Been a while between updates - the usual excuses can be inserted here. C'mon out to see Comeback Kid tonight - in about an hour, in fact, at Babylon(217 Bank Street). Openers are First Blood, Ignite and This Is Hell.
Big Cheese and the significant other caught rapper Pigeon John's annual trek through the nation's capital last night, opening for Blackalicious. We didn't stick around for the headliners, as duty calls(working at six am sucks), but PJ rocked a mix of new stuff from his forthcoming Quannum Projects album Pigeon John's Pool Party or whatever it's called, as well as a ton of old favourites. The crowds keep getting bigger for our man Pigeon Juan; go read our old interview with him in the Interviews section.
Off to the show!
A true genius, Ben Harper has a new record coming in a couple months, and lead singer 'Better Way' and accompanying video are up over here. Ben sounds like he's kinda losing it towards the end there.
Erratum: the 'unreleased' Further Seems Forever track we made note of at their purevolume.com page was, in fact, released on Deep Elm Records way back in the day. Heads-up reader Pliggly-Wiggly emailed to tell us that.
Moving on.
Underoath, Poison the Well and As Cities Burn will be touring in May with help from Spitfire(first leg, in support of their new album Self-Help) and Since By Man(second leg). The dates are over here.
With All Sincerity have apparently broken up for the second time. We're working on confirming this, and it would suck, because they're doing something genuinely different in this oversaturated hardcore/metal scene thing. [lambgoat]
Society's Finest, on the other hand, may or may not have broken up one or more times in their lengthy time together, but they're firing on all cylinders nowadays, and have also posted a new song on their myspace page.
May 28th will be a great day for metal here in Ottawa, as a mother of a tour touches down at Babylon downtown. Check it out: headliners Between The Buried And Me with openers August Burns Red, Chiodos and The Number Twelve Looks Like You. Great bill. I'll be there.
Hold up: earlier that month, May 2nd, A Life Once Lost are in town, also at Babylon. May's shaping up to be a very busy month for shows.
If you're thinking about hitting up Lollapalooza in Chicago's Grant Park(August 4th-6th), check out the official website for the entire lineup, featuring Red Hot Chili Peppers and Queens of the Stone Age, among many others. [theprp]
Go watch Thrice's new video for 'Red Sky' over here. They're in town April 14th along with the usual suspects on the Taste of Chaos tour out at the hockey arena. What what. As well, for us Canadian kids, the band will be releasing an EP for the song along with some other stuff, namely two old songs called 'Flags Of Dawn' and 'Weight Of Glory' along with live versions of 'Under A Killing Moon', 'For Miles', 'Red Sky' and 'Of Dust And Nations'.
The album is out in stores Tuesday, but you can still go listen to the entire new offering from From First To Last over here.
Billy Talent, contrary to what a lot of people must think, haven't simply ceased to exist; the band's readying their sophomore album Billy Talent II(clever) for a June 27th release. 'Devil In A Midnight Mass' will be the name of the first radio single, and the band will take part in this summer's Warped Tour as well.
Aight, hardcore kids, hit the pit: brand-new stuff from Sick Of It All in the form of a new song called 'Take The Night Off' has surfaced on their myspace. Tear it up! I can't wait to see them again if they come back 'round these here parts.
Further Seems Forever's epitaph, Hope This Finds You Well, hits stores next Tuesday, March 21st, and their purevolume page has one unreleased track from the Chris Carrabba era, as well as an old version of 'Bleed' with a different title. Check 'em out over here.
So it's three-twenty-seven this fine morning and the significant other just finished The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Being interested in the supernatural while simultaneously being pretty much a pansy concerning horror movies or even the hint of a horror movie, I still liked the flick. Recommended.
Couple interesting tidbits via email today.
Rachelle piped up from downtown Ottawa concerning Head Automatica; the band has posted the lead single from their upcoming album Propaganda on their myspace. Check out 'Graduation Day' and proceed to dance unbidden, because you will not be able to restrain yourself. That's an ironclad guarantee.
The Gospel Music Association's annual GMA Week goes down soon, and hiphop impresario Josh 'Plastic' Niemyjski will be attending on behalf of both Illect Recordings and Sphere of Hiphop, pushing the new deal in rap and beats on unsuspecting consumers. He sent me a great email detailing a phenomenon known as GMA Hair, which apparently is as follows:
"GMA hair can be any of the following: a faux hawk, the "I tipped my head upside down and rubbed gel in my hair" 'do, and the "I'm trying SOOOO hard to look like an important rock star."
