Before I heard this album, I had only heard of Rumbleseat in passing. A track like “California Burritos” just really shocked me, as I based my idea of what Rumbleseat sounded like off the more noisy bands that No Idea is typically apt to sign. Rumbleseat plays a baked, Against Me! type of acoustic punk that relies as much on the solid vocals as on the tinny acoustics present. In…
Rufio has lost much of their ultra-distinct sound from “Perhaps I Suppose” for a more intense, more accessible sound with this, their “The Comfort of Home”. The technical ability of the band is shown during the soaring guitar solos of the first track “Out of Control”, coupled with the ability of the band to throw down their instrumentation running and affect with some of the greatest breakdowns ever placed on…
There are 17 different artists on this compilation, and for those individuals that might not be the biggest fans of dance and electronic music, the names will not be too recognizable. For me, I was only familiar with Royksopp. The disc starts out with a quick introduction before moving into a Claude Vonstroke song. This song, “The 7 Deadly Strokes”, is a solid electronic song but tends to last for…
Hey, it’s Disturbed and Korn, having a party. And lets see, they invited their screamo cousin to the party. Everything that is churned up on “The Hollow Men” is essentially, note for note, the same that can be heard on thousands of new-rock stations owned by Clearchannel, and while there are times where Rubikon find themselves in a groove, the fact is that this music isn’t incredibly innovative. I’m sure…
The way that this album looked, I had absolutely no idea that the music on “Passion” would have such a dance stomp. Honestly, during both “Intro” and “Fly RRRRRRRobin Fly”, I was half expecting a disco singer to start laying down eir vocals over the violin played by Robin Olson. The disco flavor surrounding the earliest parts of “Passion” is really no surprise, as “Fly Robin Fly” was a Silver…
RPM is a slightly-harder edged version of Avril Lavigne. Replace the definite pop influences of Avril with a slightly more rock influence (Bif Naked, Green Day, The Donnas) and you have RPM. While RPM seems to have all of eir politics in order (with liner notes attacking Clear Channel for post-9/11 lists), this music seems to be derivative and just a little late in the game to ride someone like…
After starting out “Best Friends Our Worst Enemies” slowly with their first track “Carabella”, Roden breaks through to their listeners with the very AFI-influenced “Ghosthouse, 1922”. The multiple-vocals of the aforementioned “Ghosthouse, 1922” really make the track crash and break against the ears of listeners, and go off into pseudo-instrumental noodling soon after. “Murder Of An Albatross” is a much more vocally-focused track, and the lack of audible instrumentation (for…
There are a few different styles that are shown off by Royce at the opening of their “Tuff Love”. The blend of dreamy pop with very funky and electronic backing beats give individuals two distinct ways to see the band. The track is catchy and radio friendly in the God Lives Underwater way, and has a current sound even if the constituent parts of Royce here are slightly older. The…
The hard opening to “Brave” allows listeners to lock into Royal Bliss; the style is not metal but rather is in a style of the LostProphets or a slightly harder Treble Charger. The vocals that are presented during “Brave” and “Here They Come” are those that are present in pretty much any playlist of a major radio station; there is little doubt that one of the songs on “After the…
Coming out of virtually nowhere, this Pacific Northwest band wows and amazes with their impressively introspective and emotive type of power-pop music. Beginning “Big City Sin…” with “Something that’s Real”, which has an driving beat that is unparalleled along with a lush production and proper harmonization. Coming in smoothly between the country-tinged alt rock of The Weakerthans and the alt country of Drive Til Morning, Roy proves much with this,…
While the style of “Subtitulo” is more in the vein of singer-songwriters like Joseph Arthur and Dave Matthews, there is a conscious decision made by Rouse present on tracks like “Quiet Town” that incontrovertibly links eir with previous styles like Warren Zevon. There are quite a few deviations made by Rouse on “Subtitulo” that really makes listeners perk up; the lush instrumentation present on each of the tracks on “Subtitulo”…
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…