New Singles from Jimmy Eat World, Springsteen, and AvA

OK, lots of cool stuff coming this entry, but first some clarifications;

-If you comment, please be kind enough to sign your post. Gina, I know you reminded me about the Backstreet Boys album dropping in October as well, but please do sign your comments so I can separate the legit from the spam.

-2 entries back I listed James Blunt's All The Lost Souls on the list of albums coming out in October, thus implying you should be excited about the release of said album. Such was a miscommunication; I do not expect you to wait with bated breath for the return of James Blunt, especially if "1973" is any indication.

-If you hadn't noticed, I added my CD Tracker to the list on the left; it keeps a mostly up-to-date list of what CDs I own. Go check it out.

And with that, onto the goods:

-Angels & Airwaves has announced October 23rd as the release date for their sophomore album I-Empire. A clip of the first single "Everything's Magic" is streaming on their MySpace. As of today it had not been released to iTunes.

-However, both Jimmy Eat World and Bruce Springsteen released their first singles "Big Casino" and "Radio Nowhere", respectively, to iTunes today. Springsteen's track is decent, though his voice is starting to show some wear and the message of the song is a bit curmudgeonly, while Jimmy Eat World delivers another great hit. If you hadn't gotten the message, I'm excited for these two albums

Jimmy Eat World - Big Casino
Bruce Springsteen - Radio Nowhere

-More information has come out about Exile on Mainstream, the forthcoming release from Matchbox 20. It will be a 2-disc set, the first disc containing six new tracks including "How Far We've Come", while the second disc is a best-of containing 11 songs even the most casual fans already have. Meanwhile "How Far We've Come" has yet to make it to iTunes. So, in conclusion you will most likely be paying 20 bucks for six songs. Smooth, guys, reeeaaal smooth.

That's all. I'll be back later this week with some more goodies.

Does Jack Bauer care if you buy your music or not? I don't know. But do you REALLY wanna find out if he does?

Jimmy Eat World on iTunes
Bruce Springsteen on iTunes

==TJ==

Burning On, Just Like A Match You Strike To Incinerate...

The right combination of location, people, and emotion can alter the meaning of a song, and the effect that song has on the listener; for example, anyone who was there the first time Nirvana played "Smells Like Teen Spirit" live would have a different reaction to it than the person who randomly hears it come across the radio. And then there are the lovers who hear "their song" and remember fond memories. And for some a song can just bring back memories of being with friends, having no cares in the world, and just enjoying life. You wouldn't expect My Chemical Romance to bring about such enjoyable thoughts, but again, with the right people in the right place, it can happen.

Rewind to several summers ago, while I was still in my high school years. I'm with my friend Kevin, in his room, wasting time like usual. Also like usual, we were talking about music. There was a time when Kevin and I could hang out for hours on end and all we'd talk about was what music we were into that week, what we were eager to hear, and what we wish would just go away. The conversation turns to My Chemical Romance, who at this point were just beginning their ascent to stardom, with "Helena" rising the video charts. I had just picked up Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, while Kevin has been raving about it for a few weeks now. As soon as I bring up the topic, Kevin leaps up and puts the album into his stereo (whose volume is generally cranked up to 9 or 10). As "Helena" comes blasting through the speakers, Kevin and I are suddenly rock stars. Kevin does the best/worst air guitar he can, while he tosses me an empty Snapple bottle as I leap up from the imaginary drum kit in front of his bed and assume the role of a wannabe Gerard Way. The track (and us) barrels through two verses and choruses before we hit the bridge, a small breather before the final push to the end of the song. On the final line in the bridge (Will we meet again/When both our cars collide?) do our best 80s-rockstar jump in the air and finish out the track in a manner worthy of an unintentionally funny YouTube video.

