Threefold is Chicago’s favorite gimmick punk band. Now, all of you have the impression that gimmick is a bad word. It’s not. It just means a trick, a hook. Threefold has more gimmicks than a used car salesman, both vocally and musically. “The Night In Question” opens up with some tight two-person harmony. That’s...
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Boss Tweeter is a rock band with a catch. They only have an electric guitar and an acoustic guitar in the band. They occasionally have one guitar player switch to a bass, and since this recording they’ve added a drummer. Even so, this leaves the sound slightly unfilled, mostly because they want to rock...
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Best element: Calamitous breakdowns and brilliant riffs. Genre: Hardcore-tinged rock. Label: Action Heights (www.actionheights.com) Website: www.thephoenixrising.net I listened to no more than two songs off this album before I knew it was going to be one of this year’s best. When you combine an excellent singer with hardcore-tinged modern rock that’s actually original, nothing...
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Building a Factory makes music the right way….Music for music’s sake. They don’t even press CDs….they burn ‘em and sell ‘em at shows for cheap. I mean that takes class. I give that a couple of stars in itself. This is an anthology of all their recordings, which is six songs over 4 years....
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The Attika State is a rock band from Southern England. I’ve always had good experiences with British bands (see Hiding With Girls and #1 Defender) and this one doesn’t disappoint. “The Attika State Presents….” opens with “The Downside of Perfect”. The highly melodic vocals are most definitely British. Not a bad thing, but a...
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Shade Seven, indie pop/rockers from Oklahoma City, OK, have produced an album that wasn’t supposed to be. It was supposed to be promotional….but they just are too good to keep music hidden. Everyone wanted to hear the new stuff from them, even if it wasn’t exactly finished (or ever scheduled to be finished). What...
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Shade Seven isn’t a very descriptive name. Some bands can instantly be placed in the correct genre just by hearing their name. It’s a good bet “The Death Ratchet Brigadeers” are going to be some form of metal. It’s also safe to say “Skies Are Greenish” will be a poppy, quirky band. But Shade...
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Keane Li is a one man rock band. He specializes in the darker, aggressive aspects of rock while tinting everything with a melodic strain that usually comes through in the vocals. Sound confusing? Read on… This album is a rock album. Granted, there are other things here (including two very good acoustic songs), but...
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Euphobia, along with having a great name, has a style that would at first glance be classified as pop punk, but it’s so much deeper than that. There’s method to all madness, and this pop punk is definitely madness. But madness is a good thing, right? A statement that must be said: They love...
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