City Sleeps will be the next big emo band. I’m sure of that fact. The disc starts off slowly with the minute-long opening title track, but as soon as the band gets into the groove of “Prototypeâ€, it becomes obvious that the band is going to strike it big. The style of “Hotel†is not necessarily what one should expect for emo bands in the current period, but seems to…
The acoustic that starts off “Mary, I’m Ready†really portends a more electric, intense style of instrumentation that is the fare during this track. It is almost like Robert slowed down and unplugged one of eir prior releases to come up with this soul-searching, emotionally-heavy composition. The speed comes back for “Pony’s Last Trickâ€, but this is not the aural assault incorporated by bands like Aiden; this is much more…
It takes the band a minute or so to get started, but The City Drive mix together Weezer with Yellowcard on their “Defeated†to come up with the best blend of emo and pop-punk since the last Blink 182 CD. The sound of the follow-up track to “Defeated†is much more sedate and nuanced; the only thing that seems to have common ground with the prior track is the fact…
Aside from the cringe-worthy title of the album, Circuit plays a pretty middle of the rock type of rock that will not really raise an eyebrow. Sure, the style of “The Lee Side†is a mixture of Lenny Kravitz and Vertical Horizon, but there is little inherent in Circuit’s music that will scream experimentation. There really seems to be a sound present in Circuit that is a look back to…
It may have taken Capcom 15 months to properly modify and translate Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G, but the wait that players have had since the title first came out in Japan was well worth it. This Sony PSP title begins by building off of the framework that Monster Hunter Freedom 2 laid down, by introducing countless new monsters, missions, and equipables. Other minor (but still important) changes to the…
Ghostbusters was one of the first films that I remember watching. I have no doubt that this was after its original theatrical release, as I would have been 1 when the film was first released. Regardless of that, it remains as one of my favorite movies of all-time. This Blu-Ray edition shows me exactly how seeing it in its theatrical run must have been like originally; the clarity of the…
The premise for this comic is that three different writers/comic-creators live in the same-numbered apartment, and this commonality is what brought them together to create this comic-zine. The issue itself goes by incredibly fast; the different stories (laid down here by Josh Blair, Pete Borrebach and Noah Van Sciver) are accompanied by radically different art styles.
To say that “Away With The Tide†is strung out is to seriously underestimate how loose Circles are playing at this point. There are a number of hits that shows the band as fans of early nineties alternative rock, but there just is nothing that unites all the disparate elements of Circles here. The fact that Circles almost break the five minute mark with “Away With The Tide†almost puts…
Circa Survive moves beyond the simple emo classification and during tracks like “Wish Resignâ€, really move into the realm of bands like The Mars Volta. The actual instrumentation of the band moves beyond the minor amounts of intelligence used in creating the average emo disc. Circa Survive’s sound is largely influenced by the bands that have preceded them. While the aforementioned “Wish Resign†is heavily tied to a Pink Floyd…
“Senorita (Lookout)†is what I would imagine The Stooges sounding like if they actually started in 2000 instead of the early seventies. This is not the type of dirty rock that bands like Turbonegro play, but rather a mixture of punk and rock that gives equal time to both styles.â€Little Demon†shows The Chuck Norris Experiment as a band that is tremendously in debt to KISS, especially “Deuceâ€-era KISS. This…
