The Go-Betweens – Oceans Apart The Go-Betweens – Oceans Apart / 2005 YepRoc / 15 Tracks / http://www.go-betweens.net / http://www.yeproc.com / Reviewed 09 May 2005 “Here Comes A City†shows a band that is well-versed in the old forms of rock, having vocals reminiscent of Mick Jagger even as the music has a cousin in “China Girlâ€. What is immediately striking about The Go-Betweens is the fullness of their songs.…
Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere / 2006 Downtown / 14 Tracks / http://www.gnarlsbarkley.com / http://www.downtownrecordings.com / Reviewed 16 July 2006 The United Kingdom picks up on bands well before the United States. Case in point is Gnarls Barkley, the collaboration between Danger Mouse and Cee-lo that was on the top of the charts in the UK for over two months. “Crazy†was the first single and “Smiley Faces†was just…
Hellshock – Warlord EP / 2005 Profane Existence / 2 Tracks / http://www.profaneexistence.com / Reviewed 11 October 2005 Two tracks really make it nearly impossible to gauge the sound of a band, and while the two tracks of the Warlord EP (Warlord and Legion) are both of an extend track length (at least for a punk type of sound), this hypothesis still holds water. The music that Hellshock puts down…
Glitter Pals – Unleash The Compassion / 2005 Lovepump United / 4 Tracks / http://www.glitterpals.com / http://www.lpurecords.com / Reviewed 24 September 2005 The tension that starts off “Unleash The Compassion†is so thick that someone could cut it with a night; this is primarily due to the vocals of Mookie, which are paralleled bnicely by the guitar work (also by Mookie) that opens up the second track “Unleash The Compassionâ€.…
Gliss – Love The Virgins / 2006 Mountain Lo-Fi / 12 Tracks / http://www.myspace.com/gliss / http://www.tough-cookie.co.uk / Reviewed 25 September 2006 I can’t tell exactly which approach Gliss is trying to take with their “Love The Virginsâ€. During “I Want Youâ€, there is a heavy late nineties approach to things (reminding listeners of acts like Placebo and Stabbing Westward), but the emotional output of the lead singer is something that…
A Global Threat – Where The Sun Never Sets / 2006 BYO / 18 Tracks / http://www.aglobalthreat.net / http://www.byorecords.com / Reviewed 16 March 2006 To say that this album sounds different from “What The Fuck Will Change†is a gross understatement. The sound of A Global Threat seems to be a little more mature, and the production value seems to be much more compressed than the last album. In a…
Glimpse attempts the fairly minimalist style to their music, preferring instead to let the vocals shine through and drive a great deal of the melody in each song. Sure, the drums might be splashing through the track in the background of the song, but one doesn’t notice them half as much as the ultra-smooth lyrics of Josh. Starting off the disc with “Stayâ€, Glimpse chooses to go with a pseudo-ska…
Moving their center slightly to include the latest developments in emo-rock, Glimpse has gained some much needed ground in the nine months since I’ve reviewed them last. While still extremely radio friendly, Glimpse has taken on the smooth / screaming dual vocal styles of bands like Boys Night Out and The Goodlife, something most audible in their “Here With Youâ€. Moving through the disc, Glimpse shows that they are still…
Bringing back the sound of Matthew Sweet may not be the best idea, but Gladshot is able to create a disc of hits that walk along the same path. Mike’s vocals are all the instrumentation that Stand needs, as all the rest of the instrumentation is definitely secondary. Deborah’s piano lines, especially noticed in a track like “Hotel Room†are warm, earthy, and emotional, adding a second aural presence to…
The style of music that Gist plays is tremendously influenced from the early D.C. emo (Rites of Spring, Nation of Ulysses), something that makes sense when one understand that the act is from D.C. itself. Tracks like “Miscellaneous†really tie themselves to the second-wave emo of the late ninties, which is to say that each of the tracks on “Diesel City†act well as driving music, with driving guitars and…
There seems to be an entire side of the music that is coming out of Japan that few individuals know about. Every few years, it seems like a band like The Willows or X Japan becomes part of the American music discussion and fades out. Sigh is a band, with their “Scenes From Hellâ€, that will be former without having the latter happen to them. The band has been around…
Girly Freak Show goes down the path of Blondie and Me First, throwing in a little reference here and there to The Donnas. Don’t get me wrong, this is definitely a rougher cut of band than any of those previously mentioned would indicate. With lyrics like “When I stick my face inside his zipper, I just gotta lick it!†(from “My Boyfriendâ€, we are transferred to the land of Fear-style…
Girl Talk is a great act, and they build their fame on slicing and dicing the hooks and choruses from a number of different artists’ tracks. In doing that, they are able to create very interesting and compelling compositions off this foundation. Most of the clips that they use are from R&B and rap tracks, but to be honest there are parts from all sorts of different genres. The titles…
From what al the pictures of Gil Mantera’s Party Dream looked like, I was not expecting this sedate, almost synth-pop sound to issue forth from me during tracks like “Buffalo Tearsâ€. There is such a catchy hook to “Buffalo Tears†that one cannot do anything but be enthralled by it; one will be on the dance floor before the end of the band’s first track, no questions asked. For songs…
The piano lines that start off “Far Beyond the Pacific†are reminiscent of those put out by Tori Amos during the mid to late nineties. The vocals are not so easy to categorize, and add much of the independence and nuance to Giges’ compositions. The inclusion of other instruments during “Find Some Time†give the track a more Shania Twain meets Carrie Underwood type of pop-country sound. Note, however, that…
Giant Squid may just be the most approachable band out of all the acts currently on The End Records. This is not saying much, as the style of music that Giant Squid plays is a very progressive meets System of a Down type rock. The use of two, three, and sometimes more vocals on their “Metridium Fields†will immediately garner them fan support, as the number of artists they draw…
“Kevin Is Gay†is a very weak step for Giant Drag. First off, the track relies on the presence of a much-too-repeated guitar riff for its main focus, and the meowing that ends the track just seems out of place compared to tracks like the follow-up “Cordial Invitationâ€. “Cordial Invitation†is the first in a long string of indie-rock tracks that Giant Drag allow their “Hearts And Unicorns†to be…
This album is not for the faint of heart, as the average track here breaks the six-minute mark. Ghorar Deem Express plays a brand of free jazz that has much more in common with jam-bands than with the (more-often) classically trained brand of jazz players. The infusion of rap-like flows during tracks like “Mucoid Plaque†really changes the context of the music, especially when one considers that Nader’s vocals are…
One doesn’t make it on the radio when they are doing music that would be the background for the Weather Channel. The first track “LFO†is just that and every single thing that they could do wrong in trying to go and put this on the radio is there – it is instrumental, there is absolutely no driving force to the music, and everything just sounds synthesized. The second track,…
Starting off shakily on “Makin’ History†with a set of vocals mixed well above the level they should, “Me in your bag†has vocals reminiscent of Dolores O’Rierdan (Cranberries) and Andrea Corr (The Corrs). Continuing the inoffensive acoustic-led rock during eir second track, “Universeâ€, the belting out of vocals by Getz seems to find an analogue in the country of the late 70s and early 80s. Getz’s veteran move of…