Happy Festivus!

Today, being December 23rd, is Festivus! One of the greatest (not necessarily happiest) times of the year!

According to Festivus tradition, the "Airing of Grievances" requires us to bring up things that aggravate us and make them known to the world!

This blog is here to serve that exact purpose! if you have any grievances about anything, this is the place to air them. Just comment below and tell the world exactly what you can't stand about it!

We'll save the 'feats of Strength" for another place and time.

It's Festivus for the rest of us!

Foo Fighters LIVE Studio Feed

RED in the Face

RED is quite easily one of the most well-recognized bands out there right now. Having produced two albums and released multiple hits to radio, they quickly gained a following over the last four years. Now, at the peak of their popularity, RED is preparing for the release of their third studio album, their second with Sony Music Entertainment.

The new album, Until We Have Faces, takes it's name from the book Till We Have Faces, which was the last novel written by author C. S. Lewis, showing that the band is remaining true to their Christian roots. Those roots have produced two bestselling albums, so we should take heart that this album will be equally epic.

Until We Have Faces is scheduled to be released on February 1st 2011.

As always, keep it here for updates on this and other New Rock announcements.

What the Hell Ever Happened to Crisco?

It has kind of felt something like that picture...except it would be me sitting at the desk rather than some chick. I wonder who she is. She looks like she could use some serious help with all that work.

Anyway, bottom line is I've been a busy beaver. There has been a lot going on for me the last few months, including a promotion at the radio station. Yep...you can now hear me Nights on 97.9X! As in EVERY NIGHT...rather than just when Dan "The Man" can't do it. So tune in!

With the promotion came a whole slew of new responsibilities, all of which I am finally beginning to settle into. Now that I've found a relative groove, I'll be back to updating this blog regularly.

I've been gone for a while, but now I'm back from outer space. Get ready for a Crisco-gasm.

A Nightmare Comes to Life

Avenged Sevenfold released their brand new album Nightmare yesterday. To celebrate, A7X is doing some stuff on the web this week that you can take part in.

1. The band will host a LIVE CHAT online where they will talk to their fans tomorrow night (Thursday, July 29th @ 5p EST).

2. The band will air a LIVE FEED of their concert in Syracuse, NY on Saturday, July 31st.

Both events will happen on Avenged Sevenfold's UStream page.

So there you have it...a few really cool things going on this week that you can be apart of from the comfort of your computer chair. Enjoy!

A Thousands Suns Burst Forth

Finally! I'm not even going to waste my time with an introduction to this. Linkin Park have announced that their new album, A Thousand Suns, will be released on September 14th.

Score!

Now that the nitty-gritty of the news is out of the way, I'm going to discuss. After all of the back and forth and all the waiting, our patience has finally paid off. We need but wait another two(ish) months.

It's interesting to see that Linkin Park is sticking with the "nuclear" theme. If you don't know what I'm talking about, allow me to enlighten thee. The band's last album title, Minutes to Midnight, is in reference to the Doomsday Clock which marks the theological, philosophical, and hypothetical number of minutes until midnight; midnight being representative of mankind's annihilation via nuclear war. The lower the number of "minutes to midnight", the closer humanity is, in theory, to blowing ourselves to smithereens.

In case you were curious, the Doomsday Clock is currently (at the time of writing this blog) at 6 Minutes to Midnight.

The new album title, A Thousand Suns, is a reference to a statement made by J. Robert Oppenheimer, the developer of the Atomic Bomb, after bearing witness to the first successful detonation of a nuclear weapon.

"Now I am become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds."

At the time of the statement, Oppenheimer was quoting The Bhagavad Gita.

"If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One... I am become Death, the Shatterer of Worlds."

What does any of this have to do with Linkin Park? Probably nothing. I just thought it would be fun to give you a history lesson.

Linkin Park's new album, A Thousand Suns, hits stores September 14th. That's all you probably care about.

Do keep an ear out for their new single "The Catalyst", which will be released August 2nd.

As always, keep it here for updates on this and other New Rock announcements.

Trapt and Unapologetic

The band known as Trapt has seen a large burst of popularity since it's inception and debut single "Headstrong". Their last album Only Through the Pain debuted at #8 on the Billboard 200 and it had two wildly popular singles "Who's Going Home With You Tonight?" and "Contagious".

Personally, while I enjoyed Only Through the Pain, it was obviously an album of ballads. There weren't any songs on the record that really reached out and punched you in the good'n'plenties, if you know what I mean. It was a softer, more melodic album lacking any powerful anthems like "Headstrong" of "Stand Up". I'm not saying it wasn't good, because it was good. In fact, it was very good. Still, it just felt like something was missing.

It was for these reasons that I was excited to learn that Trapt was putting out a new album this year. I was curious as to which direction the band would go from here. Finally, word came down yesterday that the new album is called No Apologies, and it is due out on September 14th*.

Having listened to "Sound Off", the first single off the new record that is due to hit radio on July 20th, I can say with some certainty that Trapt understands the grievances that myself and many more of their fans had with their last studio effort. I say that because "Sound Off", the very FIRST new single, is exactly the type of song that Only Through the Pain was missing. It's an anthem through and through, and the fact that it is the lead-in single to the new record implies that Trapt is making a statement with it. This song is evidence of a great new record, and I can't wait to get my hands on it.

As always, keep it here for updates on this and other New Rock announcements.

* UPDATE 08/12/10 - The release date for No Apologies has been pushed back to October 12th.