Song of the Day 9/3/15

You Got Spirit Kid-Coheed and Cambria

OK so I’ve been saying for years that this band is a modern day Rush and for whatever reason people don’t want to believe me but finally whenever they decide to not make a concept album but rather just pump out ass kicking non pretentious 70’s sounding rock and roll they finally have made a tune that’s so undeniably Rush that even the most diehard of fans are finally seeing a point to my statements.

Now with that in mind this song is just FUCKING AWESOME it’s a super angrily worded rocker with a fairly reasonable run time and the strongest vocal performance I’ve ever heard Claudio Sanchez do and it’s instrumentals are just pure 70’s awesome people.

Song of the day 9/2/15

Wolves(You Got Me)-Dreamers

So this song is a lot like why I enjoyed a cut like Demon Dance by Surfer Blood in that it’s a very old school sounding alternative rock number with a distinct early 90’s shoe-gaze sound that’s reminiscent of the pixies, lemonheads, and sonic youth in the like with its minimalist productions and very rock oriented grooves that help give it a cooler then you sound that is just improved greatly by vocals that don’t try to be too impressive and fit the word fuck in its chorus.

This song just unquestionably kicks so much ass for me because unlike the vast majority of alternative radio trying to blur the line between pop and rock with their infectiously catchy and danceable beats and overblairing synthesizers or the Jack White impersonating acts that are trying to sound so old school it hurts it’s refreshing to find a song that kind of expresses those same grooves of the old school but don’t come off as a tune trying to be from that time and actually just being a damn good rock and roll number.

Song of the Day 9/1/15

So I was going through my local radio stations back catalogue of songs played trying to find a pretty awesome song and I’m reminded of the excess of newer music that’s come out that’s been pretty good and I figure I may as well tell you guy’s about a few of these cuts since I don’t often post much these days and they seem pretty worthwhile.

Ghost-Halsey

So I was reading a Buzzfeed article a while back that was saying things that teens think are cool these days and amongst the many disappointments of chokers and high wasted shorts one of the things mentioned was this electro-pop artist Halsey who in all honesty upon giving a few of her tunes a listen is kind of what would happen if Ellie Gouldine and Lorde did the fusion dance and that is hella showcased in this very catchy but kind of, “Tennis Court,” sounding number from her newest album.

This song is really solid and I do actually have some enjoyment listening to it but I’m pretty sure that has to do with it’s fairly rapid fire pace and short run time which doesn’t stretch on more the it needs to also I noticed that it along with a few other songs that I’ve given a listen seem to have some fairly lush and well mixed production that gives the songs a very quality sound even if I’m kind of not to honestly impressed by her as a whole but hey she’s the next big thing apparently and I can see her having a good few years ahead of her.

Sam Reiews an album: Cry Baby-Melanie Martinez

You know going on a hiatus is a terrible idea and I'd highly advise never doing it because even though I've been to a shit load of shows over the past 2 months I've been very much dead in terms of actual creative writing and it's been extra difficult to REALLY be motivated to tell you guy's just how awesome it is to see so many different bands and what not but today seems kind of interesting because not only is Straight Out of Compton out but one Melanie Martinez has released her full length studio debut album Cry Baby and to my excitement I've been giving it a proper listen and well i have a few things to say in a fairly compact matter so let's quit fucking around and do yet another Sam Reviews an album....

So Cry Baby it's a 13 song story of a little girl who's parents are alcoholics who cheat on each other and fuck up her life by distorting her moral compass and making her proceed to both murder and act in a mischievous manor and beyond that story there's not much else in this album besides a shit load of clever word play and some interestingly twisted things over what's very childish instrumentals that add to Martinez's twisted nature and give the album a kind of disturbingly wholesome feel.

In all honesty this album has about 6 killer tracks and the rest just kind of feel more in place to sound catchy and carry along a certain feel to it's aesthetic and story which isn't bad at all especially when some of them are performed live and kind of take a life of their own like the opening track Cry Baby which on here is a kind of tame number with one of the best uses of the word fuck in the whole album which completely changes around and becomes a viciously awesome number in a live environment which was my biggest disappointment when it came to this album but that disappointment is quickly set aside when you reach tracks like Dollhouse and Pity Party which just kind of have a really manic vibe that leads you to just kind of want to freak out along with her and really help hype the story being told.

There's also instances of slower songs really working like Soap which is a kind of dreamy number that musically does a good job of being kind of calming but with a really moveable beat and a chorus that kind of sticks along even if the rest of it is fairly typical stuff, and beyond that the rest of the album tracks don't have any super stand out tracks that are that good or bad for that matter so what I'm stuck with is more a solidly good album that leaves me wanting to listen to it more and seeing just how it develops over time.

