Bitter:(super)Sweet

For too long now, Massive Attack single-handedly ruled the trip-hop scene. And true, they blow your mind away, but it was a fairly easy game for them to share their oligopoly with Portishead and “good-but-not-great” Tircky.

But in 2006, Los Angeles Duo Bitter:Sweet rose up to the challenge. Their August release of The Remix Game is the epitome of mind-fucking-blowing! And not only will trip-hop maniacs get into it, but it will also appeal to Radiohead fans, lounge music aficionados and electro fiends. So shake up the Mojitos, boost the bass in your sound system and pop in their new record, you won’t be deceived…

Welcome the 1990s back into the 20th Century

Cookies is a delicious, feel-good summer record. It’s nothing avant-garde or experimental, but it works. Hell it does more than that, it rocks! Sure you might have heard this type of music a lot, but that’s why it’s called a music genre. But this is more than a simple genre plagiarism, it’s dancing rock, with a glam-trash twist.

From the lipstick graffitied album cover to Jackie McKeown exhaling “my cult status keeps me fucking your wife,” the Scottish newbies take you on a thrill back to the past decade of sex, drugs and total decadence. Let’s face it, who’s ever had enough?

Send it back to the Editors!

What drugs the editors were on during the making of their new album An End Has A Start, I don't want to know, but I can tell they were cheap. This is the only reasonable conclusion I can take after having put myself through
their new record three times already!

It's such a poor follow up to The Back Room, I don't even understand how anyone let them release this! Well maybe I'm being a bit harsh because I had such a high expectation of them. Up until now, there was no song of theirs that really bothered me quite as much as most of the songs on this album. It sounds heavily "popified", entirely soulless and cruelly commercialized. Come on chaps, you can do better than this!

Interpol, All Fired Up!

Interpol has done it again...Bigger and better! Their new album, Our Love To Admire, is this summer's masterpiece! They succeeded in doing it all: The New York quartet brought some great new stuff to the table, powerful beats, topped by some resonating lyrics, but most of all, they did it all in their style. It just works perfectly with our expectations of it (which could have just as easily ripped them apart since some of us were waiting for this record since January!).
Each song is unique and great in a different way than the previous one. "Pioneers To The Falls" is mixed like a labyrinth; you don't know where it's going to take you next but you like the variables! They take you from Fogarino's intense drum track to Paul Bank's haunting solo and back again and you're just grateful to be along for the ride. And "All Fired Up" is a direct, in-your-face kind of track that doesn't play around with you and just gives it to you straight. That's what's so great about it. They make you expect things and right when you think you know where you're going, it's leading somewhere else.
"The Lighthouse" is just the cherry on the cake. It's the most beautiful thing ever. When I went through the tracks in the beginning, I simply skipped it. The build-up isn't satisfying compared to the rest of the tracks. But when you give the whole song a chance, not only will you come to love the song because of the transition in the middle of the song, but when you go back to it, you'll actually enjoy the build-up knowing what's coming next! Not to mention the lyrics are some of the most beautiful I've heard since the Postal Service! " I raised a storm in the Nile/ What do the waves have to say now?/ I let the waves have their way now." The only change I could possibly make to this record would be the cover of the album, which doesn't really fit with all the tracks on this record.

Icky Try

The White Stripes' long overdue record was a bit of a dissappointment. The lead hit, Icky Thump was the rage of bloggers and music reporters alike, but when it came down to it, it fell a bit short. Yeah it's fucking great in a hard rocking way, but if you really listen to the song, it doesn't sonically add up! Effect and Cause was a nice little moral they tried to slip in there, but it wasn't anything we haven't seen in the first album and Rag and Bone was a blast from the past... Van Halen's Hot for Teacher style! The best track on the record by far was Conquest. They picked their brain a bit farther for this one... and it shows!

