The Audio Injected Soul Music News Report 12.27.07: Now In Color!
Posted by Brandon Ratliff on 12.27.2007
The one column guaranteed not to wish you a merry you know, that day.
The one column guaranteed not to wish you a merry you know, that day.
So, how was everyone's that that day? I got some neat stuff myself, but I'm sure none of you particularly care, so I won't bother going into what specifically I got. Needless to same, some gift cards are going to get a-spent tomorrow. Tomorrow being Wednesday oczywiscie.
So, I was thinking. Does anyone really give music CDs as that day presents anymore? Gift cards that lead to CD purchases seem much more likely as most people don't tend to know exactly what whomever they are buying for has and would want, but even so. I think people need to give more music for Chr err, that day. And no, I don't mean stupid iTunes or other download service cards. I mean cold, hard plastic CDs. Yeah, they really do still exist. Crazy, I know.
Otherwise I don't have much else to say this week. Glad that I made it past the first week, though right now I'm doing this pretty late because I forgot about it until just now, and I have errands and shopping all day tomorrow. I started playing a bit of Forza Motorsport 2 yesterday waiting for a friend to get back to me before we were to hang out. It was supposed to be a half hour that I was to wait, but that quickly turned into two and a half hours. I spent pretty much that entire time playing the game. I hadn't played it before even though I've owned it for a while, and I must say, it's a solid game. I definitely prefer it over Gran Turismo. Granted, GT3 sucked and pretty screen shots aren't going to sell me on GT4, especially since Sony is notorious for heavily doctoring their shots before releasing them. But I'm not much into racing games that aren't called Burnout, and FM2 seems to have found the perfect balance between allowing you to custom tune but not requiring you to in order to get the most out of your car. And you can paint your car any color you can imagine (including about forty different styles of light refracting paint) for free at any time, which is definitely cool. Right now I'm racing a yellow/blue refracting 1968 Shelby Cobra. It's hot stuff, let me tell you.
However, let's get to the meat and potatoes, which I had much of at my sister's house for that day.
I'm An Ol' Skool Playa
Sorry, but after thinking about it, I guess pimping is the way of the past. You can easily find all of the articles, and you were going to read them whether or not I mentioned them. So after this week this section will be gone.
Spend Your Money Night And Day, Buy The Albums That I Say
Wow. Ben "beefed up" his new release section this week. Is someone feeling the competition? Haha, moze. Glupi!
Anyways, I colored the releases to make them look neater and hopefully a bit easier to read. Let me know what you think, or if you think they're tougher to read, or whatever.
Also, after this week I'm going to start listing updates to the list in green similar to how Ben bolds his updates. Of course our lists are mostly the same in case you missed one of us, but we'll post a few different things each.
Jonathan Davis Alone I Play CD/DVD (out now)
Skillet Comatose re-release (out now)
Tool Vicarious DVD (out now)
Radiohead In Rainbows (January 1)
Smashing Pumpkins American Gothic iTunes EP (January 2)
GWAR Phallus In Wonderland DVD (January 8)
Testament Demonic re-release (January 8)
Testament The Gathering (January 8)
Ill Nino Enigma (January 8)
Maroon Cold Heart Of The Sun (January 15)
Once Nothing First Came The Law (January 15)
Egypt Central - Egypt Central (January 15)
Course of Nature Damaged (January 22)
Brainstorm - Downburst (January 22)
Byzantine Oblivion Beckons (January 22)
Pelican After The Ceiling Cracked CD/DVD (January 22)
Billy Talent 666 CD/DVD (January 22)
Mindless Self Indulgence - You'll Rebel To Anything (January 22)
The Mars Volta - The Bedlam in Goliath (January 29)
Protest The Hero Fortress (January 29)
Spineshank - The Best Of Spineshank (January 29)
Obituary - The Best Of Obituary (January 29)
Airbourne Runnin' Wild (January 29)
Bullet For My Valentine Scream, Aim, & Fire (January 29)
Stone Rider Three Legs Of Trouble (January 29)
The Dreaming Etched In Blood (January 29)
Cradle Of Filth Thornography re-release (February 5)
Gwen Stacy The Life I Know (February 5)
Lenny Kravitz It's Time For A Love Revolution (February 5)
Heaven Shall Burn - Iconoclast (February 5)
Simple Plan Simple Plan (February 12)
Isis Holy Tears (February 12)
Advent Remove The Earth (February 12)
Sworn Enemy - Maniacal (February 12)
The Black And White Years The Black And White Years (February 12)
