When our good friends Emery recently announced they were ending their run with Switchfoot and Athlete on the TWLOHA-sponsored Up In Arms Tour a few weeks early, internet naysayers had the rumor mill working overtime. But the band put all rumors as to their demise to rest today with the announcement that they will be joining up with longtime musical cohort Aaron Gillespie on his last tour with The Almost before devoting his attention to Underoath full time for awhile. Here’s the announcement:

We are extremely excited to announce that we will be joining The Almost for their US tour in May and June. We’ve known Aaron for some time, and since our 2007 Australian tour with Underoath was such a good time, we know we had to go out with him again. We will be joined on this tour by Envy on the Coast and Army of Me. We could not be more excited about this tour. Please check back as more shows are announced. We’ll see you soon. Love - EMERY

Also joining them on this tour will be long lost Synthesis blogger Trevor Digby Sellers. Write to him on his Myspace and tell him to start putting his iPhone to use by writing some damn blogs. Tour dates after the jump:

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I’m going to be perfectly honest here, I haven’t showered in five days, and I stink. I’m usually pretty clean, but there have been a lack of showers so far on this tour. Even if there were a shower somewhere I probably wouldn’t have time to use it. Usually it’s hurry up and wait, but lately it’s been hurry up and hurry some more. I’ve been damn busy now that my workload has doubled, but I’m not complaining, I’m just adjusting. This tour is a different kind of situation. We have an entirely different crew than the last time around, so my time is spent teaching the new guys the routine of everything and trying to remember some things myself. We also have a bus full of people, 13 to be exact, and that is a slightly difficult thing to get used to all in itself. Tonight is the third night of tour, and as of yet, the coldest. It’s around 20 degrees and snowing like crazy here at the infamous Metro in Chicago. I really didn’t get to see much of Nashville or Columbus due to me being busy and tired, and the same will most likely happen again tonight. On top of the previously mentioned excuses, we’re in a slightly ghetto area, about a block away from Wrigley Field, and the only exciting places I’ve seen all day are a Starbucks and a hot dog stand, maybe I’ll get lucky and Steve Albini will come by and want to get a drink and hang out.

Newport Music Hall wall of fame

soundcheck

Meet and greet behind the scenes

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:

Charleston, South Carolina is…. pretty damn nice right now.  I thought I was going to leave my dreary, rainy town of Chico, CA to come to an even rainier, colder and much more depressing place, but I was completely wrong.  This town is amazing.  It’s been sunny and warm; the locals have been out walking the town, enjoying life, not too bad in my book.  When we’re not in downtown Charleston rehearsing we’ve been spending time at a vacationers dream beach house.  I am literally twenty feet from the ocean, and it’s beautiful.  The days have been long, but surprisingly stress free, despite all preparing we need to do.  Besides the flaming amplifier everything has been routine for me.  The band, on the other hand, has decided to practice songs they haven’t played in over year the day before the first show, but everything is sounding great.  I’m sure some sort of last minute detail will need to be worked out, but we’ll tackle that when it comes up.  Tomorrow I get to visit my second home, and the town where my car resides, Nashville, Tennessee.

view from our back porch.

seagull feeding

rehearsal