News Update: New video of the_Network on tour in the UK

Due to the holiday, there isn't much news to report. But until next week, we have a tasty snack for y'all.

Here's a video shot during the_Network's UK run:

Dance Club Massacre and Architect on tour now!

DANCE CLUB MASSACRE “Circle of Death”
Through of hale of intoxication and deranged Willy Wonka style weirdness, Chicago's Dance Club Massacre have returned with a vicious sophomore record, Circle of Death, bridging the unusual gap between the worlds' of The Devil Wears Prada and Dimmu Borgir. The band attacks from all sides melding their brand of noisy, screamo-grind with symphonic black metal orchestration. This unlikely stylistic pairing showcases the group's maturing into a sound that is distinctly their own. “CIRCLE OF DEATH” in stores November 11, 2008!!
Dance Club Massacre will be hitting the road this month with Dr. Acula!
11/12 Chicago, IL Beat Kitchen CD Release show!!
11/17 St Louis, MO The Creepy Crawl
Tour with Dr. Acula
11/18 Lawrence, KS The Bottle Neck
11/19 Tulsa, OK The Pink Eye
11/20 Arlington, TX Molly’s
11/21 San Antonio, TX Rock Bottom Bar
11/22 McAllen, TX The Incubator
11/23 Corpus Christi, TX The Compound
11/24 Baton Rouge, LA The Darkroom
11/25 Panama City, FL Beamers
11/26 Ocala, FL The Capital
11/29 Wilmington, NC Lucky’s
11/30 Greensboro, NC Club Rain
12/01 Danville, VA Plan B
12/02 Fredericksburg, VA The Refuge
12/03 Yonkers, NY The Haunt
12/04 Pittsburgh, PA Blue Violet Cafe
12/05 Southgate, MI The Modern Exchange
12/06 Mokena, IL Soundlab

New music from Circle of Death online now at http://www.myspace.com/danceclubmassacre and http://www.myspace.com/blackmarketactivities

ARCHITECT “Ghost of the Saltwater Machines”
Just when you thought Architect couldn't get any heavier, angrier or more politically agitated, the Great Northern Trendkill has returned with the most over-the-top release of 2008, Ghost of the Saltwater Machines. Architect's latest effort hits at a vital time. In the wake of a historical election, Ghost of the Saltwater Machines is even more relevant. The songs are politically fueled with lyrical topics including attacks on current administration and figureheads of the free world (Camelot), Middle America being bled dry from government and big business (Death & Taxes) as well as free speech and civil liberties (Traitor). When the abrasive songs rip your eardrums, you listen. And when the vocalist bellows their apocalyptic message, you believe it. With the music scene so destabilized and the fact that Architect is basically the anti-trend, chances are GOTSWM won't see the band rising to super stardom. But as they have always done, there will be touring, trash talk and destructive live shows to accompany this beefy, bone crushing album and those brave enough to listen are in for one of the heaviest records of the decade. “GHOST OF THE SALTWATER MACHINES” in stores November 25, 2008!!

Check out Architect on tour this fall with Rose Funeral!
11/14 Portland, ME The Asylum with The Red Chord and Overcast
11/15 Poughkeepsie, NY The Chance with The Red Chord and Overcast
11/25 Syracuse, NY The Westcott Cinema CD Release Party
11/28 Buffalo, NY Club DiabloTour with Rose Funeral
11/29 Pittsburgh, PA The Roboto Project
11/30 Wheeling, WV Yesterdays Draught House
12/01 Columbus, OH Bernies
12/02 Louisville, KY Bulldog Cafe
12/03 Nashville, TN The Muse
12/04 Selma, AL The Loud House
12/05 Panama City, FL Beamers
12/06 Tampa, FL Transitions Art Gallery
12/07 Orlando, FL The Dungeon
12/08 Augusta, GA Sector 7G
12/12 Fredericksburg, VA The Refuge
12/15 New York, NY Lit Lounge

New music from "Ghost of the Saltwater Machines" online now at http://www.myspace.com/architectkills and http://www.myspace.com/blackmarketactivities

For more information or to request a promo, please contact:
Michelle Ferraro, Head of Publicity, michelle@blackmarketactivities.com
Sheena Hamilton, Publicity Assistant, sheena@blackmarketactivities.com

BMA News Update: Cancer Bats to tour with In Flames in the UK; Animosity on 'The Price is Right;' Khann update and more

We're tryin' to keep stuff simple in a complex world.

