Menu | Rating System | Guest Book | Archived Reviews:
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

         
 
Reviewed by:
  PostLibyan  
         
 
The Beautiful View:
  The Horseman
The Beautiful View are a four-piece pop-punk from San Diego. This song has crunchy guitars and funky rhythms, with spastic vocals over top. The whole thing plays like a spastic dance tune. I can imagine people going crazy when they play this live.
 
 
Rating:
   
 
Watch:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjP5MPTi-D0  
 
Download:
  https://soundcloud.com/requiemme/01-the-horseman/s-HXrz3  
 
Site:
 

http://thebeautifulview.com/

 
 
Social:
  https://www.facebook.com/THEBEAUTIFULVIEW  
         
 
A Grave With No Name:
 

Steps
This is a really cool song. It has hand-clapped rhythms, layers of voices in the background, rich keyboards, and a nice almost folkish singing over some clattering guitar. And then, halfway through, some drums come in, a nice big booming that seems to come out of nowhere and yet feels perfectly right for the song. A really nice moment.

 
 
Rating:
   
 
Watch:
  http://vimeo.com/67683394  
 
Download:
  http://lefserecords.com/tracks/AGraveWithNoName-Steps.mp3  
 
Social:
  https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Grave-With-No-Name/  
 
SoundCloud:
  https://soundcloud.com/agravewithnoname  
         
 
Eric Harvey:
 

Tried and True
Harvey is a folk singer with a nice voice, vaguely reminiscent on Paul Simon. He combines this with a tinkling of acoustic and some big booming drums that clatter on the verses and open up into a huge thundering on the choruses. He adds in a female backing voice, which is a nice accompaniment to his singing. Overall, this is a good little tune that grooves along nicely.

 
 
Rating:
   
 
Listen:
  https://soundcloud.com/ericharvey/07-triedandtrue  
 
Site:
  http://www.ericharvey.com/  
 
Social:
  https://www.facebook.com/ehrvy  
         
 
Magical Mistakes:
 

Don’t Need Much
Magical Mistakes is the project of a US producer living in Osaka, Japan. He makes latptoptronic music out of loops of guitar, voice, percussion, and keyboards. This is very much like what Four Tet does, but he manages to pull it off in a fun way.

 
 
Rating:
   
 
Download:
  http://www.bantermm.com/tracks/MagicalMistakes-DontNeedMuch.mp3  
 
Site:
  http://www.magicalmistakes.com/  
 
Social:
  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Magical-Mistakes/157289457630196  
         
 
Mirador:
 

Dance of the Lantern People
Mirador is the project of Kyle Robinson, from Philadelphia. This is a long, droning track, with tinkling keyboards, thudding percussion, and odd sounds wandering in an out. It is a psychedelic jam, and pretty good if you like that sort of thing.

 
 
Rating:
   
 
Download:
 

https://soundcloud.com/miradorband/dance-of-the-lantern-people

 
 
Social:
  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mirador/325697617876?ref=ts  
         
 
Modern Blossom:
 

A Sickness Called Faith
This is a noisy synthpop tune a la The Faint or Ladytron. The song pulses and throbs angrily, really moving along at a great pace. But ... the voice. Ugh, i dislike this singer's voice -- he appears to swallow the vowels while whining at the same time. The music is excellent, but perhaps Modern Blossom would be better off as an instrumental act.

 
 
Rating:
   
 
Watch:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-0o71Re21Q  
 
Download:
  http://indiepress.bandcamp.com/track/a-sickness-called-faith  
 
Site:
  http://modernblossom.com/  
         
 
The Quiet Americans:
 

Weird Mountain
This is a raucous old fashioned bluesy rock tune, and not quiet at all. The guitars buzz and pop and the drums are a dull thudding. A male voice sings through distortion, and the song rocks along mightily. The end rocks out under a wall of distortion and pounding rhythms. Five minutes is, perhaps, a bit too long for this song, but it's still pretty good.

 
 
Rating:
   
 
Download:
  (the whole EP this song is on is free) http://quietamericans.bandcamp.com/  
 
Social:
 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Quiet-Americans/169213129791946

 
         
 
Sauna:
  Glitter Party
Sauna are a young band from Colorado who make crazy, spastic garage rock. This song features a female vocalist who sings through echo like she is (mostly) bored in a way that reminds me of The Waitresses. Meanwhile, a surf rock band plays, loud, raucous and crazy. In a way this reminds me of early Coathangers. Not bad at all. These kids have some chops.
 
 
Rating:
   
 
Watch:
  http://vimeo.com/36411550  
 
BandCamp:
  http://sauna666.bandcamp.com/  
 
Social:
  https://www.facebook.com/sauna666  
         
 
Supreme Cuts:
  Lessons of Darkness
Supreme Cuts are an electronic duo from Chicago, and this is a groovy Baraka-esque ambient tune, with clattering tribal percussion and some sample of native voices alongside a done and a tinkling keyboard riff. Nice.
 
 
Rating:
   
 
Download:
  https://soundcloud.com/dovecote-records/lessons-of-darkness-apology-1  
 
Bandcamp:
  http://supremecuts.bandcamp.com/  
 
Social:
  https://www.facebook.com/supcuts  
         
 
Tough Guys of America:
  Jersey Shore
This is another ironically named act. I expected a band with a name like this to do loud, energetic rock music. Instead, this is a mellow pop band, guitars chiming as a male voice sings through echo. It’s a gold little tune though. However, well, I guess these guys and The Quiet Americans (above) should flip names…
 
 
Rating:
   
 
Download:
  http://www.bantermm.com/tracks/ToughGuysofAmerica-JerseyShore.mp3  
 
Social:
  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tough-Guys-of-America/  
 
BandCamp:
  http://toughguysofamerica.bandcamp.com/  
         
         

Return to the top of this page. | Return to the Album Review menu.