Skipping over all of the boring stuff, the line-up was figured out, a date was set, and a venue was booked for the show. Okay, now you can get excited again because I'm about to tell you some important information about the gig.

Between me and Bill (my partner for TSS), we managed to get 6 amazing bands for this show. Who are they? I'm glad you asked, they are: Lo-Pan (Columbus, OH), Devil to Pay (Indianapolis, IN), Death Valley Dragline (Lansing, MI), Forged in Flame (Cleveland, OH), Chapstik (Detroit, MI), and Low of the Low (Chicago, IL). These are some of my absolute favorites from the Midwest, and I have had the pleasure to see most live before, and they don't disappoint. The ones that I haven't seen, I've heard are awesome, as well.

All of these bands will be sharing one stage on August 07, 2010 at Mac's Bar (2700 E Michigan Ave, Lansing, MI 48912). The doors, as of right now, are slated to open at 7, and the first band to go off will be at 8. Each band will be playing approximately 30-40 minute sets.

We will be selling tickets ahead of time for the show. At this point in time, they will cost you a very reasonable $5 if you pre-order. If you wait until the day of the show to get your ticket, it will cost you still reasonable $8. To pre-order your tickets, please send an email to fuzzapalooza@thesodashop.us. We will provide you with any information required. Please note that ticket prices are subject to change. However, if you get your tickets now and the prices go UP, you will not be charged the difference. Ticket sales are NOT refundable.

Any other information requests can be directed to the same email just mentioned above. We will be happy to answer any questions you may have regarding the show.

FUZZAPALOOZA LINKS

VENUE:
Mac's Bar: www.macsbar.com

BANDS:
Lo-Pan: www.myspace.com/lopandemic / www.lopandemic.com
Devil to Pay: www.myspace.com/deviltopay / www.deviltopay.net
Death Valley Dragline: www.myspace.com/deathvalleydragline
Low of the Low: www.myspace.com/lowofthelow / www.lowofthelow.com
Forged in Flame: www.myspace.com/forgedinflame
Chapstik: www.myspace.com/chapstik / www.chapstikbomb.com

SPONSORS:
The Soda Shop: www.myspace.com/sodashopradio / www.thesodashop.us

EVENT LINKS:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/fuzzapalooza / www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=125893564092899
MySpace: events.myspace.com/Event/4106206/Fuzzapalooza-w-Lo-Pan-Death-Valley-Dragline--more
Last.fm: www.last.fm/festival/1535994+Fuzzapalooza

My new partner's name is Bill Goodman, and he lives in Chicago. He and I share an immense affection towards stoner rock and keeping up with all of the best bands the genre has to offer. This coupling with Ron being distant and effectively non-existent in helping the station out, it seemed like a good idea to get a new partner. Some of you may remember the post regarding finding someone new a few months ago. At that point, Ron had somewhat resurfaced, and The Soda Shop was slightly redefined at that point, but it didn't take long for talks to stop and The Soda Shop go back in hiding. This time, I was greeted with an opportunity to change things, and I took it. I think this was the obvious decision to make.

This occurrence happened to be just in time for The Soda Shop's first birthday. That's right, The Soda Shop is officially one year-old as of Monday, February 22. Along with this, the stream is back up and running (it should be accessible from the site again tonight), and there will be quite a few changes to The Soda Shop's website and operation, some things you won't see, many things you will. I feel most of these changes are fairly obvious, common sense changes. Things aren't working as they should, or they're lacking in parts, and the changes will fix these issues. Hopefully, they'll start rolling out in the near future. We don't have any timeline set for right now, but we should have one here fairly soon, so we can get things going.

