Gym Class Heroes

MTV News just announced a bit of information on the upcoming Gym Class Heroes album yesterday. They did a short interview with Travis, who leaked a bit of information on their upcoming album currently in the works. It’s just a short news snippet, but Travie basically gives some insight as to what they’re working on. I would definitely love to see the entire interview in the future. Travie did spill a bit of info on what they’re working on and confirmed that Busta Rhymes will indeed be appearing on the album, which was already rumored. It should be interesting to hear how Busta’s ferocious style gels with the more laidback sound of GCH. Travie also mentioned Will.I.Am will be appearing on the record as well as Daryl Hall, which I told you about yesterday. Producers Cool & Dre are doing at least one track on the album as well as one joint produced by Fall Out Boy vocalist Patrick Stump, according to the article. Travie also announced the title of one of the tracks he’s working on called “Drunk Text Romeo”, which may or may not make the album. He also mentioned how he has been influenced lately by everyone from the likes of the Beach Boys and The Cars to The Clash and Miami MC Rick Ross. Interesting. Anyway, if all goes as planned the album will hit store shelves this summer, just in time for their Warped Tour stint. Check out the link to read the entire MTV News snippet here.

As posted in an earlier blog, Gym Class Heroes were rumored to be scheduled for this year’s Vans Warped Tour traveling festival. Well, the complete lineup has been recently announced as well as all the tour dates, and Gym Class Heroes will be among the acts in the 2008 installment of the long-running fest. This will definitely help expose GCH to a buttload of new people all over North America who may have never heard their music or seen them live, as Warped is definitely geared more towards a punk and rock-oriented crowd. They’ll be joined by punk legends Bouncing Souls and Pennywise, as well as other bands such as Every Time I Die, Norma Jean, The Bronx and The Academy Is…

Here is the full list of bands and tour dates for The Vans Warped Tour 2008:

CURRENT WARPED TOUR 2008 LINEUP (bands playing all dates unless otherwise noted):
The Academy Is…
Against Me!
Beat Union
Bouncing Souls
The Briggs
Broadway Calls
The Bronx
The Color Fred
The Devil Wears Prada
Dr. Manhattan
Every Time I Die
From First to Last
GBH (select dates)
Gym Class Heroes
The Higher
The Lordz
Norma Jean
Katy Perry
Pennywise (select dates)
Pierce The Veil
Reel Big Fish
Relient K
The Saint Alvia Cartel
Shwayze
Street Dogs
3Oh!3
The Vandals (select dates)
We The Kings

WARPED TOUR 2008 ROUTING (venues TBA):
Fri 6/20 Pomona, CA
Sat 6/21 San Francisco, CA
Sun 6/22 Ventura, CA
Mon 6/23 OFF
Tue 6/24 OFF
Wed 6/25 Phoenix, AZ
Thu 6/26 Las Cruces, NM
Fri 6/27 OFF
Sat 6/28 Salt Lake City, UT
Sun 6/29 Denver, CO
Mon 6/30 OFF
Tue 7/1 St. Louis, MO
Wed 7/2 Kansas City, KS
Thu 7/3 Dallas, TX
Fri 7/4 OFF
Sat 7/5 San Antonio, TX
Sun 7/6 Houston, TX
Mon 7/7 OFF
Tue 7/8 OFF
Wed 7/9 Atlanta, GA
Thu 7/10 Orlando, FL
Fri 7/11 Tampa, FL
Sat 7/12 Miami, FL
Sun 7/13 Jacksonville, FL
Mon 7/14 Charlotte, NC
Tue 7/15 Virginia Beach, VA
Wed 7/16 Washington DC
Thu 7/17 Cleveland, OH
Fri 7/18 Detroit, MI
Sat 7/19 Toronto, ON
Sun 7/20 Montreal, QU
Mon 7/21 OFF
Tue 7/22 Buffalo, NY
Wed 7/23 Boston, MA
Thu 7/24 Englishtown, NJ
Fri 7/25 Philadelphia, PA
Sat 7/26 New York, NY
Sun 7/27 Scranton, PA
Mon 7/28 OFF
Tue 7/29 Pittsburgh, PA
Wed 7/30 Cincinnati, OH
Thu 7/31 Indianapolis, IN
Fri 8/1 Milwaukee, WI
Sat 8/2 Chicago, IL
Sun 8/3 Minneapolis, MN
Mon 8/4 OFF
Tue 8/5 OFF
Wed 8/6 Calgary, AB
Thu 8/7 OFF
Fri 8/8 Boise, ID
Sat 8/9 Seattle, WA
Sun 8/10 Portland, OR
Mon 8/11 OFF
Tue 8/12 OFF
Wed 8/13 Fresno, CA
Thu 8/14 San Diego, CA
Fri 8/15 San Francisco, CA
Sat 8/16 Sacramento, CA
Sun 8/17 Los Angeles, CA

