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		<title>Interview: The Swellers x The Wonder Years</title>
		<link>http://blaremagazine.com/2013/06/19/interview-the-swellers-and-the-wonder-years/</link>
		<comments>http://blaremagazine.com/2013/06/19/interview-the-swellers-and-the-wonder-years/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Jun 2013 20:00:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Leah Beresford</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Spotlight]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2013]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[interview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Swellers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Wonder Years]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Toronto]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vans Warped Tour]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blaremagazine.com/?p=35396</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Drummer Jon Diener and vocalist Dan Campbell go long about music's accessibility and how punk has changed over the past decade.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35420" alt="The Swellers And The Wonder Years" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/The-Swellers-And-The-Wonder-Years.jpg" width="620" height="413" />With the Vans Warped Tour now in it&#8217;s 19th year, we&#8217;ve assembled a few unique features that open up the general community to artists considered influential and must-sees on this summer&#8217;s trek. Coming from Flint, Michigan and Philadelphia respectively, <strong>THE SWELLERS&#8217;</strong> Jon Diener and <strong>THE WONDER YEARS&#8217;</strong> Dan &#8220;Soupy&#8221; Campbell have transferred everyday experiences to records, trudging through publicity campaigns and endless tours to ultimately connect with audiences. We linked the drummer and vocalist to put the spotlight on the Warped Tour scene as a whole, opening up about the accessibility of music and how the punk/hardcore genre is associated with judgement.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re headed to Warped Tour this summer, make sure to catch The Swellers on this year&#8217;s Ernie Ball Stage and The Wonder Years on the Kia Forte Stage. You can find artist/lineup info and a list of dates at the tour&#8217;s <a href="http://www.vanswarpedtour.com" target="_blank">website</a>.</p>
<hr />
<p><b>Is it difficult to write about your personal experiences and showcase them to thousands of fans?</b></p>
<p><b>DAN &#8220;SOUPY&#8221; CAMPBELL:</b> I personally feel like it gives gravity to the situation and gives you a little bit more accountability. So when I say I want to do or be better, you bare your soul a little bit. In the first song of our record (&#8220;There, There&#8221;) there&#8217;s a lyric indicative of this whole idea, &#8220;I&#8217;ve got my heart strung up on clothing lines through tenement windows in mid July&#8221;. The idea is that when you&#8217;re writing songs as personal as our bands do you&#8217;re really hanging yourself out there for the world to see and judge.</p>
<p>But there&#8217;s also a sense of accountability, so when I say I want to do a certain thing, the fact that I know 20,000 people bought the record the first week and have now heard that song and are expecting me to do that, leaves me to push myself and actually better myself. There&#8217;s a certain level of difficultly when you&#8217;re singing about open wounds, but at the same time you&#8217;re forcing yourself to work to close them. That was kind of a bad analogy, sorry.</p>
<p><b>JON DIENER:</b> No, it works, I thought it was great!</p>
<p><b>SOUPY: </b>Thanks, buddy.</p>
<p><b>JON: </b>No problem, we can just reassure each other the whole time (laughs). I&#8217;m in the same boat too &#8211; our new record, which isn&#8217;t coming out until the fall, but it&#8217;s the first time I kind of got to step in a little bit more. The last year for us has been super strange with weird music industry crap going on, personal life stuff and just questioning why you even do what you do. It&#8217;s different because we&#8217;re used to constantly touring forever, and then we were stuck at home for seven months to work on the record, so people got jobs so they could afford rent.</p>
<p>I got to experience life the real way. I guess that&#8217;s a good way of putting it &#8211; stationary life &#8211; which is something I&#8217;m not used to because I graduated high school and started touring a week after. The craziest part is that when you&#8217;re writing lyrics, in theory, a song is timeless, whether or not you think it is. Down the road, 20 or 40 years, someone could find this song, and they will listen to it, and whether they know the references or not, have this bigger picture of relatability to a song. That&#8217;s what really moves someone regardless of what you’re saying.</p>
<p>You could listen to some Motion City Soundtrack song and hear some obscure &#8217;90s show reference, and be like &#8220;I don&#8217;t know what the hell they’re talking about, but what they&#8217;re saying around it is really important to me.&#8221; So I think, as Soupy was saying, if you’re writing about trying to better yourself, or overcoming something, it gives you a tangible reason to want to do that, because you have a responsibility from that point. It really sucks when I hear lyrics from someone, then I meet that person and they just suck. It happens once in a while, and it kind of crushes that image of the whole band. That&#8217;s why I always try to be a good person as much as I can. Lyrically, our whole new record is about how awkward life is, and that&#8217;s something a lot of people can relate to.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='640' height='390' src='http://www.youtube.com/embed/yX8JPSb08bg?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></p>
<p><b>Is it possible to make music that everyone can relate to and never outgrow?</b></p>
<p><b>JON:</b> There&#8217;s a different version of timelessness to a lot of people. That&#8217;s why you get these mainstream pop songs that are dumbed down so much. What&#8217;s that Black Eyed Peas song? &#8220;It&#8217;s gonna be a good night&#8221; or however it goes? Some people hear it and think, &#8220;I also had a good night, cool!&#8221;</p>
<p><b>SOUPY: </b>Do you think it could be the song of our generation?</p>
<p><b>JON: </b>Exactly (laughs). It&#8217;s one of those songs you hear that is so dumbed down and simple, it doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean that everyone is going to like it, but it is relatable. There&#8217;s definitely songs that are too obscure for people to relate to, but they like it because it is a challenge. There&#8217;s a bunch of different options, but I just think the more dumbed down something is, the more relatable it is, unfortunately.</p>
<p><b>SOUPY:</b> I think Jon-o hit it dead on. No matter how obscure the song or the reference is, if it&#8217;s rooted in a real emotion, then it can connect to just about anyone. So it doesn’t matter what exactly you&#8217;re singing about, as long as you can trace that thing down to the nerve of a serious emotion. That will cause the same type of emotional synapse to fire in someone else and that&#8217;s what makes a song relatable to me &#8211; when you can find some sort of imagery that is going to trigger the synapse into that emotion for someone else.</p>
