TuneAGEVolume 1, Issue 1

what’s inside: * MySpace: A Place for Bands? * I see the trainlight * Music evolution * smokin’ hot new bands * and much much more...

EDITORIALWelcome to TuneAGE!

If you’re wondering why you’re reading this right now, it’s likely because you’re a music fan. If that’s the case, you’ve come to the right place! In the debut issue of TuneAGE, we discuss the impact MySpace Music has had on the music industry - musicians and fans alike. We also take a trip back in time and chronicle the evolution of music. You thought the iPod always existed? You’re in for a sur-prise! It turns out Thomas Edison invented more than the lightbulb! Our good friends from Trainlight also took the time to talk to us about their current tour, musical influences and how they got their name.

Looking for some fresh tunes to blast on your stereo? We recommend great new independent bands in “Have you heard?” If you’ve already got a favourite in bands like Paramore, Nickelback or Disturbed, you might be interested in reading “If you like...” Still not convinced you’re in the right place? As a special first edition ex-periment, we asked music fans what crazy things they would do to see their favourite artists live - read their unusual responses in “What would you do?” So sit back, put on some music to set the mood and prepare for some explosive

TuneAGE!

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Rebekah WilsonAge: 20Currently: Studying print journalismFavourite bands/artists: Paramore, Johnny Cash, Samantha Ronson, Lady Gaga, The Veronicas, Rihanna, Stevie Nicks, Trainlight, Taylor Swift, Uh Huh HerFirst concert: George Jones in 1998Best concert: Paramore @ Warped Tour 2007Musical aspirations: Drummer-in-training, keyboardist and lyricistFavourite quote: “Be bold, be brave, be free” - Angelina Jolie

“I’d really like to play the ACC,” said Trainlight drummer David Arkwright, pictured far left above.

From phonographs to MP3 players built into headphones, we take a look into music history.

Facebook, Faceparty, Bebo, Friendster, Hi5, Livejournal, MyYearbook, Nexopia – the list of once trendy social networking websites goes on but nothing compares to MySpace. MySpace was first launched in early 2003, when social networking began to reach an all-time peak. As with all newborn networking sites, MyS-pace was not an overnight success, with its first users including only founding members, all staff mem-bers of a website called eUniverse. However, by 2006, MySpace was the hottest networking site in the U.S and Canada, and celebrated its 100 mil-lionth account creation in August of the same year. Presently, it still boasts daily account creations in excess of 230, 000. So what is all the hype about? The network-ing site, which began as simply a great way to meet friends close by and also all across the world,

was now offering something brand new – different than anything in its technological era – a way to network with your favourite bands. Now, not only could you have a custom pro-file, write personal blogs, and keep in touch with your long-lost best friend or next-door neighbour, but you could also catch up with your favourite musical artists with just one click. This fresh idea was a great opportunity for fans, but also for artists both new and old. Suddenly having a MySpace Music page was more crucial to career success than having an official website. Members of the Nova Scotia based pop-rock band, Above All Else, admit they owe much of their cur-rent success to their involve-ment in the MySpace world. “Having a MySpace music page has helped us reach out to a more worldwide audience than we couldn’t have achieved on our own,”

said bass guitarist, Jeff. But not all artists agree with this positive sentiment. Josh Doyle, an edgy rock performer based in Nashville, TN feels that none of the networking sites have got it quite right, but his loyalties lie with ri-val Facebook. “Facebook is the best out there right now by far, there’s not all the spam,” he said, “but they need to make it easier to ommunicate with your fans en mass.” Though MySpace offers a section dedicated specifically to artist and band pages, trying to find interesting bands is still sometimes a struggle. With

heightened security and privacy settings, networking among fans and musicians alike has become limited, and interrupted by pesky advertisements. “With the amount of traffic of online band promoting these days, it [MySpace] is not the best tool for finding new fans,” says Curt Barlage, frontman for LA indie band The Pacific. With the volume of MySpace music accounts, it is also hard for fans to find interesting music without a specific artist in mind. “You sift through thousands of artists and bands to find a single decent one. Most of them sound pretty

MySpace: A place for bands?by Rebekah Wilson

MySpace music pages allow artists and bands to display photos, upload music samples, keep their fans up to date on their tour schedules, and even write personal blogs.Please click on the image for a larger view.

