Dad's Car Radio

All AP Tour dates have been released which will kick off October 13th in Detroit and ends in Cleveland on November 28th.

10-13 Detroit, MI (Crofoot Ballroom)

10-14 Cincinnati, OH (Bogart’s)

10-15 Sauget, IL (Pops)

10-16 Milwaukee, WI (The Rave)

10-17 Chicago, IL (House of Blues)

10-19 Minneapolis, MN (Cabooze)

10-20 Kansas City, MO (The Beaumont Club)

10-21 Denver, CO (The Summit Music Hall)

10-22 Salt Lak City, UT (In The Venue)

10-24 Seattle, WA (The Showbox)

10-25 Portland, OR (Wonder Ballroom)

10-27 San Francisco, CA (Grand Ballroom)

10-28 Pomona, CA (Fox Theatre)

10-29 Los Angeles, CA (Club Nokia)

10-30 San Diego, CA (Soma)

10-31 Las Vegas, NV (House of Blues)

11-02 Tucson, AZ (Rialto Theatre)

11-04 Austin, TX (Emo’s)

11-05 San Antonio, TX (White Rabbit)

11-06 Dallas, TX (House of Blues)

11-07 Houston, TX (Warehouse Live)

11-09 Orlando, FL (Hard Rock Live)

11-10 Ft. Lauderdale, FL (Revolution)

11-11 Tampa, FL (The Ritz)

11-12 Atlanta, GA (The Masquerade)

11-13 Nashville, TN (Rocketown)

11-14 Charlotte, NC (Amos’ Southend Music Hall)

11-16 Norfolk, VA (The Norva)

11-17 Baltimore, MD (Sonar)

11-18 Philadelphia, PA (Electric Factory)

11-19 Boston, MA (House of Blues)

11-20 Williamsville, NY (Club Infinity)

11-21 Toronto, ON (Kool Haus)

11-22 Montreal, QC (Metropolis)

11-24 New York, NY (Nokia Theatre)

11-25 New Haven, CT (Toad’s Place)

11-26 Sayreville, NJ (Starland Ballroom)

11-27 Allentown, PA (Crocodile Rock Café)

11-28 Cleveland, OH (House of Blues)

http://www.lollapalooza.com/webcast/

Although a lot of people cannot be there for one of the biggest music festivals of the year, thanks to modern technology we can watch Lollapalooza from the comfort of our own homes. Starting at two pm CDT you can watch the 23 acts that will be streaming live on the Lollapalooza website all throughout the three day festival. I'm personally looking forward to Devo on Friday, Gogol Bordello on Saturday, and MGMT and Green Day on Sunday. The festival is sure to be a great time and I can't wait to sit back and watch it all.

Friday, August 6th:
2:00 – Raphael Saadiq
3:00 – Drive-By Truckers
4:00 – The New Pornographers 
5:00 – The Walkmen
6:00 – Hot Chip
7:00 – Chromeo
8:00 – Dirty Projectors
9:00 – Devo

Saturday, August 7th:
1:45 – Blues Traveler
3:00 – Against Me!
3:45 – Gogol Bordello
4:45 – Rogue Wave
5:45 – Social Distortion
6:45 – Slightly Stoopid
7:45 – Metric
8:45 – Spoon

Sunday, August 8th:
2:00 – The Cribs
3:00 – Mumford and Sons
4:00 – Yeasayer
5:00 – MUTEMATH
6:00 – MGMT
7:15 – The National
8:30 – Green Day (4 songs)

 

I was fortunate enough to ask two members from The Cab a few questions at The Vans Warped Tour and their set was one of the few I was actually able to catch during the day. The band was in high demand so we did a group interview with us and two other media outlets but we still asked the questions that you want answered. We're not sure when and we're not sure where, but we're determined to do another sit down interview with the boys, where we can get a little more personal with The Cab.

www.myspace.com/thecab

www.twitter.com/thecab

Breathe Electric on the Vans Warped Tour on July 20th in Columbia, MD.

www.myspace.com/breatheelectric

As this week has gone by the AP Tour twitter account has been slowly leaking dates of the upcoming fall tour, which has August Burns Red and Bring Me The Horizon as it's headliners as well as three other bands on the bill. All tour dates are being released tomorrow but here is what has been leaked to the public so far. We also put them in order for you.

