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Underground Reviews
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Midnight Bombers - Evil Streets
Right off the bat in 2007 I get a masterpiece of hardcore, punk and thrash called Evil Streets. While emo kids will think it's too fast and screamcos too smooth, in reality it's like a run away riot on the verge of total chaos. This reminds me of the hardcore shows I used to see at the Metroplex in Atlanta about 83, it only slows down enough to wipe the sweat clean before slamming back into the pit. In a spot or two they slip some metal in just to stay mean. What makes Evil Streets a great album is that there are NO bad songs, no complete messes of screaming and out of tune drunkeness I've come to expect from 'tha lineage of current hardcore bands, just ass kicking, rougher & faster than a three dollar whore, bombast! The title cut gives a great dictation as to what it does mean, to hit the west coast and come close to losing your ass! 'Cause I've been there baby! "Back and Forth" sums up the hidden animal in us all, and lays down the two step like she ain't lyin', she's satisfying! Midnight Bombers rock the fuckin' house! Great gig posters too! Contact: http://myspace.com/midnightbombers,
http://www.wondertaker.com
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| | The Weazels - Love Bomb
This shit fuckin' rocks. Plenty of angus style major riffage, smoke & whiskey vocals, fat bottoms and fat leads. Stuff you buy a 12 pack to kick back with and after it's over, you're trashed with a big fat goofy smile on your face as you hit replay, over and over. Each go around the feedback and rough edges just start soundin' prettier, like that old worn down barfly that you know with just a few more, she's Miss America. The Weazels are the type of band that starts a fistfight that everyone cheers on and hollers for more. It's like a jacked-up, to hell with it all Saturday night. "Screamin' Like A Bitch", the title of the song says it all. Every so often this type of straight up rock n roll gets hot again, and it's a relief from all the angst and dark theatre so prevalent in the mainstream today. You and yours can make love to this, fight to this, or get arrested to this. Real rock n roll in the classic sense. Hot singles off this disc are also "Dirty" and "Miss Me". Cop some killa, you ain't shit if you ain't Weazeled. Contact: http://www.theweazels.com, tonebenderproducts@gmail.com
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| | The Most Beautiful Losers - Playin' With Hearts
These guys remind me of a mix of REM, The Black Crowes and The Georgia Satellites all mixed, but these cats are not from Georgia like all the foresaid (I coulda said early Bruce Springsteen, or even Cobain but we'll leave Jersey and wherever else outta this). Basic straight up rock n roll, like they display on "Watch The Stars" is the modus operandi for the complete disc. They shout out to almost every momma's little helper on "Something For The Pain" (which reminds me, it's past time for me own medication), and dedicate "Dynamo Jim" to the depressive reality of the illusion of alkeehawl. In fact, the study of the shot and strong one weight heavily throughout, making the complete album a sing along to the inebriated. They infuse blues (Your The Antidote) and the art of pacing (Sober Up For The Show) throughout, and you know these guys aren't newbies. Nuff Said! Contact: http://www.themostbeautifullosers.com
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| | Chop Suzy - Going To The Mall
Chop Suzy take an affirmative upgrade sonically on Going To The Mall, compared to their first album. Their songwriting and musical execution feels much tighter too. Still, it's hard to beat their first EP for raw grit, and this release is exactly the opposite, almost slick. It's really like this though, "Disco Beaver" is as alterna as you get and why it is not a staple at all these new so called "alternative" stations (20 years after alternative was "big") is a real mystery. At some places on the album, Chop Suzy might kinda glide instead of punch, but that might be that they're all kinda fleshed out production wise in a few spots. Some overspill mighta been liked here and there. The clue is really, these guys are incredibly diverse, and they stretch out on numbers like the flowing Melodramatic Stoner Song. When they actually check the alternative state of things, on "Alternative Nation", it's probably there that they are not the Chop Suzy I want, but that's corrected on bluesy barn burners like the next daddy-o called Chicken 15. It'll be all-ight, Chop Suzy's in tha house! Contact: http://www.chopsuzy.com
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| | Roz - 4 Song EP
