Hey, it's Alan, and I just wanted to let you know that you can now listen to the ongoing

history of new music early and ad-free on Amazon music, included with Prime.

Before we begin, I want to let you know about a new show from Curious Cast that I think

you might really, really enjoy. It's called Russia Rising. Putin's Russia has been accused of

using internet trolls and hackers and even

assassins to influence the West. This new investigative podcast hopes to unravel this giant mystery

with the help of those who know best. Russian trolls, hackers, Putin supporters, even a former Russian KGB agent.

Join Europe Bureau Chief of Global News, Jeff Semple. He goes on a journey to unravel how Russia has

gone from tenuous ally to a potential global threat. You can listen to Russia Rising for free

at curiouscast.ca.ca. Or wherever you're enjoying the ongoing

history of new music. Do it. Trust me. You'll love it. When you're in a band, you want to make sure

the public record is correct. But you're often at the mercy of someone else when it comes to creating

that record. First, there's your publicist and anyone at your record label dealing with

marketing. They issue bios and press releases where the writer seems to have been paid by the word.

They're paid to fill a page or two in ten point font, so they revert to lots of flowery language

that signifies absolutely nothing. Frankly, I find most official band bios close to useless

because they really don't

tell you anything about the band. A site like AllMusic.com does better, but often all the writer has

to work with are those official bios and other secondary sources. Then we have Wikipedia,

which has its drawbacks, but, you know, for the most part, Wikipedia entries can be very good because

editors incorporate information from a variety of sources, including a lot of feature stories and

interviews. In my opinion, though, nothing beats getting every member of the band together in a

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