Very predictable style of lyrics that are backed up with a Husker Du instrumental style, and a vocalist that sounds like a mixture of Justin Sane, Rivers Cuomo and John Rzeznik. A form of alt-country that is nowhere near as experimental as those earliest Uncle Tupelo or Whiskeytown albums, but where it lacks in experiment it really gains in the lush recording and pop-influences. “The Town’s Old Fair” is the…
Starting out with nothing more than a piano and an almost whispered-out voice, Jorma makes it painfully clear that this is his record, putting this seven-minute composition on the listeners plate instead of some fancier and more gaudy track. Oddly enough, “Clocks in the Sun” is cut from the same fabric as another decidedly lo-fi track, in the surprise dance hit “Shake Your Booty” by Josh Jenkins. Repetitive to prove…
Jonuh’s “The Fight” starts off this EP, and what immediately results from this track is a realization that the band likes itself a LOT of Yellowcard. In fact, Yellowcard is pretty much the only influence that one can hear on this early track. To their credit, there is much more of a rock sound that is present during this opening track than what the aforementioned band typically inserted into their…
Jonny Lives starts off their “Get Steady” with a brand of current, alternative rock (a la Weezer and the Lonely H) that has tremendous dues to give to sixties rock (for a more current comparison, rent a copy of That Thing You Do and you’ll get an idea). “No Good” is the perfect introduction to the disc, as the splashy drums and strong vocals are a perfect introduction to the…
John Shaffer – Change / 8 Songs / 2004 Self-Released / http://www.johnshaffermusic.com / jshaffer4634@comcast.net / Reviewed 24 May 2004 Firmly planting its roots in the Sting/Peter Gabriel/Michael Bolton sphere of things, John Shaffer has made a disc that works extraordinarily well as a background disc. The instrumentation on “Change” might be incredibly rich, but everything is produced with the same laid-back tempo that doesn’t lend itself well to exciting and…
Johnny Society come through as a mix of mid-nineties Flaming Lips and Chris Isaak. In fact, “Coming To Get You’s” second track “The Witch’s Plea” has more than a passing vocal similarity to “Baby Did A Bad Bad Thing”. “Marilene” tries to bring some David Bowie falsetto into Johnny Society’s traditional sound, in what feels like a very anemic, poorly-performing track. The track would have succeeded if there were more…
Coming from the monstrosity of musical excellence that was TDNDOK, Johnny Franchise and the Merchandise have came from the ashes of the aforementioned act with a guitar and a new-found love of the Bloodhound Gang and the Jerky Boys. Combining the catchiness of TDNDK’s “Technophilia” with a crunchy guitar is an equation that works quite well, with the six songs ending much too fast. Technology is always Johnny Franchise and…
The brand of indie rock that Johnny Action Figure plays is a call back to the late nineties, where indie rock and emo did not deviate much in their general sound. There is interesting uses of time signatures during the disc’s opening track “Lose Our Face”. During “Lose Our Face”, the momentum is created both by the jangly arrangements as well as through multiple vocal layers. This gives the band…
It takes The JonBenet a minute to get started on their “Ugly/Heartless”, but the band is able to string together a catchy chorus for “Devils” that would go up well against acts like Job For A Cowboy and even classic metal acts like Pantera. This is not saying that The JonBenet have anything really in common with these two acts, but they do come up with a wicked brand of…
We here at NeuFutur had a chance to familiarize ourselves with DownTown Mystic, a New Jersey act that has just released a new album, “Standing Still”. This 2010 effort, on band member Robert Allen’s own Sha-La Music, contains 13 tracks of pure rock music. “Standing Still” is a step forward from a band that has already shown that they can deliver on disc, as evidenced by their 2007 work “Read…
There is no claiming that Job For A Cowboy is not the hardest, most brutal band currently out in the grindcore scene. Imagine the loudest, noisiest child throwing a temper tantrum and add about twenty years to eir age and one has a great idea of who Job For A Cowboy is. Unlike those children, however, Job For A Cowboy can put their random bursts of music together into something…
Starting off their EP with a police siren, JKPBombs’ ska-punk assault reminds us of a Leftover Crack or The Specifics, albeit a hell of a lot more sloppy. Strong bass pushes the first track, “3813” to a quick completion, and Marty’s vocals, done up in a perfectly snotty tone, match the scratchy ska-themed guitar lines of Corey. The only thing that could be changed with their first outing would be…
The innocuous brand of almost-rock, almost-punk music is reminiscent of Lit and early American HiFi, albeit with a little bit of Creed and Nickelback (especially in the vocals) thrown in. The bad thing about J4 is that many of their tracks do not provide listeners with much innovation; tracks like “Walk Away” might be euphonic as hell, but there is not a differing set of time signatures or a move…
The dream-like pop that Jettie plays on their “Heading for Mornings” has something in common with the rich instrumentation that was such a heavy presence on the Deep Elm records from a few years ago. “Inside Your Vaults / 6.5” brings to the table a deliberate type of drumming that moves beyond the traditional time-keeping role the instrument has. “One Dance” brings a Michael Stipe-spin to Clas’ vocals and a…
The first track of “Leave You Behind” is “Down in Lukenbach”. During “Down in Lukenbach”, The Jeremiah Houston Band go off into a current indie-country fusion that would make individuals like Pat Green blush. The production values of “Leave You Behind” is solid as all get out. I could easily hear the tracks on this disc turn up on CMJ or GAC. The fact that individuals that are not the…
Playing a style of rock that is aurally similar to Hilljack and 38 Special, Jeremiah Freed are not afraid to get down and dirty with their instruments. Able to consolidate a band’s worth of instruments and vocals into one tight formation, a track like “Reflect Your Light” is a lumbering beast, with drums and bass pulling the low end while the lead guitar and vocals pull the high. “Reflect Your…
Aside from having some of the most innovative packaging that I’ve seen with a major-indie label CD (using a number of cards to contain the lyrics from the disc), Jenoah ranks right up there with Amber Pacific for being the most surprising emo band of 2004. Using a true multi-part harmony (instead of just having a screamer with a melodic singer), Jenoah really makes a strong case for having some…
Jenny Piccolo is not like a number of the other speed/grind/thrash bands out on the market. First off, they are not like Agoraphobic Nosebleed in the relative slowness of the band. Jenny Piccolo is an act that uses rock influence over pretty much everything else on this self-titled (discography) disc. The band may be playing fast and cutting tracks that are only twenty or thirty seconds, but there are large…
Another straight-forward rock track by Coalition Records, The Je Ne Sais Quoi very successfully use synthesizers and a strong set of late sixties rock/punk influences (MC5, Iggy Pop) to make a very vibrant and current style of rock. Maybe not as immediately catchy as their neighbors the Sahara Hotnights, The Je Ne Said Quoi are a very danceable, bat-shit crazy type of band. Each track has a completely different style…
With one of the more interesting premises behind a CD release, this CD is a mixture of original tracks, as well as covers of those original tracks by bands that have been influenced by the Bandits. What gets annoying quickly is the pairing of the songs – perhaps if all the covers were a section of the CD, and the originals another, but the same song, like it or not,…