November 20, 2008

Jerad Finck | ‘You’ Music Video

12:16pm by Richiedude http://www.thedailyrock.com/flv/JeradFinck-You.flv

Posted in: DAILY ROCK VIDEOS | No Comments »

November 19, 2008

An Alternative Christmas

6:00am by Richiedude

Alternative Addiction (www.alternativeaddiction.com) has announced the upcoming release of the site’s first-ever Christmas compilation, An Alternative Christmas. In addition to showcasing the site’s most well known track list on a compilation to date, it’s also their first charity disc.

The disc features several unknown bands with tons of potential; Patent Pending, Honor By August, and Kill the Alarm all have tracks on the compilation. A showcase of A-list of bands from the alternative genre include Lifehouse, Better Than Ezra, Shinedown, Thriving Ivory, SafetySuit, , Ryan Star, Honeyhoney, and Needtobreathe.

An Alternative Christmas will be available digitally, in full album form, on Alternativeaddiction.com starting November 18th. The album will also be available for purchase on iTunes and Amazon shortly after.

“Most holiday seasons come with an abundance of holiday music. There’s a lot of it- it’s just a lot of the same stuff,” says Alternative Addiction’s Ryan Jones. “What makes this album so unique is the original and distinctive songs that are on the track list. There are classic songs on the album like “Oh Holy Night”, “Silent Night” and “Go Tell It On the Mountain,” some newer classics like “Last Christmas” and “Happy X-Mas (War is Over)” and there’s also original material on this album that was written and/or recorded for this holiday season. You always have holiday music available, but not often do you have legitimately new holiday music.”

Alternative Addiction will celebrate its tenth anniversary in operation next year. Although still unknown in certain circles, the site is responsible for helping to launch artists such as Augustana and Graham Colton, as well as working with thousands of unsigned and independent bands. The site has always had an intense focus on the promotion of good music, encompassing mainstream and well-known acts with independent artists as well, often promoting lesser known artists alongside established gold and platinum selling acts.

An Alternative Christmas’ track list has a little of everything that the site has become famous for promoting. It ranges from former Rock Star Supernova contestant and soon-to-be Top 40 artist Ryan Star singing a heart wrenching version of Joni Mitchell’s “River,” to a Better Than Ezra holiday song written by Kevin Griffin and Co. a few years ago. Even New York based Kill the Alarm, recently featured in Billboard, performs an exceptional version of “Winter Wonderland” that was recorded exclusively for the album.

Perhaps the best part of the Christmas themed compilation is that all of the profits from its release will be donated to charity. The circumstances of the donation are a little odd, however. “We originally started working on this compilation thinking we would be working with the charity that we’re donating the money to,” Said Jones. “But as things progressed, we got some great music that was also a little risqué. So what ends up happening is we’re still donating the money to charity but we can’t directly work with the organization because of it’s reputation with kids. We put the music before the marketing- something that’s always hard to do, and something that can make sales suffer, but we feel the final product is worth it.”

That might seem taboo with a charity release, but Alternative Addiction co-founder Chad Durkee can attest to the legitimacy of the company’s gesture. “It might seem a little odd, but donating all of the profits to charity is what we wanted to do all along. By law, we’re not allowed to take any monetary compensation for this project, and honestly we wouldn’t have it any other way.”

The Christmas themed compilation will be available for purchase on AlternativeAddiction.com beginning midnight Pacific time on November 18th and will launch on iTunes shortly after that.

This is a limited edition special issue that will only be available from November 18, 2008 until January 31, 2009.

Posted in: GENERAL MUSIC | No Comments »

November 17, 2008

Interview With Anberlin

8:56am by Romperchic

Taking a few minutes out of their busy schedule overseas the guys in ANBERLIN were cool enough to answer some questions I had for them about the new album NEW SURRENDER, down to how it has been headlining and inspiration taken from older album and how fans can support the causes the band are very close to.

I SPOKE WITH YOU IN 03 WHEN BLUEPRINTS CAME OUT IF YOU COULD LOOK BACK AT THE TOURS THAT ALBUM BROUGHT YOU WHAT WOULD YOU SAY YOU TOOK FROM THOSE TOURS AND HELD ONTO AND PUT INTO THE NEW ALBUM?
I think that the biggest difference between now and the self I knew 5 years ago is I would have to say that I don’t feel I am as naive as I once was, and feel I have more knowledge on God, friendship, and the downfalls and hell that life could bring.

Touring has taught me a lot and taken me to places around this great world that I would never ever think I would get to experience; take for instance this very second, I am sitting in Dublin, Ireland about to play my first show in this beautiful city.

The new album has a few reflections of the past (YOUNG LIFE) but for the most part they are about taking what you have in your current surroundings and attempting to make the best of them, looking forward to the future and leaving the past where it is.

ON NEVER TAKE FRIENDSHIP PERSONAL YOU MATURED YOUR SOUND. DO YOU FEEL AT TIMES MATURITY CAN BE RUSHED AND HAS THEIR BEEN A TIME YOU FEEL YOU HAD TO PULL BACK ON THE MATURITY REIGNS AS A BAND? AND WHAT DAMGE IF ANY COULD THAT LEAD TO AS A BAND?
I have never seen negative signs of maturity in bands, what I have seen is a sudden rush of popularity and a ‘too cool for our old sound’ in bands. They try to play what they see as ‘cool’ and alienate all their fans by avoiding the very sound that won them fans in the first place.

