Label: Vendlus Records Released: February 14, 2007 Prog rock’s faults aren’t usually related to technical skill at any stage of the process, from writing to playing to producing. In fact, the genre’s greatest difficulty stems from its artists being too good, too musical. Prog bands have a tendency to lose the emotional connection with their audience that is essential in… Read more »
Label: Deep Elm Records Released: November 13, 2007 Dartz! mix agitated math rock with a punk edge and British quirkiness (or is it quirky Britishness?). They produce songs whose layers are the many moving parts of an efficient machine. The parts feel loose and rambling when they’re really quite tight if you concentrate. But that’s not the point. They’re meant… Read more »
Label: Arclight Records Released: November 13, 2007 Some bands cover songs, others rename songs, but Magnet School has made an album out of a song. At no point do they play or even directly lift anything from “Bullet the Blue Sky,” but its presence is profound throughout. Magnet School captures the blues, rock, psychedelia and even the passion of U2’s… Read more »
Label: Metal Mind Productions Re-issued: 2007 Metal Mind Productions has recently re-issued Gang Green’s Roadrunner catalog on limited edition CDs. While this period may be just past their prime (1985’s Another Wasted Night), they still find Gang Green in high gear. You Got It is a lot closer to its predecessor than I remembered and it remains one of the… Read more »
Label: Five One Released: September 11, 2007 Awake and Alert’s music centers around Maya Peart’s voice. She has great range and movement and is as dynamic and smooth as a jazz vocalist, but at the same time, her voice is down to earth as if she’s singing right to you. Unlike many gifted singers, she also trusts her voice enough… Read more »
Label: self-released Released: 2007 Papertrigger’s Riot Lovers EP is an odd pop record that does more than just dabble in cabaret music. It is dense and often organ-dominated with jazzy rhythms and a dark, seedy undercurrent. While they play it loose and perhaps even a bit sloppy, the album shows their innate sense of being a band instead of a… Read more »
Label: Red Leader Records Released: October (?), 2007 One of the best recent trends in punk rock is the burgeoning punk/folk (or punk/roots or punk/country) movement. While this may seem to have its roots in bands like Uncle Tupelo and the Violent Femmes, that’s only partially true. Bands like This Bike is a Pipe Bomb and the amazing though little… Read more »
Label: Equal Vision Records Released: September 4, 2007 After finding a fair amount of success with 2005’s All’s Well That Ends Well, Chiodos were in a position to coast safely into their next album. Instead, they chose to further break out of the emo-screamo scene that spawned them and follow their arena-sized prog-rock dreams. Bone Palace Ballet has some leanings… Read more »
Label: Vice Records Released: September 11, 2007 The Black Lips exude the dark undercurrent of lo-fi 60s garage rock, but unlike other revivalists, they haven’t filtered it through the present. Good Bad Not Evil is a minimalist affair with a harsh, thin sound made up of tinny guitar, echo-laden vocals, wild, loose rhythms and production right out of some hole-in-the-wall… Read more »
Label: Acerbic Noise Development Released: 2004 Hematovore is what you’d get if really heavy, technical bands scored movies. Untitled is a constantly changing landscape, yet the songs flow together into a single piece of work. The band combines layers of the technical thrash of Prong and difficult to nail down avant-garde experimentalism with the melodic theatrics of Queen and Maiden… Read more »