(+44)

Okay, I'm not a huge fan of (+44) but I'm doing this 'cause Melina asked...so here we go. When Tom left Blink-182 to join Angels & Airwaves, Mark and Travis didn't just give up and say "our career is over." They got two other band members to play with and now they're back dominating the scene again...unfortunately, nothing changed about their music, so they're kinda like a resurrection of Blink. It's really ironic though...Tom leaves the band so he can go do better things and be more famous, and makes Angels & Airwaves, but Mark and Travis are still beating him in terms of popularity and mainstream playback. Well whatever.

Recommended listens: "When Your Heart Stops Beating," "Cliff Diving," and "No it isn't." They're song titles are pretty funny too...but no one cares. Enjoy.

Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd, which is one of the greatest and most respected artists of all time, wrote what is arguably, the best album of all time, titled Dark Side of the Moon. Released in the early '70's, Dark Side is still being purchased frequently(in the past few days, it's sold more copies than Red Hot Chili Peppers' Stadium Arcadium, which came out earlier this year). And Dark Side is not the only album of their's which merits five stars. The Wall, one of music's best rock operas(if not THE best), tells the story of a rock star named Pink(go figure), who finds himself trapped by an emotional wall(get it?), and as more drama adds to his life, the bigger the wall gets. Pink Floyd has their share of #1 hits too. "Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2," being the biggest, and also "Comfortably Numb," and "Wish You Were Here," are also up there. So I guess that's all I have to say...
Recommended listens: "Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2," "Comfortably Numb," "Money," and "Wish You Were Here." Enjoy...

Demon Hunter

Ok, I don't know much about the band, so this is gonna be real short. They are quickly becoming another popular band signed to Solid State. Alt-metal that strikingly resembles Breaking Benjamin's music is what Demon Hunter plays. So that's basically it...
Recommended listens: "Undying," "Ribcage," and "Deteriorate." Enjoy...

Congrats to Rick.

Not one-hundred-percent sure about this, but when I first met you, Richard Edward McGillicutty Samuelson Davis Cummings the Fifteenth, it seemed to me that you had nothing to do with Christian-related (read: post-contemporary) music. Hasn't all that changed? Underoath, Norma Jean, Showbread, and most importantly mewithoutYou -- they've all grown on you. It's all sudden for me, as it seems like I've had my first semi-conversion. No, I haven't quite exposed to you what, for say, indie precisely is; nonetheless, I feel proud. Amanda should too: She's introduced you to other hardcore bands that have much more positive messages than -- oh, I dunno... -- Green Day (bear with me, okay?). Props, girl.

You have a long ways to go, my comrade. But in the end -- when you just cannot get enough of Neutral Milk Hotel, Danielson, Five Iron Frenzy, Joy Electric, sf59, and the like, and begin referring MCR and Thursday as "wannabe/never-will-be" -- this mission will be accomplished.

Plus, we could have our own inside jokes, just like Strong Bad and The Cheat (e.g. jumbo/LARGE).

The Black Parade

Ok, with only about a week left until it's release, I thought I'd post My Chemical Romance's new release, The Black Parade, just 'cause I'm looking forward to it very much. You don't have to listen to it...considering I think most of you already have listened to their new single, "Welcome to the Black Parade." This album is also a concept record, telling of the story of 'The Patient', the character the album is portraying. He dies tragically young due to some disease, possibly cancer. If you're expecting the same ol' pop-punk music you've heard from MCR in the past, how very wrong you are. The band realized they had to get rid of most the "plain punk songs" because some different songs, such as "Momma," and "Cancer," were too deep, that those plain punk songs just didn't fit anymore. Also, the band in an interview states "...the last album was about anger, and violence, and dealing with things in an angst way, where as this album is more about getting through that, and to stop being upset...", Gerard Way states. Anyway, this album is one of the most anticipated alternative albums of 2006, so everybody's excited about this one.
Songs I am personally looking forward to buying: "Dead!" "Cancer," "House of Wolves," "Momma," Sleep," "Teenagers," and of course every other song.

So I'm not really expecting you to like this much, or even listen to it, but I just wanted to share with you how excited about it I am. Haha, thank you for reading this...if you actually did.

Thrice's new album...

"As a lot of you may know, for the past month or so, we've been writing and recording our next album. We didn't want to say anything official until we'd finalized a lot of the details, but now that we're getting rolling on it, we want you guys to be the first to know what the plans are for this album.

We have started writing and recording a 4 disc concept record, with each disc being themed sonically and thematically to correspond with the four natural elements - earth, air, water and fire. The final record will have somewhere between 20 and 25 songs, divided between the 4 discs.

We are approaching the whole project in a new way for us, both writing and recording. Writing with these elements in mind, we are letting them shape the direction of the songs sonically and thematically. And for the first time, we're recording the record ourselves as we write it, freeing us up to change things as we go.

We are very excited about the project and are looking forward to sharing more details as the record takes shape. We're also in the process of setting up a site dedicated to keeping you up to date on our progress, so keep a look out for that in the near future."

-Thrice

"Weird Al" Yankovic

"Weird Al" is probably the coolest music artist(if you can call him that) that I think I've ever heard. The pic above is the front album art of his latest release, titled Straight Outta Lynwood. "Weird Al" does parodies of famous songs and such, ranging from "White and Nerdy(Parody of "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire)," to "Candadian Idiot(Parody of "American Idiot" by Green Day)," and from "Amish Paradise(Parody of "Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio)," to "You're Pitiful(Parody of "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt)." (I know these song titles are long, sorry.) So I hope you enjoy this...I really do.

Weird Al's purevolume
Weird Al's MySpace
Weird Al's Website

Redeemer

Norma Jean's new album titled Redeemer, is without a doubt, the hardest and loudest CD in my whole collection. And that's saying something. Though some may protest that their new sound isn't as good as their old, it still is so awesome, just listening to it might blow your brain up. Though it may get a little repetitive from start to back, but in a good way, 'cause I don't think I'll ever get sick of this metalcore. So yeah...
Recommended tracks: "A Grand Scene for Color Films," "Blueprints for Future Homes," "A Small Spark vs. a Great Forest," and "The End of All Things Will Be Televised." Enjoy.