WOW is right.























I stumbled on these gems at CVS. If I wasn't vegetarian I would have had the perfect Christmas present. $10 leather jackets for everyone. You're welcome, Dad!



p.s. merry happy Christmas you guys!

I have a nice feature in the new Guitar World, here's one of the pages from it. The pictures were shot in what seemed to be an authentic crackhead hotel.

Bright Black Heaven.



2010.

John Lennon died 29 years ago today.

p.s. no, he didn't co-write Breaking the Habit.

OK.
Fist off (typo, keeping it), I was reminded by a very nice person today that I asked you guys to guess the lyrics of Fainting Spells, and then failed to post them.
How cruel. How unusual.
So here they are:

I'm the devout
Praying just to
Get the blood out
bound by this flesh I own
I'm the devout
cutting just to oh
get the blood out
desecrate til we die alone

I don't believe anyone actually guessed them correctly, but some came very close.
Especially this one:

Just give me something!
[Cut the cheese out!]
Bring it to Earl!
[Catch the blood hound!]
Bound by this pension! (Ohohohhhh!)
[Cut the cheese out!]
I need it too! (Ohh!!)
[Catch the blood hound!]
Desecrate til we dye our hair!!!!

Also, I enjoyed "Arm the Tivo!"

So, appropriately, Fainting Spells won the poll as well. On an unrelated note, I want to do a guitar tab for Crash Love, if you'd like to vote for a particular song, do so in the replies.
Now I must sign off to eat my obligatory aftershow vegan hotdog.
Good night.

Here's my Monday mix, songs from a few punk bands that were important to me as a wide-eyed child.

Kansas City!
Don't let it fool you, it's not actually in Kansas.
Just did a signing, met some lovely people. During an intermission we went up the street to a coffeeshop where Davey, Hunter, and Smith bought like 10 paintings off the wall, which they then had to lug around.

Someone always has to be the floating head in the back, I'm taking one for the team this time.

So here we are in Scranton, and it is an auspicious occasion because we're cancelling a show in the middle of a tour for the first time in the 11 years I've been in AFI (the end of the Sing the Sorrow run doesn't count, for those of you with detail-oriented minds).
Davey is extremely ill and so we want to give our sincerest regrets that we won't be playing tonight.
Special shout out to Creed, Meredith, Oscar, Andy, Jim, Kevin, Stanley, Pam, Dwight, Phyllis, Angela and Michael Scott.
I also wanted to thank everyone who came to our signing last night, even though Davey wasn't there. You guys are the best.
It's been fantastic being on tour again, getting to play to you after so long off the road.
Have you been enjoying the shows? Have you been enjoying Gallows?
I've been making some short videos, showing little pieces of the road, they're on afireinside.net:



I've got 2 new ones done that will be posted, and I promise I'm going to start including more of Smith.

Okay, I have an excuse this time, I'm on tour.


Speaking of which, it's been some kind of spectacular so far, playing in these smaller cities is refreshing, up close and personal, so you can smell the ripeness of our sweaty shirts.


I have to talk about the apple pie I ate last night, it looked like this:






















and it was hands down the best apple pie I've ever ate. Who would have thought I'd find it at a Hyatt in Buffalo.

Anyway, moving on.

Another occurence that took place in my hotel room:
The lamp was casting a shadow off of the fire sprinkler on the ceiling that looked exactly like a little cannon, so I drew a little cannonball coming out of it. Now when people stay in that room they'll notice a disembodied cannonball on the ceiling all day until they turn on the lamp at night and a shadow cannon appears. It'll be magical.

Our video for Medicate is done, which you're probably aware of, and it looks like this:




I'll have you know that I got several blisters shooting that.

We did a signing a few days ago and a guy had the Crash Love logo tattoed on the palm of his hand:





















So, the tour goes swimmingly, onwards we go.

Just read the first review of Crash Love:

Very nice.



FILE UNDER: Arena rock of the future
AFI - Crash Love
Scott Heisel on 9/14/09 @ 7:00 AM



[4.5/5]

Many of today's bands like to describe their new records as "bigger sounding," simply because they convinced their labels to pay the massive fees for their dicking around in the studio. Most acts could learn more than a few lessons from AFI, a unit who are well aware that sounding big is all about having a vision in the songwriting phase. Which is why Crash Love's dozen tracks are packed with as much exuberance, mystery and drama one can handle.

