James Jackson Toth, AKA Wooden Wand is your fearless friend, the stumbling guy that goes out and gets himself into some incredibly fucked-up situations but comes out shining and lives to tell you all about it, entertaining you safely and immensely. You should be grateful. His songs are beautiful, indisputably, both musically and lyrically, and they’ll give you joy if you listen to them. In my view, he’s a great…
The dreamy nature of Let’s Go Sailing during “Sideways” is fun and energetic, even if the band does not fill their music with bombastic beats or anything else that will pound listeners into submission. The band is not afraid to use repetition during their tracks, and individuals should not be afraid either, since the band is very capable and talented. There is little better that Let’s Go Sailing could do…
Songwriting sensation Danielle Ate the Sandwich was featured as You Tube’s “Spotlight Video” on July 6, which, not so coincidentally, was the date, her new cd Two Bedroom Apartment was released. That video “Public Property” has garnered nearly 500,000 views to date and helped propel Danielle’s “2Bd Apt” disc to the Number 5 position on the iTunes singer/songwriter sales chart literally overnight. Link: http://www.youtube.com/user/daniellesmagic Danielle “Ate the Sandwich” Anderson is…
The vocal shifting of previous times is present even as early as “City of Champions”. LetLive continue their intense assault on the listener that began with “Exhaustion, Salt Water and Everything In Between”. What the band really seems to have changed with their formula on “Speak Like You Talk” is a tremendous amount of use of differing time signatures. This is a direct comment on all the hardcore bands that…
Longrunning independent label Robotic Empire has teamed up with the Wellington, New Zealand band NEON BASTARD for the release of their debut album, “Meikhaus”. Comprised of 11 songs in under 22 minutes, “Meikhaus” is a total blitzkrieg of blasting punk rock, stoner riffs and pure noise. Two preview tracks have been posted (well, hidden) on the band’s hideous myspace page, here: http://www.myspace.com/NeonBastard About as far from “normal” as a band…
The term “Super-Group” describes a band rising out of two of the most creative bands of the past 30 years: YOSO is formed out of TOTO’s brilliant lead vocalist Bobby Kimball and the creative force of former YES members, Tony Kaye and Billy Sherwood, thus equalling the magic of YES with the voice of TOTO. However, YOSO is much more than a combination of two classic rock groups. The band’s…
Letlive is another band like Anatomy of a Ghost and Boys Night Out – a “new wave” of emo acts that intersperses both melodic “emo-core” vocals and screamed-out vocals to push their sound. While “Adjectives Might Work”, their first cut off of “Exhaustion, Salt Water, and Everything in Between”, is pretty much a sleeper, their second track is both much more radio friendly and catchy. “With a Mouth Sewn Shot”…
With TRUTHLiVE’s new album, the Jake One-produced Patience, continuing to create waves, he’s excited to release a brand new music video for the album’s latest single, “Ready Set Go.” Premiering on mtvU and mtvU.com, the song features fellow KMEL Freshmen 10 selection and Interdependent Media recording artist Moe Green, who just released a new album of his own, Rocky Maivia: Non-Title Match. Joining TRUTHLiVE and Moe Green in the video…
Miami- based rock band Atom Smash announces summer tour dates in support of their forthcoming Jive Records debut album Love Is The Missle. Atom Smash will rock fans across the country with stops that include Dallas, Houston and Little Rock and will join Filter, Buckcherry, Cavo, 12 Stones, RED, Shaman’s Harvest, and Black Sunshine on tour. “Do Her Wrong” (click to listen) is the first single from Love Is In…
The sedate sounds of the disc’s opening track “Illuminati” really shows the band as nuanced and complicated, taking as much from Oasis as from Audio Adrenaline, a far cry from the Jimmy Eat World tag so often placed on them. The driving beat of the drums played by Scott work well with the very linear synth lines played during “Spotlights”; the vocals effortly lifts itself above the controlled chaos of…
