Atlas Road Crew "Halfway To Hopkins" Album Review

The first time I crossed paths with Atlas Road Crew, I knew there was something different about them. As the Music Director of a radio station, I listen to hundreds of bands a week - hardly ever giving second glances. The song I received, I immediately put it into heavy rotation so others could enjoy the same excitement I did while listening to the song.

The band's debut album, Halfway to Hopkins, has not left my car, laptop, or even my head since its Valentine's Day release.

Not only do I love this album, I also love every guy that makes up the band, Taylor, Max, Bryce, Dave, and Patrick. Not only are they wonderful musicians, they are also great friends.

So hear it is: my review on their album. Party on, Wayne.   

1. Voices - This song is so groovy. Taylor Nicholson's voice is stretched to it's potential. The choice to open the album with this track was great. This song remains one of my favorites on the album.

2. Black Eye Sunrise - I love the lyrics to this song because they provide imagery. It makes it easy for the listener to digest. It is a great chill-out song.

3. Low Country Blues - Blues. Exactly. This is a "get up and move" song. This song also has bass grooves for days. I love bass grooves.

4. Wasted Time - This is my favorite song on the album. I relate to it more than almost any song I have ever heard and I just want to put it on repeat and listen to it for the rest of my days, and I probably will after I finish writing this article. The first time I heard this song was a religious experience in the best way. This song will always be a 10 out 10.

5. I Want You To Know - The opening drum fill is awesome. This song is hard to write about. It fits in well in the middle of the album. The lyrics flow so well. The build up to the choruses in the song  are great as well. It is another one of my favorites.

6. Lose Control - This song reminds me of one of my favorite singers out of Nashville, Will Hoge. His older music was very much in this style and it is very comforting to see bands still playing with that sound. The vocals are what made me love this song and appreciate it more.

7. Weeping Will - This song is another song that hit my emotions. I even teared up listening to it. I cannot express enough how much Taylor conveys what he feels through the music. A good song, or even a good album, is one where you can feel the emotions with the band.

8. Halfway to Hopkins - I've always loved title tracks, and this song is no different. This is what Rock and Roll should sound like. The guitar and the drums go so well together. It reminds me of a good classic Southern Rock song. Bass grooves for days.

9. Runaway - This song sounds very psychedelic. I'm not sure what you would call it. Probably my least favorite song on the album, but it is still great.

10. Abilene - I have always loved songs that are singing directly to someone. If you replace Abilene with your name, it feels more relatable. The vocal range in the chorus is astounding and it really evokes emotion. This reminds me of a Pearl Jam song.

11. Betty - I absolutely love the drum fill in the beginning. To me it represents how Rock and Roll is still alive and well. Songs with girl's names in the titles are always jams and this song is no different. It's such a "smooth" song, if you catch my drift.

So there you have it. Halfway to Hopkins. This is my favorite album of 2015 and we are only into the second month. For me to think an album is this good is a rare thing. This band has found a special place in my heart, as I hope they will find a place in yours.

Happy listening!

Interview with Lzzy Hale from Halestorm

It is not every day you get to interview one of your biggest inspirations in music. Today, I got to do just that. I interviewed Lzzy from Halestorm. The interview lasted over 30 minutes and it was 30 of the best minutes of my life. Without further ado, here is my interview with Lzzy Hale.

How is the tour going so far?

It's been fantastic so far. This past tour we've been doing shows with Eric Church and in between we've been doing headlining dates. It's kind of the, no pun intended, calm before the storm because we are about to release a record.

How did the tour come about?

They sought us out, actually. His band mates are all hard rock and metal fans. His guitar player had our records and he said to Eric, "Hey, you need to check these guys out." Eric, being the adventurous guy he is, had his people call our people and he said "Hey, do you wanna do a tour?" and thankfully we have very adventurous booking agents. We'll play with anybody! I like the idea of blurring the lines a little bit because, from what we've seen, from us playing in front of his crowd, there have been a lot of his fans coming to our headlining shows because of our friendship now. I feel like there is no real existence of genre. It's been really cool.

I know you've collaborated with Eric on "That's Damn Rock N Roll."

Yes. That song is actually on his record. The female part of that is actually his back up singer, Joanna Cotton. He called me after the tour was already put in place. He said that the CMT's had asked him to play his single, but he didn't want to do that. He wanted to do That's Damn Rock N Roll but only if I would do it with him. I was like "Sure!" It was so cool. So I go to the CMT's and it was my first real country experience. I'm backstage and I'm like "OK, that guy looks like he is somebody. Who is that? Oh, that's Kenny Chesney." I'm sharing a dressing room with Kasey Musgraves and several other people. It was so strange. I'm leather clad and the country girls are getting their legs rubbed down with makeup because that's a thing.

That is seriously a thing?

Yeah. Have you ever looked at a country star and thought they had great legs? They have special make-up for legs. It's kinda like what we do to our faces. It was very interesting. But anyway, it was a cool experience to be playing for an audience who had no clue who I was. After the CMT's we actually wrote three songs together and it was really awesome. It was neat. It's also a neat community. I've lived in Nashville for a year and a half and the community there is so accepting of all things music. If you play an instrument, it's like "Hey, come over to my house and let's write a song! If something happens, great. If not, oh well. Let's do it!" They are all very supportive.

I'm going to transition into the new album. How is it coming along?

