There’s no excuse this year to miss The Story So Far at Bamboozle. Playing all three days of the festival and with plans to shake up the setlist for each performance, you may even go back for more each day. This California pop punk band has had things move quite quickly since the release of their first full-length, 2011’s Under Soil And Dirt. With tours that took them across the country and overseas, a full year of being on the road will result with a summer vacation spent writing new material.

Having just finished up the Glamour Kills Tour, vocalist Parker Cannon, guitarists William Levy and Kevin Geyer, bassist Kelen Capener and drummer Ryan Torf are taking advantage of the time off before the Bamboozle Festival and another journey across the pond. Cannon managed to avoid giving detail on what he sees for an upcoming release, but below, he talks about touring, life decisions and why you should never to ask him about schedules.

So how are you doing today?

Good, just chilling at…

A New York band by way of the UK, Spacehog first formed in 1994 and their local shows became legendary in the Village music scene. The band, with brothers Royston Langdon on vocals and bass guitar and Antony Langdon on guitar, along with drummer Jonny Cragg and lead guitarist Richard Steel, had a very unique, distinctive sound. Eventually, they inked a deal on the ultra-hip label Sire Records, fronted by Seymour Stein, who at that time was undoubtedly the connoisseur of cool.

Their debut sold over a million copies and spawned a hit single, “In The Meantime,” and the band did several major tours. Their semi-glam sound, mixed with distorted guitars and melodic basslines, brought to mind groups such as David Bowie and T Rex. It was a welcome respite to the doom and gloom grunge dominating the airwaves at the time.

The band managed to survive the decade, which included two more albums, forays into Hollywood and film by Antony, a romance between Royston and Liv Tyler that produced a marriage and a…

Things have just been piling on the plate of the Long Island pop punk band, Patent Pending. So much so that vocalist Joe Ragosta sometimes can’t remember everything the group has coming up. They’ve been together for a little over 10 years, but things almost unraveled when last year’s full-length, Second Family, was in peril of not being recorded due to a lack of funds. Troops were called via Kickstarter and within a day’s time, Patent Pending was ready to start recording the album whose title was inspired by their fans.

Ragosta, drummer Anthony Mingoia, guitarists Rob Felicetti and Marc Kantor and bassist Travis McGee are preparing for yet another battle. They are one of six finalists in the Battle Of The Bands, where the winner will play at the Billboard Music Awards. There’s only one side effect of winning that Patent Pending will face that concerns The Bamboozle.

I was able to speak with Ragosta about all that’s been going on while the band was en route to the last couple days on…

Early in the ‘90s, musical geniuses and masterminds congregated to establish what would become a pivotal time for rock and alternative music. In Calabasas, CA circa 1991, a handful of California dudes picked up their instruments and initiated Incubus, a now multi-platinum selling five-piece band that is co-headlining day one at The Bamboozle Festival on May 18 in Asbury Park.

Together, singer Brandon Boyd, guitarist Mike Einziger, bassist Ben Kenney, drummer Joe Pasillas and DJ Chris Kilmore, are riding the waves of success that few bands get to ride so consistently—and for so long.

With seven studio albums and a greatest hits record under their belt, Incubus has composed a plethora of musical art that acts as a soundtrack to this crazy, little thing we call life. The heart-wrenching words and composition of Incubus songs strike chords and enable listeners to be harkened back to their own life-changing events, where stories and feelings coincide with lyrics and melodies. This unique art and experience is the lifeblood of the Incubus repertoire.

Riding the heels of…

The last time I spoke to Chris #2 of Anti-Flag, the band was working on a brand new record—a record that would have to be amazing and substantial to follow up the acclaimed The People Or The Gun (2009). Everything was still in its developmental stages; the guys logged many, many hours in the home studio they built to record this album in, and many more were to follow. “We’re almost finished,” he told me back in October of last year. “It’s hard to say when it’ll see the light of day, but we’re hoping for sooner rather than later. We thought about rushing a fall release, but there’s no point. The band has a history, we don’t need to rush something. There’s no reason for us to release a record, just for the sake of releasing a record. We have to make sure it’s ready, make sure the ideas behind the songs come across.”

And the message has certainly been received; The General Strike was just released in March and is arguably Anti-Flag’s…