We're bringing the Fort Rock project back! Last year we announced a project that lasted for technically four months where we posted album reviews, news, biographies and the occasional blog post for all the Fort Rock artists. Last year, 24 bands performed at the 2016 Fort Rock festival, and between them all there were 124 albums, all of which got reviewed. We also wrote 22 biographies, one for almost all of the bands. Two of the smaller bands got excluded, not because we didn't care, but because we could not find enough information and did not hear back from the bands to get further information. This year, we're deciding to do just that all over again! This year, there's still 24 bands, but there are only 109 reviews left for us to do. Some of the artists have already been worked on, though we think we may revisit some of the albums. That is because some of the reviews are extremely old, so old in fact one of them was the very first review to ever be written on Immortal Music. So we have lots to do, and here is our plan! The reviews will begin on January 7, and then will go consistently every day until just a few days before the festival. Fort Rock is on April 29, and our goal is to have every album posted by the 26th. That gives us enough time to post one review a day up until the festival. We also are going to try to post a biography once a week for the most part. There's only 20 weeks til Fort Rock, however, so we're going to double up at some point and give you two a week. That won't last very long though, that'll only be for about two weeks. There's currently no plan on when that will happen, and it actually may not. If things follow suit, I'll have a hard time finding information on a couple smaller bands, so we may not have to double up at all. We shall look into it and get back to you at a later date! So try to get excited for the reviews to start, and expect the biographies to start very shortly! We're not going to tell you when they're going to start exactly, just expect them very soon! Get excited, a lot is coming your way. Who do you think we're going to start with? Let us know and see if you're right soon.
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Two days ago the 2017 Fort Rock lineup was announced! Unfortunately, due to work, I was unable to write about this the day of. Its only two days later, so its still completely relevent. Now I was actually at work when it was opened at noon, and instantly had people IMing me and texting me all excited about their favorites. Which made my excitement for the lineup take over, and I admit, I caved and looked at it right in the lobby of my work. Which could get me in trouble, but luckily my work was a ghost town yesterday, so it didn't matter at all. As soon as I saw the lineup, I had mixed reactions. Part of me was like, "YES!" and then another part of me was like, "What?" Its a very mixed lineup, with several you would expect to play, and several you would not. Then as I was looking at it, I realized I once again did nail some of the lineup! I guessed that Soundgarden, Papa Roach, The Pretty Reckless, Alter Bridge, Motionless In White, Starset, Nothing More, Seether,The Offspring, In Flames, Chevelle, Three Days Grace, In This Moment, and Beartooth would all be there. If you want to read the post where I put out my guesses, and explained the speculations, please feel free to click here. Some of the bands, I'm completely thrilled about. This will be my third time seeing Papa Roach, and Seether, and I'm hopeful to actually get to watch Starset and Motionless In White this year. Chevelle intrigues me because I have only seen them once before, and due to a crappy sound guy that night, they sounded awful. So I'm excited to give them a second chance -seven years later. But the headliners?? I may sound a little bit unprofessional here, or just completely out of the loop, but they kind of suck! Admittedly, I don't think I've ever listened to A Perfect Circle, so I cannot judge them, but The Offspring, Def Leppard and Soundgarden? Not interested...I've never really gotten into any of them, and to be honest, I didn't think Def Leppard were still active. I know that's probably kind of bad of me, but I honestly had no idea! I've never really gotten into any of those bands, so somehow they slipped through the cracks. In fact, sadly, I thought Def Leppard hadn't released anything in my life time. One quick Google search taugh me that they have released five more albums since I was born. Which isn't a ton, when you think about the fact that I am 23 years old. I'd like to know how others feel about the headliners, because they really don't strike my attention at all. The Offspring has headlined before, but that was the year I did not try to attend. So I personally have never seen them, but I didn't hear a ton of people express excitment when they performed in 2014. Not for any particular reason, and it could have just been simply by the time they got on stage, the people I talked to were tired and ready to go home. I had heard Fort Rock was trying to be 'bigger and better' this year, and judging by the lineup, I can see their effort. There are some big names in the list, from the headliners to Papa Roach, Seether, All That Remains, but I really don't think they topped this year. There was 23,000 people there, all to see Disturbed, Five Finger Death Punch, Shinedown, Bring Me The Horizon, Bullet For My Valentine, Saint Asonia, Asking Alexandria, Trivium and a ton more. Maybe it just drew my attention more, but I'm sure someone out there completely disagrees with me. I am geniunely excited to see some of the lineup though! I Prevail is an exciting one because I've recently really gotten into their music, and was going to cover them in the summer when they toured with Pierce The Veil. Unfortunately, due to a hurricane, I was unable to travel to them, so I'm excited to get a second chance there. I've already mentioned that I'm excited to see Papa Roach, Seether, Starset, Motionless In White and Chevelle. I also have interest in actually watching In This Moment, The Pretty Reckless and Beartooth. There's funny reasons for some of them. I've seen Motionless In White before, and interviewed Starset, but yet have never watched them. When I saw Motionless In White, I think they only had their Creatures album out, and at the time, it wasn't my cup of tea at all. Over the years, they've evolved and grown on me a lot. So I have wanted to give them a second chance for a while. They performed at the 2015 Fort Rock festival, but I missed their set entirely because I was interviewing Starset. I missed Starset's performance at that same festival due to another interview, with Young Guns. Do you know how weird is it to admit that to a band? I was sitting there with two of the members and they expressed interest in if I had watched their set. I felt bad having to tell them no, I missed their set entirely but they didn't seem too phased. I think its because bands know how hectic a festival is, especially behind the scenes. Plus they probably miss performances they want to see all the time. So, this year, I am determined to check them out. I also am very excited to try to get some interviews! I tend to ask for way too many interviews, and get lucky if four answer. I am hoping to finally get my