So we'll keep this introduction simple and get to this week's news brief.

-BMA Staff


CANCER BATS will embark on a crusade with In Flames in the UK, here's the official press release:

Canada’s very own riff masters, Cancer Bats, are proud to announce that they will be trekking across the UK with the mighty In Flames in April. The band spent July and August in the US with Bullet for My Valentine and Bleeding Through and plans for more US tours are currently in the works. Check back to http://www.blogger.com/www.myspace.com/cancerbats often to get updates!

The video for "Lucifer’s Rocking Chair" from the band’s latest album, Hail Destroyer, is up now on http://www.blogger.com/myspace.com/metal..

CANCER BATS
Tour w/ In Flames
04/15 Norwich, UK Waterfront
04/16 Colchester, UK Arts
04/17 Brighton, UK Concorde 2
04/21 Newcastle, UK Academy 2
04/22 Dundee, UK Fat Sams
04/23 Belfast, UK Mandella Hall
04/24 Dublin, IE Academy
04/25 Cork, UK Pavillion
04/27 Exeter, UK Lemon Grove
04/28 Cardiff, UK University Solus
04/29 Cambridge, UK Junction
04/30 Sheffield, UK Corporation
05/01 Liverpool, UK Academy 2

“Full of youthful energy and great chops, their second full-length never sounds forced, and the first two tracks alone kick more ass than most bands’ entire discographies.” Revolver - 4/5 stars

“Hail Destroyer takes everything that made the first [disc] great and amplifies it.” - BW & BK

KKKKK – Kerrang!

“Currently the best punk rock band in the world…” – NME (UK)

“Hail Destroyer is the new background music for every rad party in the world. If it’s not, then I don't want to go to that party. Get this record…..be somebody, baby.” TheSaltyPirate.com


Animosity had its very own TV appearance on CBS' "The Price is Right." Watch the band cheer on Carlos Garcia of fellow California band Antagonist -- not to mention the ironic prize Garcia is offered to win (think band essentials).

Architect will kick off the release of its new album, "Ghost of the Saltwater Machines," with a free show on Nov. 25 at 7:30 pm at the Westcott Cinema in Syracuse, NY. The band will be shooting live footage for a video at this show, so come out ready to rage at full potential. Rouges and Merrimac are set to open the show. Check out the exclusively released songs from the release on the BMA and Architect MySpace pages -- you won't be disappointed.

Khann is currently in post-production for two music videos soon to be released. The band also is planning a plethora of upcoming tours, including possible West Coast, European and Canadian runs. A US tour for early 2009 is in the works and will be announced soon. Check out Khann's MySpace page for pleasurable listening.

Destroy Destroy Destroy is shooting a video for "The Wretched Forest" from the band's upcoming Jan. 6 release, "Battle Sluts." The album artwork and song "Born of Thunder" are posted on the band's Myspace.

The Black Market Activities indie merch store has some updated swag. You'll be making all your friends jealous with your purchase, no doubt!

