Hacienda

Cadillac Sky -currently on hiatus?

When I first heard about Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon putting together a side project called The Horrible Crowes I immediately thought, “Oh, probably just gonna be an acoustic or Gaslight Anthem b-side compilation.”  I couldn’t have been more wrong and be happy about what I have heard, considering the album is in contention for being one of my albums of the year.  The group consists of Brian Fallon and guitar tech Ian Perkins of Gaslight Anthem and the sound resembles a night time Tom Waits feel with a touch of The National.  The album seems to cross the topic of heartbreak and pain for the most part in where Fallon sings about broken hearts, cheating lovers, late nights at the bar and rough times with a raspier soulful voice that sounds like a mesh of Springsteen and Tom Waits.  The album has only been out for a few days but has received much critical acclaim from various magazines and websites and can only show that bands like The Horrible Crowes today can still reach people from age 16-60.

The album’s early track “Sugar” can only hint that the album is Fallon singing about heartbreak from a long lost lover who did him or someone wrong and lyrically sets the tone for the entire album.  The next track “Behold The Hurricane” is the single from the album and is probably the closest resemblance to The Gaslight Anthem with his Springsteen like chorus and slowed out punk “Woah Oh’s”.  However one of my favorite songs is the track “Ladykiller” in which the lyrics tell the tale of a cheating woman who is on the verge of getting caught by her partner and Fallon shows it with “And you must’ve met a man.  Tall and Handsome at that, who must’ve put a spell on you baby, must’ve kept coming back.” The final track “I Believe Jesus Brought Us Together” is a perfect slow ballad that shows Fallon’s more soul side where he sings about a man and a woman with troubled pasts finding each other and falling in love with their similar heartbreaks.  Nothing says it better than the chorus “Did you say your lovers were liars? All my lovers were liars too.  Did you say you were afraid of dying?  I ain’t lived a single day without you.”  If I haven’t emphasized it enough, this album is perfect for every night time drive you have ever been on, especially on those cold winter nights and each song has something you can relate to.  Do yourself a favor and spend the few bucks to pick this album up off of iTunes or the Side One Dummy webstore and check out the song below for a preview.

and

Ride: Lief Engstrom

Listen: Foster The People

Create: Calvin Knowlton

Montauk Summer Fun from Calvin Knowlton on Vimeo.

If you really want to feel better about yourself than you should check out the show Hoarders on television one of these nights.  The show is basically about people who “hoard” certain items, animals, people, things etc. around their house because they have some strange attachment theory to them.  One time this person was hoarding cats in their house and literally the house was infested with about 100 cats running around taking over the entire place.  Still don’t think that is weird?  Well how about the lady who refuses to throw anything away she’s used and is literally living in a pile of her own filth?  Either way you have to feel pretty good about yourself to not have this obsession of hoarding things that you don’t use anymore, so the show makes you seem quite normal.  Don’t be so sure because it seems we are in fact all hoarders these days and with a recent study that just came out about iTunes, the average iTunes owner only listens to about 19% of their library. Unfortunately we are no better than the cat person on TV.

If that is true than why don’t we just get rid of the extra music in our library?  I agree it’s not that easy and it’s because music has that sentimental attachment to our lives that maybe that empty carton of four month old milk has for the lady who hoards everything she’s used. Music is a symbol of who we are and what we are feeling at different points in our lives and that is what makes it such a wonderful creation.  I’ll admit, I find it quite hard to delete a song or album from my library that maybe I only listened to one or two times but god dammit I just may listen to that KoRn album I bought when I was a Freshman in high school again (doubtful).  Either way it’s not too hard to understand why we can’t get rid of the music we hoard on our iTunes, it marked an important part of our lives at one point and maybe just maybe we will double click on it again.  Unfortunately Korn, I don’t think I’ll be clicking on “Freak On A Leash” anytime in this next century.

