All you have to do is submit a video of yourself concocting your favorite dish and submit it to The Almost Culinary Contest YouTube Group. The band will be picking a winner based on the recipe that sounds best and that they’d like to make themselves.

The lucky contestant will be flown out to the Capitol Tower in Los Angeles to cook the winning recipe on-camera with The Almost November 10th and will also receive a pair of tickets to their show that night at The Wiltern in Los Angeles. The contest ends on October 30th! The winner will be announced November 2nd.

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Monster Monster is the five-piece rock group’s sophomore album, the follow-up to 2007′s Southern Weather, which scored a #7 Modern Rock single in “Say This Sooner,” a slot on MTV’s prestigious Discover & Download program and a quarter-million in sales after debuting in the Top 40 on the Billboard Top 200 with 29k+.

Formed by Underoath drummer Aaron Gillespie along with guitarists Jay Vilardi and Dusty Redmon, bassist Alex Aponte and newest member, drummer Joe Musten, The Almost’s Monster Monster represents the culmination of two years of touring, with the resulting disc a melding of the group’s individual talents into a truly collaborative effort. Before the release, The Almost will release a new video to fans, which will be followed by their lead anthemic rock single “Hands.”

The album is slated for release on Nov. 3, but will be preceded by a Limited Edition special five-track EP entitled the Monster EP, featuring three album cuts and two B-sides. The EP will be available on Oct. 6 exclusively at Hot Topic stores, the band’s website, as well as on the band’s upcoming tour. The Monster EP will come in a special two-disc digi-pack, with a choice of five different covers. In an unprecedented new model for music delivery, EMI and Hot Topic will offer this Limited Edition EP packaging, which includes one disc with the EP’s music and a second blank CD with Monster Monster’s full-length artwork, lyrics and printed track listing on the physical CD, but no music. Fans will be able to download every song through a special promotional code on the day of actual physical release, Nov. 3, from ShockHound.com the MP3, merch and editorial site, which is a division of Hot Topic, Inc. The version streeting on Nov. 3 will not include the special five-cover packaging or the Limited Edition EP.

“We feel strongly that physical retail is still viable and important. We are using the highly successful instant gratification model proven in the digital world but putting our own spin on it and bringing it to 681 Hot Topic stores,” says Randy Nichols, manager of The Almost.

During the tour, the band will make stops at select Hot Topic stores for exclusive in-store performances and signings.

Gillespie, who played all the instruments on The Almost’s first album, is thrilled the way the group began to mesh on Monster Monster, and the band itself is raring to go out and play the new songs for their rabid, loyal fan base.

“This now feels like a real band,” he says. “Everyone gave up a piece of his own agenda for the good of the final result. And that’s how you end up with something special. They supplied the bricks and we built this house together.”

The Almost begin their own headlining tour Sept. 23 at the State Theater in St. Petersburg, FL. through Oct. 6 at SOMA in San Diego, CA, with The Used jaunt beginning the very next day, Oct. 9, in Las Vegas.

“We plan on hitting it as hard as we can,” says Vilardi. “We’d like to leave and not come back for two years.”

Headlining Tour:

Sep 23- State Theatre- St. Petersburg, FL
Sep 24- Culture Room- Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Sep 25- The Venue- Gainesville, FL
Sep 26- Finlay Park- Columbia, SC
Sep 27- The 7 Venue- Douglasville, GA
Sep 29- Visulite Theatre- Charlotte, NC
Sep 30- ROCKETOWN- Nashville, TN
Oct 1- New Daisy Theatre- Memphis, TN
Oct 2- Bricktown Ballroom- Oklahoma City, OK
Oct 3- Zombie’s- San Antonio,TX
Oct 5- Club Congress- Tucson, AZ
Oct 6- Soma-Sidestage- San Diego, CA

Supporting The Used:

Oct 9- House of Blues- Las Vegas, NV
Oct 10- Salt Air Theatre- Magna, UT
Oct 11- The Fillmore Auditorium- Denver, CO
Oct 13- The Myth- St. Paul, MN
Oct 14- Beaumont Club- Kansas City, MO
Oct 15- Riviera Theatre- Chicago, Il
Oct 17- The Fillmore-Detroit- Detroit, MI
Oct 18- Pageant- St. Louis, MO
Oct 20- Kool Haus- Toronto, ON
Oct 21- Metropolis- Montreal, QC
Oct 23- House of Blues- Boston, MA
Oct 24- Crocodile Rock- Allentown, PA
Oct 25- Sonar- Baltimore, MD
Oct 27- Roseland Ballroom- New York, NY
Oct 28- Electric Factory- Philadelphia, PA
Oct 30- House of Blues- Myrtle Beach SC
Oct 31- (orl)House of Blues- Lake Buena FL
Nov 1- The Tabernacle- Atlanta, GA
Nov 3- House of Blues- New Orleans, LA
Nov 5- House of Blues Dallas- Dallas, TX
Nov 6- House of Blues Houston- Houston, TX
Nov 7- La Zona Rosa- Austin, TX
Nov 9- Marquee Theatre- Tempe, AZ
Nov 10- The Wiltern- Los Angeles, CA
Nov 11- Warfield Thatre- San Francisco, CA
Nov 13- Showbox SoDo- Seattle, WA

www.thealmost.com
www.myspace.com/thealmost
www.facebook.com/thealmost
www.twitter.com/thealmost

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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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“It was actually a friend of ours idea,” recalls Aaron Gillespie, The Almost’s founder and lead singer. “She said ‘why don’t you guys put out an EP with a Christmas song on it?’ I said, ‘That’s a really great idea – it would be a good way to get some cool things out that don’t really fit within the context of a full-length album.”

No Gift To Bring was produced by Tim McTague, lead guitarist for Gillespie’s other band, Underoath. It was McTague’s idea to re-imagine Southern Weather’s country-leaning “Dirty And Left Out,” imbuing this raw reflection on the baffling nature of unconditional love with a sparse, electronic vibe.

“Tim did all the sequencing on the song, then had me sing over it,” says Gillespie. “We wanted to strip it way down – it’s a complete and utter departure.”

Southern Weather, The Almost’s debut album, entered The Billboard 200 at No. 39 in April of 2007. The band scored a Top 10 hit at Modern Rock radio (“Say This Sooner”), was selected as an MTV/MTV2/mtvU “Discover & Download” artist and went out on the 2007 Vans Warped tour as well as tours with Paramore, The Starting Line, Say Anything and, most recently, Emery, Envy on the Coast and Army Of Me. Alternative Press tapped Gillespie for a cover story and Spin gave Southern Weather a three-and-a-half star review, noting: “Gillespie wails on the sort of hard-charging anthems that will probably make Switchfoot seethe with jealousy,”

Gillespie, who’s currently touring with Underoath in support of its new Top 10 album, Lost in the Sound of Separation, has already begun writing songs for The Almost’s next full-length album. The band will begin recording next spring.

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