All excellent things come to an end: The Fully Down have officially laid the band to rest after four years in their current six-man crew, and another few before that in various other incarnations. Big Cheese goes way back with these guys, and they remained the very same knuckleheads I met in 2002 no matter how much notoriety they attained(a full-length on Fearless Records, two Warped tours, Japanese domination, countless Canadian throwdowns). The final g'bye happens August 23rd at Zaphod's here in Ottawa; get your tickets soon, 'cause it will sell out in a hurry. You can read the farewell message on their myspace. One love, fellas!
Ever wonder if kids are born knowing that there's a God somewhere out there, or if that kinda thing is taught? This experiment seems to fall in the former category. [Relevant]
Thrice continue to endear themselves to indie scenesters: now that all four volumes of The Alchemy Index are out and being aurally consumed with great pleasure worldwide, the band are releasing the entire thing again - on vinyl. Vagrant and the Vinyl Collective will handle it - and rumour has it that the thing will come with cloth packaging. Sweeeeet. [AP]
The full awesomeness of this fall's Rise Against/Thrice/Alkaline Trio tour has been announced; the only Canadian dates listed are October 3rd at the Sound Academy in Toronto and November 9th in Vancouver at Thunderbird Arena.
Nathan Gray, formerly of pioneering emocore outfit Boysetsfire(still one of the best live bands we've ever seen), has put up new music from his band The Casting Out over here.
We picked up our shiny new copy of Shai Hulud's new album Misanthropy Pure today down at End Hits in downtown Ottawa, and it's as visceral and pounding as rumoured. Sadly, the band have had to axe the remainder of their tour with Full Blown Chaos, citing some issues with the other bands on the package as the reason. Bummer. The album still slays.
Long Island's Crime In Stereo will release Selective Wreckage(nice!), a best-of spanning a bunch of b-sides from 2006's The Troubled Stateside, the three tunes on a never-released split with Capital and several re-done b-sides from last year's CIS Is Dead. Then, as if that wasn't rad enough, they go on tour later this year with New Found Glory.
To this day I've been remarkably unaffected by the scads of superhero/comic movies that have flooded the movie scene the last decade or so - and there's a trailer(albeit of dubious video quality) for next year's Wolverine flick over here. If you're a huge nerd, enjoy! [Relevant]
The end of civilization is upon us! Flee! FLEE!!
Being a Christian - however outspoken - is sometimes tough to do in these postmillennial times, with crazy preachers verbally attacking Presidential candidates, the pall of the Holocaust hanging overhead still, and of course, "What about the dinosaurs?" Our job isn't made any easier by things like this, profiling the popular 'pastor' Joel Osteen, who thinks he should be rich. Go to hell, creep. My favourite part, by far, is the description of who all is goin' to git churched this particular service: "young couples on first dates"? Who the hell goes to church for a first date? My girlfriend and I's first date was seeing Happy Feet.
We have a sweet interview with Rhymesayers shining light Brother Ali - one of the best MCs to emerge from Minneapolis, Minnesota...actually, aside from Toki Wright I've never heard of another MC from Minny. Anyway, check out the interview!
