Meet AFI Tonight at Best Buy in Costa Mesa

Beginning at 5:00 p.m. PST Wednesday night, you can attend the Crash Love signing at Best Buy in Costa Mesa, CA. If you haven't gotten a pass yet, you can purchase one of the 300 additional passes that Best Buy is selling along with the purchase of Crash Love.

Click here for the event listing on AFireInside.net.

Contests for NYC Tickets, Signed Copy of CL

There are two new AFI-related contests online. Tilly's is offering two tickets to the AFI show in New York City on November 13, as well as press passes and access to the meet and greet. Airfare and hotels will also be paid for by Tilly's. Enter here.

Alter The Press is offering a signed copy of Crash Love. To enter, visit this page and identify the name of Davey and Jade's side project.

Update: Here you can enter to win tickets to AFI's October 11 show at Club Zoo in Pittsburgh. Also, click here for an amusing series of new quotes from Hunter regarding girls and sandwiches.

CraveOnline has posted their Crash Love review here. AltSounds has posted their review of AFI's record release show last night at The Roxy here.

KROQ AFI Release Party Live Post, Pt II

8:26 PST – The AFI show is over and apparently the setlist was this:
1. Torch Song
2. Girl’s Not Grey
3. Beautiful Thieves
4. Kill Caustic
5. Silver and Cold
6. Hearts Frozen Solid Thawed Once More By The Spring Of Rage, Despair And Hopelessness
7. End Transmission
8. Death of Seasons
9. Just Like Heaven
10. Nyquil (with Nick 13 and Geoff Kresge)
11. Love Like Winter
12. Medicate
13. 6 to 8
14. Miss Murder

If you ask me, the highlight was Nyquil. AFI was joined by Nick 13 and former AFI bassist Geoff Kresge to sing Answer That And Stay Fashionable’s “Nyquil”, which was first released on Dork EP.

KROQ AFI Release Party Live Post

AFI has officially finished their Crash Love Record Release performance at The Roxy. In a setlist including 6 To 8 and everything from Ny Quil to Beautiful Thieves, to a stage appearance by Nick 13 and Geoff Kresge, Davey stood atop the crowd for an entire song. KROQ was on the scene, and is currently broadcasting live recordings of the show. We’ve got links to dozens of pictures throughout this post, and we’ve just added the setlist to the bottom of the post. Here’s a picture from the sound check earlier this evening. Enjoy!
We even have a member of the AFI News HQ team at The Roxy tonight, Alex. He will post a review of the party and the performance at some point Wednesday or Thursday. For now, let the games begin…
5:20 p.m. PST – AFI soundchecked the following songs: Hearts Frozen Solid, Nyquil, Veronica Sawyer Smokes, Torch Song, End Transmission, Just Like Heaven. (Source: Mark, PanasonicYouth)
6:15 p.m. PST – DJ Nicole is now broadcasting live from The Roxy! She will have an interview with AFI and will be playing some live recordings of AFI’s show tonight.
7:00 p.m. PST – DJ Nicole just said AFI is about to go on stage. She has completed her interview with them and we will likely hear snippets from it through the night. Stay tuned!

7:04 p.m. PST – Rick Savage, a KROQ DJ, has posted this photo of Davey live at The Roxy. Here is another photo, and here is another. Here’s yet another picture of Davey and Jade.
7:10 p.m. PST – Visit http://www.facebook.com/theroxy for more AFI photos! More pictures here and here. (That last one is of Davey standing on the crowd!) Here’s a picture from Nicole and here’s another picture of Davey on the crowd. Here’s another Davey walker.
7:15 p.m. PST – Nicole tells us that Davey somersaulted into the crowd and was caught. He stood on top of the crowd and sang the entire song. There was no mention of what that song was. More pictures from Nicole: here and here.
7:25 p.m. PST – Here’s a picture of Hunter. Jade says “Crash Love” was “born” on November 3, 2007. KROQ IS BROADCASTING AFI PLAYING GIRL’S NOT GREY LIVE RIGHT NOW.
7:30 p.m. PST – We’ve just gotten word through Twitter that AFI played songs (plural) from The Art of Drowning. Here’s an official picture from The Roxy posted to Twitter by AFI.
7:35 p.m. PST – AFI covered The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven.” Here’s a picture from Nicole. Thanks to Mike, you can now download a rip of AFI playing Girl’s Not Grey live at The Roxy Crash Love Record Release Show! Click here to grab it.
7:40 p.m. PST – AFI joined by Nick 13 onstage! Pictures here and here. KROQ IS NOW BROADCASTING SILVER AND COLD LIVE FROM THE ROXY. Click here to download it, thanks to Mike.
7:55 p.m. PST – Here is a picture of Davey and here is a picture of Adam and Jade. Here is the shot of the night: a clear picture of Davey screaming. He is wearing a dotted red and black shirt. Here’s another picture of Davey on his knees screaming.
8:05 p.m. PST – AFI is offstage. KROQ will be playing more from the show and the interview soon, including the “Just Like Heaven” cover. We’ll keep you posted on that.
8:12 p.m. PST – We have just learned that AFI played Ny-Quil and was joined onstage by Nick 13 and Geoff Kresge.
Here is the setlist according to “Ramon’s Twitter.”
1. Torch Song
2. Girl’s Not Grey
3. Beautiful Thieves
4. Kill Caustic
5. Silver and Cold
6. Hearts Frozen Solid…
7. End Transmission
8. Death of Seasons
9. Just Like Heaven
10. Nyquil (with Nick 13 and Geoff)
11. Love Like Winter
12. Medicate
13. 6 to 8
14. Miss Murder

Interview With Davey on Huffington Post

The Huffington Post has just published an interesting interview with Davey about Rock Band, surviving Catholic school, and Crash Love. Click here to read it.

AFI on Loveline tomorrow

On September 30, AFI will appear on KROQ’s Loveline for the 3rd time this year. Loveline is a radio show where the host and the invitees give advice to people who call regarding love/sexual problems. They sometimes answer questions regarding AFI and Blaqk Audio music.

Go to KROQ.com at 10:00 p.m. PST Wednesday night to listen to Loveline live!

Crash Love Black Cover Edition

According to several OMB members, Target is selling a small amount of Crash Love CDs with a black cover. There is no difference between this edition and the gold edition apart from the booklet’s front cover. Amanda has posted this photo:

Hidden Images in iTunes Crash Love LP

In the iTunes LP edition of Crash Love, there are four hidden images with the words "Fascination," "Degradation," "Elation," and "The Big Big Glamour." For a complete group of the hidden pictures on the iTunes LP, visit Mike's Photobucket page.

Click here for more iTunes LP easter eggs. Thanks to Daniel and Mike for the tips!

Win tickets and M&G for AFI shows!

We’ve been informed about a contest on Going.com to win two tickets and a Meet and Greet pass for the following AFI shows. Click on each link to be taken to the survey form:

October 4th – Newport Music Hall, Columbus, OH
October 7th – Town Ballroom, Buffalo, NY
October 14th – Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel, Providence, RI*

*We do not know if there’s a M&G for this show.

Thanks to Melissa for the tip!

EQ Magazine article now online

Remember Jade tweeted about an interview with EQ Magazine? Well, the article is now up!

The interview is focused on what they used to record Crash Love, so if you wanted to know what basses/guitars/drums/vocal settings they used, this is for you!

You can view it here. Thanks to Kat for the heads up!

Easter eggs on iTunes LP

xXdarockermikeXx, one of our readers, has found two Easter Eggs on the iTunes LP. If you go to Jade's homepage, and click on Jade's heart, you will be able to hear the guitar track of Torch Song!

The second known easter egg is the track of the strings on the last chorus of Beautiful Thieves. You can find it by clicking on the skull located on the Despair Faction page on the top right corner:



Note: Please do NOT share/post any clip here, as they're purchasable on the iTunes LP.

Crash Love B-side Lyrics: We Have Them

Thanks to Zoe Aimee, we have the complete and official lyrics to the Crash Love B-sides. Click the title below to see the lyrics in the comments section. Fainting Spells, We’ve Got The Knife, Where We Used To Play, and 100 Words.

Also, you can now download our “Complete and Official Crash Love Lyrics” document, now with all 12 songs and the four B-sides above.

Shockhound.com Interviews Davey

AFI posted a new Myspace blog with links to both a Shockhound exclusive interview with Davey and a one-day only sale of Crash Love for $6.99.
The interview is here, and the sale is here.

iTunes Preorders Now Available + Guide to LP

If you pre-ordered Crash Love on iTunes, your pre-order is now available. You should get an e-mail soon telling you that your pre-order is ready to be downloaded. Alternately, you can go to the "Store" menu and click "Check for Available Downloads."

Here is our guide to the iTunes LP. Click on the links for screenshots:

The pre-order includes 18 songs (including iTunes exclusives "Too Late For Gods" and "Breathing Towers To Heaven") plus the iTunes LP version, which is over 250MB large. The Main Menu contains links to "Play Album," "Song List," "Davey," "Jade," "Adam," "Hunter," "Photos," "Despair Faction," "Discography," "Etch Love," "Credits," and "AFireInside.net."

When you play the album, the album plays in order with an Crash Love visualizer playing along with snowflakes. For each member, there is a special tracklisting, a lengthy note about Crash Love and a video.

For Davey, there is a note, an audio version of the note, and a video. For Jade, there is a note and video containing more footage from the teaser video given to us before Crash Love of Davey and Jade writing in slow motion. For Adam there is a note and a humorous video. For Hunter there is a note and two funny videos (1 2).

