Jacob Marshall, drummer for Mae, wrote in his blog about their split with Capitol Records and their return to a Destination: Beautiful sound:
Happy birthday Singularity! What a self fulfilling prophecy… This time last year we were in Time Square celebrating the release of our first (and only) major label record. As all things converged into a single black hole, and EMI was bought up by Terra Firma, we were smashed against a large brick wall and we broke. We lost two long time members. We parted ways with our manager. Ultimately, we parted ways with Capitol. As we rubbed our eyes and looked around, we decided that there was still enough life inside to give this another shot. We picked up the pieces and slowly inched forward.
Now, after the last few months of planning and gearing up for a new season, I am proud to say that we will be making our most meaningful statement yet. We are over half way through with a new batch of songs that are the most musical yet. We have split our time between Drexel University working with amazing student engineers and are returning home to Earthsound with Mark Padgett to finish some tracking and mixing. For those hoping for a return to the sonic pallet of Destination:Beautiful… you will have it. We have come full circle. We have come home. We are as independent as we were when we started. We have six years of experience behind us and a blank canvas laid out before us. We have more ambition than ever before and I am excited to share the ride with you.
We are your band.
I, for one, welcome this change. I loved their debut and I liked The Everglow, but Singularity seems to have missed the mark a bit. It’s not horrible, and there are songs I like, but not nearly as much as the magic that attracted me to them in the first place.
I love this band. You could call it a guilty pleasure, but I’m not guilty about it. It’s just one of a couple of Warped Tour bands that I just find overly catchy.
They just put up a new song from their upcoming album Life Is Not a Waiting Room on their MySpace page called “Family Tradition.”
Apparently, Matthew Pryor (former lead-singer of The Get Up Kids, and (current?) lead singer of The New Amsterdams and The Terrible Twos) has started his first true solo project, though The New Amsterdams kinda felt that way most of the time anyway. I haven’t had a chance to listen to the newest song he put up on his Myspace page, but I will when I get home from work.
His album, Confidence Man, is due out July 28th on Vagrant. I’m incredibly excited. I’ve never been disappointed by anything this man’s had a hand in.
(Also, if you’re like me, and you still miss The Get Up Kids, check out Blackpool Lights and White Whale for more post-TGUK-member material.)
Equal Vision Records has finally given the date for the new Damiera record: June 24th. It’s called “Quiet Mouth Loud Hands.” I’m incredibly excited to see where they’re headed.
Their first album M(US)IC is great. Imagine early Further Seems Forever with the guitarist from Fall of Troy. “Via Invested” is just plain amazing. A friend and I slowed it to half-speed and still couldn’t play it consistently. Of course, we do suck at guitar. But that’s not the point. It’s awesome, so go download it. And then be as excited for the new album as we are.
Below is the track list:
1. Rainman
2. Quiet Mouth Loud Hands
3. Nailbiter
4. Image and Able
5. Teacher, Preacher
6. Weights for the Waiting
7. Chromatica
8. Blind Sir Bluest
9. Woodbox
10. Silvertongue
11. Trading Grins
As you may have noticed, the blog looks a bit different now. And you may have also noticed that you couldn’t access the site for a short time. We migrated from Lifetype to Wordpress for our blogging software. This makes it a whole lot easier to upload audio/video/photos, and it also allows users like you to create accounts to comment without having to enter your information each time.
Note: If you read by RSS (in which case you may already have seen the message), the new RSS link is different. It is now http://blog.scriptedfailures.com/feed
Easy enough to remember.
I tried to maintain all the entry and comment text, so if you see anything wrong, let me know.
Radiohead is going to be on Late Night with Conan O’Brien tomorrow (Wedesday) night. Set your DVRs! They’ll allegedly be playing “House of Cards” off of the new album. I’ll try to update with a video link to it on Thursday in case you miss it.
Alkaline Trio has a new EP out today entitled Agony and Irony. I’ll be picking this up whenever I get to the store next.
Winnipeg’s The Paperbacks are still alive! After finding their Facebook page, I found the news bulletin from last Thursday saying the following: “Major announcements will be coming soon! This year will be very
interesting for us, particularly heading towards the autumn.” Sounds good to me. I never got around to buying their second album, but I would if they’d a) sell it around here or b) tour down here.
