AFI News Headquarters: December 2009

There is a great deal to look forward to in the AFI world in 2010. The Beautiful Thieves video will be released at some point, AFI's US and International tour will continue with Australia and the UK, and we may soon hear "The View From Here."

Here are several significant posts from 2009 that deserve an encore. These 30 posts are only 4% of the 720 news posts we have made this year:

March 1 - New Album Title is Officially "Crash Love"

April 6 - First "Crash Love" Song Title Revealed

May 11 - Possible Crash Love Release Date 9/29

June 21 - AFI @ Edgefest 09: Setlist, Pics, Video

June 30 - Crash Love Release Date Officially Announced 9/29

July 15 - Crash Love Press Release Reveals New Titles

July 25 - First US Tour Date Announced: Cincinnati, OH

July 27 - Gallows is Supporting Band for US Tour

July 30 - Crash Love Cover Artwork Revealed

July 31 - Tweet To Reveal, Part 1 (Part 2 here)

August 12 - 12th Crash Love title announced, first preview

August 20 - It's Official: We Have the Tracklist Confirmed

August 25 - "100 Words," "Fainting Spells" Added to iTunes Edition

August 27 - Deluxe Edition of CL is Double CD (Tracklisting)

September 6 - Bombshell Magazine interview with Davey

September 8 - Medicate 2x7" for pre-order online

September 9 - Crash Love-themed AFireInside.net Launches

September 10 - "Fainting Spells" up for Free Download

September 10 - 10th Circle goes exclusive, new board theme

September 11 - Bonus Tracks announced for Japanese Crash Love

September 13 - Our Preview of Torch Song, Beautiful Thieves

September 14 - Our Preview of End Transmission, Darling...Destroy You

September 15 - Exclusive: Crash Love track lengths

September 18 - Crash Love on MySpace September 22

September 24 - Crash Love B-side Lyrics: We Have Them

September 28 - Crash Love Available on iTunes, Guide to iTunes LP

September 29 - Crash Love is Real

October 3 - "Medicate" Video Released on Yahoo! Music

October 29 - Blaqk Audio's new album to be "Bright Black Heaven"

November 13 - Beautiful Thieves to be next Crash Love single

December 9 - AFI News HQ's Exclusive Interview with AFI

Crash Love has been mentioned both in Dogmatic's 10 Albums of the Year and in Metromix's Top 20 Flops of the Year.

Dogmatic said, “…Whilst it doesn’t quite recapture the magic of the band’s 2003 Dogmatic Album of the Year ‘Sing The Sorrow’, AFI returns to their melodic Goth Punk best with ‘Crash Love’."

Metromix said, "...but in this case, 'straightforward' apparently translated as 'dull'—at least to the ears of all those newfound fans, who sent 'Crash Love' crashing down the charts." (Here is Metromix's review of Crash Love.)

On Tuesday, January 5, 2010 FUSE will air "AFI: The Chronicles" a half hour-long special looking back on the history and videos of AFI. Other bands have been featured in this way, such as Green Day and My Chemical Romance.

The broadcast will air at 6:30 p.m. EST.

On this day 14 years ago, AFI played a show at 924 Gilman St. in Berkeley, CA. To celebrate its anniversary, we're offering seven high quality videos ripped by Pablo from the show for free download. You can contact him if you want to trade the rest of the show/any of his over 40 AFI live shows on DVD.

Don't miss Davey's blonde hair! Right click and Save Media as to download:

Brownie Bottom Sundae

Crop Tub (Includes a tease of Guns 'N Roses "Mr. Brownstone")

File 13 (Played live for the first time!)

Yurf Rendenmein

Key Lime Pie

Rizzo In The Box

Rejected (Rancid cover!)

Note: If these videos do not work, you need to download VLC.

KROQ's Kevin and Bean have chosen the top 10 albums of 2009. Crash Love came in at #10 with the article saying:

I hear their lyrics are deep and meaningful and stuff but I just know their songs sound great. You can hear the passion in Davey’s wail. Best played loud.

To view complete Top 10 go HERE

We are proud to introduce you to the new project titled "We Are One," a collection of AFI fans' videos, artwork, concert footage, and more.

We want you, the fans, to make a video of yourself speaking about your love for AFI. What are your favorite memories? Favorite song? Best concert moment? You can also send videos of concert footage you've shot. Also, send pictures, artwork, poems, and letters, anything you want. Everything can be sent to weareoneafi@gmail.com.

We'll be collecting submissions until February 13, 2010. After everything has been compiled, a Book and DVD will be made and sent to AFI for their viewing pleasure.

We have found more information about the Beautiful Thieves video from a source with connections to Interscope Records. We advise you take this with a grain of salt, as no official details about the content of the video have been released.

Set in Temecula, CA in a large Victorian house with midnight blue lighting, very dim/dark
It features "fancy clothes" and "funny faces"
There is a story, as opposed to just a performance video
The video has already been cut and edited

Once again, the veracity here is questionable, but the setting (Temecula, CA) matches with Nick 13's tweet from the set of the video "On the set of the new AFI video for 'Beautiful Thieves' at a sorta-mansion in the countryside. I pet a horse."

The video for Beautiful Thieves was filmed on Wednesday, December 16, 2009 and is directed by Travis Kopach. There is no release date set.