It's done! It's actually being mastered this week. We are going to be releasing a single very soon. And then we are pushing this record out into the world. We actually recorded it in Nashville. It's funny how all this stuff came together. We didn't plan on everything being so incestuous. but we ended up using Eric's producer. He is also Cage The Elephant, Little Big Town, and a lot of strange band's music guy. He is a mad scientist. We used to call him Batman because he would be there standing with us and then all of a sudden he would disappear and then he would come back with a cool idea like "Hey!" And we would be like "Where did Batman go?" His name is Jay Joyce and he is very cool. We did this album so differently than the last two records. It was very grassroots. We did every track live into tape. It was the first time we recorded the entire song all at the same time: in a circle, recorded it in a church. Jay Joyce bought this old church and turned it into a studio. It's so beautiful and we are in the congregation room in a circle playing through the songs. The nerve-wracking thing about doing it live into tape is if one of us royal screws up all of us have to do the entire song over again. It was a lot of fun. The last two records we recorded very differently. We did them more assembly line. My brother would go into the studio and record all of the drums first to like a scratch track vocal guitar. Then we would do all of the guitars the next day. All the bass for the next two days and then I would start singing. So we were never actually playing the whole song front to back recording it all at the same time. It was so refreshing to listen back to these songs and try to capture that we were all in the same wave together and we all peaked together. It's kinda how it used to be because everyone keeps telling me that's how they did it in the 70s when people actually had to be good.

Before technology.

Exactly! It's interesting because Jay Joyce and his engineer, Jason, ended up keeping us to that standard. We went into the studio with this precedent and Jay was the one person who had the balls to do it with us. I would be doing vocals and it would be beginning to end. It wasn't "Hey we are going to go in and punch this." or "Hey, we're going to go in and tune this." You have to actually hit that note. Like really? we can't just use a little bit of tuning. NOPE! You actually have to do it.

No pressure.

[Laughs] I know I said this how I wanted to do it, but... But really it was really cool and I am so proud of it. I don't know what the rest of the world is going to think but either way, we are freaking stoked.

I'm excited. I try to keep professionalism whenever I do this but it is hard sometime because I am a fan, but I feel like you get better stories when you love the bands you talk to.

It's totally real. I get it. I got to meet and perform with my all-time favorite person in the world. He is the guy that got me into guitar. I grew up on a lot of 70s and 80s Rock because of my parents, so I kind of skipped a generation, or more so reverted back, so to speak. Tom Keifer from Cinderella has always been "the dude" since I was like 11 and I just got to perform and I was like "I gotta be cool. I'm a professional, but inside my 14 year old self was like AHH!! and I was freaking out. So I know how that is.

Oh yeah. But, back to the recording process, you've touched on how it's different than previous albums, but whenever you recorded the last two albums and the cover albums, what did you want to be different on this album?

The bottom line was that we wanted to bridge the gap between what people see in our live shows and what they hear on the record because the way we've done our past two records with Atlantic has been based on perfection and we would go in and do everything until we get it perfect. We would go in and gloss it up and add fucking weird stuff to it, not saying we didn't add weird things to this record, but it was based on perfection, whereas our live show is based on imperfection. That's Rock N Roll. We go out on stage and we have a great time and no matter what happens, because ultimately, there is someone who screws up, and there is always going to be someone saying "Haha! That was you!" and there are times when the guys will come over and start screwing with my stuff and start throwing out my picks and I'm like "God-damnit, guys!" So we wanted to capture more of that on the record. Not necessarily making a live record but kinda like what I touched on before. That's the reason we did all the basic tracks live to tape - we actually played everything front to back. All the vocals were based on performance, not on perfection because, no matter what, it's not going to be live because it's not in front of an audience. It's not going to be the same, so it's not going to be a live record but we wanted to make sure there was some kind of moment. Some moments that you could not have created. They just had to happen. There are a couple of songs on the record where you won't hear it until you listen to it like three times, but there is something where Arejay is yelling, or someone is yelling at someone and we are yelling at each other in one of the tracks we ended up keeping and you can hear it through the mic. I think they are yelling at me like "Sing it, Lzzy!" or something. I can't quite understand it. But the guys are goofing off and it's such a neat feeling in the song because it adds some type of personality to it, regardless of it being like "Oh, this is the chorus, this is the verse." Everything isn't shiny.

Y'all have been playing new songs live. How has the response been to those? I know you're not technically on a headlining tour, but how has the response been?

On our headlining shows, everyone is stoked and trying to figure out what I'm saying through Youtube videos, which is so funny. There are these two super fans in Germany and they have been trying to take the Youtube video and put it into some program so they can slow it down so they can hear what I'm saying. And it's not even close and I'm not going to give it away yet. They were like "can you just give us one hint?" Well, you got the first line right. Then they were like, REALLY? But the rest of it is wrong?" Yep. There's been a lot of speculation of what is on the record, or what isn't on the record. Like "is she singing the right lyrics? Is she singing all of the song? There was actually one girl last night, we are kind of hinting at two songs. Tonight, I am going to be starting the set a cappela, and singing a piece of something we put on the record and then we start in with a new song called "I Like It Heavy" because it's kinda old school, and has this 70s groove to it and it's a little easier to digest than me just coming out screaming everyone's heads off and then easing into it. But, it was weird. Last night for the first time, there was this girl in the front row that was singing to my a cappela part. Somebody must have gotten it on Youtube and she was singing along to it and she was pretty good and I was like "Oh my God, that's awesome!" But yeah, it's strange because the people at the Eric Church shows, some of them are aware and, depending on the region, some of them don't know who we are. So, it's kinda hard to gauge. But it's about when we get to the third song, we're like "Yeah! We got 'em!" and some are like "What is this?" for a little bit.

