All things bass, music, and ranty

Link: http://www.myspace.com/flatlinedband

Just a quick heads up that we have a show in toronto this coming weds for Canadian Music Week. If you guys are even close to the area, try to make it out. It's an industry showcase, so we want to represent with as many of the worlds best fans as POSSIBLE! That means you flatlined fans. lol.

Hit me back!

Cheers

Link: http://www.financialpost.com/analysis/story.html?id=41742c5d-07b2-45d6-abe3-d8abafd5a6f2&k=22484

Well, I just heard about this. And if ANYBODY finds a petition, or a way to encourage this, then PLEASE contact me asap.

Recently the CRTC has decided that CanCon is being abused, or more accurately, certain parts of it IGNORED. While many of you may not know this, radio and television in Canada is regulated in such a way that canadian broadcasters have to play 35% Canadian content. And while this canadian content is quite a loose broad term, even more so for television, this is an amazing thing. I there are some that don't approve of this, however, the canadian indie scene, just the music scene in general, over the last 5 or 6 years have become world class. Thanks in part to the CRTC and it's help.

Well, it has recently come to light that new emerging artists, part of a cancon regulation, are being ignored, in favour of playing tragically hip or nickleback 2000 times a week. Which, while I love tragically hip, is pretty lame.

This is the good part. Flatlined, as an emerging artists, (an artist that has not hit a top 40 hit in 1 year or less) should be played on the radio. By LAW. Well, not JUST flatlined, and even not flatlined at all, but you get the idea. Recently, the CRTC has gotten some stats back about this sort of thing, with emerging artists getting an 2.9% or less or something of airtime. Which is a really, REALLY, small number.

So if you stumble across information on this, or a petition that we as musicians and fans alike can sign, please, don't hesitate to contact me.

Check out the link above to read further.

We'll, I'm a big fan of radio. Kinda. I listen to it constantly. While I work, or better yet, WHEN I work a regular job. Driving my car, gotta have some radio. Shit like that. I even listen to online radio when I'm sitting at a computer. Usually however, if I have the option, I'd rather listen to cd's or music the guys in the band send my way.

The reason I prefer to not listen to radio after a while is simply that it's getting terrible. When I was younger and not in a band making my own music, I used to love it. I could listen to it for hours, and I would buy cd's that I actually heard on the radio.

And then it started to go downhill for me. I realized that songs on the radio are fucking GARBAGE. Not all, but alot. In my area, we get 3 decent rock radio stations, plus tonnes of classic stuff. We have a university radio station, although the signal strength isn't all that good. So I don't listen to it much. And the songs these stations play, other than the university station, are crap. If I have to listen to that new puddle of mud song once more, paranoid pshycho or whatever, I'm going to walk right into 97.7 and shoot the dj in the face. The songs that pass as radio hits are horrible. 2 chord songs, terrible lyrics, just crap. Am I the only one who notices this?

I started wondering... Why? Why are these songs so big? Is it the demographics that these stations are pandering to? Do people with more money than me get better songs, because they listen to pay radio? Sattelite radio? I often wonder what I'm missing. I would get it if I could afford it... but why? Radio shouldn't be like this. And it's not ALWAYS crap, I do like some songs. But jesus...

Does anybody else feel the same way? My guess is that the people reading this aren't even INTO radio at all. Most likely everybody downloads, listens to mp3's. Is that you? That, however, is a totally different topic all together, and I'll dive into that soon enough.

My point is, music seems like it's suffering these days. It's harder and harder for musicians to do well. Is it because radio sucks? Is it because people are settling for artists and songs that don't offer a damn thing? I'm starting to think that people will listen to anything. Not everybody mind you, but there is a large chunk of the population that just doesn't care what music has become... and radio isn't helping. Save me from this frequency modulated HELL...

Chris - Flatlined

So we obviously have been doing things since being off tour... the question is, what the hell HAVE we been doing?

Well, we've been busy. Crazy busy. Flatlined has been, as a unit, trying incredibly hard to put our name out there, more so than we ever have before. And not just to the fans, or family and friends... To all memebers of the music industry, newspapers and magazines, radio stations, you name it, we e-mail them. Chase them down, HUNT THEM TO OBVLIVION! Wait, that's a little crazy, but you get the idea.

And of course, then there is the DVD. Brad, the most amazing dude in the world, has spent every waking our of his life for 2 months working on a DVD. A band DVD. A FLATLINED band DVD. I watched it last night for the first time. Fucking AWESOME. Gotta love that kid. But that's not all, there are new merch designs, with t-shirts and totes, thongs and hoodies... I think we're even looking at stickers. Although ordering crap in the US is difficult and effing retardedly hard to work around without getting screwed. But isn't that always the case.

And of course, we're promoting harder than ever for all of our shows, in every way we know how. AND we're promoting the band in Australia, and Europe. Hell, we're even in regular rotation in Europe now on at least 1 radio station. Which is fantastic. Things are coming together.

There is so much more, but I have to get back to work. LOL. Keep checking the blog pages, it's really helping us out more than you know.

Talk to you soon,

Chris - Flatlined

This is the part where I start ranting and raving about some topic that is relevant or irrelevant. Where I speak my mind and say anything about anything, polite or rude, amazing or aweful. Where I open up and let everybody know what's really going on in the van, on the road, in the band, what I think of music and the industry, hell whether I like the color blue or if I prefer red.

Instead, I'm going to take this opportunity to thank everybody that has made this band possible. Every fan or friend that has ever come to a show, been on our webpages or myspaces or facebooks... Everybody that has bought a cd, a t-shirt... Everybody that has taken us in out of the minus forty degree whether, brought us into their homes, and gave us a home cooked meal instead of greasy truck stop food. To anybody that has donated a couple of bucks to fix the van, anybody that has given us a tube of toothpaste or a bar of soap... And everybody that is reading this blog.

You are the people that make this band work. That keep us as a four piece together and sane. You are the reason we go on stage and play, your screams and applause give us the energy to go bigger. Your heckling and critisisms give us the drive to improve and become a more solid band.

Whether you know it or not, we thank you. Without you, we'd be rich with good jobs and a good home life. Instead, we are poor and living out of a broken van, but we are the happiest people you'll ever meet. We wouldn't want it any other way, and we thank you for making it possible. NO musician can live without these things. This is what makes the music MUSIC.

Keep checking this page. This is the first blog of many to come, and it's going to be updated as often as possible. Up to 20 times a week I'm sure. Whether it's Jimi, or me. Brad or wes. We'll all have a blog at some point, and your all welcome to come and pick our brains. Welcome to a new beginning of a Flatlined online community.

Chris - Flatlined