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.

Armor For Sleep Break Up

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Armor For Sleep have broken up. You can read a message from Ben below.

it’s been a little over a year since our last tour and some of you out there have kind of figured out whats been going on with us. we never wanted to burden you all with a formal announcement of any kind and cause some type of commotion- we just thought it would be better to kind of drift away nice and easy”¦ i am writing this strictly speaking for myself and i honestly don’t really know how pj anthony and nash will react to me being the one to write this, but i feel like it should come from me because ultimately it was me who decided it was best to leave things where they were. to me a song is like a snapshot of a moment, real or made-up, and the band that takes that snapshot is like a camera. i was really happy and proud of the pictures that came out of our little camera, but i would have much rather put in on a shelf for me and all of us to look at with fond memories than to feel this intense need to make it take high-def panoramic mosaics when maybe it was constructed to handle polaroid film. it’s as simple as that. i guess someone could examine our inter-personal relationships and weird habits and attribute them to the reason for this decision, but we were like brothers and no clash was ever too great to slow us down. i hope that time won’t obscure that fact”¦i know it won’t for me. that being said, i think the real and only reason i am writing this is for you who have been fans of armor for sleep. even though it hasn’t been a secret that we are not working on an album or touring, it has felt really weird to not come out and say that the needles been lifted from the record. you have always been so amazing to us and i know through all of our fancy little internet avenues we will always be able/willing/not creeped out/ to talk about life, death, armor tabliture, the needler, whatever your little hearts desire. pj anthony and nash are all amazing people who i’ve witnessed first hand probably more than anyone in the world as being super talented at whatever they do and i know whatever they choose to do will be amazing. i know you’ll have their backs just as i will. as for me, i have been hard at work cooking something up. i have a new camera. i never like to blab about stuff until its ready and for this reason i wasn’t giving play by play updates when it was still in its complete infancy”¦but i will get into it more very soon. i’m really excited, and for me as someone who has been working a long time at the art of writing songs and having these weird visions about how i see a band being presented, i feel like i’ve put lots of pieces together from the terabytes worth of experiences i’ve lived through”¦i know some people will probably always want to hear dream to make believe or something no matter what i’m doing, which is fine, but time is an arrow and i’m not going to try and argue with that”¦i know i will always be myself and no matter what camera i’m behind i know you’ll always recognize the hands holding it. thank you to everyone who’s been supportive and listened to anything i’ve been a part of in any facet. i can’t wait to tell you more about things to come. Check back in about a week for something new”¦
-ben

Hawthorne Heights Added To Projekt Revolution Tour

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Hawthorne Heights has been added to the upcoming Projekt Revolution tour along side Linkin Park, Chris Cornell, The Bravery, and Ashes Divide. The band will be appearing on the Revolution Stage along with Atreyu, Armor For Sleep, 10 Years and Street Drum Corps.

Saosin Announce 2008 Tour

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Saosin has announced a 2008 winter tour with support from Armor For Sleep, The Bled, Meriwether, and Fear Before The March Of Flames. Check out the dates below.

Supporting (1/21 – 2/8): Armor For Sleep, The Bled and Meriwether.

1/21/08 – Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre
1/22/08 – Albuquerque, NM – Sunshine Theatre
1/23/08 – Lubbock, TX – Jakes
1/25/08 – Oklahoma City, OK – Bricktown Ballroom
1/26/08 – Sauget, IL – Pops
1/27/08 – Columbus, OH – Newport Music Hall
1/29/08 – Richmond, VA – Canal Club
1/30/08 – Allentown, PA – Crocodile Rock
1/31/08 – South Burllington, VT – Higher Ground
2/1/08 – Providence, RI – The Living Room
2/2/08 – Sayreville, NJ – Starland Ballroom
2/4/08 – Buffalo, NY – Xtreme Wheels
2/5/08 – Grand Rapids, MI – Intersection
2/7/08 – St. Paul, MN – Station 4
2/8/08 – Des Moines, IA – Peoples Court

Supporting (2/9 – 2/16): Armor For Sleep, Fear Before The March Of Flames, Meriwether

2/9/08 – Lawrence, KS – Granada Theatre
2/10/08 – Denver, CO – Marquis Theatre
2/12/08 – Salt Lake City, UT – In The Venue
2/13/08 – Sparkes, NV – New Oasis
2/14/08 – Chico, CA – Senator Theatre
2/15/08 – Roseville, CA – The Underground
2/16/07 – Santa Cruz, CA – The Catalyst

Sleeping With Giants Tour – 10/24/07

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October 24th, 2007—The 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C. A high-ceilinged, cavernous room, equipped with the relatively small stage, ample floor space, and spacious balcony seating well-suited for the intimate big band shows the 9:30 Club is known for are all part of the setting visible to the plethora of young rock fans awaiting the headliners of the Sleeping with Giants Tour. It’s approximately 9:00, and after enjoying, and inevitably singing and dancing with and moshing to, the four other bands in the diverse lineup offered to fans on this tour (The Rocket Summer, Sherwood, Armor for Sleep, and the recently added Cobra Starship), the audience is restless, some migrating to the close by merch tables and others even daring to venture to the club’s sports bar.

But at the soft strum of a guitar, and the appearance of the five young men comprising band The Academy Is…,the crowd focused full attention on the stage, drawn to the rock’n’roll-rooted band like flies to a strong light.

