Middle Class Rut are one of the newer groups out there gigging, in the vein of two man groups like White Stripes and Black Keys. Zack Lopez is on guitars and vocals, accompanied by Sean Stockham on drums and vocals. USA is a Ramone’s styled rocker. Are You On Your Way is…
Category: REVIEWS
CD and DVD reviews
STEVE LUKATHER, ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
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Steve is a well-rounded studio vet who has played with a virtual “Who’s Who” in the music industry, and was the six-string wizard behind Toto. This release as expected, features some clever and tasty guitar work. The band he’s assembled for this disc include Steve on vocals and guitar, CJ Vanston on keys…
Brennan Dylan, Bullet Ride
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Rock and electronica collide like never before on Brennan Dylan’s exciting new album Bullet Ride. This debut instrumental album from Dylan gives you the best of both worlds from rock guitar to dance-heavy beats. I remember hearing in the 70s that you either were a rocker or a disco junkie; could not be…
Intended Creation, Awake
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What I love about Indie artists is that they take risks and that they have no set boundaries or limitations holding them back. A big-time record company isn’t telling these musicians what they should play and how it should sound. The outcome is usually downright raw and unpredictable, which I simply love! Intended…
Swift Tongues, The Last MC Mix Tape
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When you think of rap meccas — you think of great cities like ATL, CALI, NY. Even Seattle Washington has had it’s share of popular rap artists over the year. Artists like Sir Mix-A-Lot, LaborOldoninion, Blue Scholers, The Boom Bap Project, No Clure just to name a few. Now I’d like to introduce you to…
Nexcyx, EP
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Get ready for a group from Barbados as they unleash their International debut EP and hope to take the world by storm! They call themselves Nexcyx and the band incorporates many different styles of music such as: hip-hop, rock and pop. Nexcyx is made up of four members: Mahalia Phillips on vocals, Andre…
Adam Rader, What Dreams Become
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Singer/songwriter Adam Rader releases a two-song EP in light of his upcoming 2011 debut album. One track is an original penned by Rader and the other is a cover of a classic tune. It will be hard to judge this artist and his music based on just two songs, but I will do…
Pas Chic Chic, 12″
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There’s something about kraut rock that just gets me. Where I often find myself bored with minimalist electronica that simply drones on and on, repeating the same melodic and rhythmic passages into a numbing, sterilized pulp, the deliberate thrust of a good, weird kraut rock groove can make me weak in the knees. …
Eight Feet Deep, EP
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Eight Feet Deep is the latest project from Long Island, NY guitarist and songwriter Billy “Pills” Fridrich. Fridrich has played guitar and written for his previous bands Celestial and HeavySurf and also plays throughout the NY area in a side project called No Excuses. Eight Feet Deep is comprised mostly of Fridrich given…
Quest For Fire, Lights From Paradise
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Maybe the members of Quest For Fire smoke a lot of pot, and maybe they don’t. What they do to fill their hours offstage and out of the studio shouldn’t really matter. Though you can’t help but wonder, considering how seamless and engulfing each of the eight tracks on Lights From Paradise are. It’s a…
Aliqua, All I Want
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The cover of All I Want, the holiday-themed sophomore release from all-female choral/pop group Aliqua, features all eight vocalists posing as mannequins behind the glass of a department store window. It’s a troubling image–anyone who’s listened to a Christmas compilation in the past thirty years probably knows holiday music has seen better days (Besides, the…
Eleven Dollar Life, Shatter The Silence
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Are you ready to get nuts and join the party that is known as Eleven Dollar Life? I hope so because these Chicago rockers are about to Shatter The Silence for good! Eleven Dollar Life unleashes a fury of sound that will excite the hell out of people’s senses everywhere! This group…
Broken Poets, Self-Titled
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If it ain’t broke then don’t fix it is a famous saying and one that Broken Poets should stand by on their latest effort. This Phoenix-based group offers up a four-track EP here, which is a teaser for their upcoming multi-media project called For The Death Of Dustin Essary. What you are getting…
Bassments of Badmen Volume 2, Various Artists
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Hand’Solo records has recently re-released their classic hip-hop compilation, Bassments of Badmen Volume Two. Featuring a new cover that reflects the darker tone of mixtape, the album still contains early songs from Mindbender, Conspiracy, Noah 23, Epic, Wordburglar and Selfhelp. Embracing all the Hand’Solo trademarks ( twisted, and often laugh-out-loud funny, lyrics and…
