspired music to just Mitch inspired music?

MH: Yea. You don’t want to pigeon-hole yourself as an artist for you know, a fad – a passing fad. As it stands right now, it’s really fun to do and people are into it, but yea for longetivy’s sake, we’d love to do some more mainstream type music. You know, inspiration comes from all over when you’re a song writer, not just one specific thing, but I think “Twilight” has a lot of cool themes and stories and I think there are a lot more songs to be written to that end.

Blast: Speaking of the stories in “Twilight,” what point was the easiest to write songs for?

MH: Definitely the end of Eclipse has been the most written about as far as my songs go. That’s kind of when Jake takes off and Edward and Bella decide they’re going to get married. There’s also the big fight scene with Victoria and the newborns. So a lot of the story lines kind of came to a head at the end of “Eclipse,” and so there’s like five or six songs that came from that specific time in the stories.

Blast: As “New Moon” is approaches, and even “Eclipse,” are you trying at all to get onto the soundtracks?

MH: Yea, we’ve done a little light. . . I don’t know, we’ve shopped it around lightly to a few people and as it turns out, once “Twilight” was such a booming success, it’s just like everyone in the entire world is trying to get on the soundtrack for “New Moon.” So you know, it’s not as easy as it would have been if we had really tried last year to do it for the first film. But you know either way, if we get on a soundtrack or if we don’t, we’re just happy to do what we do. But yea, we’d love to be involved with one of the films somehow.

Be sure to check out Blast’s Mitch Hansen Band giveaway on YouTube to win free stuff from the band!

Prior to his recent Idol fame, Giraud spent his time as a dueling piano player, a gig in which he never truly felt comfortable. “They thought I was too good to be playing there; they could always tell I wanted to be a true artist. At the time, I just wanted a job.”

Born and raised in Michigan, Giraud was a performer from birth. It wasn’t until last season’s “American Idol” that he got his “big break,” unless you count a 2nd place win in the West Michigan “Idol” contest.

In Hollywood Giraud placed fifth in the competition, after being the first ever recipient of the “judges save” and given a second chance at proving his talent. That he did, performing The Fray’s “You Found me”, Stevie Wonder’s “Part Time Lover,” and eventually being eliminated after a passionate rendition of Richard Rodger’s “My Funny Valentine.”

The judges save was a turning point for Matt. Although he didn’t win the competition, it boosted his confidence and forced the world to take a second look at this dueling piano player from Michigan. It was “ …a huge honor,” reflects Matt, “People behind the scenes, the judges, they saw something in me. I didn’t feel like I could convey that to the audience in a minute and a half.”

Now in full swing, The “American Idol” Tour has, so far, been getting rave reviews – in large part because of Giraud’s performances. “People on tour are surprised at how good I am. I’m making a bigger impact now. I’m calling it my ‘Redemption Tour.’”

When the tour wraps, Giraud will travel back to Michigan where he’ll take a back seat as performer. Yobi TV, the “online reality contest network,” will air “Make The Cut” in September ’09. Matt describes it as the “‘American Idol’ of the internet.” Twelve finalists will have the chance to rise to the top and then be mentored by Giraud in MI recording studios as the elimination process continues. One winner will win a chance to cut a record.

What will Giraud’s role be? “It’s cool to be on the opposite end of the spectrum,” he says. As a mentor he hopes to “ …bring a little hope, bring out their talent and passion. I’m not just going to blast people like Simon.” Sounds like he’ll be channeling Paula a bit.

While future plans have yet to be set in stone, Matt Giraud knows one thing for sure: he is beyond thankful for everything. He is currently writing songs, booking gigs, and wants “to do a ton of different things.” For someone whose influences include Louis Armstrong and Dru Hill, it sounds like success will certainly continue for this dynamic performer.

But first, it’s time for Matt Giraud to finish his scone and get back to the “Idol” tour…

“Make the Cut” airs on Yobi TV in September 2009.

Fiction Plane's Joe Sumner (Blast Staff Photo/Farah Joan Fard)

Royksopp (Norway)- Royksopp’s electronic music, often accompanied by creative music videos (check them out!), incorporates heavy rhythmic beats and catchy melodies. 2005’s “The Understanding” included songs such as “What Else is There” and “Beautiful Day Without You”. “What Else There” featured Karin Dreijer Andersson doing vocals for the track, adding an eerie sound with her pitch shifting and unique vocal technique. The track reached #1 on the British Dance Chart and spawned many remixes. Their newest album, “Junior”, was released on March 23 of this year, with the counterpart to the upbeat album, “Senior”, set for release later in 2009.

Shpongle (UK)- Heard of Psybient music before? You have now. Psybient mixes electronic music with ambient, world, and psychedelic trance. Shpongle, featuring Simon Posford and Raja Ram as its two core members, incorporates music of other cultures with trippy synthetic work and interesting rhythms. Individuals who love world music will enjoy the sampling selections, with works from 2001’s Tales of the Inexpressible creating such tracks as “Around the World in a Tea Daze” and “A New Way to Say Hooray”. 2005’s “Nothing Lasts… But Nothing is Lost” incorporated Brazilian influence on songs such as “Levitation Nation” with the use of sampling as well. Their next album, “Ineffable Mysteries from Shpongleland”, is set to be released late in fall 2009, with a live performance set for the Ozora Festival in Hungary as well.

Younger Brother (England)- Going along on the Psybient genre (and Simon Posford), Younger Brother (formed by Simon Posford and Benji Vaughan) may or may not conform to this musical style. Often they are classified as not being classifiable, due to their many different types of compositions for electronic music. Their 2007 album, “The Last Days of Gravity”, was released with positive reviews, and contained tracks such as the beautifully composed “Happy Pills” and the eerie yet catchy “All I Want”. The band has been compared to Pink Floyd and Radiohead in terms of production and composition style and creativity, but Younger Brother is in a league of its own, so to speak.

Heather Nova (Bermuda) – Remember the song “London Rain” from 1998? Been wondering what happened to the singer? She’s still making music and has found mainstream success in Germany with two of her albums making their way to the top five of the album charts there. While it seems completely baffling that America has seen less of Heather Nova after the 1990’s (”Siren” was a completely chilling album, songs like “Paper Cup” and “Winterblue” being so gorgeous and wonderfully performed, with “Blood of Me” and “I’m Alive” being powerful compositions as well), she is currently touring Europe, and returned to the United States after eight years in March to play in New York.

Ariane Moffatt (Canada)- Her debut album went platinum. Need I say more? Well, no, but I’d like to. There is such clarity in her vocals to accompany wonderful melodies. Even if you don’t understand French, the music speaks for itself. The single “Réverbère” includes a great bridge full of electronic and harmonic tonalities and arpeggios. The album, “Le CÅ“ur dans la Tête”, from 2005, features the track “Retourne Chez Elle”, which is both dance worthy and sassy. The album “Tous Les Sens” from 2008 won a 2009 Juno Award for Francophone Album of the Year.

Swell Season (Credit: Conor Masterson)

While the next two artists aren’t necessarily considered international, the world music influences they integrate into their sound are definitely worth a mention, and more than definitely worth a listen.

Toubab Krewe (Blast Staff Photo/Farah Joan Fard)

Devendra Banhart- The story goes that the artist was named after Indra, the Hindu god of Rain and Thunder. If that weren’t interesting enough, you should take a listen to his music. The musician, born in Texas, later moved to Venezuela until he moved to California at the age of 14. “Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon”, his 2007 release, made it to #19 on Rolling Stone’s Top 50 Albums of 2007. Songs like the jazzy, almost Take Five like “Seahorse” and the very danceable, interesting “Carmensita” grabbed the attention of many. Banhart is set to release his next album, “What Will We Be”, for October 2009.

All bassist Alex Suarez and drummer Nate Novarro would tell us in May was that Cobras would continue their celebrity bashing ways – but with an introspective touch considering they themselves were now celebrities.

After hearing the entire album, Blast can confirm that they boys were telling the truth. So before you get any further into this, any person crossing their fingers that front man Gabe Saporta would magically turn the Cobra Starship outfit into “Midtown continued” should grab a box of tissues and cry themselves another river because it didn’t happen. For those who have been sweating their asses off in their purple hoodies and throwing ‘Fangs up’ all summer in anticipation for “Hot Mess”, please continue.

The album kicks off with “Nice Guys Finish Last”, which sets up the “I’m a bad boy” theme that pervades throughout the rest of the record. The first track’s “Womanizer” beat also makes it apparently clear that “Hot Mess” is going to be a wet dream for radio stations across the country.

