This will be the first time the band has released a studio album with more than 11 tracks. It is expected that the total length of the album will also exceed 35 minutes, another first for the band, with potentially two instrumentals.

What happens when four exceedingly different and distinct personalities come together to create heated, inspired music? Well, as CKY have shown over their ten plus years as a rock and roll force, it can lead to intelligent, provoking riffs and lyrics, meticulously detailed production combined with magical multi-textured melodies and heady drumming. But, “it also creates tension, tension that must be let off,” says the band’s singer/guitarist, Deron Miller.

Not too long ago, ten years of tension caught up with the West Chester, Pennsylvania outfit. Producer/guitarist Chad I Ginsburg says the band “ended up physically beating each other up at once on their tour bus,” CKY decided to take an extended timeout. “We needed a break, more than just the kind of break you think,” explained Miller. A break leaving drummer Jess Margera and bassist Matt Deis wondering what future, if any, there would be for CKY.”

The band were halfway through the writing of their forthcoming album, Carver City (which was recorded and produced by Ginsburg at his new Studio CIG in Pennsylvania), CKY found itself unable to resolve internal issues, resulting in the band being put on the backburner. For an entire year, Ginsburg and Miller did not speak, nor did Miller and Margera. This extremely uncomfortable time away from the thing they loved most would allow the band to overcome the many lingering obstacles standing in the way of their greatest effort to date, Carver City, which hits stores May 19.

“We could have just said, ‘F**k it. We’re not going to finish the record.’ But no one could make that decision.” says Ginsburg. “When we finally got together to resume the sessions, we didn’t talk about the past or what had happened. We didn’t look back. The passion came back blazing, in a distinctly different, effective and inspiring way. Yeah, We took a year off by accident. But, I really think it helped the music greatly.”

Carver City is CKY’s first album of new material since 2005’s An Answer Can Be Found, and the band’s first studio offering since its split from Island Records in 2006. “Having a studio at my house, gave me the ability to work on [Carver City] for literally several thousand hours, for two years straight,” Ginsburg says. “We added a ton of new textures. Layering has always been something we’ve been into; guitar textures alone tend to bore us, [Carver City] is sonically, our best effort to date.”

Thematically, Carver City is part fantasy, part autobiography. To assist in the completion of the album, CKY concocted the fictional town of Carver City to help them. Miller and Ginsburg inhabited this imagined municipality with notoriously bad luck with dozens of illusory characters, and even created an elaborate history behind Carver. At its heart, Carver City is a late 1970’s/early 80’s-era seaside resort town, much like Wildwood, New Jersey – a place Miller visited often with his family when he was a child. The song “The Boardwalk Body” was directly inspired by one such visit, when Miller says police discovered a corpse underneath the boardwalk. “Lyrically and musically, it all reminded us of that nostalgic beach vacation feeling,” Miller says.

Carver City (which features album art by Travis Smith) is perhaps CKY’s most challenging and creatively gratifying endeavor to date. Conceiving Carver City and its folklore helped the band complete what was becoming an exhaustive writing/recording process, at a time when they were still recovering from their near-meltdown. The band is back on solid ground again, back with a vengeance and a record that the band’s allegiant fans will appreciate. As Ginsburg puts it “the world didn’t end, CKY still exist and are better than ever.” “Trying to please each other and ourselves…that’s always the challenge,” says Ginsburg. “We wouldn’t release a note at this point if we didn’t dig what we were doing. This whole record was done basically without speaking to each other. It was just the music, and work, work, work all the time, with no bullshit. Learning to solely communicate through the music alone was tough but I know we did the right thing taking our time with Carver City.” This summer, to coincide with the resurgence of CKY and the release of Carver City, Ginsburg, Miller, Margera and Deis will be hitting the road bringing the unique energy and atmosphere that only a CKY show can.

“those new shirt designs are the last ones to come out through our old merch deal. they are contract fulfillment, bound to be collector’s items. so pick them up even if you dont like them…i did. working on the art for CC still, its turning out amazing. chad’s in town and we have some meetings. a lot going on. spoke to james murphy yesterday, he will be engineering and mixing the WUB record if things go as planned. if anyone’s interested, the japanese release of carver city is available for pre-order on amazon.com. its expensive, but if youre a collector and familiar with japanese cds they’re pretty cool…its our first japanese release.“

And why are Japanese CD releases cool? The extras:

No-one packages a CD album quite like the Japanese. Known as a culture for elaborate and excessive packaging, their approach to the CD album is no exception. From the visual delights of the artwork and packaging, to the content itself, you will without doubt get your money’s worth here. The inclusion of the famous ‘obi-strip’ not only adds a uniquely intriguing aspect, but is also a great marketing tool for the Japanese labels. The term ‘obi-strip’ is derived from the name of the piece of wide fabric – the obi – that a geisha woman wears around her waist over the traditional Kimono dress. An amazing amount of information is packed onto this little wraparound piece of paper, often noting special tracks, concert dates, discography information and release anniversaries. And, as this information is intended to be read in the home market, it’s all printed in Japanese kanji and ~kana script! Whilst they are safely sealed on new release CD’s they are often discarded once opened, so they should be considered a real bonus when intact on out-of-print CD’s. In recent years we have seen the obi-strip occasionally replaced with a sleeve sticker, no less attractive and equally unique to the Japanese pressing.

