August 2011
17 posts
10 tags
Dizcovering Muzik: Volume 1 Out Now
It’s finally here. After weeks of hype, Dizcovering Muzik: Volume One has officially been released. This is my gift to all of you for helping the site continue growing. Please continue to come to the site, as there is much much more to come in the future. Be sure to fan us on Facebook, and tell us what your favorite tracks on the sampler are! You can download and stream the entire sampler...
2 tags
Album Review: Sainthood Reps - Monoculture
There are plenty of methods of expressing angst and disapproval. Music is a common vessel for such an endeavor. Often these efforts result in the screaming of cliché symbolism and the relentless pounding of double bass, or minute long songs with hectic yelling of anti-establishment sentiments. While effective, these methods of expression feel overdone and rarely leave those responsible with any...
3 tags
Kerretta
An interesting electro-experimental rock band from New Zealand, Kerretta has a way of taking simple things and making them genius. With their recently released single, “A Ways To Uprise”, they take a classic 2-4 snare kick beat, throw on some ultrabass and some heavy distortion, add a bit of wah-wah synthesizer, and a hint of reverb, and they have a successful single. Not that this is...
3 tags
Album Review: Braid - Closer to Closed
Well isn’t this completely out of left field? Yes, you read it right—Braid. The very same Braid that quietly helped shape the modern emo scene has returned. And “returned” shouldn’t be taken lightly, as Braid’s decade long absence has left a hole in the scene. With their last proper release over ten years behind them, Braid has arrived with four new songs...
3 tags
Artist Spotlight: Marina & The Diamonds
Make no mistake, Marina Diamandis is the real deal. She possesses the voice, persona and looks which characterise all the best pop stars, and crucially she also delivers the songs to boot. In truth, her debut album The Family Jewels was a slightly patchy affair, but when it hit the spot - with songs like “Hollywood” and “Mowgli’s Road” - it hit hard. But while that...
2 tags
Artist Spotlight: Fractures
You can’t fault indie bands who try to do something different, but all too often they forget to add the key components to their songs - namely the hooks. Catchy choruses in particular form the bedrock of most successful bands careers, and even now the rousing effect of a good old singalong takes some beating. London quartet Fractures clearly understand this. Sure, they’re hardly...
1 tag
Announcements, Reflections, and Dizcovering Muzik:...
Warning: Sappy anecdote on the way. I started MuzikDizcovery back in June of 2009. I needed somewhere to place my suggestions of bands and songs that wasn’t just via a Facebook status. At that point, the site was just for fun, and nothing that I expected to be too serious. Looking back on those posts, I can see my growth both in musical taste and writing style. To the change in taste, I can...
3 tags
Huron - Mary Celeste
Normally, MuzikDizcovery doesn’t cover metal releases. However, with the quickly rising, Plymouth-based band Huron, we were asked to take a look, and after listening to Mary Celeste, I was all too excited to write something. A smooth blend between the harsh 90’s thrash metal scene and the older, rowdy rock ‘n roll style, Huron is the definition of heavy metal, with powerful...
2 tags
Live Review: Iron Maiden, Metro Radio Arena...
Iron Maiden. Two words which should strike a chord with any metal fan the world over, and with good reason. Since they broke through in 1970 as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement, the Londoner’s have become quite simply the biggest metal band that our nation has ever produced, influencing everyone from Metallica to Lady GaGa and boasting over 85 million in terms of record sales....
3 tags
The Moor - The Moor
The Moor is a rare band that’s simply and blissfully easy to listen to. Utilizing dense, soulful tones, The Moor makes outright charming and lovely music that is neither too conventional, nor too “out there.” Filled with synthesizers, guitars, and piano, the instrumental backbone of the band is rather excellent. However, it’s the vocals, and their looming presence, that...
3 tags
Chemtrail - Youth Obsessed Death Culture
A very cool work of instrumental and post-rock, New Jersey project Chemtrail released a new album a month or three back, entitled Youth Obsessed Death Culture. The music was essentially a blend of all that’s emotional and powerful and attainable to the common listener. With a five member setup and three guitarists (one alternating on keys), there’s much more potential for additions to...
2 tags
Artist Spotlight: Daytrader
Pop punk is a genre notorious for oversaturation. Simple, fun, and tolerable to the huge portion of the populous who only listen to Top 40, it is an ideal genre for young bands. Thus, countless cookie cutter pop punk bands with no talent have flooded the scene in recent years and done a good job at giving pop punk a bad name. However, one benefit of such a terrible scene is that those with talent...
