HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 3/21/15

HRD RADIO REPORT 

The HRD Radio Report showcases the weekly Active Rock Mediabase Charts (compiled by AllAccess.com), and appears every Tuesday on HardRockDaddy.com.  The HRD Radio Report digs deeper into the weekly Active Rock charts, providing commentary, reviews, recommendations and predictions.  It also features opinion pieces on chart action and the music business in general.

Many of the artists featured on the Active Rock charts have already been reviewed on HardRockDaddy.com.

Click on the hyperlinked song titles to read song reviews, and the hyperlinked artist names to read album reviews.

The following is the Active Rock Mediabase Chart for the week ending 3/21/15.  All exclusive HRD content is featured below the chart:

CHART POSITION THIS WEEK	CHART POSITION LAST WEEK	ARTIST	SONG TITLE	RADIO SPINS THIS WEEK
1	2	FOO FIGHTERS	“Congregation”	1910
2	1	HALESTORM	“Apocalyptic”	1723
3	3	PRETTY RECKLESS	“Follow Me Down”	1681
4	5	OFFSPRING	“Coming For You”	1538
5	4	PAPA ROACH	“Face Everything And Rise”	1382
6	6	SIXX A.M.	“Stars”	1186
7	8	MARILYN MANSON	“Deep Six”	1060
8	7	THREE DAYS GRACE	“I Am Machine”	1043
9	9	AC/DC	“Rock Or Bust”	1042
10	12	SLASH	“Bent To Fly”	1005
11	11	BRING ME THE HORIZON	“Drown”	944
12	10	ALL THAT REMAINS	“This Probably Won’t End Well”	928
13	20	ZAC BROWN BAND (f. Chris Cornell)	“Heavy Is The Head”	904
14	13	INCUBUS	“Absolution Calling”	890
15	14	THEORY OF A DEADMAN	“Angel”	823
16	15	STARSET	“Carnivore”	737
17	16	KID ROCK	“First Kiss”	667
18	18	TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT	“Take It Back”	577
19	17	CAGE THE ELEPHANT	“Cigarette Daydreams”	576
20	19	WE ARE HARLOT	“Dancing On Nails”	543
21	21	LIKE A STORM	“Wish You Hell”	509
22	28	ROYAL BLOOD	“Little Monster”	479
23	22	AWOLNATION	“Hollow Moon (Bad Wolf)”	456
24	23	ISLANDER	“New Wave”	427
25	25	OTHERWISE	“Coming For The Throne”	394
26	27	THOUSAND FOOT KRUTCH	“Unraveled Road”	328
27	32	DEVOUR THE DAY	“Faith”	297
28	29	SLIPKNOT	“Custer”	279
29	30	10 YEARS	“Miscellanea”	276
30	24	NICKELBACK	“Million Miles An Hour”	257
31	31	ARCTIC MONKEYS	“R U Mine?”	232
32	34	SONS OF TEXAS	“Baptized In The Rio Grande”	229
33	33	BLACK VEIL BRIDES	“Goodbye Agony”	220
34	35	AMARANTHE	“Drop Dead Cynical”	217
35	26	BLACK KEYS	“Weight Of Love”	192
36	38	FLYLEAF	“Thread”	178
37	37	HINDER	“Hit The Ground”	176
38	51	HELLYEAH	“Hush”	162
39	36	APOCALYPTICA	“Cold Blood”	156
40	43	STARS IN STEREO	“Fair-Weather Friend”	154
41	39	FRAMING HANLEY	“Collide”	154
42	48	IN THIS MOMENT	“Sex Metal Barbie”	147
43	40	CHARM CITY DEVILS	“Karma”	139
44	45	FALLING IN REVERSE	“God If You Are Above”	134
45	42	PERIPHERY	“Alpha”	131
46	44	IN FLAMES	“Paralyzed”	117
47	47	ADELITA’S WAY	“I Get Around”	109
48	46	BRIDGE TO GRACE	“Bitch”	108
49	41	BEARTOOTH	“Beaten In Lips”	91
50	50	DANKO JONES	“Do You Wanna Rock”	83

 

 

PUBLISHER’S PICK OF THE WEEK by Adam Waldman

Adrenaline Mob – “Dearly Departed”

Adrenaline Mob was in the news this week because of the sudden passing of legendary drummer, A.J. Pero, who passed away suddenly just hours before the band was scheduled to play a gig with Drowning Pool.  Filling the shoes of original drummer, Mike Portnoy, was no easy task, but Pero (the driving force behind Twisted Sister) was up for the challenge.  At the age of 55, he was still one of the most punishing, skilled drummers in hard rock today, as evidenced by his work on “Dearly Departed.”

