Reviews reporting thread

Dean wrote:  I wasn't aware your CD was that wide. ...I think I'm in for a whole heap of pain now...

rushfan4 wrote: odinalcatraz wrote: lazland wrote: Thanks Sonia. I know that these people mean no malice, but it can get pretty annoying, though! I have exercised my right not to review. I do not get paid for this, after all. I might, though, revisit my decision, certainly given that I am yet to ask the wife for my two year trip to Mozambique...... We are now offering a picture of Sonia's bum with every review. I hope this will help you decide to not miss the naughtiest album of the year Lazipoos! Hmmm.  Time to go out and get the album so I can do a review.

You know a good offer when you see one. Ha!
Don't tell Sonia that we have made this agreement!

There. Done. Settled. Thanks David.

I deleted the review. 

Edited by Guldbamsen - November 06 2014 at 08:58

Guldbamsen wrote: odinalcatraz wrote: Guldbamsen wrote: I have never suspected your intentions as being sneaky Colin and I'm sorry if that came across in my earlier post. I am just relegating what it looks like to people who take a closer peak at the ratings. Like Dean mentioned I too think reviews from the involved musicians or managers whatev are to be encouraged - as long as they mention it in the review. Fans are of course always welcome and no you certainly shouldn't stop your's from wanting to do a review. Just remember that there always will be folks looking into ratings and reviews on here who often feel a little perplexed by the amount of reviews an album garners from folks who only seem to be interested in reviewing one record.  I completely agree with you. The internet has created a weird situation that people treat everything as tho' it doesn't matter. If you have clicked a like button here and there, your day has become meaningful. I have tried to tell people that FB and so many other sites are worthless and silly. I have got rather angry with people who "Like" bands on Fb and still refuse to come to PA or Progears etc and actually DO something, tell somebody and make a difference. It very perplexing. They would rather share funny pictures of dogs all day. I am worried when I read about our publicity circus. It is wrecking the whole thing. If we paid someone to promote us, it would be ok because that is normal business practice. We just don't have the money, so here I am in people's face asking for reviews. It makes me look bad and I hate that. The semi pros cover their tracks and instead of a review coming along, you see someone join, rate 200 albums and never come back. Our fans are lovers of FB. Ha ha ha Don't get me wrong, I see your side of things perfectly well and wish to dog it didn't have to be like this. I hate having to do this myself, but when I said yes to the job of 'admin' on PA I also signed on to uphold it's virtues - even if one of them sails in the complete opposite direction of what I'm all about ie the whole ratings game. I wish they didn't matter and that we didn't have to reduce something as slippery and, at the same time, essential as music to a rating......but that's not the reality. People seem intend on rating everything. Personally i think it's a sign of the times, but that's for another discussion altogether. You seem like such a great guy with heaps of passion for not only your own but music is general, which automatically makes you into my favourite kind of person. The fact that you try and promote your music by asking people to help out with a review or rating is something that every musician does - just remember that you aren't responsible for their writings. It has become somewhat of a thing for new albums to receive an opening salute wave of 5 stars from friends and fans alike. Most members have sniffed this out a loooong time ago, which is why we sometimes seem like such sourpusses who do nothing but perpetuate a longstanding relationship with paranoia. That's not the case at all, we've just learned not to trust reviews from the wham-bam-thank-you-mam casual visitors. Many of us because we've been mislead into spending money on something we didn't bargain for.  I'm not sure how to fix this Colin, but trust me when I say that I get how you feel. This scenario isn't fair to anyone.

You do have a hell of job making this all work and I am impressed. As I say, all other sites that we have to use are a bit silly and of no real worth.
I realised completely about the 5 star fan club problem, so I sent PMs to a few people here, a long time before the release and the CD only got released a week ago. The hope was to start off with some well thought out and of course respected reviews. Lucas did review it before it was mastered and for that we we SO grateful because he loved what he heard. That is risky because I know how good the artwork is and the booklet, so would be likely to improve any review.
I tried to get this one right and may have failed I guess.
Can you remove that review by the drummer? I give my full permission for that. It serves no purpose and I don't want to have anything that degrades this hallowed portal of prog. i mean it. If not, I will ask him to remove the review part and that will make it a rating?

