Jukebox: The Early November - Never Coming Back

When I started listening to The Early November, The Mother, The Mechanic, and The Path struck me as an incredible album. It's actually a triple album - a rare event in musical history - and a well written one; in addition to this, the entire album is a concept album dedicated to a beautiful idea. The first two sub-albums are indie rock and acoustic rock, bluntly generalized. However, the third is a spoken word album telling a story, with a couple of musical tracks adding to the tale that sound so rough cut that they're almost demo-esque. There's one that stands out in particular, however. "Never Coming Back" is focused on the character in the story sitting by his grandmother's hospital bedside, taking care of her in her final hours, and the song is incredibly thought provoking. It's beautifully well written, and really summarizes the grief and loss we feel from losing a loved one.

Artist Of The Day: The Early November

With the end of an "indefinite hiatus" behind them, a signing with the slightly-too-scene Rise Records, and a new album due towards the beginning of next week, I figured it would be a good time to feature The Early November. I know, if you've followed my posts, you know this is a very strong deviation from the material I normally feature. However, The Early November has some really homespun roots, and I think that attribute plays into their music being simplistic and true, instead of excessive and gaudy like a lot of pop-punk and alt rock is in the present day and age. The sound that the band lends to the music industry is much closer to indie pop, despite the similarities in instrument tone, vocal timbre, or facile song structure.

American Dream Records Offer Ace Enders Contest

The drive to make change with an industry you've grown tired of is a completely useless motivator if you don't have the intentions of following through, and American Dream Records are a perfect example of changing musical industry cynicism into one's own goal: a record label that functions for those who actually love music. At least, that's American Dream Records' intended function, and with a tagline as strong and pragmatic as "By the people. For the people." one would hope they have every intention of following through. Focusing on vinyl releases, American Dream Records have already seen the release of The Graduate's Only Every Time and currently has plans to release The Lakes' The Agreement. More interesting, is the contest currently being held for the label's release of the  I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody's Business album, Gold Rush. American Dream Records are offering any listener the chance to design new artwork and win a copy of the LP, as well as a guest list pass to a show. As someone who is an absolute sucker for artists getting intimately involved with listeners in ways such as this, it's safe to say that American Dream Records' patriotic approach to the music industry has caught my attention. As far as the contest goes, you can find the more technical details here.