What music are you listening to?

[Avenged Probably]

Not albums, but three new songs which I heard today.

Machine Head - Aesthetics Of Hate

From their forthcoming album 'The Blackening' is a great metal track and brings together all the good things they've done before and seemingly erases all the 'not so good' If this song is anything to go by, the album will be awesome.

Good Charlotte - The River

Also from their up and coming album, features guest vocals from M Shadows, and guest guitar by Synester Gates (from Avenged Sevenfold). I've never been able to decide wether or not I like GC, there old songs were fun but got boring quickly. Their stuff afetr that was abit 'meh' to me. I love this new song, maybe just cos of the A7X connection, but hopefully the rest of the album will be this good.

Within Temptation - What Have You Done

Another song from an upcoming album (out tommorow I believe) also has guest vocals from a guy called Keith Caputo (dont know who he is) and is just an al lround great track.

I recommend you check all three out, all of which can be found on each bands myspace page.

[Skummy]

Patrick Wolf

The Magic Position

10/10

Where has Patrick Wolf been my entire life? I was bummed I had to wait a few more months for the new Final Fantasy CD, but... than I heard this. Its folk, its glam, its electro - its a classic. Its so left-field, its so brilliant and its my new favorite CD.

I massively endorse everything touched by Mr Wolf ever, and suggest you check out everything else...his earlier stuff is more violin and electro, and more downbeat, The Magic Position is much more cheerful in comparison, but it's all incredible. I also suggest you check out Andrew Bird if you haven't already, if you like Patrick Wolf and Final Fantasy I imagine you'll like him too.

[RPS]

No worries, Skummy, already downloaded all of Patrick Wolf's stuff and I'm just going to download Andrew Bird now. I was getting kind of antsy waiting for the new Final Fantasy so I asked a friend for some similar stuff and got those two named. Merci beaucoup.

[YI]

SO FUCKING GOOD!! GET THIS FUCKING ALBUM...ALL OF YOU!!! GET IT!!!

"(Stars Of The Lid) And Their Refinement Of Decline" by Stars Of The Lid

Ambient-drone music was something I never 'got'. I openly admit to that. When I was told to check out the lacks of "Godspeed You! Black Emperor", I didn't really dig it, I never saw the appeal. However recently, I've really buckled down to some of this stuff. And with the likes of Eluvium and Stars Of The Lid, they've both produced amazing albums this year. This is a double CD...it's incredibly long, but it's the kind of music you could set about playing in the background...but soon find yourself drifting across beautiful, intricate, musical landscapes. You drop whatever it is you're doing, and if you're anything like me, you lie yourself on your bed and stay there for all TWO HOURS that this CD runs. It never gets boring. It never gets old. Hell, I admit, it never gets 'exciting', in the conventional sense at least. But the entire thing is so beautiful. It's the kind of music that would entrance you, the sort of music you'd be happy to sacrifice your own child to, to hear more of it...to learn the secrets of it. Everything builds up so perfectly, it's so simple on paper, but there's so many layers, and they way they intertwine and compliment each other is a work of beauty. Whenever people used to tell me that music could be a work of 'art', I'd laugh it off as pretentious bullshit. Maybe it may be pretentious, but it's far from bullshit. Turn off all your lights...everything...and just let yourself drift off...two hours of absolute beauty. Some of the most 'emotional' music I've ever heard. I'm not sure if it's going to have the lasting appeal of 'songs'...but for now at least...not only is it a potential album of the year, it's a potential best album EVER.

RATING - 10/10

BEST SONGS - It's a cohesive masterpiece...and thing of absolute beauty...DON'T FORCE ME!!!!

Edited March 13, 2007 by YI

[Ananas]

Been listening to a lot of early 90's hip-hop lately, mainly Common's "Resurrection", Black Sheep's "A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing", A Tribe Called Quest's "The Low End Theory" and "Midnight Marauders" and pre-Death Row 2pac. Man I miss that stuff. Common, Talib and Kanye will do for now but really, Q-Tip's new album must slay me to bring the good old days back. And maybe one more Tribe record.

P.S. "I Used To Love H.E.R." > Your favorite song.

