News Update Week Ending 06-08
Anberlin Release Major Label Debut
Central Florida pop-rock stalwarts Anberlin will release their major label debut, New Surrender, on August 5th. The new album features 13 tracks that further expand on Anberlin’s signature sound. Stephen Christian’s distinct vocals backed by Joseph Milligan and Christian McAlhaney’s driving guitars and the rhythm section comprised of Deon Rexroat and Nathan Young on bass and drums respectively is the foundation for the band’s success. New Surrender, produced by Neal Avron (Fall Out Boy, Yellowcard, New Found Glory), demonstrates the band’s natural progression as musicians as well as solidifying their place as some of music’s most creative songwriters. With all out rockers like “Feel Good Drag” and “Blame Me! Blame Me!” to the introspective “Still Counting Backwards,” Anberlin have created a record that is sure to propel the band to the next level. Universal Republic signed the band off of the success of their highly lauded breakthrough indie pop scorcher, Cities. The record debuted on Billboard’s Top Albums chart in February 2007 at #19, and passed the coveted 100,000 indie-sales milestone fueled by their riveting hit single “Godspeed.” Anberlin, who tour relentlessly in support of their releases, have just landed a spot on the 2008 Van’s Warped Tour. The band will be appearing on the main stage alongside acts like Gym Class Heroes, Say Anything, The Color Fred and Angels and Airwaves. The 46 date trek kicks off on June 20th in Pomona, CA and circles the country wrapping up in Carson, CA on August 17th. It has been Anberlin’s emotive pop/rock chemistry that has excited fans and critics ever since their Polk County, FL launch six years ago, rising through the indie ranks with a magnetic collection of releases on Tooth & Nail records, including their memorable 2003 debut Blueprints For The Blackmarket. Their 2005 release, Never Take Friendship Personal, saw them gain even more indie traction, (the band has logged combined album sales of more than 400,000 albums) with the single “Paperthin Hymn” peaking in the Top 40 of the Modern Rock Radio chart. Their touring, coupled with a loyal myspace following, cemented their reputation as one of the bands to watch in 2007. Anberlin delivered on that with the celebrated Cities. Cited by many critics as indispensable to the modern rock scene, rock forecasters have bookmarked their upcoming album New Surrender as one of the truly viable indie-to-major success stories ready to blow in 2008.
Anberlin Van's Warped Tour Dates:
6/20/08 Pomona, CA Fairplex
6/21/08 San Francisco, CA Pier 30/32
6/22/08 Ventura, CA Seaside Park
6/25/08 Phoenix, AZ Cricket Wireless Pavilion
6/26/08 Las Cruces, NM New Mexico State University
6/28/08 Salt lake City, UT Utah State Fairpark
6/29/08 Denver, CO Invesco Field at Mile High
7/1/08 Maryland Heights, MO Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
7/2/08 Bonner Springs, KS Capitol Federal Park at Sandstone
7/3/08 Dallas, TX Superpages.com Centre
7/5/08 Selma, TX Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
7/6/08 Houston, TX The Showgrounds
7/9/08 Atlanta, GA Lakewood Amphitheatre
7/10/08 Orlando, FL Central Florida Fairgrounds
7/11/08 St. Petersburg, FL Vinoy Park
7/12/08 Miami, FL Bicentennial Park
7/13/08 Elkton, FL St. John’s County Fairgrounds
7/14/08 Charlotte, NC Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
7/15/08 Virginia Beach, VA Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
7/16/08 Columbia, MD Merriweather Post Pavilion
7/17/08 Cleveland, OH Time Warner Cable Amphitheatre
7/18/08 Detroit, MI Comercia Park
7/19/08 Toronto, ON Downsview Park
7/20/08 Montreal QC Parc Jean Drapeau
7/23/08 Mansfield. MA Tweeter Center
7/24/08 Darien Center, NY Darien Lake Performing Arts Center
7/25/08 Camden, NJ Susquehanna Bank Center
7/26/08 Uniondale, NY Nassau Coliseum
7/27/08 Scranton, PA Toyota Pavilion
7/28/08 Englishtown, NJ Raceway Park
