Contributions
"By no means are we famous"—Hey Violet talk success and Taylor Swift
By all accounts, 2015 was pretty good for Hey Violet. For starters, the Los Angeles-based quartet had the summer vacation of a lifetime, opening for chart-topping pop-rockers 5 Seconds Of Summer on the massively popular Rock Out With Your Socks Out tour. The five-month worldwide trek found the band, now signed to 5SOS’s Hi Or […]
Death Of A Bachelor channels Brendon Urie's inner Sinatra and vocal versatility
Panic! At The Disco Death Of A Bachelor When we last left Brendon Urie, the Panic! At The Disco frontman (and now sole member) was dancing his way through moody, electronic-inspired pop on 2013’s career-reviving Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die, an album largely colored by grayscale soundscapes and muted tones. Things are […]
Twiddle knobs, not fingers—All Time Low's Rian Dawson on his budding producing career
At night, you’ll find Rian Dawson holding down All Time Low’s rhythm section with his airtight drumming. But before the lights go down, the 27-year-old musician is likely holed up backstage working on a different sort of passion project. For the past few years, Dawson’s become a budding producer and engineer, the product of an […]
“We still believe in music and creativity”—Q&A with Good Charlotte
It’s been five years since Good Charlotte’s last album, Cardiology, but chief songwriters Benji and Joel Madden haven’t lost their workaholic tendencies. In between helping guide a little band called 5 Seconds Of Summer to two No. 1 albums, the twins (and co-founders of the Maryland-based pop-punk icons) obsessed and toiled over a ’70s-inspired quasi-double […]
State Champs nod to their heroes in new album, 'Around The World And Back'
State Champs Around The World And Back After breaking through with 2013’s The Finer Things (which featured arguably the year’s best pop-punk song in “Elevated”), the 5 Seconds Of Summer-approved quintet have quietly expanded their taut brand of hooky pop punk on their sophomore album while offering nods to their heroes. “Losing Myself” smacks of A Day […]
“It’s a lot of Chipotles and gas stations”: This Wild Life talk touring, new music, AP Tour
Photo Credit: Adam Elmakias As the only act on this fall’s AP Tour without a drummer—or electric guitars—This Wild Life are sure to stand out on a bill otherwise loaded with hooky pop-punk and pop-rock. But singer/guitarist Kevin Jordan and guitarist Anthony Del Grosso are fine being the odd men out: In the past year, […]
The Wonder Years slow things down with new album
The Wonder Years No Closer To Heaven Over the past four years—and the course of three beloved albums—the Wonder Years have rapidly risen through the pop-punk ranks on their way to cementing themselves as the genre’s leading force. If the band’s fifth album is any indication, they seem unlikely to give up the throne anytime […]
We interviewed Third Eye Blind—Pierce The Veil, Mayday Parade, Yellowcard & the Maine all joined in
It’s hard to believe it’s been six years since Third Eye Blind’s last album, Ursa Major—and even more difficult to comprehend that the band’s self-titled debut (the one that housed hits “Semi-Charmed Life,” “Jumper” and “How’s It Going To Be”) came out a full 18 years ago. But Dopamine, the band’s new (and, according to […]
'Future Hearts' features "some of the most fully realized songs in the All Time Low canon" (review)
All Time Low Future Hearts The announcement that producer John Feldmann would be helming All Time Low’s sixth album was met with intense fan consternation. Would Future Hearts be a 5-Seconds-Of-Summer-by-way-of-Baltimore record? As it turns out, all that hand wringing was for naught; there’s nothing on Future Hearts that even closely resembles 5SOS. If anything, […]