UC Irvine Show Pt. 2: Switchfoot brings the Rock!

Pt. 2 (for Pt. 1 of this review, go to this post)

After about half an hour of stage prep work (after all, this was the MAIN attraction of the night), it was time. The lights dimmed as the band took the stage, to veritably thunderous applause. You could just feel the atmosphere shift, from the poppy, feel-good of RK and Ruth to the down-dirty rock show feel of Switchfoot’s set.



The band came out and played the opening riffs of “Meant to Live,” with Jon Foreman already in a climbing mood, rockin’ out on one of the boxes in front of the crowd barrier. See picture below:



With that teaser, they began to play “Oh! Gravity.” to the cheers of many in the crowd. Personally, it seems more of an obligatory song at this point than anything else, as it was a single, and is the theme song of the popular MTV show “Life of Ryan Sheckler.” The guys did play it with all they got though. A few minutes after the final chords of “Gravity.”, the unmistakable riffs of “Stars” could be heard. Great energy, once again.

They played through the rest of their set with equal energy, equal reckless abandon (especially on Jon’s part), and just pure joy. Notables were the new mash-up version of “Gone/Crazy In Love,” which was pretty entertaining, to say the least.


(American Dream Freeze)

After most of this first part of the set, the band began to settle into a more profound energy. Yes, hits like “Stars”, “This Is Your Life”, and “Gone”, as well as “American Dream” were filled with energy and crowd support, but the night began to turn when Switchfoot played “Dirty Second Hands.” I’d already heard this song live, but it was just as amazing watching it again. Dedicating the song to the thrift stores across America, Jon ranted and raved through the song, singing “here’s the face of everything the breaks you down… are you really as tough as you think?” The raw tenacity and emotion put into this song really set the tone for the rest of the song, and the rest of the evening, especially when Jon pulled one of the drummer Chad Butler’s cymbals and pounded it to oblivion during the rockin’ interlude. Guitarist Drew Shirley’s skillful guitar work shone brightly here, just as brightly as the breath-taking strobe lighting that ensued during Jon’s massacre of the cymbal.

But the song did come to an end, sadly. But shifting from the raging wail of “Dirty,” Chad began to play the drum intro to “We Are One Tonight.” Jon introduced the song as a rock-show song; back as a little kid in San Diego, he felt the connection, at least for one night between perfect strangers that can be had at a rock show. “But if this is a song about unity, then it’s a song about a fight… a fight!” he declared. From the anthemic chorus “We are one tonight, and we’re singing it out” to the slow interludal “slow this evening down, slow it down, slow it down…” ineterspersed with words from “Shadow Proves the Sunshine”, the song bred in many of us that night that rock show feel. We truly were one, singing out as one voice!

That feeling continued, when Jon welcomed to the stage “the Rrrrruth’s, and the Rrrrelient K’s, ladies and gentlemen!” to play the tour song, “Rebuild.” Jon talked about how in the wake of the fires in San Diego, and the fires that consumed Relient K’s tour bus earlier this summer, the song took on a new meaning for him. Then the song commenced, with every single band member from all three bands having fun and singing together, “oh way oh, we’re the regeneration…” It was truly fun to see all the guys on stage just having a good time.

“On Fire” introduced, for the first time in the set, a calm, introspective, yet uniting song. The distinctive keys of Jerome Fontamillas’ piano and Jon’s celloist friend Keith Tutt setting the tone, Jon went full-effort into this song, even going out into the crowd, as is his habit. After yeahhaahhaahing the song out there for awhile with “one big family,” Jon called up the band’s latest hit “Awakening” by saying, “you’re gonna help us start this off!”



This was the most fun I think of the whole set. Almost everyone was jumping, singing “Here we are now with the falling sky and the rain… WE’RE AWAKENING!!!” This song has meant a lot to me since I first heard it, and singing it with a thousand other people makes it even more impactful. Fun stuff.

“Meant to Live” began slow, with Jon talking about how “we breathe in, we breathe out… and nothing happens! This can’t be what these gifts were given to us for… every breath is a gift.” Then, before we know it, “We were meant to live…” was echoing off the rafters of Bren in a very U2 fashion, and the teaser we heard at the beginning of the set was completed with the full song.