Oh, and we have a temporary blog set up until the web site can support an actual news management system. It's using WordPress, of course. View it here: http://thesodashop.wordpress.com

It all started back at the end of July when I bought some CDs from CD Baby's constant CD sale involving buying 3 (or more) specially marked CDs for $5 ea. I ordered 4 CDs, including one that I've been wanting for a bit, but it was out-of-stock. I figured this was fine, I was going to save some money on that album, and they'll just ship it to me at the sale price when it comes back in stock. After a month of waiting for it to be back in stock, I looked to check on the stock. The site had it marked as "just a few left". I thought I was going to get my CD, but I wanted to check as I hadn't received an email stating I would be shipped that CD (like their site says they do on backordered items). I call today and I find out that they weren't shipping me a CD. After talking to the customer service agent, I was able to get him to reserve a copy for me and have it shipped. Turns out, it was the last one in the warehouse. Had I not done their job for them in making sure I get my product, I would have had to wait for who knows how long. Trust me, I know first-hand that it's not always the fault of the workers, but I should have been informed at some point, or so you would think.

The next episode is more recent. I was on deviantART and noticed there was a sale on a pretty cool poster. After much debate, I decided that I wanted to buy it and promptly purchased it. This was on the weekend, so I figured it wouldn't be shipped out until Monday or Tuesday (08/31 or 09/01). I get an email on Monday stating that it would be shipped out. "Great," I thought, "it should be here by the end of the week, and even the FedEx site states the same." I check in my building's office on Friday, no product. Later that night, I get on FedEx's site (silly me, trusting FedEx and deviantART with being honest with me), and the poster wasn't shipped yet. Uhh, it's the day that I was supposed to have my poster, and it wasn't even SHIPPED? I was just slightly annoyed, even moreso knowing that it was going to be a long weekend, and it would take an extra day because of Labor Day. I check back on it today, and it ended up being shipped out late Friday, and now is enroute. It's now slated for this Friday. I know, it's not a whole lot to complain about, but it's still annoying when you consider the previous story.

You would think that this would end my troubles, right? Nah, not quite yet. Fate had one more bitter twist for me. Granted, this one isn't really all that tragic, and it doesn't really have a lot to do with shipping, but it does involve more bad news. I decided to order some more CDs from Small Stone Records, Sasquatch's self-titled debut, Throttlerod's latest "Pig Charmer", and Greenleaf's "Secret Alphabets". I get an email from Scott Hamilton stating that Greenleaf's album is newly out-of-stock and won't be back for another 3-4 months. Great. I finally was able to find another worthy replacement of that CD in Dozer's "Beyond Colossal", so, as I said, it's not really that terrible. Still, it wasn't like everything was running as a well-oiled machine.

We'll see how the rest of the week goes now. Seeing as I haven't received any of my products, it still stands to reason that the FedEx truck could blow up, and the USPS could destroy my packages as they have to know by now how much I hate them. I have CDs coming from 3 different areas of the nation, so it'd be interesting to see how well they all ship in comparison to others. My backordered CD is coming from Portland, OR. 3 CDs are coming from North Carolina, and my Small Stone are coming from Detroit Rock City. With my Small Stone CDs being shipped today, I wouldn't be surprised if my NC albums come first just showing how inconsistent the USPS is. Though, by posting this, I hope my pessimism makes the USPS be ultra-efficient and I'll get everything this week like it should. In a perfect world.

Of course, the music issue may be a bit touchy. Some may try to point out that sharing music is illegal, but have no fret! Most of the music that I have uploaded thus far has been made, produced, and released by independent bands and independent labels. Not only that, but I am not hosting the music maliciously as to further along music piracy. I am hosting the music as to be an archive for myself, and it has been shown that people who DO pirate music are far more likely to actually BUY music, so, if anything, I am potentially  HELPING the bands by giving them new fans and potential buyers of their music. Also, I am fully willing to take down any music as requested by the copyright holders. I love the music that I upload, and I don't desire to step on any copyright holder's toes.

As for the software, none of it will be attached to any key generators or cracks (or links to such). Most of the software that I have uploaded is freeware that is widely available. Again, my intention isn't to further any piracy, but to host the files for my own personal use and to possibly give people access to great programs that they may not otherwise stumble upon.

