1
The Showdown Debuts New Metal Track
The Showdown, Nashville’s supercharged heavy metal outfit, has posted a brand new song, “Heavy Lies The Crown”, on their official MySpace page. The explosive, Southern-fueled track from The Showdown’s forthcoming full-length, Blood In The Gears, can be streamed here. Blood In The Gears hits stores on August 24th on Solid State Records. Fans can also pre-order the album, and chose from various bundle packages here. Blood In The Gears was recorded and produced by The Showdown’s own Jeremiah Scott (bass) at his home studio, Anthem Productions. The album was mixed by Steve Blackmon (Living Sacrifice, Project 86), with Troy Glessener at Spectre handling the mastering. Artwork comes courtesy of Ryan Clark at Invisible Creature Inc. Blood In The Gears is The Showdown’s second Solid State release, following 2008’s Back Breaker.
Track Listing:
1. Man Named Hell
2. Heavy Lies The Crown
3. Bring It Down
4. Take Me Home
5. Blood In The Gears
6. Dogma Enthroned
7. No Escape
8. The Crooked Path
9. Graveyard Of Empires
10. Diggin’ My Own Grave
Founded in 2003 by current members, David Bunton and Josh Childers, The Showdown literally came roaring out of the gate with the monstrous, yet spiritually gripping debut, A Chorus of Obliteration, in 2004. With several high profile tours under their belt, including a run on Ozzfest in 2007, and treks with As I Lay Dying, Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, Flyleaf, All That Remains, The Cult and more, The Showdown is set to once again crank up the throttle on Blood In The Gears. Be sure to head over to The Showdown’s YouTube channel for two behind-the-scenes video blogs from the Blood In The Gears recording session, and stay tuned for more information regarding The Showdown and Blood In The Gears.
Anberlin Releases New Video
Check out Anberlin’s video to their first single, “Impossible,” which premiered on MTV last week. It is from their forthcoming release Dark Is The Way, Light Is A Place which comes out September 21. If KROQ in Los Angeles is any indication – this song is already proving to be a “hit” — and it was #1 most added at Modern Rock radio last week.
Sky Sailing Gets More Praise
By now Owl City fans have descended upon the fruits of Adam Young’s side project, An Airplane Carried Me To Bed by Sky Sailing. The album was made available this week digitally, with a CD release out 7/27. So how did this collection of shelved jams from Young, which has been yo-yo-ing up and down with M.I.A.’s /\/\/\Y/\ for the week’s second most-downloaded new release on iTunes (both are behind Sting’s Symphonicities), come to be, you might be wondering? “It was clear early on that it needed to be separate from Owl City,” Adam told Billboard recently. “Overall, this piece is disconnected enough to be its own thing.” In a letter posted on Sky Sailing’s MySpace blog, one-man band Young went on to explain that the Sky Sailing material had originally been recorded three-and-a-half years ago, when he was toiling away as a metalworker in Minnesota. “Never expecting my music to be heard anywhere but by my parents through the floorboards above, I wrote for my own ears. I was both artist and audience and I called myself Sky Sailing. “I’ve kept these recordings secret for a long time and they’ve never seen the light of day until now. Long before Owl City was ever a spark of a flame, a lot of blue-collared working days were spent absentmindedly daydreaming about what would ultimately become this collection of songs. From the perfectionist musician’s perspective, a song is never truly ‘finished’ but rather ‘abandoned’ and thus, after a lot of inspiration and reckless experimentation, I emerged from the basement with a 11 song record which I affectionately entitled, An Airplane Carried Me To Bed.”
