More than 38 bands will once again come together to celebrate rock at the fourth annual ROCK ON THE RANGE, set for May 22 and 23 at Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. The line-up includes first-timer “Rangers” Rob Zombie, Godsmack (in their first announced show of 2010), the return of Limp Bizkit and the festival solo debut of Slash. The two-day line-up for America’s premiere destination rock festival includes some of the most rocking artists in music today. In addition, marking another first for ROCK ON THE RANGE, Mistress Juliya of Fuse TV has signed on as the hostess and Mistress of Ceremonies for the event. (See below for the full line-up.)
Del Williams, co-executive producer of the event for Right Arm Entertainment, explains: “We designed ROTR 2010 to be the biggest weekend of ROCK at an incredibly low ticket price for the fans affectionately referred to as the ‘Rangers.’ This year’s line-up represents the most compelling mix of bands that we have ever had. Godsmack is one of the most prolific Active Rock bands of all time, and the intrepid Rob Zombie is an unrivaled performer. We are particularly excited about the return of Limp Bizkit, who have been tearing it up at European festivals. It is time for them to come back to America and remind people why they were at one time one of the biggest bands in the world.”
“In four short years, this festival has become like no other in the United States,” added Joe Litvag, co-executive producer of the festival for AEG Live. “We’ve been fortunate enough to create something that caters to a very specific music lover, and the fans have become truly rabid for it. ROCK ON THE RANGE has become the summer destination for an entire nation of rock fans…It’s amazing really.”
Two-day weekend festival passes start at just $99.50. A special pre-sale for ROCK ON THE RANGE fans will start February 16 and for the first time, fans can buy their tickets this year via a layaway plan.
“The vision of Rock On The Range has always been to provide a premiere rock festival for a very affordable price,” said Mark McCullers, President and General Manager of the Columbus Crew. “Each year we look for new ways to enhance the fans’ experience. Two specific improvements for 2010 are an increased viewing area for our fans at the Jägermeister stage and a layaway plan as an additional payment option for our Rock On The Range fans.”
Details of the layaway plan as well as VIP Packages that include festival tickets, hotel accommodations and festival merchandise can be found at www.rockontherange.com. All tickets go on sale February 20 at 10:00 AM (ET) via www.rockontherange.com and www.ticketmaster.com, all local Ticketmaster outlets and at the Crew Stadium box office.
Presented by Right Arm Entertainment, AEG LIVE and Crew Stadium, the two-day, multi-stage music and lifestyle event will feature a potent line-up of more than 38 bands on three stages: The Monster Energy Mainstage, The Kicker Audio Stage and The Jägermeister Stage. The nationally renowned festival centrally located in the heart of the country has annually drawn crowds in excess of 30,000 per day since it’s inception in 2007.
The 2010 ROCK ON THE RANGE line-up is as follows:
Godsmack, Rob Zombie, Limp Bizkit, Three Days Grace, Slash, Seether, Rise Against, Deftones, Papa Roach, Theory Of A Deadman, Mastodon, Killswitch Engage, Coheed & Cambria, Bullet for My Valentine, Puddle Of Mudd, Five Finger Death Punch, Apocalyptica, Drowning Pool, Halestorm, Sevendust, Skillet, Mushroomhead, Helmet, Airbourne, Anberlin, Cold, Nonpoint, 2Cents, Adelitas Way, Shaman’s Harvest, Year Long Disaster, Like A Storm, Taddy Porter, Janus, Columbus’ own Noise Auction and more.
Acclaimed Universal Republic alternative/hip hop collective Flobots will release their sophomore album Survival Story on March 16th. The first single from their new offering is a call-to-unarm, “White Flag Warrior,” featuring a guest appearance by Tim McIIrath, founder of influential Chicago band Rise Against. Survival Story is the follow-up to their 2008 game-changing, 300,000-plus selling Universal Republic debut album, ‘Fight With Tools’. The new album was helmed by noted producer Mario Caldato Jr. (Beastie Boys, Beck, Jack Johnson, Moby), and finds the group at yet another turning point of inspiring transformation.
Flobots garnered across-the-board critical, cultural and commercial acclaim in 2008 with their grassroots-waged kickoff single, the rousing Top 5, platinum-plus smash “Handlebars.” The song became the mind-bending clarion call of both the rap and rock worlds, with the spirited anthem soaring to #1 on the alternative radio chart as the format’s most requested song of the year. “Handlebars” became a digital, video, and MySpace phenomenon, (along with ‘Fight With Tools’ follow-up hit “Rise”) soaring to #10 on the iTunes hip hop chart, with the digital version of the band’s CD climbing to #2 on the iTunes hip hop countdown.
