Victor Wainwright and The Wildroots - Lit Up!

We headed up I-5 on the way to a four-day three-night fishing/camping trip at McArthur-Burney Memorial State Park.  It is a four and one-half hour zombie drive at 70 to 80 mph through commercial crop fields and speed traps on a two lane strip of tarmac festooned with construction, slow moving 18-wheelers and overweight RV’s.  Our little Subaru was stuffed to the roof with gear. We were left with just two seats.  There was no rear view through the rearview mirror.  I deemed it a perfect opportunity to listen to the dozen or two new releases that had been sent to me in the hopes of a review.

As we eased up I-505 toward our first bathroom stop at Granzella’s in Williams I popped in and pulled out of the dash player one mundane or truly awful release after another until I got to Victor Wainwright and The Wildroots’ fourteen track CD aptly named Lit Up!  The first track,”Big Dog’s Runnin’ This Town” played to one of my guilty pleasures - Jump Blues.  Not only is it Jump Blues, it is some of the best new Jump Blues in recent memory.  I salivated over the prospect of the next thirteen tracks.

I wasn’t disappointed.  Wainwright is the lead vocalist and plays an acoustic piano.  He co-wrote seven of the tracks on the CD with producer, arranger, acoustic guitar player, bass player and percussionist Stephen Dees.  Dees also provided five of his own originals including ”Big Dog’s Runnin’ This Town.”  Wainwright teamed up with electric and resonator guitarist Greg Gumpel to write “Coin Operated Woman.” Wainwright and Dees shared writing honors with blues player the Reverend Billy “C.J.” Wirtz on “Honky Tonk Heaven,” a song dedicated to Jesse Wainwright, Victor’s boogie piano player grandfather.  Weston Bradigan helped Wainwright pen the final track “Let It Be the Same.”

This is not a Jump Blues album.  The band has mastered all types of blues.  The songs run from Delta Blues to Country Blues to Gospel to New Orleans tinged Cajun to electric Chicago Blues to West Coast Blues to Modern Blues and everything in between. The band is rounded out by Patricia Ann Dees on tenor saxophone and backing vocals, Billy Dean on drums and Ray Guiser on tenor saxophone and clarinet.  The album is stacked with guest musicians - tenor and baritone saxophone, saxcello and clairnet player Charlie DeChant; mouth harpist Mark “Muddyharp” Hodgson; Hammond B3 organist Chris Stephenson; trombonist Bob Dionne; trumpet player Ken Titmus; and “The Little Pigs” identified as Chickie Baby, Cat Daddy, Six String, AreBe and Hounddog Man, as backing vocalists on ”Big Dog’s Runnin’ This Town.”  Time merrily flew by and I found myself drumming on the steering wheel, seat, armrest and dashboard.

Before I knew it we were at Granzella’s.  We went inside, used the facilities, sampled the olives, and got back in the car.  I looked down at my feet where there were still almost a dozen discs that I had not yet heard and about three more hours in the car.  I hesitated.  Then, I popped Lit Up! back in for a second time.  I let it run for almost an hour and a half all the way to Red Bluff.  Why go with something else when you’ve got something this good?

- Old School

GARY MOORE LIVE AT MONTREUX 2010

GARY MOORE LIVE AT MONTREUX 2010

*FEATURING THREE BRAND NEW SONGS*

~ON CD, DVD, AND BLU-RAY SEPTEMBER 20~

Eagle Rock Entertainment will release, on September 20, the very last live performance in the life of acclaimed guitarist/singer/songwriter Gary Moore. Live At Montreux 2010 strikingly shows a major return-to-rock for the musician who spent years exploring the blues. In fact, in the last days of his life, Moore, who died on February 6 of this year, was working on a new rock album.

What makes this release so compelling is the inclusion of three never-before-released gems, “Days Of Heroes,” “Where Are You Now” and “Oh Wild One,” that he previewed for the Montreux audience and had fully intended to put on the album he was writing and recording at the time. The rest of the set is heavy on the 1980s rock he pioneered solo, as well as his late 60s/70s work with Phil Lynott in Thin Lizzy and Skid Row. And, of course, some blues.

