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Review: No Devotion – No Oblivion

Adam Grundy

There’s a lot to be thankful for when one of your favorite bands decides to give it another go and release a proper follow-up to one of your favorite albums of all time. Before I started writing for this site, I was obsessed with No Devotion and their debut record entitled Permanence. It ended up being my favorite album to come out that year, if not one of my favorites for that entire decade. Catching up with lead singer Geoff Rickly was surreal in many ways. Hearing first-hand how his band in No Devotion crafted their follow-up, entitled No Oblivion, as well as some of the background behind Permanence was too cool for me to even begin to describe. So how could No Devotion, which is also comprised of Lee Gaze and Stu Richardson, possibly top what they were able to accomplish on their debut. No Devotion would answer that question in a thunderous encapsulation of everything they did well on Permanence paired with even more artistic brilliance found on No Oblivion.

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Review: Alex G – God Save the Animals

Aaron Mook

Alex G doesn’t do a lot of interviews, but for being a rising enigma in DIY and indie-rock, he seems like a pretty normal guy. In a recent Pitchfork feature, Giannascoli admitted to doing a lot of things on the fly; sure, he’s always writing, but when it comes to the prolific singer-songwriter’s experimental textures and vocal distortions, he’s really just trying to create something he finds interesting. (Ironically, he’s also convinced that every new project he releases is his worst, at least initially.) Giannascoli chose the title God Save the Animals based on intuition, and to further prove the down-to-earth nature of his work, he chose which studios the album was recorded at based on who was available that day. 

All this to say, if Giannascoli isn’t being meticulous about his constantly evolving craft, he could have fooled us. At times, God Save the Animals sounds as lush (“Cross the Sea”) as Rachel Giannascoli’s watercolor artwork; elsewhere, it sounds barren, quiet, and lonesome (“Ain’t It Easy”). The album does exactly what most new albums should: it takes the best aspects of Alex G’s past work (his long-term penchant for storytelling, Rocket’s relatively straightforward, country-leaning compositions, and House of Sugar’s use of striking electronic flourishes and pitch-shifted vocals) and miraculously weaves them into something new. The album is rich with details that become more rewarding with every listen, making God Save the Animals not only an album of the year contender, but among the best work of the songwriter’s career.

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Review: The Killers – Battle Born

Craig Manning

It’s easy to love a thing that everyone else loves. In the music world, there is something thrilling about the communion that comes with shared adoration: about falling head over heels for something that resonates with a lot of other people at the same time as it resonates with you, or of getting the affirmation that comes from seeing all your friends and family and acquaintances fall in love with an album or artist you already adored. It’s far harder to stand your ground when you love something that everyone else says is dogshit. It’s difficult to keep carrying the torch for an album when even the artist who made it has come to view it as sub-par.

I bring all of this up because this weekend marks 10 years since The Killers released Battle Born, their fourth album and an LP that just about everyone – frontman Brandon Flowers included – is convinced is mediocre or downright bad. They’re all wrong: This album fucking rules. It has always ruled, and it will always rule, and it is the perfect bridge between The Killers that were and The Killers that are today. There have been times, over the years, where I would have called it the band’s best album. (I believe that my review of the album for AbsolutePunk.net, still listed as the most positive write-up the album got on Metacritic, made precisely that claim.) From the vantage point of 2022, following two game-changing, band-redefining albums from The Killers in 2020 and 2021, I’m not even sure what my favorite Killers album is anymore. Best or not, though, Battle Born deserves more credit than it got in 2012, and I’m here to make the case for it – even if no one else will.

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Review: Anarbor – Love and Drugs

Adam Grundy

When I last caught up with Slade Echeverria (lead vocalist/bassist) of Anarbor, I could tell that the music he was about to release with his band felt fully-realized and matched his bandmates’ ultimate vision for where they could take their sound. Love & Drugs is a great collection of eleven songs that work well off of each other, and move the needle forward in the band’s storied discography that so many fans adore. This album hits somewhere between the pop polished rock of Walk the Moon, paired with the intricate focus on production like Bad Suns, while still maintaining the heart of the music that sounds like Anarbor.