What are your thoughts about Darling, I Want To Destroy You? I've read about an unusually big dislike for this song. Personally, it's my favorite song of the Crash Love sessions. I've seen people saying the distorted vocals ruin the song but for me they just add an amazing mood/atmosphere to the song.

So post in the comments how you feel about the song, which along End Transmission could easily be the third single. As a bonus, here is "Darling, I Want To Destroy You" being soundchecked. (It hasn't been played live yet)

Win!

A few days ago we reported that AFI would be touring around Europe in the Give It A Name festival in Europe. Now the tickets for one of the dates, in Vienna Austria on Tuesday, April 20 2010, have gone onsale here.

Also, AFI has a new artist page on DGC Records.

Thought you were done with presents for the day? Well, we've got one more for you: the vocal track for The Missing Frame, courtesy of Tomas Urlich. Once again, if you'd like to repost this track, please credit Tomas as well as AFI News HQ.

CLICK HERE to download from Mediafire!

Our past vocal track downloads include The Leaving Song, Pt. II, Beautiful Thieves, Medicate, Love Like Winter, and End Transmission. We also have instrumental tracks for The Missing Frame and Beautiful Thieves. (Right click and select "Save Media As" to download these)

It really is a great honor for me to introduce what is currently AFI News HQ/AFI Ignite's biggest project so far: The AFI Discography. It really is the project I'm the most proud about.

The tentative release is January 10th, and with the help of collection-masters Slinch and 4ibanez, it contains every single release AFI has put out since its inception. It's the ultimate guide for collectors and the casual fan! The earliest release currently listed is the Dork EP and the newest is the Beautiful Thieves Radio Promo. Everything they've released is listed!

The Discography will contain over 1,500 high quality photos for most of the releases, including details. See how detailed it is?!

Here's a screen shot of what it will look like. Stay tuned!

Videos: Part 1 and Part 2

In the third episode of Buzznet's "In Transmission" web series, AFI elaborate on the state of mind they were in when they entered the studios to record Crash Love. Hunter speaks candidly about why they switched producers, and both Davey and Adam share their favorite three moments on the record from their other bandmates.

Earlier this month we reported that AFI would be playing at the Give It A Name Festival in Milan, Italy on April 17, 2010. It turns out that Give It A Name festival also plays in 3 other countries. Here are the dates:

AFI @ Give It A Name 2010 in Germany

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Tonhalle, Munich, Germany

AFI @ Give It A Name 2010 in Italy

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Alcatraz, Milan, Italy

AFI @ Give It A Name 2010 in Switzerland

Sunday, April 18, 2010

X-Tra, Zurich, Switzerland

AFI @ Give It A Name 2010 in Austria

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Vienna, Austria

1. Torch Song
2. Girl's Not Grey
3. The Leaving Song Pt. II
4. Veronica Sawyer Smokes
5. The Despair Factor
6. Kill Caustic
7. End Transmission
8. My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Ramones cover)
9. Beautiful Thieves
10. Dancing Through Sunday
11. On the Arrow
12. Okay, I Feel Better Now
13. Death of Seasons
14. Medicate
15. Miss Murder
16. Too Shy to Scream
17. Love Like Winter
18. Silver and Cold

Here's the setlist for the Edmonton show we forgot to post as well.

As we reported earlier, the Despair Faction message boards will get a significant upgrade to features included in the recently released vBulletin Gold 4.0.0. One of these features, we now know, is that the boards will be more easily accessible on a mobile phone.

AFI will be doing an in-store signing at Zia Records in Tempe, AZ on January 29, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. Thanks to dvhstonau for the tip! We recommend getting to the signing early or on-time, because the band has left past signings early due to dwindling crowds.

Also, here is a review from AFI's recent show in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

This Thursday, part 3 of Buzznet's In Transmission web series will be posted. Since it will be posted on Christmas Eve, the episode will contain some bonus interview footage unrelated to a specific song. (For links to the previous episodes, see the left sidebar under "In Transmission.")

According to Mark, the interviewer, the footage will be "commentary on the state the band was in entering the studio, the reason they ditched Dave Bottrill, and Adam's/Davey's favorite moments on the record from their other bandmates."

Here is this week's teaser quote:

"I remember in that time, I decided to record a Christmas EP with my friend Dan Kelly. Actually, not technically Christmas, it was a holiday EP. So for two weeks-- literally the two weeks before AFI started pre-production, I was in super Christmas mode. I mean, like...I missed Halloween! Completely immersed in a world of snowing, family, and friends, and joy and whatever and then suddenly....we're in production. So my mood was...interesting, I guess." - Hunter

Just thought I'd share with you that Medicate was the 94th most requested video in 2009 on MTV LA. This is the Latin channel of MTV. In 2006, Miss Murder was 5. In 2004 Silver and Cold was 24.

8 high quality photos from AFI's December 18th performance at Jingle Bell Rock in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada have been posted here. AFI's pictures are near the bottom of the page. The one-sentence review said:

"Though punk idealists grumble the California group have gone mainstream, headliner AFI delivered with thorough intensity that has kept the group a scene staple for nearly 20 years."

