WHERE ARTISTS AND FANS BAND TOGETHER.
Welcome to the first episode of The Breakdown in 2022!
In 2021, we had the return for festivals and concerts and lets hop it stays that way! Festivals haven't announced their lineups yet but bands have kicked off their tour announcements. This week, we break down some of our favorites coming to our cities. Catch you on the road?
Music has always been a major part of my life. That’s just a well known fact about myself, as well as so many people. However, this year has been different for me in terms of music. Somehow, it really became even more important to me - which I did not think was possible in any way.
I live in Texas and I would say that the rockiness of this year really started when the winter storm happened. Being without power in the freezing temperatures for over two days was certainly not how I wanted to spend my days that week.
I lost almost all signal on my phone during the blackout, so for two days - I was without music. That may not seem like much, but for me - music is how I get through everything. I had so many songs stuck in my head during those two days that I just relied on the music being played in my head. When the power finally came back on, I spent pretty much my entire night listening to everything that was stuck in my head.
Two months later, I finally got a taste of live music for the first time in a year. I traveled to Florida to see The Living Street, at the same bar where I first saw them and met them.
I shared in my reflection piece about the experience that being around them again and watching them perform put the biggest smile on my face and that it was the happiest I had been in a while and it really was.
At the time, I had been living in a hotel - thanks to the winter storm damaging my house. It felt nice the first two or three weeks, but the loneliness washed over me and the depression started to sink in. So when I reunited with The Living Street, it brought over a sense of happiness. It was one of those times where I just could not stop smiling and for that - I am grateful for them bringing that happiness to me.
Nothing made me happier than watching two people I consider to be inspirations to me and also great friends of mine perform the music that made such an impact on me and my life. Nothing made me happier than just hanging out with them again after a year.
After coming home from that wonderful trip and I moving into another hotel, I started feeling really motivated about writing and just kept writing and writing. I wrote everything from my reflection piece on my reunion with The Living Street to gaining courage and writing about my abuse story for sexual assault awareness month to different music reviews. I felt like the music just motivated me in some way and pushed me to keep writing and writing and I felt great about it.
In late May, just two days before my birthday, Greta Van Fleet’s Strange Horizons tour went on sale and I already knew that I wanted to go to the Nashville concert, so I bought a ticket. Simple story, huh? Well, something else happened.
In BANDED’s Slack group chat, fellow banded writer, Sara shared a link talking about an independent radio station in Nashville hosting a giveaway for front row seat tickets at the night one concert.
“I never win these things so I’ll just participate for fun,” I remember thinking. I was proven wrong several hours later, when I saw that the station pinned my comment on their post and messaged me on Instagram and said that I won.
To say I was in shock would be an understatement, but I was so beyond thrilled. Honestly, what an amazing birthday present!
Days before the show, the station called me and upgraded my tickets to the pit. That upgrade made me feel especially stoked.
Finally, Nashville came and I met up with another fellow Banded writer, Kiki. After two years of talking, this would be our first time ever meeting in person. We met at the hotel and our first in-person greeting was us running to each other, hugging each other and shouting out, “It’s all happening!”
The next day, we spent our day at the Musician’s Hall of Fame, we walked down Broadway and listened to some live music while eating lunch, as well as experiencing our first ever Grimey’s experience.
Then the day of the Greta Van Fleet show came and we spent most of our day in line. Once the gates opened for us to go through, it wasn’t necessarily easy for me and my mental health at that very moment.
When my ticket was scanned and I was let in, I felt so overhyped and overwhelmed that the second I found a bench, I sat down and just started sobbing. I actually even began wondering if I was worth the pit at all.
Thankfully, I got past that and met up with Kiki - as well as other fellow Banded staff; Sara and Angel. When we were allowed to go down, I finally made it to the rail.
It was my third Greta show, my second pit experience and my first rail experience, on Sam’s side too!
I had a surreal moment sometime later when I looked over and spotted one of my favorite modern rockers, Tyler Bryant. Ironically enough, when Kiki and I were at Grimey’s the day before, she spotted a Tyler Bryant and the Shakedown vinyl and pointed it out to me. So I approached him and talked to him for a minute and took a picture, I give meeting him a solid 100/10 because he is a total sweetheart.
There was also a moment where Josh came running into the pit, handing out roses and I managed to become one of the lucky people to get one. Despite the panic I experienced prior, that experience was one I’ll never truly forget.