Papa Roach interview, and would love to do follow up interviews with Seether and Starset. I also would like to speak to I Prevail, Dinosaure Pile Up (I currently know nothing about them, but their name is highly amusing to me so I'm intrigued), Beartooth, Nothing More, In Flames, Alter Bridge, In This Moment, The Pretty Reckless, Motionless In White, Chevelle, Alter Bridge, and All That Remains. So basically I want to talk to most of the lineup, so I'll be happy with whoever is willing to speak with me. We shall see what happens! Let me know your thoughts on the lineup and stay tuned because we are going to do be doing the Fort Rock project again this year! That is something we did last year, where we did 124 album reviews, 22 biographies, and posted a ton of news articles. Over 200 articles got posted in regards of the 2016 Fort Rock festival and this year we are planning similar endeavours. Stay tuned for the game plan and then all the content! Its all coming soon. Festival season is just around the corner, and as exciting as it is, something always has to come first! Before the festivals happen, there's always a series of lineup announcements for various festivals that will happen in the coming year. That season is now upon us, and has kicked off with the 11th Annual Rock On The Range festival! If you'd like to see the full lineup, please click here, because this post is not about Rock On The Range directly. Its connected, yes, but its actually about Fort Rock 2017, just as the title says. Now I've been going to festivals for several years now, and have come to notice something very interesting regarding them. All the US festivals (aside from Warped tour, which always has to be the unique one), tend to have similar lineups. I assume its so less people around the country feel left out when they hear of a festival that's too far away from them that they would love to go. No two lineups are ever the exact same, but they always have bands in common. Also, there's some observations I've made regarding Fort Rock. Some bands seem to perform every other year, and no band has ever played two years in a row. For example, Papa Roach performed at Fort Rock 2013, which was the first year, and 2015. Rob Zombie played in 2014, and 2016, as did Five Finger Death Punch. So, given those observations, I think I might be able to make some good guesses regarding the 2017 Fort Rock lineup. Plus, its kind of just fun to see if I can guess any of the bands. Last year I guessed nine of the bands performing for Fort Rock this year, and let me tell you -I was very excited about it! What I think its kind of interesting, is I looked back just to see who all I guessed and what all I said surrounding those guesses and a handful of the bands that are actually playing ROTR 2017 were on my guess list. None of those bands actually performed this year, but I'm wondering if they may perform this year. On that list, and the ROTR lineup for this year are Korn, Volbeat, Beartooth, Seether, Alter Bridge, and Nothing More. Korn, Volbeat, Nothing More and Alter Bridge have all played Fort Rock before, but not recently. So, I am wondering if they could be there in 2017. Volbeat hasn't performed since the first year in 2013, Korn, Nothing More and Alter Bridge all have not performed at Fort Rock since 2014, so it seems possible that they would all perform. I've been wracking my brain to come up with ideas ever since they announced the dates for Fort Rock 2017. Its going to be the fifth annual one, and the fourth one I've attended as press. 3rd one in a row! So, Fort Rock is quite special to me. So, based off some of my own guesses, and the ROTR line up, I think I might have somewhat of an educated guess. Just as I said last year, I must throw out there that I don't actually know the lineup, so I imagine more than half of the bands I guess will not actually perform. With enough information, and context clues though, sometimes you can get a vague idea. I mean, after all, last year, I did guess that Disturbed, Shinedown, Bring Me The Horizon, Lamb Of God, A Day To Remember, and Saint Asonia all would play at Fort Rock 2016. So, I'm hopeful that this year will be no different! Metallica, Soundgarden and Korn are all headlining ROTR 2017, and given how massive Metallica has always been, and the recent success of their brand new album, I would not be shocked if they do perform one of the two days of Fort Rock. Korn feels like a safe guess, because, as I said, they performed in 2014. It just feels like they're over due for a performance here locally. I had half wondered if Skillet would perform, because they have never played Fort Rock, but play all over Florida, including near our area, quite regularly. So, seeing them on the ROTR lineup, makes me speculate that its possible. Sum 41 had also crossed my mind, simply because they made their massive comeback this year and I have a feeling they're going to be going out on tour, and performing at all the massive festivals next year. My lineup predictions for Fort Rock 2017 are: Day One; April 29, 2017: -Metallica -Soundgarden -The Offspring -Papa Roach -The Pretty Reckless -Alter Bridge -Sum 41 -Taking Back Sunday -Motionless In White -Pierce The Veil -Starset -Nothing More -Attila -Thrice Day Two; April 30, 2017: -Korn -Seether -Volbeat -Skillet -Anon Amarth -In Flames -Suicide Silence -Chevelle -Beartooth -Coheed And Cambria -Every Time I Die -Bush -One Less Reason -Kyng -As Lions I feel fairly secure in my guesses, but obviously I could be wrong. Honestly, it surprises me a bit to see Pierce The Veil in the lineup at all, but at the same time it shouldn't. They played a few festivals this year that they didn't seem to completely fit the bill for. I'm actually rather excited for them that they're not getting stuck in a box. They put on a great show, so I would really like to see them again. As far as the bands that I really want to see seem fitting for Fort Rock based off the ROTR, there's Papa Roach, Seether, PTV, One Less Reason, Attila, Motionless In White, Starset, Nothing More, and a few others I didn't mention. Other bands that I chose not to name here, but were speculated were Three Days Grace, Art Of Dying, Escape The Fate, In This Moment, and Halestorm. I'm not sure who all to expect, but I really do think the ROTR lineup is a big hint! I'm extremely hopeful for Papa Roach again, as I would love to see them again. One of my absolute favorite photos that I've ever taken actually is of Jacoby Shaddix at Fort Rock 2015. So, if I could some how do that again, that would be awesome. Plus, who wouldn't like to hear their favorite song again and again? All of the speculations will be proved true, or false on December 5, and frankly I can't wait! Stay tuned for the lineup, more content and of course, my thoughts on the real lineup. I'm actually feeling enthused to write for the first time in several months, so who knows! Maybe this will bring back the spark that has been out for a while now. We shall see! Meanwhile, who do you want to see play a festival near you? Let us know in the comments, over on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram! Six years ago yesterday, I created the Immortal Music Facebook page. A lot has changed in the last six years, including the name of the page. It all began on a little