Epicenter Festival Spotlight: COUNTERFEIT. [Official Video]

*This is part of the Epicenter Festival Spotlight segment where we help you get to know some of the non-headlining bands performing at the festival. This week we introduce you to Counterfeit!*

The next Epicenter Festival band you need to get familiar with is Counterfeit who is no stranger to North Carolina festival fans. The band played the final year of Carolina Rebellion last year, and if you missed their set you can forgive yourself by seeing them this coming May. Counterfeit are English punk rockers from London, England. They were formed by and still maintain their original lineup of lead vocalist and guitarist Jamie Campbell Bower, his brother guitarist Sam Bower, guitarist Tristan Marmont, bassist Roland Johnson and drummer James Craig. Continue reading

Carolina Rebellion 2018: Friday [Review & Photo Gallery]

 

Underoath

 

After a whole year of waiting Carolina Rebellion 2018 has finally arrived. As the gates opened fans sprinted to stages all across the festival grounds in hopes to hang on to the rail at the stage their favorite band would be performing on. As we eagerly awaited tickets to go on sale, then for the lineup, and finally for the set times and keeping our fingers crossed our favorites bands don’t play at the same time. Another big thing most of us wait for is our first carton of Island Noodles of the festival season. We certainly wish we could cover every band that played this year but it just isn’t logistically possible with interviews, and other media related happenings. Friday was a day filled with great bands and if you wasn’t there you certainly missed an epic Carolina Rebellion. The day 1 lineup was pretty stacked with up and comers like Counterfeit and Dubé, then also those veteran acts like Sevendust and Stone Temple Pilots. Then you had some acts that are amazing we aren’t use to seeing in the festival circuit like Andrew W.K., and Power Trip. Then closing out the night you have Shinedown followed by the legends Alice In Chains. Friday wasn’t my favorite lineup of the festival but it certainly had a lot of talent hit the stages and some very impressive performances. Continue reading

An Interview With The Viral Sensation DUBÉ [Video]

 

Founded in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in 2006 the three brothers known by their surname Dubé have found themselves the center of a wide spread and viral meme throughout Canada. There was an article about them within the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test which was given to 10th grade students in Ontario. The article was essentially a reading comprehension test and they had to answer questions about the article and band afterwards. Memes of the band then went viral causing the band to become drastically more popular within their home country, with many students saying it was their favorite part of the test. Dubé once also opened for The Beach Boys as they previously has a very clean image. Dubé’s sudden change from opening for The Beach Boys to smoking up in their video for “Alien” caught the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) off guard. The EQAO oversees the OSSLT and said the reading selection went through a three-year vetting process, but after the article was last vetted in September 2017, the band radically changed its image. In their video for “Alien” it depicts the band smoking a joint rolled up with a page from the bible. Not only their image but their music has also changed drastically, and for the better I might add. The brothers now have a much more heavy and faster paced alternative punk rock sound that is also sure to become a viral sensation for fans. Don’t think for a minute that these guys are selfish and that their rock and roll ambitions are for themselves alone. Their mother passed away after a battle with cancer and the brothers took to the streets busking as well as recording covers to raise money for charity. They subsequently raised mega-bucks for charity on the streets of Ottawa – they staged a drive that sent a whopping $150,000 to Haitian orphans after the 2010 earthquake. The band deserves a tremendous amount of respect for the work they have put in as well as for the risk they took in changing their image. The band has been on tour with English punk rockers Counterfeit here in the U.S. doing a cost to cost stage takeover. Continue reading