Save Your Breath Interview

Save Your Breath are one of the freshest pop-punk hopefuls bursting out of the UK scene right now. Their debut full length, Vices, has received rave reviews and they’re just done a stint supporting New Found Glory on their recent UK tour. Kiki Vs Everyone caught up with vocalist Kris Richards and guitarist Tom Owen ahead of their Reading & Leeds Festival appearances to talk about apprehending merch thieves and bandanna suntans.

How has the New Found Glory tour been? How did it come about?
T: It was just amazing - A dream come true for all of us because they’re one of our favourite bands.
K: It was because we’re good friends with The Wonder Years, who’d heard they New Found Glory were coming over to the UK so I think Soupy from The Wonder Years spoke to one of the guys from New Found Glory - Steve I think it was - about us and put in a good word and they checked us out on Myspace or something.
T: I doubt it was Myspace.
K: Whatever...
T: No one uses Myspace anymore.
K: And put us forward for it and we got in it.

Fireworks

I'll make no bones about the fact i'm a big fan of Detroit's finest, Fireworks. The boys are over in the UK for a short tour before hitting the road in the US with Such Gold, Make Do & Mend and The Wonder Years. So it's no surprise that I was beyond excited to get to see them play this past weekend in sunny Bournemouth at the tiny ibar. I was even more stoked to get to have a little chat with guitarist Chris Mojan about their new record, Gospel (out May 24th), kicking off the UK tour with no equipment and the dilemmas of dating so many hot guys...

What's Eating Gilbert Update

The awesome Chad Gilbert from New Found Glory's side project, What's Eating Gilbert, is at it again. This time around he releases new song 'Dear God' for all who want it. It's another belter of a song from the Coral Springs FL native and is as heart felt and genuine as all his other tracks. As well as being home to seven free songs, the website now has a limited pressing of yellow and red vinyl up for sale featuring alongside debuting the first WEG t-shirt - the perfect back-to-school gifts! What are you guys waiting for?

Kiki Vs Live Nation

We all love going to gigs, right? For me there's nothing quite like the fun of going to see a band I love play a show. Enjoying a night out with friends, having a dance and appreciating some good live music. But since when did it get so expensive?!

Phantom City

Talk to Phantom City for any amount of time and you'll soon notice they're a energetic and enthusiastic bunch - not to mention ambitious!

Vocalist-guitarist William Ide notes that by 2015 they'd like to get picked up by either No Sleep Records or Run For Cover, embark on a full US tour, release a full length CD, tour with Blink 182 and New Found Glory and they'd love to have actor Neil Patrick Harris guest vocal on a song with them - looks like they have a busy few years ahead!

Slam Dunk Special: New Found Glory Review

As Omar from Hit The Lights said during their earlier set, if it wasn't for New Found Glory all of the bands playing that night would probably not be bands right now and he really wasn't exaggerating. There is no question that New Found Glory are the long reigning Kings of pop-punk and Friday's show at the O2 Academy in Bournemouth proves exactly why that is. 

Slam Dunk Special: Stage Times

 

For all you lucky people out there going to Slam Dunk Festival in the UK this weekend here are the all important stage times so you can plan your day ahead and not miss out on any of the bands you want to see:

What Can You Do With A Sentimental Heart?

Just wanted to take the time and thank everyone who's been to the site and give a few updates!

Coming your way soon is a feature & interview with Hit The Lights, gig and music reviews galore and two new authors have been invited to contribute as and when they can so keep your eyes peeled for those posts in the future!

Hopefully there will also be a nice little flyer at some point to feature and share around too which i'm sure will be bloody better than my crude Paint job above!

Thanks for everyone who's been supporting the site and a massive thanks to Chad Gilbert of New Found Glory/What's Eating Gilbert for a twitter thumbs up too!

As always, If there's anything you want me to give a listen to and feature on the site let me know - kikivseveryone(at)gmail(dot)com.

What's Eating Gilbert

Here's another shot of free for you!

Like a superhero revealing his true identity, Chad Gilbert of vetran pop-punker's New Found Glory has a side project cleverly named What's Eating Gilbert -with five songs for you to download free of charge!

What's Eating Gilbert is everything music should be - fun, affectionate, endearing and honest. Emotions ranging from sombre honesty in 'Devil in Me' to resent filled defiance in 'Thinkin' Bout Her', this selection of songs send out a clear message: this is who I am, do not be afraid to be yourself.

What is best about this is the home-grown aspect of it. The entire project is driven solely by Chad: the blog posts sharing recordings of himself and girlfriend Hayley Williams covering a song from the Juno soundtrack, to the competitions with prizes from his own wallet. It is this organic element that so many musicians have lost touch with these days.

Filled with love and positivity Chad discloses his hopes, fears and misgivings with his candid lyrics - a confessional. Drawing from New Found Glory's vivacious sounds yet adding a truly personal twist you'd be foolish not to head on over to What's Eating Gilbert and grab a bite.

What's Eating Gilbert
2010
Also check out: New Found Glory

Mixtapes Are Fun

Just a quick note to say head on over to the Peta2 website and sign up to their mailing list to download a free 16 track mixtape featuring New Found Glory, Fireworks, Strike Anywhere and Polar Bear Club. A good cause + good music = two thumbs up.

Kiki Vs Covers

With Fearless Records having released the latest installment of their 'Punk goes...' series this week (...Classic Rock), the first subject to step into the Vs ring is cover versions.

Kicking off the fight with a questionable cover is Cancer Bats' recent interpretation of the Beastie Boys' classic 'Sabotage'. Don't get me wrong, Cancer Bats are a great band, but the Beasties are better. And it shows. Moral of the story is: don't mess with perfection, boys. It really is a risky foray for anyone - given that the song is so brilliant and ageless to start with.