The funny thing is, at the end of this song, streams of people were leaving, thinking the show was over. After all, the guys were off the stage, the place was dark… but wait! Why is this crazy kid yelling “It’s not over!! It’s NOT OVER!!!” Maybe we should stay…? That crazy kid was yours truly, yelling at the people passing by, pleading with them not to leave. Haha. That was fun. Anyways, Keith the celloist and Jon returned to stage, to play a beautiful rendition of A Walk to Remember hit “Only Hope.” Hearing it live gets me every time. Beautiful. Then, the rest of the band returned as well, and they drummed, strummed, played, and wailed “Dare You to Move,” a powerful ending to a powerful night…

Setlist
1. Oh! Gravity.
2. Stars
3. This Is Your Life
4. Gone/Crazy In Love mash-up
5. American Dream
6. Dirty Second Hands
7. We Are One Tonight
8. Rebuild
9. On Fire
10. Awakening
11. Meant to Live

Encore
12. Only Hope
13. Dare You to Move

Go Here to see hi-quality photos from Jered Scott. Very cool!

UC Irvine Show Review Pt. 1

When: November 27, 2007
Where: UC Irvine's Bren Events Center
Who: rock bands Switchfoot, Relient K, and Ruth

My show experience began long before the actual show; it began with the sad disappointment of finding the floor tickets for the Bren Events Center in UCI all sold out. And this happening just two or three days of pre-sale closing! I consider this one of those “beautiful letdown” moments; Although I was bummed at missing out on floor seats, I was pretty stoked that tickets were selling out that fast! After overcoming the initial despair and said letdown, I quickly accosted my mom, and we got ourselves tickets for section 120. Little did I know that we had acquired seats in the uppermost row, the “nosebleeds” of UCI’s Bren Events Center. Since this was a relatively small basketball gym however, it wasn’t too much of a problem. I recruited my good friend Jason to come with me to the show, and his mom finally said yes. So we were off!

We got to Bren at around 6:30ish, and we wandered around, and I bought the bootleg/tour program thing, and finally got the Photobook. Needless to say, it’s awesome. I’m sorry… it really is…

7:00 came, and Ruth took the stage for a solid 4-song set. The only song I knew by them is “You Are,” but the rest were pretty solid too. I think they’ll do well in the future. At this point, the floor area was looking about half-full…


After the usual stagework in between sets, Relient K took the stage, to less-than-thunderous applause. I was surprised at how little of the people there actually knew any of their songs. I mean, this was the band that was on MTV a few years ago. Then I realized that the culprit could verily be our Orange County Christian radio station, KFSH, who happens to never play Relient K, and only play Switchfoot’s older material sporadically. They’re playlist consists of 10-year old Christian songs and regurgitated tunes from days past. Anyways, that’s my theory. Enough on that.

Relient K did put on a pretty sweet show, with Matt Thiessen consistently switching between keys and Guitar. The set started with “I So Hate Consequences,” with the primal intro “I’m good good good to go! I’m good good good to go…!” They blazed quickly through some of their other songs, including 2005’s hit “Be My Escape” and even covered “Head Over Heels” by Tears For Fears before segueing into their own 80’s inspired tune, “In Love With the 80’s.” At some point, the lights went out, and the stage crew brought out an inflatable igloo, all while “Christmas Time Is Here” was playing in the background. Interesting, but painfully cheesy. Once the new igloo was set up, Thiessen heartily greeted the new inflatable polar bear sitting next to the igloo, then introduced the tune “Sleigh Ride” off the band’s brand new “Let It Snow…Let It Reindeer” Christmas record. To top this off, the stage rafters began spraying out “snow.” Yes, it does snow in California!

Another highlight was when the band called up three fans to play the last part of their dance floor hit “Sadie Hawkins Dance.” It was something special to see, and probably was the most awesome time for those three fans, one playing guitar, the other two playing percussion. Once this was over, the band played one more, their big 2006 hit “Who I Am Hates Who I’ve Been,” and it was time for Switchfoot…

to be continued...

Edit: Go here for Pt. 2 of this review

News Bits and Switchfoot Features

Thisblog alerts us on two videos on MSNBC.com that featured Switchfoot. This is sweet!