Enough with all of that disclaimer stuff, though important. If anybody is interested in looking through what I have available, you can check it out at cheesesoda.info.

On a completely different note, The Soda Shop is taking a bit of a hiatus. The progress being made on the project is great, but life and another situation (that I will discuss later in this post) have forced me to put it on the back burner. It is Michigan football season, so the weekends that would normally be used to further the project will no longer be available as I will be attending (or watching) the games. Then there is the "situation" I had previously mentioned. It seems that Ron has abandoned the project with absolutely no forewarning, even with repeated attempts to just get a response from him. I have seen that he has been online since all of my attempts to contact him, so I can only believe this is a complete disregard for me and The Soda Shop. Unfortunately, I lack the skills necessary to form other partnerships and gain promoters, as well as I do not have the music industry contacts that Ron had which would have made The Soda Shop grow at an exponential rate.  Thus, I am looking for a replacement who is willing to take on the business side of the project. I have no wishes for this project to die, and any responses whether in interested parties or suggesting interested parties would be greatly welcomed. Those people can reach me at jacob.ball@thesodashop.us.

I know, it had been a long time since I have made a blog post, but this had a couple of big announcements, so hopefully that makes up for my disappearance. I do hope to continue to actually post more on this blog. I don't know how often or what type of updates will be posted, but we'll see. I've been itching to post again, but without any content, it hasn't been that easy. Anyway, I bid you ado until my next post.

The name of the radio station is, you guessed it, 'The Soda Shop'. The station was not my idea. It was mentioned by Ron, my industry contact/business partner, that I should start up my own radio station online. I thought the idea was brilliant and thus born was The Soda Shop. Of course, I couldn't just band wagon jump. It's only natural that my station be as  unique as myself. The station is going to be unique in several different ways, and in two ways specifically. The first is that it's going to focus on stoner rock and doom metal, but it will also play other great rock acts, as well. Why stoner rock and doom metal? Simple, that's the music that I love, and I feel that it's entirely underrated. The second unique aspect of The Soda Shop is that the intention is to bring attention to the lesser known stoner bands, the up-and-coming stoner and doom bands. If the genre is going to thrive, new blood needs to be exposed, and that's what we want to do.

The station's progress is rapidly picking up. We've been gaining quite a bit of band support from all around the world which is always a great motivation. We have received nearly a dozen separate albums from bands, and that number continues to grow every week. The station currently is streaming 24/7 on ustream (or, as reliably as one can expect on ustream). There's no set programming schedule yet, but along with the site coming up here in the next couple of weeks, the station should have a set programming schedule.

I am extremely excited about the site coming online. It's going to be greatly interactive. The biggest feature that should set us apart will be that bands will be able to have their own pages that they can edit themselves. Bands will be able to update their bios with current tour dates, discographies, links, and will be able to upload some sample tracks for visitors to play. Eventually, we hope that the site will also allow for fans to buy music downloads (and even physical copies?) of music from the site, which should also be available on band pages. The site will have a forum that will allow for great discussion amongst fans and bands. It'll also have sections for bands and venues to connect for gigs, for bands to look for new members, promote new albums and tours, and much more. Of course, this is only a small bit of what all will be available on the site.

I will have more information in the upcoming days and weeks, so hopefully I'll remember to keep posting updates on this blog for all to read.

LINKS TO STREAM/SITE/SOCIAL NETWORKS

MySpace | last.fm | facebook | Twitter | thesodashop.us | stream

As is the usual, most of these bands are stoner rock. I think there's only a couple of exceptions, perhaps only one. I can't help  myself, I just love the fuzz. Unlike the last journal entry about music, I'm just going to post the band names and links to their last.fm and/or MySpace. I'm too lazy to actually write out descriptions for all of them.

