The Lewis Show

Innovation is a great thing. It helps us move from our comfort zones and it helps us to learn new things. The web is a great example of seeing good ideas put to work. I recently discovered one of the biggest innovations I think I have ever seen on the net. Turntable.fm is a music discovery site remixed and remastered. The premise comes from Pandora's internet radio stations. Instead of having an algorithm play songs that align with your preferences, there are endless rooms ready to take on anyone's genre and tastes. The twist is the ability for five people to spin records, if you will, DJ'ing to their audience. The audience then has the power to vote each song up or down by clicking on Lame or Awesome. Over time the DJ's amass points that allow them to unlock new avatars or characters. This is why the internet was made. This is a site dedicated to maintaining the strong winds of social networking, mixing in great music, and allowing people to discover new artists a...

You know I'm not going to pass up an opportunity to catch Swedish Metal whenever it hits Richmond. Soilwork came into town to play some new material and we could not pass this show up. In an ideal world, all great shows like this will be on a Saturday, but one of the great perks about living in Richmond is being able to catch great stuff like this at any time. The new album is called The Panic Broadcast , I like it, everything they put out is great and worth checking out. What I wasn't expecting was some good, old fashioned music discovery. Apparently, I've been under a rock these past few months or years and haven't heard about any of the bands playing before Soilwork, but I was both surprised and even blown away. Death Angel, thrash, I'll let this clip of them playing in Wacken in 2004 speak loudly for itself. Tour Flyer Now that I've shown more videos in one month than MTV will all year, I figured I'd throw in one more from the headliners. ...

I figured for posterity events of last week deserved a better post than just a few crappy pictures from my cell phone. Mayhem Fest came to Virginia Beach last Wednesday. Janine and I were very fortunate to land some tickets for these sweaty festivities thanks to our good friends! So I figured with five of us going, (Sam, Jessi, Ben, Janine, and I), I should do what any heavy metal ringleader should do, rent a mini van. This actually worked very well back in 2002 when I had to carry a large crowd to see a show in northern Virginia. We got to Virginia Beach about an hour into the show, sweated, stood, sat, rinsed and repeated all the way to the last performance of the night. I quickly realized the top bands of my day are all pretty much the same as they were in 2006 when I last saw most of these bands. I'm very happy for these bands, but I was reminded I need to really try to keep discovering new acts. It felt like even more of a throwback to see the top two head...

Hatebreed preforming, way over there... Shadows Fall aka I'm really far away aka walking ads for sunblock. Rob Zombie brought the pyro! Korn brought the nostalgia. They've been doing this a lifetime!

Alright, I don't just like Opeth , they're one of my top three favorite bands. This is why: Opeth - Bleak (live)

This is not how I wanted to start my metal blog, by posting of the sudden passing of stars in the genre. Earlier this year, Peter Steele died suddenly from heart failure, my last post I mentioned Dio, now news from Iowa reports Slipknot bassist, Paul Gray was found dead in a Des Moines hotel room. Again, I have nothing to say or add, just thinking of family and friends. I figure it's always fitting to showcase some of the chaos he helped to start. Thanks, Paul, for the fun memories. Slipknot - The Blister Exists

Ronnie James Dio passed away earlier today at 67. He was a vital pioneer in metal and hard rock. I can say nothing for this moment other than condolences to his family and may his music live on. Dio - Rainbow in the Dark

And now for a nostalgic break. Nirvana Live in Reading is a must have DVD for fans of the long gone but not forgotten Seattle grunge band. It comes out on November 17th. Hat tip to Metal Underground for reminding me about the release . I remember everyone who worked in radio buzzing and we all turned a corner, 17 years ago.

It was bound to happen sooner or later. That balance of nerd and metalhead would have to meet somewhere. And that somewhere is...Nintendo? Here's an 8 bit version of Slayer - Angel of Death. It's too enjoyable for words. Also be sure to check out the 8bitsbrother's channel on YouTube. You'll also find yourself strangely fascinated.

I haven't found a ton of value in MySpace over the past year with the inception and fame of Facebook and micro blogging services such as Twitter and Pownce. I was curious about the new profile editor on MySpace, so I spent some time there yesterday and came to this realization. Their music service has to be the best on the web in the social music world. I have established by being there over four years a large list of bands and friends that have similar taste in music. I even met Janine over having similar tastes in music. We both like In Flames, so we owe Swedish metal ultimately for our meeting. MySpace made news this weekend for streaming the new album from Guns and Roses, Chinese Democracy over their music service. It was reported on Friday that there were 826,000 listens to their new title track at a rate of 25 listeners a second going to MySpace to hear the much awaited album. That shattered any previous record and is potentially sending a strong signal to the music ind...

Janine and I had an interesting night. One of the kittens..that we still have...was getting sick, I thought it was just a cold so we took her into our room to recover. Come to find out she had bigger problems than that, so we took her to the vet and got her all fixed up. She looks like she's still in a daze, but she's recovering just fine. After spending that kind of money on a cat, we are definitely going to keep her. We named her Maude I reached in to grab a soda the other morning and ended up grabbing another kitten. This is Mr. Soot and he likes hiding in small spaces. He also likes to impersonate soft drinks! Smooth move Mr. Soot, however you are not a tasty and refreshing Coca Cola, you are merely an undercooked kitten! Lastly I wanted to plug something that Janine and I find great value in as will many people that have a large record and/or Victrola collection. Recordsmith is a local collector and seller of old records. Walter also restores and has the tech...

The writer's cramp is still killing me here! I wanted to at least plug one of the most important band in our times, Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor has always been a pioneer not only in the style of music he brings to mainstream, but he's also a pioneer in this new computer age. He has offered his last two albums for free on his site for download. He just asks that people come out to see his shows. Some would question where the success is in plugging a concert tour, but NIN takes things up a notch by posting rehearsal footage in lieu of their tour starting this month. The footage has created quite the buzz and I recommend people visiting the site and watching those videos for yourself. There's lots of extras there too, such as a news feed..yes a news feed! RSS! It's all right there too, I just love visiting the site to see what's new, so I figured I would plug it to all of you as well. Go enjoy the site, go enjoy the music that they share with you for free, but ...

This is really funny...to those that know their web celebrities...which..I know...some.

Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails keep on putting the nail in the coffin of the record industry. This time with their latest release which they released a free download for their fans. Their only catch, is to catch them in a town near you. It's a fair deal. They put up a great show! Here's the link for the new CD. I am really enjoying it thus far!

Clutch will be playing at the National tonight. Sweet!

I remember getting Mario Paint for my Super Nintendo years and years ago. I was never able to glean any artistic or musical ability from using it, but it was fun and wasted several hours of my youth. Youtube is full of people who were able to achieve musical greatness using Mario Paint, and for that I am envious.

Big thanks to Merlin Mann from 43 Folders for posting this on his site. I had to do the same. This song reminds me a lot of my college days!

I've been just giddy all day with my Green Bay Packers winning yet another game, not to mention a big conference game. I figured for Metal Monday I would play something appropriate. I never considered and I know many don't consider Queen to be a metal band, but they have been probably one of the biggest and most influential bands in Rock and in music. Freddie Mercury died 16 years ago this month. I'm always sad when I think about his passing selfishly because I never got to see Queen in all it's glory. I give you the biggest "I'm about to kick your ass" anthems in music. Hopefully soon, I'll be playing another classic Queen song. Hopefully in January...you know, after the Super Bowl. Something about being champions!

I've always wanted to say this, and now I can. Hey, there's this great indie group that you should hear. They're called Nine Inch Nails. Trent Reznor and his band are making a big statement about the music industry. Big. Statement. read more | digg story