Goodbye, Drummers

The drummers from two of my favorite bands have parted ways with their groups.  Warren Oakes of Against Me! and Mike Novak of Every Time I Die have left their respective bands for personal reasons.

I learned of Mike Novak’s departure via Keith Buckley’s (lead singer of ETID) twitter feed last night.  Who thought I would ever get anything useful out of twitter! (Actually, I must admit twitter’s been somewhat cool.  I found out about a cheap Mark Sanchez jersey through the Jets’ fans feed, among other things).  He posted last night “Please stop speculating. An official statement can be read on lambgoat.com,” which lead to the statement issued by Novak.  This is pretty sad news, considering Every Time I Die has quickly been climbing up the list of my favorite bands, and I have only seen them twice live (once at Bamboozle a bunch of years ago before I even knew who they were).  But, considering he used words like “uncomfortable, unhealthy situation,” I guess it was best for both parties.  I’m not sure what was going on there, but it doesn’t sound like he was having fun.  Hopefully he gets involved in another kickass project, and also hopefully ETID finds a new kickass drummer.  And for some good news, as I also learned from twitter (ETID’s page), there’s a new Every Time I Die song to download.  Click here to download “The Marvelous Slut.” (’tis rockin’).
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Virgin Fest 2009 Tickets to be Free

Richard Branson is a madman and I love it. The founder of Virgin Group has once again blown my mind by announcing that this year’s Virgin Fest, which has been held at Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course in past years, will be moved to Merriweather Post Pavilion and tickets will be…FREE. Absolutely, 100% free. In fact, the concert is now being called the Virgin Mobile Free Fest. Virgin Mobile customers and previous Virgin Fest attendees will be the first ones eligible to buy tickets which go on sale at 10 A.M. this Saturday, June 27th. Tickets will be available online at Ticketmaster.com. Ticketmaster will drop the convenience charge provided you pick up your tickets at either the Pavilion or 9:30 Club. Concergoers will be asked to donate $5 to homeless youth charities. And if you complete 13 hours of community service at specific youth shelters, you’ll be given VIP access to the show. Check out the Virgin Mobile Free Fest Website for details.
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Thrice to Release New Album “Beggars” October 2009

Ray posted back in March that Thrice were back in the studio working on their 7th studio album. Just a few more updates. The band announced that the new album will be entitled Beggars and it should be coming out in October this year. Here’s an excerpt from the press release announcing the new release (this is from Thrice’s Official Website):

“I think we are at most times deluded in thinking that we are totally responsible for our circumstances, but in the end almost everything is beyond our control to a high degree and we can’t even be sure we will wake up tomorrow. Whether you believe that God created you for a purpose, or that the world is governed by blind chance, everything in life is a gift at its core; we are beggars all.”
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Review: Incubus “Monuments and Melodies” Greatest Hits Collection

Incubus released their greatest hits compilation “Monuments and Melodies” Tuesday, turning the page on what some would consider the first segment of their careers. The greatest hits disc features songs such as “Dig”, “Drive”, “Anna Molly”, “Love Hurts” as well as classics such as “Pardon Me” and “Stellar”. My one complaint would be that the disc features nothing from S.C.I.E.N.C.E. while plucking 4 tracks from Light Grenades. The second disc features rare and unreleased B-sides.

While some may doubt the track selection as a true representation of the band’s “greatest hits”, one cannot argue that this product is one of the industry’s better marketed products.

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Jane’s Addiction & Street Sweeper Social Club Rocked My Face Off This Weekend

No joke. My face…completely rocked off Saturday night at nTelos Wireless Pavilion in VA Beach. I made the trek down from DC with a couple friends to meet up with our buddy and fellow PartyLikeSteve.com contributor Beach who worked a little magic and got us tickets. After a couple of hours in standstill traffic, a quick meal (I had chicken and waffles for the first time…both the concept and flavor blew my mind), we were off to the show.