It's been a few weeks since our last Trivia Tuesday, and for that we apologize. But we think you'll enjoy the following obscure facts. There is no theme for this week's trivia.

There is a Love Like Winter Rock Mix, released on one of the Decemberunderground singles. This edit removes the high-pitched synth at the end of each chorus (right after “from years before”)
There is a director’s cut of The Leaving Song, Pt. 2 video, released on The Leaving Song, Pt. II VHS Promo in 2003 by Dreamworks Records.
At the end of the The Days of the Phoenix video shoot, the band played a live set for the moshing kids filmed in the video (The show/video was at 14 Below)
Adam wrote the lyrics to "Key Lime Pie," as well as a few lines of “Rizzo in the Box". He also credited for the title "Brownie Bottom Sundae"
"Key Lime Pie" was released in two capacities: on the Wingnut Records vinyl release of Answer That and Stay Fashionable (1995) and also as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes (1997). Both versions are the same.
Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes was pressed with at least 17 different colors of vinyl. Only 4 of them are collectible (Yellow, tan, green and white). All Nitro vinyl were re-pressed in random colors.
An acoustic live version of "Silver and Cold" was officially released on 99x Joyride, a compilation featuring Queens Of The Stone Age and The Cure, and was later re-released on the Miss Murder UK CD2 Single. AFI played The Leaving Song and Dancing Through Sunday accoustically aswell.
AFI has done live covers of “My Name Is Jonas” by Weezer, “Mountain Song” by Jane’s Addiction, “True Romance” by Tiger Army, and many more. A list of all known live covers is here.
Mike Fasano has done drum tech on four albums, dating back to 1998’s Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes.

Adam was interviewed by X92.9 DJ Greg before yesterday's show in Calgary. There is a Part 1 and a Part 2. The interview is 9 minutes long, and Adam discusses the themes of Crash Love, the musical construction of Medicate, the fighting/massaging role of a drummer, the hypnotic aspect of drumming, and more.

Triple J, an Australian radio show on which Davey made an appearance earlier this year, is holding their annual Hot 100 countdown, and voting is now up. You can click here to vote for Medicate. Click here for the Message Board thread.

We're pleased to present yet another flawless vocal rip courtesy of jakecarlsonded, this time for The Leaving Song, Pt. 2. If you'd like to repost this elsewhere, you must credit both jakecarlsonded and AFI News HQ. Otherwise, just point your friends to this post.

Right click HERE and select "Save Media As/Download Linked File"

Our past vocal track downloads include Beautiful Thieves, Medicate, Love Like Winter, and End Transmission. We also have instrumental tracks for The Missing Frame and Beautiful Thieves.

We've decided to step away from the concept of albums and this week have our Weekend Discussion about what your favorite AFI music video is.

Was Silver and Cold's bizzare ending a great visual masterpiece or was Toalimmortal and Medicate's black and white montage the icing on the cake? Did The Leaving Song Pt. II capture an AFI show perfectly or did Miss Murder's deathly demeanor seduce you?

What about Davey's kidnap and murder on He Who Laughs Last? Or the skating teens of Third Season? And the Girl's Not Grey bunny entering to Jade's crotch world? Was there enough snow in Love Like Winter?

Let us know but back up your claim. We think this will be a fun discussion. Vote for your favorite in the new poll to the left.

Brooklyn-based director Travis Kopach directed the music video for Beautiful Thieves, which was filmed on Wednesday, December 16. According to his official site, Kopach has directed videos for Boys Like Girls, Panic! At The Disco, Matchbook Romance, Black Tide, and Saving Abel, among others.

Source: here.

Front This Scene, a small internet zine, has posted an interview with over 40 Despair Faction members HERE. The project began in early October.

Several years ago, Matt Fanale of the short-lived magazine VF Magazine conducted a lengthy interview with Blaqk Audio that was never published. However, the interview has resurfaced HERE years later.

Davey discusses how Blaqk Audio was formed, the role of Interscope Records, specific albums that influenced the music, how the live show differs, and much, much more. The interview is quite lengthy, at almost 3,000 words.

Episode 2 of Buzznet's new "In Transmission" web series has been added. This week's interview is about End Transmission. Click here for last week's episode featuring Torch Song and Beautiful Thieves.

Videos: Part 1 and Part 2

Topics: Davey discusses how End Transmission was almost not written, and how it is the same song as "Breath Play," lyrically speaking, but that the songs sound nothing alike. Jade dicusses the "different" sounds of the chorus, and the atmospheric qualities of the verses. Hunter dicusses the challenge of deciding upon the rhythm of the verses, and Adam discusses how he came up with his drum rhythm for the song.

AFI

Nick 13 updated his twitter saying: "On the set of the new @AFI video for "Beautiful Thieves" at a sorta-mansion in the countryside. I pet a horse."

To view the tweet go HERE

KROQ interviewed the band before their show on Saturday in Los Angeles. They discuss Davey's flips into the crowds, feedback to playing Crash Love songs live, deciding setlists, the band's evolution, and their history of playing at ACX:

There is also a new slideshow gallery from the show you can view here.

This week's Buzznet In Transmission interviews will focus on End Transmission. Here is a teaser quote from Davey, courtesy of Mark:

"This song, "End Transmission," is really "______ _____." It's the same song, lyrically speaking." -Davey Havok (It's too good of a reveal. You'll have to wait to find out what it is.)

