Hey, kids, be the first to hear the new Poison the Well album Versions; they've done gone and posted the whole dang shebang online over here. [theprp]
My friend Ryan today purchased his ticket to the NYC Rock the Bells event in July, featuring Nas, Cage, Wu-Tang and the re-formed Rage Against the Machine. I'm pretty pissed I in all likelihood will not get to go.
Good show happening July 16th here in town - Coliseum are bringing their ruckus to our fair city, enlisting our own Buried Inside to open. I'm pretty stoked. Check punkottawa for all the deets.
Rival Factions is the new album from Project 86, coming in June on Tooth & Nail Records; the band has parted ways("amicably") with founding drummer Alex Albert. I wanna be their new drummer. "But, sweetdisaster Big Cheese, you don't play drums." So???
Gwar, Every Time I Die and Shadows Fall are all rumoured to be headlining this summer's edition of Sounds of the Underground. I've never gone to this. Maybe I should this year.
Thursday have left Island Def Jam after four years and two albums. Since they've been on one label or another since 1999, the band via Myspace said they're just enjoying their freedom for now. They'll fulfill their touring plans for the remainder of 2007, then write a new album.
May 11th will see Edmonton's Ten Second Epic dropping by Ottawa(with help from Moneen on their headlining Thug Life Tour. The rest of the dates are over here. TSE bring the rock every time.
Coming large out of Regina, Saskatchewan of all places, Means' Facedown Records debut Sending You Strength is available everywhere - and a video for 'Connected' is now complete. Check it out over here. These guys rule in a Poison the Well kinda way. [truthexplosion]
The new album from Maylene & the Sons of Disaster, titled simply II, landed at #156 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, selling six thousand copies its first week. Kudos! C'mon back to Ottawa soon! Oh, and by contrast, the newest from Modest Mouse, universally being called "mediocre at best," hit number one, selling a hundred and thirty thousand copies. "No justice anywhere - UNTIL WE PUT IT THERE!" - Strike Anywhere [lambgoat]
As I Lay Dying, following completion of their new album, will play some shows with the likes of Underoath, Evergreen Terrace and August Burns Red. Schedule over here. Word.
Paramore cutie vocalist Hayley Williams contributes her pipes to a song on The Chariot's new album The Fiancee, out soon(review here). Anyone else find this a little odd?
Dutch band The Architect(from my ancestral home of the Netherlands and featuring ex-Shai Hulud vocalist Geert up front) have changed their name to Miscreants to avoid confusion with the other 2883835 bands out there calling themselves Architects. This includes my friend Trevor here in Ottawa, who renamed his band Travel By Owl a while ago for the same reason - check them out! Wow, this was a scattered newsbyte.
Saves the Day are down one member. [buzzgrinder]
By far the funniest shiz ever. Thanks to sweetdisaster enforcer DJ Omnifik for the heads-up.
Quick rundown of the events attended by the D this past week: Wednesday saw August Burns Red with openers Chasing Victory and Arise and Ruin tear Mavericks Bar apart. Quite out of character for myself, I grabbed an extra mic with some other dude and we did impromptu backup vocals for the closer, 'The Seventh Trumpet,' which gets better with each live hearing. Last night(Thursday), California MC Pigeon John, ably supported by Melbourne, Australia's Macromantics, kicked up a ruckus at Heaven Nightclub downtown; PJ's brought a live drummer and multi-instrumentalist with him on this tour, so catch him if you can. My favourite rapper by far.
Aight. To the news.
We've heard about the Toronto edition this fall - what of the U.S. version of the Virgin Festival? The second presentation of Richard Branson's baby will feature headliners The Police, Smashing Pumpkins(also doing Toronto's version) and Beastie Boys. Rumour has it Pearl Jam, who put out what critics call their best album in years last year, are also on the bill. And for west-coast Canadians, there is a Vancouver edition happening May 20th and featuring The Killers and My Chemical Romance. [Billboard]
There's an arrest warrant out across the state of Florida for rapper Foxy Brown. Is anyone really surprised here?
The headliners for this summer's free OzzFest tour(yes, free) include Lamb of God and Hatebreed, while other bands participating feature the likes of Nile and The Showdown. The tour kicks off in Seattle July 12th. To gain entry into this year's Ozzfest, fans must go to Ozzfest.com or LiveNation.com to find links that will direct them to special sponsor sites where tickets can be secured. Tickets will be available for download on June 12th. Oh, and Nile main man Karl had a great quote on why the band chose to play the traveling metal fest: "We will be the first real death metal band to ever play Ozzfest, and the chance to lay waste to thousands and thousands of mall metal posers is just too once-in-a-lifetime to pass up." Awesome.
One of Canada's best and most underrated/unheard bands, Sloan, will open a handful of shows for The Police on their coming stadum tour! Sweet! Eight hundred thousand tickets have already sold for this tour, which will easily surpass a hundred million bucks' gross by the time it's wrapped.