And that's awesomely hilarious.
Our ever-expanding legion of Canadian readers will be interested in this: absolutely imperial coffee/doughut chain Tim Horton's is going public; an initial public offering(IPO) of about twenty-nine million shares will be put out into the financial battlefield at an undetermined future time. With a price range between eighteen and twenty US dollars a share, it could raise up to six hundred million dollars for good ol' Timmy Ho's, who owe a lot of money to Wendy's International, their parent company. How 'bout that.
Who wants to own Tim Horton's??
Probably the biggest piece of news in the hardcore world this year so far is Comeback Kid vocalist Scott Wade's decision to leave the band he helped start four years ago. I'd heard rumours and had it confirmed yesterday, but then our boy Armin in Winnipeg(CBK's hometown) sent me this link, with a statement from Wade detailing what everyone wants to know: why would you leave one of the biggest hardcore bands in the world? Guitarist Andrew Neufeld, who made his name fronting Figure Four from 1998 to 2004, will take over vocal duties for the time being, possibly permanently, but Wade's distinctive yell will be missed, by me anyway. Come check out the newly-retooled Comeback Kid March 30th at Babylon here in Ottawa.
Whassup everybody? I dropped by Ottawa's newest record store End Hits this afternoon to pick up my Comeback Kid tickets. Show is March 30th, with openers Ignite, First Blood and This Is Hell. I'm super excited. Come say hi to me and my girl; we'll be up in front of the speakers at Babylon, as we're both getting along in years and need to protect our hearing.
And check out End Hits - support the business while it's small and brand-new, so you don't have to lie five years down the line and say you did.
We'll try to get an update up tomorrow.
Some random news this drizzly afternoon(hooray for ice rain!).
U2 will miss the remaining ten dates on their current world tour(all in the Asian-Pacific area) due to a family illness.
Iconic Canadian coffee joint Tim Hortons is opening a store in - steady now - Afghanistan, to serve Canadian troops serving in the region. That is awesome.
Floodgate Records, having just lost Forever Changed, never stop signing bands anyway, keeping it up with Austin, Texas's Hundred Year Storm. Hello From The Children of Planet Earth will be out in late summer.
Strikefirst Records has signed Today Forever(United Kingdom) and Within(Chattanooga, Tennessee). Go listen to them someplace.
Pigeon John is in Ottawa March 29th at the New Capital Music Hall, opening up for Blackalicious. How hot is that? I'm all over this show.
A band I caught live the other night, Rosesdead from southern Ontario, have launched playyourpart.net to promote their upcoming album Stages. As of right now, early on March 9th, the site's only up five more days, so haul some tail, would ya? Be a sport.
If you were planning on seeing The Jonbenet anytime soon, might wanna rethink it, as singer Mike Murland is hobbling around on a severe ankle injury. "Thankfully it isn't broken, but the doctors say that he'll need surgery if he doesn't stay off of it for at least a few weeks," says a statement from the band. "So with that warning, we have to cut this tour short and head back home to Houston." The band still plans on a tour with At All Cost(Combat Records) next month. [lambgoat]
The saga surrounding Mute Math and their former label, Warner, has escalated: the band is suing Warner for breach of contract and negligent misrepresentation based on the fact that the band's new album, released by the band themselves February 1st, carried the Word Records logo despite the band's wishes. They consider themselves a secular band, and being identified with the Christian-label moniker has "hurt their image." I wonder if I'd care if my band was in that spot, but regardless, it seems like Paul Meany can't catch a break; his old band Earthsuit was years ahead of their time, and now this. Poor dude. [buzzgrinder]
Craaaaaaaaaaap: one of the least pretentious bunch of guys to ply their music in the crowded waters of rock and emo, Florida's Forever Changed, have decided to break it up. However, unlike most breakups, the three months preceding this one have been spent writing a record, which the band still has every intention to record and release. Tentatively titled Chapters, it'll hopefully be out in May.
One of our fave bunch of dudes around here, Dead Poetic, have posted some new studio photographs on - where else? - their myspace page, including this one over here. Now, another alert viewer commented about it as well...the guy on the couch in this pic(sweet couch, by the way) - is that Deftones' Chino Moreno? He produced three or four cuts from the new DP album, which will, in fact, be called Vices.
