While You Were Away: New Music From Grandson And Amity Affliction, Plus So What?! 2023 Lineup And More
Kick off your week with the latest edition of While You Were Away featuring grandson, The Amity Affliction, So What?! Festivals, and more.
The Amity Affliction announce new album ‘Not Without My Ghosts,’ share new single
The Amity Affliction have announced their new album Not Without My Ghosts, which is due out on May 12th via Pure Noise. In anticipation of its release, the band shared their new single “It’s Hell Down Here.”
“This song is a letter from myself and Ahren [Stringer], written by me, to our friends who have passed on to the other side,” says vocalist Joel Birch.
“I’m 41. I’m bipolar. And I’m pretty tired of it. That’s where lyrics like, ‘Like a snake I tire / The cold dark clouds, they steal my light’ come from. The song is wrapping up how I feel daily, and reflect on the time leading up to my friend killing himself. I’m sure a lot of people who have experienced that guilt at not seeing what becomes glaringly obvious after the fact.”
Listen to it below.
The album also features previously released singles “Show Me Your God” and “I See Dead People” featuring Louie Knuxx. Pre-orders can be found here.
grandson releases Tool-inspired song ‘Drones’
grandson has shared the lead single “Drones” off his recently announced second album I Love You, I’m Trying, which drops May 5th via Fueled By Ramen.
Talking about the song, grandson called the song as a “twisting, spiraling journey through the lies we tell ourselves to get through the day when the hard truth may bury us.” He added, “I wanted to pay homage to bands like Tool and System of a Down known for unpredictable time signatures but bring 808s and hip-hop into it.”
Listen to it below.
grandson also spoke about the follow-up to 2020’s Death of an Optimist: “This is the album that 16-year-old me needed. This is the album I was scared to write and the album fans of mine deserve to hear. Above all this is the album where I face a big question: Can I handle the changes life throws at me, and if this all that there is to life, can it be enough to be happy?”
Pre-order it here.
The Used, Pierce the Veil, Sleeping With Sirens, and Thursday headline So What?! 2023
So What?! festival has revealed its stacked lineup for 2023. The two-day festival – now managed by Third String Entertainment and Disco Donnie Presents – takes place June 24th and 25th at Dallas’ Fair Park featuring headliners The Used, Pierce the Veil, Sleeping With Sirens, and Thursday, who will perform War All the Time from start to finish.
Other acts on the bill include Woe, Is Me, The Color Morale, Forever the Sickest Kids, Head Automatic, Neck Deep, Don Broco, Saosin, Scary Kids Scaring Kids, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Upon a Burning Body, Girlfriends, We the Kings, ’68, Alesana, He Is Legend, Poorstacy, and more.
Check out the full lineup below.
Disco Donnie says, “I’ve kept an eye on Mike and Orlando [Mendoza]’s success at Third String Entertainment for a long time – it’s amazing what they’ve accomplished so far. We’ve always talked about working together and saw this year as the perfect opportunity. I see a lot of myself in Mike & Orlando. At the end of the day I believe this partnership will help develop the So What?! Music Festival and Unsilent Night brands to their full potential. I also think they can teach us a lot, as well.”
So What?! co-founder Mike Ziemer adds, “I think the overall experience for both artists and fans will be the best it’s ever been this year. Just like us, Donnie takes pride in making sure no corners are cut with both and seeing the way he has brought so many great festivals to life is inspiring. His festivals always incorporate well thought out activations and interactive art and other things that we would love to begin including in ours.”
Get tickets here.
Fall Out Boy call back to an old music video in ‘Hold Me Like A Grudge’
Fall Out Boy‘s new album So Much (For) Stardust dropped last week and to celebrate the band released their new music video for “Hold Me Like A Grudge.”
The video is actually a continuation of 2007’s “This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race” in an alternate timeline where Pete Wentz stage dives and breaks his leg. 20 years later he’s a bionic man who’s “twice as fast as The Flash.”
He breaks down the video for Kerrang! saying “this video starts at Arms Race, and I fall and I break my leg, and then they fix my leg but it’s bionic, and I become a superhero for 20 years, and we don’t do the band, and it’s a different timeline. We get a call from a guy who’s in the future but the past, and the space-time continuum is broken, and so I go and find Patrick, who’s a local wrestler (laughs) who’s in this amazing muscle suit – which was a role he designed!”
Watch the video below.
Tours on sale this week
Mudvayne recently announced the “Psychotherapy Sessions” summer tour, marking their first outing in 14 years. Featuring special guests Coal Chamber, GWAR, Nonpoint, and Butcher Babies the tour starts July 20th in West Plam Beach, Florida and runs through August 26th in Englewood, California. Get details here.
The Original Misfits will play three shows this summer featuring rotating support from Megadeth, The Gaslight Anthem, AFI, and Fear. The shows take place June 24th at the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa, Florida (with Megadeth and Fear as support); July 8th at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey (with The Gaslight Anthem and Fear); and July 15th at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre in Phoenix, Arizona (with AFI and Fear). Tickets are on sale now.
The Offspring will hit the road with Sum 41 and Simple Plan this summer on the “Let the Bad Times Roll Tour,” which kicks off August 1st in Auburn, Washington, and wraps up September 3rd in Mansfield, Massachusetts. Tickets are available here.
Polyphia have expanded their North American tour with a fall leg with support from DOMi & JD Beck. The tour starts September 30th in Oklahoma City and runs through November 3rd in San Antonio, Texas. Get all the details here.