Those are just some of the major music moments that really meant so much to me this year, but it just shows that music played a huge part in my life this year and it was in a way I never imagined before.
Now, I have four concerts lined up over the next four months: The Aces on December 17, Marcus King Band in February, Yungblud in early March and traveling to Cincinnati for Greta Van Fleet - where I’ll be experiencing it with most of the Banded staff!
I wanna thank The Living Street for playing a major role in my life this year and for the amazing reunion in Apalachicola, Lightning 100 for selecting me to win the Greta Van Fleet tickets, Kiki for an unforgettable first Nashville visit and third Greta experience, and my Banded family for being so amazing.
Let 2022 be a bigger year for music.
The Christmas spirit was alive at the Voodoo brewing company in New Kensington Pennsylvania. Local band, The Living Street, welcomed friends and family in with warm hugs and awesome live music. Lead singer Nick Guckert is one of the sweetest people I have ever met and has the voice of an angel. He sang some of my favorite songs such as ‘Take It Easy’ by The Eagles and ‘Heart of Gold’ by Neil Young. Lead Guitarist Edward J. Angelo not only has beautiful hair but has mad guitar skills. Nick and Edward had an incredible stage presence as they made everyone feel at home. The positive energy they brought through their music radiated through everyone.
The bar was decorated with beautiful artwork and instagram worthy aesthetics. My favorite part of the restaurant was the rugged phone booth and just the overall grungy look of the place. This place was perfect for The Living Street’s intimate performance as everyone had a special connection with Nick and Edward.
If you would like to check out The Living Street their music is available for your listening on spotify. I highly recommend supporting them and coming to one of their performances. Their genre is soft rock with a hint of folk and country. Their latest single, ‘Jealous Ghost’ sounds amazing live. Nick portrays the emotions of the song perfectly through his lyrics with his smooth yet powerful voice. Edward’s rhythms match the passionate sadness of the song with great detail. They are both two very talented young musicians and I am excited to go to many many more of their gigs in the future.
Country Metal. That’s a two word phrase that would likely seem like an oxymoron to most people. What two genres could be (seemingly) more diametrically opposed?
That’s what I thought when I first read it off the front of Cody’s trucker cap. What the hell is country metal? If you ask Cody Parks (and I did) it’s a little like ‘Def Leppard on corn bread’.
And you know what? That’s a pretty damn good descriptor.
I had to see it for myself, though.
I’m not sure when my first Filthy Friday was, but I’ve been a nearly permanent fixture ever since.
Maybe it was the plunger beer caddy. Maybe it was the fog machines. Maybe it was the snakeskin boots. It’s wild, it’s a little trashy, its kinda silly, it’s FUN. Whatever it was that grabbed me, it sure as hell grabbed me.
You see, here’s the thing about country metal; it is 100% unequivocally, balls to the wall, backwoods, in your face rock. And it’s 100% Cody Parks.
You might be like me.
Country Metal?
…what?
Nervous laugh, side eye, right?
But the ability, willingness, and audacity to combine the two genres is frankly what makes it badass.
It shouldn’t rock as hard as it does. But it does.
I’m a country metal evangelical. I want everyone to check. it. out.
This latest single “Dirt I’m From” marries the two genres seamlessly.
There’s just something about flesh shredding guitar being paired with lyrics like
If you leave those lights in the rear view
concrete runs out turns into kudzu
that IMMEDIATELY makes me want to act up.
And I promise you, if you come out to one of these shows, you’re gonna be hollering YES SIR, YES MA’AM just like the rest of us.
For me, the thing that makes this band, and Country Metal in general so appealing is not necessarily the music itself, (which KICKS ASS by the way) it’s creation of something unique the encompasses every part of the personality, even those that seem at odds with one another.
I’m no stranger to cowpunk and “y’allternative”. Bands like Wilco, Old 97’s, Cross Canadian Ragweed, and American Aquarium are permanent fixtures on my playlists. Country Metal hits a little different, though.
Maybe it’s my red dirt roots speaking here, but country metal kinda resonates with me on a spiritual level. It’s the sitting the the KMart parking lot listening to Ride The Lightning, because there’s nowhere else to hang out. It’s the tearing up backroads with the windows down wearing out the CD that your buddy burned titled “songs that fuckin’ ROCK ”. It’s the Pantera posters peeling off the double wide bedroom walls. It’s loving something SO MUCH despite being a part of a culture and a geographical area that typically opposes it, and STILL weaving in that culture from your hometown. It’s loving Willie Nelson AND Van Halen.
