Recently pop punk rockers Story Of The Year released a very heartfelt video for their song titled “Terrified”, a song off of their 2008 release The Black Swan. This is one of those songs that can bring some tears to your eyes and the video just adds even more potential. With Independence Day this weekend the band recently created the video in honor of all the men and women who are or have served in the armed forces.
The band talks about the video:
“The video for “Terrified” is pretty much a direct interpretation of the lyrics,” explains singer Dan Marsala. “A story of a husband who is off at war, scared of the fact that he might not ever make it home to his wife and family, and a pregnant wife who is left at home, not knowing if she will ever see her husband alive again. It is an extremely touching subject because there are hundreds of thousands of families in America going through this exact scenario as we speak. It has to be one of the most terrifying situations that any family could ever experience. I think the video is a great representation of the story told in the lyrics and it is our tribute to all the families who suffer through this situation every day.”
“What excites me the most about this video,” adds guitarist Ryan Phillips, “is that it takes an enormous issue our generation is facing, the war in Iraq, and instead of getting political we honed in on the human aspect of the situation.”
Story Of The Year – “Terrified”
This pop-punk ballet got me going a little as one of my friends / co-workers who was serving overseas was injured thanks to a roadside bomb in Iraq. As I will not reveal his identity for personal reasons I can tell you that the kid’s life will be changed forever and he is currently in Washington D.C. at a hospital. He will survive but will never be the same. He is a brave man for doing what he did and I am so glad he was able to return to the states to his family. I just wish it was not because of the injury.
My thoughts go out to him and his family on a speedy recovery.
Just in time for the holiday weekend, a free summer sampler thanks to the good folk at Fearless Records.
All you need to do to get it is to visit the record label’s MySpace page and click on the top of the page where it says FREE. The 7 track sampler contains some great tracks from some up and coming artists and seeing how it is free, you might as well just check it out. I did! (and I actually like a few of the tracks too…especially the Def Leppard cover!)
Some info about the summer sampler (as well as some of the bands) direct from an email I received from Fearless Records:
The 2009 Fearless Records Summer Sampler is finally here and you can download it all for FREE on the top of our Myspace page. The 7-song sampler also includes unreleased songs by Breathe Carolina, The Word Alive and Lets Get it. Check out the full track listing below and download your copy TODAY!
Track Listing
1. Sparks The Rescue – “Autumn”
2. Breathe Carolina – “Welcome To Savannah”*
3. The Word Alive – “Quit While You’re Ahead”*
4. Artist Vs Poet – “Assurance Closure”
5. Eye Alaska – “Walk Like A Gentleman”
6. A Skylit Drive – “Those Cannons Could Sink A Ship”
7. Lets Get It – “Do Not Disturb”*
The Fearless Records Myspace has also suited up for the kick-off of the 2009 Vans Warped Tour! The new Fearless Myspace will be your one-stop shop for everything Warped including exclusive video content, updated photos and exclusive giveaways for MySpace friends ONLY.
So if you’re not yet a Fearless Myspace friend, add us today to stay updated with Warped Tour all summer long and make sure you check back daily!
Eye Alaska Full Album Stream of “Genesis Underground”
Eye Alaska‘s upcoming album, “Genesis Underground,” is now streaming in it’s entirety on AbsolutePunk.net. “Genesis Underground” is available in stores and online Tuesday July 7th. To celebrate, the band will be doing an Absolute Punk Chat on Monday, July 6th, at 7pm ET/4pm PT, so be sure to tune in!
If you like what you hear, make sure to pre-order your copy of “Genesis Underground” now at iTunes, SmartPunk, InterPunk, or MerchNow.
Let’s Get It is excited to announce that their upcoming “Digital Spaces EP,” due out August 4th, is now available for pre-order. Pick up your copy today from SmartPunk, MerchNow, or Interpunk and receive a free poster with purchase. In addition, with all SmartPunk pre-orders you will also receive an autographed booklet signed by the entire band!
Breathe Carolina Official Album Art & Tracklisting
Breathe Carolina have released the official album art & tracklisting from their upcoming album Hello Fascination in stores and online August 18th. Check out the album art and tracklisting here.
