Some of rock ‘n’ roll’s biggest names are included in this year’s list of nominees, including Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, The Cure, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and, perhaps most notably, Guns ‘N Roses.

Although some might be perplexed as to why artists with legendary status aren’t already included in the Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation does have rules in place to ensure that any artist fulfills various criteria before being eligible for entry.

Artists become eligible for induction 25 years after the release of their first record.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Ready for 2012

The voting process begins with the Foundation’s nominating committee, composed of rock and roll historians.

Ballots are then forwarded to an international voting body comprised of what the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes as ‘more than 500 rock experts’.

The performers receiving the highest number of votes are inducted.

The Hall of Fame is criticised in some circles as being less about rock ‘n’ roll than it should be, with some of the less obvious past inductees including pop heavyweights like Madonna and Abba.

But the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, itself, takes pride in its supporting a variety of musical genres, clearly identifying with the opinion that rock ‘n’ roll is more than just music.

The President and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, Joel Peresman, said, “From vocal groups to hip hop, from singer-songwriters to hard rocking artists, this group represents the spirit of what we celebrate at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”

Successful nominees are represented in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.

Next year’s induction ceremony is scheduled in Cleveland on 14 April 2012.

Samuel Agini is the editor of Andrew Apanov’s Dotted Music.

The club sits at 100 Oxford Street, London, and is completely immersed in pride due to the musicians, crowds and laissez-faire attitude that have always seen it open its doors and mind to all bands great and small.

A Savethe100club campaign has been launched to raise enough capital through donations so that the team of venue’s supporters can buy “the name, the rights, the goodwill and fixtures and fittings” from the present owner and take over ownership of the club.

The people who donated will become “members of the 100 Club” and will be invited to have their say on major decisions that the board of Trustees make. The club will be run as a not for profit organisation and therefore will be eligible for government funding such as from the Lottery fund and the Heritage fund. The trustees will also be applying for heritage status for the club which will secure its long term future.

When London film maker George McCallum discovered the imminent threat of 100 Club’s closure, he took it upon himself to try and help by creating a mini-documentary which could remind people why, even though we are all so busy, this is something worth caring about and supporting.

It is too late for other great venues like The Astoria and The Metro, but there now only remains a handful of clubs and venues for new bands to play in the heart of London and none quite like The 100 Club. Filmmaker George says, “I hope the documentary helps towards reaching the £500,000 target to turn it into a non-profit organization. It’s an excellent idea and part of the remit for the club is to have a new band night once a week – this is essential to the future of the club.”

Save The 100 Club needs help of the world’s music community today. Even if you don’t can or wish to donate, share a link to this post or to savethe100club.co.uk.

Read below an inspiring excerpt of Joe Matera’s interview with MxPx’ bassist and vocalist Mike Herrera, conducted for Ultimate Guitar last month.

Having spent quite a number of years on a major label, how does it differ being on an indie label today, especially in the current musical climate of downloads and whatnot?

Image credit: Alexandre Cardoso on Flickr

Almost everything about the music business has changed in the past five to ten years. We were on a major label for so long that we kind of got lazy. But now we’re even putting out records ourselves. And a lot of our contemporaries in the same sort of genre are doing the same thing too, putting out record themselves because it is all digital. So you don’t really need a record label anymore, you can put it up on iTunes, on Amazon, all the different websites out there. It is all about promoting yourself, being on tour and doing it that way. It is way more D-I-Y. In fact, everything is D-I-Y today.

It is actually going back to the basic work ethic of what the punk and hardcore bands were and are about, so in a sense D-I-Y is appropriately the accurate word to use.

Yes it is completely. Even though you are using the internet or using whatever companies online to help distribute your digital albums along with online web stores, you are still doing it yourself. And that still means, putting it up online, updating the websites, updating all the social networks. It is a lot of work, it really is.

Have you got an advice to impart to other musicians from all your years in this industry?

Obviously that it is about keeping up and in contact with your fans. Nurture those people because building a fan base is very hard to, especially outside your home town. But once you do that, keep them involved with what you are doing. Also, I think putting out music often is a little bit more important than putting out one big release like every two years. And that is changed too because it used to be where you could do that one album every two years. But that is not what people expect nowadays. You have to keep people interested more often now.

