Just before the band’s soundcheck in Philadelphia, we were able to get on the phone with Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley and ask him a few questions about the record that officially turns 10 years old today.
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I was 14 when I bought White Pony, the third album from Sacramento metal legends Deftones. Little did I know that this purchase on a June day would eventually change my life. I didn’t realize music could be so intricate, emotional, and devastating all in one swoop. White Pony consumed me and turned my interest in music from casual encounters to a passionate love affair. Honestly, that album is the reason I have this very job.
So why is my story relevant? It’s because I feel the same emotions I did 12 years ago when listening to Koi No Yokan, the seventh full-length from Deftones.
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Bayside has a wealth of early material to boast about, but the band has continued to improve and impress as it has aged. The group’s most recent LP, Killing Time, proved to be one of its strongest records, as Bayside executed with excruciatingly enjoyable precision the formula we’ve grown to love it by. While fans wait patiently for another full batch of Bayside tunes, the New York natives offer up the Covers, Vol. I EP, a collection of five cover songs designed to hold fans over until new music arrives.
The one thing that Bayside does very well on this covers EP – and the EP’s strongest characteristic, in fact – is that the band does a helluva job making these songs sound like Bayside songs. Anthony Raneri’s nasally vocals and Jack O’Shea’s persistent shredding on the guitar are accounted for and produced brilliantly – just because these aren’t original tunes doesn’t mean Bayside took the easy road on this release.
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The color red symbolizes a variety of emotions. The color represents courage and bravery yet also embodies passion, sensuality, and love. Still, notably, red marks anger and rage, even danger, warranting caution. In conjunction with all of these various symbols, it makes sense that Red is the title of Taylor Swift’s most ambitious, dynamic record yet.
Riding on the heels of three incredibly successful records, Miss Swift knows she has nothing to lose here. As a result, she doesn’t hold back anything throughout Red’s 16 tracks. Her fourth record flirts with pop sensibilities, redefines her inner-country roots, and delivers tender ballads – it has a little bit of everything. Simply put, she could not care less what anyone wants to hear; she’s bridging the “genre gap” more so than ever before and is not about to back down for a second.
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There’s a fine line between imitation and innovation. All Time Low had two options: try to be the next Fall Out Boy or try to be All Time Low. They chose the latter and for that, myself along with many others worldwide are eternally happy with this decision. After the band’s breakthrough album, So Wrong It’s Right, pressure mounted on the four young men from Baltimore, Maryland to be the next big crossover act from the scene. What followed were Nothing Personal and Dirty Work, two albums that saw the band go from simply a pop-punk act to spreading its wings and diversifying its sound. Unfortunately, the attempt to write the next big radio hit was not a successful venture and All Time Low had to return to the drawing board. Although not critically as well-received as its predecessors, it showed the band had chops to transition from the Warped Tour crowd to a potentially bigger atmosphere. It was just the early stages of what sets up Don’t Panic, the band’s fifth full-length album to date.
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Composer Nathan Johnson talks about creating the score for Looper, his nontraditional approach to recording and arranging instruments, his musical background, and working with his cousin, director Rian Johnson.
There is a long running joke/discussion among my best friends about how close Mineral’s guitar licks and tone don’t stray far from that of Temple of the Dog. It’s a stretch, but it brings up the point that we often try to dice apart whole genres so much, and I often wonder why. Is it because there is a distinct sound to the music at hand? Or is it really to separate something you love from something you hate, but secretly love due to popular opinion? Is everything that’s played on the radio awful? No. Given better timing and marketing, some of underground’s most notable acts could have been bigger than they turned out to be.
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Propagandhi never deluded itself into thinking that it was a serious name. The part 1984-esque, part Indian icon portmanteau was merely an off-the-cuff invention from a group of sixteen year olds. Starting with How to Clean Everything and Less Talk, More Rock, the theme of child’s play ran the lyrical gamut from bare ferocity to side-splitters; Chris Hannah commanded the pulpit, telling patriotic blockheads to shove flags up their asses while inviting bomb-vested rendezvous to G7 “picnics”. Those wit coated antics tapered off eventually, and a relatively more stoic behemoth kicked in by way of Death and Voivod.
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We’ve seen this movie before. Band reaches moderate success on indie label, signs to major, releases major label debut, album gets little to no push, band and major separate mutually. It’s the most predictable cycle of events since every Katherine Heigl movie ever. But the cycle’s most recent addition, Circa Survive, isn’t your typical band. Their major label debut Blue Sky Noise was a killer album – a staggering cornucopia of everything you loved from their first two albums. But let’s be real, Circa Survive is too zealous of a group to be constrained by the limitations of a major (or any) label (but it was admirable that they kicked the tires with the ol’ major try. You know, YOLO and all that garbage). So it made absolute sense when the band announced that they were going to go the DIY route with their fourth album Violent Waves.
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Lead singer Dan Reynolds talks about assembling Imagine Dragons’ first full-length Night Visions, how much Imagine Dragons has progressed in its short life span so far, and finding inspiration in dreams and personal demons.
For a band as established and celebrated as Yellowcard, the decision to return from a hiatus is a weighty one. It’s not as simple as waking up, getting back into the studio, putting out a record and playing a few shows. There is a lot at stake, and the band’s legacy is part of those stakes. Putting out a bad or even a mediocre record can tarnish an otherwise sterling career, and this is something the fans consider, too. Certainly, some reunion records we could have done without – even some reunion records that have come out fairly recently. Many would rather not have their outlook on their favorite band be affected by a hasty and ill-advised reunion album – in some cases, the allure of “what could have been” might have been more satisfying than the product of the reunion.
Read More “Yellowcard – Southern Air”
It’s kind of funny that Anchor & Braille’s second album is titled The Quiet Life, since it’s anything but. While this collection of songs isn’t as in your face as Stephen Christian’s other band Anberlin, his latest effort with his side project is incredibly vibrant and varied. After proving that this project wasn’t just a retread of slower Anberlin-esque songs with his 2009 debut Felt, Christian’s eclectic musical interests is all over The Quiet Life. Reuniting with his other band’s former label Tooth & Nail, The Quiet Life takes what worked on Felt, refined it, and added in some new twists and turns to create one of the best releases Christian has ever been a part of.
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Stephen Christian talks about the fragmented process of making The Quiet Life, getting back to a family vibe with Anchor & Braille, the instability of being a musician, and what to expect on Anberlin’s upcoming album, Vital.
While most tuned-in reviewers, bloggers, and music fans discovered Frank Ocean with his critically-acclaimed mixtape nostalgia ULTRA, the majority of the mainstream were introduced to Ocean’s distinct croon when he provided the vocals to the incredible hook of Kanye West and Jay-Z’s hit “No Church In The Wild.” It’s obvious that his voice was built for stardom and top 40 radio. The only problem with that idea, however, is that Ocean wants nothing to do with that, as he skips the trends and marches to the beat of his own 808. Fans old and new will need to expect the unexpected on Ocean’s major label channel ORANGE, as its seventeen tracks showcase an artist who is much more conflicted and layered than perhaps originally thought.
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Mike Shinoda discusses the detailed process behind Living Things, building songs out of Legos, and bridging the gap between the old and new styles of Linkin Park.