You can now legally listen to the new Scars on Broadway album via internet streaming at the following sites:NME.com (You have to register)
Scars' Myspace
Monday, July 28, 2008
Listen to the Scars Album Online!
You can now legally listen to the new Scars on Broadway album via internet streaming at the following sites:NME.com (You have to register)
Scars' Myspace
Scars Record Release Live Webcast + My Birthday
Scars on Broadway will be playing at Union Station in Los Angeles tomorrow to celebrate the release of their new self-titled album due out this Tuesday the 29th. If you can't make it to the show, Scars will be streaming it live on their website. It will be on live at 9:25pm PST.Here is the link to where it will be streamed: http://scarsonbroadway.com/webcast/
I am 99.9% sure that I will be able to record this tomorrow. So if anyone doesn't have time to watch, forgets or simply cannot watch, check back here for a link!
Also, it is my birthday today! I really wish I could have been at this show, but I don't have enough $$$ to fly to LA tomorrow. It would have been a great birthday present. Hopefully I'll get Rock Band for my PS3 though.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Scars on Broadway Los Angeles Times Interview
With fellow System of a Down vet John Dolmayan, Malakian strikes some dark notes on Scars' debut album."I DON'T get it when people complain that baseball games are too long," says Daron Malakian, watching the action from a seat behind home plate at Dodger Stadium during one of the team's recent home games. "This is my favorite place in the world. I don't care how long it goes, I'll be here to the end."
This most wholesome and mainstream of settings probably isn't the place you'd picture as Malakian's chosen refuge, given the apocalyptic, dissident, disillusioned, angry, irreligious scenarios that belch from the self-titled debut album by his new band, Scars on Broadway.
"You've never seen the sky like this / You never want to die like this," he sings in "Universe," a grand anthem that describes what might be an environmental catastrophe. In the Bowie-tinged ballad "3005," he watches from a spaceship as civilization and "resurrection junkies" -- his term for those addicted to religion -- sink below the surface. And what is it they say in the band's single "They Say"? They say "it's all about to end."
"It's what's around me. It's what I hear, it's what I see, it's what I'm absorbing like a sponge," says Malakian, 33, eating a pregame hot dog and garlic fries in the bar of the stadium's Dugout Club. "It's the times we're living in, and I think as an artist I'm just trying to put my finger on that."
Not that he's on a mission. In fact, when he writes -- always alone at home in Glendale -- it's more like a mystery.
"I consider myself a medium to it all. There's something there and then there's a song and then there's me. A lot of times, I don't feel responsible for the songs myself. But that's my job or my place in life, to keep my search and catch the ideas before they pass me by."
Malakian's methods helped make his other band, System of a Down, one of the most commercially successful and critically admired groups in hard rock, and that audience is primed for Tuesday's release of "Scars on Broadway." Malakian isn't the only System mainstay in the group -- he brought bandmate John Dolmayan into Scars as co-leader after a couple of other drummers didn't work out.
Along with Metallica's upcoming return, the Scars album figures to be one of the hard-rock highlights of the second half of the year. "They Say" registered 100,000 downloads when it went up free on iTunes, and the group (rounded out by guitarist Franky Perez, keyboardist Danny Shamoun and bassist Dominic Cifarelli) made a few buzz-building appearances in the spring, including sets at Coachella and the KROQ Weenie Roast.
On stage, Malakian is an imposing figure, seemingly possessed and almost demonic in his intensity. At the ballpark, though, he's small in stature and low-key in manner -- just a bearded, black-clad L.A. sports fan.
"All four members of System are very different in temperament, unique personalities," says Dolmayan, 36, slipping into the bar for a break during the fourth inning. "I'd say that me and Daron are the alpha male types. I think he's always been looked at as kind of a leader among friends, and I've kind of experienced that. Actually, me and him got along the worst. . . . We both have a lot of drive."
An only child, Malakian was born and spent his early childhood in Hollywood in a family of Armenian heritage. They moved to Glendale, where he and his friends at one point noticed swastika-like designs engraved in some old lampposts near his high school -- the scars on Broadway that would later give his band its name.
