After nearly five years since their last full-length album, 2009 plays host to a new album from the band Skychief. Based out of Akron, Ohio, Skychief is the kind of band you would expect to discover at Warped Tour. The new album Autoexciter is a testament to this with 13 tracks of hard punk...
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Clock Hands Strangle suffered from a peculiar syndrome when I was reviewing this album. I enjoyed this album so much that I put it in my car and started listening to it like I would if it were an album that I purchased from a record store. But when I do that, I don’t...
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Shelley Short‘s A Cave, A Canoo provides a clear distinction between Americana and folk. The acoustic-based music that Short plays is the type that you would expect to find in rural backwoods and Appalachian trails. It’s fragile instrumentally but strong lyrically. It’s very distinctive and unapologetic about this; it is what it is, and...
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I should have known that a band which calls itself “The Black Heart Procession” would be more than a little bit morbid. Somehow, I was still surprised at the amount of death that crowds into the proceedings of their latest album Six. Even more surprising, though, is how incredibly gorgeous this album is, totally...
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Once in a while, something comes across my desk and I just don’t know what to make of it. That was definitely the case with Alley of the Ignots by The Psycho Nubs. This duo from Richmond, IN, made up of Brandon Owens and Nich Shadle, is simply bizarre. The music is a mix...
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From what I’ve heard that’s come out of Canada, I have yet to be disappointed. Well, except for maybe Avril Lavigne. I’ll narrow the category: folk-influenced indie from Canada can’t seem to go wrong. And Said the Whale from Vancouver doesn’t break this reputation. Islands Disappear is the quintet’s second full-length album, released October...
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What do Twilight and a band called The National Rifle have in common? Would you be even more confused if you found out the answer is 100 Monkeys? Before you start getting frightened with the image of vampires, rifles, and a hoard of wild monkeys, you should know that 100 Monkeys is the band...
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Victor Bravo upholds the myth that all you need to make rock is a couple guys, some instruments, and a garage. Forget all of the computerized and technological enhancements of today’s commercially successful music. With obvious influence from bands such as Nirvana and Hüsker Dü, Victor Bravo’s latest album, Hammer Meets Fire, doesn’t disappoint....
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So, new regulations came out for bloggers this week (but not for anyone else: newspapers, magazines, etc) about what we do and don’t have to say to avoid an 11,000 dollar fine. What we have to say now: we get all our records for free to review. People send them to us, in hopes...
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It takes guts and bravery for a rock band to choose to make a concept album. Concept albums are ambitious and usually not as accessible for new fans. They oblige listeners to pay attention and engage in a different way – namely, by requiring that their brains interpret the music instead of their emotions...
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