Eleventyseven is an American Christian music band from Laurens, South Carolina, formed in 2002. They chose the name “Eleventyseven” because “it’s the one that looked cool the next morning”. The band is currently independent, but previously released two albums on Flicker Records. They have also released four popular singles onto Christian radio.

Group members Matt Langston and Caleb Satterfield first played together in a church praise and worship group from Greenville, South Carolina. After adding drummer Johnathan Stephens, the band began by playing shows in their hometown when they were in high school. They self-released a full-length album and several EPs, which caught the attention of Flicker Records, a Sony/BMG subsidiary distributed through Provident Label Group. Their major-label debut, And the Land of Fake Believe, was released on May 16, 2006 to mixed reviews. Following the release of the album, the group appeared at Shoutfest ‘06, gained exposure on MTVU and had success at Christian rock radio with the single “MySpace”; their profile on said website became very popular as a result. Their single “More Than A Revolution” reached the Top 5 in ChristianRock.Net’s weekly Top 30, and #28 in their annual Top 100, as well as topping the Radio & Records Christian Rock charts. After an appearance on The Logan Show on November 25, 2006, the group announced plans to tour the US in the early months of 2007. Their second album for Flicker, Galactic Conquest, was released on September 4, 2007. Eleventyseven released their newest album, Adventures in Eville, on June 30, 2009.

The group has garnered comparisons to other Christian pop punk groups such as Relient K and Stellar Kart. They make frequent references to recent popular culture, such as Conan O’Brien, and both their music and lyrics have stylistic similarities to third-wave emo popular in the 2000s, but the group has sought to infuse the music with hope rather than maintain the themes of sadness and grief common to this music. Lead singer Matt Langston has said, “You get tired of being yelled at, hearing the same parallels drawn in every song… Knives. Night. Pain. Winter. We have been put here to enjoy the blessings in life, not cry about the curse of our self-inflicted pain. We want to push people past their feelings, passions, and experiences…past their circumstances to see the big picture of God’s creation. We want people to feel what He has done for us and wear a smile when they leave our concerts.”

Members of Eleventyseven:
 - Matt Langston – lead vocals, guitar
 - Caleb Satterfield – bass, backing vocals
 - Jonathan Stephens – drums, backing vocals

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Stellar Kart is a Christian pop punk band from Phoenix, Arizona, USA . The band is signed to Word and released its first album in February 2005. Some of the singles from their debut album, All Gas. No Brake – including “Finish Last” and “Life Is Good” – have been played on Christian radio stations such as Air 1. Their album, We Can’t Stand Sitting Down was released on July 25, 2006. The album’s first single “Me and Jesus” hit #1 for 7 weeks on the Hot Christian Songs chart and won the 2007 Dove Award for “Rock/Contemporary Recorded Song”.

Stellar Kart derived their band name from working with kids on youth camps.[citation needed] Their name is often abbreviated SK, as seen in the band’s music videos to “Activate” and “Life is Good”. The band has been interviewed on various television shows, including TMW and The Zone (on the Christian IPTV service Sky Angel). Stellar Kart has also appeared on a season finale of The Logan Show.

Their latest album, Expect the Impossible, was released on February 26, 2008.

Stellar Kart has been an opening act for bands such as Kutless on the Strong Tower Tour and Newsboys on the Go Tour. The band’s first headlining tour began on December 1, 2006, and was called the Punk The Halls Tour. Support for this Christmas tour came from Run Kid Run, Eleventyseven, and Esterlyn; it went so well that they decided to do the Punk the Halls Tour every year. Stellar Kart performed on the main stage at Onefest and the main stage of Creation 2007. Stellar Kart recently played on a Lifelight circuit concert in Mitchell, South Dakota with the bands The Switch and Remedy Drive. On June 9, 2007, Stellar Kart played its first international concert at the E.O. Youth Day in the Netherlands in front of an audience of 35,000. In the beginning of 2008 the band began the Expect the Impossible Tour; this was their first headlining tour that wasn’t for the holidays. Most recently they performed on the Fringe Stage at Creation 2008. They are known to have guitar wars before or after a concert. Stellar Kart was also a guest on Superchick’s “Rock What You Got Tour” in 2008.