Also, remember to catch them playing live all summer long on this years Warped Tour! Breathe Carolina Tour Dates
The Maine “Pour Some Sugar On Me”
The Maine have released a clip of their new cover song, “Pour Some Sugar on Me” by Def Leppard, on their MySpace page. You will be able to purchase the song off their upcoming Deluxe Edition of “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop” available July 14th. Also, don’t forget to check out the band on this years Warped Tour and keep up to date with them all summer long on their blog!
The longest running festival ever is on it’s 15th run this year and does not seem to be slowing down at all. Punk rock summer camp is still in session for fans of all ages. I know when I go this year I will be laughing at the fact that there will be tons of kids there who were not even born when the Warped Tour first took place.
In other words…I’m getting old.
Recently I read a pretty interesting article in this month AP Magazine. It basically told the tale of the history of the Van’s Warped Tour from the beginning until present day. I suggest you go out and grab a copy of the magazine (who I should add has been around for 24 years!) if you want to know the true history of the Warped Tour and read the wonderful article.
I will tell you one thing…it was almost called the Calvin Klein Warped Tour. (read the article!!!)
I am not really going to go into detail with the history of the Warped Tour here, but I will go into detail of the history of myself at the Warped Tour; July 24th, 1996 to be exact.
Now I don’t remember everything because let’s face it, growing old does a number on you sometimes but I remember enough to talk about it. This was my first Warped Tour festival I had attended and is the one that I will remember for a lifetime. It became the start of a summer ritual my friends and I have been engaging in almost every single summer since.
It all started one day when I read about a punk rock festival that was coming back to town. I missed the first Warped Tour in 1995 for whatever reason and still kick myself for doing so but what happened, happened. Regardless I was excited to see it’s return and this time planned accordingly.
The festival was held at the old Cloverleaf grounds, a one time drive-in turned flea market parking lot, let me rephrase that, a gravel filled parking death lot, located under the I-480 Valley View bridge. Of all the places a festival could have been put at they chose the white stoned parking lot and it was the perfect venue in every way.
Tickets were only $20 for the festival and the parking was free. We arrived before anyone else and parked directly in front of the entrance gate. Too young to buy beers and pre-game we just hung out until the gates were open and the festivities began. Featuring acts such as NOFX, CIV, Pennywise, Unwritten Law, The Dancehall Crashers, Rocket From The Crypt, and others it was to be one of those days that I would never forget. (Speaking of forget, it is possible that Sublime, No Use For A Name, The Deftones, Face To Face, and Fishbone may have played too but I can not recall – anyone else remember?)
Spite the lack of remembering the entire lineup, I have a lot of memories that day that will last for a life time. I don’t even know where to start… I can tell you this though, many of those memories did not even include the bands.
Band memories:
CIV. I miss that band so much. I was a huge CIV fan (still am) and absolutely thrilled to see them take the stage.
I was still new to Unwritten Law having seen them previously opening for Bad Religion so i was excited to see them again live. I was a huge fan of Blue Room and really got into their set. So did some other fans who, apparently, started fist fighting in the middle of the pit. Lead signer Scott Russo and yours truly broke up that fight. I’m more about peace and rock over knocked out teeth.
I should also mention the famous boot prints found on people back’s. I will not confirm if they were from my boots, but my friends did mention that I became very excited about NOFX taking stage and might have run over 4 or 7 kids while charging into the mosh pit.
Speaking of NOFX, one of my friend’s girlfriends at the time somehow got backstage and did not bother to invite any of us. We later in the day discovered she made out with one of the members of NOFX. Awesome. I think at that moment I was double pissed. Once for the blatant cheating and the other for the non-invite back stage.
Right before Pennywise took the stage for the final set of the day the clear skies turned into hell. Huge dark clouds took over the sky and as Pennywise tried to close out the set lightning was striking dangerously close and the rain was pouring causing for their amps to blow out. It was at that time that the two friends that were by me hi tailed it to my car and got the hell out of there. We may have left someone behind.
Other memories:
I was on the nightly news that evening because apparently all of the cussing could be heard echoing in the surrounding cities thanks to the venue being located at the bottom of a valley. I remember I was walking with my pal Jonah and was eating a hamburger. I noticed one of the local news channels filming us so being the goof that I am I proceeded to stop, look at the camera, and stuff the 3/4 worth of hamburger left in my hand into my mouth where I proceeded to eat it.