Switchfoot talks about Appetite For Construction Tour and being Indie

Indie Music Feature

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Also,
"Hear It First" talks to Jon about his ep's. Jon candidly discusses Fall. Man, this guy never ceases to amaze and inspire me!



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Happy Official Jon Foreman Fall Release Day!

yay!

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MTV did a little ditty about Jon's EP. Hey, they still love Switchfoot! I'm surprised!

Four for Fore: If you think Thrice are biting off more than they can chew with their four-part Alchemy Index series, wait till you hear what Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman has in store: a quartet of conceptual EPs he's putting out all by himself. Fall — to be followed next year by Winter, Spring and, you got it, Summer — comes out in digital form this week, although it will be issued as a two-disc set with Winter the day the latter effort is released, on January 15.

Source

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Jon also posted a myspace bulletin (shown below) and a new two-sentence blog! Check em out! www.myspace.com/jonforeman

Here's his bulletin:

Hey everybody,
last night was an incredible night for me for a myriad of reasons- one of them being the fact that the fall ep is now released into the wild!

I have so much to be thankful for. I know that i missed "the thanks day" by a bit but I would like to give a little thanks myself. Thanks to everyone who has encouraged me to put these songs out. Thanks to everyone who's been a part of the foot's story all along. Thanks to everyone who's helped us stay true along the way.

This is my first release ever outside of the band- and the first project I've sold on our own. My friend and I were talking about all of this the other day. He was pointing out the purity of a project like this: one person with complete control, paying for everything out his own pocket, putting out songs that he wants when he wants to how he wants to: complete independence. And this control and responsibility are truly dreams come true, making things so clear and allowing me to put my heart into this without reservation.

But on another level the independence bit is only partially true. None of us are fully autonomous. Ever. We need each other, thank God! I'm thankful that I've been given these songs. I'm thankful that many of you have really believed in our music as a band over the years. I'm thankful that God has given me pockets and something to put in em. I'm thankful for my family, for tim, chad, drew, and romey. I guess I'm saying that we're never completely independent. We all need each other.

In fact I feel like the best songs I have ever written have been given to me, that they have served me along the way. I hope that these songs on "fall" can serve you the way that they have served me. I'm honored to have you all listening to these musical monologues of mine!

So here's to interdependence. Here's to friendship, here's to a new ep, may it serve you well



peace,
jon



jonforeman.com

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Today is the day for the Irvine show! I'm stoked! Especially when paired with listening to the Jon ep.

Southbound Train = Favorite Track so far.

I'm gonna be writing up a review on the ep too, by the way. stay tuned for that. haha.

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RSS Email fixer-upper

Quick update on the recent post. Apparently on the email, there seems to be a problem with the links. I have tried to fix em... so yeah.
Fixed post!

"sweaty, rock and passion."

Edit: the weirded out html that shows up in the rss feed emails have been fixed. Sorry for the inconvenience!

A Utah State University paper back in 2004 interviewed Jon Foreman about Switchfoot's success and motivations. It's really a lot of fun to look back and see where the guys have been. Jon talks about anything from politics, to pre-show rituals, to socratic dialogues.


"I heard that dreams are the subconscious mind trying to work on a problem and maybe that's what my songs are. They're just kind of like oyster chewing on a grain of sand, and hopefully it comes out something beautiful." -Jon Foreman.

the source


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Annie, one of our readers, blogged about the Hammerstein, New York show for MTV.com. You can read it here. It sounded amazing! And this is also the blog that reported the Appetite For Construction Tour has raised over $64,000 for Habitat For Humanity. Ridiculous!

And as if that wasn't enough, Annie did a Q&A with Jon as well!

Phtot courtesy of yousingiwrite.blogspot.com

He talks about the new record here:

"I think we’ve learned a lot the past year. It’s been a time of really finding who we are. I think every record kind of has to reinvent itself. The most dangerous place for a band to be is doing something that they’re good at. I think it’s much better as a band to do something that you could actually fail at. We’ve always tried really hard to push ourselves. I think that the difference with this new record is that in the past we were a little afraid of the success that we had achieved with “The Beautiful Letdown.” There’s just this weird fear that you feel."

