Sunday the 21st (of February): Thrice - Blood on the Sand

     In the vein of new music, I'm very excited to be able to write a post featuring new music from this band. I've been a fan of Thrice for longer than I've know most of my current group of friends; they're one of those bands that's been with me through a lot, so I was disheartened, to say the least, when I read about the band's hiatus back in 2012.

     Even though the band was clear about this not being the end of Thrice, we've all heard that one before. So last year's rumblings of new material from Thrice camp delighted me, and this year's news of title, release date, and first single have me just tickled. "Blood on the Sand", the first single from the forthcoming To Be Everywhere is To Be Nowhere, is a short, sharp slice of relatively straightforward post-rock that will likely once again polarize Thrice fans somewhat. Fans looking for a return to the band's older, heavier sound will continue to be disappointed here, but fans who've been willing participants in the band's experimental evolution should enjoy the new-but-familiar direction that the band seems headed in next. Have a listen and see what you think.

Thrice - Anthology

     Your Throwback Thursday song this week is, in a sense, more about throwing back (and a little forward...all will be clear in a second) to a band rather than to a song. You see, while the album Major/Minor from which your song today hails is only about four years old now, the band that wrote the song and album has doesn't much since, besides a few festivals and other isolated shows.

     But with the recent news that Thrice will indeed be releasing new material sometime next year, there's no better time than now to throw it back the measly couple of years to 2011's Major/Minor for the rocking late-album track "Anthology". This particular cut definitely does sound more at home among Thrice's more recent stuff than its older stuff (like classic The Artist in the Ambulance, for example) but if you're a Thrice fan, you've been following the band's evolution all along and are probably already on board with this one. I for one can't wait to hear what they put together next.
(Bonus, Jonas: the video linked above is a swell live performance from a Red Bull Studio Session the guys did back in 2011 -- enjoy!)

Thrice - Stare at the Sun

     Happy Friday the 13th everybody. I've got yet another cool acoustic version of an already cool song to chase away your superstitious blues, so throw that salt over your left shoulder and watch out for that black cat walking under that ladder made of broken mirrors.

     I've been a fan of Thrice for more than ten years, following their musical journey as its taken them from punk-metal to post-hardcore to something that now draws from a number of genres and influences all at once. I'm certainly not one of those who dislikes the directions taken by the band's newer material, but at the same time I definitely have a soft spot for the old stuff.

     So when I decided that I was going to do a week of acoustic-themed posts, Thrice's acoustic rendition of "Stare at the Sun", originally from their 2003 classic The Artist in The Ambulance but heard here on their 2005 mini-retrospective If We Could Only See Us Now, was basically a no-brainer inclusion. Take a song that's always resonated with me and pretty it up a bunch? Yes please.

Sunday: Thrice - The Artist in The Ambulance

     While we're on the subject of band's I'd wish would get back together who apparently are, Thrice's Dustin Kensrue has recently revealed in an online Q&A (I believe it was an AMA over on Reddit) that the band may be back touring or working on new material  sooner rather than later.

     It's not concrete news of a new album by any stretch, but I'll take what I can get. The prospect of new Thrice, or a chance to see Thrice on tour again, would be most welcome propositions even if they're not imminently on the horizon. For the time being, however, we'll just have to jam something classic and say a prayer to the music gods that things move forward post haste.

     Crank the title track from 2003's The Artist in The Ambulance to get yourself in the mood for the possible return of Thrice.

Post-Christmas Four Way

     Why hello, stranger. Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to you and yours. I've been off for a few days, eating myself silly first with my family and then my girlfriend's, but now I'm back at it and back with you for your regularly scheduled Loud Noises programming. You know what that means: some Songs for the past couple of days.

     First up is Christmas Eve. I've decided that last year's Christmas Day song is going to be this year's Christmas Eve song, so your song for Tuesday is/was Bing Crosby's version of the classic carol "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". This has been one of my favourite Christmas carols since I was a wee lad, and I can't think of a better version than Bing's.

     Christmas Day is going to see Christopher Lee's "Jingle Hell" as your song for the day. Metal fans and movie dorks alike will already know that Christopher Lee has recorded a metal song or two in his day, and this year he put out another couple of Christmas tunes, including this one. Christmas carol by a 90+ year old not doing it for you? What about a Christmas carol from Dracula? Or Saruman? Talk about bang for your buck, "Jingle Hell" gets you all three.

     For your boxing day song, I'm going to point you in the direction of "Music Box" from Thrice's 2005 disc Vheissu because I'm not terribly clever and I want a "box" themed song for Boxing Day (wiki it my American friends). This is, in my opinion, a very underrated album from a key transitional period in the history of this band. They were transitioning away from their earlier, heavier sound and towards some even more post than the post-hardcore they had been, and in the process they managed to craft an album of rock solid songs, not one of which can be considered filler.

