After some lineup changes, Chicago's Cobalt & the Hired Guns (CATHG) regrouped with a fabulous new album, Everybody Wins!, which came out in June. The band played Union Hall in July and came back through a few weeks ago for a show at Bowery Electric. Friends since they were just little buckaroos, the boys of Cobalt & the Hired Guns have always aspired to create an album to match their rambunctious live shows and it's finally here! Their new record, "Everybody Wins!", aims for the rafters with a cherry bomb explosion of poppy punk, barroom...
Friday, August 31, 2012
A few years back, there seemed to be a number of UK bands (The View, Young Knives, The Pipettes, etc.) heading over to NYC who were hyped by the press as the “next big thing”. The View and The Pipettes didn’t come close to living up to their press hype and I don’t think any of these bands ever made it back to NYC after their first tour. The Kestrels aren’t from the UK (they are from Nova Scotia) but have a "UK sound" that crosses the Factory Records...
Thursday, August 30, 2012
G.G. Allin passed away almost twenty years ago so it is somewhat hard to believe that like-minded NC “destructo rock” band (and one-time G.G. Allin backing band) ANTiSEEN hasn’t imploded. I’ve read about some crazy-violent ANTiSEEN shows that have been fueled by vocalist Jeff Clayton cutting himself – both with his ‘trademark’ barbed wire bat and handy beer bottles. Clayton’s forehead is apparently all scar tissue at this point so he no longer feels the pain of his nightly assaults. Formed in 1983, ANTiSEEN has spent the last thirty years thundering...
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
I really wanted to write this album off as a cash grab after the planned 2CD deluxe reissue of Destroyer got scrapped and the 'Resurrected' edition adds just one bonus track - taking the original 34 minute release up to a running time of just over 37 minutes. What makes it hard to dismiss this release is that Bob Ezrin's remaster adds so much clarity and depth to the music that I'll probably toss out my original edition of Destroyer, which sounds...
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
I hadn’t heard the band Von Shakes prior to receiving a review copy of the band’s latest EP “Almost Nobody” (which was released March 2nd). This new four-track (15 minute) disc is an enjoyable slice of power-punk that is reminiscent of bands like Rooney and Weezer. This is high-energy, guitar-driven rock with the focal points being Paddy Brazel’s vocals and the band’s slashing guitar lines.Von Shakes was formed in Dublin by childhood friends Brazel,...
After a five year absence from the studio, Neurosis' tenth disc, Honor Found in Decay, is scheduled to drop on October 30th.Neurosis forged the songs on Honor Found In Decay with Steve Albini, marking their fifth collaboration with the engineer in their longstanding relationship. Their monolithic sound captured at Electrical Audio studios, Chicago, the seven tracks were then mastered by John Golden at Golden Mastering in Ventura, California.Aesthetics...
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Newly-formed indie group ON AN ON are pleased to unleash "Ghosts," the first song off their forthcoming debut album, Give In, which is due out January 29 on Roll Call Records. Consequence of Sound declared that this first track "has all the textures we can expect from this new outfit, haunted yet exquisitely exposed...strewn with scattered electronics and hazy atmospheres." ON AN ON is scheduled to hit the road in September, supporting Reptar and...
Thursday, August 23, 2012
It has been a while since I've heard from Brooklyn-to-LA transplants Heroes of Popular Wars but the band just resurfaced with a new video for their song "American Loser" - a brilliant bit of political satire on this run-up to the election. The UK-based blog "The Devil Has the Best Tuna" described this song as "a two-part pop song/dirge that sounds like Kevin Shields playing tug of war with 80's Peter Gabriel".The band describes this video as "Created...
After an extended period of inactivity, San Francisco duo Two Gallants is back with their first album in five years – The Bloom and the Blight – which also serves as the band’s debut for ATO Records. Wikipedia refers to the band as a “folk rock duo” but there is an explosive record whose lineage is equal parts 90’s grunge (Meat Puppets and/or Dinosaur Jr. are immediate points of comparison) and gritty alt-country with only a slight element of Dylanish...
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Help us celebrate the launch of the 22nd SEASON OF SAVINGS Book!At the end of each week in September, a winner will be chosen at random to receive tickets to a participating SEASON OF SAVINGS show and dinner for 2 at Tony’s Di Napoli. In the 5th and final week, one Grand Prize winner will be chosen to receive the Ultimate Theatre Weekend. The Weekend will include tickets to 3 participating SEASON OF SAVINGS shows over the course of the weekend...
