the_Network in Puerto Rico; dates and venues announced

For the pinche gringos: March 6 - SOS Burger, Catano, Puerto Rico
March 7 - Taller Ce, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico.

Artist Entry: the_Network guitarist Kev has a non-acid induced flash back

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News Update: Destroy, Destroy, Destroy is calling all 'Battle Sluts;' Animosity featured in Slap Skateboard Magazine and more

Happy new beer -- er year! It's 2009 and there's only great things to come from the BMA family this year. Expect new releases from Destroy, Destroy, Destroy, Paria, the_Network and Gaza. We should have specific release dates for you to take note of in your daily planners soon. Supporting tours will also be announced as soon as we get the good word.

-BMA staff

Destroy, Destroy, Destroy unleashed "Battle Sluts" Jan. 6. Check out exclusive tracks from "Battle Sluts" on the BMA MySpace page as well as D3's MySpace page.

Slap Skateboard Magazine recently interviewed Animosity, picking vocalist Leo Miller's brain about burritos, San Francisco creepers and other similar pressing questions.

After "exploring" the UK in November, the_Network plans to expand its reach to Puerto Rico on March 6 and 7. The specific locations will be posted soon.

Calling all opinionated, elitist jerkoffs! Sick of reading album reviews that you disagree with so much you often find yourself trolling Web zines to pick random fights with other internet lurkers? Put that angst to work and send us your own reviews of our latest releases. It's easy. A paragraph or two in the body of an e-mail with a rating from one, being lower than pond scum, to 10, being absolutely the best album ever created in the history of extreme music is all that's needed. And don't forget to include your name and city of residence, so that we may give you credit for your literary genious. Shoot all extremely critical and/or brown-nosing reviews to sheena@blackmarketactivities.com.

Cancer Bats and 'Rockstar Taste of Chaos' VIP contest

Want some free RTOC tickets, swag and a chance to meet the Cancer Bats? Enter the 'Rockstar Taste of Chaos' VIP contest!

Further details:

GRAND PRIZE

2 tickets to the RTOC show of the winner’s choice
2 Thursday VIP meet and greet passes for the RTOC show of their choice
2 after show Meet and greet passes for the RTOC show of their choice
1 year subscription to the Thursday fan club Digital copy of “Resuscitation of a Deadman”
1 Cancer Bats T–shirt
1 autographed copy of the Cancer Bats’ album “Hail Destroyer.”
Cancer Bats — Custom Skate Deck
$100 Gift Certificate to WWW.DiNGLIFE.COM
Any five cases of Rockstar Energy Drink of your choice.
Rockstar Energy Drink sweater, hat, and a shirt
1 year subscription to AP Magazine and AP merch (1 Hoodie and 1 T-shirt)

4 RUNNER UPS

2 Thursday after show Meet and greet passes for the RTOC show of their choice Digital copy of “Resuscitation of a Deadman”
2 Cancer Bats after show Meet and greet passes for the RTOC show
1 autographed copy of the Cancer Bats’ album “Hail Destroyer.”
Rockstar Energy Drink sweater, hat, and a shirt

And listen to Cancer Bats.

The Abominable Iron Sloth tour dates for early 2009

Jan 3 2009 The Excommunicate House - Vancouver, Washington
Jan 5 2009 Burt’s Tiki Lounge - SLC, Utah
Jan 6 2009 Three Kings Tavern - Denver, Colorado w/ GAZA
Jan 7 2009 The Avenue - Wichita, Kansas
Jan 8 2009 Rubber Gloves - Dallas, Texas
Jan 9 2009 Red 7 - Austin, Texas
Jan 10 2009 Little Joe’s Bar - Shreveport, Louisiana
Jan 11 2009 Insomkneeacks - Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Jan 12 2009 The Saturn Bar - New Orleans, Louisiana
Jan 13 2009 The Bombshelter - Jackson, Mississippi
Jan 15 2009 Cave 9 - Birmingham, Alabama
Jan 17 2009 Swayze’s - Atlanta, Georgia
Jan 18 2009 The Wherehouse - Winston Salem, North Carolina
Jan 19 2009 Nara’s Sushi - Richmond, Virginia
Jan 20 2009 The Velvet Lounge! Inauguration day! - Wash DC
Jan 21 2009 The Khyber - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Jan 22 2009 The Charleston - NY, New York w/ the_Network
Jan 23 2009 MARS - Providence, Rhode Island w/ the_Network
Jan 24 2009 ABC No Rio - Manhattan, New York
Jan 25 2009 Westcott Community Center - Syracuse, New York w/ ARCHITECT
Jan 26 2009 Mr. Roboto Project - Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania
Jan 27 2009 The Factory - Rochester, Michigan
Jan 28 2009 The Dayton Dirt Collective Space - Dayton, Ohio
Jan 29 2009 Skull Alley - Louisville, Kentucky
Jan 30 2009 the Anchor - Nashville, Tennessee
Jan 31 2009 LEMP arts center - St. Louis, Missouri
Feb 1 2009 Mojos - Columbia, Missouri
Feb 2 2009 The Foundation - Kansas City, Missouri
Feb 3 2009 The Nerdcore house - Omaha, Nebraska
Feb 4 2009 Blastomat - Denver, Colorado

Artist Entry: the_Network guitarist Kevin Howley and the nightmare of Heathrow Airport

..a short story from a puke-laden sheet of lined paper

Nov. 25th, 2008: Heathrow Airport, London

Alright, I’ve found out what fresh hell really is. Are you ready? You put a diagnosed insomniac in Heathrow Airport at 1:30 a.m. with no medication and make damn sure that his plane doesn’t leave until 3:30 p.m. the next afternoon. Its emergency-room white in here and the people lying about look sicker than any I’ve seen at a hospital.

