Review: Someone Who Isn’t Me – Geoff Rickly

Addiction can be one of the most heart-breaking things you can see a loved one go through. Whether it’s seeing someone deal with a disease like alcoholism, or in the case of Geoff Rickly (the front-man of Thursday and No Devotion), it was heroin use. Rickly’s debut novel is called Someone Who Isn’t Me for a myriad of reasons in my interpretation of the book: he’s writing the book with a person named “Geoff” as a fictional character who just happens to be the front-man of a band called Thursday, he’s writing with the intention of replacing several key “character” names with different names, and most importantly, Geoff Rickly doesn’t recognize the person that he’s become. Someone Who Isn’t Me is riddled in tragedy, heartbreak, and luckily the real Geoff makes it out fairly unscathed in the process. As great of a lead singer and lyricist Geoff Rickly is, he is arguably a more talented writer on this loosely-based work of fiction that feels as raw as its likely intended to be.

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Review: Record Heat – Welcome To Record Heat Country

When I caught wind of Record Heat (previously known as Spirit Animal) recording their next album, I was immediately intrigued to see what this talented band would cook up. Welcome To Record Heat Country is a part-concept album about the wild west, part-Alt country much like classic rock bands like The Eagles, and part-rock and roll bliss. The band is comprised of lead vocalist Steve Cooper, lead guitarist Cal Stamp, and bassist Paul Michel, and their growth shown on this latest LP is pretty remarkable. Since the album came out in late September, to very little promotion, it’s been one of my “best-kept secrets” in the world of music. I often name-drop Record Heat to my friends looking for something unique in the music world, and this certainly fits the bill for creative music that is hard to describe without taking the time to absorb it after a few spins. Record Heat is what happens when you mix the rhythmic-rap driven Alternative Rock groove of Cake, the Country-tinged spirit of Fleetwood Mac, and the modern flair of The Struts.

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