“Pete Wentz is the Only Reason We’re Famous” was the first song the Cobras released to the public and brings Saporta’s staple tongue-in-cheek lyrics to another level. The title of the song alone goes with the Cobra Starship attitude that you can’t crack a joke on them if they crack it first. Look out for the line “You can ride to the top/but you can’t ride on my cock” which helped earn the first ever Explicit rating for the Cobras.

“You’re Not in on the Joke” (which shares writing credit with Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump) and “Move Like You Gonna Die” follow in the same vein as “Pete Wentz” as far as calling out scene kids who think of the Cobras as a joke. Saporta turns the laugh around with lines like “I’ve just got one side to show you all/My ass is awesome/So smile while you’re kissing it”. The album is full of “stick it to them” mantras, showing that Saporta is more than aware of what the critics are saying but still doesn’t give a shit.

“Hot Mess” also does not neglect to take Cobra’s reputation as a “dance band” to the next level. The already explosive “Good Girls Go Bad” proves the Cobra potential for radio superstardom. If it hasn’t happened already, high school quarterbacks across the country will be throwing up fangs, claiming they know how to make all the girls go bad. The title track of the album follows suit with the first single, with a ridiculously catchy hook and a synth-soaked beat that makes it impossible not to “shake it shake it”. Both songs have the potential to replace “Since U Been Gone” as this generation’s #1 karaoke anthem.

“Hot Mess” turns into a somewhat perfect summer driving soundtrack, with “Fold Your Hands Child”, “Living in the Sky With Diamonds” and “The Scene is Dead, Long Live the Scene” acting as the somber side of the rise and low mixture essential to any good mix. “Fold Your Hands Child” may rival “One Day Robots Will Cry” as Saporta’s most personal song to date, depicting a long-term relationship in the face of haters. “The Scene is Dead” is worth putting on repeat a few times. The medication and hospital references give a little insight to Saporta’s battle with hospitals over the past year, from throat surgeries to broken ankles, and the pressure to be everyone’s “favorite man”.

“Hot Mess” exemplifies Cobra Starship taking their mission to make “scene kids” stop taking themselves so seriously and to make everyone have a good time to a new level. The things old fans loved about previous Cobra records are still there, and amplified. Every song is synth loaded and Saporta’s voice takes some serious doses of auto tune which creates an album full of ultra-pop-dance floor super anthems.

Those that have been following the band since the “Snakes on a Plane” anthem should prepare themselves accordingly because “Hot Mess” will be the album that puts Cobra Starship on the map. Get ready because everyone that looked at your hoodie with golden snakes on it and asked “What the hell is that?” will now be singing “Hot Mess” with empty Solo cups as microphones. But this album will put Cobra Starship everywhere they have wanted to be. You just have to decide if you are going to love ‘em or hate ‘em for it.

Last night the legendary trio – guitarist Tom Delonge, bassist Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker – played the Boston date of their reunion summer amphitheater tour to a sold out crowd of 20,000 people. Hoppus announced before the second to last song of the set that it was the second largest crowd Blink had ever played in front of.

Opening acts for this particular date of the tour were Chester French, Panic! At the Disco (with a new line up), and Fall Out Boy. Other opening acts for various dates on the tour include Weezer, Taking Back Sunday and All American Rejects. While all the participating bands of the tour put on solid performances – it was clear that the vast majority of the crowd was there for Blink and Blink only.

The most notable difference about the Blink performance at Mansfield’s Comcast Center was the severe clean up of their stage banter. Delonge and Hoppus bounced back and forth between each other in an attempt to cover up some obvious lingering bitterness over Delonge’s initial decision to leave Blink to pursue Angels and Airwaves, but fans were not greeted with the same level of perverted sillyness that was a staple of Blink-182 shows in the past (for reference, please get yourself a copy of “The Mark, Tom and Travis Show” and you’ll understand what I mean). Though certainly humorous and entertaining, there was a noticeable absence of banter about licking balls and songs like “Blow Job”, which was a slight disappoint to all of the older fans who are used to the Blink patented potty mouth humor.

The hour and a half set included songs every album – from “Buddha” and “Cheshire Cat” to the self-titled album the band released before taking their hiatus in 2005. While the crowd erupted for “What’s My Age Again” – the song that broke the boys into the mainstream and you could hear the thunder of 20,000 people singing along to “All The Small Things”, there was an appreciation by all the old school Blink fans when they went into “Josie” – one of the pre-MTV hits that made Blink-182 a gateway punk band for so many in the mid 1990s. The most touching moment of the show may have been the sea of lighters and cell phones alike that rose in the air when the band went into “Adam’s Song”, the “Enema of the State” anthem speaking out about teen suicide.

There was no greater applause though then drummer Travis Barker’s kick-off of the band’s two song encore. It was an appropriate tribute to Barker, whose near death plane crash in 2008 inspired the band to start speaking to each other again and thus re-unite. Barker began with a drum solo, only for his drum kit to begin rising off the stage. For more than five minutes, Barker banged on his drums as his kit swung in the air from one side of the stage to the other. At one point Barker was turned 180 degrees so that when he looked straight ahead he was looking at the floor of the stage, to the rabid approval of all 20,000 fans screaming in adoration. “He’s moving so fast! He looks like an octopus,” said a fan in the crowd as Barker banged away.

Hoppus and Delonge joined him afterward to finish out the night with “Carousel” and “Dammit.” By the end of it, Blink was on stage for over an hour and 40 minutes, playing songs that appealed to the palettes of the wide variety of fans in attendance – from the now early 20 somethings whose first chords on their electric guitars in middle school were Blink songs to the entirely new generation just discovering “Dude Ranch” for the first time. Blink-182 united a crowd of extreme variance last night and gave them all a show to remember.

The success of the tour will help the boys decide if they will continue together to record a new full length LP in the fall. If the caliber of the Comcast Center show is any indication – it’s good to see you back, Blink-182.

The Ohio based rockers are playing all of Warped Tour 2009 after getting off the AP Tour supporting The Maine and 3OH!3. Mahoney and drummer Nate Van Dame hung out with Blast in the press room of the Warped Tour before their set to discuss the weather, writing and the pina colada song (yes, the pina colada song).

BLAST: How has the tour been for you guys?

Kevin Mahoney: Couldn’t really be more happy with Warped Tour.
Nate Van Dame: I would say catering is pretty awesome.

BLAST: Have there been any low points for you guys on the tour?

NVD: The rain.
KM: Not being able to shower and now I’ve been walking in mud and I’m really miserable.
NVD: Yesterday I got to take a shower three times in my own shower, just because I could, and slept in my own bed. It was awesome.

BLAST: You just released a new EP, where can kids go to get it?

NVD: It’s only on Itunes right now actually. It is going to be available on Itunes or on tour only.
KM: It’s kind of like a reward, for the real fans you know? It’s our way of giving back to the people that actually come out to shows. Now they can get something special and it’s going to be cool looking.

BLAST: What is Hit The Lights doing after Warped?

KM: Kiss each other a lot. After Warped we are gonna sit around and write at home and shower as we god will please. Then we will do a full US headline tour in October/November.
NVD: We also just recorded a cover of the Pina Colada song for Taco Bell.

BLAST: Like the Jimmy Buffet song?

NVD: JImmy Buffet actually didn’t write that song. It was some random guy, but everyone thinks it was Jimmy. I can’t remember who it was. Nick [our lead singer] knows.
KM: That song is the worst in the world but we covered it for Taco Bell for their new Pina Colada drinks. We got sponsored by Taco Bell for winning this battle of the bands thing, we beat Paramore and Four Year Strong. Us, Underoath and someone else all won.

BLAST: So you guys have jumped on the Twitter trend as well. Do you dig it?

KM: It was actually our management’s idea and I thought it was lame at first but whatever I’ll do it and yeah, now everyone uses it. There’s like 3 million bands on twitter.
NVD: And you can tell when it’s really late and we’re all really drunk. It’s just all inside jokes back and forth.

BLAST: Is there anything you want to make sure readers are aware of when they read this interview?

KM: You can tell them that Kevin from Hit the Lights is really good looking. I just wanted the world to know, in case there is any confusion.

Hit The Lights released their ‘Coast to Coast’ EP mid July which you can purchase on Itunes right now.

Despite near exhaustion, bassist Garret Nickelsen hung out with Blast for a few minutes to talk about what the band has been up to, the importance of good catering and the band’s driving force: the fans.

BLAST: You guys have been on Warped Tour the entire time so far, how is it?

Garrett Nickelsen: It’s great, we are all pretty tired because we get up pretty early to walk the line and stuff. We went to go see Green Day yesterday. But it’s been awesome the crowd has been crazy. It drains you fast.

BLAST: What is the best part of being on a tour like this?

