Former Get Up Kids frontman Matt Pryor and Saves the Day frontman Chris Conley (pictured) are stepping out for a couple weeks worth of solo touring. If this tour isn’t called the “Party Like It’s 1999 Tour” someone at Vagrant is BLOWING IT! Here’s the press release:

Matt Pryor (ex. The Get Up Kids, The New Amsterdams) is pleased to announce solo co-headlining tour with Chris Conley of Saves The Day!

A limited number of tickets have been held for Matt Pryor fans and will be available through an exclusive Ducat King presale that begins this Wednesday, June 11, 2008 at 1:00PM local time!

Click here to buy tickets:

Tour Dates:

Aug 6 – Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock
Aug 7 – Omaha, NE @ Waiting Room
Aug 8 – Denver, CO @ Marquis Theater
Aug 9 – Salt Lake City @ Burt’s Tiki Lounge
Aug 11 – Vancouver, BC @ Media Club
Aug 12 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
Aug 13 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
Aug 14 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill
Aug 15 – Reno, NV @ Satellite Lounge
Aug 16 – West Hollywood, CA @ Troubadour
Aug 17 – San Diego, CA @ House of Blues – San Diego
Aug 19 – Anaheim, CA @ Chain Reaction
Aug 20 – Phoenix, AZ @ Modified

Maybe I’ll get around to chiming in on Julie Abra Fischer or EMI cutting 1/3 of its workforce later. I have something even better to tell you about.

Element 115 from Phoenix, AZ. Holy wow.

First, a little background on our Band You’ve Never Heard of Band of the Day. We Synthesis folks have a SonicBids account, and bands hit us in hopes of us writing about them on our blog or in our magazine. Most of these bands are pretty terrible. Real shitty. Shitty, shitty, shitty. Just plain awful. There are some fairly decent bands too, but most of them are only barely so. It’s mostly stinky poo-poos. But, then there are the bands who are really doing something…er, different…who capture the imagination of we bloggers, and rise from among the soiled ranks and into our hearts. Element 115 is one of those bands, and for God’s sake I hope they take that quote and put it at the top of their damn bio.

You should of course have been listening to Element 115 from the link at the top of the page this whole time. If you’re not, please open another window and do so now.

See? Holy wow!

Here’s the rundown:
1. Classic rock style band with original classic rock songs. About cars and aliens.
2. Band leader “Michael” belts out hair-raising hair-rock howls like woah.
3. Their drummer is an alien being that plays with the band live via interstellar video conferencing.
4. Read that last bit again.
5. In full support of Ron Paul (god bless them).
6. Headset mics.
7. No full songs on their page, just clips (no one rides for free…)
8. Dude’s rocking a Gibson Explorer. LEGIT.
9. Bring their own light and stage show.
10. “the band GUARANTEES a memorable event when they play.”
11. LISTEN TO THAT ROCK! FUCKING FUCK!

I’m really honestly confused right now. I am caught between ridiculing this band and genuinely appreciating their cheese factor. Is this infatuation ironic or genuine? I’m not sure! As I’ve been listening to them for an hour straight I imagine I must actually like this band, and God help me. The amount of work that has gone into this band is seriously staggering. It’s just the music is the most mind boggling mix of pop metal and prog-rock, and I bet they have no idea how funny and awesome it is.

I kinda want to join this band.

Seriously out of this world.

Below the jump you will fine the real-time, non edited AIM conversation between me and Editorial Director James Barone about Element 115.

(more…)