He and flamboyant singer-songwriter Serj Tankian formed the front line and creative core of System of a Down, which began in 1995 and whose combination of aggressive power, musical eccentricity and political outspokenness made it one of the most popular hard-rock bands of this decade.
In 2006, the group announced that it would take an indefinite break, and "Scars on Broadway" follows Tankian's "Elect the Dead" as the second album to come out during the hiatus -- a term that seems all right with everyone involved except Malakian.
"I see it as a separation," he says. "We're separated but didn't get divorced, and there's a door that's open that someday we may get together and play. But I'm headed down the Scars highway right now and that's it. I don't have any plans, and nobody I think has any plans, to re-create or do anything with System right now."
"Not bad" is the way he describes his relationship with Tankian.
"We don't really see each other very much because we're doing our own things. 'Happy birthday,' 'Merry Christmas' on pagers sometimes. I saw him at Coachella, said hello, there's no enemy thing."
So if System's legacy has created high expectations for Malakian's new outlet, its shadow is adding to the pressure he admits he's feeling.
"It's starting over. People get very fixated on name brands, and System became a name brand that people became a fan of. I think that's the challenging part, getting people to accept these songs the way they accepted those System songs. I put in just as much of myself, and I feel they're just as powerful as anything else I've ever written in my life.
"In my opinion, they're more rock-oriented, they're more melodic in a lot of ways," Dolmayan says of the Scars songs. "There is a darker tone to a lot of the stuff, which to me is reminiscent of like the Kinks or bands like Pink Floyd. I've always been attracted to dark melodies, so that aspect of it really works for me."
The songs are definitely more varied, ranging from the raucous to the reflective and exposing a new array of influences, from a musician who cites David Bowie, Roxy Music, Brian Eno and '60s pop on one side, and the Stooges, the Ramones and the Dead Boys on the other. Malakian even suggests the late punk provocateur GG Allin as the inspiration for the caustically explicit "Chemicals."
Then there's "Babylon," a measured, atmospheric ballad with a big finish and a tender refrain: "I like the way we slept on rooftops in the summertime / If we were all marooned again I'd give my soul to save your life."
"My family is now out of Iraq, but when the war was just starting, a big part of my family lived in Iraq," Malakian explains. "That song kind of came out of me at that time. I just felt helpless, I really wanted to save them and get them out of there. That helplessness I think comes out in the song.
"In the Middle East in the summertime, to keep cool a lot of people sleep on the rooftops. When I visited Iraq when I was 14 years old, we slept on the roof. It's just kind of me talking to my family."
Like the solace he finds in the images and musical textures of "Babylon," the serenity and order of a baseball game might represent a relief from the chaos that seems to surface when he sits down to write. No wonder Dodger Stadium is his favorite place.
He got to play out there himself once, in the Dodgers' celebrity exhibition game a few years ago. Not surprisingly, it led to a song.
"I wrote a song for System called 'Old School Hollywood Baseball' that was inspired by this place. I played baseball here, and I went home and I picked up my guitar, and bam, it came out. . . .
"You've just got to catch the influences when they come at you. Every song I've written is luck, I think, it's luck -- 'How did that just happen?' "
By Richard Cromelin, Special to The Times
July 28, 2008
This most wholesome and mainstream of settings probably isn't the place you'd picture as Malakian's chosen refuge, given the apocalyptic, dissident, disillusioned, angry, irreligious scenarios that belch from the self-titled debut album by his new band, Scars on Broadway.
"You've never seen the sky like this / You never want to die like this," he sings in "Universe," a grand anthem that describes what might be an environmental catastrophe. In the Bowie-tinged ballad "3005," he watches from a spaceship as civilization and "resurrection junkies" -- his term for those addicted to religion -- sink below the surface. And what is it they say in the band's single "They Say"? They say "it's all about to end."
"It's what's around me. It's what I hear, it's what I see, it's what I'm absorbing like a sponge," says Malakian, 33, eating a pregame hot dog and garlic fries in the bar of the stadium's Dugout Club. "It's the times we're living in, and I think as an artist I'm just trying to put my finger on that."
Not that he's on a mission. In fact, when he writes -- always alone at home in Glendale -- it's more like a mystery.
