I GOT THE JOB!

This is me right now. Except not in a wedding dress. That’s just weird.

Remember that time I started an unemployment blog and wrote about five posts and then never wrote anything again? Yeah, me neither. But for those of you who do remember that, let me explain. Things got pretty busy for me after I took on two different internships, so between working five days a week and trying to keep up with Bitch Beer, Red River Noise, and my social life, I didn’t really have time to write about the perils of being unemployed.

But today, I come delivering good news. It’s been six and a half months since I graduated college, but I FINALLY GOT A JOB! And not some BS part time job or internship or retail job. A real job. With a salary and benefits. An adult job as Communications Manager at a local company.

For those of you who know me well and know how difficult those first few months after graduation were, you know how much this job means to me and how hard I’ve worked for it. This job means I can actually pay my student loans in January and I can pay all my bills without worrying if I’m going to go into the red and when my friends want to go to happy hour, I can finally stop being the lame girl who always replies “sryz 2 broke 4 HH. LOLZ” (Just kidding, I would never text like that. Gross.) And, best of all, I can now buy my plane ticket to spend New Year’s Eve in Denver with a certain someone.

So, as I am not longer unemployed, this blog will once again become inactive (as if it hasn’t been for the last few months). I’m sure one day I’ll find another good use for it as I always do. Until then, thanks for reading, and please excuse me as I continue to scream and shout and jump on my bed in excitement.

My ears are still ringing.

Photo by: http://www.ticketfly.com/event/36935/

The past two nights have been amazing. Well, technically the past three nights have been pretty awesome, but I’m not going to publicly share the details of my Thursday night, so we’re just going to stick with the last two nights.

Friday night was the Summer pArtery Tour at Emo’s with In Fear and Faith, Vanna, A Loss For Words, Close to Home, Chunk! No Captain Chunk, Ten After Two, and Adestria. Overall, the show was really great, but at the same time, it was kinda strange. Normally scenester shows like this are packed. The line forms hours before doors, and it stretches down the block and around the corner. But this show was practically empty. I don’t even think it was a third as full as most shows like this one. One explanation for the lack of enthusiasm for this show is that the All Stars Tour and the Scream the Prayer was the next day, and with tickets for that show going for $30, most kids couldn’t afford tickets for both shows. But whatever; their loss.

Adestria, Chunk! No Captain Chunk, and A Loss For Words all put on pretty good shows but none of them really blew me away. Ten After Two we’re probably the most disappointing act of the night because I love their album Truth Is…, but the lead singer is not nearly as good live as his is on the album. Close to Home was definitely the biggest surprise of the night. I had never heard any Close to Home song before the show, but they sounded good live, looked like they were enjoying being on stage, and just put on a really great show overall.

Photo by: http://artistseshions.com/2011/07/20/arkaik-clothing-and-ibanez-present-the-all-stars-tour/

Headliners In Fear and Faith, of course, put on a  great show. I hadn’t seen IFAF since Cody Anderson left, so it was awesome to see Scott Barnes take over clean and unclean vocals and do a great job at both. However, the best band of the night had to be Vanna. I’ve seen Vanna before and I’ve always thought they were good live, but this particular night they were amazing. They were able to get the crowd awake and on their feet, and then their actual performance was awesome and just plain fun to see. And then to top it off, after their set, lead singer Davey Muise walked up to me at the very front of the stage, shook my hand, and said, “You’re fuckin’ cute.”

Photo from: http://www.braingell.com/?tag=salt-lake-city

After that fun little night, I woke up bright and early to hitch a ride to Backstage Live in San Antonio for the All Stars Tour/Scream The Prayer Tour mashup show. [Side note: I really want to thank Eric, John, and Jeremy for letting me crash their carpool. Without them, I would have had to do the drive in an AC-less car, and I would not have had nearly as much fun.]

This show was ridiculous. There somewhere around 24 bands on two stages in 9.5 hours. I can’t even begin to describe every single band I saw but these were some of my faves:

* Blessthefall: I liked that Elliot Gruenberg (Ex-Before Their Eyes) seems like a pretty solid fit, and they played a song that will be off their new album, Awakening. Pretty stoked for that album.
* I, The Breather: So heavy. So good. And their lead singer is this crazy ball of energy who is either running across the stage or trying to get to the heart of the pit.
* Texas In July: They’re so young but none of that shows in their songs.
* Born of Osiris: One of my favorite live bands. And not only do their guitarists melt faces with their solos, but they also wear matching outfits, having match short hair cuts, and play matching guitars. It was so cute.
* Norma Jean: Always a classic.

