Spotlight
The Flatliners: An Interview About Fake Leaks, National Pride, And Fitting In With Everyone
The Bled
Heat Fetish
Rise Records
Review by Brett Praskach, not John-Michael Bond as the original byline stated.
Since breaking out with 2005’s Found In The Flood on Vagrant Records, The Bled has become a top contender in the grossly overpopulated metalcore scene. The subsequent rerelease of their Fiddler Records debut Pass The Flask proved the Tucson, AZ five piece to be more than just another band riding on a wave of scream-infused breakdowns and melodic interludes. The Bled followed withSilent Treatment in 2007. While grossly under-promoted, Silent Treatment played host to several solid tracks. After touring in support of the album, the band took a hiatus and seemingly disappeared. When they did reappear, The Bled announced that they were not only on a new label, but had also replaced three of five members. Such drastic changes in the lineup, as well as the move from Vagrant Records to Rise Records, left fans understandably skeptical. Heat Fetish speaks for itself, however, and in no uncertain terms.
Heat Fetish hits the ground running, tearing itself wide open immediately with “Devolver.” The song is exactly what fans have come to expect from The Bled, complete with blistering atonal guitar leads and lapses into heavy breakdowns. The distinctive sound of James Isaiah Munoz’ vocals hits as hard as ever, and solidifies not only “Devolver” but the entirety of Heat Fetish as The Bled’s triumphant return. Munoz and guitarist Jeremy Ray Talley have composed the bulk of the band’s creative force on past efforts, and it is evident that they are the two members to have remained with the group. A listener unaware of the band’s lineup changes could listen to Heat Fetishfront to back without even suspecting anything has changed. While the overall feel of the album does reflect a shift in musicianship, it wouldn’t be at all difficult to credit it to growth as a band.
The album continues on with “Mouthbreaker,” a heavy track with a more rhythmically based feel than “Devolver.” At only 1:32 in length, “Mouthbreaker” is a quick burst of aggression and serves to whet listeners’ appetites with a quick taste; it served a similar purpose when a demo version was posted to the band’s Myspace prior to the album’s release. “Shouting Fire In A Crowded Room” is one of the album’s standout tracks. The guitar in the verses, though still distorted, is particularly neat and offers a contrast to the choruses where the guitars play host to much more dissonant tones as in much of the band’s other material. Munoz also uses the track to demonstrate his full range of vocal ability, from screaming to speaking to his surprisingly clean singing. “Shouting Fire In A Crowded Room” is the sort of track that is likely to draw in new listeners without pushing older fans away.
Filling the slot fans have come to expect from earlier songs like “Antarctica” and “Asleep On The Frontlines” is “Needs.” With its drawn out tones and lower-range clean vocals, “Needs” hovers on the line between sleeping and waking. Munoz lead vocals float over a bass vocal line, which creates an almost unsettling feeling. While the track’s heavier intro and ending are solid, many listeners will likely be unsure how they feel about the track as a whole, even after several listens. “Meet Me In The Bone Orchard” follows, and is quick to shake off the uneasiness left behind by “Needs.” The album’s peak is soon after, with “Crowbait.” Arguably the best track on the album, “Crowbait” opens with a fuzzy rhythm line and then explodes with the full band. The motif from the intro is present throughout the verses, and it hits hard. The song incorporates the best of the band’s heavy and melodic ends, but plays as a relentless whole. While extremely brief, the song’s breakdown showcases a lightning-fast muted run reminiscent of “Sound Of Sulfur.” The track continues to build, only to culminate in a sudden and surprisingly gentle conclusion.
Heat Fetish’s penultimate track, “Night Errors” showcases the band’s undeniable technical prowess. Heat Fetish, like The Bled’s previous efforts, is a cohesive blend of robotic accuracy and human emotion. This is especially dominant in “Night Errors,” with its unbelievably tight moving guitar and bass with equally hectic drums. “Crawling Home” closes out the album, and contrasts well with “Night Errors.” While both are instantly recognizable as The Bled, “Crawling Home” finds its foundation in lighter verses and heavily chorded choruses. The first verse revolves around clean, airy guitar, while later verses find their sweet spot with a more classic moving line and heavier tone. The song builds into a musical outro which, while thinner musically, is as powerful as anything else on the track.