Mom was so proud that night.
Later one of the newscasters was talking about all of the controlled rowdiness in the grounds and I walked up behind him and threw the devil horns over his head. Everyone surrounding the camera burst out laughing. Even the cameraman was laughing at that newscaster who had no idea what was going on. I am pretty sure that was edited out of the evening news.
Then there was the choke chain I wore around my neck. You see, being punk means wearing dog chains and other miscellaneous metal accessories all over your body. I chose to wear a choke chain around my neck along with other various items including the super long chain connected to my wallet I used to trip over all the time.
For some reason I opted out of using a safety pin or mini pad lock to secure my dog choke chain and chose a chain link connector, something that I was so proud of discovering at a local hardware store earlier that year. Well thanks to the intense heat my neck started to swell and I realized it was time to take off the chain from my neck so I could breath. There was one problem…genus me decided to secure the chain link connector with pliers at home and I could not unscrew the chain link connector for the life of me.
I panicked and tried to do everything I could to get that thing undone from my neck. I ran around like an idiot searching for pliers to get the link unscrewed as I was slowly choking. All of the folk at the band merch booths could not help, the pro-skaters laughed at me, and the security was not any help at all. Finally I found a booth where some folk were making jewelry and luckily borrowed some pliers and took that damn chain off my neck. Who am I kidding, I basically lept over their table and snatched the pliers from one of their working hands in order to save my life.
Luckily there were no news crews around to film me during that episode…although that would have been hilarious.
Let me not forget about the the mosh pit, it was more like a death pit thanks to all the gravel. I do want to note that the pit was very friendly and who ever slipped and fell or was forcefully knocked over was helped up immediately. There was not as much blood as I though might occur but there were plenty of scrapes and bruises.
The drive home too was a memory. Thanks to all the heavy rains my car decided to stall in the middle of Route 43. I literrally beat the crap out of my car when it did not start and am pretty sure scared my friends. To make matters even worse I screamed at my friends to get out of the car and help me push the car into a nearby parking lot. One of them told me “no way, it’s raining”. Thanks Pete.
Memories…
The Warped Tour then was just in its baby steps when I attended. I think there were three stages, maybe four, on that stony drive-in with just a handful of merch booths. Within the next couple of years the success of the festival provided the means to expand and turn it into a larger festival with more stages and attractions. Moving from place to place it just got bigger and bigger to what it is now.
I have to admit I was getting a little disappointed in the line-ups of recent years primarily because I have no idea who these bands are anymore. I am all for the new generation of music and their fans but it has gotten to the point where I just do not care.
Luckily for me (and others I would assume) Kevin Lyman decided to go back to the Warped Tour roots this year and has asked some of the veteran punk rock bands to once again spend their summer playing on stages to thousands of fans all over the US, Canada, and even a couple of spots overseas.
This time around there will only be one main stage and longer sets. That right there got me excited seeing how I never enjoyed seeing my favorite acts only get 30 minutes to crank out as many songs as they could. I can honestly not wait until next week when the Warped Tour rolls through Cleveland once again.
Featuring bands (aka the bands I want to see most):
Bad Religion, NOFX, Bouncing Souls, Gallows, Flogging Molly, Anti-Flag, Fake Problems, Alexisonfire, 3OH!3, Authority Zero, Fishbone, The Flatliners, P.O.S, The Reverend Paytons Big Damn Band, Westbound Train, and Thrice (just to name a couple)
I will say this though. This is my last year with the Warped Tour and I plan on retiring from the punk rock summer camp once and for all. It was a touch decision but seriously even I am starting to think I am too old for it…
With my luck the 2010 line up with be even better than this years… I’ll just insert foot into mouth now and not tell anyone later if I do return…
Vintage footage of the Warped Tour:
Speaking of memories…I came across this YouTube video of footage from the storm that nearly destroyed the 2007 Warped Tour. I was standing pretty close to the kid who filmed this. That was one hell of a storm…
What the hell happened to you guys? I recently heard your latest effort 21st Century Breakdownand I must say I was highly disappointed. I’m not sure I am going to even give the CD a second shot to be honest. I did mildly enjoy the first single off the album, “21 Guns”, and even got a kick out of the video but once I finally had the chance to hear the whole album start to finish I found myself uninterested and skipped through every song and finally turned it off. I have not done that with a CD in a long time.