Overseen by producers Joe McGrath (Alkaline Trio) and Jacknife Lee (Bloc Party, REM), the album is ambitious in its execution. AFI are a dynamic rock band at their core: The rhythm section of Adam Carson (drums) and Hunter Burgan (bass) has matured into a tighter, precise unit; guitarist Jade Puget's sense of the appropriate remains crystal clear; and frontman Davey Havok's cartwheeling down the pretentiousness tightrope puts a sweat-and-blood face to his ruminations on everything from celebrity culture to personal loss. But it's their detail to arrangements and atmospheres that separate AFI from the legion of subcultures who carry battered crosses under a "-punk" suffix. From the 15 seconds of '40s horror-movie ambiance that opens the gothmo "Torch Song," to the '90s-tinged, melancholy-and-menace of "It Was Mine," Crash Love reveals more treasures with repeated listens.

The brisk tempo and Johnny Marr-ish guitar jangle of "Veronica Sawyer Smokes" makes it the best single of 1986. Likewise, "OK, I Feel Better Now" would've been a jewel had it appeared on that Ross Robinson-produced Cure album: Here, it's just greatness as usual, offering a production girth so big, you have to use movie metaphors like "Technicolor," "widescreen" and "IMAX" to convey the vision. It's immediately followed by "Medicate," a pulsing rocker that's the more sophisticated, cosmopolitan cousin to Decemberunderground's "Kill Caustic." Reminding listeners that My Chemical Romance do not have the franchise in the simultaneously anthemic-yet-cocky department, there's "Sacrilege," driven by Puget's '70s guitar histrionics and Havok's loud 'n' proud vocal prowess. This year's model's power ballad, "Darling, I Want To Destroy You," is too animated for slow dances or placement on Grey's Anatomy, but still offers a somewhat dialed-down respite.

What does all this mean in the mythology of AFI? In no uncertain terms, Crash Love is an accomplishment that raises the bar for them as musicians and writers. In many aspects, AFI seem to be exiled on a psychic island of their own. Think about it: The hellfire-and-brimstone punk purists from the scene the band came up in aren't going to be lining up in front of the merch table anytime soon, and much of the spoon-fed American mainstream aren't going to readily embrace their stylistic inversions. Although the members of AFI can't go home anymore, they're exploring more sonic vistas than any random group of smelly dudes in a van plastered with hardcore stickers or Clear Channel-sanctioned modern-rock dullards kicking back in $8K-a-week coaches, combined. Fortunately for music fans, AFI are embracing the spirit of adventure in an age of indifference. (DGC/INTERSCOPE) Jason Pettigrew
GO DOWNLOAD: "It Was Mine"

Kanye? What?

As you know, the lyrics to the chorus of Fainting Spells are pretty difficult to figure out. I even had to email Davey the other day to ask what they were.
So let's have a contest to see who can come the closest to figuring them out (just the chorus lyrics). I've already given you one line.
This contest will be great because I don't have any prizes and someone from the our camp will probably post the actual lyrics before everyone can guess, but REGARDLESS....take a stab at it.

Btw, if you haven't heard it yet, here's one of the b-sides that will be on the special packaging:

Mierde, I missed Freddie Mercury's posthumous b-day. Here's a top-notch Queen jam in sad celebration.

So I'm back from Europe, but things just get busier and busier. A whole slew of tour dates have went up, and we have several other slews up our sleeves.

We're off to Japan in a couple of weeks to play a concert at Yokohama Stadium for the WaterAid charity. That's about a 14-hour flight, during which I'll probably read 2 entire novels and eat 2 pounds of warm nuts (no jokes please).

Then we're off for some shows in the good ole USA, which I've missed desperately. I haven't toured here since the Blaqk Audio tour.

We're playing that fest in DC as well, the MTV thing. Please come and make it fun. Kid Cudi is playing, his new album excels, check it out.

I took some really poor pictures in Europe which I'll post later, I need to step up my video and photo game on tour, there's plenty of Smith antics that need documenting.
I'm thinking of doing a documentary on his beard.

