Slow Burning Car - Defection (2017)

OFFICIAL: http://www.slowburningcar.com/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/SlowBurningCar/

Written by Raymond Burris, posted by blog admin

Slow Burning Car offers up a 10-track, hard rockin’ groove fest on their 4^th record Defection.  This twin guitar, energetic group mixes grand melodies with a rough, unpolished edge that is sure to ignite a spirited little mosh-pit at one of the band’s many concerts.  With airplay on 130 stations, this Los Angeles bred quartet has made quite an impact since their inception. 

The aesthetic Slow Burning Car settles on is as follows; not too heavy but certainly not too light.  Songs toss and turn between punk-fed melodies with a lot of pop phrasings and white knuckle guitar heroics where riff and rowdiness are king.  Lead-in number “Alpha Duplicor” is a prime example, the cut settling into a meaty, drop-D groove that allows the 2^nd guitarist to add leads and insert melodic indentations.  Bassist/vocalist Troy Spiropoulos constantly pushes the riffs into action with his bouncy, clearly felt bass lines lifting up from underneath as his voice’s well-contained anger never crushes any of the melodic intentions.  “Soul Crimes” is just as loud but ups the pacing by several clicks and weaves some harmonies into the vocals.  They’ve got a cool, breezy punk vibe that culls from goodtime punkers like Pulley or even Avail.  The mix of hard and soft mainly, not the exact dynamics of those bands; that’s one of Slow Burning Car’s biggest strengths, the fact that they really only sound like themselves. 

“The Orb” uses punk as a foundation but messes with some new wave, FX-dabbed vocal harmonies in the chorus.  It’s an unusual track from the beginning.  Drummer Adam Idell smashes out the intro solo with a syncopated, madman fill and the tune goes tumbling into down tuned riffs and angry, rhythmic vocal jabs.  They combine at least three different elements of genre and mash them up into a seamless barrage of sound.  “Devil in the Room” has got the kind of pop punk smarts that could easily land these guys a record deal with Epitaph; it’s no-nonsense and harder than the stuff that radio plays.  “The Sunday Derby” might stop for some catchy lyrical turns of phrase but this song feels like some twisted, gussied up version of really rocked-out 90s indie that is sandwiched in by another couple chord rocker, “You Can’t Stay Here.”  “Bedtime” is a fine acoustic guitar ditty, a sort of couplet alongside the equally sublime “Chrysanthemum.”  Just when you think the record is going to settle into a singular vibe, the band again pitches a curve in the form of “Polar Warden,” a psychedelic rock piece with a tapestry of loops, sound FX, molten bass riffs and sporadic vocals floating like vapor from your stereo speakers.  “Clouds” brings the album home with some epic, skyward guitar riffing, overcast drumming and stormy low-end yielding an emotionally stirring hard rocker that couldn’t have found better placement as a final number. 

Defection is really in its own league as an album.  It’s fresh, original and pretty rocking with a challenging songwriting approach that skips across several rock genres.  You can tell the band really enjoy and get down on their sound and this plays out to the listener’s advantage while listening to the record.  This album rocks hard and is a lot of fun; well-worth a buy for rock, punk, indie, grunge, and even hardcore fans. 

Josh Birdsong - Where the Light Bends (2017)

OFFICIAL: http://joshbirdsong.com/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/joshbirdsongguitar/

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/JoshBirdsong

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/joshbirdsongmusic/

Written by Daniel Boyer, posted by blog admin

Where the Light Bends is the second release from Nashville based singer, songwriter, and guitarist Josh Birdsong. His debut Simple Geometry threw down the gauntlet by serving notice to the Nashville scene and the music world at large that a major new performer and writer is poised to make a deep impact. The promise of that initial release is fully realized with Where the Light Bends’ six songs and it has an impressive scope despite being an EP release. It isn’t surprising when you stop to consider the wave of accolades Birdsong has enjoyed since first emerging – numerous competitions, plum placement of his material on high profile television networks, and graduation from the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy with a singer/songwriter degree. Where the Light Bends should accelerate his upward trajectory and cement him as one of the more formidable talents to emerge in recent memory.

His artistry is apparent from the first song onward. “Complex Context” is definitely the most aggressive track on the release and, while it shares some of the ambient textures you hear fleshed out in greater detail on later songs, the authoritative drumming heard throughout much of the track and uptempo pace set it apart from later songs. Birdsong delivers an equally forceful vocal and his guitar parts are certainly worth listeners’ attention. His six string talents are simply impossible to ignore. Another of the strongest songs on Where the Light Bends is the second cut “The Sound Beneath the Static” and the well rounded creativity defining both the arrangement and lyric makes this one of Birdsong’s most fully realized moments on both this release and his debut. The chorus is particularly memorable and the one-two combination of this with the opener gets Where the Light Bends off to an impressive start. The ambient influences on Birdsong’s songwriting gain strength with the songs “Cloud 8” and the EP’s longest song “Too Much to Hold”, but neither track is so devoted to its soundscape design that it neglects to engage listeners. The former song, especially, features subtle guitar lines that get under the listener’s skin while Birdsong’s singing on “Too Much to Hold” raises already excellent lyrics to a much higher level.

