Lee Gray

Since forming at the end of 2011, Lee Gray & The Beat have been regulars on the New Zealand music circuit; their high energy, well-crafted live performances giving them an ever increasing fan base together with a fast growing reputation. The pair, Lee Gray (UK) and legendary drummer Pete Warren (NZ), have just finished recording their first project with ex-Pretenders bass player Malcolm Foster at his ‘Blue Octopus’ studio in Whangaparaoa. Come On Down, a 5-track EP which melds Lee’s ‘singer/songwriter’ vocals and acoustic guitar with a mixture of Pete’s dance grooves is a record setting itself apart from typical pop/dance music.

“We wanted to make dance music that we could play on acoustic guitar and drums.”
The Duo recently finished 2nd out of hundreds of bands in New Zealand’s acknowledged launching pad ‘Battle of the Bands’ National Championship, receiving great feedback from the judges for their live performances and song writing. They represented the competition on TV One’s Good Morning show at the end of May, playing the track Million Lights to rave reviews.

Lee Gray – Vocals, guitar, loops
Lee is originally from the UK where he wrote and released two albums before touring much of Europe as part of the Duo “Woodface”. He opened the main stage at the 2009 ‘Fete de le Musique’ music festival in Nice and has received several awards including ‘Best male vocalist’ in VF (Swedish Music Magazine) and ‘Best Vocalist’ in this year’s Battle of the Bands National Championship. Since moving to New Zealand two years ago, his career has really exploded and has seen him play some of the top events at the most prestigious venues Auckland has to offer.

Pete ‘The Beat’ Warren – Drums, samples
Pete is nothing short of an institution having shot to fame in New Zealand in the 80s after co-founding iconic Kiwi band ‘DD-Smash’ whose first album titled 'Cool Bananas' debuted at #1 - an historic first - remaining in the charts for 24 weeks, going triple gold in the process. Pete is one of the only drummers in New Zealand history to receive the ‘best drummer’ award 4yrs running and was among the first rock drummers to have a world-wide drum endorsement with Remo drums and Sabian cymbals. He has since toured much of the globe playing alongside some of music’s all time greats, racking up yet more Top 10 hits around the world. Pete is labelled the ‘human drum machine’ for his ability to do just that.

Online social media sites:
Website - www.leegrayandthebeat.com
Facebook – www.facebook.com/leegraymusic
Twitter – www.twitter.com/leegraymusic
Youtube – www.youtube.com/leegraymusic
SoundCloud – www.soundcloud.com/leegraymusic

Rock Turns The Table On Pop

Rock Turns The Table On Pop
Led by Arctic Monkeys, Bastille and Jake Bugg, Rock music claims a third of the albums purchased in 2013 - its largest share since 2010

By Mi2N [02-15-2014]

The fact that Pop, in the shape of three Now compilations (86, 85 & 84 respectively), One Direction (Midnight Memories) and Emeli Sandé (Our Version of Events), accounted for the five best-selling albums of 2013, was still not enough to stop Rock overtaking it as the most popular music genre of last year, according to the latest BPI annual survey of music genres based on Official Charts Company data.

Rock climbs above Pop
While the upper echelons of the year-end charts were dominated by Pop releases, a mix of new albums and solid catalogue sales across the total number of titles purchased in 2013 helped Rock's overall share of sales inch above that of Pop's for the first time in three years.
Boosted by the likes of Arctic Monkeys (AM), Bastille (Bad Blood), Jake Bugg (self-titled), Mumford and Sons and Rod Stewart, whose album Time sold over half a million copies, Rock music generated a third (33.8 per cent) of all the UK album sales during the 12-month period – its highest share in five years. Pop as a category, which came out on top in the 2012 survey, was not far behind, however, on 31 per cent.

The depth and popularity of Rock music catalogue also contributed to the genre's strong performance in 2013: Of the top 10,000 best-selling albums in 2013, over 4,000 - 40 per cent - were classified as Rock. The revival of interest in the vinyl format, which is often regarded as an extension of Rock culture and in 2013 saw its highest level of sales in over a decade, arguably also supports the overall trend towards Rock music.

Rock sub-genres
Over half of all Rock music purchased in the UK last year was defined as Contemporary Rock (18.8 per cent out of the 33.8 per cent figure), while 7.1 per cent of the total was A.O.R (Adult Orientated Rock) and 6.8 per cent was categorised as Metal/Heavy. Progressive or 'Prog' Rock (0.8 per cent) and Punk (0.3 per cent) made up the rest of the Rock category.

Dance on the rise
Another riser in the genres 'charts' was Dance music, which, propelled by such acts as Rudimental (Home), Calvin Harris (18 Months) and Disclosure (Settle), accounted for 8.3 per cent of the albums market - the genre's highest share since 2006. Whereas only five Dance titles made it into the list of the 100 best-selling albums of 2012, last year saw this figure increase to twelve.

