Clevershoppers.com

01/11/2008
SKILLET ANNOUNCES NATIONAL SPRING HEADLINE ‘COMATOSE’ TOUR WITH THOUSAND FOOT KRUTCH
NASHVILLE, TN….1/8/08…In follow-up to a stellar 2007, Atlantic/Lava/Ardent/INO record’s band Skillet will hit the road on Winter Jam later this week, and has recently announced plans to rock even more American cities when they launch their Spring headline COMATOSE TOUR on March 28th. Hitting approximately 30 cities, the tour will also feature Thousand Foot Krutch and run through May 11, 2008. Tour dates will be announced soon and will be posted at http://www.skillet.com and http://www.myspace.com/skilletmusic.

Due to the undeniable success of COMATOSE, including their second consecutive GRAMMY nomination, over 300k in sales (doubling sales of their previous recording in half the time) and four back-to back radio No. 1 hits, including their latest, “The Older I Get” spending 11 weeks at No. 1 Christian CHR, Skillet released the COMATOSE CD/DVD Deluxe edition for their fans on December 26th. Skillet is known for their loyal fans, many of which are known as the “Panheads,” and this year they did not disappoint, giving Skillet honors in several Readers Choice awards polls, including:

-2007 CCM magazine Reader’s Choice awards: Best album, COMATOSE Best song, “Rebirthing” (also voted 2nd Best Artist, Most Underrated Artist, Best Website, Best Video (“Whispers In the Dark”), and 3rd favorite Live Performance and Best Band)

-2007 Christianity Today’s Reader’s Choice for Best Band or Group

(in addition, per the website, “COMATOSE technically won out for Best Album of 2007, we just don’t feel that it’s right to award the same album two years in a row”.)

-2007 Ignite Your Faith magazine’s Best Hard Rock or Punk Artist, Overall Artist of the Year and John Cooper took top honors for Best Christian Male Vocalist (In addition, Skillet came in third following Switchfoot and Relient K for The Salt and Light Award, a new IYF award honoring Christian artists impacting the mainstream with the Gospel)

- ABOUT.COM’S Top 40 Christian Hits of 2007 named “The Last Night” one of the top 10 hits of the year, stating, “The song talks about someone considering suicide after living life in despair and not having support from their parents. A friend reminds him/her of God’s unconditional love and they’re eventually talked down from that ledge. Just like every song on the album, this one rocks!”

-2007 Jesus Freak Hideout.com Readers Choice Awards for ‘Song of the Year,’ (“Rebirthing”) ‘Hard Rock Album of the Year’ and ‘Album of the Year’ (COMATOSE), and also tying for the sixth favorite song of the year with two of their songs, “Comatose” and “Whispers In The Dark”.

On top of their four consecutive No. 1 radio hits, COMATOSE was the No. 12 Top Contemporary Christian album on Billboard’s Year-End list, and Skillet was also lauded with R&R’s No. 1 Christian CHR Song of the Year for “The Last Night”, which was also R&R’s No. 2 Christian Rock song of the year. In addition, the band was named 2007s No. 2 top artist on both the CHR and ROCK year end lists. In follow up to their radio success, this month both “The Older I Get” and “The Last Night” will go for more when they are released to Christian AC radio and Mainstream Active Rock Radio respectively.

01/09/2008
MERCYME KICKS OFF 2008 HEADLINING WINTER JAM TOUR AND CELEBRATES RECORD-BREAKING RADIO AND SALES IN 2007
With their latest project “All That Is Within Me” outpacing sales of their previous RIAA Gold-certified recording, the multi platinum, Dove Award winning and Grammy-nominated band MercyMe is kicking off 2008 as the headline act for Winter Jam, and also celebrating a record-breaking year in 2007. WinterJam begins this Thursday, January 10th, in Johnson City, TN, and will hit over 30 markets through mid-March.

As the lead act, MercyMe will be partnering with WinterJam and Mozes to continue to build their already growing mobile fanbase. During the course of this tour, they will be encouraging fans to join their Mozes mobile MOB to get a free ringtone and wallpaper. Last year, Mozes partnered with WinterJam and saw over 40,000 texts from fans getting involved in the SMS revolution, and saw their mobs grow to over 12,000. MercyMe expects a great involvement rate for this year’s tour, as they were able to kick off their mob during their fall tour, ending it with 2500 members.
Mozes is a growing company that provides tools to send and receive mobile messages to and from bands, social groups, and friends.

With three two No. 1 singles from their 2006 release “Coming Up to Breathe,” (”So Long Self” “Hold Fast”, “Bring the Rain”) and six previous consecutive No. 1’s under their belt, their latest track
continued MercyMe’s reign as one of Christian radio’s premiere artists when “God With Us” set the record for most AC adds in a week with over 75% of R&R’s AC panel, and 79 total R&R and CRW
reporting stations immediately adding the song. The single went on to hit No. 1 in a fast and furious eight weeks.

At the close of 2007, MercyMe was the No. 1 Most Played AC artist (R&R/CRW) and Inspo artist (CRW) in 2007, and after reaching as high as No.16 on iTune’s Top 100 Albums list, and No. 1 on iTunes Top Christian Albums list since its release, “All that is Within Me” was also named No. 1 on iTunes Best of Chart for Christian/Gospel in 2007, a list created by iTunes staffers. In addition, the album remains in the top five on Billboard’s Contemporary Christian SoundScan chart after entering the Top 200 chart at No. 15 and selling an impressive 83,626 units, a personal record for units sold in a project’s first week.

01/02/2008
UPDATE: NEW AIR DATE FOR GREY’S ANATOMY EPISODE: JANUARY 10TH!
Caedmon’s Call’s lyrically compelling song about redemption, “Ten Thousand Angels” will receive a rare and lengthy place on an upcoming episode of the ABC hit drama series “Grey’s Anatomy” on January 10th. Featuring vocals by Derek Webb, the song will play for five consecutive minutes during an emotionally charged final scene.

In order for the song to fit the length of the scene, an extra minute was even edited in, and with lyrics including ‘so lift up your heart now, to this unfolding, all that has been broken will be restored, here runs deep waters for all who are thirsty, love has come, love has come for you’, its use on one of television’s biggest shows is especially uncommon.

“It’s an honor to be asked to help carry some of the emotional weight of a powerhouse show like Grey’s,” says Webb. “ I think the spiritual significance of a song like “Ten Thousand Angels” will have some really special chemistry with what is bound to be an important episode in the season.”