May 31st, 2011 §
I first heard about Brooklyn’s Man The Change via a PunkNews announcement about the band organising a Kickstarter project. If they got enough sponsors before March 13th they were going to use this to bankroll the pressing of the record on vinyl and send it out to their sponsors – along side other cool items. Unfortunately due to various commitments I didn’t write this review in time to help plug their project, so instead you’ll be seeing this review go up sometime in May. It’s a shame, really, as Kickstarter is proving to be a really excellent method of supporting DIY filmmakers, musicians, game developers and more, and it can be really inspiring – provided you get enough promotion to whip up attention for what you’re working on.
Anyway, onto the music! Okay, straight up, Man the Change play very 90s-esque pop punk with a real skate vibe that I wouldn’t feel too daft about describing as skatecore. There’s a real NOFX feel at points with some of the vocals and drums, and a lot of the band’s sound is obviously inspired by the cream of the 90s EpiFat crop. So there’s a really strong element of “if you dig that shit, you will like this” to this review because, ultimately, Man The Change don’t do much that’s new so they won’t convert anyone. If, however, you enjoy direct, intense, passionate and melodic punk rock, then this is a solid record of such and is well worth checking out.
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May 29th, 2011 §
Whoops, apparently I have neglected to post these for the past few weeks. Sorry!
Del.icio.us links for May 9th through May 29th:
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May 26th, 2011 §
One of my favourite things about reviewing American bands is that I get to look up where they’re from, and that fills out a tiny bit more of my knowledge about a geographically immense country which I’ve only visited a tiny part of. The Haunted Continents, for example, are from Connecticut, which I thought was a city but is actually a small state on the eastern seaboard. I guess that explains why I couldn’t think of any films set in “that city”.
I was definitely not one of those kids who memorised the names of every capital city around the world. Well, I memorised a few, but mostly so that easily-impressed elderly neighbours would give me small sums of money.
Anyway, having established my ignorance – always a good start to a review – on to The Haunted Continents! From the first couple of tunes present you’d be forgiven for thinking they were a Weezer tribute act with a bit of a soulful edge; opener ’2nd. Ave Blues’ is a big, slow, thumping “you left me” alt-rock number which lacks only the massive hooks and easy wit of early Weezer. It’s a solid tune, as is the faster and smoother ‘Nola’ which follows, and only suffers because of how easy the comparison is to make. The volume of the simple chord progressions in these tunes gives them a lot of kick, as does the emphasis on low-end sound from the rhythm juxtaposed against some clean guitar picks.
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May 24th, 2011 §
Yngve & The Innocent (can I pluralise that? Are the rest of the band Innocents? Answers on a postcard) have been busy. Towards the end of 2010 they released the Nothing Was Delivered EP – reviewed here – and now we have this double single. Nominally the single is ‘Draw A Line’, but I think it’s more sensible to consider the flip as integral to the release… I think the term is double a-side.
Both tracks would have fitted into the EP very neatly, so I suspect there was not a huge length of time between their respective recording sessions. ‘Draw A Line’ opens with some chirpy piano and bluesy classic rock & roll guitar. It’s a lengthy song, slow-paced but leisurely rather than ponderous, with some easy and smooth lead guitar work that sounds like something out of a nother time. Lyrically the song engages with the idea of moving on: it will all work out, right? The song’s like those little moments of almost-contentedness that begin to emerge a little while after you’ve been dumped. Draw a line, the song says, and step over it. After all, “The people who leave are never as important as those that stay”.
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May 23rd, 2011 §
It’s the arse-end of May again and that means it’s time for another Nice Weather For Airstrikes Festival, once again here in Brighton, once again at the Druid’s Arms by the Level, and once again playing host to a throng of post-rock, math and shoegaze bands from around the UK. Supposedly the good weather here will hold for the next few weeks, which is good news because it gets goddamn hot in that pub and it’s always a relief to step outside between bands. It’s running between Friday 27th and Monday 30th, with events running from the early afternoon on Monday. Did I mention that it’s free?
