New Album: Flogging Molly - Speed of Darkness

As I mentioned on this past week's Video, I don't know how I missed the release of Speed of Darkness. Hell, I didn't even know it was recorded and being released! I love Flogging Molly, and so the usual level of excitement that creeps up as I hear updates of a new album, over the months prior, finally culminating with me getting my hands on the actual music itself... never happened. I've had to jam all of that raw emotion, lust, and excitement into one short week; I am exhausted. But the excitement is carrying me on, onto this 2011 release from one of my favorite bands - and also one of the few modern bands that I've listened too for almost a decade, I realized this week.

The album opens with the title track which hits you like a bang, a true Flogging Molly experience. Ten seconds (after the intro) and I knew exactly what I was getting into - and I love it! This sounds like a vintage track from the group, something that could have been released within any previous album of their fourteen-year-plus recording career and not seem out of place. This is a great beginning, because you never know if a new release by a band you love will live up to the expectations that you have. Will the new album be the same style, and with that, too much of the same, or not enough of a change? With this opener, I am less worried.

Video: Flogging Molly "Don't Shut 'Em Down"

Just found out that Flogging Molly have released a new album last week - I don't know how I missed it for so long. I haven't had a chance to listen to Speed of Darkness yet, but this is the first single and accompanying video; "Don't Shut 'Em Down." Float, their last release, was pretty bad-ass, so I'm looking forward to this album quite a bit.

Video: Whole Wheat Bread - "Old Man Samson"

I don't know why I never thought to look up Whole Wheat Bread on YouTube before, but there you have it, it never crossed my mind. WWB is a band that mixes their love for punk rock and hip-hop into something pretty great. I've seen them live twice, and they are a show to see if you get the chance to, well worth the twenty bucks you'll probably spend.

"Old Man Samson" is from the group's debut LP, Minority Rules, which was from 2005. You can tell the age of this video looking at it, as the members don't look much like this anymore - plus they have a new bassist - but it doesn't matter, it's a jamming, rocking song. I love their albums!

Video: Dropkick Murphys - "Going Out In Style"

There is one thing I have to say about the boy of Dropkick Murphys: they sure do look Irish. Watching this video I could not help but be amazed at how green they all look. It's legendary, something you'd only expect in TV of the movies, not in real life... wow.

Anyway, seeing as I reviewed their newest album, Going Out In Style, on Monday, I feel it fitting to have the title track as this week's video. This is a good song, not the best off the album, but a solid contender, and the video is kind of clever, making it easier to understand the lyrics as they quickly come and go.

Simple Irish punk.

New Album: Dropkick Murphys - Going Out In Style

Keeping with the folk, and the fact that I just discovered that the Dropkick Murphys released this new album, Going Out In Style, it seems like a wise action to review it, don't you think?

In the US, the big two acts of Celtic folk (punk) rock resurgence begun in the late 90s (at least that reach down to Florida) have been Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys, and of the two Flogging Molly has always pulled ahead of my personal tastes. It's not that Flogging Molly is way better then Dropkick or anything, it's just been that the Murphys have always come across as more punk then folk. Sure every album has the few that include bagpipes and the traditional Irish/British/Scottish song, but the majority of the songs and music have been more solidly in the punk region of things.

I'm happy to say that with Going Out In Style, this is not the case. This has to be their most folk album to date, still holding onto their punk roots, but this time equalizing it all with a healthy dose of folk. Pretty much every song has the bagpipes or harmonica within, and some have that old-fashioned jig set-up ("Take 'Em Down" especially). It's a nice change from their previous works - again, none of which are bad, just not fully folk rock.

Awesome Websites: Tooting Bizarre

Found this one through my blog connections, TootingBizarre.org is a British record label's website, but this is no ordinary record label. You see this one gives all of the music they have away... for free! They have fourteen acts and thirty one albums/EPs for you to enjoy. The groups span a bunch of genres, from doom and post-metal, to folk and hip-hop. There is a little for everyone, so why not give it a look?