[YI]

A Tribe Called Quest > *

As far as 90's hip-hop goes, nothing touched "I Got 5 On It" by Luniz, in terms of individual song quality......actually no hip-hop song EVER touches it in terms of quality.

Oh...and I'll toss in a short review;

"The Draft EP" by The Draft

The Draft are the remains of Hot Water Music, minus lead singer Chuck Ragan (Who's doing some pretty cool acoustic shit you should all check out, he's got 2 albums due out this year...1 live/1 studio, I believe). They released their debut album last year, "In A Million Pieces", and it ranks up there as one of my favourite releases of the year. Basically they're the extrension of Hot Water Music that was hinted on "The New What Next", basically following on the career progression of HWM. The sound is not as harsh, an there's some 'poppier' aspects. However, none of these 4 tracks particuarly stand out. They're far from bad, in fact I really quite like "Stop Wasting My Time", but all the songs really do reak of songs that weren't good enough to find a place on the album. Chris Wollard is far from a bad vocalist, I liked his HWM songs, I like The Draft songs, it's just he's no Chuck Ragan. Ragan just had a stunning voice...it really pulled you in. It was nasal as hell as well. Okay. The content here is far from impressive. And I wouldn't dream of buying this EP. Everything seems a slower pace from the album material, and really lacks the style and substance that the slower HWM songs had. But get "In A Million Pieces", it's great.

RATING - 4/10

BEST SONG - "Stop Wasting My Time".

Edited March 13, 2007 by YI

[RPS]

Randy

Human Atomic Bombs

7.5/10

I have no idea why these guys aren't popular in the punk rock scene. Its like up-beat garage rock music that Karl Marx would rock out too. They are damn well pretty good and can churn out a fair share of toe tapping tunes. The only thing against them is that by the end of the disc, these guys seem to lose their effect. When they hit hard, its hard, but when they miss its just boring.

The Arcade Fire

Neon Bible

6.5/10

Here is my problem with the Arcade Fires new CD. They bolt right out of the gate. The first four songs are amazing, dare I say brilliant. It all comes to a head with Intervention, and its such a climatic moment. But... I mean, you can't really go from there. It just seems to all fall flat after that four minutes of COMPLETE and UTTER bliss. And than it all just kind of goes nowhere after that. I mean, its not bad, but I was expecting the moon. Whatever. I'll buy it eventually and just try to get myself into more, but for the time being I just see this as not living up to the hype of Funeral.

[Ananas]

The Arcade Fire

Neon Bible

6.5/10

Here is my problem with the Arcade Fires new CD. They bolt right out of the gate. The first four songs are amazing, dare I say brilliant. It all comes to a head with Intervention, and its such a climatic moment. But... I mean, you can't really go from there. It just seems to all fall flat after that four minutes of COMPLETE and UTTER bliss. And than it all just kind of goes nowhere after that. I mean, its not bad, but I was expecting the moon. Whatever. I'll buy it eventually and just try to get myself into more, but for the time being I just see this as not living up to the hype of Funeral.

[RPS]

Well, I mean, I didn't really get into Funeral for a while either except for the hightlights of the album, and I feel that might be the case here. Arcade Fire is one of those bands I have to listen to a few times before I can really get into their stuff, but upon the first listens I'm usually bored out of my skull and flipping through the songs.

[YI]

"North" by Something Corporate

I never really got around to listening to a whole Something Corporate album. But I decided to pick up both albums today. Let me point out, "Leaving Through The Window" is pretty shitty for the most part, "Hurricane", "I Woke Up In A Car" and "Fall" are the only songs worth shit. I always thought the good songs would be split somewhat even. But I pretty much had "North" anyway. "North" as a whole is top notch, piano driven rock. Whilst I wouldn't rate it up to the standard of "Jack's Mannequin" there's a good number of catchy tracks on here. There's a number of great melodies, which on "Leaving Through The Window" just seem to be regurgitated. There's not a single bad track on here. Everything is tip-top. Lyrically it's not amazing. It also misses some of the matter of fact-ness I like about McMahon's "Jack's Mannequin" material. It's far from groundbreaking, but it's chock-ful of outstanding melodies, slow building verses and epic choruses, with many a sing-along anthem, which in piano based rock, is all you can ask for.

