As Cities Burn

As Cities Burn (often abbreviated as ACB) is a Christian indie rock band from Mandeville, Louisiana that formed in 2002.

History

Early beginnings and Son, I Loved You At Your Darkest (2002 – 2006)

In the late 90's Colin and Cody were in a ska/punk band called Alliance 103^[2]. They went on to join As Cities Burn. As an unsigned act, the group drew the attention of Solid State Records, a subsidiary of Tooth and Nail Records which signed them in 2004.

ACB released their first full length album, Son, I Loved You At Your Darkest on June 21, 2005, and was featured in Solid State's Young Bloods Tour with The Chariot, Showbread, and He Is Legend. In 2006 they toured with The Bled, Protest The Hero and Since By Man. They held two CD release shows for this album: June 21 at Covington in Louisiana, LA and June 22 at Vinos in Little Rock, AR.

Hiatus and Come Now, Sleep (2006 – 2008)

On June 10, 2006, the band announced the end of As Cities Burn, but in early July--after an outpouring of support from fans--decided to remain together.^[3] The band's final concert was to be on August 19, 2006 at the House of Blues in New Orleans, LA. However, soon afterwards the band decided they would remain together and record a new album.

In summer 2006, on what was to be their last tour, they parted ways with bassist Pascal Barone, shortly after their announcement that they were staying together. For the remainder of the tour they performed with Robert Chisolm, singer of the band Jonezetta. After the tour they returned home to record a new album, with current guitarist, Colin Kimble playing bass.

On December 17 (midnight of December 16)^{[citation needed]}, the band released a demo on MySpace and PureVolume of a new track from their upcoming album, which they recorded in early 2007. It surprised fans due to its complete lack of screaming, which had been the dominant vocal style on their previous releases. The change of vocal styling was a result of T.J. Bonnette, As Cities Burn's original vocalist with a screaming style, leaving the band in pursuit of building his relationship with his wife, who lived three hours away.^[3] Guitarist Cody, who had sung the clean vocals previously, took over vocals entirely. T.J. played one final show with As Cities Burn at the end of January in 2007 at the Highground venue in Metarie. During December, Cody was to be taking over full time.

As Cities Burn has performed several new songs at live shows. These songs are much different than the songs on the début album. The band spent February and March 2007 recording their newest album. On April 12, 2007, As Cities Burn released the title of their second album, Come Now, Sleep. The album was released August 14, 2007. They have begun to play songs off the new album. On June 8 at 12:00 AM, the song "This Is It, This Is It" was posted on their MySpace and PureVolume profile. On July 2, a second song, Empire, was added onto their PureVolume page. From August 7 to August 9, the album was made available for streaming on the band's MySpace account. On August 14, 2007, Come Now Sleep hit the shelves.

As Cities Burn now performs the majority of their new album Come Now, Sleep live, with rare performances from their previous album.

Hell or High Water (2008 – present)

As of April 16, 2008, As Cities Burn posted in a bulletin on Myspace that they will be at home and writing for the new album. They are set to record at the end of the summer. One of the rumored titles of one the new album's songs is "Into The Sea", as suggested on a photo on As Cities Burn's Myspace page, which shows a songlist of many different titles.

On September 7, 2008, they posted a bulletin on their myspace page saying that they are "about three weeks from completing our third record." It was also said to "expect more of the direction we began heading in with Come Now Sleep." and that Cody, and their friend Tyler Orr are recording the record almost entirely by themselves.

On January 2, 2009, the band posted a new recording entitled "Gates" on their Myspace page, which was a song the band had played numerous times at the end of live sets prior to releasing it.

On January 10 2009, in their Texas show, they played '84 Sheepdog for the first time.

The band announced on their Myspace Blog that the new album called "Hell or High Water" will be released on April 21, 2009.^[4]

On March 30th 2009, the band posted '84 Sheepdog, the first new song from their new album, on their MySpace page.

On April 2nd 2009, a blog was posted on the band's MySpace page stating that a new song will be posted every Monday until the release of the album.^[5]

The band put up another song on http://www.myspace.com/firststreetstudiomusic, "Into the Sea".

A week before the release of "Hell or High Water," the band posted another song on their MySpace, "Pirate Blues."

A day before the release of the album "Hell or High Water" the band posted another song on their MySpace, "Errand Rum."

The entire "Hell or High Water" album was released on April 21.

As of late January 2009, As Cities Burn has not been on tour.

In a recent interview in HM Magazine, Cody Bonnette stated, "The dream is to never break up, eventually start to suck more and more, and fade away."

Touring

As Cities Burn has taken part in many festivals and tours around the world. They have toured at the Cornerstone Music Festival along with many other Christian rock bands. In January 2008, As Cities Burn toured seven weeks with Emery, Cry of the Afflicted, Pierce the Veil, and Mayday Parade. Their guitarist Chris Lott wasn't able to be on the tour because he had school during the semester, but came back to tour afterwards. In November 2008, they toured with Dear and the Headlights, The Photo Atlas and So Long Forgotten.^{[citation needed]}

Members

• Cody Bonnette – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keys
• Colin Kimble – bass, guitars, backup vocals
• Aaron Lunsford – drums, percussion
• Chris Lott – lead Guitar

Former members

• T.J. Bonnette – lead vocals
• Bryan Dixon – drums
• Pascal Barone – bass
• Blake Miliron - bass

Discography

Studio albums

• 2005: Son, I Loved You at Your Darkest
• 2007: Come Now, Sleep
• 2009: Hell or High Water

EPs

• 2002: As Cities Burn EP 2002
• 2003: As Cities Burn EP 2003

Videography

• "Bloodsucker Pt. II"
• "Empire"
• "The Widow" (live)

References

External links

• As Cities Burn at MySpace
• FR*A Interview with As Cities Burn