The Academy Is… More Rockin’ Than Ever!
Check out the video preview for The Academy Is…’s new song “A Big Mess” on the Fueled By Ramen YouToooobe page (link via Buzznet’s music blog). I think it sounds totally awesome!
The full-length video is directed by Daniel “Cloud” Campos, who is well-known for being one of Madonna’s super-hot backup dancers.
Check him out dancing:
And making/eating a sandwich (LOL):
But back to TAI… I just got a little lady boner looking at the adorable William Beckett. Is it wrong that I just said that? Sorry guys, but he’s looking mighty fine with his shorter, shaggier, rocker-boy hair.
Their new album Santi comes out in April 2007.
Tune In Tonight: Liveblogging the MTVU’s Woodies
Tonight I’m going to be liveblogging directly from Roseland Ballroom, location of MTVU’s Woodies Awards. The fun starts around 8pm. Here’s a preview of what I’ll be talking about:
CONFIRMED ATTENDEES:
Beck*
TV on the Radio*
Gym Class Heroes*
Imogen Heap*
Lupe Fiasco
Ghostface Killah
Lady Sovereign
30 Seconds to Mars
Angels & Airwaves
Feist
Plain White T’s
Cage
Atmosphere
Murs
The Academy Is
Gogol Bordello
The Subways
Nightmare of You
*Performing
More on the CS/ Snakes on a Plane Soundtrack
Sorry for the lack of updates this week. Sometimes a girl needs a break from the daily blogging grind. But here are some links that should keep you busy. This week Snakes on a Plane comes out, so you know what that means–lots of media hype! I caught Sam Jackson on the Daily Show the other day. Gotta say, he’s a hilarious man. It would be the ultimate to hang out with him.
Check out photos of the Snakes on a Plane soundtrack release party (which featured performances by Cobra Starship, Jack’s Mannequin and Fall Out Boy) that happened in La-La Land riiiiighht here. And also on Wireimage. My favorite one? This photo of FOB.
Oh! And check out this video of Cobra Starship, along with William Beckett, Travis McCoy, and Maja from The Sounds rehearsing for Jimmy Kimmel. I was totally flabbergasted when I saw it. How is it possible that even Maja, who is wonderful live, sounds like digital crud in this video? I blame the internet and cellphones. Well at least little William looks adorable in his black v-neck tee. CS will be on Kimmel on Friday…hopefully sounding awesome. C’mon BRING IT!
WATCH: “Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)” by Cobra Starship, Wills, Travis, and Maja rehersing for Jimmy Kimmel
This Very Special Episode of MisShapes Was Brought to You By the Warped Tour
So on Saturday, after Aiden, Jocelyn and I stopped off at Trader Joe’s and then went to my house on Long Island. While I ate a burrito, Joc flipped through old baby pictures of me. We then headed back into the city and parted ways. I went home, took a shower to wash all the nasty stale sweat, sunblock, and lord knows what else off of myself so I could start to feel like a human again.
Then I got a text from Jeff asking if and when I was planning on going to MisShapes to hit up the Purevolume Warped Tour afterparty. It was 11pm and I was already tired, but I knew it was going to be fun so I sucked it up and told him 12 midnight.
I hailed a cab and pulled up to Don Hill’s and the king of NYC club doormen, Thomas Onorato (who has a new book out that you should go read called Confessions from the Velvet Ropes), was kind enough to let me in.
Inside it was crowded, but not super crazy yet. As I headed toward the seated section in the back, adora-hot Jamie Bell (you know, Billy Elliot) squeezed pass me singing along to the music. When I finally sat down in the back, I (apparently) found myself sitting among members of Halifax as they waited for booze to come to them.
Not much was going on back there so I decided to head back out into the crowd and say hello to some friends. I worked my way over to the DJ booth and saw Greg DJing. He struck a pose for me:
But there was someone else in the DJ booth that Greg was switching off DJ duties with. A boy named Matt Friction who is in the band The Pink Spiders. I asked if I could take a picture of him and he made a funny face:
I walked and danced around a bit more…I think I even broke down and grooved to Justin Timberlake’s “Sexy Back” before circling back to the DJ booth and spotting Geo rocking the 1s and 2s (of the CD player) and giving me “sexy front”:
I think I circled around the club a few times before coming back to the booth and spotting two boys standing in the corner. Low and behold it was Jamie and his buddy Max M.:
Somewhere over the course of the night I was hovering around the bar when I spotted both Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes and William Beckett of The Academy Is… sensing a photo-op too great to miss out on, I asked Travis if he would pose with William for a picture and he said sure and grabbed the bespeckled William and flashed his blinged-out grill:
NOTE: There’s a reason why this photo is so small. But I’ll explain that a little later in the post.
