We all know what happened at the VMAs.  Kanye West had to make some sort of scene and get attention.  Seriously, did the dude not get attention as a child?

That made news and blah blah blah.

What is awesome, is that Obama echoed the sentiments of millions of people by calling Kanye a *gasp!!* “Jackass”, and all the sudden that’s news.

Here’s the audio.  It’s awesome, and my opinion of him has risen.  Health Care, Schmealth Care, just trash Kanye and you’re good in my book!

[Source: TMZ]

These past couple weeks some really great bands have been drifting by my radar.  This week, I discovered Provo, Utah’s Shark Speed.

Overflowing with wonderfully tangled chords, summersaulting rhythms and vocals that easily hit all the highs without sacrificing the lows, Sea Sick Music keeps you intrigued with unexpected electronic flourishes and subtle touches of brass. Still, the unforgettable melodies and hook-filled choruses are the real show stoppers. For a debut album – for any album – Sea Sick Music is incredibly accomplished and varied, not to mention fun and completely entertaining. [Beartrap PR]

Listen to Battle Born

Sea Sick Music was recorded and produced by Pollen’s Bob Hoag (The Ataris, Dear And The Headlights, The Format) and was self-released by Shark Speed earlier this summer (05/12). It’s available from the band at shows, as well as digitally from iTunes.

Beginning today, Shark Speed will leave for a two week tour of the West Coast in support of its debut full-length, Sea Sick Music.

TOUR

AUG 15 – Ogden, UT @ Mojo’s Cafe
AUG 17 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Woodshed w/ Electron Deception, Small Town Sinners
AUG 18 – Provo, UT @ Foot Loose House w/ Code Hero
AUG 19 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Box Office w/ Neon Trees, Imagine Dragons, more
AUG 20 – Phoenix, AZ @ Modified Arts w/ Five Speed, The Great Migration, The Burn Riders
AUG 21 – San Diego, CA @ Music Trader
AUG 22 – Anaheim,CA @ Three Clubs w/ Oliver Future, Shiloe, Craft Club
AUG 24 – Hollywood, CA @ The Doll Hut
AUG 28 – Nampa, ID @ Flying M Coffee Garage w/ Spondee, The Murders
AUG 29 – Boise, ID @ The Vac w/ Red Jacket Mines
SEP 05 – Provo, UT @ The Velour w/ Delta Mirror

In order to promote his first full length without the Pedro the Lion moniker, David Bazan has released a track off of his upcoming album Curse Your Branches.  The track is called Bless the Mess and according to Bazan is a kind of autobiographical song.  Something he’s never really done.

According to Bazan:

The song is largely autobiographical. So any narrative in the song reflects actual events. Though I may have embellished a bit. But the main lyrical gimmick is sort of a self-conscious and hopeful interpretation of the Beatitudes, which I have an uneasy relationship with as the narrative tends to illustrate.

Curse Your Branches is available for pre-order! You’ll get access to a free stream of the record if you order before Sept 1.

Pre-order HERE!

Scottsboro, Alabama’s Latin For Truth – with help from their friends at Pitfall Records – have released a free digital version of their latest EP, We Are Sick of Not Having The Courage To Be Absolute Nobodies. To download all three songs, as well as lyrics, artwork and a bio, go here.

Here’s a sample:

Song: 88 Says

Album: We Are Sick of Not Having The Courage To Be Absolute Nobodies

Currently, the band is gearing up for The ‘95 Sound, a seven-inch of demos to be released on Pitfall Records in the Fall. The band continues to write for their upcoming full-length as well. The album, titled Youth Crew Blues, is tentatively scheduled for Spring 2010.

I’m going to start up a little weekly post or bi-weekly post called Bands You Should Know.  I’ve been trying to keep up with music, but have been falling behind.  Not a lot floats my boat anymore.

That’s changed with this week’s discovery of Raleigh, North Carolina’s Gray Young.

Check out a tune:

Song: Tilling the Wind

Album: Firmament

Gray Young have a busy August ahead with a string of shows in the Mid-Atlantic region, as well as a live taping and interview on NPR’s The State Of Things. The band is supporting their self-released debut full-length, Firmament.