Guldbamsen wrote: I have never suspected your intentions as being sneaky Colin and I'm sorry if that came across in my earlier post. I am just relegating what it looks like to people who take a closer peak at the ratings. Like Dean mentioned I too think reviews from the involved musicians or managers whatev are to be encouraged - as long as they mention it in the review. Fans are of course always welcome and no you certainly shouldn't stop your's from wanting to do a review. Just remember that there always will be folks looking into ratings and reviews on here who often feel a little perplexed by the amount of reviews an album garners from folks who only seem to be interested in reviewing one record.

I completely agree with you.
The internet has created a weird situation that people treat everything as tho' it doesn't matter. If you have clicked a like button here and there, your day has become meaningful. I have tried to tell people that FB and so many other sites are worthless and silly. I have got rather angry with people who "Like" bands on Fb and still refuse to come to PA or Progears etc and actually DO something, tell somebody and make a difference. It very perplexing. They would rather share funny pictures of dogs all day.
I am worried when I read about our publicity circus. It is wrecking the whole thing. If we paid someone to promote us, it would be ok because that is normal business practice. We just don't have the money, so here I am in people's face asking for reviews. It makes me look bad and I hate that.
The semi pros cover their tracks and instead of a review coming along, you see someone join, rate 200 albums and never come back. Our fans are lovers of FB. Ha ha ha

This is all very sad and hate reading all this about what we do. I was horrified when I saw that review that appears to be our drummer. In fact, it is his son´and apparently got interested in the fact that his dad is in a band with a heavy metal singer (Timo) from Finland. You know... your dad would never do anything so cool.
Rob signed up and they pretty much did it together. I told him it made us look very bad. It does and I am sorry for that. The others? Well I promise you they are all serious fans of this album.
On our website we have this: http://www.corvusstone.com/blogstone . You will see an RSS feed from PA and a big button saying "If you like the album please go and rate or even review it". I know that more reviews will come. Should I stop them? I bet that most will never review anything else either and that is for one reason. Bands don't publicise PA except the ones with backing.
Fans in general won't come and rate the album low. That would be crazy obviously. They wouldn't bother to review it if they didn't think that much of it. So there is no surprise that they give 5s.
There is no circus about what we do. I come and ask a few of you here to take a listen and decide if you would like to review it. If we were trying to make ourselves look good, we wouldn't do that. You might not like it!

The reality is as follows.. When the new Floyd album is released, everyone will make time for it and review the hell out of it. As is the case with all established bands (Who don't need reviewing of course).
When someone newer turns up, it is almost impossible to get anybody to take a moment. It is human nature! My friends couldn't give a monkeys about any band newer than at least 20 years old. They will go and see any reformed band from the 60s/70s even if there are no original members in that band!
We have no backing of any kind. We have no money and don't pay anybody to do anything. So what do we do?
This is what we do:
We make the album of albums (in our humble opinion) and then contact everyone we can, mags, radio, etc etc and obviously you guys here. We spend a huge amount of the money we don't have, sending CDs out. I know that over 50% of those get binned without being listened to. We have to do what we can and take the crumbs we get from fans.
Do I think we're the only band who have this problem? No. We are one of the very few new bands who are proactive. Most bands do actually have a record company who spend a little money and have contacts. We don't.

I do think we have made an album that stands out exceptionally well and if we sit and wait to see what happens, nothing ever will.
Please don't avoid listening to it or even reviewing it. We are not bad people, we are just a bunch of very well intentioned people who are trying to do the impossible.
I could ask the drummer to get rid of that review or just ask someone here to remove it, it is embarrassing to me. VERY!  The others are not.

Anybody here please contact me any time, Skype me even! I want you to understand us!!!
Colin Tench


Edited by odinalcatraz - November 06 2014 at 07:16

Kati wrote: Dean wrote: MRR are not naive or amateur. As I said, there is nothing wrong with band members, the recording engineer, roadie, groupie or friends and family reviewing an album. All I ask is that they are honest with us.    Aww Dean but in terms of MMR he was honest, he did mention that he was the president of the record label.   :( hugs always

Dean wrote: MRR are not naive or amateur. As I said, there is nothing wrong with band members, the recording engineer, roadie, groupie or friends and family reviewing an album. All I ask is that they are honest with us.

Guldbamsen wrote: Rune2000 wrote: Is it just me or are these two Haken - The Mountain reviews very similar? http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=1300431 http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=1169217 One account is now banned and without any ratings  Fearabsentia is Unitron. I dropped him a mail.