There are seven pictures in the photo gallery; three before-seen group shots and four never-before-seen individual shots. In the Despair Faction section, there are letters from Gavin and Davey, as well as a link to a new page on AFireInside.net listing every DF member by first name and last initial, location, and the amount of time he/she been a member.

The discography contains the names and artwork of AFI's eight albums, with links to buy them all in iTunes. Etch Love allows you to draw your own etching into the gold background. (See our effort here.) The credits are... credits.

AFI Playing BC on Dec. 21 w/ Tegan and Sara

According to a recent update from Tegan and Sara’s Web site, they will be playing a show with AFI and Jets Overboard on December 21, 2009 at the Save-On Foods Memorial Center in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. This date joins the four other December tour dates in Canada currently scheduled.

Medicate 7" Records Listed Online

RecordStore.co.uk has posted the Medicate 7″ vinyl online. There are two editions; one has Medicate and Carcinogen Crush, and the other has Medicate and Ether. The editions are limited to 1000 copies each and the bundles will go onsale for 6.00 British pounds on September 12.

The vinyl is also available at HMV and eBay.

Free MP3 Download With Crash Love Vinyl

If you purchase the Crash Love vinyl, you can download an mp3 version of the album for free here. You will need to enter the code that comes with the vinyl. Thanks to James for the tip!

AFI On Myspace Music Feed

Fortunefox on the OMB posted a link to the Myspace Music Feed, about half of which is AFI. They talk a bit about the producers of Crash Love, the band’s “pop” label, as well as the music the guys have listened to lately and more. You can see the interview here.

Photos of Crash Love Vinyl

Thanks to Lauren from empathy-bound.com we have pictures of the Crash Love vinyl.

More pictures below...
1 2 3 4 5 6

Update: Thanks to James, we also have an image of the mp3 download instructions that come with the vinyl. Click here to see the image. Click here for more info about the free mp3 download that comes with the Crash Love vinyl.

Canadian dates announced!

AFI will play the following shows in Canada according to Ticketmaster:

December 15th, 2009 – Winnipeg Convention Centre, Winnipeg, MB
December 16th, 2009 – Prairieland Park – Saskatoon, SK
December 18th, 2009 – Shaw Conference Centre, Edmonton, AB
December 19th, 2009 – Big Four Building, Calgary, AB

Cage The Elephant will support AFI. Presale starts on tomorrow at 10:00 am. Thanks to Bess for the newstip!

New songs posted on www.veronicasawyer.com

The following songs and their official lyrics have been posted on Veronica Sawer’s site:

End Transmission
Darling, I Want To Destroy You
Veronica Sawyer Smokes
I Am Trying Very Hard To Be Here

The Meet AFI lyrical drawing competition ends today!

UltimateGuitar interviews Jade and Hunter

Thanks to Melissa, we were directed to an interview conducted by UltimateGuitar with Jade and Hunter. I think it’s safe to say it’s the biggest interview they’ve done.
alk

They talk about switching producers, the equipment they used to record Crash Love, and they talk about End Transmission, Too Shy To Scream, Medicate as a single, Sacrilege and Darling I Want To Destroy You.

If you enjoyed the interview, leave them a comment on their comment box!

You can read it here.

AFI's Record release show broadcast + KROQ Contest: Frontline pass for AFI signing

KROQ will broadcast (part of?) AFI's record release show at The Roxy tomorrow, September 29th. We would appreciate it if anyone could rip it and send to both pablo@theartofdrowning.net and darkflame337@gmail.com if you wanna see your rip hosted in our server!

It's still unknown wat what time AFI's show will be aired, but we'll inform as soon as we can. You can listen live at www.kroq.com

In other news, there's an AFI contest on KROQ for winning frontline passes for AFI's signing in Costa Mesa's Best Buy next wednesday. All you have to do is solve a "super hard quiz" (it actually is extremely easy) and pray to the lord for they to pick you. You can take the quiz here.

End Transmission played in Japan

I tweeted at Hunter about their setlist from tonights show in Japan and he responded that they played End Transmission also.

If any videos of this performance surface, we will post them as soon as find them.

AFI to play in Saskatoon!

According to Ticketmaster, AFI will play with Cage The Elephant and Jinge Bell Rock at the Pairieland Park in Saskatoon, SK Canada on December 16th 2009.

Tickets go on sale on September 29th and you can buy them here.

Crash Love is Real

Today officially marks the US release of AFI’s 8th studio album, Crash Love. By now, many of you have heard or are hearing Crash Love. Tell us what you think of each song on the album over at our new sub-blog, Crash Love Dissected. Read the complete and official lyrics of Crash Love over at our other sub-blog, Crash Love Lyrics.

Also, we’ve launched our “Best Song on Crash Love” poll contest in the left sidebar. In this first round, the 16 songs will be divided into four groups. The two winners of each of these groups will advance to the quarterfinal, semifinal, and then the final. By October 2, we will know the fan favorite.
Enjoy Crash Love!

-AFI News HQ

Punknews.org Interview with Davey

Jason Epstein from Punknews.org had a phone chat with AFI singer and songwriter Davey Havok about the band’s past, present, future and Crash Love.

Davey talking about ”Love Is A Many Splendored Thing”

I remember the first release of that song was taken from a cassette tape that we recorded on a little box in Mark’s like foyer of his parent’s house. We recorded it on a little tape and somebody released it on a comp….it sounded great…but you know for that song, who cares? We thought it sounded the best it had ever sounded on that tape.

Talk about the EP:

In 2007 there was some talk of an EP being written from leftovers of the Decemberunderground sessions. Did that turn into Crash Love?

No, by no means. There were b-sides that were going to be released on an EP but we hit so many problems along the way that we just put it aside. Those songs are actually coming out on certain versions of this record; they might be coming out as b-sides in England. There were I believe three songs from Decemberunderground and maybe one from the Sing the Sorrow outtakes, maybe two but they will be released.

Read full interview HERE

AFINewsHQ.com

We’ve moved to a new domain, AFINewsHQ.com! We made the move to make our address easier to type, more professional, and more representative of what we are.
For the next 3 days, we will be in transition between the domain names. AFINewsHQ.com may not work for everybody at the moment, but with patience it will. After 3 days our old domain will start redirecting to AFINewsHQ.com.

HMV Offering Free Download of "Ether"

HMV Canada is offering a free download of “Ether” when you purchase Crash Love from their store. The CD will come with a nifty download card (photo) that you use to download the track from Universal Music Group, AFI’s record company. You can find the regular edition here and the deluxe edition here.

Ether is also a bonus track on the Japanese version of Crash Love.

"Beautiful Thieves" and "Darling" on CL sticker and TV ad

The Australian edition of Crash Love has a sticker “featuring” these songs, as does the recent TV commercial that advertises Crash Love. It’s still unknown if they will be the next singles or it’s just for commercial purposes only. (CexCells “featured” Stiff Kittens and The Love Letter, the latter never became a single).

In other news, OMB member Blaqk Chaotic has posted several photos of the Crash Love CD here in this thread.

Crash Love Advertisement on Comedy Central

DNoahD on the OMB has recorded the new Crash Love advertisement that has been running on Comedy Central for the past couple of days. It isn’t great quality, but you can find it here on Youtube. The commercial advertises the album as featuring “Beautiful Thieves,” “Darling, I Want To Destroy You,” and “Medicate.” Those three songs are the likely singles from Crash Love.

AFI to play in Canada December 15th

According to THIS website for a local Canadian record store, AFI will be playing a show at the Winnipeg Convention Center in Winnipeg, Manatoba December 15th. This may just be a one off show or may lead to more Canada tour dates, or even more December tour dates. The Winnepeg Convention Center website does not have the AFI show on their calendar nor does it mention the show yet. We will keep you posted as we get more details.

This is Music Trader’s promotion:

STARTING TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 29TH, MUSIC TRADER IS PROUD TO OFFER A FREE AFI LIMITED EDITION LITHOGRAPH WHEN YOU BUY AFI’S BRAND NEW DELUXE 2CD EDITION OF “CRASH LOVE” AND A TICKET TO THEIR DECEMBER 15TH SHOW AT THE WINNIPEG CONVENTION CENTRE. THIS OFFER IS ONLY IN EFFECT FOR ONE WEEK, SO DON’T MISS IT!


This is the only mention of the show on December 15th, so we are anticipating more details sometime soon, as they are selling tickets starting Tuesday. This is obviously for Canada only.

Crash Love Review in Kerrang! (Scans Here)

Thanks to Sammi, we’ve acquired the scans for the review of Crash Love in Kerrang! Magazine. Click here to see it. Also, Sammi spotted an A4 ad for Crash Love. See that picture here.

Introducing the AFI News HQ Toolbar

We’ve gotten a few e-mails suggesting that we create a browser toolbar for the blog. After investigating different services to create a toolbar, the advantages are clear:

* Keep up to the minute through a live-updating RSS feed of AFI News HQ, AFireInside.net, and Hunter and Jade’s blogs
* Keep up with the Twitter feeds of @afi, @afinewsblog, @tranquilmammoth, and @shyboyswin.
* Send and receive short messages
* Do a custom search of our news archives

You can now do all of this and more from anywhere on the web – you won’t have to constantly check the site. Now you’ll know when there’s news. We hope this toolbar is helpful. Please install the toolbar and send us comments and feedback about how we can improve it.
You can install the toolbar directly by clicking on the graphic at the top of the right sidebar. We have confirmed that it works with IE, Firefox, and Safari. If you have any troubles installing or getting the toolbar to work, contact us.
-Jason

New Interview With Davey Discusses Art, Music

Thanks to AshleyxNicole, we’ve found an art-related interview that Davey has done with art and culture magazine Juxtapoz. In the interview, he shares eight pieces of art from his personal collection. Click here to see the full interview.

