Peer Review: Dinosaur Eyelids, Nowhere Fast

Nowhere fast is a cool track, well recorded and showcasing a band playing with a great sense of economy and balance between members. Their sound coalesces and supports the songwriting. The straightforward arrangement allows for nice warm sounds with dynamic range. Nowhere Fast brings to mind memories of bands like The Replacements and Miracle Legion but has a imprint and character of its own. Fans of those bands should check this song out. It definitely has a great replay value too, it's a pop song that would be way fun to hear at a packed show in a any good club or bar.

By Eleanor
(read their review)

Peer Review: Dead Painters, Nantucket Red

The Dead Painters are are an indie rock band from Brooklyn. Their song "Nantucket Red" off the album 'Bleachers" is definitely catchy and well-written. It reminds me of The Strokes at their best. Their music is refreshingly direct and to the point. Unlike many bands there are no wasted notes here.

"Nantucket Red" is a great example of what indie rock should be. This song would be perfect for college radio. If you like melodic pop rock check this band out.

By Dinosaur Eyelids
(read their review)

Peer Review: Baifan, Running In Slow Motion

The track I reviewed this week was Running In Slow Motion by the Brooklyn rock band, Baifan. It's definitely got a vibe. Sounds like The Strokes mixed with elements of 60s psychedelia. The title definitely suits the song. The guitar drone played over eighth note rhythms gives a nice push and pull effect to the music. The vocalist has a very strong unique rock and roll voice. The guitar solo could be a little stronger and I heard some rhythmic discrepancies from the drums from time to time, but hey it's definitely got a vibe. I would have to see this band live to make my final assessment but I would hope they bring a lot of energy to the stage because that's what this music really calls for.

By Matt David

Peer Review: Bee, Dream Replay

  This is an experiment. I was given a track to review, from a band I'd not heard of, Bee. The track was called "Dream Replay." I was expecting a studio track, but it was a live recording, which is interesting. The stereo mic recording (I'm assuming here) hits me right in my soft spot for bootlegs. The overall impression I get from the tone of the song and laid back barroom atmosphere is one of late summer. The sun just went down , but I've been day drinking, and I wander out onto the porch (this bar has a porch!) to smoke a cigarette and lean on a railing with my beer half-full. I'm staring off into space, over-looking a sleepy little mountain town and just feelin' the breeze and kinda diggin' the band in the background.
     All that being said, I am on the porch smoking and not in front rocking out. The song reaches a pretty nice peak, although the guitarist seems to be against or afraid of using pedals, which is fine. I do find the tone of the guitar to be welcoming and non-confrontational, but it has the potential to go much further, especially considering these guys all seem to be really capable musicians. The trio is really tight, they obviously play together a lot.
     The vocals lack definition because of their bootleggy nature, but they are non-offensive. Pretty standard fare for your average jam band, with lyrics that seem to be about thinking a lot and remembering things, which is what happens when you eat mushrooms and listen to jam bands. This track would be great if I were tripping, probably. It certainly got better after I got high. We all expect less from jam bands in the vocal and lyrical departments, because the musicianship is what shines.
     This song would not hold my attention at a festival, but I don't dislike it. It certainly is a seemingly flawless performance. Honestly Bee sounds like a really good band. They've got a solid start, but certainly a long way to go if they want to contend with the never-ending stream of competition on the jam scene.

By Anonymous

Peer Review: X-Ray Spectre, Supercruiser

My immediate reaction after clicking play on X-Ray Specter’s song Supercruiser was, “Well fuck me, another Black Keys knock off who couldn’t afford a Big Muff.” This thought was then promptly punched out of my mind when the beautifully lo-fi vocals kicked in. Having expected the usual surburban-white-boy-pretending-to-be-Robert-Johnson voice, I was happily surprised to hear the wash of echo and vaguely drunken choir instead. I normally don’t dig the heavily treated vocal style but paired with the fuzzed out guitar lick, it managed to transcend both cliches and became something I couldn’t help but head bop along to.

While I couldn’t tell you what the lyrics were to save my life, (“Take a ride / Put on overdrive / Have some alien fried pie”?) I’m pretty sure it doesn’t matter. If your soul isn’t soothed by the wah solo towards the end than you’re dead inside and don’t deserve to ride on one of the space ATVs in the artwork.

By Zen Anton
(read his review)

Peer Review: Whitewash, Colors // In Absentia

"You'll Be Fine"

If you don't mind leaning back and taking in sun drenched vibes, summer evenings, nights on the beach- then you won't mind leaning back and listening to this track from Whitewash.