I get that. Switching gears again, for personal reasons, I want to ask about the cover albums because my radio show is called Crimson Covers with Kinsey. So every week, I always do a Halestorm cover, except for the week I did bad cover songs, I didn't play a Halestorm song. But it was like the Brady Bunch doing American Pie and then Big & Rich doing the Beastie Boys song "Fight For Your Right To Party."

Oh, God bless them. Now, I have to hear this. Jesus. They did that song?!

Yes! I wanted to ask why you picked the song you did to cover. I played "Out Ta Get Me" and forgot to censor it.

OOOps. [Laughs] Hopefully, no one was listening when that happened. We actually do those covers very selfishly. For two reasons: number one, if we like the song and we've never played it or even if it's a different genre, we're like "Let's try this" but for the second reason besides just loving the song, it's a simple and safe way to try some new stuff, new genres, or take a different approach to a song that we've never tried before in our own original songs. For example, our first cover album we did "Bad Romance" and "Slave to the Grind" which were two songs that the tempos and the type of attitude in each song we had never really delved into before. So, technically if we hadn't done, after we did Slave to the Grind, we decided we needed a song with this tempo because we had never done that before and it was so crazy and the attitude made me feel like a dude singing it. It's kinda hard to see yourself from the outside, so we are always kinda trying to take the out door in sometimes, eww, that sounded horrible. [Laughs] Sorry, I live with a bunch of boys so everything I say is like a sexual innuendo. But anyway, we try to reach outside of what we think is cool and go with it. Technically, we wouldn't have "Love Bites" if it weren't for covering those songs. We wanted to try and write a song kinda of like those. With the last one, we did Gold Dust Woman.

I play that on my show every week. It's my favorite.

That's funny because it got such a huge response. I have a problem with not doing anything less than 110% so by showing out, we have a song on our new record called "New Modern Love" that was inspired by that type of groove and idea. It's different when you have to cover and breakdown somebody else's song that you love and build it up as your own. You learn so much as a song writer and it's different when you have to sing it rather than just listening to it and being inspired. When you sing it and perform it, you're like "Wow, this feels good. We need to have a song that feels like this." If that makes any sense. So we do those covers selfishly for that reason.

I noticed that Out Ta Get Me is not a very popular GNR song because on my show I always do other people that have covered the song and no one else has covered that.

That song in particular, I always envisioned like, Pat Benetar would have done that song. Axl isn't really doing those crazy acrobatics in that song that he usually does [Imitates Axl Rose]. It's just a down and dirty punk rock song. It's always overlooked because it's not really flashy but man, it's fun to play live too.

I know you said selfish reasons, but I also wanted to ask why you covered that cheesy Heart song. [Laughs]

I know it's cheesy. I never actually listened to the radio version. It was very Pop radio at the time they put that out. The first Heart CD that I ever got from my mother was On The Road Home. It was this live CD of theirs and they do that song very much like what we did on the record, but it was slower paced with piano and guitar and more soulful. Back-story: the reason we did that song was because I struck a deal with the guys. I would always cover that song in karaoke. But the first time I covered it, or maybe the second, way before we were signed to anything, we would go to bars, sometimes when we were underage, and the guys would get free beers because I was singing it well. People would be like "That girl can sing! You guys get a round of beers!" So they would make me sing that song because it was only ever if I did that song. So they would make me do that song all the time. Our first time in Nashville, we broke down and we ended up going to a karaoke bar and they made me sing it again and they got free drinks because of that. I was like "I'm getting you fuckers free drinks." And so they were like, "Lzzy! We are doing a cover CD. You have to do this!" I was like "No! I am NOT doing that song!" They were like, "We'll make you a deal: you do it on here and we won't ask you to sing it in karaoke again." So, sweet. They have yet to ask me, but I feel like it's going to happen.

It totally will, eventually. I meant to ask this question earlier, so it is sort of out of place, but how has the band evolved over the last few years. I remember the first time I heard "I Get Off" on Octane. I was like "Ooohhh I like this."