Victor Bravo @ Club Midway

This local band really gave it all they had. “Victor Bravo,” an indie post-punk rock trio with a powerful drummer a female bassist made the Midway their own last night.
The band’s self-produced, self-released Album contains 4 low sound quality songs with a potential to go farther than the meager audience that cheered to their amazing stage presence.
The best song, “Where are you, you Motherfucker?” really came through as Collin, the lead vocalist was bouncing his eyes from left to right as if he were really looking for “the motherfucker.” This is when it dawned on me: these guys aren’t just your average local-band-trying-to-make-it-big-without-any-real-talent, they are performers who create the kind of atmosphere you might like to find yourself in after a long straining week.

Arctic Monkeys- Favorite Worst Nightmare

The Sheffield quartet has invaded the US with their new record Favorite Worst Nightmare. And this time, they brought some of the most addictive beats since the Libertines. They drastically sped up the tempo of their tunes, and are ready to take over the Yanks. “Brianstorm”, the record’s first single is an earful. I was a bit put off by the rhythm of that song, but once you get into it, it’s gonna be stuck in your head for a while. “Old Yellow Bricks” is likely to make you hum the bass until your friends beat it out of you.
The witty humorous lyrics we liked so much in “Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not” are most prevalent in “D is for Dangerous” and “Balaclava.” Turner amuses us with petty details in the opening sequence of “Balaclava”, before the song really breaks in to the actual melody, he concludes the sequence with a spot-on detail of realism “I’m sure you’ll baffle him good/with the ending reek/ of salty cheeks and runny make-up alone.” And this climax build-up is really what this new record is all about.

Cold War Kids, Tokyo Police Club @ The Middle East (Boston)

Once you get past the obnoxious bouncers, the Middle East is actually a pretty good indie venue: dark and small. The first act, Delta Spirit, started out well but didn't follow through. They played two or three crowd-pleasing songs, then failed to keep up the good work. Pity, they started out really well.

Now, Tokyo Police club were awesome. They organized their set-list very well; playing "If It Works" first to warm up the people in the crowd who might not have heard of them then they slipped in "Citizen Of Tomorrow" during the middle of the show. All this time, fans of the band were really only waiting for one song: "Nature Of The Experiment" which they played right at the end of their cathartic gig.

But none of it even compared to Cold War Kids! They started off with "We Used to Vacation" and "Red Wine, Success" and really warmed up the audience. By the time they started playing "Hang Me Up To Dry," they managed to re-create a kind of '80's indie rock vibe on ecstasy. After this they could have done no wrong...but still they kept pushing the musical envelope. To our great surprise "Hospital bed" or "Hang Me Up To Dry" didn't not make the number one on our list, because that night, it was unanimously and incontestably "Saint John." They were joined by the two opening acts and the enthralled singing crowd to coordinated a sort of noise-music that projected us into a nirvana of sounds. They followed with five more songs, which included "Pass the Hat" and "God Make Up Your Mind" that were a bit more mellow to round up the evening nicely. Nicely done, Kids!

All Hail to the Mewsical Talents of Copenhagen

Mew, like an old school band, is getting better with age. They spoiled the audience with some superb intros that kept them on their toes. When the intros led into the songs, the results were cathartic.
But like any old school band, or the Beatles in particular, the climatic screams of the overjoyed fans were followed by a consistent sing along. For the less intense fans of the Danish trio (they lost their Bassist to marriage…), the fanatics really ruined the essence of the show.
The first song from the Good-Concert-Bad-Karaoke series was “156”. After the teenage fans’ own 30 seconds screaming intro, they screeched along with the Jasper.
Despite the endless shrieks, the rest of us were able to appreciate the better renditions of the band’s extensive discography. The legendary “Zookeeper’s Boy”, the intoxicating guitar intro of “Snow Brigade”, and the heavily commercialized “Special” got the crowd’s loudest cheers. These songs really were the most sonically reworked of the concert and it came through.
Call me a sucker for dark, fatalistic chords, but last night the ones that really got to me were “Apocalypso” and “Comforting Sounds”. With Mew, the more intense the song, the more energy you are going to get from the stage. These two last hits got what the rest of the concert was most lacking: stage energy that filled the room.

