Epitaph Records hip hop artist Rollie Pemberton a.k.a. Cadence Weapon has been named poet laureate for Edmonton, Alberta according to a Canadian Press report. The artist, writer and poet takes over from Governor General’s Literary Award winner E.D. Blodgett. He will hold the position for two years.
This new album has been challenging. It’s the first time I’ve written and recorded an album specifically because a label wants to release it. I’ve never made a record for a record label. I’ve always finished my recordings and then a label is decided on. When I made ‘Blood Visions’ I had no idea that it was going to see the light of day. And I’ve never made a record in which the label heard the songs, or anyone heard the songs, before the album was finished, so that’s kind of intense. That’s what singles are for; I always considered my singles as a glimpse between the albums.
Labels always had the previous single as an example of where I was going at the time, or of what the next album might sound like. In this situation, people at the label are hearing the songs before the album has been finished, but I try not to let it distract me, I’m trying to go about this process in a way that’s the closest to how I would have done an album in the past. A lot of bands these days, they approach the making of an album like it’s collecting songs, they don’t think about how all of the songs are going to work together. They sequence their albums on iTunes, wondering what songs sound best next to each other rather than putting them together as they were written. That’s not an album.
Think Fast! will be releasing the debut 7″ from DEA. The band is described by guitarist Charles Chaussinand (also of No Harm Done and Offsides) as “a much more straight forward youth crew band, for fans of In My Eyes, Where Fear and Weapons Meet and Turning Point.”
Brand New have announced more shows in the UK this June. The band has also confirmed that Moneen will be providing support on the run. The band is rumoured to be releasing a new full length around the same time. It would be the follow up to The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me.
Sky Eats Airplane have posted a cover of the Limp Bizkit hit, “Nookie.” They explained the choice:
The reason why we picked Nookie by Limp Bizkit, is because we sincerely think that song rules and we have been listening to quite a bit of Korn and Limp Bizkit in our van for the past few months. There. The secrets out. We are dwelling on music we listened to when we were 12 (for Travis, when he was 17 or something probably). It is NOT because our record label or manager told us that we should cover some popular song so we can blow up off of it. You will not see this song on some compilation cd in an attempt to gain new fans (When Punk Goes Pop, etc.).
We have absolutely no intentions of playing this song after the “New Nu Metal” tour. We arent going to be one of those bands–who i am NOT naming–that are riding on another music group’s success because they threw some breakdown chugs over a poppy part someone else made. It has become a CONTEST with all these bands with “who is going to make the best cover of a radio friendly pop song”, and I guess you might say this was our little way of saying “fuck that, we are going to do whatever we want”.
According to a Rolling Stone report, Weezer will be releasing a branded version of the popular blanket/robe hybrid, “The Snuggie.” Frontman Rivers Cuomo explained:
A Wuggie is basically exactly like a Snuggie, except it says Weezer on it. The people at Snuggie are doing it with us and promoting it with us. It’s a totally legit Snuggie.
88 Fingers Louie have opened up a poll to let fans vote for songs for their reunion show in Chicago this August:
We are conducting a poll to help us decide our set list for our reunion show. We have a long list of all 57 of our original songs, so don’t forget to scroll all the way down to the bottom and click SUBMIT. We will probably take the top 10 choices and then add some songs that we want to play. We will be posting the numbers every so often so you can see what songs are winning. Thanks for your support.
Voting can be done here and tickets are available via ticketweb.
311 have launched a stream of their new album, Uplifter. The entire album will be streaming for the rest of today and selected songs will be available beginning Thursday and until the album release on June 2, 2009.
Hermosa Beach-based The Darlings have posted the new video from their self-titled EP released this year. The clip was filmed by the Darlings and edited by Steve Guerrero.
The band is supporting the EP with shows opening for Strung Out and Street Dogs which you can find here.
We’ve posted some new reviews. You can check them out below: