by David | Mar 12, 2014 | Album Review, Free Mp3s, Indie Rock
We’re not going to call a EP sized music offering a EP anymore. We’re just going to thank the artists for omitting the 2nd half of the album or maybe the bad bits when we can. Pet Names lead off track “Empty Fortune Cookie” from their release Missed Connections and following “Something I said” are a good intro to this band. Has the formula and “unpunk” hooks we liked so many moons ago about Green Day. A working mans band that leaves off the fluff but keep the nuts and bolts of the tune in tac. If we hate it we’ll just talk about the “single” and then ask for the check. Pet Names is straight up good indie rock. Rock from Wilmington North Carolina to be precise. Little did they know (maybe they did) that their beach town has a special place in our heart. We learned what Indie rock was all about from our friend Kenyata Sullivan. What good friends you could make 100’s of miles away from your home eventhough they live 10 blocks away.
Anyway, Missed Connections is totally about unpunk connections we make -either by chance or dumb fucking luck. Basically indie rock well disguised as song craft in wolfs cloths. This record makes it count but that is the stuff you cant describe until you get into it a few laps. Vaguely familiar story lines that don’t throw a jab and don’t undermine your choice of brew at the bar. Throw in a acoustic song and before you know it your not cool like us. It’s better -They will be huge so don’t forget to breath in the proces because it will be over before you know it and you’ll hit play again or flip the tape– Whatever happens in the future. You ‘ve just been consumed by a good band laying it down. No gimmicks. Just rock-n-roll. What music discovery is supposed to be like here at the review stalker music blog. We look forward to more. You can totally name your price on their bandcamp page so throw them a couple bux in their guitar case. They deserve it. Alright Fifi?
RIYL: Green Day, Garden Variety, knapsack, GBV
DOWNLOAD:
Pet Names –Empty Fortune Cookie MP3
Here’s some tunes to mix in with Pet Names and your next mixed tape to listen to on whatever device you prefer.
REVIEW STALKER COMPILATION:
00. The Anderson Council –Gardening Man MP3 from Looking at the Stars
01. Knapsack –Less Than MP3
02. Silver Scooter –Pumpkin Eyes MP3
03. Hurl –This Numbness MP3
04/ Burning Airlines –The Escape Engine MP3
05. The Queers – Punk Rock Girls MP3
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by David | Mar 12, 2014 | Punk Rock
MUSIC REVIEW: We love the idea of having a ton of meaningless short songs hit you one by one instead of long as winded punk drama. The Ramones made it ok and these tunes are half the length. When it’s good the fact that it’s the same melody over and over and the same progression means there is room to grow. Enter LA’s Girl Tears with no keyboards to be heard and where size/length/width does not matter. Just good old buzzcock like sing-song tunes where it goes by so fast you can’t even pretend to know the lyrics. The same 4/4 beats hit you on the head like highschool popularity contest. Sometimes faster. Sometimes slower. Sometimes in double time. The attitude has the simple energy where one song just runs into the next for no apparant reason other than they want to do their job and get back to the bar. Job well done and thanks for not snuffing out punk and smothering it with all the extra stuff. Total running time is faster than teenage sex.
Also check out the Dirty Laundry TV casette compilation. Only $6.00 dollars.
by David | Mar 5, 2014 | 1990s, Bubbbllegum Thunder, Music Scenes, New Brunswick, Steve Albini
Photo: 223 Livingstone Ave – home to BGT, Aviso’Hara & a few basement shows
PART 1: Before todays bustling New Brunswick, NJ basement scene, Screaming Females and Don Giovanni Records there were 6 clubs to play a gig at that were not sequestered or are hard to find in the 1990’s. The times o’ plenty. We had The Melody, The Roxy, Plum St. Pub, Budapest, Bowl-o-drome and the still standing Court Tavern. This might seem like ancient history. For every club there were about a 100 bands that frequented the clubs in rotation. Some of them made broader strokes playing gigs down the shore, Hoboken, Philly, NYC and beyond. If you told somebody you were playing Brooklyn they looked at you strangely because there were really no places to play there. Although a gig at a old mustard factory comes to mind but still blurry. Bands that played basements like Louis St stayed there for the most part unless they were a hardcore outfit of which case we know of the success stories there ranging from lifetime to deadguy then those pesky and annoying emo bands. Now the scene has changed to an extreme 180 degrees in 2014. The balance of “official” live venues that served alcohol slowly have long been eaten up by Johnson and Johnson and UMDNJ to a eradication of mass proportions. New Brunswick is down to one place that we know of. Yea you probably know a guy who blathered this to you. In turn underground places started to have a insulated affect on the scene. It’s totally foreign to us suburban outsider now but we know it exists. we hope it does. Maybe not as publicly as it once did but we feel the force. What is amazing to see is that the caliber of bands has not changed. There’s kooky bands, to downright terrible ones too. They just happen to do things differently with a tremendous output from just one label (that we know of). Plus that whole internet placebo effect. (We will get into this later.)
