Manager & Concert Photographer of Burning Hot EventsPhotographer, Web Designer & Developer, Video Producer, Graphic Designer, Entrepreneur, Freelancer, concert-junkie, musician, dancer, #1 fan of LOTR & the Spice Girls, cat-lover, & moar!
“Miss Anthropocene is the fifth studio album by Canadian musician Grimes, released on February 21, 2020. It marked her first album in over four years, when she released Art Angels. It was officially announced on March 19, 2019. The album’s name is a pun on the feminine title ‘Miss’, and the words ‘misanthrope’ and ‘Anthropocene’, a neologism popularized in the year 2000 by Paul J. Crutzen that was proposed to denote the current geological age the Earth is in.
“The album is a loose concept album about an ‘anthropomorphic goddess of climate change’ inspired by Roman mythology and villainy.Miss Anthropocene is Grimes’ final album on record label 4AD, to which she has been signed since 2012. The album is darker in style than Grimes’ 2015 album Art Angels, containing inspiration from the sounds of industrial music.” (Source: Wikipedia)
On January 1, 2021, Grimes released Miss Anthropocene (Rave Edition) featuring remixes by ANNA, Richie Hawtin, Channel Tres, Rezz, Âme, Tale Of Us, Julien Bracht, Things You Say, Modeselektor and Bloodpop.
Chosen by:
Katherine Amy Vega
Owner, Manager, Concert Photographer, Media Artist
Katherine Amy Vega | Photography: Jim “Fury” Hesterman
In the darkest midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, LORE and her band recorded a locked-in LIVE audio & video performance.
These are the DEADLY SESSIONS
3 Live Recordings • 3 Live Videos
It all started with Stay-In-Fest 2020…
LIVE from Heretic Sound in Los Angeles, bandmates LORE, Chris Egert, and Vincent Cabagnot were captured performing and recording three songs. This was for Infest’s “Stay-In-Fest 2020” music festival — one of the electro/industrial and goth scene’s most revered UK festivals.
“Our band is proud of these performances because we look and sound just as we do in concert – LIVE, RAW & REAL!”
“It was an exciting offer and we had to make it happen! Plus, after months of lockdown, we needed some fun! I hired a notable music video director and we got it together fast!” said LORE.
“It was also a fun opportunity to premiere a new song, “Until The Day I Die (Gothic Wedding Song) LIVE.”
LORE continued, “These are not the polished album versions. They are more guitar heavy with the electronic elements still prominent. When we realized how great they sounded, we decided to officially release them as a new product. Out of nowhere, a new release!”
Previously released on the SAW IV soundtrack album/Trisol, this version features the same intensity of industrial trip hop with insanely powerful and emotional vocals. “The Wait” is a cowrite between LORE and Julian Beeston.
Recorded, Mixed & Mastered by Chris Egert at Heretic Sound
About LORE
Trip-Hop put her on the map with her song “My Soul Speaks” included on “SHE – a female Trip-Hop Experience.” Next, LORE is featured with LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT performing Hebrew vocals on “Blessing.” LORE then got her revenge featuring Sean Brennan/LAM on “Haunting” with her debut album, also entitled “MY SOUL SPEAKS.” The album, received outstanding reviews (released in Germany and Russia). Now, LORE delivers her “DEADLY SESSIONS (LIVE)” 3 song locked-in quarantine set of songs and videos. A full studio album anxiously waits in the shadows.
LORE has performed concerts alongside London After Midnight, The Birthday Massacre, Abney Park & more.
LORE’s songs are also included on:
SHE – a female Trip-Hop Experience “My Soul Speaks” (Sonic Images Records)
SAW II OST “My Soul Speaks” (Trisol)
SAW III OST “Haunting feat. Sean Brennan” (Trisol)
A year, a week and a day from their last live performance at KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas, critically acclaimed alternative rock band Jimmy Eat World are excited to announce Phoenix Sessions, a global stream performance series in partnership with Danny Wimmer Presents.
Performing Surviving, Futures, & Clarity in their entirely over three nights…
To kick off 2021, the band will come together for one-of-a-kind performances of three “chapters” in their storied career. Beginning January 15th with a performance of their 10th studio album Surviving (Chapter X), which has only been seen live by the lucky fans who made it to the shows last October, followed by Futures (Chapter V) on January 29th and Clarity (Chapter III) on February 12th.
“We are always looking for ways to challenge ourselves, to do things as music fans that we think would be cool for OUR fans. We came up with the idea of presenting a series of concert films centered around a few specific albums (for now) and performing them on a different level. It isn’t the way we normally play a show and it’s definitely something new for how we approach a performance, but we haven’t been able to share the experience with our fans in over a year… so here we go!” – Jim Adkins, frontman of Jimmy Eat World
Recorded at the Icehouse in Phoenix, AZ, the virtual events will feature the band performing each album in its entirety for a full concert experience. Each show will start at 2pm PST / 5pm EST / 10pm GMT / 11pm CET and will be available on demand for 72 hours post stream at JimmyEatWorldLive.com.
Tickets for these events are on sale NOW and can be purchased as a single show or in a three-pack bundle. Early bird pricing begins at $14.99 for a single performance (through the Sunday prior to each show) and $39.99 for the bundle of all three through January 10th. Other bundles, merchandise and VIP meet and greets will be available at a variety of price levels. For more information on tickets and bundles please visit JimmyEatWorldLive.com.
Danny Wimmer Presents recently entered the digital content curation space, promoting pay-per-view concert streams and creating the popular digital series Offstage with DWP. DWP is known worldwide for their stellar portfolio of music and lifestyle events, which includes Aftershock, Bourbon & Beyond, Epicenter, Hometown Rising, Louder Than Life, Sonic Temple Art + Music Festival, and Welcome To Rockville.
Philadelphia pop punk staple The Starting Line will be joining the growing list of Live at Studio 4 livestream concert series performers. They’ll be doing three separate performances that include their classic albums Direction (December 30th at 9pm EST) and Based On A True Story (January 15th at 9pm EST) as well as a “best of” set (January 29th at 9pm EST) live from the legendary Studio 4. Tickets and exclusive merch bundles are now available here.
“We haven’t played together in a year,” explains The Starting Line lead vocalist and bassist Kenny Vasoli. “The only logical thing to do is perform over three dozen songs, whilst being meticulously filmed and recorded. Quite a few of these tracks have NEVER been played live. This is a delightfully insane challenge for me. I know there will be flaws, but I truly can’t wait to embrace the impending raw reflection. I’ve been starved of playing live music with my friends all year… I’m eager and grateful to end that streak.”
Click to Enlarge
“I’m so excited to have The Starting Line as part of our Live at Studio 4 series,” Will Yip adds. “They’re a band that has had such an impact on our scene and I feel very honored to have them do these three shows here.”
Live at Studio 4 is a livestream concert series that’s curated by Grammy-nominated producer Will Yip and filmed by Sunny Singh of hate5six at the legendary Studio 4 in Conshohocken, PA. Past livestream performances include: The Menzingers, The Bouncing Souls, Tigers Jaw, and Anthony Green.
TV icon David Hasselhoff has recorded a metal song, “Through the Night,” with the two-man metal project CUESTACK, and a Kickstarter campaign to finance the final steps of editing a video and “making-of” documentary on the project is now underway.
The collaboration between Hasselhoff and CUESTACK started in 2018 with many demos and meetings to make what seemed like an impossible idea slowly turn into a reality. As life-long “Hoff‘” fans, CUESTACK had the ultimate goal to create a metal project with the most-watched man on TV showing the world his heavy side. Hasselhoff recorded the track with CUESTACK in 2019 in Vienna where they also shot an epic music video together.
The band’s final mission: Finishing the editing process of the cinematic video that will accompany the song. With a limited budget and schedule, CUESTACK shot the entire video with Hasselhoff in just one day, using smaller versions of the sets than originally planned. To turn their retro Sci-Fi/Cyberpunk vision into reality, a massive post-production effort is needed now to extend these basic sets into living worlds.
