Westsidewill – Wild Off The Air

Today I decided to post some videos that are “Must See”, not because they are great or anything, but because they have either Had a Ton of views and were hot at one point, or because they are gaining steam and getting hot:

1) Peep Microwave Disaster

Thoughts: Peeps aren’t even good tasting…now I find out that they can wipe out the whole world?!?! They must be stopped. And on Easter they don’t hold a candle to Cadbury Eggs – that’s a fact jack.

2) Obama Bumper Sticker Removal Kit

Thoughts: I didn’t post this because I have a strong feeling one way or another for Obama – but I did post it because it’s some brilliant internet marketing! (Unsigned Musicians take some notes here….make a funny video….sell some shit.) And if you can’t trust a middle-aged man with shoulder length hair who can you trust?

3) Darth Vader Calls About His iPhone 4

Thoughts: Darth Vader is taking this whole thing pretty well – I mean for an “evil” guy he sure is going through the right channels to complain…I mean he could have just gone and blown up Apple…Darth is getting soft in his old age…I remember back in the day when he used to be a Gangsta rapper…

4) Star Wars Rap

Thoughts: This is one of the original viral videos…I don’t recall ever seeing this edition though…the graphics and everything are a huge upgrade! See what I was saying about Darth Vader? The man really went soft on us after his rap career.

5) My New hair Cut

Thoughts: The Original Jersey Shore

6) My New Haircut 2

Thoughts: Sequels always seem to lack something don’t they?

And there you go folks, some videos that should give you a good laugh…or 2…or…none! Have a great Hump Day!

It’s Hump day! And I know that you’ve listened to the Top 10 Show AND The Unsigned Artist Showcase

In Honor of Going to Ribfest in Naperville IL this July 4th I’m going to post some videos from some of the artists you can find there!

1) Sister Hazel “All for You”

Fun Fact: The WestSideWill guys and I are going to see “Sister Hazel” perform…our 2nd time seeing them perform. Yeah…jealous?

2) Sammy Hagar “I can’t Drive 55″

Fun Fact: I wasn’t even alive when this song came out.

3) Julianne Hough “That Song In My Head”

Fun Fact: The original title probably was “That Song in my head…really sucks.” Thanks for sharing that song with us Julianne.

4) Blue Oyster Cult “Don’t Fear the Reaper”

Fun Fact: I don’t think ANY of the original guys are still performing with the band…so…this is going to be a great act. That’s like Dave & I performing as Kid N’ Play.

5) LeeAnn Rimes “Can’t fight the moonlight”

Fun Fact: Well…this is more of an open question…why would you want to fight the moonlight? It’s unbeatable like that 85′ Bears (who weren’t undefeated…but should have been.)

And that’s really all I have energy for. Are you jealous of the awesome acts we’re going to get to see this year? No? Yeah…figured. But you have to admit Juilanne Hough is Hought (read: Hot…it’s a clever play on words…and…you know it’s clever.)

Have a great hump day!

If you listen to music you know that Auto-Tune has been taking over the industry for the past 24 months or so. The fact is that auto-tune has been around WAY before that (since 1997 to be exact) it’s just recently that artists like T-Pain have decided that it’s a good idea to screw with it enough to make their voices sound so robotic that it makes sense. Not to me, but someone out there.

So what is “Auto-Tune”? Well according to Wikipedia:

Auto-Tune is a proprietary audio processor created by Antares Audio Technologies. Auto-Tune uses a phase vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances. It is used to disguise off-key inaccuracies and mistakes, and has allowed singers to perform perfectly tuned vocal tracks without the need of singing in tune. While its main purpose is to slightly bend sung pitches to the nearest true semitone (to the exact pitch of the nearest tone in traditional equal temperament), Auto-Tune can be used as an effect to distort the human voice when pitch is raised or lowered significantly.

Basically Auto-Tune’s purpose is to correct ones voice to the proper pitch, not to distort it theway that T-Pain and Ron Brownz do it now.

T-Pain, one of many who use Auto-Tune.

