HM Magazine Intern Diary: 7.27.09

Wait, it’s July 27? Huh. I guess two months isn’t that long.

Ah well since we last spoke, I worked at Doug’s house Friday since the internet out here is a drag. I worked on laying out the Paramore and Showbread features in InDesign most of the weekend. I’m not too experienced with designing spreads from scratch, so it was a challenge, but I had random creative inspiration for both of them and I think they look pretty decent. I finally got a large enough photo to start the Thousand Foot Krutch layout, which won’t be as creative so hopefully will go quickly.

I’m also proofreading like crazy, which brings to mind a question I often wonder: Does anyone actually care about spelling/grammar? Please take this quick one-question survey and help me sleep.

I started watching 24 season 7 Thursday night to count for swears for the new LIFEstyles section. Now, this wouldn’t be a big deal except back when I used to watch TV I watched seasons 1, 3 and 4 (I think) and each time I bailed about 3/4ths of the way through the season and I’ve never seen the end of any of them, which of course is the most important part. I can kind of fill in the spots when I notice that a character who used to be evil is now good, or when a character who used to be dead is back to life, but I made a promise to myself that I’d actually finish this season and I did yesterday! This is a monumental accomplishment in my life, so now I can die in peace.

I watched Metallica – Some Kind of Monster yesterday while working as well, which was not so monumental.

Tornado dropped off another cat for the Ranch yesterday. She’s a calico with white feet named Hope.

She’s chilling in the laundry room, meeting Marvin now. She’s a sweet cat, except meows a lot. Better quit that quickly if she’s going to be in there till I leave.

Friday I went to Scream The Prayer Tour but I’m mentioning that last since I hope by the time you read this I’ll have posted my review and photos.

I should do this more often,
Corey Erb

“Say what you will about me. Just spell my name right.” – P. T. Barnum

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: 7.7.09

Day two of living in Skunkville. If my indecipherable rant yesterday was indecipherable, I woke up at 6 yesterday because there was a horrible smell in the Ranch that I fully tried to sleep through but, with my nose, couldn’t. So I woke up and tried to determine what was making the house smell like burning rubber or burnt garlic but couldn’t so I went outside and hung out with the cats and read. I texted Doug since he had been over to pick up his dog Biscuit Sunday night and I usually assume shenanigans by default. The text exchange went roughly like this:

6:32 a.m.: Corey: Did u leave a stink bomb in biscuits place last nite?

11:18 a.m.: DVP: Haha. No.

I’m still not convinced. Anyway, since it decided to rain for the first time in 38 months I was forced back inside to try my best to work through it. Doug stopped by later to drop off the trailer and reported that it was a skunk that sprayed, so maybe I believe him.

No, I don’t, but let’s pretend.

That brings us to today, huh? Doug was in at his normal time and we went to work trying to ameliorate the odor with bottles of Fbreeze and carpet cleaner, candles and plug-in air fresheners. It at least made the Ranch smell like baking soda and vanilla and burnt garlic. But workable conditions for the time being.

I worked most of the day transcribing my interview with Josh Dies of Showbread. It wasn’t as easy as transcribing the Thousand Foot Krutch interview yesterday, since Josh and I talked for over an hour and nearly everything he said was interesting. Oh well, I’ll finish that up tomorrow and have the article done by Friday.

I also helped generate some advertising leads for the special Christian apparel section we’re running in this issue. Do you know of any t-shirt companies or anything like that with a Christian message? (Preferably that aren’t lame and/or look like they’re from 1993, but that’s my request not necessarily the magazine’s. Something like Faveur Clothing.)

Also, do you know of any effective, inexpensive ways to rid a house of skunk smell? I think the skunk (/Doug’s leftover 4th of July stink bomb) sprayed (/went off) under the house, probably provoked by the little orange doofuses, though they don’t smell like they got sprayed.

Peace in the Middle East,
Corey Erb

“Money doesn’t talk, it swears.” – Bob Dylan

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: 6.16.09

So I guess I scared off the other intern with my verbal bullying yesterday so she decided her car was gonna break down so she can’t come in till Friday. Ha! I see right through that, you’re not fooling anyone!

Naw, I hope it gets fixed (and for free, I hate car maintenance costs) and she makes it here safely. (Ha I guess I really am mean, aren’t I?)

Anyway! I got interviews with Thousand Foot Krutch and Showbread set up and will be listening to both forthcoming albums soon to further prepare. I proofread several articles, columns and reviews that have been coming in lately as well.

This afternoon, I got a ridiculously random idea for a book I think I’m going to write (no, Doug, I’m not going to steal your unpublished novel). I made some notes as thoughts came to mind but I think I’ll sit on it for a while till I can make sure it wasn’t just that I got some bad granola this morning or something…

Doug and I are going to see mewithoutYou play at Emo’s in downtown Austin with The Dear Hunter and Bear Colony in a bit. I’ll admit I’ve never been the biggest mwY fan but I enjoy deep lyrics so I’ll keep an open mind especially for their live show. I can say I’m looking forward to seeing The Dear Hunter, though. It’s ex-The Receiving End Of Sirens guitarist/co-vocalist Casey Crescenzo‘s experimental rock band, and I’ll be interested to hear them live since the only two albums they’ve released are acts I and II of a six-act story about the birth (to a prostitute), life and death of a boy known as “The Dear Hunter.” I wonder if they’ll play songs more or less in order of the story, or if they’ll just play random stuff. Their new album comes out next week so I suppose they’ll probably play a good amount of new material and that may take precedence over concerns of chronology. We’ll see if they break out any of the various horns or strings live that they feature on studio material. I hear Crescenzo has a really good live voice too. I guess he produced and even co-wrote some of the music on Falling Up‘s latest album Fangs!, which is a concept album as well. I’ll let you know what I think of all of them, and post some pictures if you’re lucky – and assuming I can get there on time and without getting lost ha.

Sleep now in the fire,
Corey Erb

“Crimson hands, brandish words which masquerade / If you flee from grace your souls can not be saved” – from “The Oracles on the Delphi Express” by The Dear Hunter

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