The following was posted on BOSTON's official Facebook page:

BOSTON has always tried to be a positive force in a very messed up world, and it has been gratifying to see the number of fans who have responded to that commitment.

If you care about global warming, Latino kids torn from their parents by the US government, racial inequality and injustice, corruption, the breakdown of human decency, moronic federal Covid response, or if you just miss the America you once knew, then you need to vote NOW! Don’t wait until Nov 3rd; don’t trust your ballot to our sabotaged postal service. Find a drop box that is not a trick decoy box, or go in person (wearing your PPE) to an early voting site in your state, and vote or hand deliver your ballot to a trustworthy official.

Numerous web sites will give you information for your state to help you successfully cast your ballot in spite of Republican efforts to suppress your right to vote. There are several states in which this has already become a shocking problem, and this is not an election where we can afford to have votes thrown in a trash can by people who want to stay in power by any means. Time is almost up. Find a way to make your vote count, it has never been more important.

Tom Scholz

The National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) has revealed the latest entrants into the TECnology Hall of Fame (TECHOF), and Tom Scholz' Scholz Research & Development Rockman is one of them.

From the NAMM press release:

1982 Scholz Research & Development Rockman (Tom Scholz)

Long before the term “project studio” was coined, Tom Scholz (founder of the band Boston) built a basement studio to record his own music, including his band’s debut album. An engineer with a master’s degree from MIT, he created much of his own gear, including what was to become the Scholz Rockman, a pocket-sized box that offered compression, distortion, stereo chorus and delay effects for guitar — effectively becoming a complete studio or pedalboard in a miniature package.

Scholz founded Scholz Research & Development to manufacture and market his inventions, including the Power Soak amplifier attenuator, which allowed the recording of amps at lower volumes, along with the popular Rockman, X100, Soloist, Guitar Ace, and Bass Ace. With the Rockman’s headphone amp output, the unit could smoothly function as a direct box, providing players with a great sound that was consistent and simple to achieve — laying down the foundation for a revolution in the way guitarists make music, both live and in the studio.

Tommy DeCarlo's band DECARLO will be releasing their first album Lightning Strikes Twice on January 24, 2020.

As was reported in November 2018, DECARLO signed a record deal with Frontiers Music Srl, which is the same label BOSTON released their album Life, Love & Hope on. The album will feature 12 tracks, including I Think I Fell In Love With You, which is a song Tommy first recorded and released in 2011. Along with Tommy DeCarlo, the band also consists of his son, Tommy DeCarlo Jr. on guitar, Dan Hitz on drums, bassist David Netta and Payton Velligan on keyboard, guitar and vocals.

Track Listing:
01. A Better Day
02. You Are The Fire
03. Give Love A Try
04. Into The Storm
05. Lightning Strikes Twice
06. Still In Love
07. Rock N’ Soul
08. There She Goes
09. Stand Up (Play Ball)
10. The One
11. Gotta Go
12. I Think I Fell In Love With You

The album is available for preorder via Amazon, iTunes and Google Play Music.

A video for the title track is now available:

Back in 2018, Rick Beato covered Hitch a Ride on his YouTube series "What Makes This Song Great?". In a recent episode, he explores More Than a Feeling.

Cooking with Rock Stars

There's a new show coming out called Cooking with Rock Stars. According to the Englewood Sun, BOSTON's own Tommy DeCarlo will be featured in one of the first season's 13-episode run.

Hosted by John Campbell, Cooking with Rock Stars features musicians cooking their favorite dishes, then while they eat, answer questions and share stories of their life. The show will also feature Jonathan Cain (Journey), Mike Levine (Triumph), Brian Howe (Bad Company), along with artists from bands such as Black Sabbath, Joan Jett, Kansas, Meat Loaf, Beck, and more.

The series is expected to debut on PBS in October 2019, with releases later on Netflix and Amazon Prime.

June 1 marks a milestone for this site - the twentieth anniversary of its launch.

