Kurt Cobain: Rewind To Fame, Family & Death

Don't ask me what came over me but I wanted to do this "rewind" on Kurt Cobain and Nirvana. Here are some YouTube videos on Kurt:

Kurt on fame and press distortions:



Kurt gets his butt kicked by a bouncer (around 2:15):



Dave Grohl's first show (1990):



Kurt, Courtney, Francis Bean family pictures w/Foo Fighters Miracle playing:



NBC coverage of Kurt's death:




Words to Kurt's suicide note:




My favorite Nirvana song called Dumb (...I'm not like them but I can pretend...):



Leave some comments. Tell me if this was cool, dumb (no pun intended) or just plain random.

Bands Need Twitter And Here Is Why

There seems to be a lot of debate on just how effective Twitter marketing compares to MySpace and Facebook for bands and businesses in general. Drum roll please....I have some results.

According to this recent article, businesses are now including their Twitter accounts in their email marketing more than Facebook. In January 2009, Facebook held over a 2-to-1 margin on Twitter. What does this mean? Businesses feel that Twitter is more effective in, not only getting their message out to their customers, but to connect with their customers.

Here is a real-life example of Twitter's effectiveness:

This very website, Bandology.net, started a mere 19 days ago. At the top of this blog post is an actual Google Analytics page for the top ten sites referring visitors to Bandology.net (click on it). As you can see, Twitter has brought more visitors to Bandology.net than any other site by a wide margin. Out of the 3,865 visitors to the site, 2,820 were referred from other sites. Out of those 2,820, 57% (1,609 visits) were from Twitter. MySpace and Facebook (combined) account for 15% of the referred visitors to this site. As you can see, Twitter is far more effective with Bandology.net marketing than any other site (at least in the first 19 days).

This matches the trend of businesses using their Twitter accounts more in email marketing over Facebook or any other social network. Twitter seems to be more effective for businesses as well.

Bands, this means you better have a Twitter account and you need to use it effectively (future blog post about this topic). Twitter is great at getting the latest news out but it's also a great way to connect to fans on a personal level.

5 Band MySpace Tips To Make More From iTunes

***This article is geared towards bands but any label or blogger can use these same steps to make extra money selling music.***

Would you like to make more money promoting your music with the iTunes logo on your MySpace? Or how about any site? How about making money promoting ANYTHING on iTunes? Want to know how? Read below!

If you're unfamiliar with affiliate marketing, that's ok. You can read up on it on Wikipedia or just keep reading. Basically, affiliate marketing means companies pay you a commission for promoting their products and/or websites. iTunes is one such company. You become an "affiliate" by "working" for the company as a middle man. As you refer people to iTunes (through clicks on your MySpace), a code is embedded on your site so iTunes knows that person came from your MySpace. In turn, they pay you 5% for anything that person buys for 120 days. You heard that right...for 120 days or 3 months.

What?? How do you sign up?? Easy!

1. Register - You have to register with an affiliate company called Linkshare. Linkshare is the ONLY company that works with iTunes affiliates. Make sure you list all sites that you want to promote the iTunes logo and/or links to your music (Myspace, Purevolume, personal sites, blogs, etc.). There is a lot of information to fill out with Linkshare including tax information. But you do want to make extra money, right?

2. Apply - Once your Linkshare account is set up, click on "programs." Then, in the upper right corner, you see the box that says "advertiser search." Type in "itunes." The iTunes affiliate box will appear. There will be a click box for "apply." Click on it and you have just applied to be an iTunes affiliate. Almost all music-related sites will get approved within 3 days (most will in the same day). Once you get your approval email from iTunes, you are ready to make some money with your band, label or blog!

3. Get Code - Once you're approved, click on "programs" then "my advertisers." There, you will see the iTunes program. Click on "view links" and there will be instructions on how to embed your iTunes logo and links with your affiliate code. That means anytime anyone clicks on your iTune links to buy your music, you will get 5% back from every purchase. But that includes purchases from any band, not just yours! The code is good for 120 days (3 months). Yes, you heard that right.

