Guest Blogger: Matt P1

Angels and Airwaves unveiled a new face to the music world on April 12, 2006 and took the charts by storm. Their band consisted of a hosh-posh mix of musicians, all from their own separate groups including Blink-182 (Singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge), Boxcar Racer (Guitarist David Kennedy), The Offspring (Drummer Atom Willard), and 30 Seconds to Mars (Bassist Matt Wachter). Angels and Airwaves is considered as a branch-off of Blink-182, and therefore a pop-punk label was bestowed upon them. They mixed the styles of their own separate bands and added in tones of iconic bands like U2 and Pink Floyd, which would create a new revolution to change the face of rock and roll forever. AvA (a call sign for Angels and Airwaves) creates a new feel to their music which hasn’t been expressed before this day and age of smoothened rock and punk, mixed with such emotions as love, euphoria, and other strong feelings. In the song “Breathe” off of their album I-Empire, the lyrics suggest that he is in love a girl who makes him feel so alive that he actually got inspired to write the song. “Sirens” another track off of I-Empire, creates a different feel with lyrics like “I do this from time to time, where I like to think of you and me” where it is heard that he desires strongly to be with a woman he adores, but just isn’t close enough, which is often a feeling expressed in love songs and notions. The main difference between AvA and Blink-182, while their sound is incredibly similar due to the leadership for the bands, is the emotions that are being represented. Blink-182 released their newest album, and was criticized as boring, dark, and not representative of the beliefs and previous attitude of the former albums/band. The songs described above are two of my favorite and most memorable in my opinion because they incorporate the feelings that the words have into the actual instrumental part of the music itself, like in “Breathe” where the intro is the metaphoric sound for breaths and heart-beats. This band is fairly new, but all of the reviews have been positive so I completely agree with them. I would definitely promote the purchase of this music because they bring to the world a whole new feel and sincere emotion, mixed with a brand new concoction of vibes.