Check out this powerful video from Set Your Goals revolving around the greed that is polluting our future…
SET YOUR GOALS CALLS FANS TO ACTION IN NEW VIDEO
Bay Area Pop-punk band Set Your Goals has partnered up with Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) to release a timely new video for their latest single “Gaia Bleeds” from the band’s Epitaph debut album This Will Be The Death Of Us. Set Your Goals is calling fans to action suggesting they make a donation to SSCS at seashepherd.org to help support their “Operation Gulf Rescue,” which is currently training volunteers for hazmat operations and conducting reconnaissance surveys of the disastrous oil spill.
The video calls out American greed and destructive wastefulness and features an angsty, adrenaline fueled performance by the band with facts on the devastation to planet earth.
Set Your Goals is currently orchestrating the pit on this summer’s Vans Warped Tour. Don’t miss one of the tour’s hottest bands!
Set Your Goals Tour Dates: July 13 – Mansfield, MA – Comcast Center (Warped Tour)
July 14 – Darien Center, NY – Darien Lake P.A.C. (Warped Tour)
July 15 – Scranton, PA – Toyota Pavilion (Warped Tour)
July 16 – Camden, NJ – Susquehanna Bank Center (Warped Tour)
July 17 – Uniondale, NY – Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum (Warped Tour)
July 18 – Oceanport, NJ – Monmouth Park Racetrack (Warped Tour)
July 20 – Columbia, MD – Merriweather Post Pavilion (Warped Tour)
July 21 – Virginia Beach, VA – Virginia Beach Amphitheatre (Warped Tour)
July 22 – Charlotte, NC – Verizon Wireless Amphitheater Charlotte (Warped Tour)
July 23 – St. Petersburg, FL – Vinoy Park (Warped Tour)
July 24 – West Palm Beach, FL – Cruzan Amphitheater (Warped Tour)
July 25 – Orlando, FL – Central Florida Fairgrounds (Warped Tour)
July 26 – Atlanta, GA – Lakewood Amphitheater (Warped Tour)
July 28 – Cincinnati, OH – Riverbend Music Center (Warped Tour)
July 29 – Milwaukee, WI – Marcus Amphitheater (Warped Tour)
July 30 – Detroit, MI – Comerica Park (Warped Tour)
July 31 – Tinley Park, IL – First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre (Warped Tour)
Aug 1 – Shakopee, MI – Canterbury Park (Warped Tour)
Aug 2 – Bonner Springs, KS – Sandstone Amphitheatre (Warped Tour)
Aug 5 – Calgary, AB – Race City Speedway (Warped Tour)
Aug 7 – Salt Lake City, UT – Utah State Fairgrounds (Warped Tour)
Aug 8 – Denver, CO – Invesco Field (Warped Tour)
Aug 11 – Pomona, CA – Pomona Fairplex (Warped Tour)
Aug 12 – Marysville, CA – Sleep Train Amphitheatre (Warped Tour)
Aug 13 – Nampa, ID – Idaho Center Amphitheatre (Warped Tour)
Aug 14 – George, WA – Gorge Amphitheater (Warped Tour)
Aug 15 – Hillsboro, OR – Washington County Fairgrounds (Warped Tour)
Suburban Home Records Mix Tape Volume 5, “Someone’s Gonna Die” marks a new approach to our Mix Tape series. Partly because it costs less money and partly because we found so many songs we had to put on this mix (putting the running time at over 100 minutes), Mix Tape Volume 5 is available as a free download and not a physical compact disc. While we will miss the physical, tangible qualities of the past volumes, I won’t personally miss having to burn thousands of CDrs and hand-packing every one of them. Let me know your thoughts on this approach.