Aww! Thank you! We live life kinda fast. Mentally, I don't think we've evolved at all. We are perpetually 14 inside. We are very immature. Even last night, sorry guys I'm going to embarrass you, but there was this huge fart in the freaking bunk hall and everyone just busted out laughing and I thought everyone was asleep and all of a sudden I was like "Ahh!" Like, Jesus, guys!" We still have the same fire that we did when we were teenagers and coming onto the scene. Truth be told, I've been in this band for 17 years with my little brother. None of that has changed. The view hasn't changed. The goal hasn't changed. The maturity hasn't changed. I think musically, because we are just out here all the time, I gauge how many years have gone by our fans bringing their kids. All of a sudden, the kid that was this tall is now this tall [shows height difference with her hands] and I think "Oh my God, it's been four years!" I think because we travel a lot and meet so many different people, there is always something to write about because of that. There is always music to be heard. And no matter what genre, we do a lot of this stuff. We're listening to Country all the time now on this tour and a lot of stuff seeps in. We keep chasing after what gets us excited and that leads you down the rabbit hole. I think we have definitely evolved musically and for the better. I think we have a very wide view of what our future could and could not be. It's kind of freeing right now. I am feeling the same type of freedom right now that I did as a teenager. You go through a phase. I was writing about mythical people and stupid stuff that no one could ever relate to and then you get signed to a label. And even though our label and management have been incredibly supportive but, just by having that type of responsibility as a writer to think "Oh, this has to be good for radio. Is the label going to approve this record? Will it even make it past management? Are they going to like it? Is everyone going to be digging this song? Are the guys going to be ok with me actually saying this in a song?" You go through a phase where you aren't thinking "Do I love this song?" Some of that stuff starts seeping in and it becomes less about you and more about everybody else. I feel like we are finally over that hump. Especially from making this last record. We were just like "Fuck it. Let's do what we want." So we did. We did everything we wanted to do. Right now, I would say with the upcoming record, we didn't stray from who we are. It's just a lot more of who we are. So, I warned you. [Laughs]

Anything else you want to add?

Just a big "Thank You" to you, obviously, not just for talking to me, but actually listening to our music and enabling us to do what we love every single day. It's crazy to think about. It really is. I was talking to my mom about this the other day and I was like "Mom, do you remember when we were in grocery stores or restaurants and I used to remember saying to my little brother, we would leave picks or little things that said our name, in the napkin holders just in case somebody would check out our band. And now, more times than not, people know who we are and it's just so weird to think about. It's strange and very humbling. And the whole reason for that is it takes a village, man. A lot of people talk and we are spiraling outward and I get to say I do this for a living now and that's thanks to everybody.

[We bantered about college football and the phrase "Roll Tide." Then, she did a stinger for our station which leads into the next bit of content]

I was writing this song with Eric [Church] and it's funny because when you listen to the song that we wrote, it didn't make it on the record because it was a little too country, but it was awesome. It was like this stomp song. I still think we should put it on an EP or something, but you can tell what lines are mine and what lines are his because I remember asking him something like "What's jump and rally? Like what is that?" It was me being schooled in the language.

[I talked to her about Will Hoge, and my journalistic dreams and she was extremely understanding. We talked about freelancing and traveling for our lines of work and Hanson.]

The only pictures my dad has in office are a picture of me with Hanson and of you and him. Hanson is my favorite band.

Oh my gosh! That is so funny! I can honestly say that, by them coming out at that point in time, in '97, that is when we started our band. Because we saw them, my brother and I were like "We can totally do that" and that's when we started playing in our living room and in talent shows and we were like, "MOM! They're doing it!"

That is the best thing I have ever heard. They are my all time favorite and I want to interview them so bad.

Yeah, them and their 20 something kids!

Yes! They have 11 between the three of them. But now we are just rambling. Thank you so much for allowing me to do this.

Of course, darling!

Interview with Matt McCloskey from Rev Theory at Welcome To Rockville

My first interview at Welcome To Rockville was with Matt McCloskey from Rev Theory. Enjoy! 

Can you give me any details on the new album? What can expect from it?

MM - We tried to go a little outside the box on this. We came off the road and weren't really sure what we were doing. There were a lot of things going on and there was a lot of tension so we kind of infused that into our writing. Julian and I are the main leaders in writing and we told everyone to fuck off and we just wrote all the music we wanted. I got into production and we had the tools to do things on our own. So, this whole record is about DIY and going in and making music we want without some label guy telling us "Oh, this song should be this way and this song should be this way. It's where we've always wanted to be as a band and we hit a chord with this new evolution of our sound. We are infusing some electronic elements and just brutally heavy guitars like drop tuning super low and B-tuning. We just got some new bear atone guitars and we geeked out on those. We wrote whatever we were feeling. It's pretty gnarly. That's been the word of this recording: gnarly. Everything is super 'gnar'. We even had the guitar settings on super high. That's what it's been all about. It's been fun. We can do whatever we want. There's no restrictions.

How will the new album differ from Justice? I know you said it's DIY and gnarly, but elaborate.

MM - Justice was, well, we were still on Interscope Records and we had an A&R guy. We always felt that there were too many people putting their hands on, okay, maybe not that, um, too many chefs in the kitchen. We'll put it that way. Everyone has their two cents. They're like "Oh well I like this song" or "You should do this." And the managers are like "You should do this thing." We were writing with different people and we felt like it got convoluted. We went and worked with Terry Date who is a huge producer. We spent a shit ton of money to record it at Henson studios and we just got in a room and jammed and made what we thought we wanted. We made a really raw, natural record. It came out great but for some reason we felt like the reaction wasn't what it should have been. This time we went a little more modern and infused a little more electronic type influences like Nine Inch Nails and got super heavy because we like Deftones. It's just ballsy and fun. We played three new songs off the record today. One was called Blow It Up. I had friends in the crowd and they told me that once we kicked in that song, they felt a wall of people just smack into them. It's just hard hitting, bouncing, and really heavy guitars.

I loved that song. It was my favorite.

MM - We wanted to limit ourselves on lyrics and take them out and just play the song. The chorus is a little repetitive but it gets stuck in your head and it's so hooky. That was a theme when we started recording this.

Anything else you want to add?

