Driven Far Off

The latest on the indie, alternative, and rock music scene including news, music, contest, interviews, and more. Best described as your favorite place to find new bands.

Motion City Sountrack/Say Anything Tour Dates

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Motion City Soundtrack will be co-headlining tour dates with Say Anything. The tour will also feature Saves The Day. Valencia will be on the tour for the October dates and A Great Big Pile of Leaves will be on the tour for the November dates.

October

14th Soma San Diego, CA
15th Avalon Los Angeles, CA
16th House of Blues Anaheim, CA
17th Regency San Francisco, CA
19th Sodo Seattle, WA
20th Crystal Ballroom Portland, OR
22nd Avalon Salt Lake City, UT
23rd Summit Denver, CO
24th Sokol Auditorium Omaha, NE
26th Pageant St. Louis, MO
27th The Rave Milwaukee, WI
28th First Avenue Minneapolis, MN
30th House of Blues Chicago, IL
31st House of Blues Chicago, IL

November

1st Bogarts Cincinnati, OH
3rd Fillmore Detroit, MI
4th Sound Academy Toronto, ON
5th Starland Sayreville, NJ
6th Lupo’s Providence, RI
8th House Of Blues Boston, MA
9th Nokia New York, NY
10th Electric Factory Philadelphia, PA
12th Sonar Baltimore, MD
13th Amo’s Charlotte, NC
14th Variety Theater Atlanta, GA
16th Revolution Ft. Lauderdale, FL
17th House Of Blues Orlando, FL
19th Palladium Dallas, TX
20th Warehouse Live Houston, TX
21st Stubb’s Austin, TX

Trophy Scars EP/Tour Dates

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NJ’s Trophy Scars have announced plans to release 2 new EP’s in the coming months. The first, Darkness, Oh Hell, will be available later this summer digitally and on CD, with a possible vinyl release to follow. A song from the new EP can be found for streaming right here, along with dates for the band’s US tour which kicks off this weekend: http://www.bit.ly/95TLxR

Darkness, Oh Hell Track Listing:

1. Sauvez-Moi De L’Enfer
2. Nausea
3. Darkness
4. Trazodone
5. Sad Stanley
6. Time in Heaven, Forever in Hell

Tour Dates (*all dates w/ Nigel Silverthorn)

July 9     Cafe Metropolis, Wilkes-Barre, PA
July 10   5125 Spring Road, Verona, NY
July 12   Pete’s Place, Essexville, MI
July 13   The Crofoot Complex, Pontiac, MI
July 14   Cisa Studios, Hammond, IN
July 15   The Beat Kitchen, Chicago, IL
July 16   The Gate, Antigo, WI
July 17   Java Jim’s Music Theatre, La Porte, IN
July 18   Bowling Green, KY*
July 19   Atlanta, GA*
July 20   Ground Zero, Spartanburg, SC
July 21   Yo Burrito, Charleston, SC
July 22   The Blue Nile, Harrisonburg, VA
July 23   Allentown, PA*
July 24   Knights of Columbus VFW, Boonton, NJ

*TBA

This Love Interview – July 12, 2010

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Can you please introduce yourself and your role in This Love?

My name is Joe McFaddin and I sing and play guitar in the band This Love

How did This Love get started?

Well, to make what might be a longer story short, we used to be a band called Callahan, a pop-punk act from Springfield, Ohio. But after a style and member change, (me being one of the member changes) , we decided to take on a new name and start fresh as This Love. We formed as a 5 piece and consist of former members of (Callahan) and other local bands from Dayton, Ohio.

Tell me about your new album that comes out on June 19th.

First off, you can snatch up the album The Beginning by This Love as soon as June 14th off of itunes and amazon.com <http://amazon.com> . You can grab the album (hard copy Compact disc form) at our CD release party on June 19th at the Lions club in Springfield, Ohio.

This album is our first attempt to be heard as This Love. The band and I have a lot of confidence in this EP, especially since we as a band are so new to the game. I believe that anyone who listens to this with open ears will appreciate it from front to back. We are very excited for people to hear it and to start receiving feedback.

Are you guys doing anything special/interesting/fun to promote the album?