“Someone’s Gonna Die” was inspired by I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In the House’s new album, “The Sounds of Dying”. Our own Andy Thomas helped me put together the track listing for this mix. The first two songs are from the new album which will be up for pre-order on Thursday, July 15th. The 2nd of Sonofabitch’s songs is a cover of Two Cow Garage’s “Postcard and Apologies” and their version is absolutely fantastic. We figured it only fitting to put Two Cow’s version on right after and while keeping with this mindset, we put a Townes Van Zandt cover by Michael Dean Damron (of ICLASOBITH) followed by the original song. The rest of the mix finds a number of Suburban Home tracks from the likes of Austin Lucas (new demo), Tim Barry, The Takers, Armchair Martian, Jr Juggernaut, Jon Snodgrass, Drag the River, and Look Mexico alongside some of our favorite tracks by new and old bands. We took submissions for this mix by bands who thought their music would work on this volume of our Mix Tape and while we had only planned on putting 1 or 2 songs from these submissions, we put like 6 or 7 songs. We apologize to those of you who submitted tracks that were not selected, but we hope you understand that it was impossible to put all the submissions on. Additionally, I picked a few of my favorite newer bands like The Evening Rig, Arliss Nancy, and John Moreland and the Black Gold Band. We put a number of oldies but goodies from the likes of Lucky Old Sun (Ben Nichols old band), Slobberbone, the Replacements, and more. I think that this could be my favorite Mix Tape yet. I haven’t stopped listening to it since we finished it.
Please download this mix. If you run a blog, please post it on there. If you are in a band on this Mix, please post the mix for download on your Facebook/Twitter/Myspace pages. After downloading the zipped folder, send it out to everyone you know. If our yousendit link expires, just email me or post a comment and I will replace the link with a new one. We really hope you enjoy this mix and if you find some new bands that have caught your ear, please consider buying a record from them or their label and make sure you mark their tour dates on your calendar.
If you could take anything home from our previous mix tapes, it would be great if you downloaded the mix and shared it with at least 4 other friends. I would love to see this mix reach people all over the world. As I always say, music is meant to be shared.
Download hi-resolution cover art and back art if you want to print your own covers in the event you want to burn this onto CDs (it would have to be 2 Audio CDs or 1 Mp3 CD since there is over 100 minutes of audio). Artwork done incredibly by Brandon Proff.
You didn’t think I actually forgot about Those Darlins now did you? I admit it has been quite some time since I talked about the band I was pretty much obsessed over in 2009. After all I only saw them four times live and probably posted way too much about them but whatever…I like to share what I love.
Those Darlins have not really been around these skirts of town in a while. Earlier in the year they played a folk festival down in Southern Ohio but I was unable to make it there. Sadly Nikki Darlin broke her left forearm in two places while there forcing the band to cancel their tour. If you want the full story of what happened click HERE.
Honestly I am not sure they have even been to Cleveland yet this year.
Well that is all about to change as Those Darlins have set a date for a Cleveland show. So mark your calenders on September 21st and head on over to the Beachland Tavern to see one of my favorite acts do their thing.
Opening for them is rock act Turbo Fruits hailing from Tennessee, home of the Darlins too. It’s going to be a great night. Cowboy boots optional.
(as taken from Urban Dictionary):
v. To take elements of two or more pre-existing pieces of music and combine them to make a new song. n. A song comprised of elements of two or more pre-existing pieces of music.
2. I’m in the middle of mashing-up songs by Tom Jones and Michael Jackson. (verb usage)
1. I’ll play my mash-up of Tom Jones and Michael Jackson at the club tomorrow night. (noun usage)
Max Tannone might not a name you now until you find out that he is the man behind the mash-up that is called Jaydioheadamongst other music blending projects. Years ago my pal Kevin shared with me a track called “Wrong Prayer”, a mash-up of Jay-Z and Radiohead. This was around the time that Dangermouse‘s The Grey Album was getting some attention and being a fan of both Jay-Z and even more so Radiohead I was just impressed with what I heard. Years later that track was released on Jaydiohead, a free downloadable mash-up album made available by Max Tannone.
Recently I had the opportunity to speak with the music manipulator. He was more than kind to answer a few questions for me about mashing music. Enjoy!
BHP: Your name might be unknown to some but it’s safe to say what you have done is talked about by many. Can you quickly introduce yourself?
MT: Sure, well my name is Max Tannone. I’m from New York City and I make music and remixes. I guess this is called a producer, although my definition of a producer is someone who works with other musicians in a studio setting developing a project…perhaps that makes me more of a beat-maker or a remix artist than a traditional producer.
I use the term “mash up” myself a lot in regards to what you do but I know most people prefer to call this form sound manipulation something else. What do you prefer it to be called?