After I finished snapping the photo Travis told me to take another one. When I lifted up my camera, he planted a big ol’ sloppy kiss on William’s cheek:
Both of them were such absolute sweethearts. Love them!
By this time the crowd was SO crowded you couldn’t even breathe right, so I headed outside–where there was a mini-MisShapes going on. There was a gigantic tour bus parked outside and through one of the windows I saw the lovely Maja Ivarsson of The Sounds soaking up all that air-conditioned goodness while watching…er…Wedding Crashers on DVD. Her bandmates however, were DJing:
I hung out some more outside, running into Brad Walsh, Lawrence and Gina and shooting the breeze before I rolled out around 2:45am.
Ok here’s where the tiny picture explaination comes in. When I got home I popped my memory card into my previously “sleeping” computer. Then something went haywire. It was telling me that all the photos on the card were “corrupted” and I couldn’t view them. Oh no, tragedy! There would be NO PHOTOS OF WILLIAM BECKETT AND TRAVIS!
I texted Jeff and exclaimed, “My computer erased the photos!” to which he replied, “WTF?!?!” Then he came up with the brilliant idea of heading over to the 24 hour Apple store on 5th Avenue. I was like “do you think they could help?” He said maybe and that if I ended up going, he was up for an adventure. I called up the Apple store and gave them a brief summary of what had happened on my computer and whether or not this was something they could help with. Mind you this is now 3:30 in the morning. The dude at the end of the phone said they might be able to help out and I made an appointment for 4:20am. Yes, because I didn’t want to take a chance of that crazy 4:30am Genius Bar rush.
Now this might seem crazy to you, but I was up for it because I’ve always wanted to go to the Apple store at 4am to see just exactly what kind of weirdos would be there at that time. And as luck would have it, I was going to be one of those weirdos rather than an innocent observer.
I called Jeff and told him that it was ON–we were going to the Apple store and to come pick me up in a cab.
Then I made a video of our journey with my (non-evil) point and shoot camera.
When we got there, there was a cluster of people in the corner using the internet and a few bored-looking Apple employees.
If you didn’t watch the video, the result was that after an hour of the Apple dude fiddling on my computer, he figured out a way to rescue some of the corrupted photos, so some of the photos didn’t make it–I could see little thumbnails of them, but the full-sized photos were corrupted. So I guess it was a good thing that Travis made me take that additional photo, otherwise I’d only have postage-sized images to show you of him and William.
C’mon, say it with me: God bless the 24-hour Apple store.
Warped Tour 2006: Strong Island, Reprezent!
[Check out all my Warped Tour 2006 photos on Flickr!]
Yesterday, August 5th, I nurtured my roots and got all suburban by heading out to Long Island to go to Warped Tour at Nassau Coliseum.
The day started off a little sad because we got there an hour after it started (a little after 1pm) and I ended up missing all of The Academy Is… by about 15 minutes because when I got to the board I saw they went on at 12:25!!! I was SO BUMMED because they were the one band I was DYING to see. I wanted to cry little emo tears when I realized what had happened. So heartbreaking. As poor Jocelyn can attest, I complained about missing them the entire day.
So yes, not only did I miss TAI… I only got to see like 2 songs by The Sounds, who went on at 12:55. I heard the Sounds’ songs when we arrived, and I kept asking Jocelyn, “um, are the Sounds on right now…because I hear their song…” It was crazy! This is the one thing I hate about Warped Tour–you never know when any of the bands are going to go on until you get there. Who would have known that two of the biggest (in my mind) bands to play at the festival would be one of the first ones to go on! Tragic.
The Vans Warped Tour board of disappointing news
Anyway, as I recovered from the devastation of missing TAI… I took some notes of what the set times were and discovered that Cartel wasn’t even playing. WTF?! I’d wanted to see Cartel also, and I could’ve sworn they were on the list of bands playing that day…things were looking bleak already.
