sweetdisaster's Big Cheese is now on myspace.com. Hit up myspace.com/sdbigcheese and make him your friend. He likes friends.
Floodgate Records has signed Pittsburgh band Transition. The press statement is full of the usual 'we feel like we're part of a family' gobbledy-gook, but bottom line: here's hoping it all pans out. You can check out the latest jewel in Floodgate's crown over here.
And now that that's out of the way, the big news: the Hellfest squad has updated hellfest.com with a full-on .pdf file explaining, in full legal detail, their side of what happened the last forty-eight hours, resulting in the last-minute cancellation of the entire three-day festival. The poop is hitting the fan in spectacular fashion down New Jersey way. The massive statement is over here. I skipped most of the legal crap, truth be told. I'm no lawyer. I just like hardcore.
In a related story, if you're anywhere in the Pennsylvania/New Jersey/Massachusetts area, get the car started, as there are now a slew of massive, massive club shows(we're talking like ten-band bills here) going down in the wake of Hellfest's demise; the most complete list we've found is right here, with another one here. This will now become the biggest show weekend the hardcore kids in the Tri-State area have ever seen. I would quit my job in a second to simply be in the northeast United States this weekend. LOOK at some of those shows!! Holy crap!
One last Hellfest bit for today: this was the planned schedule for the ninth edition of the fest. Since I'm bored this morning, I counted how many bands I've seen(forty-seven) and bands I didn't know were playing that I found interesting: Montreal's Final Word(didn't even know they were still around - awesome!), New Jersey's Ensign(such a great melodic hardcore band, check them out for the love of crap), Boysetsfire(done with the major labels, welcome back)....man, this would have been fun to go to.
One show in Ottawa that I will not miss goes down September 30th at Babylon. Check it: Strung Out with Comeback Kid, Bane and The Reason. No idea how the decidedly non-hardcore Reason showed up, but they're fun too.
...oh, and here's the revamped lineup for the show Stretch Arm Strong were supposed to be headlining next week: Haste the Day will now play last(and probably best), with Still Remains, Oakville, ON's Rosesdead and locals The Wishlist opening. Maybe another band. Who knows. The entire show has become a circus. Awesome.
Did you know The Grey(also Ottawa lads) are signed to Lovitt Records down in the States? I had no idea. Good for them.
I was listening to Atlanta's masterful songwriters Smalltown Poets last night/this morning at work, and thinking to myself, "I wanna hear Jars of Clay vocalist Dan Haseltine covering 'Trust'". That's the second time this has happened this week. Maybe it was something I ate.
Speaking of great Atlanta-based Christian rock bands of the '90s, I mentioned The Waiting to the lovely Rachelle last night and she knew exactly who I was talking about. That's when I knew I was destined to marry this girl.
Just kidding.
The amazing entity known as Mae is gonna be spending most of October and November on the road with(at various points) Circa Survive, Mashlin, Discover America and Mute Math(who are unbelievable live, take our word for it). The dates are over here - if you're in the Ottawa area, the closest they'll get is Montreal, October 12th at El Salon. I may go. Oh, and they won the Yahoo! contest of some sort that you were getting email-flogged about if you're on Tooth & Nail's mailing list like I am.
A couple longtime Christian-rock lads and their bands have signed with major labels this week: Sean O'Donnell used to play guitar with Dogwood, and his new band Reeve Oliver made the leap to join Capitol Records, while a simply great rock and roll band called The Elms are now property of Universal. Maybe the Elms will tour with Frampton again! [aversion]
Ladies and gentlemen, it's about time: Relevant Magazine, LLC, of Orlando, Florida, USA, Earth, who have been promising a new website for months on end, have finally done it. Much applause due.
In some Gunit...um, rather, G-Unit news(because that's obviously what you're here for), Mase may be signing up with Fitty Cent's nefarious crew. I could not possibly care less; I just wanted an excuse to use 'nefarious'.
In a related Couldn't Care Less bit, Staind's new album was number one last week. The world is apparently ending.
Good Lord, he's still alive: Saved By The Bell's Mario Lopez(he was Slater - duh!) is now hosting some sort of show on ESPN. Unbelievable.
Posted by mike at August 19, 2005 10:30 AM