blog.jamlegend.com

JamLegend is usually a venue for emerging talent to find a worldwide audience, but sometimes, we have the privilege to bring true legends to a young and unsuspecting audience.  One such band is Death, who began their influential career in Orlando, Florida in 1983.  Death is without a doubt one of the pillars of metal, pioneering the genre of death metal (why do you think it's called "death metal"?) by pushing the horizon of what's considered "metal."  Go to any metal show, and we bet you good money you will see someone wearing a Death shirt with the band's iconic logo featuring a scythe.  The band continued to be active for a very long time, but when founder and central member Chuck Schuldiner passed away from brain cancer in 2001, Death was put to rest with him.

Death originally began as Mantas in 1983 when Schuldiner was only 16 years old with founding members Rick Rozz and Kam Lee.  The band shed the Mantas name and became Death in 1984, starting a long and steady journey to becoming metal legend.  Keep in mind the Internet didn't exist for most people in the 1980s: Death's music and reputation spread slowly as metal fans traded cassette tape recordings and read about them in fanzines.  Everyone was intrigued by this new band simply called Death with their intense, ultra-fast drum patterns, gutteral vocals, tempo/key-changes, and lightning-speed guitar solos; the music was fast, but instead of punk or hardcore's kinetic spark, it possessed a smoldering energy and gravity.  It was something people had seen glimpses of in other bands, but really crystallized in Death to become a springboard for a brand new genre.  After a few years of Schuldiner moving from city to city and subsequent member shuffles, Death finally released their debut album, the landmark Scream Bloody Gore.

Chuck Schuldiner continued writing songs and performing with Death with a rotating cast of supporting musicians, many of them in their own famous bands such as Gene Hoglan, Steve DiGiorgio, Terry Butler, etc.  He even expanded into prog metal with a second band called Control Denied.  So it was quite shocking and tragic that in 1999, Schuldiner was diagnosed with brain cancer and passed away in 2001 at a too-young age of 34 after a long, brave battle with the disease.  While Chuck Schuldiner hismself was modest and rejected the idea that he was instrumental in creating the death metal genre, the list of musicians who attended his funeral shows the breadth and depth of Schuldiner's musical influence.

As huge fans of Death, we really hope that finding Death's music on JamLegend made your day, and maybe even added something new to your perspective on the metal bands you already like.  Bands like Death come only once in a long, long while, and we're in happy disbelief that we're in the position to introduce this amazing band to a new generation of fans.  Relapse Records has released the Death discography digitally available via iTunes, and will also release works by Control Denied as well as Mantas.  For more information on Death, please visit the band's excellent official website, their MySpace page, or their Facebook page.  Enjoy "Lack of Comprehension" from the Human album below!

 

When you first hear the Dirty Heads, you may have a deja vu moment thinking you may have heard them before.  It's very possible that you have--their music has been featured in Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam, commercials for brands like Hurley and Skullcandy, and the Matthew McConaughey himself selected their music to be in his film Surfer, Dude.  Rolling Stone magazine declared Dirty Heads one of the best new bands in 2010, but the core relationship between founding members Jared Watson and Dustin Bushnell reaches back to 1996 when the two met in highschool and bonded over mutual interests in music, surfing, skating, and the endless party of the laid-back Southern California life.

With a four-track machine and a earful of music by Bob Marley, Sublime, 311, and the Beastie Boys, Jared and Dustin concocted what became the signature Dirty Heads sound that blends acoustic rock, hip hop, and reggae.  The Dirty Heads' music reflects the sunny disposition and the chilled-out attitude of their Huntington Beach roots.  It's fun, carefree, and doesn't take itself too seriously--just what you need to hear when you had a bad day.