In recent announcements plus a recent video uploaded to Travie’s blog, the first half of Hall & Oats, Daryl Hall will be collaborating with GCH on a featured track expected to be released on their upcoming album this summer. The collaboration was really only a matter of time considering GCH have openly expressed their love for Hall & Oats over the years and have attended their concerts recently, spotted smack dead centre in the front row. Openly expressing how much they love the ‘80’s duo has also sparked interest in a lot of GCH fans who have probably checked them out and become fans after hearing how much Travie and the boys love them. Last spring GCH also dubbed their North American tour as the Daryl Hall For President Tour, paying homage to the musicians, with an obvious preference for Hall over Oats.
From the looks of the video, which is embedded below, there seems to be a little sample of the new track. Sounds to be a nice, laid back track and I can’t wait to hear the whole thing, let alone the rest of the album which is also said to feature Busta Rhymes on one joint. If you want to talk about a diverse band, what other group than Gym Class could feature both Daryl Hall and Busta Rhymes on the same album? The collaboration between Hall and GCH has been long overdue as the band has proclaimed their love for Hall & Oars for years. Check out the video Travis posted and filmed himself here:


sssssshh! be vewy vewy qwyut!! from Travie McCoy on Vimeo.

Travie has completely overhauled his blog site with a completely new look and bunch of new photo and video posts. Unfortunately, there are a lot of problems trying to get it all to load, however, as even as I type this I am waiting for it so I can see the entire thing. From what I can see there are some cool shots of Travie’s new apartment and shot of him in front of his computer doing what he does best – making music. There’s also a picture of a bunch of new artwork he and Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz have been working on, according to the caption. Pete and Trav are avid painters and artists and from the looks of it they’ve been hard at work with a pile of new paintings. Perhaps they have plans to sell them at Pete’s new Clandestine Industries Landmark store in Chicago. Apparently the store already sells some of Travie’s work. Also, check out the pics of Travie on a private chopper helicopter ride, and from the looks of things, he appears as though he’s high in more than one way.

Speaking of artists, Travie also posted a video of graffiti artist DAIM doing his thing. It’s some crazy three-dimensional graffiti done through what looks to be virtual reality. I have never seen this done before. I took the liberty of embedding the video below. Here is the description in Travie’s words:

If you’re a graf head, you know who DAIM is, he pretty much started the insane 3D style alot of writers bit for a while..try biting this shit, BITCH!!…in-fucking-sane…

GCH guitarist Disashi has been named one of 2007’s top three guitarists of the year, according to legendary music magazine Alternative Press. He will appear in the editor’s list in the February issue of AP. As it reads in the snipped of the list posted on The Midnight Society Myspace, “It isn’t about speed. It isn’t about experimentation. It’s Disashi’s all-around mastery that allows GCH to bend every genre they encounter.”

Here are Disashi’s comments as posted on his Midnight Society blog:

Hey there party people. I hope 2008 has been showing you all a good time. In Disashiland this new year has definitely started out with bang. I’m proud to say that AP magazine selected me for their editor’s list as one of their top three guitarists of 2007! In case you seriously missed the bus, music is pretty much my life so I feel extremely honored that I was selected for this. Especially because the other two guitarists selected (Thomas Erak from The Fall Of Troy and Dave Knudson of Minus The Bear) rock me so hard that I seriously can’t keep my fingers still while listening to their music! If ya feel like showing me some love check it out when you get a chance. It’s in the February issue of Alternative Press with Paramore lovin’ life on the cover. Good times my friends. There is mucho mucho more music to be made this year. Um, ok bye bye.

Love,
Sashi

PS. And the correct spelling of my name is just plain icing on a freshly baked 7-layer chocolate cake.

