"As for an authentic villain, the real thing, the absolute, the artist, one rarely meets him even once in a lifetime..." ~Sidonie Gabrielle Colette Catalyzed by a cocktail of American powerhouse alternative, Trans-Atlantic hard rock and deep, dirty groove, Black Hat Villain has done the impossible and captured lightning in a bottle.Summoning the authenticity and unapologetic honesty of vintage rock & roll, the five fingers of BHV curl into a fist that packs one unforgettable punch: The freight train ferocity of Tim Sweeting on drums and Ian Chisholm on bass, the double-barrel guitar onslaught of Abe Cox and Sam Edmundson, the snarling, soaring vocal...
The area in which music moves Maurizio Grondona, singer, guitarist and composer, now in its eighth album, is that of smooth-jazz, musical language with which it describes with elegance and warm atmosphere of jazzy flavor and fragments of urban reality. He has significant experience in public, having participated in national jazz festivals, including Jazz & D’intorni 1987, Vieste Jazz 1988 Festival Golden Lion of Venice, and the SIM in Milan. Among the reviews and publi...
By name, American Revival is something everyone can relate to. By sound and lyrics, most all will also appreciate. The band began in the Fall of 2010. It didn't take long for the songs to come and the band recorded an album that is available on iTunes and most other online retailers. It's called, The Worst is Over Now. Take lead singer, Thomas Pendarvis, an Arkansas-back-woods-boy and put him in Uptown Minneapolis where alternative music thrives... and what do you get? Alternative Rootsy Rock or maybe, just maybe a new genre...call it....Punk Country? The sound is very unique, but yet comfortable. Shows are very high energy. Lyrics are catchy. ...
High Voltage is a young rock n’ roll band from the great city of Missoula. Like their name implies, they have an electric combination of soaring vocals (Amanda Champion), raunchy guitar (Josh Rhines), rumbling bass (Nick Hawthorne), spacey synth (Garret Seesing), soothing saxophone (Adam Goodover) and thunderous drums (Collin Scott). Combining elements of classic rock, blues, alternative, funk and metal, the band hopes to offer something fresh and interesting. Currently, High Voltage is writing and rehearsing the songs on their debut album “Mind, Body & Soul”, due to be recorded and released the first half of 2011. Along with writing their album, they are playing out as much as p...
"I think musical ideas are almost alive in a way," says Alex Tween, keyboardist and lead singer of The Forms, the New York-based duo. "Some of them, especially the good ones, will simply not go away until they have been sufficiently expressed. They haunt you like ghosts and refuse to leave you alone until they've been fulfilled." On Derealization, their new EP, The Forms have taken some of the most compelling ideas from their previous releases and completely recreated them, enlisting the help of some of their favorite musicians, from The National's Matt Berninger to Shudder To Think's Craig Wedren. The result is an astonishingly original new sound."It started as an accident," explains...
As the old saying goes, one should never judge a book by its cover. That is definitely true in the case of up and coming rapper/producer Erk Tha Jerk. Hailing out of California’s Bay Area, Erk does not look the part of hip-hop star but one listen to his music proves otherwise. Debunking the stereotype of what a West Coast rapper should be is what ...
While everyone else merges and follows the traffic jam on that nicely paved 4-lane highway to the right, you'll always have those few who prefer to follow that narrow, unpaved road to The Left, curious to see where it leads. In this case, The Left leads you straight to Detroit. The Left began as a simple phone conversation between two artists displaying mutual respect for each other's craft. Detroit staples Apollo Brown (Producer) and Journalist 103 (Emcee) turned the prospect of a couple random songs into an album considered by many tastemakers to be the best underground hip hop LP of 2010. Shortly after starting the album in early 2009, the duo brought in DJ Soko to provide cuts for the album and act as the official DJ...
