Catchy garage rock can come in a variety of flavors, as proved by Mr. Russia on their debut album Teething. The Chicago-based band (sorry, this is not imported rock from Russia) delivers its own guitar-less blend of garage rock and punk. Yes, like fellow band Death From Above 1979, there are no guitars here. In their absence, the menacing bass rhythm shows up front and center.
The Loved Ones may just be the most underrated band in punk rock today. Despite a handful of stellar records including last year’s stand out Build & Burn, paint by number bands like Fall Out Boy and Paramore manage to snag magazine covers and stadium tours, while The Loved Ones continue to slog it out on the punk rock club tour circuit.
First word that comes to mind when the Love Is All sophomore release A Hundred things that Keep Me Up at Night hits the record player: energy. Pure, blissful, unrestrained energy that is inspires as much as it invigorates. The Swedish band, who released their debut Nine Times That Same Song back in 2005, have been making a name for themselves both in Europe and here in the US since then.
Leathermouth, the hardcore punk/noisecore side project of My Chemical Romance guitarist Frank Iero, is proof of two things. One: you don’t need to have a talented lead singer to land a record deal. Two: Iero doesn’t sing much in My Chemical Romance for a reason.
Land of Talk is one of the newest bands on Saddle Creek Records, and they fit like a glove in the Omaha-based indie rock behemoth of a label. Singer/songwriter Elizabeth Powell draws a lot of comparisons in style to Maria Taylor, who has also released albums on the label, both as her solo project and as Azure Ray. Having this familiarity of sound has to help Land of Talk fit in and feel more comfortable.
It’s kind of hard to feel sorry for the music industry as it cries about low CDs sales. Stale, paint-by-numbers groups are simply aping the sound of mediocre bands that came before them and are rewarded with record label deals. Meanwhile, a solid band like Kaline is churning out records on its own.
I Set My Friends on Fire picked an applicable album name – You Can’t Spell Slaughter Without Laughter – as they’ve slaughtered any sort of musical decency with this record. The band’s debut album on Epitaph Records bounces back and forth between the now increasingly popular genres of electronic-laced dance/synth pop and some hybrid of brutal grindcore.
The two-piece outfit dubbed Horde of Two is made up of Vancouver Canadians David Lester from Mecca Normal and Wendy Atkinson from her respective solo work and the bands Trim and Pink Noise.
As soon as Canyons starts, it just keeps going, almost effortlessly. Behind the catchy beats of the indie art rock band, Jay Schneider’s high-pitched voice channels insanely creative lyrics that twist together all parts of your brain. Before you have time to figure out what’s going on, more words come flooding in again.
There’s a point at which a song becomes more than a song, or a band more than just a group of musicians with a name. It may sound a bit over the top, but London-based CIAM (pronounced “See-Am”) does something on its first album called Anonymous that goes beyond what an album is expected to sound like – and they seem to have planned it that way.