Label: Temporary Residence Limited Released: November 4, 2008 Few albums start off with the level of frantic energy of Thursday’s “As He Climbed the Dark Mountain.” There are songs with fireworks and there are songs that are like the fireworks factory exploding and this is clearly the latter. Thursday’s dense layering walks the fine line between noisy and melodic, without… Read more »
Label: Image Entertainment Released: December 2, 2008 For years, the Warped Tour has managed to find a healthy balance between DIY punk ethics and corporate involvement. Granted, the corporate presence has increased quite a bit over the last decade, but Kevin Lyman and company still put on a great show while keeping tickets and merchandise cheap and leaving at least… Read more »
Label: Jagjaguwar Records Released: October 7, 2008 Some albums kick off with the strongest or most accessible song as a means of sucking the listener in. Others, ease their way into the real meat of the album so as not to scare the listener with their boldest material. But very few jump in with their most grating and difficult content…. Read more »
Label: Youth Club Records Released: October 28, 2008 There is a lot of music out there that isn’t rock music in any way, shape or form…and yet it thoroughly rocks. None of this is headed for mainstream success, but it is often some of the most interesting music in even the broadest sense of the rock sphere. Fall Horsie is… Read more »
Label: Roadrunner Records Released: November 18, 2008 There are artists who push the boundaries, who set new standards, who break rules. Sammy Hagar isn’t one of them. Anyone acquainted with his career knows this and anyone expecting him to do any of these things is surely setting himself up for disappointment. Sammy Hagar has a formula and he sticks to… Read more »
Label: Intrepid Sound Recordings (or at CD Baby) Released: July 8, 2008 Prog is a genre not particularly known for being understated. Restraint is a quality seldom found among its purveyors. Heavy Water Experiments is not quite a traditional prog band, but clearly wear their prog influences for all to see. However, they manage to do it without the esoteric… Read more »
Label: self-released (available at amazon, CD Baby and Interpunk) Released: March 11, 2008 My copy of In Drug City came with an interesting promo item – a combination lighter/bottle opener emblazoned with the Mighty High logo. There was a note from guitarist Woody High saying, “I know you’re straightedge, but the bottle opener works for soda and the lighter for… Read more »
Label: Legacy Recordings Released: September 30, 2008 The term “supergroup” may be popular music’s greatest misnomer. Sure, supergroups are typically made up of musicians who have done some super things, but more often than not, the meeting of their superness is just not all that, well, super. So, as legendary as the meeting of Jaco Pastorius, John McLaughlin and Tony… Read more »
Label: Blackheart Records Released: November 18, 2008 Every year at Christmastime we’re treated (or subjected) to another collection of rock artists’ takes on our favorite holiday songs. These albums tend to be a mixed bag made up of songs that will appeal to fans of the particular artists at least as novelties and others that are real bombs. The best… Read more »
Label: Viper Bite Records Released: May 19, 2008 Nice melodies, good hooks and the edges of its punk rock roots smoothed out, Paper the Operator’s sound seems like any of a thousand pop punk bands on paper. But there’s a little something else here. The title track has a punchy undercurrent that could sneak its way into the heart of… Read more »