     Last up we have your song for today, aka Friday, and speaking of underrated, we're going with a song by British metalcore/mathcore/whatevercore band Architects. I've been a fan since 2006's Nightmares, and while this band too has evolved well beyond where they started, they're still putting out quality metalcore (for lack of a better word) that should appeal even to those for whom "metalcore" is a four-letter word. Check out "Follow the Water" from 2009's Hollow Crown to see what I mean.

Thrice - Cold Cash and Colder Hearts

     Winter's icy onslaught continued today, so tonight you're getting another appropriately themed (or titled, at least) song for the weather.

     Your song this evening is Thrice's "Cold Cash and Colder Hearts" from 2003's The Artist in The Ambulance. I know, I know, it's a socio-political song that doesn't actually have anything to do with ice or snow, but it's a great song from Thrice's heavier heyday, and it's got a vaguely wintry-sounding title. What more do you want?

Friday Triple Shot

     I know you must have missed me desperately over the last couple of days, so as usual you're getting a a triple shot today to make up for it, whether you want it or not.

     First, something a little mellower. I'm not a huge fan of techno/electronica-type music, but there is some bloopy stuff I enjoy. How convenient for me that one of my favourite bands  has at least one cool song in this vein (and virtually every other vein besides). That song is "Digital Sea" from the Water portion of Thrice's 2007 album The Alchemy Index: Vols. 1-2, and it's also your song for yesterday.

     Next up, we're going a little more aggro with one of my favourite Deftones songs. Diamond Eyes and Koi No Yokan were both really good records, but when it comes to the Deftones, White Pony still holds the crown in my book. And if we're talking White Pony, we need to be talking "Knife Party", if only for the spine-tingling vocal cameo by Rodleen Getsic near the end of the song. Her performance gives the song a particularly haunting quality that has stuck with me since I was in high school.

     Finally, for your Friday song, we'll sample something heavier still. Specifically, we're going with "We Are the Nightmare" which is both the title track to Arsis' 2008 album as well as the opening one. This is the first song I ever heard by Arsis, and I was instantly intrigued. Tasty tech-death with a pretty keen sense of melody? Yes please. Their stuff since this album has been equally technically brilliant, but for me has failed to rebottle the lightning of We Are the Nightmare. If you're into this kind of thing, you should definitely give this album a spin.

Song of the Day: Thrice - The Weight

     Super quick post today because it's past my bedtime and I've got a bit of a busy day tomorrow (and not just because Bioshock: Infinite comes out tomorrow...)

     Your song today is "The Weight" from Thrice's 2009 album Beggars, and it's for someone very special. You know who you are.

Song of the Day: Thrice - All the World is Mad

     It's the weekend again, which means it's already been a whole Resurrection Week of songs from defunct bands. We'll do one more today, just to put a nice round cap on things, before getting back into the swing of more regular things tomorrow. As was the case with Glassjaw, today's band might not technically be completely dead yet, but they are on "indefinite hiatus", so if I can somehow get them back in the game then I'll have done my job.

Song of the Day: Shadows Fall - Welcome to the Machine

     Under the Covers of Darkness Week continues on this Humpday, and if yesterday we took a step away from more conventional covers, today we take a step back towards them. Not only that, but your cover for today comes from a band that's had a song featured lately. But all of the being said, it's a cool cover of a great song, so you're gettin' it whether you like it or not.

Song of the Day: Cake - War Pigs

     Afternoon everyone. Today we're back doing day two of Under the Covers of Darkness Week here at Loud Noises, and I've got a good one for you. Yesterday's song, Thrice's cover of "Eleanor Rigby", while being cool, was a pretty straight-forward cover. It was heavier, sure, but definitely recognizably "Eleanor Rigby". Today's cover is a little further afield from the original -- in some very good ways.

Song of the Day: Thrice - Eleanor Rigby

     A little over a month ago, Loud Noises had its first theme week when I did Classic Rock Week. Now, maybe classic rock isn't your favourite thing in the world, but I hope the concept of having some sort of running theme for songs from one day to the next isn't too offensive to you, because I've got a couple of ideas for doing it again, and I'm going to do one of them this week.

Song of the (Yester)Day: Thrice - Under a Killing Moon

     I know it's technically late, but it's also really early in the morning and therefore not quite Saturday yet, so conceptually I'm going to imagine I finished this last night like I intended to and go from there...

Song of the Day: Thrice - Deadbolt

     Just like yesterday, today's band isn't new at all, and unlike yesterday, I would say Thrice are actually pretty big in the world of heavier music, with eight solid albums and a live double CD and DVD (with another live double album forthcoming this fall) under their belts. However, if you've only heard their more recent stuff, you could be forgiven for not knowing that Thrice can be pretty fucking heavy. They started off during the days of emo as a punky, hardcore-type band with strong sense of melody that was tempered by a bit of metal.