Mutemath(they can do no wrong) have a weird video up on Youtube for their tune 'Typical' - the entire thing is in reverse. Go watch and learn from the best. [infuzemag]
We reported earlier this week that Lost Angels crew Jurassic 5 are calling it quits, and now comes word that there might be some tension in the ranks. Doh. I loved them.
Guitarist Matt Sherwood has left one of the best punk bands ever; Strike Anywhere asked in a statement online not to make a big deal out of it, as they surely are not - eight years touring with any band is quite enough for a lot of people. Sherwood might be best known for winning some sort of contest a few years back whereby model/tennis player Anna Kournikova showed up out of the blue at his house in Richmond, VA - his bandmates had submitted his picture to some magazine's "Most Adorable Face" contest or something. This story gets funnier with each re-telling. [punkbands]
Damn it: Everclear are touring cross-Canada for the first time in forever, and Ottawa isn't on the list? GEEZ. Here's the itinerary:
April 29th in Toronto, ON @ Lee's Palace
April 30th in Kingston, ON @ Ale House
May 2nd in Winnipeg, MB @ Cowboy's
May 3rd in Saskatoon, SK @ Roxy on Broadway
May 4th in Regina, SK @ The Drink
May 5th in Lloydminster, AB @ The Kooler
May 6th in Banff, AB @ Wild Bill's
May 7th in Calgary, AB @ Cowboy's
May 9th in Edmonton, AB @ Cowboy's
May 10th in Grand Prairie, AB @ The Corral
May 11th in Penticton, BC @ Element
May 13th in Vancouver, BC @ Plaza Club
[tunelabmusic]
Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots has signed the first act to his label Softdrive Records; Los Angeles' The Actual are the lucky winners.
Funniest thing ever. Thanks to Steve for linkage.
New albums from Haste the Day and Maylene & the Sons of Disaster are both in stores today, as is a stellar DVD from Mutemath called Flesh And Bones - Electric Fun containing a professionally-shot live concert as well as extra goodies. I'm buying it tomorrow, thank you very much.
August Burns Red(Pennsylvania, Solid State Records) are here in Ottawa tomorrow night, March 21st at Maverick's downtown with openers Chasing Victory and more - as well, the band may well play some new material off their freshly-tracked album Messengers, due out in June. C'mon out!
It was funny, even though it wasn't nice: if rumour is true, four-fifths of Terminal abruptly left the band mid-tour last year, and three of those four dudes have surfaced in a new band(along with a guy who usd to play with Between the Buried and Me) called Oh, Sleeper. This is not to be confused with The Sleeping from Long Island, who are purely amazing. [TVU]
New Found Glory, in the wake of a disappointing(one man's opinion!) new album, have left their longtime label home at Geffen Records. Maybe they'll sign with Abacus Recordings. Everyone else is. [Decoy]
Underoath will headline the Dirty South Tour(it was only a matter of time before a tour was called that) with openers Norma Jean and the Maylene fellas later this year. Dates to be announced shortly.
One of Solid State's lowest-profile bands, Becoming the Archetype, will release their second album The Physics of Fire May 8th.
Oh, nooooooo, I was just listening to Power In Numbers this afternoon: the masterful Jurassic 5, perhaps the best rap crew in Los Angeles, have decided to break up due to that old cliche of "creative differences." This truly sucks.
This kid sings Atreyu songs - in his Philadelphia-area front yard. Rock on, kid. Rock on.
Here they go again, on their own: Whitesnake(WHITESNAKE!!) will release a new album called Good To Be Bad on SPV Records this fall. Unbelievable.
According to the CBC and obtained by us via Rolling Stone, the quaint province of Prince Edward Island is thinking about offering Aerosmith the princely sum of $150,000 to perform out their way. Aerosmith in P.E.I.? I'd go to that!
A great quote from RS while we're about the business of stealing their content: "Kirk Hammett says the new Metallica album has a 'Middle Eastern' vibe. By 'Middle Eastern,' we’re assuming he means volatile and extremely chaotic." Great stuff, that. Don't sue, Rolling Stone! We're broke here!
Not big fans of Toronto here at the D, but the Virgin Festival going down on Toronto's Centre Island this fall is shaping up to be a huge one, with confirmed headliners The Killers and the re-formed Smashing Pumpkins with many others in the works.
Fascinating - anyone remember Chad Channing? He was the original drummer for a little Seattle band called Nirvana - they never really amounted to much, no biggie if you haven't heard of them - before Dave Grohl joined and Nevermind made history, and now Channing is in charge of a new band called Before Cars. Go check 'em out somewheres. Chad Channing! Man, that takes me back.
There are heavy rumours afoot that Rage Against the Machine reunited last week at SXSW in Austin, Texas. It did not happen. Calm down.
