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In the vast bleakness that is a Canadian winter, any reminder of summer is a welcome distraction from the blowing snow and brown slush. So every year when the first bands start to sign up for Kevin Lymans annual cross country summer camp known as The Vans Warped Tour, the reminders of bright summer days, and cramming twelve hours of music into one day are enough to sprout wood.

This year was no different. The original list of bands was a veritable who’s who of my ipod’s top played list. So needless to say as I scrolled through the list the wood in my pants quickly turned to a wet spot. Too gross?

Thrice, Underoath, The Ataris, Chiodos, Senses Fail and P.O.S., were just a few of the bands I was totally stoked about seeing. The issue became, that, as usual, the Toronto line-up ends up looking nothing like the list of bands announced, as no Ataris and no Thrice made it north of the border.

Add to that the fact that the glory days of Warped Tour in Toronto ended the day that Molson Park was sold for condo land and the tour stop became a parking lot out by the airport. Gone was the ability to relax in the grass under a tree when you had a few minutes with no bands playing. Gone were the dirt warriors. The often shirtless pit monkeys, their faces wrapped in bandana’s and caked in the dirt that made up the ground that became the pit in front of each of the six stages.

I guess I’m saying that charm of warped tour has faded, and been replaced by a gaggle of neon clad suburban crunk bands, sing-rapping over shitty electro beats and the occasional riff.

I’ll admit right out, that due to work, I didn’t make it this year, and to tell you the truth I wasn’t that sad about it. It didn’t make me look bad fondly on a few things like the ghost of Warped Tour past.

The real benefit of Warped Tour is finding new music. It’s true that most years you could fill your days with established bands, but venturing outside of that could throw open the doors on a band you otherwise would never have known you loved. For me the best example of that is The Matches. With time to kill between Protest the Hero and Thrice, I wondered over to the Hurley stage and saw a young band, the lead singer’s hair going in all different directs, in a pair of short pants, and angle wings, stomping around the stage in giant boots. Two songs in and I’ve been a fan ever since.

There was the year that, Ill Scarlet pulled their infamous stunt and played the line up outside of the venue, until Kevin Lyman eventually let them inside.

There were innumerable sets by Funeral For A Friend, Thrice, Killswitch Engage, Protest the Hero, Atreyu and others that were heard but not seen due to the giant cloud of dirt blocking the stage, as the pit went off.

There were the giant circle pits, and patriotic moments where Billy Talent seemingly out drew every other band on the tour, despite the fact they suck.

Looking back now, it’s hard to tell whether it’s because I’ve changed or because Warped Tour changed, but it’s obvious that we’ve grown apart, and we will never have what we once did. I guess I should just give it up, admit that I’m old and shell out a couple hundred bucks the next time Coldplay runs through town………fuck that. I’ll never be old enough to like the whiney, British, piano driven sap that Chris Martin and his butt buddies churn out. But all the same, I’ve outgrown Warped Tour, and it’s a sad, sad thing to realize.

The Matches – Papercut Skin
Protest The Hero – Turn Soonest To The Sea
Thrice – Deadbolt

So, at this half way point, with some new information, let’s take a look at a few albums that are going to come out in the second, hopefully disease free, half of 2009.

Thrice – Beggars
Due out: October

Thrice’s last release was the very ambitious 4 EP collection The Alchemy Index, that found the band taking the experimentation that began with 2005’s Vheissu to a whole different level. With the four different styles represented on each of the EP’s, it will be interesting to see what road Thrice goes down on Beggars. Regarding Beggars, Thrice front man Dustin Kensrue released the following statement:

“I think we are at most times deluded in thinking that we are totally responsible for our circumstances, but in the end almost everything is beyond our control to a high degree and we can’t even be sure we will wake up tomorrow. Whether you believe that God created you for a purpose, or that the world is governed by blind chance, everything in life is a gift at its core; we are beggars all.”