The day after they rock Toronto's Virgin Festival September 6th, Against Me! will tour Ontario and points west here in Canada with The Saint Alvia Cartel. The Cartel will doubtless be playing some new tunes from their upcoming second album, but 'Blonde Kryptonite' will still destroy all in its path:
Sept. 7 London, ON @ Cowboys
Sept. 8 North Bay, ON @ The Wall (Nipissing University)
Sept. 10 Winnipeg, MB @ The Garrick
Sept. 11 Saskatoon, SK @ Odeon Event Centre
Sept. 12 Edmonton, AB @ Edmonton Events Centre
Sept. 13 Calgary, AB @ MacEwan Hall
Sept. 15 Vancouver, BC @ Croatian Cultural Centre
[chartattack]
Fresh off being my favourite performance of the day at last weekend's Montreal Warped stop, Reel Big Fish have announced a tour across Canada!! They'll be supported by Less Than Jake, Montreal's The Real Deal and on a number of dates by Toronto's Flatliners:
Sept. 18 Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom w/The Flatliners
Sept. 20 Calgary, AB @ MacEwan Hall Ballroom w/The Flatliners
Sept. 21 Edmonton, AB @ Edmonton Events Centre w/The Flatliners
Sept. 22 Regina, SK @ The Distrikt w/The Flatliners
Sept. 23 Winnipeg, MB @ The Garrick Centre w/The Flatliners
Sept. 24 Thunder Bay, ON @ The Outpost
Sept. 26 Toronto, ON @ The Sound Academy
Sept. 27 Montreal, QC @ Club Soda
Sept. 28 Quebec City, QC @ Imperial w/The Flatliners
"Fans don't last anymore. They'll come see your band one week, then the next week they don't give a sh*t. There's no real loyalty. I mean, there is, but the loyalty is a lot more prevalent in Canada." That's bassist Kyle Johnson of the Can-Am hybrid Misery Signals, who have a stellar new album out called Controller - they'll be touring Canada again this September(no schedule yet) with the mighty, mighty, MIGHTY Comeback Kid. One rad tour after another!
The folks at Myspace are comin' atcha with a new music initiative launching this fall - everything from their traditional methods to paid downloads to concert tickets and merchandise. Every cent of their cut, of course, goes to support Rupert & Friends' far-right propaganda machine. Natch. [aversion]
Bad Brains, 'Pay to Cum,' 1982 - enjoy!
Here's what you do: first, enjoy this video. When you're done that, reveling in one of the top five riffs ever committed to tape, check out Zack Rage's new project One Day As A Lion, something he's cooked up with a guy from The Mars Volta. 'Wild International' is surreal.
In lieu of a newsblast this miserable, overcast evening in eastern Ontario(where the weather apparently reflects the conditions everywhere else), we present to you a conversation I, the Big Cheese, had with a female who shall remain anonymous forevermore. Enjoy!
Big Cheese: Holy cow, I just googled Vertical Mass, and the first link is to VERTICAL HORIZON's myspace. Remember THEM?? I'm gonna go relive my high school years now.
Anonymous Friend: lol yes I do
BC: And Rush's drummer is among their top friends.
AF: Oh, how I remember them.
BC: You made out to them, didn't you.
AF: Haha, nope. Not them.
BC: Man, this tune is even tamer than I remember it being.
AF: I made out to Dane Cook once. It was an accident. A terrible accident.
BC: It could've been worse. You could've made out WITH Dane Cook. A friend of mine made out with one of Atreyu's guitarists once. That's bad.
AF: Every so often I had to stop and be like, 'Ew. I can't believe he just said that.' Atreyu is scary.
BC: Should I message Vertical H directly? I'm tempted.
AF: lol. You should tell them you made out to them. They would really not be creeped out at all. I made out to Iced Earth once, too. That was weird. And stopped shortly after it began.
BC: LOL! Anyone else? This is just getting good.
AF: Oh, lots. lol
BC: Oh man, lay it out for a brother.
AF: Those may be my top two weirdest ones. But I'd have to think on it.
BC: I have never once gone for that whole 'mood music' thing, nor can I name anyone outside of maybe Matchbox 20 who I can even remember kissing someone to.
AF: Well, I always have music on in the background. And a guy I dated for a year and a bit was the same way, so I have a pretty eclectic selection. Avril. Dillinger Escape Plan came on and surprised me once. I punched the guy in the face.
BC: LOL! You're lying. You have to be.
AF: I am being 100% truthful.
BC: No way something that awesome has occurred on this planet and I haven't known.
AF: It was accidental, but it happened.
BC: This is by far the greatest MSN convo I've ever had. Where's the save button when I need it most? This just has to be shared with the world. Is it done? Or are you going to continue?
AF: Some weird '80s remix happened once. I stopped to sing. I am the best mood killer ever. EVER. EVEREVEREVER.