Jade blogged earlier today that he has an article in the upcoming issue of Guitar World Magazine. In it he discusses the writing process of Crash Love and briefly mentioned Blaqk Audio.

You can see the scan here.

Hunter posted this on his Twitter account today. He is talking about the Beautiful Thieves music video previously announced.

Regarding the Canadian shows that were supposed to happen in the same day, according to board member ASingleSecond13 in this post: "I asked Adam the other night and he said it was because the shows weren't selling. He informed me that the venues are really huge."

(Pablo's edit: The theory of AFI cancelling the shows in favor to record the video is still valid. "Scheduling conflicts" does not mean the shows were not selling. They could just changed the venue like they've done in this very tour. Any band obviously wouldn't admit this, and it's okay. I'm not bashing them, I'm just putting facts in the table)

91x, a radio station in CA, has a poll up for voting. It has 3 AFI songs included (Medicate, Beautiful Thieves and Darling I Want To Destroy You).

You can vote for all three here, and registration is NOT needed! (Darling I Want to Destroy You 3rd single? - personal assumption (don't edit my post plz kthx) Thanks to angel 3 for the tip!

AP magazine has the Readers' Charts in this month's issue. Crash Love comes in at #1. To view image of the chart click here.

Thanks to Gabberz for uploading the image

Bombshellzine.com posted the Top 10 albums of 2009. AFI's Crash Love came in at #5 with the article saying:

"...it continues to get regular spins and I'm still finding new parts to like about the album. It really is a huge return to form in my books and certainly earned it's position at #5. Plenty of highlights, topping the list for me is 'Darling, I Want To Destroy You', followed by 'Okay, I Feel Better Now', 'Beautiful Thieves' and 'I Am Trying Very Hard To Be Here'."

According to AltPress.com, AFI will headline night one of Bamboozle 2010 on March 27th at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California. Tickets go on sale here on December 15th at 10 a.m. PST.

This show has been confirmed on the Bamboozle website.

Update: More pre-sale info posted by AFI HERE

From 91X radio's Wrex The Halls 2009:

Torch Song

Girls Not Grey

The Leaving Song, Pt. II

Too Shy To Scream

Kill Caustic

End Transmission

Love Is A Many Splendored Thing

The Missing Frame

The Days of the Phoenix

Beautiful Thieves

Dancing Through Sunday

Love Like Winter

Medicate

Miss Murder

Silver and Cold

Next Monday, WGDR radio in Vermont will be giving away a Crash Love LP (vinyl) between the hours of 1:00 and 3:00 p.m. EST. You can listen locally at 91.1 FM in central Vermont or listen online at WGDR.org. To call in, dial 802-454-7762.

Thanks to James (WGDR rock DJ) for letting us know!

Update: Due to illness, the time of the LP giveaway has been changed to Monday, December 21 from 2-4 p.m. EST.

Two new show reviews have popped up online, one for AFI's show at Not So Silent Night on Friday (pictures), and another for their performance at KROQ's Almost Acoustic X-Mas 2009 on Saturday night. Here are excerpts:

Orange County Register: "The band erupted at the start, igniting with “Torch Song” (lead-off cut from Crash Love) and then blitzing into back-to-back smashes from Sing the Sorrow, “Girl’s Not Grey” and “The Leaving Song Pt. 2,” while a pair of older cuts –- the I-hate-you sentiment of “Love Is a Many Splendored Thing” and the Dramarama chunkiness of “The Days of the Phoenix” – retained punkish bite."

Spinning Platters: "Some more highlights from the set included another new song, “Too Shy To Scream,” which despite the title, actually was a lot of fun. The song started out with a Bow Wow Wow-esque bit of tribal drumming, and then turned in to a great Social Distortion-inspired piece of psychobilly glory. They even pulled out a classic chestnut from the Berkeley Square days, the Very Proud Of Ya-era b-side, “Love Is A Many [Splendored] Thing.”"

Not much has been said about tour posters so far on this tour, but we've found three interesting gig posters. Two are from Columbus, and one is from Denver. Columbus 1 2 and Denver.

Also, we've updated the Crash Love Setlist Compilation to version 1.3. The compilation features all 32 setlists of the tour so far, including last night's performance at KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas. Right click HERE and select "Save Media As" to download!

For more setlist compilations reaching back to 1994, visit the fan projects page of AFI Ignite.

Sgschick14 found a review of Friday night's show at the Oracle Arena for Live 105's Not So Silent Night. Their review of AFI is about a paragraph long.

"The same can't be said of our local boys in AFI. The group was thrilled to be performing a hometown show, and turned up the East Bay pride on many occasions. "Good evening Oakland," vocalist Davey Havok said to the crowd. "We are AFI from here!" Unfortunately the shout-outs to his homies were the sole highlights of Havok's performance, who hammed up his vocals like he was auditioning for "American Idol." His other memorable moment came when he told the crowd what he thought of seeing Vampire Weekend perform live: "I think compared to the birth of Jesus it was way better."
There are some Christians who might take exception to that, but they probably weren't at Oracle on Friday night."

