It took me a few solid listens of “From the Attic” before I totally fell for it, but even after acknowledging that “I have better tastes than this,” I dig what DAMONE has to offer, and applaud RCA for going out on a limb and signing something with a good deal of guts. DAMONE are [...]

This Canadian five-piece really surprised the heck out of me. Yes, I’ve heard this emo-popcore sound before, but there’s a freshness to both the band’s songwriting, and quality coming from the pipes of lead vocalist, Chris Ruddy. As essential in any band playing this genre, that dude can sing! Another sharp thing this band does [...]

You know what’s great? The occasional musical reality check. For the past 10 months or so, punk/hardcore/emo has been utterly fixated with the band COHEED AND CAMBRIA, including myself, holding at times, such opinions that their originality could not be matched. So it’s incredibly humbling to get a re-issue of a DRIVE LIKE JEHU cd, [...]

Aftering listening to this reissue of DEADGUY’s scorching EP, “Work Ethic,” I wonder if this band has any idea over what kind of craze they helped start. For a lot of people who’ve only gotten into hardcore and metalcore in the past couple of years, DEADGUY is probably a silent entity with a name is [...]

Mosh part, mosh part, on the wall, which is the toughest label of them all? Stillborn! Stillborn! the wall cried, just listen to DEAD WRONG and you’ll see why! Actually, this Connecticut hardcore band doesn’t really deserve to be lumped into that tough-guy category, but their fiery brand of thick, old-school hardcore is rippin’ and [...]

I’m in an airplane – it’s snowing like crazy outside, and we’re about to land. I can’t see anything out the window but white, yet I’m amazingly calm, still singing along to DOLOUR in all of its lounge-pop goodness. This eleven song debut disc is buckets-o-fun, in the sly, coy, BILLY JOEL meets BEN FOLDS [...]

Along with Deep Elm’s LEWIS and RED ANIMAL WAR, DESERT CITY SOUNDTRACK continue the amazing trend of Deep Elm releasing the most creative indie rock bands around (the non-pretentious kind that actually plus music and not some irritating form of noise, grotesquely labeled ‘art’). “Contents of Distraction” is composed of seven songs that burn through [...]

From the moment the vocals kicked in on this release, I knew I was in for a treat. DEARLY DEPARTED feature Mike Mallamo on the pipes, and his voice is an instantaneous reminder back his previous band, the influentional Long Island act, INSIDE. I’m sure that Mike and the rest of this band do not [...]