Severed Fifth

Just a quick note to let you all know that James Cripps from Rock Gator Radio dropped me a message today to let us know that Severed Fifth will be featured on the show tonight at 8PM Eastern. You can listen to the show by tuning in online here. Thanks James!

Today I did a new Severed Fifth TV weekly update videocast and talked about a range of things including: the problems of the music industry and how we believe Severed Fifth can help to fix them, the Severed Fifth Recording Campaign, details of upcoming shows, how the Severed Fifth Street Team works and how to get involved, our Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and more.

Today’s show was also incredible in that we raised $220 of contributions to the Severed Fifth Recording Campaign. Thanks to everyone who contributed, and I want to make a special shoutout to James Sharp who joined the show and set a new record by contributing $100 to the recording campaign! This is an absolutely incredible contribution, and all of us in Severed Fifth want to offer our sincerest thanks to James for his remarkable contribution, and to everyone else who contributed today. If you want to help us to change the music industry go and find out more here!

You can see a recording of the show below:

Some of you may have noticed the rather cool Severed Fifth Facebook Page and that on the main Severed Fifth website we have a little box with the latest posts, a link to join the page, and some pictures of who likes the page.

Well, we would love for Severed Fifth fans to trick up their own websites and add this box. You can do it as easily as adding the following code to your site:

Light color:

<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/likebox.php?href=http%3A%2F%2F
www.facebook.com%2Fseveredfifth&amp;width=292&amp;colorscheme=light
&amp;connections=10&amp;stream=true&amp;header=true&amp;height=587"
scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:292px;
height:587px;" allowTransparency="true"></iframe>

Dark color:

<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/likebox.php?href=http%3A%2F%2F
www.facebook.com%2Fseveredfifth&amp;width=292&amp;colorscheme=dark
&amp;connections=10&amp;stream=true&amp;header=true&amp;height=587"
scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:292px;
height:587px;" allowTransparency="true"></iframe>

Thanks in advance to everyone who adds the box!

I just wanted to post a quick update on the Severed Fifth Recording Campaign that we launched a week or so ago to appeal for you folks to help get us into a professional studio to re-record Nightmares By Design so we can get out there with the best possible album, and help change the music industry for the better. If this is all news to you, then be sure to check out the video for the full scoop and to contribute if you can!

Today we hit the $500 milestone in contributions from you awesome folks, but we need $5000 to get in the studio, so we have a long road yet to travel. Fortunately every penny counts and helps us to record an album that will represent free culture in the best possible light. Remember every single one of you who donates will get your name included in the album liner notes!

I just want to offer a special shout-out to Stephane Graber, David Barry, and Shawn Borton who have each donated $50 or more, and will be getting a signed picture of the band and a copy of the current Nightmares By Design demo on CD as a special thank you. Remember, there are various incentives on offer to encourage you to contribute, all explained on this page.

Thanks to everyone who contributes, and thanks in advance for those who are about to contribute – you rock! \m/

FOR MORE INFORMATION, WATCH THE VIDEO!

On Saturday night we played the Fat Cat in Modesto and yesterday I added a report about the show, but we all know that pictures mean a thousand words, and moving pictures with sound mean even more! Today we some footage shot from the crowd by Siobhan Adams, and uploaded to the Severed Fifth YouTube Channel and we have them below here so you can go and check out the fun from the show!

As ever, don’t forget to subscribe to the Severed Fifth YouTube Channel, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace and be sure to share these videos with your friends and spread the word about Severed Fifth! Enjoy!

Foretold Revelation

Drill Down

Politicold

Fight Philosophy

Fallout

Yesterday started out by the full band congregating at our rehearsal studio in Oakland 12pm. We all got there and ran through our set, composed of Foretold Revelation, Drill Down, Politicold, Fight Philosophy and Fallout and ready to introduce two new songs, End Of Days and a cover of The Trooper by Iron Maiden. When we do shows we typically like to meet at the studio and run through the set without vocals (so I have plenty of oomph for the show, vocal wise), and iron out any last minute bits. We ran through the set and it sounded absolutely rocking, so we started packing up ready to head out.

We packed up the not insignificant amount of shit we need for a live Severed Fifth show; drums, five guitars, amps, cabs, racks, merch and more, loaded up Jim’s car and he headed off to pick up his wife and a friend. We then loaded up my car and Ron’s truck, and tarped down Ron’s epic Mesa/Boogie bass cab as we were expecting rain. All set, we got on the road and headed to Modesto.

Aside from a quick stop at In-N-Out Burger, we made pretty good progress, despite the rain, and got to the Fat Cat at about 5pm. We loaded in, met Mike Vanek, the promoter who was putting on the show, and met some of the guys in Crow who were headlining. Jim arrived a little later and we started setting up Ben’s drums ready for load-on when we were up.

There were five bands on the bill; Crow, Better Left Unsaid, Severed Fifth, This Times Brutal, One Less Enemy and Through The Threshold. All bands put on a stunning show, and despite some PA troubles affecting our friends in One Less Enemy they rocked it with the time they had available. In fact as part of their set, Shawn Bozarth (from One Less Enemy) and Jim Adams (from Severed Fifth) got up and played a Defiance song called The Fault. It sounded awesome. Earthquake! Earthquake!…

This was our third Severed Fifth show and we were third up in the line-up of bands; our first show not as an opener. By the time we got on stage the attendance had fattened up, and it was a great opportunity because the majority of people there had not heard us play – fresh ears! We kicked off the set with our atmospheric opener to Foretold Revelation and played through the song. The response was fantastic from the get go. Next up was Drill Down which felt great to play, and more people congregated in front of the stage.