MuteMath @ Gramercy Theatre

After two amazing opening acts, what kind of show would MuteMath have put on for this crowd? Whatever they had to do was done last night. MuteMath plays a kind of experimental rock that sounds a bit like an electronica version of a fusion between The Police and Air.
The band started out with their signature intro of “Collapse” and “Typical” and completely nailed it. The record track does not even compare to their performance anymore. The audience went nuts. Before they even had time to catch their breath, Darren King had already started battering the beat of Chaos on his drums. By then, utter madness was unleashed. The crowd clapped along to the fast-paced beat of the song.
The best song of the show was probably “Plan B.” Greg Hill started it off with a mind-blowing guitar intro, King backed it up with his powerful beats and Roy Mitchell-Cardenas, bass, just sent the song on an express ride to “you can’t top it”-ville.
After Mitchell-Cardenas and King synchronized a beat for “Obsolete,” Paul Meany said, “ The next song is called control and I’m gonna need a lot of voices for this one.” The moshpit totally agreed and by the end of the song, Meany turned the microphone over to the crowd singing, “It’s such a beautiful surrender.” Before they left the stage, the band preformed a version of “Reset,” which was quite frankly out of this world.
After the encore, the band played three last songs that ended in an instrumental euphoria, and King’s set scattered all over the stage.

Set List:
Collapse
Typical
Chaos
Picture
Voice
Plan B
Stare At The Sun
Obsolete
Control
You Are Mine
Noticed
Break The Same
Reset
(Encore)
Sooner
Without It
Ok

Typical :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqiVIgiN8zo

Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin @ Gramercy Theatre

Drummer, Phil Dickey, likes to spice things up a bit. After he switched position, mid-gig, with guitarist John Robert Cardwell, Dickey jumped off the stage onto the security platform in front. Only his feet got stuck in the cables at bit…
“That was thoroughly rock and roll,” said Deanna Wallach, photographer with the Cinematics who high-fived him after he plugged all the cables back in. “Really that was stellar. He’s amazing. ”
Right on! They are all amazing, they’re the “we-do-our-own-thing” kind of band, and though we don’t necessarily understand why they do it, we love it! Just like we loved “Pangea” and “Boring Fountain.” The overall vibe of their performance was a more chilled out, “friends-rocking-in-their-basement” kind of gig. They started playing “Oregon Girl” immediately after the sound check. They just blew the crowd away. The rotating band finished off the performance with the addictive riffs of “Ocean-O.” The next time they will come to New York, these Missourians might just be their own main show…

Set list:
Oregon Girl
I am Warm and Powerful
Pangea
House Fire
Boring fountain
Modern
Half-Wake
You could write a book
OCEAN-O

Highlights of The Show:

Oregon Girl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXXsxZ0CNPo&mode=user&search=

Pangea:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4bUqqCZ4Xo&mode=related&search=

Boring Fountain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K_BcZCphgk&mode=user&search=

Ocean-O:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD44DcjSsvs&mode=user&search=

The Cinematics @ Gramercy Theatre

The energy flows from the Scottish band that sounds like a mix between Placebo and Joy Division. Though the band does not fight the ‘80’s new wave influence, they are not “just another one of those bands.” Franz Ferdinand and Editors might have ventured around the genre of that bygone era, but no one has done it quite as superbly as The Cinematics. Their debut record “A Strange Education,” combines the best of both decades. If Ian Curtis had not committed suicide, Joy Division’s last record would have closely resembled it.
Last night, the band definitely warmed up the crowed for MuteMath. They opened and turned everyone on with “Sunday Sun” and “Keep Forgetting,” but they really peaked with “Maybe Someday” and “Break.” At that point, the whole crowd realized that this was not just a bland opening act. The band could feel it too, and they were showing it off. They were literally playing as if no one would ever stop them.


