Today's Pick

Angels & Airwaves (AVA) has gone through a series of lineup changes over the years, and this year became a duo with Blink-182's singer-guitarist Tom DeLonge and Nine Inch Nails' drummer Ilan Rubin. The band have debuted a music video for their electronic-led new soaring track, "The Wolfpack," which is the first single taken from their latest fourth album, "The Dream Walker," but that's only a piece of a much larger trans-media project aptly titled "Poet Anderson The Dream Walker," which will also include a short film, comic books, a graphic novel, videos and animations.
"The Wolpack" encompasses melodic layers that flow seamlessly into an undeniably catchy song. Romanticized lyrics build around a fantasy, a vision of forests and sunsets. Written, recorded and co-produced by frontman DeLonge, the colossal electro-inspired new track is described as "a bit of a journey in and out of the many teeth of the music business - an industry that can be a sexy girl on one hand, but a vicious axe murderer on the other." The catchy tune is a great addition to the vast Angels & Airwaves back catalog.
Directed by Mark Eaton, the dark, smoky clip, features a crowd in animal masks, the girl from the single who "bites like a wolf," and a lot of drunken hallucinations. It follows a forlorn-looking protagonist in a bar as he trying persistently to find an unforgettable girl that he just can't seem to get off his mind, seeing her in dreams and hearing her voice when she isn’t there. The weird part of the video is that the people the guy believes to be the girl all turn out to be women wearing plastic creepy animal masks.

Tom DeLonge is back with his side band Angels & Airwaves with their highly cinematic rebellious video for the latest song "Surrender," the lead single comes from San Diego Alternative rock group's fourth studio album, "Love: Part Two," which landed in last November. Considered a powerhouse alternative supergroup, Angels & Airwaves, is the artistic collaboration of four accomplished musicians from some of the biggest stadium-bands of the past 15 years.
"Surrender" has all of the same dynamics of the band's previous releases, with the basis of the song centered on a twee hook that's supported by a driven and chunky, four chord guitar progression. In addition, the typical Angels & Airwaves brand of relatively simple vocal orchestration, that sounds more preachy than it is expressive, is also present, along with a seemingly explosive load of drums that sound like they are just on the brink of detonation, before they are snuffed out by a dollop of compression.
Nonetheless, and regardless of any preconceptions that one may have about DeLonge and his sustained efforts to make his 'an art project that approaches larger human themes and tackles them in different mediums,' "Surrender" is intrusively catchy, working its way into the listener with an interplay of melody that breaks down any resistance they may initially have. Perhaps "Surrender" is a nod to Cheap Trick's 1978 pop rock song of the same name, but it's most unlikely, and besides, DeLonge's preachy lyrics seem to have missed the obvious point of a great pop song.
The protest themed clip, directed by William Eubank, and shot in Los Angeles, juxtaposes shots of young partiers with protesters facing off against riot police. It set amongst opposing scenes of passionate youth rioting and dancing in the streets, while the DeLonge-fronted band rock the anthem and incorporate the Occupy Wall Street movement into the clip, as lead singer explains it, "is based on young revolution. The idea that young people are speaking their minds... and that young people across the Globe will still find a way to celebrate even when they're living their worst day."