The Academy Is...

The Academy Is... is releasing what has been referred to as The AP/EP (an EP brought into being through Alternative Press magazine) and has now been revealed as being a five-song release titled Lost in Pacific Time. (Funny misconception: a few days ago I saw a tweet posted by TAI frontman William Beckett reading: "Enjoying my Sunday, listening to new TAI EP masters... I can hardly wait for this to come out!" and then just now saw on the Wikipedia entry for The Academy Is... that the new EP was called Masters. Masters are the finished songs on a record not the name of the EP.)

It's coming out in time for The Fall Ball Tour featuring The Academy Is... and Mayday Parade (as well as Set Your Goals, The Secret Handshake, and You Me At Six). One song is currently being streamed off of the AP website.

click to listen.

The MTV Video Music Awards

Despite an overdose of Lady Gaga, some catastrophes as costumes, and the whole Kanye interjection...the show overall was okay. It was balanced out with performances by Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Muse, and P!nk (on a trapeze!). It's winners seem to have deserved their awards (I have to say I'm grateful that the nominated My Life Would Suck Without You by Kelly Clarkson didn't take home a Moonman). Make sure to see the list of winners and their corresponding video clips.
Or watch the Michael Jackson tribute - a heart-warming speech from Madonna and the music video montage and choreography in his honor.

Mayday Parade

If you've seen the cover of A Lesson In Romantics, then you might have noticed a reoccurring umbrella!

Anywhere But Here, set to be released October 6th.

Track Listing:
Kids in Love
Anywhere But Here
The Silence
Still Breathing
Bruised and Scarred
If You Can't Live Without Me, Why Aren't You Dead Yet?
Save Your Heart
Get Up
Center of Attention
I Swear This Time I Mean It
The End

Boys Like Girls

I'll be the first to admit that BLG is a band of "sell-outs," and maybe they have been from their start with their self-titled debut last year - but its especially obvious now with the created-for-radio single Love Drunk (the hook is "I used to be love drunk but now I'm hungover"). But where their songs used to be catchy emo lyrics sets to run-of-the mill pop-punk, they have added some variety into the mix. With a standard structure ballad featuring Taylor Swift (Two Is Better Than One), a song that sounds stolen from Switchfoot (Someone Like You), and a song breaking the six-minute mark (Go), Boys Like Girls changed it up some. As a guilty fan of them, I have to admit that they are worth keeping up with - I'm already interested to know what they do with album #3.

"yeah she's got a boyfriend and I've got a rock band"

click to listen.

nevershoutnever!

Missouri-born Christofer Ingle started out playing in a coffeeshop just four short years ago at the age of fourteen and last year he made it all the way to performing on MTV's canceled (but legendary!) show Total Request Live. With only some demos and EPs under his belt (under the alias of nevershoutnever!), he has yet to create a full length album, but his music is has millions of Myspace hits and some diehard fans that will vouch for his talent. He sounds like the typical Youtube star, and he's got a scene hairstyle to fit the stereotype, but he has a standout quality in his sincerity. Even if you were to find his high voice and lovey-dovey lyrics to be sickenly sweet, you've got to appreciate that multi-instrumentalists and singer-songwriters of his caliber are hard to come by these days. Check out his new cover of Yesterday. He admits himself that he can't quite stack up to The Beatles, but he has made an attempt.

"all we ever did was move around, I was always the new kid - never the cool kid. all I ever wanted to do was to fall in love"

click to listen.