First release on Dead Broke Rekerds from a melodic punk band featuring Latterman alumni Phil Douglas and Brian Crozier. Shitty Rambo is definitely an improvement on their debut release, but follows its lead by having a great first track followed by some lesser-but-still-good songs. There’s great use of gang vocals on occassion, but the band are still lyrically awkward, and the EP rarely goes beyond ‘good’. Well worth checking out, though hardly essential- and firmly behind Shorebirds in terms of post-Latterman projects. You can blag their Demo EP from If You Make It. Word.
Grynch – Chemistry
Meet Grynch, a promising (if egotistical) Seattle hip-hop artist- an odd choice for this blog, but still well worth a look. His new EP, Chemistry, was touted by Berkeley Place, and it’s a good call; Grynch has some great beats and his flow is smooth (yeah, I know, I feel awkward saying stuff like that as well). Aside from the odd and hilarious ode to his Volvo- and some good guest vocals- one of the best things about this EP its being free to download. A suprisingly polished product, Chemistry is a solid release, even to a non-expert like myself- and Grynch is a name to look out for.
Transit – Stay Home
Credit to CYSTSFTS for this one. This EP ticks all the right boxes- gang vocals, competent lyrics, good influences. The band have earned comparisons to Polar Bear Club, but the similarity is mostly in terms of technically unconventional song structures. This is firmly a pop-punk record, and a good one at that- even if it has enough hardcore and emo tinges to ensure that the band’s audience could increase massively. Stay Home is consistent throughout, although “Nameless” is particularly excellent. This record is on regular rotation at chez Mike- check out a couple of tracks here.
Lawrence Arms – Buttsweat and Tears
Offering serious competition to the Menzingers for the title of “EP of the year”, the Larry Arms are back with five tracks of searingly melodic punk rock awesomeness. There’s some of the band’s best material on here- “Spit Shining Shit” and “The Slowest Drink…” being my two particular favourites. Vocals are swapped in a much clearer way than their (definitive) last album, Oh Calcutta!, and the result is a suprising amout of variety for a short EP. As usual, the lyrics are out-fucking-standing. Download the track “Demons” here, and read what Brendan himself has to say about it here.
While most people I know are hitting the festival circuit or lapping up the latest electro hipster fad band, most folk round these parts seem to be more stoked for the upcoming Lawrence Arms and Frank Turner (and in my case, Banner Pilot) releases. But don’t despair, there’s plenty to keep y’all going in the meantime…
American Steel’s latest album, “Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts” drops this week, and it’s well worth a listen. For the uninitiated, the band have a couple of tracks from the album up on their Myspace profile. As does the aforementioned Mr. Turner.
Also, if you haven’t checked out the new Cobra Skulls and Dear Landlord album streams on Punknews, you should rectify that. The Cobra Skulls one doesn’t seem to be the full album, but it’s still well worth a listen.
Those truly at a loss for music-related timewasting can follow the progress on the Banner Pilot album on their Twitter page, or decipher Lawrence Arms news amidst the colourful rantings on Brendan Kelly’s blog.
Oh- and Passion Pit aren’t all that bad really. Can I still have my anti-hipster punk points though?
So yesterday myself and Mike (new poster on DSB) went to see the Boss in all his glory at hyde park… and what can I say? The man’s a god. Unfortunately we missed The Gaslight Anthem, which included a duet of The ‘59 Sound with the man himself, but the 3hour+ set of Springsteen really made up for anything we may have missed out on before.
Everything about Bruce Springsteen and his E Street Band was spot on, you could see that everyone was having fun, both the band and the audience. I was stood with the biggest age rage I’ve ever seen at a show before. I nearly trod on a little guy who couldn’t have been older than 8 in a gaslight t-shirt.
The ‘pretentious English student’ part of me thinks that mc chris chose the band as an ironic inversion of accusations of cultural appropriation. Whatever they are, they’re definitely interesting- although i’ll be the first to admit i’m probably several years too old to be listening to them.
I’m pretty sure there’s a rule of music journalism that goes something like: “Bands that explicitly aim at genre crossover often come across as forced, whereas bands that try and merge influences and come out with something new are doing something more interesting”.
I’m not sure where these guys lie on that scale. I’m not even sure the whole thing isn’t some kind of clever postmodern joke.
The first single is of the Linkin Park variety, but the album as a whole takes itself less seriously. So- just another teen-friendly pop-punk band, or a sign of crossover potential? Any thoughts?
Oh, and no prizes for guessing the main musical influence on this one…
