June 14, 2010

Every Avenue Ah! Ah! might be Every Avenue's third release, but the group's Fearless Records debut sounds like a lot of bands' early material: raw recordings of sophomoric arrangements that still yield some genuine diamond-in-the-rough moments ("Picking Up The Pieces"), setting the stage for future greatness. After all, you can pretty much hear by-the-book numbers...

Craig Owens With Love With Love is the first true “solo” record released by Craig Owens, the former Chiodos mic-wielder and international man of many side projects, and it kind of leaves you scratching your head. Released in September 2009 just weeks before the band announced they'd given Owens the boot, you almost have to...

Chiodos The Heartless Control Everything The third release by the Chiodos Bros. (now just Chiodos), 2003's The Heartless Control Everything is mostly another important building block in the still-young band's progression toward their 2005 full-length debut, All's Well That Ends Well. Although filled with promise, the band's better days were clearly still to come. One...

Taking Back Sunday Tell All Your Friends At the risk of sounding harsh, there are two very distinct versions of the band that calls itself Taking Back Sunday: the lineup that recorded their 2002 debut, Tell All Your Friends; and then, every other group of players singer Adam Lazzara & Co. have cobbled together since. Truthfully,...

The Used The Used Emerging as the post-hardcore and modern-day screamo scenes were steadily building momentum in 2002, the Used clawed their way onto the map on the merits of delivering a debut that while not necessarily setting the world on fire, still managed to wield a scrappy, unique and compelling personality. From the get...

The Summer Set …In Color EP It's easy to forgive the more immature aspects of the Summer Set's first EP after signing with the Militia Group when you take into account the simple fact that many of these songs were written soon after the band formed in 2007. The majority of the five tracks are,...

Hey Monday Hold On Tight You’d be hard-pressed to find any reference to Hey Monday that doesn’t immediately mention Paramore. But any similarities between the two acts are surface at best. For starters, HM vocalist Cassadee Pope has a pronounced sweet tooth: Her powerful, mature singing has much in common with both sassy ’90s acts...

Circa Survive The Inuit Sessions It’s hard to remember a time when Doylestown, Pennsylvania’s Circa Survive were better known primarily as ex-members of Saosin and This Day Forward. Such was the case when Equal Vision introduced the band with this limited (and now collectable) EP. On The Inuit Sessions, Circa Survive made loud and clear...

All Time Low Put Up Or Shut Up Maryland quartet All Time Low have truly found their voice since the release of their 2006 EP Put Up Or Shut Up—most of which was pulled from their 2005 debut The Party Scene, a disc that came out on a tiny local label. The seven bouncy pop-punk...