As far as Anberlin is concerned, I think that there has been a subtle change since the beginning, but for me (and the majority of our fans), it is seen as a good thing. The lyrics challenge instead of simply entertain; the music is majestic and talented instead of what everyone else in ‘the scene’ is attempting.

For us we see maturity as a much welcomed change as opposed to something we fear due to how critics will react. We hope that with each record, we improve our song writing and become better on our instruments without losing the ‘Anberlin’ quality of the music.

CITIES PUSHED YOUR NAME MORE INTO THE LIMELIGHT HOW DID THAT PROGRESSION CHANGE YOU AS A BAND AND WHEN CREATING THIS NEW DISC?
We had big shoes to fill when we were attempting to write New Surrender. We knew that we not only had a lot of pressure from our new label and our fans, we had immense pressure we put on ourselves as well.

We could not be happier with our choice of label or the CD itself. We feel that it was THE perfect album to put out as our major label debut.

LOST SONGS BROUGHT OUT ARCHIVED STUFF DID YOU FIND ANYTHING FROM OLDER DAYS THAT INFLUENCED SOME STUFF ON NEW SURRENDER
I found old lyrics laying around that I felt could be reworked on this record, but as far as music we had a new writer in the band (Christian) to work with Joey on new songs.

NOW NEW SURRENDER IS AN ALBUM OF FIRSTS BEING A BAND THAT HAS BEEN TOGETHER FOR A WHILE WHAT ARE THE PROS AND CONS WORKING WITH A NEW PRODUCER AND LABEL?
The pros on both are endless; credibility, experience, new and fresh ideas, work ethic, etc. I would not change either Neal or Universal; to this day we feel we made the right decision.

The negatives are that we left a lot of great friends behind, even though we still keep in contact with both the indie label staff and Aaron Sprinkle, they are friendships that helped us get where we are today.

WITH CHRISTIAN WORKING WITH YOU GUYS NOW WHAT DO YOU FEEL HAS BEEN THE BIGGEST STRENGTH HE HAS BROUGHT TO YOU AS SONGWRITERS?
I think christian adds so much to the table, back ground vocals, energy on stage, great personality, and of course songwriting. He really helped the whole band think outside the box that is Anberlin and experiment with new time signatures and musically some very different directions for Anberlin. Some of the most noticeable and standout tracks that Christian crafted were Blame Me! & Retrace.

VOCALLY THE BIGGEST CHANGE YOU SEE ON THIS ALBUM?
I think the biggest noticeable difference comes in the fact that I stopped looking so intrinsically and started focusing on the greater picture in this life. I wanted to write songs that anyone and everyone could relate to, and not just me.

After that, I think it’s the amount of time that Neal Avron made me take on the details of each and every song. At moments, it was aggravating, but in hindsight I see that he helped me make the best written record of my life.

LYRICALLY YOU HAVE BROUGHT IN YOUR HUMANTARIAN EFFORTS INTO YOUR LYRICS. HAVING SOMETHING THAT MEANS SOMETHING TO YOU COMING OUT IN YOUR MUSIC HOW EASY OR HARD WAS IT GETTING IT TO PAPER?
Very very easy. When you are passionate about something that you care a lot about, it is easy to want to tell the world.

HOW CAN FANS HELP OUT WITH THE CAUSES YOU SPEAK ABOUT AND SUPPORT?
Many many ways.

There are some great websites that help you get involved in your local community such as dosomething.org or idealist.org.

If you want to take a trip around the world to help fight anything from human trafficking to poverty, you can check out Faceless International at facelessinternational.com; I have gone on two trips with them in the past and hope to take my third in 2009.

Another org I really really love is Habitat for Humanity; most communities around the world have a base where you can get involved by helping under privileged families build a home for them to live in.

It’s not important where you get involved, just simply that each of us does get involved.

HOW’S HEADLINING BEEN? AND HOW DID THIS CURRENT TOUR PACKAGE COME ABOUT?
Headlining was wonderful; we took out three great bands and had some of the best shows of ours lives. Some of the best stops were Orlando, Salt Lake City, Detroit, Seattle, well you know what actually I can’t think of any bad shows, so I would have to name the whole tour.

Currently, we are on tour here in the UK/Ireland with a band called Elliot Minor. They got in contact with us about playing with them and we thought it was a great opportunity just to get back overseas and play one of the greatest musical capitals of the world.

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UVTV Heavy Metal Podcast Playlist for Week Of Nov 17th

7:55am by Richiedude

Here’s the playlist for “UVTV’s Heavy Metal & Hardcore Music Videos” video podcast on i-tunes for this week:

Caustic - Left To Die Alone (live)
Clutch - Mercury & Profits Of Doom (live)
Dying Fetus - In Times Of War (live)
Hatebreed - Defeatist (live)
In Flames - Leeches (live)
Prong - Broken Peace (live)
Black Stone Cherry - Blind Man
Clutch - Texan Book Of The Dead
Cryptopsy - The Unspoken King
Dragonforce - Heroes Of Our Time
National Product - Medicated
Opiate For The Masses - Burn You Down
Terror - Never Alone
The Ghost Inside - Faith Or Forgiveness
Thousand Foot Krutch - Favorite Disease
Raining - Enjoy The Hell

download mp4 | get it on i-tunes | watch online now

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