Brendan Manley

Matt Pryor May Day Putting it mildly, there are some really “interesting” projects folks try to get funded via Kickstarter. But what makes the site/mechanism so compelling is that for all the countless deluded nutbars out there looking to finance pillow art, books about their cat or edible drinking cups, every now and again true art is supported, at a time when artists need it most. Kickstarte ...

Blessthefall Awakening Phoenix headbangers Blessthefall aren’t looking to reinvent the wheel—their third full-length, Awakening, isn’t going to shock you with some radical reinvention of modern metalcore or death metal that the likes of As I Lay Dying, Darkest Hour or At The Gates somehow neglected to unleash over the years. Instead, BTF use ...

This Time Next Year Drop Out Of Life It’s really too bad that Drop Out Of Life, the sophomore full-length by Walnut Creek, California, pop-punks This Time Next Year, didn’t drop into our iPods at the start of the summer, rather than now, with fall already upon us and another winter not far behind. Loaded wit ...

Gregory Attonito Natural Disaster EP The great luxury of being a punk-rock elder statesman whose primary band run their own DIY label means you can pretty much do what you like creatively. For Bouncing Souls frontman Greg Attonito, at the present moment that indulgence is mellowing out with an acoustic guitar and embracing his softer side ...

Various Artists Rave On Buddy Holly It’s no small achievement that bespectacled ’50s rock icon Buddy Holly—who was tragically killed in a 1959 plane crash, aged 22—still inspires countless artists today. However, his impact runs much deeper than merely informing some retro, geek-chic fashion aesthetic or providing a kitschy, Happy Days-themed hook for a Weezer song. Ample proof is found o ... Read

Emery We Do What We Want The first thing you really notice on We Do What We Want, Emery’s fifth full-length, is how heavy it is. Like, ridiculously heavy. Between the ubiquitous A Day To Remember-styled chugga-chugga breakdowns and frantically shrill screams, it’s the hardest performance the band have served up in a long time, if not ever. It turns o ...

Mayday Parade Valdosta EP Mayday Parade have a ton to prove with their next full-length, and pretty much everyone from singer/pianist Derek Sanders to your grandmother knows it. It still all boils down to the ever-present 500-pound gorilla in the room—whether the Tallahassee, Florida pop-punk five-piece have any creative juice without original singer/guitarist/songwriter Jason Lancaster (now with

Various Artists Love Is Hopeless Before you roll your eyes at the very idea of a Valentine’s Day comp, which admittedly, could easily devolve into a mass of pathetic, woe-is-me emoting and merciless ex-bashing chock full of lead-pipe metaphors, trust in Hopeless Records’ substantial pedigree for promoting quality jams and give this one a shot. Featuring ...

Various Artists 'Tis The Season To Be Fearless The only thing worse than a superfluous Christmas compilation is a superfluous Christmas comp with mostly originaltracks, so it’s an early holiday treat to find that ‘Tis The Season To Be Fearlessavoids both of these Yuletide pitfalls. The label’ ...

The Almost Monster Monster EP In the second pre-chorus of “Birmingham,” the lead track on the Almost’s Monster Monster EP, frontman Aaron Gillespie pleads, “I wanna be just what I need to be/I'm getting free just like I gotta be,” over punchy guitars and a militant rhythm once-removed from Green Day’s “Holiday.” Then a big catchy chorus erupts, with Gille ...

Despite his understandable thrill at having the chance to join UNDEROATH (featured in AP 269) as the band’s new drummer, DANIEL DAVISON (second from left) has been far from dormant since leaving Norma Jean in 2007. Between playing and working various roles in the music buisness, Davison has had a lot of irons in the fire in recent years. It almost soun ...

A Day To Remember What Separates Me From You Maybe A Day To Remember's latest, What Separates Me From You, will be the album when all the haters finally quit hating. For now, though, it's really good that they haven't: ADTR work best angry. There's a ...

Ludo Prepare The Preparations Perhaps if St. Louis geek rockers Ludo hadn’t hit such a homerun with 2008’s You’re Awful, I Love You, the follow-up to that record, Prepare The Preparations, wouldn’t be such a letdown. But alas, anyone expec ...

Take This To Your Grave One spin of Take This To Your Grave and a quick peek at the band’s endearing DIY video for the impossibly catchy “Dead On Arrival” was all it took back in 2003 to realize that the embryonic Chicago pop-punk four-piece Fall Out Boy were on their way to becoming a global phenomenon. From that moment onward, e ...

Fall Out Boy’s Evening Out With Your Girlfriend If you weren’t already convinced that Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump could belt out the ingredients on the back of a bag of Doritos and somehow make them into the catchiest little ditty ever, consider the fact that Stump, while still just a kid himself, almost even managed to save his band’s roughshod 2003 indie debut, the now-intentionally fo

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 wonder if the EP, or its subject matter (mostly Owens either in o

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 f ...

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 co ...

Emarosa Emarosa You'd think that after releasing a solo album last year, as well as a much-hyped EP with scene supergroup Isles & Glaciers, golden-throated frontman Jonny Craig might be running a little low in the tank. Not so: If anything, the transplanted Canadian belter has saved his best for what's likely his final major release of 2010: a new record by Lexington, Kentucky's Emarosa, the b

Isles And Glaciers The Hearts Of Lonely People EP There's really no other "scene" record out there quite like The Hearts Of Lonely People, the debut EP by post-hardcore supergroup Isles & Glaciers, but after hearing it, you kinda wish there was. Built aroun ...