One of my shitty bands got the chance to share the stage yesterday with a couple slightly less shitty bands, the surprisingly badass Phantom Planet and a band I’d never really heard of called Takota. I don’t think anyone else had really heard of them either, but I get the feeling that’s about to change: they’re second disc, Just Before Morning is set to come out on Island Records later this year and if it’s anything like their live set, its gonna be filled with epic vocal hooks ( ala Dredg ) set atop guitar-driven midtempo pop rock, with a little synth grandeur added in for good measure. Someone told me they sounded like the Scorpions gone modern emo, which might sound like a dig, but if you know shit about epic ’80s ballads you know the Scorpions are on point. Anyways, since they’re on some major label bullshit they only have brief clips of some songs on their Myspace but you can get a pretty good gauge of what the band is all about regardless. If you’re on the east coast you can also check them out on tour with Third Eye Blind next month. Oh and if yourre wondering who the sore thumb dude is in the above picture (for those too obtuse for old adages, sore thumb as in sticking out) he’s not just some random old dude who slapped on an H&M sweater to try to look more croosh, he’s Justin, one of the old drummers from Reel Big Fish. That’s cred.

1. Outdated Memes

2. Shameless Linkz

3. YouTube

4. Late Breaking News

I don’t know if maybe I just have shitty taste in music but I’m fucking jazzed about this year’s Taste of Chaos tour, which is like Warped Tour but with bands that scream a lot more and don’t have as cool of haircuts. Actually most of the bands headlining this year’s tour are anything but scene-cut tight pants-ers: the Deftones are all mostly all tubby bastards by now but still bring some shit; Thrice who are also mostly just chilled out dudes hanging back; and Story of the Year who are also just kind of tubby ass regular dudes (but still do the occasional guitar spin jump kick thing but whatever). Also, weird ass bands that aren’t really even all that metal like Dredg and Pelican are playing that shit this year, so no one can even talk shit. If you want tour dates and all the other bullshit, those fuckers just put up the new site here or you can just wait for the next issue of Synthesis fucking Magazine which contains a special Taste of Chaos section, with interviews with Thrice, Silverstein, Dredg, Atreyu and tour founder Kevin Lyman and all kinds of other sweet shit, bro. DO IT