<p>Whether the imagery is necessarily the same experience in their life or not, it doesn&#8217;t matter as long as you can find where it&#8217;s based. There&#8217;s still a certain amount of peer pressure or societal pressure around whether or not everyone can relate to it. The people who don&#8217;t listen to this kind of music are going to hear whatever they want out of the lyric. Despite the fact that our new record is all about trying to be the best person you can be, someone who doesn&#8217;t want to hear that because they listen to something else might call us names for not being that genre of music. They might say, &#8220;I listened to this song once, and it sounds like he&#8217;s fucking whining about this&#8221;. Well okay, but you didn&#8217;t get it, because you didn&#8217;t really want to get it.</p>
<p>Similarly, when you talk about things being timeless, we play a type of music that, societally, you’re supposed to move on from, apparently. Which is something I never necessarily did because I still love all the bands I loved in high school. I still love The Starting Line and The Early November, even more so now that they&#8217;re all homies. I also love a lot of new music that I wouldn&#8217;t have loved then. To me, you don&#8217;t have to scrub clean away everything you listened to before to like something else.</p>
<p>I think a lot of people are in that mindset, that in a few years they will be over this pop punk genre and those bands aren&#8217;t going to ring true to me anymore. I don&#8217;t listen to nearly as much hardcore as I did when I was a kid, but does that mean if I put on <i>Background Music</i> by American Nightmare, I&#8217;m not going to be into it? Fuck no, I still love that record. I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s possible for one to create music that everyone can relate to, because I think some people will forcibly not relate to it. As for creating something timeless, I think people are going to feel pressure to move on from what you do. It&#8217;s almost a bullying tactic, &#8220;Oh you still listen to that&#8221;. I remember going to college and people scoffing at me saying &#8220;You don&#8217;t listen to Animal Collective? Like fuck you,&#8221; and I&#8217;d be like &#8220;C&#8217;mon, can&#8217;t I like Animal Collective and New Found Glory?&#8221;. Why can&#8217;t I?</p>
<p><b>JON:</b> A big thing is nostalgia too. There&#8217;s a list of about ten bands that I got into at the age of ten or something, and whether or not I think the albums are cheese, I loved those God damn records and I can always go back to them. When I was in seventh grade, or whenever New Found Glory&#8217;s first EP came out, I had their t-shirt, and I would listen to them every morning before I went to school, and people would make fun of me saying &#8220;You listen to that pussy shit man?&#8221;. Fast forward to now, all these tough hardcore guys are listening to them because it&#8217;s cool. Those guys used to make fun of me for that, so what the hell? There&#8217;s almost a certain age denomination that goes with a type of music. Let&#8217;s say you hear a song when you&#8217;re 30, it might not hit you as hard as it would have when you were 15.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='640' height='390' src='http://www.youtube.com/embed/guOy3P4TsQU?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></p>
<p><b>Are expectations, and these false rules that people tend to put around certain genres, the biggest negative aspect of being a musician?</b></p>
<p><b>SOUPY:</b> No, I don&#8217;t think so. They can definitely get to you. I try not to focus too much on the negatives. Obviously being away from home, away from your loved ones are probably more negative than those people who expect you to write something and won&#8217;t like you if you write something else.</p>
<p><b>JON:</b> Conversely, when we started, I grew up on Fat Wreck Chords, Epitaph, stuff like that &#8211; and, when we started, our first EP was just lightning fast. We sort of thought we sounded like No Use For A Name and that we could make a record based off that. We still have something I call the &#8220;punk rock curse&#8221;, where, basically, if you started out a certain way, and you start growing up and broadening your horizons, people do judge you. People judge us all the time and, whether or not it&#8217;s just some 45-year-old dude in the basement with his hand down his pants saying &#8220;Oh pop punk music, you guys suck&#8221;, we just try to not care about that stuff. When I was 17, The Swellers were supposed to sign to this label called Nitro Records which Dexter Holland from The Offspring owned. It was a big deal but that fell through because they pretty much went bankrupt.</p>
<p>Ever since then I&#8217;ve seen the music industry from an outside perspective, which made me think, &#8220;This is really fucked up. All of these people have this crazy expectation from certain bands about how they want them to sound&#8221;. We&#8217;ve always been that band that&#8217;s awkwardly in the middle. We were never a hype band, never too poppy or tough, we were just friends with everyone, and it was cool. But it resulted in us getting shoved aside once in a while. However, we made a point to not care what people thought, and just did what we wanted. We did so much growing because of that and as a result made some of the best music we&#8217;ve ever done.</p>
<p><b>SOUPY:</b> Do you know what sucks worse than expectations? Shin splints, they suck way worse. Shin splints from jumping around onstage, that shit fucking hurts!</p>
<p><b>JON: </b>Yeah, I can&#8217;t do karate kicks anymore because of my God damn shin splints!</p>
<p><b>SOUPY: </b>I&#8217;m getting too old for this shit because after getting off stage I&#8217;m like, &#8220;Oh my god! My back! My knees!&#8221;</p>
<p><b>JON:</b> Yeah, &#8220;the bangover&#8221; (laughs).</p>
<p><b>SOUPY:</b> I&#8217;m a fucking old man now.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<b>They say you&#8217;re only as old as you feel… inside.</b></p>
<p><b>SOUPY:</b> I feel like I&#8217;m fucking 70!</p>
<p><b>JON:</b> So you&#8217;re 70; that&#8217;s what she&#8217;s saying (laughs).</p>
<p><b>SOUPY:</b> I feel like an arthritic old man!</p>
<hr />
<p><a href="http://blaremagazine.com/?p=35396&amp;page=2"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: impact, chicago; font-size: 18px;"> CLICK HERE FOR THE SECOND PART OF THE INTERVIEW</span></p>
<p></a></p>
<hr />
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Going Live: NXNE 2013 (Saturday)</title>
		<link>http://blaremagazine.com/2013/06/19/nxne-2013-saturday-photos/</link>
		<comments>http://blaremagazine.com/2013/06/19/nxne-2013-saturday-photos/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Jun 2013 17:50:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Katie Maz</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Spotlight]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2013]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[festival]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North By Northeast]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NXNE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[photos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Saturday]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Toronto]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blaremagazine.com/?p=35352</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Stacking bands on top of bands, Saturday's PSA was pretty simple: "Punk heals wounds, but it can't help you if you mosh barefoot".]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: left;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35523" title="©2013 Katie Maz. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/White-Lung1.jpg" width="620" height="413" />All good things come to an end and after a week full of hiccups and getting lost in the sea that was the audience at Yonge &amp; Dundas, we finally got our nightcap. In the case of <strong>NORTH BY NORTHEAST</strong>, it happened to be Exclaim!