HM Magazine Intern Diary: 7.10.09

Hmm, let’s forget about this week, ‘mkay?

Every time I said “Oh yeah, I’m gonna start writing my three stories now!” or “Oh yeah, I’m gonna post pictures from Warped Tour!” those were lies. Always something to keep me from doing either of those.

So, I make no promises for this weekend. I might make it out to the He Is Legend/Drop Dead, Gorgeous show at Emo’s tomorrow night, I might not. I might watch the Cubs-Cardinals game tomorrow afternoon, I might not. Who cares if it’s the only Cubs game I’ll likely get to watch before going home?

I got music for four more album reviews: Between the Trees, Hawk Nelson, Castanets and Skillet. So those will need to get done too, though again, the no promises thing.

I got a bunch of album reviews, including U2, The Devil Wears Prada, Emery and The Chariot from the last two issues posted, so there’s some proof of an accomplishment from this week.

Lord Save Us From Your Followers alternated between making me angry at being an American Christian and giving me hope that maybe all’s not lost, so it at least did a better job than most commentaries on Christian culture lately at not being completely depressing.

Have a better weekend,
Corey Erb

“Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say ‘infinitely’ when you mean ‘very’; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.” – C. S. Lewis

HM Magazine Intern Diary: 7.9.09

Ugh! When it’s not spiders, it’s skunks, and while it’s still skunks it’s ants! My girlfriend thoughtfully sent me the ingredients to make that dirt/mud dessert, which was an old favorite in grade school, and I just yesterday got around to making it. But tonight after an otherwise productive day, I opened the cabinet to find a bunch of ants carrying off the bag of Oreos she crushed to make the dirt part.

So instead of the hot food I was looking forward to, I’m sitting here reluctantly eating my peanut butter sandwich and dried fruit because that’s the only “meal” I could throw together since I have yet to check to see how much of my other food is salvageable. Wonderful.

The Ranch smells a bit less like skunk today, though there are definitely still areas where the smell is uncomfortable. I just hope the skunk isn’t living anywhere under the house.

Other than all that mess, today was somewhat productive. I finished transcribing the Showbread interview finally, but I have a lot of work ahead of me since the notes and transcription are 13,830 words combined and I have to whittle it down into a 1,200-word feature. But I guess that’ll leave some interesting stuff to be posted online as a full Q & A.

I spent a good amount of time determining which album reviews have been turned in, assigning anything that hasn’t been reviewed and inquiring with any delinquent writers on the whereabouts of their reviews. I guess I should count myself with the delinquents since I have three new reviews to get done ASAP. One of the reviews is Skillet’s Awake, which came in this package for me the other day:

I’m not a PR major, nor should I be, but I don’t understand why they’d pay $7.10 to send a can of Rockstar with the CD. I could understand if Skillet was on the can, or at least if they went the ghetto route and slapped a Skillet sticker on the side. But to just randomly spend the extra $5 per kit to send an energy drink along with the review CD? Maybe they think jittery reviewers give more positive reviews. Don’t think I’ll try it, 280 calories of sugar would put me in a coma. I don’t think I’m very articulate or nice when I’m passed out.

Tonight, I’m going to try and forget my urge to go hunt down and murder every last ant in a 5-mile radius and watch the movie Lord Save Us From Your Followers while picking out pictures to post from Warped Tour. Probably not a smart idea since I could use some reassuring and I’m way frustrated with photo editing, but I’ll let you know how it goes.

Not not counting the days until I leave this deathtrap,
Corey Erb

“Treat the other man’s faith gently; it is all he has to believe with. His mind was created for his own thoughts, not yours or mine.” – Henry S. Haskins

HM Magazine Intern Diary: 7.6.09

Check out the Warped Tour review Kelly and I collaborated on.

There will be more later, but for now I’m done messing with photos not uploading and I’m tired and the Ranch smells like skunk because a freaking skunk sprayed under the house, the overwhelming stench from which woke me up at 6 a.m. and has been driving me crazy all day and at least Doug agreed that it’s overpowering so I know I’m not crazy and I’m about to go to the grocery store and Taco Bell because I haven’t eaten in a long time and I’m out of food and I don’t care if this is one long sentence because I’m about ready to punt the nearest small animal/child that wanders in my path.