MM - Other than my voice is shot from playing the pre-party last night, nope!

Three Days Grace & Framing Hanley Iron City Birmingham, AL 4/21/14

Three Days Grace came to Birmingham once again with their new singer, Matt from My Darkest Days. Their opening acts included Framing Hanley, who I had wanted to see for a very long time.

Framing Hanley played

Collide

Twisted Halos

Criminal

Count Me In

Built For Sin

Crooked Smiles

Hear Me Now

Livin' So Divine

Lollipop

You Stupid Girl

Three Days Grace played

Painkiller

Break

The Good Life

The High Road

Let You Down

Pain

Home

Chalk Outline

Just Like You

Misery Loves My Company

World So Cold

I Hate Everything About You

Animal I Have Become

Never Too Late

Riot

This band never ceases to always have the crowd on their feet. 

Needtobreathe Rivers In The Wasteland Album Review

I have been listening to Needtobreathe since their first album Daylight came out in 2006. Since then I have seen them exactly 10 times and have plans to see them again in a few months. This is their fifth full length, studio album, titled Rivers In The Wasteland and it has been highly anticipated by numerous media outlets. I am somewhat impressed.

1. - Wasteland - Needtobreathe has always tried to stray themselves away from the stereotype of being a "Christian" band. But with lyrics like, "If God is on my side, then who could be against me?" they seem to have conformed to that belief. I mean the members are religious and it's their music. I am not so fond of this being an album opener. But the vocals and guitar mesh well together. This song sounds better live.

2. - State I'm In - This song should have been the album opener. "Saw a number on the phone that I don’t recognize. I know I've been across this land like ten times now. I’ve seen every little corner of your two bit town." Here, they are obviously referring to the amount they have been touring. The background vocals make this song what it needs to be, along with the drums. I can see some hipster couple dancing to this. It's a cute song. and definitely needs to be played live as soon as possible.

3. - Feet, Don't Fail Me Now - This is my favorite song on the album. It definitely reminds me of Prisoner from their album The Outsiders. Bear's vocals and Bo's guitar make me excited to hear this song live. "Yeah, they ain’t stopped me since I was eighteen. I’m moving faster than my enemies." This totally refers to the beginning of the band and it is perfect. The opening grunt from Bear really kicks off this song and gives hope for the rest of the album.

4. - Oh, Carolina - I first heard this song live last year in Birmingham at Workplay. It was the first song of that set and I was forever spoiled. This is probably my second favorite song on this album and it reminds me of something you would hear on the band's second album The Heat (My favorite, FYI). The song is an homage to their home state of South Carolina. "Oh, Carolina, when I get back home to you, we’re gonna start a fire. Oh, you know I miss you. When we get back home to you we got a story to give ya." The band is very passionate about being from South Carolina so this song bodes well for their state.

5. - Difference Maker - They have played this song at every show I have been to in the last two years, since their previous album The Reckoning was released. There was an earlier demo version of this song on their La Diferencia EP from 2013 that sounds completely different than this version. The demo version and the live version are way better than this version. The demo version is more raw. The live version is done a cappella. This version is a tad disappointing. It also goes back to an earlier statement of not trying to be a "Christian" band. This is the first album where they have directly alluded to God. "Isn’t it amazing how God can take a broken man, let him find and a fortune, let him ruin it with his own two hands." One of my favorite lyrics of all time does come from this song though: "Life is but a vision in a window that we’re peeking through. It’s a helpless conversation with a man who says he cares a lot. It’s a passive confrontation about who might throw a punch or not. And we are all transgressors. We’re all sinners. We’re all astronauts. So if you’re beating death then raise your hand but shut up if you’re not." When you hear it live, they scream it at the top of their lungs in perfect harmony.

6. - Rise Again - I am still waiting on this song to grow on me. I do like the background vocals though. Good job, Seth Bolt. The blend of guitar and piano sounds pretty. Good vocal range, Bear.

7. - The Heart - This song is amazing. It sounds like Valley of Tomorrow and The Outsiders from their third album The Outsiders and More Time from their second album, The Heat. I always find myself asking my DJ friends to play this during their slots on WVUA FM. The harmonies are beautiful and the lyrics are perfect. "Can't waste time when it comes time to dance" is the cutest lyric ever and it makes me think of Disney princesses. This song is forever on repeat and I cannot wait to hear it live. The hand claps, foot stomps, and vocal range make this song one of the best on the album.

8. - Where The Money Is - This song is different than their normal songs and I think I like it. It reminds me of You Are here from their first album Daylight. My favorite lyric from this song is "These days are easy. They come to life these colors bright and they all are mine. I only move in a lovers march. My only grief is when we spend these days apart." This song is not my favorite either, but it has potential.

9. - Multiplied - Once again, they have started to appeal more to a church crowd, which is what they did not want to label themselves as in the first place, but hey, to each his own. "God of mercy, sweet love of mine, I have surrendered to your design. May this offering stretch across the sky and these hallelujahs be multiplied." Yeah, this sounds like a song I would hear in church. This is probably my least favorite song on the album.

10. - Brother - Totally reminds me of Keep Your Eyes Open from their fourth album The Reckoning. Bear's voice is beautiful here too. The harmonies in the chorus gave me chills. "Brother let me be your shelter, never leave you all alone. I can be the one to call when you’re low. Brother let me be your fortress when the night winds are driving on, be the one to light the way, bring you home." Are those tears in my eyes? Yes, they are. This song gets a ten out of ten. If I ever hear this live, I will personally high five every member of the band. Seth Bolt's background vocals make this perfect. Bear really puts his heart into this song and you can hear it.

