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04/21/08 The Rock Nightc... Maplewood
Discography
04/22/08 The Pageant St. Louis 04/23/08 Blue Note Columbia 04/24/08 Cains Ballroom Tulsa 04/25/08 Baton Rouge Riv... Baton Rouge 04/26/08 Cynthia W Mitch... Spring 04/27/08 Pizza Hut Park Frisco 04/29/08 The Social Orlando 04/30/08 Floyds Music St... Tallahassee 05/01/08 State Theater St. Petersburg 05/04/08 Chameleon Lancaster 05/05/08 Mod Club Toronto, CA 05/10/08 Groezrock Festi... Meerhout, BE 05/11/08 Waterfront Rotterdam, AN 05/13/08 Markthalle Hamburg, DE 05/14/08 Oostbahnhof Berlin, DE 05/15/08 Elserhalle Club Munich, DE 05/16/08 Arena Vienna, DE 05/18/08 Volkshaus Zurich, CH 05/20/08 Mean Fiddler London, UK 05/21/08 Academy 2 Birmingham, UK 05/22/08 Academy 2 Manchester, UK 05/23/08 QMU Glasgow, UK 05/25/08 Slamdunk Festiv... Leeds, UK 05/30/08 Tivoli Brisbane 05/31/08 Luna Park Sydney 06/01/08 Billboard/ Afternoon show/ Under 18 Melbourne 06/02/08 Billboard/ Evening Show/ 18+ Melbourne 06/19/08 Warped Tour!!!! ALL DATES!!!! Pomona, California
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Fans of St Louis's Story of the Year will be lining up in line tomorrow to get their much anticipated album, The Black Swan, their debut on legendary punk label Epitaph.
So a little background on SOTY, that they formed in 1995, originally as Big Blue Monkey, but due to conflict with a blues band, they changed their name to SOTY in 2001. Shortly after a huge buzz and a signing deal with Madonna's Maverick label, the group exploded on the alternative punk scene with their debut album Page Avenue (2003).
Sure, you've all seen the album art plastered on store's walls and windows, these guys were huge.
Their sophomore album, In the Wake of Determination (2005), wasn't as successful as their debut (probably due to lack of marketing and promotion), so I am assuming after their contract ran out, they decided to go with a great label as Epitaph that offers the kind of freedom and attention they need.
Surprisingly, the album starts off with a pretty hardcore song "Choose Your Fate", following some British television dialogue. The hardcore song soon gives way to what they're best known for: catchy alternative rock.
The key single is "Wake Up", which was the preceding single for the album. The song is mixed by Chris Lord-Alge, who you may know as mixer for Bad Religion, AFI, and My Chemical Romance. He really has an ear for constantly making the song sound louder and longer and more rocking.
For a second before the album ends with its riff-heavy song called "Welcome to Our New War", you're given this sweet and thoughtful dialogue:
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. Thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. It underscores our responsibility to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot.
Apparently this is a rearranged excerpt from a speech by astronomer Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot". For a complete translation (in its corrected unedited sequence), head over to wikipedia
The Black Swan is out tomorrow at most major record store. You can get additional tracks if you buy it from iTunes (pre-order). Story of the Year is also in the middle of a very long tour, chances are, they are headed to your town soon.
04/21/2008 22:51:18 vu my♥posts 
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