The point of this pointed post series is to shed some light on the swath of bands we enjoyed watching, much thanks to a couple long threads on the FB’s led by queen-scene bee Amy Saville from Prosolar Mechanics and Jim Testa from the ever present Jersey Beat. Gigs were happening all the time. Actually, when we started doing the zine thing back then; we always wanted to have a local point of view and bring to our readers new bands they have not heard of yet from inside or outside of the scene. All in an effort to make things less insular –you know hippie-dippy punk. Not just for our knowledge but for all. Not much has changed as far as our special purpose in life. You can read our about section if you want. Hopefully we can go as deep with a lot of bands and include friends (jim/amy, etc) doing the writing to give you a different perspective. I’m sure we seem like aliens because in the era where anybody can have their first debut “EP” release in a matter of one weekend is deeply confounding and troubling. There were a lot more hoops to cross to get people to check out your music, record it, etc. Again, we can dive into this trouble in a later post but for let us drag you to the water.
BGT recording in Steve Albini’s old studio basement, Chicago. Turning knobs.
So lets kick this off with BubbleGum Thunder. Here’s a video of a song that was recorded by Steve Albini at his home studio in Chicago. Plus a bunch of tracks that were never released “officially” on any LP or CD. Here is a posthumous video premier. The band had released three 7″ singles before it’s demise. The best official release was Coward b/w Cheater 7″ on Model Rocket Records. Trust me the irony of posting mp3s of the tunes Steve recorded is not lost on me. He mixed the tracks identified below. They were never mastered properly but herein are the best of tracks from my point of view that the band did. What was great about this band is the chord progressions were bit complex but the playing was ballsy. Joseph the guitar player/singer used lots of open chord tunings to make his life simple and stupid. The results were a very unique sound you rarely hear in my humble opinion in bands today. There was songwriting at work.
RIYL: Cows, Hum, Unsane, Helmet
DOWNLOAD:
01. Bedwetter MP3(basement recording)
02. Cheater MP3(Albini)
03. Coward MP3 (Albini)
04. Ghost Town MP3 (Albini)
05. Sad Man MP3 (Albini)
06. Safe from Me MP3 (Albini)
07. Acid Gravy MP3 (Albini)
08. Swallowed MP3 – Basement recording. Probably one of meanest sounding bass parts I’ve ever played. This is nasty and will rip you up like the little music whore you are. Wait for it at the :46 second mark to feel what I am talking about. You might want to amp up this up in iTunes a little for playback.
If you never had to pay Mark your entry fee to see a band at The Court Tavern. You really are part of the new generation of bands.
“If you ain’t playing. You are paying.”
by admin | Feb 28, 2014 | Music reviews
MUSIC REVIEW: This is a noisy punk band by definition. Big mucky-pup dumb guitars with distorted “alien-like” vocals in the vein of Gibby Haynes from the butthole surfers and when you add bigger dumb punk drums; the formula gives you the GRIZZLOR thing. Monster rock for monster bros from New Haven, CT. The EP artwork brain drawing totally reminds us of the movie When Mars Attacks. Seriously WE’RE ALL JUST ALIENS is planet melting molten rock with big thug like guitars you can use to beat-up your space alien friends. Squash them like bugs with the sheer guitar volume. These songs are blunt objects that rock well.
RIYL: Scratch Acid, Melvins, Cows
RELATED:
Attack of the capital letters: VOMITFACE 7″ review – This is post nirvana ga-rage rock.
Singles: CHAMP vs Lazyeyes
Other random tunes:
Hot Water Music – Elektra MP3 (90’s)
The Replacements – Rock And Roll All Nite MP3 Kiss cover 1985-10-18: 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis, MN
Atkins, Martin’s China Dub Soundsystem – Yellow Cab MP3 from Made in China (2007)
by David | Feb 27, 2014 | GoPro Chronicles
GOPRO CHRONICLES: Nobody looks up into the sky. Lets admit it. We might glance up at the stars every once in awhile but during the day we either see clouds or blue skies. The reality is that this real-estate is managed by air traffic controllers, the Airforce and known flight patterns that we know of; but besides that we the people are not really aware of any thing else that goes on up there in our airspace. Who is doing things that affect our environment? Our necks work and we can see when the weather man confirms it’s going to rain or snow. But they say never anything. They just read what is in front of them. That is what “news” anchors do. This video was shot last week, february 20th & 19th 2014. There are a lot more questions than answers. Watch this video.