Last time we talked a bit about the different frameworks for such acts, as well as the benefits of adding vocals to your shows. This installment furthers the cause of what I call the evolution of teaching. Mainly “Zurg, don’t fall in sinkhole! Hurts! Zurrrrg! Zurrrrrg!” Yes, yes, that’s right – learning from my Neanderthal mistakes puts you further along the path of musical evolution and enlightenment. After singing, this next topic was my biggest obstacle as a musician!

And what cliff did I tumble off, only to emerge with some newfound skill cleverly disguised as a goose egg on my head?

Songwriting!

But first, a story… (As always)

I had decided I wanted to try a solo gig. I had just wasted a few months in a basement rehearsing with a go-nowhere band, and I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I thought “Hey, I’ll record a demo CD, and get some gigs playing jazzy stuff at restaurants!”

A great idea in theory, but it didn’t quite work out.

I dusted off a little digital recorder (I think it was a Boss BR-532), and started putting some tracks down. And then I hit that proverbial brick wall – HARD! I was a halfway decent guitarist, making a living teaching guitar, and had played live professionally, but… I couldn’t write any songs. Everything I did turned into a formless blues jam. As I write this on Stevie Ray Vaughan’s birthday, let me be the first to say that blues jams rock – But not the ones I was putting down. The lack of any structure, and the absence of vocals made my first “studio” effort something I’d rather not discuss. Well, I got several neat ideas, but all in all, it was a very weak venture. Sure, sure, I could do covers, but to be the artist I wanted to be, I really needed some originals as well.

I shopped the CD around, and only got one or two gigs. Mannnn! After tumbling off that metaphorical cliff of ignorance, I was able to see something that I had missed during my years of practice:

Typewriter on Flickr

Songwriting is a skill vital to a musician of any style.

Since I had been playing electric lead guitar, I was able to get away with not writing my own stuff. One of my teachers looked at me one day and said “If you don’t write your own stuff, you’ll always be playing somebody else’s songs.” Well DUH, but it actually sank in that time. I had always thought guitarists who sang and wrote their own songs where… gasp!… Singer-Songwriters! I considered my arpeggios to set me far above those saps who played Ben Folds covers and stole all my girls. (OK, sorry, but I’m STILL burned about that) It slowly dawned on me that a lot of the heavy songs I liked were actually very well written, too. Another DUH, but hey, I guess I needed to learn this stuff the hard way. Another thing that had always made me think twice about songwriting was that when people said the song was very well written, it usually didn’t rock. It wasn’t a logical train of thought, but it still seemed to be the case. My dad would put on some lame song, and I’d promptly state that the band’s guitarist was lousy. “Yeah, but they’re such good songwriters!” he’d say. Hence my trepidation with setting foot into the arena of songwriters. Would I lose my magical rock powers? Once again, Ozzy Osbourne has a lesson for us.

Listen to any of his tunes, and notice how they’re structured, coherent, and interesting without losing any of the power of rock. Indeed, the structure only adds to the ferocity! Bark at the Moon is a great example of what I’m talking about. Not only are the songs well written, but they’re arranged snazzily too. For those scratching their heads in puzzlement, arrangement refers to what instrument plays which part, and when. Listen to Green Day’s Wake Me Up When September Ends for an idea of how arrangement plays an important role in a song. They take two or three themes, and repeat them on acoustic guitar, electric guitar, drums, and even bells! It keeps things interesting and fresh.

Good songwriting equals good songs, and we have no excuse not to learn this unique skill. And a skill it is, just like alternate picking or string skipping. The more we practice it, the better we get. “But Josh!” you say, “I should just be inspired to write a great tune!” Sure! But practicing the skills make it easier to express the inspiration, and can sometimes show you where to go when you’re at a loss for notes. “But Josh!” you pipe up again, “My wicked awesome sequence of diminished arpeggios will blow the crowd away with the sheer skill required to play it!” It probably will! But here’s something I noticed, and maybe it will help you:

There seem to be three camps of musicians:

• Camp 1 includes great writers who might not be top flight musicians, or if they are, don’t usually show it. A lot of country, pop, and alternative rock artists fall in with this crowd. Even if they can play their butts off, they usually don’t for the sake of the song.
• Camp 2 consists of the super shredders like Yngwie Malmsteen who are phenomenal guitarists, and absolutely own the top of the technical mountain. Their songs almost always feature their dazzling fret work, but usually aren’t as catchy as Camp 1, and hence not as popular (ever wonder why it’s called “pop” music?)
• Camp 3 consists of folks who recognize the following: Camp 1 has it’s brilliance in the set up and the writing (think Smells Like Teen Spirit: Simple, and devastating; a bullet doesn’t have to be complex to kill you, and neither does a hit song). Camp 2 is jam-packed with the best guitarists ever, and they can play absolutely anything. Their skill is in the execution, but not in the planning stages.