GN: I’d have to say catering. Today it kind of sucked. My bread was wet so i didn’t eat it. I haven’t eaten for like three days.

BLAST: What are your plans once the tour ends?

GN: We’re touring in the fall with Boys Like Girls, Cobra Starship and A Rocket To The Moon and another band we can’t mention yet.

BLAST: What have you had to learn the hard way about being on Warped?

GN: We were on the tour last year for about ten days. I feel like we learned everything possible in that ten days and I never want to be in a van again. It’s still hard and it still drains you but it’s easier [being in a bus].

BLAST: A deluxe version of your album “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop” just came out. What do kids get by purchasing the new edition?

GN: A cover of Pour Some Sugar on Me, acoustic “I must be dreaming” and a 30 minute documentary from the beginning of our band until now.

BLAST: You also just launched a new, more interactive website for your fans. What else do you guys do to stay close to your fans?

GN: We wanted to make [the website] like an online summer camp There’s going to be a lot of cool new stuff going with it within the next year. I feel like from the beginning Myspace has been a pretty big thing for us. All the content on there is us. Most of the video stuff I do myself, the blogs are Pat. I feel staying connected that way and then for the kids that don’t go to the website or that stuff, coming to shows [is the best way]. John was just at our tent signing stuff for an hour and our tour manager, Max, had to come pull him away. I definitely feel like we’re that band that will go meet fans and show them what we’d want to see when we go see a band.

BLAST: I saw all of you have been using Twitter. Do you like it?

GN: I do it. It’s growing on me. I know John hates it. Maybe let’s people in a little too much on what we’re doing, but you know – that makes it a little more fun.

BLAST: Any last words?

GN: Thank you for anyone that’s listened to us, hated us or anything. Thank you guys and love our fans.

The Maine will be announcing fall tour dates with Boys Like Girls and Cobra Starship soon and don’t forget to check out their album “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop” which is out right now!

Still, they showed up in droves. Fans of all shapes and sizes from preppy girls in flip flops and home decorated t-shirts to Warped veterans, decked in black and tattoos from head to foot. All trudged together through mud puddles, gawked at how expensive nourishment was ($7 for a hamburger and $5 convenience charge on ATMs – I wanted to call my mommy too) surfed crowds in front of their favorite bands – because as is the case in all Warped Tours, there was something for everyone.

Despite the dreadful weather, the Comcast Center parking lot was lined with tents of every which which color and every which purpose. Each band had their own merch tent, which hosted signings at various times during the day. Colorful emerging clothing lines like BANK, Glamour Kills and Baby Cakes each showed up to represent and show off their new summer lines.

Warped Tour also rolled in with its ever-increasing humanitarian and non-profit effort. From Music Saves Lives – an organization that promotes blood donation by offering VIP tickets to concertgoers who donate blood before an event – to Rock For Health started by Northeastern graduate Kristina Grossman to help educate and provide touring musicians with health care. Keep A Breast and there ever so popular “I Heart Boobies” shirts were also present as well as the constantly expanding Invisible Children group which strives to create awareness about the child soldiers in Darfur who are kidnapped from their homes and forced into combat.

Though there were no skateboarders on the rain soaked ramps, the music still played on at Warped Tour. This year’s roster ranged from punk badasses and long time Warped veteransBad Religion and NOFX to the poppier stylings of Sing it Loud and The Maine. The amphitheatre, which was split in half to accommodate the Smart Punk stage on the right and the Hurley.com stage on the right became one of the most popular spots of the day. While gaining some shelter from the rain, kids could join the pit or hang out in the chairs to watch Toronto synth-pop princess Lights, Chicago’s White Tie Affair or get hardcore with the likes of Therefore I am or Dear in the Headlights. The biggest sets of the entire day however, belonged to All Time Low, who joined the tour only two days before the Mansfield date, and Colorado sensations 3OH!3, who closed out the night on the Main Stage.

This year is the fifteenth anniversary of the tour, which was started as a dream of an idea by Kevin Lyman in 1994. The first year the tour almost completely ran out of money and musicians last mostly on beer instead of the elaborate vegan to carnivore buffet laid out every day now. Now it is known as one of the most successful summer festivals and continues to grow every year. To celebrate its fifteenth birthday, Warped will be hitting the silver screen at the end of its stint. On September 17th, selected theatres around the country will be showing the 15 year Warped celebration featuring NOFX, Pennywise, Katy Perry, Blink 182 and more. If the crowd in the theatre is anything as massive as the mob of sweaty, tired and wet kids throwing down during 3OH!3’s closing cult classic “Don’t Trust Me”, then it will be safe to say that over the past decade and a half Warped Tour has maintained its reputation as one of the must sees of the summer concert season.

Check out the Blast photos from the day and stay tuned for our one on one interviews with Sing it Loud, Hit The Lights, The White Tie Affair, and The Maine.

The thing is, while we can learn to play just about any video game, the skill to actually play a real guitar has always proved a bit elusive to us — we played the French horn in high school after all.

However, the time has come when Guitar Hero meets a real guitar. Fretlight is a guitar manufacturer that makes a series of acoustic and electric guitars — you know, the ones with strings — that have built in LED lights on the fret board that show you where to put your fingers to actually play notes, chords, and even music. This essentially makes learning to play a guitar as easy as learning to play Guitar Hero.

Fretlight also publishes free Mac and PC compatible software with lessons to teach you the basics and songs to let you show off your skills. There’s also a plugin for Garage Band, and a number of third party software programs available to expand your repertoire.

We’ve got ours in the mail right now, and we’ll be practicing all month. Check back later to see if we were able to build the skills to win the ex back.

The band’s musically diverse lineup, which incorporates a banjo and trombone among other more conventional instruments, consists of seven 24-year-old musicians hailing from Milton, Ontario who have been playing together since they were teenagers.

“Universe” certainly incorporates elements of other-worldliness, whether it’s the feeling of floating through space, as evoked by songs like “All of One is the Other,” or the fact that the co-ed vocals courtesy of lead singer/trombonist Adrian Jewett and guitarist Emma Ditchburn often get lost in the swirl of instruments around them.

Many of the songs on the record possess a potent air of melodrama. Leadoff track “Bubble Reputation” is a rock opera in itself, opening “Universe” with theatrical horns and later letting the rest of the instruments build to an operatic crescendo. Classically-trained pianist Ryan Lenssen shows off his chops on the excellent dramatic instrumental “Patternicity,” a song whose layered strings make it reminiscent of a John Williams score.

But “Universe” also provides an outlet for The Most Serene Republic’s pop sensibilities. Perhaps the most accessible tune is the high-energy, synth-infused “Don’t Hold Back, Feel a Little Longer.”

Casual music fans might not appreciate …And the Ever Expanding Universe. It’s music for the fickle-minded. But while The Most Serene Republic never dwells on one style for too long, they still manage to make their sound cohesive.

Miley’s melancholy tweets over the past few days have hinted at this.  E! is saying that Miley’s rekindled friendship with ex-boyfriend Nick Jonas, and Justin’s ensuing jealousy, might have had something to do with the split.

Miley and Nick began spending a lot of time together for work, according to Twist, which was making Justin uncomforable.

Justin said, “Nick was trying to get her back the whole time,” E! reports.

Miley’s rep. is staying quiet on this one.

Photo: Disneydreaming.com

However, sometimes this trust isn’t respected. Beyond the typical bank breaches that release our credit card and social security numbers — which are typically the fault of malicious individuals — companies sometimes just show a flagrant disregard of their users’ respect. For example, take Last.fm and their parent company CBS.

Users of Last.fm scrobble every song they play, essentially allowing their play counts to be displayed on their site profile, and keeping a complete track history on Last.fm’s servers. The site can then determine which users like which songs together and can provide suggestions. The site also can make widgets that display your recently played and favorite artists and tracks.

While certainly nifty, this puts quite a data set in the hands of Last.fm. While the site promises never to release individual, personally identifiable data, the site does release aggregate information to other parties to determine royalty payments and the like. This much makes sense. In trade for free social recommendations and data tools, the labels know how much airtime their songs are getting and how to compensate the artists fairly.

However, allegations have surfaced that Last.fm released information identifying users listening to a leaked U2 album. Last.fm denied this, stating that “no data had been made available to the [Recording Industry Association of America].” Later, in a blog post, Last.fm founders issued a truly categorical denial of information release in a blog post. While the story was alarming, it mostly died down because the information was gathered from anonymous users.

The fire has picked back up again though in the last week; TechCrunch, who originally broke the first story, received more tips stating that while Last.fm did not release the information to the RIAA, CBS requested it “for internal use,” then turned around and released it to the RIAA without Last.fm’s consent.

