Seattle’s match-rock/psyc rock band Minus The Bear have just announced they have signed with Dangerbird Records who helped launch Silversun Pickups as well as their fourth-coming album entitled Omni coming out May 4th. The album is the follow up to their extremely good Planet of Ice album which showed a more psycedelic and experimental side of the band instead of their traditional math rock indie style. The band released a single a few months ago called “Into The Mirror” which showed some diversity in the band incorporating guitar solo’s but not to sure if it made the cut for Omni which I’m sure it probably won’t make the album considering it seemed the single was released just to appease some eager fans. No artwork or single has been announced yet off the album but I’m excited to hear this band’s progression since they have gotten better on every album they have released.
After years of controversy and hold ups the story is being written for a Kurt Cobain movie following his life leading up to his stunning death in 1994. The movie was protested many times by Courtney Love but apparantly she is co-producing this film and working closely with some of his acquintances from Seattle who can give a more personal look into the life of a music legend. The movie is being written and directed by the same man who wrote the Bob Dylan story I’m Not There and is apparantly in the final stages right now. The story should take off from his child hood and placing a heavy emphasis on his unwanted rise to stardom and his tragic death.
No word as of yet on what the title is or who is going to play Kurt Cobain but it’s unfortunate Heath Ledger isn’t still alive because I feel he would be perfect for the role of Kurt Cobain seeming they have similar features and the fact that Heath could pull off anything, I just hope they don’t choose some shit head for the role. I could see someone like Jared Leto playing Dave Grohl because he has a music background and could pull of a grungy young Dave Grohl even though Leto is in his 30’s. Either way I hope this movie is put together very Indie like and stays true to what the Nirvana sound was like and not cheese it out to the point that it’s a over produced, shitty acted movie. I’m assuming it won’t be since I’m Not There was so original and dark in how it was done and I hope to see the same for this movie if it ever gets released, I just hope Courtney Love doesn’t go bonkers and shut the whole thing down.
Deftones the long time metalcore, nu metal, experimental, ambient hardcore etc. band has finally mastered and put together their latest release since their selectively popular album Saturday Night Wrist. The new album is entitled Diamond Eyes and I’m sure will be filled with Experimental Rock and Hardcore goodness that will please the new scene as well as long time fans of the band who has done nothing but evolve since the 90’s. The single off the album is called “Rocket Skates” and will be available to listen on this coming Tuesday, which is going to be worth the wait since the band is releasing it for free off of the website. The band recently when through some troubles when their bassist Chi Cheng was in a near fatal accident almost a year ago and is still recovering. Hopefully he gets well enough soon to go on tour with them for the release of the record that was in the making for almost two years.
Thankfully two of my favorite bands are going on tour this coming Spring, Thrice and Manchester Orchestra, but no East Coast love? Are you kidding? I just hope these recent tour dates are only the first of a set but it seems like there are a lot already posted so I don’t know how much more they could add. I would love to see them play live since I haven’t seen either of them and unfortunately they aren’t listed on Bamboozle as of yet. The tour dates can be checked out at the link below and I will keep anyone posted who is interested in either of these bands.
Apr 14 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
Apr 15 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
Apr 16 – New Orleans, LA @ The Howlin Wolf
Apr 17 – Oxford, MS @ The Lyric Oxford
Apr 18 – Birmingham, AL @ WorkPlay Theatre
Apr 20 – Cleveland, OH @ House of Blues
Apr 21 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart’s
Apr 22 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall
Apr 23 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
Apr 24 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave
Apr 25 – Des Moines, IA @ People’s Court
Apr 27 – Vermillion, SD @ Eagle’s Club Room
Apr 29 – Billings, MT @ The Railyard
May 1 – Eugene, OR @ McDonald Theater
May 3 – Reno, NV @ Knitting Factory
May 4 – Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst
May 7 – Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues
May 9 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine Theatre
Finally, Circa Survive has finished mastering their album and hit everyone up with some huge news last night about the 3rd album which is now officially titled Blue Sky Noise. This is going to be their first album with major label Atlantic Records which they signed up with early last summer after careful consideration on whether or not they should leave their founding label Equal Vision. The band decided it was time they allow their music be heard on a wider scale since their fan base had grown tremendously since 2005 by only a handful of people viewing them as an opening act to a huge indie band playing a main stage set at the Bamboozle. I had some grave concerns about this band going to a major label like any fan would who doesn’t want to see a band they discovered since birth turn into a some major label pop punk band. A lot of that was eased when the band released a huge statement answering all questions one fan might have on why they decided to move on to the bigger picture when they had always said they were happy being an Indie band. They promised a lot of things other bands have done and it took a long time for them to prove they were telling the truth (about 5 months), until yesterday evening the band released the album title, cover art and their first single. The album above is beautiful, eerie and original as always but it’s because on every album they have used their favorite artist Esao Andrews to put their album title to life by adapting it into art.
The track is entitled “Get Out” and is available to listen on their website, myspace page and for the die hard fans of the band like myself you can get the track for free if you pre order the CD, Digital Download or Vinyl off the website. Needless to say I preordered the LP and also found out I get a free digital download of the album a week before the album is released, pretty amped up to say the least right now. But I have gotten side tracked tremendously and haven’t even spoke about the new single which is what could make or break their promises. ”Get Out” is everything I wanted to hear from the band since they started recording this album and it’s not because they stayed true to their sound or didn’t sell out or any of that shit. It’s because they completely surprised me on how in depth they’ve gotten musically and how much there is to expect from this album just by hearing a short 3:30 song. Anthony Green’s lyrics are intense right from the start which isn’t much surprise besides the fact that his vocal range has gotten so much better, it’s almost ridiculous how well he can belt out his lyrics now. The music is more complex and technical then before and much cleaner sounding for an experimental band especially the trippy guitar breakdown mid way through the song. Either way I feel the band is going to blow up tremendously from this album in the rock music world and really won’t mind it after I hear this album because I already feel it’s gonna be something good.
