July 26, 2007

We know you’re broke. We also know being broke doesn’t exactly get you to many concerts. But what if you could go for free? For the past two years, Boost Mobile RockCorps, a music-based volunteer organization, has brought you some of the biggest names in music for free–and for only four hours of your time....

Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster II [4/5] For the majority of AP’s readership, most interest in this Birmingham, Alabama-based powerhouse likely lays in the fact that Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster feature ex-Underoath vocalist Dallas Taylor. It’s this very reason that many others will also write off the band before hearing them pluck...

The Fall Of Troy Manipulator [4.5/5] When Washington state prog-screamo trio the Fall Of Troy released their sophomore album Doppelgänger in 2005, it ostensibly came out of nowhere: Insane guitar runs, incredibly fluid basslines and drumming that switched time signatures and tempos about 65 times per song made the three-piece stand out from the pack....

Dir En Grey The Marrow Of A Bone [3/5] Last December, Dir En Grey selected “Agitated Screams Of Maggots” as the anchor single to preview their upcoming full-length album. This undistinguished thrasher fueled fears that the veteran Japanese quintet’s stint on the Family Values Tour had contaminated their aesthetic, eliminating the elements that made them...

The Burning Season Onward Anthem [2/5] Artists tend to get comfortable with a particular style, and for many, their second effort is typically a step up. In the case of Cincinnati’s the Burning Season, Onward Anthem seems to have been written by a completely different band than the one who made 2005’s The Haze Of...

Akimbo Harshing Your Mellow [4/5] On my list of very, very under-appreciated bands, one in particular sits noisily at the top-Akimbo. This calamitous three-piece have been blowing speakers and eardrums for the better part of a decade but still, somewhat remarkably, remain way below the radar of the average heavy music fan. If any justice...

Job For A Cowboy Genesis [4.5/5] It’s pretty impressive that this quintet from the sun-scorched deserts of Arizona wrote their debut EP Doom while still in high school and in the few short years since, toured North America and Europe several times over. But what’s more impressive is Job For A Cowboy’s cacophonous music-a lashing,...

Funeral For A Friend Tales Don’t Tell Themselves [3.5/5] After writing most of 2005’s middling Hours on the road, South Wales’ Funeral For A Friend returned home both intent on shaking the contrivances that’d emerged in their sound and determined not to deliver a pedestrian post-hardcore effort. The result? How about a concept album about...

Travis The Boy With No Name [3/5] There’s something refreshingly old-fashioned about Travis, four nice Scots making wistful-yet-sing-along pop that has little in common with any trend of the last 20-odd years. So even though this is the band’s first album since 2003, it seems like they’ve never been away. Travis’ best feature remains Fran...