The EP moves away from the atmospheric ambient tone of those songs and back to music more in touch with the potential of his guitar playing with the songs “Arctic Desert” and the title song. There’s a slightly unsettled, dissonant edginess coming from “Arctic Desert” Birdsong’s audience will undoubtedly admire and concluding the EP with its title track illustrates how thoroughly conceived this release is for Birdsong and balances the guitar textures with equally memorable keyboard playing. Where the Light Bends is a more than adequate follow up to Simple Geometry and embodies for current fans and newcomers alike Birdsong’s considerable talents. These six songs pack far more of a cumulative effect than many full length albums and it never resorts to heavy handed methods to achieve its desired results.

EZLA - Outcasts (2017)

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/ezlaofficial/
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Written by David Shouse, posted by blog admin

Textbook and traditional are not words that will help in the description of the flagship release, Outcasts, by California to Tennessee transplant EZLA. The singer/songwriter/musician is neither wed to simply West Coast influences nor the rural trot of the country and western capital of the world where she now hangs her hat. She’s stumbled upon this musical no man’s land where electronic instrumentation is the featured component, in addition to her earthy rise/fall/stop/start vocal style that makes playful usage of word-crammed verses that amazingly roll off the tongue and glorious pop choruses that go straight for the pay-off.  

There is no filler to be found here and no bad tracks. The only mark against EZLA’s debut is that a few of the tracks come off a bit same-y when tempo is considered. Although this uniform approach to rhythm and backbeats is broken by sudden sea changes and shifts in volume, as well as choruses that musically go against some of the darkness by sounding pretty darn happy and carefree. The title track leads the EP off and is a pitch-perfect example of EZLA’s abstract musical blueprint. Listeners are the on the receiving end of a jagged, angular beat that seems to start-up and shutdown at random until the song goes for the harmonic paydirt as the keyboards become more prominent in their cascade of phased/flanged grooves and a chorus that is practically tailor-made for radio airplay. “Skeletons” works up a similar sweat but might be just a few extra BPM in the verses as the song swirls in fuzzy, distorted discordance that’s akin to the 90s pop/industrial movement’s abrasive catchiness. You’ll never mistake EZLA for Nine Inch Nails even if the general aesthetics (edgy singing, twisted lyrics and a sonic arrangement meant to be played LOUD) is a kindred spirit to Reznor and company.  

The romantic “Satellites” is less aggressive and pointed than its predecessors, trading the harsher, noisier textures and jarring pace changes for echoing, reverbed ambience, soft yet expressive vocals drenched in vibrato while deliberate beat placements (that are less cut up and mashed) yield a more tangible song structure.  This welcome restraint is shattered by “Hangman’s” innovative vocal mapping, meticulous synth stacking, alien and mentally affecting trip-hop choruses and EZLA’s organically warped lyrics.  The cinematic musical backdrops reckon of experimental artists from past and present.  One can hear bits and pieces of VAST, Placebo, Joydrop, Plumb, Portishead and Massive Attack while listening to this track or any of the EP’s 5 well-rounded tunes, for that matter.  Cryptic and bent by black humor, “Psycho Killers” is the darkwave pop song equivalent of 80s slasher flicks with lyrics and musical undertones that only further this emphasis.  

You can allude to points of reference all night long when describing EZLA’s debut Outcasts but the fact remains that this is a wholly interesting piece of work that only sounds like EZLA.  The brutally honest underpinnings of the lyrics and shapeshifting sonic deconstruction won’t be for everyone but those that can handle the turbulence will find plenty to enjoy here.  Some stronger variations in tempo will be welcome on her next release, although the slight sameness of the beat programming ensures that open listeners will latch on and gleefully stick around on EZLA’s wicked ride.          

YYY - A Tribute to the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds (2017)

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/therealyyy/

Written by Pamela Bellmore, posted by blog admin

This is an exhilarating release. Austin Carson, adopting the name YYY for his musical projects, is a Minneapolis based musician who can’t be accused of playing it safe. His tribute to the seminal Beach Boys masterpiece Pet Sounds, unsurprisingly titled A Tribute to The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, doesn’t aspire to merely recreating the album. Thankfully. Instead, YYY has recruited the cream of the local musical crop to help him flesh out nothing less than a full on re-invention of this pop classic that endeavors to underline all of the aspects that make it such a canonical work while still putting his personal stamp on the collection with imagination and verve. It results in one of the year’s most impressive releases, original material or not. His interpretative powers are so developed that it isn’t a stretch to say this album, in its own way, is every bit as original as a release filled with his own compositions. He has claimed Brian Wilson’s tunes as his own and the addendums and revisions he subjects them to means this isn’t your father’s copy of Pet Sounds – for sure.

