Pennywise is one of the most significant bands to emerge from Southern California punk’s second wave. The Pennywise current line-up, which has remained constant since 1996, consists of Jim Lindberg (vocals), Fletcher Dragge (guitar), Randy Bradbury (bass) and Byron McMackin (drums). Formed in 1988 in Hermosa Beach, California, Pennywise have released nine-full length studio albums, one live album, two extended plays and one DVD. Their most recent studio album is Reason to Believe, which was released to over 500,000 fans for free through a limited-time offering from their new label, MySpace Records. The critically acclaimed album was also sold physically and digitally the world over. The Western World, the first single from this watershed album, became the most successful single of the band’s storied career.

Pepper will rejoin the Jagermeister Music Tour once again to feature their fifth studio album Pink Crustaceans and Good Vibrations and to support their forthcoming live release, Kona Gold, due in April 2009. Both albums exemplify the band at their most eclectic and capture the essence of the Kona Boys decade of exploits living on the mainland, while exposing them as seasoned veterans of rock. Pink Crustaceans and Good Vibrations is the band’s first endeavor under the umbrella of LAW Records, their own record label, in association with Controlled Substance Sound Labs/MRI distribution. The forthcoming live album, Kona Gold, reunites the band with surf/skate vanguard Volcom Entertainment for the latest release which features Pepper live in August of 2009 at Boulder, Colorado’s intimate Fox Theatre. The Pepper trio consists of Bret Bollinger (vocals/bass), Kaleo Wassman (vocals/guitar) and Yesod Williams (drums/vocals).

Pepper has sold over 400,000 records independently and enjoyed two top 20 singles — Give it Up — (Dirty Hot Sex) from 2002′s Kona Town, and No Control from 2007′s No Shame. Their music has appeared in many movies, television and video game soundtracks and they have a number of album tracks appearing on the Billboard “Hot Modern Rock Tracks” chart.

“I grew up listening to Pennywise in Kona because they would always be featured on Taylor Steele surf videos,” says Yesod Williams, drummer for Pepper. “It was our soundtrack we’d listen to while heading to the beach. Co-headlining this tour with them is a milestone, then you get Jagermeister involved and the party will never end!” “After 15 years of paying for Jagermeister shots, it will be nice to finally get a couple on the house” said Fletcher Dragge, guitarist for Pennywise.

“Jagermeister is thrilled to be once again to be working with Pepper,” said Bill Henderson, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Advertising for the Sidney Frank Importing Company. “Having both Pennywise and Pepper on the same bill is something we’ve been dreaming about for a long time.”

The Tour will rock through the end of May and each show will be rounded out with a local Jagermeister sponsored band. On the road since 2002, The Jagermeister Music Tour, now produced by GMR Entertainment, has become THE rock show to see. For less than $30 a ticket, fans not only have the opportunity to experience a great show, but also have a chance to snag some great Jagermeister prizes and giveaways like JagerMusic compilation CDs, as well as plenty of Jagermeister shirts, hats and more. Other prizes provided by Tour sponsors include custom items from Schecter Guitars, and Peavey Electronics and JVC Mobile Entertainment.*

The Jagermeister Music Tour will be advertised in print and on radio.

For more information and an updated list of tour dates and tickets, check out http://jagermeistermusictour.frontgatetickets.com. Get ready to rock!

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Released: December 2, 2008
Label: Image Entertainment

Review:
The Vans Warped Tour ’07, 2007 Tour Compilation boasts performances from eleven of the bands touring on one of the strongest line-ups in the tour’s history. Also included are several interviews and over an hour of bonus performances.

The performances look and sound great. Most of the footage shows the bands performing near the top of their game. It’s the next best thing to actually being there. The only things missing are the oppressive heat, $5 bottles of water, sweaty crowd surfers, and flying shoes.

Notable performances missing from this compilation include Paramore and As I Lay Dying, but the 60 minute running time and over an hour of bonus songs more than makes up for it.

The DVD also contains several interviews with bands on the tour, most of them expressing tales of woe regarding life on the tour, including stories about pot-a-potties, showering, and food service. Two band interviews stand-out as being particularly amusing; Killswitch Engage and Bad Religion. The bits about the “Wall of Death” and “The Hottest Chick” made me bust a gut laughing.

This DVD brought back a lot of memories from the tour. It was awesome to be there, and a blast to be able to see it again.

