funeral planning
By · CommentsSome of those questions that are asked to a funeral home may include:
What is the difference between burial and cremation?
Do you offer rental caskets?
How do we plan for a meaningful and appropriate funeral service?
Do we have to use a vault at the cemetery?
With all these questions, it is important to have someone you can turn to and provide guidance for both you and your family. Make sure to choose an option which feels right for you when it comes to funeral planning.
From the time that we announced the Mayhem Fest 2010 Lineup, I knew it was going to be a pretty sweet show. I was a little iffy on seeing Rob Zombie twice within a two-and-a-half month span, but as you saw from the Rock on the Range 2010 Review, I was more than happy to see him again if he put on the same kind of show twice (he did).
Last year, I was given passes to the show in Cleveland (Mayhem Fest 2009 Recap -- Cleveland, OH), but since that didn’t pan out again this year, I was in attendance at the Pittsburgh date. Luckily for me -- according to every main stage band -- the sold out, 20,000+ crowd was the best the tour offered so far (there are about a half dozen dates left).
As with last year’s, I am just going to do a brief recap of the bands I saw and embed a video of each, in case you haven’t heard them yet. I’ll break it down stage-by-stage. Don’t be afraid of how long this post is going to seem, the majority of the space are the embedded videos.
Here we go:
I missed most of these guys’ set, but did catch the last song, where Johnny Plague (lead singer) instructed the crowd to “separate and get ready for the Wall of Death, making a line from the stage to my mother back there at the sound board, who is probably so proud of her son right now [laughs].” Here is (I think) the song that they played as the Wall of Death was crushing people from the inside out, ‘The Impaler’:
3 Inches of Blood had a pretty good hold on the crowd, despite the fact that they were a bit different from the other bands on the tour. I believe they describe themselves as ‘viking metal’, which is quite obvious from the video for ‘Battles and Brotherhood’:
Next up on the Silver Star Stage was another Century Media band, In This Moment. While they may be written off by some as just a band who is known because of their hot singer, they shouldn’t be -- they can definitely hold their own. Their albums have gone from heavy (Beautiful Tragedy) to more radio-friendly (The Dream) to a mix of the two (A Star-Crossed Wasteland). I was actually a little disappointed with their set, but it was to no fault of their own -- the sound on Maria’s mic was way too loud and it was detracting from her vocals. However, she still looked awesomely hot as usual, and we made out after their set. The first part is true. Here’s the video for their new single, ‘The Gun Show’:
Next up (not sure why they traded places with Norma Jean -- the Mayhem Fest website says they headline this stage) was Atreyu. Their set was awesome. The crowd was super into it, and it was one of those sets that the entire crowd was singing along to their songs. As further proof to just how crappy the video capacity of cell phones are (and I don’t have one from 4 years ago, I have the almost brand-new Droid Incredible), I took a video of Atreyu performing ‘Right Side of the Bed’, which should have turned out SICK, but instead sounded like total garbage. Weak. Here’s the official video for that song, which was off their album The Curse and has a bunch of porn star guest appearances. Nice.
Norma Jean actually had the smallest crowd out of any band on the Jager or Silver Star stages. I’m going to attribute that to the fact that they were playing right before Five Finger Death Punch was about to start the bands who were playing on the main stage. The side stages were running behind, so by the time that we left Norma Jean’s set (which was a little early anyways), they had already started. HOWEVER, what we saw during their set was totally worth it.
After Cory (lead singer) instructed the crowd to form a circle pit (which we did), someone in a motorized wheelchair got into it and started riding around in circles. Hell. Yes. Everyone was giving him pats on the back and were psyched to see this dude having a good time.
Here is the literally brand-new video for ‘Deathbed Atheist’, from their latest album, Meridional:
The first band on this stage was actually the Battle of the Bands winner (there is a local one for each stop on the tour) and that band for Pittsburgh was Waiting For Never. There isn’t anything that I could find for them on YouTube except for a crappy cell phone video from their performance. Shadow Fall -- while being one of the first bands on this stage -- had control of the crowd big time. People got into their set and got into it quick. Here’s the video for ‘Thoughts Without Words’, which is akin to most of the songs they played during their set. They definitely catered towards the metalheads in the audience, rather than playing anything softer like one of their latest singles, ‘Redemption.’