Seven Mary Three Day & Night Driving (February 19)
3 The End Has Begun re-release (February 19)
Genghis Tron Board Up The House (February 19)
Ascension Of The Watchers - Numinosum (February 19)
Dead To Fall Are You Serious? (February 19)
Kingdom Of Sorrow Kingdom Of Sorrow (February 19)
This Is Hell - Misfortunes (February 19)
Don Airey Light In The Sky (February 26)
Black Tide Light From Above (February 26)
Ludo You're Awful, I Love You (February 26)
Isis Not In Rivers, But In Drops (February 26)
Don Airey Light In The Sky (February 26)
Pillar For Love Of The Game (February 26)
Tarja Turunen My Winter Storm (February 26)
Joe Budden Mood Muzik 3 (February 26)
Sevendust The 7th Chapter (March 4)
Meshuggah obZen (March 4)
Temposhark The Invisible Line (March 4)
On A Pale Horse A Generation Of Vipers (March 4)
Black Crowes - Warpaint (March 4)
Echovalve - Helloagaingoodbye (March 4)
Stuck Mojo Southern Born Killers (March 4)
A Girl A Gun A Ghost Through The Eyes Of Ahab (March 4)
Thine Eyes Bleed Thine Eyes Bleed (March 4)
The Presidents Of The United States These Are The Good Times People (March 11)
The Farewell Schizophrenic Love Songs (March 18)
Jucifer L'autrichienne (March 18)
Ministry Cover Up (March 25)
Pennywise Land Of The Free? (March 25)
Theory Of A Deadman Scars & Souvenirs (April 4)
M83 Saturdays = Youth (April 15)
10 Years Division (April 22)
Gigantour 2 DVD (April 22)
36 Crazyfists The Tide And Its Takers (April 29)
Testament The Formation Of Damnation (April 29)
News Is New, So What Do You Call That Which Is Old?
The News:Mudvayne is planning a tentative summer 2008 release for their as-of-yet untitled new album.
My Thoughts: Well, Hellyeah was a decent distraction, but ultimately just not the same as new Mudvayne. Don't get me wrong, I see that as a good thing. If I wanted new Mudvayne, I want the album to actually sayMudvayne on it. The only problem I have with them however is Mudvayne albums usually tend to been about four great, solid songs that end up as singles, maybe one or two more good to great songs, and then filler. I'm sure quite a few people disagree, but I've just never really been able to fully enjoy an entire album from them. If you were to make your own Mudvayne only compilation however, there is a lot of good material to choose from.
The News:Finger Eleven has released an EP to iTunes called Them vs. You vs. Me: Bonus Cuts. The EP has the title track and "Sacrifice" b-sides, and live versions of "Falling On" and "Paralyzer."
My Thoughts: Well, this annoys me. I really think they should just allow fans that have purchased the album to download these songs for free. I don't know the price, but my guess would be $4-$5, and honestly, I wouldn't pay that. And that's even considering that I really enjoyed that album. Now, were it four b-sides, I could see that. But you can easily look up live versions of those tracks (and any others you may want) on Youtube and web rip them, and I'm sure you will be able to find these two tracks in a b-sides collection somewhere (read: on bit torrent sites). A couple of related notes though. For one, the band recently scored their first platinum digital single with "Paralyzer." That honestly surprises me. I know the song has been ridiculously popular since they album was release way back when, but I'm surprised that "One Thing" didn't garner these honors. Then again the whole legal downloading thing was nowhere near as huge then as it is these days. Man that makes me feel old. On a second related note, for those of you that have an Xbox 360 and Xbox Live (Silver or Gold), if you haven't already go to the Video Store in Xbox Live Marketplace and download the Finger Eleven concert there. It's an hour long show recorded recently, and it's free. Definitely worth the download.
The News:12 Stones will offer "World So Cold" up to the soundtrack of the upcoming Rambo movie.
My Thoughts: It's no secret that "World So Cold" was one of, if not my favorite song of 2007. But man, is it just me or do the previews for that movie just look terrible? I was discussing it with my brother-in-law today, and he mentioned that he thinks that Stallone is just trying to resurrect his old flagships to make his way back into the spotlight and to introduce the franchises to newer audiences. Then again, looking at Live Free And Die Hard, and the Escape From L.A. prequel among others, it seems there's been a lot of that recently. Next thing you know we'll be getting a new Robocop film, and a new Lethal Weapon. Maybe a new trilogy of Terminator movies perhaps?
The News:Soulfly has completed recording their new album, which is expected to be release around summer 2008. No word on a title yet.