Promoting the album is one of the funnest things we have been doing. We have been hustling our name and music to anyone that will give us a half of a second, from people pumping gas to people sitting down at a local restaurant trying to eat their dinner, hahaha. Plus, everything we have been doing with our social networks, such as, twitter, myspace, facebook. We have weekly contests and chats with all of our fans getting them pumped on our album release. We also make appearances at prime venues during prime show times and push our name and music to everyone we can. We make everyday an adventure when it comes to promotion, we want people to check us out!

Do you guys have any touring plans? Or are you currently on tour?

We are currently not on tour, as of right now we are planning out our schedule for the summer. A lot of exciting opportunities are to come!

What are some of your goals for This Love?

As of right now our main goal is to stay true to ourselves as musicians and as individuals, push our name and our music to as many listeners, in as many areas as possible. And most of all, have a blast with what we re doing and do it to the best of our abilities. We are a blessed group of kids that get to do what we love everyday.

How did you get started playing music?

I got started playing music as long ago as i can remember. Once I got into high-school, I bought my first acoustic guitar and it was all downhill from there. I caught a disease. An incurable one.

What are some of your major musical influences?

Wow, major musical influences? I wouldn’t know where to begin, but if i have to i would say, (as a band) our major influences are probably U2, Van Halen, The Eagles, Eric Clapton, Third Eye Blind, The Maine, My Favorite Highway. And personally I will tell you im a sucker for blues. I love John Mayer, but you’ll always catch me listening to MJ, Stevie Ray, Robert Johnson, B.B. King. I love any music with a whole lot of feel. Never can get enough feel. But I would never be able to hit the tip of the ice burg when it comes to all of our influences.

What has been the biggest accomplishment for This Love?

We have accomplished soooo much already for being such a new band. But that is something I don’t personally like talking about at this point in time. We are ready for the future, because the accomplishments ahead are much more important.

Any last words for our readers?

AHH, last words, my favorite thing… haha.. This Love is all about making a difference in the world and in the time we have ahead. We are very passionate about what we do and how we do it. We are ready to express our love through our music and actions. We are ready to help bring back love to this world, and what it really means to care. And to the people, follow your dreams, love with all your heat, never ever give up, don’t take no for an answer, pick up your passion whatever it may be and DO NOT put it down, stay true to who you are and get to work, the world needs you.

Good Old War Tour Dates

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Good Old War will be touring starting in late July. Dates are below.

July 25 Kent, OH Kent Stage w/ Brandi Carlile
July 28 Rutland, VT Paramount Theatre w/ Brandi Carlile
July 29 Morristown, NJ Community Theatre w/ Brandi Carlile
July 30 Hampton Beach, NH Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
August 1 Westhampton Beach, NY Westhampton Beach PAC

August 19 Schwenksville, PA Philadelphia Folk Festival
August 25 New York, NY Irving Plaza w/ Xavier Rudd
August 26 Philadelphia, PA Theatre of Living Arts w/ Xavier Rudd
August 27 Cleveland, OH House of Blues w/ Xavier Rudd
August 28 Royal Oak, MI Royal Oak Music Theatre w/ Xavier Rudd
August 30 Nashville, TN Exit/In w/ Xavier Rudd
August 31 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse w/ Xavier Rudd
September 1 Isle of Palms, SC The Windjammer w/ Xavier Rudd
September 3 Orlando, FL House of Blues w/ Xavier Rudd
September 4 Ft. Lauderdale, FL Culture Room w/ Xavier Rudd
September 5 St. Petersburg, FL State Theatre w/ Xavier Rudd
September 7 Asheville, NC Orange Peel w/ Xavier Rudd
September 8 Louisville, KY Headliners w/ Xavier Rudd
September 9 Madison, WI Barrymore Theatre w/ Xavier Rudd
September 10 Clarks Grove, MN Harvestfest w/ Xavier Rudd
September 11 Chicago, IL Vic Theatre w/ Xavier Rudd
September 13 Burlington, VT Higher Ground w/ Xavier Rudd
September 14 Boston, MA Wilbur Theatre w/ Xavier Rudd

Terrible Things Interview – June 18, 2010

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I recently called up Fred Mascherino (ex-Taking Back Sunday, The Color Fred) to discuss his new band Terrible Things. See what Fred has to say about the current tour with Anberlin, the new record and future goals for Terrible Things.