Neither of us realized it at that point, but we caught lightning in a bottle during those 3 minutes. In various forms with various songs with various people, I've tried to recreate that experience, return to that feeling of raw energy flowing through the room, but it never came out quite the same. The closest I've come was in the radio station this past spring, rocking out to Sum 41's "Fat Lip" for passersby to see and gaze at in confused amazement. Perhaps it's for the better that it's never been perfectly recreated; some things are best when they are unique. It just makes me wonder if artists realize what they're doing when they do it. Did Bob Dylan intend for "Like A Rolling Stone" to become an entire generation's mantra? Did Led Zeppelin know that "Stairway to Heaven" would become one of the most played songs on the radio 30 years later? Probably not. But it does show how circumstance can alter the course of a song's meaning.

My Chemical Romance - Helena

==TJ==

First Peek at New Jimmy Eat World

Because my brother is a huge Jimmy Eat World fan, and I alluded to this sometime last week, I present the following: a video of an acoustic performance of "Chase The Light", the title track from Jimmy Eat World's forthcoming album, due out October 16th.

Jimmy Eat World - Chase The Light (Live Acoustic) [Quicktime]

No mp3 of it because I'm holding out for an official single release.

Artists releasing albums in October:
Matchbox 20
Bruce Springsteen
Dashboard Confessional
Jimmy Eat World
James Blunt

You may get excited...now.

==TJ==

About Viva La Mainstream

About 8 months ago I was patrolling through some music blogs and realized something; they were all talking about the same things; "Bright Eyes this!", "Clap Your Hands Say Yeah that!", "If it's on the radio, it sucks!"...you get the idea. It's all very elitist, pretentious, and kinda condescending to the Daughtry's and Fall Out Boy's of the world. Why is it that the bands who write catchy hook after catchy hook and get rewarded for it get relegated to being called talentless corporate drones? It didn't make sense to me, and it was a pain in the ass to see these people generalize the people who support these bands (people like me)as lemmings with no free thought or brain cells. I'm a fan of the bands like Linkin Park and Green Day and, yes, even Nickelback, and I happen to think I'm a pretty educated listener.

So out of frustration with the way things were, and as a tiny little "Fuck You" to those pretentious indie kids, Viva La Mainstream was born, which is a really glorified way of saying I started this blog. I wanted to be the voice that reminded people that just because a band's in the mainstream doesn't mean that they don't deserve the same praise. A lofty goal? Yes. A bit prententious? Maybe. But it's what I want this to be, and that's not changing.

I have ideas for what VLM will become, some more realistic than others. I'm well aware that I've got a short list of readers, and I want to try to reach out. In the next few weeks VLM will launch its radio broadcast at radio.arcadia.edu. Most of it will tie in with the website, and vice versa. If you're reading this because you were linked here from the Facebook group, and you have ideas on what you want to see happen, by all means let me know. I've got my ideas, but I want this to hear what other people say, 'cause I know you guys aren't lemmings either.

So that's my mission statement, I guess. Starting tomorrow you'll get the regularly scheduled music commentary, etc.

==TJ==

The Heads of A Million Teenage Girls Just Exploded

Now, what if I were to tell you that Fall Out Boy and Kanye West got together and remixed, mashed up, and did cool stuff to all their popular hits, ie a mashup of "Gold Digger" and "Dance, Dance", and then released an online mixtape of the results of that gathering? Is that something you might be interested in?



Download from The Leak Source [via Idolator]

Yeah, I think my work here is done. Enjoy.

==TJ==

EDIT: I was slightly mistaken. As indicated by the "Presented by PDA & His Army of DJ's", this is the work of a group of relatively talented DJs. Kanye and FOB had nothing to do with the creation of this mixtape. Still damn cool though. Already listened through it once, and I think it needs another play-through for a decent rating. So far the highlights are "We Majorly Thankful", "Thanks For Telling Me Nothing" (a mashup of "Thnks Fr Th Mmrs" and "Can't Tell Me Nothing"), and the "Arms Race Megamix" which you have to hear to understand fully.
(Tentative)Ruling on the Field: 7.5/10

IRONY!!!

