Lindsay Minton – Past is Prelude

Lindsay Minton is the singer and guitarist of the Houston based emo /indie group Football, etc., as well as a very accomplished solo musician.  Her first solo effort, Past is Prelude, is brilliantly reviewed on the CMJ website, as well as containing a preview of the record.  Check out the review here.

Stay tuned for the upcoming article about Football Etc. full length album, The Draft.

Lindsay Minton – Guitar/Vocals

Mercy Harper – Bass VI

Brandon Baker – Drums

Football Etc. “First Down”

Being from Houston I am pleased as punch to be able to write my first article about a local band.

Football, etc. released their first record, First Down, back in 2009 (although it is currently in a second pressing) – a 4 track EP that’s a testament of future releases by Lindsay Minton and company.

First Down starts off with “Dream Big” with its infectious 90’s alt groove, followed by “Touchdown” with a more lighthearted rhythm.  The third song – “Catch the Spirit” – is a haunting slower number with excellent guitar craftsmanship by Minton.  “First Down” is a faster yet equally crafted perfect to the ending.

The EP is consistent in the revival of 90s lo fi alt music which Dinosaur Jr. made famous, yet possesses superior musicianship by Minton, Harper and Baker.  Minton lyrics are simple and are sung with her hauntingly mellow voice.

Overall, First Down took me back to a time during the 90’s which it seemed that every record executive in the country was combing the country for the next Nirvana, and this resulted in a special time in “independent” music history which led to exposure of incredible bands from all over the country.

I will be reviewing Football etc. full length record, The Draft, which was released in March of 2011, as well as something about Lindsay Minton’s solo album, Past is Prelude in the near future.  Meanwhile, head over here for a preview and to purchase a copy of First Down.

Football Etc. (Catch the Spirit”

Fierce Brosnan – Good Luck Exploding

There are bands that can put out a record over a few days while for some it takes a little longer, with Fierce Brosnan being in the latter category. And while it might have taken a couple of years to get Good Luck Exploding recorded, the new record shows the time was not in vain.
Although the New Jersey based post punk band recorded this album back in 2009 and 2010 the extra time to engineer and mix the record shows; especially on songs such as “Never Listen” and the slower number “Eliza” with a catchy guitar rhythm. Much of the record is definitely post punk with longer songs and more rhythm and tempo changes than most punk fare, whereas “Tired” is a real rocker more in the vein of straight up East Coast punk.
“It’s A Bad Thing” is another slower, acoustic number that is followed by “Quiet” with more complex guitar chords – both of which adds a nice break from some of the in your face numbers like “Never Listen”.
Overall, Garwacke’s backing vocals backs up Santefano perfectly and vice versa regarding the respectable guitar on the record, and Luszcz and Reddell are as equally talented on bass and drums.
Overall, Good Luck Exploding was worth the wait for fans of Fierce Brosnan and provides the music promised by the extended production time.
Preview the record here, or preorder the cassette at this site.

Pierce Brosnan – All We Have

Tristan Jemsek – Guitar, vocals

Erin Caldwell – Bass, vocals

Nathan Leach – Drums

Dogbreth – “Get Out”

Summer time is around the corner and I’m looking for “my” soundtrack of the summer – songs and bands that I can listen to in the future to remind me of the summer of 2012 (whether good or bad).  And thanks to a Facebook post by Sean of Andrew Jackson Jihad, I might have found one of those bands in Dogbreth (a trio pop punk band out of Phoenix).

Dogbreth’s future release, Get Out, contains 4 toe tapping rockers with lyrics surrounding the idea of getting stuck in a “rut” and the need to break free and making changes in one’s life.

The record begins with “Guest House”, a great melodic number that’s starts off with the lyrics “How could such a small space take so long to clean out?  How could such a shitty place clean me out for so long?” (Sounds like a lot of apartments I’ve lived in).  The guitar on here is well done by Jemsek, while Caldwell and Leach lay down impressive foundation to the song.

“Blockhead” Is the fun, quirky song of the record (sort of like Ringo Starr compared to the rest of the Beatles).

“Flip It” is a song about a type of person many of us know – a person that uses past abuses they have been subjected to as an excuse to mistreat everyone else, with the line “You use past abuse to excuse to acting abusive – I don’t want to hear it anymore”.  I like the way Tristan uses the line “Your broken heart’s a broken record” repeatedly display how someone’s constant complaining can get repetitive.