&#8217;s showcase at The Horseshoe Tavern. Stacking punk bands on top of punk bands, the Queen West spot overflowed with people who came to get a shellacking from <strong>SINGLE MOTHERS, THE ARCHIVES, WHITE LUNG, ICEAGE</strong> and Toronto&#8217;s crazed six-piece <strong>FUCKED UP</strong>. To keep it short and sweet, bodies were shoulder-to-shoulder and each group delivered the straightforward PSA: &#8220;Punk heals wounds but it can&#8217;t help you if you mosh barefoot&#8221;.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: impact, chicago; font-size: 16px;">WHITE LUNG at THE HORSESHOE TAVERN</span></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35524" title="©2013 Katie Maz. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/White-Lung2.jpg" width="620" height="413" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35525" title="©2013 Katie Maz. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/White-Lung3.jpg" width="620" height="413" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35526" title="©2013 Katie Maz. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/White-Lung4.jpg" width="375" height="563" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35527" title="©2013 Katie Maz. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/White-Lung5.jpg" width="375" height="563" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35528" title="©2013 Katie Maz. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/White-Lung6.jpg" width="620" height="413" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35529" title="©2013 Katie Maz. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/White-Lung7.jpg" width="620" height="413" /></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: impact, chicago; font-size: 16px;">TEENAGE KICKS at YONGE &amp; DUNDAS SQUARE</span></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35516" title="©2013 Jen Schenkel. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Teenage-Kicks1.jpg" width="620" height="411" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35517" title="©2013 Jen Schenkel. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Teenage-Kicks2.jpg" width="375" height="563" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35518" title="©2013 Jen Schenkel. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Teenage-Kicks3.jpg" width="375" height="563" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35519" title="©2013 Jen Schenkel. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Teenage-Kicks4.jpg" width="375" height="563" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35520" title="©2013 Jen Schenkel. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Teenage-Kicks5.jpg" width="620" height="411" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35521" title="©2013 Jen Schenkel. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Teenage-Kicks6.jpg" width="620" height="411" /></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: impact, chicago; font-size: 16px;">ICEAGE at THE HORSESHOE TAVERN</span></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35510" title="©2013 Katie Maz. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Iceage1.jpg" width="620" height="413" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35511" title="©2013 Katie Maz. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Iceage2.jpg" width="375" height="563" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35512" title="©2013 Katie Maz. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Iceage3.jpg" width="375" height="563" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35513" title="©2013 Katie Maz. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Iceage4.jpg" width="375" height="563" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35514" title="©2013 Katie Maz. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Iceage5.jpg" width="620" height="413" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35515" title="©2013 Katie Maz. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Iceage6.jpg" width="620" height="413" /></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: impact, chicago; font-size: 16px;">FUCKED UP at THE HORSESHOE TAVERN</span></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35501" title="©2013 Katie Maz. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Fucked-Up1.jpg" width="620" height="413" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35502" title="©2013 Katie Maz. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Fucked-Up2.jpg" width="620" height="413" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35503" title="©2013 Katie Maz. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Fucked-Up3.jpg" width="375" height="563" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35504" title="©2013 Katie Maz. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Fucked-Up4.jpg" width="375" height="563" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35505" title="©2013 Katie Maz. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Fucked-Up5.jpg" width="375" height="563" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35506" title="©2013 Katie Maz. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Fucked-Up6.jpg" width="375" height="563" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35507" title="©2013 Katie Maz. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Fucked-Up7.jpg" width="620" height="413" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35508" title="©2013 Katie Maz. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Fucked-Up8.jpg" width="620" height="413" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35509" title="©2013 Katie Maz. All rights reserved." alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Fucked-Up9.jpg" width="620" height="413" /></p>
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		<title>Track/MP3: Arctic Monkeys &#8211; &#8220;Do I Wanna Know?&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://blaremagazine.com/2013/06/19/track-arctic-monkeys-do-i-wanna-know/</link>
		<comments>http://blaremagazine.com/2013/06/19/track-arctic-monkeys-do-i-wanna-know/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Jun 2013 05:21:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>BLARE</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[MP3s/Streams]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2013]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Arctic Monkeys]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Do I Wanna Know?]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mp3]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stream]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Track]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blaremagazine.com/?p=35454</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Like a candy coated rush to the heart, the Arctic Monkeys' new sensual single flirts with swagger and seduction.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='640' height='390' src='http://www.youtube.com/embed/bpOSxM0rNPM?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Hell bent on releasing their fifth studio LP later this year, the <strong>ARCTIC MONKEYS</strong> have shared a new track called &#8220;Do I Wanna Know?&#8221;. Though it&#8217;s a flip from the foursome&#8217;s debut and a push forward from 2011&#8242;s <em>Suck It And See</em>, the four-minute recording reverberates with seduction and has Alex Turner swooning about simmering down and puckering up. Above is a visual trip for the track, so press play and <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/do-i-wanna-know-single/id660331528" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">grab the new single now on iTunes via Domino</span></a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/21743423" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">As stated by the band</span></a>, the Arctic Monkeys hope to release a new album sometime this year.</p>