"I consider myself a medium to it all. There's something there and then there's a song and then there's me. A lot of times, I don't feel responsible for the songs myself. But that's my job or my place in life, to keep my search and catch the ideas before they pass me by."
Malakian's methods helped make his other band, System of a Down, one of the most commercially successful and critically admired groups in hard rock, and that audience is primed for Tuesday's release of "Scars on Broadway." Malakian isn't the only System mainstay in the group -- he brought bandmate John Dolmayan into Scars as co-leader after a couple of other drummers didn't work out.
Along with Metallica's upcoming return, the Scars album figures to be one of the hard-rock highlights of the second half of the year. "They Say" registered 100,000 downloads when it went up free on iTunes, and the group (rounded out by guitarist Franky Perez, keyboardist Danny Shamoun and bassist Dominic Cifarelli) made a few buzz-building appearances in the spring, including sets at Coachella and the KROQ Weenie Roast.
On stage, Malakian is an imposing figure, seemingly possessed and almost demonic in his intensity. At the ballpark, though, he's small in stature and low-key in manner -- just a bearded, black-clad L.A. sports fan.
"All four members of System are very different in temperament, unique personalities," says Dolmayan, 36, slipping into the bar for a break during the fourth inning. "I'd say that me and Daron are the alpha male types. I think he's always been looked at as kind of a leader among friends, and I've kind of experienced that. Actually, me and him got along the worst. . . . We both have a lot of drive."
An only child, Malakian was born and spent his early childhood in Hollywood in a family of Armenian heritage. They moved to Glendale, where he and his friends at one point noticed swastika-like designs engraved in some old lampposts near his high school -- the scars on Broadway that would later give his band its name.
He and flamboyant singer-songwriter Serj Tankian formed the front line and creative core of System of a Down, which began in 1995 and whose combination of aggressive power, musical eccentricity and political outspokenness made it one of the most popular hard-rock bands of this decade.
In 2006, the group announced that it would take an indefinite break, and "Scars on Broadway" follows Tankian's "Elect the Dead" as the second album to come out during the hiatus -- a term that seems all right with everyone involved except Malakian.
"I see it as a separation," he says. "We're separated but didn't get divorced, and there's a door that's open that someday we may get together and play. But I'm headed down the Scars highway right now and that's it. I don't have any plans, and nobody I think has any plans, to re-create or do anything with System right now."
"Not bad" is the way he describes his relationship with Tankian.
"We don't really see each other very much because we're doing our own things. 'Happy birthday,' 'Merry Christmas' on pagers sometimes. I saw him at Coachella, said hello, there's no enemy thing."
So if System's legacy has created high expectations for Malakian's new outlet, its shadow is adding to the pressure he admits he's feeling.
"It's starting over. People get very fixated on name brands, and System became a name brand that people became a fan of. I think that's the challenging part, getting people to accept these songs the way they accepted those System songs. I put in just as much of myself, and I feel they're just as powerful as anything else I've ever written in my life.
"In my opinion, they're more rock-oriented, they're more melodic in a lot of ways," Dolmayan says of the Scars songs. "There is a darker tone to a lot of the stuff, which to me is reminiscent of like the Kinks or bands like Pink Floyd. I've always been attracted to dark melodies, so that aspect of it really works for me."
The songs are definitely more varied, ranging from the raucous to the reflective and exposing a new array of influences, from a musician who cites David Bowie, Roxy Music, Brian Eno and '60s pop on one side, and the Stooges, the Ramones and the Dead Boys on the other. Malakian even suggests the late punk provocateur GG Allin as the inspiration for the caustically explicit "Chemicals."
Then there's "Babylon," a measured, atmospheric ballad with a big finish and a tender refrain: "I like the way we slept on rooftops in the summertime / If we were all marooned again I'd give my soul to save your life."
"My family is now out of Iraq, but when the war was just starting, a big part of my family lived in Iraq," Malakian explains. "That song kind of came out of me at that time. I just felt helpless, I really wanted to save them and get them out of there. That helplessness I think comes out in the song.
