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Review: Into It. Over It. – Standards

Into It Over It - Standards
Drew Beringer

I know that the “six degrees of separation” is commonly linked to actor Kevin Bacon, but I think it’s time we made an exception to the theory and include Evan Weiss. Whether it’s through the seemingly hundreds of side projects he’s a part of (most recently Pet Symmetry and Their/They’re/There) or the handful of records he’s produced (ranging from bands like You Blew It! to Xerxes), it’s no wonder someone who’s definitely not me nicknamed the Into It. Over It. mastermind “the emo mayor” (consider this review my official apology for that, Evan). But a funny thing happened during the writing and recording sessions for his third album – turns out Standards isn’t an emo record after all.

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Albums in Stores – April 1st, 2016

Jason Tate

Our first Friday with the new digs — not that I’ve had a lot of time to stay on top of upcoming releases the past few weeks. Our release date calendar was built to give you a listing of all the upcoming release dates in a clean and easy to browse format. I’ve also pulled out everything we’ve got on there that’s coming out today and put it below, and, of course, please check our forum thread for discussion on this week’s releases. I need to go make sure I check out that Explosions in the Sky album and see what people think about that Weezer release. Read More “Albums in Stores – April 1st, 2016”

Blink-182 Has New Music; Single Coming at the End of April

Jason Tate

Blink-182 are gearing up to release their first new music with Matt Skiba in late April. KROQ’s music director got to hear some of the new tunes and is saying good things. So, the hype begins.

“I think any fan of Blink-182 is going to be ecstatic when they hear the music. I really do! It sounds like Blink-182 but it sounds like Blink in 2016. Lyrically it’s clever.” Worden explains that of the songs she’s heard, it’s primarily Hoppus on vocals with Skiba adding harmonies. “I didn’t know what to expect.”

This goes right along with stuff I’ve been hearing as well — that it’s very Blink sounding but more rock tinged than atmospheric. I think I’m most looking forward to hearing Mark and Matt together, if that works, and Travis is as good as we know he is, I’m sold.

The 1975 Release “The Sound” Video

Jason Tate

The 1975 have released their new video for “The Sound” on YouTube. The video includes real quotes from past critical reviews of the band. Their brilliant new album is also now available on Apple Music. Over the years when writing about music I’ve come across bands that I think are special, that have it, and that find their way into rarefied air in my music collection. This is one of those bands. This is one of those albums. I hope it means as much to everyone that hears it as it has to me.

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What’s Going on With Apple and the FBI?

Jason Tate

Apple has publicly responded to a court order brought on by the FBI and US government asking them to purposefully break into one of their devices. There’s been a lot written on this subject today, so I’ve rounded-up what I think are the must reads after the jump.

The implications of the government’s demands are chilling. If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone’s device to capture their data. The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone’s microphone or camera without your knowledge.

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Albums in Stores – Feb. 5th, 2016

Jason Tate

Ah, Friday … album release day. I’m still not really used to albums coming out on a Friday, it’s just not totally built into my bones yet. The biggest album release this week, in our corner of the world, has felt like Say Anything dropping I Don’t Think It Is. Personally, it’s not doing much for me. If you hit read more you can see all the releases we have in our calendar for the week. An open thread has been made in our forums to talk about what came out today, what albums you picked up, and to make mention of anything we may have missed. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

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RIAA Adds Streams Into Certifications

Jason Tate

The RIAA has announced that they will be counting streams as part of certifying albums and singles Gold or Platinum:

After a comprehensive analysis of a variety of factors – including streaming and download consumption patterns and historical impact on the program – and also consultation with a myriad of industry colleagues, the RIAA set the new Album Award formula of 1,500 on-demand audio and/or video song streams = 10 track sales = 1 album sale. Also effective today, RIAA’s Digital Single Award ratio will be updated from 100 on-demand streams = 1 download to 150 on-demand streams = 1 download to reflect streaming’s enormous growth in the two plus years since that ratio was set.

I think this move was inevitable. There’s a good chance that in our lifetime album “sales” will be rendered irrelevant. The full press release can be found below.

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