Motionless In White Announce New Album Title and Release Date

Creatures unite, Motionless In White has announced the release date for their new album, Reincarnate!

The album will be released on September 16, 2014 through Fearless Records.  This will be the bands fourth full length album.

As a fan of the band, I cannot wait to see what the MIW guys have in store for us this time.

Peace, Love, Music<3

Danny Leal Abduction Publicity Stunt

Yesterday,  the band Upon A Burning Body reported that their front-man, Danny Leal, was missing and had not been seen since June 30th. 

The bands story appeared to be backed by a couple of tweets the front-man posted before the report was released.

Despite the report and sketchy tweets, fans were incredibly skeptical that this whole incident was nothing more than a publicity stunt to promote the bands new album.

Turns out, they just might be right.

Ash Avildsen, the CEO of Sumerian Records posted this message on Facebook

 Not much else has been said about the incident at this time.  However, it does appear that it was nothing more than a hoax.  How low must one sink to believe that reporting a fake abduction is a solid method in promoting an album? Too many people are genuinely abducted for this to be even remotely funny, and it's not cool to worry fans of the band in this manner. 

What are your thoughts about this?  Let me know in the comments below!

Peace, Love, Music<3

New Music Videos I Love

Over the past week or so, I've been watching a ton of music videos on youtube and I thought I would share them with you!

Here we go!

First up we have The Best Thing (That Never Happened) by We Are The In Crowd

Amazing song, awesome band, and a kick ass video.

Next up we have Bad Girls Club by Falling in Reverse

I want to not like this band, but I just can help myself. The song is catchy as hell. The video is a bit goofy, but definitely worth checking out!

The final video is actually a parody of Lorde's song Royals done by Bart Baker. 

I'll post the original video first followed by the parody.

Original

Parody

The orginal video is so lame for such a good song.  The parody is just fucking hilarious.

I hope you guys enjoy these videos and have a wonderful day!

Peace, Love, Music<3

Where did the time go?

Long time no see my lovely blogger friends! I'm sorry I've neglected this blog, but it's time for a catch up!

So, what have I been up to?

Way back in July I went with my mom to Tulsa's new free music festival, the Center of the Universe Festival!

Escaping the heat in the Vanguard"s bathroom.

It was an amazing festival!  The bands that we went to see were Ok Go and Neon Trees

Ok Go

Neon Trees

Neon Trees

If you want to see more of my photos from the festival, just click the link here!

Not long after that, I went with my mom to the Rock Allegiance Tour featuring Airbourne, All That Remains, HIM, and Volbeat.

Before the concert

During the Concert

Me acting like a goof ass in the venue's bathroom mirror!

Airbourne

All That Remains

All That Remains

HIM

Volbeat 

For more pictures from this event, click this link!

Then at the beginning of October, I met up with my friend Rachael to go see All Time Low, Pierce the Veil, and A Day To Remember on the House Party Tour.

Before the Concert

During the Concert

Pierce the Veil

All Time Low

A Day To Remember

A Day To Remember fucking killed it! Their effects were amazing.  Probably one of the best concerts I have been to in quite a while!

For pictures from this show click this link!

Later that same month, I went to see Taking Back Sunday with Rachael and her friend Sarah.

I also finished up my 5th semester of college!  And I made 2 pretty amazing friends along the way, Kindra and DJ

It's been a pretty damn good year!

If you are interested in my photography, it would mean a lot to me if you would check out my Flickr.

Flickr.com/photos/jessieann13

I love you guys so much, and I will hopefully get more posts up soon!

Peace, Love, Music<3

The Growing of Bands

It was a day like any other day.  I awoke at the crack of noon and staggered down the hall in desperate search of coffee.  I collected my cup of joe and retrieved my phone from it's place on the charger.  As always, I began to scroll through my Twitter feed as if it were the morning paper.  In my half coherent reading, I come across this tweet from Ronnie Radke (former Escape the Fate/ current Falling in Reverse):

 I'm not sure what spawned this tweet, but it did get me thinking.  

Why do fans not always want a band to get bigger/ more famous?  I think there are several answers.

I don't feel like many fans dislike the success of the band out of pure selfishness, although there will always be people who will point out to anyone who will listen that they "liked the band BEFORE they were famous" (insert hipster joke here).  It seems to me that fans dislike it when there favorite bands hit the big time because of quality and price.