Thrice – Firebreather

The Used – Artwork
Due out: September 1st

The Used’s last studio LP was 2007’s Lies for the Liar, a highly produced album, that saw the band stray further than ever from the dirty brand of post hardcore that won them a rabid fan base following the release of 2002’s incredible self titled album.

The Used’s lead singer Bert McKracken had this to say about their impending Artwork “In the past, we’ve always kind of brought pop sensibility into heavy rock, but this is going to be all that much more tantalizing and brutal. Our songs are 10 times messier and noisier than they’ve ever been. This record is about coming to grips with how much you really hate yourself and knowing you can never hate yourself to the full extent, so you’re free to hate yourself as much as you want to we haven’t been this excited about an album since our self titled back in 2002.”

The Used – Paralyzed

The Fall Of Troy – Still Untitled
Due Out: Fall

At the moment little has been said about The Fall of Troy’s follow up to the entirely original LP Manipulater in 2007 and the long gestating Phantom on the Horizon which began life as the Ghostship Demos before being officially released.

What is known is that Fall of Troy get better and tighter with every release and with Protest the Hero front man Rody Walker on board for a guest appearance, this album will definitely be something to behold.

The Fall Of Troy – The Dark Trail

The Ataris – Still Untitled
Due Out: Summer

One of theses things is not like the others, but out of many of the impending releases, the forth coming Ataris disc is the most intriguing. After achieving a ridiculous amount of success for 2003’s So Long Astoria due to the single Boys Of Summer. Anyone who’s followed the Ataris knows that success didn’t go over well and Kris Roe, lead singer and songwriter, took the band in a completely different direction with 2007’s Welcome the Night, and album that was dark and brooding, but still infused with Roe’s honest and poignant lyrics .

For Night’s follow-up Roe has said that the band will be getting back to their older sound and rumors have even said that the track Fast Times at Drop Out High, from 2001’s End Is Forever will be re-recorded and included on the new disc.

If the only song released so far, All Souls Day is any indication, the band have not entirely done away with the darker edgier sound they were bringing with Welcome The Night, but have instead infused it with some of the pop-punk energy and aesthetic that the band first became known for.

The Ataris – All Souls Day

Theses are just a few of the impending albums that could drop in the second half of this year, but if they do it promises to be a bright year coming December and if the rumours of Brand New squeezing a new album into the queue than 2009 could take us into the end of the decade in fucking brilliant fashion.

The important thing to remember about music is that it’s always changing, so get out there and try something new, cause you never know what you’ll like until you’ve heard it.

How do you find a band? You can scour the internet, looking for sound a-likes to your favorite bands, or bands with a lot of positive buzz. If you were in your sixties you could take recommendations from Rolling Stone where you could find out about hip young artists like Bruce Springsteen or U2. In the case of Sky Eats Airplane, I had a friend gush his brains out to me about how awesome they are.

Hailing from Fort Worth and occupying a similar branch on the metalcore tree as Enter Shikari and We Came As Romans, Sky Eats Airplane combine some pretty sick riffs, guttural screams, a faster than a black guy in rural Arkansas tempo, electronica beats and some sweet and silky vocals. (Note: Anthony Green /Craig Owens sweet, not Luther Vandros/Aaron Neville sweet.).

SEA’s first album, 2006’s Everything Perfect on the Wrong Day, is a DIY masterpiece that they self recorded with a Mac and a guitar. For an album lacking professional production, Everything Perfect shines as an example of incredible musicianship. The guitars, helmed by axe men Lee Duck and Zack Ordway, are heavy and perfectly timed, synching when they need to be and at odds when it serves SEA’s purposes. Drummer Kenny Schick, emrbraces the electronic beats, and plays with them, blending his rhythms together with fellow band mate MAC. (For your reference the band considers the laptop to be a member, I consider it to be a useful instrument, and a tool for looking at the midget porn I covet so dearly). Johno Erickson’s bass lines serve their purpose but generally sit third chair in the rhythm section behind Schick and the electronica. Original Singer Brack Cantrell, armed with a kick ass name, and the ability to shuffle back and forth between his deep growling scream and light airy vocals turns what could have been a train wreck into a shinning example of what can be accomplished when the right elements of talent meet the drive to succeed and a need to be original.

