November 15, 2024

About the author  ⁄ Luke ONeil

New Found Glory’s Chad Gilbert Talks Growing Up, Looking Back, And Moving Forward On ‘Resurrection’

by 53 mins ago

A lot can change for a band in nearly two decades. There are the normal everyday life ups and downs that everyone goes through, of course, and there’s the waxing and waning of cultural trends and public perception to contend with. (Ello, anyone?) But in their lengthy career (the band put out their first EP in 1997), Florida pop-punk icons New Found Glory have largely stayed the course, occasionally flirting with the mainstream, never deviating too far afield from the sound that ultimately earned them their ride-or-die fan base in the first place.

As you might expect from a band crossing their eighth album milestone, they’re somewhat more reflective on Resurrection, as guitarist Chad Gilbert explained over the phone from Connecticut, where he and the band had just finished soundcheck for a show that night. In characteristic form, they’ve been inviting fans request any song they want to hear at their shows. “We have a few hundred songs — but if we can remember it — we’ll play it,” he joked.

Resurrection--Cover-Art

The feeling of rebirth, of dusting oneself off, and moving ahead runs throughout the record; hell, the concept is right there in the title. The band had written the song “Resurrection” first, and it felt like a perfect way to encapsulate the tone of the record. “Singing songs about our friends, you never cared about them,” Jordan Pundik sings. “So long, and thanks for nothing. I’m gone, I’m moving on, watch my resurrection.”

Read More →

How To Dress Well’s ‘What Is This Heart?’: 3 Must-Hear Tracks

by 13 mins ago

After dropping a couple of tracks over the past couple of months — not to mention one of the most moving videos I’ve seen in a long time — Tom Krell, aka How To Dress Well, finally released his third studio album, What Is This Heart?, Tuesday (June 24).

The LP’s 12 tracks run the full spectrum of human emotion, from wistful and morose to straight-up melancholy — even hitting that feeling where you’re sad but still genuinely OK with it. You know? Anyway, there are a few standouts whose waters you’ll want to dip your toes into immediately in case this is your first time listening to the R&B singer.

How To Dress WellWeird World

1.) “Repeat Pleasure”
Many of the tracks in Krell’s catalog hinge on the interplay between the stillness of his minimal instrumentation and the singer’s lilting and fragile, yet confident, falsetto. This track picks up the tempo, relatively speaking, with a sense of percussive momentum and a ripping guitar riff — or at least what passes for it in this world of romantic quietude.

And then there’s that video I mentioned before. Bring a box of tissues.

2.) “Words I Don’t Remember”
A more characteristic delivery here finds H2DW pining away over some barely-there synths and hand-clap percussion, harmonizing with looped and cut-up vocal tracks.

“This song for me is about love, trust, commitment… and what happens to these things and, like, what happens to really ...

Read More →

Julian Casablancas Announces New Album: Watch The Teaser Here

by 15 mins ago

While The Strokes performing at Governors Ball was exciting and magical and all that other good stuff, am I the only one who’s sort of more interested in what lead singer Julian Casblancas is up to unfettered by the expectations of his day job? His 2009 album Phrazes For The Young was woefully underrated, even though a lot of it was up there with some of the best songs he’s ever written, so the news today that there’s a new album and tour in the near future is big.

The album Tyranny, credited to Julian Casablancas + the Voidz, will be released on his own Cult Records on September 23, the band announced on Monday (June 23).

“It’s a collection of amazing individuals I’ve encountered over the last four and half years,” Casablancas explained of his new band in the teaser video below. It shows footage of them on tour throughout the world, and features snippets of some of the new music.

“Tyranny has come in many forms throughout history,” Casablancas explained of the title in a press release. “Now, the good of business is put above anything else, as corporations have become the new ruling body. Most decisions seem to be made like ones of a medieval king: whatever makes profit while ignoring and repressing the truth about whatever suffering it may cause (like pop music, for that matter).”

OK, but can I dance to it?

Julian Casablancas + The Voidz kick off a U.S. ...

Read More →

You Probably Want To Skip A Day To Remember’s ‘End Of Me’ Video If You’ve Got Unresolved Daddy Issues

by 20 mins ago

It’s a good thing A Day To Remember waited a week to release their new video for “End Of Me.” Otherwise it might’ve made for some seriously awkward Father’s Day discussions.