Read the rest here!

THANKS ANNIE!

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So I've been a bit thoughtful lately on where I am in life, and I have "Dare You to Move" to thank for getting me through some really tough times... so I just put the finishing touches on an essay about it. Look out for it in the near future... as well as a review of the Irvine show I'm going to on Tuesday! If any of you are going, maybe we can meet up while in line or something...

I'll the kid with dark hair, glasses, and an Asian complexion. haha

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The following are rumors about Switchfoot related things that have been found to NOT be true. Please help spread the word:

The Jon Foreman Winter EP has been cancel due to global warming

“Rebuild” has been released to radio as a Christmas song, “Oh, yeah, Oh” having been changed to “ho,ho,ho”.

Happy Turkey Day!

Hello Switchfoot fams!

Hope your day is filled with thanks and giving, and much turkey! So here's a brief update, and I'm off to the feasts... not really. haha. Ok:

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You can pre-order Jon's entire EP collection right now at bandfarm.

It comes with a limited edition poster, hand-signed by Jon Foreman himself. Sweet. (Note: It's only downloads, not the physical copies.)

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Also, the Live at Ventura Theatre DVD was available separately, outside of the Holiday Package, but has been taken down. It'll prolly be put up in the future.
(edit: it's up again!


Digging back through Switchfeed's archives, I found a glowing review about the show.

"So I went to the merch table, and on inquiry found that they wouldn't be handing out any photopasses because they were filming a DVD that night."

Complete Review on Switchfeed.

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Site news

Thanks for the great response to the new layout. Hope you all like it, cuz I kinda like it too! ^^

Switchfoot rules! Peace fams!

A Nice Switchfoot Appetite For Construction Show review... (yes, I'm breaking my own rule of one post a day... and yes this title is realllyyyy long)

Switchfoot, Relient K, Ruth
11/16/07, at Stabler Arena, Bethlehem, PA

The Appetite For Construction Tour is not the first pairing of popular rock acts Switchfoot and Relient K. Back in 2001, as the Supertones took their dance party across the USA on their Loud and Clear Tour, they brought along both bands as their opening acts. Now, six years later, Switchfoot and Relient K are co-headlining their own tour, and what an experience it is.

The intriguingly titled Appetite For Construction Tour references the bands' support of Habitat For Humanity and the building of homes for those who are in need of shelter. A dollar from each ticket every night went to the organization, and the headlining acts even wrote a song to perform on the tour in support of it ("Rebuild" is available for download from Switchfoot.com when you donate to Habitat). It's exciting to see words put into action by bands like Switchfoot and Relient K, as they join the likes of artists from Jars Of Clay to Audio Adrenaline and Steven Curtis Chapman, who have all started their own ministries to combat poverty and destitution.

On November 16th, 2007, fans piled into Lehigh University's Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to experience the tour firsthand. The show began rather early at 6:00pm (especially for a Friday night), kicking the night off with newcomers Ruth, one of the latest Tooth & Nail Records signings. The long-haired, flannel-wearing Battle Ground, Washington foursome played cuts from their debut, Secondhand Dreaming, including "You Are," "Here To New York," "Cross The Line," and "Mr. Turner." Ironically, some of Ruth's stylings harken back to the early days of Switchfoot, with lead singer Dustin Ruth's vocals bearing similar qualities to Jon Foreman's. Musically, the band was a nice fit for the lineup, and it was great to hear a blatantly spiritual act open the night.