TOUR

AUG 05 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle w/ the Octopus Project
AUG 06 – Washington, DC @ Comet Ping Pong w/ Eat People, Prisms, Solar Powered Sun Destroyer
AUG 07 – Frederick, MD @ Braddock Community Center w/ Eat People, My Best Friend’s Birthday, Solar Powered Sun Destroyer
AUG 08 – Manassas, VA @ El Taco w/ Eat People, Me Monster
AUG 14 – Winston Salem, NC @ Elliot’s Revue w/ Jews and Catholics
AUG 28 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Live on NPR 91.5 “The State of Things”
AUG 29 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Jack Sprat w/ Battle Rockets and Goodbye, Titan

Film composers Alex and Willie Cortés (Seppuku Paradigm) have made the scores for Martyrs and Eden Log available for free online.  I haven’t seen either yet, but I’m a fan of film scores.  And you can’t go wrong with free!

Downloads available after the jump.

Martyrs – Original Motion Picture Score (Download)

Eden Log – Original Motion Picture Score (Download)

[Source: Cinematical]

This video from Underoath is for the song Too Bright To See, Too Loud To Hear off of my favorite album of 2008, Lost in the Sound of Separation. Really cool video, no band but some creative and beautiful imagery. The song’s not to shabby either!

Chicago based Oceans have released their debut full length album, Nothing Collapses on Copper Lung Records (Portland, OR).  Go here to grab  your copy for only $6! I’ve heard it, and it’s well worth a measly $6.

Oceans’ debut is a sprawling masterpiece that flexes a magnificent scope. After two self-released demos, the Chicago instrumental juggernaut has thrown down a massive gauntlet with an enthralling and monumental piece of post rock. Filtered through the influences of Midwestern indie / emo and indebted to DIY / punk rock values, Oceans are playing instrumental music with a deliberate, yet dynamic purpose. Most importantly, Nothing Collapses fuels an unmistakable heart and soul that takes your breath away, reminding you of why you fell in love with instrumental music in the first place. Sometimes it takes a band like Ocenas to come along and make other bands look themselves in the mirror. Nothing Collapses simply sets the bar higher. [Bear Trappr PR]

Hear a track off the album and see what people are saying about Nothing Collapses after the jump.

Traps and Traps:

This is what Oceans is about; the Chicago quintet deliver sweeping post-rock epics without resorting to lazy devices like lyrics to punch you in the sternum. Their music carries a ton of information without saying many things out loud. The result: an hour of tension and release that forces listeners to pay attention while encouraging them to drift off. In other words, it’s the manipulation of our human ability to read things other than spoken language and it is completely bad ass. – Citizen Dick

Every once in awhile, an album comes along that acts in a sense as an open-ended soundtrack to a movie that will play in the listener’s head. Nothing Collapses is one such album. In a sense the music is in the background, but not in a passively. It’s twisting, turning rhythms and layered sound paints a vivid scene with both a clear point and endless possibility. What’s best is that Oceans trusts its listeners to do their part, to participate in something great, to not just listen, but to act (at least on the stage of their own minds). – Rock And Roll And Meandering Nonsense

In support of their new album, Prototypes and Painkillers, Strung Out have announced some tour date info.

05/02/09 Agoura Hills, CA at Canyon Club w/ Halifax, The Sheds
05/06/09 Portland, OR at Hawthorne Theatre w/ Death By Stereo
05/07/09 Seattle, WA at Neumos w/ Death By Stereo
06/04/09 Allston, MA at Harpers Ferry w/ Death By Stereo, This Is A Standoff
06/06/09 Pittsburgh, PA at Altar Bar w/ Death By Stereo, This Is A Standoff, A Vision Within
06/07/09 Cleveland, OH at Agora Ballroom w/ Death By Stereo, This Is A Standoff
06/08/09 Chicago, IL at Reggie’s Rock Club w/ Death By Stereo, This Is A Standoff
06/10/09 Denver, CO at Ogden Theater w/ Death By Stereo, This Is a Standoff
06/12/09 Las Vegas, NV at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino (21+) w/ This Is A Standoff, The Darlings
06/13/09 San Diego, CA at Soma w/ Death By Stereo, This Is A Standoff
06/14/09 Anaheim, CA at House of Blues w/ Death By Stereo, This Is A Standoff

