Month: February 2009 (Page 8 of 9)

Daniel Park: These Illusions

February 6, 2009 /

I’m sure Daniel Park probably has a legion of fans somewhere. He’s got a professional look, his voice is pleasant, and his songs are the sorts of creations you could imagine hearing on your local college radio station. The problem is that he doesn’t seem to have anything beyond just being pleasant. So many of the tracks here – especially the first three – have an easygoing quality to them that never becomes fully defined. Park doesn’t seem to care about memorable melodies as much as just sounding soothing. How many mid-tempo, acoustic-based tracks can you sit through before you get itchy? When he goes for something more upbeat (“Shipwrecked”), he still undermines himself with the nice guy factor. Elsewhere, he’s just noodling around aimlessly (“Prelude”) or trying to sound Important (“DTR”), but remains busy going nowhere because of his mere pleasantness. You hear one song on here, and you’ve pretty much heard them all. It gets boring fast, quite frankly, but again this is the sort of stuff that hits are often made of, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see him getting something bigger from this release. (self-released)

Daniel Park MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop

Twisted Sister: Live at the Astoria

February 6, 2009 /

Twisted Sister may be best remembered for that hilarious video for “I Wanna Rock,” in which some mullet-wearing kid declares just that to his bow-tie sporting teacher and winds up banging heads with the band. But the band has a deeper history than that, and it began in the ‘70’s as Twisted Sister rocked clubs, amusement parks and radio airwaves until that record deal could not be kept from them. They used an anti-disco stance in their early years, but mostly they just rocked with a live fury few bands could ever equal. Of course, the band is still together and Snider is still a wild front man, but if you can’t see them live, at least you can check out something like Live at the Astoria, recorded in 2004 at the famed London theater, with a companion DVD. The band agrees to a man that this was one of their greatest shows ever, and who can argue with them? The only problem is that shows like this just never quite translate to CD or even DVD the way they do to actually being there. Still, you can’t fault Twisted Sister for that. The songs are as explosive as ever, right from the start of “What You Don’t Know (Sure Can Hurt You)” to their big hit “Under the Blade” to some of their lesser-known anthems such as “The Price.” Of course, no Twisted Sister show would be complete without “S.M.F,” which stands for “Sick Mother Fucker” and is Snider-speak for, well, being a non-conformist. And what doesn’t say “R-O-C-K” like that? (DVE 2008)

Twisted Sister MySpace Page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, DVD Quicktakes, Rock

Seven Mile Ride: Seven Mile Ride

February 6, 2009 /

Seven Mile Ride cranks out music that fits squarely within that sort of journeyman rock groove that has been well trodden before by many other like-minded groups. Vocalist and guitarist Shayne Rushton has one of those semi-gravelly voices that compels you to keep listening, and at times his guitar work can bring to mind the great Roky Erickson (check out those searing notes that cut through the intro on “Take Me Home”). “Face in the Crowd” kicks things off with an almost jazzy vibe that signals this might be something different. When the third tune “Always” rolls around, though, Seven Mile Ride starts sounding more like typical bar band fare than anything seriously breakout. That’s nothing bad in their case; indeed, “Dance Song” is fun and funky, and “Keep to Myself” has a solid strutting rhythm to it. But overall this is pretty safe stuff that doesn’t take too many chances. (Macaca Fuscata Records)

Seven Mile Ride MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Rock

Blue Island Tribe: The 5 Hits of Ecstasy

February 6, 2009 /

You’ve heard this one before. A group of white guys decides to hit the same path that better groups like Sublime walked years before, and do their own take on the reggae/ska groove. It sounds exactly like you might expect. Take that one part Sublime, adhere a bit of No Doubt, and slap on a coat of old-school Chili Peppers, and you basically have Blue Island Tribe. The only problem is that they are as faceless as all the other groups that tried out this gig and never became famous beyond their local sand bar. Luckily, they didn’t try to attack any dub here, and there isn’t a big horn section to goose them along, which may ultimately make them sound plainer than other groups of their ilk. Good enough, but just, and not really worth getting any more excited over than the same band down your own street that’s doing the same thing. (Spark A Fire Records 2008)

Blue Island Tribe MySpace page

Alternative, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Reggae, Rock

Dana Falconberry: Oh Skies of Grey

February 5, 2009 /

Sometimes new artists come out of nowhere to brighten our day and sometimes they help by painting beautiful images in our heads with their music – be they bright, or be they cloudy and drizzly as Dana Falconberry does on the aptly titled Oh Skies of Grey. Falconberry is an Austin Texas singer/songwriter who moved from her hometown of Dearborn, Michigan a few years back and has been hanging around the camps of Patty Griffin, Peter Buck and Alejandro Escovedo. What you’ll hear in Falconberry is equal parts sultry folkster (Griffin), rainy day alt-popster (Suzanne Vega), and bombastic arrangements that give her songs incredible character (think Laura Veirs). All of this is wrapped up in a neat package and delivered with authority on Oh Skies of Grey, and it’s the kind of moody fare that you stick in your CD player and forget about for a while, or at least until the sun starts peaking through. The best tracks among 12 varied and well-crafted ones are the shuffling, hauntingly sexy “Love Will Never Leave You Alone” and “Flourescent” as well as the unofficial title track, “Blue Umbrella.” (2:59)

Dana Falconberry MySpace Page

Alternative, Ambient, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Folk, Pop, Rock, Rock Babes

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