DETROIT (Billboard) - Staind guitarist Mike Mushok calls the forthcoming "The Illusion of Progress" "a very different record for us, but better different."

The rock quartet recorded its sixth studio album in frontman Aaron Lewis' barn in Massachusetts, creating what Lewis considers "probably the most musical record we've made yet."

It follows three consecutive albums -- 2001's "Break the Cycle," 2003's "14 Shades of Grey" and 2005's "Chapter V" -- that have debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and have sold at least platinum.

Staind documented the making of the album with a series of webisodes that started in January on staind.com, which is relaunching in late July as a fully interactive Web site, with an aggressive fan club component providing opportunities for communication, concert ticket presales, meet-and-greets and other benefits.

The Internet plays a crucial role in the way label Flip/Atlantic is bringing to market in advance of its August 19 release date.

While first single "Believe" is making an impact on active and alternative radio, the band's traditional base of support, the label is planning an intensive and ambitious viral campaign to launch and sustain the album via a broad array of Web sites and platforms.

Staind has created an exclusive edition of "Illusion" that contains three bonus tracks and a one-year membership to the group's fan club. The "fan pack" will be sold at retail outlets but, according to Atlantic senior vice president of pop/rock marketing Dane Venable, will encourage buyers to link to the group's Web site and expose them to Staind's online community, including access to a special 30-minute documentary on the making of the album.

Staind is also involved in a special mobile promotion with Amazon where fans can pre-order the album via their cell phones. "It's a first-of-its-kind thing," Venable says, explaining that users can text-message a code to a particular number that will verify or establish their account with Amazon and let them order the exclusive edition.

While on its current tour with 3 Doors Down and Hinder, Staind plans to perform August 28 on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" The group will play two weeks of European dates with Nickelback in September as part of its first concerted campaign overseas, then return to North America for a headlining tour from October through December, with more touring expected in 2009.

quote:

Originally posted by *Lisa*(AKA) ADDICTEDtoStAiND:
a fully interactive Web site, with an aggressive fan club

Ha i like that


great article!

Hooray for a performance on Jimmy Kimmel! Any idea how many songs they'll be allowed to play, and how many will actually air? Usually 1 or 2 get aired and 2 or 3 are played altogether. We need some members of the Staind family to be on top of their YouTube game when that date rolls around!

Staind's soon-to-be-released "The Illusion of Progress" album already has the music press buzzing over reports that it will feature some fresh wrinkles in the group's edgy hard-rock sound.

Singer Aaron Lewis was quoted in a recent MTV.com article as saying "The Illusion of Progress" will surprise the band's fans. There have been mentions that the album includes several songs with pedal steel guitar and another track with a gospel-styled chorus.

But in an early July phone interview, Lewis said the album and any musical shifts it might include really just represent standard operating procedure for Staind.

"Isn't that what you're supposed to do every time you go into the studio?" he asked.

"I thought that is what you're supposed to do. My theory has been proven wrong by a lot of bands that seem to go into the studio and write the same record over and over and over again. But that's something that we've always tried to steer away from, is writing the same record over and over again. I always felt like you were supposed to grow from record to record and try to take a step on every record. So that's all we've ever really tried to do."

If the idea of exploring fresh musical territory was planned all along, what surprised the group, according to Lewis, was the type of music that emerged during the writing process.

"We went into it thinking we were going to write the heaviest record ever, for us anyway. And we started writing songs, and that's not the (type of) songs that were coming out. The songs that were coming out were good songs, so we didn't want to throw them away just because they weren't the heaviest songs we'd ever written."

Advance copies of "The Illusion of Progress," which will

arrive in stores Aug. 19, were not available when this phone interview took place.

But Lewis offered a few further hints about what to expect.

"There's more texture. There are guitar solos; there's tasty little stuff; there's a lot of old instruments and instruments that never got used on another Staind record.. There was a lot of focus and time spent on getting tones and making the songs better"

Those sort of hints - with the use of words like texture and vintage sounds - would certainly seem to suggest a CD that could redefine Staind.

