Listen to Never Shout Never for free (starting here with “Big City Dreams” and continuing by visiting imeem to hear the other tracks from The Yippee EP)… and, remember to check them out live in a city near you.

Rocks like: The Starting Line, Jimmy Eat World, and River City High.
The Status on Myspace | Doghouse Records on Myspace | Buy it on Amazon

The Status has teamed up with indie powerhouse Doghouse Records to release their first full length album, entitled So This is Progress. Now out for a month, the album is starting to make waves and the band is wrapping up the final leg of a tour supporting Bayside, The Matches, and Valencia. With moments evoking Something to Write Home About… era Get Up Kids, vocal harmonies as solid as Midtown’s, and hooks reminiscent of The Starting Line, The Status is what I loved about emo when I was in high school in the late 90s.

Amidst the generic pop punk and emo of the past few years, this album easily stand out as one of the better ones released in the genre. At brief moments, the CD can sound a bit generic or a bit stale, but the overall product harkens back to a time when the emo scene was just starting to break into the mainstream with the success of Jimmy Eat World’s Clarity. …more… »

Rocks like: Sigur Ros, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, and Radiohead.
pssprtt on Myspace | Cassowaries on Myspace | Download the EP for free

A Ghost with Teeth is the digital split EP from Cassowaries and pssprtt. Never heard of Cassowaries or pssprtt? That’s okay, neither have I. This presented me with the choice of either researching the two artists or composing an organic review based solely on the EP itself. I, dear friends, have chosen the latter, partially due to my laziness in the matter and partially due to my belief that listening to music free of preconceived notions can often produce the truest examination of said music. My ramblings aside, I present you with my organic, albeit relatively terse, thoughts on A Ghost with Teeth.

The digital EP is comprised of six tracks, the first three by Cassowaries and the latter three by pssprtt. All of the tracks have an ambient to them where the focus is never on the lyrical content, but rather on the music. If the tracks were not labeled as being by two different artists, one would unlikely be able to delineate between the two acts without a good amount of scrutiny, at least at first. The biggest difference to note is that Cassowaries seem to float into a harder, more abrasive realm in two of their three tracks. …more… »

Rocks like: Simple Plan, Bowling for Soup, and Yellowcard.
Buy TBL Merch on MerchNow | Band on Myspace | The Bigger Lights on PureVolume

First things first… Fiction Fever is a generic pop punk EP, no quips about it… but this band reeks of TRL Top 40 fame, in a good way. Like some bands that I am often too quick to dismiss in this genre (Good Charlotte, Bowling for Soup, and Simple Pan), these kids are a tight unit that doesn’t miss a beat. Production quality, palatable sound, and the right look are all essential ingredients to marketing this type of music to the masses. The Bigger Lights possess all of these ingredients in abundance.

Much of my distaste for what I call “generic pop punk” is strictly elitism. I was a pop punk loving teeny bopper not too long ago, so why should I look down on others for being so. Did I or did I not grow up going to see Jersey staples like Midtown and The Youth Ahead? Did I or did I not spend my summers at Warped Tour and Blink 182 concerts? Who am I to judge? In fact, am I simply a self-loathing closet pop punk fiend to this day? Quite possibly. …more… »

I’d like to extend a warm congratulations to Jim Ward and his alt-country crew, Sleepercar, as landing a gig opening up on a Coldplay tour is quite a big deal. Check out a great alternative act opening up for one of the biggest bands in the world in a city near you:

