The instrumentation that is present during the entirety of Mew’s “And The Glass Handed Kites” is leagues above anything else on the pop radar. There are so many things happening during a Mew track that listeners can play the track on repeat and just pick apart different facets of the dense arrangements that await them. The music that is played is not going to be the next #1 hit on…
The buzz behind Metric is huge, to say the least. The angular sound of tracks like “Glass Ceiling” really draws listeners back to the days of The Breeders (not the washed up version of the band that just released the album, but when they released “Cannonball), while tying itself to the current musical trend of herky-jerky dance-ready rock pioneered by bands like Franz Ferdinand. While the next track “Handshakes” begins…
Mess Up The Mess uses the same font on their album as TBS does during a number of their bumpers. I don’t know why I said that, but it seems to be as random as the band’s output on “You Remind Me Of Summer Vacation”. The first track on this disc is “Lawn Chair Meet Balloon”, and the track seems to blend together classic punk (Ramones), surf music, and hints…
I have to be honest; I had never heard of Merl Saunders before I put on this disc, and the only Greatful Dead song that I was familiar with was “Touch of Grey”. To say that I was a novice when I put this disc on is to give me credit that I do not deserve. On the other hand, I feel as if I am one of the better…
The strong female vocals that start off “Penny jar” are not immediately reconcilable with any other artist on the market. There are hints of Plumb in Merit’s style of music, but nothing that screams “influence”. This bodes well for Merit, as the style of music that they play is a blend of rock and indie, allowing for the band to enjoy success wherever they end up. The guitar progression of…
Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil is pretty blunt about his reasons for penning his autobiography. It has little to do with setting the record straight, though there is a little of that, and not much to do with settling scores, though his feelings about his fellow band members and managers are pretty clear as well. Neil sees Tattoos & Tequila as simply another way to “build his brand” as his…
“Merge is not just a band, it’s a business” is probably the biggest warning sign that I could ever be given before putting this disc in my stereo. I’ve proven time after time that individuals that feel that their act is a business usually spend too much of their time trying to work that angle and allowing their music to suffer as a result. This is what happened with Rawdialect,…
I’ve never heard of either of the bands on this split CD, which is always a good thing. Splits usually have some sort of gimmick to them, either that both bands cover each other’s songs or that there is some third band they are paying tribute to. However, this CD has nothing more than four tracks done by each act, a way to get some sort of idea about the…
With their split with Enemy Rose, Mercy Killers showed that they had something to them that individuals should find attractive. Given the entire space of a CD, would Mercy Killers be able to come up with enough material to stay on the top of a hill? Of course, when the band starts off “Bloodlove”, there are hints of the punkabilly style. “Hollow” is its own track, and while it does…
HBO’s latest comedy Bored to Death is yet one more example that cable, not network TV, is where you turn for original shows. The series centers on novelist and sometime magazine writer Jonathan Ames (Jason Schwartzman) who, out of boredom and on a whim, puts an ad on the Internet advertising his services as an unlicensed private investigator. The cast is rounded out by his buddy Ray (Zach Galifianakis) and…