It’s just learning to love every part of yourself and your background and throwing it back in the faces of everyone who says any part of it sucks. It’s just badass.
“Dirt I’m From” is all of that.
You don’t have to take my word for it. The next Filthy Friday is Jan 14th at Live Oak on Demonbruen. Come out and taste some country metal for yourself.
And if you can’t make it out to Nashville, catch Cody Parks and the Dirty South on December 16th for How Banded Stole Christmas, live on our IG.
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. There is one band that has had more of an impact on my life than any other, and this is the one. Though I’ve only been familiar with their full discography for a little over three years now, the ways my life has changed since diving in to everything they have to offer has amazed me. 2021 marks 45 years since Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers came onto the rock ‘n’ roll scene, and to celebrate that, I want to share with you a personal piece about how this band has changed my life.
What’s funny is that the biggest impact this band has had on my life can be summed up in one single line from one single song that was released AFTER Tom passed. It is my all-time favorite song by any artist or band ever, and if you told me I had five minutes left to live, I’d listen to this song and then start it over even though I know I wouldn’t be able to finish it a second time. The song is “Keep a Little Soul,” and it was released in 2018. As soon as I first heard the lyric that ends the second verse, my life was changed.
I had just gotten into Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers in late 2018 (and I’ll forever regret taking so long!), and I had also just been given a huge collection of old records from my high school Spanish teacher. I remember being sat in my living room floor digging through the records with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ music videos playing on my TV for some background noise. I was crate digging and letting YouTube’s Autoplay function take over when I heard Tom’s voice count off into a song I’d not yet heard before. I looked up and saw archival footage of a happy early 80s Tom and was drawn in immediately. I was bopping along and digging on the song when the ending line of the second verse hit – “don’t be afraid to live what you believe.” At face value, that line might not mean much to you, but to me, it hit me like a train. As soon as I heard it, it started to rule my life, and it still does to this day.
To an extent, I suppose I changed the meaning in a way – I really latched onto that first part, “don’t be afraid.” For a big part of my life I’ve refrained from doing certain things just because I was afraid of something. I was afraid of embarrassing myself, or of people making fun of me. I was afraid I would make some kind of mistake that couldn’t be fixed, or I’d face some kind of rejection and get hurt. I wanted to protect myself, but in sheltering myself, I found that despite being “protected,” I was still as unhappy in my own skin as I would be if I embarrassed myself or made some kind of irreparable mistake. That lyric just drove that point home. You are equally as unhappy when you shelter yourself from hurt as you are when you get hurt. When I started to risk getting hurt to do the things that mattered to me, things began to change.
With that lyric, Tom Petty helped me realize that it’s okay if you don’t fit in, or if who you are doesn’t belong where you are. His and the Heartbreakers’ music feels like a second home, a place to go when you feel like you don’t belong wherever you are. It’s a place without judgment and without fear. In that home, I could wear as many of my weird hats as I could ever want without getting snide glances, my Instagram username could be as dorky as I want it to be without being laughed at (and it’s dorky, trust me). It was because I felt safe in their music that “don’t be afraid to live what you believe” is so easy for me to live out now.
I think I could even attribute my moving to Indiana from Arkansas to this line. The only reason I’m here in Indiana is because I believed in my crazy idea that children’s educational media is not only something interesting to study, but something I could pursue graduate work and eventually a career in. When I first started thinking about going to graduate school with this interest, I was scared. I agonized over it, whether or not I could do it in the first place and if I could even find a place to go that would take me. Every time throughout the process of deciding what I was going to do that I would hear “Keep a Little Soul,” that line would hit me again just like it did the first time, and nudge me in the right direction. I filled out applications, I wrote essays, I wrote an entire thesis based on this idea, and I got in, because doing this is something I believe it, and I lived it.
It's also because of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and this song that I’m writing this piece that you’re reading in the first place. Tom Petty effectively brought my fellow BANDED contributor Baylee Avery into my life. From what I understand, she friend-requested me on Facebook after seeing that we share a love of Tom Petty and The Shelters, a band that Tom had worked extensively with. I accepted, seeing that we had some Tom Petty-related friends in common, and we connected on Instagram. Immediately upon connecting with her, I could see that writing was something she’s unbelievably passionate about. Music journalism is her dream, and her passion and enthusiasm for it radiates off of her in everything she does. I was inspired by that – she was doing everything in her power to live what she believes. Seeing that made me realize that my own journey with music didn’t have to be over just because I had chosen an academic path.
