You Don’t Know A Thing About Love is a solid introduction to Roxie Randle’s inimitable style. This introductory track takes equal parts pop, singer-songwriter, and country genres and ties them into a cohesive entity. Heading up this track is Randle’s vocals, which set the stage for the rest of the album. Few artists would be able to create such an emotionally-charged presence with their vocals, but Randle is able…
Chris Riffle’s music on Another Dream showcases a performer that is mature while still evolving. The album begins with All That We Hold, a coy track that will immediately have listeners take attention. I feel that the progression that is presented here is tremendously affecting, to the degree that the track will stick with listeners long after this effort (and album) finishes. And I Love Him has a…
It’s taken a few years, but I am finally able to accept that “World Punk” is a legitimate genre. Thanks to bands like World Inferno/Friendship Society, Gogol Bordello, and most importantly Firewater, I realize this is far more than a novelty, but a full on movement, building on what punk bands like The Clash were evolving to in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Firewater’s latest, International Orange, is a…
The slightly-electronic sound of The Southland makes for a mass of tracks that are eminently ready for alt-rock radio, and some even have the hooks necessarily for The Southland to make it even on the relatively closed set that is TRL. “Aftermath” is one of these tracks, which couples a very savvy arrangement with a soulful guitar solo. The Southland’s cover of “I Only Have Eyes For You” transforms the…
It is not often that the band can work for over a decade and finally get the notice that they deserve, but the highly distorted blackish, brackish sludge of Sourvein provides all aspiring bands with a brief glimmer of hope. “Emerald Vulture”, the band’s first EP on This Dark Reign, finally brings this brutal form of music to a larger audience than any Mardi Gras performances could ever have. Sourvein…
The band starts off in a tremendously emotive vein of instrumental rock that subsides only a slight bit when the vocals kick in on “Fools and Thieves”. What really will strike listeners first is the interesting arrangements that Sound the Alarm create in tying their listeners down. There are at one time two conflicting elements in Sound the Alarm’s music; first off, there is an insistence by the vocals that…
Keith Williams is an artist that provides an expansive addition to jazz with each track on New Beginnings. The context in which each of these tracks exist is considerably more dense and detailed than much of the fare that is currently popular. I believe that the instrumental arrangements that are encountered during the opening of New Beginnings (in particular, the ending of Fever and the start of Cry Me a…
I feel that for the moment, purchasing Used Steinways is the way to go. A number of individuals had to sell their pianos with the recession, so the market has the lowest prices that I have seen. There is a wide variation on the prices that are available, so finding the right company is absolutely essential.
Sven Sundberg begins his 4 Seasons of Bliss with In Your Love. This track is a perfect introduction for those that have not had the chance to introduce themselves to Sundberg’s music. The piano is able to come forth with emotive authority, and provides listeners with a narrative that is richer than many efforts out there. With this introduction, Sundberg is able to collect fans from far and wide. Spring…
Guano Padano immediately kicks things into high gear on 2 with The Last Night. This introductory track sets the stage for what the band will create on the later registers of the album. There is a significant amount of cohesion from this initial track to Zebulon. After getting everyone interested, One Man Bank showcases a Guano Padano that can create something that is earthy and utterly distinct. The act…
Break out the leather and metal studs because Screaming for Vengeance, the Revolver of heavy metal, is finally getting a proper re-release for its 30th anniversary. The 1982 album, the eighth for metal royalty Judas Priest , found the band topping their last great record British Steel, finding a solid balance between writing catchy, accessible songs while still keeping the dangerous metal kids happy (well, relatively happy. Those kids…
Never content to fit in with normal time signatures or outlooks on how a singer is supposed to sound, Sweden’s Sounds Like Violence make a masterpiece that encompasses the entire world in a scant six tracks. The piece is the chaos-in-a-snowglobe sound of the penultimate track on the EP, “Afasi”. Whether it is the acidic, blade-sharp guitar lines or the warbling, soulseeking vocals of Andreas, “Afasi” is the perfect…
Mix together the Sahara Hotnights, The Veronicas, “La La”-style Ashlee Simpson and The Donnas and individuals will have the beginning of an idea about what The Sounds sound like. Each track on “Dying To Say This To You” could easily be transferred to radio, even though the arrangements that couch tracks like “Queen of Apology” are nothing less than inspired. The infusion of such a heavy synthesizer line to…
Total Abandon Australia ’99 is a stellar live recording of Deep Purple. The live recording seems like a greatest hits, as the band authoritatively ends with Smoke on the Water and Highway Star. The crowd is raucous but adds considerably to the overall authoritas of the performance. The band sounds larger than life, while the amount of time that they have spent on the road by 1999 makes these tracks…
I like how “Teachers” starts out, but having a listing of bands as a track just does not work. The only way that a song of listed items works is if the act cuts it off early, as is the case with Radiohead’s “Fitter Happier”. This is not what happens with Soulwax’s “Teachers”, as the track ends at the two and a half minute mark. There is too little…
The title track starts off Soular’s “Love Crash Heal”, and the overall sound achieved by the band here is something that blends together Interpol, U2, and more than their fair share of John Maher. As can be expected, there is a tremendous amount of radio-friendly atmosphere present to “Love Crash Heal”. “So, This Is The Way It Feels” has a harder edge to it, but the vocals are still…
So They Say has been on tour with Amber Pacific, and it seems as if the vocal stylings of Amber Pacific have been recreated with some success during “Antidote For Irony”. The slightly-nasal, melodramatic (in a good way) vocals take center stage during “In Loving Memory Of…”, and only have competition with the strings that pop up during the track. Each of the cuts from “Antidote For Irony” is…
The sheer depth and breadth of Art Garfunkel’s career is substantial, and this compilation acts as a starting point for those that are too young or were otherwise unable to pick up Garfunkel’s music up to this point. Eir largest hits – Bridge Over Troubled Water and The Sound of Silence – are presented alongside lesser-known tracks. I find that the later registers of the disc – the first…
The summer of 2012 will likely go down as the “Summer of 90’s Nostalgia”. Every Gen Xer (myself included) who rolled their eyes through childhood while the Boomers re-lived every inane musical milestone of their generation somehow found themselves carrying the torch over the past few months, as everyone from Everclear to Marcy Playground trotted out new records and tours packed to the gills with graying musical acts. Joining the…
“Bumblefuck” begins the album, and it really shows SOS as a band that meshes together a number of different traditions. For those into the current state of rock music, there seems to be more than a hint of Disturbed-like riffs. Riffs also resemble Metallica and the thrash-rock of old Anthrax, while the tempo is more reminiscent of early punk music. “Star Killers” is more of the same, but what is…