The last song, “Autopilot” addresses a fear many of us have – for life to get dull and stagnant.  I really enjoy the way Dogbreth speeds up the tempo halfway through the song, as if to break someone out of the doldrums and to shake them out of complacency.

The music on “Get Out” is skillful without being too complicated, showing how talented Jemsek, Caldwell, and Leach are.  And while I hate to use the term “pop punk”, I wish more pop punk bands would take note of Dogbreth and realize that it is okay to reach out and make music a little more complex.

Overall, I listened to “Get Out” most of this weekend and have to say that I am looking forward to more music from this trio.

Preorder a vinyl or get the digital album here.

paul blest – vocals

jeff hersch – guitar/vocals

john strong – bass/vocals

mike haller – drums/vocals

Caseracer – Caseracer

In my neverending search for music that isn’t being shoved down my throat my mainstream music sources, I came across Caseracer.

The band shares the same record company, Jeremy Records, as another band I reviewed, The Vows.  And while The Vows gravitate towards dream pop, Caseracer is definitely a punk band as their first record, Caseracer, will attest to.  Released in February, Caseracer  is a 6 track journal of problems and issues that surround and sometimes engulfs an average young American male, set to music that displays the angst that the problems carry.

The record starts out with a full on assault called “Trickle Down” and is followed by my favorite track on the album, “I’m Uh Fixing a Divot”, which contains lyrics like:

“If I had a dollar for every time I told myself “I’ll think about the things I say before they come spilling out of my mouth.” I’d be richer, wouldn’t be happier because my head isn’t a good home for these shitty thoughts and worse ideas.”

Amen.

“The Blind are Courageous” and “Hunter Mountain” are next up and addresses the problem of friends that are stuck with the downward spiral of addiction.

Track #5, I Used To Watch Fantasia A Lot” is another great track about coming to terms with adulthood, as well as the final track, “Two Yutes” with more spot on lyrics:

“And now we’re digging our own graves, and sealing them with every student loan that puts us deeper in debt. I’m afraid that all that remains is a lifetime of instability.”

The music is straight ahead punk from the Northeast (New Jersey or Delaware) where the winters are colder and life isn’t as laid back.  Haller plays the drums like a man possessed, while Strong and Hersch have no trouble keeping up with the rhythm.  The singer, Paul Blest, sort of reminds me of an angry Dicky Barrett from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones with more to say.

Caseracer definitely have their shit together with a great sound and incredible lyrics packed into a mere 11 minutes, and hope to hear more from them, as well as checking them out sometime if they ever make it to Houston.  Check them out on Facebook here, or better yet, pick up a digital copy of their first album on Bandcamp.

Sabeel Azam – lead guitar, backup vocals

Scott Soffer – bass

Ryan Ward – Drums, percussion, backup vocals

Jeff Pupa – Vocals, guitar

James Hencken – Keyboards, synths

Vows – “Winter’s Grave”

Formed January 2011, and hail from Neshanic, New Jersey, Vows have released their first record, Winter’s Grave, on Bandcamp.com and will be releasing the physical cd soon.  And this album makes me realize how hard it is to put music down on paper in the form of a review.

Winter’s Grave is a Dream pop collection of beautifully haunting songs that are wonderfully composed without being overdone.  Some of the songs contain elements that remind me of the Beatles via Sgt. Peppers with that classic 60s Brit pop feel to it, such as “Unreal Love” and “Born a Wolf”, with the shuffling drums and a rich variety of instruments.  Others have a mellow, soothing personality which I found most welcome recently due to a series of very serious headaches (I was able to push the pain down some by meditating on the music).

The cd opens with “A Mile from the Road” lullaby like with a keyboard and haunting vocals, and is followed by “Parallel”, which  is clearly my favorite song of the record, similar to a less complex Radiohead, circa The Bends.   My second favorite, “Queen Baby”is a beautiful string heavy slow number that reminds me of a echo laden “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” by Bob Dylan, while it reminds my wife of “Sven – G – Englar” by Sigur Ros off the “Vanilla Sky” soundtrack.  The song “Winter’s Grave” is another example of music writing reserved for bands with more experience together because of the intricacies in construction of the song.

I have played this for several friends and have gotten interesting reactions.  My wife, who is a die hard Band of Horses fan, was impressed it the album, and a friend stated that this record would be prefect for driving long stretches of highway in North or South Dakota.  Vows’ Winter’s Grave is a delight to zone out, take a long drive, or reminisce to of past passions and lovers.