#aptourdetroit on (10/13),

#aptourcincinnati on (10/14),

#aptourchicago (10/17),

#aptourkc on (10/20),

#aptourtucson on (11/2),

#aptouraustin on (11/4),

#aptoursanantonio on (11/5),

#aptourftlauderdale (11/10),

#aptourtampa (11/11),

#aptouratlanta on (11/12),

#aptournashville on (11/13),

#aptournorfolk(11/16),

#aptourbuffalo (11/20),

#aptourtoronto (11/21),

#aptourmontreal (11/22),

#aptournewhaven (11/25),

#aptourjersey (11/26)

#aptourallentown (11/27)

#aptourcleveland on (11/28)

 

Hey Monday on the Vans Warped Tour on July 20th in Columbia, MD.

www.myspace.com/heymonday

 

http://artfeeds.org/welcome/

http://www.refresheverything.com/artfeeds

One of my personal favorite non-profit organizations, Art Feeds, is in the running to win $250,000 for a Art Center in Joplin, Missouri. The 417 area is known for having countless amounts of bands and other artists that are full to the brim with potential. The only problem is that some of these people don't have the right tools to be able to reach this potential. Here's where you can come in, by voting every day for them in the Pepsi Refresh Everything Program.

On their page they have mapped out everything where you can read just how they would spend the money if they win.

How will the 250K be Used?
Budget Notes: The budget will not cover employee or Administration costs for the Community Art Center. City and state fees for licensing and other costs are not included in the budget.
$ 17,000	Community Art Center Rent
$ 126,000	Art Supplies
$ 2,500	10 Canon Powershot Cameras
$ 7,000	10 MacBook laptops for student use
$ 2,000	Student Computer Software and Adobe CS5
$ 17,000	Student Transportation Vehicle
$ 3,000	Transportation Cost
$ 12,000	Art Feeds Office Space Rent
$ 4,500	Office Supply and Utilities
$ 54,000	Promotional Costs
$ 5,000	Administrative Services

Art Feeds is a great organization and they need your help. You can vote three different ways and do all three ways once a day, for a total of three votes a day for a great organization.

1. By creating an account and voting at http://www.refresheverything.com/artfeeds

2. Texting 101784 to Pepsi (73774)

3. Voting on the official facebook application

Such simple steps can make a huge difference, voting ends August 31st so there is still tons of time to vote multiple times every day!

As much as I would love to be able to get on a plane and fly to England to sit down the kind and always humble boys of Maycomb, it was entirely out of the question. But, while on tour Jonathan was able to answer some questions for us, talking about how the band got started as well as what's going to happen for the band in the future. Maycomb is made up of four humble boys who are grateful for their success so far, and are eager for the success they will undoubtedly have in the future. Make sure to give them a listen, and keep your eyes peeled for a full length album, which will probably be released in the spring of 2011.

http://www.myspace.com/maycombuk

 

Hello. My name’s Jonathan Ward and I play guitar in the band, Maycomb. I’ve been playing guitar since I was about thirteen years old, after I pestered my dad to teach me to play bass, and have been playing in bands ever since. Moving from bass to guitar was a natural progression for me, but I still enjoy playing bass every once in a while. Jimmy Taylor and Jack Owen have been playing drums and guitar, respectively, since they were fourteen, and Simon McCoy has been playing bass since he was seventeen.

We’re all from Wolverhampton, except for Simon. Well, Jack’s from just outside, in a place called Wall Heath. Simon is from a village called Collingham but moved here to go to University. After his course finished he stayed here with us, and boy, are we glad that he did.