Artist Entry: the_Network guitarist Kevin tips his hat to the 'Evil Empire'

When you combine the radio-time a pizza delivery driver gets with the sociality of the Unabomber, you get a man who has not only heard the dreadful phrase, “Battleground State,” hundreds of times over the past few weeks, but someone who’s head exploded last night. Of course history was made and it feels as if America has been given back to its citizens, but I’m here to talk about something that I haven’t heard discussed enough in the mainstream media about yesterday’s election; the utterly justifiable liberal backlash towards the obsolete, unfair, ultra-conservative, right-wing mania America’s been swirling in during the past eight years. I think people like Karl Rove and Sean Hannity are just as responsible for Barack Obama’s win last night as the entire Obama campaign.. Let’s all thank Bill O’Reilly and the rest of Fox News for getting what appears to be every Democrat in America elected into positions in Washington.
Forget about the fact that Barack Obama is the best candidate for the presidency, that he’s probably the most intelligent president we’ll ever see, that he’s far more in touch with the average voter than anybody in positions of U.S. power, forget that he’s not in the pockets of any CEO’s, and that he unites people instead of polarizing them. You can forget that Barack Obama will restore the world’s faith in America, will use the U.S. military responsibly, will remove greed from U.S. policy making, and will take the steak knife away from the middle class’ jugular vein. Forget that Barack Obama has the potential to make America the country it really should be. Forget all that. What we really need to do is thank the overwhelming stupidity of George W. Bush and all of his supporters. If not for their blatant trampling of the constitution and stunning misuse of power, Americans may not have realized just how far down the toilet Republicans were shoving this country. With Republicans at the helm and their inane message shouted across the nation by people at Fox News and other various foolish, reactionary, talk radio show hosts posing as journalists, Americans morphed into a population of politically-aware, open-minded, and (boo-yah!) thinking people. I mean, Bush didn’t screw up to the degree that only political junkies and media geeks could understand; he screwed up in everyone’s faces. Everyone in America is either at war or knows somebody at war. Everyone was affected by the awful handling of Hurricane Katrina or knows someone who was. Everybody is losing their jobs or knows someone who is. Nobody can afford to get sick or everybody knows somebody who can’t. And nobody could afford to fill up their gas tank without suppressing painful vomit. So in between counting less and less money, the American people made every powerful Republicans’ nightmares come true; they started thinking.

While John McCain said the fundamentals of the U.S. economy are strong a few days before the fundamentals of the U.S. economy shit their pants, Americans were wondering why they couldn’t afford to buy a beer at the bar. Then they started wondering why, if they could afford to buy a beer at the bar, they couldn’t afford gas to get to the bar. While Sarah Palin donned designer dresses to say that she was an average Jane and that Barack Obama was a socialist, Americans were going bankrupt because their kid got sick. While Fox News and right-wing talk radio nitwits were whining that, “Waaaaahhhhhh…1% of the population already pays 36% of the taxes,” the American people learned that 1% of the population already has 90% of the wealth!

This time, the attack ads and lies didn’t work. This time, we Americans knew exactly what we needed and how to get it. This time, we were just too smart.

So thank you, Fox News!

Thank you, George W. Bush!

Thanks, Cheney!

Heck of a job, Brownie!

Let’s send a sincere “thank you” to all the Republicans in power. Without their help, we may have actually voted for them.

Fifty years from now, their incompetence will have continued to raise our intelligence and when we look back, we might ask, “Was George W. Bush the one that lied about getting a blowjob?” and someone will answer, “No, he was the one that lied about everything else.”

Oh, and to everyone who voted for McCain, don’t worry. Your consolation prize will be a better country.

BMA News Update: New videos from Cancer Bats, Dance Club Massacre; Animosity riff-roaring contest; and much more

You're probably sick of the news by now, with all the incessant ramblings of TV news anchors about the election. Seriously. There hasn't been so much talk of one man since OJ Simpson and the white Bronco "incident." At least there's some humor in all of this (note the CNN hologram, Anderson Cooper must have been trippin').

Anyway, and more importantly, there is some new and not-yet-repetitive ramblings we need to share with you folks.

- BMA Staff

Black Market Activities now has an official fan mailing list. By joining the list, BMA addicts -- and even those who wont admit to their addiction via the Bradley Effect -- can get first hand news, updates, tour dates, etc., sent directly to their inbox. To join the BMA fan mailing list, shoot an e-mail over to: michelle@blackmarketactivities.com, with "BMA fan mailing list" as the subject. There's no telling the other possible future benefits from being a member of this list, so git on it!

