So last week we got all excited after hearing some new demos from Josh Travis, guitarist for The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza; the demos sounded pretty TTDTE-esque, so it seemed like a reasonably safe assumption that they might, indeed, be rough versions of songs for the upcoming, presumably-going-to-be-titled Danza IV.

Alas! This is not the case! Reader ZackP personally reached out to the band through their Facebook page to get some clarification, and here’s the response he received:

So that settles that. Too bad, too — those tracks we heard sounded mighty fine.

In any case, the band did enter the studio to record Danza IV last week, so we will get to hear some actual new music from them sometime in the not-too-distant future… and maybe Travis can make a solo album or something, too, so those other tunes find a good home.

-AR

Cheers to those crack investigative reporters over at Heavy Blog is Heavy. They noticed that Josh Travis, guitarist for The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, has been posting some new demos to his Soundcloud page, and that while there’s absolutely no confirmation of this, those demos sound an awful lot like they could be TTDTE material. Now, maybe that’s just Travis’ writing… but as HBIH notes, “It’s not exactly a secret that the band… have been writing,” so it seems entirely feasible that, yes, this is a preview of things to come.

You can check some of the demos here, and the others in the below YouTube clip. Whatever project they’re actually for, they sound extremely promising. Danza III: The Series of Unfortunate Events was like one beard hair away from ending up on my 2010 “Best Of” list, so I am definitely watering at the mouth for whatever the band puts out next.

-AR

I know that Vince just jocked the new Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza album, Danza III: The Series of Unfortunate Events, yesterday. But longtime MetalSucks Maniac Ceth Carter sent us a link to the below video of Josh Travis tracking guitars for the record, and since a) it’s a really cool video that shows off what an awesome guitar player Travis is, and b) Danza III is one of my favorite albums of the year so far, it seemed worth mentioning again. I mean, c’mon… doesn’t this make you wanna hear the record? IT’S SO FUCKING GOOD!!!

Danza Trois comes out July 8 on Blackmarket Activities.

-AR

Just in case Ozzfest, Mayhem, Summer Slaughter, Thrash & Burn, The Cool Tour, Scream Like You Mean It, and, to a lesser extent, American Carnage weren’t enough to keep you occupied this summer (to say nothing of all the regular plain ol’ tours goin’ on), yet another big package/fest tour has been announced: the Over the Limit tour. (And, yes, I realize the above song is actually called “Push it to the Limit.” But any excuse to listen to that awesome, awesome piece of music will suffice.)

The line-up, my thoughts on that line-up, and dates are all after the jump.

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Yep. I made a Living Colour reference in my TTDTDE headline. ‘Cause that’s the kinda guy I am.

Listening to Danza III: The Series of Unfortunate Events is like willfully submitting to letting a tank roll over you. It is OPPRESSIVELY and CRUSHINGLY fucking heavy. In fact, “crushing,” although obviously a metal-writer cliché, is the word that most often comes to mind when I think of this record. But it is crushing. It will also make your balls rattle, if you have balls. If you don’t have balls, allow me to describe that sensation for you: it’s tingly.

“W.A.L.L.S.”, which is now streaming at Stereo Killer, is your latest taste of Danza Trois, and it’s a good taste – it’s actually one of my favorite songs on the album, and exemplifies everything I like about it. They should have just called the song “P.U.M.M.E.L.Y.O.U.P.U.S.S.I.E.S.” Maybe that would have taken up too much space on the album sleeve.

So give “W.A.L.L.S.” a listen, but make sure somebody you trust is nearby when you do. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.

Danza III is out July 6 on Black Market Activities.

-AR

I was kinda ticked last month when Norma Jean unveiled the album art for their latest, Meridional, via a teaser video, ’cause it denied us the pleasure of actually getting a good look at said art. Now The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza have done the same thing for the Michael Windsor-designed cover of Danza III: The Series of Unfortunate Events. And while I hope this doesn’t become a trend – I’ve seen Windsor’s entire piece, and it’s pretty cool – I’ll forgive TTDTE, because, well, I’ve heard Danza III, and it’s absolutely punishing. It is, as Vince observed during a recent listening session, somewhat less mathcore-ish than Danza II and somewhat more of what I guess you’d call, for complete lack of a better term, “good deathcore” – e.g., The Red Chord. But whatever box you wanna try and shove it into (“Heh-heh, he said ‘box you wanna shove it into!’”), it’s really just a damn fine piece of work.

The song in this video is called “The Union,” by the way.

Noisecreep debuted this clip, and if you head on over there, there’s a brief statement from Danza vocalist Jessie Freeland explaining the general idea behind the art.

Danza III comes out July 6 on Black Market Activities.

-AR

I swear to you on my very life, I was watching Christopher Nolan’s Memento at 3 a.m. this morning. There must have been, as the David Bowie song that plays over the closing credits proclaims, something in the air; ’cause I had no idea that today The Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza would be debuting a new song called “I Am Sammy Jankis.”