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Even bands them-selves use the site as a way to access their favourite bands, as a tool to find new artists to tour with, and also to keep in touch with their fans around the world. “As a full time touring band, you can’t re-ally hang out with people cause you gotta move to another show every morning. This way we can keep in touch with every single friend met on the road,” said The Vendetta band member Carlo via a MySpace message. Additionally, growing technology such as wireless Internet, and access to internet from cell phones has allowed MySpace to be a much more mobile network. Most bands check their

music pages several times daily to track the amount of visitors, send add requests to fans, and an-swer messages whenever possible. “Now I have a MySpace application on my iPhone so I check it every two days or so and keep on top of it that way,” says Dante Berardi Jr of alternative rock band Goodbye Glory, based in the GTA. By being able to open a personal line of connection with their audience, bands are hopeful that this will help them gain long-time fans. “We get to know so much about a person with one click and they get to know so much about us - more than they ever would if they had just bought a

CD, seen a show or even hung out with us for a few minutes after a show,” said Forth Worth screa-mo rockers Forever Midnight Sun. As MySpace is primarily a social networking site, us-ers can connect with each other, and share music tastes they have in common, among other things.

“I would say about 40 percent of my friends’ list is bands,

and that’s constantly growing,” says five-year MySpace user Dave Mc-Culloch, 21. “If anyone looked through my list, they would see I have a wide range of music tastes – no set categories.”Nina Croft, 20, an avid MySpace user, explains that what attracts her to a band’s page is “that they’re not just another band looking for fame and fortune.” To some, MyS-pace is a great place to find new bands and check up on your old favou-rites. To others, it is just another disguised corpo-rate ploy to advertise and market. But to many, it will always be MySpace: A Place For Friends©.

mundane and unoriginal,” says MySpace user Shaun, also a member of U.K. punk band 100 Ways Forward. Despite these mi-nor drawbacks, virtually every artist on the music scene can be found on MySpace because of what has become an industry standard. “No band in their right mind would neglect MySpace. It’s more important than hav-ing your own band website,” admits Mike Kirsh, bass gui-tarist for Toronto band, The Midway State. “[Because of MySpace], we have fans all over Canada and the U.S. – New York, L.A, Calgary, Montreal, Vancouver, and North Carolina.” These bands and many more are proof that Internet technologies are changing the way people get information. In a web-con-nected world, it is easy to relay information to others around the world with just one click. “Viral marketing is an exciting thing,” say mem-bers of Poptart Monkeys, an indie rock group from Philadelphia. “It’s an amaz-ing technology that wasn’t available for the Beatles or Aerosmith when they started and it is a huge tool for all bands now.”

Easily navigated, the MySpace Music main page displays featured artists and videos in rotation.

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Here comes the Trainlight

Sitting close to the stage, I sip on a four-dollar beer. A friendly stranger warns, “It’s about to get pretty loud in here,” and that’s when I see the light. Trainlight, that is. The four-man band from Collingwood, Ontario prides itself on a soft melodic rock sound, similar to that of mainstream bands like Coldplay and U2. They are currently playing the Ontario

college/university circuit and selling their first album produced by Dan Brodbeck who has also worked with The Salads, The Cranberries and Nashville pop artist, Landon Pigg. Their mission for musical domination began a little over three years ago, when their fans knew them as “A Step Too Far”. Then they realized that as young men, and as a collective group, they needed a name that suited them better – something

a little less juvenile. “We wanted to be taken more seriously,” says lead vocalist and piano master Christian Ferraro. “At the time, we just needed a name so we picked one but it was a bit childish.” And along came Trainlight. “A train is historical of blues music but also the feel of a train, the rhythm. And the light is representative, the guitar over the rhythm,” says Ferraro, 21, as he explains the mystery behind the band’s new

title. “It’s unassuming,” adds guitarist Kevin O’Halloran. “When people hear the name, they don’t know what we sound like.” And their name is not the only thing that’s unassuming. Before the show when I sat down with the band, I faced four friendly, and very calm guys. They casually joked and made me feel comfortable in their presence, exuding modesty. Extremely kind still when my cell phone rang in the

Rebekah Wilson

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Photo by Rebekah Wilson

middle of our interview and they joked it was likely my mom calling – it was. On stage however, their vibe is very intense and they are anything but calm. O’Halloran begins to tap his foot to the beat and is suddenly part of the rhythm as he moves his entire body in time with the song. Drummer David Arkwright digs deep down inside and lets out his inner musician, sending passion into his beats and back-up vocals. Ferraro’s pre-show jitters are invisible

as his magic fingers work the keys flawlessly, and passion for his words is shown on his face. Even quiet and shy Pierce Pimiskern reveals his love for music from behind his laid-back appearance. Playing live shows is not uncharted territory however, with recent shows including a Guelph University football game, a spot at Yorkfest with a crowd in excess of 4000, and in their hometown of Collingwood when they opened up for Canadian Idol second-runner up, Drew Wright. “I’d really

like to play the ACC,” admits Arkwright, who also says the success of a show in any venue relies heavily on good sound and acoustics. “We’ve played everything from children’s parties to elderly homes. No, actually we’ve never played either of those,” jokes O’Halloran. “Ultimately, we’d like to make a comfortable living doing what we do – touring, writing, making CDs,” says Ferraro. “And having fans in countries we’ve never even been to,” adds