Romans, From a Second Story Window, Paria, and Animosity sounded off on Barack Obama becoming the 44th president of the United States on MTV2's "Headbanger's Blog." Check out the entries from the BMA family here.

CANCER BATS' video for "Lucifer’s Rocking Chair" is now premiering exclusively on MySpace Metal! Head over to MySpace Metal to check out the exclusive premier of CANCER BATS new video for the track "Lucifer’s Rocking Chair" off their latest release "Hail Destroyer."

Dance Club Massacre posted a video for the song "Shenanigans" from 11/11 release, "Circle of Death." The video is a culmination of live footage and studio clips. The video can be viewed here.

Animosity is hosting a "riff contest." Contestants interested in entering the contest must accurately sing three consecutive Animosity riffs. Prizes include free merchandise and concert tickets. Animosity vocalist Leo Miller: "It's a pretty ridiculous notion that animosity fans wouldn't be able to sing any three consecutive riffs, but it's way harder than it seems. Good luck to anyone who enters." More information about the contest can be found on the band's MySpace page, as well as on YouTube.

BMA News Update: Animosity rages with the Russkies; Cancer Bats make the top 10 on Rock Sound and more

It's almost November 4th, which means absolutely nothing to us at BMA -- other than we're edging toward to two exceptional releases (Dance Club Massacre, Architect).

We're not here to tell you to vote or die, but you best read or, uh, well you probably won't die -- still we're not responsible for any unfortunate "accidents."

Animosity recently played Russia, here's a few words from vocalist Leo Miller on that:
"...the experience has been overwhelmingly awesome. The shows have been totally out of control and we have been treated so well. We just finished up the "Hell on Earth" tour through Europe, which was a great time, but not really an Animosity style party. It feels great to be playing smaller clubs with real metal fans losing their minds. Assuming the reds don't sequester and disappear us at the border, we will be heading into the upcoming JFAC tour with full force and will probably work up some older songs for the set list from 'Empires.' Party 'till you're dead!"

Cancer Bats were voted #8 on the Rock Sound list for the "Albums of 2008." Congrats dudes!

Lords' release "Fuck all Y'all Motherfuckers" has a review in Metal Edge. Here's a tidbit from the review:
"Lords is a punk rock band at heart. Let’s start there. And though they don’t necessarily play punk songs—in fact, they play dirty heavy metal tunes full of sudden time and tempo changes—there’s a definite punk rock sensibility to their music....."

Artist Entry: the_Network guitarist Pete Marr reflects on some shitty past jobs

An ode to the joys of bad employment

We’ve all had them.

If you have anything to do with trying to tour, not being forever in debt and/or staying off people’s shit list, then you know what I’m talking about. People always ask, "how do you tour, how do you make money, how do you do it?" Well, kids I’ll tell ya -- you get a shitty-ass job!

Now I know everyone’s got there own shitty-ass job stories. I’ve heard a many in my day, but here’s a few of mine.

The first job I ever had was at a camp in the town that I lived in. It was some day camp where parents would drop of their kids while they went to their jobs in the summer and school (the babysitter) was out. I figured it would be an easy gig. One of my good friends at the time that was working there was the son of “the boss man." Only she was no man, she was a 90 pound completely, over sun tanned, 2 packs a day, yellow-teethed barrel of over stressed hormones. If you’ve seen kingpin and remember Roy’s landlord, then you know exactly what we were dealing with. I’d get as drunk as could the nights before work and show up early, hung over, pissed off and not wanting to do much but hang out. My usual business was making crafts with kids, then hang out with the kids that picked their nose and played in the dirt (stick with what you know I guess). That was the fun stuff.

The shitty part came in the form of the knowledge that my friends Mom (the boss lady landlord) was fucking one of the other dudes that worked there, who was right around the same age as us.