Eventually, the duo bolstered their lineup by adding percussionist Jon Olazabal, drummer Matt Ochoa and bassist David Foral.  With a full line-up, their ambition grew; they booked local gigs consistently and traveled up and down the West Coast infecting new fans with their unique sound.  They recorded an album with an absolutely stellar supporting cast:  über-famous executive producer Rob Cavallo (Green Day, Kid Rock, Paramore), producers Steve Fox and Stan Frazier (Sugar Ray), and engineer Mario Caldato Jr., best known for his work with the Beastie Boys.  Working with these industry heavyweights helped Dirty Heads hone their sound further, and the result became their album Any Port in a Storm.  The now expanded album features 22 tracks, a video oozing the sunny, delightful Southern Cal vibe, and “Lay Me Down” featuring Rome, of Sublime with Rome.

The Dirty Heads song "Stand Tall" has already received over 230,000 plays on JamLegend.  Try it out below!  To find out more about the Dirty Heads, please visit their official website or MySpace. Any Port in a Storm is available in most music outlets such as Amazon, iTunes, and your local record store.  Check it out!

The great thing about JamLegend is our platform evens the playing field for unsigned bands to showcase their music and find new fans.  Take Say Okay from Hamburg, Germay:  they formed in 2009 and are yet unsigned (hopefully not for long!), but their upbeat pop-punk single "Girl" already has over 50,000 plays.  Brimming with positive energy, it's not that difficult to fall in love with this band.  In their short lifespan, Say Okay have gained a following in Germany with their infectious songwriting and intense live performances that make the audience and the ceiling sweat.  Now, they're out to conquer the hearts of fans around the world via JamLegend.

We talked to Say Okay vocalist Anselm about how the band came to add their music to the game.  A night of Guitar Hero and beer led to a passing mention of JamLegend by one of the band's friends.  Anselm went to work next day and decided to check out the site: "I wanted to take a look.  I was at work and got really into it..until I got busted. The consequences: I was in trouble and had to do some bad extra work AND we loaded up two songs at JamLegend right at that evening."  Soon, the entire Say Okay lineup was hooked on the game--it turns out, the best player in the band ended up being the drummer, Andre.

One thing led to another and Say Okay decided to run a contest with their fans.  The best JamLegend player out of the fans will play against Andre, the best player in the band.  If Mike, the fan player, won then he will play guitar with Say Okay on stage whey they perform their JamLegend hit "Girl."  If Andre won, Mike will have to dance naked on stage while the band played "Girl."  It's a high stakes gamble with serious consequences.  How did it turn out?  Better than you can imagine:  Mike beat Andre, so he showed up on stage to play guitar on "Girl" at a Say Okay show....only wearing socks and his guitar!!

We love how Say Okay used JamLegend to promote their music and interact with their fans, and we wish them all the best in taking their music to a wider audience. Perhaps soon, they'll have more fun stories of things that happened as they toured around the world?  As for the little matter of Anselm getting busted by his boss at work, worry not.  He told us, "By now I told my boss, what exactly I was doing, when he busted me. Today he has a higher score on our song 'Girl' than I do."  All's well that ends well?  We think so!

For more info on Say Okay, check out their MySpace or Facebook page.  If you haven't checked out "Girl" you can play the song below!

 

Sometimes, you need a fresh start even after attaining success--a reboot to make everything runs the way it should.  If you thought Revocation sounds too tight and polished to be a new kid on the block who started their journey in 2006, you're correct.  For a few years, the Boston, Massachusetts band was active as Cryptic Warning, which evolved from guitarist David Davidson and drummer Phil Dubois-Coyne jamming to Guns n Roses and Metallica songs when they were still in middle school.  After a few demos, a studio album, and a growing underground following, Cryptic Warning metamorphosed into Revocation.  In an interview with Jackson Guitars, his guitar sponsor, Davidson explains the name change: "Ultimately, we dug the name and thought it had a cool weight to it.  I’ve always been a fan of one-word names and there’s not too many out there left because there are so many metal bands gobbling up everything that sounds evil or brutal."