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		<title>Stream letlive.&#8217;s New Album The Blackest Beautiful</title>
		<link>http://blaremagazine.com/2013/06/18/stream-letlives-new-album-the-blackest-beautiful/</link>
		<comments>http://blaremagazine.com/2013/06/18/stream-letlives-new-album-the-blackest-beautiful/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:37:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>BLARE</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Featured]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2013]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[album stream]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Letlive]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stream]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Blackest Beautiful]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blaremagazine.com/?p=35369</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The California group's first original release for Epitaph Records jumps the Fake History ship and flirts with imagery and unsettling bursts of melodic hardcore. Did we mention their pre-order merch is awesome?]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: left;"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35370" alt="letlive - The Blackest Beautiful Stream" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/letlive-The-Blackest-Beautiful-Stream.jpg" width="620" height="413" />Do yourself a favour and stream <strong>LETLIVE.&#8217;s</strong> mind-numbing new album <em>The Blackest Beautiful</em>. Over the course of two years, the California group have developed a dynamic that lives and breathes on its own, pushing themselves to be vulnerable in the studio and environments around the world while creating a portrait of progression. Their first original release for Epitaph Records jumps the <em>Fake History</em> ship and flirts with imagery, unsettling melodic hardcore and the ability to adapt to different moods that eventually self-destruct on their own. &#8220;Empty Elvis&#8221;, &#8220;Younger&#8221; and &#8220;27 Club&#8221; are early favourites, but you have at least three weeks to make your own bed and <a href="http://www.kingsroadmerch.com/letlive" target="_blank">grab your own pre-order</a>.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='640' height='390' src='http://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLcZMZxR9uxC83bTbuzl_rIFGzhgfdGo_P&#038;hl=en_US' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: center;">letlive&#8217;s new album <em>The Blackest Beautiful</em>  hits stores on July 9th via <a href="http://www.epitaph.com" target="_blank">Epitaph Records</a></p>
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		<title>Track/MP3: Kitty &#8211; &#8220;Barbie Jeep&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://blaremagazine.com/2013/06/17/track-kitty-barbie-jeep/</link>
		<comments>http://blaremagazine.com/2013/06/17/track-kitty-barbie-jeep/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 Jun 2013 01:03:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>BLARE</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[MP3s/Streams]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2013]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barbie Jeep]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kitty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mp3]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stream]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Track]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blaremagazine.com/?p=35363</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The MC formerly known as Kitty Pryde has teamed up with Hot Sugar to drop one of hell of summer stunner.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35365" alt="Kitty - Barbie Jeep" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Kitty-Barbie-Jeep.jpg" width="620" height="413" />Just when you thought <strong>KITTY</strong> couldn&#8217;t shove her glittery pop rhymes down your throat even your farther, she does just that. &#8220;Barbie Jeep&#8221; is a Hot Sugar produced track that&#8217;s apart of this year&#8217;s Adult Swim summer Single Series and it features the Florida MC going harder than usual, even though she is rapping about Scooby-Doo and booties. It&#8217;s a dance track that can be bumped in the crib and in the Volkswagen so hit play below or grab a download of it <a href="http://ht.cdn.turner.com/adultswim/big/music/singles-2013/Barbie_Jeep_prod_Hot_Sugar.mp3" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">here</span></a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Find more new music from Adult Swim&#8217;s summer Singles Series over at their <a href="http://video.adultswim.com/music/singles-2013/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">website</span></a></p>
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		<title>Track/MP3: M.I.A. &#8211; &#8220;Bring The Noize&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://blaremagazine.com/2013/06/17/track-m-i-a-bring-the-noize/</link>
		<comments>http://blaremagazine.com/2013/06/17/track-m-i-a-bring-the-noize/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:51:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>BLARE</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[MP3s/Streams]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2013]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bring The Noize]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[M.I.A.]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mp3]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stream]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Track]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blaremagazine.com/?p=35364</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The original bad gyal is the only artist who can turn a single into a blast of chaos that could easily fall on NBA Jam.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35367" alt="MIA - Bring The Noize" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/MIA-Bring-The-Noize.jpg" width="620" height="413" />Before Ye and Jay even announced their own epics, <strong>M.I.A.</strong> was supposed to release <em>Matangi</em> in April but her fourth studio album was shelved due to being &#8220;too positive&#8221;. Today, the original bad gyal released her brand new single &#8220;Bring The Noize&#8221; via Zane Lowe&#8217;s BBC 1 show even though she publicly noted she keeps submitting her new record and her label keeps handing it back. Nonetheless, the cut rattles with chaos and hints of <em>Arular</em>. Check it out below.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">M.I.A.&#8217;s new album <em>Matangi</em> is scheduled to be released later this fall via <a href="http://twitter.com/NEETRECORDINGS" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">N.E.E.T.</span></a>/<a href="http://www.universalmusic.ca" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Universal</span></a></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><object width="100%" height="81"><param name="movie" value="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F97277747&color=000000&auto_play=false&show_artwork=false&show_playcount=false&show_comments=false"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed width="100%" height="81" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F97277747&color=000000&auto_play=false&show_artwork=false&show_playcount=false&show_comments=false" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></p>