Highlights of the Gig

Maybe Someday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNbYHKbwuhc

Break:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNdcAHhj3vw&mode=related&search=

Aqualung @ the Hiro Ballroom

In the middle of the gig, Ben Hales walked over to Matt and whispered something in his ear. Matt’s facial expression changed then he said with a smile, “euhm, ladies and gentlemen, my brother Ben has an announcement to make. He has told me he just ‘rocked’ a button off his shirt.” Ben, who was swinging his guitar to the beat of the music, was so engrossed in the tune that he ripped his top button off his shirt. “This is not how I choose to look,” he told the audience. “Be careful,” Matt said, “not to rock your cloths off all the way down to your bollocks.”
Throughout the gig, there was a lot a back and forth between Matt Hales and the audience. Whether he was teasing us with an extended piano introduction, or telling us about his awkward encounters with Richard Gere and Ricky Martin, he was having a long intense conversation with us. From “Easier To Lie” to the magnificent “Tongue Tied,” he delivered a stellar performance of his best hits with his signature candid smile.
Hales alternated the old with the new, as he introduced us to some songs from his new record, Memory Man, out today nationwide. Based on the cheer-o-meter from last night, his new tracks were pretty well received especially “Something To Believe In” and “Outside,” whose faster tempo sets it aside from most of Aqualung usual songs.
“I know it’s something most artists assert,” said Hales about Memory Man. “But for what it’s worth I’m really quite proud of it.”

The Highlights of the Gig:

Something To Believe In:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTtJP9ZR1Wc&mode=user&search=

Outside:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgLKpTLWJTw&mode=user&search=

Tongue Tied (partial):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUvCJF3DPFo&mode=user&search=

Easier To Lie (partial):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfEyvcNuOt8&mode=user&search=

Modest Mouse-We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

The band famous for “Float On” and inspiring Wolf Parade and Tokyo Police Club, is back with a new record, and a bloody brilliant one at that! Most bands usually have their one huge hit, the one that echoes throughout their career and they have to perform at every single gig they play. But bigger things are meant for our Modest Mouse (sea)men. We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank, will unleash a sonic coup d’état against “Float On” and make room for their next top song, “Dashboard.” The prospective hit leads with some rhythmically captivating guitar scruffs backed by Green’s steady bass drum pace. But while “Dashboard” is the catchiest tune on the record, the most intriguing track is “Fly trapped in a jar.” You will be hooked from the tight intro and Brock’s addictive multilevel vocals to the stoically accepted conclusion of the song, “so well it’s already been said/ that it’s already been said/ that we’re already dead.” And though there really isn’t a bad track on the album, the best one is “Florida.” Their newest record will truly be the biggest storm these fishermen have ever seen!

Low Stars

If you grew up in the '90s and are a bit nostalgic of the pop phenomenon of the past decade, you might wanna consider buying Low Stars' new album. It's not all good, but then again, neither was '90s music. If you're purchasing it on iTunes by song, get "Calling All Friends", "Tell The Teacher" and "Tracks in the Rain." The rest is painful to hear. The whole CD has an positive vibe, but, compared to the competition, this composition doesn't quite cut it.

¡Forward, Russia!-Eighteen

You can't really hate ¡Forward, Russia!, but it's rather hard to find the novelty in "Eighteen" when it almost sounds exactly like Bloc Party's "Banquet." But you're torn, because it sounds good.
And yet, there is novelty in the band. Call me biased, but when a band sports a chick with sticks, I'm likely to lend a tender ear. And Katie Nicholls, drums, handles her cymbals pretty well. Rob Canning, Bass, got me instantly hooked to "Nine." Then Whiskas and Nicholls blended in nicely to welcome Tom Woohead's vocals into the whole tune. If you're in England right now, and you're into the whole Post-Punk Scene, now is the time to check them out, because they have the caliber of bloc party, but they're still pretty underground.

