There is no equal to the absolutely sizzling opening that will hit listeners with the beginning of “Where Do We Go From Here”. Any fan of guitar work will appreciate this track, which has a little down-south, Southern rock feel (Lynyrd Skynyrd, Alabama) to it. Instead of sticking with a seventies or eighties sound, Kenny Young infuses each of the tracks on “Simple Things” with a current and contemporary feel.
Eleven Dollar Life start their “Shatter The Silence” in a very interesting way. The track has a little bit of swing to it, but also calls forth acts as disparate as The Wallflowers and the Counting Crows. This alternative rock band is able to stick a five and a half minute long track at the opening of “Shatter The Silence” and keep listeners’ attentions. In a period of short singles…
The way in which the Broken Poets begin this, their latest release, is amazing. Their control over the overall atmosphere in which this initial effort – “Singularity” – resides will be what brings fans in. Where the track begins with an emotive, narrative-heavy instrumental feel, it gradually moves into a catchy rock track. Listeners will hear bits of Maroon 5, Bob Dylan, and even Bruce Springsteen in the vocals. While…
To say that Near Miss is an eclectic band is to hit their target right down the middle. While songs like “Serious Mess” bring the band into emo territory, a song that happens only a few minutes after “Serious Mess” like “Call For Help” recalls the halcyon days of early Sum 41. The band can do any one of tens of styles equally well; the band’s pedigree means that they…
“Keep It Up” shows Therese Neaime as a pop star that already sounds as if ey was doing albums for ten or fifteen years. There is a certain inertia that is present during the disc’s opening track “Keep It Up” that makes the track getter fitting in the adult contemporary charts than anywhere else. The easiest comparison that one can make between Therese Neaime and the rest of pop music…
From the opening strains of “Borderline”, individuals will be aware of the fact that the Nazi Dogs will be a stripped-out, straight-forward type of punk band. Coming out of the tradition of the MC5 and The Stoogers (through some hardcore UK punk, like The Toy Dolls and GBH), Nazi Dogs play tracks on their “Chase The Man” that will bounce around listeners’ heads for months after the disc ends. The…
The down and dirty rock has been done a lot by a varying section of bands, but The Naysayers seem to be the best at bringing the sounds of the era back into prominence. During “Wanted Man”, hints of Thin Lizzy and Motorhead are present, as Jason’s vocals squeal out over the musical plane. One thing that early on distinguishes The Naysayers from the mass of other raunch-rock bands is…
Nathan Asher & The Infantry start “Sex Without Love” with a brand of indie rock that will get individuals giddy without moving from a cool demeanor. “Leave the South” is the first track on the disc, and has Asher bounce around a number of styles, seemingly as first as the band can envision them. The heavy use of piano during this track really makes it seem as if individuals are…
When one listens to what is called rock nowadays (and metal too), the booze-soaked rock of Nashville Pussy is nowhere to be heard. What dominates is the bland new-rock of bands like Disturbed, Ditchwat, and the whiny pseudo-rock of bands like Nickelback and Creed. Rock had bands along its way that really lived this down and dirty lifestyle, but besides Corrosion of Conformity, Kyuss, Fu Manchu, and Monster Magnet the…
To be honest, many of the rock bands from Indiana I’ve had to deal with in the past have been boring-as-hell nu-metal acts that provide no distinction from the legions of similar bands. The Nancy School come through in bolstering my low opinions about Indiana metal, as the beginnings to “Fancy Title”, specifically “Midshindeep” provide their listeners with a varied and technically proficient brand of metal. The dramatic intelligence of…
If there is not a tremendous seventies influence bringing Nagg to the studio for each track on this record, I would be amazed. There is more than a subtle hint of AOR rock here that seems to also grab some of their early punk (Undertones, Generation X) and moderates it slightly for current consumption. The production on this album is impeccable; the shrill guitars present on “Another Day” seem to…
It is so hard not to just think “Popular” when one listens to Nada Surf. It really is a shame, as the music contained on “The Weight Is A Gift” is truly another nail in the coffin for those individuals who felt that Nada Surf was a one-hit wonder. The slight twinge of Goo Goo Dolls and Uncle Tupelo (slide guitar) during the disc’s opening salvo “Do It Again” makes…
The full sound of this new band from Tairrie B (Tura Satana/Manhole) really is what invites listeners in during tracks like “Touch Me I’m Sick”. Everything is given a bass-heavy luster that allows the swampy-rock of the band to shine through. Couple that with sizzling guitar lines and arrangements that are similar in style to “Deliverance”-era Corrosion of Conformity, and the band has some serious positives to win people over…
The style of music that The Myriad plays is an ultimately polished and proper type of emo-meets-rock that has every member of the band join in in a very democratic way. The mastering on this disc is probably the best purveyor of this “everyone gets a shot” attitude; bass lines crust and swell at those moments where the supersonic vocals of Jeremy resound through the track. In fact, tracks like…
Not the type of cookie monster-emo culmination that many hardcore bands are latching onto for rapid success, My Revenge! mix together traditional Minor Threat / Sick of it All-style hardcore with traditional metal and 80s punk. For example, the opening track “Haddonfield Illinois” shows the influence of straight-forward punk, most noticeably The Misfits. Never one to slow down, each track on “Less Plot, More Blood” blasts through at about a…
Call me shallow, but I was not expecting My New Life to sound like they actually do – I’ve had their poster up on my wall for a few months, and I was expecting an indie-rock band. “Three Weeks” opens up “A Sad State of Affairs” and it compels individuals to listen through a very tight arrangement of music and a pop-punk sensibility that disappeared from the venue after Green…
In the same vein of emocore music as Coheed and Cambria and Story of the Year, My Chemical Romance mixes killer production with a silky-smooth set of vocals and equally compelling guitars. Swirling guitars as well as the technical abilities of the band make a track like “Give ‘Em Hell, Kid” fulfilling in both the musical and catchy senses. Never one to rest on their laurels, My Chemical Romance is…
This deluxe edition comes at a time when MxPx is trying to make a strong caser for their continued relevance in the land of emo, hardcore, emocore, and countless other bands with fades and girl pants. What could be better than releasing a deluxe edition of “Let It Happen”, a disc that showed to many that MxPx was capable of hanging with the big dogs of the time (Bad Religion,…
This is really what I’ve come to expect from Mustard Plug, as I have had the pleasure to review a number of their prior releases for inclusion at the local radio station. If you are at all familiar with Mustard Plug, you already know of their brand of infectious ska/punk. If you are wondering why Mustard Plug hasn’t been like the rest of the ska acts and turned to emo…
Even though these tracks span a time nearly fifteen years ago to the somewhat-present, the tracks at all times on “Masterpieces: 1991-2002” sound as fresh and as vital as if Mustard Plug just recorded them. The term “ska” is used by many individuals to really tie a band down to a specific (often-times Mighty Mighty Bosstones-like) sound, but Mustard Plug should really show anyone listening in that ska can be…