In 1998 a very small musicians cooperative organization we collectively called Band2Gether was formed. As a community of artists we would be banding together to help each other out. Using the 2gether rather than the together simply gave us a play on words. It had a nice ring to the name but nobody (other then myself) like it so we set out to find a name that would fit our future organization.

We spent about a month gathering ideas and one day we settled on 4 simple letters, EvOR. At the time it really had no meaning, just a series of letters. The letters eventually became something of importance as the letter represented the
Elite Veterans Of Rock..

As a newcomer to the internet world I had no proven idea about attracting musicians to this fledgling organization so I did the only thing that could be done. By simply approaching musicians that had similar ideas to ours and asked them to join our little group. I felt that every new musician could bring additional knowledge and a service to our organization. It also became obvious that we could eventually use our numbers to create discounts for services that starving musicians paid through the noise for, like CD duplication, discounted compilation participation, indie radio broadcasting, and more (at that time an indie artist had to pay to be listed on a website). We could also band together and support each other by voting for fellow EvO:R bands and solo acts when they are up for vote on those popularity contest sites.

After a few months we grow to over 200 members. A message board was created and a logo was set up then a modest website was created to explain what we planned to do in the future. Shortly, we began adding bands to the site and interest sky rocketed so I began to ask members that wanted to join our website to help me in some way. I could use help s/a website design, proof reading, check pages on multiple browsers, search engine submissions, radio DJ's, MP3 encoding and uploading, newsletter editing, as well as to participate in some of the other below mentioned projects.

With the help of a few tireless members we built our website from the ground up. At this time I would like to give a shout out to a few of those individuals that helped mold our original idea into what it is today.

 Mark Bell - Mark is one of the finest artists I have ever known. He also created Quad-Cranium, a project that set the standards for internet marketing and promotions.

 Frank Cotolo - Frank gave EvO:R instant credibility because of his relationship with the legendary radio personality Wolfman Jack. Frank returned to the mic to launch the original EvO:R radio broadcasts. He also became the editor of the popular EvO:R Street Journal.

 Neal Allen - Neal has been responsible for creating our current line of logos. We are currently working on a new logo and Neal will be working closely with our staff to take us to the next level.

 Bill Carrera - Bill reviewed over 100 independent CD's for EvO:R during his time with us and he made plenty of friends along the way. His reviews where entertaining and honest.

 Rick Andrews - Rick was asked to answer general questions about guitar repair. We had no idea that I would be getting over 100 emails every 2 weeks and we eventually had to stop taking questions because Rick was overwhelmed with questions. He agreed to do 100 questions for the website and ended up doing over one thousand. We published over 200 on the website.

 Jef Peace - when Jef joined our group we had an online retailer/distributor of Independent music within our organization. As managing general partner to Peacework Music Network Jef has been a huge partner with EvO:R and we are proud to be associated with him.

Other folks that made an impact in the early days of the website where:

Paul and Ellen Dube (PEZZ), Chris Patrick Chamblee, Joel Pirard, Nannette Garrett, Daniel Johnston, Jimmie Vestal, Christa McNamee, Roberto Luz, Tim Arnold, Meagan Lane, Jeza, Louis Lamp, Jimmy Dee Caterine, Karl Kalbaugh and Einar Vilberg. Thank all of you for helping lay the ground work for the EvO:R website. You are all great musicians and wonderful friends.

Back in 1998-99 when we first launched the EvO:R website I had no idea how to write website code correctly and I had to learn as I went. For months I relied on a number of people to help nurse me along. At that time we had a browser war between Microsoft and Netscape and developing web code that was compatable with both browsers was enough to make an inexperienced developer like myself crazy. A page would look dynamic on one browser only to look confused and out of place on the other. Slowly I got better and the website began to take shape.

In 2000 I was fortunate enough to get an email from a college student that was majoring in website development and he asked me if I would allow him to work on the Evo:R website. He would rebuild it from the ground up and I would owe him nothing. He just wanted to do this for a school grade and he loved independent music. This looked like a wonderful situation. Free labor!

The kid was great and he was about halfway through with the site upgrade when I started to notice that he stopped working. He didn't return my calls or emails. This ment only one thing. I would have to rebuild the other half of the site myself. This process took over 3 months and really made me mad because I allowed the lure of FREE help to override business and logic. I later discovered that the young man fell in love and left college to live with this person. We haven't spoken since.

The lesson I learned from allowing someone to have access to my website set the tone for how I would run this website from that day forward. I would be in control of every phase. No more Free Help, I would do it all myself. To this day I have had very little help from anyone on the outside when it came to matters of this website.

What are some of the EvO:R projects under way?

