Once upon a time--a whole 14 months ago--if you were in the suburbs and listening to music, chances were you were listening to mall punk.
These days, though, that's a little different, thanks to the efforts of the folks in Frisco, Carrollton and Grand Prairie.
But lest you thought that spelled the end of the area mall-punk scene--an area mainstay throughout much of the '00s--well, think again. That scene, believe it or not, remains as strong today as it did way back when. No, really. We have proof.
- Forever the Sickest Kids has a new album on the way in October, the second in their planned The Weekend series, this one being The Weekend: Saturday. And, last week, the band released that album's lead single, "Keep On Bringing Me Down," which actually features a pretty awesome '80s lead-in. (Finally, something new!) And the response, so far, has been pretty solid: Last week, downloads of the song landed the band at No. 1 on the PureVolume download charts--not too shabby.
- Or is it somewhat shabby: Locally based, relatively unknown mall-punk singer-songwriter Taylor Thrash's new, self-titled EP was similarly downloaded with startling fervor on Purevolume, two weeks ago landing him at No. 1 on those charts, as well. Which proves two things, we think. 1) PureVolume users love them some mall-punk. 2) Dallas is still a viable outlet for this genre, considering that, for two weeks in a row, local artists popped up atop that site's charts.
- Lastly, don't fret: Artist Vs. Poet won't be left out of this conversation, either. Yesterday, Fearless Records announced its plans to release the third volume in its ongoing Punk Goes Pop series, and that AVP will perform a cover of Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" for the disc. Which, yes, means we're finally excited to hear an AVP song. Woot woot!