RATING - 8/10

BEST SONGS - "She Paints Me Blue", "Break Myself", "As You Sleep", "Watch The Sky" and "21 & Invincible".

"Pennybridge Pioneers" by Millencolin

As far as slapdash, fun, punk-rock goes, Millencolin have always been a band I've enjoyed. Whilst they've never been able to hold my atention over a full album, on all their releases there's a good number of catchy, great, little songs. "Pennybridge Pioneers" is probably my favourite allround Millencolin album, but then again it's not an album that's going to set the world on fire. They manage to mix things up fairly well. You've got your big choruses, you're quick riffs, as well as your slightly slower songs. The slower songs don't really do much for me. And are often fairly boring. Millencolin don't really have the style or substance to hold your attention over a full album, but there's a handful of tracks here that to me are the pinnacle of 'fun' punk-rock. Nothing flash, nothing overtly in your face. But enough to get you singing, dancing and rocking out.

RATING - 7/10

BEST SONGS - "No Cigar", "Material Boy", "Fox" and "Pepper".

"All Killer No Filler" by Sum 41

If you don't love or not loved this album at one point, then you are clearly a liar. Summer 2001, this album will remain with me as a soundtrack to that summer. I was leaving year 9, 14 years of age, school trip to France. This album had literally just come out. It was really before Sum 41 got 'popular', but there was a huge ruckus in the 'rocker' circles around school about this album. The CD got dished around and burned, and basically became the soundtrack to my summer. I tie up so many great memories with this album. Leaving Year 9, you're at the point where you really think you're about to become an adult. Little did you know that life was basically going to be exactly the same until you hit 18...and then it was nowhere near as cool as you thought it would be. But still. At that moment in time, you had all the dreams in the world, and all those dreams are tied up in this album for me. If I'm ever downhearted, in a mood, then I toss this on, and it makes everything okay. As for the material yourself, there's an insane amounted of horrifically catchy pop-punk tunes. Whilst Green Day and Blink 182 probably got the brunt of the popularity, as far as quality of albums released in that time period, "All Killer No Filler" shits on EVERYTHING produced. To me, the name says it all.

RATING - 9/10

BEST SONGS - "Rhythms", "Summer", "Fat Lip", "All She's Got", "In Too Deep" and "Handle This".

"Four One Five Two" by Sundowner

Sundowner is the side-project of Lawrence Arms guitarist Chris McCaughan. The album is basically, for the most part acoustic based, and really good (Unlike the horrifically mediocre Dustin Kensrue release). The album features 12 songs, 2 of which are re-workings of Lawrence Arms songs in acoustic styleeeee ("My Boatless Booze Cruise" and "100 Resolutions"). Personally I'm not fond of the acoustic versions of these songs. They're far from bad, but the work that Chris has done from scratch is far better. He has a good mix of strings and piano's and the like going in the background, filling out the music in his songs, and he has a great voice for acoustic. The melodies here are sweet and whimsical, there's a good mix of songs too. He's got his sing along 'strummers', but also his very suspended, quieter, darker songs. There's nothing I really dislike, but I'm not sure how it's going to hold up as time goes on. People elsewhere seem to be orgasming over this...but I'd rather listen to The Falcon (Side-project from the other two Lawrence Arms members). It's something different, and he's certainly got talent.

RATING - 8/10

BEST SONGS - "Steal Your Words", "Endless Miles", "This War Is Noise", "Audio Geography", "Traffic Haze" and "Midsummer Classic".

[Tarheels.]

"North" by Something Corporate

I never really got around to listening to a whole Something Corporate album. But I decided to pick up both albums today. Let me point out, "Leaving Through The Window" is pretty shitty for the most part, "Hurricane", "I Woke Up In A Car" and "Fall" are the only songs worth shit. I always thought the good songs would be split somewhat even. But I pretty much had "North" anyway. "North" as a whole is top notch, piano driven rock. Whilst I wouldn't rate it up to the standard of "Jack's Mannequin" there's a good number of catchy tracks on here. There's a number of great melodies, which on "Leaving Through The Window" just seem to be regurgitated. There's not a single bad track on here. Everything is tip-top. Lyrically it's not amazing. It also misses some of the matter of fact-ness I like about McMahon's "Jack's Mannequin" material. It's far from groundbreaking, but it's chock-ful of outstanding melodies, slow building verses and epic choruses, with many a sing-along anthem, which in piano based rock, is all you can ask for.

