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Skate And Surf Interview: To Write Love On Her Arms

By
Sam
– May 23, 2013

Chances are, if you had a MySpace or went to a rock concert in high school, you might remember To Write Love On Her Arms(TWLOHA). I know I remember seeing my favorite band members rockin’ their t-shirts to spread awareness for the organization’s cause. Intrigued by the shirts, I did my own research on the organization that so many bands seemed to support and instantly fell in love with it. I still have my first To Write Love On Her Arms shirt in my dresser, and it’s still one of my favorite shirts I own. In high school, I even helped organize a dance that raised money for TWLOHA (I still have the thank you postcard they sent me on my bulletin board after we sent in our donation!).

To Write Love On Her Arms has been around as long as I have been involved in my music scene, so this organization always had a special place in my heart because I feel like I grew up with it. When I found out I had the chance to catch up with one of the TWLOHA guys, Chad Moses, at Skate and Surf I made sure to grab an interview!

To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit organization meant to give hope and offer an outlet to people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicidal thoughts. Moses had been with the organization for quite sometime, and explained how the organization in itself is honest and combating isolation.

“It’s more than the issues of depression or suicide, it’s about not talking and not getting how you feel out in the open,” explained Moses.

The cool thing about TWLOHA is that they got involved in the music scene from the start of their organization. For me at least, it almost goes hand in hand to associate TWLOHA with the punk rock music scene. Moses talked about how the organization has had a tent at Warped Tour for the past seven years and Bamboozle for the past five. This was the return of Skate and Surf so this was TWLOHA’s first time at this festival.

“People, whether they’re struggling with something or not, turn to music as an escape,” said Moses “Music is the perfect example of community at its best.”

The purpose of having TWLOHA tent at festivals like Warped Tour, Bamboozle, and Skate and Surf is really to spread awareness of the organization and their efforts to the tight knit community that is the punk rock music scene. They also sell merch, where the profits go directly towards the organization.

In 2011, TWLOHA received a $1 million grant from Chase at the first-ever American Giving Awards (AGAs). This was a huge honor for the non-profit, and when I asked Moses what the organization did with the grant he explained the HEAVY AND LIGHT tour.

“HEAVY AND LIGHT started as one night in Florida, where we’d connect music and community,” said Moses. “But it’s sometimes difficult to get to Florida, so once we received this grant we wanted to take HEAVY AND LIGHT across the country.”

The HEAVY AND LIGHT tour offered a unique evening of songs, conversation, and hope to all its attendees. Each night was special in its own way, and I was lucky enough to attend the Philadelphia date. I left the Theater Of The Living Arts completely inspired and totally made the drive home from Penn State the same day worth it.

In closing, when we got to talking about State In The Real and the Penn State community, he expressed how lucky college students are right now. He explained how college is a bubble where you can do whatever you want and make your voice heard. Moses even had some words of advice to Penn State.

“Penn State has always been so kind to us and thank you for doing all you do,” said Moses “Regardless of what organization you’re passionate about or even just school in general, remember why you’re doing what you’re doing.”

For more information on To Write Love On Her Arms and how you can get involved check out their website here: http://twloha.com

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Moonrise Festival Cancelled

By
Eric Poluhovich
– May 23, 2013

The Baltimore, MD EDM festival Moonrise has been cancelled. They made a post on their website yesterday, saying that the festival had been cancelled 3 weeks prior to the event date because they were not able to receive the final permit allowing them to host the event. Anyone who bought a ticket can get a refund from Ticketfly or the venue that they purchased their ticket from. You can read the full post here.

The two-day festival was originally supposed to include a number of big name acts in their line-up such as Pretty Lights, Snoop Dogg (Lion), Borgore, Datsik, Doctor P, Excision, Flux Pavilion, Flosstradamus, and Krewalla. The event’s creators said that they are trying to hold smaller events in the surrounding areas hosting some of the events originally booked for the festival. Check back on their website for information about possible upcoming shows.

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Blink-182 is Back In the Studio!

By
Tina Letter
– May 22, 2013

Photograph Tweeted by Tom DeLonge from inside Blink-182's Studio

Tom DeLonge, the guitarist from the contagiously famous band Blink-182, tweeted a picture from inside the studio with the following text:


If this recording session turns into a full length album, this album will be the bands second album after reforming in 2009. The band, which formed in 1994, took a hiatus from 2001-2009. When they reunited, longtime fans had mix reviews about their reunion album Neighborhood.

Will this upcoming recording live up to the expectations of fans everywhere? I guess we will have to wait and see.

