Movie Star Kiss – Starting Over / 2006 Self / 10 Tracks / http://www.moviestarkiss.com/ http://www.myspace.com/moviestarkiss / Reviewed 07 November 2006 The opening of “Starting Over” is slow, deliberate, and snowballs to give the opening set of vocals even more fury than it would have normally had. There is a high amount of repetition present during this track, but the band is smart enough to end the track before the band…
The Movies – In One Era Out the Other / 2002 Gern Blandsten Records / 10 Tracks / http://www.gernblandsten.com / http://www.skyscrapermedia.net / Reviewed 01 January 2004 Another lo-fi, ethereal sounding type of alternative music. Timothy’s lyric sound plucked out of an early eighties 4AD release. While the promo sheet would have you try to equate The Movies with “Pornography-era Cure”, I would have to point individuals in the way of…
Motion City Soundtrack – Commit This To Memory / 2005 Epitaph / 12 Tracks / http://www.motioncitysoundtrack.com / http://www.epitaph.com / Reviewed 06 April 2005 We have a winner for the most annoying method to ensure that one’s CD is not stolen. Epitaph has decided to split up the twelve tracks on “Commit This To Memory” into 99 different sections, and this means that I get into a groove with the great…
James Morrison – Undiscovered / 2007 Interscope / 11 Tracks / http://www.jamesmorrisonmusic.com / http://www.interscope.com / Reviewed 11 March 2007 James Morrison plays a style of feel-good pop-rock that has ties to artists such as John Maher and Jack Johnson; the title track derivates from that formula only when ey adds a very psychedelic meets Counting Crows type of organ to the mix. The large role that the bass has in…
Mouth Sewn Shut – Pandemic = Solution / 2006 Rodent Popsicle / 12 Tracks / http://www.myspace.com/mouthsewnshut / http://www.rodentpopsicle.com / Reviewed 07 July 2006 Obviously, Toxic Narcotic is one of the best crust bands out in the genre today. For those that do not know, Bill and Will from Toxic Narcotic are in this band. Mouth Sewn Shut seems to be a little heavier, more metal-based type of crust act. However…
The opening of “Royal Street Inn” sounds as if a blend of Adam Duritz and Coldplay were present with Moroux’s “Cincinnati”. There is the typical singer-songwriter in a coffee shop style, with a very tender bit of instrumentation backing up Moroux’s vocals. What results is a track that could easily be played on all of the pop and Top 40 radio stations. This does not mean that the track is…
Moros Eros is an act that has a lot of flavor to the tracks that they release, but struggles hard to find a sound for the entirety of “I Saw The Devil”. It seems as if each track on this album shows Moros Eros trying to do something different, whether it be the dance punk of a song like “Short of the Shore” or the grunge meets seventies rock of…
The opening to “Prelude: EP’s 1 & 2” is a mood-setter, an atmospheric track that really tells the story of the band even before any music is laid down on the disc. “Run For Our Lives” has the entire history of British rock behind it, from the less-hacky days of U2 back to The Who; there is even some crossing-over in the slightly Jim Morrison meets Rivers Cuomo vocals present…
The Street Dogs and I have a great history together. Never mind the fact that I have never met them or heard them live, but I played the shit out of “Savin Hill” when I still had my show on WGRE. Regardless, ever since we received that early title for review, the Street Dogs have had a special place in my heart. This self-titled release, their fifth, showcases more of…
The metal that is played by Mord on “Christendom Perished” is something that is not moderated by time or general mood of the track. There is little time for individuals to get ready as Mord throws their listeners headlong into their distinct music style. Actually providing ideas to listeners via vocals is not the goal of the band; the screaming acts more like another instrument here during songs like “Opus…
Moonspell still sounds as fresh and as intense as they did during “Wolfheart”, and the production during this album is solid enough that is allows every different sound that Moonspell places to the disc to be captured in its original glory. The band was one of the first acts to blend together styles of classical and metal, well before acts like Cradle of Filth even began to think of the…
The energy that is first exerted by Morello during their opening to “Twelve Ways To Breathe” is without comparison. During this first track “Fade Out”, the band is able to make a compelling guitar line work with a set of vocals that moves between energetic and introspective. While this approach is interesting t say the least, it is not something that is commonly used by acts. The sheer newness of…
About 10 seconds into Monty Are I’s “Wall of People, I fell in love. This disc is going to be in my stereo for months to come. Genius, only word for it really. But since I have to give you 400 words on it, allow me to try elaborating. It all started on track 1, “Between the Sheets”. This track comes right at you full force, an excellent opening. With…
Monsters Are Waiting play a brand of music on their “Fascination” that bounces through quite a few styles even as the music is fairly straight-forward and possessing of few styles. At some point, there is a girl group (from the sixties) like feel to songs like “Monsters”, but there is something new and fresh and pervades the sound of the band. However, during tracks like “Nobody”, Monsters Are Waiting take…
“Behm” is an electronic track that still sounds very natural and organic. The repetition seems to show more of a growing process rather than an act that does not know where to go with their next track. There is a snowball track present on this song that is foreboding. Individuals that have just started this disc have no idea where Monster Movie will go with the rest of the tracks…
Jeremih had a number of tracks that captured listeners throughout most of 2009, especially the oft-heard “Birthday Sex”. While there were other tracks on eir first album that really expanded eir range as a performer, I feel that Jeremih’s new album, “All About You” is something that should solidify eir as a performer in the likes of R. Kelly. The disc itself begins with the self-titled track, a song that…
There is a laid back feel to this disc that first manifests itself during “Cooley McCoolsen”. This sound is reminiscent of some of the ambient music of the mid to late nineties, and what differentiates it from that style has to be the inclusion of a funk laden backing beat. The flow changes considerably for “Alles Fur Die Cuts”, a track that maintains the somewhat downtempo flow but jazzes it…
Unfortunately, it seems like I have missed the bulk of The Choir’s work. As they have been a band since 1985, and have released 17 different albums, I feel like I have a lot to catch up upon. However, starting up “Burning Like The Midnight Sun” requires nothing in the way of familiarity with the band. From the beginning of the band’s introductory track, “Midnight Sun”, it seems as if…
I was amazed by Ahleuchatistas when I first was lucky enough to see them at AMC 2004, but their album goes just as far showcasing their Primus-like spurning of traditional chord and time structures. Allowing for a high amount of continuity between “Cracked Teeth” and “Ecstasy Combat Boots”, Ahleuchatistas are impressive any way one sees the band, whether it be the Neil Peart like bass lines of Derek or the…
Monkey is a perfect example of that ska that really does not fit into the three divisions that are traditionally given to the genres. Starting out with “Summertime Sun”, the band is able to create a solidly arranged, catchy as all get out type of track that is a key reason to listen in. “Shanty Party” really breaks down some of the artificial boundaries created by record labels, showing individuals…