Members:
Adam Agee – lead vocals, guitar
Jon Howard – guitar
Jordan Messer – drums
Brian Calcara – bass guitar

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Hailing from the state of Illinois, Run Kid Run is a 4 piece pop rock band with huge hooks, infectious melodies, and uplifting lyrics. Their debut full-length, “This is Who We Are,” was produced by James Paul Wisner (Dashboard Confessional, Further Seems Forever, New Found Glory). “”This Is Who We Are” is about finding your true sense of self, and then holding on to that with all you have,” says guitar player Neil Endicott. “We want people to have something they can listen to that makes them feel better about whatever is going on in their life.” With a record that is guaranteed to make you sing along, don’t pass up the chance to experience Run Kid Run for yourself. Look for “This is Who We Are” to hit stores in Summer 2006 on Tooth & Nail Records.

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BiographyOn the title track and opening song of its fourth album, Hawk Nelson urges its listeners to “Live Life Loud.” That sentiment, founding member Daniel Biro notes, is “as Hawk Nelson as Hawk Nelson gets.”

It’s not just a matter of volume, mind you; it’s a philosophy. The Hawk Nelson we hear on Live Life Loud knows how to do just that — How to live life at the extreme that the title suggests is embracing all of life, accepting and even celebrating a little pain and darkness and finding a way to let it enrich life.

From the high-octane anthems “Never Enough,” “Eggshells” and “Alive” to the melancholy “The Final Toast,” “Lest We Forget” the string-laden “The Meaning of Life” and the adapted hymn “‘Tis So Sweet” the Hawk Nelson we hear is a bit more serious but also richer and more complete, a group that’s comfortably “growing up,” but without losing the brash spirit of punk rock that’s fueled its music during the past seven years.

“It’s funny,” Biro acknowledges, “because contrary to the title of Live Life Loud, there are more acoustic songs on this album and more deep issues. I don’t know if it’s part of maturity or being four albums in, but we’re definitely at a point where we can have fun — a lot of fun — but still go places that are a bit more serious.”

And by doing that, Biro and his mates – singer-frontman Jason Dunn, guitarist Jonathan Steingard and drummer Justin Brenner — have also crafted their most accomplished album yet, an 11-song set that sweeps from the manic to the mellow and all points in between. Dunn may sing “Can we get back to the basics?” in “Long Ago,” but Live Life Loud’s breadth speaks to a more advanced level of ambition.

“Stylistically, we’re not one genre. You can’t pinpoint us,” Biro agrees. “Sometimes you struggle with a bands identity — Who are we? What are we? Hawk Nelson has always been known for fun, lively, catchy, poppy hook songs. That’s not a bad thing. That’s something we’ve accepted. It’s a big part of who we are. We’re just trying to find out how to be the best Hawk Nelson we can be. That’s what we’ve always really tried to do.”

That exploration started in 2003 in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada where Biro and Dunn first played as SWISH before changing the group name after signing with Tooth & Nail Records via the patronage of Thousand Foot Krutch frontman Trevor McNevan, who’s remained a friend and collaborator. Doors quickly flew open for the group, which was named Favorite New Artist by CCM magazine. Hawk Nelson has been nominated for a Grammy, Juno and GMA Dove awards, and its 2006 sophomore album Smile, It’s The End Of The World, was named Modern Rock/Alternative Album of the Year at the GMA Canada Covenant Awards. The video for its song “The One Thing I Have Left” hit No. 1 on the VH1 Top 20 countdown, and the songs “Bring ‘Em Out” (recorded for the film “Yours, Mine and Ours”) and “The Show” have been used in commercials for NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.” Hawk Nelson also portrayed The Who in an episode of the NBC drama “American Dreams.”

With all of their successes Hawk Nelson has also continued to give back to the community and those less fortunate. They recently partnered with TOMS shoes to provide shoes to children in Haiti as part of TOMS “One for One” initiative. For the band’s effort, every pair of shoes purchased via Hawk Nelson’s website equals a pair of shoes that TOMS donates to a child in Haiti towards the band’s ongoing involvement with the Hands & Feet Orphanage. Hawk Nelson has also partnered with TOMS to release a shoe designed by the band in the fall of 2009.

Live Life Loud follows 2008’s Hawk Nelson Is My Friend and its Grammy-nominated album package. The band decided to go back to where it all began and closed ranks in its current home base of Nashville. As Biro explains, “We were like, ‘OK, what do we want to do. Forget what everyone else is saying. Let’s go back to square one when we were in the garage and the church basement and find out what we love about doing this.’ Let’s just do what we’ve done, but do it better. “I think it was a normal re-evaluation point a lot of bands go through around this point in their careers.”

