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OK Go – Upside Out, EP (2014)

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OK Go – Upside Out (2014)

OK Go – Upside Out (2014) “Hungry Ghosts”, the first new OK Go studio album in four years, drops in October, but the waiting it’s almost over and till the new album, we’ve got a 4 track EP to hang on to. It were quite long 4 years, OK Go and their fabulous third album, “Of the Blue Colour of the Sky” made me re-evaluate the indie/alternative rock scene and it’s still one of my all time favorites albums. I just can not delete it from my mp3 player. It’s like Led Zeppelin “III”.
Anyway, if you’re anxious, you can contribute to their Pledge campaign of fund raising for the production of the new album.
Meanwhile we had a cute Extra Nice Edition on double CD, a live album (180/365, 2011), The Compleat 12 Months of (Rare, Unreleased) OK Go and a few killer videos. And while I just mentioned their incredible videos, they delivered a new one: “The Writing’s On the Wall”, so, let’s take a look! Read more OK Go – Upside Out, EP (2014) ›

Trophy Scars – Holy Vacants (2014)

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Trophy Scars – Holy Vacants (2014)

Trophy Scars – Holy Vacants (2014) Four years ago Trophy Scars and their fabulous “Darkness, Oh Hell” rocked my world. Literally. That hypnotic mixture of punk fueled post-hardcore, indie-psychedelic rock, jazz, blues and funk was fresh and powerful, totally addictive.
Meanwhile they lost a little bit their punk edge, but not their intensity and “Holy Vacants” it’s an excicting and charming, throughout enjoyable album. Actually they know how to get slowly under your skin and once you get “infected”, you can’t get rid of them anymore. Must mention this, they released an album entitled “Never Born, Never Dead” in 2011, but somehow I missed that.
“Holy Vacants” is Trophy Scars’ fourth album and was two years in the making. It was also intended as their last, not because of any cataclysmic upset in the band, but because the four – Jerry Jones (vocals), John Ferrara (guitarist), Andy Farrel (bass player), Brian Ferrara (drummer) and Gray Reinhard (keys, vocals) – felt that after eight years, it had run its course. Read more Trophy Scars – Holy Vacants (2014) ›

Recording sessions for the upcoming Band for Rent EP “I know this feeling”

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Band For Rent

Julia Drums Studio Report – Band for Rent – Odds of Us by “JK”

Recording sessions for the upcoming Band for Rent EP “I know this feeling”. If you like Alice In Chains, you will love Band For Rent. Stay Read more Recording sessions for the upcoming Band for Rent EP “I know this feeling” ›

KXM – KXM (2014)

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KXM - KXM (2014)

KXM - KXM (2014) This is how probably The Jimi Hendrix Experience would sound if they would be still around.
I was skeptical about this as I am skeptical about any type of so-called supergroups. And this is definitively a supergroup while we have here three rock icons such as Doug Pinnick of King’s X on vocals and bass; George Lynch of Dokken and Lynch Mob on guitars and Ray Luzier of Korn behind the drum kit. On the other hand I always loved the powerful rock trios such as Cream, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Rush, Motorhead (Ace of Spades era!), Primus, The Police, Nirvana, Muse, etc. And then again, I had my reserves regarding King’s X because their Christian affiliation/association. Don’t get me wrong, don’t care about the faith of anybody, it’s their own PRIVATE matter, but I don’t like to mix music and faith issues and don’t like to be guided, less, listening preaches on guitar riffs. But then Pinnick’s announcement in 1998 of his homosexuality. Another thing I disapprove: your sexual orientation should be another PRIVATE matter, don’t make a thing out it! (“Metal God” Rob Halford of Judas Priest did the same controversy announcement back in 1998…) As a result, the self-proclaimed religion of love (and tolerance) re-trait the support of the band and removed King’s X records from their distribution through Christian book stores. So, Pinnick has since openly discussed his agnosticism and his belief that Jesus Christ was not truly the Son of God, however, band mates Tabor and Gaskill, have a background in Christian rock and self-identify as Christians.
Too many non music related issues cloud the music… This is a quite dis-balanced and twisted world, isn’t it? And sometimes all that non music related buzz cover and kill the music. Fortunately, not this time!
While King’s X was more off then on in the last decade, Doug Pinnick had numerous guest appearances and worked on several side projects lately (as Pinnick Gales Pridgen). Read more KXM – KXM (2014) ›

Meredith – The Shape Of Things To Come, EP (2014)

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Meredith The Shape Of EP 2014

Meredith The Shape Of EP 2014 I tried to dig out some background info about this French band, but I didn’t find too much and the few things I found were in French, not a language I know. Guitarist/singer Fred Lefranc sent me a link to their teaser last December, meanwhile the 5 track EP was officially released. Unfortunately they don’t have a video yet, but fortunately, they put it on-line on the Bandcamp. (While Spotify in some countries it’s not available, on Deezer if you don’t have account, can only listen 30 seconds of each song and not everybody it’s iPhone addicted and have the iTunes applications instaled… So, for promotional purposes YouTube, SoundCloud and Bandcamp are still the best free options available. MySpace it’s a… dead space. 😆 )
Although, most of the people don’t even bother to step outside Facebook lately, so, music it’s doomed just as the whole goddamn human race!
But let’s see what Meredith propose us!
The sound of things to come it’s solid, intense, modern, alternative rock/metal. Read more Meredith – The Shape Of Things To Come, EP (2014) ›

