THE EVALUATION: THE ROBOT E.P. - A Clever Con

The Evaluation

                                                 A Clever Con

                                                 The Robot EP

     A Clever Con is an alternative rock band based from New Jersey and recently released their debut, The Robot EP. This six song EP is complied with outstanding harmonies, storytelling lyrics, and catchy guitar riffs. For those who like a combination of all three, definitely check out their song “60 AMP Disconnect.” From beginning to end, the song will have the listener in fascination because of how prolific the harmony is. Another song off The Robot EP which I found astounding was “Robots and Mannequins.” It’s one of those songs with an upbeat instrumental combined with an enthusiastic irony because of how deep the lyrics are. For those who like Sublime, Tool, Incubus, and 10 Years you will not be disappointed.

ALBUM REVIEW: THE GREAT WALK - Another Option

Another Option

    

The Great Walk (Album)

     In the overall aspect of rock music, a listener will always find out about that one band out of the other five bands they find who sound influenced by music other than rock. I personally don’t think that it’s intentional, but there are certain bands emerging and use a lot of rhythmic and vocal aspects from artists in the R&B and Soul genres.
     In the local scene a perfect example of this is Another Option (Westport, Massachusetts). Another Option is doing well at the moment. They’re currently on Warped Tour 2010. Not to mention that they're on the entire Warped Tour. Last but not least, they released an EP, The Great Walk.
     My overall outlook on this EP is that it’s not too often where a listener can find a 5 song EP and have it be an elaborate play from beginning to end. For anyone that likes being on their feet for what will happen next, The Great Walk will make you run the marathon (analogically speaking of course).
     To start off this “story,” the first song is “Verrazano,” which is considered the introduction. The beginning of the song has an old school sample of soul singing and it has this beautiful; yet distorted effect to it. The end result of that made the whole song in general classier. After the sample is finished, this guitar riff comes in and it has this blues type of approach where it feels like the guitar is conveying a verbal message to the listener. The sample also gives the listener the assumption on how the singe is going to sound like. In this instance, the singer is just very melodic and soulful at the same time.
     My favorite song off this album hands down goes to “Midwestern Self Realization,” which is considered the intermission for The Great Walk. The atmosphere of the song goes perfectly for something such as the intermission. The rest of the EP has a lot more emphasis into their passion of their imagery. This song has more of the laid back image. An example is the guitar riff being laid back, but at the same time, captivating the audience to not lose interest just like a play.
     To end it all off, “Iowa By The Sea” is the last song worth listening to. Ever noticed how in most plays or recitals the act after the intermission is always longer than the act before it. In this case, “Iowa By The Sea” is over 6 minutes long. Metaphorically speaking, the song has this “mission accomplished” after proceeding through “The Great Walk.” In broadways, there are these epic endings where everybody in the cast sings and what not. In this case, the ending is primarily an instrumental with addition to some lyrics. It also has a girl singing on a lot of the song in the end which sounds soothing and natural.

To Check Out Their Music

http://www.myspace.com/anotheroption

Catch them on Warped Tour under Focus Records

ALBUM REVIEW: SUCH IS LIFE – Mat Parsons

 Mat Parsons

     There has always been something about acoustic where it has its glow about it. To state the obvious, acoustic gives the listener more of a “feel at home vibe”. The main reason for that is a clearer interpretation of the artist’s lyrics.