T Pain didn’t discover Auto-Tune, in fact he isn’t even the biggest user of Auto-Tune out there. He IS the guy who made screwing with it famous, but he isn’t even the most popular Auto-Tune user out there, in fact I found this cool video on YouTube to show how different artists use Auto-Tune:

Take a look at some of these auto-tune users. They don’t all sound like T-Pain do they? Clearly showing that there are different ways to use Auto-Tune to get different sounds. That my friends is the point of this Tutorial.

Here’s what you’ll need,

1) Antares Auto-Tune VTS Plug-in
2) Some sort of recording software (Fruity Loops, Acid, Pro Tools, Garage Band, Etc.) I’m using Acid Pro 7 for fun.

You don’t even really NEED any of the above to enjoy the tutorials I’m posting. Hopefully you will be able to just read along and see if auto-tune will fit your need as an unsigned artist!

Next Lesson: What do these knobs do?

We thought about this one for a long time, and decided that there will be NO UNSIGNED ARTIST SHOWCASE ON THURSDAY!!!!

It isn’t because we couldn’t come into the offices early in the morning/late Wednesday and do the shows that we do. It IS because we figured that Thursday is the show we have for NEW MUSIC and how many listeners do we honestly expect to have on thanksgiving? Not a whole ton.

We want to expose the new artists to as many fans/listeners as possible – it’s with that in mind that we will not have a Thursday show this week. The music from this week will be ADDED to next Thursdays show.

Any questions holler at us!

Get your popcorn ready people cause here comes the Diesel!!! Unless you wear purple with a number 4 on it,  you probably will enjoy this.    Look out Bert Farve, you’re about to get the real deal.   (I will be purposely misspelling your stupid name)

Boy, oh, boy, where does one begin with such a pompous ass with an ego the size of my…..well lets just say a large ego.   As my last blog stated Bert needs to be in the spotlight as much as possible and he didn’t disappoint this time. After months of speculation about returning from his 2nd retirement,  to play with the Packer hated Vikings,  Bert Farve has signed a one year 10-12 million dollar contract with said team. Sure it doesn’t sound that bad, but lets go back to a simpler time and see where this started…..

March 4th 2008 – Bert Farve announces his retirement from the Packers despite publicly stating he wants to play, but only if it was for a winner. The Packers, having already gone through the will-he, won’t-he for a few years had told Farve that they wanted an answer so they could move on with the team and new Quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who had sat behind Bert since he was drafted.

July 2nd 2008 – Bert is in contact with the Packers about a possible return to the team.

July 11th 2008 – Sends letter to Packers asking for his release from his contract so he can go to another team.

July 14th 2008 – Bert says in an interview he retired to quickly and didn’t want to be a backup for the Packers. He wanted to play for a winner and said the Packer organization
was dishonest with the public about him.

July 29th 2008 – Farve files for reinstatement to the NFL and has talks with the Packers about his future. Both he and the Packers agrre that a separation would be best.

August 4th 2008 – Farve is reinstated to the NFL.

August 7th 2008 – The Packers trade Bert to the New York Jets.

December 29th 2008 – After losing four of his last five games and throwing eight interceptions and only two touchdowns an MRI reveals a torn biceps in his right shoulder.

February 11th 2009 – Bert tells New York Jets he will be retiring again.

May 2009 – Bert asks to be released from his contract with the Jets so he could, if he un-retired again, go to another team. The Jets granted his release.

June 15th 2009 – Bert, after surgery on his bicep, stats he wants to play again. This time it’s with the Minnesota Vikings, hated rival of the Packers.

July 28th 2009 – Bert tells Vikings he will stay retired after many talks back and forth with both sides.

August 18th 2009 – Bert Farve comes out of retirement again and signs with the Vikings.

To recap, he has screwed over an entire city and team that made him into a living legend. He has screwed another team and city by selfishly playing hurt and so bad that they failed to make the playoffs after an 8-3 start and to top it all off he now has screwed over players on the Vikings who went through training camp to become starting QB only to have good ol’ number 4 saunter his ego into town and claim the savior is here.

His main objective seems to be how many people he can get to hate him. They might have respect his talents with the Packers and hated playing against him, but now they all hate the fact that he goes from team to team, only if they are “winners”, when he sees fit to play regardless of the situation of the other team he’s going to.