Check out the record here on bandcamp, and is available for purchase here.

Nate Allen – Vocals, guitar

Tessa Allen – Vocals, tamborine

Destroy Nate Allen – “With Our Powers Combined”

Nate and Tessa are like that lovable “different” couple that lives down the street, the one’s that can’t help but put a smile on your face whenever you talk to them, and this persona comes through on their latest folk punk effort, With Our Powers Combined.

The record spans across several genres of indie music, which isn’t suprising considering that Gnarboots were the backing band on this album (see Gnarboots A.L.B.U.M. review here). “We have a blast traveling together and playing rock n’ roll, but we’ve had trouble capturing our live energy so we asked our friends for help,” stated Nate. “We flew to the Bay Area and tracked fifteen songs in three days. We were able bring in a horn section (SKA!!!!) to pull off wild concepts that went beyond the scope of our traditional stripped down approach. We are proud of the album and we can’t wait to show everyone!”

The duet vocals of Nate and Tessa are vaguely reminencint of early B52’s but with a more personal view that comes through in the lyrics on songs like “Our First Apartment (Ghetto)” with lines like “The carpet is strained with things we can’t explain”.

With Our Powers Combined starts with a jagged “Waking Up is Hard To Do” followed by a country punkish number “Emergency”, and continues with other songs such as the Ska like “Distracted Nate-O-Bot”.  The quarky lyrics such as “If you want a real relationship you won’t get far” in “Boobie Bar” adds a fun factor to this record that makes it infectiously happy and a high propensity to sing along with the songs.

With Our Powers Combined does for Destory Nate Allen what Knife Man did for Andrew Jackson Jihad  – it gave the band and their songs a whole new area for expansion by adding drums and other instruments.  The album will be released on June 5, but you can preorder here.

Favorite songs : “Our First Apartment (Ghetto)”, “Long Weekend Blues”, “We Occasionally Talk on the Internet”

About Destroy Nate Allen:

Since 2007, married couple Nate and Tessa Allen joined forces as “Destroy Nate Allen” an interactive, sing-a-long, folk punk band. In these five years, they have set foot in forty-eight states, released six full length albums, and played over 700 shows. Their process has allowed them to do (almost) everything in their power to show people a good time with simply two voices and a guitar.

Adam Davis-Guitar, Vox

Bob Vielma-Bass, Vox

Aaron Carnes-Drums, Vox

Gnarboots – A.L.B.U.M.

They release their new album, named A.L.B.U.M., on May 29^th, and it isn’t easy to describe due to their destruction of barriers between various genres of music. For instance, “Indian Summer” starts with a nice grunge rock groove with a chorus line of “There’s time to sleep in the grave” which they turn into something an audio horror movie with a dark, scary riff.  Another example is the two song combo of “Grown Ass Man”- which has a nice little head bobbing rhythm but is followed by “Tinnitus” – which starts off pummeling you over the head with “One! Two! Can you hear what I’m saying?”  And to top it off, you have a Ska like number called “Song 3”.

After initially not really being sure what to make of the record, I have become more and more impressed with the little details that a lot of people would dismiss.  First of all, the song development  and creativity is unique with changes in rhythm and overall “feel” of a song that is usually pretty short.  The lo fi, garage rock/punk rock sound is accomplished perfectly coupled with gravely vocals that somehow elevates the music.  Most importantly, Adam, Bob, and Aaron have the experience as musicians to crank out enjoyable tunes while making it look easy.

A.L.B.U.M. is downright creative and unique by any standards.  Whether it’s the driving rhythm and hoarse vocals of “Brother” or the short pop punk number “Party”, this innovative record is a shot in the arm of indie music and reminds us what is really original.  A.L.B.U.M. is set to be released on May 29.

My favorite line describing this band is:

“Gnarboots are a completely ridiculous band from Central California that play a variety of styles with a surprising amount of skill, considering that they’re a bunch of immature smart-asses who take nothing serious, including themselves, seriously.” -Mr Fab

About Gnarboots

Formed by members of Link-80, Shinobu and countless other Bay Area heavyweights, Gnarboots came to be in 2009 with the sole intent of creating chaos and good times through their music, both recorded and live. Since their formation the band has played with the likes of Bomb The Music Industry!, Hard Girls, Kepi Ghoulie and The Queers. Gnarboots is typically associated with their wide variety of musical stylings (ranging from Garage Rock to 80′s synth-pop), as well as their boisterous live shows which have been known to include free style rapping, improvised dance numbers and the occasional chicken fight. After a series of eclectic mixtapes released online, their debut LP A.L.B.U.M. showcases a wide-range of melodic and abrasive punk rock, a clear evolution from their past musical endeavors.