About the Crash Love Heart, Davey said “The graphic image that’s on the new album is based on something that I quickly scratched onto a note pad in the studio. The version you see, created by Jason Noto, is far superior to what I drew.”
From the interview we found out that when AFI plays in Japan on September 27, they will be “supporting a very amiable pop star named Himuro and we’ll be playing 6 songs in front of 30k people before returning to join him for his encore.”
When asked what advice he would give to young musicians, Davey said: “Do only what you love and give not a fuck if people have negative things to say about it. Being unpopular generally means that you’re doing something right. If fame and fortune is all that you aspire to, please just stop, and spare us all.”
Davey also spoke of touring plans: “We’re flying to Tokyo for three nights and then we return to the states. Our record comes out Sept 29th so we’re playing the Roxy in LA before starting a North American tour that will last until next year. I think [January] will have us back in Europe, [February] is Australia and it will be more US dates thereafter.”

Crash Love out in Australia today.

Just a reminder to all AFI fans living down under, Crash Love will be in record stores after 12pm today, in around three hours time.

There is a dedication to Jerry Finn in the CD booklet. We have some new photos of the different editions of Crash Love, inside and out. Click each link below to see them:

Standard and Deluxe Edition comparison
CD case and front of booklet
Disc and back of booklet
Page of CD booklet
Tracklisting on back of CD case

Record Stores Giving Out Crash Love Lithographs

If you purchase Crash Love at any of the independent record stores listed here, you will receive a limited edition Crash Love lithograph. The stores are listed by state.

Listen to Crash Love on afireinside.net tomorrow!

According to a Nasty Little Man press release, Crash Love will be streamable at AFI’s Official Website starting tomorrow Thursday September 24th. NLM is AFI’s public relations company.

If you missed the MySpace stream this is your chance!

First Photo: Crash Love Disc and Booklet

Thanks to Melissa, we now bring you the first picture of the actual disc and the back of the booklet of Crash Love. If you do not want to see this until you see it for yourself in real life, do not click the link below.
CLICK HERE

iTunes Previewing "Ether" in Japanese Store

On the Japanese version of the iTunes Store, the Crash Love Japanese edition is now available for purchase at 1,500 yen. The Japanese edition features the 12 normal tracks from Crash Love, along with “Carcinogen Crush,” “Ether,” and “Miss Murder (Duet feat. Kyosuke Himuro).”

“Carcinogen Crush” is not different from any previous versions, but this version of Ether is the first version to be at high quality. The bass and guitar are much more prominent. The “Miss Murder duet” is indeed a duet, not a cover version. Whether Davey and Kyosuke Himuro, a Japanese pop star, actually sang together is unclear.

To access the Japanese iTunes Store if you are in a different country, go to the bottom right of the iTunes Store homepage and click on the circular flag represting which country’s store you are currently in. When you click on this, you will be taken to a page with all of the country-specific stores. The Japanese store is the last one listed. Find “Crash Love” and enjoy the previews.

Examiner.com Review of Crash Love

Examiner.com has posted their review of Crash Love here. Here’s a highlight from the review:

“‘Crash Love,’ does play the band’s strongest points to date but goes back to blending into the modern rock n roll vibrations that they changed not so long ago, there are some “old school” influences found upon the album such as “Medicate,” that constantly builds up that classic punk style with galloping guitar riffs with fast racing drum tactics getting your blood pumped. Guitarist Jade Puget steps it up in a major way when “OK, I feel Better Now,” showcasing his standout performance to date, starting off with a trade marking chiming chord sequence, before working into the strummed octaves and some unexpected, game-changing chord effects found within the third verse.”


In other news, Davey appeared on Australian radio DJ Triple J’s show earlier today. According to OMB member k-grace,

“Davey said how timeless the records feels and how he’s never been prouder of an AFI record. Then they talked about Begin Transmission and how cool it was to get the winners and their friends in. Then they talked about Medicate and how Davey is a big fan of Jade’s guitar solo, and then they talked about Soundwave and how excited AFI is to be playing in Australia again. And then Triple J played Too Shy to Scream.”

First Image of Crash Love CD/Lithograph

Thanks to Melissa, we’ve come across a picture of the Crash Love regular edition with a lithograph, sticker, and button. We can now confirm that the CD cover has “AFI CRASH LOVE” at the top.

Kerrang! Reviews Crash Love

Hari typed out a review that is on the Kerrang! magazine.

“California’s Goth Punks Return In Style

In a time when bands come and go in the flash of a guitar solo, it takes some nerve for a band to take three years to follow up their last album. This is even more startling when one learns that AFI scrapped an entire CD’s worth of recordings simply becuase they felt the work lacked sufficient evidence of progression to please either themselves or their attentive, sometimes obsessive, fans. You can bet your waterproof mascara that the one group of people this decision did not impress was the band’s record company. Druing Crash Love’s quieter moments you can almost hear the heavy sighs and tapping of watches emanating from the executive offices on Interscope Records.

Was it worth the wait? Well, yes, yes it was.

Crash Love is not an album that really comes to life on a first listen, and this might well count against it in these hurried times. But repeated plays will reveal a collection that often sounds gentle but is in fact anything but. End Transmission may jangle like a wrist fill on nine carat gold, but its lyrics sing of a ‘broken radio’ that is ‘playing suicide’. What kind of fucked up place is this? Seven songs in, there is a chorus as bright as the Californian sky, but it comes under the title Darling I Want To Destroy You. What kind of people are these? Well, as ever, AFI are clever people, talented writers who can both sooth and decastate. Maybe this time around AFI will get the recognition they deserve.”

(Ian Winwood)

Download: Too Shy To Scream
For fans of: Misfits, The Cure

AFI Playing Live at Roxy in LA on Sept. 29

Recently, we reported that there will be a Crash Love release party at The Roxy theater in LA on September 29. Today we found out that AFI will also be playing live at The Roxy that night.

We also learned, thanks to Cesar, that the LA-based radio station KROQ will be broadcasting from the release parties for Alice In Chains, Paramore, and AFI. That morning, DJ Nicole Alvarez will be having “breakfast with AFI.”

Update: Cesar has clarified this for us. “The AFI show will be at night. Kevin and Bean will have ‘Breakfast with: Paramore,’ DJ Kat Corbet will brodcast at the Alice in Chains concert, at the Whiskey a Go Go, during the day, and DJ Nicole Alvarez will host AFI at the Roxy during the night. The contest is now up and only available to SoCal based personnel. (People who live in Southern California) The winner will receive passes to all three shows. So if you’re trying to win don’t bother booking anything for next Tuesday. Contest ends either Thursday at 10PM or Sunday at 9PM. Check KROQ.com periodically for more information.”

Two New Crash Love reviews now online

The Dead Bolt reviewed Crash Love. Here’s a highlight of the review:

“As for the 12 tracks, although not quite to the dark diverse level of perfection of an album like Tool’s Aenima, Crash Love is cohesively tight. Leading off with “Torch Song,” a powerful alt-anthem with classic ’70s riffs in the vane of Blue Oyster Cult with deeper alternative shades of Tool and an epic chorus on the level of any number of big rock acts, AFI comes out swinging. But with the following “Beautiful Thieves,” a track that draws you into the heart of the band, and “End Transmission,” which recalls the ’80s with mid ’90s pop combined with dark, sinful but fun, hopeful lyrics, AFI turns up the tempo as they explore the fear of heartbreak, a search for love, and self-awareness within relationships in such faster arena type tracks as “Too Shy to Scream,” “Veronica Sawyer’s Smokes” and “Ok, I Feel Better Now.” Adding social apocalyptic commentary on “Sacrilege,” AFI flexes their dramatic muscles as they explore deeper layers with the slow, heart wrenching, powerful and emotionally rich mid-’90s, Seattle sounding ballad, “Darling I Want to Destroy You.” As a credit to the band and producers in terms of song selection for Crash Love and placement within the album, the single “Medicate” matches up with “Torch Song” after the faster garage tracks, with harder riffs, an epic power chorus, and more profound lyrics that bring to back to the start of the album of sorts.”

Also, David sent us an email about a review on Sputnik Music which you can read here. The whole review is pretty interesting in many ways, so it does’t have specific highlights.

Crash Love Premieres on AFI’s MySpace

MYSPACE.COM/AFI

AFI’s 8th studio album, Crash Love, is now up for full streaming on AFI’s Myspace page. (Time’s up. Now they are samples). While you listen, you can follow along in our lyrics guide.

Note: we acquired these lyrics from the official lyrics posted on VeronicaSawyer.com. Out of respect for the DF exclusive, we have left out the official lyrics of four songs that are still DF-exclusive and not yet public. Enjoy, and tell us what you think in the comments.

Edit: Do NOT post any leak/link in the comments or we’ll have to lock this post.

Boston’s WBRS Playing Full Hour of AFI on Sept. 30

On September 30, the day after Crash Love comes out, Boston’s radio station WBRS will be featuring AFI on their show called “Singled Out.” That is where the station plays one artist for a full hour.

The DJ says he/she will play “old, new and everything in between. I hope you guys will tune in. Go to www.wbrs.org to listen, and if [you're] on AIM that night and want to make an AFI request send a message to ‘wbrs fm’.”

Update: The show will play from 9:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. EST.

4 New Clips Added to VeronicaSaywer.com

Today, four new song previews were added to the VeronicaSawyer.com Crash Love widget, along with their full lyrics. The songs are “Beautiful Thieves,” “Okay, I Feel Better Now,” “Sacrilege,” and “Cold Hands.”

In other news, we want to remind you that Crash Love will be streaming in full starting tomorrow (Tuesday) on AFI’s Myspace page.

