New Tune Tuesday (6/9/15)
–Written by Kevin Madert
The Front Bottoms – West Virginia
A surprise single from one of my favorite bands is the stuff Tuesdays are made of. “West Virginia” is The Front Bottoms in quintessence: one part catchy, straightforward instrumentation, one part complex & quirky – yet equally catchy – lyrics, coalesced into a faux-lo-fi package and thrown at you with every ounce of emotive heft lead singer Brian Sella and company can push through their mics and amps. Like much of TFB’s catalog, the wordsmithery on display here is relatable in overarching emotional brushstrokes rather than specifics. You may never have experienced a conversation like the one Sella opens this song with (“Is it raining where you are? / The only thing I could think to ask. / But nothing ever hurt so bad / as the ‘no’ that you said back”) but dammit if those lines don’t hit you in the chest like a two-ton weight. You can download the new tune for free by joining The Front Bottoms Motorcycle Club on the band’s official site. The music video is a perfect visual compliment; you can see it below.
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News: The Get Up Kids & Saves the Day Release Split Children’s EP
Want to feel old in the strangest way possible today? Then have I got news for you.
The Get Up Kids and Saves the Day have released a split EP, where they reworked two of their classic songs into children’s songs under the names The Get Up Dads and Saves the Daycare. The Get Up Kids reworked “10 Minutes to Downtown” into “10 Minutes to Bedtime”, and Saves the Day took “Hold” and made “How to Spell (ABC’s)”.
As odd as this news may sound, it’s for a good cause. All proceeds from the Bandcamp page will be donated to Little Kids Rock, a charity that helps bring music programs to schools.
Check out the album here, and be sure to donate for a good cause.
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News: Parkway Drive Announce New Album
In the next chapter of “Australians are really good at music,” Parkway Drive have announced a new album, Ire, due out on September 25th on Epitaph Records. They paired this announcement with a music video for their newest single “Vice Grip”, as a taste of what we can expect from their new material.
Based of “Vice Grip”, we can expect fairly traditional fare from Parkway Drive – which is hardly a bad thing – with a slightly more melodic take – which is a very good thing. If the rest of the album follows suit, this will be a very solid progression for the metalcore band.
Check after the jump for the music video for “Vice Grip” and stay tuned for more news on Ire.
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AltFreq Weekend Planner (5/21/15-5/23/15)
–Written by Kevin Madert
It’s nearly impossible to keep track of all the events going on in the area, so we’re here to let you know what’s happening in live music over the next few days. Watch out on Sundays for our “Weekly Planner,” where we’ll cover the remaining four days of the week.
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News: BMG acquires Rise Records
According to Billboard, BMG has purchased metal record label, Rise Records. Rise is based out of Portland, Oregon and was founded in 1991 by Craig Ericson. The label really began to take off in the mid-2000’s thanks to their prodigious employment of digital media in a time when other labels were either fumbling to understand the new technology, or simply ignoring it all together. Rise’s early adoption, and fantastic integration of the new media format skyrocketed the label to the forefront of the metal scene, and they haven’t looked back since.
This is fantastic news for Rise Records, as Ericson will remain at the helm, the label will remain at their Oregon location, and for all intents and purposes, their stellar business model will remain intact. They will, however, be receiving a massive push from BMG in the form of a huge, international distribution network. So it really goes without saying that big things are on the horizon for Rise Records, and I, for one, am really excited to see what they do with these new resources.
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Dreamscape Festival Day 2 Recap + Photos
–Written by Kevin Madert
I awoke to a dull gray sky. The chatter of birds echoed through the trees over my tent. Interspersed were the overlapping conversations of others who’d either just woken up or hadn’t yet gone to bed. I checked my phone, hoping to see four digits. 8:45 – damn. I try for maybe ten more minutes to fall back asleep, fail, sit up, and rub last night from my eyes. Unzipping my tent, I step out into the cool post-dawn mist and into the second day of Dreamscape.
Happenstance has other ideas as a vibration in my pocket informs me of some rather unfortunate news. A friend who’d left the festival for work around when I went to bed (call it crazy, call it dedication) had blown a tire not once but twice on the Baltimore Beltway. My next several hours were spent on a round trip journey to fetch him from the mechanic’s shop, with a stop at Chipotlé wedged in between. All the alone time (my friend slept through most of the drive back) saw me thinking about how the day would unfold. How would the music compare? The crowds? Could it top Friday? Thoughts ran rampant as I eased under the shade of a low-branched tree behind the eerie white house that served as the Dreamscape ops center and put my car in park.
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