Despite how much I listen to music, talk about music, and read about music, every once in I while something happens that makes me realize that I don’t actually know anything. The most recent example of this is Coheed & Cambria’s newest release, Year of the Black Rainbow. The band’s fifth studio album and fourth for Columbia Records is the latest installment of The Amory Wars, a sci-fi storyline penned by lead singer Claudio Sanchez. The story actually begins with Year of the Black Rainbow, so this record serves as a prequel to Coheed & Cambria’s other four albums. I’m certainly no expert on the story of The Amory Wars, and truthfully I’ve only been a casual listener of Coheed & Cambria in the past, not listening to much other than Good Apollo Volume 1. But after spinning Year of the Black Rainbow a few times and immensely enjoying it, I headed over to my most heralded, reliable website for retrieving virtually irretrievable knowledge: Wikipedia. An hour later, I had read numerous articles attempting to describe The Amory Wars, researched releases of multiple comic book series and graphic novels associated with the storyline, and bookmarked links to purchase physical copies of every Coheed & Cambria record I was missing on Amazon. For the past eight years, this profoundly unique group have been telling a story that they created through their music, an absolutely genius and layered story at that, and I had been missing out completely.
Read More “Coheed & Cambria – Year of the Black Rainbow”Review: Tigers Jaw – Tigers Jaw
Let’s face it, the only reason anybody knows anything about Scranton, Pennsylvania is because of The Office. In fact, without the adored workplace comedy, I would be pressed to say that I would even know that Scranton existed. By all accounts, Tigers Jaw are out to change that. With their own brand of punk-tinged indie rock, the group are out to prove that Scranton is more than just the vessel for a critically acclaimed sitcom.
On their Prison Jazz Records debut full-length, Tigers Jaw introduce listeners to a sound that seemingly has two personas. There is the stripped down, upbeat, guitar-centered indie rock that kicks off songs like album opener “The Sun” and fan favorite “I Saw Water”, and there is the slower, more thoughtful face that Tigers Jaw don sporadically throughout the self-titled record. The combination, reminiscent of early emo-punk outfits Saves the Day and The Get Up Kids, might not be anything new, but it’s still very much appreciated.
Read More “Tigers Jaw – Tigers Jaw”Review: The Menzingers – Chamberlain Waits
The 2010 comedy Date Night is about a couple’s wild journey into the city one evening where they continually run into obstacle after obstacle, essentially postponing their night of innocent fun and reigniting their love in the process. The 1977 comedy The Out-of-Towners contains a similar plot, however this time around, the couple are trying to survive the manic big city while sightseeing, eventually running into a slew of wacky characters all while reigniting their love in the process. Not quite the same, but enough for a viewer of both to notice the similarities.
The same idea can often apply to music. Despite the makeup of different individuals from different backgrounds, influence always tends to seep its way into just about any band’s music. It can be a positive and a negative. Positive, because it’s easy to relate to through familiarity; negative, because it can be skewed as plagiarism. The Menzingers are certainly not being accused of blatantly ripping anyone off, but on their sophomore release, Chamberlain Waits, the influences come up frequently, and it takes a bit of the sheen off the previous buzz that has been circulating over the band for the past year or two.
Read More “The Menzingers – Chamberlain Waits”