This week, I’ve been listening to Zero Hour quite a bit. They have an interesting sound that is much like Soundgarden. On this track “The Greatest” has a strong opening guitar part that reminds me of late 80s arena rock, like AC/DC. It builds slowly at first, then drops the shoe, ready to punch you in the eye.
The five-peice mixes classic rock and progressive in an interesting, strong blend that’s great for the gym or for short sprints (running or racing, your choice). The tracks on this album show a good range and variety, always centering on the story of the lyrics, highlighting the harmonies with solid axe play. It’s a really good production. New Mexico is a long way off, So I’m hoping that they tour the East Coast sometime. If you like your riffs a bit harder than what you hear in this track, be sure to listen to “Another Nail”.

This week, I was listening to a lot of tracks in the “world” section of AmieStreet, and wanted to spotlight Pulsion. The tonality and composition is almost dreamlike in the guitars. This reminds me of some of the masters of guitar intros. Check it out!

The plugin and meme for Amie Street Music Wednesday has been revived! This meme had been garnering players for quite some time, and its growth was stopped in its tracks when Amie Street did a site redesign that stopped the embedded player from working. Mouseclone has been working with their developers to create a slick new player, and the code has been released today.

My first post with the new player is by an Australian indie-pop band called Archetecture in Helsinki. The song “That Beep” is pretty popular in Oz, and there are several mixes and dubs already.

The beginning bit where they say “Hey kid can you wake up” seemed apropos for the revival post.

I called your doctor up
And he promised me shameless fun
Tried a little bit of moving on
It lasts for way too long
Dressed up as bubblegum
I’m stuck to your shoe lets run
Can you give me that
beep, beep, beep, beep, beep

I ran into this meme when reading Juliafish‘s blog, and thought that the result was uncanny when thinking of album covers I’ve seen over the past (ahem, many) years.

This was quick to put together, and was entertaining. You should do one, just to see what randoms you get.

The meme goes as follows:
Create your own band and debut album cover randomly

To Do This:

1 – Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random” or click Wikipedia Random
The first random Wikipedia article that comes up is the name of your band.

2 – Go to Quotations Page and select “random quotations” or click Quotations Random – The last four or five words of the very LAST quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3 – Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” or click Flickr 7day random – The third picture in the top row, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 – Use Photoshop/GIMP or similar graphics program to put it all together.

5 – Post it to your preferred online outlet with this text in the “caption” or “comment” and TAG the friends you want to join in.

Here’s the first release from my new band.

So... I started a band.

Last week, I found Earthbound when looking for some funky soul music after seeing a local soul band that really struck me (another post in the making). Earthbound has a really comfortable feel. The percussion never feels rushed, and there is a sense of place and balance between the brass and the percussion. Kira’s lyrics are always upbeat and mature, and her voice is both energetic and calming. I don’t think they will be coming to Atlanta any time soon, as they are base in Canada… pity.

Besides hearing the full track of “Find Yourself” featured here, be sure to check out the tracks “Open Up Your Arms” and “Letting Go”. At the time of this writing, both albums are still free. Of course, as tracks become more popular on Amie Street, the price goes up, so get up on it!

I was looking at the live beta for Amie Street, and am really looking forward to their rolling it out. The embedded player at the bottom of the screen will be a great improvement over the pop-up player (which if any of you use the Opera browser know, makes you change a few browsing habits). A lot of the search options are more dynamic and live, and it’s all very polished and slick. When you are on the site, look for the link at the very top of the page.

“We’re gonna make millions, millions I say!”

This week’s band is a high-powered post-punk group from California called Cubicle. The first thing that got my attention while browsing new albums at Amie Street was the album cover, an obvious throwback to the old DRI (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles) logo from back in the late, late 80′s skate punk days, but with an update: a briefcase and cellphone. I immediately popped open the player for a few samples and found a band with a lot of energy who find humor in our everyday grind, poke fun at the corporate way of life, the slag, and the slack. Their Myspace page points more toward a “must-see” live show.
“It’s imperative to know how to get scheduled in.”
Be sure to check out “Cooking the Books” and “Corporate Card”.

This week, I discovered a band called the Dirty Epics from Dublin. They have an interesting alt-punk and ska sound, and from the videos, seem to put on quite a live show. The issue that I have with them is that they currently only have *ONE* track up at their Amie Street page. To see or hear much else, you will have to go trolling places like MySpace page. Anyway, check them out!

This week’s entry is for a band known as Les Savy Fav. This New York band got its start at university in Rhode Island and has an interesting way with both instrumentation and lyrics that keeps me coming back to their tracks. Checking out their discography, I’ve noticed that they always seem to be looking to add more to their sound, but at the same time, never lose themselves. The current album, “Let’s Stay Friends,” has a few tracks with guest vocalists, specifically “Kiss Kiss is Getting Old” and “Comes and Goes”. The lyrics are well-rooted in academia and sometimes are twitch-muttered in syncopation and on other tracks are shout-blasted over grunge-fuzz and high-distortion guitar licks. I hope these guys come to Atlanta for a live show someday soon.
The track I’ve highlighted here, “Rage in the Plague Age” went all too well with my recent addiction to the Knighthood game on FaceBook, which I blame entirely on Tsani and Kimberly, and even includes a temporally-shifted call to rock-n’-roll arms:

Draw up the drawbridge, draw down the blinds / everyone inside is getting high tonight, waiting for the plague to move on/ nobody’s getting sober till the liquor’s gone!