today is a day to remember forever. today is the release date of Fight Fair’s full full-length album, California Kicks. and what a kick it is! with Settle the Score, Fight Fair almost completely ditched their pop skram sound in favour of a pop hardcore sound, but left room for other experiments. one of those experiments was the surf-pop monster hit “Pop Rocks”. the band decided that this was the song that was the most fun to play, and decided that this was what they wanted to do on their full-length. Ramones mixed with The Beach Boys is the way the band describes their surfcore sound, and that description isn’t all that far off. but like with Settle the Score, the band allows themselves to experiment a lot on the record. they try the lot. punk rock-tinged power pop like Undertones and The Jam, dancefloor hip-pop that’s somewhere between The Ting Tings and Black Eyed Peas, and pure ’90s melodic punk rock and alternative between Lifetime and blink-182. but the very core of their sound is the insanely catchy mind blowing surfcore sound, with lyrics about romance, being young, OOP vinyl, surfing and hanging at the beach. let me assure you, Fight Fair is very much successful in reintroducing what they call “the best of the beach”. namely, “the playfulness, the parties, the people and, most of all, the pop-laced singalongs”. Fight Fair are to surf rock what The Young Hasselhoffs are to doo-wop. California Kicks brings back a near forgotten era, and illuminates it like never before. Fight Fair is surfcore’s beacon, lighthouse and flagship. serving as an ode to Californian summers, and the careless playfulness of ’50s and ’60s surf rock. if you like newer Weezer albums, you’ll love Fight Fair. if you like surf rock, you’ll love Fight Fair. if you like fun, you’ll LOVE Fight Fair! get this! now! and get ready to P-P-P-PARTY!!! buy it from http://www.myspace.com/fightfair – along with some frisbees, beach balls and other must-have Fight Fair memorabilia. whether they are making fun or having fun isn’t remotely interesting. what is interesting is the 100% quality of this amazing album. GET IT!
Fight Fair – Settle the Score
in the name of fun, here is some more Fight Fair! they are back to settle the score with their follow up, in which only two of the members featured on xFashionx appears. that may be one part of the explanation as to why they sounds like a completely different band on Settle the Score. the fact that they’ve changed so much might obviously lead to the loss of some fans, as well as the gaining of some fans. what this essentially means is that if you disliked the first record, you might still love this – giving you *no* excuse to not download this. even if you absolutely hated their first record, you still need to download this. no excuses. anyway, despite all the differences (which I’ll get back to), there are a few similarities that I might as well get out of the way at once. they are still catchy, poppy and totally awesome. the track “San Diego” appears in a re-recorded format. there are still ’90s punk rock influences galore. and that’s about it. now for the differences – this release marks an obvious change of sound. one could say that they go from the epitome of pop skram to the epitome of mosh pop. bands like Set Your Goals and Four Year Strong might be mentioned, but Fight Fair are far superior. with lyrics «we just wanna have some fun/we’re still young and on the run/we just gotta have some fun/everyone», they are definitely not clouding their message with pseudo-poetic mumbo jumbo, but instead favouring the direct approach. with vocals that have been through many a vocoder/pitch altering software, punk rock guitars that play the most perfect melodies, and heavy as shit drums – Fight Fair are a loud, intense and fun affair. varying between the fast breakdown-heavy pop hardcore sound, a more “ordinary” ’90s punk rock sound, a skramzy sound, and the ultra-catchy and refined surf pop sound. «don’t bother with the other boys/I’m better than them», pleads vocalist Alex Bigman in the heartfelt emotional distress masterpiece “Pop Rocks”. now I’m pleading you, don’t bother with the other bands, this one’s better than them. get this at once! Fight Fair for the win!
Eagulls – Songs of Prey
one of the key ingredients for good music is in my opinion feedback from guitars. and plenty of it. based on the simple scientifically proven parallel between awesomeness and guitar feedback, we can safely state that Eagulls is a really awesome band. sounding like a mix between The Cortlandt Homes, Dinosaur Jr. and American Steel, Eagulls and their fifteen minute début is a very pleasant distinctly English affair. fuzzy and catchy guitars, soft and melodic bass, clever and tight drumming and quite great punk rock vocals. what’s not to like? you need to hear this band. you can visit their MySpace http://www.myspace.com/eagulls to get cassettes and more info etc.