Kenny Young, Simple Things
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We should all enjoy the simple things in life and never take them for granted. That is exactly what Kenny Young has done here on his new, full-length album Simple Things. Young says that the record is about “good things, bad things, friends, family, just about everything about me.” Simplicity is never…
Katherine Jenkins, Believe
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Katherine Jenkins: model, TV personality, classical/pop crossover vocalist. That’s quite a rap sheet, basically the holy trinity of pretty people jobs. But as her seventh studio album, Believe, demonstrates, she has one hell of a voice. And that’s really all that matters, isn’t it? Jenkins has been around for the better part of the…
Delicate Steve, Wondervisions
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It’s safe to say you’ve never heard a band quite like New Jersey’s Delicate Steve. Oh, sure, there are some clear reference points in the band’s psychedelic, guitar heavy instrumentals (particularly Dirty Projectors, whose maestro/guitar god Dave Longstreth also makes a point of pushing his instrument’s boundaries), but beneath all the synth squeals, trademark…
Phillip Morris, The Truth Campaign
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Chicago-based MC Phillip Morris has proven himself to be one of the ultimate wordsmiths of hip-hop on such albums as Instrumentality (2007) and The Process of Addiction Has Its Costs (2009). His latest album, The Truth Campaign, grabs modern day lotus-eaters by the collar and makes them question their addiction to manufactured consent,the…
Richard Laviolette and the Oil Spills, All Of Your Raw Materials
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Richard Laviolette is probably the friendliest guy you’ve never met. Each of his down-home folk tunes are rich with a rugged and honest sensibility. And though he’d probably never back you up in any kind of scrap, he’d probably talk down the aggressor with his affectionate demeanour. On top of his affable, sunset-ready state of…
Jukebox The Ghost, Everything Under The Sun
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It wouldn’t be fair to say that Jukebox The Ghost, a Philadelphia trio, write catchy songs. What would be fair to say is that if all three members had a cold, they’d probably sneeze out a pitch perfect pop-rock records, drenched in the kind of hooks that make modern rock radio programmers drool uncontrollably. Yes,…
Forest City Lovers, Carriage
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For the past five years, Kat Burns has been making the kind of music that makes lonely, dimly-lit bedrooms that much more inviting. Her subtle drawl constantly finds itself atop rippling waves of quiet, persistent indie folk. Then there are the motifs, full of the kind of brutal honesty you’d want in your bedroom too.…
The Micronite Filters, Puff Go The Dragon’s Mystic Fires
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The Micronite Filters, yet another fine addition to Get Bent’s intensely visceral lineup of blues-heavy rock and rollers, are not a band to be taken lately. From the opening crash and swell of “In Search Of Delights,” its easy to get seduced by the band’s no-nonsense attitude. Heavy, but never overbearing, The Micronite Filters manage…
La Strada, New Home
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La Strada, a Brooklyn five piece, sounded like the most seafaring of seafaring bands on their debut that I had myself double checking that they weren’t from Halifax or Scotland. Now, on their follow-up, New Home, the band seems to be injecting some of that chamber-pop sound that Brooklyn is known so well for. No,…
TALES OF THE FRIGHTENED, VERNON WELLS, EBAN SCHLETTER
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When it comes to recording the written word, Halloween (and of course The Grinch at Christmas) belonged to actor Boris Karloff. Eban Schletter who recently did a CD of spooky music, Witching Hour, has teamed up with actor and narrator Vernon Wells to recreate the 60’s pulp fiction stories of Michael Avallone. As…
Sissita’s Soul Tangos, Self-titled
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Get ready for a style of music that is so creative & original that it will amaze your ears! Sissita’s Soul Tangos and the genius behind it were originated by Austrian soul singer Sissita and Bueno Aires-based producer Ariel Gato. These two members have successfully blended together classic Argentine tango, soul, waltz and…
Ceramic, The Past Ain’t Fair
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This group known as Ceramic really digs deep here by going outside the box on The Past Ain’t Fair. The mastermind behind this band is singer/songwriter John Scheaffer who hails from NY. The new record also features guest cameos from vocalist Kendal Meade and violinist Margaret White. These two musicians play regularly…
Japandroids, No Singles
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Re-releases of old, out of print EP’s are essentially a double-edged sword. Not only do you realize how much great material you may have missed before you caught on to said band, but you get absolutely no cool points for coming in this late in the game. Thankfully, the release of No Singles, does all…
