[ad]
[rating:8/10]
The album I have been listening to lately is one that I have been wanting to listen to for a long time, but so much music that I am interested, or have become interested has come out since its release date that it has been put on the back burner. But lately, I have been back on the hunt for new music and not finding anything of particular interest. Well about two weeks ago Rebel Time Records sent out a tweet seemingly from above about a sale that they were having. Their entire discography was put on sale for 5 dollars a cd (you can still take advantage of this deal until the new year), a price I couldn’t say no to. So I finally decided to do what I had set out to do in September 2010, and purchase a copy of Broadcast Zero’s Some Concerns Regarding This Revolt. Considering the album is over a year old and the band is no longer together, I’m not really sure if what I am about to write is a review or a revisit.
The album itself is very good and packed with 16 fast paced punk songs and if you have ever heard Broadcast Zero, the style of the songs does not stray too much from what you might expect from them. There are two major digressions from their norm although. The first, happened right at the time I pressed play, it was the Yellow Ledbetter-esque intro to “Wake me Up.” The change of pace (one that I found very interesting) only lasted 26 seconds and then it broke out into Broadcast Zero’s signature guitar sound that would continue to last for 16 songs with the endurance of a triathlete and speed and explosiveness of a 100 meter sprinter.
The second digression is the theme of the album, and I don’t think I could explain it better then the title of the album itself. I found it very interesting. Most of the time punk bands are very steadfast in their beliefs, opinions, and politics. Some concerns….. really calls this practice into question throughout the album with such songs as “On Freedom” where Nick Shrubsole sings from two perspectives where the status quo tells “Tommy Bones” “Tommy you are deaf you see because this revolution will set you free.” Tommy replies “freedom for you ain’t freedom for I because when you speak for me you take away my autonomy.”
I can’t really pick any particular favourite tracks as I do really like them all, but “Just Entertainment” really sticks out to me as it references one of my favourites and fellow Rebel Time band The Rebel Spell throughout the song. As I said, the album is very good, and I recommend it to anyone, so go ahead, take a chance, head on over to Rebel Time and pick it up for 5 bucks, you won’t be disappointed.
-T.J.
I have been a fan of mid-west pop punk for some time now, but I am still new enough that I am unfamiliar with the other bands that The Slow Death members belong to (Pretty Boy Thorson, or The Ergs for example), and maybe is that ignorance that is skewing my perception of the record. But I have heard enough to know that these guys aren’t reinventing the wheel, but what they are doing (and it comes out in the music) is making the type of music they love, and loving it all the while.
The Shell Corporation, to be confused with the Shell Corporation is what comes up when you google the band and see the link to the group’s website. A lot of times bands won’t have an accurate picture of what they really sound like, but this time I think they hit the proverbial nail on the head. I may not have said that after the first listen. After initially hearing Force Majeure (the group’s new album), I was really looking for a frame of reference and someone to compare them to. I had been listening to Holding Onto Sound’s The Tempest EP recently and I heard (imagined) so much of them in the Shell Corporation that I had to check to see if any members of the band happened to be in both groups (the answer is no). Like I said the comparisons were imagined and the only song that I could even hear what I thought I had was on “Ozymandias”, the second last track of the album. 
Boston band Burning Streets has a new release. “Sit Still” is out now on Sailor’s Grave Records and with it you get 11 tracks of emotionally charged rock and roll. On the whole, Sit Still hovers in the punk rock vein, but is heavily laced with a melancholy that accompanies other similar acts like The Loved Ones or American Steel and to a lesser degree, Dead to Me.
When you think of musical entertainment in Las Vegas, there’s a pretty good (or bad) chance that you’re conjuring up images of Beatles tributes bands, performers in drag, or heaven forbid, Celine Dion. Well, if this describes you, you can extract yourself from the turnip truck right now.
I’m listening to “So Polite” the debut release by Seattle’s Shoot the Hostage. My initial reaction is that this release sounds much like Helmet, albeit in a less directly aggressive and staccato fashion. There is almost a pre-grunge quality about it. (And that’s nice, because Seattle owes the world a tremendous debt for having effectively killed thrash metal with their fancy grunge bands. … ok ok, they also saved the world from the scourge of hair metal, so maybe we owe them a debt of gratitude too.)
I’ve got a new release here from Hoboken New Jersey’s MayOrWest and well, things are looking up. 
I feel so privileged to get to listen to all the music (from all over the world) that I do. Right now I’m listening to a new single from Finland’s Dead End Story. They are a reasonably aggressive punk band with quite a bit of hardcore influence.
So, I’m listening to Norwegian Pop-punk. Um, yeah, you read that right. Sugar Louise is a newer band from Norway. They’ve been around since 2009 and deliver a catchy, bono hating variety of happy poppy punk.