It doesn’t matter to me. People shun the term “mash up” because of the negative connotations it carries. The term has transformed into a signification of a musical gimmick, mainly due to the availability of inexpensive computer software allowing people to experiment with music. I embrace this though. I love the fact that anyone can create a mashup, a remix, an original track, whatever – with little equipment or prior knowledge. I don’t necessarily enjoy everything that’s created, but the fact that it can be done is vital. So, that being said, you can it a mashup, a remix, whatever is easy for you.
To someone who is not familiar with mashing, how would you explain it to them?
In general sound editing is manipulating or combining different sounds together. I only have experience doing this in the digital realm, and have never physically cut and spliced tape like the originators of remix culture – but the principles remain. Its easier to picture visually. Imagine creating a collage, with the different pictures that contribute to the overall image representing different pieces or loops of sound. Pictures can be layered, altered, etc. Imagine having an image of the Mona Lisa and applying 40 consecutive Photoshop filters to it. You probably wouldn’t even recognize it at the end. This is an extreme example, but you get the idea.
How did you get into “mashing” music? Was it something you recently started or have you been toying with it for a while now?
I learned how to mix instrumentals and acapellas (which is just matching their tempos and starting them on the “1”…very easy) several years ago. From here I got heavily into making my own beats, learning how to sample and adding my own elements. At the time the producer group The Neptunes had been producing every R&B and hip-hop song and I was fascinated. It was the first time I began to think about how the music was actually created, rather than just listening to it. After a few years of just doing beats, I got back into the mash-up thing, but wanted to add my own elements as well. The first track I did was “Wrong Prayer” from Jaydiohead and made it into a full out project, just to see what would happen.
Who did you first “mash” and why?
Way back in the day I would just experiment. I had hundreds of acapellas and instrumentals and would just mix random ones together. I remember being really excited the first time I got something on tempo that sounded good. Soon after you realize that this is what DJs do, live, every night. I wanted to go beyond a basic track A vs. track B type thing. The first mash-ups aren’t anything special… Mash-Up 1 , Mash-Up 2 , if you want to hear them. They are perfect examples of something a decent DJ would do live all night. So I tried to expand from this.
How do you go about finding the right songs to mix up? I can not imagine that is an easy task.
For me it starts with a concept. Than I gather as many songs as I can from each artist or genre, and just start listening. I make notes on what I think would sound good together, and just test it out. When I find something I like, I try to make it a complete song. How I choose depends on the vibe of the tracks, their respective sounds, tempos, instrumentation, etc.
How long does it generally take to disassemble songs and recreate them to your liking?
Anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks to do one track.
Have you experienced any legal issues yet?
I got a cease and desist letter from Minty Fresh Records. They said I had to stop using the name “Minty Fresh Beats”, so now I just go by my regular name. Maybe that’s a good thing because I got a lot flack for that name, haha.
Obviously you can not make a profit from this so you allow your work to be downloaded for free on various websites via P2P sharing. Which album has been downloaded the most?
Probably the original Jaydiohead album – but I don’t know for sure. Everything has been re-uploaded by countless people on many different sharing sites. Not to mention single tracks that have been downloaded via blogs and my soundcloud page. Its impossible to know. The Jaydiohead website has over a million hits but you really cant correlate that to downloads. It could be more or less.
Jaydiohead is genius to my ears. I adore the project and can not help but to think about the ever popular DJ/Produce Dangermouse and his project called The Grey Album. Did he provide any influence to you by doing what he did years ago or did you pave your own path?
Thanks I’m glad you like it. The Grey Album is great, and was just a stepping stone for Dangermouse. The work he’s done since then is amazing – definitely one of my favorite producers. That being said, I never really thought about the Grey Album when I was making Jaydiohead. Not to take anything away from it, I was just concentrated on making something sound cohesive and interesting – just like any piece of music.
So how did you come up with the idea of mixing Radiohead with Jay-Z? Seems so far fetched yet so perfect one you hear it.
I heard “I Might Be Wrong” by Radiohead and thought it would be a nice hip-hop beat. I made a few minor adjustments and it was ready to go. I am very familiar with Jay-Z’s catalog, so he was a natural choice for me. I wasn’t put off by the number of Jay-Z remix albums that already exist. That was one of the reasons I did it, maybe I could do something that would stand out.
Mos-Dub is your most recent work and I think it is brilliant to do what you have done by combining Mos-Def with reggae music many may have never heard of before. How did you come up with this idea?