Now I know I live in NH, and maybe this doesn’t seem like it should be out of the ordinary, but it most certainly was. The kid she was fucking actually lived across the street from my friend and his Mom. We would go over hang out, have his Mom buy us beers, and then just be weirded out by this dude being there, obviously fucking his Mom. I guess looking back on it she was a real mess at the time, her husband left her just out of the blue and never told anyone where he was till like five years later.
Basically shit hit the fan towards the end of the summer camp session that year, and all the kids' parents were pissed when they found out about all the shenanigans that were happening around their young, impressionable children. I reapplied the following year only to find out they canned the whole staff due to all this. So another shitty-ass job was in my future.

Kev (the other guitarist) told myself and another good friend that a local amusement park was hiring some people on for the summer. We go to this orientation that was a fucking joke and all got assigned jobs via the mail. Back then people actually used mail (good God I am fucking old). Kev and our other friend got assigned as game attendants. Sweet job, just sit around and wait for people to come by throw a few balls and either give them a prize or don’t. I however get assigned park duty. No idea what that means till I get there.

I show up, have my Mom drop me off at the park. Punch in, get a shirt then handed a radio. I think to myself what the fuck is this, a radio. Well I must be important, they say if this thing rings or beeps and someone says 520, code for cleanup then I have to go respond. I nod and agree and I’m off. We’re told that myself and the other park duty employee have to work in sections of the park. I take the right, he takes the left side. I think, hell yeah, this is way easier t
hen games that Kev and the other guy had. All I had to do was walk around the park pick up trash with a duster and pan and that’s it. Kinda embarrassing, but whatever I was young and it was easy money. So I thought.

After about 20 minutes of doing this, I was bored out of my fucking mind. There's are only so many cigarette buts you can pick up before your brain goes numb. So I’m like, fuck this, I’ll meet up with the other kid on the other side of the park doing the same shit as me and at the very least we can bitch about it to each other till we can go home. I walk over, see the kid, say something like, "wow this sucks huh?" He looks at me real wild eyed, doesn’t say anything for almost a minute, then mumbles something I couldn’t understand. I soon realize the kid is mentally challenged. I’m not one to boost about any type of ego, but I was working the same job of a mentally challenged kid -- fuck, I’m doing a job of a retard. (side note: I have nothing against mentally challenged retards at all, in fact I look at this photo at least a few times a week to remind myself that happiness is actually achievable to a lucky few).

So I head back to my side of the park and the phone I have starts beeping, and a voice comes over saying 520 over at the roller coaster. I ignore the call then it comes back again and then again getting angrier at each call until I respond, saying I’ll be right there. Mind you at this point I have no idea what 520 stands for other then cleanup, I’m not even sure why they’re using code. All I know is I don’t want to do shit.

I get over there and see a huge crowd gathered around near the roller coaster. They see me coming in my park shirt and start howling and making the sounds you would if you saw a bad accident, although some people were smiling like they were about to egg me or something. I get closer and find out what a 520 is…Puke!. Some asshole rode the rollercoaster couldn’t stomach the French fries, hamburgers, and whatever shit food he pumped his stomach up with before he decided to heave it all over the ground for some innocent clump like myself to pick up.

Fucking asshole.

I throw some cat litter looking stuff on it all the while getting hazed by the on lookers and walk away. I called my Mom about half way into my first shift and said I quit, come pick me up I’m done. I didn’t tell any of those fuckers I just walked out and left. Fuck that place! Kev actually ended up getting fired and our other friend quit after his second day. Yes-20-indeed, fuck that place and whoever puked up nasty park food residual that was left over for the next chump.

Next job was at a convenient store, drank beer in the bathroom while working all the time, stole beer and supplied a few parties with it. Did a bunch of pills and drank a shit ton showed up to work after not sleeping and got fired for apparently “Not answering customers questions when asked." I guess some lady was asking me about the muffins we had and I was just staring at her not saying a word till finally she left. Don’t remember any of that, but that’s what I was told when I got fired. Shit job number 3.

and so on and so on.

Get in a shitty band, get a shitty ass job and ruin your shitty ass fuck life!

Pete
t_N.