“Sammy Jankis,” in case you haven’t put this all together by now, is a character in Memento, played (mostly without dialogue) by Stephen Tobolowsky, a.k.a. “Oh, that guy.” In case you somehow have never seen the movie: Sammy is man who, like the protagonist, Leonard Shelby, has suffered a terrible accident and consequently lost the ability to make new memories (basically short-term amnesia); Leonard tries to use Sammy’s story as a cautionary tale for how not to lead your life even when you can never recall what happened five minutes ago, and… well, again, for the five of you who have never seen it, I don’t wanna give anything away.

What the fucking fuck does ANY of this have to do with TTDTDE track? I dunno, I can’t understand the words. But it still rocks pretty hard.

Download “I Am Sammy Jankis” for FREE at Metal Injection. TTDTDE’s new album, Danza III: The Series of Unfortunate Events, comes out July 7 on Black Market Activities; in the meantime, the band kicks off the MetalSucks-sponsored Road to Metalfest tour with Through the Eyes of the Dead and Impending Doom tonight. Get dates here.

-AR

I resisted checking out The Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza for the longest time, a decision which was based purely on their name. This was poor judgment on my part – this band is just swell! Which just goes to prove, you can’t judge a book by its cover. Unless that cover belongs to Kamelot.

ANYWAY, I mention this ’cause TTDTDE (holy shit, even typing their initials takes a fucking hour) are streaming a new song, “The Union,” on their MySpace page. It’s a discordant mind-melter, which should come as no great shock. But, seriously, if I ever listened to it drunk, I think I might puke. This is the aural equivalent of one of those times when you’ve had a few (or way) too many, and even when you close your eyes, the darkness spins.

“The Union” will be on TTDTDE’s latest, Danza III: The Series Of Unfortunate Events, which comes out July 6 on Guy Kozowyk’s Black Market Activities label. You can also stream the band’s cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” right here at MetalSucks! And don’t forget that they’ll be on the MS-sponsored Road to MetalFest Tour with Through the Eyes of the Dead, Impending Doom, Arsonists Get All the Girls, and Chelsea Grin. Get dates here.

-AR

BBBBBRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOTTTTAAAAAAALLLLL!!!

That’s really the only way to describe the Road to Metalfest tour, which will be co-headlined by Impending Doom and Through the Eyes of the Dead, with support coming from Arsonists Get All the Girls, The Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza, and Chelsea Grin. This are five bands that don’t know the meaning of the words “tread lightly.” They might as well have called this the “FUCK MELODY RIGHT IN THE EAR” tour. You know who won’t be going to this tour? Pussies. You’re not a pussy… are you?

We’re really stoked to be a part of this one. Get dates after the jump!

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Alright! After an initial slow news week, 2010 is finally start to get back into the swing of things. Here are some highlights from this week:

• Vince got an exclusive interview with Obituary/ex-Andrew W.K. drummer Donald Tardy about the AWK conspiracy mystery. We also spoke to Richard Christy and Pelican’s Larry Herwig.
• We debuted new music by The Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza, Karnivool, and Blood of the Tyrant.
• Dallas is giving away free music, Eyal’s faith in metalheads has been restored, and Justin pontificated on the format wars.
• These Arms Are Snakes are done…
• …but System of a Down are reuniting! Or maybe not. But maybe.
• The dude from Weedeater shot himself in the foot. Literally.
• We’re sponsoring The Red Chord’s Burgers & Bowling tour!
• Underoath don’t like abortions.

Next week we’ll have some previews of 2010 releases we’re stoked on for you. And Vince is gonna be in sunny Los Angeles, so you poor-ass muthafuckas is stuck with me. BWA-HA-HA-HA!!!

-AR

I don’t have anything particularly nice to say about Deathwish Bronson. I came across the below clip of the band on YouTube last night while watching clips of the actual Charles Bronson blow people away in the actual Death Wish movies*. They play pretty standard death metal flavored hardcore. There’s a bazillion other bands out there doing the same thing, and at least a million of ‘em are doing it better. So, y’know, I don’t begrudge them their success or anything, but I also wanna make it clear I’m not writing a glowing endorsement here.

Really, I just want to write about Deathwish Bronson because I love that this band exists. I mean, it just seems like it’s fake – like some people got together to play an elaborate Blair Witch-style trick on unsuspecting metalheads. I guess if I were a nicer person, I’d find some sort of beauty in the universality of the fact that, over in Puerto Rico, they have hardcore matinees with sixteen kids acting like idiots at the VFW hall, too, just like the ones I’ve had to suffer through (thank you very much, One Dead Three Wounded). But anyone who reads this site knows I’m not a nice person, so fuck it, let’s get back to the part where this seems fake.

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