Kickstarter Campaign Now Underway
All Kickstarter contributions go directly into financing those final steps. Aside from providing digital downloads, Hasselhoff fans can pre-order special “Through the Night” box sets, which include a Digipak CD, eight-page booklet with liner notes, printed high-quality autograph card, poster, “Through the Night” baseball cap and custom leather bracelet.
CUESTACK ft. David Hasselhoff | Photography: Maximilian Lottmann
About CUESTACK
When the worlds of eccentric lighting/VFX designer Martin Kames and shred guitar content creator Bernth Brodträger collide, explosive music and art manifest in the form of CUESTACK. An unmistakable blend of metal and electronic music with well established sonic trademarks is the result, paired with an industrial, dystopian corporate identity that is ever-present in the band’s cinematic music videos and artworks.
System Of A Down have issued a collective band statement and call to action on all their social platforms regarding a current crisis occurring in their cultural homeland of Armenia and Artsakh. In the early morning hours of Sunday, September 27, forces in Azerbaijan began a large scale pre-meditated offensive attack on Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabagh), an independent and autonomous country that borders Armenia, populated with a vast majority of ethnic Armenians. International peace keeping powers are doing very little to dissuade Azerbaijan’s advances and the people of Artaskh are doing everything they can to defend their lives and homeland, where they have lived for thousands of years. For them, this a matter of survival, and nothing more as Azeri forces are trying to do little less than eradicate the 150,000 people that these lands are home to.
Artsakh gained independence in the early 1990’s from Azerbaijan after years of war and conflict beginning soon after the 1988 collapse of the Soviet Union, of which both countries were a part of. After gaining its own independence from the Soviet Union, Armenia has been a guarantor of Artsakh’s security. A cease-fire was agreed to between the countries in 1994, but over the past 2 decades, Azerbaijan has frequently broken this pact via mostly minor to moderate advancements and skirmishes along the line of contact.
This time, Azerbaijan with the aid of Turkey’s Recep Erdogan regime and military forces, launched a large scale offensive attack along the full eastern border of Artsakh and has launched attacks within the borders of Armenia as well. International calls for a stop to Azeri advances have gone ignored, and the leader of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev is attacking with impunity.
All four members of System Of A Down are of Armenian heritage, and since the band’s inception have brought awareness to many human rights issues, none more prevalent than that of the Armenian Genocide at the hands of the Turkish leadership of the Ottoman Empire during WWI, when more than 1.5 million Armenians perished in the first genocide of the 20th century. To the band members and other Armenians all around the world, the war being waged on the people of Artsakh now is a continuation of the Armenian Genocide as the Turkic Azeris along with the support of Recep Erdogan’s Turkey are trying to eradicate the Armenians of Artsakh and claim these lands for themselves.
Their statement posted on their socials is below. It includes various calls to action and online petition links to raise awareness and a call on world leaders to insist Azerbaijan and Turkey stop the attacks immediately.
System Of A Down Statement:
The world turned a blind eye during:
the Armenian Genocide in 1915
the mass killings and pogroms of the 1980s and ‘90s
Azerbaijan’s invasion of Armenia in 2016
Now the world is turning a blind eye to 150,000 landlocked civilians under attack by Azerbaijan and Turkey.
SOAD has always stood for justice and peace. This notion comes from the suffering and injustice done to our people over centuries. Erdogan’s denialist Turkey is continuing the work of its genocidal ancestors, and allied with petro-corrupt Azerbaijan, are firing American made F-16 missiles into Artsakh and parts of Armenia killing soldiers as well as civilians. The world seems too busy with Covid and politics to care, but we HAVE to do something as this is an existential threat for our people and the first Christian Nation.
Since it seems difficult for the media, international organizations, and world powers to call out Azerbaijan on its war mongering, ethnic cleansing, and killing of innocent civilians, let’s help them. We are calling on everyone to join our efforts. Here is how…
LAMB OF GOD has collaborated with Nightflyer Roastworks to create their first small batch single origin coffee, ‘Memento Mori’, grown in El Salvador and roasted in Charlotte, NC.