Frustration – Uncivilized (2013)

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Frustration – Uncivilized (2013)

Frustration – Uncivilized (2013) Frustration it’s definitively not that average indie/punk/post-whatever band and although we’re listening to a French band, they sound pretty British-American and bloody intense. Mixing the sound of Iggy and the Stooges, with contorted post-modernist a la Mark E. Smith and The Fall and some Franz Ferdinand/The Enemy type of indie-punk flavors, this Parisian combo find their own path to deliver they heavy, raw and militant post-punk-rock. No compromise, but energy and intensity. Not staying on their knees and becoming a whore of the media and the industry, it’s not only a proof of integrity, but it’s really rare on the music scene lately.
While music became only a secondary sub-product of the music industry, it’s pretty cool to still stumble into some real stuff. And “Uncivilized”, Frustration’s second album was already declared one most important French records released in the past 5 to 10 years. And it makes perfect sense. Just listen to the title track and you will know why this was labeled brutal. Read more Frustration – Uncivilized (2013) ›

Device – Device (2013)

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Device Device (2013)

Device Device (2013) If not a super-group, a super-project build-up by Geno Lenardo (ex-Filter guitarist) and modern hard rock icon, singer David Draiman of Disturbed.
It all started when Lenardo reached out to Draiman to collaborate on a song for the “Underworld: Awakening” soundtrack in late 2011. Even though the song they recorded in Chicago and entitled “Hunted” didn’t ultimately make the final soundtrack, they decide to continue write and record tracks and soon they had an entire album ready to served to the audience through Warner Bros. Records.
“It started to develop very naturally and organically,” recalls the frontman. “Geno is a brilliant songwriter in his own right and a tremendously talented sound designer as far as the electronic palette is concerned. Together, we made this monster. It’s not metal. It’s got a dark electronic vibe. At the same time, these are big, anthemic, and intensely melodic songs. It’s futuristic rock.”
Although they tag it “dark, heavy, melodic, industrial” and mentioning mainly industrial influences such as Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Marilyn Manson, Pigface, KMFDM, Front 242 and Skinny Puppy, Device sounds like a dense and powerful mixture of Godsmack with Disturbed, Fight and Filter. Read more Device – Device (2013) ›

Archers and Arrows – Alone Together (2013)

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Archers and Arrows Alone Together 2013 Switzerland’s Archers and Arrows on their debut album entitled “Arrows Alone Together” delivering a tumultous, but gentle mixture of hardcore rooted energy and indie flavoured melodies. Sometimes feels and sounds like Sigur Rós playing dEUS songs, or Bullet for My Valentines start playing Mogwai covers. Sometimes quite gloomy, but very smartly build-up and gently soulful, Sebastien, Nicolas, Bunty and Yves created a world of their own and now they share it with us.
Impossible to label it, to forced into a particular genre, Arches and Arrows it’s kind of ageless and fresh, furious, teenage oriented, but simultaneously calm and mature music, something which eventually catch your little sisie’s soul, would fit nicely in your ex-hippie father’s iPod and even your mother would listen it while she’s cooking the dinner. Read more Archers and Arrows – Alone Together (2013) ›

Sky Burns Red – Who Are You, EP (2013)

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Somewhere between the classy and powerful, genuine Brit rock of John Waite (The Babys/Bad English) and the groove oriented, grungier Indie rock in the vein of Kings of Leon or OK Go, it’s Sky Burns Red, a promising young band from U.K.
From the deepest depths of the Swindon music scene surfaces SkyBurnsRed, an eclectic rock band with a orchestral twist. Although guitar and violin would rarely associate under normal circumstances, the haunting tones of the classical instrument become electrified and entangled in the heavy rock foundations creating the bands striking sound. Read more Sky Burns Red – Who Are You, EP (2013) ›

Atoms For Peace – Amok (2013)

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Atoms For Peace - AMOK (2013) Although this might seems a supergroup incorporating Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, Beck and R.E.M. drummer Joey Waronker and Brazilian percussionist Mauro Refosco – “Amok” it’s definitively a quite strange journey into the wilderness of minimal electronic and glitchy electronica and feels like the follow up of “The Eraser”, Yorke’s 2006’s debut solo album. On the other hand, this is not so different from the latest Radiohead sonic experiment, the 2011 “The King of Limbs” as well.
While the rhythmic build up of the album it’s quite similar throughout, Yorke’s ghostly falsetto singing haunting feverishly from song to song. It’s nice to know that Flea contributed to this, but do not expect to hear his presence, and except some rare jazzy flavoured moments, “Amok” it’s more about how it feels, then how it sounds. Read more Atoms For Peace – Amok (2013) ›