the lead

The use of backing tracks—pre-recorded material or other selected sonic elements from a band’s record—played during an artists’ live performance is essentially a public secret. The world is familiar with Ashlee Simpson’s meltdown on Saturday Night Live, while the legendary unmasking of doomed ’80s pop-duo Milli Vanilli miming to tracks forced them to have their […]

With the explosion in file-sharing on the internet and the incremental obsolescence of the CD, traditional models for purchasing music have been hit hard in the last decade. But for years, a steadfast dedication to buying music the old-fashioned way—on vinyl and cassettes—has helped indie-music labels stay afloat. A recent change in the process of […]

There isn’t a person in the music industry who doesn’t have an opinion on how download culture has affected artists’ careers. While everybody in the biz knows it’s hard for a $10 retail CD to beat the lure of a free download, the internet poses additional challenges for bands, managers and labels. The recent controversy […]

Everybody from scene kids to hipster vermin to beard-scratching avant-garde types have one thing in common: They’re always ready to brag about “the next thing” they’re into. You can’t like deathcore when black metal is the desecrated shit, man. You can’t like dark ambient music—you gotta be down with True Sheffield Black. You can’t like […]

(photo credit: Jonathan Weiner) Crawling up from the underground in the early ’90s, Nirvana and the entire grunge movement shoved their unusually soiled flannels in the mainstream’s face. Though Green Day were still bouncing around in crappy vans, loading their own gear and playing the DIY punk-club circuit, it was a palpably energized time for […]

Every year, a slew of up-and-comers follow the Vans Warped Tour in hopes of expanding their fan base and taking themselves to the next level (and hopefully snagging a spot on the tour in the future!). This is their story: the barnacle bands. “Hey, you guys like pop punk? You want to check out my […]

The Chiodos reunion has become one of our community’s most anticipated events. The members still aren’t sure how far their reformation will go, but given their by-any-means-necessary wherewithal toward their music, everyone is expecting big things. In the band’s early days, guitarist PAT McMANAMAN (second from right) was anxious to make things happen for his […]

“I think it was probably one of the best-sounding songs we’ve ever created, considering the circumstances,” recalls Chiodos keyboardist Bradley Bell of the much-debated, much-loved “missing” Chiodos song, “Thermacare.” “We just did a demo of it that wasn’t produced by any means,” he says. “It wasn’t perfect and the structure of it was a complete […]

Whether you’re aware of it or not, the work of LARRY LIVERMORE has likely had an impact on your musical tastes. Livermore founded Lookout! Records in Berkeley, California, in 1987, issuing early albums from Green Day, Operation Ivy, Rancid and a bevy of others, documenting one of the most exciting eras in the history of […]

SYSTEM OF A DOWN are touring this fall (with Deftones as support) and understandably, plenty of people are curious about when the semi-newly reactivated political/genre-bending juggernaut will release new music. Take a look at the schedule of SERJ TANKIAN, though. The well-spoken, energetic and good-natured frontman has no less than four new albums on the […]

When you're young and involved in a job that consumes your life, it's pretty damn hard to have the foresight and understanding that it won't last forever. I myself have fallen victim to wide eyes and naive thoughts many times, but sometimes you just know when it is time to try something different. As simple […]

While the average AltPress.com reader may not be old enough to remember the burgeoning metal scene that existed in California's Bay Area in the early 80s, chances are good some of your favorite bands do–countless contemporary metal acts count bands like Metallica and Slayer among their influences, and even if they don't, plenty of them […]