7/29/08 Burgettstown. PA Post-Gazette Pavilion
7/30/08 Cincinnati, OH Riverbend Music Center
7/31/08 Noblesville, IN Verizon Wireless Music Center
8/1/08 Milwaukee, WI Marcus Amphitheatre
8/2/08 Tinley Park, IL First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre
8/3/08 Shakopee, MN Canterbury Park
8/5/08 Saskatoon. SK Credit Union Centre
8/6/08 Calgary, AB Race City Speedway
8/8/08 Nampa, ID Idaho Center
8/9/08 Quincy, WA Gorge Amphitheatre
8/10/08 Saint Helens, OR Columbia Meadows
8/13/08 Fresno, CA Save Mart Center
8/14/08 Chula Vista, CA Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre
8/15/08 Mountain View, CA Shoreline Amphitheatre
8/16/08 Maryville, CA Sleep Train Amphitheatre
8/17/08 Carson, CA The Home Depot Center
Mychildren Mybride Films "Faithless" Video
Solid State Records’ devastating metal group Mychildren Mybride just wrapped up the recording of a video for “Faithless”, the first track of their debut album Unbreakable. The video was produced by Downtown Production Group. Drummer Brian Hood commented on the production company, “This is the first metal video they've ever done. They do videos for Latino artists, they did live production on the Latino Grammy Awards and one of the guys produced the Super Bowl last year.” “The video is sort of hard to explain. It's me in a straight jacket with a half mutilated face screaming at myself a bunch. I'm hallucinating in an all white room with a two sided mirror. I can’t see out of my side and the band is playing in the other room on the other side of the mirror.” Singer Matt Hasting said about the video’s theme. The will be headed out on the Scream the Prayer tour starting June 13th and running through July 26th. Scream the Prayer is an eleven band mega tour which also features: Sleeping Giant, Impending Doom, War of Ages, Before Their Eyes, Blessed By A Broken Heart, Soul Embraced, With Blood Comes Cleansing, Here I Come Falling and Agraceful. “I feel honored to share the stage with a bunch of artists that have the same faith and drive as we do as a band.” Hasting said of the upcoming dates.
For band updates, tour dates, and more, check out:
myspace.com/mcmb
Pillar to play Post-Game Show for LA Galaxy
GRAMMY-nominated, Christian rock band Pillar will bring its high-intensity live show to the Home Depot Center on Saturday, June 7, as the band performs a concert following the LA Galaxy soccer match. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. (PT). The 45-minute set will take place in the plaza area of the 27,000-seat Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. Pillar’s stadium performance, in support of its fifth studio album, For the Love of the Game, is part of the LA Galaxy Faith and Family Night, sponsored by The Fish 95.9FM. The LA Galaxy is home to international MLS star David Beckham. Pillar has been rockin’ the sports scene for quite some time. During its career, its music has played on numerous ESPN sports programs, including SportsCenter, Baseball Tonight and College Gameday, as well as CBS and FOX Sports. Since Pillar’s Dove Award-winning debut Above in 2001, the band has tallied nine No. 1 radio singles, 12 top five hits, a GRAMMY nomination, three Dove Awards, nine national headlining tours, covers of numerous national magazines and album sales approaching one million. For the Love of the Game (Feb. 26, 2008) is the band’s fifth, full-length studio project.
Find all tour dates, and more information at:
pillarmusic.com
myspace.com/pillar
The Devil Wears Prada Posts Making of...
The Devil Wears Prada just released a behind the scenes look at the making of their video for “HTML Rulez D00d”. The clip walks through the makeup process, shows the set, and gives a look into the band’s off stage antics. You can view the video here. The Devil Wears Prada is currently on tour in Australia, supporting their record, Plagues, before taking on a week in Europe and covering the US and Canada on the Vans Warped Tour.