Also from last night, Live 105 has two pictures on their Not So Silent Night page from the interview they did with Adam, Jade, and Davey before the signing.
EDIT: Here is the interview they did. There is no new information, but it's pretty funny. The only thing they really talked about in particular was fashion and how AFI's style has changed.

Christmas came early. Tonight, AFI took the stage at Gibson Amphitheater to headline night 1 of KROQ's Almost Acoustic Christmas 2009.

CLICK HERE to download a video of the entire show (lower quality)
CLICK HERE to download a video of the entire show (higher quality)*

CLICK HERE to download MP3s of each song

CLICK HERE to download an MP3 of the entire show

*HQ video download courtesy of Meeks. Thanks!

Here is a photo gallery from last night, taken by Mike D. for AFI Ignite. Here and here are two more official pictures from KROQ.com. Lastly, here are some great shots from Mark (PanasonicYouth).

SETLIST:

Torch Song

Girl's Not Grey

The Leaving Song Pt. II

Too Shy To Scream

Kill Caustic

End Transmission

Love Is A Many Splendored Thing

The Missing Frame

The Days of the Phoenix

Beautiful Thieves

Dancing Through Sunday

Love Like Winter

Medicate

Miss Murder

Silver and Cold

We're pleased to present to you the vocal track for End Transmission, thanks to jakecarlsonded who ripped the track from Rock Band. Last night we only posted this to Youtube, but today we're giving you the free and quick download.

Right click HERE and select "Save Media As" to download this file.
To stream a preview of the track on Youtube, click HERE

If you would like to add this to your own YouTube channel, please make sure you credit AFI News HQ and the track ripper, jakecarlsonded. There will be many more vocal tracks in the very near future!

Our past vocal track downloads include Beautiful Thieves, Medicate, and Love Like Winter. We also have instrumental tracks for The Missing Frame and Beautiful Thieves.

There have been about 21 different AFI releases, including both LPs and EPs. Each one of those has its own unique cover art. At least two factors need to be taken into account when determining the best cover art: the actual aesthetic appeal of the art, and how well the art fits in with the music and themes of the album.

In this edition of Weekend Discussion, we'd like to hear your thoughts on which cover artwork reigns supreme over all of the rest. Does the simplicity and elegance of the last three album covers hold a candle to the granduer of the artwork of The Art of Drowning? Or does Adam's facial expression on the cover of Dork EP make all other competition irrelevant?

Or, does any cover artwork completely miss the mark in terms of representing what you feel the album is about? Let us know your thoughts, and we'll post a poll relating to this topic soon.

AFI played at Live 105's Not So Silent Night on Friday night in Oakland, co-headlining with Muse. The band played a 13-song set. Here is the setlist and some photos. Setlist credit: Flash. Here is a highlight video.

Torch Song

Girl's Not Grey

The Leaving Song, Pt. 2

Too Shy To Scream

Kill Caustic

End Transmission

Love Is A Many Splendored Thing

Beautiful Thieves

Dancing Through Sunday

Love Like Winter

Medicate

Miss Murder

Silver and Cold

Adding to the already scheduled dates in the UK and Europe, AFI is going to play in Hamburg, Germany on April 14, 2010 at Grosse Freiheit 36. Tickets can be bought here at Ticketmaster.

Head over to AFI Tour Central to see the scheduled cities and dates for the European tour, as well as every other tour date scheduled so far.

Thanks to Mark and Buzznet, we will post a quote from the upcoming "In Transmission" video series every Wednesday night. Each quote will be the regarding the video that week.

Look out for the first quote next Wednesday! (Click here to see Episode 1 of the web series, featuring interviews with AFI about Torch Song and Beautiful Thieves.)

Along with hardcore band Sick of It All, The Dear and Departed will be opening for AFI on the UK tour. (Click here for the post about Sick Of It All opening.) The dates are:

April

05 Nottingham, Rock City

06 London, Brixton Academy

08 Glasgow, ABC

09 Manchester, Academy

11 Newcastle, Academy

As many of you know, KROQ webcasts Almost Acoustic Christmas. AFI will be headlining night 1, tomorrow, and they will start playing at 10:00 pm PST (1:00 am EST). They will most likely play a complete set.

We're looking for someone to rip the webcast. It's really easy. You just need a program. If you want to rip it and help us out, please send me an email to pablo@theartofdrowning.net so I can teach you how!

Torch Song: Part 1 Part 2 (Part 2 includes Beautiful Thieves)

Topics: Davey discusses the lyrics of song, and how it relates to other songs on the record (namely, Cold Hands and Darling, I Want To Destroy You.) Adam discussed the process of determining the tracklist, and how the style of drumming blends with the guitar and bass. Jade talks about the lack of an intro song, as well as the "crazy" lead guitar at the beginning. Hunter discusses how he plays the song live.

Beautiful Thieves: Here

Topics: Davey talks about how he came up with the vocal melody, and the difference in vocal range between Beautiful Thieves and past material. Jade compares Beautiful Thieves songwriting process with Silver and Cold and This Time Imperfect.

At 4:00 p.m. PST (7:00 p.m. EST and midnight UK time) Buzznet will debut their newest web series - "In Transmission With AFI." The series as a whole features over 100 minutes of interviews with each AFI member about every song on Crash Love. The interviews were conducted by Mark, community manager at Buzznet and a regular OMB poster. You can see our previous post on this subject here.

