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…
“Target Market” starts off “Waking The Mystics”, and it shows Sophe Lux as being very influenced by The Turtles and The Doors, with more than a passing hint to Spanish guitar work and ambient music being tied in to their music. The eclectic sound of Sophe Lux is enough to allow individuals from all different genres to pick up the album and find something that they appreciate. The strong female…
The way that Sons and Daughters start off their “Repulsion Box” is far and away one of the best ways to get individuals to listen in. “Medicine” is a straight-forward rock track (with more than its fair share of punk influence) that will cause any listener to focus in and devote eirself to the music completely, even as their body bounces to the beat. Sons and Daughters do not let…
I’ve always felt a little bad for California’s Incubus (though not too bad, once you factor in all the money they raked in and the hot and cold running groupies… but I digress). Coming on the radio in the mid-to-late-90’s their record label took the easy route and simply tried to cram them into a box alongside the other nu metal mooks who were ruling the world at the time.…
Kent, Ohio’s Slave has just released a new track / DJing tool. Slave provides some backstory about the cut: “Here’s a short bootleg track I put together while at Big Dub Candy Mountain, first played when I opened for Doctor P. There’s not that many transition pieces like this out there, so I’m making this a free download in hopes that my fellow DJ’s will find it useful during their…
Despite the best efforts from U.S. music mags to try and recreate the same Blur vs. Oasis rivalry that their British counterparts had been able to set up and milk for years, the competition never really caught on over here. In fact, Brit Pop as a genre never really made as much as an impact in the U.S. as it did in Europe. But for those of us who did…
You know you’re getting old when those bands that first surfaced in your college years are now touring as a packaged nostalgia acts alongside fellow graying rock bands. In the case of Everclear, now celebrating 20 years as a band, that means hitting the road with the Gin Blossoms, Lit, Marcy Playground and Sugar Ray. And if audiences are permitting, Everclear can even sneak in some new songs from…
Encanto is a groovy bit of rock that will keep listeners swinging. Hints of soul, funk, and Caribbean music can be heard alongside a more continental and Spanish flair. Encanto is incredibly rewarding; subsequent listens will spotlight sides to the track that were previously hidden. Birth of Music has a unique sound that unites psychedelic rock, funk, and even surf into a retro-futuristic sound. Suns of Orpheus continue to…
Ascent provides a musically intense and a lyrically dense sound for their listeners. This means that tracks like Act of Grace are able to appeal to a wide swath of listeners. There is a momentum to Act of Grace that will have listeners sitting on the edges of their seats. Ascension keeps things interesting through a space-rock frame. Throw in a ropy, catchy bass line and what results is…
Four is available now via iTunes and GalleryAC.com where it can be purchased in multiple formats. Production on Four began in the winter of 2011 following a year-long hiatus during which the group contemplated disbanding, only to find its determination towards making a new record stronger than it had ever been previously. Of Four, frontman Kele Okereke says, “It is the best thing that we have ever done and finishing…