The album starts off with the chill-sounding song of “Slow Distraction” that gradually invites the listener to be pulled into Echeverria’s vocal croon, while guitarist Danny Stravers keeps the riffs incredibly interesting. The layered vocals in the chorus make for a cool production element, and sound like a million bucks. “Letter In A Suitcase” brings the tempo up significantly in its delivery and allows for the band to shout above their instruments in the chorus before slowly exiting the aggressive tones as each hook unfolds. Lead single, “Drugs” reminded a bit of the quirky, synth-based pop of Smallpools, with equally-pleasing results. On the second verse, Echeverria explains, “A week away, I know my head should be straight / You got me strung out, I’m strung out / I need a fix / So would you pick up the phone, no one’s home / Is this the comedown, the comedown / That I heard about?” The way he describes the feeling of falling in and out of love is captivating, and really pulls the listener into the mix.

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Review: Incubus – S.C.I.E.N.C.E.

Adam Grundy

The nu-metal era was a crazy time for the music scene. CD sales were exploding, rap-rock was dominating the airwaves, and bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit, and many others were packing the clubs nightly for their brand of music. Incubus, to me, always seemed the ones most likely to break free of the nomenclature of the nu-metal genre, as they had a more polished sound, an ultra-talented vocalist in Brandon Boyd, and a rock sound that with the right help of a producer would launch them into the stratosphere of notoriety. Fast forward to 2022, and Incubus’ second album has turned 25 years old. Much like how Boyd laments on the penultimate track on S.C.I.E.N.C.E., I feel like shouting, “I know exactly where we are…where the fuck are we?” How did a band as talented as Incubus break free of the chains of nu-metal and still leave a lasting legacy of this record that so many longtime fans adore, yet the band feels shy to talk about? The answers can be found in looking to the future that seemed to be a little uncertain for these California-based rockers searching for their own footing and identity.

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Review: Katy Guillen and The Drive – Another One Gained

Adam Grundy

The debut album from Katy Guillen & The Drive is blast of bluesy, guitar-driven rock that hits all the right chords on Another One Gained. The set was masterfully produced by Kevin Ratterman (Heartless Bastards, Ray LaMontagne), and Guillen really steps into the forefront of the mix with a bold swagger in her vocal takes and guitar instrumentation. The band is rounded out by Stephanie Williams (bass, percussion/drums) and Ratterman (who does some occasional keys and programming), and their band chemistry is felt widely in this warm set of songs that wraps the listener in a unique sense of comfort.

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Review: Hidden In Plain View – Tantrums

Adam Grundy

A lot can change in the music landscape in just a short period of time. Hiatuses that start out as a “short time away” to regroup and re-charge can occasionally feel like decades, and add a pandemic to the mix where every day feels exactly the same, and that time can multiply itself. Hidden In Plain View are back with their first release of new material since the 2015 EP entitled Animal, and they’ve called this new record Tantrums. Whereas their most recognized album, Life In Dreaming, had the lofty expectations of matching their big hooks with even bigger melodic payoffs, Tantrums seems even more fully-realized as the band sound as re-energized as they’ve ever been and appear poised to take their sound to new audiences.

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Interview: Crossing I’s Dotting T’s

Crossing I's Dotting T's
Adam Grundy

Recently I was able to catch up with the lead vocalist of the LA-based rock band, called Crossing I’s Dotting T’s. In this interview, we chatted about the direction the band took on their recent single “You,” which features the band Have Mercy, as well as the band’s core influences. We also discussed just how often people get the band’s name wrong as well as the band’s goals for the future.

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Review: No Trigger – Dr. Album

Adam Grundy

It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since No Trigger released a full-length record. In the decade that’s passed, the band appeared to be cooking up just the right combination of punk-flavored hooks paired with a more melodic approach to the groove of their songs to make one of their most memorable records to date on Dr. Album. This six-piece punk band will be touring in support of the new record with The Lawrence Arms, Riot Fest, and more to spread the message of this great-sounding album that has a little bit of something for everyone. The band shared they were trying to create, “the Sgt. Pepper of punk records. We took a bunch of drugs and made this record while the world stopped. It sort of just poured out of us. A ‘had to get it all out’ sort of scenario.” Out of this experiment, No Trigger have proved that the world needs more punk bands like this.

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Review: Panic! At The Disco – Viva Las Vengeance

Adam Grundy

The latest offering of music from Panic! At the Disco leaves a lot to be desired. It has some of the magic that made Panic a household name, but most of the ideas that are brought forth on Viva Las Vengeance ultimately feel forced and not fully fleshed out. The album was produced by Jake Sinclair, Mike Viola and Brendon Urie, and when the material is on point, it can be a fun ride, yet too many of these songs don’t live up the high (high) hopes. The promotional cycle included releasing four singles, that tried to garner enough interest in the record that was coming off of one of Panic! At The Disco’s more successful albums in Pray for the Wicked, and yet early reactions to the title track, “Middle of a Breakup,” and “Local God” left a lot of fans nervous about the direction Brendon Urie would be taking on the band’s seventh studio album. What we’re ultimately left with is a missed opportunity for Urie and his production team to take Panic! At The Disco to the next level.

