RILEY ARMSTRONG – La Loop
Released 2006
Sevenspin Records
www.rileyarmstrong.com
Riley Armstrong is a new experience to this reviewer. Oh, I knew he existed in all of his former dreadlocked glory, but only in March 2006 did I hear any of his material for the first time. That solo show was wonderful, full of wit, charm, [...]
DEMON HUNTER
The Triptych
Released 2005
Solid State Records
I almost passed up The Triptych after Demon Hunter’s underwhelming sophomore effort Summer of Darkness soured me on the group. Fortunately, I heard the record in a friend’s car and found myself impressed. Fifteen bucks and repeated listens later I feel confident to say that Demon Hunter’s [...]
Project 86
Songs To Burn Your Bridges By
Released 2004
Tooth & Nail Records
www.project86.com
Difficult.
Trying to convey how every urgent phrase Andrew “Macabre” Schwab spits out sounds like it has been wrenched forcefully from his entrails? Writing a review that gets across how Project 86 is hard rock with definite punk and metal elements yet is [...]
PROJECT 86 – …And The Rest Will Follow
Tooth & Nail Records
Released 2005
www.project86.com
Andrew Schwab is quite possibly the most intelligent and unique lyricist/singers in hard music. The band supports him in this lofty endeavour while staking their own claim as being a truly excellent hard music group, outfitted with killer riffs, frightening intensity and brilliant [...]
HOLLY WILLIAMS – The Ones We Never Knew
Released 2004
Universal South Music
www.hollywilliams.com
My goodness. I love this girl. I wonder if she bled into the studio microphones and all over her guitar? Because it sounds as though she’s given most (if not all) of herself on a record containing heartbreak, hope, insight and wisdom [...]
Aught-Nine ended up being a high watermark year for me in terms of music. 2008 was a pretty weak one and both 2007 and 2006 had some good stuff but not really… a lot.
2009? Where do I even begin?
There are no less than four records competing in my heart and head [...]
Joy Electric
Favorites At Play
Tooth & Nail Records
9 songs / 31:30
www.joyelectric.com
Joy Electric’s covers project Favorites At Play is really good. You should get it.
…
Ronnie Martin applies his vintage-analog-synthesizer-and-vocals-only sound to a batch of mainstream pop songs from the past few years, resulting in an engaging and charming covers album. It’s perhaps an unexpected direction [...]
Relient K
Forget and Not Slow Down
Mono vs Stereo
15 tracks / 42:36
www.relientk.com
From the first time I heard Relient K’s “Marilyn Manson Ate My Girlfriend,” I knew I’d found a band I’d hate forever. While I softened over the years and put the band in a ‘fun novelty’ corner, I didn’t hear anything to convince me [...]
Conspiracy of Thought
Nothing More Than Light
Youngside Records
17 tracks / 49:28
www.jointheconspiracy.com
Conspiracy of Thought somehow manage to buy a heavy industrial rock band while at the same time exploring pop sensibilities… and it works. They tone the GUITAR ATTACK BLAM down in favor of programming and non-shred-your-face-off production… somehow it’s still intense and rocking. They write [...]
mewithoutYou
It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All a Dream! It’s Alright
Tooth & Nail
11 tracks / 44:49
www.mewithoutYou.com
Offering a neat summation of the new mewithoutYou disc is as difficult as it is to box in the group’s spirituality or musical orientation. It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All a [...]
*Limblifter & The Age of Electric albums have been re-released digitally on iTunes (as of December 8th). You can now buy Limblifter and Bellaclava albums, as well as AoE’s The Age of Electric and Make a Pest a Pet discs. Great albums well worth checking out for the first time, or hearing again. [...]
MuteMath
Armistice
Warner Bros/Teleprompt
12 tracks / 48:58
www.mutemath.com
“Anyone who thinks the first album is perfect will hate this [new] record.” – Paul Meany on Armistice, interview with The Morning Call
Who would you rather MuteMath be grouped with: the Nickelbacks and Linkin Parks of the world, putting out what amounts to the same bloody record every two years [...]
Stryper
Murder By Pride
Big 3
12 tracks / 45:40
www.stryper.com
Does anybody really expect much from ‘the brand new album’ from any band whose hits came twenty years ago? Sure, AC/DC’s Black Ice is a pretty solid chunk of blues rock, but it’s not replacing Back in Black or The Razor’s Edge as anybody’s new favorite. Nobody’s [...]
Marcy Playground
Leaving Wonderland… in a fit of rage
Deep South
13 tracks / 40:25
www.marcyplayground.com
Technically, Marcy Playground fits the definition of “one-hit wonder.” Like fellow mid-to-late-nineties groups Sponge, Harvey Danger, Semisonic, and Dishwalla, they came out of nowhere with a monster hit (you will remember the chill, disco lemonade infused “Sex & Candy”), only to vanish from [...]
Plumb
Beautiful History – A Hits Collection
Curb
23 tracks
www.plumbinfo.com
BEAUTIFUL HISTORY – A HITS COLLECTION is missing too many of Plumb’s best songs to succeed as a comprehensive ‘greatest hits’ album. Only one track from BEAUTIFUL LUMPS OF COAL appears (“Real”), one from her most recent release BLINK (and not the full song, either, but the radio [...]