Paramore

brand new eyes will be out September 29th

read album review

"where's your gavel? your jury? what's my offense this time?"

click to listen.

Bright Eyes

Conor Oberst is retiring the band/moniker Bright Eyes of which he is the mastermind behind. Bright Eyes has been creating indie folk for fourteen years and has become the most well-known of Conor Oberst's work. In recent years he has ventured away from it with a self-titled solo album and the more recent album Outer South put out by Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band. One final Bright Eyes album will still be released in 2010 so hold the sadness off until you hear Conor's melancholy lyrics.

"language just happened, it was never planned, and it's inadequate to describe where I am"

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Cobra Starship

Mark your calendar: Cobra Starship's new album comes out August 11th. With the single Good Girls Go Bad the band has managed to get a lot of mainstream success (the song peaked at #7 on the Billboard charts and is #4 on iTunes this very second). There is the typical backlash from their original fans who have been dancing to their music since the Snakes On A Plane days, but it isn't irrational. Cobra chose to record with Leighton Meister, co-star of of the TV teen drama Gossip Girl. The girl can sing, I'll give her that. But along with her voice, she's brought 'posers' which leads to crazy forums and angry fans. The lesser-known truth? Frontman Gabe Saporta watches the Gossip Girl. That might just explain it (though it doesn't explain why a twenty-nine year old male watches it...that kid ain't growing up anytime soon).

"I heard that you were trouble, but I couldn't resist"

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Cartel

The Georgia band, Cartel, has released a single (Let's Go) from their upcoming album Cycles. This album is on Wind Up Records rather than Epic Records as it was with their last album (their first album, Chroma, was with The Militia Group). Another big difference is that their third album is being recorded in a fairly standard way while the second album was recorded in twenty days for MTV's Band In A Bubble experiment. We'll have to wait until October 27th to find out how this affected the new sound.

"all we have is who we are and all we know is pretending"

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Taylor Swift

"As soon as I put out my last album, Fearless, the next day I was writing for the next album."

Taylor told MTV that she's already planning her third album but also that she would like to spend awhile working on it. In the meantime, fans are expecting a rumored re-release of Fearless.

"he'll never fall in love he swears, as he runs his fingers through his hair, I'm laughing 'cause I hope he's wrong"

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Sugar Glyder

Sugar Glyder is an unsigned band from North Carolina and they are really talented. They are unpolished and all the better for it. A second full-length from them (Poor Baby Zebra) was released in June. This video isn't too bad for what I guess to be a low-budget production.

"the air is tasting different now my friend"

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The Maine

photos I took of John Ohh from The Maine at Warped Tour in Charlotte

"I remember every night we spent on weekends, with good friends"

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Mayday Parade

With a new album, Anywhere But Here, coming out October 6th, Mayday Parade is busy times ten. That hasn't stopped them from being a part of The Fall Ball tour put on by Alternative Press, however. You can listen to the title track now on their Myspace. They say they haven't changed up their sound much, but I don't think they would be cowards if they made an entire album of A Lesson In Romantics b-sides. When you get it right the first time you don't need to be extra adventurous.

"secret love, my escape, take me far far away, secret love are you there? will you answer my prayer?"

click to listen.

Owl City

The first full length from Owl City, the electronica pop project of Adam Young, titled Ocean Eyes was released July 14th and actually reached number two on iTunes that week. He's got a coast-to-coast tour lined up starting in September. Is music created in Adam's parents' basement worth all this hype? I'd say so. With its sugary lyrics and cutesy synthesizer bings, and even an adorable duet thrown in (The Saltwater Room), your teeth will be rotting out of your head...in the best way possible.

"why do I tire of counting sheep when I'm far too tired to fall asleep?"

click to listen.

Basic Music Sites Primer

Purevolume.
O.M.G. (I'm a teenage girl, I have a right to say that) This site is the perfect combination of signed and undiscovered bands. You can create a playlist of your favorited songs. Reliable tour information, commenting, and streaming songs are all available on each band's individual page.If I haven't sold yet, occasionally a band will put up a downloadable demo. The only thing better than music is free (and legal) music!

YouTube.
Uh yeah. I'm pretty positive that you've heard of this one. But do you use every feature to the max? Quicklists, Playlists, and Favoriting - all brilliant. Note: If you don't have an account GET ONE NOW. But music videos, and not just the official ones, but interesting ones like Daft Punk's Harder Better Faster Stronger with hands (just look it up if you haven't already) and cool photo slideshows that must've taken hours of rifling through Photobucket. There's some undiscovered singer-songwriters looking to make it big and some horrible cover artists, variety.

LetsSingIt.
The best lyric search engine out there, though not perfect by any means. Search by artist, album, song title, or lyric and you're guaranteed to find any popular lyrics. I personally listen to some obscure stuff and it won't always be on LetsSingIt, but when it is, the lyrics tend to be the most correct. And it definitely satisfies me, the grammar queen to find very few (none that I recall) misspellings!

Last.fm. This site offers more than the typical information on bands (bio, loads of pictures, news, events) because it comes along with the handy "Similar Artists" feature. That's right, type in your favorite band and they'll give you a list of potential new favorite bands. Plus, people tag the bands with the appropriate genres, which can really help if you're clueless.

Panic! at the Disco

The exclamation point is back! Panic! at the Disco (formerly Panic at the Disco) seems to be flip-flopping an awful lot - and not just when it comes to punctuation. They just dropped two of their four members (Jon Walker and Ryan Ross left, leaving only Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith) this month due to creative differences and such. And their music has seemed to come full circle. Their 2005 debut, A Fever You Can't Sweat Out was pop-punk through and through, so they definitely shocked fans with Beatlesque sophomore album Pretty. Odd. It seems that their newest single is more like their original material. Make your own opinion of the song, but I think that its title New Perspective is appropriate.

"who cares divine intervention I wanna be praised from a new perspective"

click to listen.

blink-182 Tour

The first blink-182 tour since their reunion is this summer/fall with opening acts The All-American Rejects, Fall Out Boy, Weezer, Panic at the Disco, Taking Back Sunday, Chester French, and Asher Roth. Of course, not all bands will play all shows. Follow the link below to find the show closest to you and find out which bands are playing it.

tour schedule (leads to Mark Hoppus' blog) Please note that tour dates changed in the event of the death of Travis' friend Adam Goldstein (also known as DJ AM).

"I fell in love with the girl at the rock show"

Alternative Press #253

Warped Tour aka "Punk Rock Summer Camp" is celebrating it's 15th anniversary and with bands like A Day To Remember, All Time Low, Underoath, Forever the Sickest Kids, The Devil Wears Prada, Bouncing Souls, and 3Oh!3 playing, you don't want to miss out. I went to the Charlotte, NC show and I can promise you that it's worth the 20 bucks (and all the stupid fees). When you get there drink lots of water and get ready for your ears to explode! In the meantime, check out the special Warped edition of AP magazine with two covers.

Paper Rival

Tennessee indie rock band Paper Rival seems to be on some sort of semi-hiatus but that shouldn't stop you from giving a listen to the music that they have released so far. My personal favorite song is Bluebird.

"I could see myself cursing at the ocean with nothing new to say, I've got a grievance with commotion"

click to listen.

Say Vandelay

Actor Meets Actress

Six song EP featuring unsigned band Say Vandelay. The band has a gig playing the Kevin Says stage on Warped Tour all summer long so check them out if Warped hasn't hit your town yet. They have got something special and are just starting to get recognition for it. Energyenergyenergy.

"my heart used to beat for you, but now it's asleep"

click to listen.