Now, I did scoop some artists up, but I haven't had a chance to listen to them at all yet, but the artists available include:

50ft Panda - Stoner/sludge/prog (3 Albums)

Diefenbaker - Folk/neofolk duo (4 Albums)

Mayors of Miyazaki -Math rock/hardcore (2 Albums)

Montana Pete -Punk/funk (3 Albums)

Olid - Prog/Doom supergroup from members of 50ft Panda, Mayors of Miyazaki, and Thumpermonkey Lives! (1 Album)

Part Rocket -Instrumental post-rock - I tried downloading this one but for some reason it wouldn't work for me, but give it a try (4 Albums)

Shinju - Pop or something, didn't give this one too much attention (1 Album)

Stonasaurus - Underground Hip-Hop (1 Album)

The Device - Techno/electronica (3 Albums)

The Doghouse Riley Band - Garage rock with humor (1 Album)

Thumpermonkey -Prog/experimental. Solo act before Thumpermonkey Lives! (2 Albums)

Thumpermonkey Lives! -Post-metal, prog, sludge, etc (2 Albums)

Todger -  Prog-stoner (3 Albums)

Tooting Bizarre - A live album of acts that are apart of TootingBizarre.org (1 Album)

 

Just sharing the love.

Retrospective: The Offspring (Part 2)

The second part of The Offspring's discography. This half of their career hold my favorite records by the group, and these are the albums I listen to the most. As such I could write a stand-alone article for all of these discs, but I'll try to keep it short and sweet for this purpose.

Americana (1998)
Already went into my nostalgic telling of Americana. One of my favorites.

Conspiracy of One (2000)
Not the best Offspring album, Conspiracy of One is an alright release by the group. By this time I was in eighth grade and the pop-punk song "Original Prankster" (the first single) became my new anthem. Something about being a rebel and burning stuff down appealed to me. And even now, after the album has had several plays, looking at the track list I can only really remember that single and "Want You Bad" (one of my favorite Offspring songs) as anything worth listening to. I bet if I had listened to it right before writing this I could pick out a few more good songs, but a true test of a good album and song is its longevity, and for me that only includes the two singles.

Retrospective: The Offspring (Part 1)

After going through my favorite albums from The Offspring (Americana, Splinter, Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace) and writing a whole breakdown of Americana, I decided to go all in and do a Retrospective for the group.

The Offspring are one of the big three in the Punk Revival scene of the early 90's (along with Green Day and Rancid), and personally my favorite. Americana was the first album I ever bought with my own money (I was in 6th grade), which signified the beginning of my musical independence from my parents (everyone starts as a child with only their parent's music to go with) and led down the winding road to who I am now.
The group's sound has changes over the years, beginning with a down-and-dirty style, semi-hardcore/garage rock if you will, into a melding of grunge and punk in the 90's, then to a more 'poppy' simple sound of the early 2000's. The release of their latest album, Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace, sees the band heading into a 'smarter' venue of music, with musically and lyrically diverse songs and themes, blending in some progressive elements into their punk.
Because I came into the group at Americana, I am a much bigger fan of the second half of the group's career, but I still enjoy the early albums, some of the early singles - though dark and depressing (grunge) - are quite catchy and a good listen. Supposedly the group has another album coming out at the end of this year or into the next. I really want to see in what direction the band heads at this point in their career.

The Offspring (1989)
With lower production values and faster, shorter songs, The Offspring's self-titled debut was more akin to the 'classic' punk of the 80s then what would emerge as a forerunner of the punk rock revival movement. I rarely listen to this album, not being a fan of the style, so I may not be the best person to break it down. Stand-outs "Jennifer Lost the War," "Beheaded," and "Tehran" are all worth a listen, and they show up from time to time in movies or in compilations. Other then that, I really have nothing to say. Awesome album art though, A+ for presentation.

Favorite Albums: The Offspring - Americana

This is it. This is the beginning of it all. The Offspring's Americana was the first album that I ever bought with my own money, being only 12 at the time, it was kind of a big deal. It had blatant use of the words 'fuck,' 'shit,' and 'bitch,' while not new phrases for me, the fact that I could listen to these songs in the presence of my parents was a big deal. Up to this point my musical tastes were dominated by what my parents listened to. Fortunately, most of this was good music, with my dad being a hard rock/metal fan from way back (Manowar, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Deep Purple, etc) and my mother enjoying piano music (Billy Joel and Elton John), British (The Beatles, The Pretenders) and ...well mom stuff (lots of soulful women and poppy tunes). It was from this eclectic upbringing that I evolved, first into punk revival (The Offspring and Green Day) and nu metal (KoRn and Limp Bizkit), then later into power metal and beyond. But it all began with Americana.

Live: MC Chris with Whole Wheat Bread

Six times.

That's how many times I've seen MC Chris live now, and I have to say I still enjoy it. I went in to this show not really excited, not expecting too much, I was going to hang out with my friends. In the almost-three years that I've been going to MC Chris shows, we've ended up getting a nice little following. Every time there are the 3 or 4 people who have seen him before, and the 3 or 4 people that we drag out to the show. It's a constant cycle. But I was happily surprised with the entire night.

