The Bum Hips

 

The Bum Hips are a nice indie jam band that provide some nice laid-back listening and fun songs that are usually very tasty. This is a band that captures the magic of the Grateful Dead but modernizes the essential ideas. Its' a rather interesting mix. The guitars are cool because asides from the bouncy rhythms there is almost a solo going on. This adds a lot of flavor to the music and spices up some of the simpler sections. The bass work is rather heavy and really fills out the sound. In particular it really makes songs like Beneath the Clouds a lot more interesting. The drumming is upbeat and features a ton of nice little fills. Its nothing magnificent but it definitely gets the job done and keeps the mood up. Finally the band singer has a very strong voice that he uses to help give the songs a bit more of a sense of direction. He grounds the band in the earth. So go check out the Bum Hips, they are quite the band.
https://www.facebook.com/thebumhipsmusic/app_2405167945

Not By Design

Not By Design is a cool new wave indie band that reminds me distinctly of Coldplay. Their sound has the same atmosphere and beauty that a traditional Coldplay track has. The guitar work is pretty simple but it gets the message across. It has a pretty amazing aura and is very fulfilling and powerful. The bass work is solid and some of the heavier lines are really fun. I particularly like the pulsing bass in the track Lesser Limits. The drums are the basis of this bands sound. They have a soothing surging feel to them that shows a gifted drummer bringing out some really great beats. He does a great job of bringing the band up to their finest. The vocals are emotional and almost strained. You can hear the singer putting his heart and soul into the music and trying his hardest to get EVERYONE to connect. It's really cool to hear the power behind his voice. Overall, Not By Design is an awesome modern rock band who you should check out if you have any interest in the genre. So yeah, enjoy!

https://www.facebook.com/NBD.UK/app_178091127385

Handshake Sleeping Snarling

Handshake is an artsy prog rock band from California, and their new album is fantastic. The band is made up of college guys, yet somehow they've gotten bigger than some signed bands I know, these guys are living the dream. Yet despite their youth and rising popularity The guitar work is subdued, and calm. The bass is the thudding beating heart of the band. Meanwhile the drummer has a lot of fills that are unique for the genre. The keyboards are an occasionally present treat that adds a bit more melody into the bands sound. Finally we have the vocals, which truly capture the artsyness of the band, both in their quality and their lyrical content. Together they form a unique sound that you must hear!

The guitar work on this record combines influences from various genres ranging from jazz to metal to noise punk. This leads to a unique guitar tone, with compositions that seem... off... and yet somehow beautiful at the same time. Overall the compositions are pretty simple but the sheer variety found on the album is shocking. The solos are usually atonal, or bluesy, again the combination of influences comes into play. The guitar is particularly interesting in the extended experimental passages which show the true versatility of the guitarist. To finish, the guitar work might not blow you away, but it will certainly interest you enough to want to keep listening.

The bass work on this record manages to capture the aura of each song and give that song a pulse. Even the most low powered of tracks (like Lemon) has a sort of pulse going through it that is extremely interesting to hear. The bassists (there are several) show a lot of skill on the instrument with this. The bass work is a very significant part of the sound of the album almost entirely because he can capture each song's very essence. The drums too manage to capture the mood of the songs. Whats especially impressive is the variety of fills that the drummer uses to provide variety in the music. Together, the rhythm section provides a varied sound that manages to fully communicate the aura of each song.

The keys are one of the artsiest parts of this record. Their primary role is to add layers of melody or symphony to each song. Once more the musicians show an amazing ability to grab the aura of each song and communicate it through another instrument. Their can be melancholy symphonic lines, or melodic bluesy lines. They combine to add some sonic depth to the music and to make the sound more poignant.

Finally we have the vocals, the ultimate communicator of the music. With a style vaguely reminiscent of Roger Waters, the vocals prove of Clary and Greenwald are more than capable of getting their messages across. The sheer sadness found in them is remarkable, the sense of depression I get when listening to him sing is incredible. Lyrically this album is extremely bizarre, with phrases like “Illicit campaign ads/They sell us some trash bags/And I know/He keeps changing the channel” things can get pretty trippy. Yet somehow the overall psychedelia of the album works, and allows for an interesting and exciting sound.