A short intermission followed and the Relient K emerged. Frontman Matt Thiessen had been under the weather, even admitting to the audience that they almost cancelled the show the night before because of it, but he pressed on regardless. Even for a singer who's struggling with feeling sick, Thiessen put on a strong vocal performance with very little evidence of him even really having any ailments. The band opened with "I So Hate Consequences," tearing forward with "Devastation and Reform" and, surprisingly, fan favorite "Be My Escape." At this point, Thiessen brought up the band's appreciation for most everything that was the 80's, and launched into a cover of Tears For Fears' "Head Over Heels," with the guys soaking in a retro-esque stage lighting, before seamlessly drifting into their original, "In Love With The 80's." The song also held a bit more poignancy than usual as Thiessen was once again sporting a mustache for this tour, a gag that the vocalist had pulled at least once before. "Must Have Done Something Right" followed, with "Which To Bury, Us Or The Hatchet?" close behind. "I Need You" preceded a brief word from Thiessen about Habitat For Humanity, which the band complimented nicely by following with "Give." Radio hit "Forgiven" preceded one of the highlights of the night as former Supertone Ethan Luck dragged a blow-up Christmas lawn ornament onto the stage and inflated it. After Thiessen mentioned the recent release of their full-length Christmas album, Let It Snow, Baby... Let It Reindeer, large air jets suspended above the audience began shooting out white paper flakes onto the crowd below to simulate snow as Thiessen welcomed everyone to their snow globe and began playing "Sleigh Ride." It was a fantastic treat for those in the standing room on the floor, and a fun set moment. At the song's conclusion, the Christmas decoration was yanked from the stage and Thiessen asked the crowd if anyone watched the TV show, The Office. Following a great deal of applause, Matt joked that due to the writer's strike they were able to have one of The Office actors on the road with them and, with that, welcomed "Jim Halpert" to the stage. He admitted it was merely their merch guy in uniform and the band performed a little original tribute song to the popular TV sitcom, before following it with their own cover of the TV's instrumental theme song. During both songs, the band's merch guy performed the melodica along with the Relient boys. Thiessen cleverly added, "And if you don't really watch or care about the show... We just wasted a minute and thirty seconds of your life" to the tune of the equally frivolous "Crayons Can Melt On Us For All I Care" from their latest release. With that, the rock quintet barrelled on into the home stretch of their set with "High Of 75," "Sadie Hawkins Dance," and finally, "Who I Am Hates Who I've Been." During "Sadie Hawkins," Relient K continued their recent tradition of offering a fan the opportunity to join them on stage to perform the guitar part of the song with them, and this time even brought a couple additional fans up to help with percussion.

A longer intermission separated the RK and Switchfoot sets. Although some co-headlining gigs I've seen before have allowed for both acts to do encores, I was surprised Relient K didn't do one. Still, the band played just as many songs as SF would with their encore included, so nothing was really lost. When the lights went out again for the main act, a giant display of the band's San Diego logo illuminated on the backdrop behind the band, and Switchfoot walked out, beginning the opening riffs to "Meant To Live" before quickly shifting into "Oh! Gravity." It was a bit of a tease for the fans, but a great intro, and the set was off to a strong start as it moved right into the catchy sounds of "Stars." Frontman Jon Foreman was dressed in a black hoodie and a black hat, with his fellow bandmates lit on stage from underneath them, causing a unique look and feel. With the close of "Stars," drummer Chad Butler stepped out from behind his set and stood at the edge of the stage, held up an electronic drum pad and began beating out the drum loop from "This Is Your Life." Butler continued this until the close of the song, where Foreman would do his signature singing into his electric. The band followed it with a brief nod to Beyonce's "Crazy Love," using it as an intro to the hopelessly catchy "Gone," and followed with "American Dream." Mid-song of the latter, the fivesome froze in place, holding their action poses for quite well over a minute as the audience continued to roar louder and louder until the guys broke out of it and finished the song. Switchfoot hardly just played any of their songs as-is from the album recording. For "Dirty Second Hands," Jon grabbed one of Chad's cymbal stands and spun around stage as he beat it with a drum stick as they extended the song live. The anthem for unity, "We Are One Tonight," included an added bonus as the band broke into a chorus of "Shadow Proves The Sunshine" before returning to "We Are One" to end the song. This kind of thing happened throughout their set. The band's Habitat For Humanity song, "Rebuild" aptly succeeded, and Foreman invited Relient K's Matt Thiessen to join him on vocals, while Dustin Ruth and his band came out to aid with percussion and harmonica. The new song was an interesting sort of Dylan/Weezer southern rock mix, which was nicely followed by the balladry of "On Fire," where Foreman encouraged the audience to hold their illuminated cell phones in the air. Jon then hopped down from the stage and climbed up the bleachers into the stands to wade through the audience and sing along with them. He even took a fan's camera and photographed the floor audience before returning it to them, moving further into the audience, finishing the song, and soon jumping back down to the floor. Butler performed a bit of a drum solo as Jon returned to the stage to begin one of the standout tracks from Oh! Gravity, "Awakening." Finally, the band received their most enthusiastic reception from the crowd when they began the unmistakable guitar intro for "Meant To Live." The crowd sang along the loudest to this particular tune, and Foreman held up the mic stand as they sang the words back to him, and then placed the stand in the audience's hands. He then took it back and dropped himself into the crowd to be briefly crowd-surfed before returning to the stage to wrap up their set. The fans shouted for another song and before too long, Jon Foreman re-emerged with just an acoustic and began playing an old fan favorite, "Only Hope." Not only was it great to hear an old Switchfoot song live again, but the stripped-down acoustic feel was a nice touch for the mostly "big" presentation of their show. He then began performing "Dare You To Move" and sang a chorus of it before the rest of the band joined him to close out the evening and then all take a final bow together.

