Album Reviews

Pay The Devil | Wrong Side of the River

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Pay The Devil - Wrong Side of the River

On April 3rd, Milwaukee “shantygrass” band Pay The Devil will release their debut album, entitled Wrong Side of the River. Over the last three years Pay The Devil has worked hard to bring as much energy as possible to every venue they play, and the goal of this recording was to do the same. The album contains heavy influences of traditional Appalachian string-band music, bluegrass, folk, and punk. Clawhammer banjo kicks off a fair number of tracks including the title-track Wrong Side of the River which tells the story of a night of drinking at Merlefest gone wrong. Banjo player Ivan Eisenberg fills us in on the backstory…

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Bands On The Rise

A Monster of a Track

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sleeping dog

Brand new L.A. based Sleeping Dog just released their debut single, “Monster”, and it surely is a beast of a song. Constantly ebbing between subtle lows with intricate clean guitars with half-whispered vocals and full screams with blazing double bass, the song expertly navigates the territory between aggressive hard-rock/metal and more delicate emotional indy. 

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Album Reviews

Six Piece Streaming with Vultures

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Vultures

Decidedly rocking, but decidedly not a rock band, the UK’s Vultures features three-part vocals, cello, violin, viola, bass and drums as a neo-goth sextet. The band’s multi-national background assembled in London and recorded their wonderfully dark, composed, and impassioned debut album “Three Mothers Part 1″, which is now available to stream and purchase.

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Bands On The Rise

Shaking from Mylets’ “Trembling Hands”

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Mylets - Trembling Hands, Arizona

One-man dark indy/electronica artist, Mylets, released a captivating single for the forthcoming album, Arizona. Combining driving drum machines, a churning synth backing, powerful vocals, and bright, overdriven guitars, the track hints at influences in the 90s industrial greats like Nine Inch Nails while maintaining an inarguably progressive and modern feel. The full album will be released on April 21st, and a European tour kicks off shortly after that.

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Bands On The Rise

90 Seconds of Brutal Genius

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Insanely talented, one-man metal band (with occasional help from friends), Mr. Walker, is good. Great even. Embarrassingly so. Their only album, A day in a storm, is rife with rhythmic riffs, brilliant leads, and engaging glitch and techno ideas. The minute and a half long instrumental which the album pivots around, “Walking in a shitstorm”, shows off all of these ideas in an amazingly glorious way. It’d take me longer to keep describing the song than it would to just listen to it, so get listening!

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Bands On The Rise

$truggle SeS$ion

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Taylor Campbell (aka TRAILOR CHRISTMAS/ STANLEY sexual) writes $truggle Se$$ion on a blank notebook page, “We spell it different every time.”  $truggle Se$$ion, often shortened to $$, is Milwaukee’s new experimental noise/ acid house/ performance art project that uses disturbing imagery to explores the deep, deprivation of humanity.

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Bands On The Rise

The Bandicoots – Just After Dark

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Another Friday, another fun video. This one revolves around shadows, using a set that was created from cardboard, lamps and a bed-sheet, with the band only making an appearance in the last act. The song is “Just After Dark”, the catchy lead single off of The Bandicoots upcoming EP, produced by The Black Keys’ producer, Brian Lucey.

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Bands On The Rise

Introducing Day Wave

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day wave

A fun part of following great bands is that the members often produce even better solo projects. One member of the electro-pop duo, Carousel, is doing just that, as Jackson releases music under the “Day Wave” monicker. Check out his first single, the more indie-rock-like “Nothing at All.”

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Album Reviews

Grasping at Straws

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Grasping At Straws

The album begins. Within 5 seconds, we hear banjo, we hear some shouted vocals. We’re in Riverwest. We here Ernest Brusubardis’ violin playing, with more swing and soul than his fiddling with the now-on-hiatus Calamity Janes. It’s that sort of sound at which every brick in this area of town must now permanently reverberate. That’s not to say that this is just another folk album, though.

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