With a life on the road, members of LAMB OF GOD have found themselves frequenting coffee shops around the world and brewing from their own espresso machine on the tour bus. A longtime passion of guitarist Willie Adler, ‘Memento Mori’ brings to fruition years of home roasting and blending in a true collaboration with friend Paul Waggoner, owner of Nightflyer Roastworks and guitarist for Between The Buried and Me.
“Created in the aftermath of a long-term relationship, Old Flowers features Andrews’ most vulnerable writing to date on ten new songs that chronicle her journey through heartbreak, loneliness and finding herself again after it all.” — Amazon
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Andrews reflects, “Old Flowers is about heartbreak. There are a million records and songs about that, but I did not lie when writing these songs. This album is about loving and caring for the person you know you can’t be with. It’s about being afraid to be vulnerable after you’ve been hurt. It’s about a woman who is alone, but okay with that, if it means truth. This was my truth this year—my nine-year relationship ended and I’m a woman alone in the world, but happy to know herself.”
Chosen by:
Katherine Amy Vega
Owner, Manager, Concert Photographer, Media Artist
Katherine Amy Vega | Photography: Jim “Fury” Hesterman
Osaka Japan rock band SCANDAL regretfully announces the postponement of its highly-anticipated 2020 “Kiss From The Darkness” North American WORLD TOUR, due to COVD-19.
The tour which was originally set to kick off on September 17 in Anaheim, CA has been rescheduled for FALL 2021. The updated 5-city run of dates includes a NEW show at Sony Hall in NYC on Saturday, November 13. See canceled and updated dates below.
While fans may have to wait a while longer to see the band, SCANDAL is excited to announce details for their FIRST-EVERWORLDWIDE LIVESTREAM CONCERT! The SCANDAL WORLD TOUR 2020 “Kiss From The Darkness” WORLDWIDE Livestream will take place live from Japan on Friday, August 21, 2020 (the band’s 14th anniversary) at 7:00PM JST (3:00AM PDT/6AM EDT, 11 :00AM UK). Tickets are $30.
For fans outside of Japan who are unable to stream the show live, the full set will be archived for 48 hours after.
In a statement to fans, the band says,
“We are very saddened by the fact that our World Tour that was supposed to take place this year has been postponed. However, we are very excited about our first worldwide livestream concert! Our tour was going to visit more than 30 cities in the world, so we are working very hard to put all of our energy and passion into this one night, so that we can bring you the very best of SCANDAL!! Even though the concept of a livestream concert is very new to us, seeing and hearing all of your positive comments, like “Everyone is in the first row!” or “Venue capacities are unlimited!” is so uplifting. We can’t wait to make some great memories with our fans from all over the world on August 21st!”
Canceled 2020 Tour Dates:
Sep. 17 Anaheim, CA- HOB
Sep. 19 Dallas, TX – Canton Hall
Sep 21 Atlanta, GA -The Masquerade
Sep. 23 Toronto, ON – Queen Elizabeth
New 2021 Tour Dates
11/11 (Thu): Queen Elizabeth Hall / TorontoBuy Tickets
11/13 (Sat): Sony Hall / New York (New additional show!)Buy Tickets
SCANDAL is an all-female Japanese rock band from Osaka, Japan. Formed in Summer 2006 by four high school friends, they played live street performances until they were noticed and signed to the indie label Kitty Records. Although all four members have provided lead vocals, their primary roles are Haruna on vocals and rhythm guitar, Mami on lead guitar, Tomomi on bass guitar, and Rina on drums. In 2008, they released three singles and a mini-album while simultaneously touring the United States, France, and Hong Kong. That October, Scandal released their major debut single, “Doll”, on Epic Records Japan.
With massive support radio and media support (Billboard, CNN, ABC, etc), and an energized international fanbase behind them, the band went on to perform the theme songs for several anime series, including “Shōjo S” and “Harukaze” for Bleach, “Shunkan Sentimental” for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, “Pride” for “Star Driver” and “A.M.D.K.J.” for “GeGeGe no Kitarō”.