Well, we all knew each other through local bands, and had all played shows with each other at some time or another. Before long, I ended up in a band with Jimmy, which Simon later joined. That band pretty much fell apart, so the three of us decided to start something new – Maycomb.

We played a few local shows, for a year or so, with different members coming and going. Then we asked Jack to fill in for some shows that we had booked when we were a guitarist down, and he agreed to. We just clicked, and he had some great ideas for our songs. Pretty soon after we’d started practicing together, we knew we wanted him as the fourth member. He thankfully (and probably drunkenly) agreed to do so, and it’s been great. We have such a good chemistry, and are really happy with how things have gone since then. We’ve had the current line up for a little over two years now.

Well, our sound often gets compared to US bands in reviews and interviews. We don’t mind, as a lot of our favourite bands and influences come from the States – bands such as Motion City Soundtrack, Hot Rod Circuit, and Fall Out Boy – so it’s usually a pretty fair comparison. It helps to have comparisons to bands like that as, while we may not really sound like them, it helps someone who’s never heard of us to get a feel for the kind of thing we’re doing, so that they can decide if they’d be interested in listening to us. It can only be a positive thing. That said, we all have English accents, so I’d like to think that that comes through in our sound.

The UK’s music scene has been pretty quiet for the past few years, but it’s starting to pick up again now. There seems to be a market for live music again, and people have started going out to shows a lot more. There are some great bands over here, that are helping that cause, and are really setting the benchmark for UK rock and pop-punk music. Bands such as All or Nothing, Save Your Breath, Basement, Not Advised and In Gratitude are all leading the way, and it’s really great to see. They’re setting an extremely high standard.

I’m not too sure, as I don’t think I’ve ever really thought about it before. Hopefully they’ll be enjoying it, but you can’t really expect too much from someone. Even if they don’t like it, that’s okay. The fact that people even take the time to check us out is humbling – if they like it too then that’s a bonus.

We’ve had people tell us that our CD has been in their car stereo for a while, which is a really nice thought – that we could be good driving music. A lot of my favourite artists and songs are things I would listen to on long car journeys with my father when I was young, and I think it’s a great way to enjoy music.

I wouldn’t say that our music has a prevailing theme. Each song sort of has its own self-contained narrative, but there are definitely ideas, and notions, that cross over into other songs. Simon is the only one who will ever truly understand the lyrical content of the songs he writes, but I think we all try and convey some emotion through the music as well. Admittedly, the songs on our last EP, Crystal Tiger Blues, were quite dark in tone. It was reflective of this weird period in our lives, where we were all growing up and leaving University, and having to look for jobs. It’s something most people have to go through, and I guess Crystal Tiger Blues was sort of our collective outlet for those feelings.

The music that we’re writing now has lots more positive connotations. We’re all a bit more stable, and we’ve grown comfortable with each other and the way we play. We have a unified idea of what Maycomb should sound like, and where we want to be, and with that in mind it’s so much easier to see the positive side to things. Our older material always had some glimpse of positivity, but it’s much more apparent now. I think our mantra is that we’re in this band for ourselves, making music we like, and so when you look at it like that all of the outside factors don’t really have that great of an impact on what we do.

For the first time in the history of the band we all have jobs. It was a really hard thing to acclimatise to at first, but we’ve learnt to manage our time in order to make the most of it. That takes up a lot of what would be our free time, but we still find time to get together and watch movies, drink beers, kick a football at each other, and wow nightclubs up and down the country with our dancing talents. It’s good, because we’re best friends, so we’re always hanging out together, even when we’re not making music.

Oh, without a shadow of a doubt, the latter. I don’t think I’ll ever see us as a stadium band, but that’s not really why I prefer small scale shows. Small shows are always great fun – The smaller the better. We’ve turned up to a few venues and overheard other bands saying things like, ‘Is this it? There’s not even a stage!’, which is sort of understandable I suppose, but we get so excited at that prospect. When we walk into a tiny little venue we get such a buzz. We love when we have to play on the floor, at the same level as the crowd, and the atmosphere is always so much better. We tend to be quite conversational with the audience, and with each other, throughout our set, and being so close to the audience in that physical way always helps to generate a good atmosphere.