The video, directed by Shane Drake (Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco), is a rather bleak meditation on the relationship between a teenage boy and his indifferent, emotionally distant father, which reminds me, I’ve got to go think about some things for a while, I’ll be right back. :(

Anyway! Right, the video. We follow the boy as he labors to scrub a staircase clean like the cutest little metalcore Cinderella, and picks up after his regularly passed out father. An older sister packs her bags and gets out, something the boy can’t do. Instead he’s trapped in the prison of his own home, a point that’s made pretty clear by his scratching X’s on the walls and freaking out. As the slowly unfolding power-ballad screeches to its inevitable crescendo, the boy takes out his building frustration on his room with a baseball bat.

“You know me all too well/ And I can’t suppress the memories,” Jeremy McKinnon sings, kind of making me miss the goofy, slapstick sense of humor the band showed off in their last video from Common Courtesy, “Right Back At It Again.” Then again, we’ve always known these guys have enough heart to reveal their softer side and tackle the serious stuff, too.

A Day To Remember kick off ...

Read More →

PREMIERE: Spirit Animal Throw A High School Party You’re Not Invited To In Their ‘BST FRNDS’ Video

by 11 mins ago

“Choose Your BST FRND.” No, go ahead. Spirit Animal wants you to in order to properly enjoy their “BST FRNDS” video which premiered today on mtvU. And it’s a fitting introduction to the video’s playful sense of whimsy as well as a nod to the variety of ways you can experience the song itself. (Kind of like a choose-your-own-adventure where the options are: video game, a trip to The Max, punk rock pep rally, and Spirit Animal show.

cEJ4WNOP

“We really got a kick out of this idea of flipping the ‘aren’t we all just having a raging blast together!’ party anthem on its side by excluding this one imaginary person,” frontman Steve Cooper told me previously.

When it came time to bring that concept to life, a fortuitous meeting set things in motion.

“The ‘BST FRNDS’ video is actually the result of one of those mythical stories about SXSW actually helping a band,” Cooper joked. “I met the video’s eventual producer, from Humble TV, at a Stop Light Observations show there, and once back in New York she said she had the perfect director, Kris Mercado, with some incredible animation work on his reel. Kris was able to merge this desire with a glossy, bubblegum high school experience.”

Mercado’s CGI-style Lisa Frank-style totally ’80s graphics color in the cartoonish action, with the band teaming up with team some pugnacious cheerleaders for an effect that’s equal parts lo-fi “We Can’t Stop” and “Saved By The ...

Read More →

Missed Warped Tour Day One? Here’s Every Amazing Thing You Missed

by 06/13/14

When the 20th annual Vans Warped Tour kicked off Friday (June 13) in Houston, and fans who couldn’t wait until the cavalcade of punk, emo, metal, and hardcore rolled into their town, the concert was streamed live online all day. The stream of 30 bands spread out over five stages was like being everywhere at Warped all at once, and with almost none of the accompanying festival odors.

So great to have The Devil Wears Prada back on #warpedtour and they are on LIVE now on vanswarpedtour.com

In case it wasn’t obvious how hot it was in Houston on Friday from the non-stop references from the stage, The Devil Wears Prada‘s Mike Hranica sweating straight through his short-sleeve button up painted a pretty vivid picture. Granted, he and the rest of the band were working on songs like “Assistant to the Regional Manager”, with its barely-controlled chaos and corrosive metal-core fury.

Boston’s Ice Nine Kills impressed with traumatic, melodic metal-core on songs like “The Fastest Way To A Girl’s Heart Is Through Her Ribcage,” but vocalist Spencer Charnas screaming Adele‘s “Someone Like You” from the top of the barricade stood out.

Ice Nine Kills live in Houston and on the web #warpedtour - vanswarpedtour.com/webcast

Also repping strong for Massachusetts were Worcester’s melodic hard core act Four Year Strong, who stirred up a big time singalong for their track “Wasting Time.” And aside from one of the ...

Read More →

SONG PREMIERE: Linkin Park’s ‘Final Masquerade’

by 06/08/14

The handful of tracks we’ve heard so far from Linkin Park‘s The Hunting Party, out June 13, have found the band straying further afield from the electronically-charged rock anthems they’ve had so much success with in the past. “Guilty All The Same” is a frenetic hard core-style assault complete with rapped versus from Rakim, while “Rebellion” marries thrash-metal guitar-chugging with melancholy musicality.

