Category: Buzz Chart

Benjy Ferree’s debut offering with Leaving The Nest is a fine demonstration of how an LP can be filled with variety, exploration and depth, into a relatively short running time and still leave you with a simple image of the album.

It’s not complex by any means, just a mild psychedelic LP complete with ranging vocals and some really pleasant choruses. Like dozing off at a campfire. I can envisage at least 4 of the songs on here appearing in skate videos for every cord sporting, half cab wearing, pole jamming and wallride skater of ’07.

Opening track, In The Countryside sets the tone for the proceeding tunes, humble and bizarre in a fresh way. Atmospheric without being haunting and strangely compelling whilst not ever being an annoyance, this is the perfect soundtrack to a perfectly chilled spring day. Dog Killers! remains to be my favourite track on the album due to it’s insanely infective chorus, which is not by any means hit and miss on this album. Overall, a splendid debut from Washington’s hat sporting, scumtache representing finest. Niiice.

Probably one of the smartest moves Gym Class Heroes will ever make is recruiting Fall Out Boy’s golden voice Patrick Stumph to sing the chorus of this irresistible summertime song.

Alone the four New York playground rappers have failed to stir much of a buzz when compared to their pin-up labelmates (Panic! At The Disco, Cute Is What We Aim For, etc), but all that is about to change.

“I mean she even cooks me pancakes/And alka seltzer when my tummy aches”; their bemusing take on new love is both lyrically heartwarming and fun. Frontman Travis McCoy is delectable, his cutthroat sardonic attitude towards the topic in hand quite intriguing and spellbinding, whilst his makeshift alternative rock band setup provide the choppy, hook-laden filler. And of course, Stumph is on hand through each chorus, lending his lush lungs to what is surely one of the catchiest singles to be released this month. Pure class.

Cathy Reay

Claiming that he has re-invented disco music, backed up with his forthcoming album’s sly title, “I Created Disco“, Calvin Harris has produced some prime examples of success on a budget. Vinyl spinner and soon to be CD release, Acceptable In The 80s, is no exception.

It contains all the synthesised beats and homegrown vocals you’d expect from a lad hailing from Dumfries in Scotland. Especially one who’s reminiscing about an era filled with skintight jeans and huge hair. Wait a minute…

This track does just that, paying homage to club bangers of the decade of cheese. While it seems self-indulgent at times, it’s a grower. I’m yet to decide whether this is a bad thing, but I must pay the man his dues for plugging a song into my head and sticking it on repeat for the past 4 days. Listen at your own peril!

I’m almost certain that the nanosecond this song comes on in a club, my head will be relieved and I will bop along relentlessly feeling like a GOD. This is eau de fromage to the extreme, and as much as it pains me to say it, I love it.

When Fantastic Damage came out, every underground hip hop head loved it, whether it was the sludgey beats or the dynamic rapping that got you, you were hooked. So after years and years of waiting for the follow up, it finally arrived and it is about as perfect an album as you can ever imagine.

It’s more listenable than Fantastic Damage, but still retains that typical El-P sound. The production is unlike anything else in the world of hip hop, his style of fast paced and action packed beats is so distinctive its unreal and his lyrics are as on point as they ever were.

With a whole host of guests, such as The Mars Volta, Trent Reznor and Cat Power, he shows his willingness to experiment, but thankfully the tracks remain definitively El Producto style. With track titles like Tasmanian Pain Coaster and The League Of Extraordinary Nobodies, you know this album’s going to bring it hard. And boy, oh boy, it does just that.

So sit back, relax and enjoy this track, Smithereens. It is quality.

Sometimes you want to hear tracks with insightful lyrics, tales of interweaving lives, dramas of everyday life, that kind of thing. And sometimes you just want to hear some filth.

So when the chorus hits in with “I hope the DJ will play me a club banger, bring your banger to the club, find a bitch, bang her, in the bathroom at the club“, you can be pretty sure you know which category this track falls into.

Philly’s Plastic Little are straight out of the Spank Rock mould, dirty beats, massive basslines and a measure of 11 on the dance-richter scale. Their album, She’s Mature, is a rollercoaster of party tracks, featuring the likes of Spank Rock and Amanda Blank. So then, enjoy this song, which will be featured on the next Hip Hop Radio Show, get yo’ banging going and grind away to your heart’s content.

Booooom!

Yes! Career Suicide are back with another explosive dump of toxic hardcore that should keep your veins fully charged with fresh blood within the first song. Attempted Suicide, the follow up to the Anthology series was immense but the satisfaction to finally get hold of 25 minutes of the best hardcore on offer right now was a result to say the least when this turned up at HQ.

