Happy New Year everyone! We've pulled out of our drunken stupors here at Altsounds and are kicking off 2009 proper. Check out the latest feature we have going on- Tips for '09. As the intro explains, 2008 was shit as far as new music goes. Quite disappointing. But, as passionate explorers of this desert-like musical landscape, we cannot help but be optimistic. Perhaps it's all a mirage, but the temptation of an oasis is too hard to resist. Some of the Altsounds staff members have compiled a list of bands they will be keeping their eyes on in the new year and we invite you to do the same. Check out their recommendations. You may end up finding your new favorite band or the next big thing! Imagine how cool you'll look to your friends!
Them: "Oh dude, you HAVE TO hear this song!"
You: "Already heard it. They're basically my favorite band. I liked them before they were even popular."
Them: "Wow. You are so fucking cool. How did you become so hip and with it?"
You: "Altsounds, bitch. Get into it."
Music That's Hot With a plethora of music to sieve through below is the cream of this weeks ever abundant musical crop.
Attack! Attack! - You And Me [Single] Rock Ridge Music January 10, 2009, 05:28 PM Buy Attack! Attack! - You And Me [Single] From Amazon.com 
After over a year of threatening to explode out of their local scene and into the much broader horizons of worldwide music via numerous successful tours (Japan, Europe etc), each packed with every single show more energetic than the last and a debut album that most other bands can only dream of equalling, Attack! Attack!’s promises are finally beginning to fulfil themselves.
Possibly the most hyped of and indeed, successful of all of Wales’ many emerging bands in 2008, it is great to see the Attack! Attack! pulling the crowds that they deserve and to then see those crowds leaving the venues with an ear-to-ear grin belting out those infectious choruses that have got the band to where they are today.
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Paul Goodwin - Scars [Album] BFF Records December 29, 2008, 11:41 PM Buy Paul Goodwin - Scars [album] From Amazon.com
“He sounds like he’s having less fun than he really is”. This slightly depressing quote from his MySpace page sums up Paul Goodwin nicely actually. But don’t let that put you off…
Goodwin’s debut album,
Scars, is entirely more soulful and raw than expected from the Cambridge resident. He’s been playing gigs around the UK for years now, with attendance surging after his 2006 EP
Phosphorus Burn, and numbers will no doubt do so again once
Scars is released on 2 February 2009.
Paul Goodwin keeps the unprocessed feel of his music true on
Scars opening with a basic acoustic guitar and cello ballad, ‘Take it All’. This is an impossibly real track with so much honesty and disregard in the lyrics that it really puts the bar high as an opener for the rest of the album.
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Mason Jennings - I love you and Buddha too feat/ Matt Costa and Jack Johnson Brushfire Records December 30, 2008, 03:08 PM Buy Mason Jennings - I love you and Buddha too feat/ Matt Costa and Jack Johnson From Amazon.com An accolade to Jesus and every other figure head of varying religions; This song with its lovely sentiments may well just be a metaphor for life, and the way in which the world should really be approaching it all.
Mason Jennings and Jack Johnson have created this quirky and light hearted song declaring their love for all religions, showing the world that it’s all just the same in the end, we are all just the same. This collaboration is typical of Jack Johnson, but it’s a good’un. Morally good and positively good; it could make even the grumpiest agnostics of people want to put it on loud and dance around their room.
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Classic Album: Rage Against The Machine - Self Titled
Fuck you, they won't do what you tell them. Rage Against the Machine defined their own genre. No band before them or since have ever managed to successfully implement heavy riff rock with angry, political statements rapped with such definition. It's hard not to like Rage Against the Machine. I will go as far as to say that to a point, Rage Against the Machine were the pioneers of riff based rock, showcasing that a guitar can be a lot more than just strumming chords and doing solos. The riffs could become hooks in their own right. All of this was achieved with one album and, although the music they created afterwards was also excellent, Rage Against the Machine could have quite comfortably stopped after their debut self titled album and still remainded the musical and political legends that they are today.