Bublé and Robbie swing it for MOR/Easy Listening
Dance came in just ahead of MOR/Easy Listening, which was responsible for 8.1 per cent of all albums sales in 2013 thanks mainly to the combined efforts of Michael Bublé (To Be Loved) and, somewhat ironically given his ‘Prince of Pop' mantle, Robbie Williams (Swings Both Ways). The genre was also boosted by the strong performance of the Les Misérables Motion Picture Cast Recording.

Contemporary Urban: R&B and Hip Hop
R&B, which in recent years has been averaging a double-digit share, accounted for only 5.7 per cent of the albums market in 2013 – its lowest figure since 1995. This translated to just five titles in the list of 100 best-selling titles last year. Hip Hop fared little better, with just 3.6 per cent share of the market – albeit fractionally up on 2012 thanks to the strong performance of Eminem's Marshall Mathers LP 2 album. Tastes in music tend to be cyclical, but one further explanation for this dip may be that a number of artists whose heritage lies in Urban music have 'crossed over' into more mainstream Pop or even Dance in recent years.

Speciality genres
Heading the ‘Speciality' genres is Classical music, which remains steady at 3.2 per cent of the albums market, ahead of Country (1.7 per cent), Jazz (1.3 per cent), Folk (1.2 per cent) and Blues (0.9 per cent). Reggae has a 0.7 per cent share of albums sales, with the remainder of the list made up by Children's (0.2 per cent), World Music (0.2 per cent), Spoken Word (0.1 per cent) and New Age (0.1 per cent).

SINGLES - Pop still rules
In contrast to Rock's performance when it comes to albums, an analysis of the Singles market, which is made up 99 per cent of digital downloads, shows that Pop is by far the more dominant genre. It accounts for 36.2 per cent of all singles purchased in 2013 compared to just 21.4 per cent in respect of Rock (still the genre's best performance since 2009 however). Like Pop, Dance is a category that performs proportionately better on the singles front - responsible for 16.1 per cent of sales, a trend also evident with R&B (13.5 per cent). R&B's strong performance was thanks in part to the huge No.1 success of Robin Thicke, T.I. and Pharrell Williams' smash hit Blurred Lines, while Hip Hop (8.6 per cent) benefited from the success of two Macklemore releases.

COMPILATION ALBUMS - Now albums help Pop outsell Rock by 8 - 1
The popularity of Pop over Rock is even more pronounced when it comes to compilations, accounting for nearly half of all UK compilation sales in 2013 (44.9 per cent) and outselling Rock-based titles by a margin of 8 to 1.

Such a performance shouldn't come as a surprise given the huge popularity of the Pop-inspired Now range, which claimed the top 3 best-selling albums of 2013 (Now 86, 85 and 84 respectively in terms of sales). Pop actually came in ahead of Dance, which accounted for 27.7 per cent of the comps market – thanks mainly to the success of the Ministry of Sound range, followed by R&B (6.9 per cent), Rock (only 6 per cent), MOR/Easy Listening (5 per cent) and Classical (4.3 per cent).

Source: http://www.musicdish.com/mag/?id=13537

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POLICE STATE, USA

'Trigger-happy' cop kills disabled man's service dog

Shocking video draws reactions from around globe

Published: 15 hours ago

Drew Zahn About | Email | Archive

Drew Zahn is a WND news editor who cut his journalist teeth as a member of the award-winning staff of Leadership, Christianity Today's professional journal for church leaders. A former pastor, he is the editor of seven books, including Movie-Based Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching, which sparked his ongoing love affair with film and his weekly WND column, "Popcorn and a (world)view."

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Tarek Hassani's dashboard-mounted camera shows moments leading up to and following shooting that left a dog dead

When Officer Tarek Hassani responded to a call of dogs running wildly through a Filer, Idaho, neighborhood on Feb. 8, a pair of Labradors – one yellow, one brown – barked and bounded around him like agitated guard dogs.
The video camera on Hassani’s squad car reveals the stunning events that happened next.
The dogs can be heard barking and growling. They leap around the police officer. The cop draws his gun. He kicks out wildly at the dogs, only stirring them up more. Then, as he makes his way around a vehicle in the driveway, Officer Hassani pulls the trigger.

The brown Lab’s body is slammed to the ground. The barking suddenly turns to whining and whimpering, as the dog named “Hooch” drags its broken body out of the camera’s view.
The dash-cam video has since created an international stir, with hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube and tens of thousands of people on Facebook calling for Hassani to be fired for what they say was excessive force used against dogs that weren’t actually threatening or attacking the officer.
Jon Alexander of Idaho’s Twin Falls Times-News was the first to report on the video, writing in his original article, “A dog is dead, and its owner is alleging trigger-happy police work.”
“Sure enough, that video went viral,” Alexander wrote in a subsequent editorial. “It’s gritty, brutal and powerful. Hassani’s .45 caliber hollow-point drives the poor animal into the ground as if it was hit with a sledge hammer. You watch the dog slink away to its death.”
Police officers who shoot dogs: Journalist tracks incidents of gratuitous pet deaths around the country
The dashcam video of the shooting can be seen below (Editor’s note: The following video contains graphic, real violence and foul language and may be disturbing to some viewers):

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As it turns out, this isn’t the first time the “trigger-happy” Hassani has been under investigation for questionable discharge of a firearm.
Following a high-speed chase of a shooting suspect in May 2010, Hassani approached the suspect’s stopped vehicle, but the tinted glass obstructed his view of the interior. Hassani then fired through the driver’s side front window, wounding the suspect in the head.
Three months later, Ada County Prosecutor Greg Bower and Deputy Prosecutor Shawna Dunn absolved Hassani of any wrongdoing following an independent investigation of the events.
“(Hassani’s) actions were justifiable,” Dunn said at the time.
Filer Police Chief Tim Reeves said at the time he was happy that Ada County prosecutors agreed with his department’s findings in the case.