Switchfoot have come quite a distance from being a little alternative pop/rock trio from San Diego to being an arena-playing rock quintet. Not only are the guys great musicians and songwriters, but they consistently put on a great performance and this show - and tour - are no different. If you have an opportunity to catch this tour as it rolls into your town, it won't be one to miss.

-- John DiBiase, 11/19/07

Here's a nice pic:



Go here for more pictures.

Oh! Gravity.'s Continued Success, Holiday Packs, and Jono

Christianitytoday.com, a "Christian music" website has listed Switchfoot's Oh! Gravity. the No. 6 Album of 2007. It beat out several CCM notables, like David Crowder Band's Remedy, Relient K's Five Score and Seven Years Ago, and Needtobreathe's The Heat. Nice!

Source

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In other news, Bandfarm has put up the annual Switchfoot holiday package!



This year's Holiday Package includes:

* "Live at the Ventura Theatre" DVD (YES!!)
* t-shirt of your choice
* signed christmas card
* 12-page glossy poster-book from fall tour
* 5-song bootleg download from fall tour
* brand new collectible 5-button pack
* 3 sticker pack
* free 1-song download from Jon's new solo EP titled "fall"

Very cool.
Getting a shirt will cost $20, and adding the holiday package will add an additional $25, making the grand total $45. It's a sweet deal.

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The first Jono EP review is up!

According to Foreman the songwriting and production of these EPs were creatively intertwined. "Most of these songs were written and recorded the same night," said Foreman. "I would sing and play my guitar late at night until I got a take that captured what the song meant to me. From there I would add instruments to the vocal to see what would be appropriate. It was a very therapeutic, lonely, cleansing process."

The Fall EP stirs up just this sort of sentiment — its stripped-down arrangements put Jon's earnest voice and raw lyrics at the forefront of this personal set of songs.

Read the Rest

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Site News

You may have noticed the new added presence of ads in different places on this blog. Please forgive the inconvenience, but it's just an added cost-reducer for running this site. If it bothers you too much, let me know!

Jon Foreman's EP's now available!

Amazon and iTunes have now put the Fall EP up online for the world to consume. If you have spare cash and can't wait until January to get the physical copy, then I encourage you to buy it now! Don't suffer the pain I'm dealing with right now, not being able to spare some extra cash to buy the thing right at this moment.

Amazon

iTunes

And Jon has a pretty sweet little gif on his myspace!



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Looks like Switchfoot has already raised over $40,000 for Habitat For Humanity this tour. That's awesome! And there's still a few shows left! This is great news.(Source)

Exciting times my friends.

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Don't forget to go here to request Oh! Gravity. and/or Awakening. Lets do this! And once it reaches the voting list, we can take it from there!


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UPDATE: Jon's EP is at No. 2 on Amazon's charts!

Jonforeman.com is Up!

Ladies and Gentleman, our beloved front man extraordinaire, Mr. Jon Foreman, has finally unleashed is website for the world to see. I have to say, it's pretty amazing looking. But don't take my word for it! Check it out now!

I really enjoyed seeing Jon's handwritten lyrics on there. Pretty sweetastic! here's an example:



YESSNESS!!!