The Shins-Wincing The Night Away

The Shins’ new album has been out for a while. I was waiting a while to review it, because it always takes me a while to really understand their music. But that’s really why they are one of the best indie rock bands out there today. The play on rhythm, which is even more highlighted in this album than in the previous one really draws you in the music. The complexity of the album and the voice James Mercer mixed with some nostalgic chords, really make me wish I were- but at the same time, am-somewhere else. “Phantom Limb” is a really good example of that correlation. It’s universal, it would have been a hit in the 70’s, it is one now, and I’m pretty sure it would still make it 30 years from now. “Turn Me On” is one of the songs that had to break me, but ended up really making me feel completely differently about the song and the whole album. And the most beautiful song on the album is “Black Wave” for many ineffable reasons that only concern my own personal path in music and life. I strongly recommend this album, and would probably sustain the New Musical Express’ review that this album is managed to top the previous one.

The Good, The Bad & The Queen

What happens when a bunch of talented and already-famous musicians form a band? The Good, The Bad & The Queen and an amazing album.
If there is a band out there that should be rewarded with a prize for exploring the science of music, there would be some tough competition certainly, but they would receive it no less. The mixture of electonica, trip-hop, and indie blends in nicely to give the audience a structured mesh of sounds. Herculean is probably the most sticking example of that mix. “History Song” is more of an indie-rockish Gorillaz themed song.
But then again, The Good, The Bad & The Queen is way more sophisticated than Gorillaz ever were. Over all, the band has gotten mixed reviews. While the NME is in total awe of the band (a little over-the-top perhaps), others find a deja-vu is definitely in play here from Gorillaz and Blur. A more complex deja-vu with sounds that don’t quite make sense to them…yet. In a couple of months, they will be famous. In a couple of years, they will be legends.

Saliva: Blood Stained Love Story

For the harder rock lovers, a new treat is in stores right now: Saliva’s long overdue new record. The album is a surprisingly good follow-up to both mega-hits “Always” and “Click Click Boom.” The best song on the record is by far “King of Stereo.” The song’s has some pretty powerful guitar scruffs and a very nice solo towards the end. The vocals of Josey Scott that caught us ever since Back Into Your System’s “Always” came out are a bit drowned into the overpowering skills of guitarists Chris Dibaldo and Wayne Swinny.

Matt White- Bleeker Street Stories-EP

Though there is a strong possibility that Matt White will become the next pop/rock sensation, it’s nothing we haven’t really hear before. He does have some nice music to back up his steady vocals. His debut album, Bleeker Street Stories sounds like a nice mixture of John Mayer, Gavin DeGraw and some form of Teddy Geiger in his lyrics. All in all, it’s a nice album. If you enjoy the above artists and are mostly attracted to the same form of music, I strongly suggest you buy his album; the track “Best Days” will please you most. My personal favorite is “Miracles.” It has a very laid-back feel to it.

Kunek- Flight of the Flynns

Kunek, the Oklahoma-born band, describes its music as a blend between science and emotions. But, really, it's so much more than that. The six musicians, Jesse Tabish as lead vocalist, lead guitarist Eric Kiner (also on lap steel and keys), Guitarist and keyboard artist Jon Mooney, bassist Josh Onstott, cellist Jenny Hsy and drummer Colby Owens, work on a melodious ensemble that works together towards a light but meaningful finish.
Their Lyrics, seemingly simple, are surprisingly deep. "Coma" starts off some pretty respectable drum beats and a nice addition from the keyboards when Tabish sings " Wake up/From your coma/ It's in your head." The drums then make way for what sounds like the keyboard solo (celloist Jenny Hsy is ever so present with her enticing notes). The song's progression as it goes into " It's all just the pieces/ of a thousand pages/ lying on the floor/ And it's all just a part/ of a thousand people dying like before" and the melody that seems to be coming back to life after the verse, as if it will never end has the effect the band wants it to have: it moves you.
One cannot listen to Kunek and deny it its novelty. Their website design is a soothing as their songs: A little prairie with a pink-flower bearing tree (the links) and clouds passing by. For more info on the band go to:
http://www.kunek.net/