Featured Artists:
Avenged Sevenfold
Bad Religion
Chiodos
Circa Survive
Coheed & Cambria
Killswitch Engage
Fishbone
Pennywise
Pepper
Starting Line
Sum 41

Plus Bonus Interviews with Alkaline Trio, The Almost, Chiodos, Coheed & Cambria, Escape The Fate, Killswitch Engage, Meg & Dia, Paramore and The Starting Line

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August 9, 2007
Mansfield, MA

Warped. So many bands on so many stages and so little time. Seriously, it would take at least a week of following the tour to see every band perform just once. Between the interviews, photos, and reviews, this was a day to pace ourselves.

The first thing we did, before having a chance to see any bands perform, was to interview Justin Foley of Killswitch Engage. He was expecting to go on shortly after the interview, so in the interest of time he held a group press-conference rather than on-on-one interviews. He looked a little wary of us half-dozen press geeks gathered in a semi-circle around him, but was very cool to talk to.

Later on, we learned that Killswitch Engage swapped slots with As I Lay Dying, I assume so they could play later to the home town crowd. As I Lay Dying walked out onto the 13 stage and the crowd immediately started going crazy. The most brutal mosh pit of the day formed during their set. The crowd was throwing water bottles, hats, and shoes (yes, shoes) into the air. Men and women (boys and girls) alike were trying their hand at crowd surfing.

As I Lay Dying sounded great. Their set was very tight, and their 30 minute performance was over too quickly. I look forward to listening to their upcoming release, An Ocean Between Us.

We headed back to the press are to interview Rob Kirkham, then we had a bite to eat before we went to check out The Vincent Black Shadow on the Hurley.com stage. A decent sized crowd had gathered in the amphitheater. Cassandra Ford is very captivating to watch and listen to, while the Kirkham brothers, (Rob on guitar, Anthony on drums, and Chris on bass), along with Mary Ancheta on keyboard, rip it up on stage. Rob is one of the more energetic guitarist I’ve seen live. He was erratically moving all over the stage, and hamming it up for the crowd.

There were so many people in the crowd that it was very difficult to navigate between stages to catch the different acts. Next we ploughed through the massive crowd and headed over to the Lucky stage to check out Pepper. This Hawaiian band mixes elements of reggae, punk, hip-hop, and pop in their music. Not only are they tremendously talented, but their unique rapport with the crowd makes them a fun band to watch.

At the Hurley stage was Gallows, further proof that UK punk rock is far from dead. These guys are the real deal. Vocalist Frank Carter taunted the crowd. “Seen any good bands today?” Then crowd yelled “yeah”. “Don’t lie, this is the Warped tour” he quipped. At one point he also jumped into the crowd, and incited the crowd to start a circle-mosh around the sound booth. Exhausted and bloodied, he pulled himself out of the pit to complete the set.

Back at the Lucky stage, Flogging Molly was up. One thing I’ve notice consistently with the bands playing on this tour is that all of them made great efforts to invoke audience participation. Flogging Molly had the entire crowd singing along to their Irish-American punk-folk rock.

Bad Religion came on next. I’ve been enjoying their latest release New Maps of Hell, and was really looking forward to this performance. The set was a balanced mix of new songs, like New Dark Ages, and their older work. They kicked ass, and this time it was me singing along. What was striking, as these punk veterans worked the stage, was the fact that a large percentage of the Warped crowd hadn’t even been born yet when they release their first album.

We headed back over to the 13 stage to check out Killswitch Engage. We had heard Adam Dutkiewicz would not be performing due to lingering back issues, so we were all pleasantly surprised to see him walk onto the stage. Vocalist Howard Jones joked “Adam’s back!” after the first song. Adam taunted the emo-friendly crowd, taking so much time that I feared they would run out of time to play. I watched the set from the side. It was amazing to watch the waves of crowd surfers during Holy Diver. The home town crowd was insane.

Also watching the Killswitch Engage performance nearby was Andrew Borstein of Monty Are I. Disappointingly, we had missed their set earlier, and the autograph line at their tent was very long, so we took this opportunity to briefly say ‘hello’.

The last act we caught was the pop-punk act Paramore. They opened their set with Misery Business which immediately enlivened the crowd. Many of their songs are structured for crowd interaction during a live show so it’s not surprising that Paramore had some of the best crowd sing-alongs of the day. Hayley Williams puts out so much energy, and is such a talented vocalist. I still can’t believe such stage presence comes from an eighteen-year-old… and I’ve seen it firsthand.

Nearly ten hours after it began, it was time to end this journey. We met a lot of cool people. We walked away from this show tired, but satisfied. I wonder what next year’s tour will bring?

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