The Billboard article goes on to explain that Young will be doing little-to-no promotion for the Sky Sailing album due to the fact that he’s been spending the summer recording the follow-up album to Owl City’s Ocean Eyes. He’ll also be heading out on tour with both Maroon 5 and John Mayer in August. Still, Hits Daily Double reported after first day sales that An Airplane Carried Me To Bed is currently on track to sell upwards of 15,000 copies by week’s end. Not bad for an artist who claims in the previously-mentioned MySpace blog post, “I didn’t have a clue what I was doing…”
To read the full article on Idolator, please go to:
idolator.com/5567651/sky-sailing-an-airplane-carried-me-to-bed
Impending Doom’s New Album Out Now
Impending Doom’s new album There Will Be Violence is in stores and online now! Pick up a copy on sale at your local Hot Topic (in the listening station), FYE, Hastings, Best Buy, indie music store or order it from the Facedown online store. If you want to get it digitally then check it out on iTunes. Impending Doom are on the Thrash And Burn Tour so make sure to check that out below. Also, they are on the cover of the newest issue of HM Magazine, so pick that up if you have not yet already!
Tour Dates:
7/21 – Denver, CO
7/22 – Salt Lake City, UT
7/23 – Las Vegas, NV
7/24 – San Diego, CA
7/25 – Pomona, CA
7/26 – Fresno, CA
7/27 – Los Angeles, CA
7/28 – Phoenix, AZ
7/30 – Albuquerque, NM
7/31 – Lubbock, TX
8/1 – San Antonio, TX
8/2 – Dallas, TX
8/3 – Houston, TX
8/5 – Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL
8/6 – Atlanta, GA
8/7 – Richmond, VA
8/8 – Long Island, NY
8/9 – Poughkeepsie, NY
8/10 – Asbury Park, NJ
8/11 – Buffalo, NY
8/12 – Pittsburgh, PA
8/13 – Cleveland, OH
8/14 – Detroit, MI
8/15 – Chicago, IL
The Word Alive News
Phoenix, AZ metal sextet The Word Alive is proud to reveal the tracklisting for their new album Deceiver. Recorded with Andrew Wade (A Day To Remember, VersaEmerge), Deceiver is set for release in the U.S. and Canada on August 31st, 2010, and in UK/Europe on August 30th, 2010. THE WORD ALIVE – Tyler “Telle” Smith (vocals), Zach Hansen (guitar), Tony Pizzuti (guitar), Nick Urlacher (bass), Dusty Riach (keys/synth), Justin Salinas (drums) – are about to explode into the metal scene with debut album Deceiver. The full-length is the follow up to acclaimed EP Empire, which landed at #15 on the Billboard Heatseaker’s Chart in 7/2009. Already featured in Metal Hammer’s Hot List 2010, the band follows up a sold our U.S. spring tour with labelmates Alesana and an appearance at Bamboozle Festival with a run on Vans Warped tour this July.
Track Listing:
1. The Hounds Of Anubis
2. Epiphany
3. The Wretched
4. Consider It Mutual
5. 2012
6. Dream Catcher
7. Like Father Like Son
8. Battle Royale
9. You’re All I See
10. You Know Who You Are
For Today On The Anti-Hero Tour
For Today will be teaming up with Bleeding Through (Rise Records), After the Burial (Sumerian), and The World Alive (Fearless) to bring you The Anti-Hero Tour. Facedown’s For Today will be touring in support of their brand new album Breaker which releases on August 31 just days before the tour begins.