   Guitar Kits and Parts Sales

After talking about doing this for 5 years the team at EvOR has finally opened up an imported guitar and guitar kits section. We have great copies of some of the worlds most popular guitars as well as D.I.Y. Kits for folks that want something more personal by building their own guitar. Our kits are ready to assemble and can save you hundreds of dollars verses buying an already assembled guitar.

* Click here to find out more about the Guitar Kits..

   A Virtual Kiosk CD Mall

To the best of my knowledge we are the first website to offer a full fledged Virtual Kiosk CD Mall. We are offering over 32,000 CD titles and have been responsible for selling over ten thousand CDs from Independent Artists during our first years of operation. We have partnered with online retail giant CD Baby as well as CD Universe to bring our visitors independent and major label music.

Had it not been for this Virtual Kiosk most of those 10,000 CDs would still be sitting on shelves at national online distribution centers. We have proven to many people that this idea can work to help the Independent artist sell more music.
* Click here to find out more about the Virtual Kiosk..


Note: As of January 2010 we have signed on with CD Universe to offer Major Label Artists.

   The EvO:R Street Journal

The catchy name was created to play off the popularity of the Wall Street Journal. We just replaced the wall with EvO:R. In 2004 we had Frank Cotolo joining our news staff as editor of the EvO:R Street Journal. With the help of Frank and many additional writers we have made great headway into the world of Independent music. Having great writers like Frank Cotolo, Roberto Luz, Jef Peace, Bob Baker, just to name a few adds instant credibilty to our whole effort. During the past year we have teamed up with a couple E-Zines to bring leading edge Independent artist news and information.

We have been launched for a full 10 years and the results have been revolutionary.
Click Here to Have a Look

   The EvO:R-pedia Musicians Tips

This musicians tips section has become a wealth of ideas for the Independent musician. You could buy 20 books and never scatch the surface of what we have to offer AND IT'S FREE! Many artist/band managers have told me publically and via email that our musicians tips section has been their bible to success with the bands they represent. The section covers a huge selection of topics from getting gigs to hiring an entertainment lawyer. We even discuss the benefits and pitfalls of signing with a major label.

Please visit this section and bookmark it for future reference.
Click Here to Have a Look

   The EvO:R Independent Musicians CD Reviews

We get a number of requests for CD reviews every month. We try to review as many as we can and publish them in the Reviews section. The reviews are brutally honest and samples of the songs are available so you can listen while you read the reviews. You can even send us your thoughts about our opinion. We can't please everyone but we have a thick hide and can take a verbal punch.

Information on how to get your music reviewed is posted in this section.
Click Here to Have a Look

   EvO:R Radio and Streaming Media

After the launch of the original EvO:R radio broadcast I have gotten the bug to do it again. From my experience with the first launch 5 years ago I know what I want to do and am much more focused on creating a vital broadcasting network that will cover Independent music, music news as well as discussions and self help programs that I will produce in my studio. A time and date for this launch is still not established but it will be a reality very soon.

   The EvO:R Tour

The founder of EvO:R is going on tour with the EvO:R staff photographer. We will be visiting other members of our organization on this tour. A few guitars may break out and a recording may be made. You just never know what could happen when I come to your town and knock on your door. Just be ready because we are planning to Rock your town!
Summer tour information will be coming very soon.

What do you require to join?

I'm asked daily about how a band/artist can get posted with pages on EvO:R.

The answer?

I personally pick every artist that appears on the site, I also delete every artist that is no longer on the site. There is no real system for getting your band listed on our website. I just have to know about you, and like you. It's really that simple.

With the popularity of MySpace, Twitter and FaceBook just to name a few, I don't see much benefit to having your band listed on the EvO:R featured band section.

After all

 We are not a social networking site so we won't have people spamming you daily to be their friend.

 We won't get you hooked and then hit you with a premium membership fee to keep your membership.

 We don't want you spending hours updating your pages, we'll actually do that for you.

 There is nothing to buy and you don't need a password to get in.

 You won't be lost in a jungle of 2 million other bands begging for attention.

So with everything that those other social network sites have to offer I can't imagine anyone wanting to be listed on the front page of this website. After all, it only gets 12,000 lookers to that front page every day.

One HUGE hint to getting listed on our website.

I don't add a band just for joining my discussion group, but I rearly add bands that don't! This group in available at Yahoo Groups-EvO:R

By not allowing any out of tune guitarist with a problem with vocal pitch to grace our pages I can usually give new visitors to the EvO:R website a great musical website experience.

To be considered you will need to visit the contact page and follow the instructions, plus sign up to be part of our discussion group (see above).