Colors//In Absentia, off of “Fraud in Lisbon" is that escape to that washed away feeling of spring, summer, early fall- a wash of the million creepy colors you see in the sky at night will make you feel fine. It’s a mindless warm, distorted, messy fuzzy feeling that everyone feels- it’s what everyone want.
Whitewash combines a balance between hazy fuzz, C-86 jangle-pop, and sluggish psychedelia, and the reality is that each track ends up just a trading one style for the other. With Colors // In Absentia they nail it, and nail working against and with/ each other to get to that next level.
Biggest drawback is the extended freewheeling long jam ending. We’re done. After another minute after the final chorus I would be back at the bar getting another drink, waiting for the next song.

By Anonymous

Peer Review: Tom Barrett, Home Is Where We Hide

Sometimes a track may not stick with you unless you listen to it at the right time of the day, you're in the right mindset, or you're under the proper dosage of Kentucky medicine. Well I write this review now, waking up for work at 4 am. I felt compelled to write it now because when I listened to Tom Barrett's "Home Is Where We Hide," I was floored. It was the right mixture of rhythm and melody to get me going for the day. Barrett's voice is raspy and robust like a cup of coffee. I'd call it breakfast blues. I'm coining that phrase, so don't steal it.

"Home Is Where We Hide" is steady like a freight train. The song is from his new LP, "All is Right," which I will continue to listen to today. Barrett has a raspy open vocal like that of Jay Bennett from Wilco or Ben Kweller. It's right up my alley. The guitar and piano work drives me right back home to the swamps of New Jersey. Stellar work.

By Dan McLane                              

(guitarist/vocalist for the Harmonica Lewinskies)
(read their review)

Peer Review: The Pebble That Saved The World, Joey's Song

I enjoyed this song. It starts off with some mumbling about train sounds before breaking into a groove reminiscent of early Modest Mouse, or maybe even the general sound of Pacific Northwestern basements circa 1997. At least this is how I think they must have sounded back then. There's a tried-and-true dynamic shift halfway through. Soft, lispy vocals about a boy who can't finish anything become harsh growls. Muffled guitars and slight percussion give way to heavy strums, windy bass-playing and a crude backbeat. It's all crudely played and crudely recorded which seems to be the thing these days, but that's okay. It reminds me of the glory days of Up and K Records when everything sounded like it came so easy, but behind the simplicity, there was some genius to the tunes themselves. I'm not sure if that exists here, but fuck it. I can almost smell the cheap beer and feel the low ceiling above my head. That's what counts, right?

By Anonymous

Peer Review: Silver Dollar Switchblade, One More Round

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Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band released “Turn the Page” for the first time in 1973.  Since then it’s become the standard-bearer for tour spiels, the quintessential stand in for world-weary, tour-sick musicians everywhere.  Full disclosure, though:  I’ve never cared for “Turn the Page”, and I find the premise of songs like it to be irritatingly whiny.  Make of this information what you will, but I mention it because it means a track like “One More Round” by Silver Dollar Switchblade has an uphill slog with me.

“One More Round” is a dramatic song that tells the same well-worn story of the jaded musician, pouring his or her heart out on the stage night after night, year after year.  The band attacks the song with aplomb, and a particularly earnest vocal, but unless you’re the fucking Rolling Stones, I don’t really want to hear you complain about life on the road.  There’s no reason a band like Silver Dollar Switchblade should be writing and performing music unless they enjoy it, and hearing a tortured artist screed from them wears particularly thin.

I don’t want to be overly negative about “One More Round”—it’s a good enough tune, and I appreciate anyone writing songs that tell a solid story and are about something.  Compositionally the track is tight, with a well-crafted edge to it, and the lyrics are literate and concise.  There are definite hints of influences, Old 97s and the Supersuckers’ country albums come immediately to mind.  The recording is dark in tone, and the break in the middle seems like it would work very well live.

I’ve listened to other music by Silver Dollar Switchblade and have been warmer to it, especially when they careen toward their hardcore as opposed to country leanings.  But for me this track is best forgotten.

By Anonymous

Peer Review: Shark Week, Why Did I Let You Go?

Any band dubbed "east-coast surf" elicits an eyebrow raise and a "convince me" attitude from this Southern Californian. No exceptions for Washington D.C.-ers Shark Week, which I approached with weariness, considering the band's Discovery Channel-appropriated name. But their debut record, "Beach Fuzz" is, title-forward, cute as fuck.


"Why Did I Let You Go?" has a summer, ocean vibe. Rippling guitars splash like waves of heat and UV off a reflector, drums at a steady, strolling-in-sandals tempo, lyrics seemingly from a lengthy conversation in sunglasses over many cool beverages garnished with limes.