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		<title>Interview: Portugal. The Man</title>
		<link>http://blaremagazine.com/2013/06/17/interview-portugal-the-man/</link>
		<comments>http://blaremagazine.com/2013/06/17/interview-portugal-the-man/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Jun 2013 19:21:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Marie Rupolo</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Spotlight]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2013]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[interview]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John Gourley]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Portugal The Man]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Toronto]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Zach Carothers]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blaremagazine.com/?p=35250</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Marie Rupolo talks with John Gourley and Zach Carothers about PTM's artwork, working with Danger Mouse and how rock n' roll is full of shit.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-35252" alt="Portugal The Man" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Portugal-The-Man.jpg" width="620" height="413" />Having cycled through Fearless Records, Equal Vision and Atlantic Records, no one should be allowed to claim that <strong>PORTUGAL. THE MAN</strong> have bitten off more than they can chew. If anything, the quintet have truly been defiant, breaking old rules by releasing an album almost every year since 2006. Considering their Northern take on genuinely destructive psych pop, their discog is still their underrated strength, and their seventh disc, <em>Evil Friends</em>, continues to terrorize glossy production and heart-popping melodies that are colourful, in &#8220;a creep in a t-shirt&#8221; sort of way.</p>
<p>Pushing their record along a summer tour, frontman John Gourley and bassist Zach Carothers recently pit-stopped in Toronto and shed light on how their career has pushed them to realize the buzz in rock n&#8217; roll is as dead as the link suits have with their own imagination. In more ways than one, it&#8217;s pretty scary. &#8220;MTV has changed,&#8221; explains Gourley. &#8220;I mean it may still be there but Vimeo has kind of become that channel now and you get to skip over the bullshit.&#8221;</p>
<hr />
<p><b>How did you meet the guys from <i>It&#8217;s Always Sunny in Philadelphia</i> and why did you want to collaborate on that &#8220;Eternal Handshake&#8221; video for College Humor?</b></p>
<p><b>JOHN GOURLEY:</b> They&#8217;re actually friends of friends. There&#8217;s this advertising/design place in Portland called Kamp Grizzly and actually the one dude&#8217;s brother plays in Unknown Mortal Orchestra &#8211; amazing band. I just hit them up one day because I knew that they were close friends. I was like &#8220;Hey man, do you think you could connect me with the <i>It&#8217;s Always Sunny</i> guys?&#8221;. It&#8217;s funny because we all work in the same industry so asking him for that favour wasn&#8217;t something he had to do for us, but he did. He connected Glen and it seemed like such a stupid thing to do, but I sent Glen the idea and said, &#8220;You know, I was wondering if you can do a promo, you can be dismissive of the band &#8211; actually that&#8217;s like the whole thing &#8211; just be dismissive of the band&#8221;.</p>
<p>The funniest thing about it was when he wrote me back. I know him as Dennis but he&#8217;s actually super nice. He said he&#8217;d love to help with the promo video and that he loved the band. It just came together; he introduced me to some of the writers and we did it one day when they were shooting in Los Angeles. Actually Rob McElhenney wasn&#8217;t even involved in it. He was actually working on the episode, and they went up to him at one point and were like, &#8220;Can you come in at the end of this video and put on this wig and just end the video for us?&#8221;. Rob was getting the breakdown of what was happening on the way over and he was like, &#8220;What, so, you guys high five and get stuck in a high five… wait… what happens?&#8221;, and then just walked out. It was so funny. Their MGMT thing was on the fly too.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<b>So Glen actually makes a hit at your band name at one point saying &#8220;Why don&#8217;t you take the period out of your band name stupid!&#8221;. So I guess what I&#8217;m wondering is, why not a comma?</b></p>
<p><b>ZACH CAROTHERS:</b> We just did it. We&#8217;re stuck with it now.</p>
<p><b>JOHN: </b>Yeah, I didn&#8217;t go to high school (laughs). I don&#8217;t even fucking know man! The whole point of the band name was that it&#8217;s an alter ego… Ziggy Stardust or Sgt. Pepper. It&#8217;s Portugal period. And he&#8217;s the fucking man.<br />
&nbsp;</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: impact, chicago; font-size: 22px;">&#8220;That song to me was, &#8216;This is who we are and this is what it is, don&#8217;t let them tell you shit&#8217;. Fuck rock n&#8217; roll, fuck hip hop kids, fuck all that because it&#8217;s not true.&#8221; &#8211; JOHN GOURLEY</span></p>
<hr />
&nbsp;<br />
<b>Punctuation aside, how would you say you&#8217;ve progressed as a band?</b></p>
<p><strong>JOHN:</strong> I don&#8217;t know; It&#8217;s kind of a hard thing to explain. Looking back signing to Atlantic Records was the first step for this band. Well, first step being, track this and learn how to write songs, and that&#8217;s why we&#8217;re releasing so much music. It was about finding our sound and learning how to write. I mean <i>Satanic Satanist</i> was about finding out how to write a song in three minutes. That shit&#8217;s difficult. It&#8217;s so much easier to be in a band where you put a bunch of pedals out and have like all these filters and things and you go. It&#8217;s fucking noisy.</p>
<p><b>ZACH: </b>Trying to take someone on a journey in seven and a half minutes is so much easier. I mean check out &#8220;Ain&#8217;t No Sunshine&#8221; &#8211; it&#8217;s a little over two minutes, there&#8217;s one basic melody and I go so many places in that song. I look at the clock after I&#8217;m done and I&#8217;m like, &#8220;Man, I just went somewhere in that amount of time&#8221;. It&#8217;s just amazing.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<b>That&#8217;s interesting, i would have assumed the opposite.</b></p>
<p><b>JOHN:</b> Yeah it&#8217;s kind of a hard thing to understand because you hear pop radio like&#8230; fuck, &#8220;Umbrella&#8221; or whatever it might be, and it seems so simple and so stupid to even assume that there&#8217;s any sort of musicianship in that but it&#8217;s more about honesty. Rihanna and Britney Spears and people like that grow up wanting to be pop stars. They want to get on a stage and they want to sing that song. You see those scenes in movies, like <i>Almost Famous</i>, where they&#8217;re singing &#8220;Tiny Dancer&#8221; &#8211; those people are delivering that the same way you would in your car. You sing those songs like they&#8217;re a part of you and that&#8217;s why that stuff works. That&#8217;s where the difficulty is for me: I can&#8217;t write stupid fucking lyrics like that because that&#8217;s not who I am.</p>
<p><b>ZACH:</b> But we&#8217;re not talking about &#8220;Tiny Dancer&#8221;. The &#8220;Tiny Dancer&#8221; lyrics are rad.</p>
<p><b>JOHN:</b> Our progression has been more about learning to do that and being able to even walk into a meeting with Brian (Danger Mouse) and have a conversation, and you can&#8217;t do that without any experience</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='640' height='390' src='http://www.youtube.com/embed/q5x_YoweEg8?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></p>
