Painted Shield are notable for featuring Stone Gossard (Pearl Jam/Mother Love Bone/Green River) on guitar and a bunch of friends. Painted Shield’s origins can be traced to 2014 when it was suggested by Daniel Field a mutual friend of Mason Jennings and Gossard that the two work together. They put out a 7” single “Knife Fight”/Caught in a Mess” and then…nothing, until the pandemic hit in 2020.Continue reading
Tag Archives: rock album reviews
ALBUM REVIEW: The Early November – The Early November
New Jersey Alt-Rock stalwarts The Early November are back with the obligatory step in every artist’s career – the self-titled album (via Pure Noise Records). Now just a duo, frontman Ace Enders and drummer Jeff Kummer, The Early November seventh record is a distillation of their signature, emo-meets-pop-punk style of alternative rock with its crunchy guitars, polished hooks and introspective, angst-filled lyrics. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Rezn – Burden
It’s been a logical progression from the bong-laden wonderment of REZN’s 2017 debut to the band’s newest effort Burden (Sargent House), which finds Chicago’s sonic sorcerers expanding their minds and sound, with their newest offering feeling darker than previous offerings, though in a more hazy moonlit laced with a dopamine deficit-induced depression fashion, as the mood to the underlying themes. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Frank Turner – Undefeated
A new Frank Turner album is an event. One of the preeminent songwriters of the last two decades, we greet it with high expectations. Not unlike Buck in the book The Call of The Wild by Jack London, life around us becomes increasingly more complicated and vicious daily. Do we become more savage, or learn to “be more kind?” That is often the only question that needs asking. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Marcus King – Mood Swings
Having teamed up with Black Keys frontman Dan Auberbach for the last two albums, on his new one Mood Swings (American Recordings/Republic Records/Snakefarm Records) Marcus King is helped out by producer extraordinaire Rick Rubin. Gone is the seventies, bluesy Rock N’ Roll of the previous record Young Blood, in its place is R&B, Soul, Jazz, Pop and Classic Rock influences with King’s smokey, bluesman vocals taking centre stage. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Blanket – Ceremonia
A genre-striding quartet from Blackpool, Blanket are back with their latest album, Ceremonia (Church Road Records). It is their third record and sees them continue their emotive brand of Post-Rock and Shoegaze, with the metal influences from their previous album Modern Escapism replaced with nineties Alternative Rock. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: New Years Day – Half Black Heart
New Year’s Day helped pave the path for today’s female-fronted nu-metal bands who balance hard rock aggression with pop hooks. Having emerged from the days of Myspace, they have refined the weighty grooves of that era to transcend the bandwagon of their peers. This is largely due to frontwoman Ash Costello. On Half Black Heart (Century Media Records) Costello’s voice finds more piercing power. She knows how to pack a punch without resorting to screaming. This helps their songs avoid the modern rock formula that is wearing thin. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Jack J Hutchinson – Battles
Having initially fancied himself as an abstract artist, Jack J Hutchinson picked up a guitar and the rest, as they say, is history. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Slope – Freak Dreams
You would not expect a band from Germany to have become as stricken by a plague that makes their booty move as Slope has on their new album “Freak Dreams” (Century Media Records). The slapped bass and in-your-face energy might make more sense if it were being delivered by skater punks from Southern California in the summer of 1989. Slope wastes no time laying out their own uplifting mofo party plan. This unique approach sounds like it could catch on much, in the same manner, Turnstile proved audiences are ready for more grooves and tired of the same old same old. “It’s Tickin” proves that the band is not just living off of the nostalgia for 90s funk rock, though it does have doses of that as well. Continue reading
ALBUM REVIEW: Plain White T’s – Plain White T’s
Whenever The Plain White T’s come up in conversation, it is seemingly impossible to get in more than a few words before their magnum opus “Hey There Delilah” is mentioned.