It was an awesome day to say the least.

Now I’ve just got the Scream It Like You Mean Tour to look forward to on Tuesday. This is rounding out to be a pretty good week. Tonight included.

P.S. Eight days ’til I move back to the city. Completely irrelevant, but all the while, very important.

Q&A with Pierce The Veil

Pierce The Veil's Vic Fuentes and Jaime Preciado. Photo by Holly Aker

This is an interview I conducted last Wednesday with Pierce The Veil before their performance on the This Is A Family Tour in San Antonio. You can also this interview at Red River Noise.

In June of this year, Pierce The Veil released their sophomore album, Selfish Machines. The album is a great example of post-hardcore at its best and features the grizzly screams of A Day To Remember’s frontman, Jeremy McKinnon, on the song “Caraphernelia.” As part of the This Is A Family Tour, Pierce the Veil played to a packed house of screaming fans and kids literally climbing over each other to reach the stage Wednesday night at The White Rabbit in San Antonio. This tour is the first intimate, club tour for the San Diego based band since releasing Selfish Machines.

We caught up with Pierce The Veil before the show to talk about collaborating with McKinnon, dating on the road and the band’s plans for 2011.

What is your writing process like these days now that you have more experience together as a band?

Vic Fuentes: It’s a collaborative effort now because we have a whole band together on this record. First record we didn’t have a full band, it was just me and Mikey. So now we got all the dudes, and we were able to jam the songs before we recorded them, which was very important in the making of the album.

Jaime Preciado: Tony and I joined the band when the first record was already done. It’s cool to actually jam out the songs, and hear them as a full band.

Where did the name “Selfish Machines” come from?

Vic: It’s about how we all have a sort of selfishness inside of us. I think to some extent no matter how morally good someone could think they are, I think we all have this selfishness about us. For example, if you are in love, like I’m in love with Jaime, I want him all to myself because I’m selfish. It’s about human nature and everyone’s inner wanting to take and have things and desire things, and I think it’s a natural thing, and I think it’s awesome.

Where were you mentally and musically when you were making Selfish Machines?

Jaime: I think we wanted to write a record that was going to be fun to play live since we’ve been touring for so long. So that was our main influence. Bunch of kids, seeing them everyday. Because on the first record like we said earlier, we’d never played the songs as a band before, so playing them in front of kids, you get a different feel. You get to see what kids to react to.

Vic: Yeah, every night on this tour I’ve been thanking the crowd for their inspirations for the new record. Whether they realize it or not, they really had a big part in it. We actually picture being on stage when we’re writing, what we feel would be cool on stage for us, so that was kind of the driving forces we had on the record.

How was it collaborating with Jeremy McKinnon on the song “Caraphernelia”?

Vic: It was awesome. It was all done from long distance. I had the part for him, and it was all written, and we just sent it over to him. He was in a studio. He was producing a record at the time, so we just sent him the stuff, and he recorded it in his studio that he was at, and we just took his vocals and put them into the song. It was kind of the same way with the video. He did all his stuff from Germany when he was touring with A Day To Remember over there. So he just shot it one night over there and sent us the footage.

Mike: Broke a pay phone.

Vic: Yeah, broke a pay phone, end of story. But it was cool.

Mike: He’s got a mean scream.

Vic: Yeah, he’s got a crazy scream, and I think it really helped the song. It took it to a new level.

Mike: Hopefully one day we can tour with them and he’ll do the screams.

Did you have him in mind for the part when you first wrote the song? Was he on board as soon as you approached him about it?

Vic: Yeah, well not at the very beginning, but when I had that chorus I knew I wanted it to be a screaming part, and I didn’t think I could do it justice the way I wanted it to be done. I kept hearing his voice on it. I think it would have been really cool, so I asked him when he was at our show in San Diego, and he said he was down. It came out cool.

Selfish Machines seems to have a recurring theme of relationships that didn’t work out and the video for “Caraphernelia” shows the struggles involved with having a long distance relationship on the road. Who was the inspiration behind the song

Vic: My old girlfriend Cara was the inspiration for it. The video and a lot of the song is about something we can all relate to. Just trying to have relationships on tour. I mean Tony’s got a girlfriend, and I’m sure that’s kind of tough.

