H&F Week Four

The week of Thursday, July 23rd, 2009.

Each week I will be bringing you three things that failed or continue to fail, followed by three things that should be hailed for their current or continuing awesomeness.

Ya dig?

Fails

3. Daughtry (the band, not the person... yes, there's a difference) recently commented to MTV news that they believed they avoided the so-called "sophomore slump" with their new album Leave this Town. Daughtry (the person, not the band) was quoted as saying, "We put a lot of heart, soul and tears into this record..." (Source.) And he, along with Daughtry (the band, not the person) were ecstatic that the record's first single "No Surprise" has already reached number one. I guess it's easy to know that your second album will do well after your first album went multi-platinum. After all, they're virtually the same record.

2. Adam Yauch, better known as MCA of the Beastie Boys, recently revealed that he was diagnosed with a very rare (as in, less than 1% rare) type of cancer which attacks the salivary glands. The Boys have since pushed back their newest album, Hot Sauce Committee Part 1, release date and cancelled a string of tour dates. Their publicist was quoted as saying the cancer was "very treatable" if caught early, which his was, and so perhaps Beastie fans can rest easy knowing that MCA will pull through this. Get well soon.

1. Snape kills Dumbledore.

Hails

3. Bay-area sextet Set Your Goals will be on Alternative Press's fall tour, entitled The Fall Ball, beside The Secret Handshake, You Me at Six, The Mayday Parade, and The Acadamy Is... I don't really care about all of the latter, but this will have to do until SYG gets on Warped. Tour dates found here.

2. HORSE the Band have announced their new album, Desperate Living, will be released on October 6th. It will be their first album on Vagrant Records. But, who cares? HORSE the Band freakin' rule, and the new album has a track entitled "HORSE the Song." Freakin. Awesome.

1. Between the Buried and Me have announced a new album release, set for October 27th, 2009. The band's fifth album, titled The Great Misdirect, will include 6 tracks, two tracks shorter than Colors (Victory 07), but will probably be just as long and twice as epic. Tommy Rogers, frontman, stated that this record includes "some of the best material we've ever created" (source). The track listing can be found at the same source.

H&F Week Two

The week of Thursday, July 9th, 2009.

Each week I will be bringing you three things that failed or continue to fail, followed by three things that should be hailed for their current or continuing awesomeness.

Bon voyage.

Fails:

3. I don't understand the hype behind All Time Low. Their new album, Nothing Personal (Hopeless 2009), released July 7th. I listened to the single, "Lost in Stereo," and was confused and frustrated. It's supposed to be their single, but there's no hook, not catchy riffs, no a capella singing - just shitty 80s synth vocals and a 2-bit drum machine intro. Their music is so incredibly bland and stripped down. If they ever stopped making crap albums, I'm sure they'd have a job working for Kid's Bop.

2. Joe Jackson, father of the recently deceased Michael Jackson, just might be the hugest asshole on the planet. When asked how his family was doing after the death of their beloved child and brother, Joe stated that they were fine... and then proceeded to plug his record label. Twice.

(Original source.)

During an interview with CNN, in which he was expected to make comments about Jackson's funeral, the 79-year-old introduced his business partner, Marshall Thompson, and went on to explain the workings of his new venture.

He told reporters, "Marshall and I have -- we own a record company. Talking about Blu-ray technology. That's the next step."

But despite the outcry over Jackson's apparent lack of emotion, he has explained he is "crying on the inside," and was simply answering questions posed to him by journalists about what his own future holds.

He says, "I was asked a question last night about the record company. ... We have a lot of good artists fixing to come out.

"I was asked that question and I answered just like it was asked because they wanted to know what else I was doing."

Here's to you, Joe, you old bastard.

1. By far the biggest fail of this week, and of recent weeks, has to be the seemingly endless rate of deaths both public and private. All I know is that I wouldn't mind waking up and not having another loved one be dead. If this is the beginning of the apocalypse let me know now so we can try to reach Joe Jackson for comments.