The opening track “Wouldn’t It Be Nice?” makes that last point clear. We are in familiar territory, to a certain extent – this wouldn’t be anything resembling a proper tribute to the album if it somehow forgot that vocal excellence is the lodestar of all things in Beach Boys music and the earnest, deeply felt qualities behind each of the album’s vocals more than respects the source material. He never neglects the melodic strengths behind these songs either, but he places them in a new context. The largely electronic arrangement has all the warmth that the song requires and more than adequately summons the needed atmospherics. When you go through this album, there is a small sense of YYY expending most of his creative energy on the album’s foundational songs – the aforementioned opener, “Sloop John B”, “God Only Knows”, and the closer “Good Vibrations”./ This is to be expected for a number of reasons, but it’s also a smart move – these are the pivot points upon which both the hardcore devotee and casual fan alike base their bulk of their knowledge regarding this album and he’d be a fool to not play those moments up.

Make no mistake, however, that his attentions do not extend to the comparatively little known secondary songs on Pet Sounds. He particularly excels bringing female voices into Wilson’s traditionally male dominated performances and Lydia Liza’s contributions to “Hang Onto Your Ego” and Devata Daun’s singing on “I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times” give these tracks a distinct character the originals do not have. Bringing in such a wide cast of guest stars from the Minneapolis scene to help him realize this tribute album could have made it a diffuse affair with a slightly schizophrenic character, but YYY shows the good instincts to utilize those performers in ways that accentuate their strengths and those of the respective song. It makes this tribute to Pet Sounds one of the most unique listening experiences in my recent memory and marks its creative mastermind, Austin Carson, as a talent to watch for years to come.

Chris Bartels - Myths and Mold (2017)

Myths and Mold / Album Video Teaser #1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8y-LCoVbAE

Written by David Shouse, posted by blog admin

Chris Bartels’ career trajectory is reminiscent of many other fine performers on the indie scene. He’s a jack of many projects, never adhering to just one course, and it’s resulted in a number of notable projects and efforts that reveal him as one of the best all around songwriting talents flying under mainstream radar today. His guitar playing is a powerful part of his presentation, but his vocals shouldn’t escape notice as he has quite an intelligent and emotive side to his singing reaching far beyond the ken of most indie singers. It makes his often poetic, at least suggestive, lyrical content stand out even more. The five songs on his newest solo EP, Myths and Mold, clearly shows that he’s capable of crafting some beautiful lyrics alongside near ideal sonic settings for that writing.

The EP begins with a decidedly alternative rock/indie music guitar vibe, but Bartels never stops there. He’s expended a tremendous amount of creative energy getting the guitar sound and composition right on songs like the opener “Blind”, but it’s equally apparent that he’s devoted considerable effort to structuring the vocals in such a way that they have a dramatic theatrical quality missing from much of modern music. Some might hear similarities or influences from the popular act Bon Iver, but Bartels is a more accessible singer and songwriter overall and the sheer variety of voices he utilizes in his performances often outstrips Justin Vernon’s offerings in this style. The guitar playing is even more assertive on the EP’s second track “Missoula”. Careful listening to this song reveals it to be a track about inchoate and specific longing – Bartels does an exemplary job of placing that mood in the right musical context. The melodic virtues of this track are the strongest on Myths and Mold, but they aren’t run of the mill melodies with identifiable tropes. Like he’s capable of in other areas, Bartels’ melodic sense challenges the audience’s preconception of what popular music and melody can accomplish together.

The theme of longing continues with the track “Stay”. The same melodic excellence we heard on the preceding song thankfully persists through this tune and the lyric even more directly exposes Bartels’ vulnerability without ever cheapening it. Myths and Mold takes its artiest turn with its title song, but Bartels never belabors his ambitions. He packs an impressive amount of musical world into the title song’s relatively brief amount of space while maintain a light, tasteful touch. Not many performers mixing electronica, guitar, and multi-tracked and layered vocals can claim that. He returns to more familiar territory with the last song, “Counting Hands”. This conclusion probably has a more definite “shape” than any other track on the release, but this veneer of traditional normalcy doesn’t sound out of place. There’s certainly enough of Bartels’ unique musical imagination powering this, albeit more subtly than usual, to make it an effective final curtain. Myths and Mold is a release of such quality that it places Bartels among the first rank of indie songwriters and sonic auteurs working today.

Grade: A-