Review
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Review: The Horrible Crowes – Elsie

Craig Manning

Brian Fallon didn’t NEED to make Elsie. By the time this album arrived – the one and only record Fallon made with the side project he dubbed The Horrible Crowes – Fallon was already well on his way to rock star status…or, at least, it seemed that way at the time. His full-time band, The Gaslight Anthem, had released three albums and an EP in the space of three years and about two weeks – a remarkable run that saw the band gaining ground with each release. By the time Elsie arrived in September 2011, there was already buzz brewing about Gaslight Anthem LP4, and about how that album had the potential to launch Fallon and company into a whole new stratosphere. Just about anyone else would have taken a well-deserved break. Based on the exhaustion that would eventually crash The Gaslight Anthem, maybe Fallon should have. Instead, he teamed up with his guitar tech, Ian Perkins, and made one of the great left-turn albums in 21st century rock ‘n’ roll. Some days, I think it might just be his masterpiece.

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Review: Longsleeves – Joyrider

Adam Grundy

It’s commonplace for me to be pitched new bands looking for my thoughts on their music, and I can’t help but feel flattered by the number of submissions I’ve received since I started writing for this site. It makes my job that much easier when being presented with music that immediately shimmers through the speakers as it does on Longsleeves debut EP, entitled Joyrider. The band is comprised of vocalist/bassist Austin Fontenot, guitarist Curtis Allison, guitarist Kyle Bauer, and drummer Matt Francis, and their charming debut is somewhere between a mix of early-Hawthorne Heights emo mixed with the polished grunge of 90’s rock acts like Smashing Pumpkins all blended with the radio-ready hooks of Gin Blossoms. The Norfolk, Virginia band has plenty to like on Joyrider, and Longsleeves are one of my “bands to watch” as their career in music seem poised for future success.

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Review: Chvrches – Screen Violence

Adam Grundy

It’s been written several times over the course of music history that an artist’s most important album is their current one, since it has the potential to make or break their career depending on the commercial and fan reaction to their product. In a lot of ways, a band usually makes their next album as a reaction to the one that came before it, and that rings very true on Screen Violence. CHVRCHES released their third record, Love is Dead, to a mixed bag of reviews with some reviewers claiming it was a step back from their early magic found. I personally didn’t see Love Is Dead as a step back, but after hearing the major step forward on Screen Violence, I can at least see where some of those reviewers were coming from. Screen Violence is a direct reaction to society’s obsession with others reactions to social media posts, how the media portrays major news events, as well as keeping our own mental health balanced through all of the distractions that exist in our world. With so much “noise” in today’s world, it was only a matter of time before this band made one of their boldest artistic statements to date on their fourth full-length record that shatters even the highest of expectations for where they could take their sound.

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Review: Lovebreakers – Primary Colours

Lovebreakers - Primary Colours
Adam Grundy

On the debut record from the power-pop band Lovebreakers, they channel summer vibes and great guitar hooks into a crowd pleasing package. Primary Colours was produced/engineered by veteran Davey Warsop (Green Day, Foo Fighters, Weezer), and he gets a great performance on each of the ten tracks from this four-piece unit. The band plans to hit the road next year in support of punk rock legends Social Distortion. With such a tight-knit group of songs found on this debut, it should only be a matter of time before many others catch on to Lovebreakers’ greatness.

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Review: Out of Service – Shelter

Adam Grundy

The last time I sat down to write about one of my favorite and newest emo bands called Out of Service, I fell head over heels with being enamored by their debut Burden. Fast forward to 2021, and I am given a massive clue of new music on the horizon when I tagged the band in a post about new and exciting emo bands that pack plenty of musicianship, and none of that nasty controversy. Once I had this single for “Shelter” fall into my lap, I must’ve played the track at least three of four times to appreciate its slow-building beauty and great song structure. Now that the single has been released into the world as of yesterday, I can only imagine how everyone will be receiving the news of this band’s triumphant return. Out of Service are back, and sound as focused and as poised as they’ve ever been.