The beach aesthetic is consistent, and supported by good musicianship and production values, but I don't feel gripped by it. Feeling “gripped" isn’t the essence of summer music. Feeling “chill," feeling “relaxed," or, close cousin, feeling “bored" may be.

What salvages Shark Week from sunburning out is the "east-coast" part of this "east-coast surf" band. When they get less O.C. and more D.C., especially the vocals. A combo of David Johansen at his most Iggy, Lou Reed at his most Chuck Berry, and Ian Mackaye at his most Fugazi, the voice swoops into clarity on the bridge, falling into the second half of "I don't care about it" with a wailing, pained "like you do" that repeats alongside a haunting "do" echoed in the backup vocals, leaving us thinking perhaps he does care.

And, considering how I keep coming back to hear that pre-chorus, maybe I care too.

I'm curious how the rest of "Beach Fuzz" will balance this push and pull: sunshine and clouds, beers and tears. I promise not to scoff it off, regardless of any issues I take with nomenclature or attempts to appropriate the surf culture from its rightful owners out west.

By Shit Show
(read their review)

Peer Review: Richard Album, Quiet

Chicago based Richard Album’s Bandcamp page opens up to kitschy 60’s album cover images of a pop star gamine. The track – “Quiet” offers a man-boy smirking, offering us a birthday cake. Richard Album (Shelby Turner) looks like Pee-Wee Herman and Andrew Bird’s love child. He’s in on the tongue in cheek pastel joke and the song lovingly follows suit. Offering deadpan yet cheerful lyrics that talk about not taking someone for granted thus not yourself too seriously. At first listen the mood feels like a Shins type breezy vibe, though Richard’s voice is much different than James Mercer. The ironic phrasing and lyrics offer introspection, whilst letting the air into your apartment windows during the first days of summer. The song starts off hooking you in with a growling bass and a charming syncopated guitar line.  Richard confronts us in rhyme with some really whimsical delayed yells –“and the stars are just really big giants.” Imploring us to change our way of communicating– with the mantra “quiet, quiet...” which sounds like “choir” maybe on purpose as a double entendre. The assonance translates cheerfully and is well crafted.  The recording quality is lo-fi fittingly to the style- all reverby vocals and live band takes. The rest of the album are equally endearingly poppy, hooky and sometimes groovy – sharing the theme of that sense of humor. I wouldn’t be surprised if Richard Album’s next effort will sound more like a Modern Lovers album or Taking Heads or Bryan Ferry. I want to keep listening if those at least are some of his influences.

By The Meaning of Life
(read their review)

Peer Review: Moon Crashers, Finally

http://www.mooncrashers.com/

Moon Crasher’s track Finally is some folk/alt-country poppy-ness. Acoustic guitar, plucked and bowed cello, an expressed sense of belonging and love after some unspecified amount of searching. Lauren Levy’s vocals really find that lazy-happy feeling one gets when they can finally put their cares down, their feet up, and their arm around their lover, preferably by a campfire. An electric guitar lead that runs through the song is just off enough to keep it from being 100% by-the-numbers, but its definitely not breaking any new ground sonically, melodically, harmonically, or lyrically. It’s also not trying to do any of those things, so the easily bored should just shut up and move on already. For everyone else, enjoy a summer jam that would be perfect on a rooftop at sunset with cheap beer and nothing to get hung about.

By Brian Goodheart of Lost Gloves
(read their review)

Peer Review: Jim Testa, 3rd Class Male

3rd Class Male is a delightful romp in rock and roll's original format that deals with 2 experiences in life almost as inevitable as death and taxes: not getting the reciprocal love you so desire and the woes of the USPS. Right from the songs opening strum you know what you're in for: not too many surprises musically but some well executed lyrics covering all aspects of essential post office terminology "you won't treat me like a priority, you ship me just like parcel post". The call and response chorus would no doubt be fun to sing back during a live performance. It exudes the pure joy of coming up with a clever idea for a song, sitting down, writing it, and being happy with it. However, I will add a disclaimer regarding the last verse: it gets a little racy.

By Kerbivore
(read their review)

Peer Review: David Pollack, Under The Covers

If songwriting can be an experience for the author to cultivate self reflection, to make positive insights and articulate complicated feelings about love, relationships, society, the environment, cats and dogs...you name it; it can also be a vehicle for admitting one's lesser qualities. Usually this falls under the more noble topics of longing, jealousy, or anger, and less often delves into the uglier "I'm sometimes a shitty person and I'm really not proud of these things I'm about to tell you" territory.

In "Under the Covers" David Pollack eats the ice cream and sleeps in too late, things we all harmlessly do, but he also mentions fear, detachment, and more troubling faults that he isn't willing to divulge. The phrase "Under the Covers" is repeated at every turn of the song; yet it doesn't twist or turn Pollack's insights rather than obscure them. The best songs that use metaphors craft their own, and "Under the Covers" isn't necessarily the most inventive.