Facebook - or Crackbook, as it's known in some circles - is every single last miserable bit as addicting as they all said it was. I've had no life for a week now - since my girlfriend set one up for me. Hmph.
So I'm hitting up R&R, you know, Bible of the radio industry that I'm in, and my college professor would have my head if I didn't go regularly(hi Mr. Barrie!!), and I'm perusing the latest Active Rock charts, and in among the crap like Hinder, Saliva, Disturbed and Godsmack are tucked bands I actually dig, like Killswitch Engage, Finger Eleven, Mastodon(what??) - and two Christian acts in Red and Skillet. How 'bout that.
Leave it to the kids at soundthesirens.com to come up with a kickass list of definitive(in their opinions anyway) '90s tunes. Ah, the halcyon days of my youth. Check it out.
Third Eye Blind have announced an upcoming album called The Hideous Strength. Wait - Third Eye Blind are still alive??
Trent Reznor, The Strokes' singer Julian Casablancas and veteran Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees will all appear on the new album from Queens of the Stone Age. It'll be called Era Vulgaris, due in stores in June. [SPB]
I really don't like them much, but I know lots of y'all out there do, so here you go: stream the new Modest Mouse album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank.
Bad Religion's new album New Maps of Hell will contain seventeen tracks, according to the online rumour mill. At 2:30 each, it'll still be good for one bus up to school for me.
Good gravy - it's well-known at this point that Starbucks is setting up their own little music fiefdom, establishing a record label to further take over the entire known world, and who is their first artist? A guy you might have heard of - Paul McCartney, who is severing his ties with his label of forty-three years(Capitol) to jump aboard the Good Ship St. Arbucks. This means Wings, his solo stuff, all now the property of a coffee company. For pity's sake, people.
Meshuggah are writing another album, doubtless filled with 16/18 riffs, blastbeats up the yin-yang and conceptual songs we can't even begin to imagine.
I demoed a few songs earlier today on my way to work: check out an e-card from Life In Your Way, whose newest effort Waking Giants is in stores as of this second, and it sounds really good.
The new album Saturday Night Wrist might be tanking as you read this, but The Deftones are still one of the best bands around.
Just some personal opinion, given how big the band is in the hardcore scene: Comeback Kid's newest Broadcasting may be their finest album yet. Thoughts? Opinions? Ideas?
Anberlin are on the cover of the new ish of Relevant magazine, along with pieces on The Almost, MF Doom(so badass), Jonezetta and more. Check it out whever you buy magazines, or subscribe at the website.
Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten, a biopic of the legendary Clash main man, will be in select theatres this May. The film is narrated by Strummer through the use of massive amounts of footage and features interviews with such diverse friends and fans as Bono, Red Hot Chili Peppers, filmmaker Martin Scorsese and Clash bandmate Mick Jones. The doc debuts in England May 18th; no word on north American release yet. [chartattack]
It's been discovered that former Boston singer Brad Delp's death last weekend was in fact a suicide. Again, our prayers and condolences go out to the family and friends of the late Mr. Delp.
Best quote of the day, taken from an interview with Edmonton rapper Cadence Weapon: "I've never been interested in going to a show where it's totally passive and it's just this guy standing on a pedestal yelling sh*t at me." That's awesome.
Comedian Jim Gaffigan is friggin' awesome. Pale Force forever!!...watch Late Night with Conan O'Brien if you're clueless at this point.
August Burns Red are coming to Ottawa next week Wednesday, March 21st with Chasing Victory, but following that tour they're headlining an absolutely massive tour including openers From A Second Story Window, Chasing Victory and Life In Your Way. No Canadian dates as yet, and that's a damn shame, really. C'mon out Wednesday night!
Too bad; they were nice guys: Orange County metalcore outfit Scars of Tomorrow are ending it. Ottawans might remember them opening for Hatebreed last fall, among other in-town appearances. [AP]
More breakups: Matchbook Romance, too, are kaput.
Out.
Three Ontario bands you need to know before everyone else does:
Sunday Night Cruise(Mutemath crossed with Silverstein)
Shoot For the Stars(Beloved meets Thrice)
Worthless Without(August Burns Red in a bar fight with Haste The Day)
All three bands out on the Stick It To The Cold tour as of now - tonight: Peterborough, Ontario, tomorrow night, Hamilton. Check local listings - and if you're in Kitchener and surrounding area, watch WW opening for August Burns Red next week.
Peace.
Some upcoming shows sponsored by us here at the D:
- Horse the Band with The Number Twelve Looks Like You and Light This City
- Anberlin with Jonezetta and The Reason
- August Burns Red with Chasing Victory and Letting Go Of Yesterday
See punkottawa for when/where.
Couple of interesting articles snitched from the good folks over at rockrebel; the first dealing with Christian rap and the second concerning the uber-talented Jars of Clay.
