HM Magazine Intern Diary: 7.14.09

After finishing the Showbread feature last night, I finished the Memphis May Fire featurette tonight so all I have left to write are the extra CD reviews by the end of the week.

A pro motocross racer who’s currently in a correctional facility in Ohio wrote us a letter recently saying we was inspired by HM and wanting to know if he could put an HM sticker on his helmet when he gets out in December. I wrote him back today and put a few stickers in the envelope. I hope it makes it to him. Pretty cool story.

Doug, Kelly and I made a Wal-Mart and Jack in the Box run then did a Bible study on worship, our first since Kelly’s been here. We make an oddball family.

Doug’s wife is going in for surgery tomorrow so he’ll be out of the office taking care of her for a while. It’ll be different around here for a while leading up to deadline in a week and a half.

Apparently All-Star Games are boring,
Corey Erb

“Biblical orthodoxy without compassion is surely the ugliest thing in the world.” – Francis Schaeffer

HM Magazine Intern Diary: 7.13.09

Having writer’s block this close to deadline isn’t much fun. I finished my article on Thousand Foot Krutch last night finally, and today it was on to Showbread. Unfortunately, taking 10,000 words’ worth of raw quotes from Josh Dies and coming up with a 1,200-word feature article that is actually readable is somewhat of a challenge. I’ll hopefully be able to finish up tonight. I suppose if Doug or any potential future employers read this I probably sound like the last writer to hire, but hopefully my honesty won’t come back and burn me. I still have the Memphis May Fire featurette to finish up as well, though 400 words will feel like nothing after two 1,200-word beasts.

See? Optimism. Don’t call me a pessimist.

One thing that made me happy today was finding out that Staple is back together. Their last Cornerstone show was one of the best shows I’ve witnessed – easily worth skipping whatever mainstage band I skipped to watch it, Relient K I think. Ha! I’ll have to listen to their new stuff and make sure it’s a good thing they’re back before I get too excited though.

Also, I began reading Revelation last night. I’ve never read it so it should be a fun trip.

Light at the end of the tunnel is haunting me,
Corey Erb

“A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.” – Unknown

HM Magazine Intern Diary: 6.24.09

Thanks to everyone who voted in the survey about bands swearing, here are the results so far:

If you haven’t voted, I’d still like to hear your opinion!

Ironically, I interviewed Josh “Dies” Porter from Showbread today and we talked for a long while about secular music and its influence on Christian artists. It should be a deep article – we talked about the new album, The Fear of God, a lot too.

Our internet was being soooo slow today so I went into Taylor to find WiFi. Tornado suggested the library so I spent a little time there before it closed, and her friend mentioned Pizza Hut randomly has free internet so I sat and ate my P’Zone and posted stuff on the HM website at the Taylor Pizza Hut. Check out this Cornerstone guide I put together featuring a bunch of bands and showtimes, plus links to listen to their music if you’re not familiar with them.

I’m going to be busy tomorrow and Friday since I still have to post album reviews from the last two issues online, transcribe my Thousand Foot Krutch and Showbread interviews, write those two features and the Memphis May Fire featurette and a bunch of other pressing items I’m sure I’m forgetting before Doug leaves for Cornerstone this weekend.

But it’ll all get done. Assuming I go to sleep ever – Doug and I were working till 4 a.m. yesterday night/this morning haha.

The need to be constantly productive is a blessing and a curse,
Corey Erb

“Oh, these soft-legged girls / And hard-faced boys / They know no god / They have no voice / We are the sound” from “We Are The Sound” by Alexisonfire

HM Magazine Intern Diary: 6.19.09

Crazy day. Doug and I started the day by showing Kelly the new intern around a bit. She’s nice. She’s from Ohio so she and I talked about Ohio stuff for a while since my dad’s side of the family is mostly there and I have a good amount of connections there.

