Today's Essential Listening: Victorville, CA's Lorene Drive. They're somehow related to an old friend of mine out there, and they stand out from the purevolume morass with good production and solid songwriting. Check them out.
If you're in the Toronto area planning to hit Canada's Wonderland tonight for the triple bill featuring Relient K, Hawk Nelson and Christian-contemporary music kingpin Michael W. Smith, take note: the event has been postponed til next May. The following is a press statement: "Out of respect for the current major issues facing the United States, including the need for resources to be diverted to Hurricane Katrina victims, the increasing gas prices and the ongoing war in Iraq, the bands and the promoter have collectively decided that is in the best interests of all parties to postpone this concert to a time that is more appropriate for celebrating. Please join us in our support efforts and parties for these issues. The new date for the Fall Celebration will now be rolled into Spring Celebration on May 20th, 2006." Well then.
In further southern-Ontario concert news, Thousand Foot Krutch's first headlining tour in support of The Art of Breaking(also featuring Hawk Nelson, Dizmas and 4th Avenue Jones) will be in the area in October: the 13th in Barrie(info over here and the 14th in Toronto(info here). It'll be a great show, even if the new TFK isn't that great, from what I've heard. Sadly, there are no plans for the tour to come to Ottawa, to no one's surprise.[musicrefuge]
Apparently Spoken did a Cyndi Lauper cover for their new record. I must hear it.
According to IVM, The Chariot will be putting out an EP in January, though that's unconfirmed by us here at sweetdisaster. We'll work on that. We can say that the Chariot had one of the best shows going at Cornerstone in July(pics of Cstone coming soon, we promise).
In(kind of) related news, Chariot vocalist Josh Scogin's old band Norma Jean are heading up the VelocirapTOUR with support from The Handshake Murders, Still Remains, Haste the Day and Darkest Hour; the tour kicks off October 8th in Memphis - no Canadian dates listed. The website's over here.
New Albums In Stores check: Stretch Arm Strong, Switchfoot, The Juliana Theory and Nodes of Ranvier.
The Unfolding(formerly Josiah) have signed with Future Destination Records; the debut metal opus will be out next year. Woohoo!
Found an interview with MxPx guitarist Tom Wisnewski from this past Warped tour over here. Good read - and it confirms what I thought: their touring guitarist this summer was indeed Seth Roberts of Watashi Wa fame. I knew he looked familiar! And speaking of new albums out, MxPx's newest, Panic!, is stellar.
According to this, there's a "very real possibility" of a Strongarm reunion, which would please us here at sweetdisaster very greatly. Wow. That'd be something.
This article is the first credible-sounding story I've seen concerning former Korn gutarist Brian 'Head' Welch and his conversion to Christianity, resulting in his leaving the band. Kudos to Rolling Stone for having the class to speak of such matters in a classy, non-condescending way, which is way more than what most of these online 'zines are doing. I still think Welch's upcoming album Invitations Have Been Sent To All stands a decent chance of being brutal, but you never know. [rockrebel]
Rumours are surfacing that Weezer, following their touring for the new album Make Believe, are gonna call it quits. We'll believe that when we see it. [MTV]
Some more high-profile news(never hurts, in moderation): former Blink-182 guitarist Tom DeLonge disappeared from public view when Blink announced its demise earlier this year - til now: Angels & Airwaves is his new project, also on Geffen Records apparently, and a new album is coming, back up by a whole bunch of DeLonge's braggadocio. You can read about it over here, if you're so inclined.
Posted by mike at September 17, 2005 04:00 PM