RATING - 8/10

BEST SONGS - "She Paints Me Blue", "Break Myself", "As You Sleep", "Watch The Sky" and "21 & Invincible".

[Rashid]

Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction

Superb album. Some of the standout songs are "Paradise City", "Sweet Child O' Mine", "It's So Easy" and "My Michelle". The album opens with "Welcome to the Jungle", I song I really don't care for. It's massively overrated, and isn't even one of GNR's 15 best songs. The last few songs on the album aren't that great either, "Rocket Queen" is pretty good though.

9/10

Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion I

Even better than Appetite for Destruction. "Don't Cry" is an amazing song, easily one of the bands best. And "November Rain" ranks as my 3rd favourite song of all time. The album starts off rocking, with "Right Next Door To Hell", "Dust and Bones", and "Live and Let Die". Though (like Appetite for Destruction) some of later songs are a let down compared to the earlier ones. "Dead Horse", "Don't Damn Me", and "Garden of Eden" aren't that great.

9/10

Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion II

"Civil War", "Yesterdays", "Knockin' On Heaven's Door", and the alternate "Don't Cry" are all great songs that alone make this album a must-buy. Although it's not of the quality of UYI1. Around 1/3 of the album features some alright (yet forgettable) songs. "Locomotive" and "Estranged" are example of this. Although the songs that are good do kind of make up for it.

8/10

[YI]

"Dumb Luck" by DnTel

For those who aren't in the 'know', DnTel is half of The Postal Service. In fact the whole reason the Postal Service exists is because of a track on the last DnTel album, where Ben Gibbard guested on a track, which was saw awesome, it led to The Postal Service. It's the 'major' label debut of DnTel, with James Tamborello signing to SubPop. If you're coming here to expect another Postal Service you're going to be very dissapointed. It's a lott less down-tempo, intricate, sweet melodies, and somewhat glitchy sounding electronics. The electronics themselves, and the production of the album is greatly increased over the earlier DnTel work. He also mixes things up with other instrumentation, with acoustic guitars on the likes of stand out track "Roll On". Basically every track (Besides one) features guest vocals, most notable guest vocalists are; Conor Oberst (aka. Bright Eyes), Jenny Lewis (backing vocals in Postal Service...though not to be confused with Jen Wood, who sang on "Nothing Better" ) and really fucking cool indie band, Grizzly Bear. In fact it's the track with Grizzly Bear that the only Postal Service esque moment comes, when there's the realy catchy electro riff and then some drums loop in underneath, but then you never think "This is just the Postal Service". All in all this is something really fresh. Great to see a bunch of young, lesser known artists getting a chance to shine on here. And the son with Bright Eyes is just so ridiculously catchy, that DnTel should really catch on. Maybe not to the level of The Postal Service, but it's definately an amazing album. So many different voices, different styles, different melodies, I don't see it getting old for a LONG time.

RATING - 9/10

BEST SONGS - "Breakfast In Bed (ft. Conor Oberst)", "Roll On (ft. Jenny Lewis)", "The Distance (ft. Arthur & Yu)", "Dreams (ft. Mystic Chords Of Memory)", "To A Fault (ft. Grizzly Bear)" and "I'd Like To Know (ft. Lali Puna)".

