Rock Along Productions has now established a Twitter presence and you can follow @rockalong to get updates and information about local Arizona Music Events, Concerts, and latest news with the company.  We will broadcast upcoming shows, what events we are attending as well as other Arizona Entertainment tidbits.

Follow @rockalong today to keep track of some of the best music events in Arizona near you.

-Rock Along Productions

The Charts; Nickelback Can’t Catch Taylor Swift as Sales Continue To Slump.

Wow, if you thought last weeks sales were as slow as a turtles pace, check out these numbers! Taylor Swift sold 72K copies of her new album “Fearless” , thats 17K less than last week to take number one. Nickelback’s “Dark Horse” jumped from number five to number two, followed by Kanye West’s “808s & Heartbreak”. Those numbers as staggering and comes on the heels of of the closing on Virgins Megastore Times Square location.

-Rock Along Productions

 

 

 

As Slipknot prepares to hit the road once again meanwhile celebrating the 10th anniversary of the first album put out the masked Iowa group. New has hit that Corey Taylor will be in fact making plans to record his own solo album at the end of the current tour.

“I know I have this album that I need to make,” Taylor tells Billboard.com, “and I’m the kind of guy that if I can’t get that done then it’s going to hold me back from all this other stuff I want to do. I just know I’ve got to make it or I can’t branch out.” He adds that there are “a lot of songs I’ve written that don’t fit with either band, really” and describes the material as “kind of a cross between the Foo Fighters and Social D, with some Johnny Cash mixed in.” Country will be part of the mix — “Obviously there’s a country background that comes built-in with living in Iowa,” Taylor notes — but he also promises that “there’s a lot of upbeat, just flat-out hard rock tunes.” “I’ve never let myself get painted into a corner,” Taylor explains. “I’ve refused to accept the fact that I can’t make any kind of music I want. I think it took people a minute to understand that, but now I’m at a point where I can do anything and people will take it seriously.”

However until September when the tour with Slipknot is over , Taylor says he is totally committed to the tour. and the band. This tour is continuing the support of the album released last year titled “All Hope Is Gone”.

The nine-piece group plans to tour the U.S., Canada and the European festival circuit with a show Taylor says is “getting away from the pyro and way more visual, video-oriented this time.”

he acknowledges, it feels good to have a 10-year anniversary to mark. “It’s funny because I’ve seen so many next-bit-things come and go in the last 10 years, and I look around and go, ‘Wow, we’re still here.’ Ever time we’ve put an album out people would write us off, but … we just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger,” he says.

“It not only proves so many people were wrong but that we were right,” he continues. “My dream wasn’t just to make it but it was to stay here and be able to do whatever we want to do, which is just how it’s worked out.”

Courtesy: Gary Graff, Detroit, Billboard Magazine 2009

Rock Along Productions has recently struck a deal with the founder of the Phoenix Music Awards to work hand in hand in supporting and promoting local music in Arizona. Founder of the Phoenix Music Awards, Al Bowman had a huge success in October 2008 awards showcase series of events which were all sold out events with enormous crowds. We are looking forward to having the PMA involved in our show “Guitars in Bars” which will be held February 7th at The Goathead Saloon. This show will no doubt be a success, so don’t miss it!

What’s good enough for Kmart is evidently good enough for rock festivals.

Many music festivals and events are offering layaway plans on ticket purchases. Among those adopting the approach are Stagecoach in Indio, California; Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tennessee; and Country Thunder USA in Florence, Arizona.

In the case of Bonnaroo, set for June 11-14, this is the second year the festival has offered layaway. During its holiday presale period through the end of December, customers could purchase tickets for five monthly payments of $50 each, plus $40.90 in applicable fees and shipping charges added to the first payment. That compares with fees and shipping charges of $33.10 to $35.10 on regular presale tickets, depending on the shipping option.

The economy was just beginning its downward spiral last year, so rather than a direct response to the recession, layaway was “simply an acknowledgment that many of our fans are in college, maybe on a tight budget, and we wanted to make it as easy as possible for them to purchase tickets without having to absorb the ticket price in one lump sum,” said Ashley Capps, president of A.C. Entertainment, which co-produces Bonnaroo with Superfly Presents.

Noting that event producers were “pleasantly surprised” at the response, Capps guessed that layaway still accounted for less than 5 percent of total sales in 2007.

After offering a layaway option during this year’s Stagecoach festival, co-producer Goldenvoice has decided to use the strategy for its flagship festival, Coachella, as well, according to Goldenvoice president Paul Tollett. “About 22 percent of the Stagecoach tickets and RV camping passes were bought on layaway.”