Jesse Raub

Bry Webb Free Will There’s a freedom offered when one strikes out on his own. No longer writing parts distinct for each band member to play, a solo artist has the ability to focus in on the song craft itself, and worry less about the arrangement. It’s ...

Black God II EP With no song breaking the two-minute mark, Black God’s new EP follows the rule of golden-era Black Flag—four chords, a lead riff, a pummeling rhythm section—and it comes off as smarter than it seems. Pushing into near post-hardcore territory without sacrificing any beats-per-minute, the band only pause their relentless 10 minutes of straightforward rock for intros and outros cons

The Swan King Eyes Like Knives It’s not hard to see Fugazi’s influence among a variety of modern punk and hardcore bands, and it’s clear that the Swan King (featuring former Planes Mistaken For Stars bassist Jamie Drier) were reared on those aggressive rhythms and guitar riffs. The story doesn’ ...

Mikey Jukebox Mikey Jukebox For some people, bridging the gap between Green Album-era Weezer and late-’70s disco beats would be nothing more than a precious gimmick. For former Longwave drummer Mike James, it’s the basis of his new one-man project, Mikey Jukebox. Cutting bi ...

Brain Banger Munsoned EP When Brain Banger went through the history of Louisville, Kentucky, heavy music to tally their influences, they came to the same sum of their parts that Sleater-Kinney reached in the early ’90s in the Pacific Northwest. Ther ...

Pepper Stitches EP Brad Nowell couldn’t have known what he was starting. Filled with a desire for both social commentary and substance abuse, he wrote punk-infused, reggae-inspired ska songs with enough pop-radio appeal to make him a star (albeit belatedly). In h ...

American Idiot As if Green Day were attempting to wipe their listeners memories of their missteps on 2000’s Warning, American Idiot starts out with the band’s best Undertones-esque punk riffing on a vaguely political song harkening back to their roots in the best way possible. The band then tackle the next three tracks with a ...

Warning When Warning kicks off with the title track, the straightforward acoustic rocker shows promise for the album. Green Day’s playing is tightened up even more, leaving no note unexpected and placed perfect, and the walking bassline is catchy. Even the bondage-tribute hard ...

Nimrod Nimrod very well may be the album everyone expected to come from Green Day after 1994’s Dookie. But when faced with their major-label follow-up, Green Day went for the stadium-rock grandeur of Insomniac’s huge guitars and tightened up playing. With that out of their system, the band had the chance ...

Insomniac After Dookie, Green Day were faced with a variety of options. Poised to take over the world if only they re-wrote another alterna-anthem like “Basket Case,” the band took a step back and looked through their back catalog. In order to fill the stadiums ...

Dookie There’s a collective thought that once a band sign a major label contract, they take the money and run, letting their major label debut fall flat among high production values and A&R men searching for the single. With Dookie, Green Day seem  ...

Kerplunk Out the gate, Green Day are trying to prove something with Kerplunk. “2000 Light Years Away” comes polished off with new drummer Tré Cool’s unpredictable and precision rat-a-tat fills, Mike Dirnt’s dominating bass and Billie Joe Armstrong’s newfound sense of perfect pop hooks. The band take full advantage of their secret weapo...

1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours Origin stories tend to give insight into comic book characters that helps explain the choices they’ve made, the directions they’ve taken, and the importance of their past. For Green Day, 1,039/Smoothed O... Read More ...

Repo Black Dice's track record could be distracting. A group that used to incorporate noise into their hardcore lost their song structure when they lost their rhythm section. Playing like dub music channeled through SETI transmissions, REPO is seemingly devoid of any organic instruments. Or rhythms. ...

Static Tensions Following three albums' worth of crusty metal fused from the spare body parts of the band's revolving lineup--and after adding a second drummer-Kylesa return with Static Tensions, an album that pushes further into new melodies and refinement. Though some ...

Be One Of Us And Hear No Noise Metavari are stuck in a drawer full of early Death Cab For Cutie melodies and emotive electronica. While this could make for a troublesome combination of the predictable and the well worn, the group are able to play their music with strong conviction and a solid backbeat ...

Daughters After shedding their art-grind style from 2003's debut Canada Songs and expanding into more avant-noise territory, Daughters have finally added the missing piece to their sound--a crushing low end. The drums and bass on their new, self-titled album create a punishing bedrock for the songs to set in, there's a semblance of melody in some parts, and when the band's trademark guitar sting

Gravity Though the album might have more hooks than a meat locker, Time And Distance’s Gravity begins to slide unwaveringly into predictability after the second track. What starts as well thought-out and catchy pop quickly turns into a game of “Wait, didn’t I just hear this song?” At the same tim ...