I’m hungry and thirsty just thinking about it.

Ronnie & The Red Caps

Ronnie Dio & The Prophets

Elf

Rainbow

Black Sabbath

Dio

Heaven and Hell (Dio-era Black Sabbath Reunion from 2006-2010)

From the earliest of rock ‘n roll to the heaviest of metal, Dio truly was (and still is) a rock god. Ronnie James Dio, 1942-2010.

SP: Billy Corgan has hired Nicole Fiorentino to be the latest Smashing Pumpkins bass player.  There seems to be a demographic pattern for many of Corgan’s replacement bandmates, but hopefully that is just a minor issue when it comes to their latest studio (and live) output.  Besides, new SP drummer Mike Byrne hasn’t grown a mullet like Gish-era Jimmy Chamberlin…yet.

FB: If you have access to Facebook, be sure to ‘like’ these hard-working, talented musicians:

Katrina Lenk (moxy phinx)

Seven Minute Silence

That is all for this week.

1. Look to history for some inspiration. There’s a wealth of public domain sheet music to incorporate into your own musical compositions, or to cover – and perhaps add a modern spin on the music.  Try this (rather outdated-looking) website from the United States Library of Congress:  Music for the Nation.

2. When in doubt, host it yourself (sort of). Having your music streaming on MySpace is no longer the most ideal situation anymore.  Having a Facebook “like” page is a step up, but even that social networking site has its seemingly perpetual issues with users’ privacy and whether these “like” pages can be effective for you, the musician.  The Internet Archive is another way to go for file hosting.

The above social networks and cloud servers, along with Twitter, can be great supplements to your online music identity.  I say that these are supplements because these sites have relatively short shelf lives, as they are replaced by whatever is new and trendy.  A long-running site like the Internet Archive has relatively fewer users and visitors than YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Therefore, you might want to pay a service to host your files and website(s), like iPower or Site5 or GoDaddy or whatever.  You might run into bandwidth issues if and when your music (or whatever you produce) gets more popular.  While that could be a headache and a hit on your wallet, it is usually good news.  It means people are visiting, streaming, downloading, and enjoying what you have produced.

So what are you waiting for?  Get inspired, and create.  I’ll do the same (as time permits).

The prices have gotten a bit higher more often these days (anywhere from $2.99 to $4.99, usually).  It’s been rumored that Apple iTunes’ pressure on the recording industry has caused this price change, affecting the competing AmazonMP3 – who knows?  In any case, good deals for great albums do show up from time to time (depending on what you’d call a good deal and a great album).  Recently, they had a compilation of seven hours of recorded Pavarotti for about $1.99, and sometime before that, a 21-track Muddy Waters collection for the same price.

This is just a heads-up (non-)rant for those who don’t know.  A positive bit of non-news is much preferable, in my opinion, than ranting about middle-aged rock stars engaging in Twitter wars (and Facebook fights) amongst themselves.

If one person is the lead singer, guitar hero, sole songwriter, and the public face of the “band,” then the “band” is closer to a solo project with a backing band than anything else.

The converse of the solo-band would be something like Kansas in their prime.  The keyboard player was their lead singer most of the time.  The lead guitarist was the primary songwriter.  The violin player/sometimes-vocalist seemed to be spokesperson of sorts.  I don’t know who was the bandleader, but as members left and were replaced, I’m use this position must have changed over the years.

A band like Pearl Jam approaches this, but not quite.  The lead singer is the de facto spokesperson for the band.  The lead guitarist is a different person.  All five bandmates share songwriting duties, with the lead singer bringing these ideas together.  (The bandleader at the beginning of Pearl Jam was the rhythm guitarist, but there was a paradigm shift along the way that made the lead singer the de facto band leader.)

We need more bands that share these spotlight responsibilities amongst themselves, and not some solo act with a backing band.  My appeal to fellow musicians:  Bring back THE BAND.

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According to producer Kerry Brown, the Smashing Pumpkins are set to release the fourth track from the Teargarden by Kaleidyscope mega-project, “Astral Planes,” on Friday.  It will be available to download at the Pumpkins’ website by then, or via the Teargarden widget below:

Tracklist:
1. Excuses, Excuses
2. Say Hello To Goodbye
3. This Disaster
4. Without You
5. No One Returns
6. As I Bleed
7. Dilemma
8. Never Coming Home
9. See The Sun
10. Sense Of Urgency
11. Halo