Trevor McNevan from Thousand Foot Krutch called right at 10 as arranged and we had a good conversation about everything from NHL video games to Aerosmith to Taco Bell to the song “Blue Monday” by… well… a band whose name made him a little uncomfortable to mention in an interview, though we laughed about it and he suggested I listen to it when I related that I hadn’t heard it in probably 10 years. Good memories. Let me just tease you with the tidbit that there’s a song on TFK’s new record, Welcome to the Masquerade that’s a nod to that song’s industrial flair. It was a really insightful interview and I can’t wait for you all to read it. Check out their first single off the new album, “Bring Me To Life.”

I also talked to Matt Mullins, Memphis May Fire‘s new singer. I felt like I got a lot of good info from him as well, and I think their Trustkill debut, Sleepwalking, is going to sell. They’ve got such a diverse sound, which is something we discussed at length, and I love Mullins’ style when he screams, how he changes up his diction tempo within words.

One band that was supposed to be on Memphis May Fire’s upcoming tour, Oceana, whose album we reviewed in the last issue, broke up yesterday, just as I was starting to get excited about the band. These things happen though. You should still give them a listen. They’ve got a unique post-hardcore, experimental sound, sort of like a The Receiving End of Sirens with more screaming. (Hmm, that’s my second TREOS reference this week; I think I’ve reached my quota.)

Speaking of obscure broken-up band references, my comment about Justifide the other day made me curious to see if I still had any pictures of me in my old Justifide t-shirt. Sure enough, here you go – proof that I’m not all talk (just mostly):

Now, before any of you freak out, that’s not my girlfriend – it’s an old friend of mine – and it’s the only picture I had of me wearing that Justifide shirt. We went to grade school together and she actually played a role in my becoming a Christian since she invited and drove me to the church that I was eventually baptized at a couple years after her initial invitation.

Haha enough nostalgia for one post. It’s probably a good thing I’m staying here during Cornerstone Festival. I love the Cornerstone experience and I always feel conflicted when I can’t make it but I’ve got a ton of work to do with our mid-July final deadline creeping slowly up – and at least I get to go to Warped Tour in San Antonio, which is while Doug will be away at C-stone. I’ve never been to Warped and I’ll be able to take photos and maybe interview some bands that I’ve never seen live like Thrice.

Don’t be that guy,
Corey Erb

“Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.” – African proverb

HM Magazine Intern Diary: 6.12.09

Listened to lots of new music today – Memphis May Fire, Neon Horse, Falling Up and Miss May I for album reviews or articles, will get the new Hawk Nelson, Thousand Foot Krutch and Showbread on Monday, and am about to check out the new He Is Legend album on my way to Doug’s church’s public baptism event. Plus there were finally a bunch of good indie bands in the stack I listened to today, so we’re going to have a tough time narrowing it down to 12. I’ll probably post the best of the ones that don’t make the cut here, so look for it. The worst of today was March Into Paris, so I wouldn’t dare give them any mention, and you shouldn’t waste your time checking them out.

Okay, maybe even they weren’t that bad.

While I was listening to all the new stuff, I assembled some media kits to hopefully get advertising sales going next week and got a bunch of tear sheets ready to mail to advertisers or publicists who sent us a DVD or book reviewed in last issue.

I got a weekend request for you all: Doug and I discussed the possibility of a Killswitch Engage article in this issue, but we weren’t really able to come to a clear decision. What are your thoughts, should we run a feature on them, review their album, both or neither? If you’re not familiar with them, check them out and report back. Their frontman, Howard Jones, is a man of faith but other members aren’t, and they’re touring with Marilyn Manson, among the many other pros and cons to covering them. Do it or skip it?

Check out the quote for some lyrics from one of KsE’s most puzzling songs.

Writing eight pieces totaling 4,200 words by next Friday is possible, don’t doubt me,
Corey Erb

“Rock / What would I give, to behold / The smile, the face of love? / You never left me / The rising sun / Will always speak your name” – from “Rose of Sharyn” by Killswitch Engage