Everything Perfect knows when to rock and when to croon. When to push the electonica and when to let it fade into the background, and when to shred ass. On stand out track Giants in the Ocean, SEA utilize the electronica to set the stage, as they often do and then break in with a scream that almost immediately mellows into a sweeter croon. From there the song builds Everytime I Die style, with a stuttering rhythm, multiple styles of screaming and group vocals, while the electronica hits a falsetto and Duck and Ordway (sounds like attorneys you’d never hire) prove that they don’t need to be playing at light speed, to reach the speed of awesome.

The friend that recommend Sky Eats Airplane to me described Everything Perfect on the Wrong day by saying, “In the sea of bad ass, this album is truly the great white shark….or at least the sting ray that killed Steve Irwin, metaphorically speaking of course.”

Strangely enough, this is an apt description of Eveything Perfect, and bad ass is essentially SEA’s middle name, to be found between Eats and Airplane, cause otherwise, it would sound stupid.

Sky Eats Airplane – Honest Hitchhikers Asking for Cash Handouts
Sky Eats Airplane – Giants In The Ocean

For their second and self titled album, released in 2008, SEA juggled it’s line up as Cantrell left the band to, by all accounts, make softer music and spend his days writing Bronte themed lyrics and looking up at clouds in a flowery field of gardenias and dreaming of cotillions and puffy dresses.

After a nation wide search for a singer SEA settled on Hampton Virginia native and supposed former model, Jerry Roush, who impressed the band singing over an instrumental version of the afore mentioned Giants. Jerry proved to be a more than solid addition to the band, as his scream is more practiced and less haphazard than that of Cantrell, but no less harsh. Meanwhile his voice, at most times feels like a vast improvement.

The band traveled to Baltimore to work with Post Hardcore super producer Brian McTernan who has mixed and produced some of the greatest albums of time, including, but not limited too Thrice’s Illusion of Safety and Artist in the Ambulance, Circa Survive’s Juturna and On Letting Go, The Bled’s Silent Treatment, Strike Anywhere’s Change is Sound and Moneen’s brilliant The Red Tree.

The end result proves less charming than Wrong Day, but no less bad ass. While the songs seem to be more tailored towards finding an audience, the entire band has evolved and their level of musical ability has been ratcheted up several notches. Most notably Schick’s drumming has found a more noticeable place in the band the mix applied by McTernan’s magic fingers blends the electronica into the sound, using far more subtle builds to help the songs grow into what they should be instead of leaving it out front lingering like an obvious gimmick.

Numbers finds the band speeding through an opus of raging guitar and a clinic in time changes from Schick, while Roush perfectly balances his screams and singing as the band craft a song that could easily gain them thousands of new fans and a sell out label from fans of Wrong Day.

As is often the case with a bands sophomore effort, Sky Eats Airplanes self titled release doesn’t fully live up to the promise that is evident on Everything Perfect, but is still an incredibly good record. The band’s musicianship has improved, but there’s a spark that isn’t quite there. I’d keep watching though, as it seems likely that not only are Sky Eats Airplane not done evolving and improving, but their best work is still ahead of them.

Sky Eats Airplane – Numbers
Sky Eats Airplane – Photographic Memory

Hailing from Irvine California, new millennium post-hardcore mainstays Thrice, have created a catalog of music ranging from fast riff driven rock to melodic art rock, all without missing a beat. It’s that catalog that they put on display in their latest live double disc release. Recorded live in Anaheim at the House Of Blues, while on tour with Pelican and Circa Survive, Thrice rock their way through a set comprised mostly of songs off their latest release, the four EP set The Alchemy Index, while mixing in the older material that any Thrice fan will eat up .