Facebook page called Music = Life. I had originally created it just to share my love of music with people who also loved music. In the early days, that's all it was. I would post a Song Of The Day, random lyrics, pictures, and the occasional news article. I would just chat with people, and that was the extent of it. It was all just fun....that is until a friend of mine introduced me to Bryan Stars interviews. I don't remember exactly when he showed me Bryan's interviews, probably not long after the creation of the page, but it was a life changing thing. That sounds really dramatic, but it honestly has changed my life. I'm sure I've told this story before, but there's new people around now, and its been a while, so I'm going to tell the story anyways. He showed me the first interview Bryan did with Andy Biersack, who went by Andy Six at the time. So many different thoughts came to my mind, as this was also my introduction to Black Veil Brides. As I was watching, and laughing at Andy's pure sass, a thought hit me. Why am I not doing this? I love music, why not write about music. That's when I began doing just that. If you look far enough back on the page, you can see exactly where this all began. I however, did not look back because when I was writing this, it was almost 8 am, and I had work within the hour, so time wasn't exactly permitting a lot of searching. You can see where I started sharing interviews, and even writing very early posts. I don't remember all I posted on the page, but Immortal Music had many different stages. I recently was reminded that I actually dabbled a little tiny bit with this concept all the way back in 2009, so in a way, Bryan Stars was just opening the door for a wind already trying to get through. Was that a weird analogy? It probably is, but I'm moving on anyway. I actually did my first interview on that page. I'm pretty sure I posted it as a note, and I know I did it over Facebook Messenger. I would write biographies and reviews, print them out and put them in a portfolio. My goal was to go work for Alternative Press magazine, and slowly, it turned into me wanting to do my own thing. Its been an interesting road really. Its had a lot of up's and down's, and has taught me a lot. Not only about the industry, music artists, and the music itself, but also about goals. People make your dreams / dedications/ goals sound constant, but doing this for the last six years has taught me something. Nothing is constant. No matter how much you love something, you will have periods where you aren't excited to work on it. Where it feels like work, so you drag your feet a little bit to get something going, or you flat out just don't feel like doing it. Its only been recently when I came to the realization that those periods are normal and important. I can't tell you how many times I've ended up in tears because I felt guilty for not writing, or even just not wanting to write but doing it anyway. For every time I was excited to do it, and happily wrote many things in one sitting, there's at least one where I felt uninspired and writing one thing felt like a chore. You can have too much of a good thing -even when its your dream. And that doesn't mean you're giving up, or that you've lost interest. Or that its hopeless. It simply means you're human and things come in waves. Its part of life, and you know what? That's okay. I've finally accepted that, and it took me six years to realize its okay if you don't want to push yourself sometimes. Pushing yourself leads to burn outs, and trust me, I've gotten burned out several times over the last several years. And if you look back through the archives, you can probably see when those times were because there's gaps in between things were posted. Sometimes those gaps came from being completely discouraged, but other times were simply just because I felt uninspired and life got in the way. That's sort of where I'm at right now, but for once I don't have that little voice in the back of my head that progressively gets louder and pushier. Normally the voice is constantly going, "Hey, stop being lazy and write. You have to do this, no excuses." But then another part of me sees that I have a reason not to. I work basically full time at this point, and try to maintain relationships with friends. Frankly, I don't always want to come home from busting my ass at work, to do more work. And I've never had someone pointing out when I didn't post something, and I finally realized why. To everyone else this is FUN, and originally this was all for fun for me as well. Then it became so much more, and that is a beautiful thing, but you know what? So is fun. So I'm going to, at least for a while do it when I feel like it. I think its more genuinely written when I'm not forcing it, therefor more fun to read anyways, so I'm just going to do it that way. And the reason why I'm posting this is not only because I wanted to reflect, but I wanted to let you guys know what's going on. This is not me giving up, its me allowing myself to relax once in a while. Everyone should do that, because without that time, you just end up overworked, stressed out, uninspired and upset. That ruins a great thing, so things will be posted here and there, I'm still going to be covering shows, but I am going to relax a little bit. I hope everyone understands that. On that note, thank you to everyone who's been there all of these years, or to anyone who's been there at all. Your support is appreciated greatly, and I hope you stick around for a long, long time. I still plan on trying to do great things, and would love to have you along for the ride. So, I want to talk about something most of you probably will not give two shits about, you know what? It was something very important in my life, and I want to have a nostalgia moment. Thanks to MTV using a very clickbait-y title that was partly false, it was brought to my attention that the Jonas Brothers' debut album came out 10 years ago today.Now I'm sure most of you are going, "Why are you talking about this? You talk about rock music, and that's about it. Nobody likes the Jonas Brothers." Well....I guess its time I came clean about this, though I've talked about it before somewhat. Deep breath in here, now....I was once a hardcore Jonas Brothers fangirl. I know, I know, I pride myself on not fangirling, but hey, I was a young teenager once too, and I think getting so obsessed with them and their work is kind of what lead me to where I am today. It all started when their debut album, Its About Time was fairly new still. I wanna say it probably was less than three months old, but I could be dead wrong about that. I was thirteen years old, hanging out at my friend's house, and she wouldn't stop playing this insanely high pitched little boy. IT WAS DRIVING ME NUTS. I actually remember looking at the CD and going, "I like the way they look, but this sucks. Turn it off." After asking my friend repeatedly to turn it off, she finally did turn it off. We then went into the kitchen to start making cookies. As I'm getting stuff out of cupboards to begin baking, she turns on the TV so we had something to watch while we baked. I all the sudden hear "Year 3000" start. I had already heard the song at least three other times, among other songs on the album so I remember groaning