I just met him over the weekend through a friend: former Braid/Hey Mercedes drummer Damon Atkinson's second band are getting the vinyl treatment, as HM's posthumous release Unorchestrated will be reissued as a twelve-inch. There will only be 521 pressed in total, with 102 on green wax and the rest black, all hand-numbered. The album will ship on August 8th. [punknews]
I guess I'm allowed to talk about it now - I wasn't when I was first informed: The Flatliners will provide support for a run of NOFX dates in our fair Canada - here are the dates!
The success over the last couple of years since their inception has made To Write Love On Her Arms a big deal in the underground scene, particularly amongst the Christian kids, though that wasn't necessarily the aim of the non-profit org when they started. Now the girl who provided the initial inspiration to founder Jamie Tworkowsky, name of Renee Yohe, is publishing her journals. More info over here.
Metallica's tracklisting for their new album Death Magnetic is out - and includes 'The Unforgiven III.' No word of a lie. Keep milkin' that cow, Metallica. [absolutepunk]
It's the end of the world as we know it. Geez.
One of the bands who had by far the most fun playing at Warped in Montreal over the weekend was Anberlin - and with their record New Surrender hitting in September, they'll headline a tour this fall with direct support from Scary Kids Scaring Kids as well as openers Straylight Run. Solid tour. The ticket presale happens next week on July 29th.
The first and by far the best order of business this evening: the web architect of the D, Mr. Brody, is a father two times over! Emerson Luke was born yesterday morning at 10:13 am, with a fighting weight of nine pounds and healthy as a horse. Congratulations!!
Further congratulations, incidentally, to myself, the Big Cheese, for surviving another expedition to Montreal for the annual traveling circus known as the Warped tour - Oh Eight styley. Pics and a full rundown to come in the next few days, but suffice it to say that Warped remains the most well-run event I attend every year. That and it's an absolute orgy of commercialism. But you vets knew that already. It's honestly an outdoor large-scale Hot Topic.
Be sure to take four minutes out of your busy lives to check out the latest musical offering from the six-man wrecking crew known primarily as Underoath! The new album is coming soon!
Apparently being in A Life Once Lost isn't enough for vocalist Bob Meadows(the new album isn't as good as their first anyway - though it's still solid) - Meadows has another project called NO People who have put some stuff up on the interwebs. [lambgoat]
A new Terror record, as any fan of the band knows, is a new excuse to go buckwild in the pit and rush the dogpile at stagefront - I miss doing that, in fact; been a while since I've seen the band live. However, they do have that new album, some thoughts on which can be had over here. I bet it's awesome.
I helped load their gear for an Ottawa gig earlier this year: Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke, a black man, claims he was attacked verbally/physically by the Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten and his entourage because he is a black man. However, the man born John Lydon has his own spin on what happened: "I feel very sorry for a man who needs to lie about what was a perfect evening. After the show John Rotten and management remained behind to sign autographs, which we did for four solid hours without incident and had a great time talking to other Spanish bands. This seems to have sparked jealousy in certain bands. The trouble was brought to us, resulting in those causing the trouble being physically removed by festival security." As always, there's three sides here - one side, the other side and the truth. But this being the world it is, I'm inclined to believe the first side. [buzzgrinder]
Today's Essential Listening I haven't even heard yet - Misery Signals' third record Controller came out today, and from all accounts it's a hell of a piece of work. Find it, buy it, whatever - just enjoy.
One of the most special bands in my time in the quote-unquote "underground" played their final show July 12th in their home state of Connecticut - Life In Your Way will be truly missed by a ton of people. Check out a great writeup replete with pictures over here.
Interesting and amusing piece on a former Mr. USA, The Showdown and how Invisible Creature's Ryan Clark combined the two for the imagery on the band's new album Back Breaker(out August 19th) - enjoy.
I spent my time in the backstage catering line at Warped chatting with Kyle of Forever the Sickest Kids - great dude who happens to be in a band I'm not that into, you know how it goes, blah blah blah. Anyway - at the Detroit Warped stop last week, FTSK vocalist Jonathan Cook videotaped a burly security guard(employed by the festival) punching some skinny chick in the face more than once; there's talk of charges being pressed over this.
