All The Day Holiday

Lately I've been on a Buried Life kick. It's an awesome show about four guys who just set out to accomplish their goals in life and help a lot of people along the way. Not only is it an entertaining way to spend 22 minutes of your life, but the Buried Life is absolutely inspiring. If you haven't seen it, you should definitely check it out.

The same inspired and limitless feeling that I get from watching the Buried Life also struck me today while jamming on LastFM. Greener by All The Day Holiday is a soaring anthem that invokes the bittersweet notion that no matter who you are or where you are in your life, you have the chance to seize life and live it to the fullest.



For More Songs and Info Click Here: http://www.last.fm/music/All+The+Day+Holiday

And if you love this song, get the album HERE

Lydia Assailants

The news is out, Lyida is breaking up, but they left us with a little gift in the form of their Assailants EP. I listened to their full length a good amount, but it never grabbed me enough to really get into them. The band had some time to mature, and they really stepped it up with their last release as Lydia. The Assailants EP is a little more poppy while keeping the stock Lyida sound, and also not being so depressing I can't listen to the whole CD(see the full length).

Some of the highlights come from the great lyric and melody writing. From the first full song We Clean Up So Well comes some great musical moments.

Just stay with the V.I.P's
Limousines.
It's all in the photography,
and the parties.
Now that you're here,
I guess we made it.
I saw the fear, it covered your faces.



Another highlight for me comes from track 4 I've Never Seen A Witch.

All hail the queen still
I've never seen a witch this mean

This really isn't a review, this is one music lover telling you to listen to this EP right now, you won't be disappointed.

To hear some trax check out: www.myspace.com/lydia

Life On Hold - The Run-Around EP

Starting off with a dash of string quartet, The Run-Around EP kicks into some sugary pop punk that could part the clouds on even the gloomiest Boston day. "Forever and Always" as well as "The Greatest Let Down of the Century" are incredibly catchy songs that will keep you awake and singing along like a Halloween sugar high. In the closing number, Life On Hold demonstrates their versatility. Transitioning from the classic pop-punk power chords and octaves to an emotional piano power ballad. Throughout "Atlantic Summer", Ally demonstrates her monster vocal ability while reaching into the listeners chest, giving those heart strings a gentle tug.

Following in the footsteps of pop-punk greats, Life On Hold sports some great songwriting and an exciting, engaging live show. The my favorite part of Life On Hold's The Run-Around EP and their live show is that every member has major vocal skills. Everyone involved has awesome pipes, and they consistently make use of them. Even with so much talent, all of the members of Life On Hold are totally down to earth, nice people. With their strong musical skills and sunny dispositions in both their music and their personalities, Life On Hold deserves success.

For more info check out: http://www.myspace.com/lifeonholdmusic

And to buy The Run-Around EP: Click Here

When All Seems Awesome

Starting off with an old school jam, the DJ slows the record and drops it hard into the reinvented electro pop duo's new album “When All Seems Lost”. Breathingsparks make their full length debut with a tight grip on their space-age synth sounds, a complete lock on their pounding bass beats, and lyrics that could make Chuck Lidell's heart flutter and swoon.



Returning to “Contact”, Breathing Sparks display their incredible progress. Humbly beginning as two friends tinkering with their first MIDI keyboards and Garageband, Keenan Jolliff and Kiran Surdhar have become electronic artists that truly compete with established professionals.

Throughout the album, the ambitious songwriting never lets up. Creativity permeates every layer and fold of the artistic songs. Breathingsparks does an incredible job giving each track its own life. They have gracefully avoided the “same synth sounds” rut that many electronic artists get caught in. Every song on this album has its own clear identity. “When All Seems Lost” ranges from dance club beats, to chiptunes, to instrumental poetry slams, to poppy emo electronica.

The songs, especially “Melody” and the title track “When All Seems Lost”, beautifully walk the line between Daft Punk and Blink 182. Melodies will have you instantly singing along, but lyrics will keep you chewing on songs for weeks.

To check out "Melody" and It's "Gonna Rain All Night": Click Here!

Produced by Nick Esposito of The Title and Alpha Studios, “When All Seems Lost” sounds huge. With groove to spare, Nick is a MacGyver of synth sounds. He could take a 70's roller disco and remix it into an Aphid Twin track. Needless to say, Nick is an incredibly talented producer and songwriter who clearly has bright future both with his band and producing career.

Impressively talented for their age, Keenan Jolliff, Kiran Surdhar, and Nick Esposito have created one of the best electronic releases of the year. A multicolored light show crushed into a tasty bite-sized ten song album, “When All Seems Lost” is a success and sure become a staple in the genre.