Late last week British soul singer Amy Winehouse canceled all of her upcoming tour dates and checked into rehab amidst reports of rampant drug and alcohol abuse (My favorite of these reports comes from What Would Tyler Durden Do?). The singer, who's irritating-as-all-hell hit single "Rehab" is about her refusal to own up to her problems, has issued no statement regarding the situation, leaving family and management to handle the crisis. For more on this, VLM has a special commentary from Mr. Nelson Muntz:

Commentary from Nelson Muntz

Oh, come on, like you didn't see THAT coming.

==TJ==

You Have Stolen My Heart...And My Sanity

So I'm on MySpace earlier tonight and I see a bulletin from Dashboard Confessional (or some underling at Vagrant assigned to run Chris Carabba's MySpace page) entitled "Hey Everyone!". Upon opening I find only the following image:





The same image is now the backdrop for Dashboard's official website, their MySpace page, and Vagrant Records' welcome page. Dashboard is prepping for its first solo tour in 5 years and a European tour with Maroon 5 later this year, and is (in theory) still riding the success of 2006's Dusk and Summer. The band has offered no insight as to the meaning of the image, leading fans to suggest three possibilities:

1) New logo for new solo tour (possible; bands do this from time to time to create excuses for more merchandise)
2) New album in the works (unlikely; news of recording new material would have surfaced before now)
3) Chris made some random drawing and is doing the 21st century equivalent of putting it on the fridge to show off to people. (also likely)

Whatever the meaning is, Dashboard had better unveil it quick. I'm spending all my time hunting for clues about Cloverfield, I don't have time to try to unlock what this pic is supposed to get me excited for.

Dashboard Confessional - So Long, So Long

Buying music leads to good karma.

Dashboard on MySpace
Dashboard Confessional Official Website
Vagrant Records
Dashboard on iTunes

==TJ==

EDIT 08.16: Dashboard's official website confirms that on October 2nd Dashboard's new album, The Shade of Poison Trees will be released. In keeping with the upcoming solo tour, most of the album will be just frontman Chris Carabba on acoustic guitar. A low-quality live video of likely first single "Thick As Thieves" is on the MySpace page. AbsolutePunk has the official press release here.

October 2nd is also the release date for Bruce Springsteen's Magic, his most recent effort with the E Street Band, and Exile on Mainstream, the new album from the reformed Matchbox 20. It's official; October will be a glorious month.

What I listened to this week

What with it being my first week back in civilization, I had quite a bit of catching up to do when it comes to music. I spent an unhealthy amount of quality time with my iPod (whose name is Dash Z. Linkin, if you were curious), and here's a quick rundown of what I was playing:

-Fuel released Angels & Devils, its first album with Toryn Green as lead singer on Tuesday. Green's a decent fit with the band, but in some ways he's almost too good a fit, and his voice gets lost behind Carl Bell's guitars and just becomes part of one big clusterfuck of radio rock. Tracks like "Wasted Time" and "Scars in the Making" show off how well the band can be when everyone's on, but Fuel has always been about its lead singer, whether it's Brett Scallions or Toryn Green, and for too much of Angel's and Devils Green gets washed out by simply serviceable instrumentation
Ruling on the field: 5.5/10
Highlight Reel: "Wasted Time"

-It only took about a week for me to get tired of "Who Knew" by P!nk. It's OK, 'cause that's still 6 days, 23 hours, and 57 minutes longer than it took "Girlfriend". Meanwhile, the new singles from Velvet Revolver and Finger Eleven are incredible.

-I know I'm a month late, but I got around to hearing Smashing Pumpkins' Zeitgeist. It has it's moments, but like everything else Billy Corgan's done, it's just a bit too weird and without direction for my taste.
Ruling on the field: 6/10

-At the suggestion of a friend from over the summer, I picked up the second album from Boston duo The Dresden Dolls, entitled Yes, Virginia. Expecting an hour-long lesson in elitist girl punk a la Courtney Love with a piano, I was very pleasantly surprised. Amanda Palmer's voice is strong, albeit it not very nuanced, but the drummer is absolutely sick in every sense of the word. Think Panic! At the Disco for people who have too many brain cells to deal with P!ATD.
Ruling on the field: 8/10
Highlight Reel: "Backstabber"

Downloading music from my blog makes me feel good about myself, but buying the music is good karma.