Background music by My Bloody Valentine “No More Sorry” from their album Isn’t Anything (1988)
Last winter we experience about 25″ of snow in the New York/New Jersey tri-state area. This year it’s double the amount of snow. The reality was though that it was very warm and we’ve had these crazy catastrophic and paralyzing storms like Sandy, etc and down in Atlanta that have never had snow. This year it’s dramatically different and I wonder who is driving the weather? And Why? What is in the stuff that is in the sky? What aren’t we being told? We hear about global warming and slowly people are starting to wake-up but is our “government” doing something the issue without causing wide spread panic and recognizing the facts. The technology has been there to create man made snow on sky slopes for decades but not at this scale.
fIREHOSE –Chemical Wire MP3 from Ragin’, Full-On (1986)
Pretty Girls Make Graves – Chemical, Chemical MP3 from The New Romance (2003)
Aviso’Hara –Better Living Through Chemistry MP3 from goodnight sweetheart (1999)
Related Articles:
Geoengineering – This video explains the issues of aluminum in the sky pretty well. Even fox news is asking questions.
Resources: http://geoengineeringwatch.org/
by Paul Haley | Feb 27, 2014 | Punk Rock, Uncategorized
Genius is a band from South Korea but going for an American sound heard many, many times before, yet not easily definable. If pressed for comparisons with Western counterparts, I would say somewhere between the Night Marchers(San Diego), maybe even Spoon-like (Austin), even coming off vaguely Violent Femmish (Milwaukee) at times.
Overall Beaches, their 3rd full length album, is not bad but doesn’t stick either. While some songs like “Simple and Normal”, “Catch A Job” or Thanksgiving” catch your attention, interest quickly wanes like a roller-coaster reaching the crest before the inevitable plunge to quickly finding something else to listen to. After a couple of struggled listens, I can’t tell if Genius’ tedious, lackadaisical approach is deliberate and they are just too cool for school for everyone (especially themselves), or just plain lazy.
RIYL: Teengenerate, Nine Pound Hammer, Empty Records
Related:
Spoon- Don’t Make Me a Target
Violent Femmes – Promise
by admin | Feb 20, 2014 | 1980's, Avisohara, Free Mp3s
Hilarious experts from Paul Stanley from Kiss. If you’ve ever seen them or listened to their live bootlegs. The ranting between songs is a pure rocknroll lesson in itself. You bands should take this as a free rockschool class. From us to you. Enjoy the whole hour and nine minutes! Totally reminded me in our old band Aviso’Hara I have a distinct memory of listening to Kiss Bootlegs for part of the drive up to play the Bugjar in Rochester,NY. This took our stage banter to a whole other level.
DOWNLOAD: Second-Chance-Girls MP3 by Aviso’Hara from goodnight sweetheart
Dead Heart Bloom – Check out this band’s latest tracks which were produced by Anthony Molina from Mercury Rev. For all of you music buffs who dig Swervedriver and shoegazer wash of sound. This is part of a 3 EP series. Kinda the way bands are doing it these days so there is not too much time between releases. Used to be years. Either way the group was formed by Boris Skalsky and guitarist Paul Wood from the ashes of their former band Phaser. Enjoy this great stuff.
DOWNLOAD: Broken Babylon MP3 by Dead Heart Bloom from So It Goes EP
Daddy Lion – Do you remember the 80’s when adding a keyboard to a song was a bold move and it was just new wave all of a sudden. This tune “No Solution But Resolution” has go some early APB feel to it but not as casio scary or mucking up the whole song with single notes. Accents. Decent little meandering melodies accompanied by hook guitar parts. Straight forward in the right ways. The whole EP is a bedroom thing that after some research has four dudes helping make the music now. We’re looking forward to the next stuff already. Get their whole record on the bandcamp.
RIYL: Bob Mould (Workbook), feelies, Lets Active, APB
DOWNLOAD: No Solution But Resolution (Radio edit) – MP3 from Habitat
The Duskwhales – Here’s some indie music from a band from Northern VA who have been doing their thing since 2010. A baby band in rock years. Check this tune out, it’s pretty good, in ode to all this inclement weather everybody is beginning to love so much.