Tonight we will see Part 1 of the series, which focuses on Torch Song and Beautiful Thieves. Buzznet's interview with Jason and Mary of AFI News HQ should be going up tonight as well, so be sure to check that out. We will update this post with a link when Part 1 goes live.

Update: The interviews regarding Torch Song have been uploaded. Part 1 and Part 2.

The hardcore band Sick Of It Al l has been confirmed by Kerrang to support AFI on their 2010 UK tour:

April
05 Nottingham, Rock City
06 London, Brixton Academy
08 Glasgow, ABC
09 Manchester, Academy
11 Newcastle, Academy

The annual NME Awards are open in many categories in many categories including Best Band, Video, and Album of 2009. The OMB has decided to vote for AFI in the following categories:

International band/live band: AFI
track: Beautiful Thieves
video: Medicate
album: Crash Love
site: despairfaction.com
hero: Adam Carson

To vote go HERE.

As promised, here is our interview with AFI, conducted over the last week via e-mail. Because of the band's busy schedule, we did not receive replies for all of the questions we sent, but here are the seven answers that we did receive:

AFI News HQ: Beautiful Thieves is rumored to be the next single. Is this true, and do you expect you'll film a video for the song?

Adam: It's true. Beautiful Thieves will be the next single and we plan to shoot a video in the next few weeks. We haven't chosen a director yet and we're still in the process of brainstorming ideas and soliciting treatments. It's a very cinematic song so I expect we have our work cut out to make the video look as grand as the song is. (Editor's note: we received this answer one week ago, well before it had ever been publically stated by the band. Click here for that post.)

AFI News HQ: What has been your favorite moment on this tour so far? Of all your past tours?

Davey: The first thing that springs to mind was the backstage after-show hang at Roseland. So many of my dear friends from both CA and NYC converged, and it was great to spend time with them. Past tours are too numerous to pick a single favorite moment.

AFI News HQ: What are your favorite books and movies from the past decade?

Davey: I'll go with this year because the decade is too much for me to contemplate right now. My favorite film of 09 is 500 days of Summer, and I quite enjoyed Russel Brand's autobiography.

AFI News HQ: If you could pick any venue (any size, anywhere in the world) to play, along with two bands of your own choosing, where would you play, and with which bands?

Jade: I would pick the Cavern Club, circa 1963, with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. I'm not sure how our stuff would go over back then, it'd probably be like that scene at the end of Back to the Future where Michael J. Fox is playing at the prom and he starts shredding and wailing and all the 50's kids, including Biff and George McFly, are just sort of staring in awe and fear.

AFI News HQ: Is there any chance of us hearing any of the Crash Love B-side songs live? Too Late For Gods, We've Got The Knife, etc. On that note, do you think you'll ever play songs such as Reivers Music or Synesthesia live?

Davey: Our catalogue is so vast that it's hard to insert b-sides when there are so many album tracks to play within a set. I wouldn't deem it impossible that we may someday play some of the CL bsides, but I don't think it will happen anytime soon. Personally I have no interest in doing Reivers or Synthesthsia. I'd much rather do Jack the Ripper or The View From Here.

AFI News HQ: Jade, you talked about writing some new AFI songs on the tour bus. Are these songs thematically similar of different from the songs on Crash Love?

Jade: I actually haven't written any new songs on the AFI tour bus as of yet (although I HAVE written a few Blaqk Audio songs), but thanks for reminding me, I'm going to write a new AFI song today, here in Dallas, on the tour bus. The theme will be significant shredding and a formidable and alarming chord structure.

AFI News HQ: If you had to pick one song that you feel best identifies AFI as a band, what would it be? Pick just one song, please.

Adam: This question is impossible... Maybe Death of Seasons? When deconstructed, it is all over the place musically and vocally has a huge range of emotion. At times it's melodic and at times discordant. It's fast and aggressive and then slow, quiet and moody. And all tied together with a hooky chorus. Kind of trademark AFI stuff really...

That's all. We hope you enjoyed the interview. Obviously, it was a very exciting experience for us. Thanks to all who submitted questions. If we get any more answers, we'll post them here!

Torch Song
Girl's Not Grey
The Leaving Song Pt. II
Veronica Sawyer Smokes
Ever And A Day
Kill Caustic
End Transmission
Triple Zero
Beautiful Thieves
Dancing Through Sunday
The Interview
On The Arrow
Death Of Seasons
Medicate
Miss Murder
Too Shy To Scream
Love Like Winter
Silver And Cold

• Setlist Photo

The Denver Post posted a brief review and an amazing gallery of 25 photos. Here is the review, from Joe McCabe:

"Headlining Channel 93.3’s Not So Silent Night, AFI and company brought their blend of punk and modern rock to the stage at Magness Arena on Sunday. Playing to a diverse crowd of teenagers to young adults, Davey Havok led his band through songs from each of their albums. Known for his showmanship, Havok was a mad man on stage, running from side to side, and the crowd ate it up."

We now have all the vocal tracks of the Rock Band AFI download pack! It's all courtesy of YouTube user jakecarlsonded. Make sure you go check out his channel (and awesome drumset!). If you ever want to check a Rock Band chart song before you buy it, you have to stop by his channel!

