Solid State rookies Destroy the Runner are pretty freaking good; sure, they sound just like As I Lay Dying and a ton of other bands, but damned if they don't put so much energy and exuberance into their craft that the sincerity bleeds into my big friggin' headphones. I was listening to the seventh track, a four-and-a-half minute monstrosity called 'From the Red', thinking, "Wow, nice vocals here" - turns out Saosin's Cove Reber contributes guest throat to the tune. Natch.
Shortly after losing two-fifths of their band, it would appear The Warriors have rebounded rather nicely - they've been picked up by the increasingly-monolithic Victory Records, who of course, while being a little shytsy if rumour can be believed, market their bands pretty well. [lambgoat]
No kidding. Hmph.
Southern Ontario metal assault The End have completed the initial production work on their new record - as yet untitled - with the plan in place being to have it in my hands personally by February. I'm pretty stoked. Within Dividia was intense.
Funny, I bought it at my Friendly Local Christian Retailer, and it sure didn't have one: mewithoutYou's brand-new album Brother, Sister, it seems, comes bearing a Parental Advisory sticker at CD Universe down in the US of A. Innnnteresting. Apparently independent thinking such as mwY advocate is prohibited down there. I'll restrain the smirking. [buzzgrinder]
buzzgrinder always has the best news: former Rage Against the Machine guitarist(he now, obviously, slings for Audioslave - ick) Tom Morello was arrested on Century Boulevard, which for those NOT in California is the main entrance into Los Angeles Int'l Airport. "These hotel workers by the airport make 20 per cent less wages than hotel workers around the rest of Los Angeles," Morello told the press before the start of the march that wound up with him in the joint. "We're here to express our solidarity with them, to help them unionize and to help them close the gap between their sub-poverty wages and the millions and millions of dollars the people who own these hotels make." Well-spoken - and beforehand, Morello apparently played three songs with none other than Ben Harper under Morello's old Nightwatchman monikor. SWEET.