A sampler for the Rarities And More Tour has been released. Stream it below after the jump.
Say Anything and Eisley are releasing a split in time for their summer tour. Check out the artwork and track listing below after the jump!
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Say Anything Rarities And More Tour
Say Anything have announced their fill-in drummer and bassist for their upcoming summer tour. Check out a message from the band below by clicking “Read More.”
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Say Anything Rarities And More Tour
It’s time for The Weekly Tour Round-Up! There are a ton of great tours going on this winter and more are getting announced each week! Below you’ll find all the tours going on over the next few months, with newly announced tours listed above previously announced tours. So check out all the tours if you’ve missed any of them and make sure to mark them down on your calendars!
New Tours:
POZ Sponsored Shows
Forever Came Calling, Heart To Heart, Last Call [Now-04/21]
BoySetsFire, No Trigger, Pentimento, Light Years, Maker [05/24-05/26]North America
The Wonder Years 24 Hour Record Release [05/10-05/11]
Pity Sex, Run Forever [05/14-05/21]
For The Fallen Dreams, Sworn In [05/16-06/14]
Make Do And Mend, Cheap Girls, Diamond [05/17-06/16]
Tigers Jaw, PBTT, Sainthood Reps [05/23-06/23]
The Menzingers, Fake Problems, CWS [05/24-6/12]
Say Anything, Eisley [06/06-07/12]
Transplants, Rancid [06/11-06/23]
Previously Announced Tours:
Max Bemis has confirmed that Perma will be releasing their debut album and will be touring this fall. Check out a full interview with Bemis here and a snippet below by clicking “Read More.”
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Say Anything Rarities And More Tour
Max Bemis has confirmed that he and Chris Conley will be working on a new Two Tongues record next year. Check out a full interview with Bemis here and a snippet below by clicking “Read More.”
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Say Anything Rarities And More Tour
We thought you’d love this.
Tigers Jaw, PBTT Tour; Last US Tour Before Hiatus
Tigers Jaw announced their final US tour before most likely calling it quits as a band. The lineup is filled out with Pianos Become The Teeth, Sainthood Reps, and Dad Punchers.
Jimmy Eat World ‘Damage’ Album Details
Jimmy Eat World will be releasing Damage on June 11th via…RCA Records. It seems odd that JEW would sign to another major label entity after their being dropped by Interscope, and the band has yet to comment on the move.
The Wonder Years 24 Hour Record Release Tour
The Wonder Years announced four very special shows this May, and they will all be taking place in a 24 hour gap of time. The Greatest Generation is coming.
Paramore Cover Alt-J’s “Matilda”
Paramore recently covered Alt-J’s “Matilda,” which should be of interest to some considering the band was apparently a major influence to the writing of Paramore’s self-titled record.
Say Anything Rarities And More Tour
Ever want to hear songs off Baseball live? Book yourself a date for this June.
Warped Tour Announces First Bands For UK Lineup
The first seven bands for the UK Warped Tour lineup were confirmed.
Max Bemis has confirmed that he will be producing Say Anything’s next record, which will come out in 2014. Check out a full interview with Bemis here and a snippet below by clicking “Read More.”
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Say Anything Rarities And More Tour
Say Anything will be going on a major summer tour with Eisley, HRVRD, Northern Faces (June 6 – June 22), and I The Mighty (June 23 – July 12). Check out the dates below by clicking “Read More!”
Max Bemis has just two new songs to write for Say Anything’s next record. Check out a tweet from Bemis below by clicking “Read More.”
Jeff Turner of Say Anything and XO has released a cover of The Get Up Kids’ “Valentine.” Stream and download it below by clicking “Read More.”
Everyone’s a critic, and man, are we a tough crowd. When it comes to high-profile albums, us fans are quick to let rampant anticipation shoot our expectations sky-high. But unfortunately, we’re just as quick to turn that excitement into sheer disappointment when records can’t meet their lofty expectations. When expectation and reality butt heads, we don’t exactly give some albums fair shakes.
So here’s a look at ten albums from Editor-in-Chief Erik van Rheenen that took a fan beating when they came out, but really just deserve a break. Feel free to reblog with any albums you think need to be championed as underrated masterpieces too!
Say Anything - Anarchy, My Dear
Anarchy, My Dear took a fan pummeling for not being …Is Still a Real Boy, and fans got up in arms over “Admit It!” getting sequeled. But besides the pent-up furor behind “Burn a Miracle,” Anarchy, My Dear finds Max Bemis at his romantic best and in sync with his pop sensibilities. Love-struck tunes like “So Good” and “Say Anything” aren’t songs of youthful rage and rebellion, but then again, this isn’t the same young and angry Max Bemis singing these songs. This is a happily married Bemis with a baby girl on the way, so forgive him for not writing “Futile” all over again. Just take Anarchy, My Dear at face value: a quirky collection of pop-rock jams.
The Ataris - Welcome The Night
So Long, Astoria is the landmark pop-punk album no one remembers: thirteen tracks of achingly nostalgic teenage anthems, gift-wrapped in soaring sing-along choruses and crunchy guitar riffs. After four years of silence, Kris Roe and company released Welcome the Night, a fuzzy, bleak contemplation on life. It pulled a 180 on fans, swapping energy for an ambience of rainy day despair. But it works. Roe turns in an absolutely heartbreaking performance, and it’s perfect listening for hazy winter nights. Don’t expect any road trip sing-alongs like “In This Diary,” and sink right into Roe’s troubled mindset with him.
