That's How You Do A Breakdown

While not the best quality, this video of a new, untitled Converge song still manages to punch you so hard in the face you're left with cleared sinuses, wondering why the bridge of your nose is cracked cleanly in half. Wipe the blood off your keyboard and head bang to a real breakdown. 

Crystal Antlers - Andrew

Enjoy

The Riot Before - We Are Wild Stallions

I finally figured out how to embed videos!...ehem..

The Riot Before released a great album in 2008, entitled 'Fists Buried In Pockets', which should NOT go unheard if you dig the blue collar, Springsteen-esque punk stylings of their contemporaries, the Gaslight Anthem. 'We Are Wild Stallions' is the first video off their rough hewn 2008 gem, and if you've heard Sink or Swim or the 59' Sound, you'll know what to expect - but not in a bad way. Trust me!

New Mastodon

is dope.

Black Heart Inertia

"Walking alone tonight 'cause I've only got room for two. Me and my burdened black heart, it's all we know how to do, yet I look for a bigger bang, and the kind I continually see, sick of all this inertia I..."

A brief, 30 second clip of new Incubus material is streaming from the Enjoy Incubus website. Einziger's guitar work is sweet, which has elements of funk (S.C.I.E.N.C.E anyone?) coupled with Boyd's stand out vocals got me so excited I've listened to the 30 second stream well over 5 times in 2 minutes. It's hard to gather much from 30 or so seconds of a song, but you can definitely tell this material seems to follow in the footsteps of its predecessor, Light Grenades (an album I admittedly feel to be one of the weaker albums in their discography). I can't wait to hear the chorus! It sounds like it has the makings of a great tune that will be more memorable than most off Light Grenades, but that's just me getting way too excited over not a lot of information. 

Hear it for yourself here and come up with your own opinion. You can also pre-order the Greatest Hits album here, which is being released on June 16th. The compilation, named Monuments and Melodies, although sorely lacking material from S.C.I.E.N.C.E looks pretty sweet nonetheless.

Monuments and Melodies Tracklisting:

Disc One

Black Heart Inertia

Drive

Megalomaniac

Anna-Molly

Love Hurts

Wish You Were Here

Warning

Stellar

Talk Shoes On Mute

Pardon Me

Dig

Oil And Water

Are You In?

Nice To Know You

Midnight Swim

DISC TWO

Neither Of Us Can See

Look Alive

While All The Vultures Feed

Pantomime

Anything

Punch Drunk

Admiration

Martini

A Certain Shade Of Green (acoustic)

Monuments and Melodies

Let's Go Crazy (Prince cover)

- obviously there's a lot of material off Light Grenades, which I wish wasn't the case, but since I love these guys too much, I'll be picking this up anyway. Disc two has a whoooole lot of stuff I've never even heard, which are apparently some rarities they've recorded over the years. I just wish it was brand spankin' new material, but two tracks will have to tide me over until the Calabasas quintet get set to unleash the latest offering of their brand of ever evolving alternative rock.

Tides

Ocean tides move to the voice of the moon, 

Strange how we move!

How strange that I move to the voice of the moon,

Love ringing out of tune...

...leave your bad limbs behind,

For they are conduits to the heart.

- Tides, by As Cities Burn

Mmm... The Other OTHER white meat

Mastodon's upcoming album, Crack The Skye, has one of the weirdest concepts to propel the music. I could try and sum it up, but the absurdity can only be taken seriously if coming from the mouth of a band member. Here is drummer Brann Dailor, and his explanation of what the album's concept is:

"There is a paraplegic and the only way that he can go anywhere is if he astral travels. He goes out of his body, into outer space and a bit like Icarus, he goes too close to the sun, burning off the golden umbilical cord that is attached to his solar plexus. So he is in outer space and he is lost, he gets sucked into a wormhole, he ends up in the spirit realm and he talks to spirits telling them that he is not really dead. So they send him to the Russian cult, they use him in a divination and they find out his problem. They decide they are going to help him. They put his soul inside Rasputin's body. Rasputin goes to usurp the czar and is murdered. The two souls fly out of Rasputin's body through the crack in the sky(e) and Rasputin is the wise man that is trying to lead the child home to his boyd because his parents have discovered him by now and think that he is dead. Rasputin needs to get him back into his body before it's too late. But the end up running into the Devil along the way and the Devil tries to steal their souls and bring them down...there are some obstacles along the way."

