Latterman has an indie-rock feel to them that one can never challenge, but when a track like “Yo, Get Into It” begins to play, one can only think of one of the shining stars of the independent music circuit, Against Me!. There are tracks that are really obtuse and individuals cannot do anything but wonder (the formless “Dear Boys” comes to mind). Latterman shows that Deep Elm is not a…
It is quite rare for an instrumental album to be this deep; from when LaTona puts forth the full sound of “Trinity Suite Part 1”, one can hear parts of Don Henley , jam bands, and Santana all in one. The reason why these tracks work so well without anything in the way of vocals is because of the ability that LaTona has in making the guitar sing with immense…
Each of the songs on “One Shot, One Kill” comes from a mixture of styles that include the Ramones and a number of the Irish punk bands (of which the best known has to be The Dropkick Murphies). “Don’t Shine Your Boots With A Half-Baked Will” is pushed to the end of what can be considered oi music, as “Don’t Shine Your Boots” is repeated no less than twenty times…
I received a copy of this album that had no album art. I had little idea what to expect from Last Conservative, especially considering that the last thing that I reviewed from Good Charamel was The Juliet Dagger single. When I heard the first track on “Pretty New Things” (“Distraction”), I began to understand that Last Conservative is for all intensive purposes a rock band. This is not to say…
Coming out like much of the alternative-rock that is popular at the current moment, The Lashes play a grungy, Sonic Youth-styled type of alt-rock with a synthesizer imposing itself on the music. Strong bass lines mark the first track, “Death By Mixtape”, which is fairly non-descript besides that. The first radio victory for The Lashes comes on “Ex-mas”, which is helped considerably from a very Darkness-like guitar solo. The guitar…
The Gallagher brothers are assholes. That’s not exactly news to anyone, but I wanted to get that out of the way up front. Yes, they thought they were God’s gift to music listeners everywhere and wanted the world to know it. Yes, they were slavishly devoted to recreating The Beatles sound on every single album. And yes, despite millions of fans around the world, the brothers were hated with just…
The magnificent synthesizers of the first track on “Get It”, “New Best Friend” mix well with Ben’s vocals to seem to pull to a U2-like sound. The explosion of the band soon after brings The Lashes closer to current trends in music, but there is that same sort of boisterous rock influencing each step that the band makes on “Get It”. To their credit, the patchwork approach of The Lashes…
Ichiban (Number one) in the world (Candidly, it is however Kakkoii (Cool) without affectation.) The new Shonen Knife album, “Free Time” is a product of Japan’s invincibility, with nearly three decades of releases and thousands of shows to their credits, the girls of SK offer an English version of their 2010 Japanese release “Free Time” to the fans in North America. Shonen Knife’s latest CD “Free Time” is hard and…
The hopeful pop of “Sketches (20 Something Life) blend together the eighties rock of acts like Rod Stewart and more current alternative acts. What results is something that is much more than its constituent parts. Individuals will be dancing throughout the rest of the summer and into the fall and winter with the music of La Rocca. The fact that the band can stop all that they are doing and…
There is a retro flair to La Rocca that uses a lot of the angular rock of acts like Franz Ferdinand to come up with something that is cliché but not necessarily trite. Mixing in a little synthesizer to increase the fuzz during the track, the title track is a romp through New Romanticism and all subsequent genres until the present day. “Sketches (20 Something Life)” is a much more…
The opening to “Luminous” is simple, with only the guitar and drums being audible in this instrumental track. There is enough differentiation between those two’s interaction that individuals can maintain their interest throughout. The extended length of the track (pushing well over 6 minutes) is a gamble, as the band might lose fans if they do not keep things up to snuff on this track. The band pushes it a…
There is no doubting the fact that Lansing-Dreiden begin their “The Dividing Island” off slowly. The very atmospheric opening tract finally gives way to a little pomp after a few minutes. There is a gambit made during this track as the song flops over the five and a half minute mark. The dreamy vocals that finally make their appearance halfway through the track further complete a Lansing-Dreiden specific sound, which…
Lanky has shifted eir general sound slightly to a more indie-rock type of feel, as the beginning of “Odd Hour Work Week”, specifically “Falling Hard For The Girl”, shows. The reedy flute comes into play during the second track, “Crashing The Car Is Learning To Drive”, which maintains a cool, detached sound even with the inclusion of this organic instrument. The differing sounds that struggle throughout “Crashing” really provide a…
Coming up with a style of music that can be found blaring at any frat house any day of the week, Lanky still does it surprisingly well, much like the Majestic Twelve. Even though Lanky is an individual that fits in with the singer/songwriter with an acoustic tag, the fact is that the live recordings on this disc are vibrant enough that it makes it seem than an entire backing…
Lamb of God has been on of the hardest acts in the United States in the last few years (I would have to say that a few other metal bands all over the world might be able to come up with harder and more brutal music. Anyways, “Sacrament” starts out fairly slowly for a thrash meets death metal album, with the guitars on “Walk With Me In Hell” being a…
The product of this live album is something that honestly holds a candle to previous live works like KISS’s “Alive” or Cheap Trick’s “Budokan” album. The music contained within is solid enough to conceivably be on a studio recording, while the addition of live singalongs to a number of the tracks really adds another dimension to this disc. What is even more impressive is the fact that these tracks were…
The straight-forward emo rock of Lakota makes for tracks that are relentless in their mission, trying to make the most compelling music for both Clearchannel listeners and individuals that must have interesting arrangements in their music. In a sense, tracks like “She Has It” maintain some of the same fury of early Foo Fighters recording, in that the general tempo is somewhat aurally similar to the aforementioned band’s “Everlong”. When…
The average track on “Ultimate Destroyer” is not a short one, with the eight songs of the disc reaching well over the thirty-eight minute mark. The band does not need anything in the way o fvocals to affect ttheir listeners; all that Lair of the Minotaur needs to rock is the guitars, bass, and drums that are typically present on a metal disc. When vocals do occur (as is the…
“Walking Wine” is the first track on “Tres Tontos”, and it immediately kicks things into high grear. The music that Mikingmihrab starts their album out with is a blend of Fugazi, rockabilly, and early Alkaline Trio. The off-kilter sound of the band stands out as some of the most unique I’ve heard, and the density of this initial composition should provide enough of an impetus to continue listening to this…
“The Real Thing” is the first track on Ria’s self-titled album, and it is important for setting the stage for the rest of the album. There is a decidedly pop sound to the track that touches upon different styles ranging from the eighties on; while there is a Pet Shop Boys electronic feel to the backing instrumentation, there is a current and contemporary feel to Ria’s vocals. This blending of…