The six-member band was also recognized as innovative agents of massive cultural change during their mainstream rise, with media outlets such as USA Today praising their “stinging social commentary,” and the Boston Herald calling them “rap’s most singular breakthrough act in years.” Flobots became a symbol of a new generation shifting priorities at the decade’s close, thanks to the hands-on and highly charged social-activism embedded in their music and their vigorous community networking. Their uplifting calls to action mirrored the communal reawakening taking place throughout the entire country. The band’s galvanizing live presence rocked late night TV (The Tonight Show, Conan O’Brien, and others,) and saw them ‘own’ the stage at the Democratic National Convention in their hometown of Denver, as well as on election night. The group also logged several sold-out tours across the U.S. and inspired audiences throughout the world with their incredible live show.
Survival Story finds the band invigorated by the range of life-experiences that flowed through the Flobots’ global collective the past two years (their extremely effective non-profit organization, flobots.org, has mobilized fans to become change-agents in their own communities throughout the world). But, the sophomore album also arrives in 2010 as a vision of hope for a world pondering its limits: Flobots’ unique birds-eye view of a world changed and rearranged – both inside and out.
The new effort features songs such as the counter-intuitive “White Flag Warrior,” the signature “Whips And Chains,” and the funk-infested “Infatuation,” among others. “We understand change can be complicated,” says co-founder Jonny 5. “We’re six different people ourselves trying to make a difference. We’ve always been about valuing everyone’s voice, whether in or outside of the band. We believe Survival Story is a true record of our growth as we all process this great new world that’s emerging.”
Created in Blasting Room studios in Ft. Collins CO, Survival Story was produced by Mario Caldato Jr. (Beastie Boys).
Flobots Are:
Jonny 5 – MC/Vocals
Brer Rabbit – MC/Vocals
Andy Guerrero – Guitar
Mackenzie Roberts – Viola/Vocals
Jesse Walker – Guitar
Kenny Ortiz – Drums
ABOUT FLOBOTS:
Since their launch several years ago as a driving catalyst of the Denver creative scene, Flobots have crafted one of the most loyal and independent audiences in music. Among the Flobots’ goals are engaging a new musical culture – one mind at a time – and enacting change in local communities and beyond.
For more information on the band or its multi-platform social networking landscape, log on to:
Rise Against has premiered the new video for “Hero of War” on Myspace and has issued the following is a message:
We’ve just completed our new video for the song “Hero Of War” off of our record, Appeal To Reason. “Hero Of War” is the story of one soldier, not all soldiers, as he battles not just the war around him, but the war that rages within. Inspired by true events, we were given the choice to either document the tribulations of these times as they unfold around us, or ignore them. To ignore these problems, in our opinion, is letting down the brave men and women who risk everything. “Hero Of War” is our attempt to lift the stigma that surrounds everything from the skyrocketing suicide rate of troops, torture, internal sexual abuse, an under-funded VA, and the growing number of military personnel fighting Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as they return home. We hope this song and this video help the simmering dialogue about these problems evolve into a rolling boil.
-Rise Against
“The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who loves his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair.”- H.L. Mencken
SUPPORT THE TROOPS: END THE WAR
More About Rise Against…
You can’t force artistry. True musical creations are typically launched via pure inspiration or serendipitous moments and ideas that are often baked to perfection through sheer work and dedication. Still, many musical artists have opted to churn out songs with a cookie-cutter, assembly line mentality, cramming albums with formulaic songwriting, by-the-book tolerances and the kind of bullish one-upmanship that’s more commonly seen in a corporate — and definitely not creative — environment.
But, as frontman Tim McIlrath confirms, there is no preset framework for the Chicago-based melodic hardcore band that refuses to adhere to any established norm in the music industry. McIlrath says the foursome —bassist Joe Principe, drummer Brandon Barnes and guitarist Zach Blair — simply engage in their album making activity without over thinking and precisely planning every step, and that includes the band’s latest release, Appeal to Reason.
“We took the same approach to this record as we’ve done to our previous records, which is actually a lack of approach,” McIlrath says. “There’s no approach. It’s just show up and let’s play. There’s no plan, we don’t map it out, we don’t decide on a direction. We just kind of let it happen real naturally. That’s how it happened.”