Japanese CD albums often benefit from extra music and new video-style content, to further entice the Japanese public to buy their native release and not an import. Non-album tracks and exclusive mixes often feature and there are a huge amount of ‘Japan-Only’ releases that do not have an equivalent release elsewhere in the world. Japanese pressings will nearly always include a lyric booklet or fold-out lyric sheet. These are dual-language, printed in both the ~kana script and in English, the latter often having some wonderful mis-translations!

• Andy McKee
• Cream
• The Who
• Charlie Parker
• The Fucking Champs
• Minibosses
• Buckethead
• Daniel Lanois
• Wu-TangClan
• In Flames
• Tuck Andress
• Duran Duran
• Depeche Mode
• R.E.M.
• Electric Light Orchestra
• Journey
• Clifton
• Caliban
• Spacehog
• Pink Floyd
• Between the Buried and Me
• Creedence Clearwater Revival
• Clutch

Go on… mix it up!

New York, NY – CKY has completed mixing their 4th record, tentatively titled Carver City, set for release on Roadrunner Records on May 19. As with all their previous albums, Carver City was produced by the band’s guitarist Chad I Ginsburg. The album was recorded at Studio CIG in the band’s home state of Pennsylvania and mixed by Chad and Phil Nicolo at Studio 4 in Conshohocken, PA. Some of the eleven tracks set to appear include: “Hellions On Parade,” “The Boardwalk Body,” “…And She Never Returned,” “Karmaworks” and “Woe Is Me.”

Singer Deron Miller comments, “Literally all the things that have been keeping CKY strong since our last album – the undying hardcore support of our fans, our unorthodox musical approach and a brand new partnership with Roadrunner Records – have restored an enthusiasm within our band that has never been this extreme. Sobriety, hard work, patching up inner turmoil and a love for what we do has undoubtedly made this the most collaborative and focused CKY effort to date.”

Ginsburg concurs: “The album is more inventive and more layered than our past releases, with the most melodies, textures and riffs of any CKY album. It is by far the most inspired album we have ever made.”

According to Miller, Carver City carries with it a “dark summer vacation vibe,” nostalgic of the band members’ childhood trips to the East Coast beaches. “The fabled town of Carver City has a history of bad luck and misfortune, all the while giving the impression that it’s a pleasant family getaway. Much like CKY’s town of Hellview, Carver City’s events are depicted in the songs, with story lines coming from real life events.”

CKY are planning to tour in support of their Roadrunner Records debut in the spring.

Exciting news for my pals. Our new website for them is going to kick ass.

Do you want to be a rockstar too?

Every business requires teamwork. It doesn’t matter what field you are in. Music, medical, law, military, web development, even marriage. Nothing is successful without the mutual backing of each other toward the end goal. Support comes from respect, not the requirement thereof based on a job title. Command it, don’t demand it. It starts with you!

There are 4 major factors of an individual that calculates how successful teamwork will be:

1. Respect
2. Personality
3. Commitment
4. Communication

When 1 person has these qualities, and you match them with others who do as well, you get solid team chemistry, team dynamics. This creates success.

It’s not about having a group and saying, ‘get this done’. You can’t force people to work together just because you say they have to. Remember when you were assigned group projects in school or college? Didn’t always go so well did it? You’d have a couple people not pulling their weight, another who let someone else do all the work just to pass.

It’s also not about assembling experts and throwing money at them to solve a problem.

Without chemistry and team dynamics, it just won’t work. What you’ll have on your hands is a revolving door environment, people coming in, quickly going out. New hires, quick fires, low morale.

Team dynamics is a team that can play off of each others strengths in order to support each others areas of weakness. What you have then is a tight unit where the rate of failure drops to nearly zero. Look at Google. Everyone there isn’t the best in everything, most of them are good programmers with very creative personalities and commitment to what they do. Even when Google started, Larry Page and Sergey Brin had such a solid foundation that their college project evolved into taking over the world. But Google is good, so thats okay! What I mean here is, think of all the designers who try to program, and all the programmers who try to design. On their own, they usually do great at one, poor at the other. But put them together and focus on each others strong areas (programming and design) and the end product is infinitely greater than what it was before. Each persons weakness is the others strength, together they form a successful unit. Team dynamics are a force multiplier!

