Five Alarm Funk Release Live Video "May The Funk Be With You"

JUNO nominated group Five Alarm Funk have released a new live video for their high energy anthem “May The Funk Be With You” today via VENTS Magazine. Watch it now here. The new video, a clip from the recently released DVD album Live in the Moment, offers a glimpse into Five Alarm Funk’s psychedelic sound and legendary, wild performances already familiar to the band’s fans.
 
Live in the Moment, filmed last summer at The Vogue Theatre in their hometown of Vancouver, is currently available for purchase on PledgeMusic and will continue to be for sale at the band’s merch booth throughout the last leg of their summer tour. View the teaser here.


Five Alarm Funk have been touring North America since early June, with stops in Calgary, Winnipeg, Montreal, Toronto, and more. Next month, lucky fans out west can catch Five Alarm Funk at Shambhala Music Festival in Salmo, BC, and Robson Valley Music Festival in Dunster, BC.

ABOUT FIVE ALARM FUNK 

The nine-piece Vancouver-based band are over a decade into a career that has seen them release five acclaimed albums and burn up stages across the country on five national tours. Their catalogue includes Anything Is Possible (winner of Instrumental Recording of the Year at the 2011 Western Canadian Music Awards) and Rock the Sky (which was nominated for Instrumental Recording of the Year at the 2013 WCMAs and Instrumental Album of the Year at that year’s JUNO Awards). Their fifth studio LP, released in 2014 is the hard-rocking Abandon Earth, a concept record about the destruction of Earth by a giant tyrannical robot. Last fall,Abandon Earth won the WCMA for Instrumental Recording of the Year. The band will head into the studio this fall to record their 6th studio album. 



TOUR DATES
July 29 @ Nectar Lounge, SEATTLE, WA
July 30 @ Element Festival, THOMPSON-NICOLA, BC
Aug 06 @ The Northern, FERNIE, BC
Aug 07 @ Shambhala Music Festival, SALMO, BC
Aug 13 @ Robson Valley Music Festival, DUNSTER, BC

VESPERIA On LIVE AT WACKEN 2015 'Double CD & DVD/BluRay

Set to kick off their cross Canada tour on August 4th with death metal masters NECRONOMICON and Floridian tech-death metallers ABIOTIC for the 'Okkultis In Canada Tour' presented by PureGrainAudio.com (dates listed below). Canadian epic metal quartet VESPERIA are featured on the 'Live At Wacken 2015 - 26 Years Louder Than Hell' Double CD & DVD / Blu-ray being released on Aug 5th in Europe and Aug 26th in North America via UDR Music. The release captures the 2015 Wacken Metal Battle world champions performing their track 'Iron Saga' live at the festival. Please visit WACKEN's UDR-Music.com page for more information.

VESPERIA are currently completing the recording of their new album to follow to 2015's 'The Iron Tempests' EP. The album is being recorded at Blue Sound & Music Studios in Toronto, Canada with engineer/ producer Russ Mackay (Mastodon, Iron Maiden, Styx) and will feature an array of famous Canadian guest musicians with the art created by Juno award-winning artist Hugh Syme (Rush, Nevermore, Dream Theater). 

VESPERIA launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise over $5,000 to record the new album giving fans many special and unique perks for their contributions, including mead made by the band's front man Morgan Rider, drinking horns, album pre-releases, the bands stage banners and much more! For all details on contributions, please visit the following link: https://www.indiegogo.com/at/new-vesperia-album 

Majora - Skyfire

Victoria band Majora played the Wacken battle and had Hammer Records film one of their songs. Big thanks to Allstar Pacific Media Solutions for sending us the board audio to mix in with our recorded live audio!

Check out Majora HERE.

All The Way From Greece... Serenity Broken!

Greek band Serenity Broken is planning on releasing a brand new single off their 2nd album coming out later this year!

The Light Within The Blackness

This is the second year in a row Switch To Black has competed in the Best In Vancouver competition.  This year though they made it to the finals. Upon hearing the band's debut EP, I was impressed with their sound. The big question always remains, does their live performance do their album justice? When we witnessed their show at Studio Records, our fears were put to rest as they just BLEW away the show. 

Opening bands always face the huge problem of having to perform early which means a lot of their fans don't make it out to the venue in time to catch their set. Switch To Black didn't have this problem at all. Studio Records was busy front to back from the time they started their set, by the time they finished their set it was PACKED. Their enormous sound filled the venue from the first note. Their ferocity up on that stage drew everyones eyes front and centre. There entire set was full of dynamics, punch, and a sense of fun that a lot of bands just can't bring to the stage. From a producers perspective you can tell that Switch To Black knows their music to the point where its just second nature. Which really allows them to put their entire brain towards performance. 

