Regretting The Past: Puddle of Mudd – Come Clean
What’s brown, sticky and smells? If you answered feces or this album then you are correct!
https://vimeo.com/138622731
Album Review: The Wonder Years – No Closer To Heaven
Pennsylvania’s Pop-Punk performers present their fifth full album No Closer To Heaven and attempt to push themselves while staying true to their sound.
https://vimeo.com/138156200
Text Review:
Once you are defined as being Pop-Punk it can be hard not to be compared to the likes of Blink 182, Fall Out Boy or All Time Low. It’s not a bad thing to be compared to successful bands in a sub-genre, but Pop-Punk now has a predetermined mold that makes it hard for other bands to fit in if they vary their style, even if their style has been pop punk for a decade.
So when a band like The Wonder Years who tries to vary their style and branch out in different directions while staying true to their sound, it can be hard to define for many listeners if it’s the same band they’ve been listening to for years. But this comes natural for fans of Pennsylvania’s sixpiece.
No Closer To Heaven, the band’s fifth full album, plans to do just that. Expanding their sound in different ways while still resembling what they are known for. In an interview with Fuse TV, Dan Campbell said: “We want to walk a line where every record we’re doing we’re taking one nice step forward but we’re not taking a giant leap…We just tried to push out in every direction…It’s meant to expand the understanding of what our band is.”
In a media market where repeating the same successful thing for years on end still brings in money, it’s extremely rare and refreshing to hear musicians who continue to strive for more. So along with the ambition to create, The Wonder Years put everything in full drive for what Campbell described as: “their best work to date.”
Early this summer we were presented with the track lineup and the first single Cardinals with a unique video to introduce everyone to No Closer To Heaven. This would be the band’s first new work after the critically acclaimed The Greatest Generation.
Cardinals has a great elevation and slow build throughout the first minute. The use of two drums sets to make the percussion and rhythm loud and consistent is mastered perfectly here along with some great chord progression in the guitars. It feels like a complete song and sounds like it has depth.
Compared to other songs on No Closer To Heaven, Cardinals feels the most systematic and obvious of what they were going for. Through the rest of the track list there are many different emotions and styles in this album. There is a brooding and soft sense in one song, only to be ramped back up with some screaming and symbol bashing. There is variety.
It goes back to branching out pushing in every direction. It feels like natural progression to expand as opposed to throwing everything in one direction and hoping it lands in the right target. The Wonder years prove that when the roots of a tree grow in every direction it makes the tree that much stronger.
In the sense of Pop-Punk, this definitely has the feel of Pop-Punk grown up. Rather, it definitely feels like it fits the same genre but not in the same way as young tweens are going to be downloading it as their ringtone. The chorus and hearing the lyrics about running until your lungs give up make a huge exclamation in this song that make it feel like an anthem.
Whether it’s the deeper meaning tracks like Cigarettes and Saints or the smoother instrumental standouts like Stained Glass Ceilings and A Song For Patsy Cline, there is something to get from this album regardless of what mood you are in. The tracks may have different content and feels, but they definitely complete a whole picture.
There are some bands you grow out of, and there are some bands that you grow old listening to. Now, after a decade of music and five full albums, The Wonder Years proved they are the latter. Overall, No Closer To Heaven continues the example they have set for the genre. Even if there are a few moments where there is more going on than your ears and brain can handle at once, the music and lyrics from The Wonder Years will make everything worth it to many listeners.
All Time Favorite Albums: New Radicals – Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too
A series looking at my all time favorite albums. One of my all time favorite albums is also a huge guilty pleasure and barely definable as soft rock. This video is dedicated to 1998’s Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too by New Radicals.
https://vimeo.com/137759790
Photos: STARSET
Photos of Starset live in Orlando, FL. All photos were taken by Luke Spencer on 8-24-2015 at House of Blues Orlando.
Starset were asked to come on tour with Breaking Benjamin and they opened the night to a sell out crowd. The unique thing for this show was that the entire venue was completely filled before Starset took place. That many people waited in line for the show at House of Blues. Their set opened with jetpacks shooting and vocals blasting. After their performance filled with visual media and lighting effects, the band came out and greeted anyone that wanted to meet them. A rare thing for bands with radio play now.
Photos: BREAKING BENJAMIN
Photos of Breaking Benjamin live! All photos were taken by Luke Spencer at the House of Blues in Orlando, FL on 8/24/2015.
Breaking Benjamin took the stage in front of a sellout crowd in Orlando. After starting their set with So Cold, it seemed that every single person in the House of Blues knew every lyric that would be sang throughout the night. The new supporting lineup with Benjamin Burnley proved themselves with both the new songs from Dark Before Dawn and also keeping up with the past material from BB’s discography. The crowd and band were on the same page and it took a long time to get people to leave because no one wanted the show to end.
