Hey Alkaline Trio (AK3) fans! In just one week This Addiction will drop on store shelves for you all to love and cherish. This will be the bands first release on their very own independent label properly called Heart & Skull with a little help from Epitaph Records.
This will be the band’s seventh studio release and will be available in a regular format as well as a limited deluxe CD/DVD edition and even will drop on LP. AK3 is currently on tour in support of the release and will be hitting House Of Blues Cleveland on March 4th with very special guests Cursive.
Look for a review by yours truly in the next couple days or so. I can tell you it is pretty awesome. Until then check out the band’s title track music video that just was released on the internet (and is very Braveheart inspired):
St. Louis’ pop/post-hardcore ballad rockers Story Of The Year (SOTY) are back with an all new album entitled The Constant. Matching the likes of their previous material the CD is heavy on the ballads that so many fans have been accustomed to over the years as well as carries a couple of tracks that are destined for mainstream play. This is the band’s fourth studio album and has been released on Epitaph Records.
I’ll admit I was not a STOY fan after hearing their first album Page Ave. The song “Until The Day I Die” was the first and only song I heard by the band That was just too much for me and of course it was plastered all over the radio and TV so I never checked out the CD. It was not until the band’s follow-up release that I finally gave them a chance. In The Wake Of Determination really changed the way I felt about them with their likable post-hardcore tracks. When I saw them play at the Vans Warped Tour a couple years later I deemed myself a fan. They were not what I originally pictured them as, they were actually musicians that happened to dish out an instant hit and rocked out especially well live.
The Constant keeps inline with their previous albums with likable tracks as heard in the opening track “The Children Sing”. The children in the background singing “don’t take this world away from me” instantly reminded me of The Lost Boys but the song itself is catchy as hell and just sounds well written. “The Ghost Of You And I” follows with heavy intensity and, dare I say, reminded me of something Linkin Park might have done until the chorus fills in.
“I’m Alive” was once of the cuts on the CD that I liked over the others. It’s a to the point rock ballad, nothing less, nothing more and hints back to the days when those heavy metal hair-bands showed a softer side to life. “To The Burial” was without a doubt my favorite track on the entire CD with enough energy to incite a circle pit in portions of the song. The guitar solos, the singing, and the drumming on this track all amount to reasons why I am a SOTY fan.
Changing things up was more-so post-hardcore song “The Dream Is Over” but then came “Holding On To You” a track once again showing a softer approach of the quintet. It’s not all rock ballads though as “Won Threw Ate” proved. This screaming vocal track was perhaps the heaviest on the album and kindly welcomed to my ears. “Time Goes One” brought a little punk element to the CD as well as some group vocals that I am sure the fans will be singing along to at their live shows. Ending the CD was another choice track of mine titled “Eye For An Eye”. I loved the energy of the track throughout with heavier guitar playing and just brutal drumming.
I was honestly hoping for more of a heavier approach though the entire album but still SOTY put out a solid album. Where as the ballads are welcomed I much prefer SOTY at their angriest and heaviest even though I know they are labeled “post-hardcore”. As I previously mentioned former fans of this band will enjoy the CD and I am sure once a couple of tracks from The Constant hit the mainstream there will be a slew of new fans.
The band is getting ready to tour in support of The Constant. If you are looking for a great live show you best check these boys out. If you need reason why just pier below at some of the videos.
Tour Dates:
Feb 26 – Chicago, IL – Cubby Bear
Mar 25 – Denver, CO – The Marquis Theatre
Mar 26 – Salt Lake City, UT – Murray Theater
Mar 27 – Las Vegas, NV – Desert Breeze Skate Park
Mar 28 – Anaheim, CA – Bamboozle West
Mar 30 – San Francisco, CA – Slim’s
Mar 31 – Orangevale, CA – Boardwalk
Apr 2 – Phoenix, AZ – Clubhouse
Apr 3 – Tucson, AZ – The Rock
Apr 5 – Dallas, TX – The Door/Prophet Bar
Apr 6 – San Antonio, TX – White Rabbit
Apr 7 – Houston, TX – Channel
Apr 9 – St. Petersburg, FL – State Theatre
Apr 10 – Atlanta, GA – Masquerade
Genre slamming rock spazz stars Foxy Shazam are getting ready to riot out of Cincinnati, OH and take it to the streets. The shock rock act will be dropping their major label debut entitled Unstoppable on April 13th thanks to Sire Records. The band takes inspiration from legendary musicians Elton John, Marvin Gaye, Bruce Springsteen (the Born To Run years) and adds their punk attitude and ruthless energy making for one hell of a sound.