"In the Middle East in the summertime, to keep cool a lot of people sleep on the rooftops. When I visited Iraq when I was 14 years old, we slept on the roof. It's just kind of me talking to my family."
Like the solace he finds in the images and musical textures of "Babylon," the serenity and order of a baseball game might represent a relief from the chaos that seems to surface when he sits down to write. No wonder Dodger Stadium is his favorite place.
He got to play out there himself once, in the Dodgers' celebrity exhibition game a few years ago. Not surprisingly, it led to a song.
"I wrote a song for System called 'Old School Hollywood Baseball' that was inspired by this place. I played baseball here, and I went home and I picked up my guitar, and bam, it came out. . . .
"You've just got to catch the influences when they come at you. Every song I've written is luck, I think, it's luck -- 'How did that just happen?' "
By Richard Cromelin, Special to The Times
July 28, 2008
Scars on Broadway Album Reviews
Here are some critic reviews of the new self-titled Scars on Broadway album.ARTISTDirect
"Is this the end or a rebirth?" Daron Malakian asks during "Universe," a track from Scars On Broadway's self-titled debut. However, there's a more important question that needs to be asked. With that line, is Malakian referencing the end of his metallic juggernaut System of a Down, or is he talking about the end of something more cosmic? Only he knows the answer, but it probably involves a little bit of both. There are some big issues on his mind, and that's instantly apparent from the first note of this album. Scars dive deep into the seedy Hollywood underbelly that System only touched upon during their last two offerings. Malakian feels at home surrounded by freaks, but his sonic freakshow's quite entertaining. "Funny" broods with woozy instrumental textures and electronic flourishes. Malakian's stoned, creepy wail dominates the track's massive hook, enveloping the calculated clean guitar rhythm. In a nutshell, Scars have crafted the first great psychedelic rock release of 2008. John Lennon's influence is all over the choruses of "World Long Gone," "Babylon" and the aforementioned "Universe." However, Malakian adds an edge. He's grown into himself as a singer, and that comes through on all of the more melodic fare. In fact, he's almost more "Silverlake-Indie" than he is "Hollywood-Gutter Rock." Regardless, he's crafted some intriguing rock and roll gems.
The standout tracks showcase his musical schizophrenia. A serpentine riff drives "Exploding/Reloading" right off the rails once Malakian starts screaming, "I Like Suicide." However, the song still has that big ole hummable hook. The combination of "Chemicals" and "Enemy" are strange and devilishly inviting metal with some fantastically fun chemical references. Nodding a black-brimmed hat to the '60s, this is rock 'n roll in its purest form. "Stoner-Hate" brandishes another razor sharp riff and more of that kooky screaming, but the song hits like a sledgehammer. Rhythmic sensei John Dolmayan is bashing away at those big grooves behind the kit. His pounding is as zen as ever, keeping the tracks grounded. Then there's "Cute Machines" one of the album's deepest cuts. The track mashes up all of the styles that the band excels at. A bombastic drum beat kicks the song off and propels a staccato riff in synch with the big sing-song melody.
Meanwhile, "3005" shouts out Jesus Christ and Charles Manson, both of whom figure integrally on this record. The album winds up on "Whoring Streets," another dark trip down Hollywood's alleys. First single "They Say" concludes everything. Malakian strums his guitar somberly as everything ends. No matter how you cut it, eulogizing the end of the world is quite a way to finish a record. To answer Malakian's big question, this isn't the end after all. This is the start of something, and it could be VERY important.
—Rick Florino
07.27.08
About.com
Scars on Broadway, the self-titled debut album from System of a Down guitarist Daron Malakian and drummer John Dolmayan, is a mixed bag of terrific songs and forgettable filler. Totaling 15 tracks – many of them running three minutes or less – the album resembles a collection of snippets, sometimes evolving into indelibly melodic hard rock and sometimes failing to leave much of an impact. A tougher trimming would have helped Scars on Broadway’s overall quality, but even in its current form the record has enough strong moments to make it worthwhile.
