Building a Record Collection

The music industry is mind-blowing. The strange twists and turns that it takes are often unpredictable and defy logic. One of the strangest twists in recent years has been the effect mp3 files have had on album sales. Ever since Napster changed the way we obtain music (legally or illegally), CD sales have been dropping rapidly. Your average music listener doesn’t have to buy the new *insert pop icon here* album. Instead they can buy the mp3 of the new hit single (the only reason they would have purchased the album in the first place) or heaven forbid they can download it illegally.

Even though CD sales are declining, surprisingly enough vinyl album sales are rapidly increasing. Yes ladies and gentlemen, we are reverting back to old technology. Why? Well lets look at it this way. There are two kinds of people who are shop for music. The first we have already discussed, the person wanting the new single thats tearing up the charts and honestly, thats it. The second are people who appreciate an album. The people who love and adore when one track fades into the next. The people who love a concept album or an album that seems to speak to them. We have already decided that its the in first group’s best interest to just pick up the mp3. The second group however strive for the quality of their music. They are the people who complain about the quality of the mp3. This group has rediscovered the quality of vinyl records. Any album that isn’t recorded digitally is going to sound the best on vinyl. And even in the digital recording world, having the vinyl record is pretty awesome. They last much longer and have sentimental value.

So do you want to start a record collection? Here’s …  Continued »

I’ll be completely honest. I didn’t know a lot about Blacklisted before this interview. My roommate is into hardcore music and I often hear him talk about the band, but I honestly had not heard any of their material. But in an effort to branch out and to learn about a genre of music that i know next to nothing about, I gladly took the opportunity to interview hardcore favorites Blacklisted.

The band, who are from Philadelphia, released their new album Heavier than Heaven, Lonelier than God April 1st on Deathwish. Be sure to check it out.

Shout!: For those who may be unfamiliar with the band, can you give a brief band history?

Blacklisted: We formed in 2003, recorded a demo…and the rest is history. Check the blog - there is a more in-depth history of this band on there: imwithblacklisted.blogspot.com 

S!: You guys are out on tour now in support of your new album, Heavier than Heaven, Lonelier than God. How have the recent shows been?

B: The shows have been real good, it’s nice to be back on the road.

S!: How are the fans reacting to the new material?

B: It takes some time for new songs to sink in, but for the most part, things have been really positive, as far as reactions go.

S!: How is your relationship with Deathwish?

B: It’s great. We love them. They love us.

S!: I know you guys played a pretty crazy weekend of record release shows a few weeks ago. Would you like to give a rundown of the events?

B: You know that scene in Home Alone where they are running to catch their plane to France? It was kind of like that.

It was a wild weekend - Los Angeles, to Chicago, To Philly - 3 days, 3 parts of the …  Continued »

Sigur Rós

I’m pretty notorious for making outrageous claims. I have a tendency of blowing some artists out of proportion,  giving them a God-like status and expectations that can rarely be reached. But there is no way that I can over exaggerate the pure genius that is Sigur Rós.

Only five days before writing this piece, I saw the band play a set in a Tennessee field from 1 to 3 in the morning at the Bonnaroo music festival. I can’t describe in words the pure brilliance that is this band. Vocalist Jón “Jónsi” Þór Birgisson’s unique way of playing the guitar with a cello bow creates such a haunting, beautiful noise that will stay with you for days. His voice commands you to feel and understand what he is singing, even though most of the crowd cannot understand the words.

Most of the lyrics are in Icelandic, but on a few songs and the entire album () the lyrics are in a language called Vonlenska, a gibberish language that Birgisson created  in hopes that the listener would create their own meaning and lyrics to the songs.

The band has four albums out right now. These albums are Von, Ágætis byrjun, (), and Takk… They just released their fifth album Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust online, which hit stores June 23rd. It features their first song to be sung entirely in English.

I seriously cannot stress how fantastic this band is. Don’t let the lack of English lyrics scare you off. This is the band you want playing in the background of the most important events of your life. Seeing the band live is life changing, and just hearing one of their albums can change your viewpoint of the world around you or your mood for the day. Do yourself a …  Continued »

Very few bands had the impact on my life that Taking Back Sunday did. I blame Tell All Your Friends for saving me from the terrible radio rock I was listening to at the time I picked up that album, and for helping to create the pretentious music know-it-all I am today.

I remember racing to buy Where You Want to Be the day it came out. It was at the time, probably my most anticipated album ever. I also remember being very scared about what the record would sound like. After the messy breakup with John Nolan and Shawn Cooper, and the addition of Fred Mascherino, I wasn’t sure if I would like it.