This time out Hawk Nelson decided to go with producer Steve Wilson, with whom the group had worked on the Christmas EP Gloria with and hunkered down in his garage studio in Music City. “We really liked him,” Biro says, “and working with someone who’s young and hungry for it helped make us believe in music again.”

Live Life Loud also marks the first time Hawk Nelson wrote songs by “getting together as a band and jamming together,” though it also collaborated with friends such as McNevan and TobyMac. The album was recorded in two different sessions, bisected by a hectic touring schedule; a process that Biro says let the group gain some perspective as they were working. “We were able to sit back and say, ‘OK, it doesn’t quite feel like a record. What do we need?’ So when the second session came around, it was more like filling in the blanks.”

That was when some of the “more heartfelt” material started to surface for Live Life Loud. Dunn first wrote “The Final Toast” to sing at the funeral of his grandfather. “The Meaning of Life” grew out of a conversation with co-writer Matthew Gerrard. After hearing an inspiring hymn in church, the band felt it was time to do that type of a song, which brought “’Tis So Sweet” to the table; and they’re still amazed that Wilson was able to find a bagpipe player in Nashville to give the song more sonic weight.

Hawk Nelson will continue to Live Life Loud as the album rolls out, maintaining its typically heavy touring schedule and giving the new album’s songs a life alongside the others in its catalog. “There’s nothing better than starting a song, new or old, and having people sing or shout it back to you,” Biro says. “When they know it and they feel it, that’s when it feels like a success.”

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What’s the difference between FM Static and Thousand Foot Krutch? Singer-songwriter Trevor McNevan and drummer Steve Augustine lead both bands, but the former is a side project to the latter. In fact, the public has shown center-stage love for each act’s efforts, from FM Static’s summery punk-pop to TFK’s more autumnal, metallic rock.

More than anything, having two names makes it easier to take some fun creative chances. Like pursuing the idea for a concept album where every lyric is the innermost thought of a soul-searching teenager. When that spark of inspiration entered Trevor’s head last year while TFK was on tour with Skillet, he knew Dear Diary was a perfect job for FM Static.

“This is the first concept album I’ve worked on, and it was a ton of fun,” says McNevan, who has also penned hits for tobyMac and Hawk Nelson. “It felt theatrical from the start. I imagined this high school boy, new in town, writing through life’s big questions about faith and fitting in as he grows up toward college. He’s also falling in love for the first time with a girl from across the street and dealing with how crazy that can be. It’s been a while since I was in high school, but I’m still enthralled with all of those politics.”
No doubt FM Static listeners—by and large a student audience—will also be enthralled with the spot-on relatable happenings and character confessions of Dear Diary, a project whose special story can only be unlocked as it happens, from song one to song ten.

It all begins with a couple of self-explanatorily-titled rock tunes. “Boy Moves to a New Town with Optimistic Outlook” introduces the never-named star who hopes to find something or someone worth living for. Over a punk tempo and pop melody he wonders: What will we leave behind but the pages of our life? “The Unavoidable Battle of Feeling on the Outside” drills into the psyche with a simple guitar riff and his simple social truth: I’m not an idiot, but I feel like one a lot.

That feeling aside, “Boy Meets Girl (and Vice Versa)” finds the main character making a crucial new friend. He refers to her as “E.T.” in writing (extended entries for each song are printed inside the Dear Diary packaging). That’s because she was like no one I had ever met. Her purpose seemed to glow, like she was plugged in. Soon, he’s thinking more about what life means and feeling less alone on the anthemic “Sometimes You Can Forget Who You Are.” In the Weezer-like stomp, “Man Whatcha Doin?” the boy meets a homeless philosopher who helps straighten out his thoughts about money and happiness. It’s a well-placed moment of fun just before the album’s concept goes much deeper.

“The Voyage of Beliefs” is Dear Diary’s crossroads, a gripping indie rock duet between McNevan and Superchick’s Tricia Brock where the characters both step up in faith, proclaiming a belief in God that is their own, not just the one their families have handed down. And, oh, how they need it for what happens next.

Up to this point, FM Static’s Dear Diary would already be unique enough for its concept and catchiness, but the next arc of songs turns the album into something truly remarkable. Without warning, the girl’s dad kills himself, an event that leaves our boy asking why everyone we love still lets us down in the cinematic quietness of “Her Father’s Song.”