For more information, visit:
myspace.com/tdwp
Underoath announces five headlining dates
UNDEROATH have announced five headlining U.S. dates between July 2 and 8 before their summer run on the Rockstar Mayhem Festival. The group hand-selected hip-hop artist POS and the rock group Ill Patriot to support them on the week-long trek. The band discovered POS (aka Steph) after he had sampled one of their songs. UNDEROATH’s keyboardist CHRIS DUDLEY explains: “I actually found out about POS from our manager who went to a POS show and heard him sample one of our songs. As soon as I got the CD I was blown away by it-- he’s a breath of fresh air in hip-hop, a genre I feel is riddled with uninspired acts. We’ve been trying to hook-up a tour for awhile now and after seeing how he dominated on the Vans Warped Tour last year, we knew we had to make it happen.” This summer, catch UNDEROATH--lead vocalist SPENCER CHAMBERLAIN, guitarist TIM MCTAGUE, bassist GRANT BRANDELL, drummer AARON GILLESPIE, keyboardist CHRIS DUDLEY and guitarist JAMES SMITH—as they headline the Hot Topic stage on the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Tour, joining Slipknot, Disturbed, Mastodon, Dragonforce, Machine Head and many others. The Mayhem Tour begins July 9 in Seattle wraps August 19 in Buffalo, including stops near Los Angeles July 13 in San Bernardino, CA and on Long Island in Uniondale, NY August 6. In addition, during the Mayhem tour, the group will perform a series of headlining off-dates with The Red Chord supporting. Next, in early September, UNDEROATH will headline an eight-city U.K. trek, to be followed by dates in Germany, Italy, South Africa and Australia. In October, expect UNDEROATH to return to the U.S. for a headlining run before heading overseas for tours of Central and South America. For their highly anticipated fourth album, UNDEROATH just wrapped mixing in New Jersey with David Bendeth. The band re-teamed with producers Adam Dutkiewicz and Matt Goldman for the as-yet-untitled disc due September 2 on Tooth & Nail/Solid State. The Florida-based sextet's disarming amalgam of mayhem and melody--plus their depth and ability--propelled their landmark 2006 gold-certified and critically acclaimed album DEFINE THE GREAT LINE to a #2 debut on the Billboard Top 200 Chart. The combined sales of UNDEROATH’s three albums are now over one million copies.
Underoath U.S. dates with POS and Ill Patriot
7/2 Birmingham, AL Matthews
7/4 Cordova, TN Skatepark of Memphis
7/5 Oklahoma City, OK Bricktown Ballroom
7/7 Salt Lake City, UT In The Venue
7/8 Spokane, WA Service Station
Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival tour
7/9 Seattle, WA White River Amphitheatre
7/11 Sacramento, CA Sleep Train Amphitheatre
7/12 San Francisco, CA Shoreline Amphitheatre
7/13 San Bernardino, CA Hyundai Glen Helen Pavilion
7/15 Fresno, CA Save Mart Center
7/16 San Diego, CA Coors Amphitheatre
Headlining off date with The Red Chord
7/17 St. George, UT The Electric Theater
Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival tour
7/18 Phoenix, AZ Cricket Wireless Pavilion
7/19 Albuquerque, NM Journal Pavilion
7/20 Denver, CO Coors Amphitheatre
7/22 Kansas City, MO Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
7/23 St. Louis, MO Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Headlining off date with The Red Chord
7/24 Little Rock, AR The Village
Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival tour
7/25 Dallas, TX Superpages.com Center
7/26 San Antonio, TX Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
7/27 Houston, TX Sam Houston Race Park
7/29 Tampa, FL Ford Amphitheatre
7/30 W. Palm Beach, FL Cruzan Amphitheater
Headlining off date with The Red Chord
7/31 Charleston, SC Music Farm
Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival tour
8/1 Virginia Beach, VA Verizon Wireless
8/2 Pittsburgh, PA Post-Gazette Pavilion
8/3 Scranton, PA Toyota Pavilion
Headlining off-date with The Red Chord
8/4 Albany, NY Northern Lights
Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival tour
8/5 Boston, MA Tweeter Center for Performing Arts
8/6 Uniondale, NY Nassau Coliseum
8/8 Toronto, ON Downsview Park
8/9 Detroit, MI DTE Energy Music Theatre
8/10 Chicago, IL First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre
Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival tour
8/12 Atlanta, GA Lakewood Amphitheatre
8/13 Indianapolis, IN Verizon Wireless Music Center
8/15 Camden, NJ Susquehanna Bank Center
8/16 Hartford, CT New England Dodge Music Center
8/17 Washington, DC Nissan Pavilion at Stone Ridge
8/19 Buffalo, NY Darien Lake Performing Arts Center
Underoath European Headlining Tour
9/6 Manchester, UK Academy 2
9/7 Glasgow, UK Garage
9/8 Birmingham, UK Academy 2
9/10 Cardiff, UK University Solus Room
9/11 Norwich, UK Waterfront
9/12 London, UK Astoria (Mean Fiddler)
9/13 Leeds, UK Cockpit
9/14 Portsmouth, UK Wedgewood Rooms
9/16 Berlin, Germany Kato
9/17 Köln, Germany Luxor
9/19 Roncade, Italy New Age Club
9/20 Cesena, Italy Vidia Club
Free Download of Downhere's new CD
