“Chasing Trains” is the first track on Dana and Lauren’s latest release, a 4-track EP that touches upon a number of distinct and unique styles, sounds, and approaches. This track will immediately touch listeners for a variety of reasons, key of which has to be the utterly compelling vocal harmonies present. Couple these harmonies with a bluegrass-heavy set of arrangements, and what results is the duo’s first single-worthy track. Where…
Daniel Powter plays a very free and open style of pop rock that will fit well alongside groups like Maroon 5 and John Maher. The first track, “Song 6” shows that Powter is immediately marketable for any type of pop radio play. All of the songs on this self-titled disc are within a minute of each other in length, meaning that Powter has found a formula to drive home during…
It has been a few years since we last heard from Powerman 5000, so it should not be that amazing that the band has adopted a slightly different sound for “Destroy What You Enjoy”. Where the first major album used more of a nu-metal sound to get over with the fans, when the band starts “Destroy What You Enjoy”, there is a much more timeless appreciation for hard rock and…
To be honest, the introduction to this record scared me. I thought I was getting into a stodgy jazz record, and then “Matching Luggage” kicks in with a rock meets punk type of hard-hitting sound. The inclusion of horns towards the ending of the track brings Power Lloyd back into the heyday of third-wave ska and puts them into a pantheon which includes bands like the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and…
While familiarizing oneself with Heliocentric (from April, 2010) would be the best course of action, I am glad to report that the learning curve on Anthropocentric does not require familiarization with Heliocentric. Understanding the overall themes and genre approaches taken by the band on the earlier album would be great, but when the titular opening begins, listeners are brought to an entirely new space.
“Perfect” starts out Potty Mouth Society’s album, and the track really recalls both Screeching Weasel and The Pissants. The recording is not as perfect as the former, but there is no lack of intensity in each of Potty Mouth Society’s track. With tracks that average between one and two minutes, an individual cannot get bored with Potty Mouth Society, especially when tracks like “Day Late” look back to the earliest…
The aloof look of Potter on the cover of this disc does not allow for easy assumption of what exactly will hit listeners once this album start. This lack of information is only continued during the opening strains of “Walk Away”, a track that ultimately brings Potter’s style of pop and rock to listeners’ ears. This disc is three years old, and seems to show that age in each of…
I think that The Post Office Gals have a lot in common with The Men’s Recovery Project in that there are so many different things happening in each track on “Esbeohdes”. This means that eighties rock (Robert Palmer) mixes with noise, thrash, electro-punk and dance to make something that is completely new to virgin ears. The first real foray into this type of sound happens with “I Wanna See You…
The Positions – Bliss! / 2005 Self / 12 Tracks / http://www.the-positions.com / Reviewed 12 November 2006 “Bliss!” begins with a style of music that would be much more fitting in the easy listening early seventies. The present of horns and ample bass with a cute voice during “Someday” firmly ensconces The Positions into this brand of music. The first track is something that is very sedate, but has a…
Eliot Popkin looks like a slightly chubbier version of Michael Ian Black. I am unsure exactly why I thought it would make sense to mention that, but what Popkin does on “Endless Ride” is play a very non-offensive brand of pop rock that is similar to the type of music that individuals like John Maher come out with every few years. The disc’s first track is “I Don’t Wanna”, and…
There is a funkiness to “Killer Lifestyle” that cannot be stifled. Pong play the role of seventies rock act perfectly; much in the vein of Scissor Sisters or Aloha, they mix a clear production with catchy hooks to come up with a retro radio-friendly sound. The only thing that sinks Pong early is the extremely long runtime of “Killer Lifestyle”; there is not enough new material in the track’s five…
Forget the straight-forward nature of the Devo sound, this time the Polysics are morphing rock and roll with the insane noise punk of bands like Bolt Thrower, An Albatross, and the Locust. The repetitions and slight variations on a theme that the Polysics work on for three-minute bursts are the equivalent of a schizophrenic conductor rapidly spiraling out of control. Incorporating rock-revivalist bands like the White Stripes in some of…
Immediately, Polyphonic sounds like Kid Koala and The Avalanches. That is to say, that the band uses a heavy amount of samples and scratching to achieve their goals in the disc’s first track “Container Life #473”. The band has the ability to come forth with a quilt of different sounds and samples, in creating what is a Frankenstein’s monster that approximates humanity pretty damn well. “Moving On” is a track…
There are hints of Ani DiFranco and Tori Amos from the beginning of “Painkiller”. However, Polly Pani goes beyond the styles of those two individuals in the creation of a chaos that has not been heard in popular music since the days of Patti Smith. There is decidedly a much newer style to Polly Panic that is not present in the music of any of the other, previously-mentioned individuals. The…
Ethereal, open guitar lines that mix The Beatles with Gomez, The Pocket Gods feel perfectly fine meandering through “Lost”, seeming more content to be lost than to have a definite gameplan before going into the disc. The band has adequate shelter (the rich recording), even if they are in a little bit of danger due to having a small amount of provisions (the aforementioned open sound, the guitar/drum dynamic found…
In all my years of listening to Christian music, I always thought that Plumb was a band instead of just primarily being a singer. Plumb has not lost a step in the ten years that ey has been in the contemporary Christian scene. The second track on the disc is “I Can’t Do This”, and Plumb fully moves into an Evanescence type of groove with this track. In the same…
The starting out of “Love…Brothel” is one of the more ambitious tracks to be found on any current disc. Incorporating an incredibly dense arrangement alongside breakdowns that incorporate national anthems, the chaos espoused by the band is simply orgasmic. Add that to the fact that the divisions between tracks are very fluid, and one will think that this is one long composition, chopped up for more rapid digestion. The aforementioned…
“Inri” is one track that The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Towel has stepped forward with to placate their fans until the time when their next CD comes out. Best known for their “Love At The Fascist Brothel”, “Inri” is a track that blends together a more muted brand of vocals a la Anti-Flag with a seventies rock type of sound. The presence of the bass line during “Inri”…
Okay, I’ve heard of As I Lay Dying, their album was recorded by someone who worked with The Plot to Blow Up The Eiffel Tower, and in their promotional picture someone is wearing a Crass shirt. Seems good enough to me, and tracks like “Seventeen Year Old Piece of Gold” moves beyond traditional hardcore and into a realm of Temper Temper-style synth-driven rock. The incorporation of multiple harmonies during the…
The Playwrights play a very open-ended style at the beginning of their “English Self Storage”; “Why We’ve Become Invisible” mixes together elements as disparate as Madness and New Order, while enrobing their influences with a contemporary style. “Fear Of Open Spaces” starts off in a very positive style, with an interesting vocal pacing by the vocalist from the onset. Including a slightly-angular guitar style to their repertoire for the track,…