Chino Moreno has always been one to extend his vocal talents far beyond the screaming, crooning and jumping around like a madman in high socks that he’s best known for as the frontman of Deftones. See his work with Team Sleep and Crosses, his guest appearances with Soulfly, Sevendust, Whitechapel, Korn, Norma Jean and many many more for proof that Chino’s ambition — and talent — runs deep.

The latest artist to receive the gift of Chino’s purdy voice is Anthony Green, best known as the heart-throbby lead singer of proggy alt-rockers Circa Survive, who will release his second solo record Beautiful Things on January 17th via Photo Finish. Anthony Green’s new song “Right Outside” has Chino all over it — it’s practically a duet — and the harmonies and vocal interplay are gorgeous, a whole different of Chino you’re probably not accustomed to hearing. Stream “Right Outside” at Rolling Stone, then come back here and tell us what you think.

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Dredg are one of those bands who completely defy categorization but who are unconditionally beloved by a whole army of devoted fans. Myself included; I can honestly say they’re one of my favorite bands to emerge over the past 10 or so years. They’re also a band that continually evolves from release to release, and though their sound has steadily moved away from metal since 1998′s heavier but overall less consistent Leitmotif they still maintain enough “heavy” elements in their sound to keep fans of that kind of music interested in their modern, more experimental fare.

Dredg are currently on tour with Circa Survive, Codeseven and Animals as Leaders (!). Having recently announced a new label in Superball Music they’ve got a new album on the way too, which singer Gavin Hayes thinks will come out around March of 2011. The album was produced by hip-hop guru Dan the Automator, certainly not an obvious choice for a rock band but one that makes perfect sense for a genre-pushing band like Dredg. With the tour currently out on the road, said album nearing completion and a new record label putting it out, now seemed like the perfect opportunity to catch up with frontman Gavin Hayes.

Our chat, post jump.

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Photo by the esteemed Ms. Jacqueline Cheng. More from their Central Park performance here.

If you’re a prog nerd and this lineup doesn’t get your balls tingling, I’m not sure what will. Circa Survive are a contentious band ’round these parts — you’d be right to say they aren’t really metal (and hey fuck you it’s my website i’ll write about what I want to) but wrong to say they aren’t really good – will embark on a headlining tour in October and November with fellow weirdos in excellence Dredg, the recently reunited Codeseven, and… wait for it… Animals as Leaders!

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MS photographic wiz Jacqueline Cheng was on hand to catch alt-progsters Circa Survive’s opening set for Coheed & Cambria and Torche at Central Park on May 26th. Check out her photos after the jump.

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Photo credit: EmpyreLounge.com

My interview with Coheed & Cambria guitarist Travis Stever got off to a bit of a slow start. I believe I was his first interview of the morning in a long line of many, and he was audibly a bit groggy after a rough night of sleep on the bus. But after a few questions Stever got into the flow of things, and started talking at length about his band’s new record Year of the Black Rainbow, their current tour with Circa Survive and Torche, working with ex-Dillinger Escape Plan drummer Chris Pennie, the Neverender series of shows and the thrill of playing Madison Square Garden.

We only had fifteen minutes to talk before Stever was whisked away to his next interview, but we got plenty accomplished in that time. Our chat, after the jump.

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April 20th was circled in my calendar well in advance, and not just because it’s holiday we at the MS Mansion take very seriously — April 20th marked the biggest release date of the year thus far for metal releases with new offerings from Periphery, Ratt, Sevendust, another greatest hits repacking from AC/DC, Circa Survive, Airbourne and more. Let’s see how those releases fared in their first week out, as well as how other metal and hard rock records are performing after the jump.

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Check out this time-lapse video of artist Esao Andrews painting the cover of Circa Survive’s forthcoming album Blue Sky Noise. My missive against the relevance of album art be damned, this is pretty fucking cool. Many of you will immediately write this band off because of the way their vocalist sounds, and many of you will will (rightly) declare they aren’t metal… but hey, fuck you, it’s my website!

Blue Sky Noise comes out on 4/20. You can catch Circa Survive on tour with Coheed & Cambria and Torche this Spring.

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I always really dig tours that match together a bunch of bands who don’t really fit into any one scene. When these kinds of bands are awkwardly placed on bills with a bunch of bands that don’t sound like them the end result is that die-hard fans of said bands don’t bother attending and those who do attend are completely uninterested. A great example of this phenomenon is the way Protest the Hero toured with one shit band after the next in support of Fortress; it wasn’t until they capped the album cycle with a headline run that I finally got to see them live.

Check out this recently announced Spring tour that groups together a bunch of such individual-minded bands: Coheed & Cambria, Torche and Circa Survive. How cool is that? All these bands sound totally different from one another but they’re united in their unwillingness to fit into any one scene. It’s a perfect fit, and for a change anyone that goes to see one specific band will probably end up digging the others too.

Coheed & Cambria and Circa Survive will both have new albums to promote, and while Torche won’t have anything new (that I’m aware of) it’ll be a great opportunity for them to spread their wings outside of their indie-metal centric fanbase. Have a look at the full list of dates after the jump.

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