Atreyu

Hell or Highwater Turns an Alt-Metal Drummer Into a Frontman

There few things that come with as much anticipation and anxiety as watching a respected drummer step out from behind the kit and grab a mic. The paradigm shift from rocking in the back of the stage to the front is rarely successful unless you're Phil Collins. So for Hell or Highwater's Brandon Sall ... More >>

Top 25 Greatest Orange County Bands of All Time: The Complete List

Go ahead, call us a bunch of culture-less, lily-white suburbanites with a partiality to flip-flops and right-wing politics. Those kind of labels never cease to amuse us. Because one thing that instantly dooms most of the tired cliches ascribed to OC is the music--the one-of-a-kind frustration, aggre ... More >>

Top 25 Greatest Orange County Bands of All Time: 14-6

14. Reel Big FishZany, wacky, ska-rooted (though they rock harder now) Reel Big Fish elevate self-deprecation to an art form, thanks to a malcontent lead singer in Aaron Barrett, who beats you to the punch with peppy lyrics like "I'll never be anything, anything at all." He lays down these anti-What ... More >>

Top 25 Greatest Orange County Bands of All Time: 25-15

Go ahead, call us a bunch of culture-less, lily-white suburbanites with a partiality to flip-flops and right-wing politics. Those kind of labels never cease to amuse us. Because one thing that instantly dooms most of the tired cliches ascribed to OC is the music--the one-of-a-kind frustration, aggre ... More >>

Fake Figures

Glass House

Chi Cheng, Deftones Bassist, Showing Signs of Emerging From Three Year Coma

​Bassist Chi Cheng of the Deftones was involved in a high-speed car accident in Santa Barbara in November 2008. Cheng, who was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash, was ejected from his vehicle and consequently fell into a coma. Now, three years and two months later, Cheng is finally s ... More >>

Five Local Bands Who Should Be Huge in 2012

​Young The Giant wins the prize for the breakout band of Orange County in 2011. Turn on an alt-rock station, google the word "young," and ask Morrissey who his favorite new band is and you'll have your answer--2011 belonged to Young the Giant. "Cough Syrup" was probably only second to Foster the P ... More >>

Weezer, My Morning Jacket, Andrew Bird, Hayley Williams Featured on Muppets: The Green Album

​In one of the most adorable collaboration albums of the year, Weezer, Atreyu's Brandon Saller (a local-er!), Paramore's Hayley Williams, My Morning Jacket, Andrew Bird, OK Go, Sondre Lerche and many more artists have contributed to The Muppets: Green Album, a tribute to the music of the Muppets. ... More >>

Orange Bits: The Growlers Recognized By The Black Keys, Jesse Rich Memorial, Pithy Sweet's New EP and More

Tom Maxson​In this week's addition of news we didn't write, you can purchase Pithy Sweet's new EP, or listen to Andrea Babinski of Dusty Rhodes and the River Band's new holiday tune.Check it out after the jump.

Know Fearless Records

The OC label that first signed Plain White T's has a plan for keeping the next big thing from bolting to the majors

Atreyu and Bless the Fall at the House of Blues Last Night

Christopher Victorio/OC WeeklyAtreyu​See the slideshow here!Atreyu, Bless the FallOct. 20, 2010House of BluesThe Show: There's nothing inherently wrong with Orange County's Atreyu. The metal core band who's been rocking out for more than a decade brings incredible intensity to the stage combi ... More >>

Atreyu

House of Blues

The OC Music Awards Put Out 'The Best of Orange County'

​Young the Giant's Sameer Gadhia's Q&A with Spencer Kornhaber last week may have gotten all kinds of reactions about the state of the OC music scene, but the OC Music Awards are definitely making a case for local bands. Last week, the organization released a compilation featuring 14 songs from ... More >>

See and Be Scenes

The many subspecies of OC bands in their natural habitats

Balls Afire! Glen and the Sunshine Gang Are Serious About This Joke Band Thing

www.myspace.com/glenandthesunshinegang​Few rock groups have balls big enough to doggedly pursue the status of a joke band. That's not the case for Orange County's Glen and the Sunshine Gang; their candor regarding their faux status is like two massive glowing orbs dangling between their spandex co ... More >>

Saturday: OC Music Awards at the Grove of Anaheim

​Two months of packed showcases and memorable performances and surprises all come down to the Orange County Music Awards presentation, happening this Saturday, Mar. 6 at the Grove of Anaheim. For the devout faction of local music fans who came to every one of those free gigs, this is your chance ... More >>

Over The Weekend: Atreyu and the Used at the House of Blues, Anaheim

The Hype: Metalcore titans the Used and Atreyu co-headlined two very sold out shows at the House of Blues, Anaheim, Friday and Saturday. Atreyu definitely had the home field advantage and probably could have sold out both nights alone, so I wasn't going to be surprised if a portion of the crowd wou ... More >>

What You Missed: Alex's Bar 10-Year Anniversary, Atreyu, the Used, the Soft Pack

Keith MayRiverboat Gamblers goes for a ride. ​Happy birthday, Alex's Bar! For night two of their 10-Year Anniversary celebration, Alex's Bar invited Mike Watt and the Secondmen, Throw Rag, Werewolf and Riverboat Gamblers. To read more about Alex's Bar and their history, check out our Q&A with ... More >>