I remember becoming more and more interested in BANDED as I saw Baylee post about it more and more often, but it took me a while to actually consider it for myself. Once I did start to consider it as something I could do too, I found myself making every excuse I could think of as to why I couldn’t do it. I would fill in the submission boxes to apply to be a volunteer contributor, but I’d never click that submit button. It was something I wanted, but I was hesitant and afraid. In conjunction with an also inspiring line from a Shelters song, this line from “Keep a Little Soul” worked its magic on me yet again. I realized that I was just making excuses and that being involved in music in any and all capacities possible was something that I very much believed in, with my whole heart and soul. It was important, it was imperative, that I live that, so I hit that submit button, and here we are today. It is because of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers that I joined the team, and now I get to write all about them.
Their music has spoken to me since day one. Whether the meaning I pull out of each song is the meaning Tom intended doesn’t really matter, and I think he knew that people would do that. I think he wrote his songs in a way that mattered to him, but he knew that people could and would find some other meaning outside of anything he ever imagined. I hope he was proud of that, that his music had that kind of power and effect on people. I hope all of the Heartbreakers are. Despite having not truly discovered his discography until after Tom passed, it feels like he knew me, he knew my struggles, he knew where my heart was, and he knew what I needed to hear. It felt like he understood me without ever even knowing me. One of the songs released after his passing, “For Real,” has a line that I think is important here.
“I did for real,
would’ve done it for free.
I did it for me,
cuz it was all that rang true.
I did it for real,
and I did it for you.”
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers made music for them, because they loved it, but in the least selfish way possible. Anyone who loves to make music knows how just how powerful music can be; they did it for them, but they did it for us too, to create something real, something meaningful. I just don’t think they knew just how many lives they would change while they did it.
It’s so easy to only talk about Tom, and not the rest of the Heartbreakers simply because Tom did a vast majority of the writing for the band, and it’s his words that have connected with me. However, you cannot discount the influence of the Heartbreakers, and ultimately, we wouldn’t have Tom Petty without them. When Mudcrutch went to LA to try and get a record deal, got one, and then the label only wanted Tom, he fought to have a band. He didn’t want it to just be him, he never intended for it to just be him, and if the label had refused to let him have his band, I think he would’ve walked away. He cared about the music being bigger than just him – it meant so much more to him than just the spotlight.
Talented as he was, he couldn’t have replaced a single Heartbreaker because they were all so necessary to the makeup of the band. Tom couldn’t have taken the place of Mike Campbell, or Benmont Tench, or any of the Heartbreakers. Each one of them is integral to the sound and legacy of this band. They didn’t write the words, but they brought the emotion to every single song as though they were all living every word. Their contributions to every single song are insurmountable. They brought ideas that only they could have had, and without those elements they brought in, the songs just wouldn’t have been the same. Who would ever want to hear “American Girl” without Mike’s guitar riff, or “You Don’t Know How It Feels” without Steve Ferrone’s perfectly tasteful drums, or “Southern Accents” without Benmont’s beautiful piano?
I truly believe this band changed my life. I am who I am now because of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. No band has influenced me the way this one has, and no song has impacted me the way some song recorded in the 80s that was thrown in the vaults until being uncovered nearly 40 years later has. I find myself endlessly amazed when I look at where I am now, knowing that I’m only here because I finally decided to stop being afraid. I will forever be grateful to this band for having given me and continuing to give me the pushes I need to keep moving in a forward direction. There really will never be another band like them.
Cheers to 45 years of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and never being afraid to live what you believe!
What’s up rockers from all across the world! It is that time of the year for our top picks.
2021 was a huge year for the rock industry and so many of our favorite artists put out new music after the craziness of 2020. Becca & I breakdown our favorite albums of the year, some you may have heard of, but others may not have caught your radar….
In honor of 5 Seconds Of Summer’s (5SOS) tenth anniversary, the Australian band dropped their newest single titled ‘2011’, the year they established themselves as a band.
Throughout the past decade they've seen a lot but started from virtually nothing. In February 2011, front man Luke Hemmings posted his first ever singing cover of Mike Posner's ‘Please Don't Go’. As months progressed the rest of the band started to come together recruiting lead guitarist Michael Clifford, bassist Calum Hood, and drummer Ashton Irwin.
