“It is with great regret that DragonForce announce a parting of the ways with singer ZP Theart” the band said in a statement.” This is due to insurmountable differences of musical opinion but the rest of the band sincerely wishes ZP great success with his future projects.”

Let’s face it, the old vocalist was boring as hell anyway. His voice wasn’t unique, and anyone that has some range in their voice could probably do a better job. This is a good opportunity for Dragonforce to step up their game and make some interesting music again.

Anyone that wants to audition can go to their website and download a backing track to sing over. Then they upload it to YouTube, and you could be chosen as their next vocalist. It also might help if you have an eccentric name, long hair and look slightly overweight as well.

Pink Floyd who are most known for their album The Dark Side Of The Moon and other top-selling albums claims that the contract it has with EMI only allows their music to be sold as a whole album, not individual tracks of which are being distributed via iTunes.

The band’s attorney, Robert Howe, told a London court on Tuesday, “It’s a matter of fact that the defendant has been permitting individual tracks to be downloaded online and that therefore they have been allowing albums not to be sold in their original configuration,” Business Week reported.

Pink Floyd, however, pointed out that there was more at stake than royalties in the internet age. The psychedelic-music band’s musical craft is being misrepresented when sold in singles, Howe said.

You can see their point. The Dark Side of The Moon just isn’t the same if you only listen to a select few tracks from it. You really have to listen to a Pink Floyd album from start to finish to hear the seamless song transitions between them.

“Pink Floyd is well-known for performing seamless pieces. Many of the songs blend into each other,” Howe told the High Court of Justice, Chancery Division.

Their record label EMI told the court that the restrictions do not apply to online sales because iTunes didn’t even exist in 1999 when the bands latest contract was written, said EMI attorney Elizabeth Jones.

So let me get this straight; if EMI are illegally distributing Pink Floyd’s music contrary to the contract which I believe still applies to iTunes even if it didn’t exist when the contract was drafted, they’re infringing on the bands copyrights.

Seems a little hypocritical if you ask me considering EMI has been suing students and other people for the same thing. In some rulings it has been up to $80,000 per infringing song. Why should EMI be exempt if they’re ripping off an artist by breaking a legally binding distribution contract that is in place?

Of course record labels want you to keep infringing copyrights and downloading music, regardless of seeing the band in concert or buying their merchandise. Music pirating is the only way record labels and recording industry groups are making money these days from consumers, not record sales. Keep in mind that hardly any artist ever sees any profit from an album release, the money goes back to the label because much like a bank, they lent the artist the money to make the album and expect it back which often will take years.

Music industry fat-cats don’t want you to stop downloading their music, because they know without downloaders they will have no one to sue and get exorbitant amounts of money out of. It’s almost comical the amount of money they will try and get out of a file-sharer by claiming the infringer is the sole reason that a particular artist isn’t making any money and causing the music industry to further decline.

When will labels and lobbyists realise the Internet is really the only way to make money these days? And the Internet will continue to do so for many years to come until something better replaces it.

The singer made the revelations in an interview with Brazilian TV show Fantastico where he admitted things were moving along faster than expected. Most likely due to the fact they found another artist (probably lesser known) to rip melodies from.

Asked when the follow-up to “Viva La Vida” will see the light of day, Martin responded: “Hopefully this Christmas.”

However, Chris Martin said there was little chance of the record leaking early.

“There are only two people in the whole building who know how to open all the recording files,” he explained. “Even we don’t know how to do it. We couldn’t even steal our own music. You would have to be a computer genius and a great burglar to get into the building, and download it, and mix it.”

Which most likely means the files are inside of a password protected .zip file. The password is most likely something along the lines of, “satriani” or “ificouldfly”, but this is only speculation. So if you get your hands on the .zip file, you’ve got Joe Satriani’s Coldplay’s new album.

Having not really heard much of their previous material, I decided that it is only fair I go back and listen to their previous material before reviewing “Good Morning, Magpie” – and I must say that this album is different compared to their previous western inspired rock opera albums, and also because this isn’t another concept album like the previous releases.

