Senses Fail

Lloyd Banks Can't Catch Rod Stewart's Classics In Race For Billboard #1

18 Oct 2006 12:23:00 EDT

Senses Fail, Trivium, Sammie net bigger-than-expected first-week sales.
By Chris Harris

Lloyd Banks
Photo: F. Scott Schafer

In 2004, G-Unit soldier Lloyd Banks' debut disc, The Hunger for More, opened at #1 on Billboard's albums sales chart, with week-one sales topping 433,000, and Hunger ended up spending a second-straight week at #1, selling close to 164,000 units.

Of course, Banks would have liked to have seen the same results for his sophomore LP, Rotten Apple — an album that features a slew of special guests, including G-Unit associates Tony Yayo and Young Buck, Rakim, Scarface, Mobb Deep, and, on three cuts, 50 Cent.

But with first-week sales totaling close to 143,000, Banks fell more than 40,000 albums short of a chart-topping repeat, and will have to settle instead for the chart's #3 position. Because this week, the #1 slot belongs to Rod Stewart's Still the Same ... Great Rock Classics of Our Time. Rowdy Rod's new one sold to the tune of more than 184,000 its first week in record stores, which was more than enough for the Billboard title belt.

According to the latest SoundScan figures released Wednesday morning (October 18), a second-place finish wasn't even in the cards for Mr. Banks. That's because with more than 164,000 additional copies of The Open Door being carried away from retail outlets last week, Evanescence — who occupied the chart's #1 spot last week, with 447,000 in week-one scans — are sitting pretty at #2, having suffered the typical and expected second-week sales slump: a 63 percent drop.

The only other new disc to crack the chart's coveted top 10 can be found at #4 — Take the Weather With You from tropical rocker Jimmy Buffett. That album sold 121,000 copies during its initial week of release, thanks to the collective power of the Parrotheads, Buffett's legion of devoted, Hawaiian shirt-donning fans. Right behind Buffett is Bennett — Tony Bennett, of course. The iconic crooner's Duets: An American Classic continues to rack up strong sales, with another 105,000 units scanned during the album's third week in stores. The Killers' Sam's Town slides four spots to #6 this week, as second-week sales fell 68 percent, amounting to 102,000 sold.

Justin Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveSounds follows at #7, with sales reported at 92,000 for a five-week grand total of nearly 1.3 million sold. George Strait's It Just Comes Natural drops five spots to #8, with sales of 88,000, while Hinder's Extreme Behavior climbs one slot to #9, with 76,000 scans. Ludacris rounds out the top 10, selling more than 74,000 copies of his latest, Release Therapy, bringing his total album sales just short of the 500,000 mark. Not a shabby showing for an album that's been in stores just three weeks.

Just 20 new releases managed to make it into the Billboard top 200 this week, including the debut disc from country outfit Heartland, I Loved Her First, at #11, netting more than 61,000 in week-one sales. At #15 this week is Still Searching, the sophomore studio outing from New Jersey screamo specialists Senses Fail. More than 49,000 copies of the album left music retail last week, giving the band a strong, and unexpected, sales showing.

The same could be said for Florida metallers Trivium, who land at #25 with their latest, The Crusade, selling more than 31,000 units. Meanwhile, Sting's Songs From the Labyrinth claims the chart's #37 spot with sales nearing 24,000, and Sammie's self-titled sophomore LP, the R&B singer's first collection of new material in six years, opens at #42 with just over 20,000 scans (see "Where Ya Been? Sammie Graduating To Comeback, Third Eye Blind Can See Clearly Now").

Colorblind, the fresh studio set from Robert Randolph and the Family Band, bows at #75 with 12,000-plus copies snatched up, while Sister Hazel's Absolutely debuts at #86 with 11,200 sold. The Blood Brothers return to the Billboard chart with Young Machetes, which claims the #92 slot with nearly 11,000 units leaving record store shelves, and Uncovered/Covered, a collaborative release from R&B artists Kenny Lattimore and Chanté Moore, follows at #95 with more than 10,000 scans.

