News
July 15, 2008
Artist: Smoking Popes
Album: Stay Down
Label: Appeal Records
Release Date: June 17, 2008
Review by: Eric Pettersson
Tracklist:
1. Welcome to Janesville
2. If You Don’t Care
3. Stefanie
4. Sweet Pea
5. Little Jane-Marie
6. The Corner
7. Stay Down
8. Grab Your Heart and Run
9. It’s Never Too Late (for Love)
10. Maybe I’ll Stay
11. Into the Summer Sky
12. First Time
As someone who spent all of his free time following a certain Christmas defeating Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3, I have a certain fondness for straight-up pop-punk.… Continued →
REVIEW : The Human Flight Committee - Oh, When the Animals Unionize
Artist: The Human Flight Committee
Album: Oh, When the Animals Unionize
Label: Blue Duck Records
Release Date: March 11, 2008
Review by: Eric Pettersson
Tracklist:
1. Oh, the Beginning
2. She’s a Car Destroyer
3. You’ll Get It When You’re Older
4. Tint and Quarantine
5. Serious Emotional Problems, Beyond Pacifism
6. The Last Song Anyone Is Ever Going to Hear
7. Oh, the Middle
8. Russian? We’re Barely Moving
9. The Shortest Distance between Two Points Is a Punch in the Mouth
10. The Five Second Saga
11.… Continued →
July 9, 2008
INTERVIEW : Sleeping Giant
This is LONG over due! The interview was conducted after the Scream the Prayer tour in San Bernardino, California on June 15th.
So you guys just came back from Jerusalem…That is EPIC! Dish! I want to know everything!
[Laughs] Uh, lets see: long plane rides, very hot, very hot. One thing we noticed was that the culture really doesn’t…they’re kind of…they’re sort of all about themselves in a way. They don’t really acknowledge you and it makes you feel kind of weird. Like they’re sort of jerks to you in a way.… Continued →
July 8, 2008
INTERVIEW : Maylene and the Sons of Disaster
I recently got the chance to have a quick phoner with vocalist Dallas Taylor of Maylene and the Sons of Disaster. Big thank you to Ryan Johnson for setting everything up and being the sweetest tour manager ever! Seriously, the guy is just a sweetheart!
You guys are just a couple of days into Warped so far, how are you liking it?
It’s awesome! It’s been a lot of fun.
Great! So, I saw you guys a few days back in Pomona and you all were amazing!… Continued →
July 7, 2008
REVIEW : My Epic Tour Part 2
So much has gone on since I have last posted. You can say it’s been a roller coaster ride this past week. At times things seem to be going so well then we run into some struggles. There have also been times where I can honestly say I have witnessed miracles. After our Jacksonville show we met up with old friends of Aaron at an Ihop where we just chilled and showed some old friends the new record till about midnight. Then it was time to hit the road again, we were heading to Keystone Heights to lead a camp in worship for a whole week.… Continued →
REVIEW : And Then There Was You - And Then There Was You
Artist: And Then There Was You
Album: And Then There Was You
Label: Indianola Records
Release Date: January 22, 2008
Review by: Eric Pettersson
Tracklist:
1. The Beloved
2. Star Struck
3. 1983
4. As Seen in Madrid
5. Save the Last Dance
6. Sincerely Yours?
7. The Horsemen
8. Fall Fearless Empire
9. The Devil
10. Cool, Calm and Collected
Man, this album makes me feel like I’m in high school again. Not in a bad way either. It just takes me back to the glory days of sitting in class talking about Taking Back Sunday, Fall Out Boy, The Early November, Brand New and the rest, the days when kids like us secretly thought we were emo but knew that to truly be emo we couldn’t admit to the name.… Continued →
July 2, 2008
REVIEW : Jon Foreman - Summer EP
Artist: Jon Foreman
Album: Summer EP
Label: Credential Recordings
Release Date: May 27, 2008
Review by: Eric Pettersson
Tracklist:
1. A Mirror Is Harder to Hold
2. Resurrect Me
3. Deep in Your Eyes (There Is a River)
4. Instead of a Show
5. House of God, Forever
6. Again
As the four seasons come to a close, Jon Foreman delivers what I believe to be his best EP yet. Maybe it’s just because it’s summer right now so I’m more in the mood for a record of corresponding theme, but these songs have become instant sing-alongs in my car in a way that none of the previous EPs did.… Continued →
INTERVIEW : The Gallery
First things first… who are we talking to? Name and instrument(s).
Ryan Cooney (drums)- talking in these questions
Brendan Cooney (guitar and vocals)
Dave Mozdzanowski (Bass and BGV’s)
Shea Brennan (Lead Guitar)
Give us the story of The Gallery. How did you guys get together, and how did you decide on your current musical direction?