Love them or hate them, this band will be heard one way or another. Just check out the video below.
Foxy Shazam headlining tour dates (sadly no Cleveland show…) are as follows:
3/15 – Exit/In – Nashville, TN
3/17 – Las Palmas Racetrack – Las Palmas, TX
3/18 – House of Blues – Houston, TX
3/19 – SXSW – Austin, TX
3/20 – SXSW – Austin, TX
3/21 – White Rabbit – San Antonio, TX
3/22 – Higher Ground – Metarie, LA
3/23 – Juanitas – Little Rock, AR
3/24 – Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
3/26 – Orpheum – St. Petersburg, FL
3/27 – Jack Rabbits – Jacksonville, FL
3/28 – Canal Club Downstairs – Richmond, VA
3/29 – Studio @ Webster Hall – New York, NY
3/30 – Great Scotts – Boston, MA
3/31 – Knitting Factory – Brooklyn, NY
4/01 – Webster Underground – Hartford, CT
4/03 – Petit Camps – Montreal, QC
4/05 – Sneeky Dees – Toronto, ON
4/06 – Mohawk Place – Buffalo, NY
4/07 – The Basement – Columbus, OH
4/08 – Eagle Theater – Detroit, MI
4/09 – Mad Hatter – Cincinnati, OH
4/10 – Beat Kitchen – Chicago, IL
4/11 – The Vault – Minneapolis, MN
4/13 – Marquis Theater – Denver. CO
4/15 – El Corazon Lounge – Seattle, WA
4/16 – The Venue – Vancouver, BC
4/17 – Satyricon – Portland, OR
4/18 – Bottom of the Hill – San Francisco, CA
4/19 – Boardwalk – Sacramento, CA
4/21 – Troubadour – Los Angeles, CA
4/23 – Martini Ranch – Phoenix, AZ
4/24 – Launch Pad – Albuquerque, NM
4/26 – Jackpot – Lawrence, KS
4/27 – Off Broadway – St. Louis, MO
It’s not typical that I start out a video on my posts but this one was too unique to not showcase immediately. Above was the flash music video for Uniform Motion‘s “Back Up Your Soul”. If you watched it with a careful eye you might have seen something a little different – I customized it.
The duo (1 part music and 1 part visual effect) has developed a combination of social media, flash animation, and music to create a customizable greeting card music video featuring the band performing along with a personalized message that appears on their backdrop. Not only is the idea of the video cool but so is the band’s music and style.
The flash video actually emulates the duo with one half on the instruments and the other behind an electronic sketch pad. Dreary and dreamy folk music is what this band does best and I can not get enough. It is like chill-out folk music that puts me in a trance on more than one sensory level.
Uniform Motion just dropped their second album on February 9th entitled Life. Defined as an Anglo-French Illustrated Indie Folk band the act combines music with visual arts. Their latest CD carries 8 tracks and a collection of 9 canvas arts for you to get lost in as you absorb their material.
The band had actually thought of a different album title in mind initially and recently talked about it on Fat Wreck Chords’ website:
When we were on tour last March, we met Joey from Full House (aka Dave Coulier) in a bar in Cleveland. I drunkenly slipped him a copy of ‘The Great Awake’ and we began talking about music and Canada. He turned out to be a pretty cool dude, other than ironically wearing a Betty Ford Clinic shirt while drinking red wine. Anyways, after Uncle Joey left the bar that night, the jokes began that we would name our new record ‘Dave Coulier Has Our Last Record.’ Once we sobered up in the morning and realized that was an awful idea, we decided to name our new album ‘CAVALCADE’. And we are beyond stoked to announce that it will be coming out this April on FatWreck of course.
Since every record is vaguely conceptual even if you’re not going for the painful uber-concept-record thing like Coheed and Cambria, and since we basically live like homeless people while we’re on tour most of each year, ‘Cavalcade’ has taken on the overall theme of unity through disconnectedness. Happiness in uncertain times. Humanity is flawed but we can all still party, right? That’s what we wrote about, and that’s how we live. We love what we do an couldn’t be happier with the way it has all turned out.
Two things about this…
1.) Why did they not keep the name?
2.) I missed The Flatliners AND Dave Coulier in Cleveland???? Where was I?