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Don't forget to go here to request Oh! Gravity. and/or Awakening. Lets do this! And once it reaches the voting list, we can take it from there!

Some good news

Hey guys! It is Chris with just some cool and encouraging switchstats:

The newest single "Head Over Heels" jumped 6 spots up to #15 on Christian CHR. It was the "Most Increased Plays" this week.

The album "Oh! Gravity" is increasing its sales rapidly--it is even selling better than RK's latest disc.

The "Appetite For Construction Tour" has been called "The Biggest Christian Tour of the Year"

Jon Foreman has received is getting a lot of buzz and in January his EPs will be given a major label release.

Stay tuned, Switchfoot may win several year end music awards. To help them do so, check out the voting section of landofbrokenhearts.org's posts!

Jon Foreman EP samples up on Amazon!

Here they are!

Man, this just a day after the official release date announcement on Jon's Myspace blog!

I gotta say, those samples sound beyond promising! Lord Save Me From Myself is an octave lower it seems... but that's the only minor gripe I have about it. Counting down the days til online release!

-14 Days til Fall EP releases online!
-63 Days til Fall/Winter EP double-disc releases to stores!

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Go here to request Oh! Gravity. and/or Awakening. Lets do this! And once it reaches the voting list, we can take it from there!

New Jon Blog(s)

stopping the rock

hello monday,
How are things? I've been missing you. You see, today feels like friday for me 'cause I've got a day off tomorrow.

See, everyone likes to say things like, "you can't stop the rock" and "rock stops for no man" but I'll let you in on a littel secret- it's just not true. Rock has to kick his feet up every now and then and take a day off somewhere. You know, walk around, catch up on emails, read a book, and look for a good coffee shop or something.

(At this point in the monologue I would like to acknowledge the ironic absurdity of having a "day off" when your day job is rock. But the day needs the night, and the tension needs release. And the rock needs a break... yadda yadda yadda)

So I'm sippin my yerba mate, starting my day, just about to dive into a tune called "white as snow." It's an older song but I feel like it will fit really well on winter and not just because of the snow reference.

Here's the update:

a. Fall will come out on jonforeman.com and on itunes on nov. 27.

b. I'll have samples of the tunes up the week before.

c. winter will come out jan sometime.

d. andy (of SF podcast infamy or fame, depending on your political persuasion), just walked in and said that the SF christmas card is now done. sweet. and now he's off to go give something to the boys in ruth.

e. thanks to everyone who hung out after the show in springfield and sang tunes with me at that hotel. I had a great time!

peace,
jon


christmas is for gangstas

one more thing. I'm not tough. I try my hardest, but I'm not tough. So even though I wish I were in some rap/rock outfit, my dreams remain unfulfilled. But If I ever put out a rap christmas CD this would be the cover:

So there ya have it. The first Jon Foreman ep is being released in time for the show I'm going to! Exciting news! I wonder if it's going to be digital download on Jonforeman.com, or if the physical copies will still be released in January? And whether Jon'll take the Radiohead route. These are exciting times, ladies and gentlemen!

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Dont forget to request Switchfoot on TRL; Request both Awakening and Oh! Gravity. for now, and see which one gets added. We can do this!

Dail Foots Galore!

So we have a slew of daily foot entries to savor. Looks like this tour is shaping up to be one of the most fun for the guys in quite some time. Swimming pools, goggled drumsmen, and stage tower monkeys (by the name of Jon) seem to be part of the entire set up so far.

Go here for the latest Andy Barron entries (the guy's a frickin' genius, I'm tellin ya), plus a special guest report by Chad Butler!!

Here's some of my favorite pics from the entries:





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Don't forget to continue requesting TRL, to add Switchfoot, whether it's Oh! Gravity. or Awakening!

Jon Fall EP release date...?

So word is on the street, that Jon's Fall Ep is set for release November 27, of this, the 2007th year. I'm looking feverishly for any official confirmation, but none has been found yet. I'm thinking this will probably be an itunes release... not sure though.