In my opinion, Bert is just as bad as Poop Daddy in wanting the spotlight all for himself, stopping at nothing and leaving a trail of people who want nothing more than to see him crumpled on the ground in unbearable pain. Just ask Mail Room Aaron, staunch Packer supporter and, up until now Farve fan. He stats, “I hope he gets hurt so bad that he is in pain all day, everyday for the rest of his life. I fuckin’ hate him.” Strong words from a former follower and I couldn’t agree more. However, knowing how good his is at throwing interceptions all the time and ruining a team, I glad he’s playing again on the simple fact that this means it makes the Vikings worse and it’s two more wins for my beloved Chicago Bears.

Bert, you’re nothing more than an old man playing past your time, tarnishing an amazing career with your ego nonsense and puffy chested posturing, turning your back on the very city that turned you from a backup QB with a stupidly spelled last name to a God-like figure among Packer fans. You want the spotlight on you at all times despite the fact that you will destroy the team you are on. You’re useless, old, arrogant, manipulating, and a huge egomaniacal ass. Here’s an idea, learn to spell your own name since the “R” is in front of the “V” and go home to forget about football the way it’s fans wants to forget you.   That, ladies and gentleman,  is the Real Deal.

Goodness people it has been to long!! That’s right everyone the Real Deal is back and I’ve got the Real Deal on Diddy.

I just saw a commercial for P. Diddy’s brand spanking new piece of crap called Making His Band. We all can recall the Making of the Band seasons where the best two things to come out of those were O-Town and “rapper” Dylan or whatever tried to choke out Wyclef for getting “too close”, classy.
Anyways, back to the present, in another lame and selfless attempt to try and stay relevant in anything, Diddy is cooking up this hot, little number called Making His Band. I guess instead of making a crappy band, this time, Diddy has decided to make a crappy band for himself to tour with for our entertainment, oh goodie. I don’t think this is going to lift up Diddy’s distinguished career that has already fallen faster than Hot Joel off an ATV. At least we all like Hot Joel and listening to his stories about lake houses and special pants, I know I do even if I have a hard time believing them.

Sure I suppose P. Diddy is a legend and billionaire, but he really needs to give it up and go back to pushing Vodka or watches or something. Perhaps he should give Bret Favre a call and see how it feels to be past his time in the spotlight and they can have dinner together to talk about Vikings Qb Tavaris Jackson or rap darling, boat lovin’ T-Pain. Either way, I beg you Diddy, please stop making terrible shows with terrible talent and go back to wandering around in you mansions with your lackeys.  Maybe you could see what talent is all about and listen to the real artists we put on our shows. P. Diddy, your time is over, you’re becoming nothing more than a reality show joke and that is The Real Deal.

So today it was announced that Amazon.com has purchased Zappos.com for roughly $900 Million (if you include the package given to employees and everything like that.)

And that really got me thinking, I know this post is going to have exactly zero to do with music so if you were expecting a music post see the one below about Zack Borer’s amazing album “Home”, what did those website “valuation” sites have pegged as the value for Zappos.com?

Well my friends let the good times begin:

- Our first competitor is WebsiteOutlook.com.
Their Line: “Websiteoutlook is the perfect place to evaluate any website. When choosing to buy or sell a website having the proper information about your investment can be crucial to your success.”
Their Value of Zappos.com: $2.23 Million USD
Accuracy: .24% of real purchase price
Summary: Ummmm, don’t let the Amazon.com shareholders get a hold of that info!

- Up next is WebSiteValueCalculator.com
Their Line: “Your site could be worth millions and you wouldn’t even know it…”
Their Value of Zappos.com: $136 ( I think this thing is broken)
Accuracy: 1.5×10^-5% of real purchase price
Summary: That thing has to be broken.

- ValueMyWeb.com
Their Line: “ValueMyWeb uses an innovative approach to come up with your website value. Unlike other website calculators, Valuemyweb crunches through a lot of data to evaluate your website worth.
Their Value of Zappos.com: $102,732,101 USD
Accuracy: 11.33% of actual purchase price
Summary: At this point, this is really impressive compared to its competitors. Although to be fair they did have to “email” me a report. Why I had to give them an email address so they could link me back to their site I’ll never know.

