The allure of the major label is still a big deal if you’re a marketable band. And most bands I imagine still think they are a marketable band. And if you play pop-punk music, and have sold several hundred thousands records on a highly respectable indie label, then yea, you are definitely a marketable band. Such appears to be the case with Maryland darlings ALL TIME LOW, who according to the site TCDC, have signed with Interscope Records. Good for them, but hey – maybe something different can happen this time around. As the labels and their (big box) retail partners have reluctantly admitted, CD prices could be a lot cheaper (and still profitable). Major labels are already familiar with offering heavily discounted digital downloads for a short period of time, and labels for awhile did experiment with $5.99 Best Buy and Target exclusives, but what about a $3.99 full-length CD? What about those pesky royalty issues, you say? (OK – no one actually says that but us legal nerds and industry types). Fuck ‘em, work out a way around them. Contract boilerplate isn’t actually carved into Commandment tables. Or better yet, ditch the typical release model altogether and do it BOUNCING SOULS style – one new single per month on iTunes. ALL TIME LOW can write some seriously catchy songs – many of them in fact. And if if they can’t sustain that for an entire year, songwriters can fill the gap and let the band’s performance talents take over. JUST DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT. The major label music industry is so boring. It’s so repetitive. The major label grinder consistently kills off all of the romanticism that surrounds a band’s rise from humble beginnings, to indie success, to bland corporate commodity speak.  And ALL TIME LOW has all the makings of being another new cog in a machine that stopped working almost 10 years ago.

- Did I just write a 300 word rant involving ALL TIME LOW? Dang… time for bed for this old man…