I did find this however:


January 15, 2008
- Matthew West - Something To Say - Sparrow Records - EMICMG
- Jon Foreman - Fall & Winter EP - Sparrow Records - EMICMG
- Number One Gun - The North Pole Project - Tooth and Nail - EMICMG
- Once Nothing - First Came The Law - Tooth and Nail - EMICMG
- Ricky Dillard & The New Generation - 7th Episode Live In Toronto CD/DVD - EMIGospel - EMICMG
- Various - High School Musical 2: Dance Party - Walt Disney - EMICMG


So it looks like Sparrow will be distributing Jon's ep's on the Christian side, Lowercase People Records will be handling it overall, and Credential... oh yeah! Credential recordings! What happened to them? maybe they just signed a distributor's deal or something? We'll see in time... the Sparrow thing makes more sense to me though...

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Make sure you request Switchfoot on TRL here! If we flood them with requests, we just might be able to get this ball rolling!

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Have you donated for Rebuild yet? The site has been updated to make donating and downloading a bit easier. If you haven't done it yet, hop on over and support a great cause!

Request Switchfoot on TRL!

Hey all!

TRL just put this new thing up where we can request any video that hasn't been on TRL.

Here's the link:

http://www.mtv.com/ontv/shows/trl/video_request/

If we have enough people requesting Awakening and/or Oh! Gravity., there's a chance we could get it on there! And we can request multiple times, it looks like. Lets do this!

New Jon Blog..."and with kiwi music stuck in my head... "

Wednesday, November 7, 2007
and with kiwi music stuck in my head...
"hey now, hey now, don't dream it's..."

so it's early somewhere, and it's not that far into the evening here ... but it feels really late in my mind. I'm pretty tired. I had a full few days off and on, if you know what I mean...

I've been freezing lately, which is to say that "winter" is shaping up nicely.

Ok so here's the score: I think I'm going to make a last minute substitution... house of god=out. white as snow=in, (maybe with a bit of a bassoon in the mix)

we'll see. but I think house of god is more of a summer tune.

anyhoo, the new SF recahhd is coming along swimmingly as well.
these three are currently the frontrunners:
running from me
people put your hands up
blood is soil

I will see you in the villa de knox,

chowbella!
jon
YES!!! Running From Me is one of my favorite new Jon songs, and now that it’s a Switchfoot song, I love it that much more. Here's the one and only video (so far) of Jon playing it 6 months ago at Lestats. Enjoy!

Jon Foreman Fall/Winter EP Release date!; new Live DVD!

"On January 15th, Jon Foreman of Switchfoot will release his Fall and Winter EPs via Credential Recordings. They will be packaged together as a 2 CD set."

Source

Interesting. Going with a different label, huh? I thought Jon would be releasing his ep's under the Lowercase People Records... but at least we can look forward to it now!

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In other news, Drew has told a few of the boardies (Switchfoot Message board users) at shows that a brand new Live DVD is in the works, and is near completion. It'll be a recording of the Ventura Show back during the Spring Oh! Gravity. tour this year.

This is the same show that Live Nation put out for online streaming a few months ago. It has since been taken down, so wait for the DVD.

In my opinion, it's not one of their better shows. The crowd was pretty lifeless except for a smattering of the crazy ones... and the guys looked uncharacteristically tired. But the visuals are pretty sweet; better, I think, than Live in San Diego. So that'll be cool to look out for.

Our Oh! Gravity. sales numbers answered!

This is awesome! Chris, one of our writers, asked USA Today to bing up some numbers on how many units Oh! Gravity. has sold...

AND... here's the guy's answer:

"Anyway, this week's questions involved Switchfoot's Oh! Gravity album, which Chris Triebold asked about. The answer comes with a caveat, though -- it's sold 135,000 by SoundScan's tally, but when they compile totals for albums that also sell in the Christian market, the Christian bookstore sales don't stay in the system for some reason. So it's no doubt sold a lot more through those channels."

Here's the full aritcle. Thanks Ken Barnes, and Chris for asking about it!

WHY would the soundscan drop out all the Christian sales? Maybe by now, the record has gone gold...? haha. prolly not.

Rebuild Released!

Please donate your time or money to Habitat For Humanity. If not, you can get it for free too!

Oh, and you gotta love this:

"We are proud to announce
that this is the first switchfoot song
released on lowercase people records!"

Yeah boy! Lowercase people Records has entered the fray...