Tony Perry: It can be. I’ve had relationships that I’ve tried and have failed on tour, and so far this is going good, everything’s good. We’ve all had issues with something like that, which is cool because even though it’s written about his girlfriend, every one of us can relate to it in some way because we’ve all had the same kind of problems. The video itself was really cool because we’re able to make a visual of the things we’ve had to deal with on the road like past relationships

Vic: I met this dude the other day. He came up to me at the L.A. show, and he was like, “Dude, I’m about to tryout for some major league baseball team.” I forget which one it was, but he was like, “I’m about to make the team, but I’m kind of scared because I’ve got a girlfriend. I just want to know how it is traveling. I don’t know if I want to do it.” I just explained to him, as long as the girl’s supportive and as long as he’s super passionate about what he’s doing, you should definitely go for it. You still got to do what you love. By the end of the conversation he was super stoked.

Do you have any advice for people in that situation?

Jaime: I would say do what you love because in the end it’ll always work out.

Tony: I’ve had relationships that didn’t work out, but if you’re with someone that would cheat on you or something like that because you’re away, that’s not someone you should be with anyways. You got to do what you’re going to do, and you hope for the best that that person’s going to support it. If it works out, it works out. I would never change what I’m going to do for someone else because if they really care about me then this wouldn’t be an issue

Mike: I mean I haven’t had a girlfriend in like 8 million years. So obviously it’s working out perfect for me. I have my band that loves me.

I’ve read that the song “Million Dollar Houses” is dedicated to Mike and Vic’s parents and is about some of them money issues they’re going through. Tell me about writing that song.

Vic: This year our parents lost their house that me and Mike grew up in, and so we wrote the song about how they’ve been together for so long, and they never let money or things like that tear them apart, tear their relationship apart. I just thought it was such a cool thing that they’ve still been together over all these hard times that they’ve had, and especially this one. Our dad is actually a painting contractor; he’s an independent contractor, so it’s tough. We wrote the song as kind of a gift for them just talking about their relationship and how it’s so strong.

You have had several side projects like Cinematic Sunrise, Isles & Glaciers, and Mikey Whiskey Hands. How do you find time to balance multiple bands at once?

Vic: The Isles & Glaciers thing only took 10 days to record

Mike: It just came at the right time.

Vic: It’s all about timing. We had this perfect gap to do it, where we weren’t touring, we weren’t recording, so we just took the chance and did that. You guys have the Whiskey Hands stuff.

Mike: That’s a lot on the road, recording on the road.

Jaime: I make a lot of random stuff, and whenever Mike and I have time, we just sit down. I’ve been doing a lot of solo acoustic stuff too

Vic, you lent your vocals to Chiodos’ new song “Love Is A Cat From Hell.” How did that come about and what was it like working with them

Vic: It was cool. They just called me up, asked me if I would be down to sing on the song. We knew Brandon [Bolmer] for years because he was in a band called Yesterdays Rising from San Diego. So he’s an old friend, and the Chiodos guys are old friends as well. It was really easy. They sent me the song, told me the spots where they wanted vocals, and I wrote some stuff at home and sent it back to them. Jaime actually recorded them from his house. We just sent them all the vocals, and they were stoked on it. I thought the song was super cool. Long before I even sang on it, I was like, this song’s awesome, and I was super stoked to be a part of it. I think it came out really rad.

Mike and Vic, how is it being in a band with your brother? What are some of the pro and cons?

Mike: It’s a nightmare.

Jaime: They’re always measuring their biceps all the time.

Mike: I think it’s cool because me and Vic never really fought growing up as kids. We were always just looking out for each other. It’s cool that we get to play on the same stage everyday.

Vic: Yeah, we get to travel, get to see the world together. It’s cool to be with family in those times. It’s good. I love it.

Jaime: It’s funny when you [Mike and Vic] fight. They fight for a good 30 seconds, and then minute later it’s like it never happened. It’s so funny.

Mike: We’ll be arguing about a part in a song or something retarded, and we’ll just go off for maybe two minutes, and that’ll be it.

Tony: I want you guys to fight right now, just show her now.

Vic: It’s got to be natural. You can’t force these things.

Pierce the Veil did a cover of “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” on “Punk Goes Classic Rock” that was released earlier this year. Why did you choose that song? Or was it given to you?

Vic: I wanted to do “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen but then Never Shout Never did it. It wasn’t even on the list of songs. I was so angry.