Good day sir.
Corey Erb

“You do not want a quote right now.” – This guy.

HM Magazine Intern Diary: 7.2.09

Where’d that week go? Sorry for the silence on this end, it’s been quiet around here since Doug’s at Cornerstone. Well, quiet until today. Warped Tour in San Antonio was today, in case you missed my 38 zillion Twitter updates.

Kelly and I will have a review of the event up tomorrow and I’ll post a bunch of pictures. I took 620 total so I think I might have a few to share.

My body hates me right now,
Corey Erb

“Where there is love there is life.” – Mohandas K. Gandhi

HM Magazine Intern Diary: 6.23.09

Question – What do you think about swearing in music? If you have an opinion and two seconds, please take this survey I threw together. I’d really appreciate your feedback.

Let me give you at least some of the thought process behind this impromptu survey. I’m reviewing an album by a band with Christian members that, like many in the current scene, doesn’t really associate itself with Christian music but self-identifies as “Christians in a band.” This album includes some veiled spiritual themes but also one song in which the band says the f-word twice, pretty clearly (and I double-checked with the band to make sure I’m not hard of hearing). Other than this one song, the rest of the album is kid-friendly save for a few “damned”s used in the context of an individual’s spiritual condition (though would you consider that swearing too?).

So what would you make of such a band? They’re far from the only band in this situation. I won’t poison the well with any of my opinions on the subject just yet.
We made another trip to Louie Mueller BBQ today for Kelly’s intern lunch, which was fun except for my car’s A/C refusing to blow anything but hot air the whole 20 minutes each way.

She hadn’t heard 3OH!3 yet, and in keeping with our misogynistic hazing of course I dug their CD out of the reject closet and had her listen. She has a good sense of humor apparently because that didn’t send her running. But I didn’t hear the whole album from down the hall, so maybe she’s just too nice to say she hated it.

Doug and I listened to the whole album tonight and it’s fun, if incredibly offensive to everyone from women to white people to… pretty much everyone in earshot. I’m sure they’ll be a hot band at Warped Tour for the dates they’re not on the AP Tour with Family Force 5. 3OH!3 did a remix on Family Force 5’s new remix album, which is worth a listen. They’d be one to avoid if your answer to the survey was “I won’t listen to a band who swears…” though to say the least. The term “swear” doesn’t really do their brand of shock rock/rap/electronica justice. If you don’t mind the occasional Helen Keller joke though it’s pretty fun.

Tonight’s another long night but listening to a comedian making fun of Christians (this one’s called Brother Russell, Google him) is a good way to fend off insanity. Pretty funny too.

Back to it,
Corey Erb

“Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.” – Margaret Thatcher

HM Magazine Intern Diary: 6.22.09

Music Monday lived up to its name once again. Here’s a short list of either new albums or new bands I listened to today: Showbread – The Fear of God, We Came As Romans – Dreams EP, Alexisonfire – Old Crows / Young Cardinals, The Color Morale, Alesana – Where Myth Fades to Legend, Mr. Del – Thrilla, Shadows Fall – Retribution and Darkest Hour – The Eternal Return. What do you think about a Darkest Hour “So and So Says” article by the way? Apparently one member was born to a former Catholic nun who left the convent to give birth to him and he loves talking faith.

I guess I have a ton of new material for the next time I’m driving in Miami and want to blare some aggressive music with my windows down. (That happens a lot by the way – have you met Miami drivers?!) Personal favorite album for that is Go West Young Man, Let The Evil Go East by Greeley Estates. They’re writing their new record right now, I cannot wait for it. I liked their old stuff but I love the heavier sound and more complex song structures they introduced with Go West. It would make my year if they made a guest appearance at Warped Tour next week. C’mon, Texas is right next to Arizona, right?

Speaking of Warped, Tornado stopped by with some of her famous baked goods and she’s hopefully coming along to Warped in San Antonio July 2. If Kelly’s able to come, that’ll be fun the three of us going. If you’re in Texas, you should meet up with us there!

I checked out the lineup tonight so we could make interview requests and there are a lot of bands I’ve never seen but am excited to check out live. My list of requests includes: A Skylit Drive, Alexisonfire, Dear and the Headlights, Saosin, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, The Devil Wears Prada, There For Tomorrow, Thrice and Underoath. I’m hoping to get maybe three of those haha. But at least hopefully I can get a photo credential for most of them.

