First Bands Announced for Warped Tour 08

On December 10, the first bands on the 2008 Van's Warped Tour were announced. They are...

Gym Class Heroes
The Briggs
The Academy Is...
The Bronx
Reliant K
Every Time I Die
From First to Last
The Street Dogs
Reel Big Fish
Norma Jean
We the Kings
Devil Wears Prada
Pierce the Veil
The Color Fred
3Oh!3
The Lordz
Katy Perry
Shwayze

Top Rock Albums of 2007

As the year comes to a close, Paramore's Official Album site is looking at not just Riot!, but all of the top albums of the year by established artists and up-and-comers. We have compiled our own list, but we encourage you to weigh in as well in the comments. Well, here they are, the top albums of 2007:

1.) Riot-Paramore Of course I'm going to put this one first. I started this site because of how much I love Paramore, and their second album did not disappoint. All We Know is Falling was good enough, but Riot! kicked it up so much higher.
Enhanced CD with DVD
Download Emergency

2.) Music from Regions Beyond-Tiger Army I heard Tiger Army for the first time at this year's Warped Tour. This is their fourth album and also my favorite. It included songs "Forever Fades Away" and "Afterworld." Tiger Army is a interesting band in that they feature a double bass (looks like a cello) and about five background singers on the album.
Download Forever Fades Away

3.) Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow-Coheed and Cambria Good lord, I think the album title might take up enough room for a review, but I'll give a summary anyway. It will be the only albums to feature Taylor Hawkins on drums as he is replacing Chris Pennie. Not that it matters, I guess, the drums weren't the reason this album is my third favorite. Just good music like Coheed and Cambria's past albums. Going along with their song title, they feature five titles preceded by "The End Complete (I-V)."
Download Blood Red Summer

4.) Strictly Rude-Big D and the Kids Table Big D and the Kids Table tried to go strictly ska on this album and by most accounts succeeded splendidly. Alt Press gave it four and a half stars and All Music Guide gave it four out of five. While all of their albums have been basically ska, they always experimented with different forms of punk. This time it is very ska and very good.
Download Steady Riot

5.) So Wrong, It's Right-All Time Low Their first new album since high school, So Wrong, It's Right has gotten mixed reviews. While almost everyone agrees that the songs are very catchy and fun to listen to, some people think they are too unoriginal. You run into that trap playing pop-punk. I believe that Alex Gaskarth's vocals and the melodies are enough to make it good.
Download Vegas

6.) Even if it Kills Me-Motion City Soundtrack This album was coproduced by and featured guest vocals by too many people to name but one of the coproducers included Ric Ocasek of the Cars. Singles included "Broken Heart" and "This if for Real." Interestingly, the album avoided a parental advisory label but was flagged with one of iTunes because of the word "fuck" in "Broken Heart."
Download Broken Heart

7.) Underclass Hero-Sum41 Deryck Whibley decided to focus more on the album and not the songs this time, and the result was more songs, longer songs, and a better overall album than any of Sum41's past albums. There aren't as many great singles as past Sum41 albums, but the album as a whole has a much better flow.
Download Underclass Hero

8.) Eat Me, Drink Me-Marilyn Manson So most of these songs are punk, because that's my favorite genre. I like other styles, too, though, and Eat Me, Drink Me was one of those albums I liked. The Rolling Stone's Austin Scaggs said he was blown away by it, identifying the best song as "If I Was Your Vampire," "a six-minute epic."

9.) II-Maylene and the Sons of Disaster Dallas Taylor, former Underoath frontman, is back, now with a southern-rock infused screamo sound. It's very interesting, but it didn't hold up very well on his band's first album. The second one got it, though.
Download Hell on the Rise

10.) On Fire-The Higher Another second effort, this one just makes you want to dance, especially "Insurance?" The Higher doesn't have to resort to catchy beats for their immersive sound. They just have a very interesting sound that is hard to define.
Download Insurance

Crap Albums of the Year

Minutes to Midnight-Linkin Park LP is a very good band when they are doing their typical rap-rock. Minutes to Midnight tried to define them as rockers. They ended up defining themselves as poseurs. On thier "hardcore" songs, they sounded like wanna-be scremos with a tornado siren as the singer, and on their "ballads" like "Shadow of the Day," they sounded like Good Charlotte on estrogen.

Paper Walls-Yellowcard Yellowcard, themselves recovering from an album that attempting to define themselves as pure rockers, didn't do so bad this time because they went back to their guns, but their guns were filled with blanks. There weren't many completely terrible songs, but there weren't many good songs either, and a pop-punk album with no good albums is just a pop-punk album... with whiny kids singing songs that get annoying quickly.