The story of The Gallery…well, Brendan and I are brothers, so we’ve known each other for about 20 years now. When we moved to Wilbraham, MA when we were 8 or so, we met Shea and have been buddies for a while now.… Continued →
REVIEW : The Gallery - If You Know What I Mean
Artist: The Gallery
Album: If You Know What I Mean
Label: Blue Duck Records
Release Date: August 12, 2008
Review by: Eric Pettersson
Tracklist:
1. Drift
2. Consider This
3. Where We Began
4. Kingdoms
5. The Introduction
6. Surroundings
7. My Rhythm
8. Circus Song
9. The Lonely Disease
10. If You Know What I Mean
I’m a sucker for a pounding beat and a catchy melody. The two are not often found together, hence the wide range musical styles found within my collection. In fact, I’d say it’s pretty much impossible to find a pop band that you can headbang to.… Continued →
REVIEW : Redfoot - Winnowing Fork
Artist: Redfoot
Album: Winnowing Fork
Label: Bad Apple Records
Release Date: November 30, 3007
Review by: Eric Pettersson
Tracklist:
1. Red Horizon
2. Ballad of Thomas Lynch
3. Country Mile
4. Literally
5. From Dirt, with Praise
6. Hardin Springs
7. Digital Jesus
8. Of Icarus and Petroleum
9. Love in Kodak Quality Prints
10. The Truth
11. For John Charles Carter
12. Run, Longest
Some reviews are really hard to write. This is not one of them. Brandon, I want to thank you personally for sending me this CD.… Continued →
June 30, 2008
REVIEW : Run Kid Run - Love at the Core
Artist: Run Kid Run
Album: Love at the Core
Label: Tooth & Nail Records
Release Date: April 29, 2008
Review by: Eric Pettersson
Tracklist:
1. Rescue Me
2. Captives Come Home
3. Fall into This Light
4. One in a Million
5. Love at the Core
6. Sure Shot
7. My Sweet Escape
8. The Emergency
9. Set the Dial
10. Freedom
As soon as I popped this disc into my car, I was ready to go pick up my youth group friends and make the annual trip to Purple Door.… Continued →
June 27, 2008
REVIEW : Burden Of A Day - Blessed Be Our Ever After
Band: Burden Of A Day
Title: Blessed Be Our Ever After
Label: Rise
Review By: JoshIVM
Tracklisting:
01. Blessed Be Our Ever After
02. Pt. 2 Sometimes They Do
03. Sorry Seacrest It’s Casey’s Countdown
04. The Smile That Kills
05. It’s Lonely At the Top (Or So I’ve Heard)
06. My Shelter
07. Battle For Hoth
08. Umbrellas
09. Monsters Among Us
10. White Coats And Their Medicine
11. I’m Only Laughing on The Outside
Blessed Be Our Ever After is the Sarasota, Florida natives debut release on Rise Records since leaving their former label Blood & Ink Records.… Continued →
REVIEW : Andy Hunter - Colour
Band: Andy Hunter
Title: Colour
Label: Nettwerk Music Group
Review By: JoshIVM
Tracklisting:
01. Sound Pollution
02. Stars
03. Shine
04. Miracle
05. System Error
06. Smile
07. Technicolour
08. Together
09. Fade
10. Sapphire
11. Out of Control
12. You
It has been 3 years since Andy Hunter released an album and as with most people I believe that’s far too long. He’s kept himself busy of course but this is just too long to keep fans waiting. Finally he emerges with Colour which shows him branching out and trying some new things musically.… Continued →
REVIEW : Soul Embraced - Dead Alive (2)
Band: Soul Embraced
Title: Dead Alive
Label: Solid State
Review By: JoshIVM
Tracklisting:
01. To End It All
02. Breaking Point
03. Curtain Of Deceit
04. The Devil’s Reflection
05. Everything Reminds Me Of You
06. La Fin Absolue Du Monde
07. Crawl
08. Into Darkness
09. Judas I’ve Become
10. Bloodstained Nevada
11. Kill This
12. In Memory
13. Dead Alive
It is the year of metal at Solid State Records. They announce all in one year that Soul Embraced would return, they signed The Famine made up of original Embodyment members, and also that almighty Living Sacrifice was back!… Continued →
REVIEW : Means - To Keep Me From Sinking
Band: Means
Title: To Keep Me From Sinking
Label: Facedown
Release Date: 5.27.2008
Review By: JoshIVM
Tracklisting:
01. Awareness
02. Breaking In
03. Somewhere Up Ahead
04. Blackout