     Now when an acoustic guitar is mixed with a soulful voice in the emerging acts of today’s music, listeners are exposed to Mat Parsons (Scranton, Pennsylvania). For the past year, Mat Parsons has done quite well for himself in the past year. He has shared the stage with bands such as Hawthorne Heights, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, The Wonder Years, and many more.
     Mat Parsons released a new album called Such is Life and I’ll be reviewing three of his songs off the album for a synopsis for what to expect off this album.
     The first song to get into is “Life Must Be Lived Like A Free Man”. As far as talent is concerned, this song overall is the best to judge Mat Parsons on in my opinion. He has this ability on this song where he is able to put so much emotion in his voice to the point where you can’t even tell what can exactly be the chorus. Lyrically, this song is amazing. The look of those mountains/The shape of the tree/Baby nothing seems more natural than you and me/ Metaphorically, I love that line because it starts out so simple, and it involves an analogy between relationships with the essence of nature.
     The next song to be broken down is “Looking Back”. The way that song just progressed from a simple guitar riff into something so meaningful is astounding to me. This song is kind of like a motivation song. Coming from the song title itself, the reflection of the past is quite essential to what the meaning of the past is. That meaning is really just to move on and how things can be different within the range of a day, month or a year. As far as all the songs, this one has the best chorus because there isn’t an overabundance of anything. The vocals and the guitar riffs are incredibly smooth together.
     Another song that I felt it stood out the most was “Malls and Mountains”. The primary reason for thinking that is due to how much folk influence there is in this song. It’s one of those songs you would hear playing at a 10 person bonfire and the audience would easily sing along to it. Mat Parsons is influenced by Jack Johnson and Bob Dylan. This is one song where it’s feasible to tell that who he’s influenced by because the guitar parts are easy to play and it’s kind of like a “jam out song”.
     For fans of Never Shout Never, Five Years and Counting, The Almost, and Good Old War, you will not be disappointed.

To listen to Mat Parsons' album,

Such Is Life

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Mat-Parsons/138906552800914?ref=ts

http://www.myspace.com/mathewparsons

http://www.purevolume.com/matparsons

ALBUM REVIEW: WE WERE NOT SO TALL – Talking To Walls

 Talking To Walls

We Were Not So Tall (Album)

     Indie music can be complicated in certain aspects. Notice how a lot of bands in the indie genre sing like the song will not be catchy. However; there will always be something to captivate the vocals and make it catchier.

     As for Talking To Walls (New Haven, Connecticut), they are a great example of being indirectly catchy with their new album, We Were Not So Tall.  On an overall generalization, I personally love the album. I will always like a band with so much more passion if their lyrics are more than something that just goes with the beat. I also find the guitar parts in all songs to be a huge boost for how they came out as a final product.
     Probably their most radio friendly song, “Came To You,” Talking To Walls introduces the CD with a fast paced sound and very poppy chorus. One thing I loved about the song right away is how the drums started up the whole beat for the song. Then all of a sudden, the guitars come in practically at the same time. It’s kind of like the song had its own beginning, middle, and end before the vocals came in. There was one line in the song that goes I remember what you said/The day I left you there for dead/If I was OK you were OK too. Lyrics like that are so simple; yet so meaningful at the same time. A line like that right away gives the listener the whole objective of what “Came To You” is about.
     An element of music that makes Talking To Walls stand out is bagpipes. Even though it’s not part of their distinct sound, “Song for Megan” had the ability to stand out instrumentally because the bagpipes are also played n the choruses. As I was saying earlier, it’s not the vocals that truly make the songs. It's how well the instruments are correlated together to make a song noticeable.
     One song that I personally loved all around was “Cloudbusters.” There was something about the vibe of it that made me want to keep listening. If I were to really examine my own instincts towards “Cloudbusters”, the whole song vocally is catchy for a change. As far as vocal harmonies go, this is definitely the best song especially when it's done in the bridge. It brings the song to a whole other level of a “good mood”. The guitar solo right after is amazing. That’s nothing what I would expect from an indie band.
     For fans of The Strokes, The Replacements, Joy Division, and The Cure, you will not be disappointed.