Gary Moore was born in 1952 Belfast, Ireland. Heavily influenced by Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green, he joined Skid Row (not to be confused with the American band of the same name) as a teenaged phenomenon in 1969 for three albums before going solo, joining Thin Lizzy, and going solo again. His hit single “Parisienne Walkways” catapulted him into the hearts and minds of discerning music lovers around the globe and subsequent forays into Celtic (Wild Frontier, 1987) and blues (Still Got The Blues, 1990) preceded an album with Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce (BBM, 1994).  Much more blues would follow, most notably Power Of The Blues in 2004. Through it all, he maintained the highest level of musicianship and became revered for his constant searching and the redefining of his own artistry.

Track Listing:

CD:

1) Over The Hills And Far Away

2) Military Man

3) Days Of Heroes

4) Where Are You Now?

5) So Far Away/Empty Rooms

6) Oh Wild One

7) Blood Of Emeralds

8) Out In The Fields

9) Walking By Myself

10) Johnny Boy

11) Parisienne Walkways

DVD/Blu-ray:

1) Over The Hills And Far Away

2) Thunder Rising

3) Military Man

4) Days Of Heroes

5) Where Are You Now?

6) So Far Away/Empty Rooms

7) Oh Wild One

8) Blood Of Emeralds

9) Out In The Fields

10) Still Got The Blues

11) Walking By Myself

12) Johnny Boy

13) Parisienne Walkways

Video: Gary Moore ‘Where Are They Now’

Entrails - The Tomb Awaits

Let me set the scene for you – As of today you’ll be locked inside of a house that is littered with human remains, dust and chemicals that could burn through your skin like acid. As you awaken from your slumber and look around, you begin to realize that you’re not in Kansas anymore. Where could you be and why would anyone place you in a room with all of these horrible things?

As you ponder on what you did last, at least from what you could remember, you begin to question your own brain. Was your brain actually playing pranks on you or were you just going bat shit crazy? Looking under the very thin crack under the door, trying to hear or see anything to help you understand where you might be, you begin to hear a conversation. Within that conversation between two males, you learn that the place you’ve held is just a holding cell and your real tomb awaits you.

So, as you may have already figured out, this is hell. Today, we’re covering Entrails’ new record that is set to release September 9th titled “The Tomb Awaits”. From the little intro that you just read, I hope you prepared for disgusting war, the smell of body parts being eating my creatures and unholy madness to the maximum level because that’s exactly what Entrails’ gives you on the new record. “The Tomb Awaits” is a twelve track follow up from their 2010 record “Tales From The Morgue”. I’ll say this, if any of you actually listened to “Tales From The Morgue”, you might want to armor up and place every ounce of metal you have in your house on you because “The Tomb Awaits” is a step up, plus more.

Corruption, damnation, fun loving thrills of being mangled to death by throbbing bass lines and groovy riffs, it’s all here on “The Tomb Awaits”. The different endings are completely up in the air while you listen to this record. On one end, you could be praising a false priest that believes in nothing except revenge or you could be dangling high above a million humans waiting to humiliate you and rip you apart as if you were a lamb at a slaughter.

So, final verdict? Entrails’ “The Tomb Awaits” may not be the missing piece that we’ve missed in death metal but it is a very much appreciated record, in my opinion. Although it may not hit you head on, this record will smack you pretty hard in the end and if it doesn’t, a doctor might want to called because you are far from human.

--Nickoli

Heartsounds – Drifter

 



Dear Heartsounds,


My name is Bobby but my Ripple Effect readers call me "Cicatriz". I am writing this letter to let you know how super fucking stoked I am on your new album Drifter. It is an amazing sophomore album. Who new that members of my former favorite melodic death-metallers Light This City could pull off pop punk so well. I remember those days of seeing Laura Nihol just straight ripping it up on stage as one of the best female singers in the metal scene. Normally this is where I would express how much I love Laura and would tell her I want to have her babies but I'm not gonna do that....oh wait, fuck I just did. Oh, well....love you Laura, if you ever want nicely tanned children let me know. Haha, I kid I kid...well maybe. Anywho! Light This City was always my favorite bands to see live, I never missed a show. It was always a good time seeing you live and fun hanging out after the shows. Heartsounds is definitely a fun band and I am glad you are playing something you love. I would also like to mention how awesome it is to see the almost seamless transition of Ben Murray, moving from fast as fuck drums in Light This City to being a just as awesome singer/guitar player. Trully Ben, you are probably one of the best punk singers I have heard in a while. Keep it up! I also just want to say "thank you". Thank you for making punk rock fun again. I can't wait to see you live and sing along with all the catchy tunes.


