Riot Like Words, "The White Belt Demo" and Kill The Ghost, "I Can't Reach Texas" both get added to the Raw Deal Jukebox. So you ask, How does my band get added to the jukebox. Here are the qualifications.....

1. You must play Raw Deal Productions shows every once in awhile. Once every couple of months will normally do it.

2. You must have a downloadable song off your myspace account. I pick the song.

3. You must have a photo of your band playing a Raw Deal Event.

Songs are rotated after 1,000 plays.

In what was the 2nd fastest time to reach the 1,000 plays limit, "You Killed The Poet" by The Ivory Class was retired after just 40 days and 1010 plays on the box. It will now be replaced by "Jessica" by Fatback Circus. Congratulations guys!

The Battle Of The Bands IV was awesome. Alot of new heights were reached the past saturday night at the Red Eyed Fly and the show was a huge success. The attendance, 465 people, was the most for any of the battles yet. And the score of 37 out of 40, made by Prey For Sleep, was the highest judges score in the history of the event as well. However, with the combined scores of the people in attendance vote and the judges score, The Still Life won the event with Tomorrow's Too Late placing second and Prey For Sleep taking third. All the bands involved were rewarded with a free merchandise set up on CD Fuse and all 6 bands will be featured artist as well on the site. Congratulations to all the bands that performed and an announcement for The Battle Of The Bands 6 will be very soon. 

I would like to give an example of what bands are supposed to do and what not do. I have so many rules and examples that it is difficult to explain in one blog. However, I have three examples, one positive, one negative and one that was almost a negative but turned into a positive.

First, the positive. The Malcontent Party to the hardest slot on a Sunday night, 11:30pm, promoted, and brought out a really good crowd. They promoted at the club, email list and on line, and proved once again they are one of the best and most underated bands in Austin.

Second, the negative that turned into a positive. Prime Element had gotten their cymbals stolen @ Redrum a couple of weeks ago. They called me on Thursday to cancel the gig. That's the negative. If you can play a show, you never ever turn it down. I understand that they were upset because they spent alot of money on their cymbals, but you can't do anything about that by sitting around at the house. Unless there is a serious medical situation that has come up or all your equiptment has been stolen, there is no reason to cancel a show. The positive, they sucked it up, rented some cymbals, and played the show. For that I am grateful.

Third, the negative. I'm so pissed about this next one, I won't even mention the bands name. Let's just say that there day and Raw Deal Productions are over. This one band and I had an agreement that they would not play any shows around last night. It was agreed that, this nameless band, who I just previously had the same situation with before, would not play in Austin for about a week before or a week after. They purposly tried to play me stupid by saying they didn't understand the agreement even though it was thoroughly explained to them why. If you are a local band, you should not play too often in your hometown. Once a week at the most. You stretch out your fan base too much. So best of luck to the unnamed band. 

As I'm sure most of you have heard, The Back Room, an austin music main stay of over 30 years is closing. I have so many thoughts about this situation that I feel I must get them out tonight. This will be, by far, the biggest blog I have ever written. I started working The Back Room when Mark Olivarez and Frank Duran hired me as a door guy way back in December 1990. Back then the big bands at the club were, The Dangerous Toys, Pariah and Near Dark. I must of seen Pantera play there half a dozen times and touring acts were a plenty because there was no Austin Music Hall or even Liberty Lunch. I left in 1993 and came back in 1994 and became head of security and worked behind the bar. I also started performing my first shows as MC Truth at that time and Jim Ramsey, the booking agent, and Mark allowed me to perform a ton of shows on that stage. I stayed on their until 1995 when I left to start working at Music Lab. I was allowed to book my own shows their when the clubs popularity started to wain. In late 95, Mark and I had a falling out and I did not go back into the club until 98. My new band, Vicious Souls, had attracted quite a following playing venues like Liberty Lunch, Nasty's and The Voodoo Lounge. Mark asked me to come back because the club was at an all time low. Eventually, I became the full time booking agent from 1998 - 2004. The time between 1999 and 2000 ended up being the most profitable in the history of the club. I was subsequently let go from The Back Room in 2004. It has been the only job I have ever been fired from. However Mark did let me finish off my last month there, unlike another venue I went to afterwards.

       I think it is a huge sign of what things might come to in Austin music if it doesn't start taken care of itself. I will terribly miss all the good times at had at The Back Room. Unfortunately, I don't think Austin will realize what they have lossed for quite sometime. I believe it is just as big as loss and Clifford Antone dying earlier this month. I'm sure I will get alot of slack for saying that, but The Back Room has been an important part of The Austin Underground for the last 30 years. Un Loco, Riddlin Kids and Dynamite Boy all got signed out of that venue. Rubberhed, He Kill Three, Cruiserweight, Born To Lose and even Fire Kills gained alot of their popularity from that venue as well. All those people and venues thinking they have gained something by The Back Room closing, need to understand one thing. The same thing that caused The Back Room to shutdown, threatens to shut down all those same venues. I can think of a few venues that are just a couple bad months away from shutting down. Bands and Venues, it is time to start taking your scene seriously.

Even though I did not book the show, Heath @ The Red Eyed Fly let me pick the 2 local openers for The Authority Zero/OMD show. I picked Here's To Nothing and Captain Bringdown & The Buzzkillers. Both bands brought a ton of people, there was a  line at the door just to see H2N, and both bands played extremely well. They made me look really good. That's what locals are supposed to do when they are put as openers on a road show. Congrats guys! Folks, make sure you catch both these bands when they are playing in town.