DOWNLOAD: The Duskwhales – Swim – 08 Cold But No Snowfall MP3 by The Duskwhales from Swim (2014)
As Elephants Are – If you like brit pop and the band We Are Scientists then these dudes shalt be your thing. Lots of 16th notes in the drumming department. “Hand Prints” is pretty radio friendly.
RIYL: British Sea Power, We Are Scientists,
by David | Feb 17, 2014 | Documentary, Film, GoPro Chronicles, Mp3s, Soundtracks
The GoPro Chronicles: I got introduced to Captain Beefheart in high school by a friend who was really into The Greatful Dead but I didnt’ really appreciate this type of music till much later. I went more prog then onto punk/alternative. The jury is still out on the Dead though. It’s these weird herky-jerky type of moody tunes that will make for great GoPro or movie soundtracks, when the cuts are quick and disorientating so your film seem to cruise along.
Anyway, here’s a few other songs I think that might be good for a variety of camera moves. The sound bed you lay down in the background is essential to your edit for your family film. Sets a mood you can’t put into words and sets expectations. The subtle way you transition to each scene from verse to chorus will make your edit seems like it’s moving faster or slower. When shooting don’t forget to pan left and right, up and down slowly and steadily for the best B-Roll. The GoPro is much more forgiving when you shoot a fast frame rate. Which on the silver is between 30-60 FPS. You can never have enough B-Roll. Ever.
Obviously, you might not be able to easily afford clearing these songs but to practice yours skills they are great; the point is its a important to be familiar with the song. Not everybody is going to be able to score their own music. That would be ridiculous. Obviously unless you are making a rock video and shooting specifically for that song. There are millions of songs that you can lay-in while you find the perfect one. But there is always the risk of falling in love with something that just does not work. Anyway, here’s some ideas to get you thinking for something moody. This was also my first GoPro shoot. There are just 25-30 transitions in this one(guestimate). So as always enjoy the tunes and thanks for watching!
DOWNLOADS:
Captain Beefheart – Zig Zag Wanderer MP3 from Safe as Milk (1967)
Frank Zappa –Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow MP3 from Apostrophe (‘)(1974)
R.E.M. –Camera MP3 from Reckoning (1984)
Throwing Muses –film (2013)
Residents –Boots from Meet The Residents(1974)
The Plugz –El Clavo Y La Cruz MP3 from the Repo Man Soundtrack (1984)
Built to Spill –I Dim Our Angst In Agony MP3 from The Electronic Anthology Project (2010)
Here’s some other edits that I did after first one that worked brialiantly.
MUDDERELLA 2014 NEW JERSEY – The Joy Formiddable w/ “Whirring”
UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF FIREHOSE – EASTERN ANCHORS
RELATED:
More: Documentary films on Review Stalker
Check out the Eastern Anchors: Rockumentary
by David | Feb 14, 2014 | Music News, The Wrens, Uncategorized
The Wrens – album working title is Prepare To Be Disappointed. Sarcasm yes. Is Charles Bissell busy. Yes. But it’s coming… revisit The Meadowlands and remind yourself why you love them deep in your heart because they live to keep you waiting. Yes we used this joke twice but seriously they tour this fall to help shape your expectations.
We have no clue what the hell the “Digital Prophet” David Shing is talking about. Let us know if you can decipher what he’s saying because he seems to be made of spare parts and bits the way this is edited. It’s so out of context. The editor botched this up or there really is no saving this dudes haircut. He’s just fried. He needs to actually unplug for a decade!
Hello europe folks can get Mike Watt’s picture book ‘on and off bass’ more econo now (saving big time on shipping) as reported via the press room. On and Off the bass on Amazon. Apparently lots pelicans and his hometown of Pedro. For hardcore fans of firehose and minutemen according to the reviews.
DOWNLOAD: arrow-pierced-egg-man MP3 by Mike Watt from hyphenated-man(2011)
Sludge popster Torche sign to our favorite metal label Relapse Records. Currently recording in Florida on the next release as of yet untitled. Playing show at St Vitus Bar in NYC Feb 26th. Guest listy please!
Radiohead launch a official app called Polyfauna. That is pretty normal as they have more concerns with being a art project and not a band anymore. Do you guys remember King of Limbs at all? Because that was awhile go. So this is like them releasing the song “Bloom” as an app, as a very tardy single. Try it and let us know. Other devoted fans seems to dig it.