Earlier I mentioned that it doesn’t matter what field you are in, that teamwork encompasses any area. So lets draw a parallel with another industry, music.

Off the top of your head, can you think of any bands that have been around a while? Lets see:

• Rolling Stones
• Rush
• Metallica
• AC/DC
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• The Smashing Pumpkins
• Guns ‘n Roses
• Pearl Jam
• Megadeth

These are some of my favorite bands who have accumulated massive success for the last 20 years, some even more than that. But there are two on the list that don’t have something in common with the rest.

While all bands have had at least 1 lineup change, only two have a revolving door type environment. Guns ‘n Roses and Megadeth have changed their lineups at least every 2 to 3 years since they started. In particular, Axl Rose and Dave Mustaine (both frontmen) keep a stranglehold on everything from writing, playing, mixing, and deciding pay percentages. They don’t really care for the input of the others, and in their mind, they are the star of the show.

So, what happened?

Both Axl and Dave did not respect their bandmates nor attempt to communicate with them on major issues or pending work. The result ended up being band members coming and going. Their poor, controlling, megalomaniacal attitudes brought dreams and careers to an end. Everyone knows that when Slash and Izzy Stradlin quit Guns ‘n Roses, the band was effectively dead. Why? The chemistry had dissolved, you didn’t have passionate, creative people working together anymore, you just had a bunch of guys playing instruments. That just doesn’t work. Sure, you can still see them in concert today, but the only original member is Axl, and its basically just a name and a memory. Same with Megadeth. The chemistry is gone. Imagine how many more albums they could have done if they each possessed the 4 qualities I mentioned at the start of this article!

It’s the same way with web development. You can put anyone on the keyboard and write code, put anyone in front of Photoshop, anyone can give orders. But its just not the same as having a strong team who has a desire to work together.

This is why Inclind is successful at any undertaking and every client is happy with us, why we’re the best web development company in Delaware, and one of the best in the region. We’ve accomplished everything we put our minds to, or asked to do, big projects to small projects to personal things like helping each other outside the office or just hanging out. We aren’t just a face and a title, we’re human beings here to help you and help each other. We don’t just take your money and run, we make it worth your while. Your satisfaction and success is shared by us.

Let us help you »

If you are unfamiliar with the band, here are two music videos of theirs. “Sink into the Underground” and “Close Yet Far” (respectively), both off of their 2003 release “Infiltrate.Destroy.Rebuild”.

Their new album (to be titled) is due in early 2008.

Sink into the Underground:

Close Yet Far:

For those of you on the Delmarva Peninsula, CKY will be coming around again on October 31st for a show at the Electric Factory, in Philadelphia, PA.

To see all their tour dates, please visit:

http://www.ckyalliance.com/events/index.cfm

This is actually how I got started with my career, as these guys (specifically, Deron Miller) were the only ones to give me a shot at doing a website way back in the day. When I joined Inclind in 2005, I was really able to step up their game online and help them with their continuing success. Their website has over 30,000 registered members and receives on average 20k hits, viewed by millions, and their forum is very active with thousands and thousands of posts and topics. It is one of our cornerstone websites and one of our most unique clients. You may have spotted them before on MTVs “Viva la Bam” or “Jackass”, but the real deal lies in the music of the band.

The roots of the relationships that bring you the present-day CKY date back to late 1992 at East High School in West Chester, PA. 14-year-old drummer Jess Margera is a freshmen in Pre-Algebra 1A class, where he meets 16-year-old guitarist/vocalist Deron Miller, a junior who had past credits to make up. They became friends, but it wasn’t until later that they started playing music together. By 1995, they were writing songs and practicing together exclusively in Jess’ basement under the band name Foreign Objects. They entered the studio that summer, and, on October 1, they released a five-song EP, The Undiscovered Numbers & Colors, which was a popular local release. They played two official shows as Foreign Objects with the first of many live bassist’s over the next few years.

In the spring of 1996, the two decided to take a different musical route, stripping away their metal sound and recording a more simple, radio-friendly form of music under the name Oil. The writing and recording of music under the name Foreign Objects never ceased, however they would only release music as Oil for the next three years. They performed several shows in Summer 1996 with their second live bassist, Andy Smith,and released a four-track EP cassette titled Lifeline (the name of the studio it was recorded in), which was limited to 150 copies. Later in the year, Deron and Jess took on their third live bassist, Ryan Bruni, whom they met while working at UPS.The two began recording new material in January 1997, which would be released months later as their self-titled second EP cassette (referred to as the Gold Tape), limited to 500 copies. Oil continued on through November 1997, when they started recording their first official album (which would later become CKY’s Volume 1). It was during these recording sessions where they met engineer/producer Chad Ginsburg. Chad was attracted to Oil’s song “Disengage the Simulator”, and was asked to join the band as a second guitarist. This addition is the true beginning of CKY.

