#alternitive press

[mrscarypanda]

[unironicallyhowell]

[punk-rock-misfit]

GUYS! LOOK AT WHAT I FOUND IN MY AP MAGAZINE!

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The American Scene just recently released a live exclusive premier for the video series called "The Waiting Room" filmed by Panda Studios. 

Check the video out here and many others from Polar Bear Club, Title Fight, Transit, Balance and Composure and many more.

Alternative Press | APTV | The Waiting Room at Panda Studios Presents: The American Scene

If you like what you see check the band out on the dates listed below.

[fall--out--boi]

ASDFGHJKL I WANT MY ALT PRESS MAGAZINE TO COME ALREADY.:,c

[complacensea]

Garret Rapp (The Color Morale) Track-By-Track for The Devil In My Eyes

http://www.altpress.com/features/entry/track_by_track_the_color_morale/

"Vocalist GARRET RAPP tells the stories behind each song on THE COLOR MORALE’s latest, My Devil In Your Eyes, released earlier this week on Rise Records. I'm currently parked in a Walmart parking lot on our way to the Smartpunk tour. My right eye is swollen shut and has stitches in it surrounded by crusty, dried blood due to getting rocked in the face by a bass guitar during our set in Omaha a couple nights ago. I had to go to the hospital and get my eye stitched. My right ankle is green and swollen with a hole in it, my voice is trashed, I have allergies killing me, my head is thumping because I received a mild concussion, and I smell glorious right now from not showering.  I would not trade this for anything.  Here's why:  This band was started as a mission.  We write music for others because we have to.  Of all the sacrifice, pain and effort we put forth daily, the reward is found in those who support what we do and why we do it. They are there every night to sing these songs with us, and remind us who we are and why. Even though I could go on writing about these songs individually for days, below is a brief and mild account of what each song was written for. I always try to be authentic in my writing, and every line has its own purpose. Everything has a reason. I filled up one entire journal with creative writing, poetry and lyrical content for My Devil in Your Eyes. Of the hundreds of choices to reflect upon in the studio, I actually only used about half of what I had written for this album; the rest was written spontaneously while we were tracking. I found that speaking from the heart and being as honest as possible is always the best choice for me. This album reflects upon instances and struggles I've dealt with, deal with and have been connected with others as result of.  “Nerve Endings” I meet countless kids on tour. One recurring staple I hear constantly is that our band stand for "chasing your dreams" to a lot of kids trying to do the same thing we do. “Nerve Endings” was written at a point where I was physically and mentally drained from tour. I was also struggling a lot with a bad case of insomnia I’ve had since I was a kid. I was also being attacked by an inner struggle of whether or not I was walking the right walk in my faith. I wrote a line in this song: "The end result is not one damned thing after another, it's one damned thing over and over." I wrote this because I wanted fellow Christians to judge what I was saying. I’m not a big fan of profanity in my writing; I would never want to do anything to offend anyone. However, this would be something I knew would be judged, and it's actually meant to be taken as "damned" meaning “condemned,” and being condemned is how I had learned to grow in my personal walk at that point. I have already even seen tweets online about this. It actually isn't even profanity at all, but it's crazy how you can be judged for things so minimal in the big picture of life. This song is about following your dreams and moving forward, not in reverse.  “Human(s)being” I wrote this song as a reflection and observation of life and its surroundings. No matter how unclean we think we’ve gotten, we can always be new again. This song is a reminder that we will never ever be perfect people. I wrote this while I was sitting on a sidewalk where I saw three weeds growing through a crack in the concrete. I found it metaphorical for what I was feeling in the moment and decided to write about it.   “The Dying Hymn” You can try your whole life to grow as a person, but I understood in recent events that when your issues are embedded inside you since early childhood, they grow with you. This song is about the day-to-day fight we live and not giving up. It's also written to remind us that we can't run from our problems our whole life; we have to confront them and fight the good fight at all cost.   “Be Longing Always” This song is written about separation, abandonment, divorce and so on.  Personally, this has my favorite lyric of our album: "We all fail, but we are not all failures."  While I’ve grown with many struggles in my life as a result of my parents separating when I was young, I found it important to acknowledge that we’re not called to hold angst, grudge or torment. We’re called to love, forgive and accept. This song in its end result is about translating abandonment to love, and understanding that everyone makes mistakes—some affect you dramatically and directly. But in the end, we can still have faith. I found this important to touch on within this album because at our shows, more than half of the audience under 18 seems to come from divorced homes. They needed to know.   “Walkers” I remember a while ago, I was tagged in a Facebook photo of a married couple at a show. The caption under that photo simply read, "Hope never loses us." I remember having a conversation with that couple after our set, and they told me that our band inspired them to keep hope and faith in their marriage. Both of them were members of the U.S. Army and had a very difficult marriage. Knowing my words inspire people with hope and "my own" faith is surreal to me. My own faith is the faith inside of you, not the faith you are told to have or believe in. This was very moving to me. They told me that our songs are played constantly while they are in active duty and give them great hope. They told me this during a short walk we took together after our set that night. Hence the name “Walkers.” I hear stories very similar to this one many time on tour. I had to write this song. “Demon Teeth” I wrote “Demon Teeth” to make a stand against your inner demons. This song is fast, heavy and meant to be played in a live setting. It’s all about confronting your demons and fighting the fight.  That battle is there for me to fight every day—worry about the war later. I was also going through a lot of issues with hypocrisy and looking down on my fellow Christians at the time, which is not my place at all. Demons are very prevalent today, just as they were in Jesus' time on earth. They can still possess people to fall away. In the Bible, Jesus cast demons from a man into a heard of pigs and they leapt of a cliff. I used this scripture as metaphor in the song for confronting your inner demon—your inner filth—and learning from it.  It has always been a piece of scripture that has stuck with me since I was in my mid-teens. Maybe it was so I could write about it years later. Maybe it was so I could use it to teach. Everything has a reason.   “Falling Awake” “Falling Awake” reflects upon struggles I've had with social anxiety and depression since early childhood. I have connected to a lot of kids around the county through my writing and I wanted to be even more honest and give them the song they tell me they need. This song was written for every kid I've ever talked to at a show, online or even have yet to talk to after this song. When we play shows, that's our time together as a family. We love our support. I hate the word “fans.”   “Quote On Quote” This song is me venting frustration in false prophecy. It's not our place to judge others, and we have to be wise in the company we keep, as this company may become a direct influence to us. I grew to a point where I had put up these walls being around fellow Christians and I hated it. I should feel the exact same around a sinner as a saint, for I am a sinner trying to better himself. This song was written after I had been judged and condemned. It was made to remind me never to let the thoughts and words of others motivate me to be anything other than who I am. I’ll always be an imperfect human being. In spite of whatever you believe in life, you’re not called to judge people. You are called to love them. Don't focus on false prophecy, because it's not who you are. Don't just read the book; meet the author. “This Lost Song Is Yours” About four years ago, I had a conversation with a young man over Myspace. He was contemplating taking his own life because of where he was, and I found it very important to write a song he could have as his own. After meeting him in person years later, I felt that I needed to write a song to reflect upon our conversation, and I was very confident there would be more like him—as I was like him, as well. In our entire lives, the cleanest we will ever be is the day before our funeral. Our bodies are cleaned, groomed and prepared to be placed in the ground. They are completely free from imperfection. We are never going to be perfect, and we shall share our struggles together. That is the reason for this song.   “fill;avoid” This song is an extension of the previous track. The Bible says, “From dust I came and dust I shall return." A constant theme on this record is the dirt I often compare myself to and the falsity that lies in that metaphor. A lot of damaging things in my life have been a constant plague that reoccurs, but the band is my way to let others know that we can all be new again. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life. I’ve had things inflicted upon me that could have led me to every kind of destruction pattern imaginable. There’s no room for excuses in life, for others may need you more than you need to bask in your mistakes and misfortunes. Every day presents some sort of challenge to me, and I now know why. I think I’ve gone though everything I've gone through for the reason of being an extension for others. I feel I’m supposed to write real music about real situations and experiences so others can connect and grow. This band is my outlet for doing so. Ramon [Mendoza] wrote the guitar track for this song. We played it backward and I sang these words in one take: "I’ll never know comfort till the sun sets/I’ve always known the struggle when the light and my eyes met/They connect/Put me back in the earth/I came from dust and not dirt/You made me from dust, not dirt."  This song was meant to sustain hope. In everything I wrote for this album, I just wanted it to come from somewhere real with a purpose to help others, as music should be.  alt"

-Alternative Press