Andy Barron (Switchfoot’s former photographer and podcast master) posted an exciting Fading West update on his Instagram page. Take a look:
New show dates!
First, Switchfoot will be headlining the Stadium Fest in Hoover, AL on April 12th. Click HERE for tickets and info.
Switchfoot and the Newsboys, two Christian rock bands, will headline the 2013 StadiumFest event at Spain Park High School in Hoover this April, organizers announced this week.
The free Christian music festival, put on by the Scott Dawson Evangelistic Association, drew more than 25,000 people to Samford University’s Seibert Stadium for the event’s first year in 2009 and an estimated 39,000 people to Spain Park’s football stadium in 2011.
Due to the popularity of the festival two years ago, organizers this year are expanding it to cover two days, April 12-13.
Switchfoot, which won a Grammy for the best rock or rap gospel album in 2011 and at least 15 Dove Awards, will be the headliner for Friday, April 12. The Newsboys, who have won at least four Dove Awards and been nominated for a Grammy three times, are the lead performers for Saturday, April 13.
The Friday night session, scheduled from 6 to 9:30, also will include contemporary Christian artist Jamie Grace and the Rhett Walker Band, a Christian alternative/ Southern rock band. Rick Burgess of the Rick & Bubba radio show is scheduled to give an inspirational message Friday night.
Secondly, the guys will be playing the Rush Weekend Fest in The Rock, GA on May 4th! You can get more info or tickets right HERE.(Thanks Kim!)
We have more reviews and photos from Switchfoot’s performance at the Kids Helping Kids benefit last week!
One of the official photogs from the event, JB Brookman, linked us to his KILLER set of photos – click HERE to view his full set and note that there’s multiple pages of shots!
Photo Credit: JB Brookman
Photo Credit: JB Brookman
Photo Credit: JB Brookman
Photo Credit: JB Brookman
Photo Credit: JB Brookman
Photo Credit: JB Brookman
Photo Credit: JB Brookman
Photo Credit: JB Brookman
From edhat.com - click that link to view more photos!:
“Kids Helping Kids,” is a student run nonprofit led by San Marcos’ AP- econ teacher Jamie Devries. They, along with many sponsors, have gained $130,000 through benefit concerts and events this year alone. And to kick off 2013 they hosted rock and roll band Switchfoot, at the Granada, which was opened by Brad Corrigan from Dispatch. Not only were there these two artists, but also a performance by SMHS Royals ‘Got Talent’ winners Emily Libera and Jason Hahs. Along with the great music there was a live and silent auction held with prizes varying from stand up paddles to trips to the snow.
Thehindu.com posted a review of the Fiction Family Holiday EP:
The cover art of Fiction Family’s latest extended play (EP), Holiday, tells you where they’re headed long before the opening note. A boat, cycles, cricket bats, racquets and bursting trunks piled above a yellow car, spell easy-listening holiday music. Released on Noisetrade for free and legal download, Holiday is Fiction Family’s precursor to its second album due for release in January 2013.
Fiction Family is a collaboration which began in 2009, between Switchfoot’s frontman Jon Foreman and Nickel Creek’s guitarist Sean Watkins. With Foreman’s effortless poetry and Watkin’s mastery on the acoustic guitar, their first album delivered gems such as ‘War In My Blood’, ‘Elements Combined’ and ‘When She’s Near’. Six-track Holiday extends their reputation for experimental percussion, finger-plucked guitars and divine harmony.
The album opens on a Christmassy note with the fast-paced guitar-driven ‘I Don’t Need No Santa Claus’. Sung in Foreman’s grainy, coarse voice, it talks of a man who wants no reindeers or ‘carollers singing off key’ this Christmas; nothing but his beloved. The song features plenty of chimes and choir oos for a definitive Christmas-carol feel, which heightens in the short instrumental interlude.
Up next is ‘Up Against The Wall’ — a classic Foreman number with a clean and simple melody line embellished by his poetry : “And the urn that holds the ashes/ Has been shattered by the fall/ I’m stuck with the circus king getting sick of it all/ Up against the wall”.
Also interesting is the lyrical imagery swinging between ‘picking up the pieces’ and a ‘puzzle that can’t be solved’. Halfway through the song, with the melody established, the duo breaks into a trumpet-backed refrain which builds over minor notes to burst into a full-fledged anthem with Foreman ad libbing over the layers. It’s Fiction Family at its creative best.
‘Damaged’ introduces us to Sean Watkins’ diametrically different vocal texture. It’s a quirky song about everything a ‘damaged’ suitor does to hide his damage from a prospective lover. It talks of ‘painting the outside only with major chords’ but admits the efforts are ‘propaganda’. Augmented by fuzzy tin percussion and distortion guitars, it makes for a fun listen.
Midway comes ‘We Ride’. No Foreman production is ever complete without the surfing song (“We turn clever thieves to steal the breath of angry seas”). Much like the beautiful opening line, ‘sunrise over troubled waters’, the opening bars feature the most delicate and gentle finger-picking on the EP.
Recorded live in San Francisco, the song showcases Foreman’s open-throated cries of ‘We ride down these living seas’. Halfway though, a drumroll leads into an extended percussion solo with the guitars jamming along, changing the soul of the song quite dramatically. While adventurous in itself, one wishes the vocals returned and fittingly closed the song.
Concluding the EP are two upbeat numbers ‘Don’t Say You Love Me’ and ‘My Forgetful Baby’. The first with its distinctive bluegrass, sing-along touch underplays the lyrics of a man in a broken relationship, least interested in getting back with a woman who’s ‘so above him’.
The second tells the story of a married couple; only, the wife doesn’t recall the wedding and hence continues to ‘live like she’s single’.
Both reflect Fiction Family’s story-telling abilities. If the lyrical strength and musicianship of this EP are anything to go by, the forthcoming Fiction Family Reunion is bound to be a brilliant listen.
Next, the latest chart news from Alex:
“The Original”, Switchfoot’s current single, and “Up Against The Wall”, Fiction Family’s newest single, continue to impact radio stations around the world. We’ve got the latest chartings for the songs – view them below and click HERE to do your part by requesting the tracks to radio stations online on our request site, Switchbeats.
THE ORIGINAL:
BILLBOARD CHRISTIAN ROCK
CURRENT POSITION: #1 (+1 from last week)
SONG PLAYS: 289 (+14 from last week)
NEW STATION ADDS: None
TOP POSITION REACHED: #1
UP AGAINST THE WALL:
BILLBOARD TRIPLE A INDICATOR
CURRENT POSITION: #29
SONG PLAYS: 177 (+45 from last week)
NEW STATION ADDS: None
TOP POSITION REACHED: #29
Click HERE to request the songs online.
Lastly, Jam The City posted a nice little feature on our “Year In Switchfoot” review. Thanks Jam The City!
[...] Google Blog Source- Christian Music Switchfoot and the Newsboys, two Christian rock bands, will headline the 2013 StadiumFest event at Spain Park High School in Hoover this April, organizers announced this week. The free Christian music festival, put [...]
Woo Hoover is ten minutes from Samford where I go to school!
Great photos!
So what exactly does that tweet from Andy mean? That all that video is going to be featured on Fading West? Either the answer is extremely obvious, and i’m just being stupid, or there is a curious answer to it…
I think that’s all the video that Andy has shot of the guys throughout the years, I imagine that its been sorted through and some of that footage will be in Fading West.
About the contest: Does anyone know if the winner receives two tickets to the concert of their choice AND two meet and greet passes or just one M&G pass?
AWESOME!
Does anyone know if Switchfoot is playing joshuafest this year?