As any aspiring musician can tell you, it is damn near impossible to get noticed anymore. Standing out from the hordes of tweens throwing up Garage Band tracks on all-too-similar looking myspace pages is the now almost as tough as getting your demo tape heard by someone at a record label used to be. Every now and then though, a new band is able to break through, and rise above the white noise of everything and everyone else. But it’s still pretty amazing that when viral marketing has jumped the shark, and people aren’t haphazardly clicking on cryptic links like they once were, a previously unknown band from Long Island would end up riding a brilliant wave of unintentional guerilla marketing into the scene spotlight.
Read More “The Republic of Wolves – His Old Branches”Review: Lifetime – Jersey’s Best Dancers
Once upon a time, somewhere in the swamps of Jersey, there existed a punk band that changed it all. I am speaking, of course, of Lifetime. Active first from 1990 to 1997, and then again beginning in 2005, Lifetime’s influence on what we call the “scene” today is impossible to understate. This album, as well as Hello Bastards, the one that preceded it, were influential to a variety of artists whose names you might recognize. Adam Lazzara of Taking Back Sunday has some of the band’s lyrics tattooed on his arm. Brand New lists Lifetime as “recommended listening” on their album Deja Entendu. The Gaslight Anthem references this album in their song “We Came to Dance.” Bands such as Rise Against, Silverstein and Fall Out Boy have recorded covers of their songs. The members of Thursday played some of their first shows with Lifetime, in Geoff Rickly’s basement. And then finally there is Saves the Day, whose debut album Can’t Slow Down comes as close as is humanly possible to imitating Lifetime’s sound without actual plagiarism.
Read More “Lifetime – Jersey’s Best Dancers”Review: Box Car Racer – Box Car Racer
Box Car Racer was formed in 2002 by Blink-182 members Tom Delonge and Travis Barker along with David Kennedy. This band shows a completely different side of a Blink at this time: a darker, serious side and features songs that Tom felt were not “Blink-friendly.” This change is evident in not only the lyrical content but also the music.
“I Feel So” begins with a slow piano tune followed by an acoustic guitar. Instantly, it becomes evident that this is a completely different band from Blink. This song is filled with brutal honesty, as Delonge opens the album with: “sometimes, I wish I was brave; I wish I was stronger.” Later, he asks for a new start (“let’s start over”). On “All Systems Go,” Delonge criticizes the government (“the government is lying; the youth, they won’t believe them”) and questions “when will this be over.”
Read More “Box Car Racer – Box Car Racer”Interview: Jacob Bannon of Converge
Axe to Fall has just been getting rave reviews. You guys have certainly cemented yourselves into that hardcore band, surviving about two decades now. What do you have to say about that?
I guess you can say that. I don’t really know. It’s flattering when people say that. It doesn’t effect us as a band. It doesn’t drive us as a band. It doesn’t change the way we perceive our music, and how we write music. We just think of ourselves as four guys from Massachusetts who play music we enjoy…If it’s influential and people appreciate it, that’s cool. If it’s not, that’s okay too. We just want to play stuff that’s truly meaningful to us. That moves us. Songs about our lives and our experiences that challenge us. Anything outside of that is not that important.
Read More “Jacob Bannon of Converge”