Case in point: Music Xray. Music Xray will tell you they are providing a service to these musicians by offering “exposure opportunities”, that put their music in front of “Music Industry Professional”… for a fee. Right, so if you’re a musician, instead of buying that QuickStop burrito, you can pay $3+ to submit your music to one of these “exposure opportunities” and have your music reviewed by an “industry professional”. Of course, anyone can sign up to be one of these said “professionals”. Yup, anyone and their uncle can sign up as one and start creating “opportunities” that charge musicians a submission fee. Or you could just cut out the middle man and give your uncle Lenny $3 to tell you how great you are (thanks Lenny!).

Think American Idol, except all the thousands and thousands of contestants have to pay to have to pay each judge for every “opportunity” to perform for them and instead of Simon, you get berated by uncle Lenny (who was in a band once). And in this scenario, Music Xray would be the TV producers who get to make coin off the whole thing, while declaring their innocence of any wrong-doing. It’s not their fault Lenny is really a refrigerator repair man and can’t cary a tune in a bucket.

Want more proof? Music Xray are also prolific spammers. Once you’re on their list, they will email you constantly with “opportunities” from a range of email domains, so you can’t kill them off with a spam filter. You can keep trying to “unsubscribe” but it won’t do you any good. Classy! How much money would you give to a spammer?

And Music Xray also searches for, and responds to, articles that discus their business as being a scam (like this one). This in itself is an obvious mark of a shady business.

So, is Music Xray a scam? Maybe it depends on how much you like QuickStop burritos. Judge for yourself…

Our little requisite dance also gives them the opportunity to try and up-sell me on their phone service… with the ridiculous notion that if somehow I spend more money on their crap, I will save more money. Whatever. But my question is: are they completely stupid or some of their customer are. Probably a bit of both.

Long story only slightly longer… if you want cheaper internet and could give a crap about cable TV, this is the way to go and only requires about 4 minutes of your life biannually.

UPDATE: I received an email in response to this post from a manager at Charter (Eric K.). He informed me that Charter now offers an internet only, 2 year contract for $29.99. As I explained to Eric, I’m not a fan of contracts or companies that use them as they’re an obvious sign of poor business practices. That said, I would also prefer to just pay a fair price for internet and lose the cable TV altogether (free, over-the-air HD is more than enough TV for me).

So I’ve signed up for this contracted $29.99/mo internet-only service and canceled TV (though it did take two calls to make it happen; the first agent stating (incorrectly) that I needed a TV service to get the deal). Maybe in the future they’ll lose the contracts and promotions and whatnot… we’ll see. For now, my dance card is full for two years.

Here’s a hint for the second question Sconnies… the left lane is for PASSING. Also, not on the test but equally important are:

• Turn signals… use ‘em
• Parallel driving is bad and causes traffic
• Don’t drive in someone’s blind spot
• Driving under the speed limit doesn’t get you into heaven
• Cell phones make your bad driving worse
• Stopping traffic, regardless of intentions, is bad

If you have any further questions about driving, just ask a FIB.

I personally do not think Glenn Beck raped and murdered a young girl in 1990 but I support the rights of the many, many Americans that have their doubts and think it should be discussed…

You may have seen a post or two here about my adventures with Mike in Australia. Or perhaps you caught him on tour with Elvis Costello and the Sugar Canes? John Hartford? Maybe you heard his mandolin playing while watching the movie O Brother Where Art Thou. Either way, here’s a chance to see him with David Grier–another monster player and three time IBMA Guitar Player of the Year–in an intimate setting. Oh, and you’ll get a chance to taste the greatest brownie on the planet.

Mike Compton & David Grier
Saturday, October 3rd @ 7pm
The Wil-Mar Center
953 Jenifer St, Madison, WI
Tickets $14.99 in advance, $20 at the door