Saigon Kick to reunite

SAIGON KICK will reunite for an appearance at next year's Rock Gone Wild music festival. The event, sure to be Iowa's preeminent music destination of 2009, will feature more than 50 rock legends on two stages over four days.

Rock Gone Wild will take place August 20-23, 2009 at the Freedom Park festival grounds, located at 2507- 160th Avenue, in Algona, Iowa.

Check out more info here.

Starclock - Progressive Power Pop?

You have absolutely got to get Starclock by Starclock!
From Not Lame's description:

Imagine Toy Matinee or The Bears doing "Skylarking" by XTC with dashes of 70`s progressive rock and mid-70`s hard rock riffs all glossed up with pop perfection. Lots of Owsley / The Semantics or PFR or the poppy side of King`s X produced by Prince. And how bout The Merrymakers and Sugarbomb? Well, there you go! Starclock combines great studio sonds and, more importantly, highly admirable and catchy songs that dig a hook into the back, hold the listener up for all to see and wondering what`s around the next corner. Peppy and incredibly melodic, beginning to end. 13 complex but incredibly easy to enjoy and digest pop songs and most assuredly, Extremely Highly Recommended.

From Starclock's MySpace page:

Starclock is the solo project for Chris Bradley, bassist for Look What I Did. The self titled debut was released in 2002 on Chris' own Clockrock Recordings. It was written, performed, engingeered and mixed mostly by Chris.

Not Lame: http://www.notlame.com/Starclock/Page_1/CDSTAR2.html

CD Baby: http://cdbaby.com/cd/starclock

Castledoor

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="192" caption="Castledoor"][/caption]

Anyone looking for a band with energy, amazing talent, and incredible song-writing should look no further than Castledoor.  If you're in LA, you should go see them, as they hail from Silverlake and play a lot around those parts.

Tonight I saw them for the 3rd time -- at {open} in Long Beach for their EP release party, and each time the show they put on is tremendous.  The EPs are great too, their first, "Follow The Dove" can be had on iTunes. The 2nd, newly released "'Til We Sink" can be procured on 7" purple vinyl, couresty of the 7inchproject.

If you see these guys on a marquee of a club near you, go, you won't be sorry.

--UPDATE--  I wanted to try to describe Castledoor's sound and why I dig'em.  This band has the making of a typical Power Pop band, but theyr'e not, they've got their own thing going.  They have multiple mics for viocals and there are great backing vocals with the bum bum bum's and the doooo wahhh's, but it's not in a bubblegum sorta way, it'll make you move.  It's hard to describe, but infectious, and just saying that is a testament to the niche that Castledoor is  carving out for themselves.  I wish they'd write more music!

Great New Interviews with Roger J. Manning and Jason Falkner

These are great interviews (they are multiple pages long, look for page numbers you can click on at the bottom):

http://popshifter.com/2008-07-30/speaking-the-language-of-pop-an-interview-with-roger-joseph-manning-jr/

http://popshifter.com/2008-07-30/creating-utopia-an-interview-with-jason-falkner/

Ex-Anthrax Guitarist Dan Spitz Launches 'Christian Heavy Metal' Project

Let's keep the theme going here. This is also from Blabbermouth:

Some close friends, and of course, record company executives there at Cornerstone, were amongst the first to be blown away by what is to come to the Christian heavy metal genre. My brother Peter Baltes, from the legendary band ACCEPT (who has tracked all the bass on the project) stood alongside me at the festival as well. Matt Thompson from the band KING DIAMOND did some drum overdubs and will be my touring drummer, but was not available to attend.

And from here:

Spitz still has contacts with friends in music and says that others are coming to Christ. "There are people you would not believe that God has put me in touch with in the mysterious ways He does. I'm talking about bands that are some of the most out-there in the secular market, who are completely and radically saved."

C.C. DeVille Wants Poison Concerts To Be 'Honoring To God'

From here:

Pete Wilson, the pastor at Cross Point Church in Nashville, Tennessee recently got a call from POISON guitarist C.C. DeVille asking for advice and inviting him to POISON's July 8 concert at the Sommet Center in Nashville. According to Pete, "C.C. has just become a Christian and was wondering if I would be willing to bring him some messages he could listen to on the road, as well as just encourage him, and answer a few questions."

Click the link, there's more...

What's Under the Covers? or The Song Retains the Name

Off and on for a while now, I have wondered what kind of covers album I would put together if I were able to do so. Would I include Coal Chambers version of Shock the Monkey? What about Back In Black and Tomorrow Never Knows on the Living Colour album Collideøscope? Would I go back to 1989 for Faith No More's version of War Pigs? How about Testament's rendition of Nobody's Fault or perhaps the Guns N Roses version of Mama Kin? Actually the question that interests me most is what the rest of you might add to such a project. So impress us with how deep you can go and come up with covers worthy of their original glory.

(post written by dcedave)