If you're a label looking for good songwriting, diversity and connectivity, Roz is the ticket. There is everything here you need, a familiarity, like on opener "Daisey". Some groove laden rock on "Cardboard Puzzle" is some of the best offered. It is really ROZ's parsing of the melody (Follow Your Heart) that makes all this real. One of the better new acts I've encounterd in 2007. Contact: music@rozmusic.com, http://rozmusic.com, 512-461-2008
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| | Erika Culverson - 3 Song EP
This AngelorGhost produced s song demo disc is two parts excellent, and one part crazy with song three being completely different lyrics sung over Video Killed The Radio Star, which is quite bizzare. The first and second songs though, Ocean To Ocean and Come Close To Me show multi genre creativity, originality, a blend of pop, r&b and spunk. She is shopping for some label support, so I'd think a five or seven demo disc could show her strengths better, for the time being, here's a couple of gems. Contact: eculverson@yahoo.com, tel: 1-626-943-0789
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| | Cobretti - Violation Guaranteed
Well, I had quit drinking for a while before I got this disc, but damned if this hell-bent, messed up, uglier than thou big beat rock n roll didn't just make me fall off the wagon, I burnt the damned thing to the ground and danced in the ashes! There's nothing pretty about Cobretti, more like an infected switch blade wound, too loud in places, distorted bass drums, yelled Iggy-style uncomprehensible lyrics grating over loose double guitars with too much midrange. Somehow it all works, like the 'ol libido that somehow finds it's way back to top performer after so many nights of nothing, all of a sudden it's loud, it's wild, and you're grinnin' like a maddog, cause the boy's done good when they all predicted failure. The rave up blast of "Bender" says it all, power chorded extended riffs lay into single note blues stingers that barely pass inspection before they give way to the follow-up "White Lightening" where that next hit begins to take your mind. Cobretti is a real rock n roll band, they aren't singing about losing the girl, they're singing about baggin' her, and celebrating the rough lifestyle that will eventually kill them, and make them legends in the same. A few spots I'll be damed if I don't hear some early Alice Cooper psuedo-psychedelic garage flailings going' on, but it won't be long before that garage gets all toasted with southern style debauchery that propelled great bands like Hatchet and Skynrd into rock stardom (listen to Midnight Cowboy and Bought Some Luv). Remember though, before you kill that last shot of black jack, this here's a Cali-forn-i-a band, so even though you got the motor-city footprint on songs like "Killin' Me", and upper east coast sassy - "Full Service" - think vintage Kiss circa Dressed To Kill - that damned west coast madness comes through, plastering your ears with the sonic assault that place seems to bring out in full force, no matter where the various parts come from, as Cobretti slams out the last two numbers "Taste The Freedom" and "Outta My Way", like G&R when they were worth a shit, oh so long ago. Turn it up and trash it! Contact: Wondertaker Records, http://www.wondertaker.com, http://www.cobretti.us, http://www.myspace.com/cobrettisf
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| | Tyson Snyder - Die To Pretend
Snyder is a bit different from the run-of-the-mill MC 'round hip hop flame thrower. He's not trying to groove a hit, he's into the poetry of the situation. By that I don't mean he's feathery and floaty, but instead of verses and choruses, which alot of hip hop and rap have come to embrace these days in order to fit into the "hit single" mode, TS runs a straight story vibe throughout his music. I don't find sing-alongs and repeats in order to intrance here, instead it is like a book read into the song has it jams along. He's got great music to fit into his tales, his voice and delivery as important to the melody of the song as the loops and grooves present herein (Grow Up When I'm Ready). He can lay back too and throw some serious introspection (Duct-Taped Wings). Seriously, the man is way overlooked, he can represent some original creativity in this genre today. He can definitely produce hits, check out the Brad B. present on "Hold Your Head High" with the Johnny Cash samples, any station that's worth a damn in the hip hop world will pump this. Probably, world is not ready for dude. But it's about time. Contact: http://dialoguemusic.com, http://myspace.com/tysonsnyder
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