- Stimator.com
Their Line: Ummm…I can’t find one. So…I guess I’ll make one up: “Good Luck”
Their Value of Zappos.com: $25,475,544 USD
Accuracy: 2.8% of real purchase price
Summary: You know what, I’m actually a little surprised that they estimated the value this high after some of the “valuations” above. They seem to have a much better estimation site at this point.

- WebSiteValued.com
Their line: Website Valued gives you an estimated value of your online business by profiling your website for technical information, keywords, public visitor stats and then comparing them to the database of previous site and domain sales.
Their value of Zappos.com: $53,158,675 USD (their upper estimate) – $957,924 (their lower estimate)
Accuracy: 5.8% – .1% of real purchase price
Summary: Well that is a HUGE range for the value of a website, however it is also WAY off in the price. Maybe they should expand the range a bit?

- URLAppraisal.net
Their Line: The following domain name appraisal is an estimate on the worth of Zappos.com. This is only an estimate, and actual sale prices on the open domain or website marketplace may vary significantly. (Ya think?)
Their Value of Zappos.com: $30,806,017.94 USD
Accuracy: 3.4% of actual purchase price
Summary: Well this isn’t really a summary, more of just something I found humorus – under their valuation they have link that says ‘Find Out How To Make More Money’. Ummm…I think Zappos did without you guys!

What did we learn today? Well we learned that when trying to value a WEB ONLY business like Zappos.com website valuations have some serious short comings. They can’t take into account any sort of property that is owned by the company (in Zappos case real estate and merchandise) nor can they take into account the value multiplier that one company would put on another company to remove them from the marketplace. Which is the case here when Amazon went out and bought Zappos.com to be sure that Zappos didn’t grow larger than they were.

So, I guess the moral of the story is that website valuation calculators are only a good thing if your website doesn’t do anything of any value. But we also learned that ValueMyWeb.com is probably the most accurate, if you count discounting the real purchase price by around 89% accurate.

Also to be fair to these valuation calculators they all made note that their values should not be used for anything that is business related, rather just good fun or to see how much you have grown.

When I first got this CD from Doug D. as an album review candidate I was secretly excited – we’ve had some great songs from Zack Borer in the past to play on the Top 10 Unsigned Artist Countdown and now was my chance to see what his full album “Home” had in store for me.

Home is an 11 track album (well 10 tracks, the first track is an intro) that is a real treat if you enjoy an album that will take you all over the place. It takes you to an upbeat high energy place with “Southern Swing” (track 3) and then it slows it all down for you with “Let Me Go” (track 5) – which happens to build up to a great paced track. And “Home” really makes you think with its finale, and title track, “Home”.

Track List:
1. Home (Intro)
2. That’s The Way (Last heard on Week 109)
3. Southern Swing
4. Love Can Grab Ahold
5. Let Me Go
6. Wonder To Discover
7. Amy
8. Every Time I Go
9. Changed Me
10. Enemy
11. Home

Packaging
This is actually one of the cooler parts of the album, it isn’t that often that I get an album to review that has a booklet, and a useful booklet to boot – has the lyrics to each song! Seriously, why do I love the packaging, because I love being able to read the lyrics to the songs – maybe it’s just me, maybe I speak for everyone but I kind of enjoy actually being able to follow along with where the track is going. I don’t like getting albums that either don’t have a booklet or have the most useless booklet of all time. So Zach Borer gets an A+ in my book for the packaging.

The Review
When you first pop Home in to your CD player you are greeted with the “Home (Intro)” which is actually really cool. Normally I’m not a fan of things like that but it really sets kind of a cool mood for the album. “Home” is a piano based intro doodad but again, it works for me.

2. That’s The Way
Truth time, before I reviewed the album I know that I was a fan of this track, it’s catchy, it’s musically correct and the vocals are spot on. How can I describe my feeling going in to this track? It’s like going to get sprinkle donuts, you know you like sprinkle donuts, and the one you just got does not disappoint. “That’s The Way” actually was probably the best bet to start off the album after the Intro which was kind of a slower piano based track. “That’s The Way” brings you back to attention if you started to zone out during the intro…which I’ll admit I normally do during an intro – but not this time. Try to listen to this track and not find yourself humming or singing “Oh oh oh…that’s the way love goes…” Great track, one of my favorites on the album and when you have to come out of an intro swinging Zack absolutely did.