So the folks in Camp 3, like Ozzy Osbourne, Rammstein, Van Halen, etc, are well versed in both planning (writing), and execution (playing.)

Starting Off

1. I was a bit puzzled at how to start songwriting, but here’s a few things that helped me:
2. Realize songwriting is a skill, just like sweep picking.
3. Realize that (most) songs have a clear, identifiable structure – verses, choruses, a bridge, and so on. Listening to your favorite tunes, and picking out which parts are which can go a long way toward understanding composition.
4. Don’t try to write an epic tune on your first try. Pressure kills creativity!
5. Just like other guitar skills, daily practice is very helpful.
6. Education is important! I bought a few books, and attended a local songwriter’s group. I got inspired to give it a good shot. Maybe these ways will help you, too.

If interested, be sure to check out the full version of the article over here!

Josh Urban is a solo guitarist and vocalist living near Washington, DC, USA. When he’s not attempting to blow up stages with his iPhone backing tracks and brightly colored guitars, he’s busy teaching guitar to over thirty students per week, adding zany videos to his youtube channel, or blogging about music. He just released his first “real” EP, Signalman, and is responsible for every single sound on it. Check out his website at www.joshurban.com, and say hello!

Blue Microphones Drum Kit

Basically, all you are asked to do is to leave a published comment on the band’s Facebook page saying why you should win, or fill up a simple form (better – do both).

One eskimO, who is going on tour starting October 13th, has more cool stuff on their Facebook page. Using this app you can listen to an unreleased remix of the band’s new single by simply “liking” the page. If you want to hear the second track, you will have to “Share” a link to the page, and if you want to download the songs – just leave your email address.

Another contest on the same page gives you a chance to win free tickets to One eskimO‘s show.

You can enter the One eskimO and Blue Mic giveaway right away.

Rock band Helmet have just returned with a new full-length album, Seeing Eye Dog, their first since 2006’s critically acclaimed Monochrome. The record was produced by the band’s leader, vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Page Hamilton, with additional production by Toshi Kasai and vocal production by Mark Renk.

Ultimate Guitar writer Joe Matera spoke to Page Hamilton about the album, career, and the music industry.

When it comes to the business side of the industry, what sort of advice would you impart to a young band?

To hang on to your music and don’t worry about getting signed. Why would you want to get signed to somebody that wants your t-shirt money, your publishing and your records? Why would you want to do that? In this day and age especially, you can do it all yourself. That’s how we did it in the first place and still do.

Read the full interview at Ultimate-Guitar.com.

Now, now, settle down! I don’t hate you. I’m just not a fan of trying to make constructive business or creative decisions with a bunch of other people. I grumble enough about the threat of marriage and commitment – at least my hypothetical wife would be pretty. At times, band membership can seem like being married to three or four… musicians! Ahhhh!

If you’ve spent one too many band practices in a smelly basement wondering where the singer is (turns out it might be jail – true story!), and you’re at the end of your rope, fear not! Step right up, and read why it’s a super duper great time to be a solo artist.

I’ve been playing guitar since I was 13, and I’m in it for the long haul. However, I got tired of always smelling like smoke, crack, weed, alcohol, and lack of opportunity. And all of those odors were secondhand! (Really, officer!)

Bands can be rockin’, and awesome, but they can also be a major pain. I finally reached a point where I couldn’t take it any more. I come from many different ethnicities, but the German Farmer Archetype seems to emerge when I’m working on my career. Needless to say, it doesn’t play very well with slackers, hippies, bohemians, and other such musical types. “There ezz no time to relax! Yah yah!” I want to go big, bro! To paraphrase one of my least favorite politicians, Only dead fish go with the flow! If you’re nodding your head in agreement here, I have some information that just might help.

Through some advice and inspiration from better musicians than me, I found a choice that suits me well: The solo artist. Regardless of if you’re a total band player, or in the same boat as me, the lessons I’ve learned over the past few years could be valuable for your career. Strengthening your personal brand is always great, no matter what your playing situation. Grab a chair, preferably one of those cool guitar brand barstools, and hang out for a few minutes…

The Сase For Solo Musicians

Josh Urban

As a musician and a businessman (I teach guitar), I firmly believe that we build our own empires. If we don’t like the state of our kingdom, we can change it. I was mega-burt out with bands. Could a rock musician such as myself continue to burn down stages without supporting musicians? The answer? A resounding yes!

