Fall Out Boy "Beat It"

First things first, I love Fall Out Boy. Yeah, whatever, I've lost "scene points" (or gained a shit ton). Anyway, they recorded a cover of MJ's classic, Beat It, and made a video for it. The video is full of MJ references and in typical FOB fashion is fun...BUT I kinda hate it. To me, it's just poorly done and my major beef is that John Mayer is the one tearing up the guitar solo and he's not even in the video. Ok, scheduling conflicts, blah, blah, blah, but still. It's all over the place that he's on the song and he's not in the video.

Anyway, take a look for yourself.

• MTV
• Music Videos
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• Entertainment News

Gwen Stacy

I feel a little late to the party on this one, or I could be ridiculously early. Either way, I'm slowly falling into like with Gwen Stacy, a rather talented hardcore/metalcore band. I honestly don't know much about them, but their name has been popping up all over the interweb as of late and I would just skip over them. Today, however, I decided to take a look at their new music video and must say I am impressed. I do believe I will continue to explore about this band and hopefully become a fan.

Motion City goes acoustic

Motion City Soundtrack will be releasing an acoustic EP via iTunes on May 6. The ep is five songs of their latest release, Even If It Kills Me. The band's label, Epitaph, promises a physical release sometime in the fall.

Track list:
01) Fell In Love Without You
02) It Had to Be You
03) Broken Heart
04) Can't Finish What You Started
05) Point of Extinction

I'm excited. I love MCS and am interested in hearing what they sound like acoustic. I'm sure it's going to give the songs something more, since it'll be stripped down. Plus Justin doesn't really have an "acoustic stripped down voice", but I think he can pull it off.

Break-up is a dirty word

Last month, I posted the Starting Line is going on "indefinite hiatus", and now Yellowcard is doing the same. Ryan Key (lead vocals and guitar) had this to say: "You know, you are the first person that has ever asked that in an interview. That's kind of weird. I have to finally answer it. We really don't have any plans. We are calling it an "Indefinite Hiatus." After this tour, so, I don't know. It could be a year, 10 years, or 6 months. It's been an interesting time in this business and our record label. It's just. We kind of need a break. I think it appears everything is ok on its surface but we definitely need a little bit of time to figure out our personal lives. It doesn't have anything to do with turmoil in the band. It's more of a, facing adulthood now, and we can't stay in Neverland forever. You know what I mean. I think we just need a break. Hopefully we will get back to making another record sometime, if not it may be our last but we don't really know. We're just keeping the door open."

Seriously, two of my all-time favorite bands are now "on hiatus" which usually means "breaking up". Ugh, I can't catch a break. But good luck to all the guys and whatever they do in their time off.

New Cute Is What We Aim For song

Cute is What We Aim For has a new song, Doctor, up on their MySpace. I must say, I'm pleasantly surprised. I've been a fan of their's since they began, but fell out of lust because I just got tired of the trite lyrics of their last cd. If this song is any indication of the rest of the new cd, Rotation then I'm rather excited for it.

MTV is stealing my backpocket bands

Apparently MTV thinks Bayside is Buzzworthy. The video for Carry On was featured on TRL a couple weeks ago and has been getting spins on MTV2. The attention has of course caused some tension in the world of Bayside fans (and the haters alike). Anthony, the band's lead singer, decided to address criticism and posted a blog on the band's MySpace.

My take on the whole thing: Bayside won't change who they are for MTV, but they will gladly take the exposure. I personally, hate MTV, but without it honestly wouldn't have heard of some of my all-time favorite musicians/bands.

In other MTV news, All Time Low will be on TRL tomorrow via an interview they did yesterday. Yay, for them, but also boo, simply because I hate 15-year-old who want to have sex with half the band. (That's another post altogether.)

Rock for Health

Rock for Health, is easily my new favorite organization. They're a non-profit outfit which educates musicians and tries to help them get health insurance while on tour.

This is the greatest thing ever. Almost all musicians and bands that make music their life have no health insurance. Tons of bands lately have had accidents and if injuries happen, they're screwed. I am all about this idea and am going to support this cause 100 percent.

A couple bands which support Rock for Health: Bayside, Between The Trees, Meg & Dia, Sonny, The Rocket Summer, The Spill Canvas, Circa Survive, Chiodos, just to name a few.