It's no secret that sometimes, when bands get signed to a larger label or gain more fame for whatever reason, the quality of the music they produce can suffer.  It's no longer about being progressive, new, original, or exciting, and more about making something that will please the general public.  They may not even sound like the same band as before.  For the people that love their music style, this change can be rather disappointing.

Not only does the quality of the music suffer, but often the quality of the attitude of the musicians themselves declines as well.  They are no longer the same humble people that fans connected with.  They can become rude and arrogant with a new found sense of entitlement and morals that receded faster than a middle aged mans hairline.  This is not the standard and is not true of all bands that "make it" but it does happen.

One pretty bit reason that some fans (myself included) are disappointed by fame is a rise in price in a bands concert tickets, merch, etc.  Don't get me wrong.  It is not that bands don't deserve the money, because they do!  They kick their asses making music and touring and they deserve it.  They've grown, they have more fans than ever before, and they have to move from performing in smaller, cheaper venues, to bigger more expensive ones. This means that more people get to experience this bands music.  It also means that their ticket prices go from the $20 to $30 range and sky rocket into the $40 to $100 dollar range.  And that makes sense.  The venue is bigger, therefore the tickets are more expensive.   But when you're a 20 something individual who is going to college and not really making much bank, paying for a $50 concert ticket can be as difficult and painful as pulling teeth.

We love our bands and we want to see them live SO BADLY.  We want to have that experience of listening to our favorite songs performed straight from the individuals that made them.  We want to be in the crowd that is packed elbow to asshole where everyone is sweaty and disheveled and so fucking happy there that they don't even care.  It's that natural high that can only be found in live music.

It's so nice when all your favorite bands are all playing affordable size venues because that means that when there are 6 concerts you want to go to booked back to back to back, you can actually GO TO THEM ALL.  Fuck yes, touchdown, winner winner chicken dinner, bring in the dancing lobsters.  But when there are that many in a row that are crazy expensive, it's a tough one.  You have to pick which one you can afford to see and hope that the others swing back through your town again in the future.

It's not that we don't want our favorite bands to succeed.  We do!  We love them.  We think they are the absolute shit.  Their music makes us feel something.  We connect to it in a way that makes us feel like we are not alone.  We want these bands that we love to make it to the fucking top.  We want the whole world to listen to their music and feel what we feel.  We just hope that on the way up, they don't forget who they are or where they started.  We hope that they don't loose that love for their fans that is only paralleled by the fans love for their music.  We hope they don't fall into a life of excess where money is more important than what they do to earn it.  We pray like hell that that life of excess doesn't take their lives like it has so many before them.  We want to see them live without having to sell our first born child to pay for the ticket.  And when they do begin to play these large, expensive venues, we hope that they don't forget about the fans that couldn't afford to get in: the ones who would be there if they could, the ones who are sitting outside the venues on the sidewalk, or in their cars with the windows rolled down listening to the music through the walls and singing along to every word. 

I know this is a long post, but I really wanted to get my thoughts about this out.  Remember that these are only my opinions.

Peace, Love, Music<3

We Can't Stop

Most of you have probably seen (or at least heard about) Miley Cyrus' new song and video We Can't Stop.  The song is actually not too bad to listen to, but the video is CRAZY as hell!

The original music video.

After watching it, I saw that some of my favorite YouTubers had made some pretty fantastic parodies of this song and video.

Shane Dawson's parody.

Bart Baker's parody.

I found both to be incredibly funny and thought that I would share them with you guys!

Enjoy! :)

Peace, Love, Music<3

R.I.P Mick Morris

Former 18 Visions bassist Mick Morris (aka Mick Deth) passed away in his sleep on June 2, 2013 due to a pre-existing heart condition.

He leaves behind his partner Ashley and son Jude.

R.I.P Mick, you will be missed :(

Peace, Love, Music<3

Motionless In White A.M.E.R.I.C.A.

Motionless In White released the music video for their song A.M.E.R.I.C.A today!

It's only available on vevo so I can only post the link;

Click here for the video!

They've been building up the release on twitter and I was seriously excited to see it!  As usual, they did not disappoint.  The video has a circus/sideshow setting that really helps embody the message of the song.  And of course they did it up in signature dark Motionless In White fashion!