A synaptic overload of afropunk/hip-hop/funk/rock/psychodiscobilly Whichever box you seek to put him in, he explodes out of.Kokayi (Carl Walker) is a Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter, emcee, producer and educator. Pronounced "Ko-Kah-Yee" (or KOKE for short), this Washington D.C. native takes his name from the Swahili word meaning "to summon the people". Musically self-sufficient and versatile in ways that are reserved for upper-echelon talents, he produces his own music, writes his own rhymes, sings from the gut, and is self-taught on several instruments.On his own, he's already independently released his debut album Mass Instructions (2007), toured the world and snagged the aforementi...
It's safe to say most teens live in the moment and rarely document, plot, and plan every detail of their future. But Von Pea, known back in high school by his government name, Devon Callendar, wasn't your average teen. Back in the late-90's while sitting in the classrooms of Boys & Girls High School in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, Devon ambitiously, and yet secretly, set out to accomplish the goal of occupying a spot in hip hop's next generation. Looking back to his future, Von Pea says he always knew what circle of hip-hop he'd be a part of and what his music would sound like. The 28 year-old producer and emcee is now embarking on his intricately crafted concept debut solo album titled Pea's Gotta Have It, which comes out on...
In a galaxy far away there is a planet much like ours, only its technology surpasses that of Earths by centuries. As this planet’s species developed, it became extremely homogeneous, crime ridden, and devastated by tyranny and corruption. Amongst their population there was a small group that opposed the state of the world. Determined to flee the planet and find new inhabitance far away from their species, four individuals managed to escape, destined to journey through space to find a new home. After traveling the universe for years, they came to our galaxy, to our solar system, and to our planet—Earth. Not knowing how the inhabitants of Earth would react to their ar...
There was a time before street stories, glamour and glitz were the mainstays of hip-hop. There was a time when it was a culture of not only musical innovation, but of plain old fun. In hip-hop's early days the rockers downtown met the b-boys from uptown and had a blast. Many have lamented hip-hop's slow shift from good times to hard times over the years.Enter Brooklyn's own Metermaids, the duo comprised of Swell and Sentence, have found that space where cutting edge rock meets hip-hop in grand fashion. The crew's 2009 EP Smash Smash Bang took fans on a journey that commanded them to keep their hands high in the air for the entire ride. Through a relentless schedule of hitting New York's live scene and self-promoti...
The rap game is overflowing with aspiring new MCs, all crammed into a single ring fighting for that lone heavyweight title. One particular competitor who has fully dedicated himself to the good fight is 22-year old Moe Green from Vallejo, California. His debut album, Rocky Maivia: Non-Title Match, is titled after Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson’s...
It has been proven through time that true passion can manifest the desires of one’s heart. Consider the journey of “Quaze,” a musical artist whose mission has been long, mysteriously connected and painstaking – all in the name of his heart’s desire – music. Quaze was exposed to the music industry at the early age of twelve years old by Sir-Mix-Alot who took him under his wing and developed the prodigy talent. Knowing that this was his true calling Quaze by the 11th grade had migrated to Vancouver, B.C., where&nbs...
Campfire OK is a band of musicians from different environments and musical backgrounds; it's something that can be heard in the sounds they create. What's common about the musicians is that they've all either studied music for extended periods of time, or have been on stage long enough to have an honorary Ph.D. Curiously, not one of the members in Campfire OK plays the instrument they originally studied.The group formed when Mychal enlisted the help of friends to help him finish an album he was producing in his studio. At the time, Mychal was playing in a two-piece (drum and piano) band, and wanted to bring additional instruments into the live setting. The additional musicians help translate the dense record...
Five years ago, Caroline Lufkin made ripples across the Japanese pop music scene when she famously walked away from a lucrative major label contract that virtually guaranteed the same kind of bright-light super-stardom that made her sister Olivia a household name in Tokyo. Instead, Caroline took the long way; a slow, creatively fulfilling path where she writes, performs and records her own songs and owns her every success or failure - while taking pride in both.Verdugo Hills builds upon the same minimalist, angelic pop that made her debut album, Murmurs, so striking. Having spent the past several years as a full-time member of the small musical army that is Mice Parade, Caroline has mastered the art of mingling a ...