Revocation's music can be described as an alloy of thrash metal and technical death metal.  There is an aspect of the band that's a stickler for technique--an intricate intertwining of guitar and bass parts, the galloping double-kick drumming, and the dexterous guitar solos.  But the songs aren't just cold, hard show of musical technique:  Revocation has a sense of flair and showmanship, as if the boys who played along to Guns n Roses never quite grew out of them.  Armed with a new name, the band felt a creative surge to record Empire of the Obscene, a self-released album in 2008.  Their fortunes soared when they caught the attention of Relapse Records, one of the top metal labels in the business. 

In the fall of 2009, Revocation released Existence is Futile through Relapse to rave reviews, including a Decibel review that called it "absolutely godlike."  While many metal bands often invoke fantastical themes to go with the crushing brutality of the music, Revocation's songs are surprisingly grounded in real life--from frustrations with politics and the collapsing economy to personal rage, there's much that resonates with the audience emotionally once they're done being awed by the musicianship.  With a solid album behind them, Revocation swiftly rose from the underground to terrorize the mainstream when Spin magazine named them one of the Ten Artists to Watch in 2010.

You can play along with Revocation's "Dismantle the Dictator" from their latest album Existence is Futile below.  For more info about the band, visit their MySpace or Relapse page.  Existence is Futile is available directly from Relapse, as well as via iTunes, Amazon, etc.  Revocation is on tour right now in the US--check them out live if you can!

05/06/10      The Tip Top       Indianapolis, IN 
05/08/10     Triple Rock     Minneapolis, MN 
05/09/10     The Warehouse     LaCrosse, WI 
05/10/10     Brass Rail     Peoria, IL 
05/11/10     Outland Ballroom     Springfield, IL 
05/12/10     The Marquee     Tulsa, OK 
05/13/10     The War Legion Underground     Amarillo, TX 
05/14/10     The Downtown Greenhouse     Flagstaff, AZ 
05/15/10     The Glass House     Pomona, CA 
05/16/10     The Boardwalk     Orangevale, CA 
05/17/10     Hawthorne Theatre     Portland, OR 
05/18/10     El Corazon     Seattle, WA 
05/19/10     ICON     Pocatello, ID 
05/20/10     In The Venue     Salt Lake City, UT 
05/21/10     Black Sheep     Colorado Springs, CO 
05/22/10     Bottleneck     Lawrence, KS 
05/23/10     The Hanger     Wichita Falls, TX 
05/24/10     Emo's     Austin, TX 
05/25/10     Dos Amigos     Odessa, TX 
05/26/10     Launch Pad     Albuquerque, NM 
05/27/10     The Clubhouse     Tempe, AZ 
05/28/10     Cheyanne Saloon     Las Vegas, NV 
05/29/10     Mesa Underground     Mesa, AZ 
05/30/10     Slopshot Billiards     Gallup, NM 
05/31/10     Launch Pad     Albuquerque, NM 
06/01/10     Tequila Jungle     Lubbock, TX 
06/02/10     Emo's     Austin, TX 
06/03/10     Ridglea Theater     Fort Worth, TX 
06/04/10     Cool Party     Laredo, TX 
06/05/10     Warsaw Ballroom     Houston, TX 
06/06/10     Rustic Cowboy     Shreveport, LA 
06/07/10     Big Daddy's     Tallahassee, FL 
06/08/10     Brass Mug     Tampa, FL 
06/09/10     The Oasis     Charleston, SC 
06/10/10     The Milestone     Charlotte, NC 
06/11/10     Otto Bar     Baltimore, MD 
06/12/10     Buddha's Place     Newport News, VA 
06/13/10     New Brookland Tavern     Columbia, SC 
06/15/10     Mojo 13     Wilmington, DE 
06/16/10     Championship Bar and Grille     Trenton, NJ 

 

With the magic of Internet, it's easier than ever for band members to find their musical soulmates.  Young & Divine, an Albany, New York pop punk trio, is proof that the missing piece that could perfect your lineup is just a click away.  It wasn't too difficult for JP Clark and Joe Bortscheller to meet and form a musical alliance; JP and Joe were in the same psychology class, and Joe with his 5-inch, bleached blond mohawk was not that hard to miss.  Soon, with JP on bass and Joe on drums, they began to play the songs written by JP and gathered two other members to form a full band.  But alas, it was not meant to be and the search for the missing piece was on.