Yellowcard - Lights And Sounds
If Welcome the Night came out before Lights and Sounds, Yellowcard would’ve suffered from a good case of Ataris-itis. After the feel-good juggernaut that was Ocean Avenue — and all of its bright-eyed youthfulness and beach-soaked power chords — the band dropped the simple melodies of pop-punk and wrote a straightforward alternative rock album. Much maligned as it is, the album was Yellowcard’s coming-of-age story more than Ocean Avenue ever was. Ryan Key’s voice is both fragile and polished, and his lyricism is on point. It stacks up surprisingly well against Yellowcard’s stellar discography.
New Found Glory - Coming Home
Unlike their pop-punk compatriots in Yellowcard or the Ataris, New Found Glory didn’t stray from their roots to sound serious or dark. They diverted from their well-worn pop-punk formula to write a simple pop album. There are no gang vocals, no chunky guitar riffs, and no fast, furious punk songs. Instead, Jordan Pundik is at his most vulnerable, sounding equal parts sincere and heart-on-sleeve romantic, especially on “It’s Not Your Fault” and “Boulders.” It’s not popular opinion, but another album in the Coming Home vein would be more than welcome in New Found Glory’s catalog.
Brand New - Daisy
Daisy was the album every Brand New fan wanted, but not the album every Brand New fan expected. Whereas every last detail of Deja Entendu and The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me felt calculated and mapped out, Daisy cried havoc, opened the creative floodgates and let slip the dogs of war. The venom on Daisy — the aggressive “Sink,” blockbuster single “At the Bottom” — seeps into Jesse Lacey’s vocals, Brian Lane’s frenetic drumming, and Vin Accardi’s unbridled guitar riffs. The pop sensibilities fans missed aren’t gone; just hidden.
The next wave of Max Bemis’ Song Shop is opening next week, and PropertyOfZack had the pleasure of doing an extended Perspective piece with Bemis to bring fans behind the process of his busy life and his interest side-project. Make sure to read up on Song Shop, which re-openers on February 4th, and check out Editor-in-Chief Erik van Rheenen’s piece below!
Max Bemis is a busy guy.
Make that seriously busy. He’s halfway through writing Say Anything’s fifth studio album, describing it as some of his darkest material to date. He’s penning his comic book debut, Polarity. Perma’s freshman record is slated for a fall release. He and wife Sherri are expecting their daughter, Lucy, in just a matter of weeks. Heck, on a Saturday night in Austin, he just walked offstage from the sound-check for his solo acoustic record release show for All My Friends Are Enemies.
“Some nights I’ll just sit down and talk to my wife about how our brains just feel like mush,” Bemis says with a quick chuckle.
But Bemis likes a challenge. He dares himself to overcome his mental block as a songwriter, the muscle in every musician’s brain that screams, you just can’t write any more songs. He challenges himself emotionally, straying from the autobiographical lyricism that he’s made his calling card. More then anything else, he looks for a sense of real accomplishment. “As a musician, you sit on your ass and don’t often get that feeling unless you’re on stage or writing new material,” he says.
That’s where the Song Shop comes in. At a point in his life where most wordsmiths might consider scaling back, Bemis proudly states that he’s sharper then ever and eager to roll open the Shop’s proverbial doors again on midnight of February 4.
“One really cool thing is that I’ve become a lot more diligent and efficient with the output of the Song Shop,” Bemis says, “And with a baby in my life, I’ll just have to be even more on the ball. It’s such a big part of my life — I’m no longer just experimenting. I know what I’m doing.”
This time around, he’s not doing it alone. At least not for the most part. He recruited his wife, Sherri, to lend her lilting vocals to some full-length tracks, timing the current run of songs for Valentines Day. “Perma is Sherri and myself going back and forth,” Bemis explains, “But this is still my thing, very much so. It’s going to be more like how Sherri makes guest appearances, like on ‘Cemetery’ and ‘Night’s Song’ and ‘Overbiter.’ I’m still going to be writing the lyrics, but it’ll be open-ended, if she wants to write in a harmony here, or a line there.”
Bemis and Sherri had been discussing collaborating for Song Shop for a while, but Bemis wanted to let the Song Shop establish itself first before tinkering with the model. He’s thought about other plans too, but doesn’t want to think too far ahead. Not yet, at least.
“I always want to upgrade, and I might sound like a douchebag, but I always look at the Apple model of always adding something really cool, new and fun to their products, and that’s what I want to do as Song Shop grows. The douchebag part is just me comparing myself to such a successful company,” Bemis says, laughing.
But Song Shop remains a solitary pleasure for Bemis. The easiest part, he says, is relating to each individual fan that sends in a description. Bemis takes pride in his empathetic songwriting: if it’s simple, happy, sad, or troubling, he says he always knows how to find the right words to convey the right emotion. He’s been there before.
“I’ve seen like some of the darkest shit, and nothing really shocks me from some of the descriptions I’ve gotten. It’s like I’m hearing things they’d tell a therapist or a doctor,” Bemis says. “I’ve read some really dark stuff, but it really challenges me emotionally. Sometimes I’m doing too many in a row of the same kind of song, I’ll go to a song with a completely different vibe and then come back.”
Bemis’ songwriting style for the Shop mirrors his approach to penning new Say Anything material: he’s at his peak when the melodies and lyrics burst out from an idea together. When he’s in what he considers his “hyperactive mode of writing,” Bemis says that often when reading the first line of a description, something jumps out — a word, an emotion, one specific detail — as his starting point. That’s when his word-smithing starts.
As songwriting practice for the already productive frontman, the Song Shop has helped redefine Bemis’ definition of “prolific.” That’s why it helps that Bemis has adopted a simple realization that helps him barrel through his mental block, the one that tells him, you can’t keep writing this many songs.
