Beginning “The Endless Retreat” with a straight-forward punk assault, albeit with more harmony than the early punk bands that influenced the track, the Modern Day Urban Barbarians spare no time into getting into fast melodies and ever more chaotic breakdowns. Moving from “T.V.” to “Waiting For A Break”, MDUB show over and over that their music is a direct descendent from the Stooges and the Velvet Underground, being strained through…
For those that may have missed it, Video Games Live is a set of concerts that were created by long time video game music composers Tommy Tallerico and Jack Wall. A performance consists of the orchestra providing their own take on music from titles as famous as The Legend of Zelda, Silent Hill, and Sonic the Hedgehog along with slightly lesser-known titles like Headhunter and Advent Rising.
There has only been a limited context in which American audiences have been familiar with KT Tunstall’s work. This experience has been tempered by the ever-presentness of eir lead single “Suddenly I See”, but Tunstall looks to create a completely different conception of eriself as a performer with “Tiger Suit”. “Fade Like A Shadow” is the disc’s first American single, bringing forth nods to other singer-songwriters of Tunstall’s ilk. This…
Very rarely do bands come forth with such a vibrant energy and intensity that defines the essence of whom they are and what they set out to accomplish. With tracks like “The Weekend War” and “One Step at a Time”, The Matt Burke Band do just that. “The Weekend War” has a very tropical feel to it that makes the dreary days of autumn melt away. Despite the track’s tropical-shirt…
“Revival Rock” is exactly that. The cuts from this album are such that listeners will feel that they are in a different time, but with a small twist. SweetKiss Momma is able to have the bluesy style of a CCR or Guess Who, but has enough talent to make current listeners fall in love with the band. By crossing over between two distinct sets of listeners, “Revival Rock” can speak…
Jackie’s initial track on “Someone Like You” is something truly special. It is a track that exists at the nexus of a number of distinct musical style. It could conceivably chart on R&B, country, or pop charts, and that is based more on the talent of Jackie’s voice than anything else. Don’t get me wrong – the instrumentation is great, but each nuance of Jackie’s vocal, each rise and fall,…
Just being able to have a new version of one of metal’s best known and strongest albums in a shiny and fresh CD is enough of a reason for individuals to retire their cassette tapes or vinyl. However, Capitol has added an entirely new disc of rare tracks for listeners to sink their teeth into. These tracks were pulled from Queensrcyhe’s November 1990 performance at the Hammersmith Odeon in London,…
Another very catchy batch of emo/punk sensibilities from this Indiana band that will drive your head into a frenzied bop that just wont stop. Every song on “The Record Play” is constructed in a linear fashion with nearly the same tempo, allowing an individual to more easily notice the subtle currents running through the entirety of the disc. “Nothing to Write” is the beginning of when the disc becomes something…
“The Highest Highs & The Lowest Lows” truly begins when The Jesus Rehab gets to “If It Feels Good It Is Good”, a track that immediately defies convention. It simply has something for everyone, whether they are fans of Weezer, The New Radicals, or even Eve 6. The Ben Folds-esque piano turns this track into something that would easily be on rock radio, ensuring the band a spot on the…
Settlefish’s newest album “ The Plural of the Choir” comes to a slow start and finally reaches the heights with “The Barnacle Beach”. The track benefits mostly from an interesting and innovative way of arrangement that staggers a myriad of vocals to draw all listeners along for the ride. Continuing the At The Drive-In esque vocals that marked their previous Deep Elm release, “Dance A While, Upset”, Settlefish ride the…
Mizar starts off “The King of the Stars” with a synthesizer track that mixes together Nintendo midis with traditional “gothic” and dance beats. However salvageable the beat was (for it was not the cutting edge of innovation), Mizar’s own vocals, overbearing and poorly recorded really cast the track further down in ignominy. “Out of Control” is an early track that shows a minor amount of movement to the positive end…
New wave music with the chirpiness of synthesizers in the vein of Wendy Carlos, and a voice that is almost painful to listen to. While someone like Atom and His Package can use a kitschy sound and synthesizer to make light-hearted music, Mizar loses any impressiveness from the intricately planned out synth lines with vocals dumped on each track seemingly with a $2 microphone. The lo-fi synth sound has been…
The style of music that The Mitchells play is indie rock that has more than its fair share of eighties influences (acts like Joy Division and Depeche Mode). Thus, a song like “Still Might Happen” is catchy, vocal-heavy, and full of angular guitar riffs that give form and structure to the track. The band starts strongly, but the opening song seems to have about thirty seconds extra music present that…
When I first started listening to Miss Violetta Beauregarde, I started thinking that eir website – Violettasucks.com – was something that showed that Beauregarde knew what ey was talking about. The style is something that is close to the work of artists like Peaches, but with a hint of the digital hardcore that acts like Lolita Storm created for their audiences a few years back. During “How To Use A…
One has to wonder about what Misstress Barbara was thinking by putting Sebo K’s “Too Hot” in the opening spot on this disc; the track has an interesting beat for 20 seconds and then repeats it for the next five minutes. This trend is ameliorated during Lorna’s “Feel Good”, but does not completely disappear. I understand the need for club albums, but even with repetitive dance rhythms there is still…
Miss Autopsy is not a goth band. They are a rock band that seems to pull sections from acts of the last fifteen years, so that hints of Alice in Chains, Tool, Nirvana and more all come through during tracks like “Good Is Not Good Enough”. The production of “Sweet” is solid all the way through, with songs conceivably being of a level that would allow play on a radio…
“Jackson Milton” is a track that blends together a number of styles to show individuals that Miranda Sound has everything under control. The band eventually settles down into an emo style, but there are hints fo rock and punk just as there are numerous ties to the emo genre. Miranda Sound has a different approach to emo music than most other acts in the genre currently. For example, the previously…
Minutes Too Far’s “Let it Roll” captures I think the essential of what scenesters crave these days. Each song has radio quality, poppy with vocals that don’t really travel from the standard and onto new and adventurous. The vocalist never really sounds like the same guy from track to track, but his many personas are all safe. I feel as though at times that the beat carried through from song…
Mixing together the guitars of Rage Against the Machine and Sparta to make a laid-back form of punk music, Austin’s Minutes To Burn burst out onto the scene early this year. Starting off this disc with “Poison Everything”, Minutes To Burn brood every while building an energy with the powerful drum strikes by Jeremy. Continuing their deeply emotional sound with “Static”, the band further establishes themselves as a professional, solid…
The amount of individuals that contributed in some meaningful music way to “The Pestilence is Coming” is enough in number to make a small town. Forty individuals throw in with “additional performances”, and their work can easily be heard during the entirety of “The Pestilence is Coming”. The Minor Leagues play an interesting brand of indie rock that does not really have any temporal link. There are hints during the…