Mammoth Blog

Michael W. Smith's 21st album A New Hallelujah (10/28) debuted today at No.1 on the Nielsen SoundScan Christian Albums Chart with more than 23,000 in first week sales. On March 17, 2009, Smith will unveil an accompanying DVD of the moving worship event.

The album, recorded live in Houston on June 20 before an audience of more than 12,000, is receiving incredible reviews by media outlets such as Billboard Magazine who says, "The veteran artist raised the bar yet again with A New Hallelujah..."

New Inpop Records band Julian Drive readies for the release of its national label debut, My Coming Day. The album will be among Inpop Records first releases of the year, dropping January 27, 2009.

Originally intended as an independent project, producer Lynn Nichols (Switchfoot, Phil Keaggy) encouraged the band to think big for My Coming Day. "Julian Drive's music represents the heartland of America in style, and the heart of God in spirit," says Nichols. "It deserves a national platform, and I am excited to see the band, in partnership with Inpop Records, take their music and ministry to the masses."

Disciple's Southern Hospitality landed in the No. 7 position on the Christian soundscan charts and the No. 98 spot on the Billboard Top 200 after its Oct. 21 release its first week out the door. On top of scans, the band's newest rock single "3,2,1," is currently at No. 12 moving towards the top ten on the R&R Rock chart with their CHR single "Whatever Reason" recently going for adds. CHR stations and networks such as Air-1, Yes-FM, WAY-FM in Denver, KLFF and many others are also spinning the song.

November 11, 2008
- Donald Lawrence & The Tri-City Singers - Matthew 28: Greatest Hits
- Corey Crowder - Gold and the Sand - Tooth and Nail Records - EMICMG
- Red Umbrella - Living & Surviving - 7 Spin Music - Provident
- Charlie Daniels - Preachin, Praying, Singin DVD - KOCH Entertainment

New Jeremy Camp Pre-Order Offer!
Family Christian Stores are offering a pretty great pre-order deal on Jeremy Camp's new release "Speaking Louder Than Before" out on November 25, 2008! If you stop by one of their stores you can grab a copy for only $9.99 plus you get an Jeremy Camp Media Pack that includes a digital download of the title track "Speaking Louder Than Before," the ringtone and also the video devotional that goes with that track. Its a great deal and obviously you should drop what you are doing and rush there to grab it.

A few other pre-order offers include: Album + Exclusive T-shirt at the BEC Recordings Store for only $15! The Special Edition Version (only 10,000 will be made and includes some cool stuff) at Musichristian.com for only $19 (Normally $24.99)- and it comes Autographed!

New Jeremy Camp Digital Track Out !

On the heals of Jeremy's radio single "There Will Be A Day" being offered as a digital single at iTunes you can today grab a copy of the title track "Speaking Louder Than Before" available today at iTunes!

Following the huge international success of their spectacular 'Somewhere Back in Time World Tour 08' Iron Maiden will be taking to the skies once again in 2009 for a fourth and final leg starting in Dubai on February 13th.

Loaded up with a full complement of band, crew and twelve tons of stage set and equipment, the band's customised Boeing 757, christened Ed Force One by the fans and flown again by Astraeus Airlines Captain and Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson, will once again be circumnavigating 80,000km around the planet for concerts in 19 cities in eleven countries, making it a staggering 37 countries in total visited on this tour, playing to almost two million fans.

Taking off in early February Maiden will make their first appearances in New Zealand for 16 years via Dubai and Bangalore followed by the long haul journey for a return to Mexico in some even larger venues and then finishing with an extended run through Central and South America to include countries and cities they have not visited before. The dates are as follows --

February 2009:-
Fri 13th - UAE - Dubai Media City Amphitheatre
Sun 15th - India - Bangalore Royal Challenge Rock In India
Fri 20th - New Zealand - Auckland. Mount Smart Stadium
Sat 21st - New Zealand - Christchurch. AMI Stadium
Wed 25th - Mexico - Monterrey Estadio Technologico.
Thurs 26th - Mexico - Guadalajara Arena VFG Jalisco.
Sat 28th - Mexico - Mexico City Fero Sol Stadium Complex

1st - 29th March 2009 - South and Central America.
Details to be advised soon.

The 'SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME' tour revisits the band's history by focusing almost entirely on the 80's in both choice of songs played and the stage set, which is based around the legendary Egyptian Production of the 1984-85 'Powerslave Tour' which was featured on the recent DVD "Live after Death". This is arguably the most elaborate and spectacular show the band have ever presented, and will include some key elements of their Somewhere In Time tour of 1986/7, such as the Cyborg Eddie.

Comments Bruce Dickinson, "This unique way of touring earlier this year with everyone and all our gear onboard the plane helped to make 2008 easily one of the most successful, exciting and fun years in the band's career. Taking Ed Force One around the planet and playing to our fans in so many different countries was an incredible experience for all of us. For me personally, flying and performing was one of the most challenging and satisfying things I've ever attempted despite the rigours and all the logistical difficulties we encountered.

In fact it was so much fun we decided to do it again as a final leg of this tour All in all this will be a fantastic way to round off a tremendous year for the band before we take a bit of time off and then start work on a new studio album."

Says Steve Harris, "We will once again be loading onto the plane as much of the production and stage set as we can ram in, along with arranging plenty of pyro for all the shows!! We will also be changing round the set list and replacing some of the songs, mainly with songs from the first four albums as the Early Days tour a few years back didn't visit any of these places so we thought the fans would like to hear some of that even earlier material. This tour is likely to be the last time we play many of these songs live so we really will be giving it everything we have got!"