Arkwright. “We make a point, on MySpace, to find people who listen to similar bands as we do, like Coldplay or U2, and those fans are mostly from Brazil and Europe.” Brimming with talent, these small-town rockers are destined for success and say their dream is to work with bands like Toronto’s Midway State (whose lead singer, Nathan, is Ferraro’s brother), and ex-Beatle Paul McCartney. To see when Trainlight is performing near you click here.

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Above left: Lead singer and keyboardist, Christian Ferraro. Above right: Vocals and guitarist, Kevin O’Halloran

Photo by Rebekah Wilson

Photo by Rebekah Wilson

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Above right: Guitarist Pierce Pimiskern. Above left: Vocals and drummer, David Arkwright.Below: Trainlight performing live at Georgian College’s “The Last Class”

Photo by Rebekah Wilson

Photo by Rebekah WilsonPhoto by Rebekah Wilson

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a musical evolutionRebekah Wilson

Music began as a way to bring communities together - a common passion to be shared within families, tribes, and small villages. It was only a matter of time before the desire to share music between nations arose. Much like books, paintings and photographs, music can help define a culture and its people. However, because melodies could not be heard by way of ink and quill or carved into rock, it became the mission of musicians to create a way in which music could travel. It was in 1877 that Thomas Edison amazed the world with his first recording of human sound. His invention, a foil phonograph, was able to record and play back human voices though many of these first recordings have

since been lost. Over years to come, it was almost a competition as to who could create the next big milestone in voice and music recording, as several men reinvented and improved the phonograph. It was also important to create more compact versions so that the music could be easily transported and therefore shared with different parts of the world. It wasn’t until much later, in 1925, that manual forms of recording turned electric. With this new invention, it was faster and easier to produce and reproduce music onto electrically recorded discs, which would eventually be known as records. Popular music company RCA took this opportunity to sell reproduced vinyl records to radio stations and people around the world soon caught on to the

new craze. In 1931, the Empire State Building was the first known establishment to play music inside its elevators and lobbies. Department stores began selling record players at an astounding rate, and the invention of car stereos appeared in 1956. However, car stereos were as mobile as the music industry had become thus far, with record players and phonographs much too large to transport with ease. The invention of the cassette tape and 8-track technology in the ‘60s was revolutionary because it was now possible to carry music with you wherever you went. As digital technology continued to boom, it was less than 20 years later when the first 5-inch compact discs were invented, though they were considered extremely expensive

during their first few years in circulation. CD sales quickly began to surpass vinyl record sales, and the music industry was at an all-time high. Due to a boom in profit in 1994, six dominant record companies further established themselves. These included Philips, Sony, Time Warner, and Thorn-EMI, now known as Capitol and Virgin Recordings. However, it was the creation of DVD players and digital TV recording equipment such as TiVo that inspired the invention of even more simple digital media – the MP3. Now there was no need for bulky Walk-mans or easily scratched and otherwise damaged compact discs. Consumers could easily purchase digital formats of music that were transferred from computer hard drives and onto tiny memory

chips that played back the recordings with the press of a button. It was at the climax of this technology era that Apple cashed in, creating the iPod in 2001. The iPod became a thundering trend as apple released smaller and more advanced versions of their original product. Technology also soon allowed iPod owners to play videos, download and watch

broadband episodes of television shows and also view photo slideshows. Realizing the potential success for profit, Apple also created a media player program called iTunes where Mac users could store their music and videos, and legally purchase their media online. As recent as last year, independent companies have begun creating even more innovative and convenient technologies.

Skullcandy, an international producer of headphones and mp3 accessories, created The Double Agent in 2007. The product, available in several different colours for today’s stylish listeners, combines the mp3 player and headphones into a completely wireless package. A similar product, the MFM pro, is also a Skullcandy success and a favourite product of extreme

athletes including pro snowboarder Mark Frank Montoya. Owners of the product simply insert a small memory card full of music into a designated slot on the earpiece. As a generation with progressive ideas and plenty of modern technology at our fingertips, it is only a matter of time before we find even simpler ways to enjoy our music.

