Everyone has a story, an experience, an encounter that they carry with them, be it joyous or burdening. Contending takes these marks from the past to shape the foundation of their music; their story. A faith-based metalcore band out of Culpeper, Virginia, Contending lashes out with energy, passion, and musical complexity. Contending carries a mission – to bring awareness to the painful reality of PTSD, depression, and suicide, of which many of the band members have struggled with. Contending wishes to take these painful experiences and put them to music, not just as a means of expression, but also to help those who have similar challenges by being a voice in the silence. We don’t know your pain, but we know pain; You’re not alone.
“Awake. For a moment, time is unexpectedly frozen, like the grass during an early fall daybreak; the fog of my memory holds of the darkness of reality. Is this real or is this fake? The beauty of fog is solitude – its gentle embrace is carelessly there for my own sake.”
Contending – Silence of it All
LINKS:
http://www.contendingband.com
https://www.facebook.com/contendingband
https://www.instagram.com/contendingband
https://twitter.com/contendingband
https://open.spotify.com/artist/455zLYJBwQ39r85DiIzH5I
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Just Tommy – Playing for Likes
Just Tommy has dropped his new video for the track titled ‘Playing for Likes’. Social media has defined us long ago, so its more than fitting to have that definition captured in music by a member of that generation that bests utilizes social media. Having said that, this song is catchy. I mean really catchy. And that is the best way to capture that audience and get the message out.
ABOUT JUST TOMMY
Just Tommy, from Tempe, AZ., has a new video for his kick-ass single, “Playing for Likes”. The song and video have a message that highlights avid users of all social media platforms.
The song, “Playing for Likes” is loosely about social media and the role it plays in our lives today, but it could be applied to other aspects of life as well” says Just Tommy, and “The concept started with a question: What drives us to share the things we do on social media with our friends, family, followers, strangers, and the world?
Just Tommy says, “The inspiration behind the video for “Playing for Likes” is in the name. Originally, I’d planned on having a bunch of people submit tiktok-style videos, and then my dude would stitch them together and make a sick video. Because people are people, that plan zero percent worked, so I went to plan B and just shot a music video and had some fun with my family. The kids in the video are my cousins.”
The “Playing for Likes” video was shot in Phoenix, AZ. The single was produced by super Producer/Engineer Chuck Alkazian (Pop Evil, Soundgarden, Tantric) at legendary Pearl Sound Studios (Asking Alexandria, Eminem, Filter).
LINKS:
http://www.iamjusttommy.com
https://twitter.com/iamjusttommy
https://www.facebook.com/imjusttommy
https://www.instagram.com/imjusttommy -
ASM – Honey (feat. Chinese Man)
ASM drop their new collab with Chinese Man with their new video titled ‘Honey’. Like a sucker punch to the gut, the track hits you hard with the beat and lyrical assault to the senses like depleted uranium to the skull. The video perfectly compliments the song with cut and paste-like creativity and dropped mic-bombs with each scene cut that keeps to the rhythm of the track. A perfect marriage of audio and video.
ABOUT ASM
With 3 critically acclaimed full-length albums and over 600 shows in 25 different countries under their belt, ASM has established themselves as one of the pre-eminent hip hop acts in Europe today. Their unique brand of sophisticated, ultra-lyrical boom-bap fusion continues to serve as a refreshing reminder that hip hop can be fun, artistically ambitious, and intelligent.
Principally composed of MC’s Green and FP and DJ/Producer Fade aka RHINO, this international trio of friends from high school (one Canadian, one German, one English) first gained international recognition from their collaborative singles with Wax Tailor: “Positively Inclined” & “Say Yes”, and have since collaborated with the likes of Chinese Man, MF DOOM, Deluxe, La Fine Equipe, and many more.
After spending the last 18 months touring extensively as live MCs of Marseille legends Chinese Man as part of the Shikantaza tour, 2019 sees the return of ASM with a brand-new album and tour project as the latest act on the illustrious roster of Chinese Man Records.
After exploring the depths of cinematic orchestration and pushing the boundaries of narrative rap on their 2015 opus “The Jade Amulet” and the returning to their origins in smoked-out jazzy boom bap on the 2016 “String Theory EP”, 2019 sees ASM takes a new direction in the form of the new studio album “Color Wheel”.
Featured image by Damien Chamcirkan.
LINKS:
https://www.chinesemanrecords.com/asm
https://www.facebook.com/ASMastateofmind
https://twitter.com/ASMastateofmind
https://www.instagram.com/asm_astateofmind
https://www.youtube.com/user/ASMastateofmind -
Beauty In Chaos ft. Whitney Tai – Orion
“Orion” is the new video/single from Beauty In Chaos. This track and its accompanying otherworldly video feature the captivating Whitney Tai. BIC’s curator Michael Ciravolo says “Musically, Orion continues on the path set by “Stranger”, the final track on ‘The Storm Before The Calm’. Whitney’s lyrics and soaring voice were a perfect match for this track and sets the tone beautifully for our next record!”
Tai adds “When Beauty In Chaos reached out to me with the opportunity to co-write on a song for their upcoming album, I was immediately hypnotized by the glacial, meandering and crystalline use of guitars against this haunting and dark verbed-out atmosphere. My mind went down the rabbit hole of the past two years that our globe has faced. “Orion” is the ego of destruction. It’s about breaking free from the manipulators mind and severing the ties of deception. A story of an a-type personality, “the hunter”, and how the roles narcissism and exploitation torment the fears and strengths of the human psyche”.
As for this new video, Ciravolo says “We try to make each of our videos different from the others, while being true to the singer and the lyrics. “Orion” is like nothing we have done before; it has a very cinematic ‘big-screen’ look to it… and was really a lot of fun to make!”
Video Credits
Whitney Tai – vocals
Michael Ciravolo – guitar
Tish Ciravolo – bass
Dirk Doucette – drumsDirected and produced by GABB Productions
Art direction by GABB Design
Makeup by Jessica Zweig
Filmed on location at Schecter Guitar Research and FD Studios Los Angeles
Props courtesy of Prop HeavenSong Credits
Written by Whitney Tai, Michael Rozon, Michael Ciravolo
©2021Whitney Tai: voice and words
Michael Ciravolo: guitars and textures
Michael Rozon: bass, synth, and drum programming
Dirk Doucette: live drumsRecorded, mixed and produced by Michael Rozon at SAINTinLA Studio
Mastered by Dale Becker for Becker Mastering, Los AngelesLINKS:
https://www.beautyinchaosmusic.com
https://www.facebook.com/beautyinchaosmusic
https://www.instagram.com/beauty.inchaos
https://twitter.com/_BeautyInChaos
https://www.beautyinchaosmusic.com/music-store
https://www.beautyinchaosmusic.com/bic-blog
https://soundcloud.com/33-3-music-collective
https://beautyinchaos.bandcamp.com
https://www.whitneytaimusic.com
https://www.facebook.com/WhitneyTaiMusic
https://twitter.com/Whitneytai
https://instagram.com/whitneytai
https://play.google.com/music/preview/A57is65aslv7gv4qdy74gwoeivq?u=0#
https://listen.tidal.com/artist/6337137
https://www.bandsintown.com/WhitneyTai
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCazKu-G82KhrvCpRiHDiCg
https://www.vevo.com/artist/whitney-tai
https://open.spotify.com/user/whitneytai
https://itun.es/us/D8HW6
https://soundcloud.com/whitney-tai