January 29, 2009

Person L Initial [3.5/5] When the Starting Line announced their hiatus this past March, it came as quite the surprise to their massive fanbase. While Person L, the newest project of TSL frontman Kenneth Vasoli (with contributions from TSL keyboardist Brian Schmutz), may do little to quell those fans’ thirst for the Line’s mildly quirky...

Dragonforce Ultra Beatdown [4.5/5] By this point, almost everyone with a plastic guitar has pulled their hair out trying to shred through the bonus songs on Guitar Hero III, anchored by DragonForce’s blistering 2006 single “Through The Fire And Flames.” What’s remarkably fitting about the video game pairing is DragonForce specialize in music that conjures...

Sky Eats Airplane Sky Eats Airplane [4.5/5] Plenty of bands exploit the ironic potential within MySpace’s tagging system, but if you’re truly desperate to classify the racket made by Fort Worth, Texas’ Sky Eats Airplane, well, there it is atop the quintet’s homepage: “HARDCORE / ELECTRONICA / METAL.” Careful though, because it’s the slashes between...

Have Heart Songs To Scream At The Sun [3.5/5] During a show with seminal D.C. band Embrace, Ian MacKaye denounced the new (and pejorative) punk classification “emo-core.” He spat, “I guess hardcore wasn’t emotional to begin with.” Have Heart express vividly just how emotional hardcore can be without devolving into overwrought melodramatic sap. They write...

Valencia We All Need A Reason To Believe [4/5] Valencia have come a long way since former Midtown drummer Rob Hitt signed them to his fledging, apartment-based record label I Surrender in 2005. The little New Jersey band, who nearly had their debut album This Could Be A Possibility not distributed in any stores, are...

The Stills Oceans Will Rise [4/5] Like a softcore photo spread of the Amish, Vice Records and the Stills were always an uneasy marriage. The group’s first two albums, less snark-and-vomit than earnest-and-melodic, were Territorial bridge-and-tunnel bridesmaids instead of NYC black-clad brides. Shedding Vice and crossing the border to Arts&Crafts has both opened up the...

The Gaslight Anthem The ’59 Sound Imagine the end of summer when those whirlwind romances, jealous hearts and unbridled backseat desires face the untimely fate of blowing away with the changing leaves. Harvesting deeply entrenched emotions of love, loss, lust and looming change, modern punk mavericks the Gaslight Anthem know these notions all too well...