Rockstar Energy Drink Taste Of Chaos Festival Announced

Last year marked the Rockstar Energy Drink Taste of Chaos festival’s return to Southern California after a five year break. Now, for the second year in a row, the festival will return to San Bernadino, CA on Saturday, July 16th at the San Manuel Amphitheater Festival Grounds.

This year’s lineup includes Dashboard Confessional, Taking Back Sunday, Quicksand, The Get Up Kids, The Starting Line, Saosin with Anthony Green, Senses Fail, The Early November, The Anniversary, Hot Rod Circuit, and Reggie and the Full Effect. In addition, the festival will also include food trucks, craft beer, carnival rides, a vendor village and more!

Information regarding tickets can be found below!

Kinda Go to Pieces | Matt Pryor

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Review: Wrist Slitter | Matt Pryor

Matt Pryor’s sabbatical (of sorts) from music in 2012 was an interesting and introspective move on his behalf. After nearly two decades of writing and touring, an exhausted Pryor decided to hang it up and focus on his family.

But that didn’t last long. (I don’t mean the family part. I’m sure the dude is still a hell of a dad.)

After a few months of working on a friend’s farm, Pryor re-recognized his calling and went back to the drawing board and returned with some material that would eventually become part of his latest full-length, Wrist Slitter. Don’t let its briefness fool you – while it clocks in under thirty minutes, with only two songs breaking the three-minute mark (one of which barely doing so), Pryor showcases an immense amount of dark, honest spirit.

The introductory “The House Hears Everything” starts off with 1920’s-silent-film-soundtrack-esque static before sharply dropping into the racing second half of the song. The album’s first single, “Kinda Go to Pieces,” quickly dissolves the muffled noise at the start of the track, erasing the fuzziness with shredding electric guitars.

Enlisting the help of some friends, including Saves the Day’s Chris Conley and Braid’s Bob Nanna on “Before My Tongue Becomes a Sword” and Steve Soboslai of Punchline on “Words Get in the Way,” Pryor’s tracks gain some extra “oomph.”

The bluegrassy sprint that is the title track and the somber “As Perfect As We’ll Ever Be” offer a slower side to the record, lowering the tempo as Pryor gently croons through his “darker places,” while the playful “Foolish Kids” and the calm “There Is No Us” offer a more casual taste, swapping electric guitars and racing drums for relaxed strums.

When Matt Pryor took some time off, nobody was really sure what would come from it. And I think that includes Matt Pryor, too. For Wrist Slitter, he reveals that “this is who I am, and this is what I do. I just had to go off the deep end and try other stuff in order to figure it out.” If this album is him figuring things out, then he has much more success with living in the deep end than most of us would.

Release Date: November 11^th, 2013
Rating: 3.75/5
Runtime: 28:46

Tracklist:
1. The House Hears Everything
2. Kinda Go to Pieces
3. Wrist Slitter
4. Words Get in the Way (w/ Steve Soboslai)
5. Before My Tongue Becomes a Sword (w/ Bob Nanna and Chris
Conley)
6. If I Wear a Disguise
7. As Perfect As We’ll Ever Be
8. Foolish Kids
9. Say What You’re Gonna Say
10. So Many Questions
11. There Is No Us
12. Won’t Speak to Me

–
Written By: Eric Riley

Review:: Matt Pryor/James Dewees Split

Matt Pryor’s work as a part of The Get Up Kids has made his a pioneer within our music world. His honest, brutally passionate lyrics have always held a standard that others can only hope to achieve. Though The Get Up Kids may be where his primary recognition comes from, his productions stemming from The New Amsterdams and the Terrible Twos (his kid’s music group) have also made quite the impression.

Later this year, Pryor will be releasing his newest solo record, Wrist Slitter – his third album on his own. But, being the marathoner that he is, he teamed up with James Dewees, of Reggie and the Full Effect and My Chemical Romance fame (and, you know, The Get Up Kids as well), to release a short split EP beforehand.

The first of his three tracks, “I Can Be So Cold,” is a full-band effort reminiscent of what we’ve grown to love about Pryor’s music. His definitive voice is just as it has always been, coupled kindly with trademark lyricism, slammed piano keys, and harsh guitars.

“Failing You” is a sprinted pop-punk gem. Racing by in under two minutes, it’s a brief anthem for dealing with letting someone down and trying to get beyond it. Pryor screeches “I’m trying, dying, I’m failing you every time. Your patience is just wasted … I just go on and on for hours until everything around me disappears,” screaming over not being able to “control the monster when it starts.”

Closer “Peculiar” begins gently, sounding like a gradually-building music-box lullaby. A strange fading swirl of electronic static ebbs and flows throughout the background, drawing flashbacks to old JamisonParker tracks. Pryor’s looped vocals “My whole life, regretting, the time is resetting, I’ll always remember this moment forever” repeat themselves as the distorting chaos grows. The song ends, leaving an echo of “forever” ringing in the listeners’ ears. It is, in the simplest of terms, haunting and gorgeous.

Rating short EP’s like this is always tricky for me. On one hand, I want to spitefully give it a “0” because I’m petty and bitter that it is only three songs. Then again, on the other end of the spectrum, I want to give it a “6” because it’s really damn good. So, we’ll average that out to a “3.” Yay, math! (Don’t worry, there won’t be any more of that noise. We’ll focus on music.)

Release Date: September 30th, 2013
Rating: 3/5
Runtime: 7:15

Tracklist:
1. “I Can Be So Cold”
2. “Failing You”
3. “Peculiar”

–
Written By: Eric Riley

The Get Up Kids tour dates

w/Steel Train, River City Extension
January 21 – Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live
January 22 – Austin, TX @ Emo’s
January 23 – Dallas, TX @ The Loft 
January 25 – Tempe, AZ @ Clubhouse 
January 26 – San Diego, CA @ House Of Blues 
January 27 – West Hollywood, CA @ The Troubadour 
January 28 – Pomona, CA @ The Glass House 
January 29 – San Francisco, CA @ Slim’s 
January 30 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill 
February 1 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theater 
February 2 – Seattle, WA @ Neumo’s 
February 3- Seattle, WA @ The Knitting Factory 
February 4 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Club Sound 
February 5 – Denver, CO @ Marquis Theater 

w/Miniature Tigers, Brian Bonz
February 23 – Orlando, FL @ The Social 
February 24 – Orlando, FL @ The Social 
February 25 – St.Petersburg, FL @ State Theatre 
February 26 – Athens, GA @ 40 Watt Club 
February 27 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
March 1 – Washington, DC @ The Black Cat 
March 2 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
March 3 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
March 4 – Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of the Living Arts
March 5 – Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of the Living Arts
March 6 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
March 8 – Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
March 9 – Cleveland Heights, OH @ Grog Shop                              
March 10 – Detroit, MI @ St. Andrews Hall
March 11 – Chicago, IL @ The Bottom Lounge                    
March 12 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall
March 13 – Lawrence, KS @ The Bottleneck