Travie recently posted a new preview from his side-project Tequila Mockingbird on his blog page. It’s just a small preview of Travie’s weird electronic side-project thing with his buddy Nick – they posted another song a long time ago which you can also check out on his blog. Apparently there will be a full-length Tequila Mockingbird album out sometime this year. The new snippet is of their upcoming song “Snowball”. I’m not too sure what to make of it. Musically it’s kind of a decent beat and lyrically it reminds me of something along the lines of “Saltshaker” by Ying Yang Twins, but a little less crunk. You will have to visit the link above to go check it out, though it’s only a few seconds long. There is also an accompanying video Travie recorded in Chicago explaining the track and the new dance that goes along with it. Travie says the song is intended for aging strippers no longer in their prime, which I think we may have all had the misfortune of witnessing at one point in our lives. The new dance isn’t exactly all that complicated, as Travie demonstrates. If you have working fingers anyone can do it, hence the reason why he and Nick made the song for ancient strippers. It leads me to believe Tequila Mockingbird may not be intended to be taken too seriously. I guess you’d have to check out Travie’s blog to judge for yourself. I took the liberty of embedding the new video below.


OK, “SNOWGLOBE” (an explaination/demonstration) from Travie McCoy on Vimeo.

In a recent video posted on Travie of Gym Class Heroes’ blog just hours ago, he and Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz got into an actual physical altercation over a nostalgic Red Foxx doll. What started out with Travie just showing his prided doll off to the camera quickly turned into a grabbing match between Pete and Travie over the toy. It escalated further into some physical assault on one another, and the doll was eventually ripped out of Travie’s hands and hurled onto. It was then picked up from the floor by a dog, forcing Travie to chase after it to retrieve the doll with Kool G Rap’s “My Life” playing in the background. Check out the video below, ya big dummy!

There are also a few other new videos posted on Travie’s blog, including another one with he and Pete goofing around which is pretty funny. There’s another one he posted with two of his favorite artists and one of his favorite songs as they paint a mural in speed-frame, though I’m not sure who anyone is. The artwork is pretty cool though. And finally, there’s another new video posted a few days ago with him chilling in what looks to be the back of a tour bus with a bunch of people singing an old-tyme tune. I think it might be either Marvin Gaye or Luther Van Dros due to the Twista reference beside the video, though I’m not too up on my old soul singers. I took the liberty of posting that one below. If you wanna check out the other videos I was talking about, check out Travie’s blog.


RED FOXX LIVES!! from Travie McCoy on Vimeo.

As reported in an earlier blog Travie recently made the move from his Brooklyn rental to a Murray Hill, Manhattan, condo at the dawn of the new year. He recently gave a tour of his new place with Karmaloop TV, who posted the video on their site just days ago. I took the liberty of embedding it at the bottom of this post. Travie shows off some pretty cool stuff in his home, especially a couple of childhood pics and some new artwork he’s been working on. He also has a pretty extensive hat and shoe collection. He also shows off a pink colored drink he invented which he says he has plans to market and sell, though I question the legality of its contents.

Travie and Gym Class Heroes have done some stuff with Karmaloop in the past, which you can also find in this blog. Karmaloop is a pretty cool hip-hop culture site that sells clothing and also features a lot of videos hosted by amazing producer Clinton Sparks. I suggest you go check out the video portion of site here right now cuz there’s bunch of other cool stuff to check for the ‘heads including interviews with Lupe Fiasco, Talib Kweli and Bun B of UGK. Karmaloop also gives exposure to some lesser-known artists and those who deserve the recognition they don’t always get from more mainstream outlets. Check out the footage with legendary MC Cormega, Sean Price of Boot Camp Clik, Soul Assassins DJ Muggs and, personal old school favorites from back in the day, hip-hop supergroup Hieroglyphics.

Travie just posted a new video and some pics on his blog with his good friends I Am The Avalanche. According to his blog, Travie ran into Mikey Avalanche while shopping for some Kid Robot pajamas at Bed, Bath and Beyond which you can see him wearing in the photos. While I found it a pretty unlikely place for two rock stars to accidentally bump into each other, at the same time they are some pretty cool PJ’s. Anyway, I guess Travie invited him and the rest of I Am Avalanche over to his apartment where they invented a drink they called the Travalanche, which includes Merlot and some other unknown substances. According to the video, it got them pretty wasted. I took the courtesy of pasting the video at the bottom of this blog.