The opener was some nerd-core white rapper, in the same vein as MC Chris. I didn't catch his name (well I did but I forget it), and I really don't care. The problem with going to a rap show is that if you don't know the words to the songs it's pretty boring. The music isn't good enough to keep you entertained and it's almost impossible to understand the lyrics at most venues, so the show devolves to the guy coming out making a joke, mumbling along to some blaring repeating house music, then making another witty comment, and back to the tunes. Nothing great. I'm sure if you knew the guy and his works it would have been much more enjoyable.

Next up was Whole Wheat Bread, a punk rock band with rap/hip-hop undertones, oh and did I mention that it's an all-black punk band? I had never heard of them before this nigh, and I only knew that they existed because my old roommate had one of their albums. But these guys kicked ass. All of their songs had a nice groove, I didn't know most of the words (some songs had a chant or a sing-a-long) but I still enjoyed it - a big difference between rap and rock. They played originals and covers, and their live show sounded just like their albums, just a little heavier, something I enjoyed quite a bit. During the middle of their set, they took a break and sang two or three rap covers, just the lead singer/guitarist and the drummer (who sang) and a looping-track. After that it was back to the rock. During the second half of the show a pit formed, and my friends and I couldn't let that go. I like going to punk and ska shows and going into the pit, because often times the people at these shows are not aggressive. Alot of metal shows have really militant people slamming into each other, but at this show it was skinny kids with Mohawks and tight jeans - not a scary crowd. One thing I found funny was that some of the people in the crowd started shouting the Wu Tang Clan chant, except tuned for Whole Wheat Bread: "Whole Wheat Bread ain't nothin' to fuck with! Whole Wheat Bread ain't nothin' to fuck with!" I laughed pretty hard and chanted with the rest.

After WWB were done MC Chris came out and did his thing. Before he got on stage, he opened with some mixed track of weird sounds and songs, something I see at alot of shows. It never makes sense to me, this soft open, often times the music/sounds have nothing to do with the show, and this show was no exception. But the music played and MC came out... and then the music cut quickly, to the surprise of MC Chris, and he left the stage and tried again. He was attempting to film a DVD, so I assume he wanted a solid opening, but I found it very annoying, and unnecessary.
Finally he began to sing, he said his voice was shot, but I didn't notice, as he belted out my favorite songs. It was great, his first six songs were all of my favorites, and the couple after that I knew (but not a favorite). The first half of his set done, and I knew every word to every song. Oh and he sang "Fuckin' Up My Christmas" my favorite song of his! I have seen him half a dozen times now and this is the first time he busted it out. Made my night right there. After his 30-45 min of old material he moved into his new music. I haven't heard his latest album, MC Chris Is Dead, except for one song, and he also sang from his upcoming albums, Part Six Part One and Part Six Part Two, music I have never heard, so most of it was lost on me. It was the same problem I had with the first guy, I didn't know the lyrics of the music so I was bored. This went on for about five more songs. Then MC sang another older song (I forget which one), and left the stage. The lights didn't come up, so we knew there'd be an encore, but to be fair we would have stayed and chanted til he came back out anyway, so at least they were prepared. After a minute or two not only did MC Chris come back to the stage, but he was joined by the gentlemen of Whole Wheat Bread! They all jammed out to "Fette's Vette" off of MC Chris' first album, Life's a Bitch and I'm Her Pimp. It was great. A rap song with heave drums and bass, and a continual guitar solo mixed it, it was like Rage Against The Machine without the guilt-trip. Fabulous way to end the show.

All-in-all it was a good show. I've seen MC Chris with alot of different openers from alot of different genres, but Whole Wheat Bread was by far the best. Their style of rap/punk complimented MC Chris' style, while still keeping to their own devices. I'd happily go see this show again.

New Band: Sound And Fury

I've decided that I don't actually buy albums that often any more. I either trade or "acquire" them from various contacts. So, in order to feel better about myself, and to give back to the community (I believe the first one more), I have decided to try and buy a new CD every week at the store on my College Campus.

This week my acquisition, was the debut, self-titled album, by Sound And Fury. Now, at the store where I go, they have a "Metal Pick of The Month" section, where you can listen to the albums, which I always give a quick run-by. Normally it is fulled with genres like death/black metal, or something with -core in the name, but occasionally it can be good for a find. I saw the Sound And Fury albums, and the artwork really stood out to me, it is bitchin'. It's a mob of people with skulls for heads. That's it, but it is really neat to look at. At the station I listened to part of the first track, and should have listened a little harder, but I was with someone and didn't want to be a dick (plus she is cute). So I took the CD with the cool cover art and bought it.