With Love,

Bobby "Cicatriz" Gomez



So Waiveriders, in case you couldn't tell; I fucking adore Heartsounds. When I first heard of the demise of Light This City my heart broke. Not from just the thought of never seeing the extremely beautiful Laura Nichol agian but from never seeing these awesome musicians play again. Hands down Heartsounds are my favorite pop punk band. They remind me of throw back to those great 90's punk bands. Heartsounds is pure gold. Well enough with the Heartsounds worship, let's get down to some of the music.


Drifter begins with the track, "Every Second Counts". Man the lyrics are just straight catchy. Easily this is one of my favorites. It's got an extremely catchy beat and like I said before the lyrics are really catchy and just make you want to sing along. Like all Heartsounds songs both Laura and Ben sing. Their voice work great together.

"Do you know what it's like to die?
Well I know what it's like
To be chewed up and spit out of this
Pathetic cycle of life in tow records' time.
So watch me get back up
And brush off the decay, the dirt and dust
Only to fall back through
Straight to hell I swore I'd never return to."



"I Have Nobody To Betray" is another one of my faves. This song begins with and almost metal like riff that is played throughout the entire song. It really shows off Laura's vocal ability as it is mostly just her singing on the track. As expected, catchy lyrics and a nice upbeat mid tempo breakdown makes this a winner.

"You are dead to me and I don't wanna wait
For your ghost to be resurrected.
I never have and I never will believe.
Faith and miracles became invisible and I'm done waiting."


The last track I want to touch on is, "Elements". This one features mostly just Ben on vocals. If you want to hear what a good pop punk song is, check this one out.

"I'll keep sending messages into the abyss.
Hoping for some kind of response but nothing will come of it.
How does one feel a seam of hope when the storm is yet to come,
Or believe the earth will bring them life when they're always losing someone."


Whether you like pop punk or not, most people are going to find something about Heartsounds that they like. For all you metallers who loved Light This City but think you'll dislke Heartsounds because they are a pop punk band, give them a chance. "Variety is the spice of life.", keep your ears open to new stuff, you never know what you might like. Oh, and if you get a chance to see them live, do it! You will not be disappointed.

Heartsounds goes good with: Light This City, Bad Religion, Alkaline Trio, Bayside, Set Your Goals, A Day To Remember, Chixdiggit, Madcap, MXPX, Weezer, Sparta

Buy this album and all your other Heartsounds merch here: http://www.kingsroadmerch.com/epitaph-records/artist/?id=190

-Cicatriz

Banquets- Top Button, Bottom Shelf

To be honest, I have been sitting on this album for quite some time now. They have been frequenting my playlist but I just haven't written them up. I say this because with many Ripple submissions, I listen to the album four or five times then they get forgotten about until I am looking for something else to listen to. Banquets have been rolling around my eardrums for a few weeks now.

Top Button, Bottom Shelf is a really strong album produced by a really strong band. The music is “punk” and flows and operates wonderfully. I don't need to say that the vocals “match” the music (although they do), because they themselves are independent and work. The lyrics are punk, they have that “f- you” thing going on.

It starts with a short opening song, “377” which introduces you to the sounds that the album are going to contain. It has a long introduction, and ends suddenly but the middle part is where the magic happens with fancy guitar work (better is to come!) and kick arse lyrics.

“I've burned so many bridges,
I can barely count
Moving forward with a liars mouth,
I am getting back what's due to me.”

“Just Me And My Canesco Rookie Card” is the first true sign that you could air-instrument to this on a slow morning. Parts of the song have breaks in vocals specially designed to have heavy guitar-drum work in there. Fun.

Skipping over a few songs, to talk about “Fireplug.” Fancy guitar work... Check. Heavy Drums... Check. “F you” lyrics... Really check. They actually say the phrase within the song. You can be pretty sure that
“Last chance at dying young,
Of lost love never enough
Stay cold and cast your stones...”

I actually think what makes me stick around for the album so many times are the final three songs.

“Unforgiven V” is loved purely for the heavy reliance on the guitar and those kick arse riffs that I love. It builds the song so well and makes it so nice to listen to.