To download, right click HERE and click "Save Media As". This is an AFI News HQ exclusive, so please do not repost it anywhere else if you don't want to hurt future offerings.

Note: This vocal track is full of the back up electronics. We will be posting the vocals to The Missing Frame, End Transmission, and The Leaving Song Pt. II this week and next week.

Once again, thanks to jakecarlsonded! :)

Jade posted a new blog update with the Blaqk Audio logo that says "Bright Black Heaven. 2010." Bright Black Heaven is the title of Blaqk Audio's newest album, set for release sometime after the AFI tour is over.

Zu Boutique has posted another tweet saying "Holga behind the scenes at the Zu photo shoot" along with another tweet that has started a countdown on Zuboutique.com

X96 radio - AFI stopped by the studios of X96 radio on Monday night and talked to DJ Corey O'Brien. CLICK HERE to download a recording of the show! Here is the news:

They will be filming the video for Beautiful Thieves next week
Playlist: Beautiful Thieves, Veronica Sawyer Smokes
Mike has uploaded the X96 interview to our new YouTube channel.

Rockline - AFI made an appearance on the nationally-syndicated show. The show is still going on, so stay tuned for updates! CLICK HERE to download the interview!

Darling, I Want To Destroy You and Sacrilege are the only two songs from Crash Love that haven't been played live yet.
Dark Morning Conspirators is not complete; it is missing vocals
Ether was written for Decemberunderground and recorded after Decemberunderground was finished. There is one song from Decemberunderground and one song from Crash Love. The leftover song from Decemberunderground is Davey and Jade's personal favorite.
Bright Black Heaven will sound "very much like the first one," but they will "explore some new territory" and it will be "very danceable."
Dark Morning Conspirators has a part which Jade considers his favorite from Crash Love. The band likes The View From Here even more than Dark Morning Conspirators.
When they switched producers from Dave Bottrill to Joe McGrath, they scrapped all of their recorded material.
They have started rehearsing Fainting Spells for a live show. They could play Too Late For Gods at this point on tour.
Davey: "Inspiration for 'It Was Mine' was the personal conclusion that I reach if what I'm speaking of on the album is not recognized." (paraphrase)
Davey doesn't enjoy screaming anymore. He again mentioned the surgery he had in 2004.
Playlist: Beautiful Thieves, Torch Song, Medicate, Too Shy To Scream, Love Like Winter, Miss Murder, End Transmission, Cold Hands, The Days of the Phoenix, Sacrilege, Girl's Not Grey, Veronica Sawyer Smokes, The Killing Lights, It Was Mine, OK I Feel Better Now, Silver & Cold

Our very own Mike (resident audio/video ripper) made an appearance on the show as a caller!

Update: The interview on Rockline is up for streaming on their website. Click HERE to listen to the replay

Torch Song

Girl's Not Grey

The Leaving Song Pt. II

Too Shy To Scream

Kill Caustic

End Transmission

Love Is A Many Splendored Thing

The Missing Frame

The Days Of The Phoenix

Beautiful Thieves

Dancing Through Sunday

Love Like Winter

Medicate

Miss Murder

Silver & Cold

Thanks to xine the pirate on the OMB for the setlist!

As posted about a month ago, the band will be in the studio of X96 in Salt Lake City tonight. Corey O'Brien will be interviewing them at 8:30 pm MST (7:30 PST). The station has a live webcam stream through Stickam where you can watch.

Zu Boutique just posted a tweet saying: "Long day of fun photoshooting. Your eyes are in for a treat. New shirts soon!" Included in the tweet was this picture.

As we reported earlier, new shirts will be released early this week. Zu Boutique is a fashion side project of Davey Havok, selling limited edition t-shirts and jewelry.

According to Last.fm, AFI and Gallows will play the Give It A Name Festival on Saturday, April 17th, 2010. They will play at Alcatraz in Milano, Italy.

According to this website, you will be able to buy tickets starting Sunday here or here.

Davey recently did an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle in anticipation of AFI's December 11 show in Oakland, CA at Not So Silent Night 2009. The interview doesn't have any new AFI information in it. Instead, they discuss the upcoming show in Oakland, the great shoe-stealing incident, and more.

DarkRedTears found an interview from before AFI' show at 102.1's How The Edge Stole Christmas last night here. There are two parts to it, and they talk about many things, including a little bit about the writing process, some interesting information about the songs, and some about Blaqk Audio and even a Hunter Revenge update. Here is the pertinent information:

Jade played on wine glasses at the beginning of OK, I Feel Better Now.
He played guitar with a pencil on End Transmission to "get a little atmosphere."
Beautiful Thieves is re-confirmed as the next single.
The theme of the song is "taking situations that should be frowned upon and revering them, and giving a free pass for those who are in the spotlight to act in any way they feel fit."
Darling, I Want To Destroy You was written during a jam session

Torch Song
Girl's Not Grey
The Leaving Song Pt. II
Too Shy To Scream
Kill Caustic
End Transmission
Love Is A Many Splendored Thing
The Missing Frame
The Days Of The Phoenix
Beautiful Thieves
Dancing Through Sunday
Medicate
Miss Murder
Silver And Cold

Note: This setlist is shorter because it was at a festival.

