Coming out like much of the alternative-rock that is popular at the current moment, The Lashes play a grungy, Sonic Youth-styled type of alt-rock with a synthesizer imposing itself on the music. Strong bass lines mark the first track, “Death By Mixtape”, which is fairly non-descript besides that. The first radio victory for The Lashes comes on “Ex-mas”, which is helped considerably from a very Darkness-like guitar solo. The guitar…
Cookbook and Uno Mas, members of the storied L.A. Symphony return with “When You Rock & Roll” armed with a slickly produced video clip directed by Carey Williams. The video casually shifts gears from solemn to humorous as fellow rapper, Styliztik Jones plays the part of aspiring pop-rapper dolling himself up, and later shimmying around for his character’s imaginary video shoot. Jones’ performance kept the mood light on set with…
Equal Vision Records is pleased to welcome Texas In July to its roster. Defying any definitions of age, the band has already toured the country and back, sharing stages with everyone from The Devil Wears Prada and Every Time I Die to August Burns Red and Maylene and the Sons of Disaster – all before the entire band had graduated from high school. With their two youngest members walking across…
The magnificent synthesizers of the first track on “Get It”, “New Best Friend” mix well with Ben’s vocals to seem to pull to a U2-like sound. The explosion of the band soon after brings The Lashes closer to current trends in music, but there is that same sort of boisterous rock influencing each step that the band makes on “Get It”. To their credit, the patchwork approach of The Lashes…
Ichiban (Number one) in the world (Candidly, it is however Kakkoii (Cool) without affectation.) The new Shonen Knife album, “Free Time” is a product of Japan’s invincibility, with nearly three decades of releases and thousands of shows to their credits, the girls of SK offer an English version of their 2010 Japanese release “Free Time” to the fans in North America. Shonen Knife’s latest CD “Free Time” is hard and…
Kicking of their Summer Shread Tour on July 23rd, Vancouver Metal Ripper’s Omega Crom have announced additonal tour dates in Coaldale, AB, Montreal, QC and Canmore, AB. In celebration of their tour, Omega Crom are releasing their second single off their debut Blood, Steel & Fire for metal fans everywhere. To check out the single “The Passing of Azazel” please visit the Reversed Records website at the following link –…
The hopeful pop of “Sketches (20 Something Life) blend together the eighties rock of acts like Rod Stewart and more current alternative acts. What results is something that is much more than its constituent parts. Individuals will be dancing throughout the rest of the summer and into the fall and winter with the music of La Rocca. The fact that the band can stop all that they are doing and…
“Don’t forget me, sing me.” Those were the words Chabuca Granda wrote on her deathbed more than twenty years ago in a letter to Susana Baca. For Baca, Chabuca’s plea is as powerful today as when she first read it. Seis Poemas, her latest six-song EP is partly a tribute to Chabuca Granda, one of the great figures of Latin American song. Baca, who got her start spinning the poems…
There is a retro flair to La Rocca that uses a lot of the angular rock of acts like Franz Ferdinand to come up with something that is cliché but not necessarily trite. Mixing in a little synthesizer to increase the fuzz during the track, the title track is a romp through New Romanticism and all subsequent genres until the present day. “Sketches (20 Something Life)” is a much more…
After monumental sets at both this year’s Coachella and Bonnaroo festivals, Melbourne’s finest export, The Temper Trap, will return to the States to play Lollapalooza and Outside Lands festivals along with a run of shows that will take them west. This will be followed shortly after by a headlining tour throughout North America this Fall, including their biggest show to date and Austin City Limits Festival. Dougy Mandagi’s soaring falsetto…
“’Just Can’t Sleep’ is about a love affair with the late 70’s and early 80’s in New York City. A time when the city was in despair and at its lowest in places and extremely high in plenty of others. Studio 54, one of those infamous places where many worlds collided under one roof, all with an air of decadence, disco and glamor, “There’s also that paranoid element to it…
Go Radio will be heading into the studio this August to record their debut album. The band will be recording with Tim O’Heir (The All-American Rejects, Hot Rod Circuit, The Starting Line, Say Anything) for their first full-length, slated for an early spring 2011 release. The band is currently on the road with The Dangerous Summer, and kick off their tour with Secondhand Serenade, The White Tie Affair and Runner…
The opening to “Luminous” is simple, with only the guitar and drums being audible in this instrumental track. There is enough differentiation between those two’s interaction that individuals can maintain their interest throughout. The extended length of the track (pushing well over 6 minutes) is a gamble, as the band might lose fans if they do not keep things up to snuff on this track. The band pushes it a…
2 Tone ska legends THE ENGLISH BEAT, headed up by the ever-affable Dave Wakeling, continue to bring their feel-good ska vibes across the U.S. and this time, they’re hitting the road with fellow 2 Tone legends BAD MANNERS, best known for both their singles “My Girl Lollipop” and “Lip Up Fatty” as well as being notorious for their crazy antics which got them banned from Top of the Pops and…
Belgian black metal legion ENTHRONED will return to North America for the first time in nine years this August! The US/Canadian leg of the Pentagrammaton World Tour 2010 will begin in Brooklyn, New York at Europa and bludgeon its way through nearly two dozen cities before winding down at the Hostile City Deathfest in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on August 29. Support will come from Australian black thrashers Deströyer 666 as well…
There is no doubting the fact that Lansing-Dreiden begin their “The Dividing Island” off slowly. The very atmospheric opening tract finally gives way to a little pomp after a few minutes. There is a gambit made during this track as the song flops over the five and a half minute mark. The dreamy vocals that finally make their appearance halfway through the track further complete a Lansing-Dreiden specific sound, which…
Sweethead, the new group created by Troy Van Leeuwen (Queens of the Stone Age, A Perfect Circle, Failure) and fronted by lead vocalist Serrina Sims, released their debut album last month (The End Records) and just announced a handful of new dates in the western US with Nico Vega and Scarlet Grey. SweetheadSweethead also features Eddie Nappi on bass (Mark Lanegan Band, Handsome), and Norm Block on drums (Mark Lanegan…
The Strange Boys are a phenomenal young group from Austin, Texas. They are at the same time, both timeless and refreshingly avant garde. Set to appeal to anyone who has a liking for top quality beat and blues influenced rock n’ roll. The band has had a phenomenal year, starting with the release of their second album, Be Brave, followed quickly by a US tour with Spoon, including a show…
Lanky has shifted eir general sound slightly to a more indie-rock type of feel, as the beginning of “Odd Hour Work Week”, specifically “Falling Hard For The Girl”, shows. The reedy flute comes into play during the second track, “Crashing The Car Is Learning To Drive”, which maintains a cool, detached sound even with the inclusion of this organic instrument. The differing sounds that struggle throughout “Crashing” really provide a…
Minnesota’s facebreaking grindcore trio AMBASSADOR GUN have announced a hot-ass Summer assault through the Midwest and Western US for the later half of July. The band have been writing and recording loads of new material recently, for a limited edition EP entitled Fear & Coercion which will be available on this tour only, as well as for an upcoming full-length. Some of this new material will be played live for…