The brands are getting involved with underground music again. In this case, the brand in question is Stone Island, the Italian luxury sportswear company with the nautical-star logo. The underground music is four of the biggest and best bands involved in hardcore and its adjacent worlds: Angel Du$t, Haywire, High Vis, and Knocked Loose. Together, those four bands are the subjects of The Calm & The Chaos, a new short film and photography project that documented all four bands while they were on recent tours. It involves members of those bands, both onstage and off, wearing what the company Instagram account calls “a mix of current and vintage Stone Island garments.”
Taking Back Sunday have announced they’re reissuing their third studio album Louder Now to mark its 20th anniversary.
It’ll arrive on October 16 via Craft Recordings in deluxe vinyl and CD packages, complete with the bonus tracks Sleep and Brooklyn (If You See Something, Say Something. On the LP version, they’ll be presented on a 7-inch single, while both songs will be included on the deluxe CD.
Frontman Adam Lazzara says: “Our record Louder Now represents a huge milestone for me and to know it has made an impact on so many other people’s lives as well is something I still struggle to get my head around.
“To have the opportunity to celebrate that record with both John Nolan and Fred Mascherino onstage together, along with Shaun Cooper, is incredible to me. The songs sound stronger than I can ever remember live and I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am to share that with everyone.”
Taking Back Sunday are currently on tour, with their next live performance scheduled for Musikfest in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on August 8. They also have further dates planned with Thrice and Saves The Day.
Next year, the band will head back out on the road with Weezer for their run of UK and European shows, with the first date taking place in Dublin on May 12.
(Image credit: Craft Recordings)
Taking Back Sunday: Louder Now Deluxe
Vinyl edition
Side A 1. What’s It Feel Like To Be A Ghost? 2. Liar (It Takes One To Know One) 3. MakeDamnSure 4. Up Against (Blackout) 5. My Blue Heaven
Side B 6. Twenty-Twenty Surgery 7. Spin 8. Divine Intervention 9. Miami 10. Error Operator 11. I’ll Let You Live
7″
Side A 1. Brooklyn (If You See Something, Say Something)
Side B 2. Sleep
CD edition
1. What’s It Feel Like To Be A Ghost? 2. Liar (It Takes One To Know One) 3. MakeDamnSure 4. Up Against (Blackout) 5. My Blue Heaven 6. Twenty-Twenty Surgery 7. Spin 8. Divine Intervention 9. Miami 10. Error Operator 11. I’ll Let You Live 12. Brooklyn (If You See Something, Say Something) 13. Sleep
Looking for a budget turntable for your ever-growing vinyl collection? We have you covered
Freight trains don’t normally have the ability to rumble their way around the entire world. Fortunately, no one told that to the white-hot Parker Barrow Band, who are doing just that.
In the middle of a high-speed United Kingdom tour, band members Megan Kane and Dylan Turner took the time to talk to Blues Rock Review (BRR) about their latest album, the tour, and the growth of the band.
The band evolved over the past eight years, starting with a partnership between drummer Dylan Turner and singer Megan Kane. It has grown into a dynamo, currently firing on all cylinders.
Kane explained the process of building a winning team. “We (she and Turner) met eight years ago and we’ve been married for three years. When we first met, we both set out to chase a dream, and along the way, we were trying to find people who also shared that vision and that dream. Thankfully, we were able to meet Alex (Bender), guitarist and musical director, about four years ago. I think we would all agree that’s really when the band took a turn and started to become something very stable and something of a foundation, to be built. From there, we met Eric (Safka) on keys; bassist Kyle (Priber) we’ve known for about five years, and we met our guitar player Will (Tipton) about two years ago. Now we feel like one big happy family where all the pieces fit together. We all get along pretty well, and we have a great time getting to travel and do all this together. It has been an evolution of sorts, but I definitely feel at home now and feel like all the pieces are now working together for the greater purpose.”
The band was touring the UK when the new record dropped, but Kane said there was no added pressure from the two events colliding.
“I think it probably is a good thing because we’re so busy that we have time to really focus on the now. Recording the songs and now finally getting it released into the world, it’s almost like a weight lifted. Now it’s out there and we get to just travel in the world and play our songs and that’s really all we can ever hope for. It’s a bit of a whirlwind, but you can’t really think about it while you’re in the middle of it.”
The new 9-track album, Hold The Mash, was officially released on July 17 and it contains some straight-ahead, high-energy blues-based rock and roll, but there is a mix of sounds to keep listeners engaged. One particular track, for example, “Ruby’s Reckoning”, has a distinctive roots feel.
Turner told BRR that the changing tempos and themes contained in the album are not necessarily by design. “When Alex and I were coming up with some ideas for different songs, he played one he had been working on for a long time. It had this really cool, rootsy kind of vibe and it inspired me to do more of a storytelling type of song. I had some stuff that I had been working on, and it (“Ruby’s Reckoning”) just came together.”