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Review: The Killers – Pressure Machine

Craig Manning

“I never really gave up on breaking out of this two-star town.”

When Brandon Flowers sang those words back in 2006, he completed a rock ‘n’ roll rite of passage: that of penning a great escapist anthem. The album he was working on at the time, the sophomore Killers LP Sam’s Town, was in part an homage to Bruce Springsteen, so it made sense for there to be a song like “Read My Mind” that channeled some of the pulling-out-of-here-to-win energy of Born to Run. When Flowers sang that song, you could hear in his voice the yearning to get out and find something better. You didn’t know where he was going, but you felt like he was probably never coming back.

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Review: M.A.G.S. – Say Things That Matter

Adam Grundy

When I last caught up with M.A.G.S. (the moniker for Elliott Douglas), his anticipation for his next album Say Things That Matter was utterly infectious. After hearing the rest of the material on this LP, it’s easy to see just why he would be so excited for the rest of the world to hear these songs. From the summer swagger of “Choked Out,” the pop guitar-driven rock brilliance of “Smile,” to the possible best song of his career in “Beg,” all of the singles connected with me on both a personal and spiritual level that I was not originally anticipating. M.A.G.S. is hitting the road this fall on a tour with The Happy Fits and Snarls, and it’s only a matter of time before the masses understand his brilliance in his songwriting.

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Review: The Difference Between – Detach: Envenom

Adam Grundy

The latest emo/post-hardcore “supergroup” comes now in the form of The Difference Between on their debut EP Detach: Envenom. The band is comprised of the ever-familiar vocals of founding vocalist of Emarosa (Chris Roberts), guitarist Chris Wethington, bassist Garrett Harper (both of Softspoken), and drummer Cody Frain (of A Scent Like Wolves). On this heavy, yet incredibly moving EP, The Difference Between embrace their lofty goals for their aggressive sound, and utilize their past projects into a crowd-pleasing musical package on these three songs.

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Review: Lakes – Start Again

Adam Grundy

Coming off of the critically praised The Constance LP, Lakes have returned with another full length album called Start Again. For those unfamiliar with the UK-based indie rockers, they are comprised of lead vocalist/guitarist Roberto Cappellina, vocalist/keyboardist/percussionist Blue Jenkins, drums/percussionist/guitarist Matt Shaw, bassist Charlie Smith, guitarist Rob Vacher and guitarist Gareth Arthur. Start Again was produced/mixed by Neil Strauch (Joan of Arc, Owls) and is a detailed exploration of topical themes like dealing with our mental health, the struggles with addiction, and making the tough decisions of getting rid of toxic friendships. Lakes are in the same realm of emo/indie bands like American Football, Stove, and Barely Civil. Your latest music obsession has arrived.

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Review: Punk Rock Factory – Masters of the Uniwurst

Adam Grundy

There’s an 80’s (or 90’s) kid inside of all of us, and Punk Rock Factory recognizes this and takes it to heart on Masters of the Uniwurst, a punk rock compilation of sped-up TV theme songs from yesteryear. The compilation takes the soul of the beauty of the 80’s and 90’s themes and adds a delicious punk rock twist to the mix that ends up being a hell of a lot of fun to listen through. While some may say it’s simply the nostalgia that makes these songs endearing, I’d beg to differ and state that these “jingles” were in need of a need outlet to really appreciate them for what they are. Your summer soundtrack to your childhood has arrived.

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Review: The Strokes – Is This It

Adam Grundy

It’s funny when you realize you’ve found an artist that you just know is going the change the landscape or rock, indie rock, and maybe music in general from the first time you hear that distinct sound. The Strokes released their debut record, Is This It, fairly under the radar, with the exception of RCA Records knowing they may have the next really big indie band on their label for the foreseeable future. The Strokes released an EP called The Modern Age in early 2001, which sparked an intense bidding war of major labels falling over themselves to earn the trust of the New York City-based rock band. Is This It was recorded then under the tutelage of producer Gordon Raphael (Regina Spektor) and was ultimately released 20 years ago today in Australia, first. The record would then gradually be released in several countries as their tours were being conducted across the world, and the physical version of the CD would hit the states in October (due to a delay after 9/11 and the label decision to exclude “New York City Cops” on the original sequencing. The vinyl version released on 9/11 still continues to have the track in the original tracklisting).

