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Ace Enders Posts New Song Inspired By Presidential Election

November 3, 2008 By Bryce Jacobson Leave a Comment

Ace Enders, former Early November frontman, felt so inspired by the importance of tomorrow’s Presidential Elections that not only is he urging his fans to get out there and vote, but he felt so compelled to try to help effect a change by writing the song “LEADER” which he has uploaded to his official MySpace page.

In his own words, Ace offers the following note to his fans:

Hey guys,

I just put a new demo up on the MySpace called “Leader.” Even though I’m way past 18 years old, I have to admit that this is the first year I’ll be voting. I’ve never felt inspired enough to, but this year I finally feel like there is someone worth voting for who can really make a difference. I hope you guys feel the same way and head to the polls on Tuesday.

Anyway, I hope you like the song and come see a show. We’ll be out on tour with hellogoodbye for four more weeks. See you soon!

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Ace Enders

Trenches – The Tide Will Swallow Us All

November 2, 2008 By Manuel Enrique Garcia 4 Comments

Artist: Trenches
Album: The Tide Will Swallow Us All
Label: Solid State
Purchase: Smart Punk
Release Date: September 16, 2008

Overall: 9.5
Music: 9.5
Lyrics: 8.0
Production: 8.5

The sky is grey and hangs above the streets like an Orwellian nightmare, a filter that surrounds the masses to make sure blue skies aren’t seen for another day. Coldness inhabits the darkness, taking its skin like a costume or disguise. When a chilled breeze flows by, you feel as if the gloom has tangled itself around you, leaving you with only fears and doubts and hideous thoughts masquerading as compliments. Memories of sunny days and falling leaves play over and over in your mind, reminding you that this too shall pass.

Trenches were used as protection, as a defense against the enemy during war. Soldiers would sweat in foreign countries while digging away, knowing that each lift of the earth was an inch closer to being relatively safe. During battle, soldiers hid in the trenches, allowing the earth to serve as a shield, as protection against bullets and items launched from the opposition line. These holes and connected system of ditches held each individual’s thoughts and prays, hoping that the battle will be over and in due time, they would be home again with their families. Ditches, containers of bodies built by bare hands to demolish the enemies from a distance, but to also protect them from soaring metals.

Whether or not the name of the band is meant to allude to such images, that’s something only the members can truly answer. Regardless, many listeners can view the music of Trenches debut record, “The Tide Will Swallow Us Whole”, as a metaphorical element to their lives, serving to “protect” them from their struggles, stresses, and daily hardships. It’s easy to compare a military strategy to something put out by a five-piece band: music in general has always served as an escape, a place where one could hide between notes and sounds.

The ten tracks on the record span various genres, from the brutal to the experimental to the eerily inspiring. The first time listening to the record, you are taken on loops and dives, twists and turns where the unexpected grips you by the wrists. The first track (“Calling”) starts out with an eerie sound fading in, getting louder, and then the vocals from Jimmy Ryan, formerly of Haste The Day. The music slows down immensely while the screams still pour out like lions running towards their prey, ready to sink their teeth in. The rest of the track flips between a faster pace, and a slow, more relaxed one where the instruments can be heard clearly. There is a hint of singing that will eventually be heard throughout the record in small portions, but each section of singing relatively different than the other. The first track is a perfect opener, giving the listener a taste of what’s going to be explored throughout the next nine tracks; impressive musicianship, brutal vocals, unique singing sections, dark themes without rooting back to the over-used basic of chugging guitars and breakdowns.

The experimental aspect of “The Tide Will Swallow Us Whole” is outstanding, giving a unique twist to heavier music. A large part of the songs are portions of instrumentals, which proves that hype surrounding Trenches shouldn’t just be focused on Jimmy Ryan, but the rest of the members who are talented in their given spotlights. “Bittersweet” includes a piano near the end of the song that leads to emotional yells and screams. The build up from piano to the yells leaves the listener with a sense of reaching the climax of a given event, whether positively or negatively viewed.

The ten songs have a tendency to evoke dark imagery, but not in the sense of glorify negative aspects, but in the sense of bringing awareness and messages of hope through honest lyrics and creative musicianship. Overall, Trenches makes an impressive and underrated debut with “The Tide Will Swallow Us Whole.” Ten songs of something refreshing not plagued with stereotypical sounds and vibrations. One of the best records of the year, Trenches should easily become a common name in backlit media devices around the world.

Track Listing
1. Calling
2. Eyes Open
3. Sacrament
4. Trip The Landmine
5. Pathways
6. Bittersweet
7. Call It Correct
8. End
9. Ocean Currents
10. Cornered

Filed Under: Album, Reviews Tagged With: Solid-State, Trenches

Happy Halloween From Tooth & Nail Records

October 29, 2008 By Bryce Jacobson Leave a Comment

Tooth & Nail has made a Halloween video which you can check out below.

Filed Under: News, Videos Tagged With: Tooth And Nail

Shiny Toy Guns Stream New Album

October 29, 2008 By Bryce Jacobson Leave a Comment

Shiny Toy Guns are streaming the new album, Season of Poison, a week early on their MySpace page. The album is due out next Tuesday November 4th. Take a listen and let us know what you think. Check out the album art below.

