Today sees new releases from Elway, Spielbergs, and Half Waif. If you hit read more you can see all the releases we have in our calendar for the week. Hit the quote bubble to access our forums and talk about what came out today, what albums you picked up, and to make mention of anything we may have missed.
Manchester Orchestra have announced some new tour dates.
On Thirty Seconds to Mars’ fifth album, titled America, Jared Leto and his bandmates experiment with big U2-type choruses, patriotic themes, and the deeper meanings of life. The band has long-since been known for their anthemic choruses and there are plenty of those to go around on America, as well as great production and a polished sound fit for a major label and radio outlets alike.
The album itself is front-loaded with the previously released singles “Walk on Water” and “Dangerous Night.” The one-two punch of these tracks play off of each other well, with the latter being the more memorable of the two. Leto sings on the chorus that it’s a “dangerous night to fall in love/don’t know why we fight what we’ve become.” The themes of loss, heartbreak, and longing for a change in the status quo run rampant throughout the album.
The Night Game have shared a video for “Bad Girls Don’t Cry.”
Middle Kids have released their new song “Bought It.”
5 Seconds of Summer have debuted their live video for “Youngblood.”
Hawthorne Heights did a track-by-track breakdown of their new album over at Alternative Press:
Why do people focus on the two bad times they had out of a hundred good times? I don’t know if it’s just within our nature as human beings. It’s just like all this static comes in, and no matter how beautiful the radio sounds, you always focus on that one little tiny bit of static. You let the bad frequencies creep into your life when really you should just be focusing how good and golden everything is.
Nick Hexum of 311 talks with KROQ about recording their next album with John Feldman.
Mike Shinoda has released a video for “About You.”
Guided by Voices have announced some new tour dates.
The Agony Scene have returned with a video for their new song “Hand of the Devine.”
Mike Fleming Jr., writing at Deadline:
Sony Pictures has closed a life rights deal with singer/songwriter Halsey. The hope is to develop a movie loosely based on her life, which she would star in. I’m told the closest cousin to what they hope for here is a vehicle that does for her what 8 Mile did for Eminem.
Thundercat’s new song “Final Fight” can be streamed below via Adult Swim.
The Dave Matthews Band will release their new album, Come Tomorrow, on June 8th. Pre-orders are now up.
Side projects, in general, are healthy for the long-term well being of a band as it allows the multiple band members to experiment with new sounds and ideas that may not be best suited for the main unit. That being said, it’s hard to find too many differences between Billie Joe’s new side gig, The Longshot, and Green Day. Billie Joe sounds just as confident as ever on the new LP and it initially reminded me of the sleek and polish of another recent side project (Foxboro Hottubs) but with more production sheen on The Longshot’s debut album.
The Longshot is comprised of guitarist Kevin Preston, drummer David Field, and bassist Jeff Matika (who has toured extensively with Green Day). “Love is for Losers” spans over 11 easily digestible tracks, with a total running time of 32 minutes. Kicking off the set with “The Last Time” Billie Joe croons, “I’ll give you all my blood, til it’s a waste of time/If that’s not good enough, you’re always on my mind.” These tongue-in-cheek lyrics are what we have grown to expect from our fearless pop-punk leader, yet it’s also a good album disclaimer of “take it or leave it.”