My Thoughts: Summer? Are they serious? The album is DONE. Come on, I know Max is a busy guy, but man, that's just ridiculous. Though I can't help but to wonder if Roadrunner is just sitting on it for some reason. I guess it wouldn't surprise me too much, but if that's the case they'd better be planning a mass marketing blitz.
The News:Sum 41 recently posted a song on their Myspace page called "Things I Want" featuring Jack Black of Tenacious D on vocals. As you might expect, the song is Christmas themed, and can be downloaded for free for a limited time.
My Thoughts: I downloaded it myself, and it's a pretty decent song. It's nice to hear Sum 41 do something in a more metal vein after the horrendously bad Underclass Hero album, which sounds like a bunch of Blink 182 throwaways. Plus Jack Black is always good for comedic value, even if he is extremely vulgar about his wish list to Santa. Go check it out, if only for a good laugh.
The News:Hinder front man Austin Winkler was arrested last Friday night for drunk driving. He was pulled over for driving without his headlights on, and arrested for suspicion after. He is set to appear in court on January 2nd.
My Thoughts: I highly doubt Winkler will get much more than a slap on the wrist and maybe some community service, but if he gets jail time out of this (which I figure is highly unlikely, but possible) it's going to really put a hindrance (no pun intended) on the recording of their next album. Somehow I don't think Universal would be too happy with that. The funny thing is a lot of people are probably happy about this, for as much hate as they get. But yes, I will defend the guy. Everyone knows that drinking and driving is obviously bad, but everyone makes mistakes. He's human, just like the rest of us. I've done two interviews with them (the second about six months and a platinum record later), and they remembered me between the two. Plus they are all really nice guys, despite what you'd hear. I'm sure this will teach him a lesson though. But seriously people, get off the guy's back.
The News:Bullet For My Valentine has posted an eCard with five track clips from their upcoming album Scream, Aim, Fire at this location.
My Thoughts: I kind of like the last album, but I'm not sure about this one yet. As much as they are claiming it is so much heavier, it seems that they are catering to the radio too much with these clips. And this whole Rob Zombie thing is still going on. Recently the drummer said something about a list of rules for the Zombie tour. I have two responses to that. For one, if it were really as bad as they are claiming, they'd have mentioned it sooner, and someone else would have complained about it before. And two, if there were really rules like he's claiming, they are there for a reason. Chances are someone went and screwed up horribly and Zombie's camp just doesn't want to deal with the crap that comes from it. Things like that can mean a lot of bad press, and they probably just don't want that. But, separating the artist from the music here, I think Bullet For My Valentine can be a decent band, but they really need to distance themselves from the pack more, and hopefully my first impressions of this album turn out to be wrong.
The News:Live Nation is preparing to launch their own ticket service on the beginning of the year. They plan to team up with CTS Eventium to collect customer information for the purpose of creating "enhanced ticket-based concert products."
My Thoughts: Umm huh? What does "enhanced ticket-based concert products" mean exactly? I'm a little curious about that. However, as a former Live Nation employee I can't honestly say anything too bad against them, because they did treat us all very well. Hopefully they will do something more than Ticketmaster to combat scalping and not charge ridiculous service charges at the same time. This is probably wishful thinking, but if there is a company that can compete with Ticketmaster it's definitely Live Nation. And on a personal note, I think Live Nation tickets look a lot cooler, especially for those of you that keep your stubs.
The News: Eddie Van Halen got divorced.
My Thoughts: Meh. Don't care.
The News: Ever dreamed of having Fear Factory guitarist Christian Wolbers produce your band? Well, me neither, but in case you have, now is your lucky chance. You can contact someone named Christy if you are interested in possibly working with Wolbers. In related news, Wolbers is currently working with Fear Factory drummer Raymond Herrera and Threat Signal front man Jon Howard on a new, yet to be named side project. This is going on while Fear Factory front man Burton Bell is working on his side project Ascension Of The Watchers.
My Thoughts: I'll admit, when Fear Factory released Archetype back in April of 2004, I went crazy over it. It was such a return to form with the newly christened guitarist Wolbers. But, after the ahem misstep that was Transgression and with the way he's acted since, Wolbers is really wearing thin on my patience. I won't go into great detail as to why since most fans already know, but man, I hope his antics aren't the end of a Fear Factory who showed great promise after breaking up and reforming following the departure of Dino Cazares. Something tells me that these projects may not be so much "side" as they are "next." But that kind of leaves me to wonder what Byron Stroud is up to now since Strapping Young Lad are done?
