mardi 20 avril 2010

Canadian Bands

Here's a post for a bunch myspace links to Canadian bands to tide you over. I'll use "gruff vocals" as a filter to limit myself, as if the "Canadian" filter wasn't enough.
Cowboy and the Prizefightergruff mid-tempo (but dancey) punk rock from BC
Aspirationsextremely gruff-voiced dude with beautiful-voiced girl shouting over sampled beats
Orphan Choirfolky punk rock
Explode and Rebuildexcellent post-hardcore from Quebec, whose music I can't find ANYWHERE
Dig it Upmembers of Explode and Rebuild, but more rock n' roll-y... kinda like The Bronx
Our Mercurythey're amazing, sound like Latterman and RX Bandits mixed, earlier stuff was more like HWM
The Artist LifeCanada's The Loved Ones, but for unattractive pop punk girls
The Flatlinersjust in case you haven't got around to hearing them
Living With Lionspop punk with lots of gang shouts and fun times
Carpentermust have sneaked through the gruff filter, but an awesome band that plays acoustic-driven punk rock
All State Championearly band of members of Carpenter, but with a sound more like Braid's
Hijack Deltanew band with members of Kover and Blue Skies At War
40 Thievesreggae-influenced gruff (pop) punk
ThunderhawksI've already
posted about themThe Sainte Catherinesyou should know them by now...
The Organ ThievesI think this is just meant to be rock music, it's almost radio friendly, I think... I like them

mercredi 14 avril 2010

Friends Of Friends


Some cool cat named Robert saw my blog here and liked it for whatever reason. Being the radical guy he is, he e-mailed me with some recommendations, the theme being 'lesser known Tallahassee bands'. The one I enjoyed most is Friends Of Friends; they play music that would fit perfectly on the No Idea roster, with their sound seeming to touch on many different sub-subgenres within the realm of 'orgcore'. They use at least two vocalists, and on top of that each of them has a pretty good range, so you get a good amount of variety throughout a listen of the album. The instrumentation changes up as well, furthering the variation in sound provided. This incidentally meant there were some songs or parts of songs I didn't really like, mostly when they sound like bands in the 'darkest corners' of the No Idea sound. Though most of it is really good, and I'll definitely be following the band to see what they do next. Thanks, Rob.Oh, and they offer the latest full-length release for free digital download. They have an EP out as well that you can find and purchase, I'm sure it's good.

lundi 12 avril 2010

Hijack Delta

Hijack Delta is a new supergroup of sorts from the Toronto area. Members have played in such excellent bands as Blue Skies At War, Kover, Crimson Mire, Coldbluesky and Summer of '92, covering a broad spectrum of genres overall. With Ryan Mills on lead vocals, Hijack Delta mostly resembles Kover, but with a more matured and rock-based sound going on. It all works very well, and comes off perfectly live. The band has been passing out copies of their 2-song demo/EP "Loose Genes", which is included in the download below. As a bonus of sorts, the .rar file also contains the third track from their next EP, Robot Suits For Animated Youngsters. More can be heard at their myspace. I urge you to check out not only Hijack Delta, but each of the members' former bands as well.Oh and hey, I'm back from my unexplained absence from this blog... what's up? Hopefully there's still some people checking this thing.

samedi 10 avril 2010

2009

Well, it's mid-April 2010, so what better time than now to post my year-end list for 2009?! I had this typed up as a Word document for a while but never posted it. It's far from perfect, I mean after the first 30 I kinda just started throwing everything in vaguely suitable spots. I tried not to think too much about it to avoid migraines and breakdowns and shit. A lot of it could shift around at any given time, really. So many great albums were released last year. Oh yeah, and if you're wondering, no I'm not going to try to do a list for EPs or Splits or Demos or 7 inches or anything like that. Anyway, here it is, in a boring text list format:
1. Weatherbox – The Cosmic Drama
2. The Xcerts – In The Cold Wind We Smile
3. A Death In The Family – Small Town Stories
4. Glocca Morra – The Working Bones, A Health Decline
5. Touch Committee – Winter Beard
6. So Long Forgotten – Things We Can See And Things We Cannot
7. Alexander The Great – Faces Change
8. My Heart To Joy - Seasons In Verse
9. Castevet – Summer Fences
10. We Were Promised Jetpacks – These Four Walls
11. The Sidekicks – Weight Of Air
12. Manchester Orchestra – Mean Everything To Nothing
13. Sleep Bellum Sonno – Judge Us By How We Lived Our Lives Not By How We Made Our Living
14. Cymbals Eat Guitars – Why There Are Mountains
15. Mumford And Sons – Sigh No More
16. The Thermals – Now We Can See
17. Pteradon – Unreleased Full Length18. Survive Atlantica – I Woke The Devil
19. Taking Back Sunday – New Again
20. Brand New – Daisy
21. mewithoutYou – It’s all crazy! It’s all false! It’s all a dream! It’s alright
22. Into It. Over It. – 52 Weeks
23. O Pioneers!!! – Neon Creeps
24. Crazy Arm – Born To Ruin
25. Polar Bear Club – Chasing Hamburg
26. As Cities Burn – Hell Or High Water
27. Thrice - Beggars
28. Fake Problems – It’s Great To Be Alive
29. Mansions – New Best Friends
30. Therefore I Am – The Sound Of Human Lives
31. Sounds Like Violence – The Devil On Nobel Street
32. Orphan Choir – Orphan Choir
33. A City Safe From Sea – Throw Me Through Walls
34. Hammer No More The Fingers – Looking For Bruce
35. Sea Wolf – White Water, White Bloom
36. Cursive – Mama, I’m Swollen
37. Crooks – Crooks
38. Above Them – Blueprint For A Better Time
39. Honest Iago – Straight On ‘Til Morning
40. Holopaw – Oh, Glory. Oh, Wilderness.
41. Old Canes – Feral Harmonic
42. Pilot Speed – Wooden Bones
43. Stereotyperider – Songs In The Key Of F and U4
4. Shook Ones - The Unquotable A.M.H.4
5. Sights And Sounds – Monolith
46. Let Me Run – Meet Me At The Bottom
47. Strike Anywhere – Iron Front
48. Frank Turner – Poetry Of The Deed
49. Chuck Ragan – Gold Country
50. Kid, You’ll Move Mountains - Loomings
51. North Lincoln – Midwestern Blood
52. Spirit Fangs – Read My Palm, Revenant
53. The Devil And The Lion – The Devil And The Lion
54. Kidcrash – Snacks
55. Twin Atlantic - Vivarium
56. Alexisonfire – Old Crows/Young Cardinals
57. Red Collar – Pilgrim
58. American Steel – Dear Friends And Gentle Hearts
59. Permanent Bastards – Emericans
60. Little Brazil - Son
61. Over Stars And Gutters – Consider This Your Curse
62. White Rabbits – It’s Frightening
63. Riverboat Gamblers – Underneath The Owl
64. An Horse – Rearrange Beds
65. Akron/Family – Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free6
6. Bayonets – Wishes & Wishes
67. Annabel – Each And Everyone
68. Broadway Calls – Good Views, Bad News
69. Gifts From Enola – From Fathoms
70. Gray Young – Firmament
71. Crystal Antlers - Tentacles
72. Blakfish - Champions
73. The Twilight Sad – Forget The Night Ahead
74. Zoey Van Goey – The Cage Was Unlocked All Along
75. 10-4 Eleanor - ...Too Bad
76. Nana Grizol – Love It! Love It!
77. In The Red – Volume 2
78. Loom – Selva Molhada
79. Dead To Me – African Elephants
80. Company Of Thieves – Ordinary Riches
81. American War - Rhetoric
82. Guiltmaker - Dilemmas
83. Mutiny On The Bounty – Danger Mouth
84. Friends Of Friends – Deep Search
85. Nakatomi Plaza - Ghosts86. Success! – Success!
87. Say Anything – Say Anything
88. Take One Car – When The Ceiling Meets The Floor
89. Fine Before You Came – Sfortuna
90. The Dodos – Time To Die
91. Shinobu – Strange Spring Air9
2. Nothington – Roads, Bridges and Ruins
93. Lana Avacada – The Warehouse
94. The Taxpayers – A Rhythm In The Cages
95. Dignan – Cheaters And Thieves
96. P.O.S. – Never Better
97. Every Atlas – The Ghosts Of Everyone
98. Bomb The Music Industy! – Scrambles
99. This Is My Suitcase – The Keys To Cat Heaven
100. The Swellers – Ups And Downsizing
101. The Snake The Cross The Crown – On A Carousel Of Sound We Go Round
102. Conor Oberst And The Mystic Valley Band – Outer South
103. P.O.Box – InBetweenTheLines
104. The Nation Blue – Rising Waters
105. Monsters Of Folk – Monsters Of Folk
106. Mike Hale – Lives Like Mine
107. Arliss Nancy – Dance To Forget
108. Ruiner – Hell Is Empty
109. The Evening Rig – Is Doin’ Stuff
110. Dear Landlord – Dream Homes
111. Lucero – 1372 Overton Park
112. Measured In Grey - ...One Good Year
113. The Golden Age – Unlock Yourself
114. Vanilla Pod – Poets On Payday
115. American Art – Deceiver/Re-arranging The Furniture
116. Moneen – The World I Want To Leave Behind
117. Propagandhi – Supporting Caste
118. Heartsounds – Until We Surrender
119. Baroness – Blue Record

jeudi 8 avril 2010

Campaign

About a month before its planned vinyl release date, the new EP from Atlanta's Campaign, "It Likes To Party" has been put up for free digital download. I only just finished my first listen, but trust me: these songs are very, very good. Good enough for me to come out of blogging break and post this as soon as I could, if that means anything. Campaign continues to prove themselves as one of the best new gruff, melodic punk rock/post-hardcore bands around. This is definitely as (or more) solid as their last EP (which is also available for free), so pick this up if you liked that.

Tracklisting:
1. Rock Bottom Summer
2. Wormwood
3. Best Luck
4. Blue Pills And Whiskey
5. Bored To Death
Bit Rate: 320