What’s with the mellow sound? Were you guys hanging around U2 too much??? I didn’t even hear Green Day when I popped in 21st Centruy Breakdown. At first I thought it was just a cruel joke but then realized that the album was less of what I used to love and more of something I could care less about.
Should I blame Chris Cornell? Did he command you three to record an album straight from the wallet or is this an honest recording? Have you learned nothing from that evil man? I realize you guys are getting up there in age and all but seriously…I think you could have done so much better.
I hope this was not done for the money although I do know you will make a ton of money from it because a lot of folk are digging it already. I’m sure sales will be high on this CD and tons of copies will sell to millions and millions of fans old and new, but I will not be one of them this time around.
We all know everyone is entitled to their opinion and [insert worship figure of choice] knows I have a plenty of them. I am sure some of your fans do not like me saying how I do not like your latest album. Don’t worry though, because there are other things I do not like too. For instance, I still think Chris Cornell is a bitch for doing what he did (going solo with Timbaland beats) but I am excited to hear about possible rumors of Soundgarden reuniting. I do not despise everything.
I’m just not understanding what is going on with you guys. You were punk rockers to my ears years ago but seemed to change things up as you matured into musicians. I respect change, but I just don’t know if I can take it anymore.
I’m a guy who was a fan of your band when you were just another punk rock act in California on Lookout! Records. I have Kerplunk on vinyl, used to have a Dookie poster hanging in my bedroom as a teen, and even once was denied from seeing you live at a free show you played in Cleveland and highly considered joining the other denied folk to riot about it. Luckily I did not and I stayed out of trouble that day.
Throughout the years you became my modern day Clash pumping out albums like Insomniac,Nimrod, and Warning. I loved the similarities of your material with classic punk but even more so the idea that you did not completely rip them off. While creating chart topping hits you did not seem to let it get to your head. I realize the three albums I speak of did not sell as highly as Dookie, but as a Green Day fan I appreciated the hell out of them.
It must have been tough for you all when the popularity of the band sunk. At one time I really did not think I would hear anything again from Green Day but you refused to give up and in 2004 dropped the chart topping American Idiot. Props to you for continuing your dream as musicians. I am sure it was a tough road traveled.
American Idiot was so much of a different concept and at first I really thought it was a great idea. The whole rock opera idea was welcomed by almost everyone. Thanks to a bold move in music styles American Idiot became a hit album and you guys were on top of the world again. Thanks to non-stop radio play and MTV destroying airplay however it became an commercial disaster and everyone loved it. I even liked it for about 12 minutes until it was overplayed and became almost annoying. To this day I can not listen to that album anymore.
I almost wish that Cigarettes & Valentines was never stolen. I feel that when some jackass stole your master recordings from that potential Green Day release it altered the music timeline in a Back To The Future sort of sense. I’m not sure why you all never re-recorded that album and chose to create material that later turned into American Idiot but you did it for a reason. Although the music was never recovered I hope one day that stolen album surfaces so I can hear how amazing it was. I bet it is much better than what I have been hearing from you all.
I hear you guys are planning a summer tour for 21st Century Breakdown. Even though I have never seen you live, I have decided that I am going to sit this one out. Sometimes it’s best to just remember the good old times where pop punk was not so much mainstream / adult contemporary yet.
I know you are one of the bands that is credited for making punk rock become more mainstream in the 90’s and pretty much putting an end to grunge music. I do want to thank you for that because without bands like Green Day punk rock may not have gotten the credit that was deserved but come on guys, I know you can do much better than this…
Good luck with your success and I am sorry I can not get into your recent release. It’s just not my thing.
Respectfully yours,
A Green Day Fan From The 90’s
Also guys, what’s up with the eyeliner in the “21 Guns” video? Seriously , eyeliner? I also love the over processed hair-do. I’m not sure if I am watching a music video or something on Bravo.