As of right now, the only hard evidence of anything actually happening is a redacted email sent to TechCrunch, which, while very likely real, is not nearly as damning as in internal email from Last.fm or CBS would be. Last.fm has denied the issue all along, and CBS finally responsed yesterday. The whole story is just sort of hanging in limbo.

Essentially, the take-away message from this whole ordeal is that you have to be careful what sort of information you put on the Internet. It can be used against you in a court of law. Whether or not Last.fm released the information, it is still easily relatable to your user profile via web access, and depending on how much personal information you share there, possibly relatable back to the physical you. This also raises questions about how much you own your information. Sure you give it to Last.fm to compile and display, but most users would still claim rights over its use — like by opting not to releaase to the RIAA. The possibilities suggested in this situation show that this might not always be the case.

The adorable underdog beat out Adam Lambert, the heavy favorite from the beginning. Lambert was praised by the judges throughout the season for his unmatched voice and, despite a scandal involving his weekend escapades dressed as women, many were shocked by his loss.

The of course, didn’t happen until 9:58 p.m. The rest of the show was dedicated to a performance by past contestants, as well as performances by Rod Stewart, Queen and Steve Martin, among others. The finale also included the usual inane bantering, lame and unbearable “Golden Idol Awards” and about 45 minutes of commercials.

Allen didn’t know what to say when he was handed the new American Idol trophy, but he was kind enough to announce that Lambert was more deserving of the win.

There you have it, a dramatic and surprising show.

But, was America right? Comment below.

But what about those times when you want to listen to a certain song — like right now? Sure you can try to prod Pandora into playing the song for you, but it’s hit or miss. Slacker lets you choose some favorites, but these choices are limited, and again, there are no guarantees. And since the RIAA is actually still suing people, despite their assurances otherwise, we’re going for legal methods.

Enter Spotify.

Spotify is essentially a digital version of the iTunes catalog, where every song is available for free streaming. No kidding, you can pick and choose any song you want to listen to, and it will begin playing on demand. (OK, OK, The Beatles are still nowhere to be found, but that’s surprising to no one.) The familiar interface works much like iTunes. Artist names and albums are hyperlinked to the respective pages where you can listen to the artists other songs and albums.

I was very impressed with the selection. While all of the most obvious artists and songs are available, there’s an impressive back catalogue. I found many b-sides and live albums I didn’t know existed for many of my favorite bands as well as many, shall we say, “band nerd” songs from my yesterdays in the high school band.

The software allows you to build playlists drag and drop style but many websites also offer a robust selection of playlists that you can add. The software also comes with the ability to share songs via links.

All in all, this possibly strikes you as too good to be true; and alas, for anyone living state side, it is. Spofity is currently only available in a handful of European countries. Of course, enterprising users have managed to find a way around the IP address checks used to make sure that users are from these allowed countries; a simple Google search will probably reveal the methods.

Though currently in invite only-beta, the site actually allows new users (again, from the appropriate countries) to sign up and download the software, all for free. The company’s revenue model is based on inserting ads in the software and in the audio stream. Users can also sign up for premium service to eliminate these ads.

For the future, the company also has iPhone and Symbian apps in development, an obvious addition considering the limited space on most devices. All in all, free is hard to argue with, and should Spotify manage to strike the right licensing deals, they might just have a winning formula.

Although many people initially thought the group was a joke promotional tool for the film, the boys and gal of Cobra Starship are about to release their third full length album this summer and are currently playing main support for Fall Out Boy on the Believers Never Die Part Deux tour, also featuring All Time Low, Metro Station and Hey Monday.

Blast caught up with Cobra bassist Alex Suarez, drummer Nate Novarro, and Hidden in Plain View’s former drummer and Cobra comrade Spencer Peterson in their dressing room before the show on the 19th stop of the Believers tour at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell.

“We’ve just been really happy since Spencer came out here to join us,” said Novarro. “It’s like the Dow national average went up 7 points. Before that it was at an all time low.”

Everyone shares a laugh before Suarez elaborates, “there are just so many moments where we say, ‘That was awesome. Remember last night? That was awesome.’ There are like 20 of those a day.”

To no surprise, the Cobra attitude is a lighthearted one which could lead some to think that “believers never die” may work as some sort of mantra for the band considering the obstacles they have encountered over the last few months.

They ended a full summer run on last year’s Warped Tour to be confronted with a could-be-devastating diagnosis of lead singer Gabe Saporta’s voice. Because of lumps that formed on his vocal chords, Saporta was sentenced to vocal rest and surgery, but that would impede the upcoming headlining US tour for the New York-based quintet. While the Starship delayed recording of the new record and postponed UK dates, they went ahead with the Sassy Back Tour.

Saporta bumped up his surgery to December and spent the holidays recovering before going to work on the new album at the end of January, though there was some worry if he would be up for the Fall Out Boy tour.

“We just kind of hung out and waited for him to be ready to go,” said Suarez. “There wasn’t really anything else we could do.”

Now the band takes a humorous take on the situation by making skits about Saporta’s surgery for their new weekly webisodes on cobracam.tv.

“Our friend Jack the Camera Guy was available and we invited him out on tour. He just comes out with all these great ideas because he’s such a genius,” said Suarez.

A new webisode will premiere every Monday until the new album is released. The previous escapades have shown backstage footage of the tour and alleged album title meetings.

“Someone starts off, says ‘We should do this,’ and then everyone just throws in there and it all comes together,” Novarro said, explaining how the group drafts ideas for the skits.

The group’s latest episode depicts the after-effects of writing part of the new album in the mountains of Pennsylvania on Novarro’s psyche. The trip was an opportunity for the band to get away from it all and write some new material, but became another filming expedition when the  band set up a web cam to film their songwriting process.

“There was lots of snow and red wine. White powder and red wine. Cobra cam. Sweet jams were written up there. We wrote a rap song,” said Suarez of the experience.

The mountain session and later recording in New York City did lead to the first song off the record being released to the Cobra Myspace — “Pete Wentz Is The Only Reason We’re Famous.” The title hints that Cobra is up to their usual celebrity trash-talking style, but not afraid to make themselves the target as well, considering Wentz is the one who signed them to his Decaydance label and they are now opening for him during the BND tour.

“I think we make fun of ourselves more, but ourselves as celebrities,” said Suarez. “So I guess you could say we’re still making fun of celebrities.”

As well as making reference to 80’s Kung Fu supervillain Bruce Leroy, the glowing Last Dragon in the new track, Saporta also gets a little dirty in the first verse when he proclaims, “you can rise to the top/but you can’t ride on my cock.”

The cavalier line took many fans by surprise on the first listen but Suarez and Novarro didn’t seem phased when asked if more of the same bluntness would be found on the record.

“Expect a lot of dick and a lot of cock,” said Suarez.

“Metaphorically, of course,” added Novarro.

“I’m sure there’s a lot of hinting about cock,” concluded Suarez before going into a traumatic story from his childhood in which he was witness to two elephants mating but confused the male elephant parts as a second trunk.

“We went to this, like, drive-in zoo , (Lion Park Safari). I’m just looking out the window, ‘Hey ma, why does that elephant have two trunks?’ and then they started doing it. Have you ever seen two elephants doing it? Not pretty,” Suarez regaled.

It doesn’t seem quite so unusual when you realize this is a girl who records her music video in a ladybug costume, “just for fun.”

Born and raised in the Sunshine State — Miami to be specific — Goodrich definitely does not need to worry about Seasonal Affective Disorder. With a healthy dose of sunshine on her face most days, Rachel says the warm weather has more than slightly shaped her music. “Keeps it a bit more upbeat,” she giggled.

Goodrich’s style is not typical of the area, but really neither is any other musician’s hailing from South Beach. It’s a mix of electronic, Latin fusion, funk, and the worldly sounding artists who line Lincoln Road, where Goodrich has spent countless hours buzzing her kazoo, strumming her ukulele, and crooning about life as she knows it.

She could play music on just about anything, probably even the kitchen sink if presented the challenge. It was a literal lack of instruments that fostered this resourceful creativity.

“I had to be inventive. I used to use the stove as a snare, made the best of what I had. Then I was like ‘Wow, this sounds much better than a snare.’ I stuck with it and enjoy those sounds a lot,” she said in a recent interview with Blast. She believes her music style is “a little different.” How different? Goodrich coined her own term to describe it: “shake-a-billy.” It makes you want to move your hips and, well, shake.

As for influences, she names Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Joni Mitchell, The Dead, and Dr. Seuss among the many.

Goodrich’s father played the guitar, and her grandmother, he piano, so there are at least a couple of musical genes in the family. Her parents fueled her musical passion by passing down numerous old-school vinyls, which she continued to collect, cherish, and idolize.