I however was not disappointed. I loved Fred’s vocals, and his guitar work was fantastic. Both albums featuring Fred, Where You Want to Be and Louder Now, where successful and contained singles that hit big on rock radio.

Now here we are four years after Fred joined Taking Back Sunday, and he has left the band to focus on his solo project, The Color Fred. He released the album Bend to Break last fall on Equal Vision Records. It is a must have record for anyone who is a fan of Taking Back Sunday. I recently had the amazing opportunity to interview Fred. He is a fantastic guy. Be sure to pick this album up. Seriously.

Shout: In case someone is not familiar with the history of The Color Fred, would you give a brief history of the project?

Fred M: The Color Fred started as a solo project back when I was playing in my band, Breaking Pangaea. It completely got put on the back burner once I got busy playing guitar and singing in Taking Back Sunday. Four years later I finally …  Continued »

Trent gave us a sweet gift, a new album for free.

Want it? Need it? Click it.

The Last Song

A great album follows a very basic formula. The album starts with either an energetic welcome to the album up tempo track, or a slow song that builds to lead into an energetic second track. The first single usually lies around track 3 or 4, and the catchiest songs are at the beginning of the album. The tempo slows down towards the middle of the album, and then slowly builds back up as the CD is coming to a close.

Then, in the final moments of the album, the artist unleashes the song that will sum up the album. Although many artists are defined by their biggest singles and catchiest tracks, the true fans of an artist define them by the songs they feel have the biggest impact or musical talent. Most artists strategically place the song that falls under this category as the last track on their album. Its pure logic; if someone is going to listen to your album only once, what is the lasting impression you want to leave them to get the vision and message of your album across?

Whether its the heaviest track on the record, or the biggest ballad, or maybe just a track that builds to a dramatic conclusion, its inevitable that you often see the full potential of a band in their last track. Here is a list of songs that I feel are excellent album closers:

 Continued »

I’ll be completely honest with you, I didn’t know much about Danger Radio when I was offered the opportunity to do this interview. All I really knew is that they at the time were on tour with the Secret Handshake. I was more than happy however to interview a young, up and coming band and to learn a little more about them.

Danger Radio play an exciting blend of happy pop. Be sure to check them out if you are a fan of fun pop music or if you are looking for a new band to dance to while you get your groove on. Andrew was kind enough to take time out of his busy touring schedule to answer a few questions for us.

S!: Can you give everyone a brief history of the band?

A: We started the band our 8th grade year, and we started playing talent shows, battle of the bands, etc. We invited some of our friends to play along with us. This lineup has been together for about 3 years now. We pretty much started out like any other band. We played a lot of shows back home and then went out on the road. Other than that we were just friends who started a band.

Shout!: Awesome so how old are you guys?

Andrew: I’m the oldest, I’m 22. Everyone else is like 20-21.

S!: How would you describe your sound?

A: I would say we are pop rock.

S!: How did you get your name?

A: This is a terrible story. We pretty much had a terrible name in high school, and I made a list of possible names, and that was the one deemed the best. I feel like I should make up a story about it.

S!: How was Bamboozle Left?

A: It was awesome honestly. …  Continued »

Sometimes karma is a bitch.

I’ll be the first to admit, I have a problem of running my mouth about music. I’m overly opinionated, and very vocal about what bands, labels, scenes, genres, tours, albums, stage shows, sounds, and anything else related to music that I think blow.

One of the genres right now that I have been particularly harsh towards lately is the style of music that has often been mislabeled as being “Happy Hardcore”. If you look up Happy Hardcore on Wikipedia (the ultimate source of accurate information) you will see that it is actually a style of trance dance music. What I’m referring to here is a blend of pop punk and hardcore music, made popular lately by Four Year Strong and of course, Set Your Goals.

I wanted to do this interview so I could learn more about a band that performed a style of music that I had jumped to a conclusion about. I wanted to see if I had misjudged the genre as being a family friendly version of hardcore music.

And of course, I had misjudged the genre, and the band’s fans. Jordan was a really nice guy who knew his stuff. And the fans… they tossed my rear end into a skate ramp at the Bamboozle Roadshow for standing too close to the pit. Remember when I said karma is a bitch?

So let this be a lesson to you. Don’t talk bad about a band or style of music, because the artist will turn out to be a cool dude and the fans will bust your ass.

Jordan from Set Your Goals was nice enough to take time out of their nonstop touring schedule to answer some questions for us.

Shout!: Can you give a brief history of the band?