Cobra Starship's While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets debuts at #125 with 8,000 in first-week sales action, followed at #151 by singer/songwriter James Taylor's James Taylor at Christmas, which put up week-one sales of 6,000 units. And A Static Lullaby's self-titled new one takes the chart's #172 slot, with more than 5,000 scans.

Related Artists

Senses Fail Frontman Says Depression, Anxiety Made New LP Better

5 Oct 2006 06:00:00 EDT

'It was good because that emotion came across on the record,' Buddy Nielsen says of Still Searching, due Tuesday.
By Jon Wiederhorn

Senses Fail
Photo: Vagrant Records

When Ridgewood, New Jersey, band Senses Fail started working on their second full-length album in January, their initial instinct was to stray from the screamy, metal-tinged, heart-on-sleeve hard rock of their 2004 disc, Let It Enfold You.

Since the success of that LP, which sold more than 300,000 copies, scores of bands have emerged mixing angry power chords with melodic, pain-saturated vocals, and angst has become a tool for making it big. But the further Senses Fail got from their core sound, the more out of place they felt.

"Finally we were like, 'Why should we change what we've always done just because other people are doing it now too? Why don't we just make the music better?' " frontman Buddy Nielsen said.

Judging from the songs on the band's new album, Still Searching (which drops Tuesday), Senses Fail's decision to stick to what they know was the right one. The first single, "Calling All Cars," starts with a muted electric guitar over Nielsen's vocals, bounds into a jagged riff layered with spindly guitar lines and blossoms into an anthemic chorus. "Can't Be Saved" combines stab-and-slash guitars, longing single-picked notes and rolling drums with harmonized vocals.

Frustration, depression and helplessness are still central themes for Senses Fail, and Nielsen had no trouble making his vocals convincing — mainly because he went through hell while working on the record. The singer, who had just quit taking antidepressants, was suffering major anxiety attacks.

"It was really tough to get off the medication and have to relive a lot of the things I had intentionally prevented myself from feeling," he said. "When we were recording, I had to stop a whole bunch. I'd be like, 'I'm kind of freaking out and having an anxiety attack while I'm singing.' But it was good because that emotion came across on the record, and that's what I wanted."

The death of Nielsen's grandmother, who helped raise him, triggered Nielsen's emotional instability. Memories he had stifled since his parents' divorce, when he was 5 years old, flooded back.

"I used to have major panic attacks up until I was 10, and I learned to shut my emotions down as a defense mechanism," he said. "So I hadn't really felt too much since that point. But without warning, the anxiety came back really hard. I didn't want to leave the house, I lost 20 pounds because I couldn't eat, I didn't sleep and I felt like I was going insane."

He thought being on the road might distract him, so Nielsen flew to Europe to tour, but his condition quickly worsened. He had panic attacks onstage and hid in the tour bus when he wasn't performing. He didn't feel any better after the band returned home, so he saw a doctor, who prescribed a drug for depression and anxiety. While the medication calmed his nerves, it also prevented him from being excited, leaving him in a middle zone between despair and elation. It was during this hazy period that Nielsen contemplated his regrets and goals and decided to write songs based on both.

"The title of the album kind of sums it up," Nielsen said. "I wrote a lot about my family, and starting to see my dad again, and the anger towards him because he wasn't around, and the anger I had when I started to grow up and realize why I am the way I am. You start to see where you came from, and maybe you don't like that so much. That can lead to the feeling that you've lost control. But I think I'm somewhat optimistic because I'm really still searching for some sort of happiness or resolution to the things I've gone through."

Senses Fail wrote Still Searching between November 2005 and May 2006, then recorded the album in six weeks in Bearsville, New York, with producer Brian McTernan (Thrice, Cave In). "He didn't come in and try to take over the record at all," Nielsen said. "He worked with us and said, 'I want this to be great and I think it can be,' and he put his heart and soul into it."