Hatebreed closed the Jager stage, and as expected had some intense fan participation (Chimaira was also on the stage, second to last, but I missed their set for a a reason I can’t remember right now). They have a lot of big, anthemic choruses in their songs, which makes it easy to get the crowd involved. The band actually brought out Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe for two songs during their set. Also, August 7th is Jamey Jasta’s birthday, which made the date extra special for him, I’m sure. Here’s an older video of theirs for ‘I Will Be Heard’, one of the songs that got the crowd into their aforementioned state:
If you want to get the gist of these guys’ live show, refer to the link at the beginning of this post for the Rock on the Range review…no need to repeat myself twice. If you haven’t heard them, here’s a taste (‘Hard to See’, from their latest album, War is the Answer):
Lamb of God probably had the most fans there of any band. I’m going to guesstimate that Korn, the headliners, came in second place. LoG shirts were EVERYWHERE in the crowd. Lamb of God is one of the biggest names on metal, so I am going to assume you have heard (or at least heard of) them before. They had some awesome crowd control of the people down in the pit right in front of the stage and tore through a majority of their bigger songs, including ‘Now You Have Something To Die For’ and ‘Walk With Me in Hell’, the song embedded below:
Rob Zombie’s set at Rock on the Range was just plain sick…giant monsters, video screens, pyrotechnics, costumes and plenty of makeup. He brought a very similar stage show and slightly different stage show to Mayhem Fest. I was totally okay with that. Unfortunately for Korn, while they weren’t as bad as Limp Bizkit was, they had to go after this display. Rob Zombie had the best control over the crowd out of anyone on the main stage and a lot of that has to do with his stage presence and theatrics. Something that went over a majority of peoples’ heads was that the stand in drummer (Zombie’s normal drummer broke his foot) was Joey Jordinson of Slipknot. I didn’t even know that he made a video for this song until about five minutes ago, but here you go -- Zombie’s video for ‘Sick Bubblegum’ off of Hellybilly Deluxe 2:
The other nu-metal giant of the late 90′s and early 00′s, Korn headlined the entire show. I personally didn’t like this choice, but with a new album out and (what I assume to be still a) loyal following after all these years, it makes sense. Jonathan Davis can definitely still get into the music and flail around onstage with the best of them, although people in the crowd knew that they were either going to love or hate their set before it even started, similar to what happened to Limp Bizkit at Rock on the Range. I will say that they played the big hits that I know (I stopped listening to them when a majority of everyone else did, after they released Issues); including ‘Got the Life’, ‘Falling Away From Me’, ‘Freak on a Leash’, and ‘Blind.’ Out of all the videos they have made, I chose ‘Freak on a Leash’ to embed below. Even if you hate Korn, just mute it and watch -- the video is pretty sweet.
Overall, just as last year, Mayhem Fest 2010 was an all around success. Music for 9 straight hours, beautiful weather, and plenty of crazies in the crowd; all for ~$30. What’s not to like?
See you next year, Mayhem Fest. The countdown has begun again.
All photos, music, and videos copyright of their respective owners. Used only for promotional purposes and to gain notoriety for the artists featured.
Bradley Hathaway Exclusive Interview
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Note: This interview coincides with the Bradley Hathaway A Thousand Angry Panthers Review.
OV: You started out writing poetry, but decided to make the switch to writing songs instead. What spurned this change?
BH: First I never really “chose” to write poems in the first place. It sorta just happened one day while I was driving down a pretty stretch of road in Arkansas called Highway 71. The words hit me like a bug plague on the windshield and that began my spoken word career. In the same way I never “chose” to write songs as it just happened too. Maybe two years after writing spoken word I was sitting on a sidewalk in Amsterdam and got hit with words like I always do only this time there was more melody and it was clear to me it was a song. This was tricky because I couldn’t sing and didn’t play an instrument but no matter, I set out to do both and three albums later here I am, a better singer and songwriter.
