Taylor Swift Breaks More Records

Taylor Swift
Jason Tate

Billboard:

According to initial reports to data tracking firm Luminate, the tracks on The Life of a Showgirl have generated more than 460 million on-demand official streams in the United States since the album’s release on Oct. 3. There are multiple versions of album on streaming services: a standard 12-song edition, a track-by-track commentary edition that includes the 12 songs plus commentary tracks from Swift, and a track-by-track commentary edition that has Swift’s commentary and lyric videos for each of the songs. […] The sales continue to come in to Luminate for The Life of a Showgirl and it may soon topple Adele’s longstanding record for the largest sales week for an album in the modern era. Adele’s 25 debuted with 3.378 million copies sold in its first week in 2015 — the biggest sales week for any album since Luminate began tracking data in 1991 (when the modern era of music sales tabulation began).

Yellowcard ‘Better Days’ Track by Track

Yellowcard
Jason Tate

Yellowcard broke down their new album track-by-track for Rocksound.

In Yellowcard, I think the two biggest Alkaline Trio fans would be Sean (Mackin, violinist) and myself. We spent hours in the van driving around the country listening to Alkaline Trio. When Travis Barker, who produced and played drums on the record, heard us talking about that, he kind of just said, ‘Do you want me to see if Matt will sing on the song?’ And we all just laughed out loud and said, ‘Well, yes, of course we would. We would be beyond stoked if he was a part of it’. So personally, this is one of my favorite songs on the record.

Review: Green Day – Warning

Green Day - Warning
Adam Grundy

The sixth studio album from Green Day, Warning, tends to get forgotten way too often, and yet it has all the makings of a killer record from the punk band. The LP finds Green Day at arguably their most melodic, and there’s no denying the catchiness of these songs that were self-produced by the band. Coming off of another breakthrough success in 1997’s Nimrod that spawned the smash single of “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” that was literally everywhere when it was released, Green Day could’ve gone in a multitude of directions on this follow-up. There’s something really endearing about a band willing to take some creative freedom by self-producing their music at this stage of their career when their songwriting was truly blossoming at the right time. The set has now gone on to sell over 1 million units in the States, while selling over 3 million copies worldwide. Any other band would give their left arm for those numbers, but Green Day would brush off any talks of Warning being a commercial disappointment by going even bigger and bolder on their punk rock opera known as American Idiot in 2004. Warning deserves another look on its 25th anniversary, and it’s one of my favorite pop-punk records of all time.

Read More “Green Day – Warning”

Travis Barker Runs to His Own Tempo

Travis Barker
Jason Tate

Travis Barker talked with Uproxx about running:

If I can find the flow state where I’m not thinking, then that’s the best show or the best run. For me, especially on tour, playing is one thing, and it’s very intense, and running is my escape, but it also helps me. I have to run. I have to jump rope in order to be able to play the way I want to play, and whatever comes to my head that I want to try and do for how long, I pretty much can do because I train every day and I work out every day. Some people look at it like it’s grueling, it’s painful. It’s all the things that I practice to be good at. I know it might be the hardest part of my day, but I’d rather initiate it. I’d rather start my day like that and run toward those things then have those things creep up on me. Running has been that for me. I love challenging myself, and I love the hard workouts. I love being sore. I love the blisters that come with playing drums and the bloody hands. I love the blisters that come with running. They go hand in hand, and I feel like they both train me to be a better person, drummer, and runner.

My Life In 35 Songs, Track 29: “Carry Me Home” by The Alternate Routes

My Life in 35 Songs
Craig Manning

We got the street lights, we got it all right, we got this whole night, carry me home

There’s this stretch of roadway just south of my hometown that I’ve always loved, where you go around a bend and suddenly find yourself surrounded on both sides by towering pine trees. The road gradually climbs from there, taking you out of this beautiful, tranquil valley. But the feel of that short passage – the indescribable power of those trees and the many, many years they’ve been there – lingers for the rest of the drive.

Throughout my life, that spot on the road has always been the checkpoint – the spot where, when I pass through it, I know I’m home again. I came to feel that way during college, when I drove that road literally hundreds of times to get back to my parents’ house – for weekends, or Christmases, or summer vacations. I kept feeling that way after I graduated, when the visits home became less frequent, and therefore, that much more precious. I still feel that way today, when I come back into town after a vacation, or even after a quick jaunt downstate for a concert. No matter how many times I pass into that forest of pines, I always feel the same way about it, like I’ve just entered the gravitational pull of the place I love most, and can lay whatever burdens I’ve been carrying down. “Rest easy child,” those trees seem to whisper; “everything will be alright. You’re safe here.”

“You’re home.”

Read More “My Life In 35 Songs, Track 29: “Carry Me Home” by The Alternate Routes”

Review: AFI – Silver Bleeds The Black Sun

AFI - Silver Bleeds The Black Sun
Adam Grundy

Reinvention has its way of taking many different forms. A reinvention of style or a new choice of clothing can lead someone else to think a person we thought we knew is trying out new things. When it comes to music, AFI have never shied away from their own reinvention as they have gone from album to album in their storied career. Their newest record, Silver Bleeds The Black Sun, once again finds the four-piece band on the precipice of another moving reinvention as they move away from some of the post-punk and electronica-tinged rock of Bodies and perhaps even what was found on AFI (The Blood Album). Instead, this latest taste of music leans into AFI’s ability to captivate through a variety of stylistic choices made strategically at the right moments in time to achieve the greatest impact. Silver Bleeds The Black Sun feels a bit like the encapsulation of all the styles AFI have been known for over their 34+ year career, and goes big into arena rock moments paired with gothic sensibilities to remind The Despair Faction that this is still the same band they fell in love with and have seen evolve with grace. Just when you think that you’ve got a handle on what AFI is and the sound you expect to hear on subsequent releases, the band turns expectations on their head and finds unique ways to continue their unwavering evolution.

Read More “AFI – Silver Bleeds The Black Sun”