Download the New RAGGED ft. Blessthefall, Forever The Sickest Kids, The Summer Set & More!

As if the anticipation for Vans Warped Tour‘s big kick-off tomorrow weren’t enough, we couldn’t be more excited to release the brand new issue of RAGGED as a free download today! It’s our annual issue made special just for our adventures at Warped, featuring some of our favorite bands from the tour—including cover stars Blessthefall, who will be signing autographs EVERY DAY of the tour at our American Rag tent. So make sure you stop by our booth to not only pick up your free hard copy of the magazine but also to meet the band! You also won’t want to miss the band’s @raggedmag Twitter takeover TODAY from Noon-3pm PT. Be sure to follow us and tweet your q’s to the guys using #ASKBLESSTHEFALL!

We’re also honored to feature Forever The Sickest Kids on the back cover—and if you’ll allow us to pat ourselves on the back momentarily, we dare to say that they’ve never looked better than within our pages. Within the pages, we also caught up with a couple of artists who have ruled our stereos for years—namely The Early November and former The Academy Is… frontman William Beckett—as well as some newer faces like The Summer Set and Gin Wigmore, who are gearing up for their biggest years yet!

So without further ado, grab your FREE download of RAGGED today, and we hope to see you at Warped this summer!

FREE ISSUE DOWNLOAD HERE!

INSIDE RAGGED #21

SCENE
Events » SXSW 2013: Warped Tour Comes Early to Macy’s in Austin
Events » SXSW 2013: American Rag’s Showdown at Cedar Street
The Beat » THE WONDER YEARS 2 Coasts, 4 Shows, 24 Hours
Horoscope » Your Fashion Future Foretold
Fashion 4-Ward » 4 WARPED NONPROFIT ORGANIZERS Take a Skirt to the Max

HEARD
Living Legendary: THE Unsinkable SUMMER SET
Game Change: The Current State of THE EARLY NOVEMBER
Play It Again » WARPED TOUR Four Warped Acts Offer Up Their Latest Favorites
GIN WIGMORE: Wild Thing

ON THE ROAD: SUMMER FESTIVALS
Lenay’s Picks » Your American Rag Looks For Summer Festivals
New Jersey with WILLIAM BECKETT

COVERS
BLESSTHEFALL: On The Edge
Never Say Die: FOREVER THE SICKEST KIDS

FREE ISSUE DOWNLOAD HERE!

Blessthefall is RAGGED’s New Cover Band & Taking YOUR Twitter Questions!

You guys. Sometimes we’re forced to keep secrets from you, and it feels like it’s going to crush us. But sometimes, the secrets are so amazing that we know when we finally get to let the cat out of the bag, it will all be worth it. This is one of those times. We are BEYOND THRILLED to officially unveil Blessthefall as our RAGGED cover stars for our special Vans Warped Tour edition of the magazine! Not only are they gracing the pages of RAGGED (full issue will be available as a free download here tomorrow!), but the guys will also be hanging out with us all summer long, signing autographs at the American Rag tent at EVERY stop of Warped.

Think this news couldn’t get any better? Wrong. Blessthefall will also be taking over our @raggedmag Twitter account TOMORROW from Noon-3pm Pacific Time (3-6pm Eastern) live from Warped Tour’s rehearsal day to give you a sneak peek at what’s to come this summer and answer YOUR questions. If you’re not following us already, get on it now, and get your questions ready for the band using hashtag #ASKBLESSTHEFALL!

Watch this exclusive message from the band and get ready for the best summer ever.

Macy’s Great American Road Trip with Megan & Liz: California Dreamin’ in Los Angeles

This week on Macy’s Great American Road Trip, Megan & Liz (sporting American Rag) went to the West Coast to get some of that California sunshine.

Watch their adventures in Los Angeles including a trip to the Santa Monica beach, an interesting sushi-making lesson, a sit down with Roxy owner Nic Adler, and even a rapping lesson from Mr. Jermaine Dupri at The GRAMMY Museum.

Lenay on the Scene: Skate & Surf Festival with Travis from We The Kings

Our girl on the scene, Lenay Dunn, hit up New Jersey’s Skate & Surf Festival and brought along our good friend, Travis Clark, aka frontman to We The Kings, as a special co-host for the day. Check out her behind-the-scenes video and rundown of her highlights from the day, and be sure to stay tuned for our video interviews where the pair chatted with the likes of Andrew W.K., Into It. Over It. (both pictured above), Mayday Parade and more of the performers!

Straight from Lenay:

My first time at Skate & Surf! Did you know that Bamboozle evolved out of this festival? Fun fact! It was very fun and rainy. Travis from We the Kings came along to interview all the bands backstage with me, one of our favorites to talk to was Andrew W.K.! He wore all white as expected, and it was so fun to meet him. The interview will be up on RaggedMag.com soon!

My sweater adventure… I somehow always assume festivals will be sunny, so I wore a red American Rag sundress and my fav cowgirl boots! Then it started pouring, so I ventured out on the festival grounds with Travis to find a sweater to keep warm. He got stopped by so many girls for pictures on our way -even with his hood up and sunglasses on- that it took like an hour to get to the merch stands. He’s so good with his fans! Then we went side stage and watched T. Mills perform before heading back to do more interviews. 

Watching Fall Out Boy‘s rainy concert from the crowd was probably one of the coolest concert experiences I’ve had. The stage wasn’t covered so the band was soaked too, and the stage lights’ strobe lighting through the rain made every single rain drop visible in flashes—it was such a cool moment! If my camera was waterproof I totally would have captured it!! Music plus lights plus rain equals wow. 

I met Lights!!! I have 2 musical inspirations, and I met one of them at Skate & Surf. Lights!! Well her real name is Valerie but she changed it to Lights when she was little and made it her artist name :p. She’s from Canada. And she is awesome. Her music makes me so happy. And I told her that when I met her backstage after her rainy amazing concert at Skate & Surf & Travis video taped the moment! Kind of… lol, watch the video to see what I mean.  All in all it was a perfect festival day…