11. - More Heart, Less Attack - I think this song is portraying that we need to love more and hate less, which is a good life lesson we should all try to abide by. The more you take, the less you have. ‘Cause it’s you in the mirror that’s staring back, quick to let go, slow to react. Be more heart and less attack." The harmonies at the end are on point and the drums are awesome. The outro to this song is powerful. This is a great closing song. It leaves you with something to think about.

Overall, this is not my favorite Needtobreathe album, but I will always support my favorite bands regardless, even if one album does not knock my socks off. I was still impressed by the approach they took for this album. And who knows, it may grow on me.

Pearl Jam Lightning Bolt Album Review

With the release of this new Pearl Jam album, Lightning Bolt, I found myself a little bit more excited than I should have been. It was the first new album since my freshman year of high school and now I am a freshman in college. It is definitely an album that does not disappoint.

1. - Getaway - This song is such a great opener for Lightning Bolt. It is very Beatles-esque. It reminds me a lot Johnny Guitar from Backspacer and Satan's Bed from Vitalogy. There is really cool drum part during where it says "Science says we're making love like the lizards. Try and say that fossils aren't profound. Silence says we're not allowed to consider. Silence says stand up sit down you're out." The other lyric that I really like is "It's all right. I've got my own way to believe. It's okay. sometimes you find yourself being told to change your ways. There's no way, mine is mine and yours won't take its place, now make your getaway." If only I could explain how much I relate to that, then the world might have a better understanding of open minded people.  

2. - Mind Your Manners - I knew this song before all the other ones came out, as did thousand of other fans. It is one of my favorite upbeat songs on this album. My favorite part of the songs is "Try my patience, my patience tried. This world's no longer good enough. That makes me want to cry-y-y-y-y-y-y." Leave it to Eddie Vedder to use the word "metaphysically" in a song. That is such an eloquent vocabulary word. The last lyric really made me think about what Ed is trying to say to me. "Go to Heaven. That's swell. How do you like it living in Hell?" What?

3. - My Father's Son - "This gene pool don't love me" The first time I heard this song, I wanted to listen to it again. It was great. The chorus reminds me of one PJ song that I cannot quite place and the end reminds me of Brain Of J from Yield (the best Pearl Jam album ever.)

4. - Sirens - The title is obviously a metaphor for something that I have not quite figured out yet. The lyric "Let me catch my breath the breathe then reach ACROSS THE BEND" was definitely a throwback to Around The Bend on No Code. This song also sounds like something that could have been on Ed's Into The Wild soundtrack. The first time I heard this song, I cried through the part "Just to know you're safe. I am a grateful man. This light is pit, alive and I can see you clear. Oh, I could take your hand, and feel your breath for feel that someday will be over. I pull you close, so much to lose" I also really like the line "It's a fragile thing, this life we lead." During the guitar part at the end, I was in the library at school sitting in a pool of my own tears. Do not get me started on the first time I heard it live... (FYI, that was at Voodoo Fest in New Orleans. They opened with it)

5. - Lightning Bolt - I heard this song for the first time at the Wrigley Field and I instantly fell in love with it. I sang the chourus everyday and when the album finally came out, I played the crap out of this song. This song has a seductive sound to it. "She's Rock and Roll. She's lightning bolt, uncontrollable like you!" This is definitely the best title track on any album I have ever heard and it is my favorite on the album.

6. - Infallible - The guitar in this song reminds me of Rival from Binaural and All Those Yesterdays from Yield. "Somehow, it is the biggest things that keep on slipping right through our hands by thinking we're infallible. Oh, we are tempting fate instead" is super powerful. Whoever is on backup vocals, I love it! and the yeah yeah yeah at the end was the perfect pitch for Ed's voice. 

7. - Pendulum - This has been the opening song at almost every Pearl Jam show on the Lightning Bolt tour (one of the exceptions would be Voodoo in New Orleans, which was the only show I could get to on the tour. College sucks.) I love the howl at the end of "easy left me long ago." I'm in the fire, but I'm still cold" is definitely a paradox. The "ah ah ah ah ah sounded a lot like ARC from Riot Act: very tribal.

8.- Swallowed Hole - I love the guitar in the intro. It reminded me of Down and Leatherman from Lost Dogs. I love the little stutter that Ed does when he sings "I can set myself right hear and d-d-drown..." He is definitely channeling his inner "Who" (You know, The Who, the awesome band.) "Whispered songs inside the wind. Breathing in forgiveness and the chapter I've not read, turn the page." That is freaking perfect. OK. moving on. 

9. - Let The Records Play - Intro channels its inner Ten and VS. in the beginning. "Shaken, the breaking, not one for faking." has perfect internal rhyme. "The reeling is healing. He lets the records play. There's wisdom in his ways" Stone Gossard deserves a medal for writing this song because that lyric alone explains how much music helps people.

10 - Sleeping By Myself - I like the Ed version from Ukelele Songs better. "I should have known there was someone else. Now I'm alone, I always kept it to myself. Now I believe in nothing. Not today as I move myself out of your sight. Oh, I'll be sleeping by myself." If that is not sad, then I do not know what is. "What's left of me is gonna have to be free to survive" That is so freaking deep.

