Leagues is a two-man show featuring Prize Country‘s Aaron Blanchard on guitar and bass and Andrew Gormley on drums. Leagues takes a more fluid and layered approach than Prize Country, but are by no means lighter. They express an interest in scoring films and that seems like a logical goal as their music is made up of anything but encapsulated… Read more »
Frontier Folk Nebraska has posted a new song entitled “Depression Queen” in their Myspace page. It might not be happy, but it touches the soul.
Niki Thunders and the Temperamentals is the side project of Skitzo Calypso singer/guitarist Brad Cox. It’s a bit of an alter-ego, drawing more influence from punk, 80s pop and glam than the melodic hard rock of his main project. Niki Thunders offers three moody songs on Myspace that are somewhat varied musically, yet very cohesive. “To Die Like Morrison” begins… Read more »
Mongrels is a Canadian five piece that is in sense a supergroup of lesser-knowns, drawing members from Tricky Woo, Bionic, Blood Sausage and Local Rabbits (I haven’t heard of all of them either). They mix a stoner 70s hard rock influence with garage and soul to create heavy, sludgey grooves for singer Amy Turok’s wailing voice. Two drummers add heaviness… Read more »
Taking their name from a recent free speech case decided by the Supreme Court in which a high school student sued the school system after being suspended for displaying a banner with this idiotic slogan, Bong Hits for Jesus have a bit of ground to make up before I even played the music. Granted their hearts are in the right… Read more »
We are Oceans is a four piece from Florida consisting of Marko Kurtovic (vocals/guitar), Erik Totten (bass), Neil Parsons (drums) and Paul Gonter (guitar). Marko wrote the songs a few months ago and formed the band to perform them and move forward, so this is a band in its infancy, not its prime. Two things will strike you about the… Read more »
UK-based Covert has been making their dark post-punk since 2006. In that relatively short time they’ve proven that they are capable of producing moody, edgy, moving music seemingly influenced by the better bands that followed the initial punk explosion of the 70s rather than the watered-down new wave that was digested by the masses and is now seeing quite a… Read more »
Rubbing Down Debbie is yet another band from Jacksonville, Florida. After writing about the Explicits awhile back, this is the second band to approach me asking if I’d do the same for them (Baker Act being the other). Something good must be happening down there, because Rubbing Down Debbie makes them three for three in my book as far as… Read more »
In response to Myspace’s generic “sounds like” field, Birds of Maya state that they sound like “like a gg allin demo played through a megaphone.” It’s a fair description and it’s certainly colorful, but it leaves out an awful lot. If they really sounded like dear-departed GG, I wouldn’t be writing about them. They are loud and they are chaotic,… Read more »
After my review of the Explicits, their fellow Jacksonville band Baker Act contacted me about doing the same. After a brief listen, I agreed. It’s always nice to hear a new punk band without a trace of emo and Baker Act has the emotion without the whining. The four songs on their page all show influences from the artier side… Read more »