OV: You’ve toured with some interesting bands that have very different styles from your own (The Chariot, As Cities Burn, He is Legend, etc.). How did those crowds react to you?
BH: Honestly, that was my bread and butter for years. Those kids absolutely loved it. I never did poetry meetings or coffee shops or anything like that because that just wasn’t the scene I was into. I was into the heavy and more underground music stuff so it just made sense to me to that I would perform there. At first the crowd was just speechless because they’d never seen anything like it. They were still speechless and confused by the end of it but they loved it enough to support me by giving me some money for gas, buying merch, and coming to shows whenever I’d be in the area. Now I got the occasional “We are gonna beat the crap out of you if you show up here on blah blah” and there were times where I had to be escorted by beefier dudes than me because I’d been threatened in this way or that, but that was few and far between and it’s all good now.
OV: Where do you draw inspiration for your songs?
BH: Everything inspires me in one way or another. The good, the bad, the ugly, the exciting, the boring, the happiness, the pain, all of it. I am a sponge and inspiration is the water.
OV: Are you firmly rooted in the idea of crafting songs now or are you still considering going back to writing poetry?
BH: Honestly, I would love to write spoken word again but it’s just not happening anytime soon because I don’t have hardly any proper poems. Every now and then I’ll get a piece of something but they just don’t come to me like they used to. Everything now is more in song form. As an artist I am open to making art in whatever form I have available to me but poems just aren’t available at the moment. I am doing more writing but its more book form type stuff on something I’m studying at the moment and teaching seminars on. So if it’s just words people want they will get words, just not “poems” as they might be expecting.
OV: What songs (or poems) that you’ve written are you most proud of?
BH: I could go on and on about each thing I’ve let out into the world, telling why I like certain ones or certain things within certain ones but who wants to read that book? [laughs] Plus, any real artist knows it’s hard to take pride in anything they’ve done for the mystery of why we even have this ability in the first place and how at the mercy of our art we are instead of us summoning up creativity. If I could I’d have numerous poems and songs and books and paintings to point to but I don’t. I go through life and on random glorious occasions something happens where I’m able to write something with a meaning beyond just for myself. Beauty falls into my spirit. Creativity splashes into my mind. It’s amazing and mysterious and it is a gift from God and nothing less. Now I have the discipline to follow that beauty, write it down or memorize and share or what have you. And I can learn to play an instrument and be faithful to learning an art, but making something original and beautiful no man can make claim to himself. Having said that, I’ll say that from my poems I like “On Being Joyful and Content” because it’s one of the few times I am able to talk about something other than women or God and that makes me happy. “So Do I Love You” and “Dakota” are two songs that I will sing as long as I can sing because I feel they have a timeless quality to them. “Momma” has a power to it that still moves me. “Samuel” has some of my favorite lyrics I’ve written. “She Was Raised By a Man With a Sickness” has “it” whatever “it” is and I think I’ll hold that song like a trophy for a long time comin’.
OV: Some people are turned off by overly religious undertones, hence why bands like As I Lay Dying, Underoath, etc. usually mask their songs that are specifically targeted towards God. You have a lot of very blatant religious references in your writing…have people reacted in a negative manner towards that at all?
