Roadrunner/Within Temptation/F.O.B.

Like Chainsaw said earlier, we'll be doing our 'Best of' lists in the next week or so. I had to have him redo his because it included 5 Pennywise records. Unlike Chainsaw's initial attempt, we'll include records (and maybe other stuff) that a) came out in 2006 and b) are good (hence 'best'). Since we have cool jobs in LA at places that don't work over the holidays we'll be writing lots of shit next week, probably while we're shit-faced, so don't blame us if it's completely incoherent.

- Warner Music Group bought a majority stake in Roadrunner Records a couple of days ago. Damn good work if you ask me. I hate Slipknot and Nickelback as much as the next guy (the next guy west of St. Louis that is), but there's no arguing that those assholes sell a ga-jillion records. (Did you know that 'ga-jillion' was a word? Or that it should be hyphenated? There you go.) Plus, CKY and Killswitch Engage are both fucking great bands, so at least they're getting some talent in the deal too.

- Speaking of talent, Roadrunner just signed a band that has none. It was announced today that Roadrunner signed Evanescence, excuse me, Within Temptation. I don't really have much to say about this band other than that they're from the Netherlands and their singer is a girl so now you know exactly what they sound like. Apparently these Netherlandianishians have been spending their time listening to Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir (instead of smoking weed, banging hookers and drinking Absinthe) because somehow they ended up sounding just like all those shitty symphony-metal bands from Sweden/Norway/Denmark. You'd think the with all the time those Swedes, Danes and Norwegians spend inside, that they'd be able to come up with more creative music than that same old symphonic metal crap. Oh well. Here's what they look like:

I can't tell if the singer is hot or not, plus she might be a hooker with herpes. I realize it's really sexist of me to automatically start talking about the singer being hot, but that's really their only redeeming quality (maybe). Let's wait and see....

- Fall Out Boy's new album is up for pre-order............through Wal-Mart. Wow. They must have got PAID to do that shit. Most musicians would pass that up due to Wal-Mart's shitty sounding downloads. Apparently FOB is targeting the white-trash demo running Windows 95, looking to save $.11 and listening to their music through $20 Radio Shack speakers. The good news is that those 128 kbps WMA files will sound GREAT on your iPod after you burn and rip them. I used to think Pete was a good business man, but this shit makes no sense. I guess it's all about the bottom line. Surprise, surprise.

That's it for now. Keep checking back for all kinds of stuff in the next week or so. Late.

- Black -