Retrospective

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Radically Empowered Teens Reshaping Our World

Music Comparison Charts:

Albums

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Over the course of three albums and several hundred mesmerizing shows, audiences have consistently heard something dramatic and altogether different from mewithoutYou. Spirits have been jolted and calmed, in equal measures.

"it's all crazy! it's all false! it's all a dream! it's alright" is another daring adventure charted by frontman Aaron Weiss, guitarist Michael Weiss, bassist Greg Jehanian, and drummer Rickie Mazzotta. Helping to further stretch the group’s boundaries is the production duo of indie dynamo Daniel Smith (Danielson Familie) and Philly workhorse Brian McTear (Mazarin, Matt Pond PA).

Much of the mewithoutYou anguish of old has given way to a sense of gentle wonder, as the band and a whole slew of guest musicians have unearthed strange and beautiful sounds that accompany the album’s many marvels. A more tranquil Aaron, following an artistic progression he began on Brother, Sister, has more or less dropped his signature sing-shouting and is now a full-fledged singer. The band remains in left field, but one that continuously draws to them more eccentrics, seekers, and lovers of original music Cattail Down

If progression is a dirty word, As Cities Burn will need to wash their collective mouths out with soap. The band returns this spring with Hell Or High Water, the follow up to 2007's acclaimed release Come Now Sleep, and there's plenty of that "dirty word" to go around. Completely leaving behind the band's heavier, sing scream past, Hell Or High Water still brings the rock, though the rock sounds a bit more mature, and it's in the purest, most unexpected way. Stand-out tracks like "Into The Sea" and "Made Too Pretty" find the band furthering the sound they perfected with Come Now Sleep, while offerings like "Capover" bring a welcome shift into uncharted waters. Catching up to peers like Brand New and Thrice, As Cities Burn have come into their own, and in the full scope of the band's career, Hell Or High Water will prove to be a cornerstone. The album was self produced and mixed by Brad Wood (mewithoutYou, Pete Yorn, Placebo).

If there was one word to describe Project 86 it would be this one. The band has built its reputation on it over the span of their thirteen-year career. From their intensity to their thought-provoking lyricism, anyone who knows Project knows the force that they bring. But on their latest release Picket Fence Cartel they are exploring power from a new perspective – not only through heavy sounds but through asking powerful questions to the listener.

“This is an intense record for us musically, which is the perfect vehicle for the ideas we are trying to present,” Explains frontman Andrew Schwab. “Picket Fence Cartel is a picture of irony – of an entity with a shiny exterior with a corrupt core. This album is about how power corrupts even the most pure hearts. This is especially true in the area of fame. Yet, so much of our culture is based upon attempts to gain it – from the self-promotion of social networks to reality TV to the music industry itself. We are a society based on this obsession. But in the end we are the ones controlled and owned by the very things that we treasure. Our souls hang in the balance, and Picket Fence Cartel asks one simple question: Who do you belong to?”

It is not up for debate as to whether or not Project has proven to be a ray of light in an world of darkness in more ways than one. This latest release flexes their mastery of the full gamut of accolades. Diverse songwriting? Check. Intense emotion? Check. Potent, poignant, poetic lyrics? Check. Fresh sounds musically? Check.

It requires only a matter of seconds before you feel the emotion of Picket Fence Cartel seeping through your speakers. The crescendoe of the album opener, “Destroyer” draws you in with anticipation as a choir of voices bellow like creepy catholic monks: Ready yourself for the end. An epic, soundtrack-worthy riff ensues, ushering in the sounds of apocalyptic fury. Track after track of P86 doing what they do best follows; they pummel you into submission and provoke you into response with an album full of non-abum tracks.

“We have never believed in putting out records with one or two good songs,” explains songwriter/bassist Steven Dail. “Even though the industry is driven by iTunes singles, we still believe in the album as a viable whole. The problem today is not that consumers don’t buy records, it’s that artists don’t write whole records. We try our best to go against that.”

If one had to choose high points, it would have to include track four, “Dark Angel Dragnet” along with track seven, “A John Hancock with the Safety Off.” Both travel dynamic roads as they evolve toward their destinations, with honest emotion at their core. Fans of the band’s heavier side will delight in tracks like “Cold and Calculated.” And the album closer “To Sand We Return” is nothing short of epic as vocalist Andrew Schwab bears all when he proclaims, Who do I belong to? Not Earth. Not world. Not evil. Not mortals. Not Wretches. Not horrors. Who Do I belong to? Unchanging. Unbreaking. Unfailing. Creator. Immortal. Eternal.

Project 86 is a band that has mastered the art of reinvention without deserting their foundation – which is why the band has remained so viable for so long. In fact one could argue that they have become the blueprint for bands seeking longevity in an industry that is anything but stable. After 13 years together, and over 350,000 career albums sold they still show no holes in their armor...

The band will be joining the Scream The Prayer tour 2009 this summer, with friends Haste The Day, The Chariot, Oh Sleeper, and many more. Armed with one of the most vicious live shows around – and few can compare to Project 86 live – this next season promises to be more than memorable for the band that just won’t die.

In a world where perception is reality and reality isn’t always what it seems, seeking truth is vital to discover what lies beneath the surface. Many in our culture who seek something authentic find disillusionment and corruption – from financial let-downs, to the abuse of power, to rejected Facebook friend requests. And yet, hope can be found in the most unlikely of packages. Project 86 reminds all with Picket Fence Cartel that it can be found by walking by faith, not by sight, in the world of false fronts in which we live...

Everyone bows to something. Everyone answers to someone. Wherever your treasure lies, there your heart will be also.

lessons Tailored for Real Life in a Real World

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Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

Ready yourself for the end
Ready yourself cause you cannot pretend
Ready yourself for the late, for the great
The Destroyer’s surrounded and cannot defend

The lives that you thought that were yours to devour
Destroyer, the tables have turned in this hour
The plagues you unleashed, every vice that you fed
Shall be visited here tenfold on your head

Witness the fear of the fiends
Open the floodgates, behold and believe
Witness the pain, let it rain on the beast
For the serpent is slain in a blaze of defeat

“However, when he, the Spirit of true knowledge, has come, he will be your guide into all true knowledge: for his words will not come from himself, but whatever has come to his hearing, that he will say: and he will make clear to you the things to come.” John 16:13

Horsehead and Orion Nebulae
Credit & Copyright: Dale J. Martin (Massapoag Pond Obs.)

Explanation: Adrift 1,500 light-years away in one of the night sky's most recognizable constellations, the glowing Orion Nebula and the dark Horsehead Nebula are contrasting cosmic vistas. They appear in opposite corners of this stunning mosaic taken with a digital camera attached to a small telescope. The magnificent emission region, the Orion Nebula (aka M42), lies at the upper right of the picture. Immediately to its left is a prominent bluish reflection nebula sometimes called the Running Man. The Horsehead nebula appears as a dark cloud, a small silhouette notched against the long red glow at the lower left. Alnitak is the easternmost star in Orion's belt and is seen as the brightest star to the left of the Horsehead. Below Alnitak is the Flame Nebula, with clouds of bright emission and dramatic dark dust lanes. Pervasive tendrils of glowing hydrogen gas are easily traced throughout the region in this deep field image of the same region.

“This is the law I give you: Have love one for another, even as I have love for you.” John 15:12

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