Jordan: We started …  Continued »

Track :01

Imagine that you and your friends are driving around on the weekend. One of your friends is shuffling through your iPod or CD’s to find the perfect album to entertain you as you drive aimlessly around town. You can’t see what album that your friend has picked, but as soon as you hear the first note, you are singing along. You are now hooked for the entire album.

The opening track to an album is the most important track with the exception of the album’s singles. The opening track is what pulls you into an album. It is the first impression you have on an album, and often times an opinion on an album or even an artist or group is formed directly off the first track. Therefore it is very important that an artist carefully decides which song will be the first track.

Obviously the decision of what is a good first track and what is not boils down to opinion, but typically someone’s opinion of the first song on an album is a good representation of what they think of the album as a whole. Here is a list of opening tracks over the past 10 years that I feel are strong first tracks:

• Against Me! - “T.S.R. (This Shit Rules)” from the album As The Eternal Cowboy
• Coldplay - “Politik” from the album A Rush of Blood to the Head
• Coldplay - “Don’t Panic” from the album Parachutes
• Daft Punk - “One More Time” from the album Discovery
• Death Cab for Cutie - “The New Year” from the album Transatlanticism
• The Flaming Lips - “Yeah Yeah Yeah Song” from the album At War With the Mystics
• The Flaming Lips - “Race for the Prize” from the album Soft Bulletin
• Ben Folds - “Annie Waits” from the album Rockin’ the Suburbs
• Gatsbys American Dream …  Continued »
  

When I was asked if I would like to interview State Radio, I eagerly accepted. Although I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t know much about the band before the interview, I remembered several friends talking nonstop about a band called Dispatch. I also recalled these same friends telling me that I needed to check out their new project, State Radio. So this was the perfect opportunity for me to check out this fantastic band.

Playing an interesting blend of rock and reggae, State Radio use their music to express their political stance on a variety of issues affecting our world today. They were kind enough to take time out of their busy touring schedule to answer some questions for us.

Shout!: For those who don’t know about the history of the band, can you give a description of how the band was formed?

State Radio: Chuck had just come out of the disbanding of Princes of Babylon. I’d met those guys when they came up to Boston and had played with Dispatch. Maddog was playing buckets outside of Fenway Park and we struck up a conversation. He’d gone to school with a friend of mine from high school. I had heard that he plays drums in a Spider-man leotard so it seemed like a good fit.

S!: You guys are out on tour right now in support of the your new album. How have the crowds been reacting to the new material?

SR: Yeah, we’ve been playing mostly from the new album and it’s going over well. In some cases people know the new album better than some of the older stuff.

S!: Most of your lyrics revolve around political causes. Are there any political causes you want to bring to the attention of the Shout! readers?

SR: The ongoing genocide …  Continued »

Covered

A cover song can go one of two ways. It can either bring a band respect, or the band can infamously go down as the band who attempted an impossible cover (see: Cartel “Wonderwall” and any Panic! at the Disco cover.) However, when a band does justice to the original song they are performing while adding their own unique style and flavor, a cover song can in turn become more memorable than the original work.

Its often important to look at why a band covers a song. The most logical reason a band covers a song is because they respect the original artist, love the original song, or were inspired by the original artist or song. But there are a variety of other reasons a band covers a song. Compilations are often made of various covers, such as the “Punk Goes” series. Bands will also pay respect to a particular artist by participating in a tribute album.  And some artists even put out entire albums of covers based on a theme, such as New Found Glory or Steel Train. And sometimes a band just does a cover for humor.

Whether the cover is a live bootleg or a studio recording, a cover can often become a fan’s favorite recording by an artist. So if you have the desire to cover a song, be sure to think through the do’s and don’ts of covers and make it memorable.

Here are some of our staff’s favorite cover songs:

• Foo Fighters - “Darling Nikki” by Prince
• Taking Back Sunday - “Message in a Bottle” by The Police
• Jesse Lacey - “Web in Front” by Archers of Loaf
• Lucero -”Kiss the Bottle” by Jawbreaker
• The Format - “This Town Ain’t Big Enough For the Both of Us” by Sparks
• The Format - “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” by Billy …  Continued »
  

William Payne
www.myspace.com/williampaynemusic
www.myspace.com/isingthebodyelectrc

One of the many advantages of writing for Shout! Is that you can help promote artists and your friends that make music you really believe in. When I received the opportunity to write New To You this month, I was ecstatic to help out several artists that are personal friends of mine. The first is my friend William Payne.

