Brian Shultz

Go Rydell The Golden Age   Go Rydell present the ultimate frustration: How badly can one bag a band for being so unoriginal when they're so forthright and honest about it? There's wearing your influences on your sleeves, and then there's Go Rydell, who practically tattoo them. They're an unfailingly merry melodic hardcore outfit from […]

Various Artists Cause A Scene, Volume One   The first volume of digital punk compilation Cause A Scene is a generous project. Label founder Ryan Raichilson hopes to unearth the best of underground punk bands from the New York City and New Jersey area with this album, which spans 22 tracks of various punk and […]

Kevin Devine She Stayed As Steam EP   Kevin Devine provides a four-song spate of very passable holdover material with She Stayed As Steam, a new EP of B-sides and remixes. Though they're not as cool as his breathy, glitchy cover of Manchester Orchestra's "The Only One" from their split single issued earlier this year, […]

The Effort Wartime Citizens The Effort are a fine product of the modern hardcore era. The Massachusetts act score their sophomore full-length, Wartime Citizens, with a melodic but scorching, often midtempo burn and passionate left-wing political stance not unlike Verse's Aggression. While they haven't had as much time to refine themselves into such a precise, […]

United Nations Never Mind The Bombings, Here’s Your Six Figures EP   Mysterious screamo supergroup United Nations’ latest calculated wave of caustic, slightly chaotic hardcore comes in the form of a four-song 7-inch for Deathwish Inc., Never Mind The Bombings, Here’s Your Six Figures. Since we last heard from the band, they got in some legal […]

Let Me Run Broken Strings EP Broken Strings finds New Jersey flannel-punks Let Me Run testing out a six-pack of tracks on their newest leader, vocalist/guitarist Dan Maxwell. Having replaced ex-frontman Travis Omilian, Maxwell's voice often sounds pretty similar to Omilian's on record, exhibiting the same level of rasp with maybe a little more waver.  Musically, […]

Moved On Coffee Project are a duo comprised of Less Than Jake trombonist Buddy Schaub and Rehasher's Jake Crown playing stripped-down, enthusiastic acoustic songs with a slight pop-punk flavor and some punchy brass assistance. Moved On is where they make their full-length debut, and it's unfortunately sort of middling throughout. There's no denying the natural-sounding […]

Bad Advice EP If you were to establish a pop-punk spectrum bookended by New Found Glory at one tip and All Time Low at the other, I Call Fives would likely reside directly at its center. They don't have the hardcore-influenced grit of the former, but they narrowly avoid the glossy effervescence of the latter, […]

Brother’s Blood Kevin Devine's cycle of self-reactions reaches its best results yet with Brother's Blood, a wildly varied affair featuring hushed acoustic/electric ditties and cathartic, jagged howlers. If the falters of 2006's major-label outing, Put Your Ghost To Rest, could be attributed to a muted dynamism and consistent quasi-folk flair, Brother's Blood answers those concerns immediately. Devine wastes little […]