So I figured out we had some time to kill before the next band I really wanted to see, Motion City Soundtrack, so we walked around and got the lay of the land–figured out what stages were where and where important things like water, shade, and air conditioning were. Jocelyn and I ended up getting to sample a lunch courtesy of the Warped Tour catering crew and as I mindlessly scarfed down a mini pizza and mozzarella sticks, my stomach started doing flip flops. I don’t know how those kids eat that kind of stuff like every day on the tour, just two bites of the mozzarella stick alone made me slightly nauseous. And to think, I passed on the fried calamari and fried zucchini.
Here’s a tip: If you kids want to get in with the bands on Warped Tour, don’t waste your time slutting youself out–just bring a good hot meal and you will probably be greeted with open arms by the band member of your choice.
So by this time it was almost 2:15 and I was NOT going to miss yet another band, so we ran over to Main Stage Left where MCS had just started their set. Ok, it’s confession time–I’ve had a tiny crush on bassist Matthew Taylor (below) since like 4 months ago when I sat across from him for like an hour and didn’t say anything to him because I didn’t know him and I had no idea who Motion City Soundtrack were. (Read my “about” section–I didn’t know who ANY of the people that are going to be mentioned in this post until like 3 months ago–I’m serious. It’s not easy trying to get up to speed with “the scene”. I still don’t know who half these bands are anyway. I’m sure you know more about this stuff than I do.)
But then I saw him start singing along to the Beyonce song that was playing (was it “Crazy In Love”?) and that totally sealed the deal–an official sweet spot was created for him then and there. I said to myself, “I have no idea who the hell that guy is, but I cannot believe he’s singing Beyonce to himself when he thinks no one is looking. He is a genius.”
MCS had tons of energy and the crowd was so great. Kids bopping around screaming along to infectious pop punk songs like “Everything Is Alright”.
So. Much. Fun. Luckily for me and Joc, the next band we wanted to see was Thursday, which was going to be at the same stage. While we were hanging back waiting for Thursday to go on at 3:10, we ran into our friend Mandy from Stellastarr*, who was there to support Andrew. I managed to snap this ADORABLE photo of them right before Andrew had to go on stage. Can you say “ubercute”?
Before we knew it, Thursday was onstage playing to a sea of sweaty, dirty Long Island teenagers with a gignormous Marriott looming in the background. It looked like this:
I couldn’t believe that the sweet, mild-mannered guy I’d just met moments ago was now YELLING HIS BRAINS OUT into his microphone and thrashing at his keyboard right before my very eyes. Hahah! I never would have guessed that Andrew was “The Screamy Guy”–which is an absolutely necessary member of every self-respecting post-hardcore band. Amazing!
Somewhere during the course of the show, I looked up at lead singer Geoff and noticed he was bleeding. Not just bleeding, he was GUSHING BLOOD. Red liquid was streaming all down the front of his face and in the process of wiping some it off, he stained the whole of his forearms. Joc described the situation by saying it looked as though Geoff had “eaten a baby”. It was really disgusting, but totally rock as he blazed through the rest of the set, not even blinking an eye as his DNA dripped all over the place.
WATCH: “Understanding In a Car Crash” by Thursday (live at Warped Tour, Uniondale, NY)
Now I know why Geoff kicks butt in the Warped Tour Massacre–it’s totally based on real life. He takes a licking and keeps on ticking.
He did eventually stop to take a moment inbetween songs to wipe off some of the excess blood, and even having crew members suggest pouring water down the front of his face to get rid of some of the crimson trail.
I don’t know what the official or commonly-used name is for this manuver that I call “The Tornado”–It’s basically when someone takes a microphone chord and whips it around like it’s a lasso and then catches the microphone again. I’m always completely amazed when people do it. And there’s always a LOT of this being done on Warped Tour. Some are better at it than others. If I had to rate Geoff’s Tornado, I would give it a 8.5.
There was also the hilarious Hulk outfit that started off onstage (the big “mash ‘em” hands and head piece), got thrown into the crowd, and then eventually ended up back on stage. One kid actually got all three pieces together and put them on, so you can imagine how amused I was to see the Incredible Hulk crowd surfing during Thursday’s set.