Jaime: I’m almost glad we didn’t do that because that would have been 500 tracks.

Vic: But that was my second guess, the “Reaper” song. I love that song. I think it’s such a cool, dark song with weird dark lyrics. Plus the cowbell skit with Will Ferrel’s amazing. I like all the music for that song. I like the vocals. I think they were at a good range for me to sing as well, and there’s tons of harmonies and I like doing harmonies, so that was another reason why I liked it.

Jaime: If you actually listen to the end of the track, you can actually hear me yelling at Mike to stop hitting the cowbell, and I think I threw something at you. It made it, so if you listen closely, it’s like, “Mike, we got it!”

2010 was a big year for Pierce The Veil, you played SXSW, you were on Warped Tour all summer, and you released a new album. What were some of the highlights of the year?

Mike: For me, it was some overseas stuff that we did: Australia and Japan. It was out of this world, literally. And Warped Tour was fun too.

Vic: Yeah, Warped Tour was rad because it was the first tour we did with the record. Actually this tour is kind of rad because this is the first club tour we’ve done on Selfish Machines, and it’s cool to see it a little more intimate as opposed to being outdoors on Warped. It’s cool to see kids singing and going crazy.

You have tour dates posted up until January 2011. What are your plans for the rest of 2011?

All: More tours.

Jaime: That we can’t tell you about.

Mike: Writing. We need to start writing more on the road.

Vic: Yeah, we have Silverstein coming up, and after that there’s an awesome tour that we’ll announce fairly soon. Then we’ll just be touring pretty constantly and writing in between.

 

Q&A with Chiodos lead singer, Brandon Bolmer

Brandon Bolmer. Photo by Holly Aker

Last Tuesday night I went to the Congregation of the Damned Tour with Chiodos, Blessthefall, Atreyu, Architects, and Endless Hallway in San Antonio. With the help of Red River Noise where I’ve recently started interning, I was able to secure an interview with Chiodos lead Singer Brandon Bolmer. This is what we chatted about.

Do you know how the dynamic has changed in the band since you and Tanner Wayne joined Chiodos?

Bolmer: Since I joined it’s gotten a little heavier. Not drastically, but I think the vocals fit the music a little more. That’s just my opinion because I’m new, so coming from before and now, if I was to take myself out, and if I was to think of me as someone else and critique both, I would say that vocals fit pretty good.

What about the personalities?

Bolmer: I’ve gotten the story of how bad things were before Craig left the band, how upset and frustrated everyone was, and now everyone seems to be really happy. The attitudes of everybody are a lot more positive, and everyone’s excited again. It’s fresh.

Did the band have you in mind when Craig left?

Bolmer: No. When they let Craig go, they had nobody. They weren’t really looking yet. They started writing a lot of music, and didn’t really have anyone in mind or weren’t really worried about it at the time. Then they started doing their auditions. So I came later. It wasn’t like they had already planned on it.

A lot of fans were really upset that Craig wasn’t in the band anymore. How did you deal with the backlash from those fans?

Bolmer: I knew when I joined the band and was deciding to join the band that that was going to happen, so I was already mentally preparing for it. I’ve seen a lot of that shit online. I’ve seen a lot of people talking. It happens with every band. It happens with bands that didn’t lose their singer and are still just bands that put out a record that someone didn’t like. That’s always going to happen, so to me it’s not childish because I know those people really cared about Craig and enjoyed the music and they’re bummed about it, but it doesn’t really bother me.

Were you involved much in the writing process of Illuminaudio?

Bolmer: In the lyrics and the singing, yeah. That was all me and Brad [Bell]. Mostly all original. Nothing was re-recorded that was already written by Craig. Everything’s original by me and Brad. I wasn’t involved much in the music, but I was there for about half the writing process for the rest of everything.

Given the fact the Craig was the face and the voice of Chiodos, did you feel a lot of pressure while writing Illuminaudio?

Bolmer: There was definitely pressure. I definitely had to live up to the fans’ expectations. At first it was kind of stressful. It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t bad. It wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t horrible stress or anything, but at times it would be frustrating just wondering what people were going to think about it. I’d say yeah, it was a little hard. A little bit of pressure.

Where did the title “Illuminaudio” come from?