August Burns Red is a band from Manheim, Pennsylvania a place you don’t really hear about when it comes to music let alone hardcore.  The band has been in the scene for several years now and have released what is now four full-length albums on the label Solid State Records.  I had heard about these guys from a mutual friend in college after their second album Messengers but kind of brushed them aside considering they sort of sounded like everyone else in the scene. Some years passed by and I was substitute teaching in a high school and saw multiple kids wearing August Burns Red shirts throughout the year, I didn’t pay much attention to it.  Probably about a month ago I get a post on my Facebook Wall from a friend telling me to check out their new single “Empire” so I reluctantly click the clip and instantly fell in love with the song.  The heavy breakdowns to original choruses and riffs, something I hadn’t heard from the band my first listen several years ago.  Needless to say I instantly picked up the album once it was released and couldn’t be more surprised how awesome and original the band sounds now. If you have any sort of passion or interest in hardcore and metal I would suggest picking up their new album Leveler.

The album starts off with the kick ass song “Empire” that has been playing on my gym mix for the past month now and really sets the tone for the album.  Many old fans of the band seem to not like this too much because they start to focus on a more progressive style rather than increasing their aggression.  I feel this is absurd because the album although has some very progressive Between The Buried And Me type songs such as “Internal Cannon” it still has very aggressive playing.  The songs “Divisions”, “40 Nights” and title track “Leveler” all remind me of the classic August Burns Red I heard back in 2006 with just more polished hardcore singing.  My favorite track on the album thus far is “Salt & Light” that mixes very heavy breakdowns, great metal guitar work and a sing-a-long chorus that ends the song beautifully.  This band has really won me over big time with this release and I can only see them making it bigger in the scene after showing their ability to progress in a very monotonous genre.  This is probably the best hardcore album I have heard in the past two years hands down, check out the track “Internal Cannon” below.

On Wednesday June 22^nd the group currently known as Underwater Country Club made their Summer 2011 debut at Langosta Lounge in Asbury Park.  The night was warm, humid but beautiful and perfect for a night filled with Indie Rock.  Andrew Robinson was calm and collected at the bar drinking a Dos Equis while Anna, Catherine and Skip socialized with friends before they hit the stage.  When the time came for the band to perform they were cheered by friends, lifeguards, Ogden representatives and local Asbury “scenesters” when they ripped into their hit song “Surfing Lessons.”

Throughout the set the crowd was smiling and having a good time enjoying song after song while enjoying some fine Latin beverages, I mean you can’t beat $5 Margaritas and $3 Latin beers while listening to some good Indie Rock music all night.  About halfway through the set the band hit through a few newer songs such as “Saline” and “Mile Marker” the latter being one of the more popular songs among the lifeguard attendees.  The band closed with my new favorite song they just wrote “Distraction” that most of my colleagues agreed was the strongest song of the set and couldn’t have ended the night better.  Afterwards the band walked off stage drenched in sweat after performing around 8 songs in just under an hour.  If you haven’t checked them out live, please do, they are playing every Thursday at Trinity And The Pope and TBA soon again at Langosta Lounge.  Check back here for more info on their schedule and check the links below for more.

I was never really into this band till they released their pretty cool concept EP entitled Zombies, a hardcore/experimental batch of songs that talked about a Zombie Apocalypse. The band is very heavy and mixes very harsh with few clean vocal choruses but the band crushes pretty hard in their breakdowns.  I thought this new single was a move in the right direction from their intensity of Zombies.  The new track is called “Born To Lose” and it straight rips.

Brian Fallon has recently posted on his blog the track listing for his recent side project the Horrible Crowes and it’s posted below on the blog.  Fans of The Gaslight Anthem shouldn’t expect to hear b-sides from the critically acclaimed American Slang but should expect something completely different from Fallon.  He has been known to be heavily influenced by Bruce Springsteen and some various blues artists but he has also stated he has influence from artists such as Tom Waits and Nick Cave.  I wouldn’t be surprised to hear latter Tom Waits style songs on this album with use of obscure percussion instruments such as pots and pans and glass being broken.  To sum up the concept of the album Fallon had this to say ”I’ve always wanted to experiment with the darker side of soul music and one day we were just like, ‘let’s write some songs and see what they sound like’ and it turned out that it sounded great.”  The release date is Septemeber 6th and is going to be released on Side One Dummy Records.

The Horrible Crowes- Elsie

Track Listing
1) Last Rites
2) Sugar
3) Behold The Hurricane
4) I Witnessed a Crime
5) Go Tell Everybody
6) Cherry Blossoms
7) Ladykiller
Crush
9) Mary Ann
10) Black Betty and the Moon
11) Blood Loss
12) I Believe Jesus Brought Us Together