In 2014, they joined One Direction on tour as the opening act on the Take Me Home tour, which helped the band acquire a large following. In that same year, they released their self titled album that featured their first major single, ‘She Looks So Perfect’. The year after they embarked on their first major headlining tour Rock Out With Your Socks Out.
In 2018, 5SOS opted to swap out the pop punk persona for a more mature pop sound with their single, ‘Want You Back’. This set the stage for their sophomore album, Youngblood, which had great success. Continuing on with this new sound during the first major shock of a global pandemic, they dropped their fourth album CALM which debuted at #2 on the billboard 200 chart. It would have been their fourth album to reach #1 but due to a shipping error the sales were counted a week earlier than the actual release date.
But enough of memory lane let's talk about… well, memory lane.
On December 3rd at midnight, they dropped not only a homage to the years they spent together as bandmates, they dropped a sneak peak to what they've been cooking up in the couple months for their next album. 2011 has a poppy feel good atmosphere with hints of reflective melodies. Lyrically, it's a sentimental anthem of living bravely in a moment in the past as if it was easier than the current uncertainties of the present. It highlights that life changes fast and often we take moments in the present for granted while worrying about the future then find ourselves looking back at days gone by wishing we could return to the very same moment we started worrying in the first place. Lastly, long time fans will rejoice once they hear that all four members recorded vocals like it's quite literally 2011.
I think I speak for all of us when I say that we’re really proud of the four Australian boys who started out singing covers on youtube and that we are on the edge of our seats for what's to come in the next decade!
Electric Light Orchestra. ELO. Where do I even begin?
2021 marks 50 years of the band’s existence as ELO, and despite a name change in 2015, the band and its music live on. ELO was my first favorite band. They’ve been a part of the soundtrack to my life for as long as I can remember. I have so many memories of my childhood with ELO playing in the background. All the time I spent in the car as a child, for so much of it I had my peace sign headphones on listening to Secret Messages and Balance of Power, or my dad was playing “Jungle” or “Telephone Line” out loud in the car for my brother and I and we were goofily singing along and laughing. ELO will forever be one of my favorite bands, and to celebrate their 50 years of making magic, I want to share with you what ELO means to me.
ELO was THE band that single-handedly shaped my taste in music. ELO’s music has always been harmony-centric, sonically interesting, and different from the music of their peers. The sounds they’ve created are unique and innovative – they were always doing something wild and interesting. More than with any other band, I have found myself drawn to music that employs the same big elements you’ll find in ELO’s discography.
My entire life I’ve been drawn to music that is very harmony-centric. Most of my favorite bands focus heavily on harmonies in their music. It is arguably because of ELO that I fell in love with Queen when I was 12, or The Last Bandoleros when I was 17, or Breaking Grass when I was 19. Breaking Grass is a unique example when it comes to harmonies. Bluegrass music could not possibly be any more different from the classic ELO sound, yet it is because of the classic ELO sound that I love bluegrass music. Who could have predicted the ELO to bluegrass pipeline?
The ”orchestra” part of the Electric Light Orchestra has always been one of my favorite things about them. Strings in non-classical music is like magic in its purest form. I am obsessed with strings and string sounds in non-classical music. I am always the most obnoxious person in the comment section when one of my favorite bands uses strings or string sounds in their newest releases, just hollering about how much I love it. There is no song on this earth that strings cannot improve, I am convinced, and it was ELO that convinced me. They sparked that love, that obsession, and now I can’t get enough.
I always love picking out songs in the Top 40 that sound like ELO too, and every time I find one, every bone in my body wishes I could ask the artist what influenced that sound. Thad Cockrell was on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon with his song “Swingin,” and I very distinctly remember Jimmy himself talking about how much he thought the song sounded like ELO. I was fairly skeptical, but as soon as that chorus came in, I thought that song would’ve fit right in on Out of the Blue. The Weeknd’s “Save Your Tears” is reminiscent of Time to me; if a few more elements were added, just a little more production done, it could be on that record. Whether you agree or disagree with me on that, and I’m sure several people disagree, the point is that I can hear ELO everywhere I go. I hear elements from their music everywhere. That’s not to say that every artist everywhere was inspired by ELO, ELO was after all heavily influenced by The Beatles, but it's such fun to pick out those similar sounds in modern music.