Win a ‘Les Paul’ guitar signed by AFI (UK Only)

Play.com is hosting a contest:

To celebrate the forthcoming release of Crash Love, we’re offering one lucky person the chance to win an amazing Epiphone ‘Les Paul Standard’ guitar signed by AFI. Think you can be the next Jade Puget? There’s only one way to find out!


Just answer an easy question and you will be entered into the contest. Enter contest here! Contest ends October 4th, 2009. Available in the UK only.

NoiseCreep.com Interviews Davey

NoiseCreep.com had the chance to interview Davey. They talk about Twitter and record stores.

So you’re not really big on the Twitter thing?
“No, not really man. I mean, it’s OK but I just don’t really use it or anything. It’s an interesting way to share information and all of that but I’m not on there. The label’s marketing department were on top of that for our promotion which is cool because Twitter is obviously big right now.”

Check out the FULL interview HERE

MammothPress.com Interviews Hunter

MammothPress.com has posted a phone interview with Hunter. The full interview can be seen HERE.
Hunter on Medicate…

“I have no idea who picked it as a single. We kind of leave that up to the people who actually do that for a living, just because we love all the songs and would be happy with any of them being singles. If there’s some rhyme or reason why one is picked over another, than that’s probably that person’s job who’s picking it to figure out why. I’m really happy because it’s a really fun, active song.”

Half-a-Million Visitors: New Contest

If you’ve been following the visitor count we update daily in the blog description, you may have noticed that we’ve been inching toward 500,000 total visits. Tonight, after exactly 7 months of operation, we have reached the half million. To celebrate, we’re going to hold a small contest.

1. There is a direct reference to Answer That and Stay Fashionable somewhere in the lyrics of Crash Love. What is it?
2. Quote as many references to “remain” (any tense/part of speech) as you can, from any AFI song. The one with the most references wins.
People who complete both challenges will win early access to the high quality live videos that will be posted next month in AFI Ignite’s Download Center. This group of 10 videos includes Sacrifice Theory, Wester, This Celluloid Dream, Love Is A Many Splendored Thing, Perfect Fit, and more.

Please send an e-mail to BOTH darkflame337@gmail.com and pablo@theartofdrowning.net with your entry. Good luck!

New Crash Love Clips + Complete Lyrics

In the Crash Love widget on VeronicaSawyer.com, you can hear clips of four songs and view their lyrics. Thanks to Tomas, we’ve gotten ahold of the URLs for the rest of the song clips, as well as the lyrics to go with them.

Already released:
Medicate
Torch Song
Too Shy To Scream
It Was Mine

To be released Monday, September 21:
Beautiful Thieves
Okay, I Feel Better Now
Sacrilege
Cold Hands

To be released Monday, September 28:
End Transmission
Darling, I Want To Destroy You
Veronica Sawyer Smokes
I Am Trying Very Hard To Be Here

Summary of Events 9/20 - Part 1

It has been a huge month in AFI news. Since our last summary of events on August 25, we have published 119 stories. The news has been coming in so fast that we haven't had time to slow down and summarize it all. Now, we aren't going to put over 100 links in one post - we'll do them 20 at a time over the next few days. These summaries act as a nice, compact chronology of AFI news. We'll start at the back and move to the current news.

• Guitar Hero "Medicate" Video In Full On Youtube Story
• VeronicaSawyer.com Launches, Meet AFI Story
• AFI To Play In Japan on September 27 Story
• "Medicate" Now Available on iTunes Story
• AFI in September Rock Sound Issue Story
• New AFI Online Store, New Merchandise Story
• "Medicate" Played Live at Lido, Berlin Story
• "100 Words" and "Fainting Spells" Added To iTunes Story
• Last Extras Revealed + Medicate Live Videos Story
• Deluxe Edition of Crash Love is Double CD Story
• Crash Love 12" Preorder Story
• Crash Love Section of Official AFI Website Story
• AFI To Start Filming Video Later This Week Story
• Download Audio From AFI's Set at Reading Story
• AFI To Play MTVU's Ulalume with Paramore Story
• Official "Medicate" Lyrics Story

Crash Love Review in Rock Sound: Scans

Thanks to Sammy and Jamakae, we’ve gotten ahold of a high quality scan of Rock Sound Magazine’s review of Crash Love. Click here to see the scan.


“So where do AFI go when they have reached the top? Further upwards seems to be their answer as ‘Crash Love’ continues climbing skywards with ambitiously melodic tracks that are slower, less obvious and perhaps more compelling as a result. Highlights are scattered throughout the album but they don’t come forward immediately, the album demands your time, your attention and your lack of prejudice for it to shine. AFI are a great band, this is a good record and it doesn’t strand fans by wholly transcending their discography, but that strength is also the weakness of ‘Crash Love’. What keeps it familiar also holds it back from being an amzing slice of timeless rock music.”

TheyWillRockYou.com Interview with Jade

TheyWillRockYou.com, which was recently given an exclusive 30-second preview of “Cold Hands” has posted a lengthy interview with Jade. Among the highlights:


“After the last record, I was really proud of it but listening back to it I felt like the guitar took a back seat and that was one of the thing s I wanted to do on this album was to bring guitar to the forefront again and play a guitar solo. Why not.”

“We wanted to get some unique sounding tones from all of the instruments so with [co-producer Jacknife Lee] we put up a lot of these little dirty old amps with no names on them and I had my guitar laying on a chair and I was playing it with a knife and a pencil, and we played wine glasses, we had the drums sounding grimy.”

“[Davey and I] would be writing during the day and overlooking the pool area where the typical Hollywood fools were hanging out by the pool so it enforced the lyrical content about the hollowness, a lot of this comes from this town.”

Thanks to Jamakae for the tip!

Crash Love Release Party in Roxy, LA 9/29

We have learned from Nicholas, a friend of Davey’s brother Mike, that there will be an invitation-only Crash Love CD Release Party at the Roxy in LA on September 29, the day Crash Love is released in the United States.

No further details are available at this time. We will treat this as a rumor for now because it has not been confirmed.

Crash Love previews on afireinside.net

The previews of Crash Love that were posted on various sites are now up on www.afireinside.net. Crash Love will be available for stream for two days starting the 22nd of September on AFI’s Official MySpace.

Thanks to Mike Oreos for the news tip!

Spin Magazine Crash Love Review

Gabriel Boylin of Spin Magazine reviewed Crash Love for their October 2009 issue, and one of readers, Brittany, transcribed the review for us. Here’s a snippet below.


“Torch Song” boasts a triumphal theme accompanied by church bells, with Jade Puget’s guitar swinging from sweet rock hooks to metal chug and back, as Davey Havok’s proggy vocal tics play off a crowd-sung chant of “Anything!” “Veronica Sawyer Smokes” channels New Order, from the spare yet propulsive backbeat to sinewy guitar line.

AFI Currently Filming "Medicate" Video

Nick 13, lead singer of Tiger Army, has posted the following update to Twitter: “Hanging out on the set of the video shoot for AFI’s single ‘Medicate’ – it looks good!”

Update: Late Friday night, Hunter tweeted “We just finished shooting an amazing video for Medicate. Can I sleep for a week now?” and Jade tweeted “Medicate video shoot is a wrap. Yesssssss. Yes.”

We’ve also found more information on this page about the video. According to the page, Paul Minor directed the “Medicate” video and the production company is Streetgang Films.

iTunes UK Store Previews Crash Love B-Sides

In the iTunes UK store, the 30-second previews of Crash Love are all playable, unlike in the US store. Click here for the iTunes store link. And yes, that includes the following B-sides:

1. Fainting Spells
2. We’ve Got The Knife
3. Where We Used To Play
4. 100 Words
5. Too Late For Gods
6. Breathing Towers To Heaven

To access the UK iTunes Store if you are in a different country, go to the bottom right of the iTunes Store homepage and click on the circular flag represting which country’s store you are currently in. When you click on this, you will be taken to a page with all of the country-specific stores. They are in alphabetical order, so United Kingom is near the bottom. Find “Crash Love” and enjoy the previews.
Thanks to Jodi2006 for the tip!

Amazon.com Previews For All Crash Love Songs

Danzie on the OMB posted a link to the Amazon.com Crash Love Page page, where you can now listen to previews of We’ve Got The Knife, 100 Words, Fainting Spells, and Where We Used To Play. These previews are of much higher quality than some we have already heard.

“The previews for the other songs are also slightly different than the 30 second ones we’ve heard already.” Thanks Drew!

Update: The iTunes UK store also has previews of “Too Late For Gods” and “Breathing Towers To Heaven.” See the post directly above this one for more information.

Crash Love on Myspace September 22nd

AFI has just tweeted “Check out AFI’s new record, CRASH LOVE, on MySpace for 2 days, starting Tuesday, September 22nd.” AFI’s Myspace page is here.

PunkNews.org "Veronica Sawyer Smokes" Preview

PunkNews.org has recevied an exclusive 30-second preview of “Veronica Sawyer Smokes.” Click HERE to hear it.

In other news, AFI has posted the entire Crash Love album to their Myspace page. The songs aren’t playable yet, though.

Sampler Leak, New Contest, More Official Lyrics

First off, the 4-track sampler has leaked. "Torch Song," "Beautiful Thieves," "End Transmission," and "Darling, I Want To Destroy You" are showing up on various MySpace and Youtube pages. We will not be linking to them, so you will need to do a bit of digging.

We reported yesterday about the new AFI contest on VeronicaSawyer.com where you submit art that reflects your interpretation of the lyrics. On that same page is a Crash Love widget. There is now another contest to forward the widget via e-mail. The prize for the top five forwarders is a signed copy of Crash Love. There is no indication of whether the copy is Regular or Deluxe.