Tour Dates:
9/3 – Los Angeles, CA
9/4 – Riverside, CA
9/6 – Lubbock, TX
9/7 – Austin, TX
9/8 – Birmingham, AL
9/10 – Augusta, GA
9/11 – St. Petersburg, FL
9/12 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL
9/13 – Jacksonville, FL
9/14 – Douglasville, GA
9/15 – Springfield, VA
9/16 – New York, NY
9/17 – Poughkeepsie, NY
9/18 – Worcester, MA
9/19 – Lancaster, PA
9/20 – Albany, NY
9/21 – Pittsburgh, PA
9/22 – Buffalo, NY
9/24 – Louisville, KY
9/25 – Covington, KY
9/26 – Nashville, TN
9/28 – West Dundee, IL
9/29 – Iowa City, IA
10/1 – Oklahoma City, OK
10/2 – Wichita Falls, TX
10/3 – Colorado Springs, CO
Veil Arms Clothing Announce Eminence Conference
Popular New Mexico fashion line Veil Arms Clothing will be hosting The Eminence Conference on August 10th and 11th. The conference itself is designed for aspiring musicians, photographers, graphic designers, writers, actors and entrepreneurs to join with others to learn more about their chosen art and how they can become better educated for when they feel they are ready to move on to the next level, whatever that may be. This series of workshops will teach the average young artist attending what its like to be a professional. Veil Arms Clothing exists to motivate and encourage their young surrounding art community in hopes of inspiring those with gifts to best develop and cultivate their given talents. The workshops themselves will be taught by the likes of Matt Greiner from heavyweight metal band August Burns Red, Micah Kinard from Oh Sleeper and so much more. Lunch will be provided each day as well as several guest speakers including Colby Engstrom and Jeral Dickinson. The nights will be capped off with performances by Seabird, B. Reith and more. This is a great opportunity for any aspiring artist out there, no matter what your avenue, to learn, to build community and to network with likeminded individuals as well as professionals. “These kids will get direct information and one on one workshops with these artists and people that they respect, hopefully equipping them with enough knowledge to pursue their career.” –Shawn Ulmer, Veil Arms Clothing.
For more information on this conference, visit:
veilarms.com
Paper + Plastick Release New Tumbledown Vinyl
A nearly two-decade long veteran of the pop-punk scene, MxPx vocalist/bassist Mike Herrera is giving fans a different taste of songwriting with his new band, the Punk-meets-Americana quartet TUMBLEDOWN. Paper + Plastick Records is pleased to announce that Tumbledown’s S/T full-length debut is only available on root beer or standard black 12″ vinyl from the P+P webstore. Released on CD in May by Austin-based label End Sounds, Herrera says “fans really wanted an LP version of the album, so it was an obvious decision to team up with Paper + Plastick for the vinyl outing.” This vinyl edition features hand-screened covers by noted tattoo artist (and Van’s Warped Tour artist) Oliver Peck, and includes the bonus track “Back Of My Mind.” In celebration of the release, the Evergreen State band is playing a number of local send-off shows (see dates below) before vocalist/guitarist Mike Herrera heads to South America for a run of solo dates. The ten day stretch brings Herrera back to Brazil and Argentina (sans MxPx), but finds him exploring Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru for the first time, playing both MxPx and Tumbledown songs. Eager North American fans won’t have to fly south to catch Herrera, as a Tumbledown US tour will be announced later this year. Tumbledown’s debut full-length was produced, engineered and recorded by Herrera in his hometown of Bremerton earlier this year at Monkey Trench Studios. Though Tumbledown’s sound is distinctively different than his previous work, Herrera admits “I’ve always written songs on the acoustic guitar, so writing with a more Americana feel was very natural. I’m not sure if any became MxPx songs… Probably, but we’ll never know since they are MxPx songs and not Tumbledown’s.” As Herrera has grown from “writing Hank Williams-esque songs” over ten years ago, to coming into his own Roots writing style, the songs from Tumbledown’s S/T album were written all over the world while he toured with MxPx. “I’ve been all over the world doing these big rock shows and somewhere in the backstage rooms, the hotels, or in the back of the busses, I’ve been writing these songs for my “other” band,” he says. “This album is the result of that.”