I remember being 14 years old coming home from some shit caravan park "holiday" in Britain with my family listening to the Top 40 for company on the ride home when I first heard Rage Against the Machine. The sound coming through the car stereo was the angst ridden "Killing in the Name Of" and I remember thinking how original this sound was. I was a massive fan of Nirvana at the time and no other new bands even pricked up my ears, but Rage Against the Machine instantaneously aurally penetrated me and Monday morning saw me going to my local record shop and picking up a copy of their self titled debut album. What was also amazing was the show I was listening to appeared to have played the uncensored version because what I heard at the end blaring from Radio 1 was "Fuck you I Won't do What You Tell Me!" I couldn't believe me ears and thought that they would realize and stop it but luckily for me that day, they didn't and I heard the real version of "Killing in the Name" and I became a Rage Against the Machine fan.
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The News Wire Have your finger on the musical pulse every week by checking out the Top Ten biggest news of the past week
- U2 To Perform Brand New Single Live
- THE THERMALS NEW ALBUM AND UK TOUR
- THE KING BLUES & THE BIG ISSUE MAGAZINE
- TWO TONGUES DEBUT DUE OUT FEBRUARY 3, 2009 ON VAGRANT
- Brakes announce new Album and Single release.
- Arlo Guthrie - Dancehouse Theatre, Manchester - 31st Jan 2009
- M83 TO PERFORM ON LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN JANUARY 27th
- Oh No Not Stereo to open for All-American Rejects in UK
- LESS THAN JAKE Spring 2009 Tour Dates With The Expendables
- GenAudio changes the way the world will listen to audio
We Will Rock You Altsounds users are concert going freaks. The gigs listed below gave our reviewer the horn this week.
Kings of Leon @ Wembley Arena [LIVE] 22nd December 2008 December 29, 2008, 03:28 PM "Say, fellow Kings of Leon gig-goer, have you heard of a smash hit single from the Followill fam’ called... what was it now?... Sexy Fire? Sex for Fire? Sex on Fire - that's it. I am sure that you have, and it’s pretty much the only reason I bought a ticket for this last night of the band’s “Only By The Night” tour. Despite the fact that the Kings powered through 23 super-charged tunes, the majority of which were back catalogue, I only paid proper attention when this number one started up, and proceeded to crush everyone else’s feet and drown the rest of the crowd in my abandoned beer just so I could get myself right down the front to watch a singer scream the word “sex” in the actual chorus of a song. For the next half of the set I wrapped my arms around my miserable-looking girlfriend and watched my "Sex on Fire" recording back on my phone. Again, and again, and again - until the lights came back on".
To give these trend-worshipping music vultures their due, I myself am not a Kings of Leon fanatic and know my way around their singles a lot better than certain album tracks, naturally. But you can’t go to a Kings of Leon gig, stand completely oblivious to such older live gems as Molly’s Chambers and Milk, wait for the newer singles to pop on – and immediately declare yourself a Kings of Leon SUPERFAN. Through OTT cynicism I want to make this point and shame those who clearly gobbled up their tickets on a whim after being blown away by the notion that a relatively little-known band to the mainstream could achieve such airplay on Radio 1. Point made, I’ll now go on to tell you about Kings of Leon’s well-sussed and perfectly executed set on the eve of their last performance in London for 2008.
READ MORE Plug in Baby Must buys from the music recording technological world
Behringer Pedal Board PB1000 The PEDAL BOARD PB1000 pedal board offers you the utmost in flexibility, allowing you to add and group effects pedals to your heart’s content.