It’s also worth mentioning the ELO - Traveling Wilburys – Tom Petty, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, and Bob Dylan pipeline. I knew who all of these musicians were before discovering the Wilburys, but it was because I discovered the Wilburys that I found a love for each of these musicians, and it is because of ELO that I discovered the Wilburys. George Harrison is my favorite Beatle, Tom Petty is my favorite musician of all time, Roy Orbison has one of my favorite voices ever, and Bob Dylan? He’s a legend (and I’ve seen him live!), and the Wilburys were my proper introduction to him. ELO led me to these incredible rock ‘n’ rollers, and who could ask for a better group of musical dads?
Even not being fully exposed to their full discography as a kid, I still, even with what little I had really heard as a kid, became so open to new-to-me and unique musical sounds. I was musically very open-minded to many genres (though there were some that I still refused to touch), and the discoveries I made as I grew up are ones that I’m not sure I would have made without ELO to open my mind. Their sonic uniqueness and the cinematic quality to their music put me on the path to discovering Greta Van Fleet. Their use of haunting chord progressions turned me on to songs like Fastball’s “The Way” or The Hollies’ “The Air That I Breathe.” Just being exposed to sounds that differed from what all my friends were listening to made me more open to other sounds that my friends weren’t listening to. I think ELO might be one of the reasons I find myself latched onto Tejano and Cuban sounds, sounds like those The Last Bandoleros and The Mavericks make. For me, those kinds of sounds are very different from what I was surrounded with where I grew up, but it was already so different from my peers to listen to ELO that listening to other things like that wasn’t difficult for me, and doing so has allowed me to discover so many new and beautiful bands.
I think ELO is an incredible example of an idea that has plagued me for a few years now – I believe that we are all a mosaic of everything we have ever loved, and that applies to music too. Who we are is due, at least in part, to the music we love. When I’m feeling introspective, I think about how my life might be different if I’d never been exposed to their music. ELO will forever be one of my favorite bands. I will forever cherish the music I’ve discovered because of them and the memories I’ve made with their music as the soundtrack.
Cheers to 50 years, to many more, and to the music that is reversible when time is not.
What was recorded on Joe Perry’s tape recorder by five guys living in Boston in 1971 has resurfaced 50 years later as part of a special release for Record Store Day 2021, “Aerosmith: The Road Starts Hear”. While the 7 song LP is a special release only for Record Store Day, Aerosmith did release “Movin’ Out”, which wasn’t released later until 1973, on their YouTube channel for the entire world to hear.
“Movin’ Out” is a significant song for Aerosmith because this was the very first song Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, the Toxic Twins, wrote together. This song started everything for this band and now this could possibly be the first EVER Aerosmith recording. It only makes sense that this was the first, and possibly only song released from this very special recording.
“All that is certain is that the tape captures a young, hungry rock band one year before being discovered and signing with Columbia Records and two years before their self-titled major label debut was released that helped catapult the band to one of the biggest rock acts of all time.” -Aerosmith.com
This recording of “Movin’ Out” is so unique because it actually takes you back to the time when Aerosmith started out. When listening, you feel the energy of that young, hungry, and at the time, no-named rock band. It’s honestly something I’ve never experienced.
As a young Aerosmith fan and someone who was raised in Boston where it all started, I feel like there was so much of their career that I missed out on, especially in their early days. Hearing this recording makes me feel like I was right there with them back in ‘71. Again, something I’ve never felt before when listening to any of their music, it’s a surreal feeling. This track gives you a glimpse of who Aerosmith was before they became the Bad Boys of Boston we all know and love today.
What blows my mind most about this is how even though the band had been together for about a year at that point, it sounds as though they had been playing together for an entire lifetime. Sure you can tell right away that this is a young, 70s, garage rock band doing everything they can to make it big, but at the same you hear the chemistry that they have with each other. For a couple of young guys that were just starting out, they sound so professional and like a real rock band that's been playing together forever. They were destined to be together, and they were surely going to become one of the biggest bands in the world.
“Aerosmith: The Road Starts Hear” is an extremely limited release. All details can be found on Aerosmith’s website.
It’s early evening in the Bluegrass state, and emerging singer/songwriter and pop-star Danica Dye is the 22-year-old pride of popular music. ‘Other People,’ is an intimate self-reveal of a young woman not confident or assured; uncertain and anxious. But most of all, a young woman who’s still growing through those exploits. She’s trying her best amidst a recent breakup with a dumped boyfriend in question whom she stated, “We should see other people.” “Afterwards,” she continued, “I was blocked on social media.”