<p><b>So that&#8217;s actually my next question, what was the experience like working with Danger Mouse?</b></p>
<p><b>JOHN: </b>It was good. Working with Brian was more about &#8211; this is so stupid and totally the thing to say &#8211; but it&#8217;s about the notes you don&#8217;t play. It&#8217;s about trying to deliver things with a single vocal take instead of stacking up 20 layers like I tend to do. It&#8217;s just easier to do that, but you don&#8217;t connect with it the same way. He said no a lot. It was a positive no &#8211; &#8220;No, man, that shit sucks, you&#8217;ve done better, you can do better&#8221;. He never actually said &#8220;that shit sucks&#8221;, it was always the nicest things.</p>
<p><b>ZACH:</b> He was very constructive and very cool. Being an artist himself, he really knew us. He knew about the dynamic of being in a band and trying to write with a couple of people. Most of it was John and Brian, especially at the beginning. They just went in by themselves which I thought was good because they got to establish a rapport.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<b>Speaking of rapport, I feel like rock and hip hop share this bridge of collaboration and mutual respect. &#8220;Hip Hop Kids&#8221; suggests otherwise, and I mean you are working with Danger Mouse, so can you shed some light on the lyrical content behind that song?</b></p>
<p><b>JOHN:</b> That was actually the first song we wrote for this album and one that we didn&#8217;t actually record with Brian. I had written it when we were out with The Black Keys. We had just done a tour with them and there was no chance of us working with Danger Mouse at this point. I took my daughter out with us to Paris a week early when we were touring in Europe. That song is very much what music is to me, I mean that&#8217;s like fucking real. I&#8217;m out hanging with my baby girl in Paris of all fucking places, buying her clothes and shit. It&#8217;s just so far from what you expect rock and roll to be. After that you meet up with The Black Keys at these shows where they have to get 8,000 people in. They&#8217;re massive shows with a buffet with salmon and chicken and vegetarian options&#8230; you go through all these steps to end up in this place where it&#8217;s so far from where you’ve come from.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m glad we got to experience it with The Black Keys because I don&#8217;t think they care. I don&#8217;t think they give a shit at all. It&#8217;s just the nature of the beast&#8230; you have to feed a crew of 40-50 and that&#8217;s the way it works and that song to me was, &#8220;This is who we are and this is what it is, don&#8217;t let them tell you shit&#8221;. Fuck rock n&#8217; roll, fuck hip hop kids, fuck all that because it&#8217;s not true. Those dudes are rolling up in rented Escalades&#8230; fuck you guys and your rented Escalade, and rented jewellery and all that shit. It’s stupid. Fuck you.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='640' height='390' src='http://www.youtube.com/embed/RmUzdNLDLmI?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></p>
<p><b>The first thing that drew me to you as a band was actually the album art, done mostly by John. I find a lot of people have become lazy about that side of the music. How important is the connection between visual art and music for you?</b></p>
<p><b>JOHN:</b> It&#8217;s very important. Actually the guy I do all the artwork with is here, he&#8217;s selling merch on this tour. He put together all the packages and everything. I could draw all day, but I need a guy who knows what I&#8217;m talking about and Austin (Sellers) is that guy, he&#8217;s like one of my best friends.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<b>So what came first for you: art or music?</b></p>
<p><b>JOHN:</b> Probably art for me. I mean, I failed all my art classes in Alaska but you just have to assume that Alaskans fucking hate me, for whatever reason. When I moved to Portland to start touring I met Austin and we were talking about the artwork for our first album and I was drawing it all out and as we were hanging out he&#8217;s like, &#8220;You know you&#8217;re drawing all this stuff and this is what you’re asking for&#8221;. So he kind of just pushed me to get better and get more confident in it. I&#8217;m glad he did, because it&#8217;s so important. You listen to albums in a different way looking at the album cover. Jimi Hendrix records&#8230; that shit is part of your experience.</p>
<p><b>ZACH:</b> Janis Joplin too, I really liked her. She was kind of a female Jimi for me at that time.</p>
<p><b>JOHN:</b> Sometimes just putting a picture on the front works. It&#8217;s about capturing a moment and it&#8217;s always about honesty. I love when bands put photos on the album cover of them playing live because it&#8217;s never like that. It&#8217;s never that crazy. It&#8217;s crazy for like one fucking split second&#8230;</p>
<p><b>ZACH:</b> Yep, broke that guitar, don&#8217;t have it anymore.</p>
<p><b>JOHN:</b> Smashed that shit, can&#8217;t take that picture twice. But again, it all comes down to honesty and how you present it. To me it&#8217;s about contrast; it&#8217;s making an album called <i>Evil Friends</i> with Danger Mouse that isn&#8217;t necessarily about anything evil. I mean I can say &#8220;fuck those guys&#8221; but it&#8217;s not really evil, it&#8217;s just how I feel. Fuck you, rented Escalade! I buy my shit cash! Cash money.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span class='embed-youtube' style='text-align:center; display: block;'><iframe class='youtube-player' type='text/html' width='640' height='390' src='http://www.youtube.com/embed/-zpBbrXLxP4?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;wmode=transparent' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></p>
<p><b>So you kind of alluded to this but </b><i><b>Satanic Satanist</b></i><b> was bolder greens, reds and some yellow, </b><i><b>In The Mountain in The Cloud</b></i><b> saw a lot more purple and blue, </b><i><b>American Ghetto was greens and blues</b></i><b> and now </b><i><b>Evil Friends</b></i><b> is mostly black and gold. Is there a reason for the color schemes you use?</b></p>
<p><b>JOHN: </b>Yeah, art is very important. Any sort of visual connection to the music is huge. It&#8217;s the reason Quentin Tarantino is Quentin Tarantino and Wes Anderson is Wes Anderson. I&#8217;m a huge fan of film and all these directors. I love watching movies. I mean Stanley Kubrick too &#8211; he had the common sense to make the placeholder in <i>2001: A Space Odyssey</i> music and that&#8217;s what ended up being in the movie because it set this tone that you could not top. Someone was supposed to write the music for it but he was smart. He was like, &#8220;Fuck those guys&#8230; fuck them and their rented Escalades!&#8221; (laughs). But yeah, it&#8217;s very important to have those connections.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<b>Juxtaposed has featured some of your work, specifically picked and praised by Alex Pardee &#8211; who is also known for his eccentric, creepy characters and album art as well. What is the art industry like versus the music industry? Do visual artists rent Escalades as well?</b></p>
<p><b>JOHN: </b>They don&#8217;t rent Escalades. They sleep in the streets and even when they have money they continue to do that because that&#8217;s art. It&#8217;s a really difficult thing. I feel very lucky. Alex Pardee is fucking amazing. Such a nice dude &#8211; and he&#8217;s funny and smart. I&#8217;ve hung out with those dudes and I&#8217;ve been there when they look over a piece, and I&#8217;m like, &#8220;Mother fucker! What is he doing selling that for $50,000? Are you fucking kidding me?&#8221;. They&#8217;ve got a built-in fan base and they&#8217;re selling shit to people for whatever they want and it&#8217;s going to sell. It&#8217;s a fucking joke. I&#8217;m not trying to make money, if you make money doing it, that&#8217;s rad, but you can&#8217;t do it for those reasons.</p>