Also in the widget on VeronicaSawyer.com are the official lyrics to four songs from Crash Love. We've put the full lyrics in the comments section. Click here for Torch Song lyrics. Click here for Too Shy To Scream lyrics. Click here for It Was Mine lyrics.

96.5 the Buzz Interviews Jade

Ziggyberlin on the OMB posted an interview from Kansas City’s 96.5 The Buzz with Jade. You can listen to it here. They talked about the upcoming album, what happened during the three years between AFI albums, and a bit about Blaqk Audio.

CraveOnline.com "I Am Trying Very Hard To Be Here"

Crave Online got the exclusive 30-second preview of “I Am Trying Very Hard To Be Here.” You can listen here. Thanks to Melissa for the tip! For more 30-second previews, look at our new sidebar feature on the left.

Starpulse.com "Darling, I Want To Destroy You"

Starpulse.com has received an exclusive 30-second preview of “Darling, I Want To Destroy You.” Check it out here. Read our own review of the full song here. Thanks again to Melissa for the tip!

FasterLouder.com Interviews Hunter

FasterLouder.com just posted an interview with Hunter about Crash Love and touring again. Read the full article HERE.

Some Highlights:

So what can Soundwave goers expect to see when AFI assault Australian shores in February?

“By that time we will have quite a few of our new songs in the set, and we’ll probably pull out some fancy visuals, and we will just bring our brand of rock.”

Also…

“There have been some just horribly wrong descriptions of us in the past” ….. I think the only word you could use to describe our music that isn’t at all inaccurate, is rock. That is so, so general and all encompassing. It is probably the laziest description, but at least it is not inaccurate.”

Official Beautiful Thieves lyrics!

Thanks to Aaron and Will, we have the official lyrics of Beautiful Thieves. These were found on Guitar Hero 5. See this comment for the lyrics.

How Can We Do Better?

With our growing staff of writers here at AFI News HQ, and our growing amount of readers, we think it’s be a good time to hear from you all about what you think needs to be changed, added, or improved. We’re constantly trying to tweak this blog to be the best source of AFI news on the Internet. We’ve done the best job we can on our own, now it’s your turn to help.

How can we improve our layout? Would you like to see any specific color changes? Does something about our style of presenting the news irk you? What new features or options for more interactivity do you want? More polls? Less polls? Tell us anything; we’ll consider all of the suggestions. Just make sure you keep your criticism constructive and objective.

You can comment on this post or e-mail us with suggestions.

VampireFreaks.com "Ok, I Feel Better Now" Preview

Vampire Freaks got the exclusive 30-second preview of “Ok, I Feel Better Now.” You can listen here. Thanks to Melissa for the tip!

Beautiful Thieves on Guitar Hero 5

New Contest at VeronicaSawyer.com

A new contest has been announced HERE on VeronicaSawyer.com. Prize? To meet AFI.

“The widget on the left contains exclusive audio and lyrics from the new album Crash Love. The band wants you to draw, photograph, sketch, and create a comic page or a tattoo of your interpretation of the lyrics.
Have a listen to the track, read the lyrics and get your sketch pad and camera out. Once you are finished; upload your art to this Flickr Group but remember to tag your art upload with the relevant track title. New tracks will be available on this widget every Monday so keep on your toes.”

The post also contains brand NEW high quality previews of “Torch Song,” “Medicate,” “Too Shy To Scream,” and “Cold Hands.”

High Quality "Cold Hands" Preview

TheyWillRockYou.com received a preview of “Cold Hands” and Jade shared his thoughts about it. Click here to listen to it.

“I had originally written another completely different song from this one and we called it Cold Hands. We ended up not putting it on the record and we wrote this new one. It was one of those songs that was very natural and we didn’t have to work hard at it all, the parts just came together and they flow. It’s a dark energetic rock song.”

GH5 track pack out today!

As we announced, Beautiful Thieves, The Missing Frame and Girl’s Not Grey were released today as downloadable content for Guitar Hero 5. A video has been uploaded to Youtube here.

If someone downloads Beautiful Thieves and The Missing Frame and would like to share the vocal track with us, so we can put it up and share it with everyone like we did with Miss Murder and Medicate, here’s what you have to do:

Plug in your drums, guitar and bass and log in with all of them. Go to options, then cheats and turn “No Fail” on. Then choose either Beautiful Thieves or The Missing Frame, and start recording. Don’t play any instrument and you will only hear the voice.

Typing out the official lyrics for Beautiful Thieves would be very appreciated aswell! You can submit them here: pablo@theartofdrowning.net. You will get credit!

Rolling Stone reviews Crash Love

Rolling Stone reviewed Crash Love and it will appear on their October issue. Many thanks to Edward for typing it out!

AFI, Crash Love * * * (3 out of 5 stars)

Despairing teens rejoice: Goth punks get back to basics

On 2006′s platinum-selling Decemberunderground, this Bay Area quartet mixed dance music and hair metal with their theatrically gloomy punk. This follow-up is more streamlined – but “streamlined” here means spidery guitars and wailed choruses, plus song titles like “Darling, I Want To Destroy You.” Davey Havok builds lyrics around the vague concept of a souring relationship, and amid some fetching singalongs (The Cure-y, uptempo “Veronica Sawyer Smokes”), he gets his dark mojo working with lines like “Go grab your bag, I’ll bring the gun.” It can sound like AFI are just writing for their upcoming fall tour: The bombastic “It Was Mine” could go on Green Day’s next disc.

Key tracks: “Veronica Sawyer Smokes,” “It Was Mine”

AFI Updates MySpace Layout

AFI’s MySpace page layout has been updated to reflect the new look of their Official Site. The redesign features all of the tour dates scheduled so far.
Thanks to Melissa for the tip!

Jason Tate Posts Short Review of Crash Love

Jason Tate of AbsolutePunk.net, which posted an exlusive 30-second preview of “Sacrilege” today, has made a blog entry with his thoughts on Crash Love after giving it a first listen.

“The album sounds good, probably not as good as Decemberunderground (also think Finn’s electronic production was superior) – it doesn’t have the same atmospheric feel … Some of the lyrics are a little weird (“Anything, I’d tear out my eyes for you my dear”) – but some are great (I love “OK, I feel better now”). Pretty poppy … They’re great at layers and combining sounds to really fill out a song, I’ve always liked that.”

See the full entry here. If this review worries you, be sure to read this excellent comment from Keveronica, one of our readers. Thanks to Zoe for the tip!

Interview With Hunter and Adam in Germany

We’ve found two great videos featuring Hunter and Adam being interviewed in Germany. The first video is a 4-minute interview where the two discuss record stores and vinyl records. Hunter recommends the new Phoenix record, and Adam says that a New York band called Parts and Labor should not be missed.

The second video, found here, is an amusing testimonial is support of Record Store Week. Crash Love was not discussed in either video.

Best Buy Store Signings

AFI will be doing signings of Crash Love at Best Buy locations in Costa Mesa, CA on September 30 and Richfield, MN on October 1. The Richfield signing is the day before AFI plays at EPIC in Minneapolis to kick off the Crash Love tour. http://www.afireinside.net/events/

Thanks to David for the tip!

IGN.com "Too Shy To Scream" Preview

Another high quality preview. This one is “Too Shy To Scream”, now at IGN.com. You can listen to it here.

AbsolutePunk.net "Sacrilege" Preview

The high quality 30-second previews just keep rolling in. “Sacrilege” has been given exclusively to AbsolutePunk.net. Hear the clip here at the top of the page.

DecoyMusic.com "It Was Mine" Preview

DecoyMusic.com has gotten an exclusive 30-second preview of “It Was Mine.” This preview is official and is of higher quality than the one you can find on mp3twit.com. Listen to it here.

4 new bundles on AFI merch store

There are 4 new bundles on AFI’s merch store:

1. AFI “Crash Love” Deluxe CD Men’s Bundle
$39.95 – Crash Love Deluxe Edition 2 CD Digipack, “Tentacles” Men’s T-shirt, Crash Love Button/Sticker Pack
2. AFI “Crash Love” Deluxe CD Girl’s Bundle
$39.95 – Crash Love Deluxe Edition 2 CD Digipack, “Geometry” Girl’s T-shirt, Crash Love Button/Sticker Pack
3. AFI “Crash Love” Vinyl Men’s Bundle
$34.95 – Crash Love vinyl, “Tentacles” Men’s T-shirt, Crash Love Button/Sticker Pack
4. AFI “Crash Love” Vinyl Girl’s Bundle
$34.95 – Crash Love vinyl, “Geometry” Girl’s T-shirt, Crash Love Button/Sticker Pack

Now we know the deluxe edition is a digipack. These are not new editions of Crash Love, however they are being bundled in new ways. Many thanks to Magdi for the heads up!

Crash Love track lengths + Poland release info

Thanks to Lena, the administrator of afireinside.pl, a Polish fansite, we know the track lengths for all songs on Crash Love:

1. Torch Song – 03:45
2. Beautiful Thieves – 03:46
3. End Transmission – 03:48
4. Too Shy To Scream – 02:58
5. Veronica Sawyer Smokes – 02:44
6. Ok, I Feel Better Now – 04:31
7. Medicate – 04:20
8. I Am Trying Very Hard To Be Here – 02:44
9. Sacrilege – 03:28
10. Darling, I Want To Destroy You – 03:43
11. Cold Hands – 03:32
12. It Was Mine – 03:52

These lengths are now confirmed by our writer Deb, who has listened to the full album already.

Crash Love will be released in Poland on September 28th and the deluxe edition can be preordered here.

