APMA's: Best Live Preformance Breakdown

If you're wanting to cast your vote for the 2014 APMA's but have never been to one of these artist's live shows, well, here's a band-by-band breakdown to show you each bands performances that they manage to pull every night while on tour. The rest is for you to decide!

A Day To Remember

The best thing about ADTR isn’t just their albums (although they’re great) or their sense of humor (also great). It’s their commitment to putting on an absolutely insane live show, with bigger and better production every single time they go out. I mean, their crew literally built a house onstage every night on their last tour which they would then enter from, triggering sweet pyro—and this is before a single note was even played. ADTR know they’re here to entertain, and they do a phenomenal job of doing it. Watch here.

All Time Low

ATL is so confident in their live show that their new music video for “The Irony Of Choking On A Lifesaver” is comprised entirely of live footage at a sold-out gig—not some soundstage where they bused in extras, but a packed house of a few thousand screaming fans going nuts for a band who are going equally nuts. The rhythm section never misses a beat, Alex Gaskarth never misses a high note, and Jack Barakat never misses an opportunity to crack a dick joke, making All Time Low an essential ticket purchase every time they come to town. Watch here.

Asking Alexandria

Asking Alexandria have had their fair share of live mishaps thanks to frontman Danny Worsnop’s proclivity for partying hard, but when AA are on, they are on. His screams rattle fillings, his clean vocals soar, and his band never let up on the brutality. Plus, Worsnop is never afraid to say what he’s thinking, as evidenced in the start of this video. Who else gets to call their audience a bunch of c-words and still get a fat paycheck at the end of the night? Watch here.

Fall Out Boy

FOB's crowds at their shows have continually grown throughout the past decade, drawn back for a few reasons. Sure, the songs are great, but they’re great songs performed excellently, thanks to Patrick Stump’s incredible vocal prowess. Has that dude ever missed one of his falsetto notes? The smart money is on no. Watch here.

Pierce The Veil

While their studio albums are impressively slick, Pierce The Veil are a punk band at heart, and they display that grit onstage every night. The Fuentes brothers are just as proficient playing the Forbidden Beat as they are howling over a breakdown, and they know how to get a crowd behind them. Watch here.


Twenty One Pilots 

Watch this video. Realize it was shot three years ago, before twenty one pilots had achieved any national attention or scored a record contract. Notice how the 1,400-capacity venue is sold out to the rafters. You know how a band does that with no record out? Amazing shows. If you haven’t gotten on board with 21p yet, what are you waiting for?

Now with this breakdown in your hands, cast your vote at altpress.com/apmas_vote

Andy Biersack - New side project

Black Veil Brides front man Andy Biersack has announced a new solo side project that he's released under the name of Andy Black. His new track, "The Don't Need To Understand" was premiered via Hot Topic which featured a new music video as well, which you can watch here.

Andy made the announcement on his Instagram, and made sure to clarify that even with this side project, BVB will always be his #1 priority. Read the full statement below:

"I would like to take this opportunity to share with you guys something that I have been working on and that I am very excited about releasing! I have always been interested in a broad spectrum of music and though the music that BVB makes is certainly my favorite stylistically, I am also heavily influenced by the dark melodic synth laden styles of bands from the 80's such as Sisters of Mercy, Depeche Mode, Lords of the New Church etc. Over the last year or so I decided in my down town that it might be fun to take a stab at writing some material that is more in the "dark wave" vein simply for fun and as a hobby. I have now written almost a complete albums worth of material...some on my own and some in collaboration with friends and other artists but all of which I am very proud of and excited about. This project is not a band, BVB is my life and biggest passion and there is no reason to fear that I will lose sight of that. #bvb4 is coming along better than anything we've ever done and it is my number 1 priority. Please consider this new project to be a fun and artistic way for me to try something that musically I wouldn't want to force into BVB etc. I am calling this project #ANDYBLACK, as to me it represents an alter ego and I felt that it was important to differentiate this as a side project while still maintaining a connection to BVB by using the "BLACK" moniker. As far as my plans for the project we will be releasing a music video soon and may release more online over a long period but again BVB is my main focus, this is just something I had a lot of fun doing and I hope you will enjoy it too!"

All Time Low: New record in the making!

Similar to my previous post, Baltimore band All Time Low won't be on the road for a while, either.

The boys just finished up the successful A Love Like Tour, which included 14 countries, 23 states, and 57 shows.

