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.

“Tis The Season To Be Fearless” breaks the Christmas song mold

http://dyingscene.com/news/fearless-records-announces-tis-the-season-to-be-fearless-christmas-compilation/attachment/tis-the-season-to-be-fearless/

It’s that time of year again. Time to put all your regular music to the side and set your Christmas songs on repeat. And while you might not be able to escape infamous Christmas songs like, “I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas” and Mariah Carey’s “All I want For Christmas Is You,” there is a solution to the holiday monotony: Fearless Records.

Fearless Records recently released “Tis The Season To Be Fearless,” a compilation album featuring some of Fearless’ biggest artists including The Maine, Breathe Caroline, For All Those Sleepigng and Go Radio. All but one song on the eight-track album is original, deal with love and lost love during the holiday season.

Artist vs. Poet’s song “Christmas With You,” is probably the cutest song on the whole album. “‘Christmas With You’ is a nostalgic look at two people sharing a perfect Christmas together,” Joe Kirkland of Artist vs. Poet said in an interview with Alternative Press. “When we thought of a Christmas song, we wanted something meaningful and Christmas sounding, but not too cliché or fake. So we went with a chilled out acoustic vibe, and we think it worked very well.” And with lyrics like, “So I’ll sit by the fire/ Watching re-runs and making you smile/ Sharing cookies you burnt/ You spilt milk on my shirt/ That’s okay/ You’re with me tonight,” the song definitely makes you want to spend the holidays with someone special.

Breathe Carolina’s “Mile High Christmas” is the only song on the album that’s not really a love song. “When we started thinking about our holiday track, we honestly just wanted to write the most ridiculous song we could think of, but it actually turned out kinda cool,” Kyle Even, Breathe Carolina’s lead screamer, said in an interview with Alternative Press. And I think he’s right. With lyrics like “My snowman looks like Snookie,” “Can you steer your sleigh all right?/ Are you sure you’re good to fly tonight/ Cuz I won’t get shit next year if you die,” and “When santa comes in town/ He gets a hug and a pound from me,” this really is one of the most ridiculous Christmas songs ever. Even though it completely ignores the normal standards for Christmas songs, it’s still pretty fun to listen to.

The best track on the album has to be Go Radio’s version of “O Holy Night.” Normally, I’m pretty weary of covers of classic Christmas songs like this, but Go Radio definitely did the song justice. While still respecting the song’s original arrangement, the band put their own spin on the song without completely overhauling it. The song starts out with just the singer accompanied by a piano, and about a quarter of a way through the song, the whole band joins in with heavy guitar chords. From that point the song speeds up to a regular rock tempo with a smoking guitar solo in the background. While it may sound like just another cover, the band is able to balance the old with the new, making it one of the best covers of a classic holiday song.

Stereo Skyline releases music video for “Me And You”

Stereo Skyline onThe Traveling Show Tour. Photo by Holly Aker.

It’s almost embarrassing to blog about this video, or for that matter even publicly admit I watched this video, but I’m going to man up (or in this case the phrase would definitely be little girl up) and say I enjoyed Stereo Skyline’s new music video for “Me And You.”

The concept of the video is simple: Stereo Skyline wants to throw a beach bonfire party so they steal an ice cream truck and starting handing out invitations and free ice cream to hot girls along the beach. Genius, I know. Then at the end of the video the Stereo Skyline boys sit around a bonfire on the beach and sing a song to a bunch of chicks. And of course the whole music video is filled with the four boys flashing their pearly white smiles that could make any teeny bopper faint.

I admit, the lyrics are no great work of art, the lip syncing could definitely use some work, and the whole video is cheesy, but I think that’s why I like it. I’m always a fan oh-so-cute boys with floppy, flippy hair and acoustic guitars singing love songs that are cheesier than the entire 1980s. Also, I have to admit that I have wound up at two Stereo Skyline shows (but for the record I didn’t pay for either one), and the band at least can put on a good live show and sound like their recordings.

Architects premiere new video, “Day In Day Out”

Sam Carter at The Congregation of the Damned Tour in November. Photo by Holly Aker.

The British band Architects recently put out a new music video for “Day In Day Out.” The video follows Sam Carter, Architects’ lead singer, as he makes his way to a gig. The whole time Carter is alone, and viewers can see he’s really dealing with an internal struggle. He looks worn out, beaten down, and lost, and at the same time you see his band mates tuning their guitars and getting ready to start the show.