Bolmer: We never sat down and were like, “What are we going to call it?” We just wanted it to come to us. Then one day me and Brad and Tanner [Wayne] and a couple other dudes were chilling at Brad’s house and running over some ideas. We really liked the idea of the word “illumination” or “illuminate” because as far as the band’s struggle and the dark times they went through and how it is now, it represents finding a light at the end of the tunnel for the band. So that’s where “illumination” came from, and then “audio” obviously, it’s a CD. It [“Illuminaudio”] means a sound that will enlighten or an enlightening soundscape. We thought it was cool, and like I said, the band went through a lot of shit, so this is kind of like the rebirth of Chiodos.

Did you have any specific influences while writing Illuminaudio?

Bolmer: Maybe a little bit of Deftones for me. When recording, I don’t really listen to a lot of music because, I don’t try so hard to be original, but I want it to be something fairly new sounding. So I just do my thing really, but I have a lot of influences. Maybe Deftones, Muse.

What is your favorite track off of Illuminaudio?

Bolmer: Favorite song is either “Modern Wolf Hair,” “Notes in Constellations,” and “Those Who Slay Together, Stay Together.”

“Those Who Slay Together, Stay Together” seems to be one of the most powerful songs on the album. Can you tell me a little bit about the meaning behind it?

Bolmer: Well first, I think it’s one of the most powerful because we spent a lot of time on that song. When I first joined the band, they had already written the music. They wrote the song with the intention of having it being a zombie-story-type song. Me and Brad watched “28 Weeks Later,” it’s a zombie movie, or not really zombies but an infected, virus type thing. We got a lot of inspiration for the song from that movie, but we twisted it in a way to where the song goes along with the movie a little bit. We tied this idea into the song of a group of people just basically sticking together for one purpose. So at the beginning of the song, the purpose for the group of people, which could be our band or could be any group of people, a family, a couple or whatever. The idea is that at the beginning of the, I’ll call it a movie, the group of people are uninfected people that are trying to survive basically to avoid this deadly virus. In the middle of the song that’s where there’s an attack scene and the people become infected by the virus. And then their ultimate goal is still to stay together but also to obviously, as the movie would be, to infect everybody possible. It’s about sticking together. It kind of represents the band and how they stuck together through all the tough times they went through. It’s kind of about that.

You’ve been on the Congregation of the Damned Tour for a little over a month now. What has been one of your favorite moments while on tour?

Bolmer: I have a lot of favorite moments. This tour has been really cool. Every band and every person in each band is really down to earth and friendly. No one’s an asshole or cocky or any of that. Everyday something funny happens, something cool happens. One of my favorite shows would probably be Montreal. Atlanta, Georgia was cool. There’s been a lot of cool shit that’s happened. Everyday’s been awesome. I always get this question, and when I’m not asked the question, I know and I could answer, but then when the question pops up and I’m on the spot, I can’t think of anything. There’s been a lot of funny shit. Sam [Carter] from the Architects keeps us pretty entertained a lot. The singer of the Architects; he’s a pretty funny dude.

You haven’t posted any new tour dates for the rest of the year or really at all yet. What do you have planned for the remainder of 2010 and then into 2011?

Bolmer: For the rest of the year, we’re going to chill, kick back a little bit, enjoy the holiday. Then next year we have a tour booked in March. It’s not announced yet, so I don’t want to announce it myself, but that’ll be a good tour. I’m sure we’ll come back around this area. We might even book something before that at the beginning of the year, and if not, we’ll probably start writing something just to use the time wisely. But for the rest of the year, we’re just going to chill.

The future of Edison Chair

Edison Chair. Photo by Holly Aker

Most likely, you haven’t heard of Edison Chair. You probably don’t have any friends that are fans of Edison Chair. And you definitely haven’t heard any songs by Edison Chair. But don’t worry, you will.

Edison Chair is a pop-rock trio from Dripping Springs, and the last year and a half for the band has been a doozy. The band went from trying to win their high school Battle of the Bands to sitting in the office of Jimmy Iovine, the CEO of Interscope Records, and playing him a personal concert.

It all started when the trio met Monte Warden, a singer/songwriter who famously wrote “Desperately” for George Strait. Warden offered to produce five songs for Edison Chair and then distribute the recordings to major record companies. Interscope was the first label to  bite, and before they knew it, the band was skipping school and hopping on a plane to L.A.

“It was all happening so fast,” drummer Wes Armstrong said. “I was really excited to be in L.A., but at the same time, Jimmy was very intimidating.”