2 tags
Album Review: Viva Brother - Famous First Words
Although it may not have seemed so at the time, the implosion of Oasis in the summer of 2009 has turned out to be a watershed moment for British guitar music. No sooner had the Gallagher brothers come to blows than hordes of younger pretenders fought for their thrown and to fill the void they’d left in the britpop market. Results have been decidedly mixed; Some bands like Kasabian, for instance...
3 tags
Howler - Mud EP
Apparently, after some introspection and working through some decision making on their music, Zucchini Drive is through. However, they make their triumphant return as Howler, quipped to lead their musical style “down a grittier, richer indie-rock inspired road”. Their debut release under their new name is the Mud EP, which is a pretty dark, electronic, somewhat abstract piece of...
4 tags
Album Review: Kashiwa Daisuke-88
I really make no secret about it—Kashiwa Daisuke’s 2007 masterpiece, Program Music I is one of, if not my favorite album of all time. Truly, I could write pages upon pages why the album means so much to me, how its endless complexities and extravagant melodies still appeal to me in the same way they did those years ago. I can even recount my very first experience with the album. Rarely does an...
2 tags
Album Review: Wild Beasts - Smother
July and August are notoriously sparse when it comes to new music releases, so at this time of year I often find myself returning to the best that the year has thus far had to offer. Usually I spend this period deciding upon my favourites, but this year’s ritualistic jaunt brought no such problem, as there’s one album that stands out head and shoulders above the rest. Hailing from Cumbria, Wild...
2 tags
Album Review: Every Avenue - Bad Habits
Consistency is a trait that is sought after by bands, yet it can ultimately doom them. If a band sticks to their same classic sound, they know they won’t alienate their fanbase. But even while the fans are asking for a familiar sound, they’re still looking for something new. While Every Avenue is still very much the same band as they were when they released their excellent Fearless...
July 2011
44 posts
2 tags
Album Review: Aficionado - Aficionado
In today’s music scene, many feel the need to have some kind of gimmick in an effort to have a defining trait that separates one from the rest. Whether it be technicality, an intentional lack of technicality, edgy lyrics, or some other crutch, bands often feel like they’re compensating for a lack of substance. Albany, NY natives Aficionado subscribe to no such mentality. Aficionado’s latest...
2 tags
Interview With The Bigger Lights
To me, The Bigger Lights are one of the bands that make my local area proud. From getting signed to Doghouse Records to creating their latest record entirely DIY. That latest record, Battle Hymn, received a great review from me and showed off what the band had been truly capable of creating. The band agreed to spend some time answering questions right before their first of two record release...
4 tags
Live Review: Maps and Atlases
San Francisco is a city of thriving arts and culture. Artists from all over the world love coming to such a supportive musical community because there is such diversity, and a crowd for almost any kind of music. Even despite this, we were lucky to have Maps & Atlases in SF tonight, along with two California-based bands in a fantastic indie show tonight. Sacramento-centered quartet Sister...
2 tags
Artist Spotlight: Unknown Mortal Orchestra
I’m always cautious when I see something labeled as lo-fi. It’s not an aesthetic I dislike, indeed some of my favourite albums hold such qualities, but to me too much music with such a tag is simply throwaway and uses it’s stripped down charm to mask the fatal flaws in other aspects of its creation. Thankfully, this is not the case with Unknown Mortal Orchestra. As well as...
2 tags
Interview With The Narrative
The Narrative is currently one of the best dual vocalled indie-pop bands out there right now. So it may surprise you that they are unsigned. Even without the support of a label, the band released one of the best records of 2010 with their self-titled record, and has received critical acclaim by quite a few publications. The band is currently on the Vans Warped Tour, promoting themselves on one of...
4 tags
Album Review: The Dangerous Summer - War Paint
A group of young men release a pop-punk/indie rock album and the world keeps on spinning. Well, a lot of times that is the case. Needless to say, musicians in the age between adolescence and adulthood usually produce pseudo-thoughtful, contrived and convoluted music which to sing about relationship problems. Here’s a surprise—The Dangerous Summer aren’t like those bands. They...
4 tags
Coldplay-Every Teardrop is a Waterfall
Oh the days when one could rely on Coldplay to make borderline melancholic alternative rock that was introspective, deep, and tinged with drama and mellow emotions. Sadly those days have come and gone, as is evidence of the band’s last album and latest single, Every Teardrop is a Waterfall. Now that isn’t to say that Viva la Vida was an excursion into joy and optimism, but certainly...
3 tags
Album Review: Iceage - New Brigade
It’s become a fad in music nowadays that the ineffably bizarre and mindbogglingly unconventional is cause for not only praise, but for hyperbolic claim of artistic revolution. Rarely, however, do this outwardly strange albums ever amount to anything more than a flash in the pan, and that for every WU LYF, we receive ten forgettable works that amount to very little. However, Iceage’s...
