Review: Collective Soul – 7even Year Itch: Greatest Hits, 1994-2001

The latest greatest hits collection from veteran Alternative Rockers, Collective Soul, called 7even Year Itch: Greatest Hits, 1994-2001 is a fitting and nice introduction to the band’s best work during this time period. It has all the major hits that you’d want in a compilation, from “Shine” and “Heavy” to more reflective songs like “The World I Know,” there truly is a little bit of everything to be found here. The set was produced by lead vocalist Ed Roland, and he carefully sequences the songs found on this greatest hits album in a way that makes sense for the listener to best consume it. The album was originally released on September 18, 2001, but it never found its way to the vinyl format until last month, via Craft Recordings. The vinyl packaging is a bit on the simplistic side, with a standard weight LP that is encased in a full-color sleeve with lyrics on one side, and some band photography on the other. The reissued set includes “Next Homecoming” and “Energy” for the first time in this package, and neither song feels out of place when listening to it front to back. Collective Soul were one of radio rock’s biggest bands, and they deserve another moment to relish in their best work.

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New Interview With Turnstile

Turnstile

Brendan Yates of Turnstile sat down for a new interview with Anti-Matter.

Putting out every record, there’s always a certain level of discomfort that comes with it. Or the tours we do. We’ve done tours before where we see an opportunity for something new, but we also know that it’s not necessarily the perfect hardcore tour—with comfortable venues, reactions, people, or that kind of thing. It’s placing ourselves in environments where we are the fish out of water, which I think we’ve done continuously in our time as a band. And it’s not always “the bigger thing.” Like, we did an arena tour last year not because it was the “biggest” thing we could do, but as an experience thing. It’s always gotta feel right, but it’s about finding that perfect sweet spot where it’s going to be uncomfortable, but it’s also going to be a totally new eye-opening experience in different ways. Sometimes you take away things that are negative from it, and sometimes you take away things that are positive, but that’s kind of a theme with our band. We’re always looking for that sweet spot of feeling like it’s something that feels true to us, but also feeling a level of discomfort that’s going to teach us something new or give us a new experience so that we’re never doing the same thing over and over.

Interview: Pat Kirch and Garrett Nickelsen of The Maine

The Maine

Recently, I was able to catch up with Pat (drums) and Garrett (bass), of The Maine, before they played a show at The Fillmore Silver Spring. In this interview, I asked the band about their range of emotions with putting together the Sweet 16th Anniversary Tour, how they’d rank their albums in their discography, the status of several key vinyl reissues, and some fun facts about each of the band members.

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