Pollack's warm laid-back voice, solid melodies, and streaming chord sequences are mirrored by the cozy production and flowing instrumentation that is reminiscent of Sea Change era Beck or Tom Wait's Closing Time ballads (both had a knack for balancing the strange and the pedestrian). Pollack's next tune could potentially drift into the odder spaces that "Under the Covers" hints at (either through lyrics or instrumentation or both) while simultaneously existing in the pleasant folk-country.

by Dead Painters
(read their review)

Peer Review: Eleanor, Growing Over With Grass

Growing Over With Grass has a chunky disjointed charm that is familiar, but I just can’t put my finger on it. There’s a definite Guided By Voices feel to the track, albeit with an extra helping of chaos. This track feels like a lo-fi indie pop/noise pop number with a heavy British invasion influence (you can even detect a slight British accent at times, which has been known to affect Americans of the GBV persuasion). I really dig this song though, there’s a lot of weirdness going on in the background. I’m not sure if it’s a result of the recording technique, the actual composition, or a side product of a hastily composed song, but either way it definitely adds to the charm. Check out more tracks by Eleanor. If you dig this one, you won’t be disappointed.

By Anonymous

Peer Review: Hot Rash, Blake Superior

This Minnesotan band successfully combines 90’s girl punk a la Sleater-Kinney or Veruca Salt with a dry, midwestern garage rock sound on “Blake Superior.” This opens with a guitar lick that sounds like Bob Stinson (another famous Minnesotan) covering Chuck Berry before settling into a punk groove. In fact, the manic energy doesn’t stop, the guitars take sharp twists and turns like a drag race, punctuating a great pop song that never runs out of riff or hook. The production is simple as punk rock should be, not polished much more than early Bikini Kill or Bratmobile. Plus this band has the best name ever.

By Anonymous

Peer Review: Tatters & Rags, Heartache

Led in by a snare roll that would sound at home in one of The Pogues’ irish drinking rave-ups, “Heartache” is a catchy, twangy locomotive of a pop tune straight out of Brooklyn. The first verse is sung by a rough voiced male singer, and the second verse is picked up by a female singer, with a lovely country harmony thing going on. Fiddles and accordion give what is basically a pop song a rootsy but also punk feel, not unlike some of the mid period work of The Mekons or Elvis Costello’s more Americana-influenced records. Most notable is the drumming which swings and then picks up that snare roll for the chorus in an excellent way. As the band name suggests, this is a tune that I’d love to hear drinking whiskey in a shitty dive bar.

By Anonymous

Peer Review: eush, A Point At Best

Recorded half in Sydney, Australia and the other half in NYC, “A Point At Best” is an experimental and dreamy five minutes of song, complete with a weird boing-y sound that could be a jaw harp or a synthesizer of all I know. For all it’s “heady” intentions, it attempts Radiohead or Wilco but ends up sounding more like early 00s pop like Coldplay or David Gray. The lyrics are simple and few and the song is led with a dark arpeggiated guitar and a four on the floor bass drum until a tambourine makes it entrance gingerly. It later devolves into synthy nonsense. While not an absolute piece of shit, this is kind of what happens when you try and follow “indie” or “alternative” influences into to a completely uninspired wall.

By Anoymous

Peer Review: Half Moon, Pissed Off and Dead

“I’d rather be alive than pissed off and dead” seems like a statement that’s either obvious or quizzical (can you be pissed off while you’re dead?) but makes for a truly fun repeated chorus. The song ambles in with a macabre sounding series of hits before settling into a tight post punk groove a la The Feelies or Television, a dark, minor key dirge. It hits the chorus hard, half sung half screamed in way that alternately evokes early Modest Mouse and Richard Hell. This punky band brings a promising take on early New York punk without getting too corny, there is obviously good taste happening here and I’d certainly rather listen to this than be pissed off and/or dead.

By Anonymous

Peer Review: Zen Anton, Resemblance

New York’s Zen Anton promises on his bandcamp that you’ll find no “whiny white boys playing open c chords” on his record. Instead what’s present is spare and stark acoustic blues yarling, featuring some adept pretty jazz chords and a sincere vocal sound resembling a male Tracy Chapman, a more soulful Anthony Kiedis or a butcher Dave Matthews. With the immediate sound of a bedroom record, this song starts as a slinky, slow minor key ballad, with lyrics possibly about Anton’s father, to whom he bears “resemblance” and in the middle picks up and gets actually funky with some choppy chords while the vocal nearly cracks before slowing back to it’s original tempo for it’s conclusion.

By Anonymous