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…
There is a laid-back, funky type of interpretation of the blues on “Another Fatal Blow”. Robustelli comes out blending Lenny Kravitz with Jameroquoi, with a track like “Poppa Don’t Think” adding just enough in the way of electronic influence to keep things interesting. The style of “Poppa Don’t Think” is very radio-friendly, and could easily make Robustelli big on the alternative rock stations throughout the United States. However, instead of…
Christopher Titus is the perfect example of a comedian that has brief brushes with fame but nothing that has been sustained. Titus, eir television show, ran for 3 seasons at the beginning of the millennium. Eir other comedy albums, Norman Rockwell is Bleeding and Love is Evol, have been tremendously emotional and killer pieces of comedy.
This disc has been sitting around my room for what feels like an eternity, and I finally sat down to listen to it not knowing what Robots and Empire had in store for me. The opening of “Stampede” is something that works well with the band’s title. The hard guitar and drum beat that opens up the track speaks to the empire side of things; the overwhelming force of the…
The Robot Ate Me starts off “Carousel Waltz” in a way that channels either Paul Simon or The Polyphonic Spree. This means that The Robot Ate Me creates a music that plays on the styles of the sixties while still being bleeding edge, with the inclusion of influences as wide as Death Cab For Cutie and Fischerspooner. The disc may be a year old but the music contained inside has…
Looking at the front of this album I had no clue what to expect from Sam Roberts. Well, I should say; I had an idea what type of music that Roberts would play but it was held back by perceptible disbelief; could someone in 2006 come out with music that recalled the rock of the sixties and seventies? It only takes a few minutes, but Sam Roberts does just that…
The bouncy bass first heard during “The Fatalist” works well alongside a very angular approach by the Robbers on High Street. What results is a style of music that relies heavily on a eighties sound even as the band wedges themselves into the retro style of rock that is played by acts like The Killers and The Charlatans UK. The vocals are catchy during a song like “The Fatalist”, but…
Silverstein has been around for a number of years, but is not a band that has ever been content on sitting on their laurels. Rather, the band’s latest effort is perfect testament to the fact that they continually wish to modify, update, and otherwise evolve their sound. From the opening strains of the album’s first track “Medication”, the band’s nuanced arrangements and bold guitar and drum swaths show this. “Good…
Ritchie Blackmore is an absolute legend when it comes to metal. Deep Purple has influenced thousands, if not tens of thousands of bands since their inception, and Blackmore has continued to evolve since eir years in the band. Blackmore’s Night is the union between Ritchie and Candice Night, and begins with a cover of the One More Time hit, “Highland”. The track is retooled considerably, and represents one of three…
When I first put this disc into the player, I had no clue what RJ & The Imperatives would sound like. However, by the time that “Find Yourself Falling” finish, one can hear hints of mid-seventies Bowie, Dire Straits, and even a little bit of Chicago. There is a classic sound to the track, but I can see the band playing in a fair or festival somewhere with an increasing…
The amount of guest stars that Carmen Rizzo has on this album is impressive; on this album Esthero, Jem, and Grant Lee Phillips all find their way onto the disc. The dreamy vocals of Esthero during “Too Rude” allows the arrangements of Rizzo to really reach their potential, as there is a Bjork/sixties dynamic at play throughout the entire track. The infusion of more atmosphere and some scratching a la…
“Biz Love’s Sluts” is an interesting track, as it shows Riverboat Gamblers as a band that know well the pop punk that infected California in the early part of the nineties, but also shows that the band wants to unite this style with the emo/punk style of bands like Rise Against. The band changes up their style with “The Song We Used to Call “Wasting Time”” is much quicker, and…
Even though the band says that this EP is “basically a practice tape with a facelift”, the fact is the tremendous energy of the band shines through, clean as day. The apeshit-crazy mood of “The Things You Saved Can’t Be Replaced”, having all the members of Rise and Shine blast through their parts with the utmost speed from the “starting line” of its synthesizer opening. Seamlessly moving from pop-punk to…
Rise and Shine has been a solid band in the central Ohio scene for at least a year to my knowledge, and this album really cleans up any minor issues the band may have had with their production circa their 2004 EP. Especially present in their re-done “The Things You’ve Saved Can’t Be Replaced”, Rise and Shine shines through, aided by an especially generous mastering. Opening the follow-up to “Replaced”,…
Okay, how is this album going to sound. Rise Against’s last album, “Siren Song of the Counter-Culture” was hit after hit, but how will “The Sufferer and The Witness” even sound? After the band kicks into “Chamber the Cartridge”, I had little doubt in my heart that the band would deliver with this album. If anything, Rise Against have started listening to their early Offspring albums for a little bit…