“We don’t have a set formula,” Principe concurs, “but what we do have is writing constantly while we’re touring. Any idea we have, we’ll try it. We don’t want to limit ourselves.”
But looking back at the career of Rise Against, one can see that the band’s reach also grew organically from its roots in the national underground punk scene to a phenomenon that has touched the lives of millions of listeners across the world — nothing was charted nor prescribed. With equal doses of perseverance, conviction, artistry and commitment, Rise Against rose from the local Chicago scene through its earliest independent releases, The Unraveling (2001) and Revolutions Per Minute (2003). After landing the opening slot on high-profile national tours and joining the Vans Warped Tour roster, the profile of Rise Against sharply rose outside of the occasionally insular underground.
In 2004, the band released its breakthrough, Siren Song of the Counter Culture to an amazingly receptive response, with sales rocketing near Gold status. With nearly a year of consistent touring and promotion to reach both potential listeners and its longtime fans, the band’s singles “Give It All” and the introspective “Swing Life Away” captured the hearts and honest minds of audiences via alternative rock radio stations across the country. The follow-up, 2006’s The Sufferer and the Witness followed a similar path of success, with its engaging lead single “Ready to Fall” spun on heavy rotation, both on the air and on stage and its subsequent singles “Prayer Of The Refugee” and “Good Left Undone” topping the radio charts.
Though the fluke test is seemingly over, Rise Against have not opted to rest on their laurels with the creation of Appeal to Reason. Working again with their team of producers, Bill Stevenson (NOFX, Evan Dando, Comeback Kid) and Jason Livermore and mixer Chris Lord Alge (Green Day, My Chemical Romance, AFI), the band returned to their “home studio” of the Blasting Room in Fort Collins, Colo. for two months to track their latest creation. However, this is where any semblance of a prescribed attitude ends.
For example, instead of writing enough songs to satisfy a full-length album requirement, McIlrath notes that the band was incredibly prolific during the writing sessions for Appeal to Reason. In fact, Rise Against allotted a solid week of just playing time in the studio, and did not track anything for the first ten days.
“We wrote a gigantic number of songs,” he says. “We’ve always wrote about the number of songs that would end up on our records. You’re not going to hear long lost Rise Against B-sides, we rarely have anything extra. But this time we wrote some 30 pretty solid ideas. Things were just flowing out of us. We just kept spitting songs out. We had to boil that down to a record. That was the hard part.”
Also, McIlrath says that Rise Against is continually listening and incorporating new elements to its trademark sound. For example, “Long Forgotten Sons” finds the band invoking more of an ‘80s vibe, somewhere between The Cure and early Fugazi, while “The Strength To Go On” was influenced by McIlrath’s love for bands like Tool.
The lyrical content of the songs on Appeal to Reason have also greatly widened Rise Against repertoire’s spectrum. “The Strength To Go On” finds McIlrath further questioning the information that’s disseminated into society.
“The chorus, it’s definitely taking and looking at where we get our information from and who’s telling us the information and who’s right and who’s wrong and how everything we do has some kind of spin on it and who can you trust,” he says. “How we were brought up, how we were raised, everything, and how we separate the truth from the lies, and our entire upbringing. And when it really boils down, it’s hard to see what we know is true and what we know is false. It’s interesting thought.”
The touching acoustic-based “Hero Of War” puts Rise Against dead in the center of a generation of military service personnel who are battling their own personal wars outside of those in the Middle East. Partially based on true stories, the song is actually an amalgamation of a number of characters, starting with military recruitment.
“That’s something we deal with when we play shows that have a recruitment tent,” says McIlrath. “There’s a guy from the army roping in kids. We’re talking about those kids who see the army as an option. When I was 17 years old, I met with an army recruiter, because I considered joining the army, the armed forces. I wanted to go out and see places and do this. We get a lot of e-mails from kids who are soldiers, all branches from the armed services. They come out to our shows. They tell you their stories and their stories are in the first verse, a sum of a lot of the stories that I’ve heard.”
The second verse documents situations at Abu Gharib, Guantanamo Bay, and the Haditha revenge killing for an IED explosion. And the song’s third verse was based on a true story after McIlrath watched a documentary called “The Ground Truce.” Moved by the film, McIlrath wrote a majority of the song inspired by the stories and images presented in the documentary.