Condolences to the family and friend(and band) of Boston vocalist Brad Delp, who passed away over the weekend at the age of 55 of an apparent heart attack. Boston remain untouched in terms of classical skill, largely due to brainiac guitarist Tom Scholz.
The new Frank Miller-inspired flick 300 destroyed the competition its debut week, raking in $70 million, with Wild Hogs coming a distant second at $28M. [MTV]
I like Hopesfall.
Despised Icon are putting out their new album May 22nd; there's no title yet for the CD, but it'll kick all kinds of ass. The band have a video on the new Hot Topic Foundation/Sub City joint effort Metal = Life CD/DVD set, so go pick that up for $10.99 at HMV locations across Canada while the price is dirt-cheap.
It would appear that Sparta have left the major-label vistas to head back to the minor-leagues; Anti- Records will re-release the band's latest album Threes with a new song called 'Born and Buried', to be released May 1st. [aversion]
A couple of widely-disparate bands, Arcade Fire and pop-punks Relient K, will vy for top spot on next week's sales charts, with both acts' new albums selling between ninety and a hundred thousand copies. Amazing. Anyone remember Relient's first song ever, 'Hello McFly'? I do! [absolutepunk]
NOFX bassist/songwriter/loudmouth Fat Mike has busted himself up down in Australia and won't be walking for another month. Get better, Fat Mike!
Comic book freaks, take out your black mourning wear: Captain America is no more.
In honour of their 100 millionth download, the folks at eBay asked the smartest pop nerds in music, Barenaked Ladies, to write a song about the 100 millionth downloader, a guy named Michael Brennan. Check out the result over here.
All is not poppy and shiny in the Good Charlotte camp; guitarist/twin Benji Madden is being investigated by Beverly Hills cops after a female photographer filed an assault charge against him. Sounds to me like someone is trying to make a few bucks after undoubtedly being obnoxious. That's all we're saying here, because anything more would make us look like dinks.
A "victory"(pun intended) for Hawthorne Heights.
Minutes to Midnight is the forthcoming third studio album from Linkin Park, the followup to 2003's Meteora, which despite being hailed as "different" by the band prior to its release, was just a rehash of Hybrid Theory. I hope LP are actually doing something new with this one. The album comes out May 15th.
We had posted a few days ago how Quebec metalcore slaughterfest Beneath the Massacre weren't coming through Ottawa on their upcoming tour - well, not to worry; last night's Sworn Enemy-headlined Trend Killer tour has been decimated by van incidents and other hassles, so three of the opening bands were not in attendance, and organizers mobilized BTM and Ottawa's own F*ck the Facts to handle opening duties, which both did with vigor and valour. Good show. I'd not heard Kataklysm prior to last night, and my eyes have been opened to their genre-meshing style. Impressive.
Speaking of shows - radio favourites Switchfoot and their guests Copeland hit Ottawa Friday night for a show in the snow, as we call it, driving to Ottawa from London, Ontario straight into the teeth of one of the worst snowstorms we've had all season. For two bands from California and Florida, respectively, they handled it like troopers, and Switchfoot have gained my eternal love for playing me a ninety-second punked-out version of 'Chem 6A' as I wigged out at the front of the stage - where I was allegedly doing security.
Nice way to celebrate the end of spring break, really.
Windsor, Ontario's The Reason have streamed the entirety of their new album Things Couldn't Be Better on their Myspace page. The record drops on Smallman Recs this coming Tuesday. [punknews]
Thursday open for My Chemical Romance on two Ontario shows in May:
May 11, 2007 - Air Canada Centre, Toronto ON
May 12, 2007 - John Labatta Centre, London ON
Not the previously-announced Ottawa show. Boooo-urns. [absolutepunk]
The upcoming Rise Against/Silverstein tour is rumoured to have a couple hot tickets opening up - how's Comeback Kid and Lifetime grab you? Damn. What a lineup.
Interesting video piece over here for fans of either Toronto band Thousand Foot Krutch and/or the Ottawa Senators; the piece deals with TFK frontman composing a song for Senators centre Mike Fisher - a close friend - for after-goal celebration music. Nice.
Some love for my boys Means and their debut album Sending You Strength, reviewed over here. Rock rock on.
I will definitely be going to my local cinema to watch Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters in April, but the soundtrack on its own is something. Featuring Unearth, Mastodon and immensely-buzzy band The Hold Steady, along with Youtube phenomenon MC Chris, this is one to check out. It drops April 10th, three days ahead of its namesake film. [Paste]
If you're at or around Vanderbilt University, check this one out: Vandy is hosting the annual Rites of Spring concert event, featuring headliners The Roots, Mat Kearney, Wolfmother and...Naughty By Nature? Wow! Info can be found over here. Time for another roadie, methinks.