In a surprisingly awesome local release, this Lansing five-piece indie rock group has managed to make a truly professional, multi-textured, multi-dimensional release that I would be proud to hand to my ex-bass player who hates everything. There is lo-fi goodness, Velvet Underground, Jesus and Mary Chain, Mazzy Star and all sorts of dream-pop flavors happening here – and even the textural instrumental stuff is genuinely interesting. Don’t expect to rock the night away, as there are lots of slow tempos and night-time melodies haunting the disc, necessitating an intimate investigation, or at the very least a listening party with a small group of music-loving friends. Go right now to myspace.com/fieldsofindustry.
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Ryan Cunningham
This group has been rocking around East Lansing in all their female-fronted metal majesty since 2003. The songs from the quintet’s new album are modern sounding and well-executed, and the musicianship, including the vocal styling, shows competency and passionate engagement in the process and the genre. There are some Incubus-style moments due to the melodic use of the lead vocal, but overall the lack of screaming serves the band well by forcing them into a non-brutal approach to metal/heavy rock while still maintaining a respectable level of aggression. Go to myspace.com/atriummusic to check it out.
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Ryan Cunningham
This is a 10-song disc of yummy indie-pop music by a female singer and a multi-instrumentalist. There are some country style songs, some straight-up pop, some rock ‘n’ roll. The songs average about three minutes long and never get all that deep lyrically, but the idea of “style over substance” doesn’t really capture it – it’s better to say that every song is efficiently crafted, eschewing any excess musicianship or emotionality. Everything is all in good fun – even the cover art is brightly colored and inviting. Go to myspace.com/fullcatastrophe for a listen and some fun pictures of the duo.
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Ryan Cunningham
With two permanent members and a couple more in tow for the disc, Kzoo’s The Number Eight have put together a sometimes shoegazey, sometimes accordion-y, but always sort of grim and slow grouping of tracks. The mix is spotty – vocals are intermittently buried and sometimes shaky, making the songs sound like live takes – but the intention which comes through seems solid and true to a vision, which does give it integrity. A name for the genre could be “acoustic-winter-emo.” There are some drums and distorted guitars hanging out, but they only get to breathe on one of the tracks. Go to myspace.com/ thenumbereight for a listen.
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Ryan Cunningham
This is a pro blues band playing pro blues along the lines of Robert Cray and SRV. If you go to blues festivals, or if you just love blues guitar, you should pick up this album. Full of energy from start to finish, chock full of all the idioms you know and love. There’s a song about catching his woman cheating. There’s even a song about wanting to get you high tonight. It’s a little dirty, but never obscene – and it’s always tight. The guitar tone is always delicious. Recorded by Glenn Brown in Lansing on the Neve console from Muscle Shoals. Go to vincenthayes.com.
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Ryan Cunningham
Following where their debut, last year’s Death of the Party, left off, Ghosts of the Great Lakes’ second album plunges deeper into the hollow, haunting darkness of these dispensable digital times. The title track to the 10-song set sends vocalist Benny West adrift in a sea of heartbreak, status updates and guitarist Jeff Goodman’s spectral sounds. Both are joined by the band’s new rhythm section – bassist Ben Bojanich and drummer Jesse Blankenship – who retool Ghosts with pieces of Chevelle and other mainstream rockers, without diluting the Deftones touchstones or other emotionally draining elements that define the disc’s delicate and destructive beauty. Ghosts of the Great Lakes will release Erasing You July 17 at Papa Pete’s. Check out myspace.com/ ghostsofthegreatlakes.
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Eric Mitts
Electronica is alive and well in the heart of this machine – the new disc by Assemble the Ash (moniker of Jason DuMond) has all the dance-synth and drum sounds you can eat, with perpetually moving moody soundscapes ala Moby and Amon Tobin. Movie samples, reverb and delay-slathered keyboards make up a lot of the important bits along the way, and the disc is certainly one you’d consider spinning for turning on your colored lights and visiting outer space. Check out the songs from the disc as well as some even more recent additions at assembletheash.com.
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Ryan Cunningham
With a heaping helping of traditional Americana feel – banjo and mandolin included – Greensky Bluegrass has released a double-disc set weighing in at two and a half hours of quality good-time music recorded live at the Riviera Theater in Three Rivers, Mich. The songs are not old-timey, nor are they ultra-modern, but some sort of private stock musician’s blend of everything happening since the banjo was invented. They have chops for days on their stringed instruments, and have the vocal harmonies to back it up. Check out the disc and tour dates at greenskybluegrass.com.
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Ryan Cunningham
Rocking that old klezmer/gypsy sound, featuring clarinet, violin and the galactic weight of broken hearts, Red Sea Pedestrians have done it again with their excellent musicianship and fashion flair. A varied and full album musically and lyrically, and even the packaging is inventive and endearing. Highlights include Rachael Flannigan’s clarinet and sonorous alto, as well as the rhythmic intricacy demanded by the six individual songwriters in the band. The disc may make you sleepy because of how everything changes all the time – in a good way. Go right now to theredseapedestrians.com.
com and learn more about it. Right now.
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Ryan Cunningham
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Acoustic singer/songwriter Sam Brownson going under the moniker Knaves Turned Honest has self-produced a bitchin’ album of seven songs, all varied in style and completely performed by Brownson himself. The layers of instruments work in perfectly complimentary ways, supporting the refreshingly strong melodies and never – once distracting from the emotional vocal performances. Brownson can be a downer, but we forgive him because of his conviction and tasteful songwriting prowess, as well as his decent guitar chops. Go to myspace.com/knavesturnedhonest for a brief history and pouty yet arrogant self-psychoanalysis by this philosophy major.