The video was directed by M. Shawn Crahan, aka "Clown" from Slipknot, and features New Years Day singer Ashley Costello.

I hope everyone one enjoys!  Feel free to let me know what your thoughts are on this video in the comments below!

Peace, Love, Music<3

Hawthorne Heights Charge Photographers for Work

Rock band Hawthorne Heights posted on their website today an "opportunity" for photographers and fans.

Source

"Are you an aspiring photographer? Come take pictures of us all day at Warped Tour! We will provide you with the access, and experience you need. We will also take your pictures and put them on our Instagram page, and give you full credit for it. This is a great package for anyone who loves taking pictures, whether its for a hobby or professionally."                                (Source: http://hawthorneheights.limitedrun.com)

The catch? The photographer pays the band $150 for this "opportunity".  This is a new low in terms of photographers (and fans) being taken advantage of.  Photographers work hard to not only get excellent shots, but also edit them to perfection so that the subject of the photo (in this case the band) looks their absolute best and will be happy with the outcome.  To expect a photographer to pay you for their work is ridiculous.  Getting experience is great, but there are better ways to get it than to pay for it.

Fans, photographers (professional or aspiring) unite and boycott.

*UPDATE: Hawthorne Heights has since removed the package from their site and posted a public apology on their facebook.

Source

Peace, Love, Music<3 

Black Craft Clothing

A month or so ago I was killing time online and came across a fairly new clothing company, Black Craft.

Click the image above to go to the site.

I started looking through their site and found several things I was interested in.  The one that I wanted the most (the 'Within a Dream' shirt) was not in stock in my size at the time, so I went for my second favorite, Spell Caster!

I don't have a photo of myself wearing the shirt, so here is the image from their site.

The shirt arrived quickly and I couldn't be more pleased with it!  The material of the shirt is absolutely wonderful.  It's so soft and comfortable.

A few weeks later, I was on the site again (yes, yes, I DO have an online shopping addiction) and discovered that the other shirt that I wanted had been restocked and they had my size!  I couldn't resist and had to make the Edgar Allan Poe 'Within a Dream' shirt mine!

Here is the shirt front and back!

This one was just as soft and well made as the other.  I'm seriously in love with this brand!

Here are all of their links:

blackcraft.bigcartel.com

Twitter: @BlackCraftCult

Peace, Love, Music<3

Rocklahoma 2013 Lineup

The Rocklahoma 2013 lineup has been announced!

For those who aren't from Oklahoma, Rocklahoma is the biggest rock music festival in the state.  It's three days of kick-ass music in Pryor, Oklahoma.

Here's the lineup:

Source
Black Veil Brides were supposed to play, but have since backed out of the festival.

There are some seriously awesome bands playing this year.  And you can bet your ass that this girl will be there! :)

Peace, Love, Music<3

Angelo Parente leaves Motionless in White

Today the band announced that drummer and founding member, Angelo Parente, has left the band.  

Angelo posted this statement on his Tumblr:

"To my friends, family, and all the amazing Motionless In White fans, this is very hard to say, and I’m sure it will hit me harder soon, but I will no longer be in the band.This decision did not just all of sudden happen. After doing this since I was 17, the nonstop touring, and everything else that comes with the life of a musician, has finally caught up with me. It has affected me mentally and physically and it’s to a point where the best thing for the rest of the band and myself would be for me to call it quits.
Please know that the band and I are on good terms, best of friends and I love them all very much. No matter what, I would not give up what I have been through and experienced with the band. It has been the best years of my life. I got to travel the world with my best friends almost every day. I have met so many great people along the way and made many friends I will never forget. I will miss you all. Not seeing the guys in the band will be tough to get use to, but I wish them the best of luck.
Motionless In White has so much in store for you all, so please continue to support them to the fullest. I’m not sure what’s in store for my future, but right now I need to be home and breathe. Get myself together and figure it out. Please make sure to stay in touch. You know where to find me online and its a lot of fun sharing what I do with everyone throughout my life. Whether it’s my art, food, dog, clothing designs, etc., you guys give your opinion and I’m grateful to have that. I am truly sorry to all that I have let down. Thanks for the constant support you have given me over the years, I will never forget it."

As a fan of the band, I am sad to see him go.  However, I completely understand his reasons for leaving and wish him all the best with whatever he decides to do in the future.

