The wait is finally over for Lifehouse fans – the band’s fifth studio album Smoke & Mirrors is on sale today. Smoke & Mirrors, already the top-selling album on iTunes, showcases two sides of Lifehouse: songs like “Smoke & Mirrors,” “Wrecking Ball” and “Had Enough” capture the live, rock side of the band – a sound they perfected after 10 years of solid touring – while the tracks “All In,” “Here Tomorrow Gone Today” and the first single “Halfway Gone” are songs sure to be heard on the radio for years to come. “Halfway Gone” is currently climbing Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, and is number 2 on the Adult Top 40 chart. The music video is also number 1 this week on VH1’s fan-generated Top 20 Countdown.
Smoke & Mirrors is available now in stores and online in both a standard and a deluxe edition, which features a bonus disc with additional material. After appearing on the Tonight Show during Conan O’Brien’s final days as host, Lifehouse will return to the Tonight Show on Thursday, March 4th to help kick off Jay Leno’s first week back. The band will also begin a nationwide tour with Daughtry and Cavo in Baltimore, MD on March 18th. Visit LifehouseMusic.com for tour dates and details, as well as additional updates from the band.
“Crash Love is certainly not a concept album or rock opera by any stretch, but the songs are generally connected by a greater theme… The album title itself can be construed as a command, as a destructive kind of love, or as a desire for a relationship that’s heading inevitably toward disaster or flameout. The lyrics of some songs trace an arc from adoration to the desire to tear down the object of affection. These songs are written from perspectives both sympathetic and critical, as well from both the inside the relationship and outside.”–Davey Havok
Crash Love, AFI’s eighth full length studio album, due out September 29 on DGC/Interscope, is indeed informed not only by the ever-evolving chemistry between the musicians in the band but also by the members’ personal lives and perhaps most of all by the always intense relationship between AFI and its fans. The latter has intensified considerably over the most recent of AFI’s 18 years as a band, with 2006’s decemberunderground entering the chart at #1 with first week sales of nearly 200,000 and subsequent sold out shows at the Long Beach Arena and Bill Graham Civic as well as appearances on Saturday Night Live and at Live Earth–not to mention 2003’s Sing The Sorrow going platinum. These experiences were bound to have an impact on four kids from Ukiah, California who formed a rudimentary punk band in 1991 with aspirations of playing in the SF Bay Area and possibly releasing a few singles and an LP or two.
“The record is really more about how the great attraction to inappropriately shared intimacies, carefully constructed personas, and the loss of a sense of self can affect an entire world,” Havok explains. “As well as how this loss of self is sought after rather than resisted… With today’s media, we have such quick and pervasive access to the trivia of anyone’s lives. Everything is intensified and indulged, this desire and ability to know everything you possibly can about anyone, from what thread-count bedsheets they sleep in to whether or not they believe in ghosts.”
Los Angeles, CA – Cult rock heroes Alkaline Trio have debuted their new video for the first single and title track from their forthcoming albumThis Addiction, due out February 23, today on MySpace.com.
Set in the mountainous fields of Ventura County, California, the visually stunning video for the metaphorical rock anthem “This Addiction” paints a rare glimpse of Alkaline Trio as they perform on an open battlefield where two sides of the heart collide in a vibrant burst of color.
“This Addiction” is the title track and first single from Alkaline Trio’s long-awaited seventh studio album.
Don’t miss Alkaline Trio on tour this spring with Cursive!
Head to Portugal. The Man’s website and experience what happens when the song “Do You” from album The Satanic Satanist comes to life on your computer screen.
*This version of A Jagged Gorgeous Winter appears on the video game Rock Band 2 and is a remixed version of the original album track from The Main Drag’s LP “Yours as Fast as Mine”
Twenty seconds into “Let’s Go,” the opening track on CARTEL’s third full length CYCLES, singer Will Pugh declares, “I’ve got so much left to do but I’ll start with this song.” For the Atlanta, GA pop-rock quintet to be prioritizing, to have their collective gaze so firmly focused on the horizon, the future and all its possibilities is both incendiary and inspiring. Incendiary and inspiring as this, after all, is a band that has toured the world over, from Tokyo to Toronto, from Brisbane to Bristol, had a smash single in “Honestly,” has had over 36 million MySpace plays as well their own MTV mini-series chronicling the recording of their second album and has amassed coverage in Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, USA Today, and the New York Times. CYCLES could have easily been the staid soundtrack to a victory lap, but rather than rest on their laurels and bask in the comforts of history they chose instead to go forth, to grow, to cohere into a singular unit (fused together through dedication, perspiration and elbow grease) and, over the course of the eleven tracks that make up CYCLES, to create a sterling collection of hook-laden modern rock, succinct and self-assured.
Motion City Soundtrack – Justin Pierre, Josh Cain, Matt Taylor, Tony Thaxton and Jesse Johnson – are gearing up for their major label debut – My Dinosaur Life – due out January 19th on Columbia Records. In anticipation of the new album, the band released their first new song “Disappear” from the album on October 20th and today they are premiering the video for “Disappear” on MySpace!
In addition, if you haven’t already heard about the “Dino Trail” yet go to www.mydinosaurlife.com and follow the one and only Justin Pierre as he continues his adventures across the US – busking, hanging with fans, playing in dorm rooms, visiting radio stations, jamming with bands, etc. There are some great photos and video clips, so once you’ve checked out the new music video – check out the Dino Trail clips!
And if you want to see the band live, catch them in December when they join up with Weezer for a handful of dates or check them out on one of the 2010 headlining dates just announced earlier this week!
