The Royal They – Foreign Being
It was really difficult to not be completely biased when Greg Hanson from King Pizza records provided me the pre-release to the new The Royal They release, Foreign Being. When I heard their first release, I considered it one of the best records I had heard in a very long time. I also would consider it one of the top 3 all-time greatest records released with no bass player. So, difficult as it was, I had to put aside my expectations that I was going to be blown away yet again and give it a fair and critical listen. With that said….. Let’s get this out of the way. The Royal They’s release, Foreign Being, is brilliant! There’s so much to unpack in this eleven-song release that it required multiple listens to grasp the full impact of the album. This, in no way, is a criticism. In fact, this is exactly what all bands should aspire to deliver. Foreign Being exhibits a band that is growing and pushing boundaries in themselves, their listeners and fans. As I listened to the tracks, I felt it captured and reflected a blend of emotions that seem so prevalent right now. And, while these emotions are so pervasive in the collective psyche, it retains a personal, inward feel. The band opts for a series of fine surgical tools to carve these emotions right into the mind and heart. While the album’s message may be delivered with surgical skill, they didn’t shy away from pulling out the sledgehammer for the musical delivery. This is a heavy, intense album. As with the first album, the...
ATOM DRIVER – SLACKJAW EP and cover of “JOHNNY” by X.
This past weekend Atom Driver celebrated the release of their throttle punk EP Slackjaw on Powerbunny 4×4 Records at Pino’s in Highland Park, NJ. On the bill with them was Amy & Alex from Prosolar Mechanics as Bear Claw making their noise duo debut and as well as Couch and Commando cooking up some of their down home music before Atom Driver blasted everybody at Pino’s with songs from their release and a bunch of new tunes. ATOM DRIVER AND FRIENDS COVERING “Johnny Hit and Run Paulene” By X Towards, the end of their set Amy and Anthony from Bionic Rhoda made their way to the stage to help hammer home an ode to Chuck Berry with a cover by X from their 1980 album Los Angeles. This is a feel good rock song and proof positive that even though the performances was taking place on the other side of Raritan River, rock is very much alive in the Hub City. SLACKJAW EP REVIEW – Powerbunny 4×4 Now, we highly recommend Atom Driver’s debut EP Slackjaw, and not just because we’ve known Mike from Buzzkill who plays drums, or Mark Segal from Boss Jim Gettys’s on Guitar and Vocals for more years than we care to admit but because this band has molded perfect parts big noise and melodic metalcore. All tracks will blow the windows out of those soon to come self-driving cars that millenials will be driving around aimlessly and getting lost when the GPS goes out. These rock songs are powerful maps to what fresh rock stank and what ear bleeding hooks should be like. Justin...
BLACK FLAG – DOCUMENTARY
LA PUNK HISTORY: This is a short Black Flag Documentary which largely focuses on the artwork side and how disruptive the band was before social media. This looks great and Henry Rollins really puts their impact in perspective. Includes interviews with Keith Morris, Chuck Ducowski, Henry Rollins, Raymond Pettibon (Buy an Original) and Flea. If you’re into flyer artwork get the excellent book ‘Fucked Up And Photocopied’ which has huge amounts of flyers from the time. This short film was Directed by Brian Ray Turcotte and Bo Bushnell. Flea is in this documentary, because not only is he an amazing human being but also because he was in the punk scene way back in the 80’s before starting the Red Hot Chili Peppers with Anthony Keidis. He was in the los angeles band Fear for a while and in the film Suburbia directed by Penelope Spheeris who also directed Decline of Western Civilization. He’s been in a bunch of punk documentaries. Same for Duff McKagan. If you don’t know your music history he’s in quite a few others you’d be “wtf, why are they in this?” All those old punk bands and the various scenes around the country that they flowed through. Dave Grohl used to be quite the hardcore punk drummer too, long before joining Nirvana, as another example, he was in Scream I believe. BE A PUNK AND LIKE THIS ON...
FISHBONE “LYIN ASS BITCH” FUCK RACISM @ House of Independents
It’s seriously been a long time… Today, I just wanted to share the best ever NSFW anti-trump rant by Angelo from Fishbone at their House of Independents(HOI) show last night. This newish club is now my favorite place to see “bigger” bands live in Asbury Park. I still dig the intimacy of places like APYC and the questionable sonic sound but when you have a 8-9 piece band with horns you seriously don’t want the experience to get lost in cacophony of noise and the sweet stench of cheap beers. Which reminds me I also dig that HOI serves local micro-brews up front and center from Dark City Brewing Company and Asbury Park Brewery and from I understand APB will be available in cans! I think in life fishbone shows have always been fun and life affirming, having seen them over a dozen times since 1987 or so. Only one oldschool City Gardens chump got ousted early on in their set by the bouncers until Angelo told them to chill and let people dance and have fun. There may have been a 10 year old kid body surfing and one of the other dad’s made a frowny tisk tisk emoji beard face. I only got to shoot these two videos for the Review Stalker YouTubes on my iPhone, which the channel almost bizarrely has 500 subscribers for some reason which I think maybe it’s the DJ Red Alert video with over 100,000 listens! crazy contributing to that math. Anyway, I really wanted to enjoy and dance my freakin’ ass/feet off a little bit- and that I did. I also...Been.Listening.Too.Lately….
In case you care what I have been listening too lately (and I know you secretly lose sleep wondering)…here you go…since you insist…. Local Maplewood, NJ hometown indie rock A-Leaguers, Tri-State, continue their collective, at ease, upward momentum with their latest 5 track release , we did what we could do (2016) on the ultra-cool and equally Jersey label, Mint 400 Records . The killer riff on the opening track (and one of my personal favorites), “Summer Nun” kicks in the thruster a bit since their beautifully gliding, yet slightly subdued 2 song EP, New Minuits (2015). Again you find guitarists Julian Brash and Jeff Zelevansky trade off engrossing and seamless electric six-string conversations when not splitting vocal duties, while the complimenting percussionist union of Mason Rather (bass) and Brady McNamara (drums) keeps everything delightfully moving and grooving along. wdwwcd is simply a fun record from start to finish. It’s a perfect album on replay, tapping your foot on a sunny, sandy Miami beach while lounging lazily under palm trees, slightly concerned about falling coconuts, weird, unrecognizable birds and equally weird, unrecognizable insects (proven this past holiday weekend). Other stand out tracks include “Petty” (“boy, you got a lot to say….”), Siamese twin track “Suture”and “Automatic Man.” My “Buffalo Bro” Daryl who I can “geek talk” music for days, weeks, even months on end (and have the never-ending text to prove it), have been digitally nudging (read: nagging) me to listen to the latest Touché Amore’ record, Stage 4 (2016) for months, but not as long as he has been nagging me to listen to Elliot Smith’s XO. I finally broke down,...
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