Although I’m not really a fan of portraying the lead singer as the most important member of the band, I think this was a well put together video. Carter is successfully able to show the inner struggles and hardships that go along with being a band on the road. Even though the video isn’t entirely original, I think the fact that it ends with Carter arriving at the gig and putting on a show where the whole crowd is jumping and getting into the music makes it work.

The video exclusively premiered on Alternative Press‘s website, and the song will be on Architects’ new album “The Here And Now,” which will be released Jan. 25.

This Is A Family Tour raises the hardcore bar

As I expected, the This Is A Family Tour was mind blowingly awesome. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see the entire show. However, the reason I missed the first band was because I got in line late because I was interviewing Pierce The Veil. So I’m not upset about it all.

Of Mice & Men. Photo by Holly Aker.

When I did get into the venue, In Fear And Faith was finishing up their set, but what I did hear sounded pretty good. Of Mice & Men followed In Fear And Faith, and they put on quite a show. For one of the opener bands, Of Mice & Men was able to get the crowd jumping, pushing, and ready to roll some heads. One kid in the crowd got so rowdy that he started yelling profanities at the lead signer of Of Mice & Men, who in turn threatened to jump off the stage and pummel the kid.

Pierce The Veil. Photo by Holly Aker.

Pierce The Veil was up next, and like I predicted, they turned it up to 11. Maybe even 12. Even though Pierce The Veil was the poppiest band of the night, they started off gnarly, attention-grabbing, mosh-pit-evoking  bang that set the tone for the whole set. Vic Fuentes, Pierce The Veil’s lead singer, had everyone singing along with his almost-too-unbelievably-high vocal range, and crowd surfers were flying every which way trying to get to the stage. Even though Pierce The Veil’s albums don’t have very much screaming, the live performance was full of gut-busting growls, which just got the whole crowd even more pumped up.

Emmure. Photo by Holly Aker.

Emmure was the fourth band on the This Is A Family line up, and although they would have won the one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-others game, the band had quite a following present at the show. Everything about Emmure was different compared to all the other bands: they didn’t wear skinny jeans or  jorts, they didn’t have lip rings, they didn’t wear eye liner, they didn’t have the straightened, side-swooped hair (or have long enough hair for that matter), they didn’t do the hardcore, running in place dance or the grand plie style of guitar playing. They just played straight up metal. No hints of emo or even singing. It was just straight, throat-shredding screams. And it was good.

Attack Attack! Photo by Holly Aker.

At last, Attack Attack! took the stage, and they nearly reduced The White Rabbit to rubble. From the first note that the band played, everyone in the entire crowd was jumping, moshing, and causing complete chaos along to synth infused hardcore beats. In November, Attack Attack! lost their clean vocalist, Johnny Franck, but his stand in, Sean Mackowski of My Ticket Home, was actually a lot better compared to live videos I’ve seen with him. Lead singer Caleb Shomo made an announcement to the crowd about Franck’s departure, assuring everyone that it was Franck’s decision to leave and that they’re all still very good friends. Soon after that, Mackowski announced that it was Shomo’s birthday, and he led the crowd in a round of “Happy Birthday.” Attack Attack! ended their set with the crowd favorite “Stick Stickly,” which featured some of the best ear-splitting vocals, electro-dance-party beats, and a breakdown so slow and brutal, time nearly stood still.

 

Veggie hotdog eating contest makes audience members laugh, puke

Contestants in the veggie hotdog eating contest partake in the endless supply of veggie dogs. Photo by Holly Aker

Veggie hotdogs are not known for their appetizing taste. While they can be very delicious, a good veggie dog is a rare commodity. With that said, only two words can describe the veggie hotdog eating contest held on Sunday afternoon at Fun Fun Fun Fest: disgusting and awesome.

Twelve people participated in the eating contest held on the yellow stage, and the contestants were made up of every kind of person: little girls, old guys, hipsters, punks, vegetarians, omnivores and a guy in a Lifesavers costume. Despite what they looked like on the outside, they were all hungry and ready to eat a bunch of veggie dogs.