11. - Yellow Moon - It sounds a lot like Sirens from earlier in this album. Oddly enough, it reminds me of Rival from Binaural. Overall, this song is probably my least favorite on the album. That's all I have to say about that. (If you catch that reference, you rule.)

12. - Future Days - I heard this song at the Wrigley Field show for the first time. I cried then and I still get weepy when I hear it now. Every single lyric, is so beautiful. My favorite lyric is "All the missing crooked hearts, they may die but in us they still live on." This is definitely my favorite slow song on Lightning Bolt. 

Will Hoge Never Give In Album Review

1. - A Different Man - This song sounds a lot like old school Will from his "Blackbird" and "Man Who Killed Love" days. The background vocals really make this song infinitely more awesome. It's a great album opener. That chorus, though. Definitely one of my favorites

2. - Goodbye Ain't Always Gone - This sounds very ballad-y and twangy to me. But this song has really grown on me. It reminds me a lot of Better Off Now That You're Gone from Blackbird. "It's always there in the back of my mind, loudest when I'm all alone. Slow dance with the devil one last time. Say goodbye. Oh, but goodbye ain't always gone" is such a powerful chorus. My favorite lyric is "Daylight comes, I might get weak. Say to hell with everything. Strike a match and say come back to me."

3. - Never Give In - This is another one of my favorites on this album. My favorite lyric is "The highway is littered with love disappeared." I think is such a sweet "love" song, if you get my drift.

4. - This Time Around - This song sounds like a mixture of Woman Be Strong and Lover Tonight from The Man Who Killed Love. As far as slow songs go, this one is my favorite. I find myself listening to this on repeat every time I try to listen to the album. The part where he says "I'll be better to you this time around" at the end made me cry the first time I heard it because you can really hear the emotion in Will's voice.

5. - Still Got You On My Mind - I do not have much to say about this song, but I like the lyric "Being right never felt so wrong." I like the background vocals too.

6. - Home Is Where The Heart Breaks - Home Is Where The Heart Breaks - I remember the first time I heard this song and I knew it would be my favorite. It reminds me of Secondhand Heart from Blackbird. The background vocals make this song. The chorus at the end, is perfect perfect perfect. I cannot put into words how much I love this song.

7. - Daddy Was A Gamblin' Man - This song is definitely about hardship and addiction to something, in this case gambling. But, it also shows how the woman supports her husband through the hard times and stays with him. I do not think the song was placed very well on the album but, whatever. It's a sad song.

8. - Pale September - Yay! Another song about my birthday month. Not to be rude, but this is my least favorite song on the album. It starts out kinda eh, but picks up towards the end, which is good. Oddly, this song reminds me of Baby Girl from Blackbird. "I don't believe forever anymore" is a good lyric.

9. - Bad Ol' Days - The guitar reminds me of Rock And Roll Star from Carousel. I like the drum part when he says "Bad ol' days" because it's fun to play air drums to. It sounds like he is very reminiscent of his youth.

10 - Damn Spotlight (Julia's Song) - I heard this song at Workplay in Birmingham in April. Julia is Will's wife. It really focuses on their hardships they go through with him being a touring musician. The saddest lyric is when he talks about his kids sleeping next to her and he says, "And I finally realize the truth they're the only good thing I ever did to you." Damn, mood killer.

11. - Strong - Literally, one of the best songs on the album and that is not because it is the most popular song. This song is also the Chevy Silverado advertisement song. When I first heard it, I was a bit skeptical because it sounded so different from Will's sound. It grew on me. Whenever it comes on in my car, I belt it out and sing like no one is listening. If I were a karaoke person, this is the song I would sing! 

Interview with TJ Bell from Escape The Fate

Last week, I got an email that would officially confirm that I am doing what I love and that I am going into the right career. The email said that I had an opportunity to interview (on the phone) TJ from Escape The Fate. Having just seen them the weekend before, I was stoked and I immediately accepted. The interview was at 7:00 pm CST and I was more than ready. Now, it is with my pleasure and excitement that I give you my Interview with TJ Bell from Escape The Fate. 

Hi TJ, how are you today?

Good, how’s it going?

It’s going. This is actually my first interview, so I’m just going to wing it.

Ok that’s good. I’m not that good at interviews but I’ll wing it

Well I guess I'll start now. How is the tour going to far?

This tour is going great it’s a mix between our tour with Papa Roach so we have some days that their headlining, some days we’re doing headliners just on our own with Glamour Of The Kill, big festival days like Carolina Rebellion and Rocklahoma so its just a mix of a lot of different shit going on. But it’s exciting. It’s good to be back on the road. We haven’t been on tour since June. Our last legit tour was in South America in June, so it’s good to be back. 

I understand. I saw y’all last week in Mobile. It was great. 

Oh, nice. Nice. 

How is it touring with Papa Roach?

It’s fun. The rest of the band knows them really well. They toured a lot back in the day before I was a member of the band. But, I’m getting along with the dudes. Me and Craig are always getting wild after the shows and we always end up drunk and invading their bus and just acting stupid but it’s hilarious.

That’s cool. How have the fans of Escape The Fate responded to you being in the band?