Once, we actually played a show in a great little coffee shop in Derby, and it is one of my favourite shows we’ve played to date. We played through these tiny little amps you could barely hear, but there were just tons of people crammed in, right up in our faces, singing along, and it was just incredible fun. When given the choice, we always try to book the smaller, lower capacity venues, and will continue to do so for a while, I’d say.

There are actually a few things coming up that we’re looking forward to. We’re going on tour next week with our extremely talented friend, Sam Little. He’s traveling in our van with us, so it should be a lot of fun. It’ll be a pleasure to watch him play every night, and he has a reputation as a bit of a party animal to maintain, so I can see it getting quite messy.

On top of this, we’re writing for a full length album that we’re going to be releasing next year. It’s going pretty slow at the moment, but I think we’re tapping into the best of us. We’re really clicking creatively, and we’re trying to push ourselves a little further than ever. We recently released the five track EP, Crystal Tiger Blues, on the awesome All Aboard Records, so spend most of the time gigging in support of that at the moment. We try and slot the writing around that.

On the whole, we don’t really have any preconceptions or expectations concerning the future of the band. We’re just enjoying hanging out with our best friends, making music together, and meeting some truly brilliant people through it. We feel very lucky to be doing what we’re doing, and we’re just going to do it until it stops being fun.

I’d like to think we’re at a stage now where there’s every chance of that happening. There’s some talk of a European adventure going on in October/November time that we’re all really excited about, but it’s all at a pretty early stage of planning at the moment, so we’re trying not to get our hopes up too much. If it all goes ahead we’ll be playing with some fantastic bands such as ‘Chunk! No, Captain Chunk’ from France, and ‘Notimefor’ from Italy. We toured with Chunk last time they were in the UK, and they’re some of the nicest people we’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. It’d be great to have them show us around Paris, and to get to play shows with them again. I really hope it happens.

We’ve also been lucky enough to play some shows over here with some awesome American bands, such as ‘The Wonder Years’, ‘Fireworks’, and ‘A Loss for Words’. They’re all doing really well for themselves, and are sort of paving the way for contemporary pop-punk, so it really has been an honour to get to play with them. They’re such hard working bands, and it’s great to see them finally getting the recognition they deserve. We’re toying with the idea of maybe recording our full-length in the States, so we’d definitely like to try and hook up a few shows while we’re over there.

I think playing abroad is something we’ve all wanted to do for a long time, so it’s really humbling to be in a position where it’s a possibility. It’s definitely one of our goals.

We have rough versions of about 6 songs for the album so far. We’re hoping to finish writing the rest once we get back off tour in the next couple of weeks. We’re going to be playing one of the new ones, called Dynamiter, on the tour so I’m excited to see how people take to it. It’s a little more aggressive than some of our previous stuff.

I think the plan at the moment is to try to record the record this winter – December/January sort of time, and aim for a spring release. We’d like to squeeze a single out this year too. That’s the plan anyway, but things in Maycomb do have a tendancy to slip back. Our fingers are crossed. Always.

 

Andrew WK on the Vans Warped Tour on July 20th in Columbia, MD.

www.myspace.com/andrewwk

It's the night that can cause scandal, tears, and quotes worthy of lasting an entire year. I don't think I even need to remind you of the Kanye/Taylor/Beyonce incident.

The VMA's are just around the corner and they are definitely going all out to try and top the ratings of last years show. The nominations are out and we're here to deliver all the goods.

Lady Gaga broke an MTV record with 13 nominations, the most a artist has even received. No comment.

Eminem takes the spot of top nominated male with 8 nominations. I wonder who will tea-bag him this year.

Here is the entire list of nominations and be sure to tune into the MTV VMA's on Sunday September 12th.