Protesters gather on Feb. 12 to demand firing of police officer who shot service dog in Filer, Idaho

Rick Clubb is the owner of Hooch, the 7-year-old Lab Hassani killed. Clubb suffers from Parkinson’s disease and said Hooch had been his service dog for two years.
Clubb told the Times-News that his son’s 9th birthday party was wrapping up about 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 8 and that the dogs, which are normally let out in a fenced area in the back yard, escaped out the front door while guests were coming and going.
“We want (Hassani) fired,” Clubb told the newspaper “He had other options. He didn’t have to kill my dog.
“It was right outside my son’s bedroom,” he continued. “What if [the bullet] had ricocheted through the window?”

Rick Clubb, pointing to place where Hooch was shot

Police, however, say the dogs had been running loose earlier in the day and previous attempts to find them proved unsuccessful.
Police Chief Reeves again came to Hassani’s defense, telling the Times-News his officer had no choice but to put the Lab down after it kept taking an aggressive posture.
Hassani’s motive in shooting the animal remains a bit mysterious. On one hand, the dogs can be heard and seen barking and growling at the officer; but on the other hand, the video doesn’t show the dog making any attempt to attack him.
Some comments posted on Alexander’s online articles come from people who claim to be locals with first-hand knowledge of Hassani as a local bully with a badge.
Others have reported to be neighbors of Hassani’s who spoke highly of his character.
Pamela Geller of the Freedom Defense Initiative and the Atlas Shrugs blog speculated Hassani may be a Muslim name and suggested Islam is prone to reviling canines.
The video itself contains audio of Hassani speaking with Clubb immediately after the shooting, explaining, “I am sorry I shot your dog. I love dogs, but I am not going to be bit again. Like I said, sir, last time I ended up in the E.R.”
Filer Mayor Rick Dunn told the Times-News the Nampa, Idaho, police department has been hired to investigate the shooting, and Hassani has been placed on administrative leave during the investigation.

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How To Get Your Music On Pandora: Physical CD No Longer Required

« Super Bowl Gave Artists A Lift On Spotify | Main | Former Exec Accused Of Embezzling $1M From Warner Music »

How To Get Your Music On Pandora: Physical CD No Longer Required

Pandora has finally opened its doors to musicians (and comics) who aren't on a label and don't have a physical CD with UPC on Amazon. This is great news for both DIY and digital-only musicians whose presence in the industry has grown stronger with the rise of EDM. Once word spreads there's likely to be a glut of music submitted and extra delays in consideration by Pandora so do submit soon and avoid the rush.

If you're trying to be findable by fans and future fans, Pandora is one of the places you would typically want to have your music available. In the past they required a CD on Amazon with a UPC code which was a barrier to entry for many DIY artists. It may sound weird but it's similar to reviewers requiring CDs. It used to be a valid way of identifying who was getting serious and who wasn't.

But things are changing and Pandora now allows direct digital submission of music that is available via iTunes (US only), Amazon.com/MP3, CD Baby or Bandcamp.

Here are the steps you'll need to take based on Pandora's guidelines:

First you'll need a free Pandora account.

You'll also need:

• Contact information
• Artist/band name
• Name and type of release
• Valid link to at least 1 of your tracks on iTunes (US only), Amazon.com/MP3, CD Baby or Bandcamp

Sign-in at Submit to Pandora using your free account login.

Then follow these steps:

• Provide us with your basic contact information
• Give us details about your submission including your name, release information and links to your tracks
• Ensure that you have legal rights to your work and it is available on iTunes (US only), Amazon.com/MP3, CD Baby or Bandcamp
• Verify your account

Note that you can only have one submission in at a time. You are asked not to submit music until that first track goes live which might be a minute. If the track is not approved, you can start over and try again with a different track.

Also note:

"If you live outside of the US, Australia and New Zealand you can still submit your music or comedy to Pandora for consideration. Please contact us here and we will create an account on your behalf. With that log-in you will be able to access submit.pandora.com."

You can find the above steps and details here but keep in mind that thesubmission form will walk you through it.

Best of luck and see you on Pandora!

Hat tip to the sharp eyes of Ari Herstand.

More:

• Getting Sensible About Pandora Royalties: An Analysis By Jay Frank

Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (Twitter/Facebook) is currently relaunching All World Dance. To suggest topics about music tech, DIY music biz or music marketing for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.

Antelope Valley's 1960's Band Reunion in Palmdale CA on July 19, 2014