Speaking of which. Here’s the SLINT BREADCRUMB TRAIL THEATRICAL TRAILER – this were just crazy kids from Kentucky. Emphasize kids. Super young dudes. Check out this trailer.
RANDOM DOWNLOADS:
Lefty’s Deceiver –Ex-Patriots MP3 from Cheats 92003) on My Pal God.
Anderson Council –Don’t You Think_ MP3 from Looking At the Stars (2013) Great NJ guitar pop via The Sinclair Recording Co. Check them out.
Lightouts – The Eloise Suite MP3 from Want(2013)
What else happened this past week?
We reviewed new grungsters Vomitface‘s 7″ and a even younger band from buffalo called Made Violent
Posted a bunch of free singles + MP3s by Pedal Distorsionador, Arc Rev One, Martin Van Ruin, Saintseneca, Emil and Caroline
Last weeks Rock news: RIP Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Criminal Hygiene Releases a new 7″ and much more interesting bullshit.
by Paul Haley | Feb 14, 2014 | Free Mp3s, Music Scenes, Single review
SINGLE REVIEW: Made Violent – Buffalo is your typical sleepy, usually cloudy, upstate NY blue collar type of city and was once my old stomping ground, when I attended SUNY Buffalo in the early to mid-90s. No, not “Buff State”, where besides some cool friends, Fugazi and Quicksand played once, and oh yeah, the Chili Peppers actually played a show in a classroom and being steps away from the coolest record store on the planet (Home of the Hits-RIP) were the only things going for it. And no, not UB’s sterile, Greek-infested North Campus. Classes? yes! Live? Fuck no…
Us cool cats lived in University Heights, an eerily quiet neighborhood near UB’s South campus where many working families lived but never seen. Rent was dirt cheap and the houses were this close to being condemned. We were dirt poor, but said “fuck it anyways” and lived on booze/pot, 4/$1 mac-n-cheese and 5/$1 packages of Ramen Noodles when on sale at Tops.
It was a time my wife’s boyfriend bar-tended with Johnny “Goo” “and Nevermind” was righteously ripping the music world a new one (buying my own copy with 100% financial aid funding). It was a time when the school’s entertainment section of the newspaper (Prodigal Sun) discreetly revealed where that weekend’s loft/house parties were and what bands were playing because a party without at least 3 bands simply did not happen. Bands like my housemates in Every Thirteen Days and Kindergarten and Tugboat Annie, and Spavid were playing constantly and Cash Cow Records were pumping out 7 inches at breakneck speed (all RIP). “Larger” acts like Versus and even Rochester’ power pop darling’s Muler (thankfully, still alive and kicking)made a couple of road trips the City of Good Neighbors. And despite the Goo’s starting to wear leather pants and, to our collective dismay, declaring on MTV’s 120 Minutes (RIP) that one didn’t exist, Buffalo DID have a kick ass music scene at that time.
But does it now?
So judging from above, you might think you are going to have to seriously impress the fuck out of me, especially if you are a Buffalo band twenty years on. Ummm yeah, but then I was recently introduced to Made Violent. 3 young lads sporting the 90’s look (flannels and Westerberg-ish, moppy hair) but not necessarily the sound. “Doolittle” and “Spiderland”aspirations of the past century has given away to a confident, robust, updated Strokey sound. I could easily say “eh, already heard…next…” but their songs “Inside Out” and “Wasted Days” caught my attention, made my head bob, my foot tap, and “liking” their Facebook page.
DOWNLOAD: Made Violent Inside Out MP3 – Single
If Made Violent is what is currently going on in the Queen City, sun rays have broken through those usually pesky clouds and hopefully will shine down for quite some time…
RIYL: Made Violent is totally recommended if you like any of the bands below…
DOWNLOADS:
Tugboat Annie – You Want It To Be Bad MP3 from Superfriends* (1997) As great a pop band as Nada Surf IMHO
Every Thirteen Days – Bride Stripped Bare MP3 from E’Tant Donne’s(1994)
Kindergarten – Here Don’t Eat Our Friends from Iphigenia (1995)
Muler – Suite Marine MP3 from Hope You Found a Home
Spavid– She Uses It For Bird Poison MP3 s/t (1997) – This totally sounds like later era fugazi.
RELATED:
Free Singles + MP3s by Pedal Distorsionador, Arc Rev One, Martin Van Ruin, Saintseneca, Emil and Caroline
7″ Review: Don’t let this name fool you. Vomitface are awesome.
LA Music Scene: criminal hygiene withdrawn 7″ review
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