NOISE: Local Music Beat

Weekend Riff: 50 Cent in Detroit, Electronic Beats at The Loft, Common Ground July 12 Tickets On Sale

-Friday: Lansing rock band Fade to Black has played numerous benefit concerts for Waverly Community Schools. Catch a free show by the guys on Friday at Basement 414 in Lansing. Read more about the band, including an interview with guitarist Eldon McGraw, here.

-Also Friday: Palace Sports & Entertainment kicks off its 2010 season on Friday with Eddie Money headlining DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston.

Concert News: Bret Michaels at Common Ground 2010

Have you heard? '80s glam rocker-turned-reality TV dude Bret Michaels will play the 11th annual Common Ground Music Festival on July 15.

Weekend Riff: Music at the East Lansing Arts Festival, Mi.FUNK Festival in Old Town, Christian Rock with Skillet

-Friday: If you're not one of the lucky few to have tickets to Conan O'Brien at the Breslin Center (read more about the show here), then faith-based rock band Skillet is just down the street. The guys and girls perform at the MSU Concert Auditorium on Friday, bringing their Christian-meets-mainstream rock tracks. Read an exclusive interview with lead singer John Cooper here and in NOISE this week.

-Also Friday: Lansing-based The People's Temple releases a 7" EP through the Chicago label HoZac Records at Mac's on Friday. It's great to see another local band making waves in the national indie scene. Read more about the release in next week's NOISE.

-Saturday: Funk music, all day, all night. That's what's happening in Old Town on Saturday, with the Mi-FUNK festival: a new annual music festival featuring the best in regional funk music. The show happens from 2 p.m. to midnight on the corner of Turner Street and East Grand River Avenue. Read all about the lineup here.

-Saturday and Sunday: If you're checking out the 47th annual East Lansing Art Festival, make sure to take in the music. The lineup is long, and it includes Steppin' In It, Lansing's Hank Williams Review and more. The festival kicks off at 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, and it happens right in downtown East Lansing. Get the deets in NOISE and the Lansing State Journal.

-Road trip: This weekend, I'm road tripping it to Rock on the Range: an annual music festival in Columbus, Ohio! The lineup this year packs the Deftones, Drowning Pool, Three Days Grace, Rise Against, Skillet, Nonpoint, Taddy Porter, Sevendust, Seether, Taproot, Slash and many more. Please pray for safe travels! xoxo

Venue Alert: Inside the Machine Shop in Flint

Any local band will tell you in order to grow a fanbase, you have to play shows outside of Lansing. The Machine Shop in Flint, Mich., is one of the most frequented venues for Lansing bands wanting to spread their musical wings and play a little further from home.

The 550-capacity venue is known for bringing in national rock and metal tours (some recent ones are Papa Roach, Fuel and Sevendust) and  booking local openers for the shows. Not only is it a great chance for local bands to play in an unfamiliar place, but it gives them the opportunity to share the stage with major-label groups and make contacts. Know Lyfe, Adrenachrome and Souldub are some local bands that frequent the venue. 

I trekked to the Shop last week to check out Taddy Porter, The Veer Union and Seasons After. As you can see, it's a small venue but has a national rep for treating bands well and bringing in popular artists and one-offs. (Photo left: Hard rock band The Veer Union, from British, Columbia. Photo bottom left: merch booth.)

Local bands interested in playing the Shop can contact the venue via this MySpace page, and you can find upcoming shows at the site, too. (Photo bottom right: Rebecca Blake from Saginaw radio station Z93 and me at the Shop.)

Weekend Riff: Blues at the Green Door, Folk Fest at Mac's, plus Nickelback and Sevendust in Michigan

-Friday: Get folky on Friday at Mac's in Lansing with the venue's second-annual Folky Fest. For more details, read an interview with Chuck Mannino, owner of Mac's and head of Science Booking, here.

-Also Friday: The May series of free jazz at The Espresso Royale Café in East Lansing continues with Rob Killips & Friends. The show runs from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.- a perfect way to cap off the work week!

MySpace Mayhem: Is anyone on MySpace any more?

Is anyone on MySpace any more? The site that once dominated online social networking keeps slipping. MySpace lost their parent company News Corp. $150 million for the quarter that ended March 31st, compared with an $88 million loss year earlier, according to Yahoo News. Overall, ad sales are improving, but it's not helping MySpace, given its numbers are falling.

  
What can MySpace do to regain its followers? For one, the company is trying to appeal to its core base of music fans via a partnership with Google's Discover Music. In other words, if you Google a song or artist, Google will provide links to MySpace where you can preview and purchase songs. It's hard to say what can be done to get casual social networking peeps back on the Space, though. Especially with competition from Facebook.com, Twitter.com and others. A growing number of my friends are deleting their MySpace accounts, and I mainly use my page for band info.

Note: Don't completely count MySpace out. It's still regularly listed among the top 10 visited websites online, in front of Wordpress.com, Flickr.com and Ebay.com.

Weekend Riff: Willie Nelson and The Goo Goo Dolls in Michigan, WLNZ's Grand River Radio Diner at The Lansing City Market, Free Jazz in East Lansing

-Friday: Lansing-based singer-songwriter Chris Beyer and his band The Tea Mob Ten plays a free show at the Lansing City Market with WLNZ's Grand River Radio Diner music series. The music goes from noon to 1 p.m. Then on Saturday, Beyer and the group releases their debut full-length, Crooked Streets, at Elderly Instruments in Old Town. Click here for more info.

Locals Only: Lansing Music Peeps Talk Common Ground

Who would you like to see at Common Ground 2010? If you head to the fest's official Facebook page, locals are hoping for everyone from Eric Clapton to Kid Rock. (Photo right, my friend Jenny and I at Common Ground 2009.)

Derek Smith, supervisor of the sales floor at Elderly Instruments in Old Town, thinks Soundgarden would be a mega draw. The '90s alternative rock act is reuniting this summer, playing Lollapalooza in August and currently mapping out a nationwide tour.

"If they really want to pack the house and sell out a