Lyrics Less Important Than Hooks
In an interview to promote Scars on Broadway, frontman Daron Malakian confessed that as a songwriter he doesn’t have any grand thematic concepts or personal messages he’s trying to push across in his lyrics. That certainly comes through on the album, where lyrical depth takes a backseat to his melodies and hooks. For example, the hard-charging two-minute “Stoner-Hate” contains such odd lines as “California’s been invaded by a hippie psychopath,” which doesn’t make much sense – Does he mean Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger? – but becomes a compelling chant when it’s attached to Malakian’s guitar riff and Dolmayan’s pounding drums. Especially considered in conjunction with the brief running times of these songs, many of the tracks have an off-the-cuff feel, which perhaps is a way of alleviating the weighty expectations of many System fans who want to hear what Malakian would do outside of his old band’s framework.
Lyrics Less Important Than Hooks
In an interview to promote Scars on Broadway, frontman Daron Malakian confessed that as a songwriter he doesn’t have any grand thematic concepts or personal messages he’s trying to push across in his lyrics. That certainly comes through on the album, where lyrical depth takes a backseat to his melodies and hooks. For example, the hard-charging two-minute “Stoner-Hate” contains such odd lines as “California’s been invaded by a hippie psychopath,” which doesn’t make much sense – Does he mean Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger? – but becomes a compelling chant when it’s attached to Malakian’s guitar riff and Dolmayan’s pounding drums. Especially considered in conjunction with the brief running times of these songs, many of the tracks have an off-the-cuff feel, which perhaps is a way of alleviating the weighty expectations of many System fans who want to hear what Malakian would do outside of his old band’s framework.
Taking Aim at Politicians and the Greedy
With that said, though, when Scars on Broadway find a great piece of music, the tossed-off lyrics have the impact of desperate missives hurled at politicians and those who despoil the planet for their own greed. “Kill Each Other/Live Forever” is a good example of this, segueing from guitars to an affecting keyboard bridge while Malakian assumes the mantle of public conscience as he asks, “If we’re gonna kill each other, how we gonna live forever/If we’re gonna live forever, how we gonna kill each other?” The point of the lyrics seems to be juxtaposing two base human urges – the desire to kill others and the desire to never die yourself – to show how they simply cannot coexist in a civilized society.
Rocking While The World Falls Apart
Much of Scars on Broadway makes similar allusions to a world crumbling into disarray. “Babylon” starts off slowly until building to a frenetic chorus, balancing an Armageddon scenario with a tale of separated lovers. “Cute Machines” rides a snarling guitar figure for an opaque attack on technology – then again, it might simply be a satire on the dehumanizing aspects of modern society.
Part of the fun is not necessarily being able to pin down the exact meanings of Malakian’s words, which doesn’t matter when his band has arresting music to focus on. And while that doesn’t happen enough – a few too many of these tracks feel like underdeveloped outtakes – Scars on Broadway displays enough passion and chops to satisfy even those who will grumble that it’s not a System of a Down record. Maybe, but for a guy who claims he doesn’t have much to say, Malakian makes sure his music speaks for him.
Release date – July 29, 2008
When you've made your name and fortune on fierce weirdness, the most drastic thing you can do is flaunt some restraint. In System of a Down, singer-guitarist Daron Malakian's bright yelp was already the more normal voice next to Serj Tankian's operatic harangue. But as Scars on Broadway, with System drummer John Dolmayan, Malakian shaves System's punk-dervish and metallic-vengeance extremes into straight-on rock glazed with New Wave keyboards and impish-angel harmonies. It is a cleverly barbed normality. "Funny" is a catchy death wish that somehow evokes Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman" amid burbling Eighties synthesizer. "Insane" is steady, rolling darkness with a Who-ish splash of power chords at the end of each verse. There is little hope or redemption in Malakian's writing — "Chemicals" is a portrait of vicious co-dependency — and his rage, irony and expletives sometimes overwhelm the music's simplified sparkle and drive. That doesn't happen in the bullet rock, hairpin turns and minimal chant of "Cute Machines." The song is basically nonsense — and a fine, uncomplicated high.
KROQ:
I've got some pretty good speakers in my car - not killer - we're not talking about a hearse with coffins full of woofers - but it can handle the BOOM and the new self titled Scars on Broadway album (out July 29th) gives them a bumpin', loud, healthy work out. In fact, track 13 - CUTE MACHINES, may have caused some permanent damage. Hey, if the 'Kardons have gotta go, why not make their swan song something really off that wall referencing both Babylon and our own beloved City of Angels?