Honor Titus - VocalsMelvin Honore - BassCrazy Abe - DrumsJason & Mason - Guitars Cerebral Ballzy is a punk band from Brooklyn, New York, United States. The band was formed in 2008 and released their debut, self titled, album on 26 July 2011. The album was released in full as an online preview on the Revolver Magazine website. Rudy Giuliani, New York City’s former Mayor, likes to brag about how he ended crime and cleaned up the city, but he’s a liar. He didn’t end crime – he just moved it. If you read the fine print there’s still a murder a day in the Big Apple, but it’s in East New York where all the junk...
Currently making music out of Vienna (Austria), originally from Basingstoke (UK), Charlywood is the brainspawn of singer/songwriter/producer Andrew Charlewood. Having played bass in other people's bands for a few years, Andrew had gathered enough musical experience to bring together all the impressions into the songs on this EP.Fabian Natter, drummer and percussionist from Bregenz (Austria), is the only other full-time band member and apart from guest cello (Constanze Posautz) and guest backing vocals (Lina Neuner of Pom Pom Pomegranate) on "Those Kinds of Lies", Andrew does the rest. This Debut release "Those Kinds of Lies EP" was made in Andrew's flat in the summer of 2010 using (amongst othe...
SON OF SKOOSHNY IS: A spin-off featuring Mark Breyer, SKOOSHNY frontman; Jeff Peters, longtime friend and collaborator, SKOOSHNY producer, and Beach Boys engineer; producer-collaborators Steve Refling, Arthur Schlenger, and Andy Colquhoun; and assorted friends. The following has been written over the years about what SKOOSHNY was: “Contrary to popular rock’n’roll belief, flash isn't everything. Case in point: It's quite conceivable that no band in rock’s hoary history was less flashy, more self-effacing than SKOOSHNY. The name itself, widely disliked even by the band’s strongest supporters, is Russian for ‘boring.’ “This mode...
Newly signed to Los Angeles-based label Evolver Music, BETTY MOON has finally arrived with her highly anticipated new release, Rollin’ Revolution, a collection of songs melding elements of hard rock, metal, stoner rock, alternative and blues. She weaves ethereal jazz inspired elements into heavy sounding arrangements that exude everything from a whisper to a scream. Known for her soaring vocals and heartfelt songwriting, clearly BETTY MOON treads new ground with a modern rock sound identifiably her own.The following are but a few quotes about the work of Betty Moon:"Searing, soaring vocals and a sense of playfullness." - Lisa Ladouceur, Eye WeeklyHard rocking, strong and f...
Porcelain Raft is Mauro Remiddi, recording and performing live. Live shows are solo performances with electronics, keyboard, voice, guitars, loops and sampler. He has an EP released earlier this year, Gone Blind, and will be releasing his new album Strange Weekend via Secretly Canadian on 23 January 2012. Having played CMJ this year, Mauro will be touring with both M83 and Smith Westerns early next year. Additionally, Remiddi has also already toured with both Yuck & The War On Drugs. It feels funny to say that Strange Weekend is Porcelain Raft’s debut record because, in many ways it’s his 156th. Mauro Remiddi has lived three musician’s lives at this point. Wether it&rsq...
Holy Ghost! (Alex Frankel and Nick Millhiser) create dance music that spans across genres and blends the old – from ’70s and ‘80s funk-inflected R&B to glittery disco to synthy new wave – and the new. Just ahead of the EP's release, Holy Ghost! released reworked versions of Phoenix's "Lisztomania" and LCD Soundsystem's "Drunk Girls." Both remixes and the EP earned high marksfrom critics and audiences, with the Washington Post noting that the duo made music that "has a sincerity that is as distinctive as it is cleanly rendered."...
Mid-September 2009, Bravefellow began as two friends and two strangers composing songs on a vacant floor of an office building, just south of Kansas City's Westport district. The music, subtly influenced by popularized Brit-rock, you will find to be expressionistic yet accessible; weighing heavily on melody, driving rhythm and dynamics. Think Snow Patrol, think Muse, think The Killers.After more than 2 years of searching and auditioning, guitarist/songwriter Andy Fox and bassist Shaun Alexander of Kansas City, Missouri were beginning to wonder if their efforts were in vain. The two had been reeling to rebuild what was left behind of a previous music project and had agreed that after such a long search yielding no viabl...
