Posts by Shawn Donohue

On Horehound, The Dead Weather injected their own warped blues into 70’s style doom rock with oomph.  On the groups second release Sea of Cowards all shackles seem to be have been discarded, allowing the band to experiment with different sounds, styles, and substances. 

Before jaunting across the pond, Dr. Dog brought their rambling road show to Terminal 5 in NYC, making it the largest venue they have yet to headline in this town, and by the packed house of chanting fans, bigger things may be in their near future. 

A deep seeded sense of fearful midlife isolation is engrained in High Violet, the newest album from The National.  That’s not all that’s here though; layers of sound and themes buzz below the surface like insects peaking out of their hive occasionally in twisting dissident guitar lines or even lyrical couplets; both tend to emerge more and more after multiple spins. 

This make-shift muscle rock outfit from Seattle does a lot with very little.  At its core Unnatural Helpers is Dean Whitmore’s baby, but he added a few extra capable rockers to accent Cracked Love & Other Drugs.  Nothing pretentious, just raw rock on display that never lasts longer then two and a half minutes with most songs ending before the two minute mark is even sniffed. 

This is angular, complex rock and roll.  Untied States has put together a jigsaw puzzle of riffs, tempo changes, click’s, synth’s, distortion and words with their third album Instant Everything, Constant Nothing.  Experimental post-punk may be the easiest way to describe it, but the fellas do everything they can to defy labels. 

This aptly named trio works within a sparseness that is commendable.  Lead vocalist Kelli Scarr (great name by the way) emotes on a spiritual (“Haunts Me”)/physical (“I Want You”) split level while Dan Chen and Nate Greenberg support her with textures of sound.   There is room to breath on these tracks; the lyrics take center stage and while some seem a bit too personal (“The Look”) others ring true for everyone (“Come Back to Me”).  Pianos, strings and soft drums are par for the course and when the fluid guitar notes show up they are welcomed with open arms.

The wafting heat flowed into New York City this weekend, very reminiscent of the dirty south; could it have been a coincidence that the gritty funk and hopping brass of New Orleans was in town?  The “Mardi Gras Road Show” rolled into Greenwich Village with two of the most active bands from the Crescent City […]

’ve never been to Norway, but I’m guessing the chaotic torrents of flooding water falling from the heavens this weekend must have seemed harsh even for this group traveling halfway around the world.  On their way to SXSW and warmer skies in Austin, The Megaphonic Thrift played a few tune-up shows under the deluge in NYC, the last of these being Monday night at the Oya Festival put on by Oh My Rockness in Santos Party House. 

Linfinity is happy to be floating along with light jam-band tinged vibes or changing strides with indie precision- in either spectrum the band’s tone is solid.  Specifically engaging was the string usage (violin, acoustic and electric guitars) transforming from mellow to dissident measure to measure if need be.  The announced new song called “Miles” illustrated this with a percussive bump and cymbals crashing build. 

This indie band from Florida seems primed to break into whatever sort of big time there is out there these days (lots of followers on Twitter?!?).  Astro Coast is engaging guitar rock that blends experimentation and main stream hooks excellently while putting a high value on sing-a-longs and riffing out. This is a surprisingly strong rookie offering and the easiest comparison to draw would be Weezer’s Blue Album as JP Pitts has an air of young Rivers Cuomo about him.