Filed Under: Album Art, News Tagged With: Shiny-Toy-Guns

Underoath, Saosin & The Devil Wears Prada Photos

October 25, 2008 By Mike Duncan Leave a Comment

I have posted some new pictures of Underoath, Saosin & The Devil Wears Prada in the photos section. Head there to check them out.

Filed Under: Photos Tagged With: Saosin, The-Devil-Wears-Prada, Underoath

Butch Walker To Release New Album November 11th

October 25, 2008 By Bryce Jacobson Leave a Comment

Butch Walker will be releasing his new album, Sycamore Meadows, on November 11th. A video for the single “Ships In A Bottle” can be seen below. Check out the album art below as well.

Butch Walker

Filed Under: News

Boys Like Girls Releasing DVD, Post Video

October 20, 2008 By Bryce Jacobson Leave a Comment

Boys Like Girls will be releasing their new DVD, Read Between The Lines, on November 4th. You can watch a live video of “Thunder” from the DVD over on PureVolume. A pre-order for the DVD is available on the bands website.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Boys Like Girls

Thrice To Release Double Live Album, DVD

October 15, 2008 By Bryce Jacobson Leave a Comment

Thrice is set to release a double live album and DVD on December 9th. The Album titled Thrice Live at The House of Blues features an entire live concert on two CD’s plus a DVD from a May 28, 2008 show at the House of Blues in Anaheim, CA.  Also included is exclusive interview footage of the band fielding fan-submitted questions.

The Southern Californian quartet is currently touring with Alkaline Trio, Rise Against and The Gaslight Anthem in support of their critically acclaimed collection, The Alchemy Index Vols. I-IV.

THRICE LIVE AT THE HOUSE OF BLUES track listing (2-CD):

1. The Lion & The Wolf
2. Firebreather
3. The Messenger
4. Of Dust and Nations
5. Digital Sea
6. Flags of Dawn
7. Burn The Fleet
8. Open Water
9. The Earth Isn’t Humming
10. The Artist in the Ambulance
11. Trust
12. Cold Cash Colder Hearts
13. Broken Lungs
14. The Whaler
15. All That’s Left
16. Silhouette
17. Come All You Weary
18. Stare at the Sun
19. Daedalus
20. Don’t Tell and We Won’t Ask
21. Hold Fast Hope
22. For Miles
23. Red Sky
24. Deadbolt
25. The Earth Will Shake

THRICE on tour (w/ Alkaline Trio, Rise Against, Gaslight Anthem)

Oct 13 ““ New York, NY @ Roseland Ballroom
Oct 14 ““ New York, NY @ Roseland Ballroom
Oct 15 ““ West Chester, NY @ The Note
Oct 16 ““ Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory
Oct 17 ““ Philadelphia PA @ The Electric Ballroom
Oct 19 ““ Myrtle Beach, SC @ House of Blues
Oct 20 ““ Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
Oct 21 ““ Tampa, FL @ Jannus Landing
Oct 22 ““ Pompano Beach, FL @ PB Amphitheatre
Oct 23 ““ Orlando, FL @ House of Blues
Oct 25 ““ Little Rock, AR @ LR Culture Shock at Clear Channel Metroplex
Oct 26 ““ Austin, TX @ Austin City Music Hall
Oct 27 ““ Houston, TX @ Verizon Wireless Theatre
Oct 30 ““ San Diego, CA @ The Cox Arena
Oct 31 ““ Hollywood, CA @ The Palladium
Nov 1 ““ Hollywood, CA @ The Palladium
Nov 2 ““ Hollywood, CA @ The Palladium
Nov 4 ““ Las Vegas NV @ House of Blues
Nov 5 ““ Las Vegas NV @ House of Blues
Nov 7 ““ San Jose, CA @ San Jose Events Center
Nov 8 ““ Portland, OR @ Roseland Ballroom
Nov 9 ““ Vancouver, BC @ Thunderbird Arena
Nov 11 ““ Salt Lake City, UT @ Salt Air
Nov 12 ““ Denver, CO @ The Fillmore
Nov 13 ““ Denver, CO @ The Fillmore
Nov 14 ““ Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theatre
Nov 16 ““ St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
Nov 17 ““ Milwaukee, WI @ Rave
Nov 18 ““ Minneapolis, MN @ The Myth
Nov 20 ““ Chicago, IL @ Congress Theatre
Nov 21 ““ Chicago, IL @ Congress Theatre
Nov 22 ““ Grand Rapids, MI @ Orbit Room
Nov 23 ““ Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Alkaline Trio, Rise Against, The Gaslight Anthem, Thrice

Young the Giant Interview – October 13th, 2008

October 15, 2008 By Chloe Leave a Comment

 

    In a time where cookie-cutter Indie bands are popping up quicker than hives, Young the Giant (formerly known as The Jakes) provide the cure to long lost uniqueness. This young band somehow manages to take all necessary elements of music and spin them into a refreshing new tale through their lyrics and melodies. I was fortunate enough to chat with lead singer, Sameer Gadhia, and ask him a few questions on Young the Giant history and future.