Who would have thought a random MySpace friend request would lead to the rise of Young & Divine as a trio?  Who would have thought JP and Joe, in the northeast corner of the United States, would find their third in the heart of Texas, nearly 1500 miles away?  It sounds too crazy and too perfect, but guitarist Jake Mai followed the digital bread crumbs after getting a request to add Young & Divine, and loved what the band was doing.  One thing led to another and Jake quit his job, flew to Albany, and joined the band.  Young & Divine, with their inspiration in the 1990s wave of punk like Green Day and Blink182, was now complete with three members--drums, bass, guitar, and a lot of harmonies.

Young & Divine recorded their self-titled debut in Atlanta, Georgia's TreeSound Studios with Kenneth Mount and Zack Odom--13 songs of infectious melodies, sing-along choruses, and enough energy to power small cities.  Their songs hover between cheeky humor and earnest, youthful exuberance.  One moment, they're gloating that "Nicole Deserved It" because she wasn't a nice person, but in another moment, the band oozes positive vibes. PJ says, "That's all I want to be around now. I was tired of the old ways and hanging around negative people,"  JamLegend has a taste of Young & Divine's catchy music that will make you bop your head and maybe do the air guitar (if you're not playing along on the game, that is...).  We just posted "Weakdays" and hope that you will enjoy playing the song!

You can find out more about Young & Divine on their official site and MySpace (of course!), or follow them on Twitter to get their latest updates.

 

It's common to say some things never mix like oil and water, but in music, that is probably the least true saying you can subscribe to.  There are many bands who mix cultures and genres, but the band who has come to JamLegend's attention recently is Seven7 from the United Kingdom.  They are relatively new to our game, but they certainly got our attention with their own take on melodic, progressive metal.  We asked Arran McSporran, the bassist, to tell us more about Seven7.

The catalyst for the band's unique sound seems to be Nick Meier, their guitar player from Switzerland.  Nick, who came to London to study music, is a jazz guitar genius who won the prestigious Berklee Music award for "Best Jazz Guitarist" and is known in the jazz world for his ensemble The Meier Group.  Nick is responsible for writing the guitar solos for Seven7's songs--and by "write" we actually mean "improvise."  Not long ago, one of the JamLegend trackers contacted Arran to ask for a guitar tab for a song so the complex guitar solo can be tracked correctly.  Arran says, "The only problem is that we have no tabs because our guitarist is a jazz virtuoso so he improvises a different solo every time! So I had to try to look through some old videos to find a video of him playing the song live to give the tracker an idea of what's going on."  Nick's reputation as an amazing guitar player precedes him: in a review of Joe Satriani--that is, the Joe Satriani of guitar virtuoso fame--Jazzwise magazine said the album at times "sounded Nick Meier."  While jazz and metal could potentially end up in a disastrous culture clash, Arran characterizes the two sides of their master guitar player thus: "Rehearsals are interesting as he often brings two guitars: one down-tuned seven-string to play with us and an acoustic (he is sponsored by Godin Guitars) with which he is going to play quiet late-night jazz until the early morning after he's finished rehearsing loud and fast and with us!"

Arran also adds that Nick's wife, who is from Turkey, has opened up a whole new world of Turkish music.  In visiting her native country, Nick has picked up various Turkish instruments like Oud, Saz and Baglama, as well as the fundamentals of Turkish music such as quarter-tone systems and instrument-specific phrasing.  All of these influences and instruments land in Seven7's music, making it more rich and complex than the average metal.  Of course, you can't have a solid band with just a guitar player:  Seven7's lineup boasts Dave Brown's brawny vocals, Arran's soulful turn on the fretless bass, and drummer Dave Moulding laying an unshakable foundation.

