In an interview with the LA Times, freelance writer David Peisner claims that his controversial reviews of NAS and The Black Crowes in Maxim were assigned to him as previews, with the star-ratings and review context added after he had turned them in:

“I’m a freelance writer. I was assigned to write previews of the Black Crowes and Nas albums. I did that. When the issue came out, the previews were laid out as reviews complete with star ratings. I never at any point or to anyone claimed to have heard these albums in their entirety. Whatever decisions Maxim made after I turned in my work were beyond my control.”

Of course Black Crowes manager Peter Angelus had little sympathy for Peisner:

“There’s no accountability for Dave Peisner, editor James Kaminsky or Maxim magazine. They issued a partial apology to their readership, but no apology directly to the artist whose work they denigrated without having heard more than one song, while attempting to pass it off as an album review. I think Peisner’s claim is absurd. He wrote a review of music that he never heard, he disparaged both the band and the material. He said, ‘It hasn’t left Chris Robinson and the gang much room for growth,’ and yet now he’s going to attempt to pass off his actions on Maxim? Absurd.”

I’d like to congratulate both NAS and The Black Crowes for getting so much mileage out of what amounts to common knowledge. OMG A REVIEWER FROM MAXIM TALKS OUT OF HIS ASS!!??? Cue the crocodile tears is five, four…. Brings new meaning to the phrase, no press is bad press! Not to mention when was the last time Maxim was talked about by anyone beyond 18 year dudes who just got out of high school but don’t have enough balls to subscribe to Playboy? This is a win-win situation for everybody. Now excuse me while I write my scathing reviews of Guns ‘N’ Roses Chinese Democracy and Coldplay’s Prospekt. Coming soon to Synthesis.net

Even if you don’t like metal (and who doesn’t, these days?) you still have to love Killswitch Engage. They write some of the heaviest riffs known to man and have some of the most pissed vocals anywhere, but they are still at heart, a bunch of nerds and pussycats. Last time I saw them live guitarist (and increasingly legendary producer)  Adam D was running around in a cape and his boxer shorts. Frontman Howard Jones may look like an NFL linebacker, but in person he’s the kind of guy you want to sit around and drink coffee with and talk about Star Trek. He seemed like he’d definitely have an opinion about Kirk vs. Picard (I’m gonna go with Picard). In an interview with Adam D a couple years back I asked him about the seemingly dichotomous nature of his band’s sound and demeanor and this is what he had to say:

I hate the whole thing within the metal community, where it’s like “Dude, since we’re so hard onstage, we’re gonna be awesome.” I think that whole mentality has kind of died away with all the stupid leather pants and longhair and the [assumes Viking of Death Metal tone] “Yahhhh we’re tough and blah, blah, blah.” I’m just so easygoing, I just don’t give a shit what anyone thinks.

Well there you have it.  I bring this up, not just for the fuck of it, but because the band annouced today a new string of tour dates this spring, with a couple other fairly badass bands, Poison the Well and Throwdown, that will be gracing the middle parts of America and Canada. If you’re a kid in Milwaukee and you don’t go to this show, you’re drinking too much Pabst bro! Here’s the press release:

Killswitch Engage continue to cement their reputation as road warriors. After wrapping up their successful, sold out winter tour, the Massachusetts band has just announced another spate of tour dates that will find the band hitting several Midwest locations as well as cutting a path all over Canada. The two-week tour, featuring Throwdown, Poison The Well and The End as support acts, kicks off on May 10 and runs through May 29.

Below are the tour dates and locations. Pre-sale for fan club members begins today. Pre-sale for all fans begins Monday, March 3rd at Noon EST. Regular on-sale tickets can be purchased beginning March 6.

May 10 – The Sound Academy – Toronto, ONT   (On Sale 3/6)
May 11 – Elements Night Club – Kitchener, ONT   (On Sale 3/7)
May 13 – Capitole du Quebec – Quebec City, QUE   (On Sale 3/6)
May 14 – The Metropolis – Montreal, QUE   (On Sale 3/6)
May 16 – The Orbit Room – Grand Rapids, MI   (On Sale 3/7)
May 17 – Rock On The Range Festival – Columbus, OH   (Radio show)
May 18 – Point Fest – St. Louis, MO   (Radio show)
May 19 – The Eagles Club – Milwaukee, WI   (On Sale 3/8)
May 20 – Val Air Ballroom – Des Moines, IA   (On Sale 3/7)
May 22 – Community Auditorium – Thunder Bay, ONT   (On Sale 3/8)
May 23 – Burton Cummings – Winnipeg, MAN   (On Sale, 3/7)
May 24 – Odeon Events Centre – Saskatoon, SAS   (On Sale, 3/8)
May 26 – Edmonton Events Center – Edmonton, AB   (On Sale, 3/8)
May 27 – MacEwan Hall Ballroom – Calgary, AB   (On Sale, 3/8)
May 29 – Croatian Cultural Center – Vancouver, BC   (On Sale, 3/7)

Being born and raised in California, I always had kind of a skewed view of the rural South. I thought everyone in the South not living in Atlanta, Orlando, Nashville or one of the other metropolitan cities out there still flew Confederate flags, talked about Yankees and plucked banjos with thumbpicks made out of their old teeth. But once I started to get into music, I started to notice that most of the raddest, most original bands were coming out of spots like Kentucky, the Florida Panhandle, and South Carolina, the last of which is home to possibly my personal favorite out of this crop of new Southern Rockers: Emery. Besides being one of the best live bands on the planet, Emery are possibly the NICEST band ever. So nice that they took my shitty band on tour this summer and showed me how awesome the South is firsthand, making me feel like a complete douche for ever harboring my Deliverance-esque fears of the old Confederacy. Having interviewed the band a few times myself over the years, I was glad to hand over the reigns to the always agreeable Video Matt in the hopes that him and the Emery boys could have a Nice-Off while chatting about the band’s new record, I’m Only a Man which is in stores now, and their current headlining tour across the US. Watch the video interview above and see if you can see who defeated who for the crown of King of Nice (my vote goes to Devin) then check out the live footage from that same show over at our YouTube channel. Then go buy all their records, become their biggest fan and send me a thank you letter.