In the great tradition of the songwriting process of writing, recording, mixing and uploading a hit single, Danica did all of that with ‘Other People’ in a matter of less than four hours. “I’m very proud of myself for doing it all on my own,” says an inspired Dye, “but I’m also literally terrified of what people will think of it. As an artist, I think doing it all personally shows my independence and strength.” A Taylor Swift-esque soul-crushing split about a sad, desperate, tear-jerking point-of-view experience with a significant other/others. It has an unfinished feel, yet a complete heartfelt work of lyrical prowess that heralds her legacy amongst the modern greats in terms of popularity.
Dye at the age between 11 or 12, way before she was opined as the new Taylor Swift, but in the best possible way, grew up wandering into her father’s musical mantuary — or rather, studio, while he was working on a heavy use of an aggressive hard rock song. The shared moment down memory lane when her father allowed her to lyrically pour out writings and record all the sadness, and all the joy through her mind was one of Danica’s favorites.
The illogic dependency on other people, to see the beauty in who you are, is unhealthy to Dye, who has a hard time loving the person in the mirror. ‘Other People’ is like reading aloud from a self-written diary, but shared through a pleasant-sounding, painful ballad. “Is it goodnight? Or is it goodbye? Baby if you love me/Don’t tell me that you tried/I’m falling apart when I thought I could fly/So much for my songs/So much for my mind.” It’s one of those I can’t take my own advice songs,
Danica Dye is an everyday person, ready to take the stage of the music industry and show the entire world that nothing can stop them. “If anything,” she says briefly to sum up, “I want to bring disabilities into mainstream media and prove that we’re not unable to do anything. There’s a huge difference between the words “unable” and “disabled,” and I want to differentiate them once and for all. It’ll be a tough challenge down this road, but music is a universal language — if there’s one language I am fluent in, it’s music. That’s me.”
Emerging pop singer, yet this sorrowing pop banger immediately puts the songwriter’s writing ability up there with a list of the renowned greats who have made and left an infinite mark in music. It’s clear as day that Danica Dye is absolutely here to stay. And even better as it sounds like her very best is still yet to come, musically. “The words just kept tumbling around in my head, along with some advice from friends. I’m trying my hardest to love the person in the mirror.”
When your jaw drops to the floor within seconds of hearing a song and your soul wants to scream, you know it’s GOOOOOD. That was my honest and unadulterated reaction upon first hearing Andrew Hagar’s brand new song, ‘Redlight Appetite’. Released just today, this song follows his 2020 release ‘Coldknife Karma’ and boasts strong growth as an independent artist. Andrew Hagar is back and fiery than EVER.
Passionate vocals and grab-you-by-the-throat guitar riffs, ‘Redlight Appetite’ is pure poetic lust. Like a burst of flames rolling in, this track breathes energy and ingenuity into the rock n roll revival.
“The song was inspired by my own struggles with the cycle of addiction… not being able to identify the difference between love and lust, using sex as an unhealthy coping mechanism, burying my trauma with drugs and alcohol. Basically all the hallmarks of an addict prior to an intense spiritual awakening,” Andrew told Consequence.
Hagar worked with long time friend, Trev Lukather (son of Toto’s Steve Lukather), to write and produce the song. Proving teamwork really does make the dream work.
Stay tuned for more releases from Hagar coming in 2022. Until then, get lost in incendiary sound of ‘Redlight Appetite’ below…
BRKN LOVE have accomplished another well crafted piece that emulates their signature guitar sound, driving riffs and deep rooted lyrics. The Toronto/New York City based rock band have proven that they are a force to be reckoned with. “Dead Weight” is a powerful stance on self-deprecation and feeling like you’re the ‘odd one out’ because of their opposing views of mental normalcy.
Vocalist and Guitarist, Justin Benlolo has carefully crafted an anthem for those who feel like they’re in some form of mental asylum. This can be clearly represented in lyrics such as: “I’m going against the grain/I can’t help it I just love to hate/Black heart beating outta my chest/Head won’t stop like I'm possessed.” The lyrics show you what Benlolo was trying to expose to the world with precision. The song is clear proof that the band is ready to take everything to the next level.
You can check out “Dead Weight” and watch the video below…
Picture it - it’s 2004, Avril Lavigne was in her prime and releasing bop after bop. I mean, In My Skin? Superior album. We all fell in love with the angst that she brought to us through her songs and it’s probably safe to say that she is an emo queen.