“I was introduced to (music) super young. Growing up, I thought it was part of being a child, regular, like taking piano lessons. I was like yeah I really want to play music,” she said. Rachel took action and started learning the guitar as a twelve year old. From there, she formed a few bands in high school and kept moving forward in the musical direction.

“It wasn’t until I was sixteen that I got really serious about it,” she recalled.

Goodrich left Miami for a brief academic stint in Gainesville, Fla. There, she tried her hand in the formal study of music, but found that it “stunted her growth.”

“Gainesville didn’t play a necessarily negative role,” she said, in a charmingly defensive manner. “It was just the whole small town, college party scene- it wasn’t my thing.”

Rather than going out eight nights a week to keg parties full of inebriated undergrads, Goodrich retreated to her bedroom for almost two years. There, basking in the creative silence of her own space, she “became truly acquainted with my records and music and real things and stuff.”

Goodrich returned to Miami and dabbled in jazz guitar. Despite honest intentions of continuing her studies, Rachel found herself fully immersed in the South Florida music scene. Now twenty-four years of age, her favorite place to play is Churchill’s Pub, a local joint. “It’s the best place ever. Everyone just kind of ends up there at the end of the night. Sometimes it’s just one big jam session. It’s awesome,” she said.

The past several years have been spent recording tunes in friends’ bedrooms, eventually releasing her first album, Tinker Toys, which dropped on her self-made label last October. Yellow Bear Records is the label, and Goodrich hopes to develop and grow it in time.

The story behind the name Yellow Bear is only fitting. Goodrich had been living in Gainesville at the time, hanging outside between classes (one can almost picture her: long shiny black hair, white retro sunglasses, skinny black jeans and converse sneakers– strumming the banjo) when a Native American man suddenly approached her and said “Me, I am Blue Bear. But you, you, you are Yellow Bear.”

“I thought I was hallucinating. I could have been,” said said.

While usually displaying an uninhibited and optimistic tone, Goodrich breaks her own mold in “The Black Hole,” a track with undeniably dark and downbeat undertones. Most of the album, she corrects, has dark undertones.

“It was a pretty weird moment when I wrote that song; it was a bright and sunny day but I wasn’t feeling so bright and sunny. Most of my songs are very related to events in my life. Sometimes I need an escape and it’s fun to tell a story,” Goodrich said.

What’s fun is being the listening ear to Goodrich’s many and colorful stories. In between our questions, Rachel inserted more than several “Oh mans” and “Ya knows.” It’s hard to tell if she’s an active participant or desperately reassuring herself. Either way, her manner is genuine and heartfelt.

As for a five-year plan, well, Goodrich has never even heard the phrase. Lucky her.

“I am so not aware of that term. I do live day by day. Wow! I mean, I do think it’s good to maybe set up some goals or, you know, things to look forward to- challenges and stuff. But no, I don’t plan ahead years I don’t think. No. No. I can’t even think…” and she trails off as if the here and now is all that is relevant.

A self-proclaimed “thinker,” Goodrich really does enjoy life — sudoku and good food among her many pleasures. The highlight of her most recent gig at the Heineken Transatlantic Music Festival was the spicy Jamaican food a fellow performer dished out.

 

As for all of that thinking, “It’s ok, but not great always. Either I am really excited and enjoying everything, or I am totally having an anxiety attack,” she said.

This sentiment seems all too familiar in the artist’s persona. Truly gifted musicians are, more often than not, conflicted, in one way or another. For Goodrich, the tedious tasks in life bring her down — like folding creases in sweaters at an old retail job, or the mixing of each individual track on her album.

No, Rachel Goodrich does not suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. She is an upbeat, positive young woman with a disposition as sunny as the state she calls home. Only by delving deep into her person, her lyrics, and her tone can one begin to sense what may be found beneath the sunny exterior- conflict, struggle, and thought. It is a rare bunch, however, which is so blessed and able to turn such complex talent into such beautiful music.

Listen for yourself. Buy Tinker Toys, and listen to every single word on every single track. You too will become one of Rachel Goodrich’s newest fans. You may even find yourself picking up a set of spoons and trying to make your own kind of music.

So what would she be doing if music weren’t an option? Goodrich says she’d be painting or doodling. For a long time she wanted to be a cartoonist, and was encouraged by her grandmother in that pursuit. “So for now I do both. If it’s not music, it’s art,” she said.

A moment passes and she nonchalantly adds, “or maybe I’d be a tollbooth collector or something.”

Blast Magazine got to witness Bobby Long perform live three times in New York City this week and sit down with him for an interview.

The last time Blast spoke with Bobby, things were just beginning for him. “It was just after the premiere so I was just realizing what stuff was like,” he said, “but it’s been great, it’s just grown and grown … since Christmas we decided to come to America, and this is what’s happened.”

Long has been receiving a lot of attention lately, in part due to the release of his first single, “Left to Lie,” on iTunes. The first day the song was out, it climbed the charts. “It was really cool. It went up to No. 8 on the Folk chart which was really great because it didn’t have any advertising at all, just word of mouth, really. Just being up on that list with all these incredibly famous folk musicians — not like lightly famous — but these incredibly famous folk musicians and having my name there as well was just really, really good feeling. Really unbelievable though, as well.”

With all this great publicity, Bobby was still surprised to find that he’s already being recognized.

“One girl called my name out in the street — that was weird, and it scared the hell out of me. She just yelled ‘Bobby!’” 

Long’s first gig in the U.S. was in a charmingly shady dive of a bar in Alphabet City, Manhattan. With a maximum capacity of about 150 people, the venue filled up pretty quickly and had to eventually turn some away. Once Long arrived, the room was lined with women (and a few men). Some pushed up against the windowed wall, some crammed almost up to the low stage, face-to-face with Long, himself.

“It was a little bit overwhelming,” he said of the crowd, “but it’s just nice. People coming to my shows.”

His set included most of his MySpace songs, as well as his single “Left to Lie.” He also introduced a few new songs such as “Who Have You Been Loving,” which will appear on the demo CD and “Two Years Old,” which Long said he hopes to release as his next single on iTunes.

“I like that one a lot. It’s kind of annoying. I wish it was on the CD, but I wrote it literally last week and on the plane over here I was learning the lyrics.”

Long also played two shows at Arlene’s Grocery, a great venue, which was larger and still packed. When asked if he would play even bigger venues still on his tour this summer, he said, “to be honest, as long as people show up, I don’t think it matters where you play.”

And it seems that wherever Bobby Long plays, people are going to show up.

While in the states, the Brit has been in “endless meetings,” with magazines and music labels.

“To be honest at the moment I think the ball is in my court,” Long revealed when asked whether or not he thought he would be signed by the summer, “and there’s no need for me to rush into anything. If I find the right person then I’ll sign tomorrow.”

For now, he just plans on finishing up this mini-tour of the states, continuing to go solo (although he has played a few gigs with a pianist called Alex Starling back in London), and embarking on his full blown tour of the U.S. this summer.

He’ll meet up for a few gigs with Sam Bradley and Marcus Foster over the course of the tour. “At the same time I think we want to keep our stuff quite separate.”

To hear Bobby’s music or find out about tour dates, check http://www.myspace.com/musicbobbylong and check out his single “Left to Lie” on iTunes.

But an entire camp session devoted to teaching kids how to form digital bands and use their interactive games and teaching them skills for their video-game experience? Crazy. Well, maybe not so much.

Power Chord Academy is a young musician’s camp based out of Los Angeles that specializes in teaching teens the keys to a successful band, performance, music video, and more. Programs range from about $300 to over $1000, and last anywhere from one to seven days.

Power Chord Academy admissions director Dave Wood said the camp gets all sorts of teen musicians coming from all different musical backgrounds, each with different levels of experience. “The one common thread is that they’re all committed to learning, and to collaborating with other musicians.”

While the program is based in Los Angeles, there are programs all over the country, including one just outside of Boston at Stonehill College, said Wood. With the popularity of young musician bands, like the Jonas Brothers in Camp Rock, the interest in attending rock camps has grown.

“[It] is an excellent spot.  The facilities there are perfect for us, and it is a beautiful, peaceful environment – extremely conducive to inspiring great music!”

The program started about 10 years ago, Wood said, out of “the product of the need for solid modern music instruction for teens.”

However, this year the camp has added four new programs in addition to the original seven-day program. Each of the programs minus the one-day program includes play in a band, play concerts, and a mystery performance from a signed touring band/artist. Past mystery guests have included Rise Against, Yellowcard, Andrew W.K., Devo, All-American Rejects and more.

The one and three-day programs influenced by music-gaming programs have students playing songs on either Guitar Hero or Rock Band, recording sessions and Battle of the Bands.