The contest, hosted by Mike Litt, started off slowly. Everyone casually picked up one hotdog at a time and slowly chewed and swallowed each bite in a fashion that would make any mom proud. Many audience members, realizing that no one was going to eat enough veggie dogs to puke, left the stage before the contest was even half over. Unfortunately for them, they missed the best part of the whole contest.

After one contestant got bored or sick of eating veggie dogs or maybe both, he started throwing his leftover hotdogs into the audience, which inspired the rest of the contestants to do the same. Eventually it became an all-out war with veggie dogs flying everywhere and hitting multiple people in face.

When everything finally calmed down, scores were tallied, and the winners were announced with first place going to a young man under the name The Asian Persuasion.

Peelander-Z leaves home planet in time for Fun Fun Fun Fest

Peelander-Z wears some of the most eccentric costumes in their live shows. Photo by Holly Aker

Peelander-Z is not from around here. Although the Japanese action comic punk band is based in New York City and all the members are originally from Japan, they’re actually from area Z on the planet Peelander. Or so they say.

Despite their out-of-this-world origins, the band took the time this weekend to visit Austin and Fun Fun Fun Fest. Playing the Blue Stage on Sunday afternoon, Peelander-Z put on quite the over-the-top show.

The first thing anyone notices about Peelander-Z is their costumes. Although the band will argue with anyone that they’re not costumes be merely their skin, each member of the band wears a brightly colored costume that matches their names: Peelander Red, Peelander Green, Peelander Yellow and Peelander Pink.

The costumes are a collage of all different kinds of clothing including fishnets, colored leopard print leggings, studded jackets, leather jackets, crazy glasses, and brightly colored wigs. While their costumes are the first most noticeable aspect of the band, their performances are just as memorable.

Their FFFF show was packed with crazy antics and almost too much excitement. Towards the end of the show, the band took apart the entire drum set up, unloaded it into the middle of the crowd and then started up their set again. The guitarist also had a fondness for mounting the rather tall amplifier stack and jumping off the stack in the middle of the set. With so much energy and fun, it was almost sad to see their set come to an end.

Gwar decimates the weak at Fun Fun Fun Fest

Fake green blood that Gwar sprayed on the crowd. Photo by Holly Aker

Legend has it that Gwar came to Earth eons ago after being banished from their home planet for being too brutal and epic. As long as they have to stay on our planet, they’ve decided to do one thing: decimate the human race by playing the most face-melting, bone-crushing metal known to man.

Those who saw Gwar Saturday night at this weekend’s Fun Fun Fun Fest and lived to tell about it would certainly agree. The band donned their normal uniforms, brought plenty of fake blood and played one of the best sets of the weekend.

Although each Gwar member is from the same monster-alien race, they each look very different. They all have a similar armor-based, almost Viking-like costume, but each member puts a different spin on it. For example, the guitarist has a huge bear trap for a head with horns coming out on each side, the bassist has a very Trojan-styled costume and the drummer has a vicious-looking dog head on top of his shoulders.

As is normal for Gwar shows, the band brought some celebrities up on stage and then killed them. Sarah Palin was one of the impostor celebrities Saturday night, and in the middle of a song, the lead singer grabbed his sword, sliced open her chest and let her blood gush onto the crowd.

After the show, the festival was spotted with people soaked in a bright red liquid.

The Fall AP Tour throws it down

Emarosa guitarist. Photo by Holly Aker

I want to start off by saying thank you, Alternative Press. Your fall tour blew my mind, introduced me to new bands, let me see Bring Me The Horizon for the first time, and gave me an all-around amazing way to spend a Thursday night.

The Bands: Bring Me The Horizon, August Burns Red, Emarosa, Polar Bear Club, This Is Hell

When: Last night

Where: Emo’s outside

The Highlights: This is Hell opened up the show with one of the best opening acts I have ever seen. They got everyone in the crowd moving, whether it was by choice or to get out of the way of the big guy moshing next to you. Their unique, fast-paced (almost punk) hardcore stylings and shout-based singing were like an electric jolt to the whole crowd to the anxious crowd. I was lucky enough to be right where the pit opened up, so I was able to circle the outer edge of the pit and snag a prime spot at the very front of the stage where I posted up for the rest of the night.

August Burns Red lead singer. Photo by Holly Aker

Although things calmed down when Polar Bear Club took the stage next, the band put on a really great show. Their more poppy-melodic version of hardcore was accompanied by the free-spirit dance styles of the cute little lead singer.