Fuel on iTunes
Smashing Pumpkins on iTunes
Dresden Dolls on iTunes

==TJ==

Jack's Mannequin, Pearl Jam do stuff at Lollapalooza

Jack's Mannequin, the side project from Something Corporate frontman Andrew McMahon, played a new song at the Lollapalooza concert this past weekend. The song, entitled "Cellular Phone" indicates the JM will be returning for another album, though McMahon has previously said that Something Corporate has not disbanded.

The video quality isn't great, but there's also an MP3 below.



Jack's Mannequin - Cellular Phone

Pearl Jam also made waves at the festival; during their hit "Daughter", Eddie Vedder started singing Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall", interjecting the line "George Bush, leave this world alone". AT&T, which was streaming the weekend-long concert on its website, had a wonderfully convenient audio glitch during the song, so that fans watching on their computer heard nothing. Pearl Jam has expressed concern over the matter, and is encouraging fans to go to their website and report other politically motivated censorship incidents on the part of AT&T. On the other hand, AT&T swears that the glitch was not an act of censorship, and is working to correct the audio problem on the stream. Vedder made other politically charged statements in the concert that weren't edited, so I'm inclined to tell Pearl Jam to lighten up a bit, though I can see why they're so mad.

You can view both versions of Pearl Jam's performance of "Daughter" here.

==TJ==

VLM Makes A Triumphant Return!!

OK everybody, I'm back! The month off was pretty awesome, but let's just dive in to the music!

-The Foo is back! The Foo Fighters have set September 25th as the release date for their new album, Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace. A tentative tracklisting is on their myspace page, and early last week the first single "The Pretender" leaked onto the internet. The song isn't quite as good as "The Best of You", but as a sign of what's to come on the new album, I'll take it. In addition, the Foo Fighters have released a 10th anniversary edition of The Colour and the Shape with new bonus tracks. Normally this would suck and reek of corporate underpinnings, but since the bonus tracks are decent and they don't jack the price of the album up, it marks another classy move by the always awesome Dave Grohl.

Ruling on the Field: 6.5/10

Foo Fighters - The Pretender [via sendspace]

-Joining in on the fun is Jimmy Eat World, who slated October 16th as the release for Chase This Light, and also re-released Clarity and Static Prevails in anticipation. No single out yet, but look for one in the next few weeks.

Ruling on the Field: I want a single, dammit!

-A very large (and probably long overdue) "F--k you!" goes out to Chad Kroeger and the guys from Nickelback. The commercially angsty Canucks just reissued their 2005 smash All the Right Reasons with three pointless live tracks and a DVD of music videos. Since I'm pretty sure everyone who's going to buy All the Right Reasons already did so, this move just marks a cheap marketing ploy to scrounge another 30 bucks out of Nickelback's "hardcore" fans. Real smooth, guys...real smooth.

Ruling on the Field: Fuck you, Nickelback!!

-I Ruckused Sum 41's controversial new album Underclass Hero shortly after coming home, and damn it if it isn't a throwback to what punk rock is SUPPOSED to sound like! The title track is a ballbuster of the highest caliber, and nothing on the album is inherently bad, it just tends to lean into territory already walked by the likes of Blink 182. Regardless, Sum 41 comes through again with what might be the most underrated punk album of the year.

Ruling on the field: 7.5/10
Highlight Reel: "Underclass Hero", "Speak of the Devil", "March of the Dogs"

-My list of CDs I need to hear has expanded, now including Who We Are from Lifehouse (tentative ruling based on what I have heard: 8.5/10), Smashing Pumpkins' new album Zeitgeist, and the new one from Velvet Revolver. More on those when I sit down and hear them in full.

-Linkin Park released the video for their second single off Minutes to Midnight, "Bleed it Out". Love the camera work and the song's awesome, but didn't Coldplay already trademark the whole everything-in-reverse idea?



OK that's all. Back later

==TJ==