But in seeing that the economic climate has affected application rates, Wood explained the camp’s introducti of  one-day and three-day programs, “to make the programs accessible for many more musicians,” he said.

“Never before has a program been offered so critically vital to the inherent success of developing musicians,” said Woods.

So if you’re looking for a cool new place to send your sibling, cousin or child this summer, start cheking Power Chord Academy.

I have never been a huge rap fan, but anything mixed with video game soundtracks, namely The Legend of Zelda, of which I am a dedicated follower, is sure to find its way onto my iPod.

The aptly named Ocarina of Rhyme features ten tracks that dub vocals over classic Zelda tunes.

The mash-ups include Common and Hyrule Market, Jay-Z and meeting the Owl, Clipse and the Lost Woods, and my personal favorite, Slim Thug and Mike Jones and Great Fairy’s Fountain, and many others.

A project like this has the possibility to fail so, so hard, but instead the execution is great, allowing your inner nerd to shine alongside famous rap artists.

Download the 10 tracks over at the Ocarina of Rhyme website free of charge.

“I understand why people make fun of it,” said Mickey Rapkin, author of the book “Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory,” in a recent interview. “It’s a group of guys sitting around singing Justin Timberlake songs without instruments. But there’s revenge. They’re laughing too, but they’re laughing all the way to the bank.”

Boston is home to several college and semiprofessional groups, including Overboard, which consists of eight men living out the dream of rock stars, complete with gigs, fans and recording albums, when they’re not at their full-time jobs.

But don’t compare this contemporary a cappella group and others like it to those glee clubs your grandparents knew, with four people standing around a microphone singing barbershop tunes, or the Tone Rangers full of sexually ambiguous men.

The men of Overboard, who range in age from 23 to 31 and balance their regular lives with their singing commitments, take the hits of artists like John Mayer, All American Rejects, Rob Thomas and Fall Out Boy and recreate the original songs’ rhythm and feel using just the sound of their voices.

“The thing I really like about a cappella is that you don’t need any equipment to do it,” said 29-year-old Nick Girard, who founded Overboard in the summer of 2006. “I don’t like to use the word organic, but it’s really such an easy, spontaneous thing to do.”

Arranging a cappella, however, is no longer as simple as gathering individuals to sing a song. Not all songs are compatible with the style of a cappella, and writing the score or rote memorizing the compilation can take days for some groups.

Girard said a song with a strong chord-based foundation lends itself to a cappella better than a song with the guitar and bass playing repetitive and similar notes.

When he arranges a song for a cappella, Girard said, he generally starts by concentrating on the bass and then bringing in the sounds of the other instruments, like the guitar or piano.

“You have to figure how many people are in your group and how many notes you need to represent to make your song sound like the real thing,” he said.

The common sounds used in a cappella to mimic the rhythms of background music include “ooh”s for softer sounds, and “ah”s “dum”s, “do”s and “jen”s for hard sounds.

But why bother making the human voice sound like an instrument when computer technology can manipulate sounds and certain instruments can modernize even the most classic works of music? Is a cappella even relevant today?

“The point is to entertain other people and to entertain yourself,” Rapkin said. “Why would technology keep people from singing together? You don’t need to set up; you just need your friends.”

Old school a cappella was primarily based on barbershop quartets singing jazz, but in the 1990s, the all-male group Rockapella seemed to reinvent the art form, channeling the theme that all sounds would be provided by the members’ “voices and appendages.”

Today’s groups incorporate contemporary music into their repertoires and make each performance “an exercise in how…close the human voice can come to real instrumental music,” Gerard said.

“It definitely has a certain charm to it, and it’s always well-received no matter who we sing to,” he added. “Turning popular music and being able to perform it the way we do is an interesting novelty that a lot of people haven’t seen. And there is a lot of money to be had. It’s family friendly and extremely portable.”

From EA:

ZUBO

This music-based rhythm-action adventure is an original intellectual property created for 7-11 year old boys and girls. In Zubo, players enter the world of Zubalon to help the colorful and zany characters, the Zubos, defeat an evil force which is bent on world domination. Players can befriend the Zubos they meet along the way, feed and nurture them, help them gain skills and strength, and assist them in their battles with the enemy, the dastardly Zombos. Available exclusively for the Nintendo DS handheld system in March.

Rated: E for Everyone
Release: March
Category: Comedy Action Adventure
Ages: Boys and Girls 7-11
Price: TBD

To coincide with the 10th aniversary of the Acid software family, which Blast loves, Sony is giving away downloads of ACID Xpress 7 for free and adding the following features to the software:

Multiple events per track
Users can now add as many loops or one-shots as desired to a track, so more complex musical compositions can be created. Automatic crossfades between events will allow users to seamlessly tie together different loops and songs.

Video scoring track
Users can quickly create soundtracks for videos by frame-accurately synchronizing music alongside the video track in ACID Xpress 7 software.

Inline MIDI editing
Increase music productivity and flexibility with easy-to-see inline event editing. Inline editing makes MIDI data easier to edit and provides quicker access to MIDI events.

Show Me How interactive tutorials
Sony’s exclusive “Show Me How” tutorials guide users through the entire creative process. Whenever help is needed, just click the “Show Me How” button and choose the tutorial topic.

ACIDplanet.com news and profile access
With ACID Xpress 7 software, users can keep up to date on ACIDplanet.com news, access their profile, and get free music loop content on ACIDplanet.com with the click of a button.

The music coming out of your iPod doesn’t sound as good as it would coming from a CD. Period.

That doesn’t mean you have to spend $1,000 to squeeze the best possible audio out of your songs, does it?

Hence, we learn the plight of the audiophile. How good can music sound? How high can the quality get? How much should you spend?

The Marantz SA8003 was a treat. It puts out clear, rich bass notes, great midrange sound, and surprisingly clean treble with just a hint of imperfection at the highest tones. But we asked the company why anyone should pay $1,000 or more (the SA8003 is one of their midprice models) for a CD player.

After all, it’s a laser hitting a disc. What makes their lasers any better than Sony’s or even Coby for the matter.

Here’s the complete, unedited response from Kevin Zarow, vice president of marketing for Marantz — you decide:

“There is a noticeable difference between a $200 CD player and an “audiophile quality” $1,000 Super Audio CD (SACD) player like the Marantz SA8003 – and it’s something that even casual listeners will be able to hear immediately. The much higher fidelity SACD player actually enables you to hear subtle things in your favorite music that you’ve probably never heard before, like more realistic vocals, deeper, richer bass notes, as well as a wider, more three dimensional sound stage. Beyond that, the build quality between players is significant. A player such as the Marantz will weigh a lot more, due to a more robust chassis, designed to reduce vibration which by the way, improves sound. The power supplies, DACs and CD drive mechanism will all be much higher grade and great attention will be paid to the signal path to insure that you hear the music in its purest form and not the electronics.”

The SA8003 also has a USB port if you really get lonely for MP3s and music files. The optical output also

Pros: The SA8003 is an audiophile-quality CD player with crisp, clear sound, and rich bass. It also has a USB port for playing MP3s.

Cons: You really have to want it to spend $1,000 on a CD player, since your DVD player, video game console, and computer can all play CDs.

The final word: Speaking strictly from a quality perspective, the SA8003 is great. Remember though, this is just a CD player and it’s only going to sound as good as the speakers and amplifier you already have.

Don’t miss John Guilfoil’s “Five ways to listen to music without an iPod” story, in The Boston Globe.

The Logitech Squeezebox really tickled our fancy. This product will forever change the way we listen to music. We like it, in part, because the Internet provides tons of free choices from radio stations all over the world.

It would be fair to go into the ring not expecting much of a fight out of the plucky $300 Logitech — it’s based on fairly lossy streaming Internet audio after all and built on good if not basically mediocre drivers. But no. It sounds good. Not audiophile, but you’re not paying for audiophile either, are you?

One of the funnest things about the Logitech Squeezebox Boom is listening to Radio One London from an apartment in Boston.

That’s why Blast loves the Squeezebox: expanded horizons.

One of the funnest things about the Logitech Squeezebox Boom is listening to Radio One London from an apartment in Boston.

Tuning via a knob is much easier than tediously and repeatedly pressing buttons over and over, so that’s a big plus as well.

Download an audio design white paper on the Squeezebox Boom.

Pros: Internet radio provides a number of free choices from radio stations all over the world, giving you not only a wide range of music, but a little culture. A ton of the content is free, and you can also stream your existing music collection from your computer to the Squeezebox. It plugs into your network or downloads via Wi-Fi.

Cons: You have to download special software to send your MP3s and music files to the device. It doesn’t automatically find them on your network.

