As much as I hate labels and boxes, genre classification, I had to admit that in a busy world with mainly superficial relations and all things done in the hurry, music became part of our outfit, mainly nothing but a background buzz coming from our iPod (or something) to cover up all the other noises around us and isolate us definitively from the rest of the world. Yeah, you’re gonna say I’m mean and probably you’re right, but still, I’m telling you facts. Music is only an additional part of your iPod and the iPod is just another fancy gadget incorporated in your daily dress code. Music is nothing more than your key ring, it’s one click away on the internet or you can buy it from the supermarket.
With all the internet (and press-kit I received) I didn’t managed to dig out too much about This Year’s Girl and if I’ll tell you this is some kind of pop-rock you’re probably will think of some sort of freak, half Madonna, half god knows what and that, my friends, it’s not quite true, actually it’s pretty far from reality. Eventually This Year’s Girl reminds me of the Americans OK Go and the British The Enemy or a mixture of this two bands and “Personal Ghosts” is an album with excellent vibe and a few extremely catch songs. Read more This Year’s Girl – Personal Ghosts (2011)
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Sidilarsen – Machine Rouge (2011)
Compared to Nine Inch Nails, Rammstein and Noir Désir, Sidilarsen merged nu metal and industrial rock sounds to bring their own flavored fusion of electronic and metal/rock.
Founded in 1997 in Toulouse, France, the band released their full-length album debut, “Biotop”, in 2003. Their second album, “Eau” released in 2005 reach the French albums chart and was followed by the remix album “Réactivation Numérique” in 2006. “Une Nuit Pour Sept Jours”, the band’s third album was released in 2008 reaching number 140 on the French albums chart.
The 10 songs of their new album, “Machine Rouge” further down the sound weaves of dark electronica and cutting edge metal riffs and Sidilarsen delivered their best album up to date. Read more Sidilarsen – Machine Rouge (2011)
Trunks – On The Roof (2011)
“Hardfiscurry” is one of the most glowing and exciting record opener track I heard lately. It has an excellent and tensioned groove and something quite hypnotic which keeps you nailed for everything what’s coming up next. “Screaming Idiots” kicks out as a punk rock anthem, but the screaming saxophone reminds me of Morphine and shift the mood from Crass to Last Exit. Trunks is one of the best bands I had the pleasure to listen recently, they are alive and do not fit in into the trendy patterns. And each song is a different path into another universe.
As they say, they are not actually a band in the classic sense, but more a creative collective building music and gathering around the poetry of Jack Kerouac. Read more Trunks – On The Roof (2011)
Everlast – Songs Of The Ungrateful Living (2011)
Everlast was always close to my heart. Back in the 90s House of Pain was one of my first and almost only hip hop bands I dig, still, they second album “Same as It Ever Was” from 1994 is probably the best hip hop release ever and after the band’s split in ’97, and Danny Boy founded an art company, DJ Lethal became a member of Limp Bizkit, Everlast kick out a blooming solo career and achieved multi-platinum with his 98’s album “Whitey Ford Sings the Blues.”
The mixture of blues, country and hip hop, Everlast delivering since is quite fresh and tasty. Erik Francis Schrody (aka Whitey Ford), but better known by his stage name Everlast, reinvented himself singing the blues merged with rap, but saying facts right into your face. And I appreciated his style and honesty. Read more Everlast – Songs Of The Ungrateful Living (2011)
Matt Stevens – Relic (2011)
I admit, I didn’t listen to Matt Stevens previous works and quite honestly, I’m kind of “scared” of instrumental rock music because generally speaking it’s quite predictable and boring. Obviously this is not a “politically (or ethically) correct” supposition, but still, don’t matter how sad it is, it’s still true. Well, Matt seems to be very determined to prove me otherwise and listen to “Relic”, his third and latest solo release, I had the surprise to discover that we think and feel in very similar ways about music even if we came from and we’re chosen to go down on different paths. And there’s another fact too: I hate guitar solos as well, because – again, generally speaking – they are nothing, but tasteless fill-ups and egocentric showing-ups. Last, but not at least, I defies genres. There’s nothing stupider than imprisoning yourself in some particular box. And Matt Stevens defies genres as well, his music is colorful, borderless and ageless, breathing and very alive, spacy and intense, subtle and powerful. The bottom line is that Matt delivering music and not only some “musical product” or some “background noise for a few moments of our life”. Matt plays straight from his heart to our soul. Matt’s play seems effortless and joyful, playful and still profound, very expressive. Much more, you can download even for free – “name your price” – “Relic” from Matt’s Bandcamp page, Read more Matt Stevens – Relic (2011)
Kerrang! Presents – Nirvana Nevermind Forever (2011)
Back in August SPIN Magazine released as free download their own version of Nirvana’s breakthrough album and “Newermind A Tribute Album” collected reinterpretations of those classic songs by artist such as Meat Puppets, Titus Andronicus, Amanda Palmer, The Vaselines, Butch Walker & The Black Widows, Surfer Blood, etc. It was a funny, but quite vivid, “hollywoodish” way to recall Cobain’s genius.
