Yeah, Hawk Nelson fans who saw them on the Rock & Worship Roadshow tour, already heard the title track of their upcoming release, "Live Life Loud". They played the song as part of their show on the tour, and it's also the title of their upcoming album #4, set to release September 2009. That's gonna be a good month with new stuff slated to come out from both Hawk and BarlowGirl!  Oh, and you know who's co-writing some of the new Hawk songs?  TobyMac, Trevor McNevan from TFK and FM Static, and Bart Millard from MercyMe.  Sounds awesome!

 

Yeah, what's up with BarlowGirl? I hadn't heard anything new recently, so I went on a search. Turns out, they're working on album #5, due out this fall! And in the meantime, they're taking your questions. They have a cool new thing on their website, where you can type in any question you want to ask Becca, Alyssa and Lauren. Then every week, they'll be posting a video, answering questions they've received. And they look so cute in the intro video! I love Lauren's hair. :)

 

This guy here, Phillip LaRue, wants you to have a free song!  His latest single "Chasing the Daylight" is on the Air 1 Hits list, and you can download it free, since it was an iTunes Discovery Download this week.  Don't you love free stuff?  Yeah! 

I'm not sure what's the deal with the skull on the toilet that appears on this video blog, but the new song "Bent" that the guys in Above the Golden State are working on sounds GREAT! Can't wait to hear all the new stuff they're putting together for album #2! If you haven't heard their latest single "I'll love you so", we're playing it on Air 1!

FM Static made iTunes' list of "rockers on the rise".  Their latest single "Take Me As I Am" has been the #1 Air 1 Hit for the last two weeks.  Plus, their latest album, "Dear Diary" made it to the Top 5 Rock Chart and Top 30 overall album chart on iTunes, and they made the Billboard 200 (which is a pretty big deal for artists ... remember that Tom Hanks movie "That Thing You Do"?  Yeah, artists get excited when their songs hit the "lists"!)  

So FM Static are officially "Rockers on the rise".  Who else do you think deserves to be on the "Rockers on the Rise" list?  

 

"What? Why? How? WHO? We won???? I'm still not real sure I believe it. Thanks so so so so  sososososososososo much to you people who voted."

-Scott, bass player for Tenth Avenue North

Congrats, guys, on winning New Artist of the Year at the 40th Annual Dove Awards!  

 

Brandon Heath showed up at the Dove Awards empty handed, and left with three shiny little Dove statues. Not bad for a newbie! He recently won three Dove Awards for Male Vocalist of the Year, Song of the Year, and Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song for "Give Me Your Eyes".  

Check out these pics of Brandon hanging out with other Dove award winners from last Thursday night, including Steven Curtis Chapman, who won two Doves for Artist of the Year and Songwriter of the Year.

And don't they look cute?  It's Brandon Heath with the guys from Tenth Avenue North who won their first Dove Award for New Artist of the Year.  Congrats!  :)  

 

 

Scott and Kelli put Matthew West on the spot this morning. They asked him to come up with a song, improv style, the way he used to do it when he started his career touring college campuses. You'll have to see the video to find out what happened, but somehow it had to do with Scott's smelly feet. They even ended up on camera. EWWWW!

 

Fireflight and Thousand Foot Krutch are getting all the Taco Bell they could want!  They just won Taco Bell's Feed the Beat contest, where 100 indie bands competed to get into the top 3 winners circle.  Each of the 3 winning bands would get a single and marketing support, provided by Taco Bell.  It was up to people to vote, and of the more than 180,000 votes that came in, it was awesome that 2 of the 3 bands were Air 1 faves TFK and Fireflight!  Congrats!  Yo quiero un mexican pizza!  Oh, and a meximelt!

Oh, and did I mention you can download free songs from the winners?  Yeah!

 

Did you know that the band Press Play has their own reality show?  They take you with them backstage, on the road, to TV studios in Chicago, on the subway to the Dream Center in New York, eating steak in Times Square...I love Press Play!  Click on the video below to hear their Air 1 Hit "Life is Beautiful" and check out a sneak peek at their web reality show.  Fun stuff!  By the way, I dare you to try the "secret Press Play handshake" they do in the video.  :)  

The Tour from Press Play on Vimeo.