11/3 Auburn Hills, MI @ Palace Of Auburn Hills
11/5 Atlanta, GA @ Phillips Arena
11/6 Tallahassee, FL @ Club Downunder-FSU*
11/7 Orlando, FL @ Amway Arena
11/9 Sunrise, FL @ Bank Atlantic Center
11/11 Atlanta, GA @ Phillips Arena
11/12 Memphis, TN @ Hi Tone*
11/13 Kansas City, MO @ Sprint Center
11/14 St. Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center
11/16 Oklahoma City, OK @ Ford Center
11/17 Austin, TX @ Mohawks Outside Stage*
11/18 Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
11/19 Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
11/20 Albuquerque, NM @ The Agency*
11/21 Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center
11/22 Salt Lake City, UT @ Energy Solutions Arena
11/25 Anaheim, CA @ Honda Center
11/26 Glendale, AZ @ Jobbing.com Arena

Chazz: Who’d win in a wrestling match, Lemmy or God?
Chris Moore: Lemmy.
[Rex imitates a game show buzzer]
Chris Moore: … God?
Rex: Wrong, dickhead, trick question. Lemmy *IS* God.

The guy in the dragon helmet riding in on the motorcycle is my wife’s uncle (and the guy who hooks me up with backstage passes every time Motorhead comes to Philly).

NSN is touring the great U. S. of A. with hellogoodbye and Ace Enders. Check out my review of their EP here and check them out live at a city near you…

10/23 Pomona, CA @ Glass House
10/24 San Diego, CA @ Epicentre
10/25 Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress
10/27 Dallas, TX @ The Door
10/28 Austin, TX @ Emo’s Alternative Lounging
10/29 Houston, TX @ Java Jazz
10/31 Jacksonville, FL @ Fuel Coffeehouse
11/1 Fort Lauderdale, FL @ Culture Room
11/2 Orlando, FL @ The Social
11/4 Greensboro, NC @ Greene Street
11/6 New York, NY @ Blender Theatre at Gramercy
11/7 Baltimore, MD @ Sonar Club Stage
11/8 Farmingdale, NY @ The Crazy Donkey
11/9 Asbury Park, NJ @ Stone Pony
11/11 Cambridge, MA @ Middle East Restaurant & Nightclub
11/12 Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church - Sanctuary
11/13 Buffalo, NY @ Xtreme Wheels
11/14 Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
11/15 Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick
11/16 Chicago, IL @ Metro
11/17 Omaha, NE @ Sokol Underground
11/18 Denver, CO @ Marquis Theatre
11/19 Salt Lake City, UT @ Club Sound
11/21 Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
11/23 Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
11/25 San Francisco, CA @ Slim’s
11/26 Los Angeles, CA @ Knitting Factory Hollywood
11/30 Scottsdale, AZ @ Chyro Arts

Check back soon for an interview and I’ll work on trying to get them to give up a free download for our readers, too!

Rocks like: Long Beach Dub All-Stars, Slightly Stoopid, and Sublime.
SiSenorita.com | Band on Myspace | Si Senorita on iSOUND

Let me preface my assessment of Si Senorita’s High Times, Hangovers, and Harmonies by saying that if I was on a deserted island for the rest of my life with one album it would be Sublime’s 40 oz. to Freedom and that Sublime is arguably my favorite band of all-time. Thus, my standards for reggae influenced rock are pretty high, so it’s in no way an insult to say that I believe that this album sounds like Sublime with a less talented singer.

I don’t think the vocals are bad, in fact I would assert quite the contrary. Mike Garrity, the lead vocalist and one of two guitarists, has a great voice… but Brad Nowell (RIP) had the voice of an angel and a ridiculous vocal range. Mike isn’t quite an angel and doesn’t display nearly as much range, but has a great voice for their brand of white boy reggae. He hits all the notes, isn’t often flat, and has a more than decent range. It’d be fair to compare his vocal style to any number of Skunk Records vocalists not named Nowell.

To compliment the more than worthy vocal stylings, the music is nothing short of solid. There is a simplicity about most of the melodies that comes across as seemingly effortless… not effortless in a bad but, rather, in a great way, the way that sounds just right, the way that take no effort by the listener, the way that just makes you want to float away into a sea of Mexican beer and summery cocktails. These effortless melodies are melded with a tight rhythm section. …more… »