30 Second Previews of all songs (read update)

Jamekae sent me an email pointing out a thread on the OMB linking to 30 second previews of all Crash Love songs. The post was missing “Ok, I Feel Better Now”, which Jamekae found. These streams are quite low quality.

Pablo’s note: I’ve been asked to remove the links for now. Sorry.

Skateboards.com gets End Tranmission preview

Skateboards.com just posted an exclusive clip of End Transmission. You can read the article here. Don't forget to leave them a message! The 30 second preview is the chorus of the song.

"Torch Song" Preview at Fangoria.com

Fangoria.com has just posted an exclusive 30-second preview of “Torch Song.” Listen HERE… (this is a high quality preview, unlike the previews mentioned in the post above.)

Reviews: End Transmission and Darling, I Want To Destroy You (Spoilers)

Recently I received a sampler of Crash Love containing Torch Song, Beautiful Thieves, End Transmission, and Darling, I Want To Destroy You. See this post for more information. Here are the reviews for End Transmission and Darling, I Want To Destroy You. If you do not want to read reviews of the songs until you hear them yourself, do not read this post.

End Transmission

Music: End Transmission starts out with a distorted drum and guitar melody before turning into a medium-tempo guitar intro. A grungy bass line adds depth as Davey backs the instrumentation with vocal harmonies. A piano can be heard in the mix, and it sounds very natural. As Deb said in her review, there are definitely some 80’s elements in the intro. As the first verse begins, the bass line is a standout. Imagery of a nighttime drive backed by an atmospheric guitar fills the song as Davey sings, “with the lights out and the night inside, the broken radio was playing suicide. I felt myself myself falling, I confess to you.”
The chorus comes out of nowhere with a fisting raising “This night has only just begun,” while a nice guitar rhythm fills in the gaps between vocals. During the second verse, there is a very good guitar buildup to the chorus. Everything slows down for the bridge – “everything was burning bright… what we’d invited still remains.” – which is very atmospheric and effect-heavy as a guitar swell leads to the final rousing chorus.

Lyrics: The dramatic lyrics reveal a story of a couple driving in a car at night. A murder/suicide is hinted at with, “I saw a body. You said you’d seen a few”and “go pack your bag. I’ll bring the gun.” We hear an equally creepy line during the chorus. “If there’s discretion that you’ve not abandoned, now’s the time.”

Analysis: This is the most atmospheric of the four songs, and creates a mood similar to that of Decemberunderground’s “The Killing Lights” with its instrumentals and effects. The song is quite catchy with a solid verses and an excellent chorus.

Darling, I Want To Destroy You

Music: The first half-minute of “Darling, I Want To Destroy You” is a blues-y rock guitar intro, which leads into a slow first verse. The vocals sound slightly distorted and whispy as a clean electric guitar plays casually along. The bassline, while not prominent, is very interesting if you can pick it out. “I can’t deny that the shadows betrayed you and I on that night.” A grungy guitar takes over as the song transitions to an epic chorus.
The whispy and slightly distorted vocals return for the second verse. The bridge is the heaviest one of the songs we’ve heard so far, but it unfortunately falls into the category of a generic bridge. “So here’s the final scene, when I finally come clean. I’ve watched you for years.” Thankfully, a short guitar breakdown coupled with some fine drumming bring the song back into its powerful, final chorus.

Lyrics: The lyrics in the first verse are especially strong, but the rest of the song is fairly average. It is difficult to tell from which perspective(s) the song is told from, but tradition states that you decide for yourself what the lyrics mean. The song’s title is indeed in the lyrics.

Analysis: This song is a slow, powerful song that suffers only from a slightly generic bridge. The chorus vocals feature Davey at his loud best, while the verses are a calm contrast. The guitar throughout the song is pitch-perfect and creates a good vibe. Some might find similarities in the verses to Decemberunderground’s “Endlessly, She Said,” while the chorus is entirely different from previous AFI work. As track 10, this is a strong song to begin the end of the album.

Notes:

* Lyrics are copyright of Davey Havok as interpreted by myself.
* I am not a professional reviewer. I have done my best to communicate the sound and feel of these songs.
* If you have any further questions about these songs, don’t hesitate to comment.

Best Buy Video Exclusive and Canadian Edition

Best Buy is giving a free bonus behind-the-scenes video when you order their Crash Love Deluxe Edition. The video access instructions will arrive in the package with the CD. That can be purchased here for $13.99. According to the site, you will get “video of the band on tour and behind-the-scenes. This content will be updated frequently.”
Best Buy is also selling the Crash Love Canadian Import here for $13.99. Canadians can buy the Best Buy Standard Edition here for $14.99 and the Deluxe Edition here for $21.99.

Vader.com In the studio with Adam

Early on the in the Crash Love recording process Adam wrote about pre-production and Crash Love recording while Vader.com visited him in the studio. This was written within the first week of the recording process when their producer was still David Bottrill.

The questions that Adam was asked are not a part of the text but it is assumed that questions were asked.

Here is a sample:

Every song’s “birth” is different. For this album, we wrote a few songs that took weeks of playing to gel to our satisfaction and we wrote a handful of songs that sounded killer the very first time through. As a band we are ruthless in our ability to throw away songs. Some bands record and release the first twelve songs they write. Not us. Our philosophy is to explore all possibilities but ultimately to let a song go if it doesn’t move us enough. We wrote something like sixty..maybe seventy songs for this album, some of which were deemed inferior and discarded before we even rehearsed them as a band. Some we rehearsed briefly and then threw away and even more we kicked around for weeks before deciding to part company with them.


Check out the full interview HERE

Aversion.com interviews Jade

Thanks to Melissa, we were directed to an interview that Aversion conducted with Jade Puget.

I personally find this interview very unique, as they ask him about becoming a celebrity, the change of sound and the abandon of punk/hardcore music. Little of Crash Love/AFI is touched on in the interview. You can read the whole interview here.

Hot Topic Exclusive Crash Love Tees

Hot Topic has new AFI t-shirts for sale, both of which are exclusive.

This exclusive tee is now available online here. This shirt is a Hot Topic exclusive and wont be sold anywhere else.

This shirt is the same design as the back of the new AFI hoodie. This shirt is also exclusive and will only sold at Hot Topic. You can purchase it here. Both shirts cost $20.

Alternative Press Reviews Crash Love, Hear A Clip of Beautiful Thieves

Alternative Press Magazine has posted a review of Crash Love on their website. Along with the review, you can hear a short clip of Beautiful Thieves, one of the songs off of Crash Love.

Alternative Press said:

“The brisk tempo and Johnny Marr-ish guitar jangle of “Veronica Sawyer Smokes” makes it the best single of 1986. Likewise, “OK, I Feel Better Now” would’ve been a jewel had it appeared on that Ross Robinson-produced Cure album: Here, it’s just greatness as usual, offering a production girth so big, you have to use movie metaphors like “Technicolor,” “widescreen” and “IMAX” to convey the vision. It’s immediately followed by “Medicate,” a pulsing rocker that’s the more sophisticated, cosmopolitan cousin to Decemberunderground’s “Kill Caustic.” Reminding listeners that My Chemical Romance do not have the franchise in the simultaneously anthemic-yet-cocky department, there’s “Sacrilege,” driven by Puget’s ’70s guitar histrionics and Havok’s loud ‘n’ proud vocal prowess. This year’s model’s power ballad, “Darling, I Want To Destroy You,” is too animated for slow dances or placement on Grey’s Anatomy, but still offers a somewhat dialed-down respite.”


View the article here.

Reviews: Torch Song and Beautiful Thieves (Spoilers)

Recently I received a sampler of Crash Love containing Torch Song, Beautiful Thieves, End Transmission, and Darling, I Want To Destroy You. See this post for more information. If you do not want to read reviews of the songs until you hear them yourself, do not read this post.

Torch Song

Music: Torch Song begins with a few seconds of eerie low-pitch chimes before a hard charging, drum-fueled guitar opening blasts into the song. The trademark “oh!” leads into a long guitar riff before quieting things down for the verse. The vocals fit the timing of the verse better than ever. “The angels came to light your path. I heard you keep the wings pressed under glass.”

The slow and grand chorus soars with a call and response featuring epic backing vocals and Davey sounding like he just walked out of 2003. The bridge begins with a heavy bass line that transitions into gang vocals with some good guitar work from Jade. A pulsing rhythm coupled with smashing drums brings us back to final chorus.

Lyrics: The lyrics, as the song title suggests, seem to be about unrequited love. Davey torturously sings such lines as “I’d tear out my eyes for you, my dear, to see everything” and “Leave me to break. Nothing’s lost.” The lyrics work with the grand picture the song paints. The imagery is there.

Analysis: This is the first track on Crash Love, and its instrument-dominated first minute makes a solid opening for the record. It is a powerful, hard-driving track. It is not meant to be anything like classic intros such as Strength Through Wounding or Miseria Cantare. That said, it will be an interesting way to open concerts on the Crash Love tour.

Beautiful Thieves

Music: This song begins with a high-pitched guitar that turns into a slow, clean melody. The verses have a bit of a metal quality to them, as Deb mentioned in her review. The vocals glide across the music as Davey professes “We’re running toward death. I have met him times before. He adorns us like the rest.”

A churchy epic vocal really makes the chorus, as in The Days of the Phoenix. In the middle of the chorus, a “dum-dum, dum-dum” from the guitar is irresistibly catchy. The bridge begins quietly with a bit of shimmer in the guitar. As Davey sings “Who would run for cover? Who would run from us?” the heavy guitar kicks in. The final chorus is complete with crashing cymbals and more choir backing vocals.