BH: Not really, no. I’ve actually had more flak from people about the times when I’m not referencing God. Like my second release, “The Thing That Poets Write About” had almost no reference to God and was all about man woman love. So many people were giving me crap about that and said they “gave up on me” but whatever. I’m an artist. And I’m going to write about different things at different times. The last thing I want to hear is an artist saying the same thing over and over again. Painting the same picture over and over again. Making the same movie over and over again. Life entails many things and I hope to discover and write about some of those things, whatever they be. And for the times I do speak about God even people that don’t agree with my sentiments usually write me or tell me that the way I’m addressing God is a way they aren’t used to. It’s disarming. It’s relatable or what have you. I’m not preaching. I’m writing from a very personal standpoint and most people see that I’m not out to convert them necessarily. Now some people want nothing to do with anything mentioning God unless it’s Johnny Cash doing so because they think he is cool and society allows him an audience. And my songs aren’t for everybody and I understand that. The content 20 year atheist won’t want to listen to “A Mouth Full of Dust” but he might at some point later in his life and if not that’s okay too I guess. And as for bands that mask their songs, I can’t speak for why others decide to do that but I’ll never have any part in being anything except honest. I’m fully aware that I could change this or that, say this or that and sell more records and be more popular but that is not now and has never been my intent. I believe the question of God and the ramifications of His existence or nonexistence, being a Him or a Her or a Neither and One or a Few or Many, his involvement or lack of involvement with humanity and creation, has immense meaning to each individual and how they see themselves or others, how they live their lives. So why would I choose to not address those issues? Why would I choose to hide what I think are the most important questions any of us can ask? My dream for artists is that we would all make the art we are called and inspired to make. For some of us that is asking the heavy questions. For others it’s sunshine and flowers. Each are necessary and each have their place. I just hope it’s coming from a sincere place.
OV: Any closing remarks for your fans?
BH: First, thank you for the interview. It means a lot that out of the thousands of bands and artists you took the time to give me attention and use your platform to shine a light on me. And for the fans, thank you for the continued support and kind words I receive from you. I hope to make art as long as I shall live and I hope as we grow older my art will continue to be relevant to you. Pick up “A Thousand Angry Panthers” and let me know what you think.
All photos, music, and videos copyright of their respective owners. Used only for promotional purposes and to gain notoriety for the artists featured.
Bradley Hathaway – A Thousand Angry Panthers
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Every once in awhile I like to feature something totally different than anything else that has been on the site. A recent example of that is the post about Wildwood Music Company (yes, they’re a band, not a real ‘company’).
Bradley Hathaway has recently released the A Thousand Angry Panthers EP; and it is surely different than anything else on the site right now.
The entire album (four tracks) is basically spoken word over music -- think a more sing-songy version of mewithoutyou. Whereas the latter usually just speaks over music, Bradley does a little bit of both. Think Bob Dylan or Johnny Cash as far as vocal style goes. If you still can’t get a clear picture, just watch the video embedded below. In fact, watch it either way.
Here is a bio of Bradley from NewReleaseTuesday.com:
Bradley Hathaway is a poet who has been writing for nearly four years now. Before that, he never wrote or even studied literature. Hathaway ran a concert venue from 2001 to 2004, but stopped the business to begin tour with his poetry. He was published by Relevant Books in August of 2005. He is inspired to write by all of life’s things, whether they are good or bad, pretty or ugly, and his favorite authors include Thomas Merton and C.S. Lewis. When asked what he wants to accomplish with his writing, Bradley responds: “Yesterday I had a vision of sorts. People had little seeds in their heads. As I spoke they begin to sprout, bud, and a large pink flower bloomed inside of their heads. That’s what I hope to happen (inspiration, beauty, encouragement).” Bradley travels about 200 days of the year and has toured all of the United States, in Canada, Europe, and Australia. Bradley has toured with The Chariot, Blindside, mewithoutyou, He Is Legend, and many others.
I’m not sure how many of you have heard of The Chariot, but the fact that he toured with them is shocking. I would have loved to see the looks on people’s faces when Hathaway took the stage. Opening for mewithoutyou, however, is not a surprise at all -- that’s a perfect match, actually.
As far as the songs go, ‘She Was Raised By A Man With A Sickness’ is about a girl who escapes an abusive relationship, ‘Carolina’ and ‘Would You Think Less of Me’ are -- if written about real experiences -- stories of personal struggle that Hathaway has faced, and ‘The World is Screaming’ is a commentary about religion, society, and everything in between.
If you are a fan of really mellow, The only way you are going to get a feel for what Bradley is doing is to watch this video…so get to it.
Recommended If You Like: mewithoutyou, spoken word poetry
All photos, music, and videos copyright of their respective owners. Used only for promotional purposes and to gain notoriety for the artists featured.
