Song of the Day

**1/19/10

Set Your Goals - Echoes

-------------Continuing with the punk phase here. Ever since Avril hung up her skull-flower "I'm-acoustic-but-my-label-made-me-hardcore" image, punk seems to have taken an upswing. Hence, Set Your Goals, one of female rocker Haley Williams' favorite bands right now. Sounds like Set Your Goals spent some time in the studio with Blink or The Starting Line - any fans will approve with a tremendous "hell yeah!"

Set Your Goals reminds me of all the stuff that inspired me to wear Converse and paint my nails black in middle school. It brings me back to those simpler, angstier times...aah, to have those days back when mom had to drop me off at the skate park...Anyways, you can wax nostalgia or polish off a copy of Set Your Goals 2008 album Mutiny: The Deluxe Edition. Also check out their new album, This Will Be the Death of Us.

http://www.myspace.com/setyourgoals

Song of the Day

**11/28/09

Visceral - So Far Apart

--------------Trolling the interweb on a Saturday night - pretty much as dorky-schmorky as you can get, right? I'm not complaining here, I've stumbled upon the likes of Dallas quintet Visceral. They've got a big-venue, Warped Tour stage quality about their thoughtful punky melodies that I must give a nod to. Though they're unsigned, Epitaph might wanna scoop these guys up to make them labelmates with the likes of New Found Glory and Sing Out Loud.

Visceral has a couple of shows coming up in the lone star state, but I'm keeping my guitar-shredded fingers crossed these guys will jump into a big van and make their way east. Get "So Far Apart" from their August release Rapture.

http://www/myspace.com/wearevisceral/

Song of the Day

Photo by Eric Kirk

**9/22/09

A Path Less Traveled - An Eye For An Eye Makes Us All Pirates

-----------------My usual formula for finding music on Myspace is accepting a friend request and hearing out the material with no other frame of reference. But for this Song of the Day, I was lucky enough to hear about the popcore stylings of APLT from the band's photographer and brilliant friend, Eric Kirk. The seven members of A Path Less Traveled hail from the Atlanta area, and will celebrate the release of their new EP From Here On Out this Friday with A Heartcake, She Came From Above, Show the Fight, and A Fight For Life.

So what separates APLT from all the other hardcore bands in the southeast? "An Eye For An Eye Makes Us All Pirates" is one of the most popular demos on Epitaph Record's demo forum "Demo-Lition." The teaser tracks to the new EP are effortlessly good with heated vocals and the members exhaust every fiber of their instruments to give an outstanding show. Get "An Eye For An Eye" from APLT's upcoming release From Here On Out.

http://www.epitaph.com/demolition/index/cursor/40/?q=&score=0#sort

http://www.myspace.com/apltmusic

Song of the Day

**7/31/09

Pennywise - The American Dream

-------------When most hear the word "vintage" they think of old phones with the turn dials, priceless jewels, and vinyl records. But what about a punk vinyl LP from 1999? When I popped over to Manifest in search of a punk record, I didn't think Pennywise's Straight Ahead would even be vinyl in the first place. The Hermosa Beach punk band has been playing since '88 and has seen many days of the nineties, a time when CDs were taking over vinyl sales and the term "boy band" became sononymous with success.

Rather than languish in late eighties obscurity, Pennywise holds true to the rougish punk scene with "American Dream," a definitive anti-establishment anthem with a commotion of chugging guitars and ruthless drums. Get "American Dream" off of the 1999 album, Straight Ahead.