Podcast Featuring Steve Rowe Out Now
Roxx / Rowe / Mass Podcast has launched a brand new site at roxxrowemass.com with the help of JBM Design! Check it out and download the brand new Second Episode of the Roxx / Rowe / Mass podcast now! The podcast is a very special episode! Starting off with Steve Rowe filling us in on all things going on with Wonrowe Vision and a world premiere of 2 brand new tracks from the forthcoming album Mission Invincible! Also the podcast features an interview with the front man of one of Christian Rock’s premiere bands, Bloodgood! That’s right Les Carlsen will be joining the show, updating us on Bloodgood and talking about their only show scheduled for 2010 with their appearance at Up From The Ashes 3 in Temecula California! But wait we have one more for you! We are also going to talk with Mark from Soundmass’s very own Dead Moons Grey! Plus plenty of new and exclusive music from Grave Forsaken, Crystavox, Mortification, Deliverance, The Sacrificed and a world premiere track from the Moshketeers!
Gungor News
Over four months after releasing their acclaimed album Beautiful Things, Gungor took their original worship experience on tour making stops in Nashville, TN and Chambersburg, PA. The “Beautiful Things Tour” comes just after Gungor finished a successful run with John Mark McMillan. The band will also embark on an additional leg of the “Beautiful Things Tour” this fall. Also endorsing the band and the Beautiful Things events is GRAMMY ® winner Israel Houghton who was Michael Gungor’s co-writer on the hit “Friend of God.” To see and hear a glimpse of the Beautiful Things event from the band along with additional thoughts from Houghton, go here. The band’s 2008 debut on Brash Music, Ancient Skies, garnered critical acclaim. Beautiful Things (BRASH) is the band’s sophomore release, and the third CD release for Michael Gungor.
For more information on Gungor, visit:
gungormusic.com
A Plea For Purging Video Debut On AP
A Plea For Purging just debuted their newest video exclusively on altpress.com’s Friday Night Videos. You can see the video for the song “Shiver” from the band’s brand new album The Marriage of Heaven and Hell here. Here’s what director Drew Russ had to say about shooting the video for “Shiver: “So normally, when I get an offer to do a music video, I find myself racking my brain for hours or days trying to do something different and original. That can be pretty difficult sometimes. But when I got the email from A Plea For Purging to direct their video for “Shiver”, they said, “Hey Drew, this is what we’d like to do:” I proceeded to read two whole pages of one of the most ridiculous treatments I have ever seen. In my experience, the crazier the idea, the better. So we just went for it. I sat down with Producer/Editor Michael Dalton, and figured out how to make their idea come alive. We took every opportunity in this video to be over the top. From the locations and costumes to situations. I found myself saying, “This is crazy” after every take. It took a lot of help, hard work, and three hot days in Nashville, but I think it’s safe to say this is the only metal band that has had break-dancers, hopscotch, and a preacher kicking someone in the crotch in their video. Different? Check. Original? Definitely. I think it is important for a band to do whatever they want. After all, you only get one shot, and A Plea For Purging is a great example of a band that has the balls to do that. Also, you can read what the band have to say about the song “Shiver” in the track by track album analysis they did for AP here.
Jeremy Camp Has A New Album
GRAMMY-nominated artist Jeremy Camp is preparing for the release of his sixth studio album, We Cry Out: The Worship Project on August 24th on BEC Recordings. An intentional return to worship with this upcoming release, Camp is honored to be where he is at in his career and life. “I feel like I’ve had a growth spurt the past two years in my walk with the Lord, and I think this album reflects that deepening,” shares Camp about this project. “There’s a purity behind this record that I can’t even describe. But I didn’t write most of it, so I can’t take the credit. And I love that.”
This week fans can purchase the radio-charting debut single “Jesus Saves” at iTunes. In addition, this week marks the beginning of the iTunes pre-order for the regular or deluxe edition of We Cry Out: The Worship Project. The deluxe edition digital pre-order includes the album delivered on August 24th, an automatic download of the single “Jesus Saves,” 5 additional songs and two videos with bonus content. Facebook fans can also get a free acoustic song download of the title track from the new album starting today exclusively for his page fans.
©2010 HM Magazine All Rights Reserved
More news from last week:
still fresh (as far as you know)
About the Author