They actually took it really well. And I think it’s just because people knew what Max [Green] was going through and everyone just knew that it was his time. Life on the road wasn’t meant for that dude. He needed to be home and get his life back together and I hope he does, you know? I love that dude. 

I do too. Are you excited for the new album? 

Oh my God. I can’t wait. It comes out two days before my birthday, too. 

Oh, really? That’s cool!

Yeah, May 16th so that will be the best birthday present that I’ve ever had.

I loved the new songs that y’all played last week.

Oh, that’s not even half of the record. Wait ‘til you hear the rest of it. 

I’m so excited to hear it. 

There’s a teaser up on YouTube somewhere that has like choruses to each one of the songs.

I think Alternative press is streaming it on Monday so I’m kinda excited for that.

Oh yeah! Cool!

What is the most challenging song on the album? 

The most challenging song? I don’t know. I guess, maybe it’s the funnest song that we play, we play that song called “Fire It Up” Did you hear that one? 

Yes, I did. 

Yeah, that’s my favorite song to play just because the bass is just holding it down that whole song and it’s just, it has that funky beat to it. You know what I mean? Through the whole song it’s just non-stop energy. I enjoy that one a lot. 

I enjoyed it too. How have your fans responded to the new songs?

They are going off. That’s why we weren’t sure, like we didn’t want to play “Fire It Up” in the beginning and then one day we were like fuck it, let’s give it a try and see how the fans react to it. The first time we played it, people were going off, like more than songs that we’ve been playing for the past two years. As soon as we saw that, we were like yeah! We’ve been playing it now every day and people love it. 

Well I loved it. 

Hell yeah. Glad you liked it

So, what’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done on tour? 

Well, the stupidest thing I’ve ever done on tour was last year. It was Craig’s birthday and we were in Minneapolis. We went out to a strip club and went to a few bars and I got really really drunk and I ended up going back, I don’t know if they were strippers or just girls who were hanging out but, I went back to their hotel with them and still I realized in my drunken state, I was like “Damn, I shouldn’t be here. I need to go back to the bus because our it’s leaving soon.” And they were like “O.K. That’s fine we’ll pay for your cab back, we’re just gonna go out for a cigarette real quick. Just stay in the hotel room until we get back.” Literally, they went outside for a cigarette for like five minutes. They came back up and I was dead ass asleep and they didn’t bother to wake me up and take me back to my bus. They ended up going to sleep as well and I woke up at fucking seven o’ clock in the morning and I freaked out and I ran to the venue. The bus was gone. My phone was dead. The bus drove; they just left without me, because they couldn’t get a hold of me because my phone was dead. They were already in the next city, they were in Chicago, which is a nine hour drive. So, I freaked out. I ran to the bus station. I was going to take care of it myself. I was like “Alright, I fucked up but I’m going to take care of this” and then I went to the bus station and our tour manager called me and he was like “Dude, you’re an idiot. Don’t risk it going on a bus. Just go to the airport and we’ll pay for your flight to get out here.” That was the dumbest thing that has happened to me on the road was I got left in another city. 

Well that’s actually kinda funny!

It is, yeah. But that’s when they finally decided to make me an official member of the band and then they’re like “Aww Fuck. Max fucked up and now look at this new guy that we got.” You know? So it just kinda made me look pretty bad.

But you can laugh about it now.

Yeah, we all laugh about it. Even when I got there, they weren’t too pissed off at me. They made jokes and everything. [laughs]

If you weren’t in music what would you be doing? 

Nothing. This is it for me. I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. I was born for this. That’s it. You just know when it’s for you. It’s my calling. 

I understand that completely. Which bands inspired you the most? 

Growing up, I was a punk rock kid. My favorite band is The Misfits so obviously, those dudes: Danzig, Iron Maiden. Yeah, just punk and some 80s Metal, pretty much.

Rock and Roll 

And HIM. HIM is my second favorite band. 

I love them. I actually saw them several years ago. 

Aww man, I’m jealous.

You haven’t seen them?

Nope!

Oh my gosh, they are amazing! 

Yeah, I would love love love to see them. So hopefully I do soon. 

What is the first song you learned to play?

Actually, the first song that I learned was on bass and it was a song called Chick Magnet from MxPx. Do you listen to MxPx at all? 

Yeah, a little bit.

Yeah, that was the first song. I can’t remember what my first song was on guitar though. Because I played bass for like a year, then I kinda got tired of it and then I ended up picking up a guitar and eventually playing guitar for Motionless In White, since I was 16 and on. 

What’s been the coolest part of your music career so far?

I think just traveling and meeting new people. And everyday is just something completely random and crazy is going to happen. I never know what is going to happen the next day so that’s kinda exciting. 

Yeah, I like that mindset. Well, is there anything else you want to add because, I think I’m done!

[Laughs] Our album comes out May 14th and just tell everyone to pick that up and thank you to everyone for being patient because we have been gone for a long fucking time. Oh, and be excellent to each other. Bill and Ted. I don’t know if you watch Bill and Ted’s show, but that’s the best one. 

That’s funny! Well, thank you for your time. 

Yeah, it was nice talking to you. 

I’ll see you soon on tour! 

Hell yeah! 

The new Escape The Fate Album “Ungrateful” will be released on Tuesday, May 14th. 

You can pre-order it now from the band’s Website or you can stream it Here.

Catch them on tour all summer with Papa Roach and Hollywood Undead.