[I] recently became heavily into dub reggae music and again, thought I could sample it. Like Jay-Z, Mos is one of my favorite MCs and the idea of working with him (obviously not in person) was exciting. Dub can be very political and socially conscious, and Mos Def’s lyrics often represent this too, so they came together nicely. There are a few other MCs that I’d like to do projects with…
Have you heard from Mos Def yet in regards to this? What about Jay Z or any other major artists?
Haven’t heard from Mos Def. Jay-Z wrote about Jaydiohead on his Twitter account which was pretty cool. The Beastie Boys were supportive of Doublecheck Your Head, and posted 4 of that project’s 7 tracks on their website. One thing I want to say about the Beastie Boys is that they have been supporters of remix culture from very early on. They uploaded a bunch of their acapellas on their website a long time ago, before the mash-up and remix culture got to the fevered pitch its at now…so props to them.
That is awesome to hear that about the Beastie Boys! They are indeed one of the biggest supporters of remix culture. How did you feel when you found out their posted your remixes on their website?
I felt honored. Doublecheck Your Head wouldn’t have happened without Adam H (Adrock.) He liked Jaydiohead and contacted me about doing a similar remix with their Check Your Head album. I jumped at the chance.
Seems as if you prefer to tackle on NYC MC’s. Is this something intentional?
I’m most familiar with their work, and they are some of my favorite artists. I grew up listening to them, so these projects are tributes in a way.
Do you make it to a lot of shows in NYC or are you mainly a club kind of guy?
I’m still developing my DJ sets and “live show” per se. But as far as a concert-goer, I see stuff pretty often. The best DJ set I’ve seen in recent memory was Rusko at Webster Hall.
How about one that someone else created? Do you have any favorite mash up artists?
DJ Swindle has done some cool stuff. He did an album with Nas and Al Green that I enjoyed. I’m into kind of conceptual projects, or at least ones where every song isn’t 20 songs blended together. I appreciate that from a technical point of view, but its often musically uninteresting for me.
You started a DJ and moved to more of a producer, right? Have you produced many bands/artists you would like to mention?
Yes, although I want to get more involved with DJing. I would like to do some of this live. To be honest, my production experience outside of these projects is really limited. I haven’t been able to work with an artist or group from start to finish on an original project. I hope that’s on the horizon.
You are quite personable, more so than most artists out there. How important is it to you to be friendly to your fans on Twitter and Facebook?
It’s weird to think of people as fans. I don’t like to. I see myself like anyone else, just experimenting with music and putting it out there. I’m honored that other people are into it. Interacting with people is a great way to share ideas and get feedback. If people ever have questions or want to get into doing this stuff I try to help them.
Have you ever considered going your own way and putting out original material?
Yeah. I have a bunch of original beats, sampled beats, and more electronic dancey stuff online at my soundcloud page. I’m most comfortable with hip-hop, and would like to work with an MC on an album from start to finish. I keep coming back to this idea of a concept album where each track is part of a story or something, I don’t know why I’m into it. It could be really corny, I don’t know.
What’s next for you? Any new mashes you can hint on?
I’m working on some stuff now, I don’t want to say anything because I’m not sure how it will turn out yet. Still experimenting…I just want to keep going.
So last night thanks to Cleveland.com I got to attend the 311 show at the Time Warner Amphitheater VIP style. I was not planning on going at all but last week I “re-tweeted” a Twitter post that Cleveland.com put up for a chance to win a pair of tickets to the Unity Tour 2010 and I thought to myself “why not?”
A day later I got a message saying I won the tickets. I was stoked. I mean why wouldn’t I be? Free is good these days plus I got to rendezvous with an old musical friend of mine.
311 and I go way back. I am not trying to sound like one of those music trendy scraps out there who just say random things to impress others. 311 and I have been down (no pun intended) since I was in high school. I have seen them many times live, owned countless overpriced bootlegs, was a member of their fan club before the internet existed, and even was knocked out at once of their shows at the Cleveland Agora.
