superherohq

Tom DeLonge has some advice for aspiring musicians.

"Don't get your band signed because it's the worst thing you could do these days, to be tied up to a label that doesn't have any power to do anything." The Angels and Airwaves frontman delivered these words of wisdom to Buzznet at the Hollywood Guitar Center, shortly before participating in a panel with several other musicians about the Vans Warped Tour and the state of the biz.

Part of the reason why the man who tasted mega-success as part of Blink 182 is hoping to steer young bands away from the labels is the increasing interest in a band's merchandise and touring business revenues the labels have. "They don't know how to promote [merchandise or shows] so they don't really deserve these parts of your business." He is quick to point out the distinction, in some cases, between majors and independents. "A lot of times independent record labels do okay because they have the built-in audience and that’s why they’ve been around along time. They never succumbed to the big corporate machine."

Tom is of course speaking from experience. "I’ve been through, like, three record label changes, four regime changes and the entire industry crumbling. I’m kind of wondering if it’s me that started it all. Am I saying or doing something wrong?, " he jokes.

Angels and Airwaves are looking to untangle themselves from that machine as soon as possible. "[We want to be] doing our own thing, for sure. I'm in the process of trying to make that happen. We want off of the label and we want do it all ourselves."

The list of things Tom DeLonge is already putting his stamp on reads like a rapper's resume. There's the shoe company, Macbeth, who endorses everyone from My Chemical Romance to Foo Fighters, Bloc Party, Muse and Green Day, or as Tom puts it, "the cool, rad, good bands with taste. And we’re signing professional athletes now too -- surfers and skateboarders. We’re in the works of one of the best skateboarders of all time but I can not say who it is; and it’s not [one of] the typical ones you would think."

There's also the Angels and Airwaves documentary, Start the Machine. But the thing Tom is the most excited about is Modlife, which he calls "the answer" to all of the music business' woes that he has been part of building "for years." Astute media watchers will recall the grand pronouncements made by Tom in the press. Well, this is what he was talking about, folks.

"With my really great communications skills," he smiles, "I was talking about something called Modlife and that’s launching on the Warped Tour. It’s an Internet-based operating system that allows bands to communicate themselves in about 15 different digital ways from pay-per-view movies, chatrooms, podcasts, blogs, live broadcasting and all this stuff. We’re gonna sign up all the bands that are interested, starting this summer, including one of the larger groups of bands in the world.

"We’re really, really excited about it cause it really is a kicka—thing," he continues. "We spent years and millions of dollars on [it]."

And what's Tom's role in all of this? "I’m more of the visionary aspect of the company. Modlife transformed my band. This isn’t even a plug. November we launched it on the Angels and Airwaves website. We're talking to television studios, celebrities -- anybody that can pull in a fanbase or have a business of some sort, if you have anything that people want from you and it can be in digital form, whatever it might be, this is a good thing for you. YouTube is just videos. MySpace is the leading social net..."

And what about Buzznet?! "Buzznet is great! It's a great way to see what’s happening in the marketplace and what people are interested in. It's a different thing."

Tom's involvement in Modlife, Macbeth and other projects hasn't curtailed his first love, of course: music. Angels and Airwaves plans to return to the studio this fall, provided that plans for a possible "big" tour fail to materialize. "If that [tour] doesn't happen, our goal is to start recording right away."

A writer for Yahoo! Music recently published a blog purporting to be a definitive list of "top" metal bands. A good friend of mine, with many years of experience in the music biz as graphic designer and A&R person, emailed another good friend of mine (both a musician and a former A&R himself) and I to grumble about it. But something productive came out of the grumbling: our own list.

I won't go into detail about what was wrong with the Yahoo! guy's list. Suffice it to say it includes Kiss... And Spinal Tap.

Seriously, it does.

What follows is my friend Tom's list and then my own. My definition of metal is a bit stricter than Tom's. While AC/DC and even the Crue are rad, they are not "metal" to me, they are hard rock. My list is not based on my personal favorites alone (nor are Tom or Jason's), but rather, on bands we each felt have had the most impact on respective corners of the genre and of course overall.

Tom's list:

01. Black Sabbath
02. Iron Maiden
03. Judas Priest
04. AC/DC
05. Metallica
06. Motorhead
07. Guns 'N' Roses
08. Motley Crue
09. Pantera
10. Scorpions
11. Slayer
12. Danzig
13. Megadeth
14. Dio
15. Queensryche
16. Tool
17. Accept
18. Alice In Chains
19. Rage Against The Machine
20. Napalm Death
21. Anthrax
22. Testament
23. Carcass
24. Neurosis
25. Suicidal Tendencies

My list:

01. Black Sabbath
02. Iron Maiden
03. Metallica
04. Judas Priest
05. Slayer
06. Pantera
07. Korn
08. Sepultura
09. Dio
10. Megadeth
11. Death
12. Morbid Angel
13. Celtic Frost
14. Anthrax
15. Carcass
16. Meshuggah
17. At The Gates
18. Emperor
19. St. Vitus
20. Fear Factory
21. Type O Negative
22. Paradise Lost
23. Integrity
24. Zao
25. Entombed

Jason's list:

01. Black Sabbath
02. Iron Maiden
03. Judas Priest
04. Metallica
05. Megadeth
06. Dio
07. Slayer
08. Ozzy Osbourne
09. Pantera
10. Motorhead
11. Korn
12. Anthrax
13. At The Gates
14. Death
15. Queensryche
16. Napalm Death
17. Venom
18. Accept
19. Voivod
20. Scorpions
21. Motley Crue
22. Carcass
23. Type O Negative
24. Deep Purple
25. Slipknot

Consider me both happy and proud to have contributed to Alternative Press magazine's 23rd anniversary special cover story, "Blood Runs Deep: 23 Bands Who Shaped Punk." I wrote about and spoke to representatives of the following "23" honorees: Youth Of Today (Ray Cappo with a testimonial from Fall Out Boy's Andy Hurley), Integrity (Dwid with a testimonial from Killswitch Engage's Mike D'Antonio), Cro-Mags (John Joseph with a testimonial from Terror's Scott Vogel) and Earth Crisis (the rarely interviewed Scott Crouse with a testimonial from AFI's Davey Havok). Check it out on newsstands and in bookstores now.

HOLLYWOOD – Despite co-founding the Warped Tour, Taste of Chaos and Rockstar Mayhem, and continuing to be intimately involved in the details of each tour, Kevin Lyman says he never wakes up in the middle of the night in a panic. Read it.

HOLLYWOOD — Always verbose and sardonically comic, Alternative Press Editor in Chief Jason Pettigrew knew exactly how to get the party started at last night's Guitar Center "evening of dialogue and insight" event. Read on.

IRVINE, California – Los Angeles radio station KROQ held its annual Weenie Roast y Fiesta on Saturday and featured a who's-who of modern rock, including The Raconteurs, The Offspring, Bad Religion and Pennywise. Find out what went down.