By 1998, with a concrete writing core of Chad Ginsburg, Jess Margera, and Deron Miller, and their live bassist Ryan Bruni, Oil dissolved. Sitting around a pizza place in West Chester, Deron came up with Camp Kill Yourself as the new band name, the new direction, the new movement. No more mainstream and no more pop appeal. Camp Kill Yourself finished writing and recording their first album as a group. The album, titled Volume 1, was released on February 27, 1999. The same day, they released an unofficial compilation album titled Volume 2; the CD contained demos, b-sides, and prank phone calls, serving as a soundtrack album for Jess’ brother’s first skate video.

Volume 1 went on to have many editions and releases and sold 500,000 copies and is still selling to this day. The band’s second release, Infiltrate Destroy Rebuild (2003) also sold over 400,000 copies, and launched the band upward into their first international tours. It also was accompanied later by a 2 disc DVD of the same name, with music videos for each track on Infiltrate Destroy Rebuild, and 3 hours of concert footage from a myriad of shows. It too, achieved gold status.

A supporting tour began for Infiltrate Destroy Rebuild continued into December, when the band was asked to open for Guns ‘n’ Roses on their “Chinese Democracy Tour”. However, the tour’s first show in Vancouver, British Columbia was cancelled 20 minutes before the doors opened, inciting massive rioting at the arena. The surreal event occurred while the band was setting up on stage, and it garnered international news media attention. The band stayed on the tour until it was eventually cancelled early December before the show in Philadelphia, PA, CKY’s home-town.

Fresh off the “Infiltrate Destroy Rebuild” and “Chinese Democracy” tours, the band jumped right into the first dates of 2003, the “Out On the Noose Again Tour”. In late March, after a show at the House of Blues in Chicago, IL, Chad tripped while walking down a flight of stairs and broke his tailbone, postponing the tour until May. Guns ‘n’ Roses wouldn’t be the only legendary band to show interest in CKY- heavy metal legend Metallica contacted the band shortly after the failed Guns ‘n’ Roses tour. James Hetfield personally phoned Deron to request them to open for Metallica at the Fillmore in May of 2003- the first time Metallica had performed since losing Jason Newsted in 2000. This was a major step for the band and a dream come true, especially for Deron Miller, who considers Metallica iconic and Hetfield an inspiration.

In June 28th, 2005, the band re-emerged with “An Answer Can Be Found”- their third major release and most ambitious to date. Debuting at #35 on the Billboard Top 100, the band once again laid down fierce riffs interladen with catchy melodies. At the same time, they finally revealed that their new bassist would be Matt Deis, formerly of the band All That Remains. With Deis, the band hit the road bringing with them a monstrous bass player that really brought their live shows back into full gear. Along with being a fantastic live bassist, Deis also brought the first major change to the band- he’s assisting with songwriting. Being a bass AND guitar player with music theory under his belt, Deis became a vital piece of CKY’s future. The addition of Deis was a shot of adrenaline to the rest of the band, who had shown sheer jubilance and excitement at how things were coming together. It had been a long time since the band played any shows; and it was time to get back out there, kick ass and take names.

Between the members each are involved in many side projects. Jess Margera’s new band “Viking Skull” just released their new album “Chapter Two” available now on cdbaby.com. Deron Miller has a melodic death metal side project “World Under Blood” which is currently finishing up and awaiting album release. Chad Ginsburg produces everything for CKY and also other bands, such as Viking Skull. His extensive experience and skill can be heard in every nuance of the sonics in a recording.

We are proud to not only have them as a client, but as good friends as well.

Inclind provided the band with the tools they needed to update their site from wherever they are, at home, the studio, or on the road. They can easily log into their CMS (Content Management System) and post news, tour dates, upload photos/video/audio, as well as quickly find contact information for anyone just a click away. They love what they have and trust us fully to lead them into the next stage of their website, taking place early 2008. This kind of quality is only available from Inclind. Stay tuned.

CKY is featured on the following:

• FUSE.tv
• MTV
• MTV2
• Sirius Radio – Faction 28
• Sirius Radio – Faction 28 “Radio Bam” (sometimes also guest host the show)
• Viva la Bam
• Jackass
• Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 Video Game
• Resident Evil 2 Soundtrack
• AMC Top 100 Horror Films Of All Time (Deron Miller guest)
• Guitar One magazine
• Guitar World magazine

Find out more about CKY:

• CKY Official Site
• CKY Tour Schedule
• CKY MySpace
• CKY on Amazon
• World Under Blood MySpace
• Viking Skull MySpace
• Jess Margera Official Site
• CKY on Wikipedia
• CKY on RoadRunner Records
• CKY on YouTube
• Deron Miller on Wikipedia
• Chad Ginsburg on Wikipedia
• Jess Margera on Wikipedia
• Matt Deis on Wikipedia