We got there just as Tom Morello and Boots Riley’s new project, Street Sweeper Social Club, started their set. I was pleasantly surprised. They sounded pretty much like Rage Against the Machine - slow heavy grooves, some rapping, and then monstrous Morello solos, and I was just fine with that. In fact, I was sitting there hoping they’d play at least 1 Rage cover. I almost got my wish when Morello started playing the intro to Revolver, off of Evil Empire. Read the rest of this entry »

Dredg Delivers on New Album The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion

Press play. A chorus of little kids begin to skat over a steady pulse of piano chords - “da dada doom dada doom da”. Not feelin it? Turn it off, cause you’re not ready for Dredg. Enter the band with a nasty, grinding, in-your-face lick. Now we’re groovin. Cue the very talented, very intelligent Gavin Hayes with a passionate vocal line sung through distortion - “To sacrifice one’s self never made sense to me. Cause life is really the only and last gift we’ve all received. Some of them will waste it in the name of something that you can’t see. Continually defeats the purpose of that Something creating…” which flows right into a beautifully light chorus. The opening track of Dredg’s new album, The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion, sets the tone for the band’s latest studio release.
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New Killswitch Engage Song, “Reckoning,” and new Video premiere of “Starting Over” Tonight

The first glimpse of Killswitch Engage’s new self-titled CD is a song called “Reckoning.” The song can be heard here: “Reckoning” by Killswitch Engage.  I’ll let you listen to it before I say anything about it.  I’ll go make some breakfast I’ll be right back.

OK back, what did you think?  I thought it was good, not great.  Standard issue KSE.  Which isn’t a bad thing, it’s what makes up the majority of their CDs.  Of the 11 tracks on the new album, I’m expecting 8 or 9 of them to be around the quality of this song.  Again, not a bad thing - they’re not bad songs by any stretch, I like them, they’re just regular KSE songs.  What gets you about Killswitch Engage are the couple BADASS songs per CD.  The ones that, when you hear them for the first time, you are absolutely blown away, and you are still blown away every time you hear the song afterwards.  Rise Inside and My Last Serenade off of Alive or Just Breathing, The End of Heartache and Rose of Sharyn off of The End of Heartache, and This is Absolution and Eye of the Storm off of As Daylight Dies (and Holy Diver, but that was from the special edition).  I’m hoping for a couple more like that.

Also, tonight at 10 PM, a video for another one of their new songs, “Starting Over” will be premiered on MTV2.  Hopefully the Temple Games will be over by then so I can check it out.  Or I could just go on the interenet at some point after.  I’ll probably do that.

Practically Einstein’s New EP, Troubles With Modern Convenience, Out Now

A staple on the Northern Virginia/Washington DC scene for years, Practically Einstein had a great start to 2009 with the brand new single (“So Far, So Good”) chosen to be featured on the On Tap Magazine sampler “On the Verge Vol. 3”.  In January the band was part of an all-local lineup that sold out the legendary 9:30 Club, a rare feat for locals.  The band had a picture from that show featured in a New York Times article on the DC club in January.  PE subsequently would fill the Arlington favorite Whitlow’s On Wilson to capacity at a recent show, and also perform at the nationally re-known Shamrockfest at RFK Stadium (with headliners Flogging Molly). Read the rest of this entry »

New Dredg Album The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion out June 9th

Dredg is currently out on tour creating some buzz for their new album The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion which is set to be released June 9th, 2009. You can check out a couple new songs on their MySpace page. A friend had turned me on to them around the time they released their last studio album, Catch Without Arms. These guys have a very unique, atmospheric sound that can at times flat out rock your face off and at other times put you at complete ease. I want to say they’re like a toned down version of Muse.

I had the pleasure of seeing Dredg perform at Ram’s Head Live in Baltimore last year.  Singer Gavin Hayes’ vocals are just as strong live as they are on the recordings, and the band straight rocked too. If you have the opportunity to catch these guys live, do.
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Steel Panther - Death To All But Metal Video

Check out the video for a new Steel Panther song called “Death To All But Metal”:

I heard this song on the radio when my company shipped me to Fresno, CA (I didn’t hear this at home, because 92.3 KRock doesn’t play rock anymore) (like what I did there, Phil?).  I thought that it was a very funny song, and I was actually very surprised that it was being played on the radio due to its content (they even let the “dick”s and “gay”s go through uncensored).

I have never heard Steel Panther before, but I am going to check them out in more depth now.  They seem like they’re a bunch of funny guys, and their songs are pretty rockin.  They’re coming out with a new CD, “Feel the Steel” on June 9th (6/9!!!!!!), so be sure to check it out.