<p><b>ZACH:</b> It&#8217;s gotta be pretty selfish, that’s the only way it can be taken seriously.</p>
<p><b>JOHN:</b> Our thing with Insta was so funny. I did that graffiti-GIF stuff with him and he&#8217;s a really amazing street artist and we get along really. I can&#8217;t tell you anything about that cause nobody needs to know about him (laughs). But he&#8217;s an amazing artist and I remember the first time we met &#8211; we were talking about it and he&#8217;s like &#8220;Well, Atlantic is paying me to come out there so I have to deliver what they want&#8221;, and the whole meeting was me going, &#8220;No we don&#8217;t, what the fuck are you talking about? We don’t have to give them anything. You&#8217;re an artist, you were hired to do whatever the fuck you want. Don&#8217;t worry about that shit&#8221;. We ended up leaving this meeting where we had this fancy breakfast and halfway to the tube in London he&#8217;s like, &#8220;Do you want to go get a beer? Want to just hang out?&#8221;, and we both talked and I think we just ended up venting about our industries and how fucking stupid all that shit is. I think artists are more competitive. Artists are always like, &#8220;You fucking stole my shit, he’s doing my thing&#8221;.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
<b>So what is originality to you then?</b></p>
<p><b>JOHN:</b> Picasso, what does he say? Good artists steal and bad artists imitate or some shit like that. Picasso said that and he&#8217;s a fucking artist.</p>
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		<title>Review: Kanye West &#8211; &#8220;Yeezus&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://blaremagazine.com/2013/06/17/review-kanye-west-yeezus/</link>
		<comments>http://blaremagazine.com/2013/06/17/review-kanye-west-yeezus/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Jun 2013 15:54:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Elyse Hill</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Album Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2013]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[album review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kanye West]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yeezus]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[As the introduction of Yeezy's new album states: "He'll give us what we need / It may not be what we want".]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Kanye-West-Yeezus-Alt-Cover.jpg" rel="lightbox[35217]" title="Review: Kanye West - "Yeezus""><img class="wp-image-35278 alignleft" alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Kanye-West-Yeezus-Alt-Cover.jpg" width="350" height="307" /></a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: impact, chicago; font-size: 24px;">Kanye West</span><br />
<span style="font-family: impact, chicago; font-size: 24px;"> Yeezus</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Universal/Def Jam &#8211; June 18th 2013<br />
By Elyse Hill (@elyselikeswords)<br />
Find it at: <span style="text-decoration: underline;">iTunes</span> | <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Insound</span> | <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://hmv.ca/Search.aspx?artist=537839" target="_blank">HMV Digital</a></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: impact, chicago; font-size: 72px;">9.5</span></p>
<p><br class="none" /><br class="none" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: left;">For a record that was briefly speculated to be called <em>I Am God</em>, Kanye West&#8217;s chosen title of <em>Yeezus</em> comes off as tame wordplay, ill-preparing his own audience for the wildly aggressive verses and provocative one liners to follow. An antithesis to his soul-filled samples and production of earlier albums, Kanye wisely employs Daft Punk and Rick Rubin to craft his unapologetic sixth album that lives up to the massive hype created by a single tweet. Darker than 2011&#8242;s <em>My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy</em> and comparably visceral to even 2008&#8242;s <em>808s &amp; Heartbreak</em>, West mixes minimalism (&#8220;On Sight&#8221;), anarchist punk (&#8220;Black Skinhead&#8221;) and Chicago&#8217;s drill scene (&#8220;Send It Up&#8221;) while delivering his latest bout of experimentation that throws itself to reggae/dancehall legends such as Capleton, Beenie Man and Agent Sasco. The beats are refreshing, with shockingly poignant, politically motivated lyricism that finds room for Yeezy-esque remarks like &#8220;She Instagram herself like #BadBitchAlert&#8221; that were made for the Twitterverse.</p>
<p>Compared to <em>MBDTF&#8217;s</em> 17-man roster, <em>Yeezus</em> lists enviable features including Kid Cudi, Justin Vernon, Chief Keef and Frank Ocean, but leave it to Ye to keep them veiled in reverb and auto-tune, or tucked into the falling seconds of a riotous Hungarian psych rock sample (&#8220;New Slaves&#8221;). Call it egocentric, but the disc&#8217;s ten short songs is all the limelight he can afford to share. And while he notably strays from overwhelming the album with more recognizable samples, he effectively uses the vivid imagery of a Nina Simone throwback on &#8220;Blood On The Leaves&#8221;, a pinnacle track that stings with its third verse and rattles with Hudson Mohawke&#8217;s maniacal production. It&#8217;s a well-crafted assembly of his entire career, reminding you of Yeezy&#8217;s ear for soul and ingenuity. If you do find yourself missing the early sounds of <em>Late Registration</em> or <em>Graduation</em>, Kanye bluntly encapsulates the tone of his album and his role as almighty Yeezus in a Phuture sample on the LP&#8217;s intro: &#8220;He&#8217;ll give us what we need/ It may not be what we want&#8221;.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Listen: &#8220;I Am A God&#8221;, &#8220;Blood On The Leaves&#8221;, &#8220;Bound 2&#8243; || <a class="lbpModal" title="KANYE WEST - NEW SLAVES " href="http://www.youtube.com/v/WWxPEzkFTtQ&amp;autoplay=1">Watch: &#8220;New Slaves (ft. Frank Ocean)&#8221;</a></p>
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		<title>Review: Light Years &#8211; &#8220;I Won&#8217;t Hold This Against You&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://blaremagazine.com/2013/06/16/review-light-years-i-wont-hold-this-against-you/</link>
		<comments>http://blaremagazine.com/2013/06/16/review-light-years-i-wont-hold-this-against-you/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 16 Jun 2013 23:12:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joshua Khan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Album Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2013]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[album review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[I Won't Hold This Against You]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Light Years]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[review]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[The Cleveland quartet's debut wades around in the deep end of punk borrowing chords from indie minors and aggressive types.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Light-Years-I-Wont-Hold-This-Against-You.jpg" rel="lightbox[34738]" title="Review: Light Years - "I Won't Hold This Against You""><img class="wp-image-34741 alignleft" alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Light-Years-I-Wont-Hold-This-Against-You.jpg" width="350" height="350" /></a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: impact, chicago; font-size: 24px;">Light Years</span><br />