After Thursday was done we ran over to the Volcom Stage where Red Jumpsuit Apparatus was playing. RJA seems to be everywhere these days–in ads in my Teen Vogue, the number one band on Purevolume.com, staring back at me on a Wheaties box–Ok, the last one isn’t true, but I really can’t turn around w/out seeing their band name everywhere.
WATCH: “Face Down” by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus (live at Warped Tour, Uniondale, NY)
By this point I was sweaty and could feel the flesh burning off of my skin, so we took a break and got some cold drinks and then headed out again to catch Saves the Day on Main Stage Left at 5:10.
I’d never seen Saves the Day before, and for some reason I wasn’t expecting much. My only real knowledge of STD was the song “At Your Funeral“, which was a video that seemed to be on constant rotation on MTV2 when I was in college–that song and their clever/stupid tshirts that say stuff like “I <3 My STD: Saves the Day".
Well color me surprised--I actually liked STD quite a bit. They were a bit more rock than I expected they were going to be, but they were still really very poppy.
WATCH: “Anywhere with You” by Saves the Day (live at Warped Tour, Uniondale, NY)
For some reason during their set I couldn’t help but notice lead singer Chris Conley’s access pass since he was wearing it on stage. I found great amusement in the fact that his hair color was almost the same shade as the bright red background he stood in front of to take his photo…because we all know how much I *love* his pink hair:
I do have to say, I found his matching pink plug chord kinda adorable–in the gayest way possible.
I left around 5:30 and headed over to the Hurley Stage to watch a bit of Everytime I Die. Holy mother of God! EID was so freaking loud, and the crowd was totally crazy. I would have one eye on the kids behind me, not to get hit in the head by a flying foot or bottle, and one eye on the band, as to not get knocked over by a flying band member or Tornado.
I ran back over to the Volcom Stage to catch a little bit of Gym Class Heroes…
But only had time to throw my hands up into the air before running back to Hurley Stage to see Aiden. I really wanted to see what Aiden was all about because Gurj is always talking about them.
OH. MY. GOD.
AIDEN IS MY NEW FAVORITE BAND!
Wow! Lead singer Wil Francis is like one part Gerard Way one part Brian Molko one part Tim Burton’s ultimate fantasy! Musically they are My Chemical Romance meets AFI. Their live show was INCREDIBLE. There was so much raw energy flying around, I swear it was like being in the middle of a hunt. Especially when Wil would jump into the crowd. If you watch the video below, you can actually see him GROWL at the audience:
WATCH: Wil Francis jumping into the crowd at Warped Tour, Uniondale, NY
So remember how I said some people’s Tornado’s were better than others? Wil Francis’s Tornado is OFF THE CHARTS. He was whipping that microphone around like a cowboy and catching it perfectly in his hand.
Almost at the same exact moment I was thinking “Woah! Aiden is the best band I’ve seen today!” Jocelyn texted me and said “This is the worst band I’ve seen”. I was flabbergasted! I couldn’t believe how different our opinion of the band was.
Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, Wil called for something named The Wall of Death. Basically he made the crowd seperate in the middle and then RUN AT EACH OTHER “like you’ve seen in Braveheart“. Then he made everyone throw metal signs up in the air as they ran.
HOLY CRAP! Words can’t even describe, so just watch:
WATCH: Aiden and the Wall of Death at Warped Tour, Uniondale, NY
The kids LOVE Aiden!
Aiden was the best thing I saw at Warped Tour. After seeing them I just had to leave–what could be better than that!? Ok, I’m sure some of the other bands who played last were great, but by that point I’d be in the blistering sun for about 6 hours and I had to head home so I could head out to MisShapes later for the Warped Tour after party. More on THAT later…
Kisses on a William Beckett
I told you to come to MisShapes this weekend…because crap like this happened:
That’s birthday boy Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes giving William Beckett of The Academy Is… a kiss on the cheek during the Purevolume.com Warped Tour afterparty at MisShapes. Adorable!
Right now I’m SO exhausted, but don’t worry, more to come! A full report on Warped Tour and the afterparty.
Yesssssssssssssssssssss! Party Time. Excellent.
Be there or be…SORRY. Don’t say I didn’t tell you so.
