The latest edition of the Mars Attacks Podcast consists of two interviews. One with Phil Lanzon of Uriah Heep, and other with Leigh Kakaty of Pop Evil. Phil discusses everything from the band’s latest studio album Into The Wild, what it’s like to be a keyboard player in a band like Uriah Heep, and what difficulties he runs into with gear while out on tour, etc. Leigh discusses working with Johnny K on War Of Angels, how exposure sports outlets have helped spread the band’s name, and what it was like to open for Whitesnake and Judas Priest, among other things.

The episode contains tracks from Uriah Heep, Pop Evil, Huntress, Trent Reznor, and Holy Grail.

The podcast can be streamed or downloaded from here:

Download MP3

Download From iTunes

In recent weeks I’ve mentioned PledgeMusic and Kickstarter on twitter, in the podcast, etc. The music industry is changing and needs to change, some labels are better than others, but in the end the vast majority have more to do with why people are downloading music off of Torrents. Sorry, but that’s the truth, regardless of what your out of touch idol is telling you. As I’ve mentioned in the past, Steve Jobs innovation with iTunes, actually knowing how to successfully use the lesson Napster taught everyone (people are tired of paying over $20 for a CD to only find out the single you hear on the radio is the only thing that isn’t a hot steaming turd on the album), and create a business model around it (e.g. $0.99 single song downloads) is what has helped bring the industry down to its knees.

Also, people keep bringing up how sales were so much better in the 90s. Ok, so let’s set something straight, those figures are skewed. Hear me out, back in the late 80s the industry had not gone to an all CD format yet. CDs cost too much, so the labels decided to start putting out poor quality vinyl albums. If you don’t believe me, check out any vinyl album that was released in the late 80s to early 90s, and compare the thickness of the album to something that came out a decade before. For anyone that says that doesn’t make a difference, than why are people now paying $30 to $40 for 180g vinyl albums? So they phased vinyl out, but the cassette tape took over, it was still cheaper than a CD, and everyone finally had a cassette player in their car, you could make a mix tape, etc. What happened? You guessed it, they cheapened the quality of cassettes. I was in collage radio at the time, and saw first hand how the vinyl albums, and cassettes we received were of better quality than anything you could find at a store.

So finally, they convinced people to start buying CDs in large quantities to replace their existing vinyl and cassette collection. But that wasn’t enough, the labels admitted to the fact that a lot of the early CDs were not mastered properly, so the remastering craze started, and people started buying a second remastered copy of certain albums. This is why 90s sales figures are skewed, if you take away/factor in people buying a piece of music only once, how would those sales figures be affected?

Now factor iTunes into all of this, how many people are just ripping their old CDs to MP3 and passing them over to their iPod, iPhone, MP3 Player, etc. instead of repurchasing something on iTunes? This is replacing the money that was made on people switching media from vinyl, to cassette, to CD. If people are going to iTunes, chances are, they’re only buying a song or two off of that long lost vinyl album, not the entire thing.

So now couple this with the fact that the labels are not paying artists more, and want to continue to pay artists under a business structure that accounted for things like scratched albums, broken tape, or damaged CDs, when the majority of what they are selling (in most cases) is digital media? If a track is corrupted, well you re-download it and you’re off! So why haven’t artists been paid more in accordance to what type of media is being sold?

In any event, back to the subject line. Similar to the old E.F. Hutton slogan, when Trent Reznor mentions something about the ever changing music business, artists should take notice! He just posted an article regarding TuneCore, and why people should look into their services when releasing an album, and wanting to have publishing administration of songs handled in a transparent manner. You can read it here.

- Victor

Ron Scalzo, AKA Q*Ball of Return To Earth, Bald Freak Music, and Q*Ball Fame is featured during the latest episode of Mars Attacks Podcast.

During the episode we discuss all of the bands mentioned above, his label Bald Freak Music, his relationship with Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, his desire to score a movie soundtrack and more.

During the episode you’ll hear snippets of the following songs:

Return To Earth – Get Your Knife
Wayne – Let Us Kill Ourselves
Return To Earth – Automata
Return To Earth – The Altercation Of Man
Bumblefoot – Invisible
Return To Earth – Night Of Exploding Razors

Other items discussed:

Ron Scalzo, Ron Thal, Bumblefoot, Guns N Roses, Return To Earth, Q*Ball, Trent Reznor, Pretty Hate Machine, How To Destroy Angels, Inception, Nothing, Interscope, Arcade Fire, Lady Gaga, Danny Elfman, Oingo Boingo, Ennio Morricone, Ministry, Meshuggah, Chris Pennie, Brett Aveni, Devin Townsen, Tom Araya, Slayer, Bono, Dave Gahan, Depeche Mode, Steve Vai, Ki, Ziltoid, Jason Flom, Kid Rock, Back Street Boys, Creed, Three Doors Down, Nickleback, Kevin Richardson, Beastie Boys, Andy Carp, Caddy Shack, Sigur Ros, Peter Gabriel, Coheed & Cambria, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Billy Preston, Abby Road, Rubber Soul