Can you please introduce yourself and your role in Terrible Things?

I’m Fred Mascherino and I play guitar and sing in Terrible Things.

Who else is involved in Terrible Things? How did the project start?

The other two members are Andy Jackson and Josh Eppard. I was doing a solo tour with The Color Fred with me and my guitar and Andy was at the club in Montgomery, Alabama where he lives. He came up afterwards and we were talking, saying how he liked the songs and that we should play together sometime. Nothing too serious. I took his number and as soon as I got home I called him because I am big fan of him as well. So I called him and I sent him some demos I had of some new stuff and he was really into it. Pretty much when Andy got on-board things started moving really quickly. Andy is just a super positive guy and really motivational that it just started moving quick. Next thing we know Josh Eppard was playing with us too. When he was Coheed and Cambria I was a big fan of him so it was really cool. That is where we are at right now. Next thing we know we recorded an album and now we are on tour.

Can you tell me some information about the new record and what we can expect?

Yeah, the record is finally finished. We spent a good 6 months on it and recorded it down in Birmingham, Alabama. It is a concept record about a series of fires that happened in my hometown. In 08-09, there were almost 50 arson fires that pretty much terrorized our city and people were angry and also scared. I was getting emotional about it myself so I wrote a few songs about it thinking no one would ever hear it. After I had several written about it, you know, I started to turn it into something and Andy got in on it. He had a house fire in his apartment a couple years ago so he was relating to the whole thing. He lost all of his stuff in that fire. It was just by coincidence that we both felt strongly about this sort of fear and things like that. Once the 3 of us got into a room, we put together 15 songs and it’s done. The record comes out August 31.

So, you guys are happy with what you guys have put out on this record?

Oh man, this is the most proud I have ever been of something I have created. We did it exatly the way we wanted to. We were able to take our time and it wasn’t really about the budget. It was about getting it right. The drums are all really live and it’s not your typical drum replacing with samples that you get on a lot of records these days. It sounds like Josh playing in a room and it hits really hard. There are just lots of layers of guitars. It’s a normal rock record with two guitars, bass, drums and vocals. We have a song on there called “Conspiracy” that has a 124 tracks that we used. So, we went all out in different ways each time. We are super into it and super excited.

You guys are currently on tour with Anberlin and Story Of The Year. Even though last night was the first night of the tour, how is it going so far?

It has been awesome. I mean, Anberlin is right where we want to be. We are just starting out and getting the word out. But they are a band that has been around for years and is finally getting the success they deserve. It’s nice to pick their brains about we should do next and also try to win over their fans. There have been a lot of kids at the shows so far.

And you guys are playing Warped Tour, correct? Are you looking forward to that?

Right. We have a show with 30 Seconds To Mars then we are going out with The Offspring for a week. It’s sort of a different type of door compared to all of our backgrounds. We are just trying it all. At some points on the record, we allowed ourselves to get out of our comfort zone and try something new and that is also kind of what this Offspring tour is. It should be really good. It is a way for us to play out west.

What are some of your goals for Terrible Things?

Well, you know, a lot of people may think this is just a project or a “side” thing but it is very much our focus and what we would like to be doing for the next 10 years. So everything we do we keep in mind that we want this and we are making it our first priority over everything else and put in 110%. Of course, we have to have enough success to be able to continue and honestly, that is why we spent so much time on the record and we really think that other people will get excited when they hear it. Our goals are pretty much musical. Just play the best music we ever have. There is sort of a lack of popular bands that try and play their instruments well and we are just trying to do that. It is an uphill battle but we feel like we made something that people can get behind that also has some really cool playing. Josh does some insane grooves on the record. It gets a little technical toward the end. There is a song that is a bit Coheed-ish. For the most part, it is straight-ahead rock and there are guitar solos on half the songs. That is something you don’t really hear anymore. I feel confident saying that there is no one out there doing exactly what we are doing right now.

Where did the name “Terrible Things” come from?