Opening track ‘Play the Part‘ leaps into all your worries and decimates them all in 1 minute 17 seconds flat followed by the detonation of the powerful and out of control ‘Saving Face‘. From here on in this album is doused in the same quality with Jonah Falco’s schreeching guitars (who also plays drums in Fucked Up), David Brown’s outragiously fast drumming, pumping basslines from Mathew Miller and the vicious infectiousness of Martin Farkas’ amazing vocal delivery that leaves you firmly on the edge of your seat throughout and wanting to start a fucking riot. There are no duffers on this record, it’s all 100% amazing and will leave your ears on the critical list.

If you have spent your life listening to hardcore like Minor Threat and Black Flag and and are looking for something just as exciting in 2007 then look no further. Alternately, if you have just discovered hardcore and this is your first ever installment, then you are the luckiest person ever to read this as Career Suicide will be your new favourite band in one listen!

Go to www.careersuicide.net for more.

Zac

If you’re still not convinced of stoner-punk’s potency, then here’s hoping that the daddies of the genre can change your mind.

Right from the start, ‘We Must Obey’ sounds like a runaway steamroller bursting out of your speakers; as the likes of ‘Knew It All Along’ and ‘Shake It Loose’ surge forth in waves of Southern-fried riffage and bowel loosening bass.

It’s the same brilliantly dirty, unpretentious Fu Manchu sound of old, but this time around they’ve refined it almost to perfection. Enough waxing lyrical – turn this one up loud and just fucking FEEL it.

Being Madlib’s brother can be both a gift and a curse. With your sibling being as well known and prolific as Madlib, Oh No can’t help but be given mentions in the press. But therein lies the curse, when you’re constantly being called “Madlib’s brother Oh No” and being compared to the great producer day in and day out.

However, none of this matters once you hear the production of the younger Jackson brother. Oh No’s debut, The Disrupt, was a good album, some great beats, some dope rapping and generally a solid outing. But then he came back last year with Exodus Into Unheard Rhythms which sampled Galt MacDermot throughout and he took it that one step higher.

The beats are both heavy and crisp and this is proved on the track you can hear by clicking above. Featuring Living Legends’ Murs, In This is an exquisite headnodder which tells you that “other MCs ain’t got a chance at all, Murs too advance for y’all” and with beats like this, you can’t really argue. So when you hear Oh No, say “oh yes!”

When I read that a band sounds “retro”, I immediately think of the drivel chruned out by various “the” bands, who are trying desperately to be Joy Division or their counterparts. But then you have the few groups who can actually bring off the label, and Chromeo do that, and much more.

The Montreal duo of Pee Thug and Dave 1 are Sparks for the noughties. With their disco infused synths and voicebox operatics, you can’t help but shuffle around imagining you’re wearing an all white suit, white slacks and a skinny tie.

Needy Girl comes from 2004’s She’s In Control album and is a perfect example of what you can expect from the Canadians. The chorus says it all: “You’re a needy girl, I can see it when I look into your big brown eyes… it’s all about what you want, what you say, how you feel, how you play the game”. Just what you wanna hear around Valentine’s Day innit!

With a new album, Fancy Footwork coming out in May, make sure you lap this stuff up to get you in the mood for the release.

Think of Jared Leto and you’ll probably think of his gritty roles in Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for A Dream, playing a messed up gun runner in Lord Of War and pummelling the crap out of Brad Pitt in Fight Club ( oh..and if you’re a girl you’ll probably remember Jordan Catalono in My So-Called Life…) – but it’s his role as frontman with his jagged edged act 30 Seconds to Mars that starting to cause waves.

Formed back in 2002, Leto has now bought onto board Shannon Leto on drums, Tom Milicevic on guitars and Matt Wachter on bass to complete a line up that’s got people talking. The band have sold over 900,000 copies of their Josh Abraham produced album ‘A Beautiful Lie’ in the US, and have now set their sights firmly on the UK market. ‘Attack‘ is our first taster of what’s coming our way, and what an introduction it is. Epic guitars and a chorus that digs under your skin ” Run away..run away and I’ll attack’ roared out by Leto. The track punches out emotive cries soaring up to aggressive threats, it’s a broad sounding single, with a power-pop slant and giant choruses that can’t hurt it in the charts.

Taken at face value, ‘Attack‘ is a impressive debut from the band, but realistically, it’s nothing we haven’t heard before really – it could be Gerard Way singing vocals, or any one of the kohl-eyed frontman you can’t escape from. In a commercial sense, 30 Seconds To Mars are a dream, and kudos to Leto for making the switch from actor to frontman with such panache, and they’re sure to be a runaway success ( their only two UK dates had to be upgraded to larger venues and still sold out). And to be honest, so what if they sound similar to other american acts – with all the same same gritty indie bands out there, 30 Seconds to Mars and their LA sheen and eye candy frontman could be just what the doctor ordered. Just turn it up and enjoy.

Dee Massey