The crunchiness that starts off “Gone Too Far”, along with the vocal sneer given the track by the band, really casts The Boroughs as a mixture of The Ramones and early Husker Du. The presence of guitar distortion is always there, and the simplstic lines that create the track make sure that tracks like “Gone Too Far” are easy to remember, no matter how individuals’ tastes run. Continuing these catchy…
Standing right in the middle of emo and punk, Bottom Line has shiny smiles as their dynamic allows for some of the smoothest transitions to be recorded onto disc. The intensity of arrangement found like that on “Follow Me†is one of the strongest reason that Bottom Line has provided for people to pick up this, their sophomore album. Bottom Line has really taken up the mantle of intense, yet…
Upon receiving Bottom Line’s two-song sampler in my stack, with hand written Sharpie titles I wasn’t so sure what to expect. But from moment one, the recording was quality and the elements were more complex than a rookie could pull. The singer has nice range that doesn’t sound strained when pushed a bit. The drumming is pretty solid, nice fills and pretty on point. “Nothing is Real” was really fun…
Man, what is up with Wisconsin and tight emo bands? Bosio’s disc starts out with shrill, incredible guitar riffs, and the track “Bullet Holes the Size of Matzah Balls†shows a band that is mature in their arrangement and cohesive in their sound. The incredible production heard on this disc, especially manifest in the clearly-clanging high hats, really allows the band to shine without having to hide behind heavy distortion.…
Born To Lose come to the table with their own brand of bouncy, quick, and poppy punk during “Not Aloneâ€. This Austin, TX band comes out with tracks that skillfully blend bass, guitars, and a slightly-gritty set of vocals to make a timeless brand of punk rock. “Not Alone†reminds me a lot of early H2O, in the sense that both bands simply don’t give a shit about image or…
The noise that Boris brings to his “Pink†is something that swaddles the music that is contained within. In a sense, the singing that begins the album in “Farewell†is fairly sedate, even though the music that surrounds it is raunchy as all get out. Tracks can be seven or eight minutes and it does not matter; Boris creates a soundscape with each of the tracks on this disc that…
The Book of Lists really feel as if they come out of the early-nineties alternative scene. This album starts off with “Through Stained Glassâ€, and it honestly feels as if Depeche Mode, The Smiths and R.E.M. sat down for a bonfire. Not quite college-rock, the lightly-tinted (with grunge) style of music that The Book of Lists play maintain a relevancy even as the tracks tend to look back. For example,…
Twenty years is a long time for a band. Bolt Thrower has been around 1986, and they play a classic brand of metal that meshes together growling vocals with virtuosic guitars. The tracks all hover around a manageable length (three to four minutes) and it is rare to be given anything resembling a break during “Those Once Loyalâ€.
It is immediately noticeable that Bold is an older band; the recording on the opening track “Burning Like Thieves†is slightly rough. However, the fury in which they play their music is as unadulterated and as current as a band coming out today. The mixture of punk and metal that seems to be the primary influence behind Bold’s music is exactly what “hardcore†music came from; hints of Metallica and…
This is a six-song EP, and this is even a shorter album considering that The Boils never get above two and a half minutes on their tracks. “The Orange and the Black†is the first track on this EP, and it represents The Boils’ love for the Philadelphia Flyers. Did I say this is about hockey? Yeah. Even though hockey sucks, the music that is put out on this EP…
“Into the Enemy†has a tremendous amount of catchiness imbued on the track by the all-in chorus and chunky, Matt Freeman bass lines on the track. The track does the most benefit in introducing listeners to The Boils, and ties together the disparate pieces of the act into something more cohesive. The sheer amount of sub-minute tracks on “From The Bleachers†show The Boils as a band that can say…
Even when one considers that these tracks are all not mixed or mastered, the beauty that is The Boggs comes through in excellent form. A clacking, noisy track mimics stomping, while the soulful singing strewn throughout really adds a touch of softness to what is a very stark and rough type of track. In a sense, The Boggs on this track (‘Forts” enact their own form of comparative politics, as…
“Handel On Your Face†seems to try to draw some influence from the “Switched On Bach†of Walter/Wendy Carlos, but really does not connect with listeners as well as it should. Perhaps it is the extended opening (modified off of classical forms) that does it, but the Body Rockers really get back into the game with the commercially sampled “I Like The Wayâ€. “I Like The Way†has the same…
First thing that really got me going about The Bocks would have to be their guitar hooks, something that predominates in its Dick Dale-like quality during “Mexicoâ€. The dual-part harmony is off to such a minor degree that The Bocks really sound like Defiance, Ohio in that regard – sounding more like they are just more than friends. With this style of harmonizing comes a greater amount of cohesion with…
It has been a few issues since the last time we have reviewed Slug, but the same quality and care taken in the creation of the magazine is still there. Of course, there are still a number of largely Salt Lake City-based advertisements present here, but these are more than balanced out by the stellar writing styles of the average Slug member. First off, the coverage that Slug grants to…
With a hint of Motorhead poking its turtle head out of “Six Feet Undergroundâ€, the slightly middle-ground of the opening track primes the listening base for the rest of the CD. Each cut on the disc is so similar to the tracks immediately around it that a certain type of cohesion is created; however, the lines are blurred between tracks to a degree that it becomes hard to delineate specific…
There are a number of comparisons to be made between Blue Velvet and the Velvet Underground, in that the interesting compositions that start out the track (during “Docile 1†are fairly cold while still being very interesting. The drums are bold and brash, and while they may sound a little too assertive in their context, they work well.
Much more rough and scruffy than I imagined, Blue Sky Goodbye is a band that I’ve heard a lot about but never actually bothered to listen to. A harder-edged type of popcore punk than their fellow labelmates Sleep Comes Down, Blue Sky Goodbye nevertheless makes a good song that is not just all fluff. In tracks such as “Cover Your Eyesâ€, dissonance is used in multi-part singing and guitar work…
Using the traditional falsetto voice along with the very technical guitar lines and drum beats, Blue Shade Witness plays the lost-love card with a very sharp sound. Aside from the incredibly short run time of this disc, clocking in at under twenty-eight minutes, the thing that really hurts the credibility of Blue Shade Witness is this completely polished sound of each track, which might have sounded more sincere if a…
“You Make Me Smile†is perhaps the most eclectic single that any band has ever came out with. In this track, Blue October touches on hints of Momus, Modest Mouse, and Cake all in rapid secession; where Blue October ultimately settles into is something that seems like a more amped-up, secular version of the Newsboys meets Crazy Town. The band goes to so many places during their “Foiled†that individuals…