Also, The Arkansas Traveler Online recently mentioned Gym Class in one of their articles written by Brian Washburn posted on January 14th. Highlighting some of the biggest newsmakers in music during 2007, Washburn announces some of the surprising record-sellers including GCH, Plain White T’s and Paramore. It was indeed a huge year for Gym Class Heroes. Washburn also goes on to talk about artists who had success in 2007 are going to be releasing some highly anticipated albums in 2008, including Gym Class Heroes. Check out the complete article here.

In the rumor mill, apparently the upcoming GCH album will be titled Black Widow, which could most certainly change or be completely untrue. There were a lot of rumors it was going to be called Music On A CD, which was a joke Travie made that got taken a bit out of context referencing the film Snakes On A Plane.


I AM THE AVALANCHE..you’re a pedestrian, hahahahah!!!! from Travie McCoy on Vimeo.

Gym Class Heroes are set to play the Bamboozle ‘08 music festival on May 3rd. The two-day festival is happening on the 3rd and 4th at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, with over 100 bands scheduled to play. If you live within reasonable traveling distance or you’re up for the adventure and want to make the trek to New Jersey, two-day passes are $92 and single-day passes are $49.50 if you only want to see Gym Class. Other bands on the bill include Anti-Flag, The Bouncing Souls, The Academy Is…, Cute Is What We Aim For, Aiden, Senses Fail, Saves The Day Finch, and The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. There are two stages and a bunch of other cool stuff to do at the festival according to the official web site. Check out the complete band list, ticket order information through Ticketmaster and all other festival details here. Gym Class are also still rumored to be performing with the Vans Warped Tour this summer.

If you haven’t seen this interview with Travis yet, I thought it was pretty funny. It’s a really short interview he did with British web site Metro back in September where they asked him a few questions including how he goes about chatting with girls to pick them up. According to Travie, picking your nose and wiping it on your female of choice is the best way to go about it. No wonder I’m single.

And finally, the Arctic Monkey’s cover song performed live by Travie is available for download on the Sendspace site. I’m not sure exactly when it was posted, but I think it was pretty recently. Check that link out here to download the cover track.

As reported by New York Post on their official web site, as of January 1st Gym Class Heroes singer Travis McCoy will become a bona fide Manhattanite in 2008, when he officially moves from a Brooklyn rental to a just-purchased Murray Hill one-bedroom apartment. It’s about time, in my opinion. Although I suppose housing isn’t all that important to a rocker when you live life on the road for the majority of the year. According to NY Post, Travie had already been in-and-out of his apartment before he moved out of his rental to decorate it with hundreds of little robots. One can only imagine that he may have broken his new home in with a bang, moving into the apartment on January 1st after deejaying MTV’s New Year’s party and telecast. Check out the complete New York post listing here.

Gym Class Heroes are currently working on their new album after a hugely successful year. Look for the new record some time in the summer. It is rumored that Busta Rhymes will be making an appearance and that guitarist Disashi will be doing a lot more singing on the album. The band is rehearsing and recording the record at a studio on East 11th Street in New York. Apparently, this is also where they recorded the new single “Daylight” with Kelly Rowland. It is also rumored Beyoncé had been showing up to the studio to hang out with her old pal.

And finally, a special happy birthday shoutout to Gym Class Heroes guitarist Disashi, who celebrated his quarter-century yesterday. Happy birthday Disashi!

Finally, after months of waiting, the official video for the new Kelly Rowland and Gym Class Heroes collaboration “Daylight” was released yesterday. The track was leaked onto the internet early this December with a bunch of fan-made Youtube videos. There were rumors the official video had been filmed in England by director Jeremy Rall and was in the works of being edited, which is only half true. Rall did indeed direct the video, but it was actually filmed in New York City, just ten blocks from the Empire State Building. It was produced by Gina Leonard for Siblings Entertainment. With fans of both Kelly and GCH greatly anticipating the release of the video, any information about it and any behind-the-scenes footage were kept under wraps. A seven-second snippet of the video premiered on NBC’s Clash of the Chiors this month. Kelly Rowland officially premiered the entire video on a French television show called Vivement Dimance earlier in December, though the pre-recorded episode only aired last night.