and going, "REALLY? Dude, turn it off. I don't want to keep listening to them." I didn't win that fight, instead that one video was played on repeat for the next hour or however long we were in the kitchen. By the time she finally turned that off, it was stuck in my head, and I had to get it out. So I gave in and decided to turn it on for myself. I couldn't work her CD player, and had to ask her to turn it back on. This set me up on a very interesting road. The fangirl life. Now most people are familiar with the fangirl life, and I had the whole nine yards. Trying and failing to get tickets every chance I got, buying all the merch I could, subscribing to magazines just so I could get posters, defending them to no end, learning every fact I could, ect. I'm not embarrassed of it, I will still defend them, and I do this day still have two Jonas Brothers posters up in my room. One is from when I saw finally saw them in 2009, and the other is their Rolling Stone cover from like 2007. Or whatever year they were on it, I've forgotten. I still genuinely enjoy their music, and probably always will. They did a lot of good for me, which is actually why I'm talking about this. Not only did they play a big factor in how my best friend and I stayed close after she moved out of state, but they made me have an interest in the people behind the music. Did I take it too far for a while? Most definitely. But you know what? It was fun! I see no problem in fans being a little too obsessed, as long as they're not hurting anyone. Yes, it can go too far, and then it gets dangerous for the person that's being obsessed over, but it sometimes is all harmless fun. It also can teach you something. Its hours upon hours of smiling, and singing along to songs, or doing research because you got curious about something regarding whoever it is. In a way, at least for me, it brought some life to the people behind the music. Before that period in my life, I don't remember ever really thinking, "Hmm...I wonder what inspired that song?" or an artist's interests. Before I got really into the Jonas Brothers, music was just....there. The people who made it didn't really cross my mind much, and I can't tell you why not. I also can't tell you why I wanted to learn more about them as people -I just did. Researching 'facts' about them, that may or may not have actually even been real lead me to wondering similar things about other bands. Suddenly musicians were real people to me, not just something that made a song exist. It became normal to me to want to know something about a band when I discovered them. And I think wanting to know more about the people behind the music is partly what lead me to music journalism. So for that, and many other things, I will forever appreciate the Jonas Brothers and just wanted to reflect on this old ass album. It was never my favorite one by them, I honestly would say the second one is my favorite, but I appreciate it. I have good memories connecting to it, and all the work that followed it. The fangirl life is a lot of fun, and can be very helpful, so if you or someone you know is hardcore obsessed with something, let them have it. It could lead them to great things, and even if it doesn't, so what? We need fun things in our lives, without them life would fucking suck. I'm done reminiscing for now, so thank you for reading, and please feel free to join in. Talk about something you look back on fondly that you once were into or this album as well! I know there's plenty of JB fans out there, so come on out of that wood work. I'm a Jonas Brothers fan, and I am proud. I am what I am, I can't help myself, and if you don't like it, better get with someone else. I'll never change, its not a phase -this is who I am and this is how its gonna stay. Yes, that was a JB reference. Embrace it, and I will be back soon with another random post like this, a biography, review, something! Also, how ironic is it that I wrote this while wearing a Bring Me The Horizon shirt and We Came As Romans paused in the background? I don't know why I felt like mentioning that, I just did. Its funny how much things can change over time, but yet it all started really back then. This week we are going to be talking about a pop punk band that I only recently got into, Real Friends. Real Friends is a pop punk band from Tinley Park, IL that formed in 2010. It was formed after Kyle Fasel decided he wasn't happy with the music he was making on his own, and decided to start over. He got together with what is now the band's guitarist, Dave Knox, and soon they began talking about their musical goals. Supposedly, Kyle didn't really expect it to go anywhere, but soon they started forming a project that is still growing today. Dave Knox called a friend of his, Dan Lambton who soon became the vocalist for the band, and not long after that came their drummer, Aaron Schluck. Together, these four recorded their debut EP, This Is Honesty and released it on April 2011. Just after releasing the EP, they began playing shows all around the Midwest, but soon realized it didn't feel right playing the songs they had. They said it sort of felt like they were forcing themselves into a sound. So, they all got together and decided to start over, and they in the process made some changes. During this time, both Dave Knox and Kyle Fasel were playing in a band called The Fastest Kid Alive, and they also brought in a new drummer, Brian Blake. Oddly, they didn't actually have a second guitarist, but called on friends to come fill in. This is where Eric Haines soon joined the band as an additional guitarist. They pretty soon got themselves in a groove that they liked and began working on another EP, which got them quite a bit more attention. This EP was the Everyone That Dragged You Here EP, and it was soon followed by another one called, Put Yourself Back Together. That one actually got reviewed by Rock Sound magazine, and they said that they wouldn't be surprised if they were 'mixing it with the big boys in a year's time." Rock Sound certainly called that because then in December 2013, the band was signed to Fearless Records. Apparently, at first they were a little hesitant to join any label but Fearless helped and made it feel like a family. They were hesitant because they still wanted full control, and we all know labels do sometimes take that away somewhat. However, fearless really just was there to help with the distribution and marketing aspects, which is something they really liked. This lead them to the studio in February, which is where they began recording their debut album. They finally were able to make their debut on July 22, 2014, and titled it Maybe This Place Is The Same And We're Just Changing. It actually did really well on US charts, reaching number three on the Billboard top Vinyl Albums and Independent Albums charts, five on the Alternative charts, six on the Top Rock Albums and 24 on the Billboard 200. It also sold over 10,000 copies, which isn't a ton but it definitely was a fantastic start. The album had three singles, all of which were released prior to the album. It started with "Loose Ends", which came out on May 20, 2014, and then was followed by "Sixteen" and "I Don't Love You Anymore" on June 10, and July 1 consecutively. The album was said to include more 'emo' aspects, and