05. Steadily
06. We Dwell In Possibility
07. Burned Into Me
08. Refuge
09. What We Seek
10. Of Dread And Dreams
Means, one of Facedown’s rising acts, are back with their sophmore release. I am a huge fan of their debut Sending You Strength and have listened to it quite a bit. Unfortunately in cases like that the bar is set extremely high for the band to top it with their second release.… Continued →
REVIEW : The Wedding - The Sound The Steel
Band: The Wedding
Title: The Sound The Steel
Label: Brave New World
Review By: JoshIVM
Tracklisting:
01. Receive
02. Return
03. Renew
04. Reveal
05. Redeem
Losing a vocalist can quickly be the death of a band. The Wedding I’m sure hoped this wasn’t going to be the case upon hearing Kevin’s decision to step down. Thankfully and unexpectedly for me, they enlisted former Letter Kills vocalist Matt Shelton. Being a big fan of Letter Kills I was pumped to hear the news! This EP is a debut of the new lineup and it shows that the band has indeed weathered the storm quite nicely.… Continued →
REVIEW : Since October - This Is My Heart
Band: Since October
Title: This Is My Heart
Label: Tooth & Nail
Review By: JoshIVM
Tracklisting:
01. Emily
02. My Heart
03. Beautiful
04. Disaster
05. In This Moment
03. Guilty
07. World To Me
08. Live To Die
09. Follow Me Down
10. Waiting
11. Everything
Since October is a band we’ve covered on IVM long before they signed with Tooth & Nail. In fact, if my memory serves me correctly they won a new band contest we ran way back. Brandon can either confirm that or tell me I’m way off.… Continued →
REVIEW : Secret & Whisper - Great White Whale
Band: Secret And Whisper
Title: Great While Whale
Label: Tooth & Nail
Review By: JoshIVM
Tracklisting:
01. Blonde Monster
02. You Are Familiar
03. Vanishings
04. XOXOXO
05. The Actress
06. Spider Besider
07. Looming Moon
08. Attacker
09. Anchors
10. Werewolves
11. Lovers
12. Great While Whale
You probably know the story by now. There was a band named Stutterfly who lost their vocalist. They replaced him with Charles Furney and due to how much his vocals affected their sound, they opted for a new moniker.… Continued →
REVIEW : Kingston Falls - Armada On Mercury
Band: Kingston Falls
Title: Armada On Mercury
Label: Facedown Records
Review By: JoshIVM
Tracklisting:
01. The Christening
02. Armada On Mercury
03. Too Hot For Cold Feet
04. On Contentment
05. The Great Divide
06. Freakin’ eXtreme!
07. The Illusionist’s Dream
08. Songs & Fables
09. Curse of Might
10. Dry Skin (Moz Def)
11. Sand Castle Karma
12. Too Bad About Your Situation
Kingston Falls in the past few years have lost a vocalist and been bumped on to Facedown from its imprint Strike First.… Continued →
REVIEW : Stronger Than Hell Tour (Allentown, PA)
A few friends came into town this past weekend so that we all could hit up the Stronger Than Hell Tour in Allentown, PA. It is quite amazing how all the details came together because these friends are limited to Saturday shows which never seem to work out. Oddly enough for once things did work out and all of them could go, so we met up on Saturday afternoon and drove just a bit over 2 hours to what hopefully would be an extremely enjoyable show.… Continued →
June 25, 2008
REVIEW : Joy Electric - My Grandfather, the Cubist
Album: My Grandfather, the Cubist
Artist: Joy Electric
Label: Tooth & Nail Records
Release Date: May 27, 2008
Review by: Eric Pettersson
Tracklist:
1. Victorian Intuition/ Father Winter Replies
2. Rudimentary Animation
3. Draw for Me, M.C. Escher
4. Four Gone Pierre (Or What Electricity Made)
5. The First Time I Loved Her It Was Here
6. I Recall the Telephone Booth
7. On Being Principally Utopian
8. Whether by Horse, or Horseless
9. Only Copernicus
10. Prelude to Cubism
11. My Grandfather, the Cubist
12.… Continued →
June 23, 2008
REVIEW : We Shot The Moon - Fear and Love
Artist: We Shot The Moon
Album: Fear and Love
Label: The Militia Group
Buy: Amazon MP3/The Militia Group
Review by the Headless Horseman.