Remember, the most you can ever get back from your iTune sales as a band is 70% because iTunes takes 30% per sale. By being an iTunes affiliate, your fans purchases gets you back 75% per sale (add the extra 5% by being an affiliate).

4. Get Your iTunes Album URL - You can simply promote the iTunes logo/links on your sites and get credit for any sale. But if you want the clicks to go directly to your bands iTunes store, make sure you include your iTunes URL in the embedded code. To obtain your iTunes store URL, simply call up your album in the iTunes store. Right click on the picture of your album and copy your album URL. That URL will take people directly to your album on iTunes. Use that URL to embed with the affiliate code. Sound confusing? Anyone with programming/coding experience can easily help you.

5. Promote - Take your coded iTunes logos/links and put them on every social network that promotes your music (MySpace, Purevolume, etc.). You can also use the code in your Twitter posts! Use your embedded codes in your email blasts, newsletters, blogs and the list goes on. Remember, you get 5% on ANY purchase even if it's not your band's music.

***Bonus - There are a lot of music companies that Linkshare works with so if your merchandise, ringtones, mp3s etc. are on other sites that they work with, you will make commission promoting those companies on your band's sites.***

Silversun Pickups On Letterman

My love for the Silversun Pickups is definitely not going unnoticed on this blog. Their song Panic Switch has been in my Top 5 Weekly Songs back-to-back and their album Swoon (Dangerbird Records -album of the year?) is played non-stop in my car and office. Swoon has sold 138,000 copies off the first single.

Here is their recent performance on Letterman. Catch the drummer's amazingly high cymbal and Letterman's confusion at the end. Great performance!



Buy Panic Switch or Swoon here ----->

Billboards Top 200 Albums - July 29, 2009

Here are some select albums from this week's Billboard Top 200 charts plus the top debut albums:

Demi Lovato Here We Go Again 108,000 (108,000)

Kings Of Leon Only By The Night 39,000 (998,000)

Rob Thomas Cradlesong 20,000 (207,000)

Green Day 21st Century Breakdown 18,500 (705,000)

All Time Low Nothing Personal 13,500 (95,500)

Warped Tour Compilation 2009 10,000 (53,000)

Killswitch Engage Killswitch Engage 9,500 (100,000)

August Burns Red Constellations 8,500 (29,000)

Hollywood Undead Swan Songs 8,500 (472,000)

Owl City Ocean Eyes 8,500 (26,000)

3OH!3 Want 8,000 (298,000)

Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus 7,000 (87,000)

Cage The Elephant Cage The Elephant 6,500 (76,000)

Silversun Pickups Swoon 6,500 (138,000)

Job For A Cowboy Ruination 5,000 (21,000)

All-American Rejects When The World Comes Down 3,500 (451,000)

The Devil Wears Prada With Roots Above... 3,000 (76,000)

Marilyn Manson High End Of Low 3,000 (100,000)

All That Remains Overcome 3,000 (184,000)

Parachute Losing Sleep 3,000 (42,000)

Top Debuts

Our Lady Peace Burn Burn 10,500

Set Your Goals This Will Be The Death Of Us 7,000

Sugar Ray Music For Cougars 5,500

Portugal The Man Satanic Satanist 5,500

Four Year Strong Explains It All 4,100

He Is Legend It Hates You 3,800

The Word Alive Empire 1,900

For The Fallen Dreams Relentless 1,200

Memphis May Fire Sleepwalking 800

More Artists

Hey Monday Hold On Tight 1,500 (56,500)

Mandy K Mandy K 950 (3,100)

Dance Gavin Dance Happiness 900 (9,200)

The Scenic Find Yourself Here 900 (5,200)

Barcelona Absolutes 900 (4,800)

Barely Blind My Life With A Giant 850 (2,800)

The White Tie Affair Walk This Way 750 (66,500)

There For Tomorrow Little Faster 700 (8,500)

The Cab Whisper War 700 (63,500)

This Providence Who Are You Now? 650 (11,500)

Versaemerge Versaemerge 650 (9,000)

The Friday Night Boys Off The Deep End 600 (9,000)

Eyes Set To Kill World Outside 600 (8,200)

Sing It Loud Come Around 575 (15,000)

Innerpartysystem IPS 550 (30,000)

Any surprises?

