Reviews of the latest new music
Shanti Groove
It is almost time to start preparing for the Lyons
Blue Grass Festival and to get in the
mood start with Shanti Groove.
Shanti Groove’s album stays true to its folk roots.
All of the songs start with the fast
twanging on the banjo and rush out of the speaker like
a freight train.
Most of the album is instrumental, such as “Boy
Howdy”, “Light Up Lonesome” and “Free Bumper Hop.”
“Free Bumper Hop” throws some variation into the mix,
making the banjo and guitar come off sounding psychedelic,
showing some rock influence.
The song “Green Moss” has down-home singing and
harmonies capped off with the
infamous guitar vs. banjo showdown at the end.
Over all Shanti Groove plays with a lot of energy and
would be enjoyed by any Blue Grass fan.
The Music that is on the new album by Three Degrees
of Freedom jumps into a genre of music which is getting really
full of bands – acoustic rock.
Ever since Dave Matthews hit the music scene with
his acoustic guitar by his side, more and more bands have went
the acoustic route, but then their music runs into brick walls.
Three Degrees of Freedom runs face first into
sounding the same on every song on the album. The formula for each
song goes like this: a catchy acoustic guitar intro, Paul Cox’s almost
emo sounding singing and the same sounding rhythm
as the last song they played, but with a different guitar solo.
The lyrics have an easy conflict feeling to the words.
Three Degrees of Freedom plays with some talent
on their album but it seems like after you hear just one song
you have heard all of them.
Xeren
Shirley Manson, eat your heart out: Xeren is better than
Garbage, and that is still pretty bad.
Xeren takes electronic music and hard rock, puts it
together and makes a pretty bad MTV clich/. The Song “You Need Me”
is like a testosterone version of a Garbage song. It is driven by
heavy rock and a repetitive, but catchy hook to the
song. The lyrics give off a very competitive
personification to them. Some thing someone would listen to
to get ready for a heated foos ball game.
The song, “Everything” is sang like the whinny Bono,
from U2 with a 1980’s sound to the music. Why couldn’t the eighties
music end with the eighties?
“Blackbox” has simple lyrics and a repetitive beat like the KTCL
whore Daft Punk. And to round the package out is the slow acoustic piece,
“Why Do” which strays away from the electronic music. If you have a taste
for Garbage, Bono or Daft Punk give Xeren a listen, or don’t. It’s really up to you.
Starless
After the first listen of To Sleep: Perchance to
Dream by Starless, the lyrics leave the listener asking, what
kind of drugs was the band on when they wrote the words?
The lyrics seem to have been pulled out of a hat at random and
Thrown together to make a song. But after listening to the album
a few more times, the poetic nature of the lyrics starts to make sense.
To Sleep: Perchance to Dream is filled with songs full of conflict,
emotional ups and downs and religious connotations open for a lot of
different interpretations. The almost emo lyrics are accompanied with
a raging distorted guitar, heart-thumping bass, heavy drums and out of
place soft guitar melodies. Starless has a hard rock feeling with a little
industrial twist to it. Starless doesn’t come off as catchy music but it is
definitely good art. This is an album for any indie rock fan.
Get out of the cold weather and warm up with the new
album by Soul Thieves, Microphone in the Sugar Bowl.
This album is full of fun summer time rock songs that will fool your
senses into thinking its eighty degrees outside. Their style of music is
comparable to Blues Traveler, Hootie and the Blowfish or Counting
Crows. After listening to this album just once all the way through it has you
singing along. Michael St. James sings with so much power in his voice, while
he spouts out love songs. The drums are hard hitting through almost the
whole album and the acoustic guitar parts set the mood for each song
perfectly. The only problem with Micro Phone in the Sugar Bowl lies in the
monotonous lyrical content. All that the songs talk about is love. They even go so
far as to use the line, “When will I stop writing love songs about you” as
the chorus in “Starting Tonight.” But this Album is still rockin’ even if the lyrics
do some serious symping.
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