Sponsor: Descendents’ ‘Hypercaffium Spazzinate’ Now in Stores

Descendents

The Descendents are back with their first album in over a decade, and their first release on Epitaph Records since 1996. The album is called Hypercaffium Spazzinate and you can pick it up right now or stream it on Spotify and Apple Music. The album began taking shape after the band ended an extended hiatus to play live in 2010. Though still tight, they lived apart: singer Milo Aukerman — whose cartoon rendering famously serves as the band’s logo — was now living in Delaware, bassist Karl Alvarez and founder and drummer Bill Stevenson were in Colorado, and guitarist Stephen Egerton had settled in Oklahoma. So the album came to life over three years as the band sent tracks back and forth, occasionally meeting up in Karl and Bill’s adopted hometown of Fort Collins. Adopting such a protracted process meant not having to rush things, allowing for some of their sharpest songwriting yet.

Dates for their North American tour kick off September 15th in Minneapolis at First Avenue and wrap up November 12th in Portland at Roseland Theater. The full tour routing can be found below.

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How to Vote in Every State

Hank and John Green have put together a massive video series on how to vote in every state. Basically, if you want to know how to register and how to vote, you can find out by watching a short video on their page for your state. Take a few minutes to make sure you’re registered to vote in November, and if you’re already registered, share these videos with your friends to make sure they’re ready to go as well.

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Blink-182 Hires Vegan Instagram Star as Chef

Blink-182

Richard Bowie, writing for VegNews, on how Blink-182 have hired the vegan chef, and Instagram personality, Mary Mattern as their chef on their current tour:

The 30-year-old chef and cookbook author is currently travelling with the group cross-country, creating plant-based recipes—such as cauliflower chowder with biscuit flats, fishless filet sliders, and apple crumb pie—to help fuel members Mark Hoppus, Matt Skiba, and especially the band’s long-time vegan Travis Barker.

Obama: “This Is What a Feminist Looks Like”

Barack Obama, writing for Glamour:

We need to keep changing the attitude that permits the routine harassment of women, whether they’re walking down the street or daring to go online. We need to keep changing the attitude that teaches men to feel threatened by the presence and success of women.

We need to keep changing the attitude that congratulates men for changing a diaper, stigmatizes full-time dads, and penalizes working mothers. We need to keep changing the attitude that values being confident, competitive, and ambitious in the workplace—unless you’re a woman. Then you’re being too bossy, and suddenly the very qualities you thought were necessary for success end up holding you back.

The Taste of Chaos tour may be all wrapped up, but I was fortunate to be able to capture some images from their stop at the famous Red Rocks in Morrison, CO. I have been to quite a few shows here, but this one is at the top of my favorites, based on nostalgia alone.

Seeing the lineup of Dashboard Confessional, Taking Back Sunday, Saosin, and The Early November was surreal to say the least. Some of the first times I photographed many of these bands was in the early 2000’s, before radio or television had taken their careers to new levels. After seeing these bands in venues with only other bands, and maybe a few fans watching, it was amazing to see them on stage in one of most iconic venues in the world. I’m going to split these galleries up by the different bands, and today’s gallery is for Dashboard Confessional. You’ll find the photos below.

Sponsor: Thank You to Riot Fest

Riot Fest Lineup

My thanks to Riot Fest for sponsoring Chorus this week. Every time I look at the list of bands I just start to laugh — this has to be one of the few festivals I’d have a hard time seeing every band I wanted to. Tickets are on sale now for both Denver and Chicago and if you use these respective links the festival will know you came from here which helps us out a little. You’ll find more about the lineup below.

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The Best v The Favorites

Devin Faraci, writing about the difference between “best” versus “favorite”:

So the next time you see a list of someone’s favorite movies, instead of jumping right to why they’re wrong or asking the perennial irritating asshole question “What, no love for ______?”, try instead to have a conversation about why those films got picked. That’s a great discussion to be had, whether it’s directly with the person making the list or whether it’s you trying to understand an artist’s tastes and how they influence his or her work. And it’s always great for you, as a grown up thinking person, to be able to explain why you like stuff – why things are your favorites – beyond “My dad showed it to me when I was 7.”

Amen.

July’s Strong Job Numbers Still Don’t Match Trump’s Claims

538

Ben Casselman, writing at Five Thirty Eight:

But Friday’s report suggests the recovery is beginning to reach some of the groups that have struggled most in recent years. The unemployment rate for workers without a high school diploma fell sharply to 6.3 percent in July, lower than it was when the recession began. (Their unemployment rate topped 15 percent in the recession.) For workers with only a high school diploma, the unemployment rate is down to 5 percent from more than 10 percent during the recession.

None of that is likely to stop Trump from talking about the weak economy — or from outright claiming the numbers are manipulated. And there is plenty of reason to worry about the path of the economy, starting with this week’s weak estimate of second-quarter economic growth. But the job market, at least, appears to be on firm footing.

Gold Medal Stupid

Christine Birkner, writing for AdWeek, about how if you’re a business and you tweet about the Olympics you may get in trouble (emphasis mine):

While individuals, news media and official sponsors are generally free to post about the games and athletes during the Olympics, other businesses and brands are essentially locked out from anything close to a direct discussion.

Summarizing its many brand restrictions, which you can see detailed below, the USOC warns businesses: “Do not create social media posts that are Olympic themed, that feature Olympic trademarks, that contain Games imagery or congratulate Olympic performance unless you are an official sponsor as specified in the Social Media Section.”

Oh come on.