Believe It Or Not, This Is Not a “Snakes on a Plane” Fansite
I know everyone is probably SICK of me talking about Snakes on a Plane, but I do have to mention how incredibly AWESOME the soundtrack to the movie is. I talked a bit about how amazing it is with Jo Whiley, but unfortunately it didn’t make it into the show in my bit about how SOAP is going to be a hot movie this summer.
DOWNLOAD: Me talking about Snakes on a Plane (and some other stuff) on Jo Whiley’s show on BBC’s Radio 1
Have you SEEN the track listing? It reads like an emo-pop-punk super-album:
1. Cobra Starship (with The Academy Is…, Gym Class Heroes and The Sounds) - “Snakes On A Plane (Bring It)”
2. Panic! at the Disco - “The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage” (Tommie Sunshine Brooklyn Fire Remix)
3. The Academy Is… - “Black Mamba” (Teddybears Remix)
4. Cee Lo Green - “Ophidiophobia” 5. All-American Rejects - “Can’t Take It” (El Camino Prom Wagon Mix)
6. The Sounds - “Queen Of Apology” (Patrick Stump Remix)
7. Fall Out Boy - “Of All The Gin Joints In All The World” (Tommie Sunshine’s Brooklyn Fire Retouch)
8. Gym Class Heroes - “New Friend Request” (Hi-Tek Remix)
9. The Bronx - “Around The Horn” (Louis XIV Remix)
10. Armor For Sleep - “Remember To Feel Real” (Machine Shop Remix)
11. The Hush Sound - “Wine Red” (Tommie Sunshine’s Brooklyn Fire Retouch)
12. Jack’s Mannequin – “Bruised” (Remix)
13. Coheed & Cambria - “Wake Up” (Acoustic)
14. Donavon Frankenreiter - “Lovely Day”
15. Michael Franti & Spearhead - “Hey Now Now”
16. Trevor Rabin - “Snakes On A Plane - The Theme” (Score)
I bolded the tracks that are ESPECIALLY hot. Of course you know the Cobra Starship song by now, but let me tell you, the remix that Patrick Stump did on “Queen of Apology” by The Sounds is SO FLY. He totally changes up the vibe of the tune by laying a funky-fresh hip-hop beat and slowing down the vocals on it. I love it so much.
Another case of making a good song even BETTER is the Louis XIV remix of The Bronx’s “Around the Horn”. I HATE that it’s Louis XIV, because I took some mild offense to some of the lyrics off their debut album (hellooo misogyny!) but I cannot deny how fan-f***ing-tastic that remix track is. It’s pure rock, and every time I listen to it I want to dance around and whip my head around hair-metal style.
The other track I want to highlight is Tommy Sunshine’s remix of The Hush Sound’s “Wine Red”. The mix of the angelic-sounding vocals of Greta Salpeter mixed with the uptempo beats layed down by Sunshine are the perfect mix of sweet and sass.
Oh and need I mention that the brilliant Swedish group Teddybears remixed The Academy Is…? So. Best.
Basically there isn’t one dud on this soundtrack. I’ve already played about 3 of the songs off this album during DJ sets I’ve done in the last few weeks. I LOVE this album so much. Get your copy when it drops on August 15th! You will be rocking out to it all year long, I promise you!
Watch Out! Warped Tour Here I Come!
So I am SO STOKED for this weekend. Ok ok, so I’m not going to Lollapalooza in Chicago to see some of my favorite bands on earth all in one place (The Racontuers, Panic! at the Disco, and Ryan Adams) BUT I’ll be at Warped Tour on Long Island, so that’s JUST as good because I’ve never seen The Academy Is… and they’ll be playing.
So if you’re going, and I sort of know you, please drop me a line and we can hang out. You will recognize me because I’ll be the one with the “EMOZ 4 LYFE” tattoo on her neck. Hot!
Hey, does anyone know where I can get a time sheet and stage listing of all the bands playing?
Watch the Video for “The Phrase that Pays” by The Academy Is…
The new TAI video features the boys as patients in a mental hospital and “American Dreams” [TV show] wholesome star, Brittany Snow, in a surprise turn as a naughty nurse.
WATCH: “The Phrase that Pays” by The Academy Is…
