Tag Archives: rock

CD Review: The Nadas “Lovejoy Revival”

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Sometimes a band can exist under the radar for years without people outside of their area knowing about them. One such band that has put in their time but have yet to break out to national praise is the Iowa folk-rock band The Nadas. The four musicians who make up today's version of the band are singers/guitarists Mike Butterworth and Jason Walsmith, bassist Brian Duffey, and drummer Brandon Stone. The Des Moines-based band has been around long enough to create eight full-length releases with the last album, Alamanac, having been released in 2010. After a three-year break, the band has just released a new album called Lovejoy Revival.

Lovejoy Revival starts with the track "Star Crossed". The a’cappella vocals at the very beginning of the track lead themselves into a track that features music that is part rock music and part folk. The combination creates a song that has a very catchy, commercial sound while still having a bit of an alternative rock feel.

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CD Review: Alert New London “Youth”

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Columbus, Ohio’s Alert New London is a modern-day rock outfit. The quintet is made up of guitarist/vocalist Cory Nicol, guitarist/vocalist Dave Woodrow, bassist Sawyer Shepard, keyboardist Gavin McKenzie and drummer Jim Fowler. While the band’s music is heavily guitar-influenced, the additions of keyboards to the music helps give the band’s sound a feel and direction that is a lot richer and more creative than much of the music put out by many of the bands that are currently signed to record labels.

Alert New London’s current release, Youth, was released at the end of 2011. The album begins with the track “Alice,” a more-than-evident nod to the main character in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland book. Along with lyrics that have to do with certain references to the book, the song contains a Melodic Rock sound and the resulting track allows the guitars to create a harmonic approach that builds while including all five band members in the shaping of the song’s direction. When Cory Nicol and Dave Woodrow come together to harmonize on the lyrics late in the track, the two vocal parts blending together help make the track one of the most interesting songs on the 2011 release.

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CD Review: Bears “Greater Lakes”

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Take two musicians, one from Cleveland and one from Chicago, and you have the band Bears. Bears is a band made up of Charlie McArthur– acoustic guitar, vocals and Craig Ramsey – electric guitar, keys, vocals. These two musicians create their music by coming up with a song as they added more instruments, building on to the music through sound files. When a song is complete, McArthur and Ramsey add it to their newest album. The duo then takes the completed album, adds the rest of the live band, and goes on tour. For the rest of the group, Charlie McArthur and Craig Ramsey call upon Nick Perry –drums, Rachel Hart – bells, percussion, Jared McGrath – keys, vocals and Shannon Sullivan – bass. McArthur and Ramsey and the rest of the band are currently promoting their latest album of Greater Lakes.

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CD Review: Dansewolf “Smoke-n-Mirrors”

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Take a little amount of Foo Fighters, Bowie, Madonna, T-Rex and No Doubt and you have a musical mixture sure to please pop fans and rock fans alike. Take a beautiful, talented singer and place her in front of a band that can handle the aforementioned musical mixture and you end up with Dansewolf.

Dansewolf is the stage name of Juls D, a blonde bombshell who created a CD with musicians that include: guitarist Andy Lagomarsino, guitarist Grant Webb, bassist Brandon Puda, Eric Schackne on keyboards and Elmo Lovano who added his talents as drummer to the mixture. The resulting music from this musical outfit blends New Wave, pop, Rock and Indie into one sound that is sure to please.

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CD Review: Winslow “Left of the Right Direction”

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Back in 2008, the Cleveland-based band Winslow released a 10-song album called Crazy Kind of Love. It was that album that helped put the band on the map, musically-speaking. It also helped to add a little bit of new blood into the genre of Soul. The release featured the Cleveland band’s musical mix of soul, funk and rock and roll and gave people something fresh and exciting to listen to.

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Muddy Miles bring us ‘Another Headache’.

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Muddy Miles are a band who moved to Bristol in the UK a short while ago and have been making a firm mark in the music scene for some while. They have been filling their time by working on their first album during the last year whilst gigging locally and nationally and gaining plenty of support and recognition.

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CD Review: The Winter Sounds “Runner”

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Songwriter Patrick Keenan has been through a lot over the last few years, starting with living through Hurricane Katrina. Once the hurricane wiped out New Orleans, Keenan had the option to stay put and rebuild or moving out of the area and starting over. Keenan chose option number two and relocated to Atlanta.

Patrick Keenan was part of the band called The Zydepunks while he lived in the New Orleans area. That band came to an end for Keenan when he moved out of the city and once he moved from the New Orleans area to Atlanta, Keenan created a whole new band called The Winter Sounds.

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CD Review: The 71s “We Are The Seventy Ones”

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Giving you songs that bring back the sound and feel of Glam and running through the style of today’s bands like Jet, The 71s have a sound that features a lot of energy and make you wish more bands from today still cared about making “real” rock and roll. Taking the listener through many different feelings in their music, The 71s have created a very solid release with We Are The Seventy Ones.

The 71s are a four-piece rock band from Houston, Texas made up of singer/guitarist Keeton Coffman, guitarist/vocalist Ryan Cecil, bassist/vocalist Jacob Lisenbe and drummer Tank Lisenbe. The band’s music is described as “anthem-sized songs”. That really is a good way of putting a feel to what the band is about. The four musicians in the band really do seem to care about making rock and roll that has both energy and real talent in the music that makes up each song that the band creates.

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CD Review: Colobar “Behind the Veil of Oblivion”

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In today’s music industry, too much emphasis is put on trying to fit in and sound like everyone else. With this mindset, much of the music industry has become stale and unoriginal. So when you do find that special artist or band that decides to incorporate several different styles into their sound, they really stick out from the crowd. One such band that is creating a sound by incorporating many different styles into their music is Colobar.

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CD Review: The Essex Lights “Fast Love California”

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The Essex Lights is a band composed singer/guitarist/songwriter Michael Brawer, guitarist Grady Axton Davis and drummer Ben Nelson. Together, these three musicians create a band that makes rock music that is hard rockin’ and passionate. This powerful combination comes together in the music that is found on the band’s new release entitled Fast Love California.

Fast Love California from The Essex Lights begins with the song “Pride of Worchester”. Featuring lyrics of “Head west, child,” the song is sort of autobiographical for Michael Brawer as he did just that to follow his dreams of working in the entertainment industry. The song features a strong acoustic sound, as the track is built around the acoustic guitar of Brawer with Grady Axton Davis adding just enough electric guitar to give the song real depth and create an anthem-like feel to the track.

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