Rocks like: Panic! at the Disco, Fall Out Boy, and Sunny Day Real State
Vega Under Fire on Myspace | Band on Pure Volume | Buy Life of the Party on ITunes
This is a small featurette version of a new review feature I intend to begin utilizing every now and again. I call it “What My Wife Says”. The overall idea will be to have my wife make some notes or discuss an album with me, then I will post her thoughts followed by my review of the CD. I call this edition a featurette, because I will be publishing a short mini-review after the notes from the discussion with my wife… I will actually be publishing my full review of this Life of the Party on Nerd Lives where I am a staff writer and contribute primarily with music and movie reviews.
What My Wife Thinks: Vega Under Fire
This edition is manuscript style, though I admit it is paraphrased
thepaintedman (TPM) and his wife (BEH) sit in car, TPM puts Life of the Party in CD player.
TPM: So, what do you think?
BEH: Did you say these guys were dance rock?
TPM: That’s what I thought, but they seem more like pop-punk or something to me now. I thought I read in someone else’s review that they were dance rock.
BEH: Sounds like Sunny Day Real Estate.
TPM: Really? Hmmm…
BEH: I mean, his voice sounds like the guy from Sunny Day.
Some time passes, first couple of tracks play, conversation starts again. …more… »
The Dark Knight is breaking records, kicking ass, and taking names. It is just about everything you can expect for a sequel to an incredible superhero movie… new and interesting villains, plot twists, character development, and action that tops the original. TDK is a superb piece of cinema and one of the best movies made during the current comic book movie era, but the unfortunate truth is that, despite many claims that this is the best superhero movie of all-time, it is simply not that cut and dry.
A few years back, I was running a concert just about every Friday night for about 3 months. There were several in Philly, a handful in Quakertown (the greater Allentown, PA area), and a couple of shows scattered in other Philadelphia ‘Burbs. Most of the shows went well, but the overall quality of the bands I was able to get varied. Some of the better bands made the experience a very good one. I had the opportunity to worked with some up and comers like Grace Gale, The Danger O’s, Mychildren Mybride, and The Stand In. I got to bring some smaller bands I had already loved through the area, including The Psalters, ¡Holler Wild Rose!, Mercury Radio Theater, and Miss Argentina. I even discovered a new found adoration of the live shows of two locals from the Philadelphia area, one was Philly based rockers Paper Tiger and the other was a pop-punk band based in the ‘Burbs that went by the name Straitlaced.
The lesbians are dying off and vampires are to blame. The vampires are harvesting skin for some wacked out scientist and they are choosing lesbians because no one will miss them. The local priests know they need to stop the vampires and in order to do so they need to enlist vampire enemy #1, JC himself. Two priests go to the lake (where Jesus is baptizing believers) in order to go recruit Christ’s help and when explaining the situation, vampires attack. Jesus turns it on and kicks ass, but the two priests die in the process. Jesus goes back to the city, meets Mary Magnum and she helps him gets a modern makeover so that he looks more like he fits in. Jesus proceeds to then kick vampire ass for another hour or so and in the end he brings some folks back to life, turns vamps back into humans, and facilitates lesbian love.
Born John Graham Mellor, Joe Strummer became a groundbreaker in the melding of musical styles and a godfather of the punk genre as a member of a little band called The Clash. The Clash is arguably the most important band in British punk rock, and this writer would argue that they are possibly the more important band of the last 30 years… but not until recently did many discover that The Clash wasn’t where it all started for Joe.
Like many punk rock warlords before him, Dustin Kensrue, the lead singer and lyricist of the prolific punk/rock/hardcore/alternative act Thrice, decided to strip it all down and lay it on the line in 2007 with Please Come Home, his solo debut. The tradition of punks paying homage to folk, blues, and country roots has produced some really solid results in the past decade. Bad Religion’s Greg Graffin further developed his spiritual side through his Jesus Movement-esque protest folk on Cold as the Clay. Mike Ness explored his love for old time country music including covers of Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and Merle Haggard, as well as honky tonk versions of Social D songs, during his break from Social Distortion. Mike Park, of seminal ska-punk act Skankin’ Pickle, has spent most of his post-Pickle days play folky acoustic punk in kids’ backyards and living rooms. Now, joining these ranks, Dustin channels the spirit and strength of a young David Gray while playing his own brand Amerciana folk music. 
Max Bemis molded a masterpiece of pain, sorrow, and resilience when he turned a nervous breakdown into …Is A Real Boy, the debut full-length for his now famous project known as Say Anything. Bemis’s heart-on-sleeve vulnerability is equaled only by his tongue-in-cheek bravado and Say anything has been able to set themselves apart as something special in the indie alternative scene. Having worked with Bemis and his band, it is no surprise that Doghouse Records has a knack for finding troubadours with both strong musical and strong lyrical sensibilities. Enter Christopher Browder and MANSIONS…