To Pre-Order this kickin new collection of jimmy jams check out:
Breathing Sparks at Big Cartel

For more info on the band check out:
http://www.myspace.com/breathingsparks

I Hope You Brought Your Clever Ears

States recently released their debut EP called Line ‘Em Up and I gotta tell ya, it’s a doozy. This new group features Mindy White(Lydia) as well as musical veterans Bryan and Stephen Laurenson (Copeland). These songs take the cozy, haunting quality of Lydia and bring it to the pop/rock world. Give this a listen and try not to sing along (I’m watching you…).



For more info check out: http://www.myspace.com/states

Arrow to the Sun

You guys might not know this, but I consider myself a bit of a loner. I tend to think of myself as a one-man wolf pack. But when I bought the new Arrow to the Sun album, I knew it was one of my own. And my wolf pack… it grew. So there… there was a new album in my wolfpack… Anyway… what I’m trying to say is that this album makes me feel like a wolf, a wolf who found an awesome new six track CD.

Be Brave is a headbanging good time. Each song is carefully constructed and jam packed full of soaring vocals and twisting guitar leads. Jimmy Pianka artfully and poetically bends words to his will. Every song on the CD allows the listener to connect on a simple emotional level, but it’s clear that behind the scenes there’s more content and story to these lyrics.



The guitar work of Jeffrey Brooks and Nate Kerbin is familiar yet uniquely new. The two axe swingers switch between lead and rhythm with class, creativity, technical skill, and dissonances that would make Dexter Morgan smile his menacing mischievous smile.

Be Brave is a shining new album from the growing Boston music scene that proves opening for TREOS is only the beginning for this great new band.

Also, “The Wolf Pack” would be an awesome name for the fan club. Just sayin.

Buy their shirts:


For more info check out: http://www.myspace.com/arrowtothesunband

and to buy sweet shirts check out: http://www.districtlines.com/arrow-to-the-sun

Feel Bored Drag

Starting off with some rock, the new Anberlin album Dark Is A Way, Light Is A Place starts off powerful and engaging. Pressing forward and hoping for another Paper Thin Hymn, I'm sad to say I was let down. With each track my mind continued to wander farther from the album. In an interview with Absolutepunk.net, a band member was quoted saying this new record had an "in the zone" feel all throughout the writing and recording process.

While I wish Anberlin had created a masterpiece worthy of competition with Britney Spears' third studio album, it didn't have a "Toxic" feel to me. Regardless, as one of my favorite bands, I really hope they are successful enough with this release to record a new album that leans more towards New Surrender and Never Take Friendship Personal than the "Dream Within A Dream Tour".



As a side note:

"Woahs" have become a dangerous tool in a songwriters bag of tricks. Through the development of our genre, "Woahs" have become a cheap tactic in a formulaic songwriting pattern to add some free, and most of the time heartless, catchyness. Please! replace those "Woahs" with lyrics unless you can nail an absolute perfect moment.

For more info check out: http://www.anberlin.com/

Alter The Ending - Dashboard Confessional

On November 10th 2009 Dashboard Confessional released Alter The Ending featuring some radical new tunes which push Dashboard in a rock direction, while keeping the well crafted emotional, singer-songwriter lyrics.

The CD begins just the way Dashboard Confessional started: Chris Carrabba and a guitar. The track "Get Me Right" features a two verse intro with a melody on the words "get me right" that swirls up and away like a firecracker gone rogue

"Alter The Ending" alters the dashboard ending and brings the half time, "little Devotional" Esque Rock intro that I was begging for. After bringing it up a notch, Mr. Carrabba brings it back down to the old scool dashboard style with "Even Now". Incredible imagery depicts the lonely, missing, hopeful protagonist that we all have somewhere deep down inside of us. Hoping he can strum the ghost of a girl back into his life.

After this melancholy adventure on the staircase, we take a right turn into the hallway of Dashboards brick house. Another turn reveals the devious science lab where frothing beakers, bubbling potions, some synthesizers, and hopefully some of the missing muppets have been hiding all these years. Here is where the "pop"sicle called "The Motions" was somehow extracted from the back of Carrabba's mad scientist brain. My favorite track on the CD goes where no Dashboard has been before and busts into the synth pop world to take a look around. A song about the chemical reaction that is love, this song makes the chemical reactions in my brain just sing along like those hyenas in the lion king.

The single on the album "Belle of the Boulevard" is a catchy, well constructed song, but to me it feels almost formulaic. It's one of those track syou feel like you know right after your first listen, but I wanted more.

For More Info Visit:

http://www.dashboardconfessional.com

http://www.myspace.com/dashboardconfessional