Category: Rock (Page 100 of 241)

The Answer: Everyday Demons

March 27, 2009 /

Offering pure proof that good old-fashioned cock rock doesn’t need to sound as airbrushed as Nickelback (or as depressingly stupid as Hinder), AC/DC openers the Answer toss starving AOR fans a heavy bone with Everyday Demons. There isn’t a lick here you haven’t already heard a thousand times, but that’s sort of the point – each of these 11 tracks takes the most tried and true ingredients of your favorite classic rock records and regurgitates them with as much of that bad ‘n’ ballsy old-school spirit as you could reasonably expect in 2009. Don’t expect any Darkness-style camp, or any of the sour-faced defensive posturing you’ll hear from most other 21st-century rock revivalists, in these songs – the Answer, unlike most of their peers, remember that rockin’ is its own reward, and any given track on Everyday Demons would have sounded just fine being blasted out of a car stereo in the parking lot of your neighborhood liquor store on a Friday afternoon in 1990. It should go without saying that this is fairly awesome – but it should also be obvious that in sticking with screeched, fist-pumping choruses and double-tracked solos from low-slung guitars, the band essentially paints itself into a corner that it can only escape with the aid of songs that do more than evoke memories of every aging hesher’s misspent youth. Everyday Demons is unmistakably cut from “classic rock” cloth, but it isn’t a classic in its own right. Still, it’s a hell of a lot of fun. If you’ve been wondering which of the current crop of young rock bands has the balls to restore the genre’s faded glory, here’s your Answer. (The End 2009)

The Answer MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Rock

Max Morgan: Interrupting the Silence

March 27, 2009 /

His album artwork promises an artist with the velvety smoothness of a young, guitar-toting Kenny G, combined with the addle-brained exuberance of Richard Simmons on Oxycontin – but Max Morgan’s Interrupting the Silence delivers on neither promise, instead providing the listener with an idea of what it might sound like if Leo Sayer had replaced Kevin Cronin in REO Speedwagon. The answer to that question, in case you were wondering, is a lot of generic pop/rock grooves with plentiful falsetto and a few scoops of faux vocal grit, not to mention a load of embarrassing lyrical clichés (“Wait for Me,” in particular, would make Bryan Adams blush). Morgan is a technically sound vocalist, and when he manages to come up with the right material for his voice, he does a fine job of showing off his range, but often – as is the case with the groanworthy “Ya Better Believe” – he doesn’t know which dumb-ass lines to cut, or how not to beat a mildly pleasant groove until it’s dead. (“Believe” is only 3:14 long, but feels like a prog epic.) Morgan’s love for cheese is bottomless; he begins the closing track, “Prayer for No One,” with the line “Hello, Ground Control, I think we’ve got a problem,” channels Michael W. Smith on the weepy power ballad “Nobody’s Coming to My Rescue,” and generally tends to hit Disney Channel rock territory when he’s aiming for arena slayer status. The result is the CD equivalent of a tract home: The pieces are all assembled competently enough, but they’re made from such flimsy stuff, the effort was largely wasted. (Chime 2009)

Max Morgan MySpace page

CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Pop, Rock

Ian McGlynn: This Is the Sound

March 27, 2009 /

Every once in a while, an artist’s music has this way of striking us in our musical pleasure center. Singer/songwriter/pianist Ian McGlynn’s second full-length album, This Is the Sound, is likely going to have that effect on you if you are a fan of dreamy alt-pop. McGlynn’s tenor and some of his melodies will remind you a bit of John Lennon, but his songwriting leans more towards a cross between Ben Folds and Aqualung, and the production on this effort (it’s self-produced with help from songwriting partner John Mosloskie) bring the songs to life in powerful fashion. Much of McGlynn’s material has a cool underground vibe, but some of the tracks on This Is the Sound stand out. In particular, “Night Driving” paints a vivid picture with its dark yet melodic feel, and “Memorial Day Parade” is as close to straight-up pop as McGlynn gets. And he takes things up a notch on the opening track “Play Dead,” which is haunting, beautiful and able to stop you from whatever it is you were doing before you started listening. McGlynn’s music has been placed in both independent and major motion pictures, and whether or not you have heard him before or think you may have, he’s well worth seeking out. (LABEL: Bailey Park)

Ian McGlynn MySpace Page

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

Andrew Ripp: Fifty Miles to Chicago

March 27, 2009 /

This is what happens when a young, potentially gritty blues vocalist hires a former member of Tonic to produce his album: Fifty Miles to Chicago, 11 perfectly inoffensive, slightly soulful rock numbers that suggest what might happen if Rob Thomas listened to a lot of Electric Mud (and did not suck). In fact, Ripp flashes a lot of talent here, both in his vocal performances and his songwriting; it’s just a shame that Dan Lavery’s squeaky-clean production was allowed to suck all the sweat out of the recordings. As a result, although Ripp clearly has the chops to carry a warts-and-all record, Fifty Miles makes him sound like an impostor, an impression deepened by frictionless belters like “Lifeline” that drop him squarely in the driest, whitest square of Taylor Hicks Territory. In all fairness, Ripp co-produced the disc, with Randy Coleman – but it’s hard not to assume that he’s a much more entertaining, dynamic performer in a live setting, and that the decision to geld this record was made purely for commercial reasons. Here’s hoping that subsequent albums find Ripp more willing to color outside the lines, and give his songs the rough treatment they deserve. In the meantime, he’s got a lot more than 50 miles to go before he gets anywhere near Chicago – other than maybe the one that gave us “Hard to Say I’m Sorry.” (Get Ripp’d 2008)

Andrew Ripp MySpace page

Blues, CD QuickTakes, CD Reviews, Rock

P.O.S. covers Pearl Jam, results not nearly as horrifying as one might suspect

March 24, 2009 /

I’ll be the first to admit that I am as far out of the hip hop window as any 40-year-old white man can be, but when this clip of P.O.S. covering Pearl Jam’s “Why Go” landed in my inbox, I just had to hear it for myself. He did the cover on the fly in his studio, with one pre-programmed beat and what looks like a one-octave keyboard. It isn’t perfect by any means, but it ain’t bad. He actually sings the track (smart), and even tries to add a guitar solo on that tiny keyboard of his (bonus points for trying). Try it — you might be surprised by the results.

Artists, Hip Hop, Rap, Rock, Songs

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