2 tags
Album Review: Kindlewood - Desiderium
First things first—Desiderium may be the most charming record of 2011. It’s not without its faults, that much is sure, but I’ll be damned if my heart wasn’t slightly warmed with every listen of Kindlewood’s debut record. Everything from the minimalist, pseudo-folk instrumentation, to the absolutely sublime vocals just screams charm, and the album is all the better for it. Kindlewood taps into a...
5 tags
Restorations
Diversity in genre is a fantastic thing when it comes to music. When it comes to Restorations, their influences come from, effectively, just about everything from hardcore to shoegaze, hitting stoner metal, roots rock, hardcore, post-punk, and everything therebetween. The Philadelphia outfit exemplifies how you can have such diversity in sound, and still create a fantastic record. After a...
4 tags
Album Review: Trophy Scars - Never Born, Never...
Let’s get one thing out of the way—Never Born, Never Dead is expectedly excellent, and overall, an EP that displays how truly fantastic Trophy Scars really is when they are “on.” Their latest follows their last year’s rather phenomenal, Darkness, Oh Hell, a dark, grimy EP that delved into the desperation and ugliness of a man living through the darkest moment of his life. Never Born, Never Dead...
4 tags
The Coma Recovery - Goddverb
Of all the things that come out of Albuquerque, New Mexico, spacy-progressive-post-rock group The Coma Recovery is certainly one of the most unique. A recent Deep Elm-sign on, the musical influence and developed style of the band takes the new album, Goddverb, to very dark places in the genre of post-rock at times, but can also be much more uplifting and light than comparative artists as well. ...
1 tag
Woodson
A young band out of Youngstown, Ohio, Woodson plays far above their years. Even though the members are still in college, the band formulates indie-rock songs in the style of Manchester Orchestra or Kevin Devine that show maturity far beyond the quality expected of a band releasing their debut album. While upcoming bands are usually fairly safe with their ordering of tracks, Woodson instantly takes...
4 tags
Album Review: Bomb the Music Industry! - Vacation
Is there any band out there quite like Bomb the Music Industry? For years the ska-punk collective, led by the ever eccentric Jeff Rosenstock has been tearing up conventions one messy, chaotic song at a time. The group has been so frenetic, so disorganized, that it’s quite shocking to think that they’re easily one of the most consistent acts in music today. From their debut, Album Minus Band in...
3 tags
Kashiwa Daisuke - 88
Like his Japanese contemporary, World’s End Girlfriend, Kashiwa Daisuke has a penchant for the maddeningly bizarre, as well as the breathtakingly beautiful. However, unlike WEG, Daisuke utilizes a more straightforward type of neo-classical/post-rock. Sure there’s some glitchy electronica thrown in for good measure, but typically that takes a back seat to the swelling strings and...
2 tags
Album Review: Portugal. The Man - In the Mountain,...
Portugal. The Man, a quartet based in the frigid corner of our continent that is Alaska, is set to release their sixth full length album, daringly titled In the Mountain, In the Cloud, on July 19th via Equal Vision Records. Since 2006, the release of a full length has been a yearly ritual for Portugal. Historically, Portugal. has managed to throw together surprisingly strong work in the short...
3 tags
Death Grips
Today’s coverage may startle you a little bit. Because seriously, how many music blogs (or more rarely, individual writers) go from giving away a signed CD and poster for a well known cutesy pop-rock band to an experimental hip-hop group that contains war references? But I pride myself and the site on variety, and thus, you see coverage on Death Grips. Hip-hop isn’t my most preferred...
2 tags
Live Review: Bright Eyes, The Sage Gateshead,...
I don’t really like proclaiming things ‘the best.’ It basically dismisses everything that has come before as secondary, and can seem like a pretty rash judgment especially in the immediate aftermath, but sometimes they’re just so stupendously brilliant that you’re left with little choice other than to declare them as such. This was the dilemma that I found myself in while being utterly floored by...
1 tag
MuzikDizcovery Now On Spotify!
As many of you may know, Spotify is now available in the US. In order to make use of this amazing tool, I have started a Muzik Dizcovery playlist, in which I will place a song of every artist we cover. As it is a lot of work, I only have it updated through July, but eventually I hope on getting it at the very least through all of 2011. Be sure to follow the playlist, which you can access here.
2 tags
Artist Spotlight: The Horrible Crowes
The Gaslight Anthem are one of the best and most consistent bands of recent times, but when I first heard about frontman Brian Fallon’s new project The Horrible Crowes I found it hard to get excited. It’s not that I doubted the New Jersey singer’s ability, but his collaboration with friend Ian Perkins hardly left me enthused. That changed though with the unveiling of the first...
