Sometimes I wake up too early in the afternoon(I work overnights), and once I'm up I'm generally up for the day. In this case, I had to make a phone call to Rachell, but she'd already left for northern Ontario and a funeral she and her sister are attending. So instead, I decided to update this here space, and listen to some purevolume.com action. Staple are making me regret not seeing them at Cornerstone, with these new songs from their album Of Truth and Reconciliation, which hit stores today, August 30th. The record was produced by the iconic Sylvia Massy-Shivy, who aside from her Canadian heritage was also behind the last few Tool albums, to name one example. Staple bring a mix of Embodyment, Snapcase and some hardcore roots together a nice sense of melody, and I like it.
Montreal's Blessed By A Broken Heart recently parted ways with Blood & Ink Records down in the States, and will also be playing in Kemptville September 16 with a slew of other bands. Check out punkottawa.com for details.
Speaking of purevolume as we were before, every single band, with few exceptions, sounds so similar that it's almost a waste of time keeping up with it. Geez. However, there is one notable exception, a band we mentioned a couple weeks back: All Star Otis. Such a fun band.
And speaking of albums out today, Spoken's new joint Last Chance to Breathe is out. I go way back with this band, interviewed them for another 'zine I did a few years back, and they're worth your support. Check out their purevolume page and their web home!
No Innocent Victim(for the record, one of the first two or three hardcore bands I ever heard) are doing three CD-release party shows from November 18th-20th, presumably in their hometown of San Diego, but assuredly in southern California somewhere. Facedown veterans Inked In Blood, Nodes of Ranvier and Bloodlined Calligraphy will open up the shows. [IVM]
Yellow Second have apparently called it quits after only one full-scale release, this year's Altitudes. I hope this isn't true, because this would suck entirely.
Apparently Relient K don't like any of their earlier material, according to this article; singer Matt Thiessen says his early influences were MxPx, Less Than Jake and the like, and that he's now into Rufus Wainwright(Relient's new album shows that predilection) and Paul Simon. The aforementioned new album, Mmhmm, has sold over 300,000 thousand copies. And did we mention that former Ace Troubleshooter frontman John Warne is with RK now? Great dude. [rockrebel]
Former Clash guitarist Mick Jones is taking his new band Carbon/Silicon into the studio next month; this'll be his first recorde output since the last Big Audio Dynamite album in 1995. [aversion]
A Blink-182 greatest-hits album will be out this fall. Here's the tracklisting:
M&Ms
Dammit
Josie
What's My Age Again
All The Small Things
Adam’s Song
Man Overboard(live)
Rock Show
First Date
Stay Together For The Kids
Feelin' This
Miss You
Down
Always
Not Now(single)
Another Girl Another Planet(previously unreleased)
The album is out November 1st.
Pearl Jam, who will actually play here in Ottawa September 16th but have been massively overshadowed by the Green Day and U2 shows, not to mention last weekend's Rolling Stones set, are saying their next album(due out on J Records) will be their "hardest" to date. Interesting. Anyone else still crack out Ten from time to time?
Oh, and speaking of the Stones, they shot the video for the new single 'Streets of Love' here in Ottawa yesterday at Zaphod Beeblebrox, a place I've spent many a companionable evening. How 'bout that. My man Roach will appear in said video! Maybe now he can pay me back the forty bucks he owes. If you wanna hear the entire new Stones album, it's online at their website.
The Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles is being bought out by a Korean Christian church, and while hardcorechristian's Sir Jorge is all up in arms over the fact that this means no more pro wrestling events in said building, I just wanted to mention this because that's where Rage Against the Machine's last show took place(documented on their live album). So there!
A new band is coming correct out of London, Ontario - check out Unever's metal attack. [punkhardcore]
I've only heard vague mention of this rapper K'naan, but I'm linking to this only because he's from Rexdale, a suburb in metro Toronto - and the hometown of sweetdisaster's Big Cheese. Ah, nostalgia!
The Fugees are three weeks from launching a new single, called 'Take It Easy'. That's right. You heard us. The Fugees. New single. Three weeks. I may die of happiness. The new album is apparently gonna be more like their old material(straight-up NYC boom-bap) than 1996's enormous album The Score. Either way, I'm just thrilled that Wyclef, Lauryn and Pras are back at it.
Green Day took home seven MTV Awards over the weekend at some glitzy ceremony that I couldn't care less about, generally speaking. They'll be here in Ottawa on Monday. I'm going. Are you?
Some more acts have been confirmed for the Flower15 shows in Chicago, celebrating Flower Booking's 15th anniversary. .hopesfall, Evergreen Terrace, Criteria, Pelican and more are all gonna play. Looks like a great time. If you live in or around Chicago, do go. [AP]
The show is already over, but this concert holds a few personal ties, as I grew up with Joel Gelensye here in eastern Ontario, and myself and a friend of mine tried real hard to book Greg Sczebel for a gig here in Ottawa tomorrow night. Didn't happen, but hey, we tried.
Posted by mike at August 30, 2005 06:40 PM