At the Fat Cat it is a pretty unusual venue in that there is a stage with the monitors on it, and then an extra chunk of stage in front of that. Unfortunately the sound guys could not move the monitors to the extra bit of stage, so I was grounded in front of the monitors where the mic stand is, but when there were instrumental sections I would clamber over the monitors onto the front stage part and headbang with the crowd. Our third song was Politicold and there is quite a long instrumental section, so Jim and I stood on the front stage and headbanged together in unison. Even from our short gigging career so far, Politicold seems to be one of the most popular songs – we love playing it. I just love rocking out with my brothers to that tune.

Next up was Fight Philosophy and we saw more heads banging, and we were all set to roll in our debut of End Of Days next, but had to cut our set short a little due to all the PA problems earlier. As such, we decided to play Fallout and included some crowd participation to get the audience singing along with us. The audience were awesome and it was awesome to hear roars of “Fallout!” as the song continued.

After the show we packed up our gear as it torrentially rained on us, and then we hit the road back to Oakland to drop our gear off back at the rehearsal studio.

All in all we had a killer time in Modesto and we want to thank Mike Vanek for the show, all the other bands for being so cool, and everyone who showed up to support the local metal scene. We also want to say a huge thanks to everyone who got into our show and had a good time – we hope to see all you awesome people again soon.

Jono \m/

Don’t forget to keep up with our latest live show dates and keep up to date with Severed Fifth on Facebook and Twitter

A few weeks ago we sat down with one of our advisors for Severed Fifth and a strong supporter of the band who has been through the industry and played in a number of established acts. He said that he believes we have a real shot at making a difference both musically and in changing how the industry works with Severed Fifth, and he believes that our culture of giving the music away and building a community is right, but to compete in the existing music industry we need a professionally recorded album that stands up to the production standards of other professional bands. He gave us an important piece of advice. He felt that while Nightmares By Design is a great sounding demo, it doesn’t do the music justice. He believes we need to get in a professional studio to help our music really shine and get this train on the tracks.

He is right. We are all pleased with Nightmares By Design but it lacks the big roomy drum sound, thundering bass undertones, punchy vocals that you get when a singer is pushed by a recording engineer, and the sheen that a studio recording gets you. It also lacks the stunning performances of the new Severed Fifth live band. Nightmares By Design is a blueprint for a stunning professionally recorded album. Let’s make this happen, and let’s change the rules with it.

For us to change the music industry via Severed Fifth, and make us a great example of how Free Culture can work, we need an album recording that stands up against the latest Megadeth, the latest Iron Maiden, and the latest Slayer. We believe in the music, and we know we can do this, but we need your help to fund the recording. If we all contribute, we can do this.

How You Can Help

We need your help to contribute to the recording. We need $5000 to record. If 500 Severed Fifth fans donate just $10, we will nail it. If you can help we really want to say thankyou for your contribution, so we will print the name of everyone who contributes in the album liner notes, and list all of you in an article when we release. If you can afford more we have some additional perks:

• For contributions of $50 or more – we will send you a signed photo of the band and a CD copy of Nightmares By Design.
• For contributions of $100 or more – we will send you a Severed Fifth t-shirt, signed photo of the band and a CD copy of Nightmares By Design.
• For contributions of $200 or more – we will send you a signed copy of the new album on CD, a Severed Fifth t-shirt, signed photo of the band and a CD copy of Nightmares By Design.
• For contributions of $300 or more – We will dedicate a song to you at our next live show and send you the video of it, send you a signed copy of the new album on CD, a Severed Fifth t-shirt, signed photo of the band and a CD copy of Nightmares By Design.

TO FIND OUT MORE AND CONTRIBUTE, CLICK HERE!

Today we confirmed another show, this time the very first Severed Fifth show of 2011, and supporting our Bay Area thrash metal brothers in SkinLab. We are really excited about the show which is happening at The Uptown in our home town of Oakland, California. The show is happening on Sat Jan 22nd 2011.

For more details see our Live page.

Recently we heard the terrible news that Nicci DeSoto from Falling To Pieces (who headlined our first show in Livermore) recently passed away in a motorcycle accident. Everyone in the Bay Area metal scene is shell-shocked by the news, and even though we in Severed Fifth didn’t know her that well, it was awesome to play at least one show with her.

To help with Nicci’s burial costs, a benefit show has been put together on Friday 12th Nov 2010 at Pine Street Bar and Grill in Livermore (the same venue where we played our first show with Falling To Pieces. The show will feature The Venting Machine, Severed Fifth, Left Of Christ, and Dissipate. Doors open at 8pm. Be there to show your support for Nicci and help her family.

Full details of the show are here.

Immediately after we got offstage at the very first Severed Fifth show in Livermore, California we did an interview with the awesome Bay Area Rocks and it’s delightful host Bassy Stacy. The interview just went online, and you can check parts one and two below:

Part One:

Part Two:

Bay Area Rocks rocks. Thanks, folks!