While Still Searching is clearly Senses Fail, many of the guitar melodies sound sharper and better executed than those on Let It Enfold You. Credit new guitarist Heath Saraceno (ex-Midtown), who replaced Dave Miller in mid-2005.

"Heath is an amazing musician," Nielsen said. "He's that guy who can hear a chord and tell you exactly what it is and how it's played. He can hear a song once and then play it on guitar. He really helped shape a lot of these songs."

With Still Searching completed and a U.S. tour kicking off November 24 in Boston, a prescription-drug-free Nielsen is now looking forward to the next phase of Senses Fail's evolution. He hasn't exactly made peace with his demons, but he's learned to distract himself by making music, playing golf and hanging with his friends. And while it's still too painful for him to sit down and listen to Still Searching, he enjoys performing the new material.

"Dealing with these songs live is different because I'm focused so hard on the actual singing," he said. "I'm working on putting on a good show and being entertaining and having a good time, so that's really an escape from anything in my life that's hard to deal with. For those 60 or so minutes, I'm living in the moment, and I don't have to think about the past."

Related Artists

Senses Fail

Emo Mash-Ups: Creators Think They're Cool, Bands Are Not Amused

2 May 2005 09:18:00 EDT

Legion of Doom offer free downloads on Web site; group has heard from each band whose music it has mashed up.
By James Montgomery

Emo Mash-Ups

Let it be known that the Los Angeles-based mash-up collective Legion of Doom have nothing to do with former tag-team wrestling greats the Legion of Doom (née the Road Warriors, Hawk and Animal, they of the facepaint and spiky shoulderpads). For starters, this Legion of Doom don't have fierce-sounding nicknames. In fact, they don't have any names at all.

"We are called the Legion because we are many — well, there's at least two of us," laughed the person we'll call Legionnaire 1. "How about at least one member but less than 100? We're trying to de-emphasize the focus on who is really participating in this, because some guys could get in trouble if they were found out."

Let's cut through the mystery. This Legion of Doom are a Los Angeles-based mash-up collective that has taken a bunch of songs by acts in a genre that has rarely (if ever) been mashed — emo-punk — and mixed them up with songs by other emo-punkers. The end result is a collection of tracks with clever titles like "The Quiet Screaming" (a mash of Brand New's "The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows" and Dashboard Confessional's "Screaming Infidelities"). They then post these bootleg mash-ups on their the-legion-of-doom.com Web Site, where fans can download them for free.

And that's where all the problems started.

"The ones we've released now are not authorized and not licensed. And we've already run into a wall with the people involved," Legionnaire 1 said. "Taking Back Sunday apparently didn't like us messing with their music in our way. And we anticipated that possibility. Not everyone is going to be thrilled to see us meddling with their work."

The Legion took the offending mash-up — a combo of TBS and Senses Fail called "I Know What You Buried Last Summer" — off the site, and they've heard from at least one band (or label) involved in each mash-up they've created, many of whom were less than pleased. Which is discouraging to Legion of Doom, because, as Legionnaire 1 put it, they view their mashes as an extension of "the punk-rock ethos."

"We're excited about music as a fluid, living medium. No longer is a piece of recorded music done when an artist puts out a record. People now can take a piece of recorded music and turn it into something else. It's a sort of cool, new folk-art movement," he said. "You have to be aware that once you release a record, it's fair game. You can take steps to defend the recording, but in the digital world, once it's out there, it's out there — you've got to be comfortable with that. And in our case, you can reap the rewards."

And there are definitely rewards to be reaped, because the Legion of Doom are putting the finishing touches on their debut album, a collection of fully licensed mashes that will benefit both masher and mashee. It's a long, legalese-filled process, but the Legion are working through it, because they don't want to "pull a Danger Mouse," a reference to the hip-hop producer who drew the ire of music publishing giant EMI when he released the no-samples-cleared The Grey Album, which paired Jay-Z's The Black Album with the Beatles' White Album (see "Producer Of The Grey Album, Jay-Z/ Beatles Mash-Up, Gets Served").

