I have always viewed remixes as an unnecessary and often cynical move by record labels to milk the music –buying public one more time, buying slightly reworked – and in most cases weaker versions of songs they already own. I view it akin to George Lucas tossing out a new edition of Star Wars DVDs every couple of years.
For those Dylan fans who have never quite recovered from the musician temporarily putting down his acoustic guitar to plug into an amp at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, The Witmark Demos, the latest in Dylan’s stellar Bootleg Series, is a godsend. Forty-seven songs spread out over two CDs, featuring the artist formerly known as Robert Zimmerman accompanied only by acoustic guitar, and occasionally harmonica and piano, this collection…
There is a contemporary flair to Conditions’ effort on “Fluorescent Youth” that will ensure the widest possible listenership picks up this album. Where there have been a number of different musical movements attempting to strive for dominance in the course of the last few years, Conditions deftly tie together these different style into a cogent and unique style. From when the album begins with “The End of Progression” all the…
The brutality of Negative Reaction is made even more so by the fact that each of the eight tracks on the disc are ugly blobs of metal music. The disc together is almost fifty minutes, and the average “Under The Ancient Penalty” song is well over five minutes in run time. So, during tracks like “Lost, Negative Reaction has more than enough time to get bowels all aquiver and rock…
There are so many disparate influences that start off “Daylight”, of which the largest seem to be Howie Day, Nickelback and Phil Collins. All of these influences conglomerate to allow Needtobreathe to come up with the most emotional and intense brand of rock since Lifehouse released their first album a few years back. Each of the tracks on “Daylight” seem to come up with a slightly different set of influences…
Necrophobic goes forward with their own brand of death metal. “Hrimthursum” may not let up throughout the near-hour of music, but there are quite a few melodies that Necrophobic uses on these tracks to keep individuals tuned in. For example, “I strike With Wrath” is on top of its own hill with the guitar solo, but this is not the only thing that Necrophobic does to bring harmony to this…
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…