Returning to their indie roots, Spoon has a struck a chord in Transferance. I should say they’ve struck about three chords with each of song on the 11 track album. Spoon has noteriously made an effort to preserve their live recording sound, however with the release of their previous album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, those hard core hipsters might have lost some interest in Spoon. I mean one of their songs even broke into billboard top 100! Well, after they were dropped from their major label the release of transference was a bold return to the independant roots Spoon has been famous for. The recordings sound very live. Britt Daniels, their lead singer and song writer even waters down his own lyrics. The entire album sounds as if the band held back on everything. The lyrics are childish and simple and the flat tone bass and demo track drums are in top form. The album is cool. I find it refreshing that bands can still look at albums as not a means to find success, but also to test your limits, or maybe in Spoon’s case, test your ability to limit yourself.
April 17th, 2010 is Record Store Day which is a one day a year event where artists from all over submit to independent record stores rare EP’s, LP’s on vinyl and CD that are only made for this special event. The reason being that independent record stores are a hard find these days when just 15 years ago it seems almost every single town had one. I remember good old Soundwave in Manasquan, NJ that charge 17 dollars a CD, Yikes! But besides that they offered tons of vinyl as well as an incredible used CD selection that often had bands I was interested in. The problem Soundwave had, besides it’s unreasonable prices, was the shear competition of stores like Nobody Beats The WIZ and the more prevalent Best Buy today, who buy CD’s in bulk which enables them to sell at much lower prices. It seems the movie Empire Records wasn’t too far off on what corporations would do to the music industry in the near future and how it made sense that the independent store just wouldn’t be able to compete, oh and it’s a great movie by the way.
Record Store Day is the artists last stand for the local record store and every year their are dozens of bands who submit really cool EP’s on 7″ vinyl that hold rare tracks and cover songs that you can’t get anywhere else. Last year one of my favorite bands The Gaslight Anthem released a 10 track live LP for sale at Record Store Day and it sold out immediately so I wasn’t fortunate enough to get it. But this year is different and Beach House has just announced as one of the earlier bands to release a special EP with rare tracks and mixes off of their latest album Teen Dream. I can’t wait till more artists start coming out of the wood work to announce they will be part of this cool new holiday and hope to god somebody I least expect. Either way I hope you check out your local record store, if you still have one, on this day and pick up something cool. In the mean time you can keep yourself posted on the website below.
Portugal the Man has just announced they will be releasing their follow up to the critically acclaimed The Satanic Satanist entitled American Ghetto on March 2nd with Equal Vision Records. What makes this album pretty revolutionary is they will be doing no marketing, radio, street team or any other sort of press release to promote this album and in return will be offering it Radiohead style with a price if any of your choice. They had a statement posted online regarding the album and it’s release and it sounds like they are just doing this pro bono for the fans in appreciation for everything they’ve done so far. What I found interesting as well was they said they just love writing music and want to put out as much of it as they possibly can, makes sense why they are about to release a second album in less then 12 months. I’m pretty excited for this record and will probably throw them a few bucks since I feel the band deserves it and can’t wait to hear them in NYC March 20th.
So Circa Survive is using this image as a promotion to get people informed about the new album from Circa Survive which has no title or release date yet! The link for the contest is below and hopefully I win a signed vinyl from the band, making it my second album completely signed by them on vinyl, Son! They are also playing the Hoodwink Festival portion of Bamboozle Left where they will be only covering Nirvana songs for a complete set. Pretty lucky for California because for some insane reason they are not playing at Bamboozle in Jersey even though their from right outside Philly, either way should be a pretty cool show.
Coheed and Cambria has just released the single for their 5th album entitled Year of the Black Rainbow which is the prequel to their four album saga. The song is called “The Broken” and it’s pretty bad ass, not surprising since they have completely turned into a Progressive Metal band that can rank with the likes of Rush and Dream Theater. The song is pretty heavy and has some excellent guitar work with a super catchy but angry chorus that makes me can’t wait to pick up this album.
Some would argue that music television died during the late 90’s when Mtv started playing more television shows then music but I guess they did have some music element to their channel as well as play videos in the early morning. As of yesterday the company has made a drastic change in image (at least to them) and has dropped the “music television” part of their logo. The logo will now just say Mtv and will focus on their reality shows as the back drop behind the logo instead of music. It’s pretty sad time in the music industry to see the pioneer of music television completely kill what it started by focusing on teenage reality/scripted soap operas and teenage pregnancies. I’ve always been skeptical on how real these reality shows are on Mtv because it just seems to convenient the plot that on every final episode somebody is getting back together or breaking up like it used to be on Saved By The Bell.
I remembered loving Mtv as a kid and looking forward to seeing the world premiere of my favorite bands videos, unfortunately my favorite band at the time was KoRn but it’s the point of the whole thing. I do have some better memories then that and it’s probably waking up every morning before middle school and watching the videos that were played in sequence like the good ol’ days. I must have seen Foo Fighter’s “Everlong” video for 3 months straight everyday and to this day still love it. I loved the early shows that incorporated music into them such as Beavis And Butthead where they had the two idiot teenagers comment on the videos they were watching. Unfortunately the only true cool thing about Mtv now is their MTVu channel which actually plays up and coming music like the old Mtv did. So as of this week the “I want my Mtv” generation has died and they are focusing more on the millennial generation who is obviously more interested in the reality TV, someone please save us.