In conclusion, Handshake is a wonderful prog experience. With an extremely fun sound I can not understand why anyone would NOT want to listen to them. With an overall subdued sound, they create some really swirling psychedelic riffs that you do not want to turn off. This album might be very bizarre, but it is also beautiful, it is an album that you don't want to have to turn off. With good guitars, pulsating rhythm, poignant keyboards, and sad vocals this band proves they have what it takes to be gods. So go listen to them, or make a puppy cry.

Braincoats

Braincoats is an artsy punk band featuring a sound reminiscent of bands like The Killers. They have an interesting blend of guitars, a steady bass, straightforward drumming and above average vocals that combine to create a very nice indie pop punk type sound. The guitar work on the quiet bits is mostly arpeggiated chords while the blaring choruses feature full out power chord riffs that make you want to jump up and down. The guitarists bounce off each other, but somehow it sounds off but in a good way. It is just enough so as to sound artfully sloppy. The bass work on this record is pretty simple, but it really helps to solidify the sound in a band where the guitar tone is not the heaviest. Then we have the drums, which are relatively simple, however the drummers ability to mix in crashing choruses makes the music fun to listen too. Finally the vocals are pretty normal, but they have a certain something to them that puts them a bit above par. They are quite good. In conclusion, Braincoats is a pretty cool punk band that shows off a nice artsy side. Go check them out!

Otiks

Otiks is an indie rock band from Leeds. They feature some nifty little guitar riffs, solid bass parts, ambient keyboards, nice drumming and spacey vocals. The guitar work is particularly tasty. The arpeggiated chords heard in the verse of For Your Art are especially good. The guitar solos are pretty cool too, and while you shouldn't expect shredding there is definitely a lot of emotion to be had. The bass riffs are pretty solid and nicely fill out the sound while giving the band some power. Then the ambient keys are really good at capturing the feel of the songs and helping to make the music very soothing to the ear. The drum work is pretty solid, though there are not a lot of particularly technical lines the drummer nevertheless does a good job of capturing the general feel of the song and keeping it all going. The vocals of Otiks sound slightly psychedelic. They help give the band a bit of a Pink Floyd flavor, so that might give you another reason to check these guys out. In conclusion, Otiks is a fairly decent band, and their sound is very solid, showing them to be good musicians and wonderful songwriters. So go check them out on Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/Otiksband?sk=app_2405167945

Shorthand Phonetics

shorthand Phonetics is a bizarre and uniquely interesting indie punk band. Their sounds are among the most unique I have ever heard. They are in the process of writing a sort of really trippy rock opera/multi-album epic, and I can not wait to hear it. The guitar has a combination of influences. The two most common are punk and indie. The punk parts usually go under the vocal lines and help give this record a punk feel. Then the guitar solo parts get a lot weirder  and head out into a more indie direction. Along with the general pop feel that stalks the guitars throughout the album you get a really cool and trippy listening experience. The bass lines are pretty straightforward and the majority of the time they follow a punk type riff pattern and generally give the music soul. Then we have the drums, these are some of the most evolved drums that I have heard in a while, the drums at the beginning of Cantata No. 6 are extremely well done. Last we have the vocals, at first they seem kind of nasal but after you get used to them they sem to fit the music pretty well and help make the record more unique. OVeral shorthand Phonetics is a really cool and really unique band that combines so many influences it melts my head.