Lyrics: “If we run this light, take a little life. We can burn it and leave, for we are the beautiful thieves no one suspects at all.” -Chorus

Analysis: The second track on Crash Love contains arguably the catchiest chorus of the songs we’ve heard so far. It soars sky-high with its choir vocals, and the song is a shinier relative to The Days of the Phoenix. Like Torch Song, it could have been pulled from Sing the Sorrow. It is full of emotion.

Notes:

* Lyrics are copyright of Davey Havok as interpreted by myself.
* I am not a professional reviewer. I have done my best to communicate the sound and feel of these songs.
* The reviews for End Transmission and Darling, I Want To Destroy You will be posted tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
* If you have any further questions about these songs, don’t hesitate to comment.

Fainting Spells Chorus "Contest"

Jade is holding a contest on his blog, Shy Boys Win, to correctly guess the lyrics to “Fainting Spells” which was recently put up for free download on VeronicaSawyer.com. I’ll let Jade explain:

“As you know, the lyrics to the chorus of Fainting Spells are pretty difficult to figure out. I even had to email Davey the other day to ask what they were. So let’s have a contest to see who can come the closest to figuring them out (just the chorus lyrics). I’ve already given you one line. This contest will be great because I don’t have any prizes and someone from the our camp will probably post the actual lyrics before everyone can guess, but REGARDLESS….take a stab at it.”

AFI News HQ Receives 4 Crash Love Tracks

We’ve received a 4-track sampler from Crash Love. We don’t know who sent it, nor why. The tracks are “Torch Song,” “Beautiful Thieves,” “End Transmission,” and “Darling, I Want To Destroy You.” I’ll be sharing detailed reviews starting tonight (Sunday). Here’s the schedule:

Sunday, September 13th: Torch Song
Sunday, September 13th: Beautiful Thieves
Monday, September 14th: End Transmission
Monday, September 14th: Darling, I Want To Destroy You

Check back here at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time tonight for the first two reviews.
Note to commenters: We are not a freewheeling fansite that will post downloads for any song file we receive. Many other publications have received these songs and have maintained their dignity and respect for the band by not giving out these tracks. If you wanted a download, I’m sorry. Furthermore, it would be ILLEGAL for us to post any part of these tracks for streaming or download. This is not “disrespectful” to fans. It is respectful toward the band, to whom all fans should be respectful.
We’re going to give you detailed reviews of the songs. We plan to cover many things about each song that Deb did not cover in her track-by-track review. This is not intended to “rub it in” any more than the reviews done by other people. I didn’t ask for these tracks, but now that I have them I don’t plan to just sit on them. I felt I owed it to the readers here to give them a preview. If you don’t want to read these review, or you think this is unfair, you don’t have to read it. For the rest, I hope you enjoy it.

Gallows Will Support AFI for 26 Tour Dates

According to Gallows’ Myspace page, they will be joining AFI as the supporting act for the following tour dates:

Minneapolis, MN … Columbus, OH
Cincinnati, OH … Buffalo, NY
Clifton Park, NY … Sayreville, NJ
Pittsburgh, PA … Hartford, CT
Providence, RI … Rochester, NY
Hampton Beach, NH … Richmond, VA
Tulsa, OK … St. Louis, MO
Kansas City, MO … Chicago, IL
Detroit, MI … Toronto, ONT
Philadelphia, PA … New York, NY
Myrtle Beach, SC … Atlanta, GA
Pompano Beach, FL … Lake Buena Vista, FL
Houston, TX … Austin, TX

Many thanks to JabNews for pointing this out!

AFI in Kerrang: Scans now Available

A few days ago we received scans of AFI featured in a recent Kerrang! magazine from Sammy Coddi, one of our readers. Not much new information was given to us, but there are a few new quotes from the band.

AFI’s first appearance in the issue (click here for the scan) is a short one about Crash Love. “We basically don’t want to repeat ourselves. If we find we’re playing a song and it’s really reminiscent of something we’ve done, we don’t want to pursue it. We were compelled to make new, fresh sounding songs.” (There are more quotes in the article.)

AFI’s second appearance(click here for the scan)is even shorter and is a review of their recent show at Reading Festival. (correction: Leeds)

Online Store: Exclusive Crash Love Bundles, Tees

Thanks to a Twitter update from AFI, we’ve discovered that there are a ton of new items on the afireinside.net store. Most of them are “bundles” involving different editions of the album + lithographs from arist Camille Rose Garcia. Click on each link to be taken to the store pages. We’ve also outlined what is included in each item for easier comparison.

1. AFI “Crash Love” Vinyl Premium Men’s Bundle
$74.95 – 12″ vinyl, 12 lithographs, “Tentacles” men’s tee
2. AFI “Crash Love” Vinyl Premium Junior’s Bundle
$74.95 – 12″ vinyl, 12 lithographs, “Geometry” junior’s tee
3. AFI “Crash Love” Deluxe CD Premium Men’s Bundle
$79.95 – 2-disc Deluxe CD, 12 lithographs, “Tentacles” men’s tee
4. AFI “Crash Love” Deluxe CD Premium Junior’s Bundle
$79.95 – 2-disc Deluxe CD, 12 lithographs, “Geometry” junior’s tee
5. AFI “Crash Love” Vinyl Men’s Bundle
$34.95 – 12″ vinyl, button/sticker pack, “Tentacles” men’s tee
6. AFI “Crash Love” Vinyl Junior’s Bundle
$34.95 – 12″ vinyl, button/sticker pack, “Geometry” junior’s tee
7. AFI “Crash Love” Deluxe CD Men’s Bundle
$39.95 – 2-disc Deluxe CD, button/sticker pack, “Tentacles” men’s tee
8. AFI “Crash Love” Deluxe CD Junior’s Bundle
$39.95 – 2-disc Deluxe CD, button/sticker pack, “Geometry” junior’s tee
9. AFI “Crash Love” Deluxe Edition CD
$19.99 – 12 tracks + 4 bonus tracks
10. AFI “Crash Love” Regular Edition CD
$13.99 – 12 tracks
11. AFI “Crash Love” Vinyl
$13.99 – 12 tracks
12. AFI “Gold Dust” Junior’s T-Shirt – $19.95
13. AFI “Medicate” Junior’s T-Shirt – $19.95
14. AFI “Medicate” Men’s Slim T-Shirt – $19.95

It must be noted that bundles 1-4 contain lithographs by Camille Rose García. A month and half ago, we informed she’d be involved with AFI in some way. This is the info posted about the lithographs:

“The set of 12 of lithographs have been exclusively designed by LA’s own infamous artist, Camille Rose Garcia. She is famous for her paintings of “creepy cartoon children living in wasteland fairy tales are critical commentaries on the failures of capitalist utopias” (www.camillerosegarcia.com). Her art has inspired a strong cult following. Each print in this limited edition set was inspired by a song from Crash Love and includes select lyrics from the specific song. Only 1,000 pieces were produced and each set is hand numbered. This set is only available as part of this exclusive bundle at AFI’s official online store. Each lithograph measures 10” x 12 ¾”.

Japanese Edition of Crash Love: Full Info

We’ve been tipped to an eBay auction (thanks to Marcin on our Facebook page) advertising the Japanese Edition of Crash Love, which is to be released on September 23 and will contain the 12 regular tracks along with 3 bonus tracks:

1. Carcinogen Crush
2. Ether
3. Miss Murder (duet featuring Kyosuke Himuro)
Update: You can buy the CD for a cheaper price here at CD Japan

Since this is an eBay auction, and anything can be faked, we will not treat this as confirmed fact. However, the person selling the item is rated as a top seller with overwhelmingly positive feedback, so this is likely to be legitimite.
The auction can be found here. The price is currently $41.99.

Update: AFI is playing a show at a festival in Japan on September 27. The album will have been released in Japan at that point. Might we see new songs? I try to keep this page free of opinion, but I feel this is an important point.

Davey Interviewed on Live 105

Davey was interviewed Friday morning on Live 105. Nothing new was said. The highlights, if you could consider them to be, were:

* They are rehearsing next week for the tour.
* “We’re lucky to have the freedom we have” regarding their changing musical style.
* “We don’t worry about success on a commercial level.”

Thanks to volare for listening to the interview and writing down the highlights. You can download a recording of the interview here.

Major Despair Faction Board Update

The Despair Faction now has a new layout. This color scheme is gold to reflect the color scheme of Crash Love. With the new skin come several major new changes.

* Old board skins are no longer available. Despair Faction-exclusive skins (plural) will be made available in the future.
* Username changes for all board members and Despair Faction members are now available here.
* All forums except for AFI Everything, AFI Everywhere, Expressions of AFI, and The Sites and the Board are now Despair Faction exclusive. That means the 10th Circle and Music For The Masses is exclusive as well. This has caused considerable backlash, mostly from DF members.

Under The Gun Interviews Jade

Jade was recently interviewed by James of Under The Gun Reviews. He discussed a number of hot-button issues regarding Crash Love. To see the full interview, click here. We’ve added some notable quotes from the interview here:
On the Crash Love heart logo: “It wasn’t so much like an idea that we needed to convey, but more a desire to create an iconic symbol. I like that it’s a heart because people wouldn’t expect something like that from us. I like that it’s from left field and different.”

On whether gold makes the album look lighthearted: “Not necessarily. To me, the album convey doesn’t convey happiness or lightheartedness. I mean it is gold and the music is golden [laughs]. It is a heart though which I know will make people think its something a lot different as it’s not a “normal” thing for AFI to use, but don’t take the artwork to reflect the thematic elements of the music.”

On the upcoming US club tour: “We’re trying to keep everyone happy with the set list and the Gallows are opening, which is awesome. These are smaller city shows on the first run, so no pyro or anything. Just loud, fast, sweaty shows."