Interscope Records flew the band out one more time, and during this trip, Iovine offered Edison Chair a developmental deal, which stated that the band would record under an Interscope producer and then Iovine would decide to sign the band or not. However, even after the songs were recorded and mixed, Iovine was still undecided about signing the band.

That’s been the status of Edison Chair for a few months now, but they’re not letting Interscope’s indecision slow them down.

“We’re in this kind of limbo state right now,” bassist Martin Aker said. “But that won’t stop us. We’re getting better as a band and as individual musicians everyday.”

All three members of Edison Chair graduated from high school in June 2009, but instead of going to college, the band decided to take a year off to focus exclusively on Edison Chair.

“How often do you get an opportunity like this?” guitarist Nathan Thrash said. “We are on the brink of success, and we couldn’t pass this opportunity up. If Edison Chair doesn’t work out, college will always be there. This opportunity may not.”

Recently, the developmental deal with Interscope expired. While it’s unfortunate that Interscope didn’t sign Edison Chair before the expiration date, it’s not the end of the world. Interscope has extended an offer to Edison Chair to re-record the band after they write another batch of songs.

The band doesn’t see this as a slap in the face either. They now understand where they need to focus and that there’s huge room for improvement.

“Right now our focus is on improving ourselves,” Aker said. “We write song after song after song, and with each new song, we get better. Music is not a quick and easy thing. It takes dedication and lots of time. Luckily we have that.”

With the help of Rainmaker Artists, Edison Chair’s management company, the band is getting constant critiques, and they’re beginning to book bigger and bigger gigs.

“We’re going to keep getting better, and that’s when we’re going to strike,” Armstrong said. “The record companies won’t know what hit them.”

You can see Edison Chair at Emo’s on December 19. Find out more information about the band on Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter.

The Summer Set headlines first tour

Brian Dales, Jess Bowen, and Stephen Gomez from The Summer Set. Photo by Holly Aker

Over the past year, The Summer Set’s popularity has really taken off. They were listed in Alternative Press’s 100 Bands to Watch in 2010, they were included in The AP Spring Tour that played South By Southwest, and now they’re headlining their very own tour. Supported by Stereo Skyline, Modsun, Austin Gibbs, and School Boy Humor, The Summer Set kicked off The Traveling Show Tour at Emo’s.

Being their first show of their first headlining tour, lead singer Brian Dales and guitarist John Gomez felt a little bit nervous about the upcoming show.

“I’m nervous and excited at the same time,” Gomez said. “But it’s our first headlining tour, so I’d feel like I wasn’t a real person if I wasn’t a little bit nervous.”

Before this tour, The Summer Set had only ever played as the warm up band, getting to play five, maybe six songs. However The Traveling Show Tour gives the band their first opportunity to play last on the bill and to play 12 songs in a row. With such a new experience before them, the band has some pretty high expectations for themselves.

“I am expecting to pass out,” Dales joked. “If there’s anything I’m actually expecting, it is to die. I am planning on just being unconscious.”

With such a quick increase in popularity, most bands would have let the fame get to their head. However, The Summer Set isn’t most bands. They’ve still got their heads firmly on their shoulders, and they say they’ve barely even noticed much of a change.

“It feels like we’re in the same place we’ve been for the last two years,” Gomez said.

“It’s never been where it drastically happened over night where it went to our heads,” Dales added. “It gradually every tour got a little bit bigger.”

In fact, when the subject of headlining their own tour was mentioned, they were a bit skeptical about it.

“When it came time to do a headline tour we were like, ‘Really? You think we’re ready?'” Gomez said.

The band’s management had to convince The Summer Set that it was their time to take on a headlining tour, and after accepting, the band decided to not make it just any old tour. They wanted to do something special and fun and make a tour that would be memorable, so they invited cross-genre musician, Modsun, and Austin Gibbs, their friend from home, to join them on tour.

Despite their worries, the first night of The Traveling Show Tour was a major success. The Summer Set played a fun and exciting set that got everyone inside Emo’s on their feet and jumping along to the songs. Their nearly-over-the-top-pop kind of music had even the kids in the corner cracking smiles, bopping their heads, and singing along. The night was a good sign as to the success the tour is sure to have along the road.