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State In The Real Meets Seattle Grunge: A Rock Show Review

By
Renae Gornick
– May 22, 2013


Head-to-toe denim ensembles, intriguing tattoos, slightly beyond middle-aged parents reliving their youth, and of course, a whole lot of beer are some of the many things one can find at a rock show.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend an Alice in Chains and Soundgarden concert at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, NJ.  It was a chilly weekend, and it unexpectedly rained ironically right when the show started and stopped when it ended. But it was okay because we had lawn seats.

Dealing with the rain seeping through my expensive poncho and soaking up my vans was kind of like having to deal with Buckcherry perform as one of the opening acts. Okay, I’m kidding. Their performance was good, as was one of the other opening acts, Cheap Trick, who sported glitzy costumes and decked out instruments. They definitely made the middle-agers jump and dance around with songs like “Dream Police,” as the teens and the younger generation were swoon with “Surrender” and rocked out like Guitar Hero was set on expert, and they hadn’t missed a beat. The classic quartet also performed “I Want You To Want Me,” which made everyone nostalgic, crinkle their eyebrows and serenade the person sitting next to them. Thumbs up, Cheap Trick.

Finally, after much anticipation, Alice in Chains took the stage. For those not familiar (and shame on you), AiC is an early 90’s grunge band from Seattle, which sadly took a fall when lead singer Layne Staley’s drug addiction affected the band’s progress, and ultimately led to his death in 2002. William DuVall has since joined the band as lead vocalist, and proves to AiC fans of the past and present that they’ve still got it. DuVall’s voice droned over the band’s heavy as hell sound and hypnotic harmonies as they opened their set with “Them Bones.” They played most of their old classics, and my favorites like “Nutshell,” “Would?” and thrashed through their most popular song “Man In The Box.” With a new album coming out May 28th (The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here), fans were a bit disappointed to not hear anything new but their pre-released singles, “Stone” and “Hollow,” which are monster songs, and impress everyone who thought AiC should have died with Staley. Needless to say, Alice in Chains put on a phenomenal performance, and I hope to see them live again in the future.

Then, the moment came that I had been waiting for; to see Chris Cornell walk out on that stage, and sing his bearded-pretty-little heart out. Which he did, effortlessly. Soundgarden’s performance was on point, and Cornell’s vocals were perfect. He belted through songs with just as much, if not more clarity and purity than he did in the 90’s.  The Seattle grunge band played a wide variety of songs from their oldest albums, like “Beyond The Wheel” from their 1988 album, Ultramega OK. Soundgarden actually ended the show with this one, which is a dark and foreboding song that seriously showcases Cornell’s insane vocal range. Some crowd favorites of their set were “Big Dumb Sex” and the song “Ty Cobb” which I would describe as being a little more on the punk-rock side, and just brimming with profanity. Of course, they played their classic hit, “Spoonman,” but not “Black Hole Sun” which I thought was surprising. I wasn’t upset though, even though Chris Cornell never reacted or actually even heard all of the obscenities I shouted at him (and never took his shirt off), because I still heard my personal favorites like “Jesus Christ Pose,” “Outshined,” and “Rusty Cage” from their 1991 album Badmotorfinger. The band opened with my favorite song, “By Crooked Steps,” from their most recent album, King Animal, so all was well in my world. I have to say though, my favorite part of the show was when Cornell threw the band a curveball, and invited a fan to the stage that had a sign requesting to play guitar to the song “Fell On Black Days.” Cornell told the audience that he doesn’t normally do this, and told the kid in the pit “no” between songs, but saw his disappointment, and felt like he was going to cry if he didn’t let the fan on the stage (and also noticed he was wearing a Soundgarden t-shirt). So basically, Chris Cornell is not only beautiful, amazingly talented and has great hair, but he is a saint and made this kids LIFE by letting him jam with his favorite band in front of thousands of people. He sounded really good, too. Hats off to Soundgarden. Bravo, guys. Bravo.

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Skate and Surf Review: Day Two

By
Sam
– May 22, 2013

So I woke up Sunday morning with high hopes for Skate and Surf to accommodate the serious issues of yesterday, especially because Sunday’s forecast was also rain, rain and a chance of more rain.

After spending the entire day in the rain Saturday in only a tank top (I CHECKED THE WEATHER BEFORE I LEFT AND THE CHANCE OF RAIN WAS AT 10%, LIES), I opted out in arriving a little later to Skate and Surf. I also just wanted to avoid sitting in my car for hours on end trying to park again. I put on my sooooo pop-punk windbreaker, picked up my friend Johnny (pictured with me in the bottom left hand corner of picstitch!) and headed to the park for Skate and Surf round two around 4:30 p.m.

