I’m gonna be straight-up honest: this album has haunted me for the better part of two years. I’ve had people run off with copies of this album. I’ve lost this album in a move. I found this album six months after the move. Then Inner Surge broke up. Then I felt guilty that I...
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Archive for February, 2010
Inner Surge’s final offering a fantastic metal farewell
Lucky Soul’s lead single is a slice of breezy yet engaging pop
Lucky Soul is a pop band. There’s nothing indie or rock or anything else about “A Coming of Age.” It is unabashedly, undeniably pop music. But it aspires to a bit more than your standard verse/chorus/verse mentality. The first single off their new album of the same title is a breezy, summery bit of...
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The formula for Room Full of Strangers ain’t new, but it ain’t broke
Room Full of Strangers‘ sound owes a lot to Smashing Pumpkins. Singer Mick “Dagger” McIuan growls, roars and hollers like a slightly less nasal, young Billy Corgan. The guitarists (who go by pseudonyms, in true rock fashion) adhere to the subdued verse/megadistorted chorus/shrieking guitar solo formula of rock music that Corgan and co. thrived...
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New Grenada shows songwriting skill but covers it with distortion
New Grenada doesn’t have the same dark sound that most early nineties grunge bands had, but they do have an aesthetic in common with them: they write pop songs, then distort their guitars and play them at ear-deafening levels. The disappointing thing about Energy Shortage is that New Grenada’s non-distorted tunes far outweigh their...
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The Jim Ivins band releases warm, exciting pop/rock
The Jim Ivins Band‘s five-song EP is expertly constructed late-nineties and early 2000s pop. The Goo Goo Dolls, Mae, Train, and more of their ilk are all sonically referenced throughout this EP. To some, that’s the kiss of death. To me, it’s pretty stinkin’ awesome. I may be a sucker, but I’m friggin’ in...
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These New Puritans create a thorough and complete aggressive art vision
When I’m stressed, I have terrible nightmares. I have methods of combating them, but none of those methods include listening to These New Puritans‘ Hidden. The album sounds like the soundtrack to a nightmare. The music is not intentionally horror-themed, but it is the most ominous, terrifying music I’ve heard in years. These New...
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Like Clockwork delivers a straightforward dance-pop singalong for the win
Like Clockwork is easily one of the most confusing artists I’ve ever encountered in my nearly eight years of writing Independent Clauses. I discovered him years ago as a lo-fi artist churning out tunes in a variety of genres. I guardedly praised his work, then waited for more. Since then, things got weird. There...
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Shorthand Phonetics gets instrumental, releases best album of career
Okay, if you tuned in yesterday, you saw me tackle Shorthand Phonetics’ Errors in Calculating Odds, Errors in Calculating Value. I said the songwriting was awesome but that the album was too long because the vocals were difficult. For those of you looking for the promised treat at the end of the last review,...
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Shorthand Phonetics release talented pop with difficult vocals
My relationship with Shorthand Phonetics is somewhat complicated. That’s all right, though; almost all of Shorthand Phonetics’ lo-fi rock’n'roll proclaims the ins and outs of complicated relationships (or lack thereof). See, Shorthand Phonetics always has and probably will always have an aesthetic that challenges listeners. Ababil Ashari, mastermind of Shorthand Phonetics, writes and plays...
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Garage rockers Rachael release a solid, grungy EP
Rachael’s I Bet You Like Drugs Instead of Sex EP inhabits the space between Nirvana and Silversun Pickups. Their gritty, grunge-flavored rock with boy/girl vocal trade-offs picks up the attitude but not the volume of Nirvana’s work, while the guitar sound evokes Silversun Pickups without the emotional undertones. Rachael is a garage band at...
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