The Art of Drowning and Black Sails in the Sunset are considered by many AFI fans to be the peak of the band's early career. They share punk roots and fast-paced songs. However, they are still markedly different in their style and sound. For this weekend's discussion, take off the gloves and convince us why one album is better than the other.

Do certain songs make or break one of the albums for you? Are the devastating screams of Black Sails just too much for The Art of Drowning's mellower songs to handle? Or does the sonic experimentatation with songs such as The Despair Factor or Morningstar making The Art of Drowning reign supreme? Tell us your reasons.

In addition, you can vote on this matter in our new poll to the left.

On February 9th, 2010, "Lowdown," a CD biography and interview set including booklets and a poster, will be released. It will cost $14.99 and can be pre-ordered HERE at Amazon.com.

This is NOT an official release from the band. It is a biography, and most likely unauthorized. There are other "Lowdown" titles from other bands such as Pearl Jam, Sean Paul, and Rage Against the Machine, all released under the label Sexy Intellectu.

A few reminders: Tickets for Osaka Club Quattro and Tokyo Club Quattro go on sale Sunday, December 6. (AFI posted on the official website that tickets go on sale Saturday Dec 6. However, December 6 is on a Sunday.)

AFI will also be on nationally syndicated radio show Rockline Monday, December 7 at 8:30 p.m. PST and 11:30 EST. You can call in at 1-800-344-ROCK.

In an interview conducted by AFI News Headquarters with AFI members, Adam Carson confirmed that Beautiful Thieves will be the next single. This is what he said:

AFINHQ: Beautiful Thieves is rumored to be the next single. Is this true, and do you expect you'll film a video for the song?

AC: It's true. Beautiful Thieves will be the next single and we plan to shoot a video in the next few weeks. We haven't chosen a director yet and we're still in the process of brainstorming ideas and soliciting treatments. It's a very cinematic song so I expect we have our work cut out to make the video look as grand as the song is.

The rest of the interview will be posted once we have all of the replies to our questions. That should be this weekend or early next week. You can share your vision for the Beautiful Thieves video in last weekend's Weekend Discussion here.

UPDATE: KROQ has just played Beautiful Thieves. Go HERE to keep requesting!

The local radio station in Salt Lake City, X96, is having a contest in which you can sing the chorus to Medicate on stage with the band at their show on December 8th. You must record a video of yourself singing the song and upload it to YouTube. From the X96 Facebook page:

"Would you like to sing on stage with AFI? Well Check this out... 1 grand prize winner will get to sing the chorus of Medicate on stage with AFI and wins new Ipod nano so their friend can film it. All you need to do is to record a 30 second clip of you singing medicate and send us the Youtube link. Log on to X96.com for all details and to submit your video! Get us those entries ASAP!"

Mark (known as PanasonicYouth on the OMB) has posted a teaser video for an AFI web series feature on Buzznet.com, in which he interviewed the band. Here is an excerpt from the In Transmission interview with Jade, recently posted to Buzznet. The first episode will premiere on December 10th at 4:00 pm PST.

"All of the videos, once completed, will provide commentary from all four members of AFI on every song on Crash Love."

Update: you can now download the videos. Right click the links below and select "Save Media As" to download.

Teaser video: click to download

Jade video: click to download

The new MySpace Music Holiday Collection includes a new Crash Love t-shirt for $15.00. The first 150 people to order will receive a free Crash Love lithograph. The first 600 people to order will receive a free mp3 player case.

I spoke to Danny (Davey's Zu Boutique business partner) today and he gave us some insider information on the upcoming Zu Boutique designs. He told us:

We can expect new designs by the middle of next week.
It will be another ultra-exclusive, hand numbers/hand signed edition. It will be a memorial tee for some one very near and dear to Danny amd Davey's hearts.
There will be a set of tees of similar design concept following quickly after the memorial shirt.
They are planning on doing something a little different early in the new year with a special version of a "sample sale" which will feature not only a new design, but some old designs as well.
The Macbeth Spring 2010 lines should be dropping very soon, and with that will be the release of the Zu Boutique shoes.

It's time to announce the winner of the AFI News HQ "Custom Love" contest. We were beyond amazed by the creativity of your submissions. We received 32 in all (CLICK HERE for a complete gallery of all of the entries), and there were all sorts of different color schemes and concepts. The mediums were varied as well, everything from hand-drawn sketches to elaborate inkwashings to immaculate digital art. But in the end, only one could win...

Congratulations to Kaci Richandfamous! She will now receive a copy of Crash Love signed by the entire band. Here is Kaci's amazing, HAND-DRAWN submission:

GRAND PRIZE WINNER: KACI

1ST HONORABLE MENTION: LEIGH

2ND HONORABLE MENTION: DREW

3RD HONORABLE MENTION: FLATLINE SURGERY

Todd Owyoung from iShootshows.com posted some photos of the performance at the St.Louis Pageant along with some of the his notes:

Spastic lighting and huge changes in the dynamic range of the exposures from one minute to the next were the principle obstacles. On top of this, there was a ton of movement by AFI on stage, especially front frontman Davey Havok.

View complete notes and photos Here

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