Andrew Douglas Rothbard – Abandoned Meander “A Beginning” is the opening track on the disc, and has Rothbard come forth with a very droning type of sound that relies heavily on repetition to get individuals focused into the disc. The track may only be two and a half minutes, but the fact that the track does not change much over that time means that the song feels twice as long…
Diana Ross hand-picked the majority (in fact, all but one) of the tracks on “I Love You”, covering what ey thinks are the best examples of love expressed in song. There is one original track on this disc, and that is “Remember”. “Remember” is a slow track, and the instrumentation sounds a little off. It is as if Ross is trying to go forth with a very fifties sounding set…
If there is one word to accurately describe Alex Ross-Iver, it is busy. This individual has cut over 500 tracks since ey got into the music scene at the age of five, and this “greatest hits” collection sports 27 separate tracks. However, just because someone has 500 tracks to their name does not necessarily mean that any of the tracks are particularly exciting. A sterling case of that concerns Steve…
Roses Are Red have been around for a few years; I remember having a copy of their last album in my closet for months. This is the band’s return to the big time. The disc opens up with “These Days”, which is a track that while having a catchy melody at points does not have quite the raw energy of a song like “Failing”. “Failing” has very confident guitar riffs…
Rose Kemp starts off “A Hand Full of Hurricanes” with the quiet track “Little One”. The track shows that Kemp has not settled in completely, and it is not the strongest opening I have ever heard. For a proper introduction, one has to listen in to the second track, “Violence”. The most interesting thing about “Violence” is the bouncing back and forth between quieter and louder genres. However, there seems…
Roma 79 is a hard band to get into, especially since “Heads Down” is such an ugly track. This is not to say that the track is poorly-conceived or recorded, but rather that the track feels a little off. The band is not working together as cohesively ass they could be, with the drum-beats of Aaron really sticking out like a sore thumb. There seems to be a little better…
It has been a pretty long time since Blindside has cut an album. However, in the four years since they released their last effort, they have done a tremendous job in tightening up their sound and crafting a compelling album. While it is true that the band has been crafting music for nearly twenty years, I feel that there is a freshness to the tracks on “With Shivering Hearts We…
Nick Cave is right up there with Leonard Cohen and the late Jeff Buckley as being one of those musicians everyone claims to love but if you look purely at record sales all three still hover closer to cult status rather than international superstars…which is far from being a bad thing (unless you have to pay a mortgage). If you’ve been resolving to actually listen to Cave versus just nodding…
Jazz sits at the juncture between classical and current. Gerald Wilson explores this break by simultaneously working at these two poles. What results is a truly fitting experiment on eirself; listeners will get whom Gerald Wilson is and what influences eir quite nicely. At 92, there is no loss in eir step or sharpness – each of the twelve tracks on “Legacy” are impressive collages of musical interactions that will…
This is the third album that Vasandani has released; this singer has been garnering strong reviews from all sides of the jazz community since 2007. Hi-Fly showcases a singer that can power through traditional jazz tracks and experiment at length. What results is one of the most unique albums that we’ve been able to review, while still showcasing eir skill at every turn. Hi-Fly starts out with “The Very Thought…
It was late last year when these reissues were first mentioned, and I immediately became excited. This is due to the fact that Sony Legacy always attempts to dig deep with their reissues, coming out with different versions of tracks (demo, live, mono), crazy rare efforts, and a cleaning up of the sounds that originally impacted listeners all those years ago. Sony Legacy is one of the few companies that…
The cover of this album does not give any good clues to what will await listeners. “My Life After Death Pt. 1” only furthers this dilemma. There is a cohesive band playing something that is rock in nature, but what really awaits listeners? The band could easily move into rock, emo, or punk; what eventually comes to light is that Roman Numerals play a very time-tested brand of pop-infused rock.…
Ron Pope spent a few years in The District, and is quickly gaining notoriety among a wide selection of listeners; eir music was present on So You Think You Can Dance, and the iTunes sales of eir singles have been brisk throughout all of 2010 and the beginning of 2011. “Whatever It Takes” is eir latest album, released on Hard Six Records. The album starts out with “If You Were…
Wow, I had heard of Roger Miret but never really heard eir – apparently ey was the former lead singer of Agnostic Front, and yet I can hear what ey is singing. Simply fucking fantabulous! This even sounds like a mixture of the Street Dogs and LES Stitches, so RMatD have two things going for them before their first song, “Loud and Proud” ends. “Riot, Riot, Riot” gains its immense…
Jeff Ott had Fifteen. Conor Oberst had Bright Eyes and Desparecidos. Rocky Votolato chooses it to go more along Lifted-Era Bright Eyes, and have a number of individuals back him while he strums along on a guitar. The angsty vocals of Conor can be heard in tracks like “Death-Right”, while hints of Justin Sane’s solo work really seems similar politically (from discussing suicide bombers in “Automatic Rifle” to the Union…
“Paralyzed” opens up “Are You Nervous?” and the dance-punk played by Rock Kills Kid is something that is often replicated but never duplicated. This is the next step beyond Franz Ferdinand, as there are the angular arrangements present throughout this album. However, this angular sound is not the only thing that fuels the album, as the soulful vocals look back to the days of Duran Duran while the fullness of…
Built To Last is another Rock N Roll Purgatory band that has been tremendously influenced by the rockabilly movement. This influence is shown in the very distinctive, upright-soudning bass lines of “Monster Truck” and “The Best”. Lead vocalist Phil creates the distinctive vocals, a mixture of Tiger Army, Nekromantix, The Misfits and even Reel Big Fish. In an odd change from the norm, Rocket 350 really has the bass filling…
This is the Vanguard debut of Diane Schuur, and I feel that this shift in record labels is precisely what ey needed. While 2008’s “Some Other Time” (Concord) was typical Schuur, “Gathering” is the next evolutionary step forward. This renewed take on life is easily heard during “Gathering”, which will undoubtedly impress in regards to the intricate arrangements and tremendous vocal delivery that are commonplace here. The array of tracks…
The Rocket Summer sounds about as emo as you can get with their opening track “Move To The Other Side of the Block”, being essentially a Jadisonotes track: a piano with a melo-dramatic set of vocals (laid down by Bryce. What is impressiver about The Rocket Summer is the fact that Bryce does practically everything on the disc, including writing, arranging, singing, and playing on all the track – perhaps…
Rockdotrock is the most interesting premise behind a band that I think I have ever heard. The band’s sole purpose is to turn listeners onto Norton Confidential, for reasons explained in each of the five songs. To be honest, I am not expecting much from Rockdotrock besides a whole lot of product shilling and a whole lot of cheesy songs. At the beginning of “Mr. Software”, the guitars start off…