He continued, saying they don’t really have a set approach to writing. “We don’t put a whole lot of emphasis on our writing process or how we’re supposed to do it,” he said. “Whether it starts with a riff or a word, whatever kind of happens, happens. Alex is constantly working on riffs, and he’ll say, hey man, I’ve been working on this, check it out. A lot of times I had been working on something lyrically, we found they kind of just worked together. We put these things together, and Megan finds a way to sing it and, almost like magic, it worked a lot of the time.”
Turner said the combination of Bender and producer Stephen McNight is also working well. “With Megan and I, Stephen and Alex – having the four of us being able to bounce ideas off of each other and, coming from similar but adjacent backgrounds, gives us sort of an edge in the studio which helps us to honor our influences without the whole rinse-and-repeat kind of thing that you can get caught in sometimes. So it was a real treat for me, and Megan too, to get to watch those guys bounce off each other and create together in the studio and I think it made for sort of an eclectic mix of sounds and textures and vibes on this record.”
The band drew its name from the legend of Bonnie (Parker) and Clyde (Barrow). Also rooted in a home-grown history, the band grew from a young Turner watching performers in his dad’s coffee/music house to gracing world stages.
He said, “We’re still very much in that unique position as a band where we can do anything from playing a fraternity show to playing a sold-out theatre. We’re doing so many different things right now that it’s crazy sometimes, specifically this run in the UK. We’re playing some pretty substantial festivals that host several thousand people over a weekend and then we’re doing some smaller 200 or 250-seater club shows. We really, really enjoy this space that we’re in right now where it’s still very intimate. A big part of this for us, and it always has been and, hopefully always will be, is about the connections that we’re able to make while touring. This dream of music has taken us, not just all over the country, but now internationally and we’ve been lucky enough to meet some, now, really good friends over in Spain and here in the UK and in Canada. We love doing it and it never feels much like work. We’re just trying to make the best of each opportunity and hopefully see some growth and progress. This year has really been amazing for us.”
The band is most often described as southern rock but has drawn comparisons to the Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, The Black Crowes and even AC/DC. And that’s cool with them, noted Kane.
“We love those bands, so to be compared to them is incredible. It’s the music that we love. It’s who we listen to, so if people put our names next to theirs, then that’s awesome. We all come from such different backgrounds musically, but I do think it all kind of bleeds through our music to make its own thing. But the fact that people compare us to our favorite bands is a dream come true.”
Even the album cover, designed by Sleepy House, is a throwback to the glory days when vinyl art meant something. This one is peppered with symbols and song references. “Yes,” said Kane. “There’s a lot of fun little treats in there because I feel that’s what it’s all about. The music should be cohesive with the art. And for us, this definitely feels like a good time stamp of where we are right now and where we’re heading next.”
Gauging the success of a live show is difficult when you’re the one on stage, but Kane said they rely on each other for feedback, growth and success.
“I think we all go off of our gut instinct. Obviously, Alex is at the helm of directing the show and choreographing it and making sure we’re all being utilized to our best ability, but we all try stuff. We’re all very human in our approach to music and I feel like when you come to a show you can see that on stage with all of us. If something doesn’t work one night, then you get to do it again the next and try something new and it will work. But you’ve always got to push yourself. You always have to reach for higher levels and hope that something lands. And if it doesn’t, then that’s just a human element of it all. When we’re on stage together and the trust that we have between each other is that, if I don’t succeed, we’re all there to pick each other up, on and off the stage.”
Even in conversation, their enthusiasm and passion saturate every response. And, to them, it’s all about the live performances. Turner described what new fans can expect when they see Parker Barrow live and on stage.
“The live show for us is absolutely the whole thing. That’s what we’re most passionate about. We all write and record music so that we have songs to go play live and a reason to go and tour. It’s really what we love to do the most, and because of that we spend a lot of time on that live show – thinking about it, sculpting it, creating it. The way I describe our live show is it’s like a freight train at full speed going downhill, and there’s a sharp turn coming. And we don’t know if we’re gonna make it or not but we’re holding on for dear life. It’s a lot of energy and something that, we hope, will bring people joy. That’s one of our big things – getting the opportunity to do this for a living and play shows all over the country and all over the world. The least we can do in return is spread some joy. We have a ton of fun in our live shows and getting to do what we love with the people we love is an absolute blessing. We hope that we have many, many more opportunities to do it.”
Kane added to that, saying, “It’s one of those things that, when you love it as much as we do, when you’ve given your whole life to this thing and you’re out there on the road, getting the opportunity to do it, it’s really hard not to enjoy it. We just want people to have a good time with us.”
Parker Barrow will be touring the US through October
Our Top 10 Blue October Songs list presents ten of the band’s most powerful and best-loved recordings, including “Into the Ocean,” “Hate Me,” “Calling You,” and several songs from the group’s later albums. Blue October formed in Houston, Texas, in 1995 around singer, guitarist, and songwriter Justin Furstenfeld, his brother Jeremy Furstenfeld on drums, multi-instrumentalist Ryan Delahoussaye, and original bassist Liz Mullally. Matt Noveskey joined the band in 1998 and became a central part of its most recognizable lineup. Blue October built its identity around emotional honesty. Justin Furstenfeld’s lyrics have addressed love, addiction, mental health, family, regret, recovery, and
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