This year’s line-up features, in no particular order, The Strange Death of Liberal England (will they have room for all those signs?), Monsters Build Mean Robots, Shapes, Evi Vine, The Continuous Battle of Order, Crowns on the Rats Orchestra, Alright the Captain, The Slow Revolt, Juffage, Last Days of Lorca, Nordic Giants, Theo, Kontakte, Orders of the British Empire, Speak Galactic, Crooked Mountain Crooked Sea, Silent Front, These Monsters, Delta Sleep, A Genuine Freakshow, Karhide, Dark Dark Horse, Laish, Sorebones (loeb), Karl-Johan Nilsson, and Lowland Runners.
NWFA are also offering up a bunch of tracks for free download on their FB page, so hit that up if you like free songs. Songs by The Continuous Battle of Order, Orders of the British Empire, Silent Front, Nordic Giants and Last Days of Lorca, for example. Yes?
See you there.
May 21st, 2011 §
It’s a fair while since I wrote a live review – just over a year, in fact – which probably has as much to do with my newfound tendency to miss the openers as anything else. It’s not a review of a show if you’re not writing about everyone who played, right? Besides, I used to be mildly annoyed by the people who showed up late (though they weren’t as bad as the people who rocked up to see their mate’s band and left immediately after). Now that I’m one of those people I’m faintly embarrassed by the hypocrisy, but hey: these websites don’t write themselves. Also I actually eat these days.
Anyway, with my hypocritical sell-out loser oldz cred firmly established, here’s a few words about a really awesome show I saw the other week. It was a This One’s For The Crew show and promoter Jay Cross’s own Little Ease opened, but as those in the know will understand this isn’t some tedious act of nepotism. No, Little Ease are – were – an excitingly scrappy and intense melodic fastcore outfit and one which, fronted by Jay, prove highly entertaining. The band are in high spirits firstly because they’re pretty drunk, but secondly because it’s guitarist Luke’s last show with the band. He’s moving to Vietnam the very next day. What better way to see him off than a shitload of pints and an awesome show? Half the people in the room know the band and Jay plays up to it, thrusting himself into the crowd and beaming at familiar faces when he’s not gorilla-stomping about and occasionally forgetting lyrics. The band, with a few slips aside, sound as tight as they are entertaining and kick things with aplomb.
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May 19th, 2011 §
The old adage about writing about music being akin to dancing about architecture is a difficult one to argue against, at least in part because music is an art form which depends so much upon the emotional response of the listener. This in itself depends greatly upon a range of factors such as the mood the listener is in at the time, their prior experience with a form of music (under-familiarity can lead to an inability to interpret a generic form or over-familiarity can breed contempt, for example), whether they value technical proficiency over clumsy passion or vice versa, and so on and on.
At the same time we have to try because writing about music is the best way to simply and quickly convey information about it. We can try to articulate the reasons why we do or don’t like something, why we do or don’t feel someone else should listen to something, and – living as we do in this near-global commodity-oriented network of late capitalism – why it is or is not worth buying. Even if we can’t accurately sum up our thoughts or feelings about a record, and even if we sometimes treat things unfairly for comedic effect, and even if we sometimes make fools of ourselves, it’s worth trying, because it’s simply not possible for someone to listen to everything they might like. We can all find value in reviews as a mechanism to sift through available music and present things we might like, and we can all identify reviewers with whom we share tastes and, as a result, come to value their recommendations.
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May 17th, 2011 §
You may recall Milwaukee’s Direct Hit! from this review of their split with Mixtapes. You may also recall that they played rock-out cock-out anthemic melodic punk of the inherently catchy variety. Tit Patrol are a band I’ve not written about before; they hail from Delaware and occupy territory that’s not a million miles away from their compatriots on the other side of the wax.