Thrice, comprised of lead singer Dustin Kensrue, guitarist Teppei Teranishi, and brothers Eddie, and Riley Breckenridge rounding out the rhythm section on bass and drums respectively formed in 1998 released their first album, Identity Crisis in 2001. Cirsis was pure energy and laid the foundation for their first real success with the release of 2002’s The Illusion of Safety, which found the band delivering a heavy dose of fast, hardcore riffs. Thrice refined this formula with great success on 2003’s The Artist In The Ambulance, which saw the band move to another level of musicianship, incorporating more intense guitars, and more complex time signatures. Thrice moved in a different direction with their next release 2005’s Vheissu, which saw the band incorporate a large variety of instruments including strings and piano. Teppei revealed in an interview previous to Vheissu’s release that this had been the first album which Thrice wrote mainly on the piano, leading to an obvious difference between the new songs and the bands older, guitar driven material. Thrice took their new style to the next level on their four EP release The Alchemy Index. Each EP in the set was based around one of the four elements, Earth, Fire, Wind and Water, and each had a unique style ranging from the acoustic style of Earth to the tech heavy Minus The Bear/No Knife style found on Water, represented by songs like Digital Sea and Open Water.

Thrice starts the set out with The Lion and the Wolf off of the Earth EP, and then continue with two more songs from the Alchemy Index with the harder Firebrether and The Messanger from Fire kicking it up a notch. They visit Vheissu for Dust and Nations before showing off their newer style with an incredible version of the Kid A-esque Digital Sea. The almost home town crowd add a great element to Digital Sea and the rest of the album. Thrice then comes back with Flags of Dawn, found only on the Red Sky EP released in 2006. A few more songs from the Alchemy Index are up next with the charging Burn The Fleet, the haunting Open Water, and then Thrice’s cover of 90’s DC post hardcore alum Frodus’ The Earth Isn’t Humming. The old hits come out then as Thrice reaches back to The Artist In The Ambulance for the title track, that has the entire audience singing every word along with Kensrue, and then reaching all the way back to Illusion of Safety to play the now classic Trust before turning up the energy one more time with Artists’ first track, Cold Cash and Colder Hearts to close out Disc One.

Disc two continues the pattern of newer tracks with Broken Lungs and The Whaler before once again going back to Artist for All That’s Left and Silhouette. The acoustic Come All You Weary is reminiscent of Kensrue’s solo efforts and showcases his gravelly but beautiful voice and incredible lyrical sensibility. Artists second single, as chosen by the label and not the band, Stare at the Sun whipped the crowd into a frenzy before breaking into the moving Daedalus, which is almost a sequel to one of Artist’s most impressive songs The Melting Point of Wax, as they both recount the story of Icarus. Wax from Icarus’s point of view and Daedalus from the point of view of his father who had to watch as his son fly’s too close to the sun and then plunges into the sea. Two more fast paced hardcore songs, Don’t Tell And We Won’t Ask and Hold Hope Fast lead into Vheissu’s melodic one-two punch of For Miles and the first encore song of the night Red Sky. As any encore should, Thrice thanks the fans with possibly their best song Deadbolt from Illusion and then end the show off with the chant along Image of the Invisible.

So what makes Live At The House Of Blues worth owning? First off, any true Thrice fan is going to want everything they release, and this is by far the highest production value of any live release they have in their catalogue. Where songs like For Miles and Red Sky already got the live treatment on the Red Sky EP, the newer material stands out as a showcase for those who thought that Thrice peaked with Artist and the older material show that they still rock harder and better than most bands who are still in their early stages. Thrice is a band who defined post-hardcore for a whole generation, and they continue to re-define themselves with each and every release. Live At The House Of Blues is an example of a live disc that works, and will please current fans, win back past fans and bring new Thrice lovers into the fold.

Aaron Long

Thrice – Live at the House of Blues – Come All You Weary

Thrice – Live at the House of Blues – The Artist in the Ambulance.mp3

Thrice – Live at the House of Blues – Digital Sea