Not surprisingly, E.T. suffers a crisis of faith and later moves away. Although the boy tries to shake off his new beliefs as well amidst his devastation, he feels this strange, warm feeling come over me . . . a simple peace letting me know I was okay that fuels the message of Dear Diary’s first single, “Take Me As I Am.” A poignant, piano-driven dénouement, this revelation that faith can still grow even amidst struggle will resound to all ages. Those same determined emotions extend to the boy’s “Dear God” letter following the girl’s departure. To its credit, FM Static conjures in these two songs a timeless, trend-immune pop sound that stretches McNevan and Augustine in their top-notch performances beyond anything they have previously recorded.

True to its resilient teenage characters, Dear Diary ends on a celebratory high note. The accompanying story written by McNevan explains how the “Dear God” letter was answered: the boy and E.T. end up attending the same university and maturing in their beliefs together. They don’t have all the answers, but they have a purpose, and they still know how to have fun. Album closer “The Shindig (Off to College)” is a steam-blower full of sing-along pop culture references and youthful wisdom: Tonight may not be the best night that we’ve ever had. But it may be the best time ever to realize what we have.

Although Dear Diary is a work of fiction, Trevor McNevan says, “the songs reflect thoughts me and my friends all had growing up. And there’s a lot of me in the more serious songs toward the end.” What listeners can ultimately expect is a rocking, melodically-charged coming-of-age story that somehow combines the creative vibe of independent films like Juno and Napoleon Dynamite, a dash of High School Musical charm, and the altogether rare element of uncensored faith.

It was definitely worth McNevan writing about, and definitely worth a close listen.

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MxPx know a thing or a two about longevity and consistency. They’ve been a band for nearly two decades and have released seven full-length albums, a covers collection, four EPs, three compilations and one live album. In 2009, the Washington state trio – bassist/lead vocalist Mike Herrera, guitarist Tom Wisniewski and drummer Yuri Ruley – have elected to create another covers album, this time, a mostly 1980s-centric On The Cover II, which comes nearly fifteen years after On The Cover via Tooth & Nail Records.

Wisniewski says, “Our fans have been asking us to do another cover record for almost a decade now. We’ve always put it on the backburner but we finally just decided that it’d be a fun thing to do.” On The Cover II, which was mostly recorded in Herrera’s new Monkey Trench Studios, buoys with the energy, fevered pacing and melodic sensibilities that MxPx have built their rock solid reputation upon since forming in 1992.

Leave it to MxPx to turn everything they do into a lively event. The band wants the fans to enjoy this new batch of covers, but as Wisniewski says, “We will be back in the studio really soon to bang out a new record of MxPx songs!” They have also just released a live DVD called Triple Threat, which features three different live shows and is available now through mxpx.com as well as Interpunk.com.

MxPx Members:
Mike Herrera – Vocals, Bass
Tom Wisniewski – Guitar
Yuri Ruley – Drums

Visit MxPx on MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/mxpx

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Children 18:3 was originally formed in 1999 as an independent band. They released two EPs: Places I Don’t Want To Go EP (2004), and Songs of Desperation EP (2006). After releasing their 2006 EP, they got recognition from Tooth & Nail Records CEO Brandon Ebel, who signed the band in January 2007. The band released their self-titled debut, Children 18:3, on February 26, 2008. Their first single, “You Know We’re All So Fond of Dying”, has reached a peak position of #17 on ChristianRock.Net. The band recently released the “All My Balloons” official music video from their self-titled album Children 18:3. The band also won the battle of the band at Club 3 Degrees in 2005.

Christian music website Jesus Freak Hideout named Children 18:3’s upcoming project as the website’s sixth most anticipated album of the year.

On January 31, 2009, Seth stated on his Facebook page that the band is currently recording demos for their upcoming album. It is scheduled to be released during the year of 2009.

Songs played recently that may be included on their upcoming album include “Cover Your Eyes” “Evonne” “The Whispering Well” “Waiting For The Circus To Come To Town” and “Oh, Honestly!”

Band Members:
David Hostetter – lead vocals, guitar
Lee Marie Hostetter – backing vocals, bass
Seth Hostetter – drums

Listen to tunes and more at Children 18:3’s MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/children183

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XLooking Forwardx is a positive sXe (straight edge) band from Bel Air, Mayland. xLooking Forwardx plays a special blend of old-school hardcore, metal, and punk, made of only the finest ingredients! They have been together since September of 1999, but have been friends most, if not all, of their lives. xLooking Forwardx’s music focuses on teh value of friendships, faith, scene stuff, and everyday life issues. They have fun doing what they do, and they do it all for the glory of Jesus Christ.

Check xLooking Forwardx at MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/xlookingforwardx

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