AP Tour Fails to Deliver

To my JMC TA Amanda: One post below is my assignment for JMC 201. This is my personal blog so I will not be stalling my posts for a response on my previous assignment.

Opening act should have been headliner

By Amanda Throm

I rarely leave a concert talking bad of four out of five bands I had seen, but last night was definitely my exception.

Friday night, The Rave/Eagles Ballroom hosted The Alternative Press tour, featuring three opening acts and two co-headliners. I was much less than impressed with the outcome of the bands chosen, save one.

My friend Marie and I showed up to The Rave late only to be bombarded with the loudest mash-up of noises by Forever The Sickest Kids. I attempted to keep an open mind but after about a minute I couldn’t find the kindness in my heart.

You know a band is emo when all the band-mates have longer hair than a majority of the girls at the venue. Such was the case with Sonny. I applaud him on his attempt at falsetto but the only people who should be singing that high are Anthony Green from Circa Survive or Tom Chaplin of Keane.

It was like Coheed & Cambria had a love child, except with straighter hair. The only word I can use to describe the 30 minute set, which ended in Sonny playing some random mix on his laptop and pounding his fist in the air, was painful.

I specifically paid $20 for my ticket for the third opening band, who should have been the headliner. The Matches; Shawn, Justin, Jon and Matt, should not have had to be associated with the crap-tastic music we heard that night.

Coordinated in red clothes (save Matt, who wore blue), and started with the first single on their second album, Decomposer. “Salty Eyes” was fantastic and they couldn’t have done anything to ruin the song.

Next came “Little Maggots” which I had never seen live before. Even the feedback worked with the song.

The guys make their music so interesting. During “Papercut Skin,” they were so over the top that it was fantastic and entertaining to watch, especially when guitar tech Ben Young, AKA Triangle Man, came out on stage and rocked that triangle. It was much better than the other bands that just stood there.

“This one’s a new song,” said Jon to which Shawn replied, “Unless you believe in time travel,” before starting “Wake the Sun,” the first single off their newest album A Band In Hope.

“Sick Little Suicide” came next and any words for this song would be doing it injustice. It was exactly as the album and it was amazing.

“Yankee In A Chip Shop” and “Their City” showcased two of the best songs of A Band In Hope and were both equally fantastic.

They closed their set with “Sunburn Vs. The Rhinovirus.” I don’t care how long they’ve been on this tour, they’ve never sounded better.

Here’s where my nice words end. The co-headliners for this tour were The Rocket Summer and All Time Low. I think I heard words during this time but I have no clue.

The lights went down when The Rocket Summer came on stage and everyone in there started screaming to which Marie replied, “Calm down, it’s just a shitty band!” It was an attack of the fangirls and no one was safe.

I was lost at “How’s it going Milwaukee?”

There was so much crap on that stage which included a keyboard with lights on it. What purpose did that serve? To see how much crap they could shove on the stage?

The building was not big enough to get away from the terrible-to-terribler sound.

I met up with Nicky Schneider, student at UWM, and watched her do a facepalm while shaking her head and exclaiming “Oh my god!” during All Time Low, the second headliner of the night.

The set started with a parental advisory and that was pretty much the only thing that had any form of enunciation. They were the only words I understood for the entire 45-minute set. I think I’ve heard more music and melody in the click of a retractable pen.

I guess you really have to be a hardcore fan of these bands before actually committing to going to a concert of them but The Matches were the only band that were worth listening to of the entire night. Either way, 4/5 of this concert bit the big one.

Sullivan rocks out and goes eco-friendly

Operation Adaptation Offers Two-Day Music Fest for Environmental Awareness



The weekend of April 18 will feature two days of being environmentally friendly. I'm not talking about hugging a tree for two days but rather a huge blow-out of a concert, camping out as well as learning eco-friendly values.

Operation Adaptation LLC. was formed by Nathan Kamsler, a 21-year-old student of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and area resident Ryan Peterson in 2008 with the sole purpose of bringing people together through music to enhance awareness of environmentally friendly practices.

The group formed to raise public awareness of some of the environmentally healthy alternative products and processes that many hard-working individuals and green companies strive to produce.

I'll admit I'm not the most environmentally friendly person but I'm all for spending a weekend being kind to the ground I walk on. Operation Adaptation, a weekend-long festival features musical stylings of Willy Porter, Chinese Fingertrap, Fat Maw Rooney and many of the best roots music, bluegrass and jam bands from the U.S. and Canada.

For each ticket sold, a tree will be planted thanks to Trees for the Future. Compostable corn-based utensils and dishes will be available as well as environmentally friendly vendors will be featured at the event.

Parking is available at the site for $5. In the case that you want the parking fee waived, donate eight or more non-perishable food items for the Hunger Task Force.


Other bands performing *They can be found on MySpace or PureVolume:

• Stealin' Strings
• Groovatron
• Family Groove Company
• Pert' Near Sandstone
• Run Side Down
• Unity...the Band
• Cosmic Railroad
• Bryan Cherry
  
• Heatbox
• Sean Shiel
  

A Band In Hope

So this is what I posted on The Matches boards a while back after their album A Band In Hope came out on March 18.
I just went through the songs on the album and said what I thought. It's not a publication worthy item but I just wanted to vent...