I’ve been you. I’ve judged people here. What I want you to know is that on your next trip to the airport, you might see someone curled up next to a plastic potted plant with luggage fashioned into some terrible sleeping apparatus, and you might judge that person. You’ll probably think, “Wow, nobody gives a fuck about that guy,” or ask yourself, “What type of true fuck up do you have to be to be trying to sleep like that in public?”

Well, you know what? On your second trip to the airport, you might be that fuck up looking for that bit of shade a potted plant provides. You might find yourself thinking, “Should I sleep on the rock hard ground, the rock hard benches, or on top of all my belongings?”
You might hear one of your fellow international middle-class refugees barking a foreign language into a phone and understand every word. You might know that that Haitian guy lying on his "Member’s Only" jacket is saying, “Yea! I’m in the airport at 2:00 a.m. and it fucking sucks!”
You know why you might know all of this? Because I know all of this right now.

I’ve played about 14 shows in the last 10 days throughout the U.K., showered about three times, drank an ocean of alcohol, and now I’m trying to sleep on my band’s dirty laundry and equipment wondering if the creep with one carry-on is going to steal my awful Nikes.

This is where the busy come to die.

As their heart fails next to a Krispy Kreme, the other people look up at monitors for flight times, check their watches, or yell at their kids. The hopeful walk around as if a king-sized mattress and feathery pillow lay clean and inviting right around the next departure gate. Some people come prepared with sleeping mats, bags, or blankets, but people like you and me, we don’t expect to be in this situation.

The creep near me, I don’t think he’s eyeing my shoes. I think he’s hoping I’ll fall asleep so he can mess around with my smelly body. There are couples jerking asleep in each other’s arms. As the woman instinctively reaches to scratch her nose, her boyfriend pulls her closer. The scene is so damn sweet that I hope my plane goes down.

Some days, you just look at the people around you and realize that you’re just another mutated lifer out on a weekend pass. Some other days, you see some Asian guy’s ass as he fumbles for a cup of tap water, with his hat protecting his eyes from the scorching lights of Heathrow’s innards. Some days, you don’t have a towel to throw in.

My bed’s shuffling around while I write. I’m going to put my shoes on, go brush my teeth, and maybe visit the airport’s nearby “Prayer Room” and hope for sleep. I’ll let you know when the Air Canada gates open -- or an airport bar. I need to put this journal in my bag and finish the bed building process. That’s right -- I’m going to try to sleep on what you’re reading.

CANCER BATS on ROCKSTAR ENERGY's 'Taste of Chaos' tour!

From the official press release:

ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK TASTE OF CHAOS continues to stake its claim as the preeminent winter rock package tour. Always an explosive, in-your-face affair, ROCKSTAR TASTE OF CHAOS features today’s biggest and on-the-verge of stardom hard rock bands. Blaring, boisterous and brutal, this year’s tour will be no different. Heralded by Florida’s Backstage Pass as “delivering some of the best known acts in the rock 'n roll world," past RTOC performers have included a who’s who of this decade’s most popular rock bands including My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, Rise Against, Deftones, Killswitch Engage, 30 Seconds to Mars, The Used and over three hundred more.

Tour co-founder Kevin Lyman, always with his ear to the street and his hand on the scene’s pulse, chose this year’s cutting edge lineup after watching many of these same bands explode on the 2008 Van’s Warped Tour. By taking fan feedback to heart and personally handpicking artists that he feels will be breaking out in ’09, the lineup includes headliner THURSDAY, as well as BRING ME THE HORIZON, FOUR YEAR STRONG, PIERCE THE VEIL (all of whom will rotate their spot on the bill throughout the tour), and CANCER BATS. In addition, one local Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands winner will open the show at each stop.

“After listening to what fans had to say during Warped Tour and watching many of these bands with thousands of fans watching them perform,” Lyman explains, “these are the bands rock fans want to see. And I believe they’re all on the brink of breakout success.”

Last year, the Asbury Park Press praised Lyman for his forward looking approach to the tour, writing: "No wonder the Rockstar Taste of Chaos is known as the 'Winter Warped Tour.' Much like the highly successful summer rock jaunt, Rockstar Taste of Chaos is affordable and offers a wide range of bands. Lyman, who assembles the Warped Tour lineup, goes out of his way to put together a package of punk, hard rock and true alternative acts for the bill."

This year, fans can expect a low ticket price (between $20-25 per ticket) as well as the return of the fun-filled concourse offering a bevy of fascinating distractions in between sets guaranteeing that the pandemonium will begin as soon as fans enter the venue.

Tour co-founders, John Reese, Lyman and Darryl Eaton state: "We are very excited about the great bands and concourse activities planned for the 2009 North American Tour. ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK has been a great partner helping us bring fans a great package and a big show at a very fan-friendly entrance price. We’re really proud that the RTOC has become an important event on music fans’ calendars in the long, cold winter in the U.S. and Canada."

ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK Marketing Director Mike Kelso states, “Live music is very important to ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK and for the past four years the worldwide success of ROCKSTAR TASTE OF CHAOS has been instrumental in the success of our brand.”



With nearly 300 worldwide dates over the past fours years, playing in over 20 countries including the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Australia, Japan, France, Mexico, New Zealand and Italy among others, ROCKSTAR TASTE OF CHAOS, the only worldwide lifestyle festival tour, is back with another onslaught of winter dates in the U.S. and Canada.
The ROCKSTAR TASTE OF CHAOS pre-sale begins Friday, December 12th, at 10AM in each market. Please go to www.rockstartasteofchaos.com for all on sale information, ticketing links, and concert dates.