Houston TX - This Years Tiger

In the vein of Small Brown Bike, Planes Mistaken for Stars, and Leatherface, Houston, TX’s This Year’s Tiger play Pabst-chugging rock ‘n’ roll, the sort adored by thick-bearded bros from Gainesville to Riverside. As it stands, the band sounds at home on a label like No Idea, though their self-titled, self-released EP shows plenty of signs that This Year’s Tiger is looking to move beyond that cliché sing-a-long style of punk rock.

The band’s latest offering is 6 songs deep and, while the band rarely wavers from a tested and true formula of breakdowns, gang vocals, and hoarse-throated semi-screams, who cares? What the world needs now is a damn good rock ‘n’ roll song, and This Year’s Tiger has some pretty damn good rock songs on it.

“Your Face Has No Melody” showcases TYT’s signature sound and opens the EP perfectly. “A Bullet For You” has your cliché but oh-so-true, got-your-back-if-you-got-mine chorus found so often in This Year’s Tiger’s songs: “some things you never forget – I’d take a bullet for you then and I’d take a bullet for you now.” So true.

“Playing Matador” is slightly more agro than the rest of the EP; “Anchors” more Helmet than Hot Water Music; and one of Tiger’s best tracks, “Raise Your Glass”, is a poor man’s Foo Fighters jam. “Like Snakes” shows This Year’s Tiger’s true promise, as snakewinding seventies’ leads battle chunky post-punk and requisite gang vox.

This Year’s Tiger are the type of band you might see playing the next Food Not Bomb’s benefit in your local organic grocer’s parking lot and you’ll definitely see them at The Fest in Gainesville. Hardly original, This Year’s Tiger is nonetheless a great listen and a promising debut.

myspace: www.myspace.com/thisyearstiger
mp3: "A Bullet For You"

Two Great New Artists I'm In Love With

Jamie Lidell
http://www.myspace.com/jamielidell
check out: "Another Day," "Hurricane"

Good white-boy soul and funk on Warp Records (weird...) Just saw the video for "Another Day" on ME and fell in love. Lidell's name is one of heard and read on blogs and in magazines but had yet to take the time to listen to. Great song, great video, assuming the rest of the album is just as great. For fans of Sharon Jones and Gnarls Barkley.





Eli "Paperboy" Reed"
http://www.myspace.com/elipaperboyreed
check out: "The Satisfier," "Doin the Boom Boom"

Thanks to Tito for once again hipping me to a great new artist I haven't heard. Deep funk and blues something like Sam Cooke meets Amy Winehouse - not surprisingly Reed is playing this years Austin City Limits Festival. Reed's new album "Roll With You" is fucking stellar.

Holy Fuck (better late than never)

I was asked to review this album for Decoymusic.com only to discover through the course of writing it, and upon publication, that the review is pretty much 4 months late. Oh well, enjoy...



Holy Fuck is four dudes from Toronto, Canada who use live instrumentation to create “the equivalent of modern electronic music without actually using the techniques” (Pitchfork.com). Fuck’s second full-length, the nine-song LP, does just that. Fuck loop beats, layer sounds and textures, and organically build digital symphonies setting the soundtrack for the noisiest dance party ever.

The band has been a backup sound provider for avant-emcee Beans, toured with electro-clash titan M.I.A. and played a private SXSW party hosted by TV chef Rachel Ray, causing blogospheric outrage. LP follows a promising self-titled debut but finds the band much more adept at their tinkering.

LP is, like all great dance records, rhythm-centric. The evolution and intoxification of beats is the main focus in Holy Fuck’s sound, and all the other beeps, bells, clicks and whistles come later. Fuck follow in the tradition of Kraftwerk and Can, Daft Punk and The Faint. “Super Inuit” is Krautrock on uppers, “Milkshake” something along the lines of Chemical Brothers meets Ghostland Observatory.

“Lovely Allen” is one of the best single tracks I’ve heard all year, a walk-in-the-park pop melody covered in Holy Fuck’s noisey shine. “Royal Gregory” is Fuck’s funkiest contribution, a dance-happy vamp. “Echo Sam” is raucously fun, “Safari” an 8-bit gamers glitchy manifesto.

Besides the clearly brilliant name, Holy Fuck has put out one of the more brilliant records this year. LP is blasphemous and loud, a mohawked dance party for those who dance because they’ve got nothing else to live for. A band like this shows true brilliance in their live performance, but LP does well to capture Holy Fuck at their best.

myspace: www.myspace.com/holyfuck
video:

Carry the Torch's Hot New EP

Let’s just get this out the way right now – I can’t remember the last time a four song EP impressed me as much as Carry The Torch’s Dead Weather. Wait, yeah I can. It was circa 1999, when I heard Shai Hulud’s A Profound Hatred of Man for the first time. Like Hatred, Dead Weather packs more emotional punch, more energy, and more strength into 4 tracks than some bands manage to muster in a career, let alone one album.

Carry the Torch’s sound can best me described as “melodic hardcore,” something along the lines of the aforementioned Shai Hulud, old Hopesfall, Poison the Well – bands like that. Melodic leads over chug-chug rhythms with lyrics that are empowering and personal, the sort that make you want to hug your brothers and raise a fist for the sing-a-long.

The clarity of Brian North’s vocals is refreshing. Not only are his lyrics great but being able to hear his words and not have to spend repeated listens deciphering their meaning is a welcome change from most hardcore bands today which have vocalists who would rather squeal like pigs than write an intelligent word.

“For All I Care It Can Burn” is the album's standout track, an anthem if ever there was one. From the “end transmission / walk away” gang vocals to the uber-melodic breakdown and face-melting climax that follows, it is one of my favorite tracks right now.

The only criticism of Dead Weather is obvious – it’s length. The sound quality could be a little better too, but what are you going to do? This band is ballin' on a budget, baby! Without a doubt, Dead Weather is stunning, as a good a debut as hardcore music has seen in years.

mp3: "For All I Care it Can Burn"
myspace: www.myspace.com/carrythetorchmusic

Jay Electronica

Jay is the hot shit right now. Here's his latest and a link to Nah Right's archive of free Jay Electronica joints (audio and video). "I ain't a hot boy but the flow is jalapeno." SERIOUSLY - damn. Hailing from New Orleans, Jay Electronica is one cat who has used the blogosphere entirely to his advantage, probably unlike any artist before him, to build his career and get his name out.

video:
website: Nah Right's Jay Electrography