On the other end of the spectrum is the next song, “Sometimes A Wolf” which I listen to for a move lyric based reason, although the music is still amazing with beautiful (the pop punk version of beautiful) riffs.
“First time we crossed that line,
Held my breath because we collided
Now we are living on the other side
There's nothing here”

Tying off Top Button, Bottom Shelf is “Lips to the Ground.” I, personally, feel that they just sum up the entire album right there. It has strong riffs, drums that make even the most un-rhythmic people want to air drum and the vocals.
“while I piss away everything
that made me love, made me laugh, made me hope
All this time I've been here waiting,
Take me all the way”

I really do feel that Banquets are just utterly awesome. They write the perfect hooks, perfect lyrics, perfect songs. Top Button, Bottom Shelf is a strong debut that has left me waiting for their next release very eagerly.

 --Koala

Horn's microreviews for waveriders, part deux; featuring Cauldron, Lair of the Minotaur, Northless, Graviton, and Indian

Greetings and Salutations! Horn here, with a few more wee lil' reviews for you to scan. Please do enjoy!

Cauldron- Burning Fortune:

A cruder, lumbering, crusty, heavier Dokken-- whoever writes the riffs loves that fifth-chord-to-flatted-sixth thing that George Lynch does in every other Dokken song (see: "In My Dreams," "Alone Again," and "Breaking the Chains")-- I didn't realize that this single type of riff could nearly instantly take me back to watching VHS tapes of Headbanger's Ball in 1987. Track "Rapid City" is Dokken + Motörhead....

Overall, Cauldron are Dokken with worse solos and better riffs; the vocals are about the same. [Note: a track from Cauldron's previous album, "The Striker Strikes," is the number 1 dumbest song of last year as well as the most fun.]

Lair of the Minotaur- The Ultimate Destroyer and Evil Power

I know well the line straddling parody and... whatever else there is. This has gone over it. Not that it's bad, but Evil Power is pretty much Dethklok. The Ultimate Destroyer, on the other hand, is awesome in its sheer disregard for reality.


Northless - Clandestine Abuse

The best Crowbar disciple (or cenobite?  hierophant?); they've got an obvious sense of dynamics, while also maintaining the sonic equivalence to an enduring major depressive episode.


Graviton - Massless

When listening to new tunes randomly (to reduce bias), before I could remember their name, Graviton was "that subatomic-particle band." Seriously. Each song is named for one-- a subatomic particle that is-- and is a strange yet soothing combo of ambient, Swans-like, Alice in Chains-y, progressive noise. Like most innovative music, I didn't like it at all at first, but it kept attracting me, and made me get my head around it, rather than it molding to what I wanted to hear.

It's the band for you if you've ever thought, "I love Intronaut, but they're just not weird enough for me."

"Anti-Mesons" sounds like Paul Oakenfold or DJ Tiësto, with a chorus like one of the chants from The Thin Red Line, and "Fermion" is distinctly Sonic Youth-y. Sludge finally meets up with indie rock. Overall, Massless is the best kind of music-- unclassifiable, with a genre palate so wide you may as well not bother classifying it.

Indian - Guiltless

"Benality" in particular-- if Horseback is sludge on a black metal steed, then Indian (what a dumb name, though) is that same steed having his legs blown out from under him via cannon fire, and hurtling downhill, to fall to earth among the also-dead (but what a cool sound).

With the influx of sludgy bands, particularly on Relapse records (I still like Howl and Salome the best), it seems like bands are trying to out-heavy each other by slowing speed to a point where it's nearly without time or meter all together (like Death metal kept trying to out-Satan, out-speed and out-gore each other)-- and this to such an extent that the slowest/ most without meter, like Indian or Unearthly Trance, can end up sounding like the last five minutes of live songs that your favorite bands end their encore with--

You know, that last chord, usually open, just keeps being hit-- "BONG! spacespacespace "BONG!" spacespacespacespace "BONGBONG... BONGBONGBONGBONG!!"  Guiltless sounds like that. Not that that's not cool sometimes, it is.
I just keep wondering how they'll encore.

Indian are anti-sludge/ anti-blackened sludge: not in that they don't have "sludge" characteristics, but that they retain them while eschewing MUSICAL characteristics: a floating tempo --once charitably called "rubato," like Unearthly Trance-- and seemingly (unintentionally) serialist riffs, in that they seemingly have no home key-- they're not hummable at all, and it's like they're daring you to keep up with them: they're so random as to seem intentionally so: or, as The Silence of the Lambs put it: "Like the elaborations of a bad liar."