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Left: Skullcandy Lowriders.Above: A satisfied customer.Photos by Rebekah Wilson

Have you heard...

Reno - Toronto, Canada Socratic - New Jersey, U.S. Latefallen - Toronto, Canada

NUDE - Hollywood, U.S. Bang! Bang! - Chicago, U.S.

If you like...Disturbed, you might also like:

Junius

The Vendetta

Forever Midnight Sun

100 Ways Forward

The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

Atreyu

McFly, you might also like:

Last Letter Read

Above All Else

Poptart Mon-keys

Pretty In Stereo

Uh Huh Her

Tegan and Sara

Paramore, you might also like:

OUT of SIGHT

The Pacific

The Midway State

The Fray

Muse

Annasay

Axiz

Nickelback, you might also like:

Goodbye Glory

Scarlet Grey

Burn Halo

Rise Against

Showdown

The Trust Project

Underwhelmed

Sam Roberts, you might also

like:

Shawn Hlookoff

Josh Doyle

Meiko

Shaun Hague

Black Mystic

The Timeless

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Photos courtesy of MySpace Music

There is something unique about live concerts – something you can’t experience listening to your iPod, or even blasting tunes on your home stereo system. Maybe you get to meet people who share your music tastes. Maybe they’ll play your favourite

songs so loud that your ears are plugged for a week. Maybe you love to crowd surf and get out all your frustrations in a moshpit. Maybe you get a chance to meet your favourite musician(s). No matter what the life changing experience, people have been known to do some pretty outlandish things to see these live performances.

What would you do?Favourite band: The 69 EyesHave you ever seen them live?: Five times in five cities, three countries, and two continentsWhat’s the craziest thing you’d do to see them live?: would do? follow them on a whole tour. I did a few shows in a row, but I could do more. Have done? go all the way to Helsinki, Finland to see them play in their home town.Greatest live show you’ve been to?: The 69 Eyes in New York City (hated the city, but it was an amazing show) or Apocalyptica at the Phoenix in Toronto.

Amanda Dodge - York University Student

Holly Harrison - Fleming U StudentFavourite band: Led ZeppelinHave you ever seen them live?: No...I am twenty and live in canadaWhat’s the craziest thing you’d do to see them live?: Maybe stay up until the insane time that the tickets went on sale or fly to a country they were playing. This would only be in the event that I actually had tickets.Greatest live show you’ve been to?: I saw Three Days Grace in a bush - that was pretty cool.

Marcelle Jacques - Algoma UFavourite band: Hilary DuffHave you ever seen them live?: In September 2007What’s the craziest thing you’d do to see them live?: I bought 300$ American dollar tickets that included a vip pass and so I got to meet her back-stage and get a hug and autograph and all that.Greatest live show you’ve been to?: Hilary Duff

Stefanie - Northern ONFavourite band: Sublime

Have you ever seen them live?: NoWhat’s the craziest thing you’d do to see them

live?: Take my clothes off in front of thousandsGreatest live show you’ve been to?: The Kinison

AnonymousFavourite band: Tragically HipHave you ever seen them live?: NoWhat’s the craziest thing you’d do to see them live?: Not the Hip, but I busted out of jail once to see Pink Floyd. It was great, and definitely worth it.

Crystal Clarke - Brampton, ON

Favourite band: USSHave you ever seen them live?: Yes

What’s the craziest thing you’d do to see them live?: I would sing their songs solo in the streets if

I had toGreatest live show you’ve been to?: Edgefest 2008

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Pint-sized lead vocalist, Hayley Williams, has created world-wide buzz for her Franklin, Tennesee band, Paramore. The band released their first album “All We Know is Falling” in 2005. The 2007 release of Riot! has boosted the teens to celebrity sta-tus, with perfect head-banging melodies, and contemplative lyrics. After spending the summer touring with soft-rockers, Jack’s Mannequin on the Final Riot tour, their much antic-ipated DVD including live shows, behind the scenes footage and bonus tracks is quickly selling out months before its early 2009 release. Early November also marked the release of the Twilight soundtrack, including Paramore tracks “Decode” and “I Caught Myself.”

watch for: Paramore

Hayley Williams at Warped Tour 2007

Photo by Rebekah Wilson

In the next issue of TuneAGE...* DJ Culture - bringing the 80s back?* Hot shows to warm up your winter

* Making music videos* Who IS Samantha Ronson?* and much, much, more!

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