I guess putting a Bud Light girls cardboard cutout in Kelly’s office didn’t scare her away, so we’ll have to try harder this week to convince her we’re chauvinist pig dogs. I’ll update you on our progress.

Hazing is just another way of saying “good, clean, all-American fun for everyone involved,”
Corey Erb

“Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don’t they?” – The Scarecrow, The Wizard of Oz (my aunt sent me a card with that quote on it – kinda too close to describing me for my liking…)

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: 6.18.09

You may have heard me mention the mewithoutYou show in my last post or by reading one of my 341 Tweets from the venue, but in case you wanted more about that show, you’re in luck!

First off, let me say that Aaron Weiss’ live personality is as billed. He runs the gamut between spastic and serene, frenzied and stoic, and exuberant and somber. And apparently he inspires large adjectives. But that’s just further testament to the fact that he is as thought-provoking a frontman as there is in the muddled rock scene today.

The rest of the band did their jobs – they played their respective instruments skillfully and deferred to their engaging friend holding the mic. That’s not to say they were forgettable, though. Each member took his turn in the spotlight at least once, particularly drummer Richard Mazzotta on the final few songs of the set.

The crowd made it a much more enjoyable show. The band sounded a bit shaky on some of their new songs off “it’s all crazy! it’s all false! it’s all a dream! it’s alright” and the audience was hesitant to get too involved, but as soon as the first note of favorites like “Paper Hanger” sounded, the sweaty crowd was more than eager to shout along with the gravelly vocals and move around in the packed room. “January 1979” was a highlight as the audience got the most rowdy. But then again, uninvited stage dancers and crowd surfers tend to make any song more enjoyable from a bystander’s point of view.

Aaron breaking out the acoustic guitar and switching to a singing-not-yelling vocal tone made “In a Sweater Poorly Knit” a welcome change-up.

Also, whenever he strapped on the accordion there was fun to be had, whether it was by watching him sway back and forth holding a big old-fashioned instrument with a towel on his head or by listening to the way he fit the accordion’s unique pitch into the rest of the rich instrumental sounds.

Tuesday night made it clear that if every mewithoutYou album was streamed straight into the brain with an accompanying video of the band playing all the songs, there would be no doubt who the kings of experimental rock are. I’ll admit straight-up that I’ve never been a huge fan of the band. It’s always been more of a “Oh yeah, they write really deep songs. Cool.” thing than a “Man, I know every word to every song” thing. But I guess in experiencing the band’s collective persona live and seeing the guy in front of me with mwY lyrics tattooed on both his forearms, I started to realize that the hype about this band is legit.

We got there late (what else is new for me) so I only got to hear parts of two songs by The Dear Hunter, but from what I heard they’re pretty talented live musicians as I expected, and Casey Crescenzo’s voice was hair-on-the-back-of-my-neck-raising even in that abbreviated listen. That’s not an exaggeration for illustrative purposes, either – it happened.

While mewithoutYou was setting up we caught a few songs’ worth of Dear and the Headlights on the indoor stage. I’m familiar with their lead singer, Ian Metzger, from his days in the old Christcore band Justifide, but I haven’t followed him in Dear and the Headlights that much since he left Justifide almost a decade ago. I like their sound, it has kind of a dirtier indie rock vibe. Maybe I’ll try to catch their full set at Warped Tour in San Antonio in a couple weeks.

After the show, Doug and I spoke with Brandon from The Rocketboys and the guitarist from Hundred Year Storm. Both bands are featured in the new issue of HM – a review of HYS’s album and The Rocketboys in the Declaration of Independents section. They’re both really nice guys. You should check them out and read what we had to say about their bands in the new issue or as a digital copy.

I’ll give an update of all today’s happenings tomorrow, I think I’ve given you enough to chew on for tonight.

It ain’t that kind of party,
Corey Erb

“I stopped believing, you start to move / (She was like wine turned to water then turned back to wine) / I stopped my leaving and the better man bloomed / (And you can pour us out and we won’t mind)” – from “Paper Hanger” by mewithoutYou