Taking Back Sunday update

Taking Back Sunday, wrote a little blog update about the cd they're working on. I'm excited for this; it's been far too long since they released Louder Now and a new cd means a tour and TBS never disappoints live.

Dance, dance

Wow, I'm a slacker in the worst way. Sorry, I've been busy and I'm sure this little blog doesn't get much attention.

Moving on, new favorite band alert: Metro Station. Amazingly catchy dancy, technoy, fun music. They have a video for their song "Control" up on YouTube, but alas, embedding is disabled and I'm not savvy enough to find a way around that.

Anyway, check them out. They are definitely a good summer time mix band.

Marriage of the century

So Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson are getting married. Apparently this is news. I know I'm not any better than anyone reporting on it, but I feel compelled to blog about it. Maybe it's because this relationship just seems so fake to me. Whatever.

So yeah, congrats to them and I hope this is legit and they make it last.

Punk Goes Crunk

When I first heard this idea I was like "ugh", rockers doing rap didn't seem like the best idea in the world. Let's just say, on a few of the tracks I was right. The Devil Wears Prada for example, a screamo band doing rap= bad idea. The Maine did Akon's "I Wanna Love You", which first of all, is the radio edit, so it sounds bad, but The Maine's vocalist doesn't do justice to Akon's unique voice.
Hot Rod Circuit did a service to Snoop Dogg on his "Gin and Juice". They kept the stripped down feel of the song and kept true to the lyrics. Another favorite, Scary Kids Scaring Kids version of Notorious B.I.G and Bone, Thugs N Harmony's "Notorious Thugs".
Overall, I can't hate on the cd, but I think maybe half the songs shouldn't have been on there, simply because they aren't that well known or seem awkward when covered by a bunch of little white boys.

Why am I not surprised?

There was a report in the Guardian that said 95% of people ages 18-24 copy music in one form or another. The surprising part: it's not all from file-sharing programs. People still directly copying CD's (like me sometimes) and there are people who still copy from the radio! That last part made my eyes bug out, I'm not even kidding you. The radio, really? C'mon I haven't done that since I was in I think 6th or 7th grade.

Anyway, the point is, is anyone really surprised by this information? We were coming of age when the Napster thing happened. Hell, most of us used Napster. I think reports like this are such a waste of money. It's like having a report telling us water is good for you or prolonged exposure to the sun may cause skin cancer. Can we spend this type on money on reports that may actually help the world? K, thanks.

revamp

So, since this blog is no longer meant for school and I'm having fun with it, I think I'll keep it. I'm going to rework it a little, the nature of the posts will be a little different and I may actually post everyday. We'll see.

This is the first song for your mix tape

The mix tape. A simple enough concept, a bunch of semi-related songs on a disc. But under the surface, a good mix has to have a few elements that make it good. Apparently, there are websites devoted on how-to make a good mix. Personally, I'm a trial and error kind of girl. I've made enough mixes for myself that have been truly terrible, but once in a while, a good one comes along. On the few occasions I've been given mixes, my favorites have been the ones which had specific themes and songs that I actually liked.

The mix tape is such a part of the "scene" that absolutepunk.net has a thread on its forum dedicated to it. Below, you'll find other helpful links for making the perfect mix for yourself, potential significant other, or the girl down the street you've decided to start stalking. (kidding on that last one...kinda)

wikiHow: How to Make a Perfect Mix Tape or CD

The Art of the Mix: the website dedicated to making mixed tapes and cds

How to Make the Perfect Mix Tape: the fine folks at Esquire pose this scenerio: You've got 1,000 songs and no idea how to put them together. This will help you.

Tiny Mix Tapes: a site with news and other goodies, including a "mix tape generator"

Ruckus

So one of my absolute best friends from high school informed me today of this rather amazing website called Ruckus. I had never heard of it before, but it's a site that allows college students to legally download, high quality music. There is a list of participating schools who have a partnership with the site, but even if your school isn't listed you can still join, as long as you have a valid student e-mail address (one ending in .edu)

The aforementioned best friend said the site is ridiculously convenient when there's a release you're not sure about, you can listen to it for free, instead of spending valuable cash on something you'll listen to once.

If anyone else has used this or is planning to check it out, please comment and let me know your thoughts.

Edit: The only thing I've come across that sucks about this is that it's not compatible with iTunes and the songs can't be burned because of the licensing agreement Ruckus has with the record companies. Oh well, it's still cool to use to check out music you're unsure about buying.