Peace, Love, Music<3

Fall Out Boy is back!

Grab your eyeliner and your skinny jeans, the boys are back.

After going on hiatus in 2009, Fall Out Boy is back with a new song, music video, album, and even a tour!

On February 4th the boys released their first single in four year, My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light 'em Up), as well as the music video for it (featuring 2 Chainz).

The bands album "Save Rock and Roll" is set to release on May 7, 2013.

The bands front man, Patrick Stump, released this statement:

"When we were kids the only thing that got us through most days was music.   Its why we started Fall Out Boy in the first place. This isn't a reunion because we never broke up. We needed to plug back in and make some music that matters to us."

The band also released their spring tour dates:

5/14 Milwaukee, WI - Rave
5/16 Chicago, IL - Riviera Theatre
5/17 Columbus, OH - LC Pavilion
5/21 Pittsburgh, PA - Stage AE
5/22 Detroit, MI - The Fillmore
5/24 Toronto, ON - Sound Academy
5/25 Montreal, QC - Metropolis
5/26 Boston, MA - HOB
5/28 Niagara Falls, NY - The Rapid Theater
5/29 New York, NY - Terminal 5
5/30 Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory
5/31 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
6/1 Charlotte, NC - Fillmore
6/2 Atlanta, GA - Tabernacle
6/4 Orlando, FL - HOB
6/5 Miami, FL - Fillmore
6/7 Houston, TX - Bayou Music Center
6/8 Dallas, TX - Palladium
6/9 Austin, TX - Stubb's
6/11 Phoenix, AZ - Marquee
6/13 Los Angeles, CA - Wiltern
6/15 Las Vegas, NV - HOB
6/16 San Francisco, CA - The Fox Theater
6/18 Portland, OR - Roseland
6/19 Seattle, WA - Sodo
6/20 Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom
6/22 Salt Lake City, UT - In The Venue
6/23 Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre
6/25 Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theatre
6/26 Minneapolis, MN - Myth
6/28 St. Louis, MO - The Pageant
6/29 Indianapolis, IN - Egyptian Room

                                                   6/30 Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium .

I, personally, am thrilled shitless for the bands return.  I've been listening to FOB since 7th grade and was so sad when they went on hiatus.

Let us all rejoice!

Peace, Love, Music<3

Stay Sick Clothing

If you are a fan of hardcore, metal music, or you've been reading this blog very long, you may know of the band Attila.  A while ago, their vocalist Chris Fronzak started his own clothing line Stay Sick.

I've always really liked the line and around new years eve, I finally ordered a crew neck shirt I had been ogling for quite some time. This past Friday, it arrived!

I love it!  It fits perfectly and is exactly what I was hoping it would be.  I was slightly disappointed with the extended amount of time that it took for it to be shipped (I ordered it on December 31st, and my order wasn't officially processed and ready to ship for 23 days) but it was definitely worth the wait.

If you would like to check out Stay Sick's other items you can do so here.

Peace, Love, Music<3

Alternative Press Readers Poll 2012

Alternative Press magazine released the results for their 2012 Readers Poll.

Source 

The categories (and winners) for this years poll included:

Overall Artist of the Year

Pierce The Veil

Keyboardist of the Year

Josh Balz (Motionless In White)

Drummer of the Year

Mike Fuentes (Pierce The Veil)

Bassist of the Year

Jaime Preciado (Pierce The Veil)

Guitarist of the Year

Jacky Vincent (Falling In Reverse)

Vocalist of the Year

Kellin Quinn (Sleeping With Sirens)

Most Overrated Band of the Year

Falling In Reverse

Most Underrated Band of the Year

Blood On The Dance Floor

Band Reunion I'd Most Like to See in 2013

Fall Out Boy

Song of the Year

Pierce The Veil - King for a Day

Album of the Year

Pierce The Veil - Collide With The Sky

Music Video of the Year

Pierce The Veil - King for a Day

B-Side/Bonus Track of the Year

Of Mice & Men- The Depths

Cover Art of the Year

Pierce The Veil - Collide With The Sky

Best Live Band of the Year

Pierce The Veil

Best Venue of the Year

House of Blues

Tour/Festival of the Year

Vans Warped Tour

AP Totally Blew it when They Put This Band On The Cover

Falling In Reverse/ Artist of the Year

AP Totally Nailed It When They Put This Band On The Cover

Warped Tour (Tay Jardine, Kellin Quinn, Vic Fuentes)

