A Static Lullaby’s self-entitled album is one of the more mainstream works I have reviewed. The screaming is well done; I don’t lose any lyrical value and don’t feel overpowered by it. The singer shows some serious range, control, and skill. The drums are powerful, with impressive fills and a decent amount of presence. The vocalist and screamer paired together make any song a thousand times better. I love…
The mastering and general sound of A Static Lullaby on this disc is amazing – the band had some serious cash put into the creation of Faso Latido, but this doesn’t always mean that it will translate into gold. A number of these tracks start out good, but really seem to bog down mid-way through the track as the band loses perspective. Tracks like “Smooth Modulator” work under the…
Las Vegas has watched local Sin City rock group OTHERWISE move their way up from a hometown favorite to national name. OTHERWISE has had widespread radio success with their first single “Soldiers,” which became the first song by an unsigned artist to ever occupy the #1 spot on the Sirius Octane channel. The track peaked at #19 at Active Rock radio and has sold over 75,000 singles to date, making…
Kaboombox is a hot bit of electronic-infused rap music. Hints of Korn, Coal Chamber, and Boondox can all be heard during this funky, energetic, and overall fun introduction to Cata9tales. Of particular note during this track has to be the production, which allows the track to stay crisp and compelling through its run time. Open Letter To Generation Adderall provides listeners with a grittier and harder feel, with the…
Hot Air has so much going on that the track will require listeners to give it multiple spins before they can feel as if they have gotten everything that Time and Energy has placed into it. Whether it is the overall jam feel to the effort, the jazz-influenced drum lines, or the emotive horns, Time and Energy have ensured that there is something for everyone. Breakdown slows things up;…
State Bird’s “Marching Thru The Wilderness” is an interesting album. State Bird reminds listeners of a few different acts. There seems to be the same large-scale sound that acts like The Boy Least Likely To and The Flaming Lips. The band is so off the wall that tracks like “Behold the Lamb” has a bouncy, almost Beatles-like feel to it, while still maintaining a current sound that will put…
Starting out their “The Rising Horizon” with a track that recalls both The Nekromantix as well as 45 Grave, the end results of this debut by The Starvation is a retro-rock song couched in the rockabilly tradition. “Purgatory” is a bizarre mashup of Billy Joel, Bright Eyes, and the “goth Elvis” vocals reminiscent of Danzig. What comes to bear throughout a great deal of the disc, and really comes…
The first effort from “Eminem Presents: The Re-Up” was a weak track from Eminem featuring Cashis. This is the second single from this album, and this will determine largely whether “The Re-Up” will be a success or just another album that will be gathering dust at music stores worldwide. The immediate thing that one will notice about “Get Low” is that the strings of the backing beat provide an…
The cover of “Centuries Before Love and War” seems very organic and natural, but the first track on the disc, “Centuries” seems to have all the electronic accouterments of a Fischerspooner coupled with a tender bit of indie rock that is comparable to the releases of Bright Eyes. The guitar work is intense during “Movies of Antarctica”, which allows Stars of Track and Field to add to their overall…
The hard edge of Stars Are Falling look more to a classic metal sound than to any hardcore style that might be the darling of the day. Saying that, the music that Stars Are Falling place on “The Consequence of Revenge” will undoubtedly be able to stand the test of time much better than anything else released this year. While the heaviness of the music here may not be…
Stars and Stripes is one of my all time favorite oi bands. I understand that they are sort of a joke band in the sense that they make fun of a lot of the problematic oi constructs, but I’ll be damned if they don’t do it in a way that only acts like Hard Skin can even begin to approximate. The first album that Stars and Stripes cut (“Shaved…
You Know I’m Gonna Miss You is the latest track released by 7 Horses, and it showcases an act that can create an effort that is far beyond their constituent parts. The track begins with a lively arrangement that resounds in listener’s hearts and minds long after the track ceases. I feel that the bass is a hidden treasure here, as it provides the perfect counter-point to the vocals…
“Pumpkin” has a “Midnite Vultures” feel to it, making this introduction to “Drowaton” interesting to say the least. “Torts” continues this interesting sound as it brings Starlight Mints into a carnival atmosphere, with little connecting these first two tracks. It is really only during “What’s Inside of Me?” that the band really sets down and comes with a serious approach. Mixing a Fastball style with a piano line that…
Starkweather is a cult band for a reason. The music that they commit to disc when “Croatoan” starts out is nothing less than furious. The track is about seven minutes long, and it shows Starkweather’s trek through a number of different genres and sounds. This means that there is a ton of death and thrash metal, but that there are breakdowns present that would make both Pantera and Black…
Much more driven than the two albums that followed it, Staring Back’s “The Mean Streets of Goleta” has an urgency about it, a sense of youthfulness indicative of a time in which those feelings were still allowed. Now, bands are pretty much forced to be individuals reminiscing about this past, while assuming the part of an old sage – The Atari’s “In this Diary” really is a track that…
If You Don’t Know is the first track on Running All Muthafuckas Over, and it immediately showcases that Ramo Dajaneiro is a substantially different rapper than what is currently popular. There is an urgency to each of the cuts here that showcases that he has actually lived what he’s rapping about. The production is crisp and fits the flow, ensuring a rough and ready track that will have listeners focused…
Where the individuals from Kids in the Hall may have released Brain Candy on an unassuming populace, it is Staring Back that puts out Ear Candy. Speed-addicted punk that is still galloping while others might be resting. The wall of sound created by Staring Back is one that has innumerable wires and guns sticking out of it, providing ways for countless other innocent listeners to fall victim to each…
Hey, you know all those bands out there like The All-American Rejects, Mest, and Die Trying? Well, each of those bands that are in the same mold gaining all sort of success should really give a share of their money to Staring Back. This disc, as was listed earlier, was created in 2000. The only reason why I am even going and reviewing this disc, after so many years…
“Live To Win” was a track that Stanley licensed to for the Warcraft-specific episode of South Park, and while the track is around three minutes long, the clips used during South Park gave the track even more intensity. The song does start off the album in a solid way, with a high amount of energy and solid instrumentation. The track does not feel as if Stanley is trying to…
World-renowned, Grammy Award-winning producer/DJ BENNY BENASSI launched his Rough Road North American bus tour this week. Set to cross the U.S. and Canada with 16 dates, marking his largest string of consecutive shows on a single tour in his career, BENASSI will be joined by Pink Is Punk, Krewella and Congorock on various dates. BENASSI will perform to an estimated 45,000+ people in just over two weeks, blazing a trail…