For those Decemberists fans out there, they’re going to be on All Songs Considered this week. Either listen on your local NPR affiliate or straight from their website.
MoS released the video for “Get Better” today! Check it out below. I love the song. Lovely string arrangement. And no organ to be found? Hath hell frozen over?
If you head on over to Kori’s blog on Babble, you can hear about a minute or so worth of one of the new Mates of State songs, albeit while Mags (that’s Magnolia their daughter) sings over it. The song sounds beautiful, and the video is just too cute!
So today, Joy Electric posted the title track of their new album, “My Grandfather, the Cubist”, which comes out May 27th, on their myspace. It’s sweet. Here’s my review of the song:
Opening up with the atmospherics and percussive elements that have become a Joy Electric trademark, the song then blooms into a sweet chord progression with a beautiful, and instantly catchy lead line. The minimalism promised on this record is instantly noticeable and it works incredibly well. It’s like the elements that need to be there to have a full fufilling song are there, but any extraneous elements that might detract from the song aren’t. Ronnie’s non-effected upfront vocals are also noticeable right off the bat. I was very interested to see what these would sound like and they sound absolutely wonderful. They sound very emotional and very fragile. As a comparison point, think of the vocals on the verse of “Write Your Last Paragraph”, and you’ve got your sound.
Basically, this song sounds like a more minimalistic version of the Joy Electric I fell in love with way back in 1997. Based on this song, it seems like this album may be the a return to the “Melody” era of songwriting in terms of chord progressions and lead lines which isn’t a bad thing at all. I enjoy every Joy Electric record, but “Melody” and “We are the Music Makers” are the two records that have had the most emotional impact on me. That said, this song has me more excited for this new Joy Electric record than I have been for any of the recent ones, besides maybe “The Otherly Opus”, and it should be noted I get very excited for the release of every new Joy Electric record. All that said, this maybe their “Talking Voice vs. Singing Voice”, which, like that Starflyer 59 record, fully renews my love of the band and makes me remember all the things that made me fall in love with them all those years ago.
I really don’t know what else to say. It’s a wonderful song and everyone definitely needs to check it out. If you didn’t notice, check out that bitchin’ cover art. Best Joy Electric cover ever? Possibly! May 27th is going to be a good day.
So as you can see, the new Bon Voyage record has moved from being tentatively called “Lies”, to being definitely called “Lies”. As you can also see, the album has a stellar seductive cover. This is the most seductive sensual cover I’ve ever seen Tooth and Nail put out. If you’re wondering where I found the cover someone on the Velvet Blue Music Message Board was checking out the Invisible Creature Blog, and found it.
Speaking of which, that message board is quite the interesting place to hang around. Check it out! Jim and I are on there as happinessiseasy and lfh respectively. Send us private messages and say hi!
Semi back on topic, Invisible Creature is the studio that is also doing artwork for the new Joy Electric album, “My Grandfather, the Cubist”. It’s run by brothers Ryan and Don Clark who were in the Tooth and Nail hardcore band Focused, then the Solid State (Tooth and Nail’s hardcore label) band Training for Utopia, if I’m remembering my history correctly. The Clark Brothers used to run Asterik Studios who did tons of album sleeves for Tooth and Nail, including Starflyer 59’s “Talking Voice vs. Singing Voice” and Joy Electric’s “The Tick Tock Treasury”, as well as the album sleeve for Funeral for a Friend’s “Hours”. Asterik Studios has now split into two different studios: Wonderful Union and the aforementioned Invisible Creatures.
Random asides aside, there’s more yummy Bon Voyage info to feast upon. Here it is, straight from Bon Voyage’s Myspace Blog:
“The new album “LIES” is completed and scheduled for a release date this
June on Tooth and Nail Records. New photos have been completed, and the
artwork for the record is currently underway. The myspace page will be
going thru an overhaul with new photos, new music, and release
information…please check back periodically as we are hoping to have
the new page up here in the next month or so.”
June can’t come soon enough, not to mention a tracklist, and some new tracks to listen to!