Which brings us to their brand-new song, “Final Masquerade,” premiering today on MTV. It’s a sharp, edgy, lushly harmonic heavy-hitter that falls perfectly in line with Linkin Park’s lengthy string of hulking, hooky hits.

The song’s radio-ready single status might have been a combined act of Internet trolling and serendipity, as Mike Shinoda explained: “I made some ‘alternative pop’ demos that sounded like they would fit in with what radio is currently playing. But then I came across a blog piece entitled ‘Rock Sucks Right Now And It’s Really Depressing,‘” he said. “It got me thinking. I ended up writing a response to it, and realized that what I had been working on wasn’t really what I wanted to be making.”

While “Final Masquerade” lands loud and hard next to its feel-good brethren peppering the pop-rock landscape with cheery optimism, there’s no denying this is a massive potential hit — and the kind of deeper, darker dirge missing in popular music right now.

“I can’t see forgiveness, and you can’t see the crime,” Chester Bennington sings over guitars that escalate like an descent into ...

Read More →

Creepy Spiders, Bunny Suits, Subway-Riding Gremlins, And Trippy 8-Bit Adventures In ‘Liquid Television’ Episode 4

by 06/07/14

The fourth episode of “Liquid Television” is available now on MTV.com, and like the previous installments of the newly revived and much loved ’90s MTV animated classic, it’s a mix of the surreal, the hilarious, and the surreally hilarious.

As usual, this episode covers a broad range of animation styles, from 8-bit computer graphics in a Super Mario Bros.-esque world, to an anime adventure in which some determined gremlins take over a subway train, a darkly comic music interlude about a guy in a bunny suit contemplating his mortality, to a pencil-drawn retro-style cartoon about a boy who finds a giant spider under his bed. So, you know, a normal day in the life for people whose days are highly abnormal.

“Liquid Television” episode 4 features animation by:
Andreas Gaschka
Dongzhen Li
Sean Solomon
Skinner
Ian Stevenson
Luke Seomore
Freddy Christy
Garrett Davis
Kirsten Lepore
Peter Glantz
Becky Stark
Jacob Ciocci
Jan-Joost Verhoef
Kristof Luyckx
Joseph Bennett

Watch Episode 4 of “Liquid Television,” and check out more episodes at MTVOther.com.

...

Read More →

One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson Is Going To Own A Soccer Team

by 06/06/14

As we regularly see in the worlds of hip-hop and basketball, many successful musicians wish they could be professional athletes, and the athletes wish they could rap or carry a tune. But most of the time, they can’t do both.

But, as Jay Z has proven, one way to get around that is by buying into a professional sports franchise. That’s what One Direction‘s Louis Tomlinson has reportedly done with the Doncaster Rovers Football Club in his hometown of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, the BBC reports.

The singer, who took to the pitch with the Rovers back in February, has reached an agreement to take over control of the team with a group of business partners, including former owner John Ryan.

It has to be a dream come true for Tomlinson, but he’s certainly got his work cut out for him. The team, who are coming off a dismal season — maybe explaining why they let a pop star play in a game — has been relegated to the third tier of the English Premiere League.

...

Read More →

Artist To Watch: Bleachers Are Resurrecting Rock

by 06/02/14

It’s only been a few short months since Bleachers’ debut single “I Wanna Get Better” came out, and yet it feels like it’s been around forever, like a favorite T-shirt you’ve worn to perfection and couldn’t bear to part with.

That could be because the song’s triumphant tone and riotous, teenage-wasteland hook feels like a throwback from an ’80s suburb where you did some of your best — and worst — coming of age.

Find videos, live performances, and interviews at Bleachers.mtv.com.

Bleachers’ second single, “Shadow,” continues to mine from that most nostalgic of all musical decades (sorry, ’60s) with its big echoing drums, multi-tracked vocals and wiry guitar lines.

“I wanted Bleachers to have a nostalgic element, so some of the emotions almost do feel a little John Hughes-y,” Antonoff has said of debut album Strange Desire, out on July 15. “But I didn’t want it to be a retro album. It had to be fully pushed into the future while grounded in that moment that means so much to me.”

To aid him in that delicate balancing act, he enlisted John Hill, a producer known for his work with such ’80s stalwarts as Depeche Mode and Erasure.

“I mean, Vince [Clarke of Depeche Mode and Erasure] literally made some of the albums that inspired me to do Bleachers in the first place. It was really full circle to have one of the people who inspire you to create with you,” he said.

Despite some ...

Read More →