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Review: Pretty Awkward – Hang Out

Adam Grundy

This Seattle, Washington band called Pretty Awkward is on to some great new things, with their electric new single, “Hang Out.” The four piece-band consists of vocalist Austin Held, bassist/backing vocalist Nichola Wiggins, guitarist/backing vocalist Jake Jones, and drummer Damien Ward, and their unique band chemistry is contagious on this bouncy new track. The band is able to channel a lot of the vibes that are popular from other pop-rock bands like Twenty One Pilots, Foster the People, and Walk the Moon, into their own package.

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Review: Jimmy Eat World – Bleed American

Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American
Craig Manning

Some songs just linger in the cultural bloodstream. It’s impossible to predict, in the moment, which songs those will be. Occasionally, it’s the big hits, but it’s also often those same world-conquering smashes that end up sounding the most dated in retrospect. Usually, you have to wait years or even decades to see which songs have truly become songbook classics, once all the context and narrative and hype and promotion has drifted into distant memory. You have to get to the point where all that remains is the song itself and the mysterious, beguiling hold it somehow continues to have over people.

There’s a spectacular cover band in my hometown that mostly plays songs from the classic rock era. It’s not hard to see why: Those songs have been proven staples for so long that building a setlist around them is just a smart business decision. You can’t miss with “Bohemian Rhapsody” or “Don’t Stop Believin’” or “American Girl.” You can’t miss with The Beatles or The Stones. There are precisely two post-2000 songs that I remember regularly hearing in the setlist from this particular cover band. The first one was “Mr. Brightside.”

The second was “The Middle.”

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Review: Underoath – Define The Great Line

Underoath - Define the Great Line
Garrett Lemons

When Underoath took their brief intermission on their 2016 Rebirth Tour, the banner behind Aaron Gillespie’s drum kit fell to floor, revealing the wind-swept dunes of 2006’s Define The Great Line as 2004’s They’re Only Chasing Safety’s final notes still reverberated around the venue. I stood on the delightfully shaky floors of Atlanta’s The Tabernacle, my favorite venue, and felt all of the memories of the upcoming album wash over me. Five years later, they’re still just as vivid.

The weekend before Define came out, my high school sweetheart and I ended our relationship. I “lost” my best friend, her sister, in the same fell swoop. I handled it all with the maturity of a sixteen year old boy, which is to say, I threw myself headfirst into very loud, very angst-ridden music. “In Regards to Myself”’s refrain of “What are you so afraid of?” became a rallying cry when I could bring myself to stop listening to Emery’s “The Ponytail Parades”… I know my flaws.

Like many of you reading this and reminiscing with me on this album, I’d already heard the leaked version of Define. I knew that something immensely more huge than Safety was coming. By this point in the album rollout, I’m pretty sure MTV had also already premiered the whole album on their website, “Writing on the Walls” played nonstop on Steven’s Untitled Rock Show, and I’d (probably) set streaming records on Underoath’s PureVolume page if things like that were tracked back in the aughts.

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Review: A Story Told – American Made

Adam Grundy

On the third full-length record from pop-rockers A Story Told, called American Made, they channel all of the best elements of their band and their past work into a refreshing mix of great tunes. The first single released, “I Don’t Mind (To Get A Little Hurt Sometimes)” does a nice job of re-introducing the band to their fans, and brings some new elements into the fold for those just getting to know A Story Told. This record of 12 songs clocking in at just over 36 minutes, are punchy, to the point, and a hell of a lot of fun for this summer season. With so much great momentum going in the band’s favor, it’s no wonder why there is significant buzz surrounding these rockers.

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