Upon arrival at the park for day two I was let down in seeing that nothing changed. It was still chaotic. It was still wet. And the main stage was still running late. But nonetheless, Johnny and I arrived just as another hometown favorite, Saves The Day, was hitting the stage. The large crowd seemed to have loved every second of Saves The Day’s set.  The one song I and what seemed like most of the crowd was also looking forward to most from them, “At The Funeral” got cut because of their late start, which was a real bummer.

Johnny and I then wondered over to the Ford Fusion and Ford Focus stages where we managed to stay for a good portion of the day.

MOD SUN took the Ford Focus stage first and I was really surprised by his performance. I had passed MOD SUN’s set numerous times at this past year’s Warped Tour but never stopped to watch. MOD SUN is your modern day Hippie gone rapper? I’m still not sure why he kept saying to the crowd that he wanted to turn Skate and Surf into Woodstock…but I digress. Regardless, he emphasized on calling his crowd not fans but friends, and putting the peace sign up with the beat. He also blew both Johnny’s and my mind when he revealed that MOD SUN is in fact an acronym for Movement On Dreams Stand Under None…deep right?

Switching to the Ford Fusion stage, Youtube–Cover-Band-Who-Apparently-Has-Their-Own-Music -Now Hollywood Ending (pictured middle right hand side of picstitch) were ready to party with the crowd. These precious little cherubs came out on stage and it was no wonder that their entire crowd was all girls, except Johnny….and this dancing boy in a Taking Back Sunday shirt. Their songs were super pop and even played their cover of Justin Bieber’s “Beauty and The Beat”. All in all, they were a change of pace for the festival and it was fun to watch them.  But have no fear, Skate and Surf made sure the young pop band got to witness their first ever circle pit, so there’s that.

Next, back on the Ford Focus stage was Breathe Carolina (pictured top right hand corner of picstitch). If you attended Breathe Carolina’s show at Penn State in Fall 2011(Thanks SPA!) you already know Breathe Carolina likes to rage. In fact, I think rage would be an understatement for these guys.  Watching their set was like attending Project X in real life. Bottles were popped. The beat dropped. Members of Breathe Carolina walked on the crowd.  It was cray. But don’t worry, WE WON’T BLACK OUT.

Finally, one of my most anticipated bands on the entire line-up was up. Cartel (pictured top left hand corner of picstitch) is one of my absolute favorite bands and their album Chroma is easily one of my favorite albums of all time. Considering how many shows I go to, it’s weird for me to admit I had never gotten the chance to see them live. However, Skate and Surf was finally my chance.  I made sure to be up close for their set as the crowd grew larger and larger. It actually surprised me that they were on a side stage considering the size of the crowd that came to watch. Opening with Chroma hits “Say Anything (Else)” and “Honestly”, their set lived up to so many expectations for me and beyond. Will Pugh’s voice is so incredible and sounds the same, if not better live than it does on their records. They played a nice mix of old and new favorites, which really captivated the crowd.

Following Cartel, Johnny and I walked over to the main stage as Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (pictured bottom right hand corner of picstitch) were gearing up. The massive crowd stretched almost to the merch tent in the middle of the festival grounds. I’m not much of a rap person but when it comes to Macklemore and his album The Heist in particular, I can’t stop listening. You could consider his music my guilty pleasure and he was another one of the artists I couldn’t wait to see live. His set was more of a show than anything else. While only really playing four or five songs, he interacted with the crowd on a completely different level, bringing up fans on stage for wearing a bear costume, and walking out on the crowds hands. Right before he performed “Same Love”(which is one of the most beautiful songs out right now), Macklemore gave an inspiring speech to the crowd of teens and young adults. He explained how our generation is in a pivotal point in the rights for equality for all and how important it is to make our voices heard. After he ended his song, he asked the entire crowd if you are in favor of equality for all to raise a single finger. Almost every single person in the crowd had their index finger in the air and chills ran up and down my spine. It was moments like that which made Skate and Surf, although hectic and unorganized, also awesome and inspiring.

Closer of the night, A Day To Remember, took over the main stage to end not only the night but the festival as well. In the end, Skate and Surf 2013 was put to rest, and maybe for the better. While some things were out of the festival’s control, changes could have been made to accommodate both the bands and the attendees but they weren’t and I think that’s what let me down most.  Many, including myself, left the festival looking at the glass half empty. We all got to see some of our favorite artists, but not the way we had hoped. I truly hope that if Skate and Surf returns next year, they take into account the feedback they get now that the weekend is all said and done.