5:53 pm - Fri, Dec 30, 2011

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EQUAL VISION RECORDS 2011 MUSIC/TOUR VIDEO RECAP, PART II

Diving right in…I’ll start by saying that I didn’t even realize just HOW busy the month of July was for us, until I started doing this recap. We released five music videos in July alone, in addition to everything else that we were working on. FIVE! I was probably too busy to even realize how busy I was. Does that even make sense? Nope. Alright, on to the videos then. 

Okay, actually - wait. Before we get into those five music videos…let’s start with this video of Mr. Bemis. In July, we signed Say Anything. We signed Say Anything. How cool is that!? Does anyone else remember when they were the surprise band playing outside at Giants Stadium before the doors for Bamboozle opened? It was in 2008 I think and kind of a strange set up and I’m pretty sure it was raining, but was still so much fun. Anyways, my point is that we’re all huge fans of this band and have been for a very long time (even longer than that show in 2008). We’re ecstatic to be working together and can’t wait to release their new album in 2012. Here’s a video of Max telling you that he likes us even though we’re superfans and that him and his producer Tim O’Heir get kinda weird together in the studio. Oh shush, just watch the video:

So as I mentioned in Part I, we had the chance to go to Texas In July’s hometown of Ephrata, PA this year. We learned how to properly pronounce “Ephrata” and “Lancaster” and we filmed their music video for “1000 Lies” off of their recently released album One Reality. We also saw the movie Super 8 together while we were there. Productive trip!

Chiodos’ music video for “Notes In Constellations” is honestly one of the most beautiful, breathtaking and emotional music videos I have ever seen. Gorgeous scenery and stunning cinematography. It’s impossible to not fall in love with this video. 

If you haven’t listened to I the Mighty before yet…you’re seriously missing out. They’re so talented. I don’t even know where to start so I’ll just let their music speak for itself. Check out I the Mighty’s live music video that was filmed at Chain Reaction, for “Cutting Room Floor”. It’s the first single off of their forthcoming EP. 

In July we ALSO released “Bulletproof Love” - the second music video for Pierce The Veil’s Selfish Machines album. The first video, “Caraphernelia”, was released last year and can be seen HERE!

 Set It Off’s music video for “Breathe In, Breathe Out” was another July release. This band, y’all. This band is one of the kindest, most entertaining, most energetic and impressive young bands that I know. Hearts of gold and talent to match. This video was chosen to be in mtvU’s “The Freshmen” contest - and WON thanks to their amazing, amazing fans (love you S!O family!!) who voted all day and night for two weeks straight. As the winner, the video was added to mtvU channel’s regular rotation! 

Over the summer, We Came As Romans was on the entire 2011 Vans Warped Tour. It’s one of our favorite annual tours, so we made sure to send out a videographer to a few of the dates to capture their adventures! From that, we put together a live video of  ”Mis//Understanding”, one of their new songs off of Understanding What We’ve Grown To Be:

WCAR also met THE biggest fan ever while on Warped Tour. Cheers to you, Lyle. Cheers to you.

This Time Next Year recorded/released their new album Drop Out Of Life with Chad Gilbert of NFG this year. They worked their butts off in the studio and created a brilliant album. Judging by this video, playing video games also proved to play a pivotal role in the making of the album. Additional noteworthy moments: Denis’ giggle at :43, and 1:25 when the band realizes it is physically impossible not to start dancing during the song, even though they wrote it. Boys will be boys. And pop punk is, in fact, NOT dead. 

Before releasing This Time Next Year’s album in September, we released We Came As Romans sophomore full-length. Both bands put together a behind-the-scenes look at the lyrics that make up each of their albums. TTNY lyricist/vocalist Pete Dowdalls had his track-by-track featured on Alternative Press. For We came As Romans’ track insight we wanted to mix it up and premiere the songs WITH the track-by-tracks. Lyricist/guitarist Joshua Moore wrote up his track insight and we put the two together. Here’s one of his favorite songs off of the album “Understanding What We’ve Grown To Be”: 

This Fall on the Pop Punk’s Not Dead Tour, This Time Next Yearhad an off day in Albany! Okay, now I know that doesn’t really sound that newsworthy, but if you knew just how rarely our bands came through Albany this past year, you’d be exited about it too. We ate burritos from Bombers and saw 50/50 that day. (Good, but sad movie). And instead of keeping all the fun to ourselves, we wanted to share the joy of hanging out with the boys with you, so we made the band work just a little bit on their day of rest, ha! Here’s Denis and Pete performing “Drop Out Of Life” acoustic at the EVR offices. Side note, am I the only one that noticed that Pete’s hat is exactly the same color as the blinds in the background? Hrmmm. Fascinating.

I’m already up to October? Jeez. See how fast the year has gone by?! In October we signed a very sweet, very hardworking (and very young) band called For All I Am. The Chicago-based quintet had never even been on a tour before. ever. But they were about to embark on a full US run with We Came As Romans. It was seriously incredible to see them up there in front of such a big crowd in NYC and then remember that they’d never even been to New York before (or anywhere, for that matter). So wild. I can’t wait to watch them grow and hope that you all check them out. They self-released an EP, Lone Wolf, this year and will release a full-length album in 2012! 

In November and December we released part one and two (of three) for a We Came As Romans’ Understanding What We’ve Grown To Be music video series. Here are the videos for “Mis//Understanding” and “Just Keep Breathing”! 

We knew from the start that the creation of this next video was going to be especially time consuming as it required tons of animation and digital workings…well, it was definitely worth the wait. The result is a unique, fun, beautiful, artistic and impressive video - a great representation of the band. Check out Eisley’s dreamy, steampunk inspired video for ‘The Valley”! The band is currently prepping for the release of their new EP, Deep Space, which will be released on February 14th! 

I didn’t really start this post with intentions of starting and ending with Say Anything, but hey…why not!? We just released “Burn A Miracle” - the first song off of the band’s forthcoming full-length album, Anarchy, My Dear - on December 20th. I really hope you like it. I really like it. We also released a lyric video that was created by the ever talented Casey Crescenzo of The Dear Hunter. Listen to it. Learn it. Love it. (pleaseeee?) 

And I’ll end with this video of Max talking about anarchy. Because that’s not a loaded topic at all. Maybe I should have said, “with Max talking about what anarchy means to him.” There we go, that’s better. 

I had so much fun looking back at all of these videos and truly hope you enjoyed it too! And sorry that you had to read through my rambling between each video, (okay let’s be real, I’m not that sorry ;) just a little bit.)

I hope you found a new band and/or video to love in these recaps or that I at least put a smile on your face by sharing a video you haven’t watched in a few months. And hopefully I didn’t forget too many EVR videos on this list, there were so many to choose from. Send me a message in the ASK box if I did and I’ll try to post it later!

And that’s a wrap on the 2011 video update. Here’s to releasing even more music videos in 2012!