Already known for its edgy, innovative marketing efforts, Centricity Music once again takes the lead with a unique teaming with MusiChristian.com. The two companies are offering a free download of downhere’s current CD, Wide Eyed And Mystified throughout June. "We are thrilled to partner downhere with Musichristian.com on this promotion, as we threw out all the rules on this one,” says Steve Ford, Vice President of Marketing, Centricity Music. “It has been energizing to think outside the box with Daniel and his team in order to introduce downhere to as many new fans as possible. I know we will look back on this as the beginning of a new phase for downhere." "MusiChristian.com is excited to partner with Centricity Music to provide downhere's 'Wide Eyed and Mystified' as a free download during the month of June. We look forward to seeing a strong response to this special opportunity," says Daniel Smallbone, CEO, MusiChristian.com. downhere has just completed a successful spring tour with Shawn McDonald and Jason Gray and headed immediately into the studio to finish recording their next CD, Ending Is Beginning that releases September 23, 2008. The CD is being produced by Mark Hiemermann (DC Talk, MWS), Stephen Gause (Jars of Clay, Derek Webb) and downhere. downhere hails from Canada and immediately connected with fans and the industry on all three of their album projects, winning a Dove Award in 2003, two Juno Awards in 2001 and 2007, Vibe Award in 2002, two Covenant Awards in 2002 and two Prairie Music Awards in 2001. The band has toured with such artists as SonicFlood and Rebecca St. James and have performed at major festivals that include, Atlanta Fest, Inside/Out Soul Fest, and Kingdom Bound.
For current updates on downhere please visit:
centricityrecords.com
downhere.com.
Bread Of Stone Speaks Out About Persecution
With the persecution of Christians happening all over the world, the most recent attack in Indonesia hits home for Bread of Stone founders, Bill and Ben Kristijanto. While in California doing a benefit concert to raise money for an Indonesian church, the brothers heard the news of the tragedy in their native land. An attack happened this past week on the Christian village of Horale, where people including children, were tortured. Not only were people hurt, but the village community also suffered a great loss as the village school, three churches and 120 houses were burnt down. “It’s kind of ironic that we’re playing to raise money for a church building, in a country where we can freely worship God, while halfway around the world a church building was recently burned down, in a country where being a Christian is a minority,” says Bill Kristijanto, who was born in Bandung, Indonesia and lived the first nine years of his life in Jatibarang. “This shows me how bold our brothers and sisters are in Indonesia and leads me to pray to see how we can help! So please join me to pray for the people in Indonesia, that God will give them the strength to continue to be bold for Christ and to love the people that wronged them.” Raised in a Christian home, the Kristijanto brothers know first hand of the needs and problems as they receive daily updates from their father, Nehemia, who travels with the band and also has a ministry in Indonesia. “With my dad going back to Indonesia every year, he is able to lift their spirits up and to refresh their faith towards God,” says Ben Kristijanto. “It’s such an encouragement for them to have someone like my father to come to them and share with them the things that the Lord is doing in some other part of the world. I myself hope to be able to join in and encourage them to keep looking towards the greater goal.” Bread of Stone consists of Ben Kristijanto (lead vocals, guitar, keys), Bill Kristijanto (lead guitar), Jeremi Hough (drums), and Tim Barnes (bass).
For more information about Bread of Stone, please visit:
BreadOfStone.com
Rebecca St. James to appear on Billy Graham Special
Christian rocker, Rebecca St. James will bring a special message close to her heart as a featured highlight of the June Billy Graham TV Special, “Longing For Change,” which will air in television markets thru June 8th. Rebecca will be seen on video in a special live edited performance of her song, “Forgive Me” originally recorded last year during a major crusade appearance with Franklin Graham in Canada. The June Graham television special shares the stories of people who have searched for change in all the wrong places, discovering that lasting change comes only through Jesus Christ. It’s a message the Australian born singer has shared from stages worldwide –and in the past several years, she has seen an outpouring of response to the “Forgive Me” song itself. It is, in fact, a song with a message that’s resonating importance to St. James secured a place on her 2005 album release, If I Had One Chance To Tell You Something. “I actually heard 'Forgive Me' for the first time five or six years ago at Willow Creek Church in Chicago," she recalls. "I was so moved by hearing the song in the service that I actually went up to the worship team afterwards and asked about this song. I ended up meeting the writer, Scott Dyer—he had actually just written the song for that particular service. To me it was so inspired and so anointed—I asked him if he would send me a tape of the song—with the idea of maybe recording it. It was sent it to me probably six months to a year later and I had it sitting in my bedside table for literally years. Every once in awhile I’d pull the song out and listen to it again—and really be touched by it. It’s really a song of confession—something that’s too often absent today in our lives as Christians, to our own detriment. We all need to be reminded—as we will be by the Billy Graham Special—of God’s continued love and forgiveness.”