OVERALL 9/10
http://shorthandphonetics.bandcamp.com/album/cantata-no-6-assistants-of-assistants-in-varying-keys-op-25-for-three-electric-guitars-one-bass-guitar-one-drum-kit-one-tenor-and-additional-voices-where-appropriate

Noise Gunk Murder Castle-Instant Witness

So Instant Witness is back, loud and proud Moody and the boys have a new album out and it rocks. These guys are some of the most hardcore garage rockers I know and this album shows them at their finest with lots of fun tracks in the stile of The Hives. The guitars are rude and blaring, they have riffs which blow my head off. The bass is a thing of its own, their bassist has some really amazing fills and they really come over well. The drums are enthusiastic and powerful and have a great vibe to them. Finally the vocals have a hectic and wild feel that makes the music just come across beautifully. All in all, the latest effort of Instant Witness is as brain exploding and fun as the last. And it all starts with some wicked guitars.

The guitar intro to the album's first tracks “Does your Heart Go Boom?” tells you right away that this is going to be a fun guitar album, and it is. The riffs here are mostly garage rock in style and are powerful in their simplicity. In some ways I am reminded of The Who, but these guys are a lot heavier. The guitars have a very loose style and a crazy attack, in terms of the sheer punkness and aggression I am reminded in some ways of The Sex Pistols. In short the riffs are mostly classic punk influenced with some nice little bluesy variants tossed in to add flavor. My only complaint is a lack of solos as the solos on the last record were really fun.

The bassist of Instant Witness is Matt Shuckert and he s truly phenominal. He has some really cool fills on this record. Instant Witness has a very live sound and some of these bass fills simply blow the mind. While there are as not as many fills as on the last album there are still some good things here. One of my favorite bass parts on this record is in the song Dharma Disaster. Where a bluesy bass fill becomes the mainstay of the track. The powerful bass is one of the things that helps give the music its cool classic rock feel. As a rhythm player Matt does very well, a good example of this is in the track Love Is a Chemical.

The drums on this record are very reminiscent of bands like Black Sabbath. Chris Taylor (isn't that a football player?) tends to use his cymbals a lot to make the music feel crashing and wild. Another drummer I might compare Chris to is Meg White, except he has more a lot more skill. I feel that this is really well done and gives a lot more energy to the songs than if he had just battered wild 16ths on the toms. The drums are really amazing when you listen to them and only them, Chris has a lot of technical skill and he really shines on this album.

Singer Mack Kernan... dear God, I love this man. He has a good voice, but it becomes amazing because he holds absolutely nothing back. He goes forward and conquers. There is a raw energy in Kernan's voice that makes him a god among men. The shrieking power in his voice is reminiscent of Little Richard. This album shows Kernan going a lot crazier than he ever went on No Way No How. Kernan has gone completely insane and this album features him letting it all out. It's awesome. My only problem with it is that the production is sometimes off and we lose his vocals under the waves of guitar sound. His lyrics are typical punk lyrics and when they make sense they're typically about love or rebellion, in short, very fun.

So lets wrap it up, Noise Gunk Murder Castle is definitely worth listening too, again and again and again if at all possible. The guitars are roaring, the bass has tons of fills the drums are energetic and the vocals are beastly. This record is more than worth a listen, its what you should listen to all day. All in all this is a sick album with all the awesomeness that makes Instant Witness, and now that I have had a few listen I feel confident in rating it.

OVERALL 9.75/10

Drawing Mountains

 Now I'm reviewing what is essentially an Indie band, they fall into my unsigned category because they are signed with a tiny record label. They have an interesting sound that is a combination of both lighter acoustic music along with heavier electric guitar stuff. Its really cool to hear the juxtaposition between the gentle acoustic bits and the hard rocking metal parts. They are something of an alt rock band. There are two guitars on some tracks, one is an electric guitar that provides some really loud metal bits that make for a great sound. It has some really hard riffs that create a great vibe. The acoustic lies underneath this heavy guitar and makes an amazing contrast between dark and light. The bass also has some nice fills that compliment the guitar parts. The drums are light and also very nice to listen to. But they can become hard and amazing as well. The vocals are very nice as well. They are soft and beautiful they are just really good to listen to and help make this band make good. I hope that when these guys finish their album I am given the honor to review it as they experiment with a really nice new soft and hard sound.

OVERALL 8/10

check em out-http://www.myspace.com/drawingmountains