I realize that I’ve been a little bit behind.
But I’ll be posting a couple of reviews tonight!
Stay tuned
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Former Handguns vocalist Taylor Eby has rejoined the band after four months away. A statement from Taylor (via Alt Press) is below. I, for one, am quite stoked about this
Be sure to catch Handguns on their mini tour with Forever Came Calling I’ve got a family emergency and I will not be able to update the site frequently until it is resolved. -Ethan First thanks to Tim for coming back with some reviews! I think Tweet Length Reviews are great! Also Transit’s record release is where Tyler and I first met. With that being said I am a busy boy this weekend: I am covering NOT ONE but two shows this weekend! First is tonight with Rival Schools, Tigers Jaw and Hostage Calm in DC at the Rock and Roll Hotel (on the ever so sketchy H Street) and tomorrow is the Mayday Parade tour stop in Silver Spring at the Fillmore. Now I’ve shot at the Rock and Roll hotel before, but never at the Fillmore so that’s going to be interesting. Except photos and a writeup for each show. -Ethan
Looking back on the last two weeks and all the albums that have come out, some conclusions and misconceptions can be drawn about music and bands today. New Found Glory can, in fact, put out an incredibly mediocre record. Joe Jonas can release an “Explicit Content” record without Minny and Mickey tracking him down executioner-style. And Evanescence is still a band. Yeah, I didn’t know either. But pleasant surprises, huge victories, and welcome corrections have come up in these jam-packed two weeks as well. Transit put out one of the best albums of 2011, Deas Vail hit #1 on the Amazon digital charts, and then LIGHTS happened. I feel like LIGHTS especially deserves a sticker on her album clarifying two majorly important facts: Misconception 1: Dubstep is just for massive frat tools who want to jam on Thursday night. Until two weeks ago, I was a strong lobbyist for this. Falling asleep to a neighbor’s “WUB-WUB-WUB-WUBWUBWUB” music blaring in the middle of the night on a Tuesday could turn anyone into a hater of the phrase “drop the bass”, but LIGHTS’ new record, Siberia, goes ahead and incorporates dubstep in an incredibly tasteful, dare-I-say beautiful way. Which lends itself to the next misconception… Misconception 2: LIGHTS is just a pretty face. Talentwise…eh, not so much. The whole “Lights is hawt…durr” reaction that most male fans/AbsolutePunk users give off…well, it’s justifiable obviously. Okay, there’s a reason she’s the center of the album cover with just grey around her. She’s hot. And seriously, her shirt is buttoned crazy low. Like LIGHTS’ headLIGHTS are about to pop out. But here, like most men, is where I would leave my thoughts on LIGHTS if I hadn’t heard Siberia. Her voice never did anything for me previously and her music…eh. But Siberia presents an entirely new LIGHTS. Her voice is nowhere near a whine anymore or grating, but refreshingly fun. And the songs themselves show a darker edge to her electronic-pop sound. The album opens on the title track, breaking in with distorted beats and a light chorus guided by LIGHTS’ gentle voice. “When The Fence Is Low” takes the album to another level though, wearing its dubstep influence very proudly throughout the chorus. Normally, pop and dubstep = things that make my ears bleed and cry simultaneously. But the dub beat backs a soaring chorus and harmonies that, combined, equate to gritty, yet insta-catchy pop. The album focuses on this gritty, distorted electronic sound, bringing out a little growl in LIGHTS on tracks like “Everyone Breaks A Glass” and “Flux and Flow”. The album does carry on a bit too long at 14 tracks, but the albums presents only two or three songs that lag. And, fellow dubstep opposers, you’re probably asking if the dirty electronic sound gets tiring. Sure, a little bit. Tracks like impossibly long closer “Day One” and the album’s ballad “Cactus In The Valley” fall a little short. The reason? They’re the only slow songs on the record, sugary enough to fit in with LIGHTS’ previous releases. For the most part, gritty goes hand in hand with catchy, making a fun, yet fluffless pop album. 4 out of 5 Stars
Since I’m a man and writer in high demand lately (for absolutely nothing except lying about how popular I am), I feel the need to consolidate some reviews. So I’m trying a new thing out…Tweet’s Length Reviews. 140 characters. One album. It’ll be great. This edition’s album is We Are The In Crowd’s album, “Best Intentions”. You like the EP? Good, because the album doesn’t change WATIC’s sound at all. Songs get a little repetitive, a little fluff, but very dancy! And thus concludes the Tweet’s Length Review! I give the album a 3 out 5 stars. Sorry for my absense here, been quite busy! well anyway I will be at Fennario’s in West Chester, Pa w/ Me & This Army, Team Goldie, Neighborhoods, and First Things First @ 8PM!!! More info here. I first found out about Koji two summers ago, at Transit’s Record Release show, for Keep This to Yourself, coincidentally enough, the same night I met the owner and founder of Two-Senses, Ethan. The one time I saw Koji is anything but forgettable, he plays with as much passion, energy and dedication as any hardcore band. Along with being an incredible artist, Koji is an activist, often centering his tours around solving an issue. Most notably Invisible Children. Koji has made 5 releases, two of them being splits with La Dispute and Into It Over It. All of Koji’s music and tour dates can be found here, including his new single, Hemlock.
