It's been almost a week since one word was written in this space due to the passing of my grandfather on my dad's side. Johannes(John) Postma died July 22nd at the age of 76. Burial happened Tuesday in his hometown of Chatham, Ontario, where he and his wife Anne lived for forty years. Grandpa: you're a new man now. Love you. Forever's a long time - I'll see you around.
Now. Even though we've been silent here for a week, the stats show that the traffic has spiked considerably. What's going on here? Thanks so much, everyone, for sticking with us.
Essential listening for July 29th is Next In Line's debut album on Indie Vision entitled Traffic. Not only is the record a great slab of rock and roll intelligence, but the band thank-yous take place at the end of the record with clips of Goldfinger, Smash Mouth and Fitty Cent rolling in the background while the band makes smart remarks. Gold!
Incidentally, that Indie Vision site is brand-new, thanks to a guy named Dave McDonald, which by the way is the same given name as that of sweetdisaster enforcer DJ Omnifik. Small world.
Just so everyone knows, Montreal's Blessed By A Broken Heart has been signed to Blood & Ink Records down in Virginia, along with Minnesota's Foreknown. The respective albums will be out this fall(Foreknown's entitled Calm Seas Don't Make Sailors), and the bands will be tearing it up on the road. Check out the site for all the fun details.
There's a pizzeria in Chatham called Quo Vadis, which is the same name as the metal band from Montreal or Quebec City somewhere. I think that's funny. No word on the state of the actual cuisine. Next time I'm in Chatham(Labour Day) maybe we'll swing on by.
Happy 25th birthday to the Walkman, first produced by Sony a quarter-century ago last week!
Virginia's Winter Solstice have made a pretty significant jump in the biz: the Harvest Earth Records crew have pole-vaulted their way onto Metal Blade Records(Unearth, As I Lay Dying, etc etc). Says here, "The band will head back to Cloud City Studios in Detroit, Michigan, in October to start recording their debut full-length release that will be out on Metal Blade Records in the winter of 2005." Not too shabby. [buzzgrinder]
Evanescence ringleader Amy Lee is apparently quite the marvel in a live setting, as written here by a Florida concert attendee. Don't forget: 'Tourniquet', one of the best songs from the band's massively-platinum Fallen, was originally written by drummer Rocky Gray's first band Soul Embraced. You should hear the original - metal to the teeth.
Says over here that Ohio's Haste The Day have moved over ten thousand copies of their debut, Burning Bridges, since it hit stores in April. I for one am surprised, but in a good way - they're a good, if unoriginal, metalcore band.
Attention: anyone who lives near Ford, New Joizey: Underoath, Taking Back Sunday and Rise Against will all be rocking Vintage Vinyl in Ford August 9th at five in the afternoon. Part of the Warped off-shoots and stuff. What a bill that'll be. How many people would I kill to be there? Hmm.
Eric Shirey, formerly of Pluto Records down in Texas, has started his own promotions/management company. If you're in a kickass rock and roll band and need some hookups, see if Eric'll help you out; visit the Scotoma Promotions website.
Good heavens: scarcely a month after bringing the guy in, Most Precious Blood drummer Ryan has left the band, and this is bad news, considering MPB are heading to New Zealand and Australia and Europe and places like that. If you wanna play drums for 'em Brooklyn style, send them an email. [lambgoat]
Shows sweetdisaster will hopefully be at in the near future here in Ottawa: Strike Anywhere tomorrow night(Friday, July 30th) and Marathon on August 12th at Club SAW. Word. Oh, and Worshipfest August 6-8.
Two bits of stupid news: Virginia's Scarlet(ex-Spitfire - what a huge band) have lost their bassist and had a lot of their equipment stolen by the usual idiots who do that to bands with no money, forcing them to drop off the tour they'd planned with Nora and .hopesfall over in Europe. As well, Thousand Foot Krutch vocalist Trevor McNevan, who's getting married next week, had his car stolen, wrecked and burned in his home town of Peterborough, Ontario the other day. The timing, obviously, couldn't be worse, and we'd ask for your thoughts and prayers for Trevor.
September in Edmonton, Alberta(no date confirmed as yet) will see something called Harvest Moon going down featuring bands like Project 86, Blindside, Emery and Calgary-based newcomers Kiros(recently seen on the Drive-Thru Records cross-Canada tour). Someone get me details on this!...oh, wait, this has just been handed to me...wait a second here...okay, it's being put on by the 780 Christian Music & Arts Society out of Edmonton(780 being the area code there), it goes down September 11-12 , and all the details can be found over here. Ta da!
...hold up here - check out who else is playing this Edmonton ruckus: Pigeon John(one of the best rappers out there), Lucerin Blue, Brave Saint Saturn, Five Iron Frenzy's Roper(solo) and Stereotrap, among others. Holy crap! I gotta go to this!
Anyway. Thanks to Dave Leibold, host of CKCU's Sunday-morning show over My Head, for that information. On to more news.
It's official: the best new-school metal band in America, Unearth, will be touring this fall with Terror, The Black Dahlia Murder and Remembering Never. No Canadian dates thus far. As well, the band will be overseas in November alongside Sick Of It All, 7 Seconds and Walls of Jericho. Man, they stay busy. [theprp]
Guess how much tickets are to see Hatebreed open up for Slipknot at the Corel Centre here in Ottawa. G'head, guess. No? FORTY-THREE DOLLARS. Right.
Only a month and a half til the new album from Helmet!!
Sony/BMG now controls twenty-two percent of the global music market now. Just thought you'd all like to know. Stick to the underground, kids. [thescout]
In Bands Whose Album I've Had Almost A Year And Still Haven't Reviewed It Yet news, Maxeen have left the comfy confines of SideOneDummy Records to take the flying leap onto the Good Ship Warner Bros. How 'bout that.
The new Strung Out record will be called Exile In Oblivion, and tour dates and fun stuff can be seen over at their website. [punknews]
Horse the Band, pioneers of Nintendo-core(you have to hear it to believe it), are heading our way: the band is on a Canadian tour of sorts that will see them here in Ottawa August 4th and the night before that south of the city in Kemptville. The rest of the Ontario/Quebec dates are over here.
How 'bout this: Late Night with Conan O'Brien will have a very special guest on August 10th - punk forefathers NOFX! Weird/awesome.
This Just In: Beastie Boys' 92 album Check Your Head is just ridiculous. Go find it. The bass on 'Gratitude' is so sick. Disgusting. And of course, 'So What'cha Want' is my favourite Beasties song ever. EVER!
There are two interviews you could read if you like Atreyu and Demon Hunter over 1340mag. The DH piece is with vocalist Ryan Clark - when you're through with that go read our own interview with Ryan's brother Don, Demon Hunter's co-guitarist. What up. It's over in the interviews section there, top left.
Finis.
Posted by mike at July 29, 2004 05:41 PM