You might be thinking that choosing this song as the pick of the week is more about honoring the memory of A.J. Pero than it is a recommendation for Active Rock programmers to add this into their rotations.  While the timing is associated with this tragic passing, the fact of the matter is the “Dearly Departed” should be in heavy rotation based on its own merits.  There is a definite Foo Fighters quality to the song, albeit with a unique Adrenaline Mob twist.  If this song was actually a Foo Fighters track, it would most likely rocket up the charts just as “Something From Nothing” did when it was released, and like the follow-up single off of Sonic Highways, “Congregation” (which tops the charts this week) has done.

The photo pictured above is atypical of what is usually featured on the HRD Radio Report, but it was chosen because it illustrates what matters most in rock and roll…a bond based on being a part of a culture that is often misunderstood by those on the outside.  To appreciate the significance of the photo, please read the following message posted by the members of Adrenaline Mob…

“We write this with tears in our eyes & our hearts broken to pieces…our beloved brother AJ Pero peacefully passed away in his sleep this morning on the bus.  We are in complete shock & our hearts & prayers go out to his family.  It has been nothing short of an honor to have shared the stage with such a beautiful soul & legend!  We love you AJ, rest in peace.

We will cherish this last picture we all took together on tour forever! What a great night we had…we’ll miss you buddy!”

 

 

 

THE BREAKDOWN by Jon Loveless

KING OF THE HILL

Another week, another new #1 song on the Mediabase Active Rock Airplay chart.  As the early week numbers suggested would happen, Foo Fighters’ “Congregation” knocks Halestorm from the spot after a single week in the top position, just as Lzzy & Company did to Papa Roach the week before.  Counting the end of the run at #1 by Three Days Grace, that’s the fourth song topping the charts in four weeks.  It might be a while before we see it change again however, as radio loooooves Foo Fighters!  Neither Pretty Reckless’ “Follow Me Down” nor “Coming For You” by Offspring – the two highest charting songs still showing growth – appear to be serious contenders to dethrone Dave Grohl and company anytime soon.

 

 

NOTABLE CHART MOVEMENT

As volatile as the top spot has been lately, the rest of the chart is highly stable.  No changes in the Top 20 songs other than some shuffling of positions…

Only one new song managed to break into the Top 30 this week.  Congratulations to Devour The Day on that accomplishment …

So stable is the chart at the moment, that just a single song debuted in the entire Top 50 this week, with Hellyeah more than doubling their previous spins for “Hush” to arrive at #38…

The lack of movement in the chart isn’t for a lack of candidates, with around a dozen songs outside the published chart making notable gains in airplay from the previous week or scoring their first official adds to station playlists …

However slow it may be to occur, change does appear likely in the next few weeks as 6 of the top 9 songs are trending downward on airplay, while 13 of the next 14 were still showing at least a small amount of growth in spins …

One other notable detail this week that caught my eye was the chart movement on “Heavy Is The Head” by the Zac Brown Band (f. Chris Cornell).  As explosive and impressive as the growth has been for this track (up to #13 in just three weeks), it is not that uncommon.  Offspring did essentially the same thing (reaching #14 by their third week in the chart), and Halestorm did even more in the same time frame (reaching #9 at the same point in their chart history).

 

 

 THREE UP & THREE DOWN

MOVING UP

Slash f. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators – “Bent To Fly”

Zac Brown Band f. Chris Cornell – “Heavy Is The Head”

Royal Blood – “Little Monster”

 

 

DROPPING DOWN

Papa Roach – “Face Everything And Rise”

Three Days Grace – “I Am Machine”

Black Keys – “Weight Of Love”

 

 

 FUTURES REPORT

Next week we’ll see whether Halestorm can hang on to the top spot on the chart, and see whether the surge of support for Zac Brown continues.

 

 

WRAP-UP

That’s all for this week.  Tune in to HardRockDaddy.com every Tuesday for the HRD Radio Report. \m/