Firstly, Adam Turla (singer & songwriter) of the band really inspires and impresses me. This guy wrote most of the new material during two weeks he spent alone deep in the woods of Appalachia with just a tent, a fishing pole, a guitar, and a lot of paper. That alone in itself should be enough to make any music fan want to give this album at least one listen.

The album starts off with two drinking inspired tracks with whiskey in the song titles, which makes you kind of want a whiskey after listening to them. Each and every track on this album is veraciously pieced together, to create 40 minutes of dark, upbeat and sometimes disconsolate music. Once again there is the theme of dark vs light in some tracks, but there are also some songs that have a personal feel to them as well.

On the Dark Streets Below is definitely one of Good Morning, Magpie’s upbeat sounding songs complete with smooth jazz piano, bass, prominent tambourine and even some horns thrown in which makes this track fun and exciting to listen to.

Piece By Piece, is a sorrowful track that kind of sounds similar to Murder By Death’s previous material – as does the title track Good Morning, Magpie. Although resembling material from Who Will Survive and What Will Become of Them? these songs are still very much on a different level.

You Don’t Miss Twice is a humorous track with awesome catchy percussion that paints the picture of people hitting trash can lids, and pots and pans with spoons in your head, Turla can he heard saying “you don’t miss twice when you’re shaving with a knife.” Foxglove is another upbeat track with prominent cello that is obviously about a girl.

As the album draws closer to the end, track 10 of 11 “White Noise” comes out of nowhere and I really dig this track. It has the trademark Murder By Death dark and dreary, yet somehow upbeat sound. I absolutely love the guitar tones and riffs as well, with deep but not overpowering heavy bass-line in the background. This track is easily the best track on this album and towards the end of this song it starts to crescendo, then stops making space for the next and final track on the album.

The ending track on Good Morning, Magpie – “The Day” is once again upbeat musically (certainly not the lyrics though), I am fairly certain it is talking about the world coming to a end and everything starting over again. Overall this album is both lyrically and musically amazing, and some their best work to date. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Good Morning, Magpie will be released on Vagrant Records, April 6th, 2010.

In a recent interview with Spin.com, Deftones front-man Chino Moreno had this to say about the upcoming CD:

“The dynamics Deftones are known for — aggressive overtones and lush openness. They’re on opposite sides of the spectrum, but we meld them together without sounding contrived. There are a few heavy songs, too, like our first couple records, and there are also experimental tunes — but there’s not a minute on this record that feels like it doesn’t need to be there. Each sound complements the other. I’ll straight-up say it: it’s definitely one of our best albums.”

Regarding he lyrical direction of the new album, Moreno said:

“Well, I’ve been wanting to record a fantasy album like ‘White Pony’, where the lyrics are less, ‘This is my life and this is what we’re going through.’ It helps take us away from reality. I don’t like listening to people’s problems — I like music. Music has been smothered with that complaining since the early-’90s. It gets old. Instead of going to the opposite side of the spectrum and listening to Black Eyed Peas, which is just straight silly, I choose to listen to more instrumental music.

“I do very little singing about myself on this record. I love songs where I can totally take myself out of being human. I can sing about really odd things, and they don’t necessarily have to pertain to me at all. It paints a picture. Those are the kind of lyrics I grew up with — like The Cure. Really visual images and no storytelling.”

Of Mice & Men’s debut self-titled album is probably the most highly anticipated release of 2010, that every hardcore loving kid with his spiked leather belt and converse shoes will surely be buying (or downloading) when it is released March 9th, 2010. I have been anticipating this album myself, and finally, I got to rest my ears upon this album of hard hitting intensity.

Those expecting another Attack! Attack! just because Austin Carlile (the old vocalist of Attack! Attack!) is fronting this band I think you better look elsewhere. Any similarities between Of Mice & Men and Attack! Attack! are purely Austin’s unique distorted screaming, and that is that. You won’t hear any auto-tune and keyboard orgies on this album.

One thing that stands out about this album is the exceptional clean vocals from Shayley Bourget (formerly of Covette and Chapters). Sure, other bands that are in the same or similar genres have clean vocals, but Shayley brings to the table unique and interesting clean vocals that sound amazing (and mostly without excessive use of auto-tune). Listen to the beginning of the track, “This One’s For You” to hear Shayley’s amazing vocals.