Jonas Sees In Color - Why You Should Care

Jonas Sees In Color hails from North Carolina but why should you care? They just signed to Glassnote Records. Still don't care? You should. Daniel Glass runs the label.

I'm a big fan of Daniel Glass and what he has done for this music industry in the last 20+ years. Glass started Glassnote Records waaaaaay back in 2007. In just 2 short years, he has brought the world the music of Secondhand Serenade. Secondhand has sold over 2 million singles and 400,000 albums worldwide since signing to Glassnote.

Daniel Glass found another gem that is now on everyone's "buzz meter." Ever heard of that French band Phoenix? Their album has sold over 80,000 copies in the last 10 weeks. Their song Lisztomania is one of my Top 5 Songs of the Week. They are also on Glassnote Records.

Daniel Glass has had his hand in the careers of artists like Billy Idol, Sinead O'Connor, Blur, Reel Big Fish, Erykah Badu, Huey Lewis & The News, Pat Benetar, Vanilla Ice and many more. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Glass in his office in 2008. I learned more in that hour than I did that whole year. He is big on songwriting and doesn't care about numbers, sales or where the artist is from. A sales history can be built but songwriting can't be taught.

Daniel Glass says that A and A- songs don't sell. Only A+ songs sell. Using a co-writer to turn your A- song to an A+ isn't always a bad idea. As a matter of fact, it is almost a must.

Daniel Glass also builds artists for the worldwide market, not just here in the U.S. Look at Secondhand's sold out shows across the globe. Glass then takes the chance of signing Phoenix, a band from Paris. And guess what? They are already breaking here in the States (and are booked till late November without a single U.S. date).

The point of this article is tell you that we should always be watching what Daniel Glass is signing. He is the former President of EMI and Universal but he always had an indie mind. Even though he was the head of major labels, he always hired indie-minded people. He builds bands from the ground up. You may not know who Jonas Sees In Color is right now. But chances are they will be a household name within a few years. Be one of the first to follow this band.

Four Year Strong Interview - July 18, 2009

Interview: Four Year Strong
Date: July 18th, 2009
Venue: The Reverb, Toronto, Ontario
Conducted by: Brandon Allin

Brandon Allin, pit reporter for The Daily Chorus, had an opportunity to chat with Boston quintet Four Year Strong before the Toronto stop of the Gig Life tour on July 18th, 2009. The band discussed their new 90s cover record Explains it All, their sudden success, and even joked about their favorite 90s memorabilia. For the full interview, please read on.

I'm sitting here with two of the guys from Boston's finest, Four Year Strong. How are you guys doing today?

AD: I'm doing good. We're happy to be in Toronto.

DO: Good. How are you?

I'm great. We're happy to have you here. For those who read this who may not be familiar with Four Year Strong, why don't you both introduce yourselves?

DO: I'm Dan (O'Connor), and I sing and play guitar.

AD: I'm Alan (Day), and I also sing and play guitar.

You guys have a new record coming out on in just a few days entitled Explains it All, which is comprised entirely of 90s cover songs. Where did the idea for that come from?

DO: Well, we've always been super stoked on songs from the 90s. Alan and I are always playing them, and we're always listening to them in the van and whatnot. But the first time I remember someone pitching the idea of doing a record like this, we were doing a Denny's thing on one of our last tours, and we had an acoustic guitar and we were just playing a ton of random 90s songs. We all thought to ourselves about doing it then, we know how much fun it would be, so it just sort of came together. The idea just got planted in our heads.

It seems like every time I see a post about this record, half of the response is kids boiling over with excitement, and the other half is what seems like endless complaints about not having any new material to listen to. Just to set the record straight, do you have a new record in the works?

DO: Absolutely. We're in the midst of working on a new record, which we're going to go and record when this tour wraps up, but it won't be out until the winter. This 90s cover record is just something we did to give kids more to listen to in between albums. We have tons of stuff written, and we did some demos before this tour.