VTG, Love Is Letting Go
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VTG is one man known as Lawrence Stone who releases his 6-track EP Love Is Letting Go. It’s worth noting that Stone is a prolific composer and multi-instrumentalist who also studied classical & jazz at The Berklee College of Music. This multi-dimensional artist from San Francisco proves that he is extremely talented with…
Daniel Romano, Workin’ For The Music Man
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The liner notes of Workin’ For The Music Man offer a fairly honest perspective of Romano’s life a rambling, folk troubadour. The notion of naming his first born after the person that would give him his first “Hit,” and the fact that one track Romano recorded enjoyed a run up the charts in Sweden in…
JW, JWtheMusic
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Soulful vocals, backing electronica and infectious lyrical subject matter are the facets that comprise the ethos of the full-length LP from Boston native, JW. The 11-track debut was made under the mantra “Live for today and tomorrow” and it taps a myriad of musical influences that run the gamut from East Coast style Rap to…
The Strange Boys, Be Brave
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God bless The Strange Boys. Listening to Be Brave, their sophomore LP induces a feeling akin to waking up with a foggy yet forgiving hangover on Saturday morning in a house you’ve never seen before. And your choices are many; either you could join the party still happening in the other room (With folks you…
The Skullcranes, Columbia Heights Nights
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When things get a little awkward in social situations, there’s one thing everyone needs to do: crank up Columbia Heights Nights, the latest from The Skullcranes. One of two things will happen: either the entire party will get a good kick out of the band’s outwardly humorous lyrics set to some of the purest punk…
The Gurus, Closing Circles
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Barcelona, Spain isn’t normally associated as a place where psychedelic pop-rock bands rule. That doesn’t seem to bother the Gurus–a trio consisting of guitarist Emilio Ramirez, bassist Sergio Bartel, and drummer Josep Pons–whose fourth record Closing Circles continues on with the band’s love for 60s era guitar pop. Previous recordings by the Gurus have shown…
The Summerlad, Blue Skinned
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The fact that The Summerlad are largely unknown is a crying shame. This three-piece out of Calgary, creates a sonic landscape that is as intriguing and immense as the country which they call home. Stretching guitars, combined with driving percussion and a pure, brazen passion for the music they’re making is what Blue Skinned, their…
SweetKiss Momma, Revival Rock
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First off, I have to say right off the bat that I simply love the style of this group. SweetKiss Momma has such a cool vibe goin’ that incorporates rock, southern rock, classic rock/modern rock and blues. Not to mention, this Seattle/Tacoma-based group offers up a kick-ass band name. Revival Rock is…
Bill Hicks, The Essential Bill Hicks
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Bill Hicks, a self-described “[Noam] Chomsky with dick jokes, is one of the most influential comedians ever. His satire of contemporary mores was always on target and is among the best stand-up sets ever recorded. Rkyo’s recently released Bill Hicks The Essential Collection has compiled some of Bill’s most adored bits, along…
Jackie Arredondo, Someone Like You
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Jackie Arredondo is an artist who is not afraid to step out of her comfort zone and try something new. With the release of her EP Someone Like You, Jackie is proving that she can take on a solo career and do just fine. For years, Arredondo was a well-known vocal coach within…
The Matt Burke Band, Pretty Close to Very Good
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Get ready for an album that offers a lot of good-sounding music for the people. The Matt Burke Band is made up of two musicians: Matt Burke on vocals, guitar, electronic drums, synth and bass & Brue Baker on lead guitar. The duo refers to their distinct sound as “Soulcoustic Beach Rock”. I agree with…
The Jesus Rehab, The Highest Highs and the Lowest Lows
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What I heard was here was completely original and nothing like anything else I’ve listened to before. The Jesus Rehab brings to you a concept album full of real substance. Conceptual songs with a real meaning and a real purpose surround this 11-track set. With a band name like Jesus Rehab they…
Downslave, Cost of Freedom
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What a wake up call I had this morning when I listened to Downslave’s Cost of Freedom on my laptop. A little after 8 AM and still half asleep, I was in for a loud awakening. What I heard coming through my headphones definitely jolted my system and at this point I was…
