Crown The Empire

Crown The Empire is an American band formed in 2010 classified as Post-Hardcore and metalcore. The band is made up of Andrew "Andy Leo" Velasquez, David Escamilla, Bennett "Benn Suede" Vogelman, Brandon Hoover, Hayden Tree, and Brent Taddie.

The band was formed in 2010 by high school friends Andrew Velasquez, Austin Duncan, Hayden Tree, and Brandon Hoover. They mainly jammed together and one of their main goals was to "be heavier than most bands in their area." The guys got more serious and began to look for another guitarist and a new full time drummer to replace their current stand-in drummer, Alex Massey. Brent Taddie joined as their full time drummer in 2011 and Benn Suede joined as their newest guitarist in 2011 as well.

Not long after, Crown The Empire released their first Studio EP, Limitless, in November that year. Later they signed to Rise Records and even supported Pierce The Veil for a few of their UK tour dates. By August of 2012 the band announced a new vocalist, David Escamilla, who was the cherry on top of an amazing sound. In October the band began releasing teasers for their debut studio album, The Fallout, which featured the song “Johnny Ringo”. They were supposed to do the Infamous Tour but due to scheduling issues they couldn’t and the band released a statement saying "Unfortunately we will not be on The Infamous Tour this fall due to scheduling issues. We’re sorry to all of those who were coming out to the shows to see us perform and we hope you guys still go out to the shows to see all the other great bands" also stating "We have some HUGE things in the works :)”

Their promise of huge things wasn’t understated because not only did they join a multitude of tours, they also released The Fallout and a rerecorded version of their EP Limitless with David’s vocals. With the release of their album, and the completely redone Limitless EP the band was getting ready to get back in the studio to record their second album, The Resistance: Rise of The Runaways.

After the release of The Resistance: Rise of The Runaways the band announced their headlining tour that would span across the United States. Even though this band is still young, their talent is extraordinary and I hope that one day I get the privilege of seeing them perform live!

One Direction

            One Direction is a British/ Irish boyband that got their start on the popular music competition X Factor. The band was formed in July of 2010 when the five boys were eliminated as solo artists but were put into a group instead. The original members are Louis Tomlinson, 23, Zayn Malik, 22, Liam Payne, 21, Niall Horan, 21, and Harry Styles, 21. The band has rocketed to success within their first few months as a band and have even surpassed The Beatles in musical standings.

The band built up their following throughout their time on the UK X Factor and made it all the way to the semi-finals where they came in first place. They were taken under Simon Cowells wing even though they didn’t win and their careers skyrocketed from there on.

            They started recording their first album, Up All Night, which was released in the UK in 2011 and became one of the UK’s fastest selling albums. The album was preceded by the release of their debut single, What Makes You Beautiful, which is the bands most well-known song to date.

The band signed to Columbia records in the US and released the album across the pond and became the first ever debut album from an English act to ever debut at number one. The amazing success of the album led the band to tours of Europe, Australia, America, Canada, and the UK. Also, the band released a live tour DVD for the fans that couldn’t make the shows (like me).

In November of 2012 the band released their second studio album, Take Me Home, which held the top spot on the Billboard 200 and sold over 500,000 copies worldwide in its first week in the United States alone. Prior to their Take Me Home Tour the band released a cover of One Way or Another and Teenage Kicks for the nationwide UK Comic Relief charity.

During their Madison Square Garden show, the band recorded the performance for the tour documentary This Is Us, which showed the boys on tour, at home and even had famous appearances from Chris Rock, and the very people that brought the five people into this world. The movie was released in theaters as a 3D experience and took over 60 million dollars worldwide.

By the time 1D released their third album, Midnight Memories, they had already announced their third world tour, The Where We Are Tour. This was the band’s first ever stadium tour and was also turned into a concert movie. The film showed the San Siro performance in Milan, Italy. The fans were the real starts, however, as they turned the stadium into an amazing picture of UK flags during “Right Now”, a photo album with each fan bringing a baby picture for “Story Of My Life” and an astounding duet with the band throughout their performance.

In November of 2014, FOUR, was released worldwide and topped the Billboard Top 200 chart as well as the UK Album Chart. Shortly after this release the band began the Australian and European leg of their On The Road Again Tour, and before the European leg ended the tensions began to run high among the band members and the media. Over the years the members were constantly targeted by the media on anything that would get people to read. After nearly five years this still isn’t something a person just gets used to and Zayn was accused for the last time of cheating on long term girlfriend/fiancée Perrie Edwards who is also an X Factor alumnus. Zayn took a break from the tour to calm down and reconnect with himself, Perrie and his family. On March 25, 2015 Zayn and the bands management announced Zayn’s departure from the band which caused a massive uproar amongst the fans and the rest of the world. There is much controversy of Zayn’s true intentions and there are a multitude of rumors swarming about the subject still, nearly a month later.