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Review: Teen Suicide – Honeybee Table at the Butterfly Feast

Aaron Mook

Sam Ray is the most likable person in indie rock. If you didn’t pick up on my sarcasm there, it’s not your fault; it doesn’t translate well to text. In actuality, many people have many reasons to dislike Sam Ray, from his scathing send-up of Car Seat Headrest to his honest albeit prickly online persona and, perhaps most notably, the needlessly edgy moniker of teen suicide itself. Whether these reasons are valid enough to dismiss his music as a whole is totally your call, but I’m here to deliver the message that Ray’s newest album (and first since American Pleasure Club’s fucking bliss, a dark night of the soul via noise-rock), honeybee table at the butterfly feast, is one of the year’s most moving surprises.

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Review: Hello Stranger – True Belief

Adam Grundy

The latest EP from indie rockers, Hello Stranger, is a blast of fun-sounding rock songs that have plenty of meaning behind them. The band set out to create a collection of hard-hitting tracks that have plenty of substance behind them, and I’d say that is “Mission Accomplished.” The band shared, “We had these incredibly topical, salient songs we had been working on for months, but it was difficult to get into studios or collaborate with producers. As many other artists did during that time, we decided to do it ourselves.” By choosing the route of independence, this raw EP called True Belief stays true to who the band members are as people and they make a bold leap forward as a unit. With a sound that strays somewhere between Bayside, paired with the pop rock sensibilities of Switchfoot, Hello Stranger seem destined to be familiar in your music rotation.

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Review: Snarls – “After You (Samantha’s Song)”

Adam Grundy

The latest single from Snarls feels like those last great gasps of summer air before the uncertainty of autumn wraps over us and makes us wonder where the time went. The band is coming off of releasing a great EP (What About Flowers?) with Death Cab For Cutie’s Chris Walla, and they continue to go down the rabbit hole of self-discovery with vibrant, full guitars, enveloped with vocal harmonies much like Fleetwood Mac, or contemporary artists like Phoebe Bridgers or Hayley Williams, to make the listener feel welcome. On this single, Chlo White shared:

”After You” is my love song to my long distance bestie, Samantha. She lives in Denver now, but we met in high school when I invited her to come to one of my shows! We quickly became really close friends and I found myself out in Yellow Springs, OH at least once a month for a while. That was about an hour away from where I lived in Columbus at the time, and my dad would drive me halfway and meet up with her at a TA station so we could hangout for a weekend. Too cute. I think friendships like ours are rare. We can go months without talking and pick up right where we left off. She moved a while ago now, but I still feel so close to her. I don’t think I’ll ever know another love like Samantha’s!

By creating a song that is both personal and sonically rich and full in its sound, Snarls continue to impress.

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Review: Have Mercy – Have Mercy

Adam Grundy

The latest EP from Baltimore rock band, Have Mercy, is their first taste of new music since 2019, which in the middle of a pandemic might as well feel like it’s been eons. In addition, Have Mercy called it quits when the world went to shit in the spring of 2020, only to suddenly return with this reinvigorating self-titled EP that finds them sounding as refreshed as they’ve ever been. The record blasts off on the right foot with the anthemic “I’m Gonna Be Ok,” that sounds larger than life. Frontman Brian Swindle shared, “When we wrote this song, I realized that it summarized my entire life as of late. I met the love of my life and wanted to move forward with her but couldn’t until I took care of my issues. I had to get sober, get my mental health in check and just do better. This song was a reflection of all of that.” By handling the personal issues and coming out on the better side of things, Swindle and his bandmates in Have Mercy may have just made their late career masterpiece.

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Review: Kulick – “Goner”

Adam Grundy

The latest single from talented singer-songwriter, Kulick, called “Goner” reminds me a bit of the great, anthemic rock from the early 00’s, and packs plenty of punch in its delivery. The song features some guest vocals from Sleeping With Sirens vocalist Kellin Quinn, and he takes the reins of the second verse to paint the story being brought forth in the single. Kulick is coming off the success of his Everyone I Know Will Die sophomore record and he continues to explore the depths of his improved songwriting on tracks like this. The brilliant and vibrant chorus features vocal harmonies between the two vocalists and makes for a full-sounding vocal attack.

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