Download MP3

Download From iTunes

During this episode we bring you two interviews, one with Chris Howorth from In This Moment, and another with Patrick Kennison from Heaven Below. During Chris’ portion we discuss the making of In This Moment’s latest album Star Crossed Wasteland, what it has been like to tour with the likes of Ozzy, Dave Mustaine, being part of Talking Metal on Fuse, and his feelings towards Maria Brink’s involvement with such things as the Hottest Chicks In Metal, and what affect, if any, it has on the band. During Patrick’s interview portion we discuss his former band Union Underground, what it was like to put Heaven Below together, working with Ben Moody, and some misconceptions people may have about artists whose songs are frequently used on TV.

During the episode you’ll hear the following songs in this order:

Heaven Below – Heartbreaker
Union Underground – Across The Nation
Heaven Below – When Daylight Dies
In This Moment – The Gun Show
In This Moment – Just Drive
In This Moment – The Great Divide

Topics discussed include:

Warped Tour, Mayhem Fest, Blondie, Nine Inch Nails, Prince, Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Zombie, Chimera, Stone Sour, Union Underground, Heaven Below, Dave Mustaine, Megadeth, Schecter Hellraiser, EMG Pick Up, Krank Amps, Dunlop Pedals, In This Moment, The Dream, Star Crossed Wasteland, Chris Howorth, Kyle Kontiel, Jesse Landry, Trent Reznor, Hottest Chicks In Metal, Maria Brink, Talking Metal On Fuse, Blake Bunzel, Ernie Ball, Pantera, Iron Maiden, Slayer, Lacuna Coil, Blondie, Disturbed, Lincoln Park, Drowning Pool, Static-X, Ozzy Osbourne, Countdown To Devil, Reworking The Devil, White Stripes, Cher, Peavy, B.C. Rich, Coal Chamber, Korn, Marshall, VHT Pitbull, TC Electronics G-Force, Lexicon MPX2, Ozzfest, Marilyn Manson, WWE, Ben Moody, Motorhead, Bob Dylan, Chris Isaak

Download MP3

Download From iTunes

Here’s a link to an album review I did for for Metal Army America. The group is called Mose Giganticus, and the album is called Gift Horse. The album was written and recorded by a single person, Matt Garfiled. You can read the review here.

These are the tracks we played during the episode, most of them have been uploaded and added to Mark Strigl Radio’s rotation.

How To Destroy Angels – A Drowning
Filter – The Inevitable Relapse
The Greatest Fear (Featuring Joey Z from Life Of Agony) – A Flower Without Sun
In This Moment – Gun Show
Rush – Caravan
Krokus – Ride Into The Sun
Sister Sin – Outrage
Shotgun Alley – Look At Me Now
Charred Walls Of The Damned – Nice Dreams (Power Mad Cover)
Jorn – Lonely Is The Word / Letters From Earth (Black Sabbath Melody)
Hellyeah – Cowboy Way
Korn – Oildale

This weeks show consists of new tracks from a slew of bands including Trent Reznor’s new band How To Destroy Angels, Filter, The Greates Fear (Featuring Joey Z), In This Moment, Rush, Krokus, Sister Sin, Shotgun Alley, Hellyeah, Korn, and covers from Charred Walls Of The Damned and Jorn.

Episode debuts tonight 8PM EST / 5PM PST on MarkStriglRadio.com

With this episode we jump all over the place, touching on various groups, including:

Helloween – Save Us

Prong – Unfortunately

Armored Saint – After Me, The Flood

Anthrax – Bordello Of Blood

Paul Dianno’s Battle Zone – Rip It Up

Bruce Dickenson – The Magician

Blaze – Reach For The Horizon

Snail – Blood

Nudeswirl – F Sharp

Valkyrie – Apocalypse Unsealed

Loudness – In The Mirror

The Almighty – Jonestown Mind

The following topics are also touched upon:

Pantera, Danzig, Rob Zombie, Trent Reznor, Marilyn Manson, Vulgar Display Of Power, John Bush, Metallica, James Hetfield, Dave Mustaine, Nightmare On Elm St., Tales From The Crypt, Bordello of Blood, Redd Cross, Kiss, Steve Harris, Iron Maiden, Worship Music, Dan Nelson, Accident of Birth, Adrian Smith, Roy Z, Silicon Messiah, Megaforce, Man Of Two Visions, Mike Vescera, Crank

You’ll also hear songs by the following acts in the background:

Fantomas, Contraband, Twisted Sister, Refused, Hatebreed, Inflames, Static X, Straight Line Stitch With Jamey Jasta, Scorpions With Billy Corgan