System of a Down (like Queens of the Stone Age) come at rock from a different side of the stage - from very different perspectives than most bands - making them one of KROQ's best bands ever - and they were at the top of their game when experimenting with new beats and textures. Scars expand that search and, oddly (unlike MOST bands) are at their best when taking themselves pretty seriously (like in the sick good new cuts WORLD LONG GONE and INSANE). It's a little easier to keep BABYLON cranked than when Scars are horsing around a bit and rhyming Mary Poppins' favorite word Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (and, yes, I spelled that right without Spell Check).
This is one of those albums that really flows, too. The songs are short and tight (not toit, btw) and each one makes the next one make more sense in a sonic way. Scars have quite the obsession with Jesus and no qualms about trying out what different instruments sound like bumped up next to each other and doing their best to keep up with some crazy beats - so overall you're in for some damn good s***.
My Personal Review (Song by Song):
Serious: A great way to open the album. Very catchy and has a nice melody. It is a nice combination of a slow melody and a hard chorus. Rating: 9/10
Funny: Also a nice song. Lyrics are very good. But to really get it, you have to know about the swastikas on the pole in Broadway. Rating: 9/10
Exploding/Reloading: Probably my second favorite song on the album. I really enjoy Daron's voice in this song. I prefer the title "I Like Suicide" but I guess they couldn't use that. Rating: 10/10
Stoner-Hate: The song that sounds most like System, IMO. Another great song with cool lyrics. And the story behind the song (Daron's imaginary gang of angry hippies) is even better. Rating: 10/10
Insane: Not one of the strong songs on the album, but good nonetheless. A little repetitive, but the solo and Daron's beautiful voice in this song saved it from just being an "OK" song. Rating: 7/10
World Long Gone: Another song that sounds like System. Very good riffs. And once again, Daron's voice is awesome. Rating: 8/10
Kill Each Other/Live Forever: I really enjoy this song. Lyrics are very good and catchy. Guitar is awesome. Drums are awesome. Everything is awesome. Rating: 9/10
Babylon: Probably my favorite song off the album. It sounds so much like DAM, but that's not why I like it. It starts off very slow and quiet, but just like that, it hits hard. Daron's voice is, once again, beautiful in this song and the lyrics are even better. Rating: 10/10
Chemicals: Most likely my least favorite song. It just sounds so different from the other songs. Daron's voice changes dramatically as compared to Babylon. The first few words just sound so weird when he says them. But, the drums are awesome. Just not my favorite song. Rating: 6/10
Enemy: Another great song. The highlight was of coarse "Drugs" But, that's probably the same with all System fans. I like the intro riff used throughout the whole song, very catchy. It's just a song that I can bounce to. Rating: 9/10
Universe: I enjoy this song. Lyrics are very good. Daron's voice is great. Guitar riffs are great. Solo is awesome as well. Great song. Rating: 9/10
3005: Another weak point in the album, IMO. It just doesn't sound like a song Scars would write based on the lyrics. It sounds too much like a modern "rock" band. The one thing I can say is that the "Charlie Manson" thing was pretty cool. Rating: 7/10
Cute Machines: I love the guitar in this song. I personally like this song better live, but it still great. Lyrics are a little repetitive, but still awesome. Rating: 8/10
Whoring Streets: Another favorite of mine. It was my favorite song @ KROQ and it's still awesome. Lyrics are really catchy and the solo is awesome as well. It's probably the most beautiful song on the album. Rating: 10/10
They Say: It's the first song from Scars. Gotta love it. Guitar is simple, but effective. Lyrics are awesome. Drums are cool as well. Catchy song. Rating: 9/10
Hungry Ghost: A little bonus here. I really enjoy this song. It's so creepy. I've said before that this belongs on The Mummy 3 soundtrack. It would fit perfect. Daron's voice is so cool and sounds creepy. I hear Holy Mountains throughout the song and that makes it even better. Rating: 9/10
Overall rating: 9/10
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