Good Sunday morning, one and all. Welcome to your Day-Of-The-Oscars-That-I-May-Just-Watch-'Cause-Jon-Freakin'-Stewart's-Hosting-Them news.
The other day, my man Ben Forrest interviewed one-third of perhaps Christian rock's most influential act, dc Talk, that being Kevin Max. The interview isn't up just yet over at CMW, but keep an eye peeled. As disgusting as that sounds(weak humour, gimme a break, it's late). Very good interview revolving around the tenth anniversary of dcT's biggest album, Jesus Freak(1995).
One of the most talked-about bands in hardcore that's always seemed poised to leap to the next level(whatever that means) is Indiana's In The Face Of War - and they've just signed a new deal, with Texas-based Dollhouse Recordings Inc. Check out a demo from their upcoming debut over here. Zippy little track there, no?
I still say good for P.O.D.; the boys from San Diego(and one from Arkansas) are hitting the road in support of Testify starting April 20th, and they're bringing along three relatively-unknown bands in Pillar, The Chariot and Maylene and the Sons of Disaster - all of these bands, by the way, in regular rotation on my radio show, the Rock Block, Friday nights on CHRI 99.1 FM. Wow - where'd that shameless plug come from? [cmcentral]
Happy freakin' birthday to our compadres at Sphere Of Hip Hop, who turned nine the other day. So, current Editor-In-Chief and one-time head of Uprok Records Josh Niemyjski, what's the vision for the future? "The goal remains the same - to provide a wealth of information and to serve. Serve the community and fans. Serve artists and labels." Dang skippy, broheem.
Speaking of timeless hiphop: CMcentral's second-annual best-ofs were done recently, and my favourite crew Deepspace5 surprised everyone by beating out Jars of Clay, Switchfoot, Relient K and others to win Group/Duo/Band of the Year, as well as Unique, Just Like Everyone Else winning Best Hiphop Album(it was a landslide victory, hopefully). Now that's what I'm talkin' about! Represent! I'm gonna go add them on myspace RIGHT NOW.
...or not. They don't have one. Doh! But if you wanna read the entire list of CMcentral winners, check this out.
The Black Maria have regrouped, following the departure of guitarist(and former Grade vocalist) Kyle Bishop; there'll be a new Victory Records album begun in April. [truthexplosion]
Fall Out Boy killed it earlier tonight on Saturday Night Live, performing, as expected, 'Dance, Dance' and 'Sugar, We're Going Down' - the latter far and away one of the best singles of 2005, and performed with blazing stage presence by the Chicago quartet. You can tell that three-quarters of this band have long ties with the Windy City hardcore scene. Well done.
A little-known track from Atlanta rap duo Mars Ill called 'Stand Back And Watch' is up on their myspace page. Love the piano sample, Dust! Oh, and two absolutely ridiculous remixes from the Backwaterprophets project, which is the Backbreakonomics album(2003) entirely remixed by Dust. They're also up there. Amazing.
Milwaukee hardcore kids Misery Signals have once again turned to Canada for membership, enlisting a 'brutal' Canadian fella named Karl to handle vocals henceforth. More info to come.
This blew my mind: a former Hoods guitarist and ex-Slick Shoes touring drummer Christian Pro have a new project called Astraea; check out some advance stuff here. I've wondered what happened to Slick Shoes!! Are they still around? Huh? Can someone tell me?? Either way I dig these songs.
I bet it's all over the internet already anyway, but you can stream Taking Back Sunday's new single 'Make Damn Sure' over here. Louder Now, TBS' major-label bow, is unleashed April 25th.
It's a really long read, especially to the Internet generation, but Rolling Stone's exposee on the Church of Scientology is riveting in its sheer incredulity.
Some news to pass on from the ol' email inbox today:
War of Ages, one of the Facedown Records' best acts, have done a new video for 'Stand Your Ground'; check that and a bunch of other stuff out over here. It's a PodCast! I just like saying words like 'PodCast'. Makes me feel like I know something, which I clearly do not.
As well, some upcoming releases from Facedown that have us excited here at sweetdisaster HQ:
The Redemption Song - Confessions(March 14th)
Jesus Wept - Shows' Over(April 11th)
Anam Cara -Ready To Live(April 11th)
Kingston Falls - The Crescendo Of Sirens(April 11th)
One more bit of Facedown news: they've signed Redlands, CA-based xDEATHSTARx, an eight-piece metal band with four vocalists. FOUR. Four! Wow. Check out two songs and a bio over here. Four screamers! Holy crap!