I want to thank Jamie and, of course, Sameer for making this interview happen!

– How did The Jakes form?

S: The Jakes formed as a joke garage band in 2004 with a bunch of really good friends.

 – Is there a reason behind the band’s name?

S: Yeah, it was actually just a stupid joke. It’s an acronym for all the members of the band and it ended up working well.

 – How did you guys decide that this was the genre of music you wanted to play?

S: We come from Orange County and bands like Saosin had just come onto the scene around 2003, 2004, and post-hardcore was a big deal. We liked the sound but we were kind of looking for something else. We started listening to a lot of The Strokes, essentially, and we actually just started playing a lot of 70’s inspired dance rock, and then we just kind of got influenced later on by some people that had just started to take the stage. It wasn’t really a conscience decision more so as just kind of like a joke thing; we were going to try and play some dance music and we entered in for Battle of the Bands and we won because it was just a different sound, so we just stuck with it.

 – Where do you guys draw your inspiration from?

S: We have a wide range of inspiration. A lot of us listen to somewhat different music and in the end it kind of becomes a big mix of things we like, and it becomes a unique mix. For me, The Strokes have been one of the biggest influences ever, even when I was younger. I mean, obviously there are some solid influences recently, but that was the main fueling act for me. Coldplay was also a big deal for me, Radiohead, and the The Beatles also.

 – How do you go about writing the music and lyrics?

S: Usually someone will bring a riff or something and will bring it to practice and everyone will work on it usually together; we will all work on sound structures. It’s a pretty meticulous process. During that time, I usually just make up words and when we finish the final song, I actually look at the words I was just making up and most of the time the lyrics I write are based loosely upon the gibberish that I wrote.

 – You are living in “a land of opportunities”, and numerous legendary bands have come out of your area. Do you feel any pressure to acquire the fame that they did?

S: Not so pressure as much as motivation. We never really thought that we would get even as close to this and be able to play this much. We were always inspired by the level of musicianship in the local music scene around Los Angeles and Orange County, so there hasn’t been really any pressure, just kind of like an opportunity for us.

 – What has been your largest difficulty so far that either you have personally faced or collectively as a band have had to overcome.

S: I think our biggest problem is for the last year and a half we have all been in college, and we all go to school in different places. I actually go to school in Stanford right now, and everyone is off in their own schools. We’re thinking of maybe moving in together sometime soon and taking a break from school and doing this full time. For this last CD, Jake and I would travel down to Southern California every three weeks and we had one weekend where we had a practice in which the guys thought up a couple ideas for some songs, and we did those two songs as fast as possible. We’d play our old stuff and then we’d have a show that night and we’d play some old songs and then we’d try out the new ones that we just made during practice and that was the best way to kind of gauge and see what people liked and what people didn’t like. In the process, we threw away like 20 or 30 songs, so it was a big challenge having to do songwriting in such small spurts.

 – Is music your chosen profession or do you have any other career plans?

S: We all really want to finish our college education and we are all going to four year universities. We all have different majors besides music, except for Eric actually; I think he is planning on pursuing jazz guitar, but for all of us we all have separate academic lives and if anything, music at one point might be the thing that we are doing, but we want to have a fall back plan or something else that we aspire to be.

 – What do you hope your listeners take away from your music?

S: I hope that they can tease out all the different messages and stuff that we are trying to get across through the music that we play as well as the lyrics that we portray. We like playing somewhat catchy music but we still have a harder message that I hope people take home with them; we don’t really want to shove it down anyone’s throat.

 – Do you have a continual message then that runs throughout your lyrics?

S: There’s not so much an overwhelming theme as we try to make everything relevant. We try to take a lot of influence from world music, like Native American Powwow music, South African gospel, and Caribbean music; there has been a lot of stuff we’ve all gotten to listen to and enjoy coming into college. Our theme is that we kind of embrace all the different types of music and diversity that we can and portray it into our sound.

 – Are your families pretty supportive of your dreams?

S: Yeah, they are all pretty supportive of it. Honestly, they like the fact that we’re playing music and they know that that’s what we love to do. I think that as long as we’re happy, that’s what matters to them.

 – What advice can you give to kids in your similar situation; trying to make a name for themselves in an industry where the majority of new bands are identical sounding?

S: There is a difference between playing music and playing music that you listen to. A big thing that we just discovered recently is that you are a songwriter when you get really serious in writing, and you should just let what you naturally make come out. You shouldn’t be afraid about what other people think or how it works with all the other music that’s coming out right now. You will obviously find influence from other people, but it’s about you doing your own thing in a different way.

 – What can we expect to see from Young the Giant in the next few years?

S: Hopefully a lot. We are anticipating a big national tour sometime soon, and possibly working out some deals. We hope to still be around–I think that’s definitely what we aim for.

Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: Sameer Gadhia, The Jakes

The Urgency Post “Fingertips” Video

October 14, 2008 By Bryce Jacobson Leave a Comment

The Urgency‘s new video for “Fingertips” can be seen below.

Filed Under: News, Videos Tagged With: The Ugency

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