AD: We're really stoked on what we have so far.

How did you go about selecting which songs would appear on Explains it All?

AD: That was tough. We had a list of literally hundreds of songs. There were actually some songs we didn't plan to do until we got into the studio, like "Fly," "Ironic," and the No Doubt cover. When we got in there, we just realized there were a handful of songs we could do in a really cool way, so we ran with them.

DO: There were a bunch of songs that we planned on doing when we entered the studio, but when we got in there, we knew it wouldn't work. For example, we were going to do Metallica's "King Nothing," but that didn't work out, and we also thought about covering Rage Against the Machine, but we realized we couldn't rap. [Laughs]

[Laughs] Which songs on the record would you say are your favorites?

DO: That's tough. My top three would probably be "Semi-Charmed Life," "Ironic," and "She's So High."

AD: I love "Roll to Me," that's always been one of my favorite songs. "So Much for the Afterglow" came out really cool," and I love "Ironic," as well.

You mentioned there were some songs you toyed around with that didn't make the cut. What were some of those?

DO: Well, the Rage Against the Machine and Metallica songs I mentioned were the two we took into the studio that were actually on the list, but neither of them worked out in the end. We just knew while we were working on them that it wasn't going to happen. But besides those, we had hundreds of songs we contemplated doing.

With the exception of the Reach the Sky cover, the track list is comprised of fairly recognizable songs. What fueled the decision to put "She Really Loved You" on there, amidst all the smash hits from the 90s?

DO: We know it's the one song kids might not know, but we talked about doing songs from the 90s that influenced us, and songs we grew up on. Reach the Sky being a local band, we saw them play countless times, and so we wanted to pay tribute to a band that inspired us.

AD: Exactly. We wanted to a handful of hits that everyone knew and loved, but there was also so much music from the 90s that we all listened to that we could cover, so we wanted to put at least one on there that influenced us from a whole other end of the spectrum. That's where "She Really Loved You" came into play.

I'm just throwing this out there, but I think you folks could have done spectacular renditions of "Inside Out" by Eve 6, and "Everything You Want" by Vertical Horizon.

DO: Believe it or not, we thought about doing both of those. Vertical Horizon are actually from the Worcester area, which is where we're from.

AD: Trust me, we thought about doing every song you could possibly imagine. The list of songs we had made up was insane. We went through it and messed around with all of them. But who knows, maybe we'll do a part two? Probably not, but maybe. [Laughs]

DO: We could call it Explained it All. [Laughs]

[Laughs] I noticed you're giving away 90s-inspired ball-chain necklaces with the pre-orders for this record.

AD: We wanted them to be the really big, tight, choker type ones, but they couldn't fit the little pendants on them.

[Laughs] With that in mind, what are some other things that take you back to the glory days?

DO: Ecto coolers and pogs.

AD: Chain wallets and Skip-It.

DO: Skip-It was more from the 80s.

AD: Was it?

DO: That was another thing. Kids would send us pictures of all kinds of stuff that was definitely from the 80s, like troll dolls and Nintendo and stuff.

AD: Yeah, but a lot of those things were 90s for us I guess, considering we were barely alive in the 80s.

[Laughs] This is all coming off the strength of your sophomore effort, Rise or Die Trying, which more or less exploded onto the scene almost two years ago. Looking back, was that kind of success and recognition something you expected, or did it come as more of a surprise?

DO: Even when the record was finished, and it was just about to come out, we were still hustling CDs every day after shows asking kids if they wanted a copy, and most of them said no. When we did the record, we had signed to I Surrender because we just wanted to be a real band and tour and make music. We had no idea it was going to amount to anything, except for maybe us playing more shows.

AD: We've already been a band for almost nine years now, so when Rise or Die Trying came out, we had already been a band for what felt like forever. We had been touring for years already, so when we put out the album, we didn't expect anything significant to happen, but it went way better than we ever could have imagined.

Earlier this year, you inked a deal with Pete Wentz's imprint label, Decaydence Records. How did that happen?

