Excellent wavelength.

Most bands are musicians. You go to their concert, they play live music. Yay.

Great bands are performers. You go to their concert, and it's not only a live version of the album, but fun and games, as well.

Julius Airwave are seriously great performers. On saturday, at their Freebird show, I was hit in the face by:

2 sizes of balloons
3 sizes of confetti
bubbles
a toy para-trooper

Plus, they gave the crowd glow-sticks in a completely non-rave sort of way.

The entire floor of Freebird was white when the show ended. No wonder their next show isn't until the summer, they'll be spending the next two months cleaning.

At least soon you'll be able to get your Julius fix on disc. More on the album soon.

Don't close Pandora's box.

Pandora is a pretty killer site. It's an online streaming music station that "learns" what you like based on the ratings you gives songs.

Big effing deal, right? There's a huge variety of pre-programmed music stations in the world, anyway.

The nice thing about Pandora is that it eventually becomes far more customized to your tastes than a pre-programmed station ever could be. You don't have to sit through a queue of bands with uninspired lyrics and hackneyed riffs just to hear one decent song. (Not that I've ever had that experience with broadcast radio in Jacksonville)

However, recent laws have threatened Pandora and similar Internet radio. The Copyright Royalty Board recently decided to triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora. The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays, and broadcast radio doesn't pay these at all.

Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every Internet radio site, including Pandora. In response, Internet radio sites formed the SaveNetRadio Coalition, a group that includes listeners, artists, labels and webcasters.

If you give a damn, I suggest Signing the petition to have the new decision revised. Just enter your address info, and it'll automatically e-mail a copy of the letter (you can use their canned letter, or write your own) to all your reps.

What a Tool.

Progressive rock band Tool will grace Jacksonville with a stop on their Summer 2007 tour with a stop at the Veterans Memorial Arena on Saturday, June 2.

The band is touring in support of their most recent release, 10,000 Days, which has already sold 1.4+ million copies.

Tickets are available via TicketBastard, but all floor tickets have already sold out, so unless you want to get stuck in assigned seating, it's on to Craigslist.

This will be Tool's first stop in Florida in 5 years. Attendees from the Lateralus tour described it as a religious-like experience.

Nine Inch Nails last year, and Tool this year? Congrats, Jax, this little city is drawing some big names.

Caution: prescription side effects include shattered eardrums.

[Photo by David Lawson. View additional photos from 3.10.07]

I've seen a lot of local bands.

I grew up in Orlando, FL, less than half an hour away from Full Sail: a school with a student body better known for heroin addiction than musical talent. Orlando is the heroin capital of the United States, after all.

Thus, not only have I seen a lot of local bands, but I've seen a lot of shitty local bands. I generally have a very low expectations.

So, imagine my surprise when I walked into a show two weekends ago, and actually said to a friend, "How late are we? There's no way this is the opening band."

How delightful to be wrong.

I walked in to see Atlanta post-nü metal band Haloscript exhibiting stage presence, musical intensity, and crowd command like snake charmers at the edge of a serpent pit.

Well, mostly. Sometimes even the best snake charmers get taken by surprise.

Formerly known as Headcheck, Haloscript recently emerged from the recording studio with a refined sound, a new album, and a new name.

"We changed our name because we wanted to emerge from the studio with a fresh image to reflect our fresh sound," said singer Dust Johnson.

The fresh sound Dust refers to formed during several months spent in the studio recording with Clint Lowery (Sevendust, Dark New Day) and Corey Lowery (Stereomud, Dark New Day), time spent polishing what the band started.

"We had a lot of great ideas, but no cohesive sound. You could absolutely tell the difference between songs written by different members of the band," Dust said.

Now, Haloscript has a solid sound they're preparing to release within coming months. They've recorded the album, sent it to Rodney Mills for mastering, and will release it simultaneously with a web site launch, MySpace page re-design, and tour of the Eastern US.

Meanwhile, songs Atlanta in Ashes (featuring Morgan Rose of Sevendust) and Scarlet Canvas are available via Haloscript's MySpace page. Upon release, the album will be available through the band's website and via CDbaby.com. Select Clearchannel affiliates will support the upcoming single.

Currently determining tour dates for the Spring and Summer, Haloscript plans to visit Jacksonville in May. Which is lucky for us: as is the case with most alternative metal and nü metal bands, the album is good, but the live show is where it's at.

March 10, Haloscript opened for Sevendust, In Vitro and Diecast at the Atlanta stop of Sevendust's Alpha Tour.

During Haloscript's set, water splashed onto the sound board, located behind the crowd. Initially, nobody knew exactly what happened, but assumed that Haloscript was playing at the time, thus were responsible.

Afterwards, the band was cleared. Video taken that night shows no wrongdoing; a member of the crowd, not a member of the band, grabbed a water bottle from the stage and tossed it back.

Since the incident, Haloscript made sure the bands affected by the night's events harbor no hard feelings. According to Dust, everyone understands it was a fluke accident.

Which is excellent for everyone involved.

Because Haloscript is a band ready to make some noise. And, I assure you, they are well-equipped to do so.

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Haloscript is a five-piece Rock/Metal band based in Marietta, GA. Members include Dustin "Dust" Johnson (vocals), "Saint" Andrew Woods (guitar, vocals), Jamison Wathen (bass), Charlotte Kelli (keyboard, vocals), and Lance Adair (drums).