How badass is Stephen Colbert?? In the last month he's had The Roots, Rush(making their first American TV appearance in over thirty years) and freakin' Cookie Monster on the Report! Amazing. "Cookie Monster, did you eat my Peabody award?" "Um...I think I hear Elmo honking...coming!!"
For years now we've heard about various projects involving Rage Against the Machine's Zach de la Rocha - but aside from that thing with DJ Shadow I don't believe I've ever actually heard any of it - but no more! One Day As A Lion are for real, as evidenced by their existence on MySpace. Apparently it's Rage avec electronics.
No idiocy permitted, but you can still take a stab at having one of your questions for Thrice answered on an upcoming DVD the band are working on when they're not writing massive, sprawling, epic(...no...more...*whew*...adjectives) concept albums. Email your query to thrice@vagrant.com! Go! Shoo!
Any metal fans, heads up - here's some footage of pretty much every metal band that matters performing at Hellfest 2008.
It has probably been at least five years since I've blogged in any way about Finch, whose Letters album was pretty good when I was 21, 22 years old. Anyhow, the band are back with two new tunes on their myspace interwebbage.
There is no good reason why I don't already own this.
Will Ferrell is stretching: the man best known(and deservedly so) for Saturday Night Live and the drop-dead hilarious Anchorman has signed on to perform a dual role in a new film called 2-Face as a man who develops a multiple personality after a car accident. One will be a liberal-minded sort while the other - innnnnteresting - is an unbashed racist. Check out the promotional tools. [Paste]
Our deepest apologies, dear voracious readers slash consumers of pop culture, for ignoring thou these past days...weeks...ahem. Between my day job and this, life has been crammed full of hot action(cop?).
While we have five seconds, here's today's Essential Listening, another multi-parter, and culled entirely from the 2008 Ottawa Bluesfest thus far:
1. Kathleen Edwards - Ottawa's own, and a hell of a singer/songwriter/all-around performer
2. The Weakerthans - anyone from the punk scene is familiar with singer John K. Sampson's time spent with Propagandhi, but the Weakerthans have been kicking at the can for almost a decade now, and getting better with age. I've listened to nothing but 2003's Reconstruction Site for two days now
3. The Black Crowes - American southern-rock originators - and they're actually from the south! The Georgia band is touring behind their first album in years, War Paint, and while they played some of the new material, older hits like 'Remedy' and 'Jealous Again' sounded superb
4. Bernard Allison - a bit of a curveball for longtime readers here at the D, but as I get older(softer?) I'm opening up more and more to blues and other things, and Allison and his band kick out an amazing rock/blues/funk sound that literally drew me from one end of a massive open-park festival to the other with nothing more than a bass line
Bonne nuit!
Today's Essential Listening - for the second of July 2K8 - is a triple bill(three bands for the price of one!). Hailing from Norway, Benea Reach - somewhat surprisingly - are Christians in a metal band who aren't writing knockoffs of the As I Lay Dyings and August Burns Reds of the world, sounding instead more like Euro heavyweights like Opeth, and they're astoundingly talented.
Minnesota's family act Children 18:3 are the freshest sound Tooth & Nail Records has had in quite some time, bringing to mind the spunk of Squad 5-0 and the girl vocal angle of the late Halo Friendlies. If AFI lightened up a touch and were born again, they might sound like C183. In particular, 'Search Warrant' warrants(sorry) a few spins.
Lastly, my Canada Day(yesterday, yes, but the sentiment remains) week was improved by the discovery of War of Ages' new album Arise & Conquer having arrived at my studios today. Into the CD drive it promptly went, and the producer's touch of AILD's Tim Lambesis is immediately apparent. This is the first album that WOA have had help on that front(their first two full-lengths were entirely self-produced and recorded), and their efforts, it seems, have been rewarded with a far thicker sound than their previous work. Their passion, as anyone who's ever read an interview or spoken to them personally can attest, speaks for itself. They're as real as it gets, and the sky's the limit.