Most acts give listeners a few tracks to properly get their footing and understand where the band is coming from, but Ceramic immediately comes forth with two intense salvos. These tracks, “You Give More Than Enough” and “Who’s Gonna Guide The Night”, are ones that will tattoo themselves on anyone that listens in, and that is primarily due to the intricate musical arrangements that are present. Little more is needed…
Let’s admit it, Moments In Grace’s first EP was pretty weak. However, opening up “Moonlight Survived” with a radio-friendly and intense “Stratus”, the band starts off on a strong foot. Even though the breakdown seems a little too drawn-out and cheese-ball, the chorus meshes well enough with the instrumentation on the track that most mistakes can be forgiven. “The Patient” uses a lot of the same guitar lines that immediately…
Listening to “Taco Blessing’s” first track “Zero Kid” really brings individuals back to the heydays of Gilman St; Modern Machines come through with the intensity of a band like early Descendents while still having a pop-punk edge a la Pinhead Gunpowder and “Blue Room-era” Unwritten Law. The recording might be a little fuzzy, but the sizzling guitars and catchy lyrics of the band still shine through as bright as day.…
Sounding at times like Yellowcard and all of those emo-rock bands that are continually charting in these late days of the genre, Moments in Grace create a palatable sound that yet has little in the way of substance. Jeremy’s voice is remarkably similar to Rivers Cuomo, and in tracks like “Broken Promises”, the guitars swirl around to give the entire track more of a Tool track. While everything seems to…
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,…
