INDIE NEWS BEAT
Week of November 8, 2003
* ItsAboutMusic.com Has A Thing Or Two To Say About Christmas!
* Dove Nominated Skillet Release "Collide"
* Musical Theatre Veteran Leslie Clemmons Wants To "Stop The World"
* Garage Radio To Launch Online Reality Series
* Two Members Of "The Calling" Sue Bandmates, Manager
* CIA Summit ... Christian Indie Artists Conference
* Controversial Song Inspired By Gang Shooting

ItsAboutMusic.com Has A Thing Or Two To Say About Christmas!

The fabulous artists at ItsAboutMusic.com have united to produce a brand new CD compilation: "It's About Christmas." The compilation album includes 21 original and new Christmas tunes featuring such well known artists as Classic Rock legend Andy Pratt of "Avenging Annie" fame, 4 Way Street (Sanctuary Records) members Ben Arnold and Jim Boggia, 60's folk-rock legend Jake Holmes (who wrote "Dazed & Confused" - Led Zeppelin), 5 Time Emmy Nominee Kati Mac, and J.D. Martin, writer of 15 top ten country hits, just to name a few.

ItsAboutMusic.com is the first E-Label founded two years ago by Dean Sciarra, music journalist, editor of the FM Radio trade publication - Walrus, artist manager, and head of the independent record company - 7Records. Responding to consumer outrage with overpriced CD, the E-Label is making the "It's About Christmas" CD available for just $8.99 instead of the standard $14.99. But you can only do it by clicking here, making it the best online holiday gift idea around!

"This may not be your Mom & Dad's Christmas album," noted Dean "but it sure is priced like the old days! And that was the whole point in order to share our growing roster of exceptional independent artists from a myriad of genres featured on this CD."

Dove Nominated Skillet Release "Collide"

Never ones to sauté the same sounds perpetually on each release, or to revisit lightening that's already struck, the members of Skillet are in the constant pursuit of variety, as their name so appropriately implies: a sensory overloading hybrid of diverse tastes, scents, and styles. Since 1996, the John Cooper-led quartet has bounced between modern rock urgency on its self-titled debut, to the electronic domination of "Hey You I Love Your Soul," to the pulsating techno explosions throughout "Invincible," to the prayerful reverence on "Ardent Worship," to the intense industrialization on "Alien Youth."

In the process, Skillet has earned a vast army of "Panheads" and a respectable amount of industry acclaim. With eight number one radio singles under its belt, eleven Dove nominations, and over 200 jam-packed concert dates a year, the group is amongst Christian music's alternative elite with a solid commitment to artistic excellence and evangelistic relevance.

"I've always made a conscious effort to write about what I felt God was telling me on every project, and since we've started, I think we've covered a lot of bases," reflects Cooper. "We've encouraged those within the church and hopefully introduced people to Christ that hadn't known him before. I think this current phase of Skillet will take us further down those roads even more effectively."

That musing the band's prolific front man is referring to is the latest in Skillet's run of top notch quality albums called "Collide", a punch-packed collage of sounds marinating since we last heard from the group two years ago (with the Alien Youth CD and the subsequent concert/behind the scenes DVD The Unplugged Invasion). The lengthy break has paid off for Cooper and company, who not only had time to take and fine comb all of the details on this career cornerstone release, but welcome the Cooper's latest baby.

In the end, ten soon-to-be Skillet classics made it onto Collide, uniting around yet another stylistic direction for the band -- one that sees its departure from keyboard driven sounds and delving into a grittier, guitar dominated pedigree. "It's definitely a lot louder than ever before without any of the techno or industrial elements," Cooper confirms. "In one sense it's stripped down from the keyboard stuff, but it's definitely more loud and aggressive than before."

Musical Theatre Veteran Leslie Clemmons Wants To "Stop The World"

With a passion for good music, family, good food, and 'just being real', New Orleans born Leslie Clemmons is ready to unveil her debut album "Stop The World". Having enjoyed success with an international musical theatre career, she has come full circle - right where she started and always wanted to be - in Pop music.

Leslie Clemmons began by carving out a musical theatre career for herself performing in such shows as 'West Side Story', 'Sunday in the Park with George', 'The Sound of Music', and the National Tour of 'Les Miserables'. But her relationship with her husband Rod led her to rediscover her original love of pop and rock music. With Leslie's skillfully crafted and sometimes in your face lyrics and melodies, and the honest, pure, earthy, and straight forward tracks that are her producer husband's trademarks, "Stop The World" is a not to be missed first offering of Leslie Clemmons.

