Big Rock Finish… reviews of independent music

I vowed to never review music that wasn’t in CD or mp3 format for this website, because I was interested in seeing what a band could put together as a package. And these days, if it isn’t already painfully obvious, music alone does not sell records. And generally, if according to pop culture, music is barely even on the register with regards to selling records. And I’ve been met with generally very understanding bands when I say I want to review an album or EP from them, so I can say to the world “Hey! Go listen to these guys and buy their album!” And it’s extremely difficult to do that if they only have mp3’s on myspace or similar networking sites. I digress, in that for Awaking State, I was willing to give up this rule temporarily, and I will state right here and now, that I will never give up this rule again. Online players rarely work, don’t work the way I want them do, and generally are irritating because they depend on so much processing power from my poor little 3 year old computer that they generally are cutting out more often then they are playing. And that’s just plain frustrating. And honestly, you do not want someone frustrated trying to listen to your music… to review it.

Hence, from this day forth, I insist! On music being sent to me either via snail mail, e-mail, or an appropriate download that is available to me!

Alright folks. Here’s the deal currently.

Next time I update, on February 13, 2008, will be exactly the one year birthday of Big Rock Finish and it’s official release date. And at this time I don’t know how to celebrate.

Over the past year I’d been discouraged a few times, and really bummed out at other times. I’m sure there’s CD’s around my house that I can’t remember if I’d reviewed, or I’d listened to. And I do apologize to those bands that I promised reviews and still haven’t gotten around to it yet. I’ve decided to keep going, until at least all of these bands have had their fair share. And when that happens I’m sure there will be a new wave of musicians and artists wanting their day as well.

My only thought is since this year I want to concentrate on live shows, and getting more reviewers, that I should throw out to all of you. If you’re a band, and you have a show (especially one that I can’t get to) get one of your fans to write an awesome review and I’ll post it up here!

I’ve always loved and supported live shows as best as I can. The sheer number of times I have had to stay up late on a work night, driving people home at 3 and 4 in the morning when I had to be at work at 7… while I’m not even in a band, it’s still a labour of love.

And seeing as how there were multiple posts of shows I’d been to posted before the official release date of this blog… I believe a week long celebration of shows I’ve gone to is in order. It is my goal to write, or at least re-post, one live show review every day for 7 days. Starting on the 13th, and finishing up on the 19th.

So hang onto your hats! It’s going to get all sorts of furious up in here!

Sorry all!
Next update I will get another review up!
Life/Job/Work has been crazy, and just… crazy!

Hey guys,

My apologies, I won’t have a review up in time for this installment of Big Rock Finish. From Saturday until Wednesday I will be at NAUCC, the North American Unicycling Championships & Convention, entering in various racing, trials, and team events. And I swear having me go on vacation anywhere is the organizational nightmare only war generals would understand.

As such I’ll have lots of CD’s in my car for both the 6 hour drive there (with a detour) and the 5 hour drive back. I will do all my best to have one for the next scheduled spot being August 4th!

Enjoy your summer! Turn off the internet and breathe some fresh air!

NOW!

<3 always
~rokky

Alright. There was a time I figured this website wouldn’t get ANY hits and wouldn’t receive ANY contributions. That’s why the reviews take so long to get posted. 10 days is a long time to wait when you live in the world where 30 seconds is too long for e-mail to be sent halfway across the world.

And I thought I was being smart by cutting that down to 8 days after 3 months, and after another 3 months to cut down to 6 days between reviews. (And mini, mostly live-show reviews between those album reviews)

Only… I can’t take it anymore. I’ve been getting so much support from the music community as a whole, and I’m getting SEVERELY backlogged with the amount of CD’s (and other goodies) that I’ve been receiving, that after April, I’m cutting out the 8 day stage, and heading straight for reviews every 6 days.

Not only am I getting support from the music end, I’ve been getting loads of support from the fans/writers/music appreciation end so I think I can afford to do this. But it’s more of a “have to” rather than a “want to” since my projection on the popularity of this site shows that I will literally be swimming in reviews by the end of summer.

Heaven only knows if this is going to make or break my website.

But tune in, starting May, reviews will be coming at you faster, and furious…er?

So it’s been noted that 10 days is a pretty long time to wait between reviews. I haven’t been able to decide whether or not I should maybe alternate album reviews and live show reviews and cycle those through, or if I should do live show reviews sort of… as they come.

So as of right now, it’s a 10 day rotation for album reviews, and live show reviews I’ll write pretty much when I go to them (within a week or so at least since it’s still fresh in my mind). But to appease the music fans out there, I will be dropping to an 8 day rotation starting in May. I’ll keep that for the duration of the summer.

Maybe during the summer I’ll be going to more shows and I’ll have to archive and date those as well, giving me a more… I don’t know, a more frequent posting habit.  Right now I’m still struggling with the fact my site doesn’t look right in IE (not that I particularly enjoy IE but I know a large majority of the internet viewing public does) and a miryaid of other things.  Ughs.

It’s my plan that by then I’ll have popular enough site that more musicians will want to be reviewed, as well that more writers would want to help me out with all this reviewing. And by September I can drop to a 6 day rotation.

It’s slow going, but I’m looking for realistic goals, and not be a flash-in-the-pan type website.

Bear with me!

I can’t believe the day has already arrived!

In a few short (very short) hours, the first review of Big Rock Finish’s career will be posted.

Time flies, I’m still not done the design layout, and I’ve been trying to push the site for the past month and a half.

I already have bands wanting to be reviewed, inviting me to shows, release parties, sending CD’s and MP3′s and totally gunning for their reviews so they can start citing them on their own websites and message forums.

I also have lots of people wanting to help me write, review, and locate more great talent around Toronto and around the world as well.

This may very well be the biggest project I’ve ever encountered, I couldn’t do it without everyone’s help, and I definately am going to keep at it!

It’s going to be long, hard, and probably very tiring (what with early job calls and late night band practices) but here goes nothing!