Seven7 has found that putting their music on JamLegend has reaped its reward in "great comments from JamLegend users about how much they enjoy our songs (and our logo!?)" as Arran tells us.  They discovered JamLegend when they saw another band's song widget on MySpace and thought "with the tricky solos, I knew that the JamLegend users would really enjoy the challenge of playing along to our songs."  With a whopping 12 songs available on the game, you can get a good taste of Seven7's unique style and play beside a celebrated guitarist and test your chops.

To find out more about Seven7, please visit their official site or their MySpace page.  You can buy their album Try Something Different via iTunes and Amazon.  We hope you'll enjoy playing along to the title track "Try Something Different" posted below!

 

How do you create success if you're already successful?  How do you move forward when you've already come so far?  That's the conundrum Karnivool found themselves in after the massive success of their debut album Themata from 2005.  The Perth, Australia quintet had won awards (Best Hard Rock Act, Best Male Vocalist, Best Guitarist, and the list goes on...) and toured the world, propelled by fan support for Themata, but it had been four years since they had released an album.  Instead of letting their success paralyze them, Karnivool stepped up to record a follow-up that's even more developed and fleshed out than their already impressive debut.

At the end of 2008, the band entered the studio flanked by their trusty collaborator and producer Forrester Savell, who has worked with bands such as The Butterfly Effect and Dead Letter Circus.  They were determined to do something different--not in that cliché "taking it to the next level" different, but to create something that launches from Themata into uncharted territory.  The first and most important change they made was in their creative process.  Instead of guitarist Drew Goddard taking the lead in songwriting, Karnivool took an organic approach of jamming and improvising, experimenting and playing around, sometimes scrapping everything to start anew in another direction.  Jono Stockman, the bassist, explains: “No-one wanted to repeat Themata. The songs on Sound Awake all went through so many permutations and transformations that time was necessary to the process.”  Vocalist Ian Kenny adds, "Writing this was like a feeding frenzy of five accelerated musical minds, and you bump heads as a result--it takes time to wade through it all."

All the bumped heads resulted in Sound Awake, a sprawling progressive metal opus that reaches all corners of creativity.  Sound Awake is like a voracious black hole that sucked in everything Karnivool deemed cool and interesting: from punk to jazz, other genres enter the fray to spice up the band's signature prog metal, and instruments like xylophones that seem like they have no place in metal make a triumphant appearance.  The title refers to being sentient and open-minded in a world where it's easy to live on autopilot, as well as the fact that the record will challenge the audience to listen closely and deeply with their mind's eye open so they can absorb its complexity.  With epic songs--some clocking in at 10 minutes or so--there will be a lot to digest, enough to tide fans over until the next Karnivool release, though we certainly hope it's not going to be another four-year wait.

Check out "Set Fire to the Hive" the first single from Sound Awake on JamLegend and let us know what you think!  You can find out more about Karnivool on their MySpace page or follow them on Twitter for the latest updates.

Jason Castro's story sounds like a lot of artists' stories we've covered on Feature Friday:  he comes from a family of musicians and he couldn't resist the siren call of music while trying to be a serious college student.  What sets him apart from most musicians, though, is that Jason auditioned for a little TV talent show called American Idol and made the final four on season 7.  Jason endured the intense media scrutiny of being a former AI contestant and the persistent expectation for him to advance his post-Idol career.  Now, he returns with a self-titled debut album that he was in no rush to record, "Some people come off of Idol and sing what’s given to them, which is cool, but I sing because it’s an outlet for me to express the things I want to say," says Jason.  In the summer of 2009, he went into the studio with Eric Rosse to create something true to himself, a collection of songs ranging from contemplative pop to electrifying rock.  The album also includes Jason's cover of the famous Leonard Cohen song "Hallelujah," which he performed on American Idol to great acclaim. 