3. Southern Swing
Even Ted Williams made a few outs. I wanted to like this song, starts off fast paced, some cool guitar, some cool vocals but for some reasons I couldn’t get into it. Maybe it was that it took to long to build up, and when it was built up I didn’t care for the music, Zack’s vocals again were on the money, but when you hit us with “That’s The Way” as your first song the next track has a lot to live up to. It didn’t. The lyrics were OK, but after “That’s The Way” OK isn’t going to cut it for me.

4. Love Can Grab Ahold
My first thought was ‘ahold isn’t a word’ but my second thought was this is a cool sounding track, coming out of “Southern Swing” it kind of feels right when the harmonica is mixed in. This track musically is actually pretty darn enjoyable (I know you are probably thinking, “I don’t often find a harmonica enjoyable”…but try it.) It’s fast paced, and musically fun, the vocals are on point as always (that seems to be a common theme here right?) lyrically it’s kind of confusing but I don’t think that this track was meant to be the deepest on the album. It’s a good song.

5. Let Me Go
The album takes a slow turn here after the more up tempo “Southern Swing and “Love can Grab Ahold”. Vocally Zack doesn’t sound like John Mayer, but if there was a song John Mayer was going to jack for his own album it would be this one. It’s a deep track, great vocals, great music, and the lyrics tell a story you want to listen to. An underrated part of this track is the backup vocals by Laya Barak. Very cool song that won’t let you go to sleep on it because of the tempo change ups thrown in. A lot of slower songs stay too slow, “Let Me Go” does not suffer from this problem. This is one of my favorite tracks on the album as well.

6. Wonder To Discover
This is a solid tracks there are some parts of this track where you really think it’s going to be your favorite track on the album, but it has a lot to compete with so to be honest it’s just a solid track for the album. However I’m willing to bet that this track will be a favorite of many because it has a catchy hook with great musical backing. It’s at this point in listening to the album you being to realize that there was actually some thought to the way this album was arranged and some songs just feel like they were in the right spot.

7. Amy
This is a good track again, in my top 5 on the album which is saying a lot. It has a bit of a Jason Mraz vibe to it, I know Zack doesn’t sound like Jason Mraz but you can kind of see Jason Mraz trying to jack this track. Another song with a catchy hook, thanks to the vocal help of Laya Barak and Josh Mendleson. You can see your self just saying “Ohhhhhhhhh bop bop bop…” Yeah, I did, it was stuck in my head. Not a super long track, but enjoyable.

8. Every Time I Go
I like this song, I don’t love it. It again adds to the album as a whole and you feel like if this track wasn’t on the album it wouldn’t feel complete. It’s the type of song that is a little more serious, and you will be glad if you buy the album that have the lyrics. Because to be honest if I didn’t there would be some parts where I would say…what the heck is going on here. This track is another that starts slow and builds up, by this point in the album you’ll being to realize that a lot of songs are like this on the album.

9. Changed Me
This song is a little more soulful than any other track on the album and it’s a nice change up and makes it my favorite track on the album. You have the cool vocals and bass to start the track off then it builds up nicely and breaks down the way you want it to. It’s a very well put together track and sounds a bit different than the other tracks on this album, it’s not 100% different but the small difference make it feel like this the way you want all of Zack’s songs to sound. It’s funny you listen to this track and kind of think, woah, he can do all this vocally, musically, and lyrically why doesn’t he do it all the time? I realize that not every song can be as involving as this but this track really does force his other songs to have to live up to its standards.

10. Enemy
“Enemy”…yeah to be honest I don’t like this track at all. I don’t know what it is about it, probably the fact it had to follow “Changed Me” in the play list. It’s an OK song when taken by itself, but after hearing all of the talents and sounds that Zack has you kind of just feel like this track could have more.