crossed a few different patterns. Sometimes it was more aggressive, sometimes it was slower, and it was just over all different. Kyle said he was more nervous to hear reactions from fans over this, but clearly it went very well. After the release of the album, they got to go perform on the 2014 Vans Warped tour, and the album got nominated for the Album of The Year at the Alternative Press Music Awards. They followed the album by releasing an EP of Acoustic Songs called More Acoustic Songs EP and released it for Record Store Day in April 2015. One of the tracks actually was an acoustic version of "Late Nights In My Car' and features This Wild Life's Kevin Jordan. This brings us to the most recent Real Friends activity. The band made hints on and off all year of a possible new album On December 22, 2015, Fearless Records announced that Real Friends would have a new record out in 2016. They actually released the album on May 27, 2016 and it was called The Home Inside My Head. By the time the album was announced, they had already begun playing what became the album's only single to date, which is "Colder Quicker." The album title was finally announced on April 1 of this year and then when it was finally released, it didn't reach a ton of charts, or anything like that. However, it did still reach 53 on the Billboard 200, and its still fairly new so who knows what all it could reach later! Maybe not charts, but it could go platinum or something at some point! Now a days, you can catch Real Friends on the Vans Warped tour, which ends on August 13 and then they get a little bit of down time. Maybe more dates will be announced, but as it stands right now, they're clear until December 1 when they set out on tour with Knuckle Puck and With Confidence! The tour goes through December 17, and you can find full tour dates on their official website! We may have missed out on writing last week's biography, but we're back this week! And this week, we're talking about one of the leading female fronted bands in pop rock-Paramore! Paramore originally formed in 2004, and are based off out of Franklin, Tennessee. As it sands right now, the band is only a two piece, consisting of Hayley Williams, and Taylor York. However, it didn't start off that way. We'll get there, just get comfy and keep reading. At just thirteen years old, Hayley williams moved from Meridian, Mississippi to Franklin, Tennessee. When she moved there, she met two brothers, Josh and Zac Farro. Soon after moving there, Hayley started doing vocal lessons with Brett Manning. Just before actually forming Paramore, Hayley formed a funk cover band called The Factory with Josh and Zach, and that slowly turned into Paramore. Hayley once was quoted saying, "They were the first people I met who were as passionate about music as I was." Which is not surprising, and can be a massive bonding thing between anyone, but let alone young teenagers. The band was originally formed by Josh Farro, on lead guitar, Zac Farro on drums, Jeremy Davis on bass, and of course, Hayley Williams on vocals, in 2004. When Jeremy formed, he was shocked to realize that Zac was only twelve years old. He apparently once admitted that he didn't have much faith in everyone because of their age, and really thought it wouldn't work out because of that. Then the first day of practice came up, and he knew they were onto something. The name Paramore, come to find out was the maiden name of very early bassist, that was not mentioned. They soon realized that "paramour" was a homophone for 'secret lover', and decided to adopt that as their name, but stuck to the prior spelling they already knew. Just before the band actually formed in 2003, Hayley on her own was signed to Atlantic Records as a solo artist. The original plan for the label was to have Hayley become basically the next Hilary Duff or something, by being a pop singer, but Hayley insisted she wanted to play alternative rock with a band. She apparently got her way, because look at them today. Paramore actually was originally supposed to release music through Atlantic Records, but the marketing department decided it would be better for the image of the band to not be attached to a major label. So, they instead released their music through Fueled By Ramen, which is just a branch off of Atlantic Records and has housed bands like The Academy Is.., A Rocket To The Moon, Fall Out Boy, Jimmy Eat World, Less Than Jake, and more in the past! So, this was a big deal. They were officially signed in April 2005 after seeing the band perform in a small ,private show in a warehouse. The band's first song ever written was called "Conspiracy" and was later put on their debut album. It was sadly not long after they signed that Jeremy Davis decided to leave the band, due to personal reasons. This may have been a minor set back, but it didn't stop them. The other four members kept on writing their debut album, and actually wrote a song about his departure. That one is "All We Know", and it actually lead to the concept of the debut album. The debut album was called All We Know Is Falling, and it actually just last week passed its eleven year anniversary. It was released on July 26, 2005, the album actually reached number 8 on the UK Rock Charts. In the US, it actually reached number 30 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart, though did not reach the Billboard 200. None the less, having your debut album chart at all, is highly awesome. It took a while, but nearly nine years later, it received a Gold Certification here in the US, and it did get more attention after the release of their second album, Riot! Now Riot! Is the one that really put them on the map. If I'm honest, Until fairly recently, I thought this was their first album, and I feel it may be possible that others thought that as well. This is because of the success, of the album. They began recording the album in early 2007, and then released it on June 12, 2007. The album is thought to explore a diverse range of styles and was compared to Avril Lavigne or Kelly Clarkson by some critics. Unlike the first album, this one reached many charts all over the world, and even broke into the top ten in the US on the Top Rock Albums and Top Alternative albums, as well as the UK rock albums. It also broke the top fifty in New Zealand, Mexico, Finland, and Australia. As It stands right now, the album is double platinum here in the US, platinum in the UK, and Gold in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This is the album that put them really on the map, and holds some of the most iconic Paramore songs out there. Those songs include, "Misery Business", which was the first single to be released for the album, "Crushcrushcrush" and "That's What You Get." Both of the latter two songs have gone platinum on their own here in US. The origin of "Misery Business" is fairly interesting. Way back when, Hayley posted on the band's LiveJournal account, asking fans to share things they were ashamed of. She said that she quickly found that people were really reaching out for someone to spill their guts to. So, she did the same thing, lyrically. She said its more honest than anything she's ever written. Apparently people responded well to that because not only is it a massive song now, but it spent 22 weeks at #3 