Adam Zwig is a musician that has been putting in work for a number of years; Visions Of The Shimmering Night is his fifth album, and was produced by Stuart Sikes (Modest Mouse) and David Bianco (Tom Petty). Everybody Love is a tremendous opening effort for Zwig. During this introductory track, Adam is able to provide listeners with directions for where he’ll ultimately go on the album. These thematic touches…
Living Proof is the first introduction that listeners will likely have for Perala’s music, and it allows listeners to be entranced by her inimitable style. The track soars on plinking pianos and a vocal style that takes on hints of Sheryl Crow and Stevie Nicks. While Perala’s vocals are front and center, the instrumental arrangements present here provide a very thoughtful backdrop. Fine uses an interesting differentiation between the vocal…
The Wear introduces listeners to the Straw Dogs’ latest effort, No Dividing Line. This soft, alternative take on rock is led by an emotive and alluring set of vocals. The lush arrangements laid down by the drums and guitars make for a track that will stick with listeners long after it ends. High Horses speeds things up, inserting a Tom Petty meets Soul Asylum feel into the mix. No Dividing…
Walk begins Chances, and it immediately provides listeners with a heavy dose of emotional intensity and bombastic instrumentation. The band touches upon Brand New and Taking Back Sunday, but improves on the formula with the inclusion of a beefiness that will resound with listeners long after the disc ends. Downin’ straddles the line between pop-punk and emo-rock, while remaining eminently approachable for fans of rock and metal alike. While there…
A Return to The Cool (Album review of Tim Easton’s, Not Cool) by Owen M.S. Coughlin, Jr. In the world of music and art as a whole, there is, for whatever reason, a tendency to try to put artists into a certain kind of box, based on the perceived genre under which their work falls. It’s sort of like, “well these guys rock hard but they are very emo,…
Universal Music has announced that Eminem is releasing the second Marshall Mathers LP on November 5th. Keep an eye out for Em’s latest single, Berzerk, which will be released on Tuesday (8/27). This album is Eminem’s first since 2010’s Recovery.
It’s been about six years since The Blow Monkeys – once one of the brightest spots on the 80’s New Wave movement – reunited and the band has certainly been making up for lost time. Feels Like a New Morning marks the band’s fourth release since getting back on the bike and while they have certainly settled into a much more mellow vibe, they have likely aged right alongside their…
The Suicide Machines bring another twist with this new album, slowing down the tempo, but they still keep the sense of good-naturedness with the single “Sometimes I don’t mind”, which is a paean to a dog. A psuedo-Ramones track is thrown in with “Permanent Holiday”, from the topic of the song (Rebelling and Running Away) to the Ramonish pitch of Jason Navarro,.All and all this CD shows the Machines…
Blending Latino culture with punk rock is not unheard of. The Casualties have been known to sing in Spanish; The Bronx have an entire side project devoted to Mariachi music, so the fact that San Antonio’s Piñata Protest have fused an accordion and snatches of traditional Mexican-American music with punk rock is not exactly ground-breaking. But the fact that they do it well, is worthy of attention. Their sophomore album,…
Fire(Part 2) is a free-form jazz that simultaneously touches upon an entire range of styles from the fifties out to the eighties. The constituent elements of Lullaby North are talented enough to weave a cogent narrative through this introduction to the band, resulting in a set of listeners that will be utterly enamored. Words for hire begins with a vocal narration before touching upon nineties…