As a guitarist, I see an incredible array of options present themselves for me. If I were a drummer or bass player, it would be harder. I’d still make it work, but I find guitar and vocals to be my ideal vehicle for taking over the world! This article is written from that standpoint, but I would tell any musician to make it happen, regardless of what they play! The point is – as guitarists, we’re sittin’ pretty.

My main concern when deciding to go solo was – I didn’t want to be a Dave Matthews or Jack Johnson. I really respect those guys, and they’re great in their style. I, however, am a very electric kinda guy, and I wanted my show to be LOUD! The singer-songwriter label always made me run the other way – fast (probably my shredder background). I needed to figure out a way to make the el electric sound happen. (If you’re into the acoustic singer/songwriter vibe, good for you! You won’t have to haul as many electronic gizmos into the whole deal, and you can use a much smaller car to get to gigs)

There were a few things I needed to get together in order to build an act I was proud of. They were:

• Singing and playing
• Filling up the stage
• Songwriting
• Recording
• Promotion and business stuff

The funny thing is – almost none of it had anything to do with playing guitar! It’s been quite a journey over the past few years, and I have a sense it’s just beginning. After a while of gigging and writing, I’ve just released my debut EP Signalman. The learning curve has been wicked, but man, it’s taught me a lot.

I hope you’ll join me over the next few installments to figure out the easy way what I learned the hard way! There’s no better time to try setting up shop as a solo artist. If you’ve had it with endless auditioning, scanning musician classifieds, and dealing with weirdos, be encouraged. There is HOPE, brothers and sisters! (Sorry, just channeling my Texas revivalist minister side that I didn’t know existed.) And even if you’re in a band, this can be a viable side project, too. Moreover, it’s a heck of a lot of fun!

Come on back next week, and we’ll start getting into details of how one can start the metamorphosis from sideman to The very rockin’ your name here one man (or woman) band.

Be excited!

See ya then!

Josh Urban is a solo guitarist and vocalist living near Washington, DC, USA. When he’s not attempting to blow up stages with his iPhone backing tracks and brightly colored guitars, he’s busy teaching guitar to over thirty students per week, adding zany videos to his youtube channel, or blogging about music. He just released his first “real” EP, Signalman, and is responsible for every single sound on it. Check out his website at www.joshurban.com, and say hello!

Bassist John Illsley was recently interviewed by Ultimate Guitar’s Amy Kelly to talk about the release and not only. While nothing specific on a reunion possibility has been revealed, John shared lots of interesting info on his own career, beauty of the Dire Straits’ music, and the state of the music industry.

Read an excerpt below:

Dire Straits is a band that has been able to go against the grain in terms of the typical radio song format, with many of your songs going well beyond the five-minute mark. Did some of those songs develop during jam sessions?

John Illsley

I guess you could get a sense of what Dire Straits thought about three-minute songs when you hear “Sultans of Swing,” a six-minute song that was our first single! I’ll never forget at one particular point in time the record company said, “I’ve managed to get ‘Telegraph Road’ down to five minutes.” We listened in complete astonishment, but that’s record company policy. You have to respect that, but we never really set out to do three or four-minute songs. One of the most successful songs we had on the British charts over here was “Private Investigations,” which was six minutes long. It was unheard of! You can break the rules.

As far as the songwriting is concerned, Mark would bring ideas to the band. We’d sit down in a small room and hammer out most of it in pieces. Then we hammered that out again. It’s very – I don’t want to use the word “organic” because it’s overused. But we all put our eclectic ideas out. Mark was very responsive to people’s ideas. As long as the song was working, it wouldn’t get thrown out. I think he, at that particular time, was writing some fabulous songs. I mean a song like “Romeo and Juliet,” it’s just an incredible piece of music. It was an absolute pleasure to work with such an extraordinary writer.

As someone who has been a steadily working bassist in the ever-changing music industry over the past few decades, what is your opinion on the current state of the business?

I think you’d be in denial if you didn’t embrace what’s happening. I think technology has created a completely different space, which some people don’t feel comfortable in. I don’t mind it all. The only think I object to is that some people don’t buy the music. They download it and it goes straight on to their iPod. They don’t have any idea of what the album cover looks like. They don’t care who might have produced it. It’s a different world we’re living in. I’m still slightly old fashioned, but I have to embrace what’s going on in the times. You can’t stick your head in the sand and say, “I’m not going to do this. I’m not going to do that.” People want to cherry pick their albums. They’ll say, “I like Brothers In Arms, but I don’t want to listen to ‘So Far Away.’” So be it. That’s fine as long as people are listening to the music. The music is the most important thing. How you get it out there is slightly irrelevant, as long as you can get it to where people can hear it.