Album Review: Beach House – Depression Cherry
Baltimore’s soft alternative darlings Beach House bring down the tempo with their fifth full album Depression Cherry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgNmk-4402k
https://vimeo.com/137295594
Text Review:
Some alternative and soft rock groups can create the perfect serenity through their music. Whether it’s through a combination of vocals and acoustics or the incorporation of synthesized keyboards and guitar feedback, there have been full soundtracks and dreamscapes created by some fantastic musicians.
Beach House have been at the forefront of this dreampop/soft-alternative experience since their 2006 EP. Every time they have released a full album since, their LP’s have made it to highest of end of year award lists on multiple outlets including Pitchfork, NME, Billboard and Amazon.
One of the most distinguishing features of Beach House’s music is that only occasionally do you hear a song come to a complete end. Victorica Legrand and Alex Scally explained it best on an interview with NPR saying that they want their music to always fade out. In a sense, the song feels like it can go on forever. This even comes across in their live performances where a song will fade unto quiet and then turn into the next son on the setlist.
After many successful albums comes Depression Cherry, an album that has been advertised online and promoted as a more simplistic version of what Beach House can create than in the past. When asked by FactMag about the songs and lyrics throughout Depression Cherry, Alex Scally said: “I don’t think that the songs on this record are like the ones on our previous records, personally. They could have never existed on the previous records… (but) Anyone’s entitled to any of these things that they want to feel.”
In many ways Beach House’s music is something you have to hear to understand as it is not the typical stage format and classic band dynamic. Depression Cherry was announced earlier this year and with the announcement came the album’s promoted single “Sparks”.
In many ways this is instantly definable as a song from Beach House by just about anyone who has heard one of their albums before. When I first heard Sparks a few months ago I didn’t know what to think of it with the consistent static feedback and what sounds like 56k dial up sounds. It’s not until the Legrand’s vocals start that you understand how everything fits together.
The rhythm of the synthesized drums helps carry Legrand’s whispery vocals into something peaceful. This song takes time to grab your attention and set an atmosphere as it starts more jarring than inviting, but after about 90 seconds you understand what Beach House was going for. And in many ways, that ideology describes many Beach House songs.
Listening to an entire album from Beach House can sometimes seem like an extremely odd experience. While the track list goes on, you may drift off and wonder how long you’ve been listening to a song or when the tracks have changed. But by the end of the album, you think about how fast everything just flashed by.
PPP feels like a timewarp to the days of peaceful 60’s songs played outside. The acoustics and piano are incredibly fluid and never take too much focus from other elements like the vocals or overall rhythm. The pace of songs like PPP and Beyond Love on this album represent just how slow Beach House can take their music, while songs like Blue Bird and Sparks show how they can drive more of a pulse based rhythm, all without raising the vocal range.
There is an appreciation for soft alternative like this that prove creativity can carry a song in unique ways. Even if not every song on Depression Cherry leaves a permanent mark, there are several moments in this album that make you want to come back. The good not only outweighs the bad, but also makes you appreciate what is so good about music like this.
Describing Beach House to someone who hasn’t heard it is a lot like describing what salt tastes like to someone who has never had salt. Once you have experienced it, you remember it forever. And while Depression Cherry does have songs that fall by the wayside, there are tracks here that you’ll keep with you as go to songs for quiet moments for the rest of your life.
Overall, Depression Cherry should satisfy the longtime fans of Baltimore’s darlings and should also satisfy new comers who are interested in what Legrand and Scally are capable of. While it may not be their greatest accomplishment, the talent still shines through their work in this album.
Photos: FOO FIGHTERS
Photos of the Foo Fighters live on the Break A Leg tour! All photos were taken by Luke Spencer at the Hollywood Casino Amphitheater in St. Louis, MO on 8-19-2015.
The curtain dropped and the Foo Fighters went straight into Everlong. After the first song, Dave said they had a LOT of songs to play and they rocked for almost two hours. Just about every favorite song from everyone in the massive crowd was covered. There was no photo pit, but I still got to get some photos of King Dave on the throne.
My personal favorite moment was when Dave asked for the crowd to respond if they had seen the Foos live before. After that, he asked if it was anyone’s first time. After about 1/3 of the crowd responded to that, Grohl’s response was “…WTF guys? We’ve been doing this for 20 years and you just get here now?!”
There isn’t much else I can say to do this show justice. Do what it takes to see the Foo Fighters live. Click on any pic below to view the gallery!
Interview: ROYAL BLOOD
Mike and Ben take some time during the Break A Leg tour with the Foo Fighters to talk about the writing process, sitting in parliament, and apology to all future fans!
https://vimeo.com/137107451
Photos: ROYAL BLOOD
My photos of Royal Blood in St. Louis, MO! All photos were taken by me on 8-15-2015.
Royal Blood opened for the Foo Fighters on the Break-A-Leg tour (get it?). The crowd was MASSIVE and people waited in the rain and sat in the mud while watching Royal Blood play at Hollywood Casino Amphitheater. They won over many fans with their performance as most people were blown away at the seamless talent they showed while transitioning between songs and they even treated the crowd with a few new ones.
Click on any picture below to view the gallery!