on the Alternative Songs chart, and got included in video games like Saints Row 2, NHL 08, Rock Band 3 and Guitar Hero World Tour. The last single for the album, I dare say may be the absolute biggest Paramore song out there. That song is "That's What You Get", and the song actually was released just after they canceled a European tour to work on personal issues. This did cause the media to stir up rumors of a break up, but Hayley spoke up and said they were just in a very fragile state and felt it was best for them to be around friends and family for a while. Some down time was clearly very needed. Apparently seeing friends was good though, because they actually used that to their advantage and filmed the video for the song. When asked about it, Hayley said, "We had tons of friends there, and it really just felt like a hangout session. And Marcos [Siega, the director] was so cool about it. He said, 'Bring your friends.' We shot it in some of our friends' houses, and it just felt so real... and I think it's the first time in a video you're gonna get to see who we really are." This album is truly what made a real name for Paramore. After the release of that album, they had a lot of great opportunities come up. Such as Hayley got to provide guest vocals for "The Church Channel", and "Plea" for Say Anything's concept album, In Defense of the Genre, did an acoustic show in Boston for FNX Radio, and got to perform on MTV's New Years Eve, ringing in 2008. Then they got featured on the cover for Alternative Press' February issue for 2008, and was voted the Best Band of 2007 by AP Readers. They then got nominated for the Best New Artist for the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. Sadly, they lost to Amy Winehouse, but still Grammy nominations are a massive deal. In April and May of 2008, they got to tour with Jimmy Eat World, and headlined the Get It A Name Festival in the UK on May 10 and 11th. They also got to perform for a few days on Warped tour in July of that year. From July 25 to September 1 of that year, Paramore embarked on "The Final Riot" tour, and released a collaboration hoodie through Hurley Clothing. The hoodie was based off of the Riot artwork, and all the proceeds went to the Love146 Foundation. The Love146 Foundation, for those who don't know is a foundation that helps fight against child trafficking. They then on November 25, released a live album/ DVD of the The Final Riot tour. The DVD was filmed on August 12, 2008, at the Congress Theater in Chicago, IL. There's 15 songs on the CD, and the DVD also features a documentary called 40 Days of Riot! The documentary showed them on tour and you could see even more if you got the limited deluxe edition. The deluxe edition came with a 36 page booklet of the tour, and had another documentary called 40 MORE Days of Riot! By April 9 of 2009, the DVD/ CD had gone gold in the US. Rewind a few months, to January 2009, when Josh Farro spoke up about the band's next album. He said they were going to try to record it in Nashville. They had hope that they would be inspired by being there, and stated that it would be a lot easier because they could go home to their own beds at night, rather than sleep in hotels. This album became the band's third studio album, Brand New Eyes. The album was released on September 29, 2009, and did extremely well on charts all over the world. Not only did critics rave about the song writing, but to topped charts all over the world. It hit number one in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, two different charts in the UK, as well as the US. It also broke the top ten in Mexico, Germany, Finland, Canada, and Austria. Then to add to the sucess, the album has gone platinum here in the US, as well as the UK, Ireland, Canada, and Australia. Then Gold in New Zealand, Brazil, and Argentina. It even stayed in the top 100 by the end of the year for the US, UK, Australia, through then ext year! They released the first single, "Ignorance" on July 7, 2009, and after the release, four more singles came. They released "Brick By Boring Brick", "The Only Exception", "Careful" and Playing God", in that order from November 23, 2009, through November 15 of 2010. To date, this is the second most popular album, but we will get to the most successful very soon. To promote the album, they went on the Brand New Eyes World Tour which took them all around North America, Asia and Europe, and took them to many festivals everywhere. They even got to support Green Day on some dates around Europe around this time. This was also the turning point for Paramore, because after this one, Zac and Josh Farro left the band. On December 18, Hayley, Jeremy and Taylor posted a message on their website stating that Josh and Zac were leaving the band and it started quite the debacle. Josh posted a statement on Blogger, claiming that the band was a "manufactured product of a major-label", and accused Hayley of being manipulated by the management. He also made it sound like Hayley was some kind of diva, saying she treated the rest of the group like it was her solo project, and that everyone was "riding on the coattails of her dream." It seems like the band more or less brushed off this statement, and kept going. In January 2011, in an interview with MTV Hayley said that even though the band lost two of its founding members, they were going to release more new music in 2011. She did also add that the style was more than likely going to change because of the new lineup. The entered the studio fairly quick after completing a South American tour that was already set to happen when Josh and Zac departed. One of the songs they recorded, "In The Mourning" was released originally through Hayley's Tumblr, and they later confirmed that they were working on a brand new record. They also released a single called "Monster" on June 3, 2011, and it was part of the Transformers: Dark Of the Moon Soundtrack. This was the very first song to actually not featured the Farro brothers. They also announced that they had begun writing their fourth studio album, and said that they hoped to have it read to be released in early 2012. She then confirmed there would be some sort of other release by putting out another song, "Renegade", which was recorded at the same time as "Monster." Then in October 2011, Paramore announced that they would release a new song for each of the remaining months for the year. They set up the Singles Club on their website, which gave fans the chance to buy the singles when they were released. They were all exclusive through the Singles Club and were therefor not sold anywhere else. The day of this announcement, they premiered, "Renegade", then it was followed by "Hello Cold World" on November 7, and then lastly "In The Mourning" on December 5. On April 18, 2012, Hayley announced that they would be working with former Lostphrophets, and current drummer for Angels & Airwaves and Nine Inch Nails drummer, Iian Rubin. He would be doing the session drumming while they recorded, and then fast forward a year to when they released their fourth album, which happened to be self titled. Paramore was released on April 5, 2013, and its the final one to feature the bassist, Jeremy Davis, who left the band in 2015. This album though received a lot of commercial success, and had