To view the performance of "Forgive Me" from the special, visit:
myspace.com/rebeccastjames
A Plea For Purging posts new song
A Plea For Purging is excited to unveil a new song and a newly designed myspace page. Up now on the A Plea For Purging myspace is a sneak preview of a new song from the band's upcoming album. The song is called "Motives" and was recently recorded in pre-production as a part of the upcoming sophomore release, as yet untitled, due out fall/winter of 2008. When you go to their myspace to check out the new song you'll find it hard to miss the new myspace design and new band photos. True to form, the band also has a huge list of tour dates that run through summer, so check those out and catch Plea in a city near you this summer.
For more information:
myspace.com/apleaforpurging
Music Connection launches new site for musicians
AMP is a brand new division of Music Connection that caters strictly to Artists, Musicians and Players (Not fans). AMP is a private network that offers the same networking tools and features found on Facebook, Myspace, Friendster, etc. However, AMP also offers a professional environment, safe and secure interactions with members and complete access to all of the products and services that Music Connection has to offer, including CD Reviews, New Music Critiques, Club Reviews, and of course Free Classifieds. Membership in AMP also includes a FREE 3-month subscription to Music Connection magazine! For more information, visit:
musicconnection.com/amp
ChristianRocker.com announces winner for Cornerstone
Cornerstone Festival, in conjunction with Gyroscope Arts and HM Magazine, hosted a rock, hip-hop and punk showcase in Nashville on Monday, April 21 and told you to vote for the best artist of the nite. After the tally of over 2300 votes, A Road Less Travelled won with over 800 votes. They have won a performance slot at this year's Cornerstone Festival.
For more information on A Road Less Travelled:
aroadlesstraveledmusic.com
Chasen signs to Agency for the Performing Arts
The Agency for the Performing Arts (APA) proudly announces the signing of OMG Records’ recording artist Chasen to their Nashville based Christian music division. As the flagship artist for OMG Records, a division of OMG SportsEntertainmentMusic, Chasen’s debut album Shine Through The Stars hit shelves April 15th. Produced by award-winning producer Noel Golden (Matchbox 20, Edwin McCain) the album showcases the band’s inspirational brand of rootsy pop and the prolific, self-taught songwriting ability of the group’s namesake, Chasen Callahan. The band struck gold early with the release of the album’s first single, “Crazy Beautiful.” The jangly, melodically-driven song about societal pressure to maintain a camera-perfect image at all cost, methodically worked its way up the radio charts eventually coming to rest for weeks in the #2 position. Success on the road has come early and often for Chasen as well with the band sharing the stage with acts such as Relient K, NEEDTOBREATHE, Sister Hazel and Edwin McCain. Chasen plans to stay busy on the road this summer headlining dates of their own along with select appearances at fairs and festivals across the country. “Chasen is one of those bands that you know you’re going to like two minutes into the first song,” said Mark Guynn, Head of the Christian Division for APA. “Their music is catchy and melodic yet lyrically compelling. We couldn’t be happier to be in business with both Chasen and OMG Records.” “As with our distribution and publishing arrangement with EMI, we could have chosen no better home in our music enterprise than APA,” said Gene Krcelic, Principal Partner of OMG SportsEntertainmentMusic. “APA has not only proven their success in the marketplace over many, many years, but they have demonstrated to us progressive and innovative ideas for the future.” With major offices in Beverly Hills, New York and Nashville, APA is one of the largest full service talent/literary agencies in the U.S., representing top artists in all genres of music, as well as theater, movie, and literary clients.
©2008 HM Magazine - All Rights Reserved
More news from last week:
still fresh (as far as you know)
Return to Internet Exclusives