3 tags
City of Ships - Minor World
Aforementioned in a previous post, the new release by City of Ships is coming, and this curious walk through a fuzzy, depressive masterpiece will be one to pick up. With vocals phasing in and out of a post-hardcore tonality similar to Thursday’s heavier material, and an instrumental sound picking up hints of Rosetta, the minor key is prevalent throughout the release, thusly earning its...
2 tags
Live Review: Eels, O2 Academy Newcastle,...
Some bands love the reputations they have made for themselves, but others seem to spend much of their time trying their best to escape them. Eels are a prime example of the latter. The Californian quintet, the brainchild of frontman Mark Everett (a.k.a. ‘E’) are one of alt-rocks most under-appreciated delights, yet have developed a pretty widespread reputation for audible misery over their career....
4 tags
Album Review: Black Wine-Summer of Indifference
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time with Black Wine’s Summer of Indifference, and if things keep going the way they’ve been going, I’ll be enjoying it for quite some time. The record is simply amiable—fun, chaotic, and deliciously varied and unpredictable. Summer of Indifference really is one of the more listenable, and more outwardly easy things to listen to this year, making it the perfect...
2 tags
Artist Spotlight: Pure Love
Last week I was gutted to hear the news that frontman Frank Carter had left British punk band Gallows. The Watford quintet may only have been around for six years, but they’ve long been at the forefront of the nation’s hardcore scene, and in 2009’s sophomore Grey Britain released one of the best albums that the year had to offer. I only got to see them once, but their live show was phenomenal, and...
ANOTHER GREAT REVIEW →
Thanks Topher!
2 tags
Album Review - The Bigger Lights: Battle Hymn
For once, artistic integrity has prevailed over living the easy life. Rather than continuing to work with Doghouse Records for the follow up to their eponymously named debut full length, The Bigger Lights decided to self produce and self release their brand new LP Battle Hymn. Though The Bigger Lights had some catchy moments, the lyrical and musical content was generally poor, and the album seemed...
3 tags
Army Navy
I’d like to welcome Cody Nelson to the posting club here on MuzikDizcovery. Cody has been a great friend and musical acquaintance of mine for a while now, and I’m extremely happy to have him offering up his talents here. Love beautiful female singers or guilty pleasure pop music? Then you may want to follow Cody’s posts in the future. Now I’ve known about these guys for a...
4 tags
Album Review: Patrick Wolf - Lupercalia
Wild, outlandish, and flamboyant pop stars are a dime a dozen nowadays. We’ve got Katy Perry gallivanting around in her videos dressed like an alien, singing of bi-curious explorations and whatnot. Then we get Lady Gaga, a woman whose fashion ranges from dresses made from bubbles to dresses made of meat. However bizarre these musicians may be, there is really only one Patrick Wolf, and he’s...
3 tags
He Is We Acoustic Session
He Is We graciously offered their time before their 7/10 headlining show at Jammin Java to play two acoustic tracks for us. Check out the session below.
4 tags
Beware of Safety - Leaves / Scars
Walking a thin line between post-metal and post-rock, Los Angeles-based instrumental project Beware of Safety comes crashing into the scene with their sophomore full-length, Leaves / Scars. Having recently uncovered the fairly recent band, I enjoyed discovering their heavy, progressive style established in their releases, sounding something like a crude mash of God is an Astronaut and North. The...
2 tags
Live Review: Frank Turner, Whitley Bay Playhouse,...
Music is a divisive art, so it’s virtually impossible to be liked by literally everyone. Saying that, I for one can’t think of any act that has attracted such universal adoration as former Million Dead frontman Frank Turner in his increasingly successful career as a solo artist. Currently riding high on the back of excellent recent album England Keep My Bones, Turner has been a cult hero in some...
3 tags
Gregory Attonito (The Bouncing Souls) - Natural...
Legendary punk band The Bouncing Souls are known for their short, brutal tracks full of menacing guitars, vicious drumming, and Greg Attonito’s powerful vocals. Attonito’s solo album is a totally separate entity, leaving behind all aspects from his main project. The songs are acoustically based, with horns and keys sporadically placed into the tracks. However, the biggest change is the...
4 tags
Mogwai - Earth Division EP
It looks like Glasgow-based post-rock band Mogwai is having a good year. With their 7th studio album, Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will (review here) receiving critical acclaim, the band sets off to continue to impress and improve with the Earth Division EP. According to a Sub Pop release, we can expect the EP to be somewhat of a departure from their standard, pounding guitar riffs to a...