Label: White Knuckle Records Released: 2007 England’s Voodoo Six prefaced First Hit for Free, due out on March 24th, with this three song EP of their modern hard rock. “Faith” is the teaser’s first and best track. It takes 70s hard rock and filters it through the 90s, largely influenced by Soundgarden’s more mainstream, metally albums. The song isn’t particularly… Read more »
Label: Deep Elm Records Released: December 10, 2007 Ride Your Own Bike’s debut, Bad News from the Bar, gets off on the right foot with “We All Have Our Own Shoes,” whose strings slowly give way, but never completely, to a more traditional rock arrangement. After that, the creativity is pretty hit or miss though. For every clever or catchy… Read more »
Label: Woodstock Musicworks Released: November 1, 2007 A Million Yesterdays‘s brand of Americana generally alternates between country and country rock, finding the most consistency with the former, but perhaps their best moments with the latter. Their more traditional songs show clear command of the genre. Avalon Peacock’s voice might get a little shaky in her vibrato, but that along with… Read more »
Label: self-released Released: October 2007 The Russians’ founder Scott Janovitz is a veteran of the Boston music scene and recently lent his talents to Graham Parker as one of the Latest Clowns, so the well-crafted pop of their second EP should come as no surprise. They aren’t shy about their love of the Beatles (even segueing each song into the… Read more »
Label: self-released Released: 2007 Dirty Penny’s clear love of Mötley Crüe might be hard to take had the Crüe not stopped making good records way too early (two records, good as they were, is a short legacy), but under the circumstances, it turns out to be a lot of fun. I’m not exactly the world’s biggest hair metal fan. Sure… Read more »
Label: Country Club Records Released: March 4, 2008 Pretendo play a dark angular pop that revolves around its rhythms, whether that is principally percussion, bass or guitar (or most often the interplay between them), while keyboard or guitar build an unsettling ambiance. The songs vary from the subtley Stones-influenced swagger of “Chronicle a Free Subletting” to the post-punk/dance meld of… Read more »
Label: Shout Factory Released: February 19, 2008 It’s hard to ask someone to talk about themselves over an extended set of interviews and not seem self-absorbed. For Cobain, it would probably be impossible to ask that over a twenty minute sit-down let alone something this extensive. Cobain comes across as a whiner, whether he’s crying about his childhood, his health… Read more »
Label: Hot City Records Released: 2007 As their name implies, Crash Street Kids are big fans of Mott the Hoople. Even without that reference though, it would still be pretty clear. Their ability mix sugary pop with hard rock edge also raises the specter of early Sweet, but some of those guitar lines are unmistakable homages to Mick Ralphs. Throw… Read more »
Label: self-released CD Baby Released: March 4, 2008 Okay, I’ll admit White Zombie was kinda fun…for about ten minutes. I don’t know that I could ever take them in album-length doses. When the first track of A Single Drop of Red was nothing short of an homage to White Zombie, it was already off on the wrong foot. Unfortunately, it… Read more »
Label: self-released Released: March 4, 2008 The opening track of There’s Nothing Safe sounds like a cross between 80s synth pop and the Runaways. Over the course of the album, they throw in alt rock, new wave and post-punk. It may sound like a pretty bland stew that they’ve cooked up here, but they’ve largely taken the strengths of these… Read more »