Label: Drive-Thru Records Released: October 16, 2007 Trampoline is aptly titled, because the album has a lot of bounce and not the teeny-bopper kind of bounce either. This bounce is the combined force of Steel Train’s energy and elasticity. The band’s biggest influence is perhaps the Beatles (and who would complain?) and they draw on everything from early jangly pop… Read more »
Label: self-released Released: Like many great punk records, this one’s almost over before it starts. While this isn’t quite great, it does cover all the hardcore bases: fast, loud, aggressive. The four song demo clocks in at just 5:39, but it lets up very little over that time. Bad Habit draws a lot from Minor Threat with just a slightly… Read more »
Label: Deep Elm Records Released: August 27, 2007 Anything with any post-punk influence is bound to be pretty angular, but Free Diamonds take it to a new level. They focus on rhythm to the point that everything, voice included, is a rhythm instrument, giving the entire album a very polyrhythmic effect along the lines of Sound Affects-era Jam and the… Read more »
Label: Red Headed Stepchild Records Released: July 1, 2007 In listening to A Second, or Ten Years Later, two influences kept cropping up: New Model Army and Joy Division. There really couldn’t be two things more different than New Model Army’s warm, human, folky anger and Joy Division’s cold, stark, dark emptiness, yet the Sailplanes manage to work both into… Read more »
Label: Full Breach Kicks Released: August 21, 2007 Here in the US, when most people think of glam, they think of Sunset Strip scene of the late 80s where hairspray had more to do with a band’s success than their music. Little known to so many on this side of the Atlantic, there was another glam scene across the ocean… Read more »
Label: Tigertrap Records Released: October 29, 2007 Unbridled. Unrefined. Uninhibited. Those can be the qualities of great rock and roll or a complete disaster. Untitled Musical Project is like a band with Keith Moon as every member, so they’re clearly the former. Don’t get me wrong, they don’t play at Moon’s technical level, but they do have his complete sense… Read more »
Label: Roxy Recordings Released: April 16, 2007 The Ark don’t do a single original thing on Prayer for the Weekend, but how many bands really do? To understand a band like the Ark is to understand their influences. In their best moments they channel the likes of Queen, Sweet and T Rex. They have a huge arena-sized sound and all… Read more »
Label: Mother West Released: April 10, 2007 The Bowmans aren’t your typical Americana band. Like the more widely known Avett Brothers, they work from a broader palette than many of their peers. The Bowmans maintain a rootsy feel throughout despite breaking away from traditional folk style and augmenting their sound at times with electricity. The vocals are the centerpiece of… Read more »
Label: Sudden Death Records Released: 2007 Sudden Death Records has re-issued the classic 1979 compilation that served as a state of the union for the early Vancouver punk scene. The Vancouver Complication is as much an historical document as it is a great punk album. In addition to the first rumblings from now legendary politico-punks DOA and the Subhumans, there… Read more »
Label: Hear Music Released: November 6, 2007 I reviewed the standard release of Memory Almost Full already, so this review will focus on the additional material: three bonus tracks and a DVD. The bonus tracks are all clearly B-side material. The best of the bunch, “In Private,” is an instrumental that might work as an album track, but certainly doesn’t… Read more »