“Neil Young documented the Kent State shootings in Ohio and so many bands like Creedence Clearwater Revival and Buffalo Springfield did so much,” says McIlrath. “I learned more about the Vietnam War from bands like that than I did from the history books. As this war is hopefully coming to a close, and as stories of what happened are coming out, I needed to write a song that dealt with the reality of war.”
The album’s first single is the straightforward, four-chord heavy rocker “Re-Education (Through Labor).” “It’s a good way to start off this new record, because I think the album has a lot of progression and something different to offer,” says Principe, “and I think that song represents us the best.”
Of course, none of the songs on Appeal to Reason are able to make much of an impact if there isn’t an audience to receive them. And for McIlrath, creating connections to the band’s audience is of paramount importance — regardless of size, scenes or musical styles.
“It’s still about reaching people, putting what we’re giving into these people, making them think and challenge the ways of thought, creating conversation and dialogue and putting new ideas forth for people to consider,” says McIlrath. “And when you have a bigger fanbase, that’s even more fun to do, because all of a sudden your voice is louder. Now you have a bigger bullhorn than you actually have. It’s exciting and fun and I look forward to the next couple years with this record. Now that we have a fanbase, it’s just a question of what are we going to do when we’ve been given the privilege that we’ve been given.”
The full lineup for Lollapalooza 2009 has been announced. This year’s star studded event will feature Tool, The Killers, Kings of Leon, Jane’s Addiction, Kings of Leon, Beastie Boys, and Depeche Mode as headliners.
The artists that will be featured on the undercard for the massive, three day event are no less impressive and cover the entire musical spectrum. They include Lou Reed, Snoop Dogg, Vampire Weekend, Rise Against, TV on the Radio, the Decemberists, Ben Harper, Thievery Corporation, MSTRKRFT, Asher Roth, Kid Cudi, Animal Collective, Band of Horses, Of Montreal, Deerhunter and Ida Maria.
Lollapalooza 2009 will take place August 7-9 in Chicago’s Grant Park. A limited number of advance-price three-day passes are now available through Lollapalooza.com for $190. When those are gone, regular three-day passes will go on sale for $205. There are also VIP packages and private luxury cabanas available for the well-heeled members of the alternative nation.
The full lineup for Lollapalooza 2009:
Depeche Mode
Tool
The Killers
Jane’s Addiction
Beastie Boys
Kings of Leon
Lou Reed
Ben Harper and Relentless 7
Thievery Corporation
Snoop Dogg
Rise Against
Andrew Bird
TV on the Radio
Vampire Weekend
The Decemberists
Neko Case
Sound Tribe Sector 9
Animal Collective
Band of Horses
Of Montreal
Arctic Monkeys
Coheed and Cambria
Ben Folds
Fleet Foxes
Silversun Pickups
Kaiser Chiefs
Crystal Castles
Bon Iver
Santogold
Atmosphere
Dan Auberbach
Cold War Kids
Deerhunter
Lykke Li
Robert Earl Keen
Peter Bjorn and John
Heartless Bastards
Gomez
Glasvegas
Federico Aubele
Dan Deacon
Passion Pit
The Raveonettes
The Gaslight Anthem
The Airborne Toxic Event
White Lies
Ra Ra Riot
No Age
Asher Roth
Los Campesinos!
Bat for Lashes
Chairlift
Gang Gang Dance
The Virgins
Amazing Baby
Portugal. The Man
The Knux
Ida Maria
Delta Spirit
Friendly Fires
Manchester Orchestra
Constantines
Ezra Furman & the Harpoons
Hockey
Miike Snow
Alberta Cross
Hey Champ
Sam Roberts Band
The Henry Clay People
Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam
Cage the Elephant
Living Things
The Low Anthem
Blind Pilot
Langhorne Slim
Other Lives
The Builders and The Butchers
Eric Church
Joe Pug
Kevin Devine
The Green Cards
Carney
Thenewno2
Featured electronic performers in Perry Farrell’s electronica tent:
Bassnectar
MSTRKRFT
Simian Mobile Disco
DeadMau5
Boys Noise
KiD CuDi
Crookers
A-Trak
Hercules and Love Affair (DJ Set)
The Bloody Beetroots (DJ Set)
LA Riots
Kaskade
The Glitch Mob
Hollywood Holt
Rye Rye
He Say, She Say
Car Stereo (Wars)
Dark Wave Disco
Moneypenny
Yello Fever
Animal Collective (DJ Set)
Rise Against 
