Category: Music Reviews
REVIEW: Night Moves’ debut full-length Colored Emotions
In this age of hybridized genre tag mania (proto-post-stoner-jam-metalcore, anyone?), it’s become easy for bands to lay claim to invention by slapping synths, reverb, drum machines, etc., on top of blasé retreads of well-worn forms. Amid the innovation inflation
REVIEW: Love This Giant
Crushed By the Giant It’s not too farfetched to imagine that when David Byrne found himself in a studio recording Love This Giant (released September 11th) with the angelic, guitar shredding Annie Clark, he may have asked himself “Well, how did I get here?” The two come from two different genres, two different generations, and…
REVIEW: Sick/Sea’s debut album Moral Compass
Self-defined “jazzy rockers” Sick/Sea will be releasing their first album, Moral Compass, on the 16th of next month. Moral Compass feels like an extended juxtaposition—an album with a resonating youthful lyrical basis, and yet a definitive level of harshness/roughness in its melodies and overall sound. The childlike nature of the album is ever present and…
REVIEW: Grievances and Quiet Hands split
I got a dual split record for you guys, and between Grievances and Quiet Hands, this is some hard and extreme punk. Grievances’ home state is Georgia, and they’ve been kickin’ it for about a year now. They are currently secluded away and generously writing more for you listeners. Quiet Hands is from Gulfport, Missouri. …
REVIEW: Versus the World’s Drink.Sing.Live.Love.
Hailing from Santa Barbara, Californ-I-A, pop punk rock band Versus the World has dropped their much-anticipated second album Drink.Sing.Live.Love. in early 2012 after a seven-year hiatus. Their first self-titled album was the more aggressive of the two; Drink.Sing.Live.Love. is calmer and more mellowed out. The first album made me think of Bayside and The Almost,…
REVIEW: Adventures self-titled EP
Upon my first listen of Adventures self-titled EP, I realized that No Sleep Records had done it again. The album, which will drop September 11, instantly blew me away and surpassed any expectation I may have had. The line-up of Adventures seems to go something like this: -Three parts former Code Orange Kids members -Two…
REVIEW: Lowtalker Marathon EP
Lowtalker is the combined effort of former Living With Lions, Misery Signals, and Comeback Kid members who will be releasing their debut EP, The Marathon, under No Sleep Records on September 18th. Stu Ross, Matt Keil, and Casey Hjelmberg formed the band in 2008, naming themselves after a reference to the “Puffy Shirt” episode of…
Dead Ellington’s Refuse EP proves punk is still alive
Alright, kids- we are taking it back a little bit and proving punk is not dead but still alive and kicking just as much as Henry Rollins. I present to you as evidence a punk band on the rise called Dead Ellington out of Boston, MA. Their EP entitled Refuse dropped this past May and…
REVIEW: Christian Bitto’s “The September Call-Up” EP
Christian Bitto, a self-named musician from Philadelphia, PA, is a new artist to watch in the indie/rock scene. While mainly acoustic-driven, he is accompanied in his live shows by bandmates Niall Hood on bass and Jesse Gimbel on drums to create an intimate trio that can range from quiet, soft, finger-picked melodies to emotional rock….
Twenty One Pilots “Regional at Best” review
Twenty One Pilots is cooking up a storm in central Ohio, and is now starting to spread that across the US with their first tour venturing out of the Midwest and the release of their second LP, Regional at Best. The genre of this duo is hard to define. Take some pop, hip hop, rock,…