I vaguely remember what happened but will always remember the incident. I know I was in the pit of that show when a size 12 combat boot slammed into my head knocking me the hell out. The next thing I remembered was my pal Philippe asking me if I was ok. I think I said yes but I was more confused over anything trying to figure out why I was not in the pit anymore. Apparently Philippe dragged the knocked out me from the pit and into an alley through some emergency doors. He told me that I looked at him, smiled, and ran back into the pit. And I wonder why my body hurts so much these days… (Additional note: I bought a 311 work shirt at that show and I still wear it to this day)
High school ragers were not only fueled by cheaply processed beer but also Grassroots and Music. I remember when their self titled album came out in 95 my friends and I freaked out and basically listened to the album on repeat until the cassette wore out. Yes, cassette.
We wore 311 apparel, did our best to emulate Nick Hexum and S.A. Martinez (sounds terrible when thinking about it these days), and might have stolen room number signs from various secret locations that said, you guessed it, 311.
In 96 Enlarged To Show Detail was released on VHS and we had competitions on who could watch it the most in a three month period. I made it to 278 if I am not mistaken and my pal Brent surpassed 301 times. We were addicted.
By 1999 though most of us friends were growing up, attending college, or maybe even raising babies. 311’s music style was growing up too and to be perfectly honest I lost interest in them. I stopped wearing the shirts, the CDs collected dust, and I moved on to other things. I never stopped liking what they had done in the past but I just could not get into their material after Transistor (minus the cover of The Cure song of course). 311 kept putting out albums and touring obviously but I just did not care, that is, until those tickets I won reached my hands.
***Time Out – As I am typing this I can not help but grab my copy of 311’s self-titled record (yes, record) and throw it on the turntable…
It was a unseasonably chill night in Cleveland as I arrived to the venue. Parking the car and walking the lot all I saw was kids who were either in college or never lost the college mentality pre-game it with beer pong games and jello shots. Not into that anymore I walked past them and aimed towards the VIP entrance.
For the record, VIP is not that much better. There is a little bar to the side that still charges you $42 for a beer as well as a private bathroom that some other VIP drunk ass will most likely vomit all over in (it happened later in the night).
After making it through a terrible set from a shirtless, shoeless, surfer boy band called Pepper I found out that the Offspring were not even playing the Cleveland stop of the 2010 Unity Tour. I was bummed out as they were another band I used to really like in the 90’s but that is a whole other story.
While waiting for the headliner to take the stage I glanced at my ticket stub and realized I had box sets. VIP and box seats? That was a pretty good prize if you ask me… I took my place in the box sets, which are not that good at all if you ask me, and took in a 311 show.
The boys, who are all almost 40 with the exception of P-Nut (36), took the stage just as the sun was saying goodbye to the day. They all looked very youthful as they did 15 years ago and almost the same except this time there was no bleach blond hair. More importantly they sounded amazing and I am not just saying that as well as were genuinely excited to be on stage. They were on point for all of their songs regardless if I knew them or not and were all about the crowd.
It was not until 5 songs in when the band dished out “Taiyed” that I started feeling like I actually belonged there. Immediately after they dropped into “Plain” followed by their first chart breaking hit “Down”. During those songs I started having non-drug induced flashbacks of the times I previously mentioned.
Shortly after all the members of the band minus Chad Sexton left the stage so he could beat on the skins for a while. He put on an amazing drum solo that lasted at least 15 minutes and to make the little segment cause for more applaud, the rest of the band came back out and joined in on a synchronized drum circle of sorts. Kind of jam band if you ask me, but it sounded great and all the fans loved it.
The remainder of the night again consisted of a good blend of older and newer material. I do not think at any time did I not see movement in the huge crowd. Song after song people were jumping around having a good old time just enjoying themselves. The band really pushed forth a solid set and delivered just as good of a show as when I saw them almost 15 years ago live.
During that show all these juvenile memories of my friends and our love for 311 hit me. I could not help but shoot a few texts to a couple of the guys who I remain in touch with letting them know where I was that night. It was a good night indeed thanks to a one time unknown Omaha act that has been rocking out since 1988.
311 Setlist:
Jackpot
Sick Tight
Mix It Up
Freeze Time
Taiyed
Plain
Down
Hostile Apostle
Brodels
Applied Science
All Mixed Up
Livin’ & Rockin’
Come Original
Eons
Hey You
Never Ending Summer
Nix Hex
(bass solo)
Off Beat Bare Ass
Amber
Creatures (For a While) Encore:
Beautiful Disaster
F*ck the Bullshit