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,…
“Bad Cops Bad Charities” reminds me of HelloGoodbye and The Rocket Summer. That is to say that PlayRadioPlay mixes emo stylings with an electronic component that is comparable to acts like Fischerspooner. The quirkiness of the vocalist of PlayRadioPlay seems to pull itself towards that of a Blink 182. Thus, “Bad Cops Bad Charities” is an odd Frankenstein’s monster of a track. The band steps strongly here, but there needs…
2000 Diaphragm records. 13 Songs from this 4 piece act from Columbus. The CD is a scant 32:45, making each song around 2 and a half minutes long. The cover has boobies on it. Very good guitars that match equally good guitars, making a sound much like Hilljack. A Planet For Texas are a fairly large band, as they know the Forty-Fives (NG Records) and have been reviewed by both…
2002, Diaphragm Records. This was the last CD I had to review from the piles of mail that my mom didn’t bother sending me. And boy am I happy that this was the last CD I still had to review, as this CD definitely rocks. Don’t expect the sound of “You Can Still Rock in America”, as this album is more poppy, more clean sounding, and if you can believe…
Planeside starts off their “Milk” with a blend of styles that tie together the powerful arena rock of Foo Fighters with the dominant emo rock movement in popular music. Thus, during “My Sweet Revenge”, individuals’ heads bob as the emotive force of Dave’s vocals tie listeners in for the long haul. “Aunt Polly’s Dream” makes Planeside into an even-more powerful act, aligned more along the axis of Sum 41 than…
What type of metal is this? With Place of Skull’s first track on “The Black Is Never Far”, “Prisoner’s Creed” the band skillfully meshes together progressive metal with sludge and a more contemporary idea of rock to create something that is accessible without being devoid of content. With later tracks like “Sense of Divinity” the formula is not changed in the slightest. Why this works for Place of Skulls and…
Sounding like a mix between old-school U2 and The Cure, Pitty Sing comes to the forefront of the synthesizer-kiddos while mixing in an aural sound not unlike the bands off of any of John Hughes’ movies’ soundtracks. “Radio” sounds especially like “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” by the Simple Minds, even down to the chirpiness of the track. Continuing that general sound, these looking-back individuals try to recreate the melodrama…
I was a little weary of Revelation Records after their last album, Call Me Lightning’s “The Trouble We’re In”, really failed to impress me. However, I have a feeling that Revelation’s stock is rising, specifically because of their release of two albums: this album, as well as the new The Plot to Blow Up The Eiffel Tower. I knew that this album had to be good after the first few…
Pistolita mix two distinct styles to come up with their own distinct sound. On tracks like “Cupid”, the band comes up with a style that mixes in equal proportions Smashing Pumpkins and The Bravery. There are a few other influences that present themselves during “Oliver Under The Moon”, one of which has to be the nod to Blink 182 that makes itself most evident during songs like “Voicebox”. It is…
Swedish rock ‘n’ roll punks IRON LAMB, the band featuring within their gritty ranks metal veterans Johan Wallin (General Surgery, Scurvy, Bombstrike, ex-Repugnant), Grga Lindström (ex-Repugnant), Thomas Daun (Dismember, ex-Repugnant, ex-Insision) and Daniel Ekeroth (Tyrant, ex-Insision, ex-Dellamorte, author of Swedish Death Metal) — are readying to unleash their debut full-length entitled The Original Sin. The Original Sin will feature 10 tracks with artwork and layout by Lindström and Watain’s Erik…
Providing their listener base with a sing-along in “When the Ink Runs Dry” LA’s Pistol Grip ensure that each track on “Tear It All Down!” is the perfect mix of rock and punk. “….For I Have Sinned” may have a guitar wash the by and large works because of the sloppiness found on the track, and “Never B Another” continues that same formula for somewhat diminishing returns. Sure, a closely-grouped…
I was able to listen to Pipebomb on their MySpace site before we had them play here in Lancaster. I wasn’t able to get the right aura around the band when they played live, as the PA speaker was blown out by that time. The tracks on “Disclaimer” are all normal length for punk tracks – ranging from 90 to 120 seconds, but the recording on the disc really is…
The Pin-Ups begin this EP with “Tonite” relying on the sound on bands like The Carsfor influence; even if this album is twelve years, there is a definite sound from the eighties that is culled together by the Pin-Ups. There seems to be a certain factor that the band lacks in moving from the eighties to the nieties, and that really has to be a lack of down and dirty…
Pillbox Remedy plays a brand of more-mature pop-punk, starting off “Wasted Memories” with a solid bit of music named “Get What You Deserve”. The entirety of “Get What You Deserve” is a track that does not follow the full-style that has lead from the Spector-created “wall of sound” so prevalent in today’s music. Beside the shortness of this EP (the six tracks all together barely break the eighteen minute mark),…
“Gracie” starts out like a Steppenwolf track, while the vocals come out with an indie rock style that reflects Pierce’s love of acts like Matthew Sweet. The track is radio friendly, but there is nothing immediately catchy about that track, no special rub that the track has to bring listeners into their local record store to pick up this album. “Divine Whoa” is another track that is much the same…
The mixture of rock and emo music that Picket Line starts off their “Chapter: End” is probably the smartest move that the band can make with their opening salvo. By tying together the two most popular genres of music on the market, Picket Line have shown that they can reach a large segment of the listening audience. The music is not just done to bring listeners to purchase this album,…
“Electric Shock” has The Photo Atlas start like any number of dance punk acts that were on the lips of indie scene kids from 2003 on. In fact, the spastic nature of “Electric Shock” is reminiscent of The Rapture, even if the vocals attempt to go in an At The Drive-In direction. The Photo Atlas will be big when this album gets to the right people, but I don’t know…
Phoenix Mourning is an interesting signature for Metal Blade. The overall sound that the band puts forward during tracks like “Contrast” is a equal part blend of emo and Disturbed-like metal. The blend is not something that occurs frequently, and I’m not sure if I’ve heard a band at this level attempt something so daring. But, does this gambit work out, and is Phoenix Mourning an act that individuals should…
The dreamy pop of “Sister Risk” is a low-key entrance into the popular music world. The bass line might be pretty active, but the overall sound shows The Phoenix Foundation as a band that coasts on a certain inertia. The first few tracks of “Horsepower” shows much of the same sound; at least, at some point The Phoenix Foundation is constant in the style of music that they commit to…