Good Times

I’m A Winner

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That could have come off a little sarcastic.  This time I am serious though and I am not feeling sorry for myself.

I won a contest over at Sensory Overload today.  Kelly and Jose were holding a little contest of sorts and this morning I submitted a comment with an answer to their question:

What/Who do you think exactly are influences behind The Little Ones sound?

Having not heard of The Little Ones before I checked out the mp3’s that Kelly and Jose so kindly posted.  I liked what I heard and threw in my two cents.  Today I got an email from Kelly saying I won a Little Ones t-shirt and an autographed vinyl from the band.  Pretty sweet!  Thanks guys!

It pays off to check out other people’s blogs!  I should be having some contests this year as well as I am teaming up with a couple of labels myself.  Stay tuned.

-Check out Sensory Overload

-Check out the The Little Ones on MySpace

Live Shows, Music, Punk

Rancid & Rise Against Announce Tour Dates!!!

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My summer is now complete.  Thanks to altpress.com for the heads up!

Rancid & Rise Against announce summer tour
Rancid & Rise Against announce summer tour

Rancid & Rise Against just announced their tour dates finally.  It looks as if Rise Against is headlining the tour and I can not say I am happy about that as I feel Rancid deserves to be the headliner.  I am a huge fan of both and excited to see them live.  Riverboat Gamblers will open the June dates and Billy Talent will open the July dates.  Rise Against will be in support of their fifth studio album, Appeal To Reason.

Still though…  RANCID!!!  (yes, I am a huge fan)  Their new album should be dropping soon too and I can not wait.  Rancid was working with Bad Religion‘s Brett Gurewitz and both have expressed excitement in the new release.

Rancid has this to comment about their new album and tour on their website:

2009 is sure to be an exciting year for Rancid. Our good friend and producer Brett Gurewitz has finished mixing our new record set to release around spring of this year. We’ve all been working real hard along side Brett on this record and we are all real proud of how its turning out. We’re putting together some exciting stuff with this record that we can’t wait to share with you all. As it’s release comes nearer we will get you more details on everything we’ve been working on.

They also stated:

We will also be hitting the road hard this year. As you may have heard we’ve confirmed a 2 month North American Tour with Rise Against. This will be a great opportunity to play you some of our new songs live in addition to a mix of songs spanning the entire history of Rancid. We like to play a new set every night to keep it fresh and interesting for all of us! We like to do a little something from every Rancid record giving every night a unique show from the one before.

Rise Against had this to say earlier this year in regards to touring with Rancid (found on AbsolutePunk.net):

Few things are more exciting than watching Bush finally release America as his eight year hostage, but if anything could rival that news, it’s this: We are more than pleased to announce that we will have the honor of touring the US & Canada with punk rock legends RANCID this summer. If Tim Armstrong didn’t confirm it personally backstage in LA a few weeks ago, we wouldn’t believe it either.

(Dates in bold are dates I may be attending)

Tour Dates:
6/4 Vancouver, BC Pacific Coliseum
6/6 Edmonton, AB Rexall Place
6/7 Calgary, AB Calgary Corral
6/8 Saskatoon, SK Prarieland
6/11 Denver, CO Red Rocks Ampitheatre
6/12 Kansas City, MO Beaumont Club
6/13 St. Louis, MO Pops (Outdoors)
6/15 Cleveland, OH Time Warner Cable Amp
6/17 Montreal, QC Parc Jean Drapeau
6/18 Quebec City, QC Agora
6/19 Ottawa, ON Civic Centre
6/22 Cincinnati, OH PNC Pavilion
6/24 Detroit, MI Fillmore
6/26 Minneapolis, MN Myth
7/6 Seattle, WA WaMu Theatre
7/8 Reno, NV Reno Events Center
7/10 San Diego, CA Cricket Wireless Amp
7/11 Los Angeles, CA The Forum
7/13 Las Vegas, NV The Joint
7/14 Phoenix, AZ Mesa Arts Center
7/16 Dallas, TX Palladium Ballroom
7/17 Austin, TX Stubb’s
7/18 Houston, TX Verizon Wireless
7/20 Orlando, FL House of Blues
7/21 Orlando, FL House of Blues
7/23 Myrtle Beach, SC House of Blues
7/24 Baltimore, MD Ram’s Head
7/25 Philadelphia, PA Festival Pier at Penn’s Landing
7/28 Boston, MA House of Blues
7/29 Boston, MA House of Blues
7/30 Buffalo, NY Agri Center
7/31 Toronto, ON Molson Ampitheatre

More dates will be announced soon.

Download This!, Music, Punk

Download This! – O Pioneers!!! – Neon Creeps

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Ok punk rock fans here is something that should make your week.  Houston’s O Pioneers!!! and Quote UnQuote Records are offering a free download of Neon Creeps.  The CD released on Feb 10th will be released by Asian Man Records and the vinyl love will be handled by Kiss of Death Records.  There will also be a limited run on CD in Australia with an alternate cover released by Poison City Records. If you like bands like Smoke Or Fire, Against Me!, and Hot Water Music I am thinking you are going to love these guys.

Don’t wait too long as I am not sure how long this album will be available for free.  That’s right, the whole album is yours for the free and legal downloading…

-Download This! – O Pioneers – Neon Creeps

 O Pioneers!!! will be supporting their new album with a string of tour dates ending with an appearance at Harvest of Hope Fest March 6-8th in St. Augustine, Florida.  (See below for dates)

O Pioneers!!! most recently released a split 7” for Suburban Home Records with Mike Park as well as splits with Bomb the Music Industry, The Measure (SA), The Anchor, and Saw Wheel.