There’s this court case with Pink Floyd. I don’t think Pink Floyd wanted Dark Side of the Moon broken up into bits and sold as individual tracks. I completely and utterly understand that. I absolutely understand that. The record company is saying, “Well, things are now getting broken up.” I think Pink Floyd actually won the case. I thought, well, in some ways they’re absolutely right. They had basically devised a concept album, and that’s the way they would like it to stay. In another way, the record company was right in saying, “When you made that record, this kind of technology wasn’t available.” It puts you between a rock and hard place. I’m pretty open to that whole thing. I think a lot of good things have happened over the last few years to get music out to people.

Read the full article at Ultimate Guitar.

So, below is an excerpt from Joe Matera’s UG interview with Buckcherry’s Keith Nelson (the band released an album called “All Night Long” last week), where the guitarist speaks about his group, gives some proper advices to young musicians and reveals what he has learned from Gene.

Buckcherry have toured heavily over the past few years and have also toured with many of their own musical heroes. What is like to go on the road with guys that have played a major role in influencing you and your guitar playing?

Gene Simmons

It is like going to school every night! We’ve played with KISS, we’ve played with Aerosmith and AC/DC. Each night after our set, I quickly get off stage, get out of my gig clothes and go out front and watch them. I am a fan of music and I love it. And being able to see those shows…you know… I have probably seen around 70 to 80 KISS shows so far just because we have toured with them twice. So it is just great man.

What has been the best advice some of these bands have imparted to you?

It is always about doing what you do and sticking to your guns and not letting critics bring you down if they don’t like what you’re doing.

The guys in KISS for example, they get turned away from the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame and the critics always love to hate those guys. But they go out every night to a full arena of people and rock them for two hours with songs that they all know. So I don’t think they’re the fools, I think the critics are the fools.

So they are always positive about doing what we’re doing and not letting anyone discourage us. That is basically what I walk away from in the majority of those conversations.

You have certainly stuck to your guns, I mean since the success of the 15 album Buckcherry has become a full-time project again, how does that feel considering before 15 the band were non-existent?

I feel we’re very fortunate and I also feel that we have worked really, really hard at a time when nobody really wanted to know us. We couldn’t get a record a deal, agents didn’t want to represent us, managers didn’t want to manage us, yet we still believed in what we were doing.

We found people that believed in what we were doing too, which is how we found our attorney, our manager, our agent and all the people we’re still in business with because they believed in what we were doing. And that is the reason why it has been successful coupled with the fact that we work really hard and play well over 200 shows a year. We’re not afraid to work for it.

With all these experiences you have gone through in your career, if a young musician was to come to you for advice about working in this industry, what would you tell him or her?

Unfortunately when I got into this business I thought I was just going to play my guitar, write some songs and party all the time. And I quickly found out that if I wanted to be successful, I really needed to educate myself on the business. And when you start thinking that you know everything, then that is a huge mistake.

So you really need to educate yourself on how it works and you have to make the best decisions you can for yourself.

Read the full interview on UG.

Slash's Arcade Rocker app

The newest game is worth playing at despite anything though (especially at the $.99 price tag). Slash’s Arcade Rocker allows the guitar legend’s die hard fans to play along with three pre-loaded songs from Slash’s solo début album – By The Sword, Watch This and Doctor Alibi – as well as any Slash song in their music library (and not only Slash, just as in the regular AR you can play thousands of songs if they are in your iPod music library).

In addition to the music/rhythm game, the Slash Arcade Rocker app provides access to the latest news, blog, tour dates and other exclusive content from Slash’s official website, which was as well developed and is hosted by Ultimate-Guitar.com as part of its partnership with the guitarist.

“The Arcade Rocker iPhone app is one of the coolest apps I’ve seen yet,” said Slash. “I’m having a blast with it!”

The mobile version of Slash Arcade Rocker is available for iPhone/iPod touch/iPad users from the iTunes Store for $0.99 (a limited time offer). A free online version is available at slash.arcaderocker.com.

Don’t be greedy for a buck :) Share your thoughts in the comments if you buy the app!