Of Mice & Men’s self-titled has many good things going for it; and although great, it still suffers from the same issues that plague most other bands in this genre, repetitiveness. There are a few tracks that sound a bit too repetitive for my liking, but I still like them anyway. Another thing is although Austin has a unique screaming style, his monotone and somewhat limited scream range seems to hold almost all of the songs back, making the whole album sound like one massive track.

Listen to the track, “This One’s For You” (the ending breakdown), Austin screams for what seems like forever (15 seconds), I got chills hearing him hold that scream every time I listen to it. Although Austin has an enormous set of lungs on him, the screaming gets a bit too much sometimes; the music doesn’t really get to breath and I think Shayley should have had more singing parts as well, it makes for a good change instead of migraine-inducing screams.

Besides the repetitiveness and the screaming getting a bit too much at times, this album is absolutely bad-ass and I’ve enjoyed listening to it repeatedly many times now. The production quality is second-to-none, with not a single instrument sounding out of place or too loud, although the guitars are pretty compressed. The lead guitar riffs are captivating, breakdowns fierce and vocals intense (but after a while overwhelming), repetitiveness is heavy, so basically everything you could ever ask for in a post-hardcore, metalcore record.

Conclusion

Buy this album when it comes out, you will not be disappointed. Seriously. Stand out tracks on this album are pretty much all of them, but definitely; YDG, This One’s For You, Those in Glass Houses and They Don’t Call It The South For Nothing.

Replacing My Chemical Romance (as we already mentioned in our previous post) is none other than the awesome band that is Jimmy Eat World (JEW). While the circumstances might be not-so-good for MCR fans, people who have been requesting and painfully waiting for JEW to play Soundwave Festival for years now (including myself) have something to celebrate.

It seems to me that JEW were chosen to play Soundwave Festival out of desperation for another big name act, because reportedly the reason Jimmy Eat World have never made a Soundwave Festival appearance is due to them asking for too much money to play.

See below for the official press release regarding the matter:

MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE regretfully announce that they have been forced to cancel all upcoming engagements, including their appearance at The Soundwave Festival in Australia.

Singer Gerard Way has been having severe vocal problems and is under doctor’s advisement to forgo the tour in order to receive treatment for his throat and vocal chords and protect their long-term use.

“We are really sorry that we’ve had to cancel this tour, and apologise for any inconvenience it has caused,” says singer Way. “The last thing we ever want to do is cancel shows, but we’ll be back to Australia to make it up to the fans as soon as possible.”

Patrons holding tickets to the MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE show at the Big Top, Luna Park on Thu 25 Feb are advised to contact their point of purchase to arrange a full refund of their tickets.

Soundwave would like to thank the ever brilliant JIMMY EAT WORLD who are interrupting their recording schedule in order to replace MCR on this year’s Soundwave bill.

JIMMY EAT WORLD have consistently held the number 1 spot as the most requested band by Soundwave fans (and staff!) and we look forward to having them on the festival after so many years of trying!

We are also thrilled to announce that JIMMY EAT WORLD will now join the already massive sideshow of GLASSJAW, SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE, MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK AND RX BANDITS.

TUESDAY 23 FEBRUARY SYDNEY, UNSW ROUNDHOUSE – Licensed All Ages
www.ticketek.com.au 132 849

THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY MELBOURNE, PALACE THEATRE – 18+
www.ticketek.com.au 132 849

Here is the announcement from the band themselves along with dates:

We are happy to announce we’ll be performing at Soundwave Festival 2010, and we’re especially excited about the two side shows we’ll be playing with Sunny Day Real Estate. Check out the dates below!

SAT 20 February – Brisbane, Soundwave Festival
SUN 21 February – Sydney, Soundwave Festival
TUES 23 February – Sydney, UNSW Roundhouse
THURS 25 February – Melbourne, Palace Theatre
FRI 26 February – Melbourne, Soundwave Festival
SAT 27 February – Adelaide, Soundwave Festival
MON 1 March – Perth, Soundwave Festival

There are going to be a lot of refunds; but at least the absence of My Chemical Romance (if true) will help reduce the population of 14 year old Emo kids who think My Chemical Romance is the best band in the world.