Word Travels Fast – Ellen
I would like to say that «if you liked Some Mistakes, you’ll like this!» – but I can’t. at all. this band is related to Some Mistakes, in that the vocalist of Some Mistakes used to play bass for them, and one of the guitarist of Some Mistakes happen to play guitar for them. but there ends the comparison. this band plays a glimmering style of alternative meets hardcore. where Saves the Day focuses more on the alternative part, this band is probably much more hardcore punk. real fast and ferocious, but still very catchy and harmonic. if you like early blink-182, Descendents and other alternative bands that play really, really fast – you’ll like this as well. this is hardcore punk with pop sensibilities. or some other controversial contrast… a catchy energy bomb! starting out with longing emo-like twinkling, it soon enough picks up the pace. but *not* in favour of the melody. it hugs melody and harmony all the way from start to finish, in the same way that Saves the Day did on their first two albums (I haven’t really listened to the others). this is some high quality hardcore/alternative/punk/pop/whatever. pace, melody and quality all go hand in hand through this blistering record. hardcore needs bands like Word Travels Fast. download this!
run,Walk! – EP
an exciting independent scrappy rock band that’s been in the works for quite a while now are run,Walk! from London (I think. this is their first EP. it was released in 2007, and has since gone OOP, and most of their other stuff is also OOP, as far as I know. you can however purchase a split with New Roars on the Block on their MySpace, so check that out. anyway, this is a weird release to be honest. the band consists of a drummer and a bassist, which is no doubt a bit different. the music that comes out of this drum ‘n’ bass duo somewhat shares a bit with emo like rest of my life, but at the same time it’s probably way more appropriate to compare them to other English alternative bands like Bromheads Jacket, Milburn and The Paddingtons. this is an odd one, but a good one. everyone should definitely check it out if you’re up for catchy and poppy alternative with the occasional emo twinkle from England.
The Appreciation Post – Brighter Sides
ultra-poppy alternative (like Taking Back Sunday not like Nirvana) with moogs. quite similar to Sherwood. a wee bit heavier though. and there’s something about this that reminds me of Weezer… anyway the EP’s titled “Brighter Sides”, and it is definitely an EP you want to listen to on bright summer days. it’s happy music with dancefloor potential. get in on this.
Arctic Monkeys – Don’t Believe the Hype
I suppose the world’s biggest band or so at the moment does not need any introduction, but still – let me pretend it still is 2004 or whenever I downloaded these off of SoulSeek. the band was admittedly not as famous back then, but they were definitely as good as they are now. these demos shows a new band in town, eager to show off their newly discovered skills at composing and performing music. the music is in fact extremely eager. they play fast, intense and energetic punk tracks, with several tracks clocking in well under three minutes – some even under two. the waililng guitars are loud as can be. the whole sound picture is generally fast and loud. crashing drums, distorted and crisp guitars, shouted vocals and fast bass. but what perhaps makes Arctic Monkeys stand out the most are their intelligent and observant lyrics, penned by guitarist/vocalist Alex Turner. some have even compared him to Jarvis Cocker (that might be a bit over the top though), due to how he manages to put down what’s going on in his world to paper. there’s no “bigger picture” here, it’s just Turner and the way he sees the world. what’s going on in his head. whether it’s clever observations on the youth cliques, patronizing words on a scumbag, or simple straightforward tunes about love – Turner knows his shit when it comes to writing. and so does he when it comes to killing his guitar, like Jamie Cook also does his fair share of. so if you’re into crisp and deadly guitars, loud and fast drumming, melodic and hasty bass and shouted vocals that tells stories – this is for you. download it!
The Cortlandt Homes – Twirly Brown EP
this album is definitely strong. it seems to draw influence from mid/late 80s and early 90s emo and alternative. particurarly The Replacements, Dinosaur Jr. and Built to Spill, but perhaps also Embrace, Hüsker Dü and Cap’n Jazz. the tracks have strong backbones and piercing vocals. great alternative/emo/rock drive. melodic bass, loud guitars, thorough drumming and the piercing vocals compliment each other very nicely. it’s impressing that the vocalist gets through twenty-five minutes of constant shouting with seemingly no trouble at all. sounds a bit like Build Nest, Sleep. this album is really solid. get it.