Countach - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Mos Generator - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Witch - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Halfway to Gone - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Barbarella - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Zeus - Stoner/Grunge Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
The Valley - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Oaks - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Backwoods Payback - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Bullets for Baby- Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Bigelf - Progressive/Psychedelic/Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Bones of Freedom - Classic Rock - MySpace
Gozu - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Hellrancho - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
3D Witch Hunt - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Steel in Mind - Classic Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Stone Axe - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Leaf Hound - Classic Rock - Last.fm | MySpace
Sun Gods in Exile - Stoner Rock - Last.fm | MySpace

Enjoy.

First and foremost, I need to support the three bands that I just found out about in the last week.

Venomin James (Doom Metal)
[ Last.fm | MySpace ]
Venomin James comes out of Cleveland. They are one of two American doom metal bands that I listen to. Their debut album, Left Hand Man is brilliant, and their new album, Crowe Valley Blues, looks to be promising. That album should be out within a week, after some delays.

Graveyard (Stoner/Progressive/Psychedelic Rock)
[ Last.fm | MySpace ]
Graveyard is yet another brilliant band out of Sweden. I would classify their music as Stoner Rock, but they have a definite throw-back sound that is sure to please anybody that enjoys Classic Rock. Graveyard sounds remotely familiar to Witchcraft, another Swedish band I love. They only have one album out, Graveyard, and it's probably one of the best that I've listened to this year.

Spirits of the Dead (Stoner Rock)
[ Last.fm | MySpace ]
One of the few bands, anymore, that doesn't hail from Sweden (or America). They are Norwegian. This is definitely a band with a unique sound. Much like Graveyard, they do sound a lot like a throw-back. They're not just a cheap knockoff, though. They are the real deal. So far, their album, Spirits of the Dead, is an absolute must buy.

-------------------
Besides those three bands/albums, this is what I've been listening to as of late:

Firebird - Hot Wings / Firebird / Deluxe (Blues/Stoner Rock)
[ Last.fm | MySpace ]
This is a great band out of England. They're pretty much a supergroup. They're formed by Bill Steer (Napalm Death, Carcass) and is a far departure from grindcore and death metal from his other bands. I love the three albums that I have listened to... those listed above.

Sasquatch - II (Stoner Rock)
[ Last.fm | MySpace ]
A great stoner rock band on the Small Stone label that I love so much. Their second album is brilliant, and I've been listened to it solidly since I bought the CD.

Roadsaw - See You in Hell! (Stoner Rock)
[ Last.fm | MySpace ]
Yes, another stoner rock band from the Small Stone label. Their latest album, named above, is great. I don't really know what I can say. Stoner rock doesn't vary a whole lot, so I can't say that they're entirely unique. They do lay down some heavy riffage, and that's always appreciated by me.

Corrosion of Conformity - Wiseblood (Stoner Metal)
[ Last.fm | MySpace ]
I don't really think COC needs much introduction. Fronted by the amazing Pepper Keenan, COC is always a treat to listen to. I'm still hooked on Keenan's sophomore album (on vocals). It's not as heavy as they usually are, but that's one reason why I love this album.

Mississippi Kings - Long Time Comin' (Soft Rock)
[ Last.fm | MySpace ]
This is probably one of the softest albums you'll ever see me promote. This album caught my eye when they added me to their MySpace. If you don't mind relaxing to some nice vocals and guitar, then I highly recommend Mississippi Kings.

----------------------
There you have it, 10 albums and 8 bands that I'm currently listening to on rotate. If I didn't like them, I wouldn't recommend them.

All of the albums that are links have the full album that you can listen to for free on last.fm. Well, Wiseblood is missing one song ("Drowning in a Daydream"), but you can watch the music video for the song on youtube here.

Interestingly enough, their record label is in Detroit. That intrigued me, so I started to browse through their list of bands. Low and behold, there was Greenleaf. This shocked me and pleased me at the same time. I continue to browse, and then I find that the label also represents Alabama Thunderpussy's side projects. The fact that I would find myself introduced to these two bands again in a roundabout way just made me realize just how small this world is for them to all be a part of the same record label. I was pleasantly surprised, now that I can get their music locally.