The Iron Maiden plane Ed Force One has been back in regular airline service since the end of the first leg in March this year and has been used for the 'Bruce Air' fan club flying trips during the European leg of the tour, as well as Bruce flying various missions to bring troops back home from tours of duty in Afghanistan and collecting stranded British tourists in the recent major airline closures. However the Boeing 757 will be taken back into the hanger soon to be completely refitted and its Maiden livery restored, this having been removed due to fears of evil ju-ju spirits-- Eddie! - inhabiting the plane from worried passengers on its summer route from Central Africa!

Iron Maiden have made arrangements with the local promoters to facilitate a special first ticket pre-sale to members of their fan club, which will mean they will be guaranteed to get a ticket, and be able buy the best seats where applicable.

Through this special pre-sale fan club members will also be able to buy the appropriate tickets which would then allow them to enter the exclusive fan club draw to have special privileged early access to the stage barrier. More info below:

Dubai
On sale dates and details will be announced soon, but registration for more information on how to buy a ticket is now open from www.aegliveme.com

Bangalore
The special fan club pre-sale will be open to the fan club members via www.dnanetworks.com on the 15th December with tickets going on sale to the public and at retail outlets on the 26th January.

New Zealand
The special first ticket pre-sale will be available exclusively to members of the Iron Maiden Fan Club on Monday 17th and Tuesday 18th November, before tickets go on sale to the general public 28th November.

Mexico
The first ticket pre-sale available to Iron Maiden fan club members will run Monday 24th and Tuesday 25th November, before going on sale to the public Wednesday 26th November.

South and Central America -- full details to be announced very soon

If you would like to join the Iron Maiden Fan Club and take part in these pre-sales, please go here. Existing members - watch the site for further details later this week.

God's Deep Secrets

Today's Scripture

"That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, 'No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.' But it was to us that God revealed these things by His Spirit. For His Spirit searches out everything and shows us God's deep secrets" (1 Corinthians 2:9-10, NLT).

say anything WILL be putting out a new album next year. we'll be recording it in l.a this winter and the record will be called "Say Anything." yes, self titled. the nature of the record has changed since we intended on calling it "this is forever", also these two dj guys put out a record called that and would probably sue us.

if any person has followed our band, they understand our albums tell the story of a simple dude (me) and his evolution in life. this is the part where, having gone through his "idealistic--yet-furious-virgin" phase (baseball), young "drunk-angry-pukey-sex" phase (is a real boy), his "reaping - the - benefits - of - years - of - self - abuse - by - being - stuck - in - a - terrible -relationship" phase (in defense of the genre), he is finally confronted with the question of what the point of all of it was. what is the moral of the story? why be in a band? why try to "get" the girl? you spend years bitching or hurting yourself and others until you realize there is really something to fight for and something to fight against and being a man means drawing the line. that, my friends, is where the real adventure begins.

this album is self titled for a reason; it will take all the musical and lyrical themes of every say anything song, and attempt to resolve them and infuse them with something pure and direct.
i am not going to " brandon flowers it" and say this is going to be the record that saves rock n' roll, or makes pitchfork. com finally admit we had it all along. those things are not only pre-packaged indie rock nay nay but are also pointless and fleeting.
i don't know how far our album will get us commercially or even if all of you amazing ap. net friends will show up the day it comes out, say it blows, and change your " fatty max bemis with a cigarette" icon to a "hot picture of first-button-undone anthony green" icon. however, if my opinion matters to you, i promise that i love these songs to death. I REALLY hope you do too and that's all i can pray for. For those who thought in defense, while cool, was too long and serious; i see this next outing as more darkly humorous and concise. for those of you who dug is a real boy but appreciate our later maturity, such as the addition of real singing to the drunken sailor routine; this record looks like it will be even more of a step forward, without giving away too much.

We are so thankful for your love. I am constantly humbled before your appreciation and I never thought we'd get this far, so we NEED to pay you back with a cool album or we'll be doing carnival-cruise-line-emo-nostaglia tours with jefree starr by the time you guys are forty. We will work it to the bone to not let you down. Recording begins ths winter in Los Angeles, California.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead

The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies has printed about 250,000 tickets to the Jan. 20 swearing-in ceremony at the west front of the U.S. Capitol.

The tickets are free and will be given to members of Congress and to President-elect Barack Obama's presidential inaugural committee, once that is established. Those who want to attend the ceremony should contact their local member of Congress to request tickets. The viewing area will stretch from the Capitol along the Mall. Some more distant parts of the viewing area will not require tickets and will probably be served by huge video screens.

Congressional staffers said Friday that there were reports of advertisements on the Internet selling inaugural tickets for hundreds of dollars each. They said any such ticket would be false and of no value. Only congressional members' offices will be distributing the tickets. Several congressional members' offices said they had been so deluged with calls requesting tickets that they were planning to set up Web sites to take requests.
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They have not been told how many tickets will be allotted to each member's office, and they said that tickets will not be given out until one week before the inauguration.

Details about the inaugural parade will be worked out once the presidential committee is established. In the past, there have been ticketed and non-ticketed viewing areas for the parade.

Groups interested in marching in the parade should apply to the Armed Forces Inaugural Committee at http://www.afic.northcom.mil by 5 p.m. Friday.

"In the end, more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all - security, comfort, and freedom. When ... the freedom they wished for was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free." -- Sir Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)