Over 1,000 friends on here now, finally we have enough people to start an army.

The first thing we're going to do is invade Fritch.

Last day of European tour....!
Well, last show anyway. Had a fab show last night in Leeds, thanks to all who came out and made it amazing.
Currently sitting on the bus in Reading, across from Fritch, who's telling me a story but I stopped listening so I could type. Sorry Fritch.
Played some big rock festivals in Germany, got to play and hang with our friends in Rise Against, which is always good times. Got to see some other old friends as well, Thursday, Anti-Flag, and the Deftones.
Our first single came out on Tueday, which is exciting, we finally get to play a song off the new record live.
Spent 2 weeks on these Euro tour buses where you hit your head an average of 17 times a day on the low doorways.
Spending time on show days working on new Blaqk Audio material.
Going back to the States later this week to make a video.
These are my random and disjointed thoughts for today.

Ahh, it's a beautiful thing to be done.
Now comes the road. It's strange to be going out on tour again, it's been 2 damn years!
Any of you coming to see us in Europe?
Europe: pockets bulging with coins, trying desperately to find somewhere to eat, blowing up all my American appliances, diabetes-inducing chocolate, great coffee, amazing shows.

And our first U.S. tour. We're starting with small cities (Scranton anyone? I better see Michael Scott in the crowd).

We're taking these guys:
















Good thangs.


Our dear but not departed friend Dan Smith:





from the Dear and Departed, and many AFI and Blaqk Audio backing vocal sessions, is on that tv show L.A. Ink now. He's been working at the shop for a while but he's part of the show now, too. Watch and support, or better yet, go get a tattoo from him.

On a strangely recurring sad note, the legendary Les Paul passed away.
He made these things:









Without them I might have had a decidedly less interesting life.

John Hughes died today, dammit.
Let's have a moment of silence and enjoy the ending of Sixteen Candles.

-

Remember our Hughes movies discussion on here a while ago? Good stuff.
Those movies were an integral part of my childhood, along with breakdancing, mousse, Adidas cologne, pegged pants, and nuclear war. Sort of got me thinking about all the fads/trends we had in junior high, like wearing multiple Swatch watches on both arms, girls wearing neon clothes (judging from Warped Tour, I guess that one came back), paint pens, leg warmers, talking like a Valley girl, clip-on earrings with feathers, etc. What kinds of wacky trends are happening now, or happened when you were in school?

Damn. I hate when my blog gets all dusty and cobweb-covered.


Yeah, the latest poll only adds up to 98%. Blogspot gets a C- in math.


Marc Webb, our friend who directed the Days of the Phoenix, Leaving Song II, Miss Murder, and Love Like Winter videos, has a new movie out:

























It's his first feature length film. I went to see it, just because it's Marc, but I ended up enjoying it immensely. If you enjoy stuff, you should see it.
Marc also directed the mysterious, unreleased Stiff Kittens video.



On an unrelated note, what's the general feeling on internet memes? I have to admit I'm a fan of some of the more obscure ones:












But I have this sinking feeling that this is increasingly becoming the dominant expression of creativity





















































And our culture will eventually end up as one big failgull

The new AFI album comes out Sept. 29th.
I'm an impatient person so I wish that was tomorrow.
We just finished mastering today and it's an incredibly fantastic feeling to have our 8th album completed.
Can't wait for you to hear it.

On an unrelated note, when I originally signed up for Twitter, I tried to get twitter.com/jadepuget but it was taken. Turns out someone got it for me so now I have it. I'll be doing my spotty twittering there as well, so go check it out. Hopefully when we start touring on this record I'll get my twittering act together so I can report on Smith setting his head on fire.

By the way, that's not the album art above, but it's very apt.

crash<3

someone should make an emoticon that comes up when you type "crash<3".

p.s. in case you haven't seen it, here's Davey's announcement from today:

After two years of focused writing and recording we have finished Crash Love in it's entirety and and are thrilled to hear it come to life - personally, I've never been more proud of an AFI record. We are writing to announce that on Sept 29th it will be released to the world. We wanted you to know first and do hope that you enjoy it!