Well I first want to apologize for the lack of photos that will be here from this show, I was taking pictures of the first band and my flash for whatever reason stopped working. and if you’ve ever been to the Democracy Center in Cambridge, MA you know it can get pretty dark in there. I arrived a little early to the show, before anyone from any band was actually their so I hung out around the corner with some friends, and eventually started seeing a lot of old friends I’ve met from following Featherweight since their start 2.5 years ago. Soon enough everyone was their and bands were ready to play. **I’m going to try to say a few words about each band to leave room for Featherweight, although I loved every single band on the bill last night** Risk: a hardcore band from the MVHC (Merrimack Valley Hardcore) Scene opened up the show, according to featherweight they were the first band they were ever very friendly with starting out, great guys great music. Their set was pretty tame, as a lot of people hadn’t arrived yet. Frontman, Brendan Glennon for whatever reason had lost about 80% of his voice, which made for an interesting set ( I made the comparison that he sounded like Kate Winslet in Titanic when she was almost too cold to speak. After Risk we had Old Gray, an emo band from New Hampshire, I can’t begin to say enough good things about this band, they just play awesome music, awesome personalities, awesome emotion. They’ve only been around since around March or April. Featherweight loves playing shows with them and they love playing shows with them. I remember Cam, their guitar player put it like this “Raph plays guitar, Charlie plays drums and everyone screams”. Aviator, took the floor next, I can’t say enough about them, they play a type of hardcore I’ve never heard before. I think they were one of the first bands I saw play with Featherweight. Just can’t really say anything more than that, they’re just a band worth checking out. My Fictions: Once again, another band I can only tell you to see live; talented, sincere, just great people. Districts: Reunion show, they broke up about a year ago I think, I always remember hearing their name and them being revered as an awesome band, that much was made true to myself last night. FINALLY. Featherweight, words cannot justify how much emotion was in that room the whole night, Frontman Sean Ahern took a few minutes, before they played, to give a sincere thanks to all the specific people and specific bands that have helped them, supported them or just been good to them, ofcourse thanked his and the rest of Featherweight’s families, and any ex members(whether they were there or not). Victor, the original bass player switched off with Zac, another bass player apart of the band throughout the night. They played their whole first demo, Family Ties and Flooded Eyes which seriously paved the way for the music they presently made. They played songs they never recorded, Sean handed the mic to different people, including myself, throughout the night. I’ve just never been able to correctly word how much emotion Featherweight puts into their music. How hard they’ve worked to achieve what they have and how much they care about the people around them and the scene they’ve built up. They ended with the song Nightcrawlers off of their summer tour sampler, one of my favorite songs. Some of the most emotional 5 minutes I’ve ever been through. My stomach hurts from screaming, I have no voice, I’m sore and exhausted, but last night will live in infamy. Featherweight will be missed by all those who got to experience them. On a bright side, ex-members have made a new band that should be playing shows in the winter, more will be posted soon.
Thank you for reading
Apple has confirmed that Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, has passed away today at 56 from pancreatic cancer. While not necessary music news, I feel that he had enough of an impact on everybody to warrant this post. You will be missed Steve. For more information please see: https://www.apple.com/stevejobs/ |
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