The Used

House of Blues

Q&A: Atreyu Drummer Brandon Saller on New Solo Project, His Pal James Sullivan

Brandon Saller has spent the past decade-plus drumming, co-writing and singing backup vocals for Atreyu. The Orange County metalcore band's string of hit singles--"Ex's and Oh's" (2006), "Becoming the Bull" ('07), "Falling Down" ('08) and "Storm To Pass," off Areyu's latest album Congregation of t ... More >>

[Sound Guy] Everything Sort of Old Is Kind of New Again

Atreyu Announce Details for 'Congregation of the Damned'

​Wow. Congregation of the Damned. That's the kind of album title that makes album titles album titles, y'know?That's the name of the fifth studio full-length from Orange County metalcore band Atreyu, scheduled for release on October 27. The band also released the full track listing today.

Slideshow: Epicenter and Pomona Fairplex, Musicians Swap Meet at Old World Village

​Do you like to rock? Yes? Well, if so, you probably already were at Saturday's Epicenter show at the Pomona Fairplex in (um, let me guess this one) Pomona. Artists included: Alice in Chains, Linkin Park, Tool, Atreyu, Wolfmother and heaps more. So you were probably totally there, rocking out. Oh, ... More >>

Full List of OC Music Awards Winners

Venus Infers, a band we've (along with just about everyone else, it seems) been singing the praises of for a while, were the big winners Saturday at the OC Music Awards, picking up the victory in three categories--best indie, best alternative (not sure how those two are defined, but OK) and best alb ... More >>

Trying to Make Sense of the OC Music Awards Nominees

Everyone I've talked to about the OC Music Awards nominee list, released yesterday, seems to have the same reaction: Huh? Why are young, unsigned bands like The Jakes competing against veteran, internationally known acts like The Offspring, who had Billboard's #1 Hot Modern Rock Track for 11 weeks l ... More >>

OC Music Awards Nominees Announced

I'll have some more thoughts on the more, uh, interesting choices made by the academy (which I am not a part of, despite what their Web site says) a little later, but for now here's the full list of nominees, unedited from the OC Music Awards press release.

Slideshow: MUSINK Tattoo Convention and Music Festival

Tattoos and music are pretty inextricably linked, for better or worse--your Travis Barkers, your Tommy Lees--so it makes sense that bands like Story of the Year (pictured), Atreyu, Throwdown and more would descend upon the Orange County Fairgrounds for the MUSINK Tattoo Convention and Music Festival ... More >>

To Do This Weekend 2/20-2/22

The Great Skate, Friday-Sunday 11 a.m. through March 15Irvine's Great Park (you know, home to that dollar-sucking Great Balloon) brings the simple, youthful joy of ice skating to the park in an attempt to well, just do something fun and care-free for the community in these bleak times.Great Park, S ... More >>

Artfully Done

MusINK Festval

Full MUSINK Line-Up Announced with Story of the Year, Danzig, More

The MUSINK Tattoo Convention and Music Festival at the Orange County Fair & Exposition Center in Costa Mesa is a little more than a month away (Feb. 20-22), and now we know the full slate of bands scheduled to perform--including these dudes, Story of the Year. (Y'know, "Until the Day I Die." Yo ... More >>

MUSINK Convention Returns to Costa Mesa

Though the scheduled MUSINK tour became another casualty of the flagging economy, the three-day music and tattoo convention is still happening--February 20-22, again at the Orange County Fair & Exposition Center in Costa Mesa. But they're quick to point out that celebutant Kat Von D, of "LA Ink" ... More >>

To Do Tonight 12/11

Chrismess, 9 p.m.Detroit's annual charity raffle and concert to help raise funds for families who lost their homes in the recent So Cal fires, featuring members of Atreyu, Bad Religion, As I Lay Dying, Soasin and more. Price: $8Detroit Bar, 843 W. 19th St., Costa Mesa, CA; 949-642-0600 ... More >>

[Aural Reports] Luke Allen Takes Over the OC Music Awards

Taste of Chaos Tour-Avenged Seven Fold and Atreyu at the Long Beach Arena

It's funny how music styles always manage to come full circle, even the ones some would like to forget. Sure, people may have thrown their stretchy leotard pants and hairspray in the garbage a couple decades ago, but who says hair metal is dead? Definitely not anyone packed into the Long Beach arena ... More >>

Locals Only

The Johns

The 100 Most Important OC Musicians of All Time

DJ Nobody: Twice as important as most OC musicians. Orange County has been a fertile breeding ground for musicians of many stripes since the beginning of electricity. We at Heard Mentality would like to ask you—the good-looking, intelligent readers of this blog—for your opinions on this impor ... More >>

Emo Money, Emo Problems

Metalcore Populists Atreyu Shed No Tears for the OC Scene They Left Behind

Letters

"At least now we know that the 'new' weekly is picking up a bunch of non-gay, non-liberal readers"

Hits!

Greene Records

Hits!

Virgin Megastore

Hits!

Top 10 records sold...

Negative Creeps

Skratch Magazine at 100

How a snotty zine lasted this long