RILEY ARMSTRONG – La Loop Released 2006 Sevenspin Records www.rileyarmstrong.com Riley Armstrong is a new experience to this reviewer. Oh, I knew he existed in all of his former dreadlocked glory, but only in March 2006 did I hear any of his material for the first time. That solo show was wonderful, full of wit, [...]
Project 86 Songs To Burn Your Bridges By Released 2004 Tooth & Nail Records www.project86.com Difficult. Trying to convey how every urgent phrase Andrew “Macabre” Schwab spits out sounds like it has been wrenched forcefully from his entrails? Writing a review that gets across how Project 86 is hard rock with definite punk and metal [...]
PROJECT 86 – …And The Rest Will Follow Tooth & Nail Records Released 2005 www.project86.com Andrew Schwab is quite possibly the most intelligent and unique lyricist/singers in hard music. The band supports him in this lofty endeavour while staking their own claim as being a truly excellent hard music group, outfitted with killer riffs, frightening [...]
HOLLY WILLIAMS – The Ones We Never Knew Released 2004 Universal South Music www.hollywilliams.com My goodness. I love this girl. I wonder if she bled into the studio microphones and all over her guitar? Because it sounds as though she’s given most (if not all) of herself on a record containing heartbreak, hope, insight and [...]
Joy Electric Favorites At Play Tooth & Nail Records 9 songs / 31:30 www.joyelectric.com Joy Electric’s covers project Favorites At Play is really good. You should get it. … Ronnie Martin applies his vintage-analog-synthesizer-and-vocals-only sound to a batch of mainstream pop songs from the past few years, resulting in an engaging and charming covers album. [...]
Relient K Forget and Not Slow Down Mono vs Stereo 15 tracks / 42:36 www.relientk.com From the first time I heard Relient K’s “Marilyn Manson Ate My Girlfriend,” I knew I’d found a band I’d hate forever. While I softened over the years and put the band in a ‘fun novelty’ corner, I didn’t hear [...]
Conspiracy of Thought Nothing More Than Light Youngside Records 17 tracks / 49:28 www.jointheconspiracy.com Conspiracy of Thought somehow manage to buy a heavy industrial rock band while at the same time exploring pop sensibilities… and it works. They tone the GUITAR ATTACK BLAM down in favor of programming and non-shred-your-face-off production… somehow it’s still intense [...]
mewithoutYou It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All a Dream! It’s Alright Tooth & Nail 11 tracks / 44:49 www.mewithoutYou.com Offering a neat summation of the new mewithoutYou disc is as difficult as it is to box in the group’s spirituality or musical orientation. It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All a Dream! [...]
Stryper Murder By Pride Big 3 12 tracks / 45:40 www.stryper.com Does anybody really expect much from ‘the brand new album’ from any band whose hits came twenty years ago? Sure, AC/DC’s Black Ice is a pretty solid chunk of blues rock, but it’s not replacing Back in Black or The Razor’s Edge as anybody’s [...]
Marcy Playground Leaving Wonderland… in a fit of rage Deep South 13 tracks / 40:25 www.marcyplayground.com Technically, Marcy Playground fits the definition of “one-hit wonder.” Like fellow mid-to-late-nineties groups Sponge, Harvey Danger, Semisonic, and Dishwalla, they came out of nowhere with a monster hit (you will remember the chill, disco lemonade infused “Sex & Candy”), [...]
Plumb Beautiful History – A Hits Collection Curb 23 tracks www.plumbinfo.com BEAUTIFUL HISTORY – A HITS COLLECTION is missing too many of Plumb’s best songs to succeed as a comprehensive ‘greatest hits’ album. Only one track from BEAUTIFUL LUMPS OF COAL appears (“Real”), one from her most recent release BLINK (and not the full song, [...]
David Bazan Curse Your Branches Barsuk 10 tracks / 38:42 www.davidbazan.com The first solo LP from David Bazan (Pedro the Lion) is equal-parts indie rock, folk and Americana, a sharply cutting, personal portrait of Bazan’s newfound agnosticism, delivered with poignant heartache by a master storyteller. “Hard to Be” opens Curse Your Branches with a crescendo [...]
Coriolis s/t Youngside Records 11 tracks / 50:44 www.myspace.com/coriolis It’s tempting to give Pennsylvania-based Coriolis a free pass simply because they’re playing industrial metal, a style this reviewer loves, but has disappointingly faded from even the fringes of the mainstream since the mid-nineties. Fortunately, the group – brainchild of founder Jonathan P. Stamets – is [...]
Ryan Dahle Irrational Anthems Independent 12 tracks / 47:18 www.ryandahle.com Irrational Anthems makes me happy. Former Limblifter frontman (and former Age of Electric member) Ryan Dahle has crafted an indie-pop album that is uplifting, melancholy, rockin’ and just plain pretty. Multi-instrumentalist Megan Bradfield contributes backing vocals, double bass, clarinet, cello and a host of other [...]
Chevelle Sci-Fi Crimes Sony 11 tracks / 43:14 www.chevelleinc.com The opening seconds of “Sleep Apnea”, the lead-off for Chevelle’s fifth full-length, let you know exactly what you’re in for – a plethora of drop-tuned moody riff-rock, soaked in distortion and graced with frontman Pete Loeffler’s throaty, teeth-clenched vocals. In that sense, there are no surprises [...]