a couple of songs hit main stream charts. You still can hear "Still Into You" everywhere, as well as "Ain't It Fun", and "Ain't It Fun" has won a Grammy. The album hit number one in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, the UK and the US. It also has broken the top twenty in Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Italy, Germany, Finland, and Austria. It also has Gold certifications in the UK, New Zealand, Brazil, and Australia. Its platinum here in the US, too! In promotion for the album, they went on the Self Titled Tour, which took them around Europe, North America, Asia, Latin America, and the Oceania regions. They also got to co-headline the Monumentour with Fall Out Boy in 2014. They also in 2014 released a deluxe edition of the album, which featured a remake of "Hate To See Your Heart Break", which was already on the album. This verison however featured Joy Williams, who is a very successful solo artist. After the release of the deluxe edition, they decided to embark on the In December 2015, Jeremy Davis left the band, and sadly it was not an easy break. In March of 2016 he embroiled in a legal battle with Paramore, and claimed to be eligible to enjoy the benefits of a business partnership with Hayley Williams as co-owner of the band. As far as I'm aware, not much has been settled regarding this yet, but it doesn't compleetley sound like he was getting very very with it. As of right now, this is the most recent Paramore album, but earlier this year, they announced that they were in the process of writing the fifth album. It also appears as though Zach Farro is back again with them for recording. He has clarified that he is only recording for the album, but has not rejoined the band as a full member. That may still come up, but as of right now, it has not. So now we're all caught up! If you want to see what Paramore is doing right now or in the upcoming future, please be sure to check out their official website, and follow them on all social media. Their website does not currently show a lot of activity on the road, but as already stated, they are working on a new album, so stay tuned! I only just got a chance to listen to Bullfight by A Day To Remember, which is the newest song from ADTR and I was frankly a little bit thrown off by it. Not in a bad way, really. If you haven't listened to it, I recommend you do before you read on. Listen to it below before reading on. Now that you hopefully listened to the song, I can continue on with my thoughts. I definitely like the track, but in a way, it almost doesn't sound like them. It sounds like them, but doesn't all at once. Does that make any sense? It doesn't sound like it does. It sort of sounds like they mixed their newer sound, and the old school sound. Its catchy, but just a little different for them. I must say too, I love the lyrics. "Everybody sees your head's hung low. They don't ask, they don't wanna know. I'll be the one, I'll be your spark. I'll be your light led through the darkness." We all know by now that I'm all for songs that express the power of music, and flat out offer to help. So of course I like this song, just the sound threw me off at first. After listening to it two or three times, I really grew to like the sound. It makes me curious to see what Bad Reputation holds for us. I admit, they're so far two of three for me. I like all three of the songs we've heard so far, but out of the three, I will say the title track is my least favorite. I'm not entirely sure why that is, but I don't completely love it. "Paranoia", and "Bullfight" on the other hand, yeah! I loved "Paranoia" instantly, and like I just said, this was weird at first, but grew on me very quickly. So I'm curious, what do you guys think of the song? Or any of the songs we've heard so far from the new ADTR album? The album has now been pushed back to September 2, though it was originally supposed to be out in the middle of August. Its a shame, but hey, better late than never! At this point, I'm fairly certain almost everyone has heard of Twenty One Pilots. This incredibly unique, and very successful duo originally formed in 2009 in Columbus, OH. I was fairly surprised to discover that they didn't originally start off as a duo of best friends, they actually were once slightly different. While the band now only consists of Tyler Joesph, who does the lead vocals and keyboard, and Josh Dun, who is the drummer. Originally the band consisted of Tyler Joesph, Nick Thomas and Chris Salih. Chris was the original drummer, and Nick who played bass. Josh didn't come into the picture until 2011, but rest assured, we're getting to that. These three met in college, and actually came up with the band name while studying a play. The play is called All My Sons, and is written by Arthur Miller. The play takes place in World War II and is about a man who is faced with deciding what is best for his family after he knowingly sold faulty parts to twenty-one pilots who ultimately got killed. Apparently they liked the way that sounded, and thus Twenty One Pilots was born! By the end of 2009, they released their debut album, which was self titled and began touring around Ohio. Then in 2010, they released two tracks to their Soundcloud account, one original and one cover. Those two tracks were, "Time To Say Goodbye" and a cover of Christina Perri's "Jar Of Hearts. "Both songs were originally there for free downloads, but you can no longer do that now. Then in 2011, both Nick and Chris decided to leave the band because they were simply too busy to keep up with it. They posted about this on the band's Facebook page, and there's not a ton more to be said about that. However, enter in Josh Dun, who actually used to tour with House of Heroes -an alternative rock band that formed in 1998, as their drummer. Now this is where Twenty One Pilots as the world knows and loves them to be really came to be. On July 8, 2011, they released their second self release. This time it was just Tyler and Josh, and they actually threw a CD release party at New Albany High School. From there, they went on to sell out a show at the Newport Music Hall in Columbus, OH, and at that show were representatives for many different record labels. They ended up actually signing with Fueled by Ramen then in 2012, and released two other previously unreleased songs. These songs included the original version of "House Of Gold", and a song called "Two." They followed it up in February 2012, by releasing a music video for "Goner" on their YouTube channel. They later re-wrote it and re-recorded it for the release of Blurryface, three years later. In July of that year, they released their first EP to be released through Fueled With Ramen. This one was just simply called Three Songs, and was quickly followed by a tour with Neon Trees and Walk To Moon. After the tour concluded, they set out to record their first full length album, Vessel. Vessel finally came out on January 8, 2013, and did fairly well on the charts. It hit number 3 on the US Billboard Catalog Albums and Vinyl Records, and broke the top ten on three other US charts, South Korea's International charts, and charted in eight other countries. So it didn't do bad, by any means. For a 'debut album', it actually did very well. This album actually holds two of the biggest