“Daylight” was written by Bobby Womack and Harold Payne, though Travie did have his hand in the production and mixing of it. The track will be the first single off of Kelly’s re-release of Ms. Kelley, an album that was first released on July 3, 2007 but got yanked off the shelves in August due to lackluster sales. After some album re-working and extra songs added including “Daylight”, the new version of the album will return to store shelves early this month. “Daylight” will also be featured on the Asterix At The Olympic Games soundtrack, with clips of the film strewn throughout the video. Check it out here.

The friendly folks at Friends or Enemies recently posted a new video interview with Gym Class Heroes announcing their New Year’s resolutions. With Travie smoking a cigarette and Matt drinking a stubbie (shout out to Doug and Bob McKenzie), they announce what they would like to change about themselves in 2008 – peep the video below. Ironically, Travie would like to quit smoking. Eric says he’s going to start smoking in 2008. Disashi says he’s going to re-use his resolution from last year and quit eating obscene amounts of food – perhaps its all the green that keeps him so thin. Matt is going to give up lying compulsively and quit drinking as he raises his old-time beer for a toast. Travie also gives a small word of advice to all Gym Class Heroes fans which made me tear a little bit because it really hit home. Right here (points to heart). Check out the video at the bottom of this blog.

Also, there’s a pretty cool new GCH fan site started by some people from GCH home of upstate New York. Check the link out here. Travie even thinks highly enough of the site to endorse it on his own blog site so you know it’s 100% GCH certified. You can check out some videos and a bunch of pics on that site updated regularly. There is also new GCH news and info updated all the time, so be sure to check in with that site as well as this one for all the GCH info your brain can handle.

If you didn’t get a chance to see the Tila Tequila New Year’s party on MTV with Travie as special guest house DJ, you can check out some of the clips on the MTV web site here. For some stupid and annoying reason, copyright laws restrict me from watching the video because I’m in Toronto. I have no idea why this law exists – perhaps because there is an MTV Canada – but I really wish this would change some day. There have been so many videos I have been unable to watch because of this stupid friggin’ law. Perhaps someone will at least steal the copyrighted material from MTV and post it on Youtube (lol) in true internet pirate fashion. Anyway, if you live within the USA you can check out the footage for yourself and perhaps tell me about it.

In other Travie news, you can check out a short video of him posted on Youtube by Nylon Magazine TV. He is one of the judges of a karaoke competition called Viva La Karaoke at some club called Angels and Kings along with other members of Gym Class Heroes, Cobra Starship and Ali Hilfiger. The video was posted on Youtube in late December and I’ve embedded it below. Travie seems to enjoy himself (a little too much) as he dances around to someone belting out “My Perogative” by Bobby Brown. Check out the video at the bottom of this post.

Also, Travie’s Blog page has a new photo of Travie at new years drinking champagne like he won a championship game. Check that link out here.

As reported in an earlier blog posting, Travis McCoy was scheduled to perform at Tila Tequila’s New Year’s Eve Masquerade 2008 party hosted by MTV. Though the rest of Gym Class didn’t seem to be in attendance, Travis was scheduled as the guest house DJ for the party. The event was held in the MTV Time’s Square studio with other performers including Wyclef, Mary J. Blige, Fabolous, Kid Rock, Good Charlotte, Cobra Starship and others. It aired last night on MTV beginning at 11PM EST as the celebs rang in the new year. If for some odd reason you were home during the count-down last night or you have TiVo capabilities you probably got to see some of the festivities. I, unfortunately, did not. MTV has released some photos of last night’s events including a couple of Travie on the “Purple Carpet”. Take a look at them below. Due to his apparent chinky-eyedness, I’d say he rang in the new year with a bash. I know I did as well, which is probably why I’m laying on the couch right now rambling on. Here is the official news posting letting fans know Travis would be appearing at the party as taken from the Gym Class Heroes Myspace page. Check out the pics too.

“Goodbye 2007…hello 08!
Hey everyone, if you’re staying home tomorrow night to watch the ball drop, make sure you’re watching MTV! Travis will be the resident DJ at the MTV New Years Eve party and it’s going to be awesome. Even if you’re going out to celebrate, you should TiVo or something so you can watch it when you’re on the couch Tuesday afternoon. Have fun & be safe!! Happy 2008!!”