I see a lot of parallels in Solomon Burke and Johnny Cash. I started thinking about the comparisons when I read that “Nashville†was Burke’s cover album, where ey takes on country classics by individuals as widespread as Tom T. Hall, Dolly Parton, and Don Williams. This is similar to the American series of CDs that were released by Johnny Cash. Looking at a history of Burke, the sheer amount…
“Nonstop†is the focal point on the “This Is Life†EP, and this track is something that acts as a great introduction to Estrella Cristina. This is due to the eclectic composition of “Nonstopâ€, which takes on a wide body of work in the formulation of Cristina’s sound. There are hints of classic alternative artists like Natalie Cole, Jewel, and Lisa Loeb just as there are subtle touches of contemporary…
I still remember the first time I saw Brookside live. It was in a coffee shop in Greencastle, Indiana wwhen only about twenty individuals were in attendance. Despite the poor acoustics of the venue, the energy of Brookside was able to shine. This energy is the same on “Tonight, Long Islandâ€. I know that both the Purevolume and Myspace pages of Brookside have tracks by the band, but having the…
Pretty much the only straight-forward punk band that I’ve had a chance to review for ‘Sup, The Bronx play a form of punk that is heavily influenced by the late eighties California hardcore scene. Blasting through three songs in less than eight minutes, the picture EP begins with the utterly forgettable title track, Bats! Minor amounts of melody rear their tiny heads during their “You Want to See Us Burnâ€,…
Understanding that disc is just a promotion, the recording on “Sciencia†is mucky beyond belief, and as a result, the vocals and guitars tend to get meshed together. However, like the great band Fade Out, Brokenheartsclub is another band that is truly a diamond in the rough. While it takes me sticking my ear up to my stereo to discern exactly what the hell is happening, each and every part…
Broadway Calls is an interesting sign by State of Mind. When I hear the name State of Mind, I imagine hard rocking, hardcore or metal acts. What Broadway Calls does on their “Call The Medic†CD is create a brand of punk music that blends together Screeching Weasel, Blink 182, and The Lillingtons into one cohesive unit. The disc may only has six tracks, but the band will stick to…
The poppy sound of Brightman’s vocals during “Probably On A Thursday†really allows eir to achieve an audience that may not have been tapped previously. In some sense, there seems to be a timeless pop sense to the tracks on “Love Changes Everything†that was most prominently shown during Cyndi Lauper’s earlier rock. The tender guitar work that wins out at times on the aforementioned “Probably On A Thursday†is…
One does not understand exactly how far Sarah Brightman has been in the music industry until they pick up a copy of “Diva: The Singles Collectionâ€. Most of the tracks on the disc fall within the two-decade block between eir Phantom of the Opera recording and the current period, so without going into multiple CDs, this disc is as full as it could possibly get. For the Brightman completist, this…
The Bright and Hollow Sky come forth with their “Gem Stateâ€, starting off their disc with “Cloudâ€. â€Cloud†takes tacks from a number of different influences, mixing together thee disaffected vocals of Conor Oberst with a tempo and quicksilver attitude that sees early-nineties pop-punk as a cousin. The next high-point of the disc comes during “Going Downâ€, which uses “Killing An Arabâ€-era Cure-like bass lines to really push forward the…
I don’t need, from you, a waterfall of careless praise, and I don’t need a trophy for all the games I’ve played. All I want is your eyes, in the morning as we wake, for a short while. I don’t need you to catch my wandering mind, and I don’t expect a southern girl to know the northern lights. All I want is your eyes, in the morning as we…
The Briefs are one of those bands that really tie together a number of different genres in order to come up with something new. Sure, there are tracks on here that recall The Adverts and the Newton Neurotics, but the major influence of the band during tracks like “Move Too Slow†has to be the A-F records roster, namely The Code and Justin Sane.
The beginning of “Seriously†has an incredibly long lead-in, to which a set of vocals are weakly draped over the grinder-like guitar riffs. The same guitar riffs are kept for nearly two minutes, after which Luke’s vocals attempt to take the track in a different path, only achieved after a minute-long struggle in which nothing is sure. What does excite one about this inaugural track of “Seriously†is the dynamic…
Hey, Dan Precision is a founding member of Rise Against, and is the vocalist for this band. And I wondered why “Near Life Experience†sounds like a harder-edge RA album. Mixing the elements of mid-nineties stand at the mic and scream hardcore with melodic, emotional punk a la AFI, Break the Silence is best described as a bipolar band. Each track shows this bipartite dynamic strain over their completely different…
While I was expecting Breaking Benjamin to sound like every other modern-rock band out there, with threads in their music that whole-heartedly ripped off bands like Tool and Disturbed, the fact with “We Are Not Alone†is that the disc is on the whole much more melodic than anything that has came before it. Theb and is tight, musically-satisfying, and the dynamic between Aaron (lead guitar) and the smooth-down-easy vocals…
What I was imagining when I got this CD was a death-metal act that would pretty much sing about killing me and having sex with my dissected body. My fears were almost confirmed when I heard the opening spastic horns, which sounded like the machine-gun drumming so common among these bands. This 5 piece act from Australia could not be any farther from a death metal band; in fact, I…
Recalling the best of Hellacopter and Gluecifer with their straight-forward rock attack, New Jersey’s The Break starts out “Handbook For The Hopeless†with “The Wolves Are At The Front Doorâ€. However, The Break does not infuse this opening track with enough energy to keep this fresh and different; by the third minute, every one of their tricks has been used ad infinitum. The same pseudo-new rock (in the style of…
It has been nearly 3 years since I have reviewed Brazil. A lot can happen in three years, so what I felt about the band in 2004 should not be influencing what I feel about Brazil now. “On Safe-Cracking and Rubella†is an opening track that uses mundane noises to make a track. The disc’s first musical track comes during “Crimeâ€, and it provides listeners with an interesting look into…
Mixing some electronics (Nic) into the traditional emo formula is how Brazil has turned the music world on their ear, and each anthemic emo track is proof that these two elements can be successfully combined. While some of the guitar work in a track like “The Novemberist†is cliché beyond belief (the spaced-out guitar), Jon’s vocals (in the style of The Goodlife and Brand New) are what really captures the…
The style of hardcore that Bravo Fucking Bravo is similar in a sense to that of the technical-core bands, but there seems to be a heavy hard rock/metal influence that moderates the amounts of effete wankery that the band can burden on its listeners. The most interesting thing about Bravo Fucking Bravo is the tension that they create with each of their tracks; the screaming present by Myke is always…
The Bravery’s self-titled album starts out with their first single, “An Honest Mistakeâ€. A sibling to “This Fire†by Franz Ferdinand, The Bravery moves completely into the retro-synthpop espoused by bands like The Aeffect. The synth solo that is allowed to churn up emotion bridging the two halves of “An Honest Mistake†just is a logical extension of The Darkness and “Alwaysâ€-era Blink 182. Moving into “No Breaksâ€, with its…