The Gay Blades
The Gay Blades Ghosts [3.5/5]
Feel free to ignore the made-up exploits you might have read about New York City kitsch-pop duo the Gay Blades; the poppy rattlings of vocalist/guitarist Clark Westfield and vocalist/drummer Puppy Mills have personality enough without any hipster theatrics. Though the Blades market themselves as a two-piece, we found enough multi-tracked...
Dungen
Dungen 4 [3.5/5]
They might not sing in English, they might release albums without bothering to tour on them (like last year’s Tio Bitar), and they might even call their fifth album 4, but none of that has stopped Swedish psych-folk-lounge-whathaveyou quartet Dungen from scoring themselves a respectable following here in the lower 48. This...
Catfish Haven
Catfish Haven Devastator [3/5]
The press materials accompanying Devastator, the new album by scraggly rock/soul three-piece Catfish Haven, liken the disc to KISS’ Destroyer, ZZ Top’s Eliminator and Lou Reed’s Transformer-but if anything, CH sound more like Bad Company, the Doobie Brothers and the Commitments getting smashed on Mad Dog 20/20 then wrestling in...
Star Fucking Hipsters
Star Fucking Hipsters Until We’re Dead [3/5]
Featuring members of Leftover Crack, Choking Victim and the Slackers, the charmingly named Star Fucking Hipsters are undoubtedly a side project. They’ve steered well clear of the dreaded “novelty band” tag, however, by producing an album chock-full of quality tunes (even if they do seem a tad confused...
Bridge Nine signs Dead Swans
Bridge Nine has signed the UK’s Dead Swans.
The label says the band take influence from "turn of the century Boston hardcore like American
Nightmare and Right Brigade."
The band will hit the studio in April to record their debut full-length. Prior to that they’ll be hitting the road with This Is Hell...
Sleeping In The Aviary
Sleeping In The Aviary Expensive Vomit In A Cheap Hotel [3/5]
A night sleeping beneath the birds is likely to be, uh, aromatic and streaky. It’s kind of a cringeworthy image, but the sawdust and feathers it evokes well capture this album’s aesthetic, as does its excellent (if graphic) title. Not always the easiest listen,...
Rise Against - Appeal To Reason
Rise Against Appeal To Reason Rise Against owe a heavy debt to the classic “thinking man’s punk” bands who’ve come before them. The Chicago-based punk band usually find ways of channeling those well-established traditions into timely discourse, to which you can’t help but raise your fist. Unfortunately, those moments are hit-or-miss on their latest release,...
The Riot Before
The Riot Before Fists Buried In Pockets [4.5/5]
We all knew the success of Against Me! would bring along a new crop of bands singing about drinking, politics and beards; that’s a given. But Richmond, Virginia’s the Riot Before, initially the solo acoustic act of frontman Brett Adams, have turned into a legitimate contender for...
Monikers
Monikers Wake Up [3.5/5]
Monikers, an Orlando trio with deep roots in the punk community, are among a recent surge of bands combining Leatherface, Jawbreaker and the Gainesville, Florida, sound to create one of the scene’s more quickly growing movements. Where Monikers succeed the most on Wake Up is splicing in some of the catchy...