Direct Hit’s first tune, ‘Brain Surgery’, is exactly what I’d expect from the band on the strength of what I’ve heard before. It’s instantly catchy and deploys a lot of the same tricks, from the music halting for a beat before kicking back in for extra punch through to their catchphrase “fuck you, get pumped!” It’s a good song but there’s not much to be said that I’ve not already written about them. I’m not too sure what the song is about; brain cancer seems to be a theme but given that a lot of the lyrics are about figuring out ways to knock a girl out I wouldn’t read too much into that. Perhaps it’s the D.I.Y. or Die approach to neuroscience?
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May 12th, 2011 §
As a concept, Can’t Have Nothin’ Nice is pretty damn cool. It’s a three-way collaboration between three bands – Missouri’s Canyons and Foreign Theatres, San Francisco’s Tigon – and three labels, The Ghost is Clear, Melotov and Mayfly.
As a record, it’s a bit uneven; there are clear strengths and weaknesses. This might well be down to personal preference, though, since although all three bands are coming from the heavy end of the musical spectrum there are as many points of departure as there are confluence.
The record opens with a couple of tracks from Canyons, ‘I’m Worthy All the Time’ and ‘Simply Ruthless’. They’re overtly hardcore tunes but with a love of rock riffage ala. Clutch; seguing between slow- and mid-pace to allow those grooves time to breathe but retaining a confrontational aggression. They’re solid tunes whilst you’re listening to them but they’re not too memorable; none of the riffs worm into your brain and stick there.
Next we have a couple of tunes from Tigon. ‘Dreadnaught’ and ‘To Be Swallowed by the Infinite’ are significantly more technical affairs, at times feeling messy and at others tautly controlled – which might be uneven playing or it might be a deliberate conceit towards the chaotic. Either way it works. » Read the rest of this entry «
May 10th, 2011 §
Hey, remember when bands weren’t afraid to be English? And not everything was a 2nd, 3rd or further-generation copy of something American?
Although inflammatory statements like that are grossly inaccurate – if you can’t find such music you’re not trying hard enough – there are two reasons I elected to go ahead and write it. The first is that there is a grain of truth there, however small. The second is that Trojan Horse are a defiantly unique band and also an immediately, obviously British outfit.
Prog rock was always a love affair of the British: sure, the Canadians had Rush, the Germans had krautrock, and the Americans can lay claim to some of the earliest work in the genre with The United States of America*. But it was Britain that produced the most famous names of the genre**: King Crimson, Yes, Van der Graaf Generator, Pink Floyd, Genesis… the list goes on. And on. And on. For about eighteen minutes, usually, possibly with a lot of masturbation along the way***.
It’s in this tradition, in part, that Trojan Horse are walking. Deliberately and curiously ambling along, pushing themselves and their listeners in directions that at times challenge, and at times provoke, and at times simply encourage. But there’s no sense of imitation here – how boring and pointless it would be to produce a prog rock record that was content to simply imitate. It’s the playful exploration and ambition regarding structure and composition that Trojan Horse have taken from the prog tradition; their music is just at home drawing on the rich traditions of rock, punk and metal that have developed since the heyday of prog. This isn’t a backwards-looking record. Nor is it particularly forwards-looking, true, but it’s a distinct album and very much of its time. » Read the rest of this entry «
I first heard about Brooklyn’s Man The Change via a PunkNews announcement about the band organising a Kickstarter project. If they got enough sponsors before March 13th they were going to use this to bankroll the pressing of the record on vinyl and send it out to their sponsors – along side other cool items. Unfortunately due to various commitments I didn’t write this review in time to help plug their project, so instead you’ll be seeing this review go up sometime in May. It’s a shame, really, as Kickstarter is proving to be a really excellent method of supporting DIY filmmakers, musicians, game developers and more, and it can be really inspiring – provided you get enough promotion to whip up attention for what you’re working on.
