That can be tougher than buying notebooks for lefties. Metal Injection has the hookup. Click here to go their list of ideas, including AC/DC Monopoly and cookbooks from metal minds.

Thanksgiving is done and we can now all get to Christmas wishing – and catch up with Hobby Lobby, which has had their Christmas goodies out for like 15 weeks already.

I like to get in the Christmas spirit with some Christmas tuneage and nobody does Christmas tuneage like Project 86.

Go the the band’s digital store and buy “A Very P86 Christmas.”

“Run, Rudolph, Run” will give you a whole new way to enjoy Home Alone.

You’ll buy everyone you know a Christmas present in the coming weeks. Don’t ignore yourself. Islander has the perfect gift.

The nu metal band (or whatever you want to call its awesomeness) is playing a couple of dates near us in the South before Christmas, Nashville Dec. 10 and Birmingham Dec. 11.

Here is the complete year-end tour with The Word Alive, Volumes & Invent and Animate.

(Spencer and Silver Snakes’ singer/guitarist Alex Estrada talking Pokemon before a show in Southaven, Miss.)

It is always fun when rockers open up about their thoughts on Jesus. I asked Silver Snakes singer/guitarist Alex Estrada who he says Jesus Christ is.

AE: “That’s a tough one for us. We don’t really touch on it in our music. We all had different upbringings. We all grew up in religious households. For the most part, we all have religious parents, especially me, Mexican, Los Angeles parents, Catholicism. It definitely hasn’t been a focus. I can’t speak for the other guys. I’ve considered myself agnostic for quite a while, in the terms that I believe in something. I just don’t put a face to it. Everything we do as people has to do with cause and effect. I feel like that transcends all boundaries in every religion. Be good to people, those are the principle factors. It is the foundation of everything, the golden rule.”

Had a great half-hour conversation with Estrada. Enlightening guy, very thoughtful and in charge of where Silver Snakes is headed. Big things ahead for the LA rockers. Please read all the posts below from our chat and give Alex and the guys a follow.

Alex Estrada’s lyrics on Silver Snakes’ “Saboteur” is as deep as you can make it. The singer guitarist says ironically his songs often take on more meaning after he pens them.

While there is plenty to listen to and digest on the band’s February release,  Estrada makes no bones about his very specific plans for the Los Angeles foursome.

“I really want to do a double album at some point,” Estrada said before a show in Southaven, Miss., last month. “I’ve been trying to do that our last couple of records.”

Estrada laughs it off because management has yet to succumb.

But growth has been steady for the band, just off tour with Korn and Breaking Benjamin. It was a year ago they started a tour with Coheed and Cambria – 2,000 and 3,000 people a night. Right after, the band did a full US tour with Coheed and Glassjaw for 3,000-5,000 a night. After that, the Snakes toured with Bring Me The Horizon for 4,000-5,000.

Between then and now, there was a smaller club tour with Let Live. Estrada said it is in positive contrast to past tours that were few and far between.

“It’s cool to actually witness the progress,” he said. “In years prior, we didn’t tour enough to really keep that constant push going.”

Even as the growth began to get steady, even the band itself didn’t see the tour with Korn on the horizon. Silver Snakes has goals of mainstream success – and the music and liveshow to make that happen.

“We want to travel the world and keep releasing records,” Estrada said. “Every year-and-a-half or something I want to put out a good record and constantly grow. More than anything, I’d say that’s the goal, grow from record to record.”

@brandonspeck

Social media, sharing and streaming aren’t going away. As good as those things are, face-to-face still has its place.

Los Angeles-based rock band Silver Snakes recently got off the road with Korn’s Nocturnal Underground Tour. Every show, the did meet-and-greets with fans, fans who bought traditional CDs and fans who did so after the show – on their iPhones.

Staying in touch with fans is more important than ever with the way technology has bridged gaps.

“It’s very important, especially in the modern age of music. Spotify and streaming services and all that, it’s going to keep moving in that direction,” Silver Snakes singer/guitarist  Alex Estrada said.

There is no MTV to promote new music anymore, so fans seek out music in other ways.

“It is very important for us to stay active with things like Instagram and Twitter, Facebook,” Estrada said.

Fans used to buy discs at shows and even with the popularity return of vinyl, albums are bought on iTunes these days.

Face-to-face with fans at shows still happens, but face-to-face online is universal. Either way, the goal is the same for Silver Snakes.

“We want as many people to hear our new music as possible,” Estrada said, “whether they’re buying the record from us (on tour), picking it up online and listening to songs off YouTube. We still want to make a connection with those people.”

West Coast foursome Silver Snakes just got off the road with Korn, Breaking Benjamin and Motionless in White.

It was a tour unlike any they had been a part of, partly because of their musical past, but also in part because it put them in a new arena-style environment.

The band (singer/guitarist Alex Estrada, bassist Mike Trujillo, guitarist Jeremiah Bignell and drummer Garrett Harney) grew up playing in progressive, hardcore and punk bands. On The Nocturnal Underground Tour, Estrada called it a “rock star” tour.

That’s as much about seeing the likes of Jonathan Davis for the Snakes as it is for fans meeting the Snakes after the show. Fans see it in a different vibe than they do a smaller or club show, where the access is usually easy.

Estrada said fans will approach him after the shows – he was hanging near merch after the set in Southaven – and find it hard to believe he’s out in the open.

“It’s a bit overwhelming for us and something we’re still trying to get used to,” he said. “We like to be very interactive with the people who come and support our band.”

The guys prefer to sell their own merch and did meet-and-greets after every single show on the tour.

Their latest, “Saboteur” was released in February and is a song-writing story about exactly that, sabotage.

“More than anything we’ve done in the past, I’ve tried to leave it open to interpretation,” Estrada said. “Leave it very open so people could take the overall theme of sabotage and apply it to somewhere they might have experienced it.”