Best AP Article of the Year

Warped Tour cover story

What Singer from AP's Scene Should go on The Voice

Kellin Quinn (Sleeping With Sirens)

Best Band Merch of the Year

Pierce The Veil

Coolest Retail Store of the Year

Hot Topic

Coolest Online Store of the Year

MerchNow.com

Twitter Account of the Year

Andy Biersack (@AndyBVB

Most Memorable Non-Music Event of the Year

Mitch Lucker's death

The 2nd and 3rd runner ups for each of these categories are available on the magazines website.

(All of the above information is property of AP)

I was somewhat shocked and more than a little disappointed with the winners of some of these categories.  All of the artist listed are talented, but I feel like there were a few bands that maybe deserved it more than others.  Just my opinion...

Hope you guys enjoy this post and have a wonderful day!

Peace, Love, Music<3

R.I.P Mitch Lucker

On November 1, 2012, Mitch Lucker, vocalist for Suicide Silence, was killed in a motorcycle accident.

Mitch was a huge influence to metal music and will be missed greatly by his fans.

He leaves behind a wife and 5 year old daughter Kenadee.

The other members of Suicide Silence set up the Kenadee Lucker Education Foundation.

Photographer Jeremy Saffer is selling prints of the photo's he has taken of Mitch over the years.  Proceeds from these sales will be donated to the foundation as well.  These prints can be found here.

Peace, Love, Music<3

Randomly so.

I thought I'd make up for my lack of posts with a quick outfit/school/music/life update.

Here are a few of the outfits I've worn over the past week or so.

Boots and Tights, I know, very shocking :p

We had a tiny "cold" front (66 degrees) and I decided to break out my Young & Reckless baseball tee that I love.

Now some stuff that has happened/ will be happening!

Like I said in my last post, I got my new camera!  I've been taking pictures of everything in my house...I may be addicted.... but happily so!  Plus now that I have it, I can start doing shoots and working towards my goals.

On Thursday, I went to see The Possession with Hailey.  That whole movie was cray as heck, but in a good way!  I used this outing as an excuse to try doing my make-up a little differently than I usually do.  Instead of my usual dark black eye shadow and eye liner, I tried just doing a simple line on my top lids and add mascara.  I actually liked it a lot more that I thought I would.  Here's how it turned out:

Dork face

As far as school goes, I will be spending the next week writing and learning my speech for speech class about the history of Halloween.  I'm actually kind of excited to give this one!

And finally, this Thursday, I'm going to see Of Mice & Men and August Burns Red with the usual suspects.

Hope everyone had a good week and has wonderful weekend!

Peace, Love, Music<3

Band Battle: All Time Low vs. Blood on the Dance Floor

This morning, as per usual, I read through my twitter timeline as I drank a cup of coffee to catch up on what I had missed during the night.  What I found was an onslaught of tweets trashing either All Time Low or Blood on the Dance Floor.  Being both confused and curious I did a little research to see what was going on.

Back in July, All Time Low did an interview discussing their band, music, and being on Warped Tour.

During the interview, Alex (lead singer) made a joke about BOTDF

Here's an image from Tumblr showing it:

When watching the video, it seems that the statement was meant as a joke.  However, one member of BOTDF did not see it that way and took to twitter with his response:

And in the blink of an eye, the internet shit storm began.

Alex soon responded to this statement with:

Followed by:

BOTDF then added:

Did the comment that Alex made a bit rude? Yeah, but if you know the way they goof around in interviews (and in general) it (again) seems as if he is joking.  Even if he was serious and said this out of pure meanness and hate, BOTDF's response was over the top, inappropriate, and uncalled for.  I understand that he was hurt and wanted to make a stand and show that he was mad and did not appreciate the comment that was made, but there were a lot of different ways he could have handled the situation.  Instead of saying something meaningful or intelligent that expressed his feelings, he fought what he saw as hate, with more hate.  Seeing as his band is constantly bombarded with insults, you would think he would be more careful with his words.

I personally feel that this response was just...too much.  It only made the situation 10x worse and started a battle of the fans.

What do you guys think about this situation? Let me know in the comments below!

Remember, this is my opinion and only an opinion!

Peace, Love, Music<3