So why is it being released for free you ask???

Quote Unquote Records is a newer record label with a twist.  Their goal is to put out good music and help their artists be heard.  The label is a donation-based label that realizes that with CD sales down that a different approach is needed.  The label will offer free downloads on albums from bands signed to them in hopes that the fans will like what they hear and donate something, anything.  The label also hopes the fan will in turn see the band live one day and pick up the CD or merch during a show.

It is a different approach?  Will it work?  Well I think it has potential.

O PIONEERS! TOUR DATES:

2/21 – Atkins, AK @ The Goodbye
2/22 – Louiseville, KY @ Skull Alley
2/23 – Cincinatti, OH @ Blue Rock Tavern
2/24 – Cleveland, OH @ The Soggy Dog House
2/25 – Buffalo, NY @ Sugar City
2/26 – Syracuse, NY @ Half Penny Pub
2/27 – Boston, MA @ Fort F@ck Awesome
2/28 – New London, CT @ Eclectic Wear
3/1 – Brooklyn, NY @ Lost and Found
3/2 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Titan House
3/3 – Baltimore, MD @ Golden West Café
3/4 – Richmond, VA @ The Czar
3/5 – Atlanta, GA @ Wonderroot
3/6-8 – St. Augustine, FL @ Harvest of Hope Fest
3/18- San Antonio, TX @ Rock Bottom

Live Shows

And So It Starts…

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Just started getting wind of what artists are planning 2009 tours.  Some of the bands look to continue their success while others just have me scratching my head.

Here are some tours / festivals that I read about recently:

NIN touring with Jane’s Addiction
-This show best hit Cleveland if they know what is good for them…  Having seen NIN last summer and looking forward to seeing them at Bonnaroo I think my 2009 would be complete if I were to see them even one more time live.  According to Billboard.com, Trent Reznor confirmed that NIN would be taking a long break.  Confirming this was a blog from Trent Reznor on NIN.com stating “I’ve been thinking for some time now it’s time to make NIN disappear for a while”.  This tour is not NIN alone and will equally be as amazing thanks to Jane’s Addicition trying to regroup and perform.  We shall see the outcome of this, all I can think of is how good of an idea is it having two of the most cherished bands of my time take stage.

Limp Bizkit Reuniting For A Tour
-Seriously?  Is this a good idea?  Perhaps.  The band was very successful at the end of the 1990’s but soon fell apart.  The Nu-Metal scene just was not meant to continue but I think it is great that the original line-up plans on gathering once again to perform.  Does this mean new material?  We shall see.

Fleetwood Mac
-I admit, I would totally go to this…if I could afford a ticket.

Rock On The Range – Columbus, OH
-This weekend event in Columbus looks like a true winner for all the metal fans.  Slipknot, Motley Crue, Alice In Chains, Avenged Sevenfold and Korn share the excitement for many as these bands plus a handfull more play the weekend of May 16-17th at the Columbus Crew stadium.  Having never seen AIC before I am highly considering this show…Matt?

Eric Clapton / Steve Winwood
-Former Blind Faith members decide to tour the US.  Both previously played together at Madison Square Garden about a year ago.  They are coming through Ohio, but no way will I dish out that kind of money for tickets.  It is not that important to me.  Both are amazing artists and I have respect for both but the wallet kind of stops me there.

No Doubt
-Please Gwin, please never do that solo crap again…  I am really happy to see this band get out and tour again.  I am not a huge fan, but I do appreciate their earlier material.

Blink 182
-These pop punkers announced just weeks ago that they were a band again and that means they will be going on the road soon.

Rancid
-They are putting the finishing touches up on their next release and will be hitting the road in support of it.  I am very excited to see these guys live again.

The Greatful Dead
-This will be the bands first tour in 4 years.  Mind you it is not the original Dead but it’ll do for all the hippies who need something to do this summer.

Phish
-Speaking of hippies, Phish is scheduled to tour in 2009 as well.  I need to stop being a jerk…hippies have feelings too.  I am sure I will check Phish out at Bonnaroo for a little bit just so I can say that I did.

***More will be added as I find out***

There are many other bands taking aim at touring this year but the previous were ones I just read about.  I am still curious on what band will get back together this summer at one of the festivals like Cochella or the Virgin Mobile Festival.  I would love to see Soundgarden reunite or even Faith No More play some shows…  That would be insane.

There is one band I really hope to see this summer.  They have been through a lot as one of their own was in a horrible accident.  I speak of The Deftones.  Recently the band decided to play some shows even though their original bassist can not be there with them.  A statement was released on the band’s website in regards on how the band decided to play out again: “Chi always wanted to keep working and never slow down, which is why we feel confident in returning to the stage at Bamboozle in April.  Chi would want it, and we want to make sure we’re keeping his legacy alive.”

With a Bonnaroo trip already planned this summer, I am wondering what other live shows I will be attending this year.  I will of course be sure to share all my experiences with you all.  I am sure I will stop at the Vans Warped Tour once again as I always enjoy myself there and may actually take up ((RAD))am’s offer on some Blossom shows.

Curious though…  What shows are you all looking forward to?  Are there any other great acts touring that I might have missed???  Let me know!