"In The Trenches" by Static Thought

This where I get incredibly, incredibly pissed off at the 'old school punkers', the "All the new shit is awful" people, who just want to hear Black Flag and shit regurgitated...but then you get shit like this. And to be honest, it doesn't sound like old school punk regurgitated, it sounds like Rancid regurgitated...and Rancid sounds like old school punk regurgitated. I fucking hate bands like this. They're basically tribute bands. Okay they're young. So they've potentially got a future, but none of the material here really does a lot for me. There's a few good hooks. I quite like the vocal work, but they just seem to be lacking the big choruses and mega catchyness that is needed to make stuff like this accessible. We're in a time when 'punk-rock' is becoming more and more complex. You've got guys like AWS who are totally bastardising song structures, so it can be good to strip things to the bear bones, but these aren't the band to do it. They do have some fairly cool guitar twiddly bits as well. Lyrically they're far from great. Yeah they're young, most bands weren't great lyrically when they were young, but random curse words isn't really that cool. And I'm Northern, I probably swear more in everyday speak than everyone here who's not Scottish. At the end of the day, sounds like a tribute band. Nothing I really get into. Oh, there's a Police cover on here too. "Next To You" for all who care. Lars Frederiksen appears on a track...but it pretty much sucks.

RATING - 3/10

BEST SONGS - "Blisters", "Drug Of My Mind" and "Infiltrated Minds".

"Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?" by of Montreal

Upon first hearing this album, my first response was a resounding "WHAT THE FUCK?" I swore I'd just been raped in music form...and not in the good guitar shredding, molesting your mind way, in the whole "OH MY GOD...I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS HAPPENING...WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?...GET AWAY" kind of way. Basically in short, it's some totally fucked up psychadelic indie-pop. But what makes it even weirder is the fact you can randomly go from a sweet little song, with nice simple vocals, to the weirdest fucking electro synthy shit I've heard since like...in ages. I've got to get off my tits one night and listen to this...it might actualy sound fairly normal. Hell...half the time it sounds gayer than the Scissor Sisters....in short...it's fucking awesome. They're supposadely from the same crop of bands as Neutral Milk Hotel and Apples In Stereo...so they're fucking awesome... There's a load of influences in here...some funky-ness going on as well, awesome disco bass lines and the like. Just get the album, you wont be dissapointed. Maybe slightly confused. But not dissapointed. GET IT!! And gets Stars Of The Lid too, you lazy bastards...and DnTel!!! I AM YOUR MUSIC GOD!!! AND I HAVE SPOKEN!!!

RATING - 9/10

BEST SONGS - "A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger", "Suffer For Fashion", "Gronlandic Edit", "We Were Born The Mutants Again With Leafling", "The Past Is A Grotesque Animal" and "Labrinthian Pomp"

[The Heartbreak Kid]

The album I listened to today wasnt really new, from 2003.

Walking The Fallen by Avenged Sevenfold

It's good, a lot better than City of Evil.

*** out of *****

Waking the Fallen is Avenged Sevenfold's second full-length release. This was the last Avenged Sevenfold album to feature their metalcore sound. It is also the last album on which frontman M. Shadows screams excessively, although there is much more melodic singing on this album. It was released on August 26, 2003 by Hopeless Records. This is considered by many to be the bands best album because of its experimental nature mixed with guttural screams and catchy choruses. The constant theme of the album seems to be aimed towards the end of humanity and especially aimed towards the apocalypse, which goes hand in hand with the numerous amount of biblical references not only in "Waking the Fallen" but in all of Avenged Sevenfold's albums up to date.

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waking_the_Fallen

Edited March 15, 2007 by Disturbed

[VerbalPuke]

This where I get incredibly, incredibly pissed off at the 'old school punkers', the "All the new shit is awful" people, who just want to hear Black Flag and shit regurgitated...but then you get shit like this. And to be honest, it doesn't sound like old school punk regurgitated, it sounds like Rancid regurgitated...and Rancid sounds like old school punk regurgitated. I fucking hate bands like this.

Most old school punkers I know of are annoyed with this "regurgitated" sound as much as you (and myself included). They like creativity, but there is nothing wrong with a band that can capture the spirit of Black Flag, because Black Flag simply kicks ass. Understandably, it's disenchanting when a lot of bands just want to be a paint by numbers O.C. punk band, it seems like a stifling of creativity. It's also unfortunate that most people think that old punk only encompasses a few certain sounds (usually the hardcore style, or the 77 style) when bands (I'm not lumping you into this category for the record) like Suicide, Screamers, Minutemen, Nomeansno, Big Balls and the Great White Idiot, Authorities, Black Randy and the Metrosquad, and countless others were vastly different from their contemporaries. I think if more newer punk bands were getting a bit more creative some of us would have less qualms with the new sound.

