Mars Volta playing Toads Place (HOLY FUCK!)

Wow! Apparently The Mars Volta will be playing Toads Place on January 11th. I'm surprised they are playing such a small venue especially in CT. Tickets are $27.50 and go on sale next Saturday @ noon. I'm just bummed there's no support.

18 Bands announced for '08 Warped Tour

The first 18 bands for the 2008 edition of the Vans Warped Tour were announced the other day. The list is below:

The Academy Is...
The Briggs
The Bronx
The Color Fred
The Devil Wears Prada
Every Time I Die
From First to Last
Gym Class Heroes
The Lordz
Norma Jean
Katy Perry
Pierce The Veil
Reel Big Fish
Relient K
Shwayze
Street Dogs
3Oh!3
We The Kings

It's an okay lineup so far. The one's in bold are the artists I would personally go see however there's nothing very extraordinary as usual. What's strange though is how Kevin Lyman the other week said Against Me! were playing this year however they are no where on the list. Hmm...

2008 Grammy nominations

I have never been a huge fan of the Grammys however after nominations were released for the 2008 edition of the awards, I was impressed. Here are some of the highlights of those nominations:

Record of the Year

The Pretender - The Foo Fighters
Rehab - Amy Winehouse

Album of the Year

Graduation by Kanye West
Back to Black by Amy Winehouse
Echos, Silence, Patience, and Grace by The Foo Fighters

Best New Artist

Paramore
Amy Winehouse
Feist

Best Female Pop Vocal Performance

1, 2, 3, 4 by Feist
Rehab by Amy Winehouse

Some other highlights on the list include some surprises like the Beastie Boys; they got nods for Best Instrumental Performance and Album. Justice also got the nomination for Best Dance Recording and Album which I hope they win.

It's a tough list but I say fuck all the haters and I would personally say Amy Winehouse should win all the mentioned categories minus Best New Artist who should go to Feist (by the way she also was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album). Kanye's album was good but not nearly as catchy or creative as past releases and to be honest I really can't say much about the Foo Fighters because I have not had the chance to listen to their latest release yet.

Now if only they choose better performers than past years I might actually make it through the entire ceremony.

Universal announces "new" subscription plan

After announcing this week that they ALL their artists will only be allowing to have 90 second song clips on popular internet sites such as MySpace, Universal Music Group (aka the anti-christ) yesterday released that they will be releasing a subscription based music program called Comes With Music in collaboration with Nokia in the new year.

Doesn't sound to shabby at all. Consumers can just buy a Nokia product and get instant access to over 1 million songs while only paying a yearly rate. Hell, I would throw away my iPhone for that offer!

However, doing some more research and getting more opinions on the program, I have to say I actually hate Universal more.

Apparently, all the songs that can be accessed through the program are wrapped in DRM. For people out there who might not know what that is, it's Digital Rights Management. Anyways, this completely restricts anyone from sharing the songs and using them more than a pre-determined amount of times. Okay that's a set back however it gets worse.

Adding fuel to the fire, you can't burn the music onto a CD or listen to it on an iPod just on your PC. WHAT?!?!?! Oh, if you aren't pissed, it get's better.

In order to gain access for another year of the program you HAVE TO BUY A NEW NOKIA DEVICE which of course probably won't come cheap. On top of that, if you want to burn the music onto a CD it will require an upgrade purchase FOR EACH TRACK!

Holy crap, WOW, just, WOW.

This is a great idea and subscription based music is definitely the future however with all these restrictions in place, it's doomed to fail. Not to mention, this is a terrible way to start off on this idea. It will immediately turn people away from the product.

What are everyone else's thoughts on this this?

Band of the Week - Brave Citizens

I've been absolutely obsessed about this week's featured band Brave Citizens over the past few weeks. The San Francisco based duo is a side project of lead singer Andrew Capra who currently sings and plays guitar in the pop/rock band Hopefield.

Although this is considered a side project, it in no way lacks the incredible edge most sideprojects seem to miss. Andrew completely self-produced the entire EP Revolutions which is up in it's entirety streaming for free on their MySpace.

As far as sound, the band is an awesome mix of bands such as Mute Math, U2, and tons more proving further more that Andrew and friends can write great, catchy edgy rock songs that is a complete rarity these days.

www.myspace.com/bravecitizens
Hightrack Track: the entire Revolutions EP

Joanna Newsom playing w/ symphony in Brooklyn

EDIT: Got the details for the show. They are below:

Fri 2/01
8:00 PM

Joanna Newsom
Brooklyn Academy of Music (Featuring members of Brooklyn Philharmonic) All Ages $25


So stoked about this one. Apparently, Joanna Newsom will be playing an entire set with a full orchestra in Brooklyn on February 1st. I couldn't seem to find the details about where and how much this is. Anyone know??

Glassjaw post new "track"

Glassjaw posted a new "song" over on their MySpace page. The track is titled "yum yum". It's mostly 5 minutes of repetitive electronic beats however there are some live drums that kick in with 5 seconds left. Definitely a teaser for some new, fresh tracks.

Also, there is the enticing 200? in the album details. That shouldn't be too mysterious. It's pretty much common knowledge that the band should be putting out the album sometime next year which will be their first effort since the band went on hiatus in 2004.

There is also a pretty well backed rumor floating around that Saves the Day and Glassjaw will be heading out together sometime next year also.