Brian Shultz

Citizen As You Please ROCKS LIKE: Brand New, Balance And Composure, Smashing Pumpkins WHAT'S DIFFERENT: Citizen have made for one of the scene’s most interesting and evolutionary acts, shifting from passable pop punk to hazy emo and then to jarring noise rock in the vein of Brand New’s Daisy. While the BN i ...

Circa Survive The Amulet ROCKS LIKE: Dredg, Engine Down, Cave In WHAT'S DIFFERENT: Circa Survive are now six albums deep into a truly unique sound they’ve cultivated all themselves. By and large, they remain true to that sound on The Amulet, so not much is different here. That sai ...

Manchester Orchestra A Black Mile To The Surface FILE UNDER: Wondrous, widescreen rock ROCKS LIKE: Fleet Foxes, My Morning Jacket, Band Of Horses WHAT'S DIFFERENT: Where to start? A Black Mile To The Surface sounds more like the logical follow-up to 2011’s complex Simple Math than it does 2014’s nonetheless great, grungy Cope. Here, Manchest ...

Color Film Living Arrangements FILE UNDER: Neo new wave from familiar faces ROCKS LIKE: Duran Duran, Heaven 17, Yazoo WHAT'S DIFFERENT: The debut album from this kaleidoscopic new-wave project featuring Glassjaw’s Daryl Palumbo and ex-Men, Women & Children bassist Richard Penzone (both in the somewhat comparable Head Automatica) certainly has its differences from the pair’s respectively best-k

Tigers Jaw spin FILE UNDER: Emo rock done right ROCKS LIKE: Saves The Day, the Get Up Kids, Lemuria WHAT'S DIFFERENT: While Tigers Jaw’s lineup was overhauled in 2013, it was essentially business as usual on that year’s Charmer, with three departing members appearing on the recording. On spin, it’s ...

Cayetana New Kind Of Normal FILE UNDER: Introspective indie-punk ROCKS LIKE: Liz Phair, P.S. Eliot, forgetters WHAT'S DIFFERENT: Cayetana refine their scrappy, poppy garage punk so immensely on their sophomore LP, they might even need recategorization. Th ...

Have Mercy Make The Best Of It FILE UNDER: Alt-rock emo ROCKS LIKE: Jimmy Eat World, the Early November, I Am The Avalanche WHAT'S DIFFERENT: Have Mercy’s growth seems subtle at first glance on their third full-length, but further listening exposes the maturation and darker shades of their melodic, emo-leaning alt-rock. Their ac ...

The Smith Street Band More Scared Of You Than You Are Of Me FILE UNDER: Modern melodic punk ROCKS LIKE: Against Me!, Billy Bragg, the Flatliners WHAT'S DIFFERENT: Not much, honestly, but it doesn’t matter. Though they’ve rubbed shoulders with rambling, modern emo wordsmiths (cf. the Front Bott... Read More ...

Western Addiction Tremulous FILE UNDER: Hardcore punk ROCKS LIKE: New Mexican Disaster Squad, Black Flag, Only Crime WHAT'S DIFFERENT: Bay Area hardcore punkers Western Addiction haven’t actually changed much since their 2005 full-length debut, Cognicide, but they’ve aged gracefully. There is a gre ...

The Menzingers After The Party FILE UNDER: Nostalgic, romantic and melodic punk After The Party THE MENZINGERS 2/3 // Epitaph **** ROCKS LIKE: The Gaslight Anthem, the Lawrence Arms, Against Me! WHAT'S DIFFERENT: Not much, honestly—besides the Menzingers further cementing themselves as modern kings of heartfelt and nostalgic melodic punk, with that signature splash of alternative rock accessibilit

Dave Hause Bury Me In Philly FILE UNDER: Biting and bright singer-songwriter fare ROCKS LIKE: Frank Turner, Brian Fallon, Ryan Adams WHAT'S DIFFERENT: Bury Me In Philly doesn’t really overhaul the former Loved Ones frontman’s M.O., but it showcases a wise and occ ...

From Indian Lakes Everything Feels Better Now Indie Pop Exploration ROCKS LIKE: Polyenso, Radiohead, Mutemath WHAT’S DIFFERENT: From Indian Lakes have softly shapeshifted from their emo-indebted beginnings to an electronic-tinged, subdued powerhouse that’s occasionally otherworldly and harder to classify. Their four ...

Silver Snakes Saboteur Silver Snakes have progressed along an increasingly heavy trajectory since their debut album, and Saboteur completes the evolution with refreshing creativity. The quartet pull from turn-of-the-century alt-rock, industrial ("Charmer"), stoner (“Dresden”), electronic (“Devotion”), post-metal and sludge styles to ambitious and surprisingly cohesive effect. The end res

(MOSTLY SELECTED) BY: Brian Shultz Each year, multiple groups of musicians who banded together and managed to find creative fulfillment with one another decide to go their separate ways. It's inevitable, but it often leaves their fans feeling like they’ve been punched in the gut. Ther...

Dustin Kensrue Carry The Fire Dustin Kensrue’s solo material has progressed similarly to that of another sensitive bearded man originally from a heavy band: City & Colour’s Dallas Green. Kensrue’s debut, 2007’s Please Come Home was acoustic-based, while his 2013 worship album, The Water And The Blood, probably had committed atheists singing along as it implemented full-band sounds (“Suffering

Success Radio Recovery Success are sort of refreshing simply for playing a strain of jubilant, up-tempo pop-punk that’s heavily in the vein of Less Than Jake circa Hello Rockview and Borders & Boundaries, minus the horns (especially on cuts like “Believe In” and “Mr. Know It All”). That’s beca ...

THE MOVIELIFE have traveled a long road to come back, fully formed and motivated for a flurry of activity. After their 2003 breakup, frontman VINNIE CARUANA played the 2008 Bamboozle in New Jersey with members of Set Your Goals backing him. There was also a pair of shows the actual band reunited to play in 2011: one at that year's installment of the Bamboozle, and a purported "final" app

Roughly a dozen releases into its lifespan, Philadelphia's Lame-O Records have officially launched a charitable project in the long-storied spirit of punk giving back. Their new compilation, Strength In Weakness, continues in the tradition of Sub City Records' Take Action! tours ...

The Twilight Sad Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave The Twilight Sad have been plugging away for more than a decade, amassing a sizable catalog that's progressed from the sort of autumnal, patient anguish practiced by their Scottish contemporaries Frightened Rabbit, forth towards darker, drawn-out and noise-ratcheted shoegazey catharsis, and then to black-decked, electronic-smoked p

Somos/Sorority Noise Split EP Both bands on this split EP released full-lengths earlier this year, and while one regresses ever-so-slightly from their album and the other improves, they may not meet in the middle anytime soon. Somos start it with a pair of tracks that may not be quite as good as the material from their Temple Of Plenty LP earlier this year, but are nonetheless solid and a continui