It all started in mid-May of 1999. After my first year of college, I decided I wanted to create a Boston fan site. At that time, I decided to give myself a deadline of two weeks to complete it. On June 1, I launched Third Stage: A New World on the free webhosting service Webjump. The site was later moved to Batcave - another free webhost. In 2001. After getting tired of having a site plastered with ads from the webhost, along with limitations they placed on free hosting accounts, I decided to start putting money into the site and registered the domain name thirdstage.ca and moved the site to a paid hosting service. At that time, I decided to rebrand the site from Third Stage: A New World, to simply thirdstage.ca.

If you've been visiting this site long enough, you may recall that for a while, I actually closed up the site. It was 2003, and it was getting harder for me to give the site the attention I thought it deserved. So instead of letting the site languish, I made the hard choice to close it up. Then in 2005, during a time where I had a lot of time to spare, I decided to relaunch the site.

The site underwent a number of redesigns over the years. In 2007, I embarked on a number of changes for the site, starting with a new webhost. in March of 2007, I started the process of moving the site to a new webhost. It was during this time the news of Brad Delp's passing came about. On June 1, 2007, I released a major rebuild of the site. This was a particularly big change as I moved the site to a content management system. This meant I had to manually recreate all the content from the existing site one page/article at a time. The site changed again in November of 2009 after upgrading the CMS this site runs on. It remained largely unchanged until recently.

The 20th Anniversary Relaunch includes some major improvements:

Gary Pihl's band Alliance has a new album coming out. Fire and Grace is being released on Escape Music on May 24, 2019. The album will feature 12 tracks, with a thirteenth bonus track for the first pressing of the album.

alliance fire and grace 400

Track listing:
01: The Wheel (3:39)
02: Good Life (4:03)
03: Uncertain (6:34)
04: I'll Have Some Of That (4:43)
05: Fire And Grace (3:26)
06: Raise Your Glass (3:24)
07: Time (4:38)
08: Real Thing (4:33)
09: Reason To Walk Away (4:26)
10: Fast Forward To Last Night (3:13)
11: Change Of Heart (4:21)
12: The Same (4:02)
13: You Are The Heroes (3:27) *bonus track with first pressing only

Update May 28: While the album is available now on digital platforms, it looks like the CD release has been delayed to June 14, as the Amazon.com listing now shows that as the release date.

BOSTON vocalist Tommy DeCarlo's band DECARLO has signed a record deal.

Frontiers Music Srl -- the same label that BOSTON released their 2013 album Life, Love & Hope on, has signed DECARLO to their label. "I’m extremely proud to be recognized by Frontiers and offered my very first recording contract! Getting to work with such a powerhouse label, that has signed some of the top bands from my era, is an accomplishment!” Says Tommy. "I’ve had a lot of blessings in my life (getting married to my wonderful wife of thirty years, having two beautiful children, having performed with a legendary rock and roll band, being a grandfather and last but not least having the opportunity to perform alongside my son Tommy Jr. in our band DECARLO. Through all of those blessings songwriting has also played a big part in my life. I’ve always written for myself, for my own enjoyment, it was something I did simply to pass the time never thinking anything would ever come of it…but it has! Frontiers has given me the opportunity to take my music to the next level. The world will finally get to hear the music of Tommy DeCarlo!"

DECARLO's lineup also includes Tommy's son, Tommy DeCarlo Jr. on guitar, Dan Hitz on drums and Brett Nelson on bass.

DECARLO's first album is expected around the middle of 2019 and is to include 10 songs.

Frontiers Music Srl is a record label based in Italy and has a number of well-known artists on their label, including Journey, REO Speedwagon, Chicago, Def Leppard, Sammy Hagar, Yes and Stryper.

Tommy DeCarlo's band DECARLO has released a new single. Check out "Lightning Strikes Twice."

Rick Beato dives into the different parts of BOSTON's "Hitch A Ride" in episode 17 of "What Makes This Song Great?".