Andy Zipf is a songwriter able to create soft, deep and intricate songs filled with harmonies, that make you fell the images of reality.
On this eight song debut, Zipf sings in a truly unique way about love, loss and life experiences. Such songs as “Stay (With Me Now)”, “So Am I” and “Where You Are Not” are examples of how, in different ways, Zipf can make the listener feel loneliness and tragedy at the same time. Whenever it’s on the acoustic guitar or on more poppy harmonies, the music takes you into another dimension, making you see what Zipf is seeing while he sings: just close your eyes and you will find yourself in places you have never been before. Because the real thing is that Andy Zipf is able to compose music that’s never been done before.
If you like artists like Brand New, Kevin Devine and Dustin Kensrue, you will enjoy “I Stile The Morning Sun” at its finest.
Last Tuesday is a melodic punk rock band that plays fast and catchy pop songs: “Become What You Believe” is a collection of anthems on fire, where the fast guitar riffs leave their places to softer melody at some times, while during other times it’s really hard and raw.
Songs like the title track or “This Is The Way” have got a great impact on you, because they start in a real fast way, with super melodic choruses sung by dual vocals and a raw guitar sound that make you feel the sweat of the live show through your stereo. The biggest songs are “Deal With It”, “Can You Hear Me?” (a punk rock anthem) and “Wake Me Up”, a pop song about lost directions.
If you like melodic punk rock in the vein of Blink 182, Relient K and MxPx, Last Tuesday is definitely a must hear for your ears.
“Smile, It’s The End Of The World” is the sophomore album from Canadian pop punk rockers Hawk Nelson. If on their debut “Letters To The President”, this four piece used to play fast, dynamic and melodic pop punk, with easy listening harmonies and young lyrics, on this new record things become a little more serious. Of course, the melodies and the catchy pop chourses are still present, but the themes that the band deals with during the songs are even more serious and the music parts are harder.
As on the opening track “The Only Thing That I Have Left” you can hear super catchy vocals as well as some melodic punk rock guitar riffs, while on the track “Bring ‘Em Out” you will hear gang vocals with an almost hip hop chorus made only by vocals and drums. The rhythms become faster on songs like “Something On My Mind”, while the slow piano ballads are still here on the record with songs like “Something On My Mind” and “Is Forever Enough”, where piano driven ballads take the place of furious punk songs.
Hawk Nelson is one of the fastest growing punk rock bands out there, and “Smile, It’s The End Of The World” is a rock and roll album that is destined to become a classic.
Double Blind Music (www.doubleblindmusic.com) Sparks the Rescue’s debut quakes with fuzzy hooks and unpredictable off-tempo guitar riffs. “The Secrets We Can’t Keep is all screemo and all raw, while keeping an up-beat. “The Scene: Your Bedroom” gets insane after a minute into the song, keeping you guessing with unexpected beats and raw emotion-jetting vocals.
I’m not really a fan of screemo, but if you are, this album is worth listening to, as Sparks The Rescue’s strained vocals works well enough amid the gritty, gutter licks and almost martially pounded drums.
Strictly Rude is an energized mix of rocksteady revolution. If you like SKA, this album is a fun, rude-boy dance-a-thon.
“Steady Riot” makes you want to jump around non-stop with their upstroke guitars and David McWane’s high-octane lyrics. Although I’m not really a big fan of SKA music, my favorite song on the album is the title track, “Strictly Rude”, which reminds me a bit of Long Beach Dub Allstars. “Fly Away” has a fantastic saxaphone solo, along with a feel good atitude that is the trademark of Big D and The Kids Table.
Dear and the Headlights is a five piece indie rock band from Phoenix, AZ, and after some line-up changes, they release their debut full lenght album on Equal Vision Records. “Small Teps, Heavy Hooves” is a truly inspiring indie rock album, with a lot of experimentation of will to bring innovative and unique elements in the structure of the songs.
A little bit as a cross between Bear Vs Shark and The Shins, Dear And The Headlights release songs with the aim to hurt your ears at the beginning to make you feel the melody once you entered into their world. “Oh No!”, the opening track, is an acoustic song that shows how Dear And The Headlights have no will to play under the influence of schemes: the melodic chrous after the brief intro is almost scary. “Sweet Talk” is a quite perfect example of how a song can be harmonious and rocking at the same time, with its pop chorus and the rocking guitar riffs.
Dear And The Headlights are pioneers of originality and non convetional music, and these reasons are enough to make me say I totally respect and love their work.
Tracklist 1. Oh No! 2. Sweet Talk 3. Hallelujah 4. Happy In Love 5. I’m Bored, You’re Amorous 6. Grace 7. It’s Gettin’ Easy (MP3) 8. Paper Bag 9. Skinned Knees & Gapped Teeth 10. Run in the Front (MP3) 11. Mother Make Me Golden 12. I Just Do 13. Midwestern Dirt
After an EP entitled “Infinite Jets”, and after playing in front of thousands of people, post hardcore dance rock band We Are The Fury is back with the debut album, “Venus”. Just like on their previous release, but with a more specific intent, on this album We Are The Fury mix the rock and roll guitars that made glam rock huge with dancable pop rhythms, just like a mix between Head Automatica and The Hives.
And I am not mentioning Head Automatica for no reason: Daryl Palumbo (ex lead singer of GlassJaw, now lead singer of Head Automatica) not only produced two songs on “Venus”, but also sing along on the lines of “So Physical“. This is a classy touch, since Daryl’s voice is just awesome, and fused with the melodic, catchy and furious rock songs of We Are The Fury, the relationship is just perfect.
