Damned If I Do, Damned If I Don't

Let me start this one with some shameless self promotion: There's two new Rise And Fall songs online off our upcoming record called "Our Circle Is Vicious", which will be out on October 27th. Deathwish Records. Peep the Rise And Fall myspace (www.myspace.com/riseandfall13) if you wanna hear them. I'm stoked on the album finally coming out and the touring that comes with it.

We played Tessenderlo (Belgium) with Cloak/Dagger on saturday, after which I rolled with the Daggers for a couple of days and had a great ol' time. They have a new record out on Jade Tree called "Lost Art" and it's a good one. Expect a review to pop up here soon. Technically I think their record will be out for real in November but they do have a limited pressing of 200 with them on this Euro tour so pick that shit up. New songs translate well in a live setting and provide some more variety as well, which is obviously good. Jason's moves have become quite spectacular. His milkshake definitely brings the boys to the yard. All kidding aside, all 3 Cloak/Dagger shows were sweet, with my favourite being Utrecht. Seeing a bunch of old friends again definitely helped too, but the vibe was good, the sound was perfect and the Daggers were merciless. Union Town also played this show and I hadn't seem them in over a year I think... They blew me off my socks. This band defintely needs more recognition. They played a couple of new songs of which the more epic, slower one called "Blinding Lights" impressed me the most. Hung out in Utrecht for a couple of hours the next day. What a lovely city... Copped a sweet jacket at this cool ass thrift store for 30 E's, I was stoked. After Utrecht, Gent was up next so I had the pleasure to show Jason, Andrew and Matt around (Colin got stuck record shopping) and they dug what they saw. We ate some of the best ice cream ever so needless to say it was a good day. Good sets by them and Vogue that night.

About a month ago Madball played Belgium and I went to see them with Filip (peep his Crunkswagger blog). Kind of a last minute plan, but definitely one of the better plans in recent memory. So good seeing Madball again, and especially seeing them tear it up like that. Over half the set consisted of classic "Set It Off" and "Demonstrating My Style" material. They also played a bunch of "Look My Way" and "Hold It Down" songs obviously and a couple of newer ones were thrown in for good measure. Note to self: Pick up "Infiltrate The System" some time. Their new drummer was so stoked on being in Madball he started moshing behind his kit. Can you blame him? Freddy still is one of the illest frontmen out there and it brought a smile to my face to see that many kids (weirdos and p.m.f.'s included) go off for them.

Jeffrey hooked me up with the new Raekwon record and I've been listening to that one a lot. A little bummed on missing Raekwon when he plays Belgium on October 10th but you can't have it all, right?

More soon.