Although only five years in the making, indie label Fueled By Ramen The Academy Is… has already made huge strides towards success in the alternative rock genre. Since switching labels in 2004 (after impressing FBR with self-titled EP “The Academy”), TAI has produced two well-received studio albums, in addition to touring with a slew of successful bands, including renowned pop punk band Fall Out Boy. TAI’s soft alternative sound is defined by frontman William Beckett’s serene, feminine vocals. The Sleeping With Giants tour marked their first headlining tour after revealing sophomore album “Santi”, and thus far, has been as successful as the band itself.
Needless to say, TAI’s rousing live performance and lively band members were more than enough to get fans yet again moving. Frontman William Beckett seemed to recognize the effectiveness of focusing more on performing for the audience than speaking to them. Generally quiet though he may have been, he had a very strong connection to the crowd, who he entertained with his constant movement and uniquely soft singing voice.

Beckett’s singing combined with the raw talent of band members Andy Mrotek, Mike Carden, Adam Siska, and recently recruited guitarist Michael Guy Chislett created a great live performance that matched if not trumped the sounds on their studio albums. Their wide-ranged set list contributed to the quality of their set. TAI played hits both off of debut full-length album, “Almost Here” and April 2007 release, “Santi”, many tracks of which hadn’t been performed live prior to the Sleeping With Giants tour. Starting with song “Same Blood” and wrapping up with “Everything We Had”, The Academy Is… put on a very worthwhile show that, along with the quality of the other four bands’ performances, produced a top notch show experience.

These “other four band’s performances” can hardly go without mention, as each contributed to the high quality of the show.

First to perform, and most recently added to the tour, was up and coming techno-incorporated band Cobra Starship. Having had their own sophomore album “¡Viva La Cobra!” released the prior day, Cobra Starship was on top of their game. Cobra completed captivated the audience throughout their notably brief performance, something probably attributed to frontman Gabe Saporta’s larger than life stage presence.

Sherwood, the most obscure band in the lineup, performed second, delivering a good quality though nondescript performance. Their alternative rock sound transferred well from the studio to the stage, Sherwood’s only hindering factor being their lack of strong connection with the audience.

Rather than continuing with Sherwood’s trend of slight indistinctness, The Rocket Summer put on a show comparable to that of Cobra Starship. The Rocket Summer’s performance was optimistic, fresh, and rejuvenating, administering a crowd-pleasing sound and completely rousing the audience with their guitar and piano-integrated sound.

Prior to The Academy Is… was Armor for Sleep, providing the darkest sound and lyrics of all of the artists in the lineup. Band members donned ironically in clothing that made them appear as though they were schoolboys, Armor For Sleep gave a very interesting performance, their set list including a wide range of songs off of all three of their albums.

Needless to say, what with its diverse and wholly positive lineup, The Academy Is…’s Sleeping With Giants tour is one to watch as it continues into November.

Armor For Sleep In Bus Accident

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Armor For Sleep had some trouble with their bus the other night. You can read a message from the band below.

Last night at about 3 AM our trailor decided to unhinge itself from our bus going approximately 70 MPH. This was bad. It snapped off our bus and ALMOST (and i mean so fucking close) slammed into the academy is bus which was trailing closely behind ours. Their bus driver SAVED THEIR LIVES by swurving out of the way just in time. Even though it is not any of our faults, i still feel guilty for putting all of them so close to danger. After the runaway trailor decided to almost kill my friends, it hit the center divider of the highway and all of our equipement inside was like “hey dudes, lets get the fuck outta here”, so through the back door, side doors, and pretty much every other part of the trailor, our equipement freed itself from it’s captor’s evil grip and jumped all over the highway leaving a pretty large path of debree. Suffice it to say, lots of our stuff is broken. This stuff will cost money to replace, and because we dont have this stuff today we had to cancel the toronoto show…but its only that…stuff. We are alll soooo unbelievably happy that the only thing mangled in this whole disaster was stuff not dudes. When i woke up i got text messages from my friends who had already read about it on absolutepunk. I went to see how they got the info so early, and i read…4th post down “I was hoping they’d die :(“. I refuse to comment on people saying negative shit about our music…thats fair game in internetland i guess, but this kind of thing does seriously piss me off. Thank you for everyone who told that person how ignorant they are, but my friends and i actually DID come close to being in a very bad place today. I look to absolutepunk sometimes as a source for having opinionated kids who know when situations demand a sense of compassion and who will drop their hostility once a situation becomes serious, so it just sucked to read that this morning. We’ll be fine. We should be all good for buffalo manana. I was really pumped to play toronto today. I still have $10 Canadian in my wallet from two months ago in vancouver that i was waiting to spend. Oh well. Thank you for your concern. Everythings ok. 

Albums In Stores Tomorrow 10-30-07

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Here are some albums hitting stores tomorrow. Let us know which ones you’re picking up.

Saves The Day – Under The Boards
The Color Fred – Bend To Break
Armor For Sleep – Smile For Them
Avenged Sevenfold -Avenged Sevenfold
Thursday – Kill The House Lights CD/DVD
Taking Back Sunday – Notes From The Past
Autumn Offering – Fear Will Cast No Shadow
Say No More – What You Thought You Knew