MON 7/26 WASHINGTON DC 9:30 Club TUE 7/27 PHILADELPHIA, PA Trocadero THU 7/29 NEW YORK, NY Bowery Ballroom FRI 7/30 BOSTON, MA House of Blues SAT 7/31 MONTREAL, QC Metropolis MON 8/2 OTTAWA, ON Capital Music Hall TUE 8/3 TORONTO, ON Phoenix THU 8/5 DETROIT, MI Majestic FRI 8/6 CHICAGO, IL Lollapalooza SAT 8/7 MINNEAPOLIS, MN First Avenue TUE 8/10 CALGARY, AB Flames Central WED 8/11 VANCOUVER, BC Commodore THU…
Less Than Jake has been around for a long time, there’s no denying that, but the band has came through with each subsequent album in ways that older acts typically are not able to do. Less Than Jake create a single in “Overrated” that is done in the same sing-songy style of acts like Bowling For Soup (1985) and Everclear (Volvo Driving Soccer Mom), a great representation for the band.…
*First turning heads on Flying Lotus’ “Tea Leaf Dancers” then on Bonobo’s Spring Tour, the head-turning songstress combines soul, funk, r&b on cinematic ‘Lost Where I Belong’ full length out 9/7* Andreya Photo #1 (Artist photo) Download “A Town Called Obsolete (Mount Kimbie Remix Preview Edit)” (mp3) from the “A Town Called Obsolete” single Download “Lost Where I Belong (Flying Lotus Remix Preview Edit)” (mp3) from the “Lost Where I…
Bay-Area independent rap legend Lyrics Born has joined forces with New York multimedia powerhouse Decon for the sake of quality trans-national hip-hop. The multi-faceted musician plans to release his third proper solo effort, As U Were on October 26th. The lead single “Lies x 3” is an alt-tinged synth-rocker that is a sure shot summer banger. Blending catchy pop-synth melodies and hooks, heavy guitar riffs, sticky bass, and windshield poppin’…
Even though this disc is already old (it was first released in 1998), there is no doubting the fact that this track has more to do with early Sade and Journey than anything from its contemporaneous decade. The anemic sound of the disc’s first track “Color The Blue” is only saved from complete anonymity by the very emotive outputs by both Leon Vest and the guitars placed down by Garth…
North Carolina experimental extreme metal troupe GOLLUM are pleased to unleash their latest video for “Blacksmith (Summoning Wrath),” which comes off the band’s critically-acclaimed The Core full-length released via Rotten Records last spring. The video was shot in the summer of 2009 in the band’s hometown of Wilmington. The band performance portion was shot in a studio and later cropped and transformed into abstract CGI while the “movie” portion was…
These lyrics exemplify the new Dive Index album, The Surface We Divide: a series of charged conversations, conducted at arm’s length. Spearheaded by co-writer/producer Will Thomas, the new songs feature vocal contributions from such musical stalwarts as Joseph Arthur, Cat Martino, and former Ride vocalist Mark Gardener, as well as up-and-coming London-based artist Patrick Cooper. This vocal mixture lends a wide stylistic range to the album, from textured baritones to…
Hey, as I guessed, Len sounds a lot like the lounge singers of the fifties and sixties, using an emotive bass and a twinkling piano to create an environment for eir first track, “Be The Man I Was Really Meant To Be”. Going farther into the Frank Sinatra imitation with the scat heard on the track, Len provides a middle-of-the-ground track that sounds like pretty much every track from that…
On September 28th, Time Life will release a special DVD set featuring the 25th Anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concerts. Filmed over two nights in October 2009 at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, the historic event brought together a stellar lineup of artists spanning from the ‘50s through today for groundbreaking performances and once-in-a-lifetime collaborations. The Time Life release marks the first time this amazing event is…
The raucous brand of rockabilly-style music that The Legendary Hucklebucks seems just as pit-worthy as any punk music, even if the style of music is aurally radically different. Their re-tooling of the traditional “rawhide” track in their “Hillbilly Throwdown” shows a complete punk influence for the members of the band; even if the band uses a bluegrass bass style at times during the track, it is the Mojo Nixon, Primus,…