All Time Low isn’t typically known to be the band to take such a long break from touring – they’ve said it themselves, they’re usually on the road 300 days out of the year; they tend to always be out there.

However, lead singer Alex Gaskarth has mentioned in interviews and even answered me personally when I had the opportunity to meet them in April, that they are indeed taking a break. Currently, they seem to be taking the breather that they deserve from all the hard work that they do for their fans, but they’re also gearing up to start writing and recording for a new album that should also be put out by the end of 2014, right along side with Pierce The Veil.

Recently, ATL put out a new music video for their song The Irony Of Choking On A Lifesaver which was featured on their 2012 album Don’t Panic! The video includes live footage from their Brixton A Love Like Tour show. Watch it here.

Where's Pierce The Veil?

If you've been wondering where in the world San Diego band Pierce The Veil has been, well, this post can answer all of your questions.

Taking a break from tour, the band decided to build their own studio to put their new album into the works. Since their last successful album, Collide with the Sky that came out in July of 2012, they have also put out a documentary titled This Is A Wasteland to hold off the fanbase until they are able to put out the long awaited album that will be released by the end of 2014.

This documentary provides direct insight of Pierce The Veil's life on the road as they travel from country to country to give the live best performance that they possibly can. It's not just the live performances, however, you can see what they're up to outside their lives as musicians as well. Check out the trailer here.

The band is going to start recording in an estimated two weeks, so hopefully we can see the boys back on the road by the end of the year. Hey, maybe they'll even be on 2015 Warped Tour!

For updates and more photos of this self-built studio, check out lead singer Vic Fuentes' instagram, where he's been frequently updating on what's going on in the studio.

This Is Gospel (Piano Cover)

We all know the song This Is Gospel by Panic! At The Disco, right? This song off of PATD's 2013 album Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die initially got the most attention with it's catchy tune and the use of fairly large words that had people googling what message lead singer Brendon Urie was actually trying to get across.

Well, this isn’t your average performance of this song. Brendon plays “This Is Gospel” on a piano with all kinds of distractions. The forecast is sunny with a chance of meatballs… and rubber ducks… and glass bottles… and more.

Watch here, and to celebrate, “This Is Gospel” is only 99 cents on iTunes. Go download it.

Alternative Press Music Awards 2014

Did you guys know that Alternative Press Magazine will be hosting their first ever music awards?

The lineup includes bands such as Fall Out Boy, A Day To Remember, All Time Low, Twenty One Pilots, and may more. Did I mention that the show is going to be hosted by the Mark Hoppus? Well, now you know.

 The APMA's is going to take place in Cleveland, Ohio at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It's on the 31st of July and tickets are still up for purchase online on this website.

Aside from live performances from all of these amazing artists, there is also going to be a large amount of awards handed out. (Hence the whole "music awards" thing, right?) Awards include titles like Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, Best Live Band, Breakthrough Band, and even an Artist Philanthropic Award. You can cast your vote here and see who you think falls under which category the best. Voting ends July 15th and you can find all of the information you could possibly need at http://www.altpress.com/apmas. You can see who sponsors it, guest appearances and even a video trailer.

Make sure you get your tickets, because this is going to be one hell of a show! You already know I bought mine.

Allow Me to Introduce Myself

Hey, guys! My name is Jess and I’m going to be the person posting on this blog. I currently attend a vocational school (Diamond Oaks) for digital arts and design, so my interests typically include anything that has any relation to art in general.

The theme of this blog (as if the title doesn’t give it away or anything) is going to be based solely on music. The updates you’ll see will include bands of a modern alternative, pop punk/pop rock, or post-hardcore genre. Some of my personal favorites include All Time Low, Pierce The Veil, A Day To Remember, Of Mice & Men; the list goes on, really. I’m just saying that you’re going to be seeing more of some of these bands than others, although I’m going to try to be vast and cover more than just those. Obviously.

Most of the “Band Updates” you’ll find will include new tours, music festivals, if anyone happens to be working on a new record, and maybe even a little bit of drama here and there.

Hey, just because they’re in a band doesn’t mean that their life is perfect. There’s always something happening on twitter, right?

There might be a personal post every now and then just to update you on how my life is going and all that jazz. I don’t want to be that person who posts but doesn’t let anyone know who he or she actually is. So yea, personal posts will appear every now and then. Other than that, I don’t have anything else to say.

You can also find me on Tumblr as alltimejackbassambarakat or on Facebook as We Love Bands. See ya!