I actually quite like AM Tilts. It's not my favorite song but it reminds me somewhat of Decomposer, which is what I was hoping for in this album. I didn't want their sound to change much.
Their City needs to be listened to in moderation.
I really do like Wake the Sun. Something about the lyrics makes it a great song. I don't really see a huge difference in the chorus and the verses though which is a huge problem with me-- I hate songs where there's no swell of sound for the choruses.
Darkness Rising is another song I couldn't make it through. It reminds me of one of the boring choir songs we had to sing in high school. The chords are very interesting through-- I almost look forward to hearing this song on tour.
I love the lyrics in To Build a Mountain; which is probably a huge part of why I like it. I like the 'dooo's' and the humming that really has no purpose in the song but it's perfect.
We Are One says the same words over and over and over... I'm glad it's a shorter song because I'd be going nuts otherwise. I don't know why it's on the CD.
I actually quite like Point Me To The Morning-- It does remind me a lot of EVDKTL but adds a nice little updated twist. However-- the same 'ohh's' before the chorus are used later in the CD. It would have been better to omit them from the second song. I'll get to that later.
24C is interesting in the beginning but quickly gets boring and repetitive. It even says "monotone" in the song. I feel like I'm going to fall asleep every time I hear this song.
Clouds Crash is interesting... That's really the only word I can come up with for it. It's another song, however, that has to be listened to in moderation.
I enjoy Between Halloweens. I always picture Shawn as James Dean for Halloween. I hope he does it this year.
If I were You is the other song that repeats the 'Ohhh's' as Point Me Toward The Morning. It's kind of annoying but I actually like the song. It's just so wrong that it's right.
Future Tense has something that I like... I feel like they're channeling Head Automatica on this one. The chords and whatnot just remind me of a couple songs by HA. It's a good thing
Yankee In A Chip Shop is a song I was specifically waiting for since I saw a YouTube version a while back. I like it a lot! It's totally random but it's perfect!
Proctor Rd. is short a quick. I immediately felt the urge to restart the CD.

We The Living

Here's the edited draft-- I'll link up to the actual article on the Web next Monday.

Hope you guys enjoy it!

They rock and/or roll
We The Living and UWM: A perfect fit

By Amanda Throm

With one album under their belts in the past year, We The Living has been doing wonderfully at making a name for themselves. This Wisconsin-native-currently-living-in-LA band left the crowd, and a few floors up and down Channel in Sandburg Hall, awed by their melodic and hard-to-place sound last Monday.

Lead singer John Paul (J.P.) Roney and drummer Ben Shaefer began as The Profits at UW- Madison. After two of their bandmates left, they added Matt Holmen on guitar and Stefan Benkowski (soon after to be Jasper Austin) on bass and became the We The Living I saw last night. Since then they’ve recorded and released “Heights of Heaven,” an entrancing and amazingly heart-melting album that I’ve not been able to stop listening to since I first heard their sound about 12 hours before seeing them live.

I got a chance to catch up with the band as they arrived on campus and started getting set up. The guys play a different venue every night and play 250 shows this year and cannot imagine it any other way. “Days off are horrible” said Ben.

With a sound that the album produces, I was fascinated as to how these guys all started with their chosen instruments and was very surprised. Jasper, Matt and Ben all started their instruments on their first day of tour or a few days beforehand. J.P. was the only one who had some experience before they started. They knocked me off my feet when they started playing.

Jasper was fun to watch during the show. His facial expressions were a mixture of concentration and pure fun. He is the bass-playing version of Tom Higgenson of Plain White T’s and not just by his attitude on the stage: he looks like him too though I enjoyed watching Jasper play more than a Plain White T’s concert.

Ben rumpled his hair between each song (“What? I don’t know what you’re talking about!” he said after the show, while rumpling his hair) and never quite notices what his face is doing during the set. It was, for lack of a better word, quite entertaining.

Matt had little space to work with on the stage but he made his presence known. During his solos and the interludes, the lights would change and his hands looked like they were moving a mile a minute on that guitar.

J.P. also didn’t have much space to work with but he moved around next to Jasper and Matt smoothly and while at the microphone he sang with all his heart and you could see that on his face.

The guys had no cares on the stage other than what they were doing was something they loved. “Our goal isn’t to make any kind of rock and Roll dream… our goal is to make a living off what we love to do,” said Ben and so far they’ve been successful. “We’re only getting better slightly faster than gas prices are rising,” said J.P. They run their band as a business every day and don’t need or want to be signed with a label to do so. “We don’t want to be making pre-fabricated music. We want to do what we love every day,” said J.P.

J.P said his songs start with a rhythm which spurs an idea that comes with a melody to which he rushes to an instrument and makes a song happen in about 20 minutes. “I’m not like Dashboard Confessional,” said J.P answering how much thought and meaning he puts into a song.

The show began with “Atlantic” and “75 to 17” which happen to be two of my favorite songs. They were just as perfect as the album. I can’t say much more than that. Any other words would be doing the songs injustice.

“Typical,” the first song on “Heights of Heaven,” came next. J.P. connects with every person in the crowd and his voice is just so amazingly different than anything I’ve ever heard that I couldn’t help but watch.

“St. Paul” was stuck in my head for about six hours before the concert started. It sounded better than the album and when J.P. went quiet near the end of the song I could hear everyone singing along, something they said they loved to have happen.

Next came “London Rain” which has a wonderful quality I can’t place and “Best Laid Plans” which was dedicated to Perez Hilton after he mentioned We The Living in his blog. It’s Perez’s favorite song, so it was fitting.

They next performed a Depeche Mode cover followed by “Half The Girl,” which was absolutely amazing. I didn’t realize from the album that the song could be rocked out to so well. After that was “Barometers,” and a Sufjan Stevens cover, both of which were incredible.

The last song of the night was dedicated to the first-timers; myself included. I remember during warm-up, when J.P. started singing “History” I felt as if nothing could sound sweeter and I felt the same when he played it to close out a remarkable night.

“Heights of Heaven” can be bought for less than $10 on iTunes.

We The Living play in the area again at Loyola University in Illinois on April 23, UW- LaCrosse on May 10, and Middleton West High School in Middleton, WI on May 31.