I was lurking at Hawthorne Heights Myspace page today and I noticed that the big promo pic at the top was shot right here in good ol’ Chico, in Upper Bidwell Park, known around here as simply Upper Park. It seems like the last year or so Upper Park has been in more many emo band pics as Paul Frank. First there’s the cover of the new Saves The Day record, Under The Boards, which makes sense since STD frontman Chris Conley has been known to lurk around these parts:

Then there’s also the video for Number One Gun’s “Wake Me Up,” which makes a lot of sense, since Number One Gun aka Jeff Schneeweis live right here in Chico. In fact, if you look hard enough at that Hawthorne pic you can see a couple pieces of that door that Jeff smashes at around the 3:12 mark in the video, still kicking it on the hillside thar. Wake Me Up, moar liek PICK IT UP AMIRITE?? KEEP BIDWELL PARK BEYOUTEEFUL!!!1

UPDATE: It turns out that the backdrop in the above Hawthorne pic is actually the cover art for their new CD, Fragile Futures.

On the heels of today’s earlier announcement that Hawthorne Heights had dropped its suit against Victory Records and would be releasing their next full-length August 5th, the band has posted a clip of a new song called “Rescue Me” on their Myspace. If you’re just guessing who produced Fragile Futures, you can, and should notice the way the letters in this post look.

Since Brittany already stole the band I was gonna write about today (the ultra radtacular Nothing Ever Stays ) I had to think fast. Luckily, Trevor’s post earlier today reminded me that tomorrow is the first day of the continent-crossing Emery tour, which also features, As Cities Burn, Mayday Parade, Pierce the Veil and, today’s Synthesis Band You’ve Never Heard Of….OF THE DAY!!!111: Cry of the The Afflicted.

Cry of the Afflicted first came to my attention when they were here in Chico recording their debut full length with local music / RC Plane / Halo legend Jeff Schneeweis (who also, coincidentally, recorded Nothing Ever Stay’s new EP as well…dude is on the GRIND). Hailing from British Colombia, the land of world-class trout fishing and beautiful white women, COTA rock some melodic alt-medal ala Saosin, Stutterfly, etc. Their aforementioned full-length, The Unveiling, came out this past August on Tooth and Nail subsidiary Solid State records, and features the requisite creepy ambiguous artwork.

Check them out on Myspace, or better yet, check them out in person on the following dates:

If you make it out to a show, keep an eye out for our correspondent, Mr. Trevor Sellers, and tell him you want him to BLOG MOAR: