Label: self-released (only available at shows) Released: 2007 Seven Singles seethes with insanity. It reaches the outer limits of craziness without completely losing control. As such, it isn’t for everyone, but if you can get past poor production and near chaos, there’s something here in which to lose yourself. The drums are so loose that they’re all over the place…. Read more »
Label: Shout! Factory Released: April 1, 2008 While covers are a common thing, they are also tricky. Most artists end up falling into one of two traps: They either cover the best known rendition of the song rather than just the song itself or they lose all real sense of the song’s true nature. It’s a tough game making the… Read more »
Label: Lost Highway Released: April 1, 2008 Van Morrison has done some of his best work over the last decade or so. The old curmudgeon has shown that he still knows how to put his entire soul into song, whether he’s making an album that concentrates on folk or soul or even skiffle. That makes Keep It Simple kind of… Read more »
In the past thirty years D.O.A. have released: 13 albums, 20 singles, EPs and 7″s, 10 videos and been apart of 14 compilations. D.O.A. have sold one million albums in their storied career. Band Leader Joe Shithead Keithley has gone on to start his own label Sudden Death records and with members of D.O.A started a side project called Band… Read more »
Label: Padre Records (available through CDBaby.com) Released: March 1, 2007 Caleb Klauder’s band Foghorn Stringband is instantly contagious. Its authentic bluegrass instantly wraps you in its warm, genuine strings and heartfelt twang. Klauder’s Dangerous Me’s and Poisonous You’s, on the other hand, takes some time to sink in, not because it isn’t as good, but because it has more dimension… Read more »
Label: Time Bomb Recordings Released: June 26, 2007 I’m not usually that big on greatest hits collections unless they’re from a singles-only pop band where there is no real context on the regular albums anyway. Every now and then though, a collection can tell you something that the individual albums didn’t. Such is the case with Social Distortion’s Greatest Hits…. Read more »
Label: EMI America Released: April 15, 2008 I was never quite sure if Asia was actually all that good. They were one of the first bands that I got really into once I got over Kiss. On one hand, they seem an awful lot like an AOR band. On the other hand, it’s three prog giants along with the a… Read more »
Label: Tooth & Nail Records Released: February 5, 2008 There Came a Lion is an entirely listenable album, but it is almost completely indiscernible from hundreds of other emo records. Sure, it’s well played and the songs are nearly perfect fits for the formula, but Ivoryline is really just a modern Foreigner, flawlessly executing the script and doing nothing to… Read more »
Label: self-released Released: 2007 These kids can play. There’s no doubt about that. They’re outstanding technicians and, at their age (all 18 and 19 years old), almost unparalleled. Beyond the technical though, they really struggle. Their sound eases its layers back and forth between airy and heavy, but neither conveys anything meaningful other than that they’ve practiced. Hints of life… Read more »
* Eight West Coast shows with The Bouncing Souls starting today* Debut Full-Length An Evening of Bad Decisions out on Black Numbers this Summer* Get access to exclusive online content from the new record Beginning today, Static Radio NJ (New Brunswick, N.J.) is joining The Bouncing Souls for eight days worth of West Coast shows.Dead To Me will also be… Read more »