Sally is charming twee-pop band from NYC that released their debut EP, “We Are In a Car”, last month. All of the songs on the new EP are written from the perspective of “Sally” – a fictional character whose heart has been through Hell and back, and then to Hell again. Sally (the band) consists of songwriter/guitarist Jordan Cooper, vocalist Kristen Gudsnuk, drummer/percussionist Will Kastner and bassist Steve Rauscher.While all of Sally’s songs...
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Brooklyn art-punk band Conveyor has already had a terrific 2012 with the release of their debut self-titled album in July on Paper Garden Records and a national tour that spanned over 30 cities in the Midwest, the South and both coasts as well as stops in Montreal for The Fringe Festival and Toronto for NXNE. Conveyor returns to their hometown of Brooklyn headlining at the Glassland Gallery this Wednesday, August 22nd, along with Field Mouse, ABADABAD,...
American Laundromat Records had a blast working on a tribute to one of their favorite flicks of all time - the 1984 cult classic "Repo Man" written & directed by Alex Cox and starring Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez. The original soundtrack celebrated the southern California punk movement of the late 70's/early 80's with bands Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Suicidal Tendencies, The Plugz, and Iggy Pop. American Laundromat Records recruited an...
Sunday, August 19, 2012
DOWNLOAD: White Violet - "Lays Around Lazy"Athens, GA’s White Violet is the brainchild of Nate Nelson, who's known for both his production work, as a touring musician (he's played with Maria Taylor and Nik Freitas, among others), and for his solo albums (the first of which, 2004’s Random Acts, was released when he was only 16). Nelson has joined up with Vaughan Lamb, Brad Elliott (Friendly Foes) and Josh McCauley (Maserati) to form White Violet...
Saturday, August 18, 2012
STREAM: D.O.A. - "He's Got A Gun" (hosted on PunkNews.org)According to Wikipedia: “D.O.A. is a hardcore punk band from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. They are often referred to as the "founders" of hardcore punk, along with Black Flag, Bad Brains, Teen Idles, and Middle Class.”While I’ve “been in the room” for a few shows that D.O.A. played in Washington, DC in the 80’s, I don’t think I’ve ever focused on the band’s music. These shows always...
Friday, August 17, 2012
Chicago new-wave quartet California Wives has announced the release of its debut Art History LP, out on September 4 with Vagrant. The band worked with producer Claudius Mittendorfer (Interpol, Neon Indian, Wild Nothing) for the eleven tracks that present a cohesive gallery of modern‐day pop portraits framed with a retro '80s fit. The new Art History LP follows the band's 2010 EP "Affair", which won over local and national press, with My Old Kentucky...
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Heidi Marie (Canfield) is a Vancouver, WA based singer/songwriter who (thankfully) doesn’t seem to want to fit into the typical female singer/songwriter (aka Indigo Girl) cliché. Her new "Demo EP" (which is streaming on her website) falls into the pop/rock genre but the songs have an edge. Most of the songs utilize prominent piano, which leads to easy comparisons to Tori Amos (though Heidi Marie has a bit more pop/gloss around her...
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
STREAM: World War IX : Bender RoyaleBrooklyn punks World War IX play sardonic, hardcore punk in the spirit of Damaged-era Black Flag. The band’s new 5-track EP, "Bender Royale", blasts by in 8 minutes and all of the songs are well under the two-minute mark. The band is led by self-proclaimed G.G. Allin obsessionist, comic book artist and guitarist - Justin Melkmann – and has been kicking around the scene since 2002. Like all good hardcore bands,...
Monday, August 13, 2012
Film composer Keegan DeWitt radically changed his sound with the release of his 2010 7”, “Two Hearts” / “Reluctance”, as his songs moved from ‘singer/songwriter’ to driving, dance-inflected pop. Multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Bullock (Pico vs. Island Trees, Jessie Baylin, Madi Diaz) was part of DeWitt’s 2011 touring band and the pair of musicians have used the shimmery “new romantic” dance pop of “Two Hearts” as a jumping-off point to record a new...
Portland hardcore stalwarts Poison Idea are the beast that will never die. While guitarist “Pig Champion” died in 2006 and one-time drummer Steve "Thee Slayer Hippy" Hanford was arrested for a string of pharmacy robberies in 2008, the band continues to soldier on under the leadership of vocalist Jerry A. Poison Idea made their recorded debut in 1983 with “Pick Your King”, a 7” (which was issued with a two-sided cover showing Elvis on one side and...
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