songs Twenty One Pilot has. Those two songs are, "House Of Gold" and "Car Radio." I actually heard "House Of Gold" completely not realizing it was them, so there's a chance you did the same thing! Then "Car Radio" is quoted all over the internet, so there's a chance you were exposed to that even. If you've seen the quote, "Someone stole my car radio and now I sit in silence." You've been exposed to "Car Radio." The popularity of the album helped land them an opening spot on Fall Out Boy's Save Rock And Roll arena tour later in the fall, which was a massive deal because it was one of FOB's comeback tours. This set them up for a lot of great things that were going to happen over the next few months. In August, they got to go on the late night TV show, Conan, and perform, "House Of Gold." The music video followed in October. Then on Christmas Eee, Tyler got to perform in New Albany, OH, at Five14 Church's Christmas With the Stars. He performed, "O come, O come, Emmanuel." The video of Tyler singing this Christian Hymn wasn't uploaded in Valentine's Day 2014. But also in December, they released music videos for "Truce" and "Migraine." Sadly "Migraine" was only limited to the UK area, and for some reason both videos got deleted shortly after. Early 2014 was rather quiet until they went to the MTVU Woodie Awards to perform during SXSW. During the course of 2014, TOP did a lot of great things, and performed at many festivals including Lollapalooza, Bonaroo, Boston Calling and Firefly. They also decided to take some requests from fans and used them on a world tour, which they called Quiet Is The Violent World tour. That began in September 2014. Here is where we start getting into present day, and all they have going on now. In March of 2015, they announced that they would be releasing their fourth studio album, Blurryface on May 1. That same day, they released the first single, "Fairly Local." The second single and third singles came out then in April. There was "Tear In My Heart", which came out with a music video on April 5, 2015. The third, and possibly most popular TOP song so far, "Stressed Out " came out with its music video on April 28. "Stressed Out" alone did so good that it hit number one on the top Hot Rock Songs and Alternative Songs charts, as well as number two on the Billboard Hot 100. The album was set to come out on May 19, 2015, but then they surprised fans and actually released it on the 17th instead. It ended up becoming the band's first number one hit, and sold over 130,000 copies in its first week alone. It broke the top ten in six countries, including the US, and the top 50 in thirteen other countries. Its also already gone Platinum here in the US, and Gold in Canada, Denmark and the UK. It also went on to win the Top Rock Album and Top Rock Artist awards at the Billboard Music Awards. After the release of the album, they went out on the Blurryface World tour, which began in Glasgow, Scotland. This tour was supported by Echosmith and Finish Ticket, and took them all over the US, as well as into Australia, South East Asia, Japan and various places in Europe. They didn't slow down from there either, because from there, they set out on the Emotional Roadshow World tour, which began in Cincinnati, OH. They're currently on this tour, and are going all over the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Australia. The funny thing is, at one of the Canadian dates, they had fans rocking out so hard that they actually caused a mini earthquake. The venue they were performing at was above a gym, and actually caused some of the ceiling to fall apart. The vibrations from the show and the 9,000 fans at the venue were too much for the foundation. It was repaired fairly quickly, and the gym reopened, but that's pretty crazy. The most recent thing I can say TOP has done, besides tour the world, is release a song and music video for a new song, "Heathens." "Heathens" is part of the Suicide Squad soundtrack and was released on June 16. The video followed just a few days later, and the soundtrack is available now. So now you're all caught up with Twenty One Pilots and their history. If you want to stay completely up to date, please head on over to their official website. Over there you can see a full list of tour dates, and all sorts of updates can be found on their social media. Revocation is a heavy metal band that is based out of Boston, MA. This four piece trio originally formed in 2006 by Dave Davidson, Anthony Buda, and Phil Dubois-Coyne. They set out and played all around New England, and released a three song demo called, "Summon The Spawn." From then on, they worked on performing, and writing to release a debut album. They finally made their debut in 2008 with Empire of the Obscene. The album instantly grew a lot of attention, because their sound is thought to offer a new look at 'thrash metal', or heavy metal, as I preferred to call them. Its on the technical side, but its also very fun and energetic, which is more than likely what drew attention to them. The release of this album caused them to be signed to Relapse Records, and then ultimately Damage Records in 2009. There they recorded, "Existence is Futile." The release of that one is what really set them on the map. They suddenly began getting praise from magazines and companies alike. Dave Davidson became the endorser for Jackson Guitars, and they got to set out on tour all over the world. It opened up chances to perform all over the US and Canada, as well as Europe, Japan and more. They have actually gotten to play 13 countries, and are still going strong today. They also added Dan Gargiuolo in 2010 as a second tour guitarist, who joined them for all of these adventures. In the fall of 2010, they they recorded another new album. This one was called Chaos of Forms and was still through Damage Records. It helped just bring them up another notch, and brought them even more touring opportunities. They even got to appear on the Relapse Record label show case in February 2012. 2012 brought them a new bassist, Brett Bamberger, and a new EP called Teratogenesis. Fast forward to February 2013, and you will see Revocation recording their fourth studio album, which ended up being self titled and released in August of that year. They also got to take part in the Summer Slaughter tour, along side bands like The Diligent Escape Plan, Animals As Leaders, Periphery, Norma Jean, Cattle Decapitation, The Ocean, and more. Which brings us to today, which actually happens to be the release of their fifth studio album, Great Is Our Sin. It is out today and because of that, we can't tell you how well its going to be received exactly. However, we did do a review of it a couple days ago, and feel very confident that everyone's going to love it. Be sure to go get it on iTunes or in stores now, and use it to get excited because they are going to be going on tour very soon! Starting on July 26 they will be doing a tour here in the US. That tour will go through August 21, and then in October they head over to Europe to perform in Germany, The Netherlands, the UK, and more through November 11! Head on over to their official website to see the full list of tour dates, and please go like their Facebook page to stay up to date. |
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