And the band's musical image is something that has in certain ways proved problematic for Lewis and his bandmates, guitarist Mike Mushok, bassist Johnny April and drummer Jon Wysocki

Formed in the mid-1990s in Springfield, Mass., Staind's agitated and aggressive sound initially prompted some to lump the band into the "nu metal" category. That label, Lewis said, never fit the group's sound or its musical intent.

"We've always tried to make sure we weren't pigeonholed into being one thing or another thing. That's one of the reasons that the whole nu-metal label that was always put on us always irritated me. Jesus, what have we got, three songs that would fall under the classification of nu metal, and then all the rest of them are straight-up rock."

The group's real rise to prominence came with songs far removed from metal. After Staind's million-selling major label debut album, "Dysfunction," had run its course, an acoustic version of the group's ballad, "Outside" was included on the "Family Values Tour '99" live CD. With Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst joining Lewis on vocals, this version of "Outside" became a runaway hit.

Then to preview its next CD, 2001's "Break The Cycle," Staind released the ballad "It's Been Awhile," and it, too, became a smash hit and helped propel "Break The Cycle" to a chart-topping debut on the "Billboard" magazine album chart and sales of more than five million copies before all was said and done.

The next two CDs, 2003's "14 Shades Of Grey" and "Chapter V" each debuted atop the album chart, and Lewis is clearly hoping "The Illusion of Progress" will repeat that feat.

"That would be huge, right?" he said. "There are only like four or five bands that have had three number ones in a row. If we can successfully pull this fourth one off, I think it's like us and U2 that are the only bands that have ever done that."

Staind is priming the pump for the release of "The Illusion of Progress" with the release of a lead single, "Believe," and an opening slot for 3 Doors Down on that group's summer tour.

"Believe," though, may be the only song off of "The Illusion of Progress" that fans hear on this tour, at least until after the CD arrives in stores.

"It's a support slot," Lewis noted.

"So with that being said, we tried to put a set together that's all of our hits. We play for an hour."

quote:

Originally posted by *Lisa*(AKA) ADDICTEDtoStAiND: Staind documented the making of the album with a series of webisodes that started in January on staind.com, which is relaunching in late July as a fully interactive Web site, with an aggressive fan club component providing opportunities for communication, concert ticket presales, meet-and-greets and other benefits...

...the label is planning an intensive and ambitious viral campaign to launch and sustain the album via a broad array of Web sites and platforms...

...including access to a special 30-minute documentary on the making of the album.

^hmm should be interesting to see how this pans out..deff looking forward to the documentary though..

when is the new site + audio samples coming out???


?

quote:

Originally posted by .-.-.-.-.-.-:
when is the new site + audio samples coming out???


?

This week!

quote:

Originally posted by *Lisa*(AKA) ADDICTEDtoStAiND:

quote:

Originally posted by .-.-.-.-.-.-:
when is the new site + audio samples coming out???


?

This week!

when when when.. lol what day?? what exact time lisa? i know u know...lol j/k

^^yay! can't wait!!

I'm sure it will all happen while I'm at school...
6-10:40pm.... nite classes!
Woo!

quote:

Originally posted by *Lisa*(AKA) ADDICTEDtoStAiND:
Staind documented the making of the album with a series of webisodes that started in January on staind.com, which is relaunching in late July as a fully interactive Web site, with an aggressive fan club component providing opportunities for communication, concert ticket presales, meet-and-greets and other benefits.

see

Well if they don't update tonite, I'll likely be around to see it! Woot!

quote:

Originally posted by Akurei14:
Well if they don't update tonite, I'll likely be around to see it! Woot!

woohoo!

I got a bad feeling that its gonna be a delayed release as far as the site goes.

I think it's all going down Friday, they always seem to do that kinda shit on Fridays.

quote:

Originally posted by *Lisa*(AKA) ADDICTEDtoStAiND:
I think it's all going down Friday, they always seem to do that kinda shit on Fridays.

Yep, they do seem to. So, I'm w/you on that.