Having had the pleasure of sitting down with Buddy Neilsen and the rest of Senses Fail numerous times over the years, I definitely have something of a soft spot for the band. And especially now that Heath Saraceno formerly of Midtown is in the mix, they’ve definitely taken their sound up a couple of notches; their most recent full length, Still Searching was, in my opinion, their strongest release to date, and hopefully the first of many more to come. To that end, the band announced today that their next record, Life Is Not a Waiting Room will be hitting stores later this fall. Here’s the release:

June 25, 2008 - SENSES FAIL announces an October 7 release for Life Is Not A Waiting Room (Vagrant), their third full-length and follow up to 2006’s Still Searching. Brian McTernan (Hot Water Music, Thrice) produced the twelve-track set at his Salad Days studio in Baltimore, MD.

“There is a real sense of urgency in the songs we’ve been writing,” singer James “Buddy” Nielsen stated previously. “The songs have a lot of grit and power and remind me of how I felt when we wrote From The Depths of Dreams.”

Nielsen, along with guitarists Garrett Zablocki and Heath Saraceno and drummer Dan Trapp, were joined in the studio by bassist Jason Black (Hot Water Music, The Draft).

The band will be unveiling more pre-release details and their fall touring plans in the coming weeks.

Fans that stop by the Vagrant tent after July 16 during this summer’s Vans Warped Tour can pick up the free Vagrant Summer Sampler that features “Ali For Cody,” from Life Is Not A Waiting Room.

The New Jersey-based group formed six years ago and released their debut EP, From the Depths of Dreams, in 2002. 2004’s Let It Enfold You was followed by Still Searching, which debuted at #15 on the Billboard Top 200 chart. Senses Fail has performed multiple worldwide tours and their catalog sales have reached over 850,000.

Life Is Not A Waiting Room track listing:
1. Fireworks At Dawn
2. Chandelier
3. Lungs Like Gallows
4. Family Tradition
5. Hair Of The Dog
6. Garden State
7. Four Years
8. Ali For Cody
9. Yellow Angels
10. Wolves At The Door
11. Map The Streets
12. Blackout

So after a series of sold-out dates in Chicago, HWM have added some dates. The majority happen to be in Europe, but what’s this? They’re playing Bamboozle Left? With the likes of Sacramento/Reno legends 7 Seconds? And Alkaline Trio? In California? Holy shit balls!

Bamboozle Left takes place over April 5th and 6th in Irvine, CA and features a ton of bands. Most of the bands range from pretty shitty (i.e. Armor For Sleep, Chiodos, Goldfinger, Pierce The Veil, Reel Big Fish, H2O) to really shitty (i.e. An Angle, All-American Rejects, Bayside, Finch, New Found Glory, Paramore, Story of the Year, The Starting Line, MxPx, Blaqk Audio, My Chemical Romance, From First to Last), some of the bands are worth seeing (though I’m not sure I would want to pay the price to see a select few bands).

Hot Water top the list of bands worth seeing, a list that includes The Forecast, Alkaline Trio, Face To Face, Rx Bandits, Saves The Day, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and 7 Seconds.

If they could just put all those bands on a separate day, I’d spring for the ticket and the trip down south.

OKAY:

So that was a lot of info just to get to my main point: Hot Water Music is playing April 6th, while their European tour doesn’t start for a month. What are they going to do with all that time? Well, since they’re already going to be in California, why not add some West Coast dates?!

Oh, baby…

Holy shit! As reported in a leaked Alt Press feature story with HWM bassist Jason Black, Hot Water Music is getting back together…permanently. And even though it was only a year and a half ago that the band appeared to be splintered for good, with both offshoots the Draft, and Chuck Ragan’s solo album Feast Or Famine just dropping to critical acclaim, it seems you can’t keep a good band down.
Thank the maker that finally, a band with some balls can lay claim to the fucking empire. There are already tentative tour dates, and it’s rumored that vocalists Chuck Ragan and Chris Wollard are chewing bits of glass and swallowing fire to get back into the swing of things.

I think I just peed a little…