Score: 6.5/10

Hits: Pity Party, Soap, Dollhouse

Misses: Cry Baby, Alphabet Boy

Posting Regularly on Facebook

Yo people I'm aware that I rarely have much to really post on here but I do make an effort to keep the Official Facebook Page updated fairly often so you guy's should click this article to go there and keep up on some of the various things coming out that have me hyped and of course like the page while you're at it....

Sam Reviews a Show: The Homegrown Buzz Showcase

So I was at a show the other night and it was a bit of a showcasing of some of Kansa City’s finest local music acts thrown by local alternative station 96.5 the Buzz and it was a pretty good time people and I figured I can take the 30 seconds to inform you guy’s of some acts that you should be on the lookout for if they’re having a show near you.

The Greeting Committee

So here we have a group of some young kids or at the very least I think they looked young as hell that are making music that’s not honestly the most original thing you’ve ever heard but even if it’s not completely breaking the mold it’s done DAMN well and their set was very tight, energetic, and hella fun to see because they just put all their efforts into making all the people there want to listen and the songs were solidly good especially their closer a lovely little love song by the name of Hands Down which in and of itself may be the best Modern Love song to of been made and I can only hope that it breaks them or at the very least ends up being put into some cheesy but lovely little date flick but really this group kicks ass and hopefully the rest of the country picks up on them soon.

  

Hembree

I had the pleasure of talking to some of the members of this band before and after the show and realized that I’ve actually seen them before at one of the other free shows that get thrown on by the Buzz and while the first time I remember they had to deal with Opening band Syndrome they do a really REALLY fun cover of Dare by the Gorillaz which I pointed out and they added to their set because yeah it was bad ass, but covers aside this time around they really seemed to of tightened up their sound since the last time I saw them and I found myself really digging their groovy sound and how there’s a natural feeling to their performance and of course they also looked like they were having a hell of a time.

This band really is composed of some cool dudes and if you get to see them you really should they’re quite fun.

 

Outsides

So these guys were the headliner of the nights festivities and they were yet another unfortunate case of the opening band syndrome when I saw them at The Night the Buzz Stole Christmas but I actually do have their album downloaded onto my computer because when I saw them they gave out free download codes to get the record and in all honesty it’s a pretty solidly 80’s new wavey sounding record with some solid stuff but there’s also a pretty big jump in quality once you see them performing the songs live because kind of like Hembree these guy’s got extra tighter since the last time I saw them and they looked like they were both having the best time ever and really wanted to put on a show that left people wanting more it was a tight collection of New Wave sounding numbers that were energetic and quite fun with a couple of newer songs thrown in to showcase some solid work and of course they did a cover of Toto’s Africa which was FUCKING AWESOME!!!!

These guy’s really have done something good and their song Just Curious is actually quite a bad ass little tune that is kind of a dreamy Depeche Mode meets INXS sounding number that really capped off their set before a solid encore.

 

Kansas City has some fine music coming out of it people and these are just a few acts that decided to go out and really show us what they’re made of and I think every one of them could do something and if you can you totally need to see them.

Sam Suggest A Song: Walk off the Earth-Cheerleader

So there's this kind of sleeper hit starting to get some steam by a guy named Omi called Cheerleader which is this kind of semi island inspired smooth little jam that for whatever reason or another in utter simplicity manages to be one fairy amusingly memorable tune about how he's with a girl so good that he has no reason to ever want to cheat on her.

It's a simple number with fairly basic production that just kind of floats along at a simple pace and doesn't really seem to build up to anything super spectacular but for some reason it works and today as I was just kind of hopping around on Youtube and ended up on this cover of that track done by Walk off the Earth who if you don't remember did this really cool Gotye Cover on one guitar because you know gimmicks are the key to get yourself out there in this music market, and ever since then they've seemed to keep busy maintaining a fair amount of views and releasing more and more music as they go along and apparently they've decided to do another gimmicky video with a more Jason Maraz sounding rendition of that song and the end result is actually kind of charming.

It's pretty cool from the beginning that they seem to decide to use their entire tour bus as both an instrument and performance space by doing some Stomp style banging around for production before adding more traditional instruments and then sitting around a drum set simultaneously banging it which is a pretty cool effect to look at and vocally this is actually a really strong showing from these guy's because the years of getting better touring dates and more of a chance to work in real studios seems to have made them all gel even better and their harmonies are pretty on point especially with a fairly soft tune like this one which just kind of gives them a whole lot of room to really do a fair amount with.

This really is quite a good showing and while I'm not super big on promoting Youtube covers this one's still pretty good....