DO: Just to clear something up, we're still with I Surrender Records as well, we're just a part of both labels now. The reason we signed with I Surrender to begin with was because we were working with Rob (Hitt), who used to play in Midtown, who is just a hardworking dude whose band started out as kids the same way we did. He worked for everything he got, and Pete is the exact same way. He was just a normal kid who started a band, his band got big, built a crazy following, and accomplished all this crazy fucking shit. He does the things he does because he loves them, so the way we saw it is we'd rather have someone who loves our band working for us than some random dude sitting behind a desk.

Did you have a handful of labels trying to scoop you up after the success of Rise or Die Trying?

AD: No, not really. It's all been very low-key.

DO: There wasn't that much interest. We were on I Surrender, and Pete suggested doing something with both labels, so we did.

When your next full-length sees the light of day, what sort of sound can fans expect? Is there anything new you're looking try that you wish you could have done with the first record?

AD: Well, we just want to make sure we mature our sound. We don't want to take any crazy risks or anything. We're not going to release a dance pop record that leaves kids wondering what the fuck just happened, or anything like that.

DO: The new record will still be very much Four Year Strong. We're not going to completely change our sound. You're going to hear what you expect to hear, but it's also going to be different. We're not trying to write Rise or Die Trying part two, we're just trying to write the next chapter for our band.

That's all I've got for you guys today. Is there anything you'd like to add before we go our separate ways?

DO: Come to the shows.

AD: Buy Explains it All when it comes out. Don't download it. [Laughs]

Thanks for your time. Best of luck on the rest of the tour.

DO: No problem. Thanks a lot.

AD: Thank you.

Four Year Strong's new album, Explains it All, is now available in stores via I Surrender Records.

For more information on Four Year Strong, please visit MYSPACE.COM/FOURYEARSTRONG, or follow the band on Twitter at TWITTER.COM/FYS. The Daily Chorus would like to send our gratification to Mara Frankel and Josh Lovell for their hard work in coordinating this interview.

Top 5 Weekly Songs

1. Raining & OK "Empty Handed" - This emotional piano song has sold over 1,600 singles in the last 2 weeks thanks to a 50-second clip on The Real World. This band has a ton of songs meant for radio, TV and the movies. This will be the start of many more to come. (Unsigned)

2. Phoenix "Lisztomania" - This band still hasn't sold over 100,000 records but this is a platinum band in the making. I've been giving this song many spins and the whole album could be in this spot. This band from France is making a splash in the U.S. (Glassnote)

3. Silversun Pickups "Panic Switch" - This song makes it on the list for two weeks in a row. There will be quite a few singles off this album to make this weekly list. I can't stop listening to Panic Switch or their album. (Dangerbird)

4. Metric "Help I'm Alive" - I remember when Greeley Estates opened for this Canadian band (pictured above) back in 2005. Yes, a weird mix, I know. This female-led band has been under everyone's radar for a long time. But this song is getting them radio spins. Not bad for an independent band. (Indie)

5. Zac Seif "You Almost Had Me" - This singer/songwriter out of Dallas sold over 200 copies of his EP on iTunes in its first week. There are a lot of kids that know him but the industry is a little slower. This is Dallas' best kept secret. (Unsigned)

(Click on the iTunes buttons to hear clips of each song.)

Undergrad Records TV - Label Unfolds Before Your Eyes

Patrick Owen takes his last financial aid check to start an indie record label called Undergrad Records (ballsy). His Undergrad Records TV episodes take you on his journey (from Day 1) of finding partners, sponsors and bands for his label. There are also recording and music business topics covered. Only 6 episodes are posted but there are already over 600,000 views and over 3,500 subscribers to his videos. Are you one of them?

Also, it seems Patrick and I have the same taste in music as he features TDC Top Unsigned bands like Brave Citizens, Brightwood, The Hint, Hotspur, Gillmor, The Hoodies, Mikoto and Thee Armada in his videos.

His first episode is below.




Owner: Patrick Owen
Music Submission: Read rules here
Label website: http://www.undergradrecords.tv
Twitter: @undergradtv
YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/undergradtv#

I'm very interested to see how this all works out!