And now for a review...

Zolar-X - Timeless

We have an interesting group here in Zolar-X. They are basically California's glam rock equivalent to the New York Dolls in terms of influence on bands within their region. Sound wise they stick with a solid rock and roll sound that was a precursor to punk, much like the New York Dolls churned out. However, in terms of glam image, they were vastly different than the Dolls. While the Dolls used the drag queen image, Zolar-X took an opposite route in adorning themselves in spaceman and martian gear. They even created their own martian language, though they did sing their songs in English.

Their sound is easy to pinpoint as predating the 77 style of punk, but possibly leaning closer to the pop sound of things. The album is filled with energetic songs that would make any rock and roller blush with envy, work that makes you want to sing along with, such as the song "Rocket Roll". Songs like "Science" and "Silver Shapes" bring out the bands unrecognized brilliance with song writing and lyrics. The albums centerpiece is the title track "Timeless" which gives the listener their best chance of falling in love with the band. It's clearly a song that stands apart from the rest of the tracks with each chord and beat played. The fast tempo of the album is also what helped to heavily influence the LA punk sound, especially in a band such as the Germs (Pat Smear and Darby Crash both specifically cite Zolar-X as a huge influence on their sound).

Zolar-X is really a good band when it comes right down to right. They're all accomplished musicians playing together as if by some sort of telepathy (maybe the martian act wasn't a schtick). It's refreshing to see a band not take themselves too seriously and make their music fun to listen to.

10/10

Songs that are out of this world: Timeless, Rocket Roll, fe1142

Edited March 15, 2007 by VerbalPuke

[YI]

This where I get incredibly, incredibly pissed off at the 'old school punkers', the "All the new shit is awful" people, who just want to hear Black Flag and shit regurgitated...but then you get shit like this. And to be honest, it doesn't sound like old school punk regurgitated, it sounds like Rancid regurgitated...and Rancid sounds like old school punk regurgitated. I fucking hate bands like this.

Most old school punkers I know of are annoyed with this "regurgitated" sound as much as you (and myself included). They like creativity, but there is nothing wrong with a band that can capture the spirit of Black Flag, because Black Flag simply kicks ass. Understandably, it's disenchanting when a lot of bands just want to be a paint by numbers O.C. punk band, it seems like a stifling of creativity. It's also unfortunate that most people think that old punk only encompasses a few certain sounds (usually the hardcore style, or the 77 style) when bands (I'm not lumping you into this category for the record) like Suicide, Screamers, Minutemen, Nomeansno, Big Balls and the Great White Idiot, Authorities, Black Randy and the Metrosquad, and countless others were vastly different from their contemporaries. I think if more newer punk bands were getting a bit more creative some of us would have less qualms with the new sound.

Edited March 15, 2007 by YI

[VerbalPuke]

Don't edit it, you made a pretty good point. It's just that when I hear "old punkers" or "old school punk" tossed out in some sort of form, I'm always compelled to stick my nose where it doesn't belong.

And I know you weren't having a go at me in the comment, I've run into the same folks. These are usually guys that like to say "I WAS MOSHING TO THE ADOLESCENTS BEFORE YOU WERE BORN SO I RULE". Good for you, you spikey haired archaic cunt.

I'm just a nut for clarifying stances in certain cases. I like for people to know where the old school fans (or just this old school fan) stand in regard to punk new and old. I know that it can be frustrating when dudes like to shit all over anything new because it's not old (if that makes sense). You see it in a lot of genres, a lot of old fellows liked to cite hard rock from the 70s while shitting on the grunge movement.

[Fitzy]

Chevelle - Vena Sera - 8/10

These guys seem to get better and better with each release. Very good stuff here.

[mikevandam]

Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers - Into the great wide open

- One of my best records. I love each song and could listen to the record over and over.

[Steeb]

New Dntel? And no-one told me? Well fuck y'all too