NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

Twenty years ago, Blindside released their second major-label album, About a Burning Fire . The songs on the album helped to form the classic sound for which the band is remembered while pushing the band creatively. The album features a collaboration with The Smashing Pumpkins ’ Billy Corgan on “ Hooray, It’s L.A. ” The song “ Roads ” flirts with jazz and the song “ Shekina ” features orchestration and Swedish yodeling, molding Blindside into more than a hardcore band with a softened sound for radio potential with some of the mellowest songs in their discography. The album’s final song, though, the title track “ About a Burning Fire ,” features mostly unclean vocals similar to the band’s earlier work. Most of the songs on the album are heavy with lead singer Christian Lindskog balancing clean vocals with occasional screams The album’s lead single “ All of Us ” bubbled under the Modern Rock chart but the video was a hit on Fuse TV . The second single, “ Follow You Down ” was a hit o

Nineteen years ago, Hoobastank killed rock music when they released their only ballad, " The Reason ." The song rose to number 2 on Billboard's Hot 100 and is the only song remembered by the band, despite the group having several Alternative radio hits. The band formed in 1994 and played local gigs with Incubus and Linkin Park before those bands were popular. Like Incubus and Linkin Park, Hoobastank were known for an eclectic hard rock sound--something listeners of their 2004 hit probably wouldn't get if all they knew was their biggest song. And no, it wasn't the band that ruined rock music, but it was certainly an indicator of the changing of times when music A&R pressured rock bands to follow the Hoobastank model. IT'S SOMETHING I MUST LIVE WITH EVERY DAY. Howard Benson produced Hoobastank's sophomore record, The Reason . We've talked about Benson as a rock producer of bands like P.O.D. , Mae , and The Starting Line . While Hoobastank's

Mae 's sophomore record, The Everglow , is to this day their most beloved record. The band released the album in 2005 and rereleased it the next year as a deluxe edition with bonus tracks and a read-along booklet designed to enhance the listener's Multi-sensory Aesthetic Experience in 2006. With the band's releases of demos and two full-length records, Mae fulfilled their contract with Tooth & Nail Records . Later that year, the band signed with Capitol Records and began recording with legendary producer Howard Benson . Singularity was released in the summer of 2007 and was the only Mae record to be released on Capitol. SMOKE-FILLED CASINOS, BUT WHAT DO WE KNOW WE'LL TAKE A CHANCE.   Singularity  is a unique album for Mae as it features a rock and New Wave sound not featured on the prior records. Drummer Jacob Marshall and keyboardist Rob Sweitzer named the album Singularity based on their discussions from a book by physicist Paul Davies. Marshall said of these

In 2002, when Blindside released their major-label debut, Silence ,  there was a lot of hype around this group. Formed in Sweden as Underfree in 1994, the band released two records in the United States through Solid State Records, Tooth & Nail's hard music sister label. The band was heavily promoted by fellow rock bands, especially P.O.D., whose multi-platinum 2001 record Satellite solidified the hard rockers in pop culture. As P.O.D. had been helped by other bands in the scene, the group paid it forward with other bands, particularly Blindside. Blindside toured with P.O.D.; their lead singer, Christian Lindskog, appeared on the track "Anything Right" on Satellite;  and the band even appeared in P.O.D.'s music video for " Boom ." In the video, Blindside appears as "Sweden" in the outrageous ping pong tournament.  WHAT IF I COULD REACH INSIDE?  Silence was a rebirth in Blindside's sound. Elements of the hardcore sound on the band's firs

Red 's debut album, End of Silence , comes in the middle of a maximalist orchestral rock era on the alternative/active rock stations. The lead single, " Breathe Into Me " is a heavily produced single that involves screaming, a Middle-eastern sounding guitar solo, and a string section that sounds like it's being tuned in on an FM radio. As novel as that sounds, a DJ today might be able to recreate that sound if he picked up a hundred other active rock records from 2003-2009. The sound effects and heavy guitars could be found on any Linkin Park record, the strings on an Evanescence record, the screaming on almost any other record. But in 2006, Red's End of Silence was a fun, aggressive radio-rock record, and I had every hope that they would go on to have a career of unique heavy music. FALLING FASTER . Released the summer after I graduated from high school, I didn't really start listening to Red's debut record until the Fall, when I was driving to morning