The usual suspects are here: the shy, misunderstood scientist (Mark Ruffalo as Hulk), the true blue all American hero (Chris Evans as Captain America), the Norse God (Chris Helmsworth as Thor), the Russian female badass (Scarlet Johansson as Black Widow), the flawed hero (Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye), and the sarcastic playboy (Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man).  There is also the super villain (Tom Middleton as Loki) and the man that keeps the team together (Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury).

As for the story, Loki comes to Earth with the plan of taking over the Earth and incorporates Professor Selvig (Stellan Skargard) and Hawkeye to help him via mind control, and Fury has to figure out a way to get The Avengers to work together to thwart Loki’s plan.

The effects are incredible, such as the flying aircraft carrier and when Loki’s army flies in from the other dimension among many other parts.  Downey and his sarcastic humor pretty much supplies the glue to form the other characters into a team that is believable and entertaining – one really gets the idea that they are too different to really come together.  Middleton does a decent job as Loki although I found his character lacking the testosterone to get the job of taking over the world done, and Jackson plays his typical bad ass self.  I was disappointed that they substituted Ed Norton by Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, but can understand because I think Norton would have been a little too serious for this movie.

This movie won’t be nominated for the next Academy Awards, and it would be foolish to assume so.  This movie delivers what it promises – plenty of action, lots of destruction, some playful banter between characters.  What else would one want from a summer blockbuster?

The Atom Age – “The Hottest Thing That’s Cool”

The Atom Age band members are:
Ryan Perras – Vox, Gtr
Peter Niven – Vox, Gtr
Brendan Frye – Sax
John Murgueitio – Drums
Matt Diamant – Bass

The Atom Age is a band that prides itself on straddling the lines between rockabilly, original British punk, and head on rock and roll and claims influence on their music by Rocket From the Crypt, Hot Snakes, and the Sonics.

This Oakland band releases its sophomore effort, The Hottest Thing That’s Cool, on May 29 on Asian Man Records, and it’s a scorcher from the beginning. They start off with “Dig the Future” – a rapid fire, in your face rockabilly/punk number with a groove that’s infectious, with an underlying saxophone riff (the sax shows up on several tunes) that makes separates many other bands that specialize in this genre.
Throughout the entire album, the band plays with real ferocity and hard charging vocals by Perras and Niven, while being precise and well-rehearsed. As I mentioned earlier, I really like the fact that while the saxophone is present and Frye adds a depth to the songs while not overpowering and is more a part of the music than just for solos. The guitars jump in and take the spotlight in the right spots, and the bass (Diamont) and drums (Murgueitio) do a great job of laying down the speedy rhythm of the songs. Another interesting aspect of this album is the 60’s style keyboards that show up in songs such as “Dead Wrong” and “I’ve Been Thinking”.
My favorite tracks are “Dig the Future” (I love when I band starts off a record with a rocker), “Bad Girls”, and “Eaten Alive” (which bears a resemblance to an old Clash song – “Career Opportunities” – in spots).
The Atom Age is touring – here are the dates:
1st- Portland, OR @ Slabtown
2nd- Seattle, WA @ The Funhouse
4th- Boise, ID @ Liquid
5th- Cedar City, UT @ The Crack Shack
6th- Salt Lake City, UT @ Burt’s Tiki Lounge
7th- Rock Springs, WY @ Rock Bottom Bar
Fri June 8th- Laramie, WY @ 3rd St. Cowboy
9th- Denver, CO @ Moe’s
10th – Ft. Collins, CO @ GNU
13th- Ft. Worth, TX @ Ridglea Bar
14th – Denton, TX @ Andy’s Bar
15th – San Antonio – TBA
16th- Brownsville, TX @ Chapas
18th- Midland, TX @ The Blue Max
19th-Las Cruces, NM @ TBA
20th-Phoenix, AZ- TBA
21st-Palm Springs, CA @ The Hood
22nd- Pomona, CA @ VLHS
(You guys missed Houston!)
The Atom Age’s “the Hottest Thing That’s Cool” drops on May 29th. If you’re into retro garage punk check out their new album or grease back your hair, pick up your girl in your hotrod and catch them on tour.

The Atom Age – Cut, Paste, Kill