Hails:

3. Christian metalheads August Burns Red are set to release their latest album Constellations (Solid State 2009) in less than a week, July 14th. When I originally planned to write this piece, I had only listened to two of the new songs, and I was planning on including ABR in the "Fails" section. Not that they necessarily "failed," but I wasn't too impressed. Upon further inspection, and listening to the entire album (streaming on their MySpace), I decided to retract their "fail" status. While Constellations isn't ground breaking in the least, it does seem to contain more focus than Messengers (Solid State 2007) before it. Their patented breakdowns are tighter, more innovative, and more rhythmically creative than before, and their melody lines follow suit. Overall, it does sound a bit like the same old stuff, but it appears ABR have matured and grown stronger just enough to earn the number three spot of the "hails." Next time I won't be so lenient, boys.

2. Al Franken finally made it into the Senate and, as I paraphrase, made comments about pushing hard for a public health care option. Further, Sarah Palin stepped down abruptly as governor of Alaska, and although her aspirations for the Presidency in 2012 are in speculation, we can all thank God that she is at least not in a position of power for the time being and therefore is no longer being paid tax payer money to be a hypocrite.

1. I received news via Alternative Press that Canadian rockers Protest the Hero were set to release a CD/DVD package. After some further snooping, I found that indeed PTH are set to release a live DVD in August or September of 2009. Word right now is the DVD is to include eleven tracks, with most of them coming from Fortress (Vagrant 2008). However, there are a couple of tracks from the bands first big break-out release, Kezia (Underground Operations 2005). In further related news, "Bloodmeat," the first single from Fortress, will be released as a Guitar Hero track in late July. Score.

H&F Week One

The week of Thursday, July 2nd, 2009.

Each week I will be bringing you three things that failed or continue to fail, followed by three things that should be hailed for their current or continuing awesomeness.

Enjoy.

Fails:

3. One band that is seriously holding back the bursting potential of "new" Brit rockers such as Gallows and Enter Shikari, and is single-handedly tainting any sort of new British Invasion, is Bring Me the Horizon, who have been on the scene for more years than the former two, and yet, they seem to still suck. Not to mention, the kids love 'em. Kids these days. Their latest break out track "Chelsea Smile" has me wondering why any band would want to sound any more like Bury Your Dead. Oh, and their screamer barks. Woof.

2. After a break out first album, and making fans and friends all across the musical world, pop-punk aficionados Four Year Strong are, soon enough, going to be releasing... sigh... a cover album. The term "slump" doesn't even begin to cover this sophomoric meltdown. Even worse, the band, in an attempt to be funny or clever, are titling this 90s soft/alt rock cover album Explains It All. Get it, Melissa Joan Hart? It's set to release soon, but really, I've stopped caring.

1. People still like 30H!3.

Hails:

3. British punk/hardcore band Gallows are finally getting the attention they deserve. After they released Orchestra of Wolves (Epitaph 2007), they received moderate attention with their first strike in the states via the Warped Tour. However, after this year's release of Grey Britain, also on Epitaph, lead grunter Frank Carter co-appearing on the cover of Alternative Press, and another stint at the Warped Tour, it appears Gallows are finally getting credit where credit is due. Can you smell another British Invasion? Get off their heels, BMTH.

2. All the hubbub about Michael Jackson's death/last will and testament/baby mama drama/etc. have many people in an emotional bind. How is this positive? Not sure, but we still have Prince.

1. Set Your Goals are on the verge of taking back the music scene from every band that I despise (and therefore, every band that you should despise). Their latest album, yet to be release, This Will Be the Death of Us (Epitaph 2009), the follow up to the astonishingly impressive and catchy Mutiny! (Eulogy 2006), is already being highly applauded by fans and critics alike. The few tracks they have up on their MySpace are certainly a sign that the best is yet to come for these young bucks. Set your sights on Set Your Goals.