It came from a song that I have. The lyrics in that song says “We are doing terrible things.” It is kind of fitting for what our record is about. The concept of the record is like “How did we get to this place?” Our world as we know it, my town, was out of control. One of the songs on there is called “Revolution” and the chorus is “This is not a revolution” and it’s just like “Where are we going?” and “How can we make things better?” It deals with a lot of the darker elements of the world. I always tend to have a positive take on things but Terrible Things went around all things I have experienced.

Any last words for our readers?

I encourage everyone to check out the record. Most of all, come to our live shows. This band is very old school in that we are going to try and put on the very best possible live shows. We will be meeting people afterwards. So come out not only to see the shows but to hang out also. It should be a really exciting year and I hope as many of you can come out as possible.

Circa Survive Tour Dates

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Circa Survive will be touring with The Dear Hunter and O’Brother. Dates are below. Pre-sale tickets go one sale today (Friday June 18th).

Fri/7-23 Tucson, AZ @ The Rock
Sat/7-24 Phoenix, AZ @ The Nile
Sun/7-25 San Diego, CA – Radio Show
Tue/7-27 Santa Cruz, CA @ Rio Theatre
Wed/7-28 San Jose, CA @ The Blank Club
Thu/7-29 San Luis Obispo, CA @ Downtown Brew
Fri/7-30 Bakersfield, CA @ Jerry’s Pizza
Sat/7-31 St. George, UT @ Electric Theatre
Sun/8-1 San Bernardino, CA @ Stingers

The Great Valley Interview – June 14, 2010

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Can you please introduce yourself and your role in The Great Valley?

I’m Louis. I sing lead vocals and play drums on the record. I’m Nick and I sing back up and play guitar.

How did The Great Valley come together?

Nick and I are brothers and have been playing music together since 1999. We decided to start something new together. We took the ball and started running with it…we still are haha.

Your new EP, Wrecking Ball, came out last month. Tell me a little bit about the EP and the process of putting it together.

The EP is one of the biggest pieces to the puzzle for us. It is our life’s work to date. We want everyone that hears it to understand that we put everything we have in us to make this record. This was the first time “pre-production” was introduced into the process. We had no idea how to do it and are blessed to have worked with such a great producer like Matt Robnett. We just clicked and learned so much from him.

The EP was written and recorded by both of you guys. How was doing this by yourself? Where did you learn how to do this?

It was the most fun, draining, inspiring and ridiculous experience. One word to put it all together would be Meticulous. We left no corner cut or inch looked over to make sure we captured the sound we wanted. This has been bottled up inside of us and finally unleashed. We learned how to do this after YEARS of writing and recording. This may be the first release from us but we’ve struggled to put something like this out our whole lives.

What are your plans to release a full length in the future?

haha funny you ask. Even before we released this EP we were writing for the full length. Once we figured out the formula it has been non stop writing. We can’t help take how we are feeling at the moment and put it down on a track. We’ve been demoing and working to piece the next puzzle together. We think people will be surprised with the newer material compared to the EP.

I heard that you guys are playing acoustically to the fans waiting at the gates of Warped Tour this summer. How are you feeling about that?

Nervous and excited at the same time. Excited to finally get out in front of people and nervous for their reaction. We want people to have fun with us. It was awesome writing and recording so we expect it to be just as fun playing for everyone.

How did you get started playing music?

Our mother is a vocalist and our father is a drummer. It was around us all through our childhood. One day they said, “Hey do you guys want to take music lessons?” and Nick said, “I wanna try the guitar” and I said, “I’ll go for the drums”. haha and the rest has been years of practice. Anytime someone asks me what it’s like to play music with your brother I say, “Imagine hacking at a tree the size of the empire state building with a tiny ax”. We justkeep hacking and hacking at it.

What are some of your goals for The Great Valley?

Our number one goal is to be able to write, record and play music full time. 9-5 jobs are not for us. Number two is to make our parents proud. They have sacrificed more than you could imagine for us to get this far. So our success is their success.

Any last words for our readers?

Yes, follow us on twitter and facebook. Keep your eyes peeled for an acoustic EP we will be releasing soon and come see us at warped tour. We are going to play a set in the morning while the line forms and a set inside at a tent that will be announced that day via twitter. We’ll have a LOT of hang out time so come hang!