For more Talking To Walls/buying/downloading

We Were Not So Tall

http://www.talkingtowalls.com/index2.php

http://www.myspace.com/talkingtowalls

http://www.facebook.com/talkingtowalls

ALBUM REVIEW: CRUEL INTENTIONS - An Evening With

An Evening With (Band)

Cruel Intentions (Album)

  

     In the overall scene of music, the power-pop genre has been quite strong and firm in terms of popularity. It’s close to improbable to ignore the catchy hooks, the upbeat guitar riffs, and quirky stage presence. For the local band, An Evening With (Long Island, NY), their album Cruel Intentions proves my point to the previously stated elements of power-pop. There are three songs that are definitely worth analyzing instrumentally, lyrically, and emotionally.
     Speaking of Long Island, one of the songs off of Cruel Intentions is called “Long Island (This is Home)”. This is my favorite song off Cruel Intentions. There are several elements that truly stand out to me. One of them is being how compelling the harmonies are in the chorus. Bands should really get props in scenarios where the backup vocalists have the ability to sing in higher octaves and keep it consistent. Another element that I found appealing to the song is how fast it is compared to some of the other songs which are feasible to tell from because the drum beats are noticeably faster. Out of personal preference, I always favor songs that have a “feel like home” type of vibe because it most likely has a story to it.
     Another song on this album stands out is “Die For You”. The introduction to that song has this very dark atmosphere to it. The way the music comes in after woods gives you the automatic mood of honesty to it. It definitely has elements of emo music in it just by the lyrics alone. It’s quite easy to tell that they wrote “Die For You” with passion.
     The electronica/autotune element for music has gotten popular and persistent in the pop/rock field. Even though it wasn’t much, “Luck and Cruel Intentions” was one of the songs that had the electronica vibe. Even though I’m not the biggest fan of it, I thought it was pulled off well in this case. The first thing that came to mind was “don’t let this be one of those party rock songs to follow the trend”. However; I was pleasantly surprised with how well the song can emote itself through the chorus.
     For fans of Boys Like Girls, Hit The Lights, Jimmy Eat World, and We The Kings, this is something to definitely check out.


To check them out go to
http://www.myspace.com/aneveningwithband

You can check out the album at
http://www.facebook.com/aneveningwith?ref=ts

ALBUM REVIEW: RACCOON MAISY - Pete Sanchez

                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

                    

                 

          PETE SANCHEZ (Band)

                     

Raccoon Maisy (Album)

http://www.petesanchez.com/

             http://www.myspace.com/petesanchez

     Experimental music is nothing short of unpredictable. When there is a group of people with four different influences come together, it’s just like Paula Abdul because “Opposites Attract”. An up and coming band from Long Island, NY, Pete Sanchez has the indirect ability to prove my point with their album release of Raccoon Maisy.

     Raccoon Maisy consists of 10 songs. Out of these 10 songs, I found three songs that I felt are definitely worth to be a topic of discussion for any music junkie. One of the songs that definitely seemed to stick out to me was “Delay”. The first part of that song that really captivated my attention was how funky the intro to that song is. Getting into the lyrics, “Delay” is about how a family would have different perspectives. The message that is getting across is that whether one agrees with another or not, moving forward regardless of belief is what makes a generation strong.
     Another song on that Raccoon Maisy that I truly found amazing was “Braindead”. The message in the song is actually very simple, but the approach how to get the message across is pretty conceptual. Let’s say you’re in a relationship with somebody and they start to get tired of their companion because they put other priorities ahead of their relationship. Some of the lyrics for that song goes A speck in constant motion/Begins to think/Comes up with different notions/That try to bring/Order to chaos/Faith settles in/The science is unnerving/Cast down on stories we’ve been told/But even more disturbing is/Those who claim to know/Without question/How it unfolds. It kind of has that feeling that one has a clue of what is going on, but can’t quite put the finger on what it exactly can be. To me, that is very interesting because that concept of skepticism isn’t used too often.
     The last song that truly needs to be discussed is “Banjo Song”. This song to me is more experimental instrumentally rather than lyrically. The riffs in this song are a field day in the spectrum of catchiness. One element that makes “Banjo Song” arguably the best song off the album is how much emphasis and emotion is put into the song. To combine that aspect with a very grunge like sound brings so much more to the song.
     For fans of The Stone Temple Pilots, Radiohead (earlier work), and Tonic, you will not be disappointed.


To Buy/Download Raccoon Maisy
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/PeteSanchez1
 
http://www.amazon.com/Raccoon-Maisy/dp/B003JTOM3K/
 
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/raccoon-maisy/id369851669