When a band captures a perfect creative moment like The Menzingers did with their sixth album 2019’s Hello Exile, they find themselves in a position of having to measure up to it. While Hello Exile was a creative high mark met with deserved praise from music critics such as myself, its success in terms of dollars and cents was relative as it hit 89 on the Billboard Top 200 Charts.
Mighty Girlschool returns for their fourteenth-long burner and first music in nearly ten years. The title track refers to longevity. The way they deliver to the max on a record steeped in themes of doing your best, road doggin’ it, and standing true to your friends shows why they have lasted so long. It is a seize your own destiny type of album that connects in a big way and works wonders on the spirit the way the best rock n’ roll should.
John Mayer once referred to a budding alternative rock vocalist as “the great orange hope” in reference to her hair color at the time of the Riot! album cycle; Mayer was nodding to none other than Paramore’s eccentric powerhouse, Hayley Williams. It can’t be a coincidence that those who hit the ground running don fiery locks that set the stage ablaze – LA’s pop-rock duo Honey Revenge has poured the gasoline and they’re holding a lit match.
Think of high-profile collaborations and what springs to mind? Self-indulgent widdling like the simply dreadful Dylan & The Dead live album, Sting, Bryan Adams, and Rod Stewart‘s unwanted ‘All For Love’ for the movie The Three Musketeers, Phil Collins and Phillip Bailey, Korn, and Skrillex? I’m sure there are many other offenders out there but you get the picture, ideas that may have sounded promising on paper but ultimately should have remained there.
The worlds of Country and Hip Hop don’t often meet, but Country Rocker and producer Shooter Jennings and acclaimed rapper Yelawolf have teamed up to create their eponymous debut as a duo Sometimes Y (Slumerican). As you would expect from such divergent backgrounds, Sometimes Y is an eclectic record that is largely rock but takes many a wide and varied detour.
It is always refreshing when metalheads are not afraid to show their appreciation for genres other than Metal – especially if it means expanding their songwriting chops into entirely new territories. Formed by Kvelertak guitarist and bassist Vidar Landa and Marvin Nygaard, Norwegian Power Pop and Indie band Beachheads are more than meets the ear with their sophomore album, Beachheads II (Fysisk Format).
They say no band is really an “overnight success” in the music industry. Like most cliches, that one has been ridden into the ground by lazy people. Rolo Tomassi has been a band for over fifteen years at this point, and if their ascent to the top of the underground metal genre has taken you by surprise, you just weren’t paying attention. The band has been DIY (with some proper distro mixed in) the entire way, making music on their own terms, gathering forces of fans and waves of respect. Wearing many musical masks and expertly jumping from Grindcore, to Thrash, Hardcore, Pop Rock and even Blackened extremism, the band has always sported loads of talent and great songs. For their debut album for MNRK Music, Where Myth Becomes Memory, the band is determined to change your perception of the band, even if you are a longtime fan.
Success came quickly and early for UK indie pop quartet Bastille, topping the album charts in their home territory with their 2013 debut. Top 5 accomplishments followed for each subsequent album; a run the band is looking to continue with their fourth album, Give Me The Future (EMI), a release that arrives with a fair dose of expectation. Predecessor, Doom Days, critically, didn’t hit the heights of the band’s first two full-length outings, but the lead-off singles from …Future gave assurance that all was back on track.
Machine Gun Kelly is currently working on a Pop-Punk album due out at later date in 2020. He shared this viral video of Travis Barker of Blink-182, who is working on the album with him, jamming virtually on a cover of Paramore‘s all-time classic anthem, “Misery Business”. The viral video already has almost 2 million views in just a few days. Check out the video and follow the Soundcloud below for more MGK punk goodness! Continue reading
Ian Clement (Wallace Vanborn) and Michele De Feudis (formerly of Horses On Fire) have put their raw talent and imagination to deliver the outrageously fun, The Very Very Danger. Transforming into their own superheroes—Kitty taming the synths, Bunny behind the drums and Bear chugging away on the bass—they bring you Witness The Legitness (9000 Records/Consouling Sounds)Continue reading