--Horn

The Soda Shop Com. Volume 2

Who says you can't get something for nothing? Or nothing in life is free? Not me. Not when it comes to my collection of new stoner rock. I can thank The Soda Shop for that.

The Soda Shop is notorious for feeding free tunes to the masses. I eagerly snatched up their first digital compilation earlier this year and less than 6 months later, Soda Shop Records release The Soda Shop Comp. Volume 2. Jake Ball and Bill Goodman feature 12 promising new rock bands together in another awesome medley that quenches all my thirst for riffs. I sure could get used to this.

Don't know about The Soda Shop? Really?! I find that hard to believe but here's what they say on The Soda Shop website:

"The Soda Shop is an Internet radio station and music blog...we are being run by Jake Ball and Bill Goodman and have never been better. The Soda Shop is geared towards Stoner Rock/Metal and Doom Metal, but will play anything that rocks. The ultimate goal of the station is to focus heavily on independent bands to give them the exposure that they deserve. The Soda Shop was created out of the love for music and the desire to give underrated bands their due..."

Ball and Goodman sure know their rock/metal music and are doing one hell of a job if you ask me. I'm sure you would agree. Just listen to The Soda Shop Comp. Volume 2. Some of my favorite new bands are on this compilation and I even discovered a couple new apples-of-my-eye who I'd never heard before. That's always a bonus.

I've told you how much I love Spiderlord. A stinging new single, "Ungrounded", leads off The Soda Shop Comp. Volume 2. If you liked their self-titled debut ep, you won't be disappointed. And my 2011 front-runners Borracho end the album with the stoner rock monster, "Plunge/Return", off their debut, Splitting Sky. You get over 20 minutes of incredible free music with those 2 songs alone. Sprinkle in more of my top-pick bands of the year and you'll understand why I'm so delighted right now. Valley of the Sun get rowdy with "Deep Light Burns", off Saying of the Seers. Desert Storm crush it on "Cosmic Drips", from their recent release Forked Tongues, and fuzz-masters Naughty Mouse offer a taste of their self-titled ep on "The Eternal Dead of My Soul".

I wasn't too familiar with about half of the rock groups presented on The Soda Shop Comp. Volume 2. I might have heard of the bands or read about them on other sites, but i had never really listened to them. Two made a really strong impression and one of those flat-out amazed me. I boogie down as Switchblade Jesus feeds my addiction for southern-style riffs on "Negative Planet 11", but Odyssey 9 send me into another dimension with their psychedelic song, "Glow". I'll be finding out more about these guys. You betcha.

Bacchus Baracus also have a little impact on me with their groovy effort, "Rock N' Roll Man". And so do Domes of Silence, who punk it out on "Temple of the Wasp". Threefold Law display staggering guitars and an old-school rock/metal feel with their song called "Earth". I got into Elvis Deluxe's version of "Fire" (Loverboy), too.

Wanna know another thing I love about this free digital compilation? The cover. You ever just looked at the artwork and knew the album was gonna be great? 'Nuff said.

You can download The Soda Shop Comp. Volume 2 and it's predecessor at The Soda Shop's Bandcamp page. I've also included a link to Facebook. Like The Soda Shop's page along with me and you'll be updated regularly on the latest new stoner rock/metal releases from the unknown. They also have free download archives on their web page. Check it out. It's priceless.

I'd like to personally thank The Soda Shop. First, for another excellent free compilation. Second, for just being there.

I think it was sometime last year when I typed 'new stoner rock' into the search bar, pressed 'enter', and clicked a link to The Soda Shop. I bookmarked the page that day and I've been going back faithfully ever since - reading about and listening to great new bands, and learning about other sites devoted to my ideal style of music. It's been a vital resource for me and my Ipod.

Again, THANK YOU to Jake Ball and Bill Goodman at The Soda Shop. Thank you so much. You've given me fresh tunes from unique independent rock bands but you've also impacted my life. If it weren't for you guys, I wouldn't be writing about music today. Period.

Heddbuzz


http://thesodashop.bandcamp.com/album/the-soda-shop-comp-volume-2
http://thesodashop.bandcamp.com/
http://thesodashop.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/sodashopradio