Fantastic Fest in full swing

Thomas Haden Church. Photograph by Holly Aker

Before this year, I had never  really been active in Fantastic Fest. Honestly, I had never heard of the genre festival before last year when I became co-editor of the entertainment section of the St. Edward’s University newspaper, Hilltop Views. However, this year I am taking full advantage of everything the festival has to offer.

I kicked off my Fantastic Fest by seeing a press screening of “Stone” on Thursday. Starring Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, and Milla Jovovich, “Stone” takes you into the life of a prisoner named Stone (Norton) who is willing to do anything to get out of prison early. Reaching his breaking point in the slammer, Stone and his wife (Jovovich) concoct a plan for her to seduce Stone’s parole officer (De Niro). What follows is one of the most powerful and heavy movies I’ve ever seen. The movie also features a beautifully composed score that adds to the intensity and keeps you gripping the armrests throughout the film.

As a follow up to the film, I participated in a round table interview with Edward Norton yesterday. In the interview Norton went into detail about how he developed Stone as a character. He explained how he spent some time in a prison visiting with inmates, and after meeting a certain, name-less inmate, he knew he found an inspiration for Stone. Norton was also a really nice, considerate guy in general. The first half of the interview was dominated by these two very aggressive journalists that would cut off Norton’s answers just so they could get the next question in. Finally, Norton cut off one of the journalists and said that everyone else needs a chance to ask some questions at which point he turned to my co-editor and me as if to say, “Go ahead, ladies.”

I finished off the day by attending the red carpet event for “Zombie Roadkill.” The movie is a comedic horror that stars Thomas Haden Church (Easy A, Sideways) and David Dorfman (The Ring, The Ring 2). The basis of the movie is pretty self explanatory from the title: a highway that brings roadkill back to life as zombies who then start killing people who use the highway. Sounds super cheesy, but super awesome at the same time.  I took all of my red carpet pictures with my Nikon F5, so I need to go get those developed. But check back soon!

Eisenberg and Hammer take “The Social Network” to tremendous high

Armie Hammer played Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss in "The Social Network." Photo by Holly Aker

Sitting in the ultra-padded leather seats in a conference room on the seventh floor of the Four Seasons, I was praying I wouldn’t puke. In mere moments I would be sitting across the table from actors Armie Hammer and Jesse Eisenberg from the new movie, “The Social Network.” I was here to interview the group as the Co-Entertainment Editor of the Hilltop Views, but I was having a hard time convincing myself I was a professional journalist and not a 14-year-old girl screaming at her favorite celebrities.

Lucky for me, Armie Hammer entered the room for his interview first. The actor is tall with broad shoulders, perfectly tousled dirty blond hair, chillingly blue eyes and flawlessly chiseled features that could make anyone double check themselves for drool – all things that make him perfect to play the roles of the blue-blooded, Harvard students and twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. As Hammer entered the room, he made a point to shake everyone’s hand and catch all of our names’, which soothed my nerves and my stomach.

Jesse Eisenberg played Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, in "The Social Network." Photo by Holly Aker.

Over the course of the interview, Hammer proved how much of a real and likable person he is. With his rich-as-Godiva-chocolate voice, he cracked jokes about everything from the Harvard stereotype to having his own Facebook. He also demonstrated that he is a serious actor and explained how he spent many hours learning to row (his characters are Olympic rowers), worked out continuously to match the body type of the Winklevoss twins, and even read the Harvard Student Handbook in order to be more in-tune with his characters.

Almost immediately after Hammer’s interview, Jesse Eisenberg shuffled into the room. Eisenberg is much smaller in person than he appears in his movies, and, like the majority of characters he plays on screen, he is the most adorably awkward guy I have ever met. As he sat down to start the interview, his discomfort radiated off of him, which made a little more sense later on in the interview when he admitted that, like his character Mark Zuckerberg, he just feels very uncomfortable in interview settings.

Luckily Eisenberg slowly warmed up as the interview progressed, and he was able to show how truly dedicated he is to acting. He explained to us how he researched everything he could about the Facebook inventor and even took up fencing in order to emulate Zuckerberg’s posture and personal ticks. Eisenberg also demonstrated the deep connection he creates to the characters he plays. He explained how he learns what the characters think and feel, and he truly discovers his characters’ souls.

The dedication of these two actors is obvious in “The Social Network.” Hammer and Eisenberg are naturally perfect fits for their characters, yet each of them went above and beyond to represent their characters as they are in real life. The film hits theaters Oct. 1, and these two dedicated actors are more than reason enough to get out and see it.