The Following Bands Claim To Be Working On A New Album. It's Probably Just A Government Conspiracy Though.
Dredg Are close to finishing the writing for their next album, saying that they plan to hit the studio sometime in early 2008. Some tentative titles they've mentioned for the album are Gathering Pebbles, Light Switch, Mourning This Morning, and McGuffin. Normally, I'd probably suggest that most or all of these are joke titles, but with Dredg, you can never really tell.
Misery Signal plan to head into the studio on the first of February to begin work on their new album. Devin Townsend (Strapping Young Lad) will produce. I'm a little unsure how they'll balance this with the Wolbers/Herrera/Howard project, but we'll see.
Bleeding Through are set to begin recording their next effort, which they have dubbed Declaration. Devin Townsend will produce this as well. This is good news, however, I hope the album turns out a little more like This Is Love, This Is Murderous than The Truth. Though admittedly I really did enjoy "Line In The Sand."
Lostprophets are working on their next album, currently without a title. According to vocalist Ian Watkins, they have fourteen tracks written, with more coming. The album is expected in the summer. Man, I really hope it's better than Liberation Transmission. They just went well, for lack of a better term, emo. "Everyday Combat" was amazing, and a couple other tracks were decent, but the majority of it fell flat. However, they did promise earlier a return to the Start Something sound, saying they got the "pop crap" out of their systems with Liberation Transmission. The only confliction I can see to this is that all of their albums have had a bit of a different feel and sound to them, so I suppose only time will tell.
The Used plan to hit the studio sometime within the next couple of months, eyeing a summer release. In related news, I still think Bert McCracken in gay. And yes, I do have a good reason for thinking that. Long story. Email me if you want to hear it. But in actually related news, the band recently saw their "Pretty Handsome Awkward" track made available for download in Guitar Hero III as part of the WMG Track Pack. The pack also includes Linkin Park's "No More Sorrow" and a Mastodon song. I actually really like the music to "Pretty Handsome Awkward," but I'm not a huge fan of his vocals. Still, an instrumental version of the song is heavily favored in the Transformers movie, which I highly enjoy.
Six Feet Under are planning on heading to a rehearsal space in Florida soon to begin writing the follow-up to 2007's Commandment. No title is set as of yet (obviously, since they haven't even began writing yet), but they do expect a fall to winter 2008 release for the album.
Listen Up! It's The Band Of The Week
Droid: Hailing from Long Beach, California, Droid is a metal band signed to Korn guitarist James "Munky" Shaffer's Emotional Syphon Records. They made a pretty big splash on this summer's Family Values tour, moving from opening the main stage to headlining the second because of fan demand. They combine elements of hardcore and straight up metal, though not in a metalcore fashion, but more so in just a straight heavy sound, with tight grooves and very angry vocals. Their self-titled debut is out now, and they are the Audio Injected Soul Band Of The Week.
For Fans Of: American Head Charge, Bloodsimple, Chimaira
Check Out: The Resurrection, God Of Anger, Salt The Graves
Everyone Loves Free Music, But At Least Here It's Legal
Corporate Punishment recently released a free MP3 download of the Never Enough track "To The Bottom." The track is taken from their eponymous debut, which is in stores now. The song can be downloaded from this link (right click and hit save as). It's a pretty decent song, and will likely appeal to fans of Dope, Professional Murder Music, and Filter.
Electronic wizards M83 are set to release their new album Saturdays = Youth on April 15th. But if you can't wait to hear new music, check out a stream of "Coulers" here.
Jimmy Dow Shall Forever Be My Mailman
You know, I got two emails this week, and accidentally deleted both. Go figure. I remember one was to the effect of "Slipknot sucks lulz." Man I hate people like that.
The other was someone who apparently used to read The Day You Can't Stay Up welcoming me back. That was really cool. Sorry I deleted your email dude, and thanks for continuing to read even after I've been gone from the news report game for two years.
Current Listenin'
I would say I've been listening to a lot of Droid, the Band Of The Week, but truth be told I was just looking for a band to pick from my massive music collection and they started playing on the play list. So, there you go. Otherwise I've been sticking mainly with compilation CDs in the car, and Windows Media Player has been on random with my entire collection. So I have been listening to a pretty decent variety of everything.
The Weekly Fortune
This is your fortune for the week. Use this advice wisely young grasshopper.
"If you do something right the first time, no one will appreciate how difficult it was."
And that's it for me this week. Since it'll be 2008 before you'll hear from me again, have fun and be safe and all of that jazz. Or rock. Whatever. Anyways, I'll see you guys at the same time next week. Don't die.