1. The Water’s Edge
2. Sway Your Head
3. LTFP
4. Faces
5. Perfect Time
6. Tunnel Vision
7. Julie
8. On Your Way
9. Hope
10. Upon Waking She Found Herself A Cougar
11. Into the Blue
12. Please Shine
As I write this, it’s 1:46 A.M. I spent most of today working and most of the last hour listening to the latest acoustic, digital-only Alkaline Trio single.… Continued →
June 22, 2008
REVIEW : My Very Epic Tour Day 1
3/20/08- Day 1 of tour had started and I was already really tired from staying up late with Jesse the previous night just talking and finishing up putting seats and seatbelts in the van. Thursday was a busy day where we worked nonstop on the van. Jeremiah and his girlfriend Meggie worked all day making a raised platform in the back of the van so we could put a futon on and have a bed (which really came in handy for Aaron who loves to read and sleep.)… Continued →
June 20, 2008
REVIEW : The Myriad - With Arrows, with Poise
Artist: The Myriad
Album: With Arrows, with Poise
Label: Koch Records
Release Date: May 13, 2008
Review by: Eric Pettersson
Tracklist:
1. You Waste Time Like a Grandfather Clock
2. “Get on the Plane”
3. Forget What You Came For
4. A Clean Shot
5. The Accident
6. Holiest of Thieves
7. A THoseand Winters Melting
8. Polar Bears and Shark Fins
9. Throwing Punches
10. “Don’t Let Them See You!”
11. Braver than the Rest
12. Stuck in a Glass Elevator
The arrows, of course, are these twelve songs.… Continued →
June 18, 2008
INTERVIEW : My Children My Bride
Things I’ve learned from conducting this interview: Leather pants are cool…pre-show rituals are over rated…and the guys from My Children My Bride are just as awesome as I could have imagined they’d be! Just for some clarity, this interview was conducted on a sweaty and historic walk to Taco Bell during the June 15th Scream the Prayer tour …Enjoy…
Alright, so we’re out here roasting. It’s about…a million and a half degrees or so. Why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourselves.
Matt: I’m Matthew, the singer of My Children My Bride
Robert: I’m Robert, I play guitar in My Children My Bride
Well, I guess I never really found out where the band name came from.… Continued →
REVIEW : Man Alive - Man Alive
Artist: Man Alive
Album: Man Alive
Label: B& Recordings/Doghouse Records (US)
Buy: The IVM Store
Review by the Headless Horseman.
1. If You Breathe, You Bleed
2. The Things Left Worth Dying For
3. In Spite of All
4. Invincible
5. Stick Around
6. Mission Abort
7. Morningside
8. Laugh or Cry
9. Until Somebody Screams
10. Proud To Be Un-American
11. Myth vs. Fact
There’s something great about listening to the artists we can still unabashedly call punk.
Before I go on, let me clarify that: I am not here referring to bands like Black Flag, whom I would consider hardcore.… Continued →
June 17, 2008
REVIEW : Ocean Is Theory - Into The Mouth Of Lions
Artist: Ocean Is Theory
Album: “Into The Mouth Of Lions”
Label: Independent
Review by: Billy G
Recording their debut EP, “Into the Mouth of Lions” with Matt Malpass (Copeland, Rookie of The Year) and Matt Goldman (Underoath, As Cities burn, Cartel). Ocean Is Theory is yet another group that severely impresses me. These guys are young,(Four out of the five members are still in high school) but that does not limit their musical ability at all. Recently being selected as one of the 16 winners of the New Band Showcase Contest for Cornerstone Festival, these guys have a very bright future ahead of them.… Continued →
REVIEW : Inhale Exhale- I Swear...
Band: Inhale Exhale
Album: I Swear
Label: Solid State Records
Review by: Kimberly J
Tracklisting
01. I Need A Space Ship (Instead I Got Problems)
02. Its Myself Vs. Being A Man
03. The Impatient Will Suffer
04. Is The Fact That Im Trying To Do It, Doing It For You?
05. I Live The Bad Life (You Make It Worse)
06. No One Is Invincible
07. The Words That We Have Chosen
08. Drink Till We Drop
09. Ill Die with No Friends And A Grin On My Face
10.… Continued →
June 16, 2008
REVIEW : Jadon Lavik - Roots Run Deep
Band: Jadon Lavik
Title: Roots Run Deep
Label: BEC Recordings
Review By: JoshIVM
Tracklisting:
01. Come Thou Fount
02. Blessed Assurance
03. Tis So Sweet
04. My Father’s World
05. I Surrender All
06. Wondrous Love
07. Turn Your Eyes
08. I Need Thee
09. Take My Life
10. What a Friend
11. Amazing Grace
I love hymns. To me, there is no way I’d rather worship than to sing those timeless songs. I realize the praise & worship movement is all the rage now but they will never have the same impact on me.… Continued →
REVIEW : Soul Embraced - Dead Alive
Artist: Soul Embraced
Album: Dead Alive
Label: Solid State Records
Review by: Jason B
I like music and lyrics that tell a story. I’ve always been a fan of records that, when listening to them, give the listener a feeling that they are partaking of something bigger than just a cd: records that seem to take individuals on a journey. Such is the case with “Dead Alive”, the latest release from Soul Embraced.
Firstly, what stands out the most is the production quality in comparison to other releases from the band.… Continued →