Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt.

Norma Jean is headlining Explosions 2009 and have announced that in select cities (to be announced) that they will perform the entire album Bless The Martyr And Kiss The Child. The way I see it is they should pick at least one of their Canadian dates to do this on, and there are only two Canadian dates. If it's between Toronto and Montreal here's hoping they do the right thing and pick Toronto. I will be so unbelievably stoked if they do it in Toronto.

I wouldn't be opposed to hearing some stuff off of The Anti-Mother though because I refused to pay the ridiculous ticket price to see them last time they came to town with Underoath. This tour however will feature some solid support bands including my long-time love affair HORSE The Band, The Chariot, and Arsonists Get All The Girls. I'm mostly going for Norma Jean and HTB though because I don't really know Arsonists and not only is The Chariot not my cup of tea musically, but I doubt that they will top their performance at Cornerstone this year. (It involved lots of climbing, stage diving, Josh Scogin personal drum kit, and instrument burning)

Anyways, here's the tour dates:

Thu/Nov-19 New Orleans, LA The Hangar
Fri/Nov-20 Houston, TX Meridian
Sat/Nov-21 San Antonio, TX White Rabbit
Sun/Nov-22 Ft. Worth, TX The Door
Mon/Nov-23 OFF
Tue/Nov-24 Tempe, AZ The Clubhouse
Wed/Nov-25 Pomona, CA Glasshouse
Thu/Nov-26 OFF – Thanksgiving
Fri/Nov-27 San Francisco, CA Slims
Sat/Nov-28 Portland, OR Hawthorne Theater
Sun/Nov-29 Seattle, WA El Corazon
Mon/Nov-30 Boise, ID The Venue
Tue/Dec-01 Salt Lake City, UT Club Sound
Wed/Dec-02 Denver, CO Marquis Theater
Thu/Dec-03 OFF
Fri/Dec-04 St. Paul, MN Station Four
Sat/Dec-05 Chicago, IL Reggie’s
Sun/Dec-06 Cleveland, OH Peabody’s
Mon/Dec-07 Pittsburgh, PA Altar Bar
Tue/Dec-08 Toronto, ON Opera House
Wed/Dec-09 Montreal, QC Tulipe
Thu/Dec-10 OFF
Fri/Dec-11 New York, NY Gramercy
Sat/Dec-12 Lancaster, PA Chameleon Club
Sun/Dec-13 Towson, MD Recher Theatre
Mon/Dec-14 Richmond, VA Canal Club
Tue/Dec-15 Columbia, SC New Brookland Tavern
Wed/Dec-16 OFF
Thu/Dec-17 Ft. Lauderdale, FL Culture Room
Fri/Dec-18 St. Petersburg, FL State Theater
Sat/Dec-19 Atlanta, GA Masquerade



Norma Jean - Bless The Martyr and Kiss The Child

Who really knows what to say about these guys from Montreal? They're 80's/pop/rock guys who cut each other's hair before shows and have laser lights. They got banned from Cornerstone Festival for hot saucing someone, and their manager asked me for $10 000 once to book an off-date (they weren't on tour and rather then just saying no, i guess they might as well try). Oh, and did I mention they're also big fans of the mullet?

Anyways, these guys are SUPER catchy. My friend Jeremy listens to mostly pop and hip-hop and I put these guys in front of him and he loved them. They're tough enough to be legit, ridiculous enough to make you laugh at them, and catchy enough for a good and proper dance party. I saw them at Holy Joe's in Toronto last year and Mic Skillz 2 did turn into a giant dance party on the stage. They seriously have the best light show too so check them out if you get a chance.

If you're not from Canada you're in luck! They're getting pretty big nowadays and they're fresh off of some Europe and Japan shows and are on their way to Australia this fall. Give them a listen at myspace.com/blessedbyabrokenheart. Also their new song "Motor Truck City" is up for download by clicking here.

Blessed By A Broken Heart: The biggest joke band ever that still gets mad respect.



Oldish BBABH Picture

I am so unbelievably stoked right now! IGN debuted the first trailer for Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day today. I unaware of a sequel being made but I am SO stoked that one is and with all the original actors minus Willem Dafoe. The brothers look pretty old like they had a pretty rough ten years since the original but WHO CARES?!

Quit waiting and watch the trailer now!!

Before I get into this let me say that I support buying CDs 100% and personally have a collection of 400+ CDs. However, I also download albums, sample them, and then do one of two things: buy it if I like it, or delete it. That being said...

The RIAA successfully sued Joel Tenenbaum $675 000 and is still concerned enough to ask the court for an injunction in order to, "prohibit defendant from causing additional irreparable injury to plaintiffs." Joel is only the second person to not settle out-of-court in piracy lawsuits from the RIAA. I'm not a Moby fan but I think he summed it up the best in June when he posted the following blog to his website in reference to the only other person to actually go to court with the RIAA:

argh. what utter nonsense. this is how the record companies want to protect themselves? suing suburban moms for listening to music? charging $80,000 per song?

punishing people for listening to music is exactly the wrong way to protect the music business. maybe the record companies have adopted the 'it's better to be feared than respected' approach to dealing with music fans. i don't know, but 'it's better to be feared than respected' doesn't seem like such a sustainable business model when it comes to consumer choice. how about a new model of 'it's better to be loved for helping artists make good records and giving consumers great records at reasonable prices'?

i'm so sorry that any music fan anywhere is ever made to feel bad for making the effort to listen to music.

the riaa needs to be disbanded.

moby"