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Ryan Cunningham
Christian acoustic songwriter Jake Down from GR has put out a seven-song EP recorded and produced by fellow Christian acoustic songwriter Chris Jane from Big Rapids. Utilizing a single acoustic guitar and single voice, Down occasionally accompanies himself on vocals – the sparse arrangement coupled with the perpetual strumming of the guitar make the disc a sleepy listen, despite the attempts at dramatic lyricism and melody. With not a song under four minutes long, the disc is geared toward the young coffee shop crowd and people who value lyrical content over musical ingenuity. Go to reverbnation.com/jakedown for a listen.
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Ryan Cunningham
Since starting earlier in the year as a side-project for Glenn Michael Willis (formerly of Their Teeth Will Be of Lions) showcasing his dearest influences – most obviously Tom Waits and Johnny Cash, among others – Glennerd and the Bastard Few have grown into many. Now a five-piece live, the band fills out its dark-indie-folk sound on record with piano, strings, and guest vocalists galore broadening the banjo-pluckin’, acoustic-strummin’ simplicity of their shout-along choruses, led rousingly by Willis, who has established an undoubtedly unique voice, both lyrically and vocally; his personal and painful demons making this an all the more powerful listen. Pick up the 12-song disc at their release show Aug. 21 at Papa Pete’s in Kalamazoo, or go to glennerdandthebastardfew.bandcamp.com.
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Eric Mitts
Although probably unintentional, it’s totally sweet that the second generation of GR rockers to siphon the skuzzy sounds of L.A.’s Sunset Strip start their debut with a song called “Nasty.” Like The Nastys before them, who brought glam-rock street-punk to West Michigan, Rattle Candy is all about ‘80s excess, and unadulterated, even-if-underage enjoyment. Lead singer Kit Leona, who did a stint in L.A. himself, lets loose with swagger to spare, his soaring vocals even carrying the album’s only down-note: the mid-album 3 Doors Down-sounding ballad “Angel.” Guitarist Ian Dodge steals the spotlight everywhere else, his explosive energy rocketing off the rock-steady rhythms of drummer Nate Hodges and bassist Josh Cross (all former bandmates in The Innuendos). Listen now at myspace.com/rattlecandy.
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Ryan Cunningham
The five-song EP from this four-piece pop-metal outfit has a big sound and dramatic vocals ala Creed and Nickelback. The pumping and breathing of the end-stage compressor due to mega-radio processing is distracting in headphones to the audiophile, but the tracks play very well through laptop speakers. The lyrics are overinflated and awkwardly multi-syllabic which detracts from their literal meaning and creates a detached ambiguity in the stylish imagery while simultaneously obfuscating any intended narrative (whew!). Otherwise, the singer has a strong voice and the songs are balanced structurally. The cover art is also sweet. Go to myspace.com/ levityslaw for a listen.
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Ryan Cunningham
Practicing a self-confessed “every metal” or “all of the above” metal style, the five-piece Sin Theorem embraces their demons and exorcises them in an explosion of excess and expletives on their debut EP. “Porn Star” packs pleasure with pain, humor with whoredom, making it worthy of comparison to South Park’s infamous DVDA, or Primus, even when most of Sin Theorem’s five-song set sounds like brutal, double-barreled, double-bass death (“Relentless Aggression,” “If It Will Lie On Its Back”). Dual guitarists Alex Diesel and Tony Massey gun it throughout the disc, but together they command arena-sized spotlights on the intro to “The Eyes of Death,” a thunderous lightning strike of a song about vengeance. “Immaculate Deception” is available now. Listen at myspace.com/ sintheoremrocks.
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Eric Mitts
This hard indie rock quintet hailing from Charlotte, N.C. – and incidentally performing at Grand Rapids’ Sazerac Lounge on June 4 — has put out a long 14-track disc of guitar heavy, lushly arranged modern rock tunes. They pride themselves on what they call their female-esque vocal (?), mentioning Saosin and Glassjaw. There are hints of U2 and Duran Duran all over the disc, specifically the guitar and bass work, but the tone is more post-Deftones. The recording sounds nice and big, ready for the arena. Overall, a fun disc, with plenty of over-the-top aggressive drums, which is an absolutely necessary component of… well, anything good. Go to myspace.com/ Harvard for a listen.
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Ryan Cunningham
Now working as a three-piece, mainstay post-hardcore band The Skies Revolt rain down as much relentless volume as ever: bombarding eardrums with cymbal crashes that shatter in air and group vocals shouted like cloudbursts of conviction that only a band four releases deep could well up from their missile silo hearts. By design these 12 tracks run together, almost overwhelmingly, with occasional segues making the separate songs sound only like tempo changes between their synth-dance freakouts and crushing, metal-worthy breakdowns — building to an awe-inspiring orchestral finale in “The Transitive Deficiency Again,” revisited from their previous release. Pick up Plastic Revolution for free at their June 5 release show at the DAAC, or June 11 at Lemonjello’s in Holland. Listen now at myspace.com/ theskiesrevolt.
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Eric Mitts
Symphonic and spacey, the title song mini-epic opening Seth Bernard’s latest disc (the completing piece to his double-album-opus, joining his previous, simultaneously-recorded 2008 release, This Here) pushes the singer-songwriter’s folk work to its outer boundaries, without losing any of its beauty. A massive amount of guest collaboration – especially from the magical May Erlewine, whose own Golden, also released last month and prominently featuring Bernard, deserves equal attention for its richness – lifts these nine songs to great heights, while keeping things well-rooted both in earth and soul. The haunting harmonies and stirring swell of the closing, enigmatic “Eye Mieux” bookends the album in the best way imaginable, leaving listeners lingering to begin Bernard’s songbook again and again. For more, visit samuelsethbernard.com.
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Ryan Cunningham
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