The final word: This is really more of a lifestyle choice than an impulse buy, meaning it will change your music listening life. We loved it.

Don’t miss John Guilfoil’s “Five ways to listen to music without an iPod” story, in The Boston Globe.

According to executive typist Derrik Abertelli, the group’s endeavors are “partly musical and partly theatrical”. Influenced by artists such as Brian Eno and 1980s German industrial percussionists Einstürzende Neubauten, BTO has taken the idea of unique percussion and turned it into a full-blown orchestra of typewriters and other office instruments like telephones.

The orchestra itself was a product of a witty quip, members say. In October 2004, founder Tim Devin’s girlfriend presented him with a children’s typewriter one night at a bar. With delight, he began typing along to the rhythm of the music being played. When the annoyed waitress demanded he stop, his joking response was, “It’s okay, ma’am; I’m the conductor for the Boston Typewriter Orchestra.”

Inspired by this retort, he later gathered a group to create their own music on typewriters, playing at small house parties. Thanks to the Somerville Art Beat festival in 2006 and coverage in the Boston Globe, the BTO’s scope of performances has expanded.

Not only does the seven-person group continue to play in small art galleries, they have also opened for Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls and appeared on the Today show, Fox & Friends, and other local media. On average, they appear every other month in various locales to positive audience turnout, according to member Jay O’Grady.

“I continued to be pleasantly surprised by the audience feedback,” he said, citing a recent outdoor show at Art Beat in Davis square that drew more than 400 people.

The two- or three- hour-long weekly practices allow members to create new songs or adapt previously written ones. All of the members have their own typewriters, thanks to audience donations and thrift store purchases.

“We like to exploit as many unique sounds as possible,” Abertelli added. “When new material is introduced we each try to develop and add to it in our own ways. It’s a pretty democratic process.”

Rehearsals certainly pay off. BTO’s appeal covers a broad spectrum of age and personality. “Older fans regard us nostalgically while younger fans appreciate the oddity,” Abertelli said.

O’Grady points out that the group seems to appeal to, “librarians, luddites, and literati” alike. ”People appreciate the audacity in what we do,” he said. “It’s not just some guy with a laptop.”

The unusual nature of BTO’s performance often yields interesting responses. Despite occasional problems, such as sound troubles in larger venues, mechanical problems with the instruments, or the anguish of lugging heavy typewriters long distances, “nothing beats” performing for an enthusiastic crowd, according to Abertelli.

“During times of self-doubt … I’ll say to myself, ‘What am I doing? This is so silly!’,” he said. “But when I find out that people are really into it, I’m more excited about the project.”

BTO will be performing at Whitehaus on January 10. The show is free  but donations are always accepted, and most of their CD recordings are available at the live venue or online.

cause Im baaaaaaaaaack
Yes, Im baaaaaaaaaaack
Well, Im back
Yes, Im back
Well, Im back, back
(well) Im back in black
Yes, Im back in black

Hell yes. Even though it’s been relegated to Walmart and online retailers, the AC/DC Live Track Pack for Rock Band is just awesome.

You don’t need the original Rock Band disc for any of the PlayStation 2/3 or Xbox 360 versions of this standalone title, which lets you relive the 1991 live performance at Donington with Brian Johnson, Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Cliff Williams, and Chris Slade.

The pack includes 99 minutes of music and 18 songs including “Thunderstruck,” “Jailbreak,” “Dirty Deeds,” “Hells Bells,” “You Shook Me All Night Long,” “Highway to Hell,” “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)” and, of course, “Back in Black.”

We like that this is a standalone game that you can jump into right away.

Not much else to say. You have Rock Band. You need this.

CMJ Week, in and of itself, is evidence of the fact that thousands of people are still passionate about hearing, promoting, and playing music. There’s often a resistance to bring political implications to the forefront of discussions about music, but at the end of the day, it’s legislation that shapes the music industry as we know it today.

Last week, President Bush approved legislation creating a cabinet-level position of copyright czar that will work similarly to the drug czar, increasing penalties for the infringement of copyright law and providing additional resources to prosecute piracy.

The legislation is just the latest attempt to “stop the bleeding” of the failing music industry, said panelist Gary Adelman, an attorney who represents both artists and record labels.

There is also legislation in the works to require AM/FM radio to pay artists royalties when their songs are played, in an attempt to “level the playing field” between other outlets such as satellite radio, television and film, all of which do pay royalties, and traditional radio, the only medium that does not.

“Arts are an important part of our economy,” Adelman said, citing the current free-fall that has led to thousands of lost jobs in the music business and diminished returns in the past few years.

It goes without saying our next president will undoubtedly face more pressing issues than the copyright concerns of musicians and record companies (”I don’t think this will be at the top of anyone’s agenda come Inauguration Day,” deadpanned panelist Daryl Friedman, VP of advocacy and government regulations for the National Association of Recording Arts & Sciences).

But, even in their campaigns, both candidates have already had to deal with copyright and fair use issues. John McCain, in particular, has faced criticisms and even lawsuits from artists like Heart, Bon Jovi and the Foo Fighters for using their songs in ads and at political rallies.

Democratic candidate Barack Obama’s position on copyright and technology issues has been vague, although one of his advisers is Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig, who has denounced the music industry’s attempts to sue individuals who download illegally. Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden, is strongly against piracy, as the co-chair of the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus. GOP nominee John McCain has a record of championing media consolidation and consolidated playlists for mainstream radio, while Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin has not taken an official position on the issue.

However, Friedman pointed out, Obama is the only candidate who is actually a creator of intellectual property, having authored two books.

Panelist Charles Sanders, who provides counsel for the Songwriters Guild of America, criticized Lessig for ignoring the nuances of the copyright argument.

“Lessig has gone a very long distance to convince people that there is an irreconcilable difference with those who support freedom of speech and freedom of information and those who support copyright,” he said. “It’s not true. Copyright law and free speech … are not at war with one another.”

According to NBC-Universal, 70 percent of Internet bandwidth is consumed by only 5 percent of all users. And 90 percent of that is used for peer-to-peer illegal file sharing. But introducing sweeping legislation to combat this problem could limit the debate of how to handle piracy, Sanders cautioned.

“This threatens to ruin the Internet experience for everyone,” he said.

The current situation we’re in is in no small part the fault of the music industry itself, panelists agreed, which showed an astonishing lack of foresight in its resistance to digital downloads during the 1990s.

“It’s not only illegal file-sharing,” Adelman said. “It’s how the industry has reacted to illegal file-sharing, which is almost as bad as the illegal file-sharing itself. If, instead of fighting it, the major labels had embraced [digital downloads], we’d be much farther ahead now. … Spending all that time, effort and money to try to fight that tidal wave … it’s useless.”

Fifteen years since the advent of Napster, there’s now a moral ambiguity surrounding illegal downloads, and a belief among a substantial portion of society that there is a fundamental difference between physical and intellectual property, Sanders said.

“In the mid-’90s,” Gandel added, “everyone felt that people would come to the realization that, at the end of the day, stealing is stealing. I think that was one of the big miscalculations.”

There is inherent value in copyright, the panelists agreed. At the most basic level, it provides an economic incentive for the creation of art, Gandel noted.

“Art is what moves our society forward,” he said. “We’d all like to believe that people do art for the love of it,” he said. “But everyone still has bills to pay.”

In her first stage appearance since announcing her divorce to husband Guy Ritchie, Madonna kept it light making only one fleeting reference to “emotionally retarded” people before singing “Miles Away” off of her 11th and latest album. She addressed the audience asking “Maybe you know some of those people. I know I do.”

She is the ultimate survivor and evolutionary pop icon, as proven by her complete commitment to putting on an energetic performance for her sold-out show. After such emotional and personally turmoil she still put on one hell of a show boasting colorful costumes, some of the best dancers in the business and digitally-recorded video duets with Kanye West, Timbaland and Justin Timberlake along with Miss Controversy herself, Britney Spears.

Her “duet” with Spears to “Human Nature” was a fresh take on a song that caused a stir during the 90s when the S & M themed-video first appeared. “La Isla Bonita” and “Get Into the Groove” were crowd-pleasers, for those who actually remembered her earlier songs and didn’t mouth incorrect lyrics. As for “Borderline” her very first single, the audience loved it.

Choice tracks from the new album that translated well to dance-filled stage numbers include “Heartbeat” and “Give it to Me.” A hands down personal favorite had to be “She’s Not Me,” an ode to Madonna’s undying fame and an overall pick-me-up for any woman. Because anyone can relate to the feeling of a significant other being “stolen” by another, and the imminent instinct that no one will ever provide the same things as you can in a relationship.

Oh well.