January 11, 2009, 03:14 PM
Lead guitarist's are constantly on the lookout for new sounds and tones to upgrade their guitar playing skills onto the next level. One of the ways they achieve this is through purchasing various stomp box, foot controlled effect pedals. There are a bunch of manufacturers making stomp box pedals, so your choice is unlimited. As it becomes more and more important than ever before to make sounds unheard before, stomp box effect pedals seem a natural way forward for a guitarist. The main problems faced with effect pedals are, after buying more than one pedal, you are faced with the hassle of cabling, and powering each pedal each and every time you play a gig. As these stomp box effect pedals are chained, if the battery goes during a show in one pedal, then you lose your guitar sound all together due to it being on big effects chain. As you slowly but surely buy more and more pedals, it offers the potential to be one massive cabling-powered nightmare that could cost you and your band the show you are playing on the night. Something that everyone will agree is not worth the risk. So what can you do? You can stop reading this and go out and buy yourself the Behringer Pedal Board PB1000! as it will be the best investment you have made in a long time.
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M-Audio Studiophile BX-8a Studio Monitors Loud, Clear and Crisp that make for an excellent monitor source December 22, 2008, 04:41 PM
Studio Monitors are the heart of any studio. Be it a project studio or the top end studios found across the world, the single most important item in that studio is the studio monitor possbily second [maybe] to the microphone cabinet. As such, it is highly important that the right choice is made with regards to what to purchase for your studio. M-Audio have just released the BX8a Studiophile which is quickly taking the studio monitor world by storm due to it's quality of build, sound quality and low price. I seem to be hearing more and more about M-Audio these days and this is obviously for a good reason. They have a clear brand and identity and, as a fan of black, they have hit the nail on the head as far as I'm concerned with regards to their choice of colour across ALL their products. The M-Audio BX8a was originally released under the name SP-8 which was fairly similar looking but did not contain any switches or roll-offs. The SP-8s were good monitors but didn't really stack up as well as it should have against the other audio monitoring solutions in the pro audio field. So, back to the drawing board M-Audio went and they came out with this highly refined, re-branded and re-labeled product - the BX8a. I must say the improvements are vast and well worth the time and monetary investment because the M-Audio BX8a is a studio monitoring solution not to be reckoned with!
READ MORE De-Classified: Redefining Success
January 12, 2009, 07:43 PM 
What does it mean to 'make it' as an artist? It almost seems like a strange question to ask considering how clearly it used to be defined. An artist made it when they became a household name. They made it when their songs were inescapable, played endlessly on the radio, selling tens of millions of copies. They had the big tour buses and played the massive sold out arenas. In a word, to 'make it' was to be ubiquitous, and with that kind of notoriety came money. Today, that level of saturation does not exist. Older, well-established artists can break through what's left of the collective consciousness known as pop culture, but it doesn't translate into cash. Everyone on Earth knows that Guns N Roses finally released Chinese Democracy, but if you think Axl is making more off his new music than his old music, then you're living in a fantasy world. I sound out-of-touch even mentioning the album and it just came out at the end of November.
Before you take your guitar to the pawn shop and retire your leather chaps, keep in mind that record deals have never been all that much of a deal. Getting a record deal is like taking out a loan from someone who has a few connections to a few outlets. Those outlets used to be the only outlets and they proved profitable for everyone. That is no longer the case. As an artist, you have to decide if those old connections will get you anywhere and if you would ever be able to pay off that loan. Being plugged into a failed system where no one is listening and no one pays for anything isn't really all that helpful if you're trying to make money. And let's face it, even 'famous' artists are having a hard time turning over a buck from their music. That's why they all have clothing lines and shit.
READ MORE Last Orders!
Here at Altsounds, we're determined to make this a great year for music. While we cannot control the music that artists make and we can't even control what is considered 'mainstream', we can make damn sure that the great artists receive the exposure they deserve and the bad ones are shamed back into obscurity. Let's not forget who has the control here! We stole power from some very fat cats when we all started consuming music digitally, and you better believe they want it back. We cannot become complacent. We demolished the old industry that valued style over substance and we must build a new, BETTER industry before those same money-grubbing fat cats build one for us. They fucked it up the first time, I promise you they'll do it again if we let them.
We can do it better. Get involved on Altsounds today!
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