Lineup shifts and label changes aside, Heat Fetish is a hard-hitting and powerful album. Heat Fetish is more concentrated, as if the band has finally been able to focus in on a heavier sound. It may not appeal to all of The Bled’s existing fans, but Heat Fetish is arguably the heaviest and most powerful album the band has released since their days with Fiddler Records.
Once upon a time emo wasn’t necessarily a dirty word. Thanks to Brent Eyestone and Magic Bullet Records it’s about to become easier to understand why. Magic Bullet Records has re-issued Christie Front Drive‘s seminal self titled album. While Christie Front Drive was never insanely successful in their heyday the influence they had on the music world is undeniable. Jimmy Eat World, who’s first big release was a split with CFD, credits the band as a major influence and for bringing them to the attention of the major label’s who were courting Christie Front Drive when the band decided to disband. Alternative Press listed them as one of the 23 Bands Who Shaped Punk, placing them among bands like Fugazi, Black Flag, Descendents, and Integrity. Whether you knew it or not, they were a big deal. Though their album being out of print didn’t exactly help keep the name alive.
Thanks Magic Bullet Records that’s no longer a problem. The label has re-issued Christie Front Drive‘s self titled album, complete with a new remaster of the record’s original mix for high fidelity and a DVD of the band’s final show in 1996. The footage on the DVD has been digitally transferred from the original VHS camcorder technology of the era, but the quality is surprising and a true treat for long time fans of the band. Magic Bullet has reissued the album on both CD and vinyl. The CD’s are available now, and the vinyl will start shipping soon. Order your copy here.
PA Punk/Hardcore outfit We Were Skeletons will be hitting the road to support of their Topshelf Records debut LP also entitled We Were Skeletons, which was released yesterday. Topshelf Records is known for discovering some of the most buzzed about bands in underground, most recently Defeater and Pianos Become Teeth. Thanks We Were Skeletons crackling take on early screamo fans of Saetia and Planes Mistaken For Stars can finally stop mourning a bit. The band starts their summer tour to night in Philadelphia, continue reading for the dates, including a few towards the end of their tour where the band is looking for help in booking shows.
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Kiss Of Death Records understand music listeners these days are slightly spoiled. They tell labels they’re not stealing their music when they download, they just need to hear everything all the way through eighteen times before they commit to buying a release. To this end the label is taking listeners at their word by slowly releasing their complete catalog for free download in their webstore. The downloads are 128K MP3s, perfect for trying out a release but still in a quality that encourages listeners who like what they hear to pay full price ($4 for a 7″ and $9 for a LP). These releases are currently available for free download, if you like ‘em buy ‘em.
Matt Gossman, drummer and original member of tech metal wizards Into The Moat, has joined Miami, Florida’s Capsule. Gossman will be touring with the Robotic Empire band for both their upcoming U.S. and European tours. You can view a video blog regarding his transition into the Capsule fold below.
Matt’s Life Vol. 1 from Matthew Gossman on Vimeo.
After a brutal sales year for major labels Billboard is reporting that Eminem‘s Recovery is surpassing sales expectations and is headed towards selling 700,000 copies its first week. That number would be impressive enough on its own, but it represents the strongest sales week since AC/DC dropped Black Ice 18 months ago. While 2010 has seen a few shining stars, success on the radio or iTunes singles charts has not translated into over all album sales for many. The only other notable first week sales stories of the year with any radio traction were Drake (447,000 copies), Lady Antabellum (481,000 copies), both of whom failed to beat out Sade‘s Solider of Love which sold 502,000 purely based on fan excitement. Before Eminem’s impressive sales last week the only artist who had come close to AC/DC‘s previous numbers was Susan Boyle with 701,000 copies of I Dreamed A Dream last November.
The question all of this information poses is simple: How much longer can the major label system survive in its current format? Will the companies fold, or will they learn to adapt to a lean business model that keeps costs low and incentivises listeners to buy their releases? Or, most chillingly, will they merely get the government to become their watchdog instead of evolving?
Philadelphia, PA’s The Wonder Years have had a recent spat of van trouble. Here’s the complete update from the band.
So, maybe you’ve read the tweets and whatnot, but it hasn’t been the smoothest couple of weeks for The Wonder Years. Coming back from Germany, we got lost because our driver’s GPS wasn’t working, missed our flights and had to spend $3000 extra to get home. Then, once arriving safely back to the states, we got word that our beloved WNDRVAN would never run again and a quest began to find a new van. We came across one we really liked and took it for a few test drives. It was pretty awesome and was in our price range. However, it was sold as is. Because of this, we took the van to a third party mechanic and had him check it over. That guy told me it was a great van and we should buy it so we laid down about $7000. Literally, the next day the van stopped working well. A few days later it had stopped working altogether. We took it back to the dealership. They basically told us they couldn’t do anything. This was the day before the Streetlight tour started. We did the first two dates of the tour in a minivan and SUV that we borrowed. Then, on our day off, we took the last $3000 we had and bought the only van we could find. It actually runs great. Here’s the issue: the bottom turned out to be pretty fucking rusty and before we even got out of our hometown, the trailer ripped out of the bottom of the van. We really don’t like missing shows, so we figured out how to get to the show tonight in New Jersey and are currently working out a way to the show in Mass tomorrow. Then, we’re going to drive back home on the day off, take out a massive loan and just man up and buy an actual new van. Then, drive overnight back to Montreal and try to make it up there to play. Now, here’s the thing I need to make clear. I love my life. I’m not complaining or saying we have it bad because we don’t. We get to do really cool shit all the time and we’re very happy people. We obviously count ourselves lucky for getting the chance to do what we do and we’ll always be making an effort to stay up and keep moving. We won’t be asking for donations or begging for any sympathy. All I’m saying is that we have a webstore and there’s a bunch of cool shit in there. We also know that a shit ton of you downloaded our record and I’m pretty fine with that but if you liked it, maybe buy a shirt or something now. We’re going to make an effort to also get a bunch of leftover tour merch up there dirt cheap. The link is www.coldcutsmerch.com/thewonderyears and we appreciate all of you that buy something. Actually, I’m just thinking about this now, but if you order something and forward your order confirmation to wonderyearstour@gmail.com, we’ll make sure to send you a personal thank you email because on days like these, it means a lot that you care about what we do.
If there was ever a contender for a band who should have been a sure thing to break big Mae should have been it. Sure, it’s no secret that thousands of bands have been eaten alive by the major label machine. Most end up little more than unknown “could have beens” saddled with a debt to their former label and a single record released to show for their trouble. Some end up with only the debt when their record, the recording of which racked up those bills, sits on the shelf because an exec somewhere didn’t “hear a hit”. But following critical and fan response to their sophomore album The Everglow Mae looked to be on the verge of exploding.
Instead their major label debut Singularity seemed to tear the band apart, culminating in original members Rob Sweitzer and Mark Padgett leaving the band shortly after the album’s release. Now, three years later, Mae‘s original line up reuniting for what could possibly be the band’s farewell to their loyal fan base. Continue reading for the band’s official announcement regarding their upcoming tour, and their future as a band.
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Hipster sweethearts 
Björk and Dirty Projectors have announced a few details of their forthcoming collaborative record. The project, entitled Mount Wittenberg Orca, will include songs that were originally written for a New York benefit that both participated in last year. Recorded in Brooklyn by ex-Baby Book guitarist Nicholas Vernhes, all proceeds of the project will be donated to PISCO, a marine conservation program.
Speaking to Steteogum.com, David Longstreth of Dirty Projectors said, “We’ve decided to give away all the money that Mount Wittenberg Orca generates to the project of creating international marine protected areas. Only 1% of the oceans are protected in any way and this is a huge problem. We’re working with the National Geographic Society to create areas of sustainability, so the oceans don’t end up like a giant poisonous corpse hugging the continents.”
Pre-orders are available exclusively via Topsin.net $7. The record will be available from June 30th.
Follow the Jump for the tracklisting and (in true Björk form) abstract video teaser.
Long running NY Hardcore unit Madball have tapped Jay Weinburg to handle drumming duties for recording and touring of their upcoming album Empire. Weinburg, son of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band drummer Max Weinburg, has already been playing live with the band for several months. Any worries that the new addition is a legacy hire should be put to rest by Weinburg’s time filling in for his dad when commitments to Conan O’Brain’s tonight show conflicted with Springstein dates, and the Boss doesn’t let just anyone on stage. So yeah, Springsteen’s fill in drummer is now playing in Madball. Go figure.
The band have is currently finishing up pre-production on Empire, and will begin formally recording next month with producer Erik Rutan (check out his work with Nile) behind the boards.
