For years now, I’ve had this obsession with always have zero unread emails. It drives me nuts to think about there being unread messages, so I go into the message to see what it is and either delete it or go back to the inbox.

While this promotes a clean inbox, it does pose one problem… I forget what emails need to be taken care of, meaning that if it was something that I was supposed to do, I might forget to take care of it. And it might be several days before I actually remember that I still needed to address the details in the email to the sender.

So this has prompted me to change how I read emails. I will be leaving the items that need to be taken care of as unread, so that I can go back and read them when I get the chance. This is going to take some training and already today, I’ve had to go back and re-mark several as unread because I see that bold counter and want to clear it.

Hoping this new way of email management will work because it could help as I start getting even more emails as I progress my personal writing and other business ventures I am pushing myself to do this summer.

Metric is back. The new album “Synthetica” drops June 12th and this is the first single. It’s a slightly different sound than their previous hit album from 2009 “Fantasies”

And a slew of US tour dates as well, with an October stop in Utah.

Metric 2012 Tour Dates:
05/26 – George, WA @ Sasquatch! Music Festival
05/27 – Bend, OR @ Les Schwab Amphitheater *
06/02 – Kansas City, MO @ Live Strong Sporting Park
06/12 – Belleville, ON @ Big Music Festival
06/26 – Berlin, DE @ Postbahnhof
06/28 – Werchter, BE @ Rock Werchter
07/02 – London, UK @ O2 Shepherds Bush Empire
07/03 – Paris, FR @ Le Trianon
07/04 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg
07/06 – London, UK @ Wireless Festival
07/08 – Oxford, UK @ O2 Academy
07/14 – Montreal, QC @ Quebec City Summer Fest
07/15 – Ottawa, ON @ Ottawa Bluesfest
07/27-29 – Byron Bay, AU @ Splendour in the Grass
08/03 – Chicago, IL @ Lollapalooza
08/05 – Montreal, QC @ Osheaga Festival
09/06 – Rochester, NY @ Water Street Music Hall
09/08 – Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore
09/09 – Covington, KY @ Madison Theatre
09/11 – Minneapolis, MN @ State Theatre
09/14 – Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
09/17 – Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore
09/18 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE
09/20 – Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre
09/21 – Washington, DC @ The Strathmore
09/22 – Philadelphia, PA @ Tower Theater
09/23 – New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall
09/27 – Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock
09/28 – Miami, FL @ The Fillmore
09/29 – Tampa, FL @ The Ritz
10/01 – Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
10/02 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant -
10/04 – Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre
10/05 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot
10/06 – Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues
10/09 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theatre
10/10 – Tempe, AZ @ Marquee Theatre

From the fine debut full album “Torches”, this is the official music video for the song “Houdini”

I like this song a lot… maybe not quite as much as “Helena Beat”, but it’s pretty damn close.

Speaking of Helena Beat, here’s the odd, yet highly creative video for that song.

Myself and several other players singing Guns N’ Roses “Paradise City” and having a good time after a company holiday party. Of note is the head banging I do at :35 into the video.

This was taken in 2010 and I’m finally getting around to uploading it.

“These Eyes” covered by Train

Such a great song to begin with, but Train nails this one nicely. Performed live on the Howard Stern Show on March 27, 2012 (the above video doesn’t show the band live – it’s just the song).

After pimping coffee and lattes, Gene Simmons has another food venture – Rock & Brews.

With one location opening today, and locations in Hawaii, Denver and others cities to follow, this is yet another celebrity chain of restaurants to make their stake at serving steaks, along with beers and other food items.

So if you are near LAX and the greater Los Angeles area – specifically South Bay – then stop in and see what this place is all about.

This will most likely be the only time you will see a photo of Taylor Swift on this blog, so I thought I would find one that had her in a mature pose.

This list of 2011′s top earners in music is not all that surprising, given the amount of albums sold and concert revenue has been generated.

1. Taylor Swift – $35,719,902
2. U2 – $32,116,315
3. Kenny Chesney – $29,837,103
4. Lady Gaga – $25,353,039
5. Lil Wayne – $23,178,722
6. Sade – $16,382,809
7. Bon Jovi – $15,835,856
8. Celine Dion – $14,261,515
9. Jason Aldean – $13,409,011
10. Adele – $13,081,909

Celine Dion’s millions is all her shows at Caesar’s in Vegas. Sade hasn’t had an album in years, but went on tour. Adele is all album sales with some live shows. The most surprising on this list is Kenny Chesney. I must be out of the loop on what’s he’s been up to for the last 5 years.

Trying to add some musical fun for a Tuesday.

Originally found at RollingStone.com

I’m a big Sammy Hagar fan. Starting with Montrose, then solo, his many years with Van Halen and now Chickenfoot. Have never seen him live and would love to someday.

There’s a new tour with multiple dates. Two shows in Lake Tahoe, which makes sense since there is a Cabo Wabo Cantina there. Then four days later, there is a show in Denver.

But no show in Salt Lake City. WTF?

Tahoe to Denver passes through Salt Lake City

As you can see from the map above, the tour buses traveling from the Tahoe show on May 5th go right through Salt Lake City on their way to the Denver show on the 9th.

Now I know the band doesn’t have complete control over where they stop. It’s the venue and concert promoters that run the shows and schedule the dates these days. Maybe smaller bands call the shots [maybe, maybe not], but regardless, there is no Salt Lake tour stop for this bus that just so happens to be traveling through Salt Lake.

Now if for some reason, between now and the end of April, they read this blog post and think to themselves, “Hey, we have fans in Utah” and schedule a date, then I will retract my rant.

Until then, I want to see Sammy, Michael, Joe and Chad Kenny.