"Stop The World", co-written by her, and produced by her husband Rod Clemmons, is a straight forward, honest, 'real as dirt' collection of songs that give you a good look into her heart and mind. 'Interpret The Sky' gives you a lot to chew on regarding the escalating chaos of today's world. 'Stop The World' the album's title track is a reflective yet powerful offering that leads you to search for what is really important in life. 'Duplicity' is a track peppered with bounce and hints of Hip Hop which also lyrically expresses its meaning, two faced, double minded.

Her newly packaged, much anticipated debut CD, "Stop The World" will be available for the Christmas rush! The Online release date is December 1st, 2003. You can pre-order now the full 11 song CD for a discounted Price of only $9.98 until November 30th, 2003.

Garage Radio To Launch Online Reality Series

With the popularity of "reality" TV at an all-time high, Garage Radio raises the bar with a new concept in streaming entertainment by launching series called "From the Garage to the Radio," which will follow the construction of a heavy Rock band from the audition and hire of four Dallas area musicians, through and beyond their first live gig. The series will be presented in half hour weekly shows and streamed from Garage Radio in both audio and video.

"From the Garage to the Radio" will air completely uncensored and feature personal interviews with the band members throughout the entire series, creating a "live" biography of a real band in the making. The series will also take viewers into the band's practice sessions, the song-writing process, and business decisions after which the band hopes to cut a demo and market themselves to labels throughout the US and Europe.

Garage Radio is scheduled to begin auditions on Jan. 2 2004. Garage Radio Founder, Mike Foxworthy, will both produce the show and participate as the band's drummer, "We've wanted to raise the bar for independent artists in order to achieve global acceptance. This is a new project that will not only bring attention to GR, but also to the artists that have made it so great. The show will also be a great opportunity to show off our capabilities."

Two Members Of "The Calling" Sue Bandmates, Manager

Bass player Billy Mohler and drummer Nate Wood, members of the band "The Calling," have filed suit in Los Angeles Superior Court against lead singer Alex Band and guitarist Aaron Kamin. Two companies connected with the band's management, Spivak Entertainment, Inc. and Spivak/Sobol Entertainment, were also named as defendants. The lawsuit alleges numerous instances of fraud, mismanagement and breach of fiduciary duty in connection with the financial affairs of the band, and seeks a full accounting, compensatory damages, and punitive damages. Mohler and Wood are represented by attorneys Pamela Koslyn and Adam Siegler.

Mohler and Wood played on several tracks of the band's debut album "Camino Palmero," which became a smash hit, and were featured in the video "Wherever You Will Go." Building on their success with the album and video, the two musicians performed with the band throughout 2001 and most of 2002, both domestically and worldwide. The two players are still heavily marketed in the band's merchandising, and are highly popular with the band's young female fans.

CIA Summit ... Christian Indie Artists Conference

Indieheaven.com is excited to announce their independent artist conference to be held in Franlin, TN. This will be a 2 day conference held on Friday and Saturday, March 5th and 6th. The conference is open to all artists of any genre.

We're calling our conference the CIA SUMMIT or Christian Indie Artist Summit. Our motto is "agents on a mission gathering intelligence."

The purpose of the conference will be to bring together indie artists and teach them how to be more effective at being an indie. We'll have leaders in their field speaking on a myriad of subjects, including how to find opportunities to perform, how to put together a great promo kit, how to publish your songs, how to raise funds for your ministry, how to perform better on stage, how to network, how to promote yourself on the internet, and most importantly, how to find the will of God for your life. We'll also select 5 artists for live performances each evening. We're looking for active artists who have excellent artistry and excellent testimony of how God is using them in their own region.

Controversial Song Inspired By Gang Shooting

Singer-songwriter Woody Woodham feels strongly enough about his song, Doing Business with a Gun, that he's encouraging people to download the mp3 file of it for free from his web site, http://woodywoodham.com.

The song is about the violence that plagues America. "I feel an obligation to get the message out there. I'm sick of hearing about people killing each other every time I turn on the news. My hope is that publicizing the issue will inspire the pursuit of a less violent society," says Woodham.

A refrain from the song goes:
A man went into work one day
and in a panic
He blew his comrades all away
with a semi-automatic Doing business with a gun
to brighten up the day
You know it's how the West was won
the good ol' American way."

"I was actually inspired to write the song before the Columbine High School shootings after an innocent 3 year old boy was shot and killed by the crossfire of a gang related shooting across the street from the house where I used to live," says Woodham.

,The song is dedicated to John Lennon. Woodham says he's been a big Beatles fan ever since his uncle took him and his sister to see them perform live when he was a kid back in 1966. "When John was shot, I felt like I lost a good friend. Sometimes, just listening to a good Lennon song will still bring a tear to my eye," says Woodham.

Provided by the MusicDish Network. Copyright © Tag It 2003 - Republished with Permission