William honestly writes some of the most beautiful music I’ve heard in a long time. With influences ranging from Elliot and Braid to Ryan Adams and Matthew Good to Johnny Cash, his music is a perfect blend of alt-country. And in the strange case that you don’t fall in love with William’s solo material, check out his dance side project I Sing the Body Electrc.

The talent here is undeniable. Although his future plans are to sit in his room and sing and play guitar, I believe William could be going places. Seriously I can’t stress this enough. Check this kid out.  Continued »

I have something to admit. I am the music fan every record label hates. I download albums when they leak, and after several listens I publicly declare that the album is either brilliant or complete garbage. I justify my piracy by heavily promoting the albums I do enjoy and making sure that I’m in stores the week the album is released to support the artist. Leaks have become an inevitable problem for the music industry. There’s very little that a label or artist to do to ensure that their album doesn’t make its way online and then spread around the Internet.

Many artists have decided to take matters in their own hands however, which brings us to Stars. On July 10th, Stars essentially leaked their fourth studio album album, In Our Bedroom After the War, by releasing it to digital retailers two months early. Opening up the album to the online world in both legal and illegal forums, the early leak was a hopeful attempt to provide the album early to the fans in hopes that they would buy it in the digital form and again when the album is released in stores. The Format also used this method under different circumstances with their record Dog Problems. This early leak might be the best move the band could have made, because there’s a good chance they just leaked the album of the year.

In Our Bedroom After the War is one of the most beautiful albums released in years. The musicianship on this album is unbelievable. Every single song is moving, and the lyrics are both inspirational and heartbreaking. The vocals, that move back and forth between male and female vocalists Tourquil Campbell and Amy Millan are memorizing. Where so much of the music that we listen to today feels disposable and lacks staying power, …  Continued »

Sometimes, a band’s worst enemy is their own discography. That is the case with Gainesville, Florida’s Against Me! Over the past few years, the band has tried to recreate and evolve its sound. However, many of the band’s fans have found it impossible to not compare the new album New Wave to the band’s previous albums Reinventing Axl Rose and As the Eternal Cowboy.

If you compare New Wave to these two albums, you will be disappointed. It’s impossible for this record to meet the high bar set by Reinventing Axl Rose and As the Eternal Cowboy. This was the same problem the band faced with 2005’s Searching for a Former Clarity. However, if you can separate the band’s previous material and listen to it as its own entity, you are left with a smart, fantastic album.

New Wave is a 34 minute long political assault. The album opens with the title track “New Wave” which helps set the mood for the rest of the album. “Up the Cuts” is the album’s weakest track. “Thrash Unreal” is New Wave’s best track due to its catchy “ba ba ba…” nonsense sing along. This song could easily be the song to make Against Me! a household name. The first single “White People for Peace” is a protest song of the war in Iraq that is impossible to ignore. “Stop” is a catchy song that’s impossible to not sing along to. The biggest surprise on the record is “Borne on the FM Waves”, a beautiful duet with Tegan Quin of Tegan and Sara fame. “Piss and Vinegar” opens with the one of the best intros on the album. “Americans Abroad” is a fun song that actually debuted on the band’s live album, Americans Abroad: Against Me! Live in London. “Animal” starts with a dirty sounding guitar rift …  Continued »

Warped Surprises

Every summer, thousands of kids countdown the days until their city’s stop of the Van’s Warped Tour. Over the past 13 years the Warped Tour has zigzagged its way across the country, bringing the biggest names in punk music to mass crowds that these artists could only dream of.

Although the Warped Tour has always primarily served as the token “punk and pop punk” music festival, each year the lineup has changed and adjusted to fit the ever widening musical spectrum. Underoath has been on the Warped Tour lineup since 2004 and has helped to define the tour as being more than just a punk rock festival. Bands such as From First to Last and Aiden have helped shape the festival to appeal to the emo culture, while bands like Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance have helped bring the tour to the mainstream public.

Despite the diversity that the Warped Tour offers, there are still many oddball bands that may cause you to scratch your head in confusion. From 80’s artists to nu-metal pioneers, from rappers to bands you just can’t imagine on the tour, here are the Warped Tour artists from left field.

• Billy Idol (2005)
• The Black Eyed Peas (1999)
• D12 (2001)
• Eminem (1999)
• Ice-T (1999)
• Incubus (1999)
• Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (2006)
• Jurassic 5 (2001)
• Kid Rock (1998)
• Limp Bizkit (1997)
• Papa Roach (2000)
• Sublime (1995)
• Talib Kweli (2006)
• Twiztid (2003)