On the verge of kicking off a U.S. nationwide tour to promote the upcoming release of Say Anything’s new album, frontman Max Bemis has so far successfully avoided the evils of success.
But there’s plenty more time to come.
The L.A. band’s new self titled album will be their third official release, and it aspires to surpass the startling success of the first two.
“The whole transformation of everything in my life was the inspiration for the album, which centered mostly around the marriage to my wife,” Bemis tells andPOP. “Our music is basically the story of my life in chronological order.”
The biggest shift of ideals on the new album is that its focus is self-empowerment rather than self-loathing. His previous albums had a major focus on frustration with the opposite sex, but his April 4th, 2009, marriage altered his perspective on life and music.
Bemis is critical of the tendency indie bands have of conveying self loathing to their fans.
“Too often you see bands lean too far to one side. They’re either some cookie-cutter bullshit or they’re sulking with anger and resentment toward the cookie-cutter bullshit. There is a space in between, and that’s where we need to be,” he says.
If you haven’t heard of “Band of Skulls,” you will very soon. These UK rockers had the first ever global iTunes “Single of the Week” back in April for their debut song “I Know What I am,” and they just keep taking the rock world by storm.
The trio were voted Best Live Band at Toronto’s NXNE festival in June and are fresh off Lollapalooza. Twi-hards may already know “Band of Skulls” has been confirmed to be included alongside Radiohead and Muse in the upcoming “New Moon” Soundtrack, out in November.
Note: See the bottom of this article for a free download from Amos The Transparent, plus their new video!
Most bands don’t go from recording their debut in a bonafide studio to tracking the next release in their drummer’s mother’s basement. Or at least not of their own will. But that’s exactly the unlikely order of things Amos the Transparent have chosen, and it’s turning out to lead them along a favourable path.
After hefty studio bills the first time around and struggling under time restraints, the band decided to go easy on themselves for the next record. They split time between lead singer and mastermind Jonathan Chandler’s home and the basement of Chris Wilson’s mother while she was away in Florida, and rather than setting a deadline, they got together sporadically over what ended up being a nine-month period.
And so was born their sophomore EP, My, What Big Teeth You Have.
Chandler credits the laissez-faire approach to a better product, an album worthy to come on the heels of their acclaimed debut, Everything I’ve Forgotten to Forget. And one that has qualified the band for a Verge Artist of the Year nomination against nearly every heavyweight Canadian act out there. (Think: Feist, Tegan and Sara, The Tragically Hip, etc.)
Fully animated video for Amos The Transparent’s newest single Lemons (aka Big Fish Little Pond) by uber cool animation studio Digital Henchman. Vote for them in the XM Verge Music Awards! http://www.thevergeonline.com/vma/
Holler Wild Rose’s “Our Little Hymnal” is a mainstay of my stereo rotation right now. The band crafts incredibly expansive songs, packed with ambient guitars and delicate melody. There’s a lot of love in this band, and it really comes through in the music. I met up with two of the members during NxNE to speak about their band. If you like what you hear, check out www.myspace.com/hollerwildrose.
Ireland’s The Script were one of UK’s biggest breakout bands last year and now they’re on their way to becoming the next big thing in the U.S. The Irish trio consists of Danny O’Donoghue (keys and vocals), Mark Sheehan (guitar), and Glen Power (drums).
In case you haven’t heard their single “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved,” that’s burning up charts, The Script boasts a new brand of Celtic Soul with a blend of hip hop lyrical flow, rock dynamics, pop melodies and R&B production.
Their self-titled album was released in the U.S. on March 17, after debuting in the UK, selling more copies of their first album than any other debut group.
Regardless of the fact that Virgin Records America is suing Jared Leto’s band “30 Seconds to Mars,” the eyeliner wearing rocker says his band has no intention of breaking up, reports E! News.
“We are incredibly happy, healthy and very much together here, in Los Angeles, recording our new record,” the 36-year-old Leto says in a forum posting on 30 STM’s Website. “Besides this ridiculously overblown lawsuit…we are having one of the most inspiring, wonderful and exciting times that we’ve experienced to date.”
Virgin Records is suing the band for $30 million for failing to deliver on a five-album contract. The lawsuit claims that Leto is obligated to make more albums beyond their 2002 self-titled debut and 2005 follow-up “A Beautiful Lie.”
“So, as you may have heard we are being sued by our former record company for the ridiculously oversized, totally unrealistic and pretty silly (but slightly clever) sum of $30,000,000. Insane? Yea that’s what we said too,” says Leto.
A rep for Virgin Records was not available for comment.
California band Strata have released their new video, “Stay Young.”
While the lyrics urge listeners to keep their youthful innocence in a scary world, the video tells the story of a world collapsing due to global warming. Featuring some great special effects, the video can be seen here.
The song is off the band’s second album with Wind-up Records, “Strata Presents The End Of The World.” The album was written during two hard years for the band, mainly while lead singer Eric Victorino dealt with his mother’s cancer diagnosis. Victorino wrote on the band web site that the inspiration for the album was the mood of America, saying that it is like “living in what mostly feels like the end of times.”
Victorino continued to say that though the album deals with a lot of difficult emotions, it also focuses on hope. “Our collective mood is like quicksand and whenever we feel ourselves starting to sink, we rely on any little bits of hope we can find to keep us going. For most of us the only thing left that brings us hope is love. There’s nothing wrong with an honest love song… Has the whole world outgrown love? When did this happen? I don’t care, we write songs about real love because we believe in it, just as much as we believed in tolerance, violence, apathy, loss, corruption and all those terrible things. Each song on the album tells a different story and describes another part of our lives. From love to loss and everything in between. We live in a country at war with the world. This terror culture permeates everything in our lives. It’s not something we can avoid writing about anymore.”
On the verge of kicking off a U.S. nationwide tour to promote the upcoming release of Say Anything’s new album, frontman Max Bemis has so far successfully avoided the evils of success.
If you haven’t heard of “Band of Skulls,” you will very soon. These UK rockers had the first ever global iTunes “Single of the Week” back in April for their debut song “I Know What I am,” and they just keep taking the rock world by storm.
Note: See the bottom of this article for a free download from Amos The Transparent, plus their new video!
Ireland’s The Script were one of UK’s biggest breakout bands last year and now they’re on their way to becoming the next big thing in the U.S. The Irish trio consists of Danny O’Donoghue (keys and vocals), Mark Sheehan (guitar), and Glen Power (drums).