...I really don't even know what to say to that (what are they on!?), but after hearing the released single, 'Divinations' and subsequently watching the newly released video, I am pumped to see what this craziness is all about. It can't get much cooler than a shredding cave man. With elements of prog and crunching metal like their previous releases, this look into Crack the Skye is very promising.

PS - The Crack the Skye track listing:

01. Oblivion

02. Divinations

03. Quintessence

04. The Czar

I. Usurper

II. Escape

III. Martyr

IV. Spiral

05. Ghost of Karelia

06. Crack The Skye

07. The Last Baron

I am actually really, really excited for this!

Panic Switch

'Panic Switch' is the new single off the upcoming Silversun Pickups album "Swoon". It's streaming from this website, and I think it's pretty awesome. Having been a huge fan of the Pikul EP, this darkly energetic track, which the band has dubbed their 'dance track',  has gotten me pumped to check out Carnavas ahead of Swoon's April 14th release date. Definitely listen to Panic Switch here if you dug this indie rock/shoegaze outfit from LA, and are keen for a taste of their new 10 track album dropping this spring.

My Next Investment!

                 (ahh...uke players as they should be. Robust.)

It's not the little islander dude in this video...but then again, it would be awesome to have him follow me around and play me my own theme music, like the Hawaiian equivalent of the Mariachi...

                              (Think of the possibilities...)

...Anyways! Buying a ukulele is something I've toyed with in the past, and since the majority of the music I've been playing/writing has been made for an acoustic guitar, a uke might add another dimension to my playing and open up doors creatively. Plus, the price tag isn't too steep, and they just look ridiculous. Ridiculously awesome

Banner Pilot

2008's Resignation Day was an awesome punk release from the Minnesotan punk band, Banner Pilot, and 12 new tracks are coming our way this fall. The band is set to record this April, and the 12 track record should be done this fall. I just thought you all should know, since this band rules and I am in an update-y mood!

Banner Pilot's myspace

Enjoying Incubus

Last night, while doing everything but sleeping, like I should've been, I had a sudden urge to check up on Incubus. I headed to the Enjoy Incubus website, where a video started to play. For all fans, it's definitely worth a view, as it shows what each band member has been up to since the output of their latest album Light Grenades, but that's all I'll say about it. That, and how the video alludes to new material that will hopefully surface soon, out of Brandon's head and into the ever evolving Incubus sound. I learned two things though:

1) Mike and Brandon went back to school?! And Mike's in Harvard studying music!? That's pretty awesome.

2)They have a greatest hits CD coming out this spring

Which lead me to thinking two things:

a)Greatest hits? I want new material damnit - which proceeded me to thinking

b)maybe the new material spoken of in the video is just a track or two that will be slapped on to the greatest hits album?

Which lead me to even more speculation about other things like belly buttons, innies and outties, which cereal really is the best tasting, and what those white flecks are underneath your fingernails (the not-knowing is killing me). Mmmm Cocoa Puffs...

When In (a legendary band with impossible expectations to meet) Rome

Video footage has surfaced of Sublime's 'reunion' show in Cantina, Nevada from the 28th of February. I remember personally saying stubbornly "it's not Sublime without Brad!" As soon as I heard Sublime in a current live setting and wanted to sing a long though, the unwarranted animosity towards a singer I hadn't even heard before melted away. Rome is the guy with the impossible task to fill Brad's Shaq-sized shoes, and he seems to side step this niche. Putting his own mellow touch to Sublime songs, it most definitely works. It may make me nostalgic for Brad (but who am I kidding? I was too young to appreciate the original line up live), but all the same I'm just stoked to hear Sublime live again!

...creative output on the other hand... Only time will tell how much of the song writing Brad did, if the surviving members picked up anything along the way from their former front man, and what Rome will bring to table besides his stellar vocals. 

Sublime's Ball and Chain 

* just check out this video and see how excited the audience is to sing along to What I Got - the band is drowned out in a wave of way to enthusiastic white people. (I'm just jealous)

Sublime's crowd - What I Got

Grapevine Fires

I've been on a massive Death Cab For Cutie binge lately, and 'Grapevine Fires' is one of my favorite songs off their 2008 record, Narrow Stairs. The animated video, directed by Walter Robot seems to be almost a literal, word to image translation of Ben Gibbard's lyrics. I won't say anything more to ruin it, watch it here ---> Grapevine Fires. Heaaaaavy, man.