Hear 2 new tracks off the album after the jump:

Lost Motel:

Wrong Side of the Tracks:

Strung Out -Prototypes And Painkillers:

In the music world there are leaders and there are followers – and for the past seventeen years Simi Valley, California’s Strung Out have continually proved themselves as one of the most groundbreaking and versatile melodic punk acts of all-time, collectively selling over 1,000,000 units (all sold independently) and selling out shows in countless countries all over the world. While musical trends and fashions may change, the secret to the success of  Strung Out – vocalist Jason Cruz, drummer Jordan Burns, bassist Chris Aiken and guitarists Jake Kiley and Rob Ramos – has always been their innate ability to retain their signature sound without crafting the same record twice.

Although  Strung Out are currently hard at work on the follow-up to 2007′s full-length Blackhawks Over Los Angeles, in order to tide over fans the band have decided to release the B-Side and rarities collection Prototypes And Painkillers. Like the band’s first such compilation The Skinny Years…Before We Got Fat, this album not only features some of the band’s standout songs but also illustrates how much the group has progressed over the past decade. “We had been talking about putting these songs all together on one CD for quite awhile, but it just took forever for us to finally do it and piece it together to make it what we wanted it to be,” Burns explains. “We all wanted to give something special to our fans who have supported us over all these years, you know?”

In true  Strung Out fashion the band decided to go all-out on this release, which features 25 tracks-seven of which were previously unreleased and 11 that were out-of-print-to make Prototypes And Painkillers a must for casual fans and Strung Out completists alike. From covers (Descendents’ “I’m Not A Loser” and Ozzy Osbourne’s “Bark At The Moon”) to alternate versions of fan favorites (“Novocain” and “Don’t Look Back”) and everything in between, Prototypes And Painkillers showcases how the band has managed to effortlessly combine the genres of punk, rock and metal into a unique amalgam of music that’s still impossible to replicate or imitate no matter how hard today’s punk acts may try.

“I just think its cool to have all these songs collectively as one CD that you can stick into your player and listen to instead of having to hunt around on the Internet for the songs individually,” Burns says when asked why the band felt it was important for these songs to co-exist in one comprehensive collection. In addition to containing over two dozen songs, the album also contains detailed liner notes about each track. “The liner notes were a real challenge to write because there are so many songs on here and you don’t want to be repetitive,” Burns explains with a laugh. “It took me a while to put them together, but I think fans will enjoy reading a short cool fact about each song included.”

Additionally, the band plans on incorporating some of these songs into their upcoming headlining dates. “We’re going to go out with the idea that we’re touring on this album, so hopefully we’ll incorporate a fair amount of these songs from this disc into the set and possibly get some new songs played live too” Burns explains. Ultimately when asked how  Strung Out has managed to stay relevant for so long, his explanation is also fairly straightforward: “We’ve had a really long career so far and we attribute that to our dedicated fan base and also to the fact that we’re always trying to do something different musically,” he summarizes. “There are so many different influences within Strung Out because we all listen to so many different types of music – and I think that really shines through on this collection as it certainly will with our next full length too.”

www.strungout.com
www.myspace.com/strungout

Download a FREE sampler with exclusive, previously-unreleased music from Nine Inch Nails, Jane’s Addiction and Street Sweeper.  The NIN|JA 2009 Tour starts on May 5, 2009 in West Palm Beach, Florida.  Download HERE.  More info  after the jump.

Featuring exclusive unreleased tracks from Jane’s Addiction, Nine Inch Nails & Street Sweeper. (more info)

1. Jane’s Addiction: Chip Away

2. Nine Inch Nails: Not So Pretty Now

3. Street Sweeper: Clap For The Killers

4. Jane’s Addiction: Whores

5. Nine Inch Nails: Non-Entity

6. Street Sweeper: The Oath

[Source: AbsolutePunk]