"Fainting Spells" up for free download

“Fainting Spells,” an unreleased B-side from Decemberunderground, has been put up for free download on VeronicaSawyer.com. To download, you must submit your e-mail address and then click on a link in the e-mail you receive.
The song starts off slowly and acoustically, but you will be flabberghasted by the anthemic hard rocking chorus complete with screams fuller than those heard on Decemberunderground. The bridge features pulsing electronics with a clap-along beat before transitioning back into the final chorus.

http://www.veronicasawyer.com/download.html

Shorter Version of Begin Transmission Finale

AFI has added a 3:24 cut of the 7-minute Begin Transmission Finale. This version is titled “I Am Trying Very Hard To Be Here” and features only the recording of that song. Click here to see it on MySpace. There is no new footage shown.
Thanks to Mike for the tip!

AFI to play @ Stubb’s in Austin TX

Thanks to Jab News we know AFI will be playing at the Stubb’s Bar-B-Q in Austin, Texas on Novebmer 22nd, 2009. The info can be found here. Scroll down and you’ll find it.

They will be playing with Gallows and doors open at 6:30 pm. Tickets will go on sale on September 12th.

Theory Posts DF Presale Passwords

9 AFI shows will be going on sale to the Despair Faction tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM. Click here for the presale passwords and links, posted on the OMB by Theory. If you aren’t in the Despair Faction, you won’t be able to access this thread. If you are Despair Faction member, you will be able to. Please do not post a comment asking us what the password is.

New AFI Official Website Redesign Launches

AFireInside.net, AFI’s Official Web site, finally has a permanent new look for Crash Love. As you can see above, there is a massive header image (we have not seen the photo used in the header before) and the overall theme seems to be gold, gold, and more gold, along with black. The navigation links are Home, News, Tour, Bio, Music, Videos, Photos, Forum, Extras, Store.
Go ahead, explore the site. Comment and tell us what you think of the new design. What do you think the scratches in the header say? Our bet’s on “morning…”

iTunes Crash Love LP Page now up

The new iTunes Store in iTunes version 9.0 has a new feature: iTunes LP. You have probably heard that Crash Love will be released with something code-named “iTunes Cocktail.” That is now iTunes LP. There is a special page set up for Crash Love’s iTunes LP Version. From the page:

‘Pre-order the new album from these punk-rock stalwarts and you can also enjoy a more in-depth experience with iTunes LP: rock out to two exclusive audio tracks, browse photos, listen to interviews with each band member, and more … can be heard especially loud and clear on the metal-shredding opener, ‘Torch Song,’ and impassioned power ballad ‘It Was Mine.’”

So, to get this special version of Crash Love, download iTunes 9 from Apple.com and visit this page on the new iTunes Store. This deluxe edition costs $12.99.

Update! Thanks to Mark, we now have a screenshot of what the iTunes LP edition of Crash Love will look like. On this menu we see a link to play the album, a link to view songs, the names of all the band members (presumably links to video interviews), a link to a Photos page, a link to a Despair Faction page (unknown), and Credits.

Interview With Raine

Thank you to everyone who asked a question. We picked 10 questions to ask Raine and here they are:

1. Where did you guys go that was the most fun? I know there was bowling and resturants involved. Which of the boys bowled the best game?

At the risk of sounding rehearsed, everything we did was a blast. Aside from the actual recording session on Saturday, bowling on Friday night was the only pre-organized activity. We were initially supposed to go mini-golfing on Saturday night after the studio, but that was done away with and they left us to hang out on our own.

The six of us and our respective guests spent Saturday night without the crew and went to Real Food Daily (a vegan restaurant in West Hollywood) followed by a tattoo parlor down the street, where Natacia and Christy got ‘BEGIN TRANSMISSION’ inked on their inner ankles. There was a photo of an AOD-era tattoo that caught us by surprise. I’m sure everyone else remembers the name of the place.

The band was not present at the bowling session aside from Adam dropping in towards the end. Of those who participated, Nils, in essence, made everyone his bitch. Smith started off strong but faded over time, as predicted by yours truly. He’s all talk.

2. I’d like to know what you thought when Davey called and said you won? And what was it like hanging out with Smith for a day?

Hahaha. I imagine the full summary of that moment is still typed out somewhere. I thought he was a relative because my mom had led me to believe my grandpa was calling. The man on the other end sounded far younger than any relative I knew. He told me his name was Davey but I guess I didn’t catch that in my drowsy state. He says something about the AFI contest, I recognize the voice, and simultaneously realize he JUST said his name was Davey.

I didn’t even know they were picking winners yet (I hadn’t checked the site in a couple days). I try not to fanboy and I try not to faint. This is one of the people I look up to most in the world, so I desperately try to maintain composure. I want to treat him like my friend, not some sort of god. It was overwhelming, in a very good way of course. After having spent nearly three years listening to this person’s music every day, watching hours of interviews and live concert footage from around the world, and more or less, idolizing him, to be engaged in conversation from my own living room with that exact voice?

Now, I’m sure a large fraction of the people reading this very interview were listening to AFI when I was still in elementary school, playing six sports, tYpInG lyK diS, and rocking Limp Bizkit. Being a fan for three years rather than thirteen didn’t make it any less surreal. I was talking to my hero.

Hanging out with Smith was exactly what one would expect. Look at the guy in those videos flipping off babies, harassing random girls, and never failing to cause a scene. Now imagine a typical Saturday in your life, only with that guy and a camera man roaming around with you and your friends. What you see is what you get. He’s the life of the party.

3. Is Hunter as awesome in real life as he is on the internet? Do you have any funny/interesting band member/BT/Smith stories that we have yet to hear?

Yes. Hunter’s blog/Twitter persona is just as evident in real life as it is from your computer monitor. As for the second question, there are a couple. Nothing too radical but still worth telling. They’ll appear in a blog soon. I really don’t know if my little Begin Transmission blog still works but I’ll find a way to get it out there.

4. Which AFI member was the most different than what you expected? And in what way?

I wouldn’t say any of them were different that what I expected, but to further elaborate, I definitely learned a lot about Adam. In interviews, you usually see him leave the talking to the rest of the guys, and he’s also the least active online. Not necessarily mysterious, as he does post blogs and speak in interviews occasionally, but people just don’t get as much insight into his life as the other three. In person, he’s very talkative and has a very charming personality. As a matter of fact, “charming” is an understatement, he has total game. At the bowling alley, he gave the waitress a big smile after ordering and though I don’t think he noticed, she couldn’t take her eyes off him from that point on. Hahaha.

5. Which AFI member had you laughing the most?

As I’m sure you’re all very much aware, Jade and Hunter each have unique styles of humor that are both subtle yet hilarious.

6. Which song made you more excited from what you remember?

I liked them both a lot. I love the massive sing-along chorus of IATVHTBH and the breakdown and solo in Medicate. They also both have nice, straight-forward main riffs.

7. Because you’re in IATVHTBH, do you think you”ll be overplaying that particular song, or will you feel awkward and not listen to it as much as other songs?

Awkward? Absolutely not. I got the opportunity to become a part of the long, illustrious history of my favorite band. I’m not going to let the fact that I’m the most god-awful singer ever conceived take that away from me. One would have to possess awfully low self-esteem to be ashamed of having sung with their heroes. I don’t know if I’ll overplay the song either, my favorite song from the album is simply going to be the one I like best. But it will definitely be a standout track for that distinct reason and one that I’ll always hold very close.

8. Was Medicate different, if you can recall? Like an earlier version or was it the same? If different, and you can remember it well, what was?

I’m almost certain it’s the same version. I think that’s why they played it for us in addition to IATVHTBH, because it was the only song that was finished, though I could be wrong.

9. Was there anything that you were asked NOT to talk about?

No, we were not censored throughout the adventure in any way, with the exception of the “don’t wear big famous logos or we have to cover it with grey tape to avoid lawsuits” hooplah.

10. What else can we expect out of BT?

To be honest, I’m really not sure at this point. There were a lot of plans back in February, and I’m clueless as to what is still in the works and what has been done away with. That’s really the best answer I can give right now. I will say that the ‘Begin Transmission’ era, if one could call it that, seemed to be merely a prelude to the Crash Love era. I’m really not certain if BT’s over, but I think for the time being, everyone’s main focus should be on the album right now. Especially considering that we’re now less than three weeks away.-I’d just like to say thanks to everyone whose sent me congrats ever since this insanity started. Getting to become acquainted with so many other fans from so many other places has been awesome. -Also, for all the dense bigots who have been talking shit on YouTube or anywhere else, much love to you folks as well. It was stressful at first, sometimes being brazenly insulted on a worldwide platform for my close friends and family to see. But it teaches a good lesson, that life ain’t always peaches and cream. Or something like that. And that really goes out to anyone who has spoken ill of any of the winners for whatever reason.

For a group of fans of a band, this specific band nonetheless, who’s always put such strong emphasis on banding together in order to conquer as well as emphasis on simply being yourself, to attack another dedicated fan whom you don’t know and has done nothing to render rational dislike is frankly, a blatant paradox. It angered me at first, not just for myself but for all six of us. Now, I just giggle and roll my eyes at the irony. This adventure was life-altering and no amount of bitter douches behind a keyboard can take it away from me or any of us.

Lastly, WE ARE LESS THAN THREE WEEKS AWAY FROM THIS FUCKING ALBUM. I, like many of you, cannot wait to begin this long-awaited chapter in the AFI story. I’m going to try to make it out to the soonest LA show (nothing’s for certain) so don’t hesitate to say what’s up! To anyone who has made it this far in my nonsensical rambling, thanks for giving a shit.

And thank you to Mary and Jason!