Emarosa played next, and their show definitely made me want to go out and immediately get their new CD that I’ve been continuously putting off buying. Lead singer Jonny Craig’s near-angelic voice mixed with the hard, grinding sounds of the guitars made for a quality show that sounded just like their albums.

August Burns Red guitarist. Photo by Holly Aker.

When August Burns Red started playing, the feel of the show took a complete 180. With their hard-as-rock music and bone crushing breakdowns, the crowd went insane for ABR. Their shred-tastic guitar riffs and brain-scrambling screams made for one of the hardest shows I’ve seen in a while.

Finally, headliners, Bring Me the Horizon took the stage, and all hell broke loose. As soon as the band played the first note and lead singer Oli Sykes belted his first growl, kids hit the air. Throughout BMTH’s entire set, there was a constant stream of crowd surfers and stage divers. Fans were climbing over each other as if people were stairs to get to the stage to scream along with Sykes. Being at the front of the stage, people had to climb over me to reach the stage, and there was one point where I was a little scared for my safety.

Bring Me The Horizon lead singer. Photo by Holly Aker

Despite that worry, the show was top quality. The band has the same crushing sound and thrashing guitars as the album, and it was great to finally see BMTH live.

The Damage: Throughout the complete destructive chaos of The AP Tour, I did sustain some bodily harm. Although it wasn’t anything too serious, I’ve never really walked away with so many injuries from a show. As soon as Emarosa started playing, the crowd smashed everyone against the stage, and this pressure never halted. Being right up against the stage, my hip bones ground against the stage all night, and I walked away with bruises so bad that it hurt to sleep on my stomach later that night. My other injuries included two head wounds: one on top of my head when someone threw a beer can that landed on my head, and the other was on the side of my face when a crowd surfer kicked me as he was trying to reach the stage. 

Punk Goes Pop Vol. 3 introduces me to 2010

http://www.livemusicguide.com/music-news-punk-goes-pop-3/

When it comes to current popular music, I’m clueless. I lock myself away in my little hardcore/scenster niche, and I rarely poke my head out to see what everyone else is jamming. As an entertainment editor, that’s probably not the best strategy, but I’ve figured out a way to stay under my hardcore-rock while simultaneously giving myself a taste of pop culture. This strategy is called “Punk Goes…”

“Punk Goes…” is a compilation series that features covers of songs in a certain genre by “punk” bands (but in all reality, these bands are more hardcore, post-hardcore, pop-punk, etc. than the classic definition of punk). Fearless Records produces the album and always manages to get the biggest bands in the alternative/hardcore scene to participate. Past albums titles include “Punk Goes Pop Volumes 1, 2, and 3,” “Punk Goes Metal,” “Punk Goes Crunk,” “Punk Goes Classic Rock,” and many more.

Today, Fearless Records released “Punk Goes Pop Volume 3,” and just like I expected, it introduced me to popular songs I have never heard of. I was able to listen to brand new songs (to me) like Jason Derulo’s “In My Head,” Jay-Z’s “Run This Town,” and Akon’s “Right Now (Na Na Na)” without ever actually leaving my hardcore-comfort zone. Win win.

“Punk Goes Pop Volume 3” track list:

1. “Down” – Breathe Carolina (originally by Jay Sean and Lil Wayne)
2. “Hot n Cold” – Woe, Is Me (originally by Katy Perry)
3. “Bad Romance” –  Artist vs. Poet (originally by Lady Gaga)
4. “In My Head” – Mayday Parade (originally by Jason Derulo)
5. “Right Now (Na Na Na)” – Asking Alexandria (originally by Akon)
6. “Paper Planes” – This Century (originally by M.I.A.)
7. “Heartless” – The World Alive (originally by Kanye West)
8. “Bulletproof” – Family Force 5 (originally by La Roux)
9. “Blame It” – Of Mice & Men (originally by Jamie Foxx and T-Pain)
10. “Run This Town” – Miss May I (originally by Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Rihanna)
11. “Airplanes” – The Ready Set (originally by B.o.B. and Hayley Williams)
12. “Dead and Gone” – Cute Is What We Aim For (originally by T.I. and Justin Timberlake)
13. “Need You Now” – Sparks the Rescue (originally by Lady Antebellum)
14. “My Love” – We Came As Romans (originally by Justin Timberlake and T.I.)