In 2019, the band founded their own label named “her” and has continued to release a steady stream of chart-topping singles and albums, while bringing their music to venues all across the globe. The band’s 9th studio album ‘Kiss From The Darkness’ was released in February 2020. The album peaked at number five on the Oricon weekly charts, extending Scandal’s streak of having all nine of their albums reach the top 5 of the charts upon release.
The band’s latest digital single “Spice” dropped earlier this month in collaboration with Xflag for their animated film “Xpice”, which was released on the official Xflag Anime YouTube channel the same day.
Today, Phoenix-based electronic music artist Raindust releases his powerful debut single “If Tomorrow Never Comes”. The song is the first of a series of three singles slated for release by Raindust. A downtempo dance track, it features bass-driven synths, overlapping melodies, and layers of vocal harmonies that lend themselves to an ambient connection to the song’s emotional theme. “If Tomorrow Never Comes” is available to order here.
“If Tomorrow Never Comes” Lyric Video
While many artists default to the cliche of love songs, Raindust wrote “If Tomorrow Never Comes” with the perspective of a father who, through divorce, loses his children. He struggles with grief, and the realization that his time with them had been taken for granted. He had been consumed with himself and his negative self-image, resulting in a deficiency of mental space for others — including his own kids.
Coming to terms with the fact that he had not given them the quality of relationship they deserved from their parent, and realizing that nothing could be gained from wallowing in self-pity, he dedicates himself to turning things around and taking advantage of the time he’s been given, ensuring that no matter what happens, his children will certainly know that he loves them.
“Instead of going, ‘If I’m going to die tomorrow,’” says Raindust, “I say, ‘If today is my last day, how can I make it better? Can I call them? Tell them I love them?’”
He continues, “I remember seeing a quote on social media that said “When children have a bad day, they don’t say, ‘Hey, can we talk?’ They say, ‘Hey, can you come play with me?’ When you ‘not right now’ them because you have too much going on… for all you know, they could be having as bad of a day as you’re having. No one really stops to think about it from the child’s perspective.”
Raindust’s musical arrangements surfaced after he had spent days locked away, outpouring his emotions, forming them into lyrics. Following the composition of the lines and the melody, the rest of the musical arrangement naturally flowed from him. Unlike many dance tunes, the song does not rely on speed or bass to ramp up the energy. Raindust spent years perfecting the instrumentals, arrangements, and production of the deeply personal, moving track. Heartache translates through the chords of the melody and vocals, making “If Tomorrow Never Comes” a riveting listen that tugs at the heartstrings.“
Raindust – the pseudonym of lyricist, multi-instrumentalist, and music producer Iain Greene – is an artist who flawlessly combines elements of pop and electronic music, along with highly personal themes, to promote positivity and global awareness.
Iain Greene, Raindust
Greene has a knack for extracting components from various genres and building upon them to create his own unique sounds. Inspired by artists such as Alan Walker, Lady Gaga, Demi Lovato, and Linkin Park, he composes compelling lyrics, creates “club music” while remaining in the shadows, and recruits captivating vocalists who add powerful, authentic emotion to the tracks. Being what might be referred to as an “empathetic musician”, he embraces being in the position to breed feelings within the listener and make a unifying impact in a divided world.
Raindust is the second solo project from Greene, its predecessor being music under his proper name. This gifted musician is able to pick up any instrument and instinctively play. The Arizona native has previously been a member of four local bands, ranging from pop rock to death metal. It was seeing Iron Maiden perform live that encouraged him to want to be amidst the energy and interact with others.
Quoting Hans Christian Anderson, Greene says “When words fail, music speaks” resonates with him. Raindust developed when he cathartically immersed himself in music while dealing with loss and hardship. Employing cinematic melodies and futuristic beats in musical compositions that combine darkness and light, Raindust reveals that through music, relief can be found in a seemingly desolate environment.
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