With an opera singer grandfather and a father and uncles who play guitar and sing, it isn't a surprise that Jason Castro was the first American Idol contestant who not only showed off his vocal abilities, but actually played an instrument on stage.  What may be surprising about him, though, is that he is entirely self taught:  he started out as a drummer, then taught himself how to sing by watching vocal tutorials on the internet, then learned the guitar because a drum kit was not exactly welcome in a college dorm.  Modest and private about his intimate ties to music, Jason practiced singing and playing guitar at night in the middle of nowhere on campus, stopping when he thought he sensed someone approaching.  In a world where kids are now groomed to become American Idol contestants, Jason's genuine talent and love for music, as well as his unique look, set him apart from other contestants, making him not only the fan favorite but also singled out as an early favorite by none other than Simon Cowell himself.

While his stint on American Idol proved Jason's singing ability and versatility, his self-titled debut showcases Jason Castro, the person.  Many of the songs are heartfelt and personal. The vulnerability he showed in performing "Hallelujah" on Idol comes through--the shy boy who sang in the middle of the night so no one would hear him is now confident enough to bare his soul in songs about himself.  Jason's first single "That's What I'm Here For" is available on JamLegend to play, so check it out to hear a different side of Jason Castro.

For more info on Jason Castro and his debut album, visit his official websiteor his MySpace page.

For the past ten days or so, JamLegend has been unveiling new songs by The Ruse from their brand new album Love Sex Confusion, released on March 23.  To date, The Ruse have about one million plays total, which is an impressive feat.  We certainly feel your love for the band, and we're absolutely stoked that they chose JamLegend as the venue to premiere their songs so we asked Jim from the band to tell us a little more about the new record. 

Aside from the well-crafted songs, what catches your attention is the title: Love Sex Confusion.  What could it mean?  Jim tells us: "Title comes from Twitter actually--we put out a tweet that asked our fans to help us name the album. We told them that the themes of the album were 'Love, Sex, Confusion, and Los Angeles.' There was a response from a few different people that we should just go with the themes as the title. So, we dropped  the 'Los Angeles' part and rolled with 'Love Sex Confusion.'  And we love it."

The Ruse spent about 2 months, from start to finish, working on Love Sex Confusion, which they recorded with producer Jorge Vivo.  "This was the easiest album we've ever made. We tracked it all ourselves over four days in a studio in Los Angeles. No pressure, no producers looking over our shoulder. Just us and our ideas," Jim says.  The tracks were mixed by Jorge, a friend of the band, who "added his own special sauce" to the magic contained within.  Jim continues, "We think you can hear the joy and ease on the finished product."  We agree that the new songs crackle with a sense of excitement and the band's love for writing and performing their music.

Asked if there are any particular songs from Love Sex Confusion that they are especially proud of, The Ruse picked "The Sweetness"--though, it must have been difficult to single out just one out of many stellar songs (it would be impossible for us!).  Jim explains that they absolutely love playing "The Sweetness" live: "It has a great dance vibe and the audience really connects. That song opened up a new direction for us--groove based songs that help the drums and bass shine."  The song served as a cornerstone for Love Sex Confusion. "We followed that lead for the rest of the songs on the album--each one has a great bassline and groove that sets the tone."

So, out of all the music sites out there, why choose JamLegend as a venue to unveil the new album one song at a time?  With one million plays for their songs, The Ruse certainly feels the love from JamLegend players.  "JamLegend has been amazing for us," says Jim, "We get tweets all day long about people playing our songs. Some people even upload their 'wins' on YouTube. All in all, it helps expose our music to an entirely new audience--one that is worldwide. So it was a natural idea for us to work with Jamlegend on the debut."