"Everything on our record will be authorized. It's a fairly sophisticated arrangement to have to reach. You're dealing with so many different people, but we're doing it because we want it to be a real product, sold in stores, rather than just slipping it out over the Internet," Legionnaire 1 said. "It would be great — we thought — if people could walk into stores and buy it, and people who wrote the songs can get paid too."

The group hopes the album, called Incorporated, will hit stores this month or next. Until then, there's plenty to keep the Legion busy: dodging the ever-present cease-and-desist orders from pesky publishers, a constant danger in the mash-up trade (see "Beatles Publisher Tells Metallica Mash-Up Band To Get Back"), doing remixes for emo-punk acts and plotting their first tour.

"We've talked about going out on the road, and a live band would be kind of crazy," Legionnaire 1 said. "I mean, we're not DJs, and we don't get up there with turntables. These mash-ups weren't done in that way. These are fairly complex studio productions, so it would be kind of difficult to take it live. But man, we're going to try."

Related Artists

Warped Tour Lineup, Itinerary Officially Announced

3 Mar 2005 11:11:00 EST

Tour will run from June 17 through August 14; discounted tickets available March 15.
By Gil Kaufman

My Chemical Romance's Gerard Way (file)
Photo: Jason Campbell

The Vans Warped Tour has officially announced the lineup and itinerary for the 11th annual edition of the punk/skating tour. As previously reported by MTV News, the bill for the oldest touring festival in the U.S. will be topped by the Offspring and My Chemical Romance, along with the Transplants, MxPx, All-American Rejects, Dropkick Murphys, Thrice, Atreyu and Senses Fail.

The 48-date tour, which kicks off on June 17 at the Germain Amphitheatre in Columbus, Ohio, will snake its way across the country through mid-August, wrapping up on August 14 at the Englishtown Raceway in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Discount tickets will be available on the Warped Web site beginning March 15.

For the full itinerary, see "Warped Tour Organizers Cave, Announce Full Itinerary Two Weeks Early."

New attractions for 2005 include the Amateur Skate Jam (a daily contest judged by pro skaters for local amateur skaters, who will compete for prize money) and, for the first time, fans can also vote daily on the tour's Web site on which band they would like to see play for an extra 10 minutes.

Making their return are such popular attractions as Reverse Day Care (an air-conditioned area where kids can drop off their parents), the Codes of the Cutz hip-hop tent and the Girlz Garage stage. Organizers are also encouraging attendees to donate items for local homeless shelters through Punk Junk, an on-site donation center.

Other bands confirmed to perform so far: A Thorn for Every Heart, Academy Is, Amber Pacific, Armor for Sleep, Avenged Sevenfold, Bedouin Sound Clash, Billy Talent, the Bled, Bleeding Through, Boys Night Out, the Briefs, a Change of Pace, Dead 60's, Emery, the Explosion, the Fight, From First to Last, Funeral for a Friend, Gatsby's American Dream, Go Betty Go, Gratitude, Greeley Estates, Gym Class Heroes, Halifax, Hidden in Plain View, Hopesfall, HorrorPops, Hot Rod Circuit, Juliette and the Licks, Kinison, Left Alone, Lost City Angels, Mae, Matchbook Romance, the Matches, Midtown, Millencolin, Motion City Soundtrack, Near Miss, Plain White T's, Reggie & the Full Effect, Relient K, Rufio, Saosin, Silverstein, Skindred, Something Corporate, the Starting Line, Street Dogs, Strike Anywhere, Stutterfly, Throw Rag, Tsunami Bomb, the Twenty Twos, Yesterday's Rising and ZAO.

For a feature on My Chemical Romance, check out "My Chemical Romance: They're Okay (Promise)."

