Month: June 2010

Posted on: June 30, 2010 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Knuckles and Nipples – S/T (CD)

“Knuckles and Nipples”, the band (and the disc’s) theme, comes through with a fury that initially begins with a very growling, Doom-like vocal quality to MC Homeless’ vocals. In “Your Taste In Music Sucks”, the band does really not allow itself enough to really get out and construct an distinct sound for their track. The song is really just a car crash before the occupants could get up to full…

Posted on: June 30, 2010 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Jess Klein – Strawberry Lover (CD)

Jess Klein starts “Strawberry Lover” with one of the most bold steps forward on a disc I’ve ever heard, with “Darkroom” mixing together punk directness, country, musicals (think “Little Shop of Horrors”) and gospel in well less than three minutes. “Shonalee” has to be the farthest that Jess can go away from “Darkroom”, but the nuanced guitar lines on the track ensures the same level of quality being reached by…

Posted on: June 30, 2010 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

The Kite-Eating Tree – Method: Fail, Repeat (CD)

Coming out of the gate with some impressive two part harmonies, especially during “Through the Width of a Straw”, The Kite-Eating Tree makes their own disc into an interesting journey. Mixing up a great deal of distortion with saccharine-sweet vocals, “Method: Fail, Repeat…” is an amalgam of two major stylistic genres: what is being called emo-rock (in the vein of Taking Back Sunday and Story of the Year) and an…

Posted on: June 29, 2010 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Kissing Cousins – S/T (CD)

The sly sound of “Sillhouettes” mixes well with the light instrumentation that individuals are confronted with at the onset of this self-titled EP. In a sense, Kissing Cousins sound like “Horses”-era Patti Smith, mixed with a good serving of the Velvet Underground (when they still had Nico). It is during “Phone Call” that Kissing Cousins really get into something that more closely relates itself to punk music. However, this is…

Posted on: June 29, 2010 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Kissing Cousins – EP2 (CD)

Kissing Cousins start off their second EP with a very Spartan arrangement for their “Deadline”. The confident guitars of the track are reminiscent of a Johynny Cash track seen through the eyes of early nineties “ironic” country like Christopher Isaak. The second track is marked with a very industrial backdrop on their “Live Without You”. The vocals do not seem to mesh well with the very cold and mechanical sound…

Posted on: June 29, 2010 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Kirlian Aura – S/T (CD)

Very few artists stick to their guns for twenty years. Keith Petty, mastermind behind Kirlian Aura, has done just that. Starting the act in 1988, a demo were released in 1991 and 2007 sees the release of this, arguably Kirlian Aura’s “magnum opus”. Twenty-three tracks adorn this album, which immediately rings warning bells in my head. As anyone that has experience movie soundtracks knows, it is tremendously hard to craft…

Posted on: June 29, 2010 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Pierre Ferrand Cognac: Ambre

We have not had many chances to review cognac so far in NeuFutur, so it is quite fortunate that we were sent over a few samples from the Pierre Ferrand line. Our first coverage of this company’s spirits comes with their Ambre iteration, a similarly-colored cognac that has been casked for 10 years. The incredibly mild nose of the Ambre Cognac is a great introduction into something that will gradually…

Posted on: June 28, 2010 Posted by: Aaron_George Comments: 0

Rock Paper Sumo (Facebook)

Rock Paper Sumo is a new Facebook game from Firm studios, in concept the idea is a great one and sounds like it would be a blast, the execution suffers from similar problems to most Facebook games though. What problem is that? To put it plainly, not much happens in RPS. Unless of course you count clicking things that have no instant effect, and waiting.

Posted on: June 28, 2010 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Michael Weston King – A New Kind of Loneliness (CD)

“Here’s The Plan” sounds as if Billy Joel dropped eir piano and decided to pick up a guitar. That is to say that Michael Weston King plays a classic brand of pop music that will have individuals singing along no matter their age or musical tastes. The opening track to “A New Kind of Loneliness” may be over five minutes but King is enough of a storyteller to keep individuals…

Posted on: June 28, 2010 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

King Elementary – Kudzu (CD)

King Elementary start off “Kudzu” with “For the Birds”, a track that shows a tremendous amount of the band’s influence coming from the psychedelic sixties (the guitar solo present on the track sound a hell of a lot like “Break On Through”). Other tracks, like “Thief of Hearts” maintains this earlier influence but really allows Morgan’s vocals to look at bands like the Von Bondies and The Strokes for form…