I strongly believe in a few years, this will be one of Vancouver strongest bands if they continue down the path they are crafting right now. We managed to capture a segment of their performance above. Be sure to keep your eyes and ears open for new material from Switch To Black. Check out their Facebook page HERE.

I give them 4/5 hammers. Keep rocking guys!

Rest In Peace

This is a beautiful song for Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette written by Charlie Pears-Smith. Check out the lyrics below:

Here we sit
And watch the world go up in flames
Not knowing who to turn to, not knowing who to blame
When it comes to girls like hailey, it seems like such a shame 
That we're trapped in this big old ugly world....


Heavy hearts
And we talk of politicians, use our phones to start the day 
Where to start?
And we talk of politicians use our phones to start the day 
And don't forget

And heavy eyes upon the restless
Absentminded and regretless 
tryna cover up mistakes
Empty stomachs for the helpless while we're throwing food away....
Empty pages on the books upon the shelves...

always striving for the better of ourselves along the way 
if we started to consider those from very different worlds, strive to paint a different picture, for the better, for the ones that need the help.... 

Where to begin to stop the beating, how to help the sick start healing 
In their minds or other ways 
Everyone deserves the feeling that you get on happy days 
That hailey will never get to know 

always striving for the better of ourselves along the way 
if we started to consider those from very different worlds, strive to paint a different picture, for the better, for the ones that need the help.... 

To pull the curtains from your eyes
There's people dying all the time 
With new ones born along the way
And without the changing seasons things would always stay the same
The way they'll stay for Hailey

Why Tour Videos Rock

Ever want to feel like a rockstar? get to know a band better? see what bands do when they aren't rocking the stage? No better way than seeing a tour video. See them out on the road, being goofs, having fun, and see their fine pallets of fast food first hand!

Check out Tommy Alto's West Coast USA tour vlog! It has some great shots and some fun times!
Check out their Facebook HERE.

Do It For The Glory!

Guts And Glory have an EP on the way and heres some footage from a live show! Some nice dirty punk rock from Vancouver! Check it out! Heres their Facebook page HERE.

Just Leave It To Luck

Check out this charming tune from Noah Edwards! Check out his Facebook page HERE.

Garrett @ The Landmark Showcase

Watch Garrett tear up the stage at the Landmark Showcase! Check them out in August for the finals!

Check out their Facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Garrett/12643581404

Honestly?

Hammer Records sat down with Honest Woods about their Landmark experience. Be sure to check out their music in August at the finals!

Check them out Here:
https://www.facebook.com/HonestWoods

Celestial Ruin @ Landmark Showcase

Check out some of our footage from Celestial Ruin rocking the stage at the Landmark Showcase!
Be sure to catch them in August for the finals!

https://www.facebook.com/celestialruincanada

Hammer Records Archive: Quartered

We will be diving more into Quartered and what they've been up to a little bit later, but check out this old video from the archives! Go to their Facebook page HERE.

Hammer Records Archive: Incura

Incura put out a fantastic record. They had been working on these tunes for years! Check them out on Facebook HERE.

Hammer Records Archive: Sharks On Fire

Sharks On Fire recently have parted ways. That doesn't mean we won't share a live video we filmed of them years ago! They were an amazing band and hopefully you caught them on their last tour! Check out their Facebook page HERE.

Hammer Records Archive: Kill Matilda

Continuing with our dive into the Hammer Records archives we found an great video of Kill Matilda playing the Media Club! Check out their facebook page HERE.

Hammer Records Archive: Anciients

We recently searched our vault of 400+ videos and selected a few that we thought should see the light of day! Check out juno-nominated band The Anciients tearing it up at the biltmore. Check out their Facebook page HERE.

Who Is Your Queen?

We recently filmed this Queen Cobra song at The Media Club for the Aviator Shades CD Release Show last month. Definitely check it out and rock out! These are a great bunch of hardworking musicians and some solid tunes!

#VancouverMusicians

#VancouverMusicians is an online documentary series about the Vancouver music scene. We interview artists of all genres to get their insight and opinions about the scene, venues, past and present. Tune in every week for a new episode with a new local musician.

Baptized

Live videos are plentiful from bands now a days. Seeing a live video that isn't done from a fan with horrible camera audio is a different story. Rain City Recorders are a huge hub of metal in Vancouver. They work with all kinds of bands and always produce amazing results. You have to check out this set of live videos filmed and recorded there with the band Baptists. Such an organic feel to this video, it's like being right in the middle of these heavy metal gods riffin it out.

Check out the video down below and their Facebook is HERE.