Related Artists

Taste Of Chaos — A.K.A. 'Winter Warped' — Tour Dates, Lineup Confirmed

19 Nov 2004 04:21:00 EST

My Chemical Romance, Killswitch Engage, Senses Fail will join the Used on all dates.
By James Montgomery

The Used (file)
Photo: Warner Bros.

For fans of the Warped Tour, the winter months are usually seen as the off-season, a time to buff those Doc Martens or experiment with some Manic Panic variants. But starting in February, the young and spiky will have new reason to rejoice: the Taste of Chaos Tour.

Warped founder Kevin Lyman is the mastermind behind the tour, and he's confirmed both the lineup and the dates for the inaugural jaunt. As previously reported (see "Warped Tour On Ice: Used To Headline Wintertime Version Of Trek" ), the Used are locked in to headline, but the rest of the bill has been confirmed, and it's a harder-edged lineup than Warped fans might be expecting: My Chemical Romance, Killswitch Engage and Senses Fail will appear on all dates. Underoath and Saosin will also play a number of shows on the tour.

"We have 1,200 submissions for Warped next year, and a lot of them are these new, harder-edged bands like Killswitch or Senses Fail," Lyman said. "And with these harder acts, they always seem to play on metal tours. Metal tickets always cost more. T-shirts always more at metal shows. If you're a 14 or 15-year-old kid, and you want to see an established metal act, you've got to pay twice as much to do so."

Taste of Chaos will make stops in 38 cities in the U.S. and Canada, and with the exception of the first few dates in Florida, the tour will play arenas exclusively. Lyman also plans on an "early gate" policy for Taste, where fans can show up at 5 p.m. and be let into areas of the arena (including an acoustic stage featuring acts like Bleed the Dream and Opiate for the Masses). Ten to 15 minutes before the first band hits the main stage, general admission will open, and kids can make a mad dash to secure prime concert-viewing locations.

"It won't be like a typical arena show, where kids come in and just mill around for a couple of hours," Lyman said. "It'll be like Warped, where 2,000-3,000 kids rush to the stage to catch the first band. And it's a rush for that band to see all these kids sprinting towards them."

Lyman said that the goal with Taste is to establish a long-running tradition, like Warped. Unfortunately, that probably means that like Warped, the first few years will be lean.

"We all know that we're going to lose money on this initially, but that's what happened with Warped, too," Lyman said. "I hope we don't lose as much money as we did on the first year of Warped, or I'll be living in the backyard, because my wife will throw me out."

Dates for the 2005 Taste of Chaos Tour, according to the tour's organizers (venues will be announced soon):

2/18 - Orlando, FL
2/19 - Miami, FL
2/20 - Jacksonville, FL
2/22 - Norfolk, VA
2/23 - Poughkeepsie, NY
2/24 - New York, NY
2/25 - Philadelphia, PA
2/26 - Asbury Park, NJ
2/27 - Washington, DC
2/28 - Boston, MA
3/2 - Portland, ME
3/3 - Montreal, QC
3/4 - Toronto,ON
3/5 - London, ON
3/6 - Dayton, OH
3/8 - Toledo, OH
3/9 - Chicago, IL
3/10 - Cleveland, OH
3/11 - Detroit, MI
3/12 - Milwaukee, WI
3/13 - Lincoln, NE
3/14 - Minneapolis, MN
3/15 - Champaign, IL
3/17 - Kansas City, MO
3/18 - Dallas, TX
3/19 - Houston, TX
3/20 - Corpus Christi, TX
3/22 - Denver, CO
3/24 - Calgary, AB
3/25 - Vancouver, BC
3/26 - Seattle, WA
3/28 - San Francisco, CA
3/29 - Fresno, CA
3/30 - San Bernardino, CA
3/31 - San Diego, CA
4/1 - Los Angeles, CA
4/2 - Phoenix, AZ

Related Artists
- The Used
- My Chemical Romance
- Killswitch Engage
- Senses Fail