11. Home
This is the title track to the album so when I first hit play on my ol’ Windows Media Player I was expecting big things. I mean I already went through the musical journey that was “Home” now I have to hear what “Home” was all about. And I have to tell you if I didn’t have the lyric book that came with the album I would have been a little bit disappointed, but after looking over the lyrics and listening to the track a few times you find that this is a deep track. The quote that sums up this whole track is “It’s hard to say just when our dreams got pushed aside till tomorrow.” It’s deep. I mean it’s hard to say when you stopped dreaming of being a football player, doctor, world changer or whatever, but eventually you do and this song describes that perfectly. It’s a nice ending to the album because when it stops the album is done and all you are left with is silence to reflect on that.

Scoreboard (All Scores /10)

Packaging – 10
I got a lyric book, and who was on the track. I don’t really care to have anything else in an album book. Plus it came in a Jewel case! Better than the paper sleeve. Presentation does count people.

Arrangement – 8
This score indicates how I feel about the album as a whole and how it was put together. And I have to say I like the flow of the album for the most part. I could have done without “Enemy” being squeezed between 2 of my favorite tracks on the album but I’ll live. This album takes you through a journey, that’s one of the things you miss when you just download one or two .mp3s. You miss the journey that an album can take you on. Zack however did not miss the point and this album was put together very nicely.

Sound Quality – 10
You’d be surprised that we even have this category, but then again you don’t have to listen to 99% of the unsolicited CDs we used to get.

Overall 9/10
I really like this album, I think a lot of our listeners would love this album too. Zack has that acoustic sound that I know some people may not “love” but the truth is that even if you hate everything acoustic or everything that indie rock, pop, whatever has to offer you’ll still find yourself enjoying at least one track on this album.

“Home” is musically, lyrically, and vocally sound. In fact I would say that it’s fairly high quality in each of those regards. I know a lot of unsigned and indie musicians put out some pretty crappy albums with no chance of anyone but their mothers liking the album, but this is not one of those releases. It has a major label sound and sound quality that even the pickiest audiophiles will enjoy.

The point of an album is to take you on a trip, that’s lost on a lot of mainstream artists but not lost here on Zack. You start off with an intro that you may or may not love, I’m not here to score intros, but as you get going on the album the tracks pick up and slow down just enough to keep you paying attention to the lyrics so you have a chance to experience what Zack wants you to experience with home.

I’m not going to give some lameo 40 year old CD reviewer quote about how it was magic and only David Copperfield can make my heart disappear quicker – but I will say that as a 25 year old dude who mostly likes rap music I found it to be one of the most enjoyable full albums that I have heard in a while. And I think that’s exactly what Zack wanted from “Home”.

The Recording Industry Association of America is set to begin Trial on Monday vs. a Minnesota woman who it claims downloaded music illegally. The RIAA has largely stopped these suits because the public pretty much agreed that they were being a bunch of dicks.

No one is saying that they shouldn’t defend their property, they absolutely should, but some of their tactics made them seem like dicks. For example:

- In 2006, the industry dropped a lawsuit against Tanya Andersen, a disabled single mother in Oregon. Andersen said she had been misidentified and never downloaded the music she was accused of stealing. Industry representatives allegedly threatened to question her 10-year-old daughter if she didn’t pay up.

- In 2007, the companies backed off their attempt to sue an elderly Texas grandmother, Rhonda Crain, who had been displaced by Hurricane Rita in 2005 and said she never downloaded music. They settled for no money, just her agreement not to download any music illegally.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090613/ap_en_mu/us_tec_music_downloading

Why is this an interesting case? Because it’s case 2.0, the first suit in 2007 the RIAA won $9,250 per song that this lady downloaded. Yeah, $9,250 – per song. That number is just staggering, which kind of makes the RIAA again seem like a bunch of dicks.

Is what the RIAA is doing wrong? Nope. They need to defend their copyrights some how, but I’m not sure going after those who don’t really have the money to pay $9,250 per song is the way to go. The RIAA knows this and pretty much stopped these lawsuits. Now what they do is ask internet service providers to stop you from downloading music. If the ISP sees that you are downloading music illegally they will hit you with a letter of warning, then cut you off from the internet. A much better approach for the RIAA but it sucks for the ISPs who have to do all this on their own.

It is going to be an interesting case if this lady from Minnesota wins somehow – it will set a precedent that downloading music isn’t as illegal as the RIAA wants you to think. Stay tuned.