Music is in a verey intrsting place never has it been more easy to find lost bands theat never got the credit they so deserved one band that has been overlooked untill now is the flower travling band. It all started in the the 60s when a japanese man Yuya Uchida came to england and got a close up glimpse of what was going on in western rock music when she went back to japan she desided to get a cover band together called the flowers with a few frends singer Rimi Aso gitarist Hideki Ishima bassist Jun Kowzuki and drummer Joji Wada they relised there first album Challenge witct only got noticed becuse they were all in the nude on the front cover. Uchida and Aso soon left the band and with a new singer Joe Yamanaka and a name change they relea...
The National formed in Brooklyn, NY in 1999, when five friends who relocated from Cincinnati, Ohio for work began making demo recordings to blow off steam on weekends. They are brothers Aaron Dessner (guitars, bass, piano) and Bryce Dessner (guitar, piano), brothers Scott Devendorf (guitar; bass) and Bryan Devendorf (drums) and Matt Berninger (vocals). Those early demos eventually formed a self-titled debut album that was released in 2001 on Brassland Records (a label launched by Aaron and Bryc...
Hailing from Spokane, Washington, The Globes formed in their teenage years, spending afternoons in their sleepy city forging together their own musical inspirations to fabricate a singular and precocious sound based on the traditional guitar, bass, drum lineup. Carrying ambition and confidence in their creative potential to stay united post high school graduation, the band relocated to Seattle in 2007 to pursue their musical experiments. Somewhere between day jobs and school, The Globes managed to record an eponymous E.P. in early 2008 with engineer Jonathan Warman (Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band) in the dim and dusty basement of their little blue house. In the following year, the band spent fruitful time playing weekly shows in ...
Based in Brooklyn, NY, Sleigh Bells is the musical collaboration of Derek E. Miller (songwriter, guitarist, producer) and Alexis Krauss (vocalist, lyricist). The two met and formed in 2008, when Miller was waiting tables on Alexis and her mother at a neighborhood Brazilian restaurant. When Miller mentioned that he was looking for a female vocalist for a new musical project, Krauss’s mother immediately volunteered her daughter. Sleigh Bells’ unique sound is likely the result of Miller and Krauss’s contrasting musical backgrounds; Miller was formerly the guitarist for the post-hardcore band Poison The Well and Krauss was a member of the teen pop ...
We formed in December, 2004 in Providence, RI.After many lineup changes, this is what we've ended up with:John McCauley - guitar, vocalsIan O'Neil - guitar, vocalsChris Ryan - bass, vocalsRob Crowell - keys, saxophone, vocalsDennis Ryan - drums, vocalsLadies and gentlemen...From the band that's been both accurately and inaccurately labeled just about everything this side of Top 40 comes a true-to-form rock-n-roll record. Scratch that, true-to-form is not Deer Tick's style. Let's start over...Naturally, after so many years of critics praising [and making fun of] them for their "folk&q...
Forward is not just a direction, it’s a way of life for Colorado based producer Alex B who is rolling out big tunes under the new guise of Paper Diamond in 2011. The new project finds the trusted producer moving into previously untraveled musical territory. The Paper Diamond sound has raw energy and the kind of dramatic anticipation only a seasoned producer can incite. Driving beats and bass grab on tight while deep, rich tones rumble under layers of spacey synthesizers, sweet melodies, and catchy vocals. One thing is for sure. The energy is high. In keeping with the way of the future, Paper Diamond’s debut EP ”Levitate” will be available for free download from PRETTY LI...
There’s no point in trying to unearth an obvious “single” in Other Lives’ second album, Tamer Animals. Here’s a better idea instead: succumb. Let every last song wash over you like proper long players once did, from the swift strings and pulsating horns—a technique learned from old Philip Glass LPs—of “Dark Horse” to the richly orchestrated denouement of “Heading East,” a cut that could have been cribbed from the early instrumental sessions of Other Lives’ old band Kunek. “The core of that band is stil...