You can go vote at http://www.mtv.com/ontv/vma/2010/

BEST COLLABORATION
B.o.B featuring Hayley Williams
Airplanes

Beyonce featuring Lady Gaga
Video Phone (Extended Remix)

3OH!3 featuring Kesha
My First Kiss

Jay-Z & Alicia Keys
Empire State of Mind

BEST FEMALE VIDEO
Lady Gaga
Bad Romance

Ke$ha
Tik Tok

Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dogg
California Gurls

Beyoncé featuring Lady Gaga
Video Phone (Extended Remix)

Taylor Swift
Fifteen

BEST MALE VIDEO
Eminem
Not Afraid

Usher featuring Will.I.Am
OMG

B.o.B featuring Hayley Williams
Airplanes

Drake
Find Your Love

Jason Derulo
In My Head

 

BEST HIP HOP VIDEO
B.o.B. featuring Hayley Williams
Airplanes

Eminem
Not Afraid

Drake, Kanye West, Lil Wayne & Eminem
Forever

Jay-Z & Swizz Beats
On To The Next One

Kid Cudi featuring MGMT & Ratatat
Pursuit Of Happiness

BEST NEW ARTIST
Ke$ha
Tik Tok

Jason Derulo
In My Head

Justin Bieber featuring Ludacris
Baby

Nicki Minaj featuring Sean Garrett
Massive Attack

Broken Bells
The Ghost Inside

BEST POP VIDEO
Lady Gaga
Bad Romance

Katy Perry featuring Snoop Dog
California Gurls

Ke$ha
Tik Tok

Beyoncé featuring Lady Gaga
Video Phone (Extended Remix)

B.o.B featuring Bruno Mars
Nothing on You

BEST ROCK VIDEO
30 Seconds To Mars
Kings and Queens

Muse
Uprising

Paramore
Ignorance

Florence + the Machine
Dog Days Are Over

MGMT
Flash Delirium

BEST DANCE MUSIC VIDEO
Lady Gaga
Bad Romance

Enrique Iglesias featuring Pitbull
I Like It

Cascada
Evacuate The Dancefloor

David Guetta featuring Akon
Sexy Chick

Usher featuring Will.I.Am
OMG

VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Lady Gaga
Bad Romance

Florence + The Machine
Dog Days Are Over

30 Seconds To Mars
Kings and Queens

Lady Gaga featuring Beyoncé
Telephone

Eminem
Not Afraid

B.o.B featuring Hayley Williams
Airplanes

BEST ART DIRECTION
Lady Gaga
Bad Romance

Florence + The Machine
Dogs Days Are Over

Eminem
Not Afraid

30 Seconds To Mars
Kings and Queens

Beyoncé featuring Lady Gaga
Video Phone (Extended Remix)

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY
Lady Gaga
Bad Romance

Lady Gaga featuring Beyoncé
Telephone

Beyoncé featuring Lady Gaga
Video Phone (Extended Remix)

Usher featuring Will.I.Am
OMG

Janelle Monáe featuring Big Boi

Tightrope

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Eminem
Not Afraid

Jay-Z & Alicia Keys
Empire State of Mind

Lady Gaga
Bad Romance

Mumford and Sons
Little Lion Man

Florence + The Machine
Dog Days Are Over

BEST DIRECTION
Jay-Z & Alicia Keys
Empire State of Mind
Director: Hype Williams

Lady Gaga
Bad Romance
Director: Francis Lawrence

Eminem
Not Afraid
Director: Rich Lee

P!nk
Funhouse
Director: Dave Meyers

30 Seconds To Mars
Kings and Queens
Director: Bartholomew Cubbins

BEST EDITING
Lady Gaga
Bad Romance
Editor: Jarrett Fijal

Eminem
Not Afraid
Editor: Ken Mowe

Rihanna
Rude Boy
Editor: Clark Eddy

P!nk
Funhouse
Editor: Chris Davis

Miike Snow
Animal
Editor: Frank Macias