Eightfourseven – Lossless
If their website is to be believed, Eightfourseven strive to “redefine alternative music.” But the material on Lossless fits snugly within the parameters of post-Radiohead alt-rock, matching twitchy electronic beats with big guitars. I don’t exactly mean that as a compliment: Lossless sounds like mid-period Thrice, brimming with mood and atmosphere but short on compelling songs. Some of the tracks have cool titles like “8 Armed Baby” and “Phantom Limb,” but the actual music is generic and dull. It’s a classic case of straddling two genres and doing neither one well – this would be a good soundtrack for dudes that like to pop their collars while pretending to read Noam Chomsky. If Vheissu rocked your socks but felt slightly too “deep,” Eigthfourseven are right up your alley; if you’re looking to hear something new, unique, and/or fun, look elsewhere. C-
Official Site / MySpace / Last.fm

Ape Machine – This House Has Been Condemned
These guys promise “equal parts rock ‘n’ roll, blues, stoner rock and psychedelia,” so I was pretty excited to pop This House Has Been Condemned into my hi-fi and let it rip. But it’s mostly a letdown: think the Black Keys sucking off Alice In Chains while Jon Spencer watches. Ape Machine aren’t bad, per se, but just kind of unentertaining, for a band promising such substantial firepower. And it’s not really their fault; young dudes with beards are always jerking off on Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin records, it’s just part of having a penis (and a beard). You could do a lot worse; some of the riffs are fairly volcanic, and I’d take this over Wolfmother any day of the week. But, ask yourself honestly: are you really tired of ZOSO yet? Didn’t think so. B-
Official Site / MySpace / Facebook

We Were Skeletons – S/T
Maybe it’s just because I don’t listen to much of the stuff, but I find screamo incredibly exciting when it’s done well. And you won’t find many new bands doing it better than We Were Skeletons; their new self-titled LP ranks with Pianos Become The Teeth’s similiarly excellent Old Pride in terms of pure manic energy. The guitars are the main attraction – they’re mathy without being obnoxious, and they never distract from the rhythmic massacre happening all around them. As with virtually any band in this genre, We Were Skeletons could stand to up the melodic ante – none of these songs will necessarily stick to your skull. But by the time the disc is over, you won’t have much skull for them to stick to anyway. Bonus points for the surprisngly gentle mid-album palette cleanser “Her Stomach Is A Lioness;” unexpected touches like that are what separate the wheat from the chaff. We Were Skeletons are all wheat, baby. B+
MySpace / Last.fm / Topshelf Records

The New Loud – Measures Melt
I really wanted to like this record; the New Loud seem like nice kids, and they appear to be having fun. The problem is that Measures Melt isn’t actually fun to listen to. The problems begin with the singers; it’s a guy/girl thing, which I usually enjoy, but the guy doesn’t have the right voice for this kind of material. It’s like listening to Elvis Costello warble over frenetic dance-punk after he swallowed a fistful of Ambiens. The girl fares better, but not much better – nice voice, but no personality. And the music itself, for all its frenetic and punky danceability, doesn’t feature the kind of hooks that require repeat listens. Measures Melt is kind of like a strip club where all the dancers are radioactive mutants; interesting idea, but off-putting after about five minutes.  C
Official Site / MySpace / BandCamp

Campaign – It Likes To Party
When Campaign say they like to party, it’s not the “naked frat boys paddling each other” kind of party. Rather, they like to get massively drunk and then self-destruct in glorious fashion. Their pain is our gain: It Likes To Party builds on the already-quite-strong style they debuted on last year’s H1N1 EP, grafting Gainesville-style hardcore vocals to big pop-punk riffs with none of the edges sanded off. This is highly explosive shit – on highlight “Blue Pills And Whiskey,” the dudes pursue blotto’d oblivion with the fierce passion that other bands of their ilk would expend chasing girls, and the result is music so raw and emotionally honest that you can’t look away. And don’t even get me started on the wonderfully textured breakdown that caps “Bored To Death” – it’s like My Bloody Valentine showed up at your kegger and started handing out ass-beatings. If Campaign are the new face of party, count me in. A
MySpace Downloads

I’ll be honest – I gave up on Thrice after they started aping Radiohead and singing way too many songs about Jesus. But the fire of glorious love still burns bright within the otherwise-empty chest cavity of our own Mr. 51%, and he likes Manchester Orchestra even better. (I gotta back him up on Man Orc – their last record, 2009′s Mean Everything To Nothing, is a solid collection of wheaty, old-fashioned alt-rock.) Anyway, the two bands have joined together, not for the first time, to spearhead a roaming road show of highly-enlightened pomp-rock. They’re most likely coming to a city near you, and the pre-order starts tomorrow (2/19) at 1pm. I suggest you purchase a couple tickets and pray that Thrice dig very, very deep into their catalog to spray your face with their old metallic jism.

Dates: 

Apr 14 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse (w/ O’Brother)

Thrice!

Manchester Orchestra:

• Official Site
• MySpace
• Last FM

Thrice:

• Official Site
• MySpace
• Last FM

Ever since the first time I saw Thrice live at the Fireside Bowl in Chicago when I was 16 I knew they’d be big. It’s been awhile since I connected as much with them (musically) on anything they’ve released, but I remain a loyal fan nonetheless. Here’s their new video I stumbled across on MySpace:

The aftermath of the Friday Night Rock Session and Dakota the Dog.

This past week I did something I haven’t done in awhile–bought some electronics. Playstation 3, Rock Band 2, and about $100.00 worth of songs from the Rock Band Music Store made up the bulk of the purchase. (I also snagged a case of Red Bull, bless you CostCo.)

I’ve spent the better half of the last week being sick, and occasionally rocking out with the fog machine and strobe lights to all the Avenged Sevenfold songs on Rock Band. I was a little disappointed to find out that the new drum kits didn’t look like those shiny ION drum kits that can actually be used as electronic drums–but I was happy when I found out that the cymbals addon would be available so I rushed out and bought it for $30 bucks at Game Stop.

After about four days of nonstop rocking I have beaten the entire game on “Hard” difficulty. Shame, because it was revealed to me that there’s a cheat code that unlocks all the songs at once–that’s what I get for being to excited to search on the net or cheat codes.

Fireside Bowl Chicago

Rise Against, Thrice, Alkaline Trio show at the Congress Theatre

I even had some time to catch Rise Against/Alkaline Trio/Thrice show at the Congress Theatre last night. It was a great show except for one minor disappointment–Thrice. Thrice seems to be more of an “experience” rather than a rock and roll band like I remember them. For those of you native to the music scene in Chicago you may remember the Fireside on Fullerton. That was THE music venue to play at back when it was open–it was also the last place I’d ever seen Thrice. It was back in 2000 when I was just 16 years old that I saw them in the back corner of the bowling alley. Best part was the entire show was only $5.00 bucks and Brand New was opening for them. It still to this day has been one of the best shows I’ve ever been to, and I even got to talk to Dustin briefly after they were done with their set.

Don’t get me wrong they’re still a GREAT band, but I still think I used to like them more when they were just that… a band.

Here’s what we had going on the past week

• Interview with the lovely Kristen from Ponoko.com
• Received our shipment of our best seller, The Chainsaw Killer Bunny T-Shirt (They’re going fast!)
• Dropped our shipping costs–free shipping for all!
• Got Chainsaw Killer Bunny featured on OMGTees.com
• Shipped orders to Romania, Australia, and Belgium!