Finally, we asked if The Ruse have a message for their fans on JamLegend.  Of course, they do!:

"THANK YOU!!!! Keep playing and keep spreading the word!!! We love you guys- Jim, John, Mark and Jason" 

The new album from The Ruse, Love Sex Confusion, is available now directly from the band, via iTunes, at online retailers like Amazon, and in stores.  The Ruse just began their US tour in support of the album.  Go see them live and tell them JamLegend sent you!  Play "The Sweetness" from the new album below, but make sure to check out the rest of the songs available to play on JamLegend.

4/01 The Elbo Room | Chicago, IL
4/03 Cicero's | St. Louis, MO
4/05 Pirates Cove | Cleveland, OH
4/07 Rebel Sound Records | Pittsfield, MA
4/08 StageOne | Fairfield, CT
4/09 Mercury Lounge | New York, NY
4/10 IOTA | Arlington, VA
4/11 The Rox Box | Philadelphia, PA
4/12 The Jewish Mother | Virginia Beach, VA
4/13 The Milestone | Charlotte, NC
4/14 The Pour House | Raleigh, NC
4/16 University Of Miami | Miami, FL
4/17 Will's Pub | Orlando, FL
4/20 Hard Rock Cafe | Biloxi, MS
4/21 The Nick | Birmingham, AL
4/22 Caledonia Lounge | Athens, GA
4/23 Vinyl | Atlanta, GA
4/24 Mercy Lounge | Nashville, TN
5/07 Studio Seven | Seattle, WA
5/08 Tonic Lounge | Portland, OR
5/11 Muddy Waters Cafe | Santa Barbara, CA
5/12 The Shore | Hermosa Beach, CA
5/13 The Casbah | San Diego, CA
5/14 The Roxy | Los Angeles, CA
5/15 Hotel Utah | San Francisco, CA

Through their five-year existence, Manic Drive, a Christian band who hails from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, have steadily built up a trail of chart-topping singles and awards.  2009 was a banner year for the band with the release of their latest album Blue and an invitation to tour with the legendary hard rock band Stryper.  For Anthony, Shawn and Michael, it was a slow and steady race up to the top, beginning with accolades collected as a band on an independent label to growing into a nationally distributed, major label-backed artist.  Success hasn't changed the threesome at all, though; Michael says, "Our shows are high energy and we like having fun with everyone there. We never take ourselves too seriously!”

While the Manic Drive don't take themselves too seriously, they take their work, their music very seriously.  They spent much effort to deliver something new with Blue, including a collaboration with Lu Rubino of StorySide:B “The new musical direction we are taking with Blue explores different styles of music with energetic dynamics that hopefully keep things interesting and make people move by laying a primary foundation of rock and adding elements of pop, funk, dance and hip-hop,” says Shawn. “The underlying themes found on Blue are lyrics that will encourage people to get up and make a move, both literally as well as in their faith. Songs such as 'Music' have a fun approach to challenging people to become radical and active.”  Manic Drive strives to offer their fans an experience to remember--whether it's through their energetic live shows, through an intimate experience through headphones, or by adding their music to JamLegend.

Though Manic Drive is most often filed under Christian rock, judging from the play count in the hundreds of thousands on JamLegend, their fresh take on rock seems to appeal to people of all faiths from around the world.  Their song "NYC Gangsters" is almost at 200,000 plays, and the title track from their latest album Blue is close to 120,000 plays.  We salute Manic Drive's positive attitude and message as articulated by Shawn: “We hope every Manic Drive release will be refreshing to our fans as we continue to grow artistically as a band and we hope our lyrics resonate with people and challenge them to take a stand in faith to impact the world around them.”

You can check out Manic Drive's single "Blue" below.  For more info about the band including upcoming live dates, please visit their MySpace page.  You can buy Manic Drive's album Blue as well as their previous releases via iTunes.

Play this music game and more at JamLegend