Now fast forward to 2021, she released a new single with Blink-182 drummer, Travis Barker, titled “Bite Me”. A collaboration between Avril Lavigne and Travis Barker? 2000’s pop-punk icons? This is bound to be one hell of a song that’s full of nostalgia.
And full of nostalgia it is! This song screams; “2000’s pop-punk!” The second you hear Avril sing, “you should've known better, better to fuck with someone like me” - you know you’re in for a roller coaster ride back in time.
This song has almost the same vibe as Avril’s first single, “Complicated”. After first listening to it, I had to go back and listen to the hit single off of Let Go and I could feel the same vibe in both songs. It just comes to show you that even after almost 20 years, Avril can still rock out and STILL reigns queen of pop punk.
“Bite Me” is bound to make you feel like you’re back in 2004 rocking out to Avril in your bedroom. Get ready to start using your hairbrush as microphones again, folks. We can’t wait to hear what else Avril may have in store for all us.
Now, do us a favor and stream “Bite Me”….
Twenty years ago, Green Day released their first greatest hits album, International Superhits!.
The choice to release a hits album so early might seem strange to anyone looking retroactively at the careers of the Oakland based rockers, especially with their greatest chart success American Idiot still three years from being released at the time that International Superhits! hit the airwaves.
International Superhits! was released during a career lull. Green Day was struggling to fill venues they had previously packed out, and Warning, their 2000 release, while having a unique sound, deviated from their earlier and edgier albums, had not enjoyed the same commercial success as Dookie and their other earlier albums.
International Superhits! included many tracks that were at the time, highlights of the band’s career, but would now not be widely known by a listening audience such as “J.A.R.”, and “Stuck With Me”, as well as two singles exclusive to the album, “Maria”, and “Poprocks and Coke”.
The whole compilation album doesn’t just focus on the band’s chart toppers up to that point. The focus and feel of the record seems to aim to capture Green Day’s coming of age soft punk vibe. “Minority” being the classic ‘I won’t do what you want’ punk anthem, and “Redundant” showing the helpless and vulnerable side of the punk rockers. It’s sweet but it’s edgy, a trademark that’s become typical and familiar of all of frontman Billie Joe Armstrong’s lyrics, and honestly, it feels like a swan song. Listening through, you can almost feel that they thought this was it. This album was their youth, and they were saying goodbye.
This album was my youth, too. International Superhits! was the first or second piece of music media that I actually owned (the other being Dookie on cassette), a gift from my mother. I was, I think, in second grade when it came into my possession. I wore that thing out. It was one of those albums I could listen to all the way down, over and over and over again. It’s the album that made me want to play guitar. And yes, it was a greatest hits record. But it was the essence of Green Day up to that point.
As the band followed up International Superhits! with Shenanigans, an album of b-sides and rarities, in 2002, speculation that the band was finished making new music began to swirl around the punk and rock communities.
Then, their Phoenix flame and rebirth: American Idiot.
Three short years after releasing their (first) greatest hits album, Green Day would completely reinvent their sound, and enjoy more success than they ever had previously. Released in the midst of a Bush era war torn America, American Idiot was a dissenting voice in a sea of pro-American patriotism in art and music. It was loud, it was angry, it was raw, and it was divisive. And it was wildly popular.
Green Day continues to enjoy cultural relevance to date, with a new album (Father of All Motherfuckers), a supposed secret side project (see The Network), and a world tour with Weezer and Fall Out Boy they recently embarked on. Twenty years post their first hits album, Green Day continues to create hits, and International Superhits! remains a timeless and relevant punk rock classic.
Wristmeetrazor were a band I discovered earlier this year through an email form alternative press highlighting their new single “Last Tango In Paris”, I usually do not pay much attention to their now spam email characteristics, but for once they proved me wrong and gave what I consider one of the best breakout bands this year.
Coming out with their sophomore album Replica Of A Strange Love back in June, they’re now doing a proper tour to showcase it. You can checkout my full album review HERE.
With only one California date and being a sold-out show at Orange County’s iconic Chain Reaction in Anaheim, CA, there was no way I would miss catching this hidden hardcore gem. From discussing their new album, favorite tracks to play, first day on tour, we dive into it all, and …….. even announcing their newest member of the band, Elaine, taking the reins in bass as frontman Justin Fornof exclusively handles vocals now.
They are on tour with Seeyouspacecowboy currently and doing a 7 week long tour, be sure to catch them in venue near you, and be ready to throw down in the mosh pit, as their breakdowns are heavy and vocals completely demonic.