If you like furious rock and roll fused with electronica, danceable rhythms and orgasmic melodies, get your hands on this.
Tracklist 1. Venus 2. Now You Know 3. So Physical 4. Close Your Eyes 5. Camera Tricks 6. Still Don’t Know You’re Name 7. Hey Love 8. Saturday Night 9. You’re My Halo (Prom Song) 10. Blue Coat, Black Hair 11. Don’t Need A Thing 12. Grand Divider
Chasing Victory is probably the most underrated band in the extreme music world: “I Call This Abandonment”, which came two years ago, is the most original melodic hardcore album with hints of metal I heard in years. Their music is fast, furious, with a lot of metallic riffs and post hardcore elements, but they have a ton of melody and harmonic vocal lines that I never heard before.
“Oceans Away” opens the record with strong screams and capturing guitar riffs, and with melodic vocals at the same time, as the drums get slower and more rhythmatic. This song is a kind of manifesto for the whole record. in fact it has brutal metallic guitars filled with melodies, harmonic vocals and catchy parts, where the melodic vocal lines take the place of the extreme guitars. More songs show how Chasing Victory fuse screams, metallic riffs and brutal drums with melodic lines, deep lyrics and unique song structures.
“I Call This Abandonment” is a kind of cross between the extreme sounds and the melodic parts, and if you liked UnderOath’s albums “They’re Only Chasing Safety” and “Define The Great Line” you will definitely fall in love for this band. While waiting for Chasing Victory’s new album “Plains”, which will hit streets on May 9, I highly recommend to prepare your ears with “I Call This Abandonment”, a record that will change your views on rock music.
Switchfoot is back with their brand new disc, after the great success of their previous albums “The Beautiful Letdown” and “Nothing Is Sound”. This time, the band decided to become more eclectic and experimental, adding new sounds, new emotions and new feelings to the songs, developing a less hard sound and more rock and roll rhythms, with influences from the U2 to Relient K.
“Oh! Gravity” is made of twelve songs (plus a bonus track called “Revenge” that is available following the instructions inside the CD), where the San Diego quintet is able to create unique music and going though different musical influences, to give unity to the songs: “Dirty Second Hands” is a kind of country/alternative punk song, while “American Dream” is a super catchy pop punk song and “Awakening” is a rock anthem, with an incredible chorus.
Through all of the songs, such as “Circles”, “Amateur Lovers”, “Yesterdays” and “Burn Out Bright”, you get the idea that “Oh! Gravity” is not only a collection of songs but a real, solid and unique rock album that is made of fellings that you will enjoy all.
As the title of their new album says, after seven years and five albums, pop-punk rockers Relient K are back with their fifth record to date. Knowing that all of their three previous albums (”Anatomy Of The Tongue In Cheek”, “Two Lefts Don’t Make A Right…But Three Do” and “Mmhmm”) went gold, and the first two’s also have been remastered as “Gold Edition”, it’s hard not to predict that this record will be huge, too.
Five Score And Seven Years Ago marks Relient K’s first full-length album, and the first featuring bassist John Warne and guitarist Jon Schneck (formerly of Christian rock band Ace Troubleshooter, a Tooth And Nail band) – although the two appeared on the band’s Apathetic EP, released in late 2005. With original guitarist Matt Hoopes and drummer Dave Douglas completing the lineup, Relient K is now a quintet with each of the members contributing vocals. The backing harmonies, stunning throughout, amp up the infectious “Must Have Done Something Right” and serve as an ironic counterpoint in “Deathbed.” But the biggest change is in the control booth.
The new album is made of 14 songs that sound so tight and compact as a whole that it’s almost scary. Impressive, actually. The tunes sound so well all together and you can really say that Relient K had a good time and good ideas / inspirations while making this record.
Produced by Howard Benson (The All American Rejects, My Chemical Romance, Less Than Jake), “Five Score And Seven Years Ago” is a never ending trip in the life of Matthew Thiessen: the main songwriter and lead singer of the band describes stories about his personal life and experiences, and if you think the band has matured, well, it’s hard to say it.
The album has still got some high sense of humour, as such songs as the opening track
“Plead the Fifth”, written from the viewpoint of an 19th century man with an outlandish
conspiracy theory about Lincoln’s death and it features lead vocalist/guitarist/pianist Matt Thiessen using his mouth to simulate each instrument of a drum kit, or the 10 second song “Crayons Can Melt On Us For All I Care”, which is really funny. But the record also features high and deep themes, as the closer track “Deathbad”, which more than a song, is a poem, which includes Switchfoot’s Jon Foreman on guest vocals and has a somber setting as its title implies, the masterfully woven tale of a man’s life and death brims with witty observations and aural ironies.
In general, the album picks up where “Mmhmm” left, with incredibly catchy and powerful pop punk songs as “Come Out And Say It”, “Devastation And Reform” (the guitar riffs at the beginning of this song is incredbile and Hoopes is a tralented guitar player) and “Bite My Tongue”, where Relient K not only plays catchy guitar riffs, but also have melodies that stick in your ears for days. The things slow down sometimes, as Thiessen and friends leave their heavy guitars for piano driven harmonies, as on “Forgiven” and “Give”, with piano elements and acoustic guitar parts.
In the end, “Five Score And Seven Years Ago” is one of the very few albums of today’s music that can still give something new to the fans: fresh harmonies, catchy hooks and a lot of ironic (and sometimes serious) lines, and it’s just a shame that you will not hear it on most popular radios or televisions.
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