Godcore luminaries, and one of my personal favorite bands, Underoath announced yesterday that they are currently finishing up the writing for the follow up to 2006’s Define the Great Line, and are planning on entering the studio next month to begin tracking:

So we’re less than a month away from going into the studio! It feels just like it was yesterday when we recorded Define the Great Line. I’m having a lot of fun writing this record. It’s one of our heaviest things we’ve ever done, and at the same time really experimental. A few months ago I felt like this record would be the least we’ve changed in a while. It seemed that for the first time we were going into a record we hadn’t been dissatisfied with our previous effort, and therein had no predisposition toward alienating ourselves from it. I look back at Define the Great Line and wouldn’t change a thing artistically, and although I feel a sense of achievement to have finally made a piece of art that I wouldn’t have changed years later, it also opens up new pressures of matching or exceeding what has already been done. I think our new record is going to be less of a attempt to disassociate the 24 year old men we are now from the 22 year old men we once were, but rather embracing what creativity we have and expanding on it with new influences and new experiences. I’m super pumped to see Matt’s new studio, and to work with Adam and Matt again. It will be a really fun experience.

Adam and Matt are of course producers, Adam D and Matt Goldman, the production team from Define the Great Line and a big reason why that record has scanned upwards of 500,000 copies since its release. Someone at Wikipedia is claiming the new record will be titled “I Am the Culprit” but that shit is highly doubtful since Wikipedia is made mostly of FAIL. Read an interview I did with Underoath frontman Spencer Chamberlain in the music archives and see for yourself just how hard I jock this band. Seriously.

Photo by Jeff Shaner, 1337 shooping by Daniel Taylor

I just got done watching our latest videos we just put up on our Synthesis Brand Channel on YouTube and, sorry to blow my own horn here, but we are O.S.S.!! (That’s “on some shit” for you n00bs.) Check it out, suckers…
MACWORLD 2008 CHAPTER 2

ADULT ENTERTAINMENT EXPO 2008 CHAPTER 1

There must be something in the water in Chicago because those cats are outspoken. It’s like someone decided that the mouthiest rappers should all come from one place. What the hell is going on over there?

Exhibit A: The “Fiascogate”: Lupe gets asked to cover a couple Tribe Called Quest songs for the VH1 Hip Hop Honors Show where he proceeds to mess up a couple of the lyrics. He then posts a couple blogs about how he never grew up listening to ATCQ, but did it because Q-tip is his friend and he asked him to do it. He goes on to say that it kinda pisses him off because he has to “pretend” he listened to their albums, when he never really did. He claims Westcoast gangsta rap was what he grew up on. Weird, because pretty much everyone agrees that Lupe Fiasco’s music runs in the same vein as backpack rap, with a style so similar to ATCQ that Q-Tip and VH1 thought it appropriate to ask Lupe if he’d cover their songs during the show.

This triggers a mess of response from the rap community. One from Q-Tip himself:

“All that stuff he said about never listening to a Tribe album before and having no interest in doing so, it doesn’t make sense to me. As I said on the show itself, it was listening to N.W.A’s Straight Outta Compton that inspired us to make [1991's] The Low End Theory, and years later I spoke to Dr. Dre and he told me that hearing The Low End Theory inspired him to make The Chronic. That’s what music does. That’s what artists do, they seek out information of all kinds.”

Served.

Exhibit B: Kanye West is also known for being on the mouthy side. Like when he got all mad about not winning the Video of the Year for “Touch The Sky” at the 2006 MTV Europe Awards:

In a tirade riddled with expletives, West said he should have won the prize for his video “Touch The Sky,” because it “cost a million dollars, Pamela Anderson was in it. I was jumping across canyons.” -MSNBC

Don’t get me wrong, Kanye puts out some bumpin’ albums. I listened to The College Dropout on repeat for probably about a month, but damn, that guy talks a lot of shit. Here’s his backstage meltdown. It’s also interesting that he took on the cartoonish gangsta 50 Cent, and challenged him to album-sales duel. More fuel to the fire.

Exhibit C: Shala of Qualo (another Chicago rap group) sits somewhere in the grey area between gangsta and backpack. But even in the middle, there’s room to run your mouth. This guy has enough balls to come-with-it in a CNN interview like blaaaow:

SHALA: What I’m saying is I refer to hos as hos, bitches as bitches, women as women, queens and queens, racist as racist, black men as black men, niggas as niggas. People are — you refer to people as they represent themselves and that is America and that is the world and that’s what people do.
MARTIN: So, if somebody said…
SHALA: So, you’re kind of putting words in my mouth.

In truth, they’re all just trying to keep it gully, mayne. Chicago is blowing up in terms of real talk. Those rappers are loud, but honest. And even if the dialogue isn’t exactly well thought-out, it brings attention to the new things happening in the rap scene. And besides, it’s a free country. You will be heard, Chicago.