“Nevermind” turns 20 and in September Kerrang! listed 101 reasons why it still rocks and delivered a 14-track Nirvana covers CD, featuring bands such as The Dillinger Escape Plan, Kids In Glass Houses, The Blackout, Arcane Roots, Deaf Havana, Rise To Remain, We Are The Ocean, etc. Read more Kerrang! Presents – Nirvana Nevermind Forever (2011)
Kosmograd – Self-titled (2011)
As you probably already know, “name your price” means even downloaded for free and Kosmograd delivering their self-titled debut album through their Bandcamp page in these circumstances, so go for it.
Kevin, Phil, Todd, Yegor are from Toronto, Canada and their debut album consist of five epic post-metal tracks, the shortest one is “Cheeseburger Picnic” with it’s shy three minutes while “The Owl” takes you on a eleven minutes trip. Kosmograd combines heavy and sludge metal elements into a spacy, sometimes cinematic, sometimes progressive and psychedelic soundscape, shifting between different moods and grooves smoothly. Imagine Hawkwind playing Iron Maiden or vice versa. Eventually somewhere in the outer space. Read more Kosmograd – Self-titled (2011)
Jane’s Addiction – The Great Escape Artist (2011)
Nothing’s shocking: Perry Farrell at age 52 is not that restless, rebellious rock and roll singer anymore as he was almost three decades ago when his band, Psi Com. metamorphosed into Jane’s Addiction. Original bass player and former member Eric Avery rejoined the band in 2008, but departing again in 2010, so he was replaced by Chris Chaney, after initially they worked for nine months on the new album with Velvet Revolver and former Guns’N’Roses bass player Duff McKagan. McKagan joined enthusiast and seems to left disappointed. Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio was brought in to writing and recording the album and the result is kind of TV on the Radio featuring Porno for Pyros – Farrell’s post Jane’s Addiction band between ’92-’98… Unfortunately. But it might work quite alright as a soundtrack for a movie about an aging rock star or lonesome mid-age unemployee.
Farrell said: “It’s a strange mixture of that post-punk Goth darkness that Jane’s had, with what’s going on today with groups like Muse and Radiohead. As much as I want to appease fans and make old Jane’s fans love me, I just can’t help myself from moving forward.” And “The Great Escape Artist” actually sounds like a toothless Jane’s Addiction lost into a cinematic post-rock soundscape with few sparking reminiscences of tasteless, so-called alternative rock cliches collected. Kind of exactly what against Jane’s Addiction was about. Minimalist and gloomy, Farrell seems to delivered a possible self-portrait and the portrait of the confused man caught in the midlife crises and lost in the strange and desperate times we’re living nowadays. Read more Jane’s Addiction – The Great Escape Artist (2011)
Eyeswithoutaface – Monotoneoteny (2011)
A self-titled EP from 2010, their debut album, “Monotoneoteny” released this year in May and a remix album, “Tone Debris”, released this month, all three for free, can grab them from the band’s Bandcamp Page. Their music is a sick blending of Nine Inch Nails with sludge metal, some twisted modern psychedelia and criminal, pitched, black metal growling. Pretty rough mixture in deed, but definitively creative and quite original. So, these guys from Toronto have no connection with Billy Idol, but eventually with the 1960s film of Georges Franju, “Les yeux sans visage”. Definitively “must have” category and not only because it’s free, but they are brilliant. Read more Eyeswithoutaface – Monotoneoteny (2011)
Radiohead – TKOL RMX 1234567 (2011)
Radiohead gone to Ibizia? Surprisingly obsessive, minimal and gloomy, “The King of Limbs”, the eighth studio album by Radiohead now got a remix “brother”, the two-CD of “TKOL RMX 1234567″ which compiles a series of seven 12” vinyl singles/EPs, also released as digital downloads from the band’s website in both MP3 and WAV file types.
Dense and tense, “TKOL RMX 1234567” is not a friendlier version of some of the gloomy songs of “The King of Limbs” as some might expected, there are no dubstep, techno, house or euro-trance remixes, but quite gentle and full of consideration reassembles of the original tracks. I actually expected something more creative and less ambiental. Most of these 19 bands involved in this project seems to be quite intimidated by Radiohead and the appetite for experimentation with these songs seems to be reduced to simply apply their usual sonic tricks to the songs, eventually changing some rhythmic schemes and adding some additional sonic layers, but staying in the same weird and minimalist approach as the originals.
While I’m still not quite comfortable with “The King of Limbs”, this remix album only raise few more questions. Read more Radiohead – TKOL RMX 1234567 (2011)