<span style="font-family: impact, chicago; font-size: 24px;"> I Won&#8217;t Hold This Against You</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Paper + Plastick &#8211; June 18th 2013<br />
By Joshua Khan (@blaremag)<br />
Find it at: <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/i-wont-hold-this-against-you/id659758147" target="_blank">iTunes</a></span> | <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wont-Hold-This-Against-You/dp/B00D9ENOOS/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Amazon</span></a> | <a href="http://paperplastick.limitedrun.com/products/512967-light-years-i-wont-hold-this-against-you" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Official Store</span></a><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://hmv.ca/Search.aspx?artist=624427" target="_blank"><br />
</a></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: impact, chicago; font-size: 72px;">7.8</span></p>
<p><br class="none" /><br class="none" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: left;">For Cleveland, Ohio&#8217;s Light Years, <em>I Won&#8217;t Hold This Against You</em> is the band&#8217;s own <em>Pedestals</em>, <em>Under Soil And Dirt</em> and <em>Your Favourite Weapon</em> &#8211; a pace-setting debut that gives 100 per cent every second and every minute. At 12 songs, it&#8217;s a tough listen with vocalist Pat Kennedy reflecting about the chips on his shoulder, but you&#8217;d be hard-pressed to find a band that sharpens pop punk&#8217;s edges more (and with less flannel). &#8220;Ringing In My Ears&#8221; and &#8220;Uphill Battles&#8221; are rugged one-way clips of modesty, &#8220;Float&#8221; is the closest call you&#8217;ll get to an ode to Basement&#8217;s <em>Colourmeinkindness</em>, and &#8220;Nice To Know You&#8221; is a head-swelling piece of songwriting that will never leave your side or your conscience.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">As much as Light Years hang intros and bridges in all the right places, the quartet wade around in the deep end of punk borrowing chords from indie minors (&#8220;Throwing My Life&#8221;) and taking the tempo down a notch to coordinate an aggressive and blues-like shade of <em>Sink Or Swim</em> (&#8220;Hindsight&#8221;). Even &#8220;Us v.s. Them&#8221; and the full-length&#8217;s title track go back and forth, accenting melodic alternative with impressive cohesion that&#8217;s full of underrated drum work and a few slight tweaks that make transitions explode inside of your heart. It may be too early to tell, but <em>I Won&#8217;t Hold This Against You</em> is a record East Coast rivals should have written a long time ago. Luckily, it belongs to a group of friends who kill the average black-and-white stereotypes with a prominent expansion that&#8217;s far from pedestrian.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Listen: &#8220;Nice To Know You&#8221;, &#8220;Put Myself Together&#8221;, &#8220;I Won&#8217;t Hold This Against You&#8221; || <a class="lbpModal" title="LIGHT YEARS - PARKING LOTS " href="http://www.youtube.com/v/2BNROXqK58s&amp;autoplay=1">Watch: &#8220;Parking Lots&#8221;</a></p>
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		<title>Review: J. Cole &#8211; &#8220;Born Sinner&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://blaremagazine.com/2013/06/16/review-j-cole-born-sinner/</link>
		<comments>http://blaremagazine.com/2013/06/16/review-j-cole-born-sinner/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 16 Jun 2013 22:01:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joshua Khan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Album Reviews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2013]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[album review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Born Sinner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[J. Cole]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[review]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Cole's latest record is a rear-view mirror as the subjects on Born Sinner are darker than they appear.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/J-Cole-Born-Sinner.jpg" rel="lightbox[35216]" title="Review: J. Cole - "Born Sinner""><img class="wp-image-35220 alignleft" alt="" src="http://blaremagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/J-Cole-Born-Sinner.jpg" width="350" height="350" /></a></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: impact, chicago; font-size: 24px;">J. Cole</span><br />
<span style="font-family: impact, chicago; font-size: 24px;"> Born Sinner</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Roc Nation/Columbia &#8211; June 18th 2013<br />
By Joshua Khan (@blaremag)<br />
Find it at: <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/born-sinner-deluxe-version/id651105499" target="_blank">iTunes</a></span> | <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Born-Sinner-Deluxe-Edition-Cole/dp/B00CU8OVIM" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Amazon</span></a> | <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://hmv.ca/Search.aspx?artist=630618" target="_blank">HMV Digital</a></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: impact, chicago; font-size: 72px;">8.0</span></p>
<p><br class="none" /><br class="none" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: left;">You could scoff at Cole&#8217;s opening boast &#8220;Sometimes I brag like Hov, sometimes I&#8217;m real like Pac&#8221;, but you can&#8217;t erase the truth. At 28, J. Cole&#8217;s still Cole &#8211; rhyming about summertime fine women and the game not being innovative  - but <em>Born Sinner</em> crosses out the bravado to note the North Carolina native is as human as the Jordans on his feet. His &#8220;real world&#8221; wordplay still reigns in finesse, stacking hotel room admissions (&#8220;Power Trip&#8221;, &#8220;Forbidden Fruit&#8221;) on top of street level realizations (&#8220;Chaining Day&#8221;) and grooming interludes like &#8220;Mo Money&#8221; and &#8220;Ain&#8217;t That Some Shit&#8221; to sic the jaws of life on your neck. He&#8217;s all Pac, no Molly, soaking his deepest thoughts, slip-ups and major label problems into the abyss that is the studio. This record is a rear-view and the subjects are darker than they appear.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">All the while, <em>Born Sinner</em> manages to flex Cole&#8217;s love for production while being calculated. Cameos from Miguel, Kendrick Lamar and James Fauntleroy are no surprise, but you&#8217;d be hard-pressed to find another rapper that can near choke-up over samples of Outkast, Hubert Law, Ronnie Foster and Cult&#8217;s &#8220;Runaway&#8221;, which smacks your Macbook off the table with soft vocals from Dirty Projectors&#8217; Amber Coffman. But can classic soul and tricked out jazz parts help an MC top the charts? For nearly four years, listeners have been asking &#8220;who dat?&#8221;, and J. Cole&#8217;s latest raises a hand and gets all subjective to hit you <em>hard</em>. As &#8220;Born Sinner&#8221; responds, &#8220;This life is harder than you&#8217;ll probably ever know/ Emotions I hardly ever show/ More for you than for me/ Don&#8217;t you worry yourself, I gotta&#8217; do this for me&#8221;.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Listen: &#8220;Last Hope&#8221;, &#8220;(One Of Those) Crazy Girls&#8221;, &#8220;Future&#8221;, &#8220;Part II&#8221; || <a class="lbpModal" title="J. COLE - POWER TRIP " href="http://www.youtube.com/v/7AjD7nKiUQ4&amp;autoplay=1">Watch: &#8220;Power Trip (ft. Miguel)&#8221;</a></p>
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