Some LA Symphony news for the unwashed masses: the five-man wreck-rap crew will be performing tonight(September 20th) at the Hurricane Katrina benefit show in Hollywood alongside the likes of DJ Motiv8(Black Eyed Peas) and a slew of others, and this fall they're hitting the road with Tha Alkaholiks...wait, haven't they gone on at least two 'farewell tours'? That makes no sense, but this is mainstream hiphop we're talking here, so the rules don't apply. Those tour dates:
09/27/05 - Las Vegas, NV - Jillians
09/28/05 - Los Angeles, CA - The Viper Room
09/29/05 - San Diego, CA - Belly Up
09/30/05 - Gardena, CA - Normandie Casino
10/01/05 - Ventura, CA - Ventura Theater
10/04/05 - San Luis Obispo, CA - SLO
10/05/05 - San Francisco, CA - DNA Lounge
10/07/05 - Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theater
10/08/05 - Seattle, WA - Chop Sueys
10/09/05 - Spokane, WA - Big Easy
10/10/05 - Boise, ID - Big Easy
10/11/05 - Salt Lake City, UT - Velvet Room
10/13/05 - Fort Collins, CO - Aggie Theater
10/14/05 - Denver, CO - Bluebird Theater
10/15/05 - Lincoln, NE - The Digz
LA Sym's new epic Disappear Here drops October 4th; we'll have our review up shortly.
We posted a little nostalgic bit about MxPx last week, and here's some more: I'm generally not big on acoustic projects from bands of any genre, not because I dislike acoustic music(the wide section of Caedmon's Call in my record collection says otherwise), but because overall, they're not that great. That being said, MxPx's AC/EP(amazing title!) that came out last year contains some true gems, from the acoustic reworking of 'Grey Skies Turn Blue' from their new studio album Panic! to the back-to-the-vault rendition of 'Invitation to Understanding'(from 1998's Slowly Going the Way of the Buffalo). 'Quit Your Life' is nice too. Go find this mini-album! Go!!
From the ol' email inbox: after getting their lineup solidified with two new - and well-fitted - replacements in drummer Jesse Sprinkle(Poor Old Lu and guitarist Matt Redmond(Beloved), Dead Poetic are gonna spend the rest of this year writing new stuff in preparation for invading a studio in the new year and putting out a new record. Keep tabs on deadpoetic.com for all the little niggling details that music nerds obsess over. Quoth the band: "We have big things planned for this next step, and have never been so excited about bringing you this music. We promise not to disappoint." Oh, as well, Jesse's solo material now has a home over on myspace.
Time to start preparing for the massive, massive show September 30th at Babylon(317 Bank St.) as Strung Out are coming, bringing with them Bane, Comeback Kid and The Reason. Maybe this will be the fortuitous day that sweetdisaster will get our elusive CBK interview!
Canada has lost one of our punk icons: Edmonton's SNFU are calling it quits. Guitarist Marc Belke, the only continual member since the band's inception in 1982, posted this on their website: "It is with mixed emotions that I announce my departure from SNFU, as it has been the biggest part of my life for almost twenty years. It's my feeling that SNFU has done everything that we had set out to do." [aversion]
I saw this in the newspaper over the weekend, and aversion has more on Tom Waits suing the pants off General Motors' Scandinavian division for allegedly using a soundalike of Waits(is there such a thing?) in as series of TV ads. "Apparently the highest compliment our culture grants artists nowadays is to be in an ad - ideally naked and purring on the hood of a new car," Waits said in a statement. "I have adamantly and repeatedly refused this dubious honor."
Veruca Salt, whose last album Resolver came out in 2000, are returning - well, sort of. The classic tandem up front of Louise Post and Nina Gordon has been halved to just Post for the new incarnation(Gordon wasn't part of Resolver either. A full-length is coming next year, but for now, if you go see VS or visit their website, you can pick up an EP called Lords of Sounds and Lesser Things. I remember when Veruca Salt ruled - when I was seventeen.
Ooooooh, this is good: after we slapped up a new Boysetsfire demo a few days ago, we have word now that they've signed with Equal Vision Records. The first release will be a re-release(is that grammatically correct?) of After the Eulogy, originally released in 2000 on Victory Records. Following that there'll be Before the Eulogy, a standard B-sides/oddities collection, and then there'll be a new album called The Misery Index: Notes from the Plague Years early next year. I'm stoked, judging by that demo.
Yellowcard's next album, due in January, has a name: Lights and Sounds. And sweetdisaster Big Cheese has a new Yellowcard sticker on his desk from the show last week. Awesome.
Remember Harvey Danger? Album called Where Have All The Merrymakers Gone? Huge, huge radio single called 'Flagpole Sitta'? I sure do! After they came and went, they recorded a reportedly-brilliant sophomore album - and then disappeared. Until now, with the release of Little by Little, reviewed over here. Caution to our more easily-offended readers: there's some questionable language. Okay? Okay.
Showbread(crazy spazz-metallic-core on Solid State) and Every New Day(ex-skatepunk-turned-metalcore from Winnipeg) are reportedly touring later this fall. More on that as it comes. [hardcorechristian]
Posted by mike at September 20, 2005 10:20 PM