Anyway, as I was looking through the rest of the label's bands, and it took me a while before I found a band that I didn't like. At the end of searching for the bands on MySpace, I was able to find all but one or two bands. I ended up adding 25 bands, 23 newly discovered today, and Greenleaf and ATP. For one day's browsing, I managed to bag 23 new bands to listen to. There were a couple others, but they were disbanded, so I decided to skip over them for now.

It's great to know that there are still great bands out there performing today with a lot of the Classic Rock elements of yesterday that I love. There's hope for music yet! As long as they don't hit the mainstream, their sound shouldn't be perverted. I swear, rock at its finest is when the band is still undiscovered and you're one of the few thousand that actually know about the band.

If you're interested in the record label that I fell in love with today, they are Small Stone Records. You can find most of the bands on MySpace by either searching for their MySpace links on MySpace, or a couple you may have to find that (Glasspack, to be exact) through Google, but it is possible. I may edit this later and add in the list of 25 bands that I found their MySpace's for that I like. Until then, you're on your own, people.

I, recently, bought a few albums from independent labels and individual bands. I bought Zetus Deamos' album, "With a Vengeance", The Fue's "The First EP", CORD's "Songs for your Season" and "Who You Know", and Truckfighters's "Phi". I've listened to all 5 of those albums in their entirety, and I can safely say that I enjoy every one of them. They are great albums, and they should all be taken a look at.

I'm not going to go on about each band and album, but I will mention a sentence's worth about them and direct you to each band's site (and/or MySpace profile), so you can see for yourself just how good these bands are.

Zetus Deamos, out of Wisconsin, is a great hard rock band with a great Classic Rock sound. Their MySpace is http://www.myspace.com/zetusdeamos. The Fue, out of California, is a hard rock band with some punk rock influence. Their website is http://www.thefue.com/. CORD, from Texas, is a talented Indie Rock band featuring a former Foo Fighters keyboardist. They can be found at http://www.cordmusic.com. Truckfighters, out of Sweden, is a Progressive/Psychedelic Metal band that is a little more known than the previous bands mentioned. Their MySpace can be found at http://www.myspace.com/truckfighters.

I hope you enjoy these bands as much as I do!

Edit: Apparently, I need to double check album titles before I post them. It isn't "Who You Are" by CORD, but "Who You Know". It's fixed above, but I figured I'd mention my blunder, anyway.

One way to fight back isn't to download music illegally. Doing so is stealing, and there's no real way that you can justify stealing. Plus, it's illegal. However, you can support sites that ofter digital downloads for their music. Mostly, you'll find this with independent labels and unsigned bands, and these are the people you need to support the most. All of the money you give to them goes to them, and that's the way it should be. We don't need these unnecessary and greedy record labels hoarding money for doing nothing but marketing the music.

This is why I have spent a while today (and still continue to) searching for these sites I mentioned above. I have found many more sites than I was expecting to. Some smaller than others, but all offering music for digital download in MP3, FLAC, or both formats. The FLAC formats usually cost more, but they're well worth it, as you can burn them directly to CD and have exact CD quality music, or you can re encode them into a smaller, lossy format for listening on your computer or MP3 player.

I have been compiling a list. Some are mainly rock/metal, some are easier listening like Jazz and Classical, and some have several different genres available. This is what I have found so far:

http://www.emeraldcityeg.com/records/ - Rock
http://www.klicktrack.com - Rock/Metal
http://www.bitworksmusic.com - Easy Listening(?)
http://www.zunior.com - Rock (and others?)
http://www.snocap.com - Multiple genres. (MySpace Music)
http://www.linnrecords.com - Classical, Jazz
http://www.c64audio.com - Electronic
http://www.mindawn.com - Multiple genres
http://www.bleep.com - Multiple genres
http://www.musicishere.com - Multiple genres
http://www.magnatune.com - Multiple genres
http://www.somarecords.com - Electronica

I'm sure there are many more sites, but as I said, this is all I have found so far. If you know of any more, PLEASE let me know. I will be happy to put them up here, so we can get the word out.