I personally won’t believe any of the rumors unless Zayn admits them himself or there is hard evidence. As far as I am concerned he left for his happiness and that is all I want for any of them. They deserve to be happy and they deserve privacy. I think people should leave them alone unless they are in public as Zayn Malik of One Direction or Louis Tomlinson of One Direction, etc. not plain Zayn Malik from Bradford, or Louis Tomlinson from Doncaster.

I have loved this band for about for or so years and they are one of the only pop acts that I like. I have seen them in concert twice and I have met some amazing people through this band. I am proud to call myself a fan and if you ask me Zayn will always be a member of the band.

Panic! At The Disco

Panic! At The Disco or Panic at the Disco (the band has been on an off with the exclamation point for most of their musical career) is an American band from Las Vegas, Nevada that has been very popular amongst music listeners across the world since they formed in 2004. P!ATD is classified as synthpop, baroque pop, and more commonly pop punk/ pop rock.

The band is currently made up of lead singer/ guitarist Brendon Urie and bassist Dallon Weekes. The original band was formed by school friends Spencer Smith, Ryan Ross, Brendon Urie, and Brent Wilson back in 2004 and they recorded some of their first demos while still attending their old high school. Their first single, I Write Sins Not Tragedies, was released which was shortly followed by their debut album, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, was released in 2005 with a debut at 112 on the Billboard Top 200. The sales for their debut album were slow as they put their name and music out there. Their sales grew and they embarked on their The Nothing Rhymes with Circus Tour which was noted to be a notable live show that was very theatrical. The circus inspired tour called a lot of attention to the band and brought them worldwide success.

The band started preparing their sophomore album, pretty. odd., without their original bassist, Brent Wilson. They wrote almost the whole album and even performed the songs over the summer but soon grew tired of them. They decided to chuck all the songs and start over on their album. In the anticipation of the release of their album, Panic was writing and recording music. They also created a new logo for their band that no longer held the exclamation point. Two months after the new logo was unveiled they released the new and improved pretty. odd. which did much better than their first album on the charts debuting at number two on the Billboard Top 200.

The band toured again and by the time their third album, Vices & Virtues, was released both Jon Walker, bass, and original member, Ryan Ross, announced their departure from the band. By March 2011, what was left of the original band and the newly inducted members released Vices & Virtues and began touring shortly after.

In the time between albums, the band made a song called “New Perspective” for the Jennifer’s Body soundtrack as well as a song called "Mercenary" for the Battman: Arkham City video game and even collaborated with the band FUN to create the song “C’mon”.

While trying to sort out their members they had many fill-ins and unofficial add ons. By late 2013 the band was recording their fourth album, Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die! Somewhere in the mix of all the adds, drops, tours, releases and creating sessions the exclamation point made its way back into the bands logo.

The band is currently planning their fifth ablum and even though their original drummer, Spencer Smith, departed from the band, Panic! still moves foreward!

I love how Panic! At the Disco doesn’t sound like any other band. The music that they produce is always amazing and they are one of the bands that I can play their songs on repeat for days and still crave to hear each lyric, note, harmony, drum beat, and guitar chord.

Arctic Monkeys

The Arctic Monkey’s are an indie rock band formerly known as The Death Ramps from Sheffield, England. The band is made up of Alex Turner on lead vocals and guitar, Jamie Cook on guitar, Nick O’Malley on bass guitar and backing vocals, and Matt Helders on drums and backing vocals. The band formed in 2002 and they have released a total of five studio albums and have won seven Brit Awards and have been nominated for three Grammy’s.  They were signed to Domino Records in June 2005 and have been with them throughout their career.  They originally became popular on the original social media site MySpace which is where most of their fanbase originated.

Arctic Monkeys debuted their first studio album in 2006 and it was called Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not which became the fastest debuting album in UK history with 363,735 copies in its first week alone. Shortly after their debut release Arctic Monkey’s album was declared the “fifth greatest British album of all time,” by NME magazine (UK).

Shortly after their debut, AM released a 5 track EP called Who the F@#! Are Arctic Monkeys? Followed by more touring of the UK and they even came to North America to tour. In April of 2007 the band released their second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare which debuted at number 1 on the UK charts. Also, all 12 of their tracks made it onto the UK Top 200.

The band set off on tour once again and toured for nearly the rest of the year. After their touring, the band went on a short hiatus as Alex Turner recorded and toured with his side project. The band was back again and in fall of 2008 they came out of their hiatus to write and record their third album, Humbug. Humbug wasn’t released until August of 2009 where it debuted at number one yet again. They began the Humbug Tour and even headlined the Reading and Leeds Festival in 2009. They continued to tour until April 2010 before they started writing again for their fourth album, Suck It and See, which debuted once again at number one in June of 2011. 

After a bout of touring after Suck It and See, they flew under the radar until the release of album number fives lead single R U Mine? hit radio stations in early 2012. Later that June the band embarked on their AM Tour and released that the title of their new album would in fact be AM. The following September the band released AM and you guessed it, it released at number one on the UK charts once again.

The band has been rolling off the success of their fifth album and haven’t announced anything about new music yet, but I’m excited to see what they have in store. Their music is still played on rock stations after the 2+ years after their release.