As for agenda-pushing, the Material Girl made it abundantly clear that she wanted everyone to vote … for Obama. Her political commentary and video imagery were liberally filled with material for the Left. And while audible sounds of “Just get back to the music” could be heard uttered by disgruntled republicans, the majority of the audience was in a united uproar to unite for her, and Obama’s campaign. Madonna relayed to the audience that she was told to “not mention Sarah Palin, speaking of ridiculous things,” and that was all she said on the matter.

50-year-old Madonna bumped and grinded all over that stage, even showcasing a soft-core number on the floor as she had her feet tied with rope as she gyrated and pulsated on all fours. If anything can be said for her, it is that her dancing is still flawless and effortless and her body is in amazing condition. More muscular than Michael Phelps, Madonna seemed to feed off of the energy of knowing that she represents decades of reinvention and that she herself will never be replaced in the public eye, no matter what Ms. Spears does.

The overall favorites had to have been “Hung Up” from the Confessions on a Dance Floor album along with “Like a Prayer.” The latter was performed to a background of Hebrew, Arabic and other foreign language texts and religious quotes from texts ranging like the Torah, the Bible, the Koran and Buddhist teachings. What would a Madonna concert be without a lesson in theology?

I’ll just have to say it again, she’s still got it. She never faltered and she never showed less than complete enthusiasm and dedication to her career and her fans. And despite her personal issues and sticky situation, she remembered the one thing that has kept her career afloat.

The show must go on.

Michael Dunlap is no stranger to the life of a starving artist.

Four years ago, the 24-year-old one man band who goes by the stage name Totally Michael was driving himself to shows in a 1984 Honda Accord — a “hybrid” in the literal sense, which his stepfather had welded together from two separate vehicles, one blue and one brown. (“When you were inside the car, you could look down and see the ground,” he said. “It was pretty awesome.”)

To make rent, he donated plasma twice a week and participated in clinical trials.

“Once I just had to drink this crappy, chalky liquid, that made me puke,” Dunlap said. “But I got like $1,200. I think it was worth it.”

“I’ve kind of been a bum,” he readily admitted. “I’ve only had one real job in my life, and it was telemarketing, which was pretty horrible.”

Luckily for Dunlap, his musical career appears to be taking hold. His synth-heavy debut album of infectious pop-punk, “Totally Michael,” will be released on October 14. He’s upgraded to a Nissan Sentra (the Accord was totaled in an accident in Phoenix, where he was performing) and is touring across North America this fall, opening for MC Chris.

Growing up in the small town of Cabot, Arkansas (pop. 21,000) as the youngest of eight children, Dunlap spent his youth skateboarding and going to see local bands with friends (“They were pretty crappy bands, but it was awesome to us,” he recalls), before picking up a guitar himself and playing in local punk groups.

A quasi-quarterlife crisis prompted Dunlap, at the age of 20, to pick up and move to Bloomington, Indiana after he attended a three-day music festival there.

“I had lived with my mom for 20 years and I was just like, ‘I gotta get the fuck outta here. … I should probably stop mooching,’” he said. “(Bloomington) was pretty much the only place I had ever seen besides Arkansas, so I was like, yeah, I’ll move here.”

He began making music on his own with computer recording software and reveled in his newfound musical autonomy.

“(In previous bands) there were always creative differences, and not everybody would agree on certain parts in songs,” he says. “What I liked about doing it by myself is that all of the creativity is on my part. … I never have anybody telling me they didn’t like what I was coming up with, or telling me to change something. That’s probably the best part of it so far.”

For now, Dunlap’s stage shows involve just him, a guitar and an iPod (“I used to bring up my laptop, and then realized people throw beer a lot, and it wasn’t the best decision,” he explained). Crowd participation also plays a role, with Dunlap often fostering a pep rally vibe by dividing his audience into two sides for the competitive ode “Cheerleader vs. Drillteam.”

“I’ve thought about getting other musicians … to make me seem less like a dumbass,” he said. “But at this point I’d probably go broke real quick.”

He cites fellow laptop guru Girl Talk as an influence, as well as Dan Deacon, Japanther and Matt & Kim, and said he tries to model the at times irreverent tone of his songs after Blink-182.

“I think they were fuckin’ amazing,” Dunlap said. “They could write pop songs that were slightly humorous and they did it really well.”

With a nasally delivery reminiscent of Offspring’s Dexter Holland and melodies similar to the likes of Bowling for Soup, Dunlap manages to get away with singing about high school gossip fodder, despite being in his mid-20s, on songs like “Prom Night” and “Cheerleaders vs. Drillteam.” His channeling of a nervous, disaster-prone date on the former is nothing short of endearing. “I’ve got my baby blue tuxedo but my tie has vanished from the scene / I guarantee this won’t be the last headache I face tonight,” he laments.

“I never did any writing at all, and I definitely think that kind of shows,” Dunlap says. “I don’t want to take myself too seriously. … Lyrics are always the last part of my songs. I hate them. I just want to write melodies.”

It’s true that the strength of Dunlap’s songs lies in their hooks. But while the songwriter may downplay his poetic abilities, his lyrics are, at their least impressive, typical of similar pop-punk bands (“I’m the number one topic in her diary / When you look away she’ll be all over me”), and at their most, laugh-out-loud zingers. Take this gem of a refrain from the gleeful ‘80s throwback “Winona,” his love letter to the actress 12 years his senior: “I’m not a high-class retail outlet / But I’d love for you to steal my heart.”

Lyrically speaking, the only excessively sophomoric track is the still-catchy “Casual Satisfaction,” which describes the physical effects of attraction with lyrics too graphic for me to feel comfortable typing out.

Taken at face value, “Totally Michael” is a fun collection of accessible singalongs. It’s made all the more impressive by the fact that Dunlap’s is the sole guiding hand behind every facet of each track.

“When it first started, it was all for fun,” he said. “I had no idea I would even make any money at all doing it. Even now, if I wasn’t making any money at all, I wouldn’t stop. I love touring and making music.”

But as it turns out, things may be looking up. Dunlap has been counting small victories over the past few months — starting with his transportation.

“I can tour in my car and get, like, 30 miles per gallon,” he said brightly. “And it has A/C. It’s the only car I’ve ever had that has A/C.”

Totally Michael tour dates:

Oct 3      Bloomington, Indiana            Uncle Fester’s
Oct 8      Belleville, Illinois                   TBA
Oct 9      Lawrence, Kansas                   TBA
Oct 10    Denver, Colorado                   TBA
Oct 11    Salt Lake City, Utah                TBA
Oct 12    Missoula, Montana                 TBA
Oct 13    Spokane, Washington             Women’s Club
Oct 14    Seattle, Washington                Chop Suey*
Oct 15    Eugene, Oregon                      WOW Hall*
Oct 16    Arcata, California                    Humboldt Brews*
Oct 18    Santa Cruz, California             The Catalyst Atrium*
Oct 19    San Luis Obispo, California     Downtown Brew*
Oct 20    Los Angeles, California           Roxy Theatre*
Oct 21    Anaheim, California                Chain Reaction*
Oct 22    Tempe, Arizona                       The Clubhouse*
Oct 23    New York, New York                NYU CMJ Showcase
Oct 25    Brooklyn, New York                 Music Hall of Williamsburg
Oct 26    Fort Worth, Texas                    The Aardvark*
Oct 27    Austin, Texas                          Red 7*
Oct 28    Baton Rouge, Louisiana           Spanish Moon*
Oct 29    New Orleans, Louisiana          The Parish @ House of Blues*
Oct 30    Birmingham, Alabama             Zydeco*
Nov 3     Atlanta, Georgia                      The Masquerade*
Nov 4     Tampa, Florida                        Orpheum*
Nov 5     Orlando, Florida                      The Social*
Nov 7     Jacksonville, Florida                Jack Rabbits*
Nov 8     Charleston, South Carolina      The Music Farm*
Nov 10   Wilmington, North Carolina     The Soapbox Laundrolounge*
Nov 12   Nashville, Tennessee               Exit/In*
Nov 13   Louisville, Kentucky                 Headliner’s Music Hall*
Nov 14   Bloomington, Indiana               Rhino’s*
Nov 15   Cleveland, Ohio                        Peabody’s DownUnder*
Nov 16   Chicago, Illinois                       The Abbey*
Nov 18   Ann Arbor, Michigan                Blind Pig*
Nov 19   Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania          Club Cafe*
Nov 20   Philadelphia, Pennsylvania       First Unitarian Church*
Nov 21   Baltimore, Maryland                 The Ottobar*
Nov 22   Northampton, Massachusetts  Pearl Street (downstairs)*
Nov 23   Allston, Massachusetts            Harper’s Ferry
Nov 26   New York, New York                 The Knitting Factory*

*opening for MC Chris